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Biden admin cracks down on power plants fueling nation’s grid

Biden admin cracks down on power plants fueling nation’s grid

The Biden administration finalized highly anticipated regulations on Thursday, cracking down on existing and future fossil fuel-fired power plants as part of its sweeping climate agenda. In a joint announcement, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and White House officials said the rules would target all coal-fired power generation and future natural gas power plants. The regulations, according to the officials, will help the nation meet President Biden’s goals of decarbonizing the nation’s power grid and transitioning to green energy sources like wind and solar. “Today, EPA is proud to make good on the Biden-Harris administration’s vision to tackle climate change and to protect all communities from pollution in our air, water, and in our neighborhoods,” EPA Administrator Michael Regan said in a statement.  “By developing these standards in a clear, transparent, inclusive manner, EPA is cutting pollution while ensuring that power companies can make smart investments and continue to deliver reliable electricity for all Americans.” ENERGY DEVELOPER AXING KEY COAL POWER PLANTS TO MEET ECO GOALS, JEOPARDIZING POWER FOR MILLIONS Under the regulations, all coal-fired plants that are slated to remain operational in the long-term and all new baseload gas-fired plants will be required to control 90% of their carbon emissions. According to the Energy Information Administration, at least 20 natural gas-fired power plants are expected to come online in 2024 and 2025, with a total capacity of 7.7 gigawatts, enough to power millions of homes. In addition, EPA’s rulemaking tightens emissions standards for coal-fired plants related to toxic metal and wastewater discharge. “President Biden’s leadership has not only sparked an unprecedented expansion in clean electricity generation, his leadership has also launched an American manufacturing renaissance,” senior White House climate adviser Ali Zaidi said Thursday in a statement. “This is how we win the future, by harnessing new technologies to grow our economy, deliver environmental justice, and save the planet for future generations.” ENVIRONMENTALISTS CALL ON BIDEN ADMIN TO TANK NATURAL GAS PROJECT AMID NATIONWIDE ARCTIC BLAST The American Lung Association and environmental groups like BlueGreen Alliance quickly applauded the regulations on Thursday. EPA initially unveiled the regulations in a May 2023 proposal, which was applauded by environmental groups and Democrats, but received criticism from business groups, energy associations, manufacturers, grid operators and Republicans, including several state attorneys general who threatened legal action.  That proposal included rules for existing gas plants, but those rules were stripped from the actions finalized Thursday. EPA said in late February it would finalize environmental regulations for existing gas generation in several months. According to federal data, natural gas and coal generate 43% and 16% of the nation’s power, respectively. Alternatively, wind and solar generate 10% and 4% of the nation’s power. WHITE HOUSE ECO COUNCIL AT ODDS OVER TECHNOLOGY CENTRAL TO BIDEN’S GREEN GOALS Since the administration proposed the regulations last year, critics have warned that cracking down on coal power and gas plants — the single largest source of electricity in the U.S., the federal data showed — will have severe consequences for Americans in the form of blackouts and higher energy prices.  “We’re concerned it’s going to impact the reliability of our grid,” National Rural Electric Cooperative Association CEO Jim Matheson told Fox News Digital. “This is a grid that is already under a lot of stress because electric demand is growing at a rapid rate in this country, which is actually, in many ways, good news in terms of economic growth.” “But supply is not keeping up,” he added. “And this rule is going to further cause deterioration in the quality of our supply to meet that demand.” JOE MANCHIN THREATENS TO OPPOSE BIDEN NOMINEES OVER UPCOMING POWER PLANT CRACKDOWN In August, meanwhile, four nonpartisan grid operators that collectively provide power to 154 million Americans warned EPA’s regulations as proposed would cause grid reliability to “dwindle to concerning levels.” The North American Electric Reliability Corporation, which oversees the entire U.S. grid, forecasted months later that there will be future power supply crunches as a result of premature power plant retirements. The regulations are also the subject of an ongoing investigation being conducted by the House Oversight Committee. And, separately, Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., the ranking member of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, vowed Thursday to soon introduce a resolution overturning the regulations. “With the latest iteration of the illegal Clean Power Plan 2.0 announced today, President Biden has inexplicably doubled down on his plans to shut down the backbone of America’s electric grid through unachievable regulatory mandates,” Capito said in a statement. “Electricity demand is set to skyrocket thanks in part to the EPA’s own electric vehicles mandate, and unfortunately, Americans are already paying higher utility bills under President Biden,” she continued. “Despite all this, the administration has chosen to press ahead with its unrealistic climate agenda that threatens access to affordable, reliable energy for households and employers across the country.” Democrats and environmentalists have long targeted the power sector over its high emissions as part of their efforts to stave off cataclysmic climate change. Shortly after he took office, Biden pledged to enable the nation to achieve an up to 52% total emission reduction by 2030 and to create a carbon-free power sector by 2035.

