Regulation Archives - Page 5 of 156

Blue States Are Stripping Rural Counties Of Ability To Prevent Green Energy Takeover Of Their Communities

December 18, 2023/in Elections, Energy, Environment, Hot Topics, News, Policy, Politics, Regulation, Science, Waste, Fraud and Abuse/by The Daily Caller

Several blue states have deprived rural counties of the ability to reject the massive green energy projects that corporations want to site in their communities, while green industrial interests and environmentalist groups have poured money into state capitals.

Michigan, California, New York and Illinois have all passed legislation that consolidates authority over land use issues and rules with state-level bureaucrats at the expense of local governments that could have altered their own zoning codes to stem the tide of industrial green projects like solar and wind farms. These policies deprive rural residents in these states of their freedom and local autonomy, while also benefiting the corporate interests that line the pockets of the states’ Democratic governors, state policy experts and lawmakers told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

“Much of the renewables business and movement has been co-opted by big corporations,” which “are spending millions” on politics “because this is a matter of billions for them,” Edward Ring, a senior fellow for the California Policy Institute and the organization’s co-founder, told the DCNF. “What we are seeing, for example, with the ‘Inflation Reduction Act,’ is one of the biggest gifts of money to corporations that we have ever seen in this country,” Ring told the DCNF, referring to the IRA’s subsidies facilitating the rise of green energy.

Since 2020, there have been about 350 local restrictions or rejections of solar and wind projects across the country, according to energy expert Robert Bryce’s Renewable Rejection Database.

In a shock to climate activists only, “green” energy is completely unreliable https://t.co/p7E9mD7JgD

— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) December 30, 2022

Michigan

Democratic Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer recently enacted her state’s green energy mandate, which sets a target for 100% green energy generation by 2040. The legislation has the state poised to significantly ramp up construction of solar and wind developments, as well as carbon capture pipelines that will be needed for the state’s natural gas plants to continue to operate in the future.

One of the bills Whitmer signed into law as part of the package, H.B. 5120, specifically allows the Michigan Public Services Commission, the state’s utility regulatory body overseen by officials appointed by the governor, to exercise permitting authority for large green energy projects rather than leaving zoning discretion to the municipal governments. Several local opposition campaigns in more rural locales across the state were able to hinder major green energy developments in their communities, but the new law could make similar grassroots success in the future effectively impossible.

Whitmer’s green energy package and the siting bill “very clearly advance the interests of monopoly utilities, big wind and solar developers and extreme environmental groups over the interests of local communities and rural Michiganders,” Jason Hayes, the director of energy and environmental policy for the Mackinac Center, a Michigan-based think tank, told the DCNF. “Put another way, these bills protect the profits of politically favored and heavily subsidized wind and solar developers, while sacrificing the rights and interests of the communities that will have to endure the wind turbines and solar arrays developers want to build… rural Michiganders will have to endure both the rising costs and the intrusions into their lives and environment as massive increases in wind and solar development begin to occur.”

A nonprofit organization linked to DTE Energy, a major utility company that Hayes told the DCNF stands to gain from the state’s green energy mandate, shelled out $2 million to help Michigan Democrats in 2022, according to The Detroit News. DTE Energy also gave $400,185 to organizations that spent, directly or indirectly, on Whitmer’s behalf before and after her victory in the 2018 gubernatorial race, according to the Michigan Capitol Confidential.

While DTE Energy also gives money to Republicans, Democrats received substantially more from the company in 2018 and 2022, according to the Michigan Capitol Confidential and The Detroit News.

Additionally, since 2021, Whitmer-affiliated political funds have raked in more than $100,000 in campaign cash from environmentalist organizations that support the green energy transition, like 314 Action and the Michigan League of Conservation Voters’ political action committee, according to state campaign finance records.

“Gov. Whitmer and Lansing Democrats are ignoring the concerns of Michigan families and forcibly imposing massive wind and solar projects on communities who have clearly stated that they do not want them,” Republican Michigan State Rep. Jaime Green, who represents a rural district and serves in Michigan’s House Energy, Communications and Technology Committee, told the DCNF. “Gov. Whitmer has sent a clear message: If there’s a disagreement between what local people want and what the environmental lobby wants, she’s siding with the lobbyists.”

While not directly related to the state’s consolidation of siting and permitting authority, the reaction of locals in rural Green Charter Township to a China-tied electric vehicle battery component manufacturer’s plans to set up shop in their community shows that local residents and state officials do not always agree on what is best for a given community. Whitmer, fellow Democrats and green energy advocates hailed Gotion’s plans to build subsidized facilities in the area as a major step forward for Michigan’s green economy, but many locals did not approve of the company because of its extensive connections to the Chinese Communist Party via its parent company, Gotion High-Tech.

Voters punished local officials who had supported the company in November at the ballot box, ousting five members of the township’s council, the township’s clerk and the township’s treasurer. Those officials had overseen and facilitated Gotion’s plans to operate in the area before their removal.

California

California, another state dominated by the Democratic Party, passed a law in June 2022 that enables state bureaucrats to bypass local restrictions in order to permit large-scale green energy projects. Similar to Michigan’s newly-enacted statute, the California law is specifically designed to facilitate the state’s pursuit of 100% zero-carbon energy generation by 2045.

“The Democratic lawmakers themselves, along with a lot of Republicans even in red states, are just getting so much money from these companies,” Ring told the DCNF regarding the green energy lobby’s influence in politics. “There is a reason we have eminent domain for some purposes, such as building pipelines and streets. Now, we have an abuse of eminent domain, and also an overriding of zoning—the problem is when you use it for something that relies on hype, without a proven and compelling public interest,” like fast-tracking solar and wind projects that often harm the environment while providing unreliable, intermittent power, Ring added.

Like Whitmer, Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a self-proclaimed environmentalist, has received considerable financial support from interests that ostensibly stand to benefit from a rapid buildout of green energy projects in the state. Between his 2018 and 2022 gubernatorial campaigns, Newsom received more than $340,000 from green energy trade groups, political action committees and executives, according to state campaign finance records reviewed by the DCNF.

“There is nothing wrong with being an environmentalist, per se. The issue is that the environmentalist movement has been hijacked by corporate interests,” Ring told the DCNF.

New York

New York state established the Office for Renewable Energy Siting (ORES) in April 2020, when former Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo was still in office before he resigned amid sexual harassment and COVID-19 scandals. ORES has the ability to not apply “any local law or ordinance” that is “unreasonably burdensome” for a proposed green energy facility in view of the state’s aggressive green energy goals or the perceived environmental benefits associated with a given project, according to the enabling statute’s text.

The bulk of new solar and wind projects are sited in upstate New York, a more rural region of the state that already receives most of its energy from carbon-free generation sources, Ken Girardin, the New York-based Empire Center’s research director, told the DCNF, citing data from the New York Independent System Operator.

“New York’s land-use policies and practices are far from perfect, but these are projects that wouldn’t be coming to areas if it weren’t for considerable public subsidies,” Girardin told the DCNF.

Cuomo and his successor, Democratic New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, each received considerable contributions from interest groups that ostensibly stand to gain from a green energy transition in the state. Green energy companies, trade groups and executives, as well as relevant unions and their political action committees, have contributed about $270,000 combined to the two politicians since 2018, according to state campaign finance records reviewed by the DCNF.

Unions are a major political force in the state, and they ostensibly could benefit from the scale of the many projects that will need to be built in order to meet the state’s longer-term green energy targets, Girardin told the DCNF.

Illinois

In February, Democratic Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker enacted H.B. 4412, which “prevents counties from enacting preemptive local ordinances that outright ban local wind and solar projects, hindering the state’s new climate goals.” Illinois is aiming to reach 100% green energy generation by 2050, and will need to build out a significant network of new solar and wind projects to get there.

“These new energy companies, many of which are owned by large, out-of-state venture capital firms receiving massive tax breaks, are now able to remove local control against the wishes of the community,” Republican Illinois State Sen. Terri Bryant told the DCNF about the policy. “This bill is especially dangerous in heavily agriculture counties that have limited zoning and large spaces of land used for crops… removing local control in favor of new energy companies, many of which are out of state and out of the country, is not just a threat to property rights, but to our national security and food supply chain.”

In his two terms as governor, Pritzker has pursued left-wing policies in numerous policy arenas, including imposing tight gun control measures, a $15 minimum wage and eliminating cash bail requirements for suspected criminals. These policies align with the left-wing agenda promulgated by other members of his family, one of the wealthiest in the country, according to the New York Post.

The offices of Whitmer, Newsom, Hochul and Pritzker did not respond immediately to requests for comment.

