NEWS

In what could prove to be a momentous development, the new top lawyer at the ever-overreaching Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) is a Second Amendment proponent and scholar who clerked for the Supreme Court's foremost gun-rights advocate. "Good news from the DOJ today," said the National Association for Gun Rights. "This one could be HUGE." 

The move came without any official publicity. Robert Leider's name and photo simply (more…)

Authored by Naveen Athrappully via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

Federal authorities arrested 68 members of the notorious gang Tren De Aragua this week, according to a new report from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

Salvadoran police officers escort alleged members of the Tren de Aragua gang recently deported by the U.S. government to be imprisoned in the Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT) prison, as part of an agreement with the Salvadoran government, in Tecoluca, (more…)

Authored by Kevin Stocklin via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

In his new role as head of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Lee Zeldin has proposed changes that would fundamentally alter government regulation of America’s energy and transportation industries—if the changes can survive legal challenges from environmental groups. 

Illustration by The Epoch Times, Shutterstock

On March 12, Zeldin announced what he called “31 historic actions in the greatest and most consequential day of deregulation in U.S. history.”

“We are driving a dagger straight into the heart of the climate change religion to drive down cost of living for American families, unleash American energy, bring auto jobs back to the U.S., and more,” Zeldin said in an official statement. 

These changes, he said, would “roll back trillions in regulatory costs and hidden ‘taxes’ on U.S. families” and make it “more affordable to purchase a car, heat homes, and operate a business.”

The announcement sparked both applause and condemnation.

“The EPA’s recent deregulatory shift reflects a philosophy of regulatory humility and away from Washington micromanagement,” Sarah Montalbano, energy and environmental policy expert at the Center for the American Experiment, told The Epoch Times. “The EPA is reconsidering unworkable greenhouse gas regulations on power plants.

“This rule would have forced reliable coal plants to retire and impeded new natural gas plant construction unless they capture 90 percent of their emissions by 2032. It’s great news for utilities and American consumers that reliable generation like coal and natural gas can stay on the table and avert devastating blackouts.”

Environmental groups saw it differently.

“Mr. Zeldin seems to have lost sight of the mission of the Environmental Protection Agency,” Jason Rylander, legal director at the Center for Biological Diversity’s Climate Law Institute, told The Epoch Times. “EPA’s job is to protect the environment and public health, not to promote American industry. 

“EPA’s rules already reflect a balance that more than takes into account the interests of America’s automakers, power plants, and manufacturers.”

The Endangerment Finding

Of all the changes that Zeldin has proposed regarding EPA regulation, “the greatest one by far is the ‘Endangerment Finding,’” Dan Kish, policy expert at the Institute for Energy Research, told The Epoch Times. “It’s the entire premise of the regulation of carbon dioxide as a pollutant, which is the underpinning of everything that the government has targeted” regarding climate action, he said.

A gas flare from the Shell Chemical LP petroleum refinery illuminates the sky in Norco, La., on Aug. 21, 2019. Whether the EPA’s (more…)