Wisconsin GOP Senate candidate says Republicans ‘making a mistake’ by not discussing health care

Wisconsin GOP Senate candidate says Republicans ‘making a mistake’ by not discussing health care

Republicans have a lot of work to do when it comes to healthcare policy, according to Wisconsin GOP Senate candidate Eric Hovde. Health care costs are so high in some areas of the Badger State that many struggle to even access treatment, Hovde told Fox News Digital in an interview. “You know, the left loves running on Obamacare, and they think they, you know, own health care,” Hovde said. “I think Republicans are making a mistake not talking about it because of the cost of health care since Obamacare was passed, but more importantly than even the cost, the access to care has gone significantly down.” “Everybody is having struggles, particularly in our rural communities, with getting access to health care,” he added. “America’s health care system is broken, and Obamacare, which was supposed to be a solution, has only made cost and access to care worse.” This issue became one that is personal to Hovde after he was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in his 20s. “As someone who was diagnosed with MS at 27 years old, I know on a personal level that we need reforms that provide patient-first solutions to provide greater price transparency, lower costs and improved accessibility,” Hovde said. Though he intends to make healthcare a major priority of his campaign, other issues facing Wisconsinites include economic insecurity, the southern border crisis, and crime, according to Hovde. “I would say the economy is the biggest thing,” he said. “I was talking with a younger person who was 21 or 22 years old and she looked at me and said, ‘I’m working two jobs. I work all the time, and I still have to live with my parents. Everything costs way too much.’ So that would probably be the biggest thing that I hear consistently about is the cost of all goods and how expensive everything is.” SHIRTLESS GOP US SENATE CANDIDATE TAKES COLD PLUNGE IN WISCONSIN LAKE, CHALLENGES DEMOCRATIC OPPONENT “The border is a huge issue. It’s affecting our state now. People are very concerned about that. So I’d say that’s another big issue,” he added. The most important issue for each voter depends on where in Wisconsin one lives, Hovde suggested. “If you’re over in Milwaukee, [it’s] crime,” he said.  “Crime is a very prominent issue here in Milwaukee. Whereas here in the Northwoods or the western part of the state, it’s largely smaller rural communities where they don’t have a crime problem.” Hovde, who has repeatedly criticized career politicians for their efforts to serve special interest groups rather than their constituents, announced last month that he would donate his congressional salary to charity if he’s elected later this year. Hovde draws strong distinctions between himself and his rival, Democrat Sen. Tammy Baldwin, who was first elected to the seat in 2012. “You couldn’t get two more different people,” Hovde said. “I’ve spent my life in the private sector, building companies. I’m a serial entrepreneur. I’ve created thousands of jobs through the different companies I’ve built and turned around. I live in the real world, I know what it’s like to buy my own health insurance, but more importantly, the insurance for hundreds of thousands of employees,” he said. TRUMP THROWS SUPPORT BEHIND REPUBLICAN BUSINESSMAN LOOKING TO FLIP WISCONSIN SENATE SEAT: ‘GO OUT AND WIN’ “I understand how our globalized, financialized economy operates. Senator Baldwin has spent her entire life in politics from the time she graduated from college. She’s your classic career politician,” he added. “She came out of college, ran for Dane County Board of Supervisors. From that she went on to the [Wisconsin] State Assembly. From that, she went on to Congress and now has two terms in the Senate. She’s never operated in the real world. She operates in a political bubble. She doesn’t know the real middle class America, the struggles and the issues they face.” Referring to her voting record as “atrocious,” Hovde said Baldwin voted “for all this debt that has fueled the inflationary crises.” “She’s voted in support of President Biden on the border,” he added. “She supported the Iranian deal that President Biden signed with Iran. I mean, insanity. It blew up on Obama, and then he goes and doubles down on that, and she supports him.” Hovde said Baldwin changes when each election cycle nears. She “comes back during election time, makes these staged events, acts like she’s a moderate, and everybody in Washington knows she’s one of the most progressive liberals there are in the entire Senate,” he said. Though he has yet to receive his party’s nomination for Senate, Hovde got a boost in support from former President Donald Trump earlier this month. During a visit by the former president to Green Bay for a campaign rally, Trump praised Hovde as a “man who’s doing really good” and is “just about even in the polls” before giving him his “complete and total endorsement.” “I’ve met Eric and I’ve studied Eric because we have to get it right. [He’s] running against some very fine people, really, but I’ve looked it out, and they’re going to have other opportunities,” Trump said at the time. “Eric, I am giving you my complete and total endorsement, so go out and win.” Hovde said he appreciates Trump’s endorsement and compliments. “It helps with the Trump voters. … It’s a positive,” he said. Wisconsin’s primary election is slated for Aug. 13. Hovde is running against half a dozen other Republicans who are seeking the party’s nomination.