AUTHOR

NICK POPE

Contributor.

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RED ALERT: Dangerous Legislation to Expand Surveillance on American Citizens

December 13, 2023/in Commentary, Courts & Law, Hot Topics, News, Policy, Politics, Regulation, Social Issues/by Lyle J. Rapacki, Ph.D.

The march towards government control over the lives of every citizen in America continues with the proposed legislation mentioned below. Similar to the days of the colonists who brought the United States into reality in 1775, present-day citizens (colonists) better push back against every level politician; regardless if they are local, county or state and clearly national who does not measurably demonstrate their commitment to defending the Constitution, the Rule of Law, and the freedoms granted to the citizens of this exceptional nation. Push back against every politician who seeks office for their own agenda, rather than to serve and represent We The People. Do not regard the mere words of those already in public office or seeking such, but demand examples of their dedication to serve others first by demonstrating what they have already accomplished in their present sphere of influence.

Buried in the U.S. House Intelligence Committee’s Section 702 “reform” bill, which is scheduled for a floor vote today or tomorrow, is the biggest expansion of surveillance inside the United States and against citizens since the Patriot Act. The below link will provide a brief but clear example of this most intrusive act working its’ way into our lives unless killed!

The Global Elites and Uniparty club members are determined to bring down the sovereignty of the United States, and to push our nation into the global community, the New-World Order where national sovereignty is a thing of the past, as well as the freedoms Americans have enjoyed. Don’t read this and think you can do nothing. Pray…seek true wisdom and guidance as to what role YOU can take in keeping America “the shining city upon a hill” as President Reagan said in his farewell address in 1989.

RED ALERT: Buried in the House intelligence committee’s Section 702 “reform” bill, which is schedule for a floor vote as soon as tomorrow, is the biggest expansion of surveillance inside the United States since the Patriot Act. 1/11

— Elizabeth Goitein (@LizaGoitein) December 11, 2023

COP 28: Climate Colonialism and Anti-Semitism

December 9, 2023/in Culture War, Elections, Energy, Environment, Hot Topics, News, Policy, Politics, Regulation, Science, Waste, Fraud and Abuse/by Committee For A Constructive Tomorrow

Left unchecked, UN climate politics will trap the poor in poverty and drag down millions of others to join them.

They would destroy the democratic state of Israel as well.

These are not exaggerations.

I am at the UN conference in Dubai and have seen and heard these dangerous pronouncements and more from the UN stage with my own eyes and ears.

Pete Murphy posted a series of insightful reports from Dubai to CFACT.org. Alice Aedy, co-founder and CEO of Earthrise Studio, appeared on a UN panel entitled “Democratizing Access to Climate Information.” Murph’ took the microphone and, addressing Ms. Aedy, said, “Is it just to have a colonialist mindset towards developing countries that do not enjoy the prosperity that you and I have? This is a kind of new colonialism that we are imposing on people by denying them the prosperity that oil had brought… This is not justice.”

Denying millions in the developing world access to the energy we take for granted is an outrage. So is bribing their (often unelected) leaders with climate cash to fall into line with the UN climate agenda.

Every person on Earth is entitled to freedom and the prosperity that comes with it.

Every nation on Earth is entitled to security and safety. For climate radicals, the exception apparently is Israel.

Peter Murphy also reported on a panel we attended featuring “The Climate Justice Alliance,” “The Global Grassroots Justice Alliance,” and the “Indigenous Environmental Network” that repeatedly charged Israel and the United States with “genocide” in Gaza. As Murph further reported, “At no time did any panelist acknowledge the massacre of 1,200 Israeli civilians, including young women, men, children, and infants, on October 7^th by Gaza militants, nor their kidnapping of more than 200 hostages for ransom. It is as though it all never happened.”

How’s that for outrageous?

The radicalism on display at COP 28 underscores an essential reality. The global Left views climate as a means to achieve ends that have nothing to do with the temperature of the Earth.

Every radical cause has been shoehorned into the climate agenda. Socialism, wealth redistribution, an end to meat eating, gender politics, ending cars, wrecking our energy economy, and even now the destruction of Israel, a successful democracy, along with so much more, are all being pushed upon us in the name of climate.

Climate radicalism cannot stand.

Thank you to everyone who has joined CFACT in pushing back.

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Hunter Biden Indicted On 9 Tax-Related Charges In California

December 8, 2023/in Courts & Law, Hot Topics, Must Read, News, Policy, Politics, Regulation, Taxes, Waste, Fraud and Abuse/by The Daily Caller

Hunter Biden, the son of President Joe Biden, is facing new criminal charges, according to a criminal indictment in the Central District of California.

A federal grand jury in California indicted Hunter Biden on nine counts related to his alleged failure to pay over $1 million worth of taxes over a four year period. The younger Biden hauled in more than $7 million in total gross income from foreign business dealings involving Ukrainian, Romanian and Chinese entities, the indictment lays out.

READ THE FULL INDICTMENT:

“At times relevant to this Indictment, the Defendant served on the board of a Ukrainian industrial conglomerate and a Chinese private equity fund. He negotiated and executed contracts and agreements for business and legal services that paid millions of dollars of compensation to him and/or his domestic corporations, Owasco, PC and Owasco, LLC,” the indictment reads.

“The Defendant engaged in a four-year scheme to not pay at least $1.4 million in self-assessed federal taxes he owed for tax years 2016 through 2019, from in or about January 2017 through in or about October 15, 2020, and to evade the assessment of taxes for tax year 2018 when he filed false returns in or about February 2020,” the indictment adds.

Hunter Biden is being charged with three felonies and six misdemeanors including failure to pay taxes and failure to file taxes. The indictment proceeds to lay out Hunter Biden’s business dealings with Ukrainian energy firm Burisma Holdings, Chinese infrastructure company CEFC and a Romanian oligarch previously thought to be Gabriel Popoviciu.

The evidence contained in the indictment related to Hunter Biden’s foreign business dealings was previously disclosed by House Oversight Committee lawmakers and IRS whistleblowers Gary Shapley and Joseph Ziegler. Bank records released by the Oversight Committee beginning in March show the payments to Hunter Biden and his business associates from foreign entities exceeded $24 million.

Both IRS whistleblowers came forward to the House Ways and Means Committee with allegations the Department of Justice (DOJ) gave Hunter Biden special treatment during the criminal investigation. In a statement released Thursday evening, Shapley and Ziegler said they were vindicated by the new indictment.

The fresh indictment provides details on Hunter Biden’s book deal for his memoir and expenses paid by his “Personal Friend” adding up to over $1 million. The third party financier was identified by Ziegler as Hollywood attorney Kevin Morris, who is believed to have paid roughly $2 million of Hunter Biden’s tax burdens.

Hunter Biden spent more than $4 million during the 2016-19 time period on a lavish lifestyle featuring drugs, prostitutes, girlfriends, luxury vehicles and other expensive goods, the indictment shows on page 13. Even after he became sober, Biden still failed to pay his overdue taxes and spent large sums of money to maintain his high powered lifestyle, according to the indictment.

“Notably, in 2020, well after he had regained his sobriety, and when he finally filed his outstanding 2016, 2017, and 2018 Forms 1040, the Defendant did not direct any payments toward his tax liabilities for each of those years. At the same time, the Defendant spent large sums to maintain his lifestyle from January through October 15, 2020,” the indictment asserts.

He spent over $600,000 on payments to various women and over $180,000 on adult entertainment. His rehab stint set him back around $70,000 and his spending on clothing and accessories approached $400,000, expenses from his Owasco P.C. bank account show.

Special counsel David Weiss had been investigating Hunter Biden’s taxes with help from a California grand jury. Biden has lived in the Los Angeles, California, metropolitan area since 2018, the new indictment says.

Court documents were not initially publicized when the news of Hunter Biden’s criminal charges was reported by multiple outlets. CNN first reported the federal charges against Hunter Biden were imminent, citing people briefed on the matter.

A spokesperson for Weiss declined comment to Fox News and a White House spokesperson declined to comment to NBC News. Hunter Biden’s defense attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

BREAKING: DOJ files new criminal charges against Hunter Biden. SCOOP from @evanperez. More on @cnn momentarily

— Paula Reid (@PaulaReidCNN) December 8, 2023

Hunter Biden was indicted in September on three federal gun charges, to which he pleaded not guilty at an October arraignment in Delaware.

Biden-appointed U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California E. Martin Estrada previously refused to cooperate with Weiss on the Hunter Biden case, both men confirmed when they testified before the House Judiciary Committee, according to transcripts reviewed by the Daily Caller. Estrada’s conduct was first brought to light by the IRS whistleblowers.

In August, Weiss withdrew previously filed Delaware tax charges against Hunter Biden in order to prosecute him in California or the District of Columbia. Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed Weiss special counsel in August following the collapse of Hunter Biden’s guilty plea deal for the two Delaware tax charges and a pretrial diversion agreement for a felony gun charge.

U.S. District Court Judge for the District of Delaware Maryellen Noreika derailed the plea deal when she discovered a prosecutorial immunity provision inside of the pretrial diversion agreement. DOJ prosecutor Leo Wise admitted to Noreika the immunity clause had no precedent.

“Two brave IRS whistleblowers, Gary Shapley and Joseph Ziegler, placed their careers on the line to blow the whistle on misconduct and politicization in the Hunter Biden criminal investigation,” House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer said in a press release.

“The Department of Justice got caught in its attempt to give Hunter Biden an unprecedented sweetheart plea deal and today’s charges filed against Hunter Biden are the result of Mr. Shapley and Mr. Ziegler’s efforts to ensure all Americans are treated equally under the law. Every American should applaud these men for their courage to expose the truth.”

AUTHOR

JAMES LYNCH

Investigative reporter. James Lynch can be reached on Twitter @jameslynch32.

POST ON X:

NEW: Crackhead, tax fraudster, prostitute purchaser and failed father Hunter Biden lashes out and calls Elon Musk a "dumb" and "very damaged human" who hates the 1st Amendment.

This is what someone starts to sound like when they are getting held accountable for the first time… pic.twitter.com/jj28HHtzTN

— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) December 8, 2023

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COP 28: United Nations Scientists Seek Fauci-like ‘Powers’

December 8, 2023/in Elections, Energy, Environment, Hot Topics, News, Policy, Politics, Regulation, Social Issues, Waste, Fraud and Abuse/by Marc Morano

Gore and Kerry demand phase-out of fossil fuels – ‘Clothing limited to 3 new items per person’.

DUBAI — CFACT’s Climate Depot’s Marc Morano Special Reports from DUBAI COP 28 UN Climate Summit

Morano: “This is the 18th UN COP climate summit that I have attended in person since my first in 2004. I have also attended two UN Earth Summits (2002 & 2012), for a total of 20 (so far) of these UN summits. Let’s all hope for the total failure of the UN climate agenda and Net Zero goals!”

Dubai News Round Up

Scientist Dictators emerge at Cop28! UN IPCC scientists declare: ‘We need power to prescribe climate policy’ – ‘Scientists should be allowed to make policy prescriptions & potentially oversee implementation’

Morano Comment: “The UN scientists were jealous when they saw how public health officials could implement authoritarian policies during COVID & and now they want Fauci-like powers!”

Gore declares: Agreement to phase out fossil fuels would be ‘one of the most significant events in the history of humanity’

NYT: U.S. Supports ‘Largely’ Phasing Out Fossil Fuels, John Kerry Says at UN Climate Summit – We have no choice! Kerry: ‘We’ve got to do what the science tells us to do’

Watch: Morano on Fox News from Dubai: Unelected ‘climate potentate’ John Kerry’s decreeing the end of coal will benefit China – ‘This is the Great Reset summit. We did not vote on shutting down coal – W/ Laura Ingraham

Biden Admin Pledges $3 Billion To The UN’s Neocolonialist ‘Green Climate Fund’

Climate Colonialism: ‘The looming land grab in Africa for carbon credits’ – Western carbon offset companies look to lock up ‘a tenth of Liberia’s land mass, a fifth of Zimbabwe’s, & swaths of Kenya, Zambia & Tanzania’

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Climate Emperor John Kerry decrees no coal plants should be ‘permitted anywhere in the world’

UN delegates circulate petition to shut down US natural gas production as global climate summit kicks off

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All G20 nations are missing climate goals: ‘Not a single G20 country has policies in place that are consistent’ with the UN Paris pact

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“Many gathering in Dubai believe the talks can only be considered a success if they result in a deal to ‘phase out’ all fossil fuels’

Riley Gaines Torches the Dems’ Gender Deniers in House Fight for Girls’ Sports

December 7, 2023/in Courts & Law, Culture War, Elections, Healthcare, Hot Topics, Must Read, News, Policy, Politics, Regulation, Religion, Science, Social Issues, Waste, Fraud and Abuse/by Family Research Council

If Riley Gaines had it to do over again, the All-American swimmer says she’d have never raced against Lia Thomas. It would’ve meant giving up everything she’d trained for — but some things, she’s decided, are more important than titles. “I believe everything happened for a reason, but I wish I realized what a slippery slope this was when we were told to smile and step aside so a man could have our place at the podium,” Riley insisted. “My actions would be different now, and I wouldn’t compete. I know it’s easier said than done, but sacrifices are necessary for the greater good.”

More than a year and a half after the moment that changed her life forever, Riley has made plenty of sacrifices. As the face of the movement to save women’s sports, she’s been targeted, harassed, and mocked — and that was just Tuesday.

Though Gaines wasn’t surrounded, punched, or held hostage, she was openly demeaned by people claiming to be leaders in Congress. As a witness in the Republicans’ hearing, “The Importance of Protecting Female Athletics and Title IX,” Riley talked about what it was like to be a pawn in the NCAA’s political game. Despite tying with Thomas, a biological male, Gaines was intentionally elbowed out of the spotlight. “I was denied the trophy because the NCAA claimed it was necessary for Thomas to hold the trophy when photos were being taken,” she explained.

But if anything was worse than being forced to “validate the feelings and the identity of a male,” Riley fumed, it’s that she and the other girls were forced to share an intimate locker room with the same man. “And as I’ve testified previously, we were not forewarned of this arrangement,” she said of being confronted with Thomas’s “fully intact male genitalia.” “We were not asked for our consent, and we did not give our consent to this exposure and to be exploited.”

Female Democrats (and their chosen witnesses) shrugged off Gaines’s concerns, insisting that anyone trying to keep men out of girls’ sports is a bigot. “It’s disappointing to me,” leftist Rep. Summer Lee (D-Pa.) said, “that although the title of this hearing implies a much-needed discussion we’re likely going to be forced to listen to transphobic bigotry. Because actually protecting female athletes and Title IX is important. Participating in sports provides so many benefits to our young people.”

“… [If] my testimony makes me a transphobic bigot,” Riley fired back, “then I believe your opening monologue makes you a misogynist,” she declared to Lee, who, ironically, tried to have Gaines’s comment scrubbed from the record. Like most Republicans, Doug LaMalfa (Calif.) was appalled by the exchange, pointing out the absurdity that Lee would move to have Riley’s response stricken “because she cared to disagree with the [Democrats’] name-calling…”

“I believe being called transphobic for saying that women deserve privacy, that we deserve safety, that we deserve equal opportunities, that we deserve to maintain our dignity — I believe that is certainly an attack on my character,” Riley interjected.

Another “squad” member, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) leaped into the ridiculous by suggesting that the people protecting girls’ sports would be “opening up all women and girls to genital examinations when they are underage, potentially just because someone can point to someone and say, ‘I don’t think you are a girl.’”

In one of the hearing’s more jaw-dropping moments, Fatima Goss Graves, president of the so-called National Women’s Law Center, suggested that girls like Riley “learn to lose gracefully,” a statement roundly mocked on social media. “I don’t know what the National Women’s Law Center does,” Christian Collins tweeted, “but if this is their president, they aren’t helping women.” Tennis great Martina Navratilova was equally infuriated. “I think National Women’s Law center needs to change their name and just be called National Law Center,” she posted. “No point calling it women’s law center since according to the president there are so many variations of women?”

Ranking Republican Lisa McClain (Mich.) was appalled, calling Graves’s “lose gracefully” advice a “slap in the face of any athlete who worked so hard.” “I am a woman,” she insisted, “and let me tell you, hear me roar, because I will not stop protecting women. You want to know why? Because we have rights, too. … And our daughters have rights, too. Let me be explicitly clear on that — I will never stop protecting our daughters. I will never stop protecting women. That is my job as a mother, and it is the right thing to do.”

Graves, unfortunately, did little to dig herself out of the hole she’d created, at one point outing herself as a graduate of the Ketanji Brown Jackson School of Biology by saying she couldn’t answer if men and women are different because, after all, she’s “not a scientist.” Instead, she accused Gaines and others of making the hearing “about attacking and dehumanizing transgender people” — a charge Riley didn’t take lightly.