Supreme Court to hear arguments in Trump presidential immunity case

Supreme Court to hear arguments in Trump presidential immunity case

The U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments Thursday on whether former President Donald Trump is immune from prosecution in Special Counsel Jack Smith’s election interference case.  The high court agreed it would review whether Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, has immunity from prosecution. Arguments at the Supreme Court are expected to begin at 10 a.m. Thursday, but the former president will not be present for the proceedings.  Instead, Trump will be in New York City for the seventh day of his criminal trial stemming from charges out of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s investigation. Trump has pleaded not guilty to all 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree.  TRUMP WARNS THAT IF HE LOSES PRESIDENTIAL IMMUNITY, SO WILL ‘CROOKED’ JOE BIDEN Trump, a criminal defendant, is required to be present for each day of his trial. He requested, though, to attend Supreme Court arguments on presidential immunity, but Judge Juan Merchan, who is presiding over the trial, rejected that request.  “Arguing before the Supreme Court is a big deal, and I can certainly appreciate why your client would want to be there, but a trial in New York Supreme Court… is also a big deal,” Merchan said last week, requiring the former president to be in his Manhattan courtroom.  SUPREME COURT AGREES TO REVIEW WHETHER TRUMP IMMUNE FROM PROSECUTION IN FEDERAL ELECTION INTERFERENCE CASE A ruling from the Supreme Court on the issue of presidential immunity is expected by late June.  Trump’s criminal trial stemming from Smith’s investigation has been put on hold pending a resolution on the matter.  The former president and his legal team, in requesting the Supreme Court review the issue of presidential immunity, said that “if the prosecution of a President is upheld, such prosecutions will recur and become increasingly common, ushering in destructive cycles of recrimination.”  TRUMP PLEADS ‘NOT GUILTY’ TO CHARGES STEMMING FROM SPECIAL COUNSEL’S JAN. 6 PROBE “Criminal prosecution, with its greater stigma and more severe penalties, imposes a far greater ‘personal vulnerability’ on the President than any civil penalty,” Trump’s lawyers wrote. “The threat of future criminal prosecution by a politically opposed Administration will overshadow every future President’s official acts – especially the most politically controversial decisions.”  Trump’s request states that the president’s “political opponents will seek to influence and control his or her decisions via effective extortion or blackmail with the threat, explicit or implicit, of indictment by a future, hostile Administration, for acts that do not warrant any such prosecution.” TRUMP SAYS SUPREME COURT RULING IN COLORADO CASE IS ‘UNIFYING AND INSPIRATIONAL’ Smith charged the former president with conspiracy to defraud the United States; conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding; obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding; and conspiracy against rights. Those charges stemmed from Smith’s investigation into whether Trump was involved in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot and any alleged interference in the 2020 election result. Trump pleaded not guilty to all charges in August. “Without presidential immunity, it would be impossible for a president to properly function, putting the United States of America in great and everlasting danger!” Trump posted on his Truth Social last week, in all capital letters. “If they take away my presidential immunity, they take away crooked Joe Biden’s presidential immunity.”  In another post, Trump argued that if a president does not have immunity, “the Opposing Party, during his/her term in Office, can extort and blackmail the President by saying that, ‘if you don’t give us everything we want, we will Indict you for things you did while in Office,’ even if everything done was totally Legal and Appropriate.”  “That would be the end of the Presidency, and our Country, as we know it, and is just one of the many Traps there would be for a President without Presidential Immunity,” Trump posted.  Pointing to his presidential predecessors, and 2020 and 2024 opponent Biden, Trump said: “Obama, Bush, and soon, Crooked Joe Biden, would all be in BIG TROUBLE.”  “If a President doesn’t have IMMUNITY, he/she will be nothing more than a ‘Ceremonial’ President, rarely having the courage to do what has to be done for our Country,” Trump continued, calling for the protection of presidential immunity. “MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”  TRUMP HUSH MONEY TRIAL: MEET THE JURORS WHO WILL HEAR BRAGG’S CASE AGAINST THE 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE Trump added that if immunity is not granted to a president, “every president that leaves office will be immediately indicted by the opposing party.”  “Without complete immunity, a president of the United States would not be able to properly function,” he said again. This will be the second time this term the Supreme Court will hear a case involving the presumed Republican presidential nominee.  Last month, the Supreme Court sided unanimously with Trump in his challenge to Colorado’s attempt to kick him off the 2024 primary ballot.  TRUMP SPEAKS AFTER SUPREME COURT RULING, TELLS BIDEN TO ‘FIGHT YOUR FIGHT YOURSELF’ The high court ruled in favor of Trump’s arguments in the case, which will impact the status of efforts in several other states to remove the likely GOP nominee from their respective ballots.  The court considered for the first time the meaning and reach of Article 3 of the 14th Amendment, which bars former officeholders who “engaged in insurrection” from holding public office again. Challenges have been filed to remove Trump from the 2024 ballot in over 30 states. Trump, during an exclusive interview with Fox News Digital after that ruling, shifted back to the issue of presidential immunity.  “Equally important for our country will be the decision that they will soon make on immunity for a president – without which, the presidency would be relegated to nothing more than a ceremonial position, which is far from what the founders intended,” Trump told Fox News Digital. “No president would be able to properly and effectively function without complete and total immunity.”  He added, “Our country would be put at great risk.” 