“There’s a place for everybody to play sports in this country,” Gaines said, noting transgender Americans were included in her view. “But unsafe, unfair and discriminatory practices must stop.” All the Left cares about, she argued, is “minimize[ing] harm to trans-identified athletes.” “But what about the harm to us?” she demanded. “Who was working to minimize the harm done to female athletes?”

Macy Petty, a former Family Research Council intern, is one of the growing chorus of athletes affected by the Left’s march through girls’ sports. As an NCAA volleyball player, she’s had to face off against a male player — despite the obvious advantage the women’s game provided. “When the rule-makers ignored the basic biological differences, they ignored the fact that women’s volleyball nets are over seven inches shorter than men’s volleyball nets,” she pointed out. “Simple things like that that acknowledge the differences between sexes and allow us to also pursue athletic excellence. But in ignoring that, they allowed this male athlete … [to] use so many biological advantages against us as female athletes. And at this point of my life, I was trying to compete in front of her recruiters for an athletic and academic scholarship one day.”

Macy was catapulted into the spotlight when she decided to speak out about the injustice of it all, walking a path blazed, in large part, by Riley Gaines. Like so many female athletes, she’s watched Gaines do battle with everyone from members of Congress to talk show hosts and extremist students without giving an inch.

“I thought that Riley did a fantastic job today,” she told FRC President Tony Perkins on “Washington Watch” after the hearing. “I know that I was among many who were praying for her, just that she could relay truth and light into Congress. And I think that’s exactly what she did. She went in with a clear message and simply said, ‘We cannot keep elevating this, this inclusion message and leave behind so many female athletes who have been fighting their entire lives to be collegiate athletes, to be high school athletes. And this message that they keep pushing is definitely reversing the clock 50 years and going against the original intent of Title IX.”

As she’s linked arms with women and girls across the country, Macy says that “something that has been increasingly clear to me is that this is a spiritual battle, and that this is a war on the creation and the Creator Himself, and an attack on what it means to be male and female.” But as she’s exposed to more hostility, she says she’s equally encouraged by the light starting to shine through the darkness. “Thankfully, I’ve seen more and more people lean into the Word of God and just the confidence that He can bring throughout the fight.”

AUTHOR

Suzanne Bowdey

Suzanne Bowdey serves as editorial director and senior writer at The Washington Stand.

The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.

FAIR Applauds Senate Republicans for Holding Firm and Demanding that National Security Starts at Home

December 7, 2023/in Courts & Law, Culture War, Elections, Hot Topics, Immigration, National Security, News, Policy, Politics, Regulation, Social Issues, Waste, Fraud and Abuse/by Federation for American Immigration Reform

Democrats’ Insistence on Open Borders Blocks Assistance to Allies Abroad

December 6, 2023, Washington, D.C. — The Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) commends Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and Senate Republicans for insisting that national security begins at home and for demanding that Congress incorporate immigration policy changes as part of any aid package to allies who are defending their own sovereignty.

Today, Senate Majority Chuck Schumer attempted to proceed on a foreign aid package that ignores the crisis raging at the southern border. The budget supplemental legislation offered by Senate Democrats merely seeks to throw more money at the problem so border agents can process and release illegal aliens into the country faster. It does nothing to address the ruinous policies that have created the greatest surge of illegal immigration in U.S. history. “It makes no sense to allocate billions of dollars to help other countries defend their security, while leaving our borders wide open. Senate Republicans are right to insist that meaningful changes to Biden administration policies that have created this national security crisis be attached to the aid package,” said Dan Stein, president of FAIR.

Fortunately, Senator Schumer’s efforts to move this legislation forward failed as Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, Minority Whip John Thune and the entire Republican caucus were united in stopping the motion to proceed on the legislation. That motion required 60 votes to pass; Democrats could not even get a majority, as it failed 49-51.

In blocking this vote, Senate Republicans demonstrated that they understand how important reforming immigration policy is to Americans and how Americans understand that border security is national security. In a letter sent to congressional leaders today, a broad coalition of public interest groups and policy experts representing millions of Americans demanded inclusion of H.R. 2, the Secure the Border Act, passed by the House in May, in the bill. Policy changes set forth in H.R. 2 must be “the bare minimum required to regain control of America’s southern border and provide credibility for our nation’s immigration system,” states the letter to which FAIR is a signatory.

“Intransigence on the part of the Biden administration and congressional Democrats about stopping the border crisis is the impediment to approving foreign aid,” charged Stein. “To be clear, it is not Senate Republicans who are standing in the way of this assistance. Rather, it is the administration’s insistence on keeping America’s borders wide open and blocking any meaningful policy changes that might end the rampant abuse of our asylum system that is holding up approval of the foreign aid package.

“Without real reforms to asylum policy, expedited removal of people attempting to defraud our asylum system, and an end to the Biden administration’s wholesale abuse of humanitarian parole authority, the chaos at our borders and in our cities, and threats to national security, will grow even more dire,” continued Stein.

“There is bipartisan support for approving an assistance package to help our allies fight the same enemies and adversaries that threaten our own security. But tragically, that aid is being held hostage to the narrow, ideologically-driven agenda of the Biden administration and its allies in Congress whose policy is open borders and mass amnesty for millions of illegal aliens, no matter the danger or the cost to the American people,” Stein concluded.

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SHOCK REPORT: Sheriff Mark Lamb reveals illegals are receiving $5000 VISA GIFT CARDS, a plane ticket to wherever they want to go and a cell phone after entering the country illegally..

HOW MANY HOMELESS VETS DO WE HAVE? pic.twitter.com/wEGYUSRjeh

— Chuck Callesto (@ChuckCallesto) December 6, 2023

RELATED ARTICLES:

‘I Love You’: Illegal Alien Thanks Biden After Crossing Into U.S.

National Monument Covered In Feces, Trash Thanks To Surge In Illegal Immigration

Illegal Alien From Romania Released By Feds After Committing Crimes Globally Went On To Commit More In The US

Poppy Harlow Tells Mayorkas Point-Blank Not Even Democrats Are Supporting Biden’s Border Policies

VIDEO: Former U.S. Border Patrol Chief Rodney Scott: ‘Border Security NEVER Worse Than TODAY!

December 6, 2023/in Courts & Law, Culture War, Elections, Hot Topics, Immigration, National Security, News, Policy, Politics, Regulation, Video, Waste, Fraud and Abuse/by Judicial Watch

Rodney Scott served as the 24th Chief of the United States Border Patrol from 2020 until 2021.

Watch Former U.S. Border Patrol Chief Rodney Scott on Judicial Watch with Chris Farrell.

Please follow Rodney Scott on X.

AUTHOR

Chris Farrell

Director of Investigations.

POSTS ON X:

He proudly promised the demise of the White race in America with a “never-ending stream of immigration.”

You can’t fault a politician when he promises something, you vote for it, and he delivers.

You got what you asked for. pic.twitter.com/YC7Rk93Cse

— James Woods (@RealJamesWoods) December 5, 2023

We are one election away from the demise of this great nation. pic.twitter.com/L0DttGdyca

— James Woods (@RealJamesWoods) December 6, 2023

RELATED ARTICLES:

Border Patrol Had 22,000 Illegal Immigrants In Custody After Releasing Thousands Into The Country

Over 10,000 Male, Military Age Migrants Crossed Border in Past 24 Hours For the Second Day in a Row

EXCLUSIVE: Federal Agents Say They’re Stuck ‘Babysitting’ Illegal Immigrants Instead Of Stopping Criminals

‘Where Do You Want Them?’: GOP Rep Grills Witness Calling For More Immigration

New York Official Blames ‘Liberal Bail Reform’ For Helping Illegal Immigrants Commit Crimes

NY Rep. Dan Goldman Says He Doesn’t Understand Why People Care About NYC Struggling With Migrants

‘Can You Let Me Answer?’: NY County Exec Bulldozes Dan Goldman After Dem Claims Migrants Are ‘Vetted’ At Border

Senate Democrats Demand Amnesty in Return for Tightening Asylum Laws and Border Security

December 4, 2023/in Courts & Law, Culture War, Elections, Immigration, Labor & Unions, National Security, Policy, Politics, Regulation, Social Issues, Waste, Fraud and Abuse/by Federation for American Immigration Reform

With a foreign aid package scheduled to hit the Senate floor as early as this week, eleven Senate Democrats issued a joint statement to demand that any agreement to tighten U.S. asylum laws and improve border security also include an amnesty for illegal aliens. The Democrats who signed the statement included Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and Sen. Alex Padilla (D. Calif.), Chairman of the Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration, Citizenship and Border Safety. They were joined by Senators Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.), Edward Markey (D-Mass.), Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.).

The statement signals the concern that some Democrats have about ongoing negotiations in the Senate, where Republicans have demanded that negotiators include meaningful immigration policy changes as part of a foreign aid package that would spend billions on Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan. It reads: “As negotiations surrounding the supplemental aid package progress, we are concerned about reports of harmful changes to our asylum system that will potentially deny lifesaving humanitarian protection for vulnerable people, including children, and fail to deliver any meaningful improvement to the situation at the border.” Ironically, the statement also criticizes Republicans for seeking immigration policy changes as part of the foreign aid package, saying that the addition of policy provisions to the aid package would set a dangerous precedent and forsake our allies. Yet, at the same time, these Democrats are demanding amnesty.

By issuing the stern statement, the Senators hope to rein in their Democrat colleagues negotiating the immigration provisions and ultimately stop them from making meaningful changes to the law. The Democrats’ negotiators include Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), and Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.). The Republican negotiators include Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.), Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), Lindsay Graham (R-S.C.), and Tom Cotton (R-Ark.).

Senators Durbin, Padilla and others promoting open borders are beginning to feel the heat as the White House ramps up pressure for Congress to act on the foreign aid package. On Friday, White House national security spokesperson John Kirby told reporters, “We want to see all four priorities taken up by Congress and all four funded. The reason why it’s a supplemental is because they’re all urgent. And as I said earlier, we’re running out of runway on Ukraine, and I would tell you the same thing for Israel.”

Early last week, Biden press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the Administration has “had conversations with members of Congress” regarding the supplemental request. Jean-Pierre strongly objected to H.R. 2, the Secure the Border Act, but did not comment specifically on the negotiations. According to the Associated Press, the Biden Administration is not overtly involved in the negotiations on Capitol Hill, but it has not told Democrats not to make a deal with the Republicans. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas has been on calls with senators of both parties in recent days as talks continue.

With immigration on the table, the question now is whether Senate Republicans will hold the line and demand real reforms, such as the provisions found in H.R. 2, or whether they will be satisfied with half measures that sound good on paper, but have little impact on the crisis. For his part, Senator Thom Tillis has signaled he will not support a border security package that does not garner support from at least 25 Republican senators.

AUTHOR

FAIR staff

RELATED ARTICLES:

DHS Secretary Mayorkas Reveals Amnesty Plot While Aiding Catastrophic Border Invasion

Senate Negotiations on Border Security Package May Stall

Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals Orders Texas to Remove Buoys from Rio Grande

In the Netherlands’ Parliamentary Elections, Restricting Mass Immigration Won the Day

U.S. Immigration Reaching 15 Percent Milestone, New Record With No End In Sight

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JUST IN: Large groups of "mostly Chinese men" captured on video in California crossing illegally into the United States..

WHAT’S NEXT? pic.twitter.com/MngmzNNkBt

— Chuck Callesto (@ChuckCallesto) December 4, 2023

For the West to Live, Immigration[ism] Must Die

December 4, 2023/in Commentary, Culture War, Elections, Immigration, News, Policy, Politics, Regulation, Social Issues, Waste, Fraud and Abuse/by Selwyn Duke

After expelling a large number of illegal aliens approximately 20 to 25 years ago, the Japanese government made a firm statement I’ll never forget. “Japan is for Japanese,” Tokyo unabashedly explained. “Others are welcome to come and visit, but they’re expected to go home.” And just like that, Japan exhibited the historical norm: defending your homeland and preserving national cohesion — without hesitation or apology.

The West — the modern West — has been a different story. Shortly before his death at age 100, famed diplomat Henry Kissinger warned of immigration’s effects after having witnessed the support for Hamas inside Germany. It was “a grave mistake to let in so many people of totally different culture and religion and concepts,” he announced, “because it creates a pressure group inside each country that does that.” Of course, he was just stating the obvious. In fact, we’re so far down the balkanization rabbit hole that there’s only one thing to figure out: What should have been one’s first clue?

How about when French intellectual Christian de Moliner suggested in 2017 that his nation be divided to avoid civil war with its Muslims? How about in 2021, when 20 retired French generals and more than 1,000 other military members signed an open letter warning that this looming conflict was drawing nigh?

How about in 2014, when it emerged that more than 1,400 mostly native British girls were raped and tortured by Muslim gangs and that authorities turned a blind eye to the crimes for more than 16 years, hamstrung by political correctness?

How about in 2001, when Swedish anti-Western social engineer Mona Sahlin, commenting on the Islamization of her land, actually said that “the Swedes must be integrated into the new Sweden; the old Sweden is never coming back”?

How about in 2018, when mass-migration author and then-German chancellor Angela Merkel — after years of leftist claims that stories about Muslim dominated “no-go zones” were right-wing propaganda — admitted that, yes, they do exist?

How about in 2000, when then-president Bill Clinton signed a Tower of Babel executive order, dictating that if an entity receives any federal funding at all it must provide its services in any language under the sun? (So if someone walks through your doors speaking Chamicuro, you’ve got to be on top of that.)

How about in 2015, when polls showed a majority of Muslims in America preferred Sharia law to American law, and 60 percent of Muslim Americans under age 30 said they were more loyal to Islam than to our nation?

How about during the last decade, when stories broke about Salvadoran gang MS-13 terrorizing American towns and suburbs? How about when…oh, you get the picture.

This picture, like that of Dorian Gray, becomes uglier all the time, too. Just recently there were anti-immigration riots in Dublin after a Muslim man stabbed a lady and three children, while Irish women protested the seeding of their community with Asylum Seekers™. Meanwhile, perhaps proving that every Western nation wants its own Ilhan Omar, a “Scottish” minister named Humza Yousaf inveighed against Scotland’s government — for being too white. (Hmm, how many officials in his parents’ native land, Pakistan, are non-native Pakistani?)

Now, if I asked what these particular people were even doing in Western nations, many might say, “Yeah, the vetting should be improved.” That’s not what I mean. Rather, vetting should be unnecessary for a simple reason:

Immigration should be essentially nonexistent.

Radical? Okay, here’s a question: Can you name one Western land that, on balance, has been improved via our modern immigration regimes? Just one.

I’ll wait.

Yes, it’s a “radical” idea that immigration should only occur if it benefits the host country and isn’t a detriment to it.

Only, Japan doesn’t feel this way.

Neither does China, India, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait or a multitude of other lands. In fact, the rich and sparsely populated Arab countries even balk at accepting their coreligionists, such as Muslim Palestinians and Syrians. Where do they go instead?

As in 2015, they get shipped into the heart of what was once Christendom!

(Thank you, Frau Merkel, the Childless.)

But why not? As Jordanian academic Mudar Zahran revealed in 2015, Arab newspapers witnessed this migration and triumphantly wrote, “Now we’re going to conquer Europe!” They have help, too. Just consider what Andrew Neather, former advisor to ex-British prime minister Tony Blair, confessed in 2009. The massive Third World immigration into the U.K. over the previous 15 years, he informed, was designed to “rub the Right’s nose in diversity and render their arguments out of date.” Yeah, anything for power, right?

Of course, now there are even more headlines. Just last week,

French cabinet spokesman Olivier Véran warned that as far as that possible civil war goes, France could be at a “tipping point” after a local teen boy was stabbed to death;
knife-wielding Muslim migrants shouting “Allahu akbar” brawled in a German asylum center;
we learned of a U.K.-based doctor discovered to be a leading member of group aiming to establish a global caliphate — and who’s still practicing medicine in Britain;
German police called a migrant crime wave “frightening”;
a jihadist plot to massacre an entire French village was exposed; and
it’s reported that the U.S. now has a record 49.5 million immigrants.

Of course, after all this, finally, these nations are curtailing immigration….

Actually, not a chance. No, the flow continues, as a German minister promises to take in 25 Afghan Sharia judges; the Irish pseudo-elite offer s platitudes about immigration while stigmatizing dissenters; the Biden administration opens an immigration back door; and anti-balkanization commentary, such as my writing here, is called “hate speech.”

For this, it’s easy to blame the open-border pseudo-elites, with demagogues such as Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) pointing out that the changing “demographics” help his Democrats and Biden stating that America’s declining “white European stock” is “a source of our strength.” But maybe, just perhaps, these nation-breakers couldn’t hold sway were it not for their strength: immigrationism.

Immigrationism is the belief that immigration is always good, always necessary, must never be questioned in principle, and must be the one constant in an otherwise ever-changing universe of policy.