Biden sparks Christian group’s anger after making sign of the cross at abortion rally: ‘Disgusting insult’

Biden sparks Christian group’s anger after making sign of the cross at abortion rally: ‘Disgusting insult’

President Biden sparked outrage Tuesday when he made the Sign of the Cross while rallying against abortion restrictions. Biden made the ostensibly pious gesture in Tampa while Florida Democratic Party Chairwoman Nikki Fried complained about Gov. Ron DeSantis and the state’s tightening six-week ban on abortion. “We come back here to the state of Florida, where Ron DeSantis felt like he needed to run for president, so 15 weeks wasn’t good enough,” said Fried. “We had to go to six weeks.” BIDEN ‘DOESN’T UNDERSTAND THE CATHOLIC FAITH,’ BISHOP SAYS: ‘I’M NOT ANGRY AT HIM, HE’S JUST STUPID’ As Fried spoke, Biden motioned the cross by touching his forehead, chest and shoulders in the traditional formula. The Sign of the Cross is an ancient expression of piety that has existed since at least the third century and is commonly used by Catholic and Orthodox churches as a form of blessing. “Biden’s use of the Sign of the Cross in support of abortion is a disgusting insult towards all Christians, but especially of Catholics whom he claims as his own,” Brian Burch, president of CatholicVote, told Fox News Digital on Wednesday. BIDEN MOCKS TRUMP FOR LEGAL WOES: ‘A LITTLE BUSY RIGHT NOW’ He added, “The Sign of the Cross is a sacred gesture used by believers to bless themselves, ask forgiveness, or to protect them from temptation. Instead, Biden has turned this ancient Christian practice into an endorsement of abortion extremism.” Biden has leaned into his Catholic identity in his presidential campaigns, asserting himself as a devout believer despite blatant disregard for non-negotiable church teachings. Last week, a bishop in Michigan accused Biden of “stupidity” regarding the dissonance between his religion and politics. “I don’t have any anger towards the president. I feel sorry for him. I’m not angry at him, he’s just stupid,” said Bishop Robert Gruss of the Diocese of Saginaw. “It’s not stupidity in the derogatory way, it’s stupidity in the sense of […] he doesn’t understand the Catholic faith.” “No Catholic, regardless of their position on abortion, can support this grotesque abuse of religious piety,” Burch told Fox News Digital about Biden making the Sign of the Cross. “Voters of faith need to wake up and understand what is at stake this November.” He added, “The new abortion religion, which seeks to mock and ultimately destroy Christianity, is on the ballot.” Fox News Digital reached out to Bishop Gregory Parkes in the Diocese of St. Petersburg — the geographic region of the Catholic Church that has jurisdiction over Tampa — for comment on the president’s abortion rally. “Bishop Gregory Parkes consistently teaches about the Catholic Church’s position on abortion,” a spokesperson for the diocese told Fox News Digital. “Also, Bishop Parkes and the bishops of Florida have recently issued a statement to educate people on the Catholic Church’s teaching on abortion and why they should vote no on Amendment Four.” Amendment Four, as proposed by Florida pro-choice groups earlier this year, would dictate that “no law shall prohibit, penalize, delay, or restrict abortion before viability or when necessary to protect the patient’s health, as determined by the patient’s healthcare provider.” The Florida Conference of Catholic Bishops released a statement this month saying, “We urge all Floridians of goodwill to stand against the legalization of late-term abortion and oppose the abortion amendment. In doing so, we will not only protect the weakest, most innocent, and defenseless of human life among us, but also countless women throughout the state from the harms of abortion.”