It’s pervasive in our time, too. It’s reflected when conservatives reflexively say, “I believe in immigration — I just want it done legally.” But this is like saying that we don’t mind pythons in the Everglades; we just want them introduced legally. (Note, I like pythons, but not in U.S. swamps.) A law can’t make a bad idea good. And immigration is, now, a really, really bad idea.

The historical norm has been to keep balkanization-breeding, often unassimilable foreign elements out of your lands, not invite them in. This attitude, still the norm in Japan and elsewhere, must be resurrected in the West. Immigrationism must be discredited and stigmatized, become viscerally distasteful and be completely and unsparingly eradicated as a political force.

The alternative is perpetuating the double standard with regard to foreign inundation. That is, were it visited on a primitive tribe, anthropologists would warn, “This is demographic and cultural genocide!” But when it happens to the West? That’s “diversity.”

For the West to live, immigrationism must die.

Contact Selwyn Duke, follow him on MeWe or Gettr or log on to SelwynDuke.com

President Of UN Climate Confab Says There’s ‘No Science’ Behind Push To Phase Out Fossil Fuels

December 4, 2023/in Elections, Energy, Environment, Hot Topics, Must Read, News, Policy, Politics, Regulation, Science, Social Issues, Waste, Fraud and Abuse/by The Daily Caller

Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, the president of this year’s United Nations (UN) climate summit, said that there is “no science” behind calls to eliminate fossil fuels to counter global warming, according to The Guardian.

Al Jaber also said that getting rid of fossil fuels would not allow for sustainable economic growth “unless you want to take the world back into caves,” according to The Guardian. He made the remarks during an exchange with Mary Robinson, the chair of the Elders group and a former UN special envoy for climate change, during a virtual event held on Nov. 21.

“There is no science out there, or no scenario out there, that says the phase-out of fossil fuel is what’s going to achieve 1.5,” Al Jaber told Robinson, referencing the 1.5 degrees Celsius threshold for increase in global average temperatures that many scientists and activists point to as critical to stay below, according to The Guardian.

Global Elites Take Climate Propaganda To A Whole New Level
https://t.co/ipajbw8nT0

— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) December 2, 2023

“Please help me, show me the roadmap for a phase-out of fossil fuel that will allow for sustainable socioeconomic development, unless you want to take the world back into caves,” Al Jaber told Robinson, according to The Guardian.

Al Jaber’s comments drew the ire of other UN officials, including UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, and climate activists, who advocate for a much stronger international effort to abandon fossil fuels and switch the world’s economy to relying on green energy generation, according to The Guardian.

Al Jaber’s presidency has also generated other controversies, as he runs the Emirati state-owned renewable firm and the state-owned oil and gas giant. Leaked documents showed that Emirati officials planned to use COP28-related meetings to discuss potential business dealings related to the two firms with foreign officials, and separate documents revealed how the companies viewed Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry as a key player in efforts to secure their future financial success.

Despite Al Jaber’s comments and the appearances of potential conflicts of interest, the conference he is overseeing has resulted in several major developments. For example, several of the world’s developed countries, including the U.S., pledged hundreds of millions of dollars combined to a de facto international “climate reparations” fund, and American officials approved a new set of methane emissions regulations that could severely impact the domestic oil and gas industry.

The UN did not respond immediately to a request for comment.

AUTHOR

NICK POPE

Contributor.

RELATED ARTICLES:

White House Deploys Kamala Harris To Represent US At Elite Climate Summit: ‘It’s Only Fitting’

Biden Could Jack Up Food Prices, Wreak Environmental Havoc With ‘Sustainable’ Jet Fuel Subsidies

December 4, 2023/in Elections, Energy, Environment, Hot Topics, News, Policy, Politics, Regulation, Social Issues, Waste, Fraud and Abuse/by The Daily Caller

The Biden administration is set to announce regulatory guidance on subsidies for corn-based “sustainable aviation fuel” that could end up hiking food prices and incentivizing practices that damage the environment.

The guidance, expected to be released by the end of the year, would enable SAFs made from corn-based ethanol to more easily qualify for tax credits under the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) if finalized, according to Reuters. Provided the change occurs, corn-based ethanol would then be poised play a huge role in the administration’s goal to have SAFs meet 100% of demand by 2050 to counter climate change.

However, the corn-based ethanol aviation fuel could have environmental and economic hidden costs that may cause more problems than it solves, experts say.

Reliance on corn-based ethanol aviation fuel “is not going to do much for global warming, but it will do quite a lot to benefit the renewable fuel industry and it will also indirectly benefit corn prices,” Prof. C. Ford Runge, Distinguished McKnight University Professor of Applied Economics and Law at the University of Minnesota, told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Biden's plans for ethanol will only hurt Americans, not help them https://t.co/cAeVdFSFK6

— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) April 15, 2022

The costs of corn ethanol aviation fuel will be “borne by consumers, taxpayers and the environment” as it has in the past when government policies have mandated its use in gasoline for automobiles, Runge told the DCNF. “These political, largely bipartisan, well-funded efforts by the renewable fuel lobby have been pretty successful, and they stumble on despite the evidence that ethanol is not particularly efficient or environmental.”

If the Biden administration’s targets are realized, 35 billion gallons of SAFs will be used each year to power air travel and commerce, according to the Department of Energy (DOE). The goal is to decrease carbon emissions, but corn ethanol aviation fuel may not reduce emissions enough to offset the other environmental and economic costs that are associated with its production.

“SAFs are definitely not a climate solution at all, let alone an effective solution,” Mark Jacobson, a professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Stanford University, told the DCNF. “Ethanol production from corn increases CO2-equivalent emissions by 0 to 24% relative to gasoline and increases the price of corn (making it more expensive to eat).”

Currently, about 40% of the country’s corn crop is used to create ethanol, which increased from 10% in the mid-2000s, according to The New York Times. About 100 million acres of American land, almost all of it in the Midwest, is used for growing corn. Meanwhile, major airline companies are starting to invest in long-term SAF plans and facilities.

More ethanol production means that there is less corn available for animal feed, which forces farmers to pay higher prices to feed their animals; that cost increase is invariably passed along to consumers, according to Farm Aid, a farmers’ advocacy organization. On top of that, production tends to fall when farmers have to deal with increased feed costs, which also puts upward pressure on the prices consumers pay for chicken, beef, pork, eggs and dairy.

Corn products are also used in a wide array of processed foods, so those goods would be subject to the same dynamics, according to Farm Aid. Additionally, increased corn yields could force farmers to grow less wheat and soy; this outcome would make cereals and grains more expensive as well.

“There’s no clear evidence that biofuels, especially corn ethanol, have an edge in reducing emissions,” Runge, who has written about the downsides of ethanol in the past, told the DCNF.

Beyond the economic impacts that boosted corn ethanol production could have, a substantial increase in corn production is likely to have considerable environmental impacts as well.

Future reliance on corn-based ethanol SAF to meet the country’s flying needs would add strain on the country’s groundwater aquifers, according to the NYT. Corn is a water-intensive crop to produce, and it can take hundreds of gallons of water to produce just one gallon of ethanol; America’s aquifers, especially in places like Kansas and Nebraska, are already facing high levels of strain, in large part due to agricultural irrigation, according to a separate NYT data analysis.

Eventually, the corn is processed into ethanol, and then transported for use to power aircrafts.

“The combustion of the fuel (in this case, in the aircraft) is always the harshest on the environment in terms of air pollutants and carbon dioxide (and contrails in the case of aircraft),” Jacobson told the DCNF. “The production of the fuel is significant, though. Emissions occur due to fertilizing, watering, tilling, extracting the corn, transporting the corn to a refinery, refining the corn to ethanol, transporting the ethanol (by train, truck or barge, since ethanol can’t be transported in pipelines).”

The White House, the Department of Agriculture and the DOE did not respond immediately to requests for comment.

AUTHOR

NICK POPE

Contributor.

RELATED ARTICLES:

President Of UN Climate Confab Says There’s ‘No Science’ Behind Push To Phase Out Fossil Fuels

Biden EPA Gives Major Handout To Big Corn

RELATED VIDEO: Kevin Schmidt on the Dennis Prager Show

AWED MEDIA BALANCED NEWS: We cover COVID to Climate, as well as Energy to Elections.

December 3, 2023/in Elections, Energy, Environment, Hot Topics, News, Policy, Politics, Regulation, Science, Social Issues/by John Droz, Jr.

Welcome! We cover COVID to Climate, as well as Energy to Elections.

Here is the link for this issue, so please share it on social media.

Checkout the 2023, 2022, 2021 & 2020 archives, plus asterisked items below.

If you like the Newsletter, signup for my free Critical Thinking substack…

— This Newsletter’s Articles, by Topic —

If You Only Have Time to Read a Few Select Articles:

*** Alberta Invokes Sovereignty Act (fabulous!)

*** Report: Bisphenol A Pollution from Wind Turbines (the most toxic substance we know)

*** Study: Green Energy and Economic Fabulism

*** Study: Residents in Blue States Pay Much More for Electricity than in Red States

*** Offshore Wind cannot be justified

*** Grid operator sounds alarm as coal plant shutdown threatens power for millions

*** Household electricity prices worldwide in March 2023, by select country

*** Study: Electric Vehicle ownership equates to paying $17 a gallon for gasoline

*** How electric vehicles harm the environment that they’re supposed to save

***Tucker Carlson Offers Grim Warning For The U.S. In 2024

*** Joe can’t BS his way to a second term

*** Democrats “Violently Claimed The Last Three Republican Presidential Wins Were Stolen”

*** Teachers Conference Lecture Declares Math a ‘Tool of Oppression’

*** Lack of Discipline in Schools is a Problem

*** The Real World Confronts the Ivory Tower

*** OpenAI drama explains the human penchant for taking big risks

*** Alarms about climate are delusions

*** Shocking extreme demands as climate campaigners descend on Dubai

*** UN COP 28 is not a democracy

*** The Earth is Warming but is CO2 the Cause?

*** Short video about New Argentina President

*** Time for Truth and Accountability J6 Committee

*** “Success Sequence” Reinforces Benefits Of Traditional Principles

*** AGs blast Biden admin for foster care plan that would effectively ban Christians

*** 12 Communication Tips to Foster Meaningful Dialogue

*** COVID Censorship Trial Heading to Finish

Secondary Education Related:

*** Report: The Key to Fixing the US Education System (updated re SEL)

*** Teachers Conference Lecture Declares Math a ‘Tool of Oppression’

*** Lack of Discipline in Schools is a Problem

*** Home schooling’s rise from fringe to fastest growing form of education

“Social Justice” is Driving Much of the Insanity in Our Schools

‘B-flation’ misleads parents: 89% say their child is at grade level

Zombie Public Schools, Drained of Pandemic Lifeblood, Haunt the Land

Higher Education Related:

*** The Real World Confronts the Ivory Tower

Duke Doesn’t Need “Economic Diversity”

Artificial Intelligence:

*** OpenAI drama explains the human penchant for taking big risks

AI Guardrails “Aren’t Enough” To Prevent Harm To Humanity

Greed Energy Economics:

*** Study: Green Energy and Economic Fabulism

*** Study: Residents in Blue States Pay Much More for Electricity than in Red States

Michigan Energy Plan: At Least $200 Billion For Wind, Solar and Corporate Profits With No Effect On Global Climate

The US should take warning from the huge costs of British floating wind power

Unreliables Energy Health and Ecosystem Consequences:

World Leaders Ignore Growing Safety Issues with Green Energy

Unreliables (General):

*** The Green Energy Wall gradually coming into focus

*** New York energy transition faces reliability challenges, grid operator says

The Biden Energy Slush Fund

Demonstration Challenge

Wind Energy — Offshore:

*** What Happened to the Great Lakes Offshore Wind Boom?

*** Offshore Wind cannot be justified

NAS study raises concern over offshore wind harming endangered whales

One of RI’s Top Environmentalists Is Suing to Block Offshore Wind Project

Study: Offshore Wind Areas a Biologically Important Habitat for Whales and Dolphins

Another wind-energy project in jeopardy after Virginia Beach signals they won’t let cables come ashore

Documents show Biden admin waived taxpayer safeguards for offshore wind project

Wind Energy — Other:

*** Taking the Wind Out of Climate Change (referencing 60± studies)

*** Report: Bisphenol A Pollution from Wind Turbines (the most toxic substance we know)

Solar Energy:

Biden Admin Gave $3 Billion Loan to Solar Company Accused of Scamming Elderly

Nuclear Energy:

While America pursues renewables, worldwide expansion is underway for nuclear generated electricity

Fossil Fuel Energy:

*** Grid operator sounds alarm as coal plant shutdown threatens power for millions

*** How Is the Campaign to Replace ‘Fossil Fuels’ Going?

Argentina to focus on infrastructure to ramp up oil, gas output

New Jersey to ban sales of gas-powered cars by 2035, despite industry objections

Bone Chilling

Hydrogen Bomb

Electric Vehicles (EVs):

*** How electric vehicles harm the environment that they’re supposed to save

*** Study: Electric Vehicle ownership equates to paying $17 a gallon for gasoline

*** Auto Dealers Call on Biden to Hit Brakes on Unrealistic, Unachievable Electric Vehicles Mandate

*** Dem governor withdraws EV mandate in stunning blow to environmentalists

*** Consumer Reports: EVs are way more unreliable than gas-powered cars

California Aims to Force Adoption of Electric Trucks, But 19 States Sue to Block

Misc Energy:

*** Household electricity prices worldwide in March 2023, by select country

*** Alberta Invokes Sovereignty Act

*** Gavin Newsom’s 10 favorite myths about energy and climate, refuted

Biden admin quietly developing settlement with groups seeking to tear down four Hydroelectric dams (all CO2 free sources) in Washington

New York State’s Energy Transition

Manmade Global Warming — UN COP 28:

*** COP 28 president: there is no science behind demands to phase-out fossil fuels

*** Shocking extreme demands as climate campaigners descend on Dubai

*** COP Out

*** COP28 should be the last COP

*** UN COP 28 is not a democracy

Jet-Set Hypocrites Want to Keep Billions in Poverty Around the World

Get ready for another pointless UN climate conference

Manmade Global Warming — Some Other Deceptions:

*** Alarms about climate are delusions

*** German High Court Forces Govt To Tell Voters True Costs Of Net Zero

*** Climatism Has Gone From Virtue-Signaling To Vice-Signaling

*** Bjorn Lomborg: ‘Net Zero’ fails the cost-benefit test

Nic Lewis debunks James Hansen’s overheated claims

Burn Acreage Fraud In The 2023 National Climate Assessment

Everything you hate about climate change virtue signaling in the most absurd story you’ll read this year

Manmade Global Warming — Misc:

*** The Earth is Warming but is CO2 the Cause?

*** Short video: What A Wonderful World

UCLA Law School Unethically Promotes an Anti-Science Climate Emergency

Wyoming Gov Was Standing Tall in the Saddle Until He Backed Down

Denmark: A historical victory, also for climate realism

Study: Terrestrial Temperature, Sea Levels and Ice Area Links with Solar Activity and Solar Orbital Motion

As I See It: Climate change revisited

The Church of the Climate Change Cult is losing some of its Flock

Poll: More Americans say scientists don’t understand climate change, are suspicious of eco-zealots and are tired of debating global warming

US Election:

Election-Integrity.info (10 major election reports by our team of experts, plus much more!)

*** Democrats “Violently Claimed The Last Three Republican Presidential Wins Were Stolen”

*** US Government Officials Sought to Censor Narratives and Interfere in 2020 Election, Newly Released Emails Show

*** Report. The Digital Personalization Effect (DPE): How personalization can dramatically increase the impact of biased online content

Why I Still Doubt the 2020 Election

Fentanyl Letters Show How Partisan Journalists Operate

Why does the Left conspire to keep election fraud quiet?

The DC establishment thinks RFK could win, and they’re panicking

Video: 2020 Presidential Election Results Explained By Biden “Spikes”

US Election — State Issues:

Making Elections Squeaky Clean (in Nevada)

Filing: Indicted Virginia Election Official ‘Altered Election Results’

More than 43,000 people went to the polls for a Louisiana election. A candidate won by 1 vote

DeSantis vs Newsom Debate:

*** Conservatives praise DeSantis debate performance against Newsom

Top 5 moments from the DeSantis, Newsom slugfest

Newsom’s Lies and Bluster in DeSantis Debate Will Not Age Well

Babylon Bee: DeSantis-Newsom Debate sponsored by UHaul

Misc US Politics:

*** Joe can’t BS his way to a second term

***Tucker Carlson Offers Grim Warning For The U.S. In 2024

*** Time for Truth and Accountability J6 Committee

American democracy: Is it worth preserving?

House GOP starts new website: Biden Impeachment Inquiry

Censorship US:

*** COVID Censorship Trial Heading to Finish

*** Politicians Urge Censorship of the Disasters They Create

New Documentary: “The Censorship Files”

Democrats Openly Attack First Amendment In Call For Censorship Of Elon Musk’s X

Misinformation Does Not Exist

Democrats Defend Censorship and Push Hunter Biden Conspiracy Theory

Dogma And Arrogance Behind Democrats’ Censorship Blunders

Societally US:

*** “Success Sequence” Reinforces Benefits Of Traditional Principles

*** 12 Communication Tips to Foster Meaningful Dialogue

WHAT “Lack Of Standing?”

What Is The American Dream?

First State to Decriminalize Hard Drugs Looking to Reverse Liberal Experiment

Iran-linked cyberattacks threaten equipment used in U.S. water systems and factories

US Politics and Socialism:

*** Short video about New Argentina President

Massive pushback against ‘woke’ agenda to affect 2024 elections

Our Picks for ’24: American Dream or Marxist Nightmare?

Globalism:

Giving Thanks to God, and Honoring Our Forefathers

Documentary: The Greatest History Never Told

Widening Revolt Against Globalism

Religion Related:

*** AGs blast Biden admin for foster care plan that would effectively ban Christians

Why is Christianity Considered Radical?

Why Young Evangelicals are in Danger of Becoming Puppets for Climate Marxism

RFK JR on God and being still

GOP Rep. demands answers from Biden administration on Catholic priest imprisoned in Nicaragua for 26 years: ‘Innocent man’

Science:

*** Why Research Fraud Is Getting Worse

Hundreds of Journal articles are being retracted

Transparency and Financial Conflicts of Interest in Science and Medicine

Health:

*** NY Legislature, Not Health Department, Must Create Rules For Isolation

How to Achieve Deep, Restorative Sleep–Expert Offers 7 Tips

Here’s What You Don’t Know About Marijuana

Dr. Peter McCullough: Top Internist and Cardiologist of the Year”

Israel:

Harvard and Hamas

Israel-Hamas war resumes as truce ends after 7 days

Ukraine:

Pray for the safety of the Ukrainian people

A well-rated source to make a Ukraine donation

Latest Developments in Ukraine: December 3rd

COVID-19 — Misc:

*** NY Appellate Court Paves the Way for Quarantine Camps

*** Q&A on quarantine lawsuit against Governor Hochul and NYS DOH

*** Texas AG sues Pfizer, alleges pharma giant lied about COVID vaccine efficacy

*** Video: Dr. Campbell interviews Dr. Clare Craig

Former Troops Punished over Biden’s Vaccine Mandate Sue for Billions in Lost Wages

Neurosurgeon Unveils Shocking Link Between COVID Vaccine and Brain Damage & Cancer Risk

Studies: Urinary and Prostatic Complications Occur After COVID and Its Vaccines

Cases of COVID variant BA.2.86 have tripled in 2 weeks — “health risk low”

COVID-19 — Repeated Important Information:

My webpage (C19Science.info) with dozens of Science-based COVID-19 reports

*** Free, At-Home COVID Tests (from US Govt)

*** World Council of Health: Early COVID-19 Treatment Guidelines

*** FLCCC Long COVID Treatment Protocol

*** COVID-19: What You Need To Know (Physicians for Informed Consent)

*** If you have received a COVID-19 injection, here’s how to Detox

Please use social media, etc. to pass on this Newsletter to other open-minded citizens…If you’d like to be added to (or unsubscribe from) the distribution of our popular, free, worldwide Media Balance Newsletter, simply send me an email saying that.

Note 1: We recommend reading the Newsletter on your computer, not your phone, as some documents (e.g., PDFs) are much easier to read on a large computer screen… We’ve tried to use common fonts, etc. to minimize display issues.

Note 2: For past Newsletter issues see the archives from: 2020 & 2021 & 2022 & 2023. To accommodate numerous requests received about prior articles over all thirteen plus years of the Newsletter, we’ve put this together — where you can search ALL prior issues, by year. For a background about how the Newsletter is put together, etc., please read this.

Note 3: See this extensive list of reasonable books on climate change. As a parallel effort, we have also put together a list of some good books related to industrial wind energy. Both topics are also extensively covered on my website: WiseEnergy.org.

Note 4: I am not an attorney or a physician, so no material appearing in any of the Newsletters (or any of my websites) should be construed as giving legal or medical advice. My recommendation has always been: consult a competent, licensed attorney when you are involved with legal issues, and consult a competent physician regarding medical matters.

MORE HARM: Biden Regime Commits to Shutting Down ALL U.S. Coal Plants To Tackle ‘Climate’ Hoax

December 3, 2023/in Elections, Energy, Environment, Hot Topics, News, Policy, Politics, Regulation, Science, Waste, Fraud and Abuse/by The Geller Report

Not for nothing but coal fuels EV.s Where do they think electricity comes from? These people are nuts.

They just don’t stop. It’s a frenzied war against this great country and they won’t stop until we’re finished. Kaput.

We see how these policies destroyed Europe.

You won’t like what comes after America.

US commits to shutting down its coal plants during COP28

Kerry said the action forms part of America’s plan to limit global warming to 1.5 Celsius.

By Michael Dorgan Fox News, December 2, 2023 12:52pm EST

Biden admin shelling out millions for green energy projects in coal mining towns

The Biden Administration is forging ahead with its green agenda by committing the United States to not building any new coal plants and phasing out existing plants.

U.S. Special Envoy for Climate John Kerry announced at the annual United Nations climate change summit, known as COP28 and which is being held in Dubai, although no date was given for when the existing plants would have to go.

“We will be working to accelerate unabated coal phase-out across the world, building stronger economies and more resilient communities,” Kerry said in a statement.

“The first step is to stop making the problem worse: stop building new unabated coal power plants.”

Kerry said America was joining the Powering Past Coal Alliance, a pact of nearly 60 countries that have promised to accelerate the phasing out of coal-fired power stations, except the very few that have carbon capture and storage.

Keep reading.

AUTHOR

Pamela Geller

RELATED ARTICLES:

The ‘Climate Emergency’ Is a Hoax

Over 1,600 Scientists Declare There is No Climate Emergency

Biden Admin Proposes EV Subsidy Guidance That Leaves Door Open For Chinese Companies

December 2, 2023/in Elections, Energy, Environment, Hot Topics, News, Policy, Politics, Regulation, Taxes, Waste, Fraud and Abuse/by The Daily Caller

The Biden administration proposed eligibility rules for electric vehicle (EV) tax credits on Friday that appear to leave the door open for Chinese suppliers, at least in the near-term.

The guidance, released by the Department of Energy (DOE) and the Treasury Department, is not yet final, but it will likely reduce the number of EV models that are eligible to receive the credit by boxing out battery components made by Chinese companies starting in 2024. However, the rules allow EVs built with the minerals extracted and processed by Chinese companies to be eligible for the credit until 2025.

BIDEN: "Auto companies have significantly ramped up their investments in electric vehicles." pic.twitter.com/edVr2mblg9

— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) September 1, 2023

The rules also cover Iran, North Korea and Russia in addition to China. The consumer tax credit, which is worth $7,500 for fully-qualified EVs, is a key policy tool for the administration’s EV push because it is designed to blunt the substantially higher costs of EVs relative to internal combustion engine vehicles.

The guidance also addresses eligibility limits for Chinese EV and battery companies doing business in the U.S. or in mineral-rich countries like Indonesia, where Chinese companies have a dominant position in the EV-related mineral supply chain. Those companies would be in compliance provided that less than 25% of their equity and board seats are controlled by Chinese entities.

China dominates the global supply chain for extraction and processing of the minerals that are essential for manufacturing EVs. In addition to the consumer tax credit, the administration has committed billions to subsidize retrofits for American manufacturing plants and the buildout of a national charging station network, as well as pursued several aggressive regulations to push the market toward widespread EV adoption over the coming years. The administration is aiming to have EVs make up 50% of all new vehicle sales by 2030.

The EV market is currently in a tenuous position, with manufacturers taking considerable losses, consumer demand cooling off and executives starting to back off of some near-term production targets.

It is currently unclear how many Chinese firms might be negatively impacted by these standards. The rules state that “licensing agreements or other contractual agreements may also create control,” indicating that technology licensing deals could be allowed under the standards.

The licensing aspect of the guidance could be a win for the automobile manufacturers; some companies had paused their efforts to strike licensing deals with Chinese firms until the rules came out, while others, like Ford, had pushed ahead with partnerships despite the lack of clarity, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The Treasury Department referred the Daily Caller News Foundation to the DOE, which did not respond immediately to a request for comment.

AUTHOR

NICK POPE

Contributor.