Texas Weekly Online

Texas-trans-white
Menu
Menu

Author:

Dozens killed as gas tanker explodes in Liberia

Dozens killed as gas tanker explodes in Liberia

Some locals flocked to the scene and took the leaking gas from the tanker when it exploded. At least 40 people have died after a gas tanker exploded in northcentral Liberia, the country’s Chief Medical Officer Francis Kateh said on Wednesday. Late Tuesday, a fuel truck crashed in Totota, Lower Bong Country, about 130km (80 miles) from the capital, Monrovia – after exploding, the blast killed and injured many who had flocked to the scene. Kateh told local news on Wednesday that it was difficult to determine the number of victims because some had been reduced to ashes, but he estimates that 40 people were killed in the incident. “We have our team going from home to home to check those that are missing,” he told the French news agency AFP. Police had earlier put the death toll at 15 and said that at least 30 others were injured as locals gathered at the scene. “There were lots of people that got burned,” said Prince B Mulbah, deputy inspector-general for the Liberia National Police. According to United Nations figures, poor road safety and weak infrastructure have made sub-Saharan Africa the world’s deadliest region for crashes, with the fatality rate three times higher than the European average. After Tuesday’s crash, some locals took the leaking gas when the tanker exploded, another police officer, Malvin Sackor, said. He added that police were still gathering the total number of injured and killed. An eyewitness from Totota, Aaron Massaquoi, told AFP that “people climbed all on top of the truck taking the gas, while some of them had irons hitting the tanker for it to burst for them to get gas. “People were all around the truck and the driver of the truck told them that the gas that was spilling they could take that … but some people were even using screwdrivers to pit holes on the tank”. Adblock test (Why?)

Democrats in Biden’s home state are leaving for the Republican Party in droves, voter data shows

Democrats in Biden’s home state are leaving for the Republican Party in droves, voter data shows

Democrats in Pennsylvania — President Biden’s birthplace — are flipping to the Republican Party in droves, according to the swing state’s recent voter registration data. Pennsylvania holds crucial importance for Biden’s reelection bid. He notably hailed Philadelphia campaign donors as the “backbone” of his presidential campaign earlier this year. As of Dec. 18, 35,589 Democrats reregistered as Republicans in the state so far this year; in contrast, 15,622 Republicans switched to the Democratic Party, data from the state department shows. The state trend was first reported Tuesday by Newsweek. RAMASWAMY VOWS TO WITHDRAW FROM COLORADO PRIMARY BALLOT UNLESS TRUMP IS ON IT, CALLS ON GOP OPPONENTS TO JOIN Biden’s ties to his home state deepen with wife Jill’s roots in Montgomery County and granddaughter Maisy’s recent graduation from the University of Pennsylvania. On Wednesday, the White House announced that Biden would make his first visit to Philadelphia on Jan. 6. Nathan Benefield, senior vice president of the Commonwealth Foundation — a Pennsylvania-based public policy think tank — said that while Pennsylvania is a swing state, “by all the polling, Joe Biden is unpopular here,” and much of it is attributed to the president’s “Bidenomics.” “Voters are saying they’re not happy with Bidenomics and the economy, and I think that’s reflected in the registration and some of the voting patterns,” Benefield told Fox News Digital in an interview Wednesday. “Whether Trump and Biden are at the top of the ticket or not, I do think it’s going to be pretty much one of the closest states next year,” he said. Benefield suggested that a shift is occurring among blue-collar Democrats in the state, particularly those in the western region who have historically favored Republicans in presidential elections. This change seems to be permeating to lower-level elections, and it’s now becoming evident in their party registration. TRUMP’S REPUBLICAN WHITE HOUSE RIVALS RALLY AROUND FORMER PRESIDENT IN BALLOT BATTLE State voter registration data also indicates a significant trend for both parties, revealing that a substantial number of voters are disassociating themselves from party affiliation. Specifically, 20,908 Democrats and 18,927 Republicans chose to leave their respective party memberships. In 2020, Biden defeated Trump by 1.2 percentage points to reclaim the state for the Democrats that Trump had flipped in 2016.  Pennsylvania will have 19 electoral votes up for grabs in 2024 — down one from 2020 — and the latest surveys indicate that Biden is either even with Trump or trailing slightly. In 2020, Trump lost to Biden in Pennsylvania by just under 80,000 votes. VOTING EXTENDED IN CONGOLESE ELECTION AMID POLLING DELAYS Fox News’ Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report.

Biden admin launched an aggressive campaign targeting home appliances with eco regulations in 2023

Biden admin launched an aggressive campaign targeting home appliances with eco regulations in 2023

The Biden administration issued numerous energy efficiency regulations in 2023 that it said would lead to reduced carbon emissions and lower prices, but which experts say would lead to higher costs and restrict consumer choice. The regulations, which were largely crafted and finalized by the Department of Energy (DOE), mainly targeted popular home appliances including stove tops, water heaters, furnaces, dishwashers, refrigerators and ceiling fans. Overall, DOE said its finalized and proposed regulations will curb emissions by 2.4 billion metric tons cumulatively over 30 years, supporting President Biden’s “ambitious efforts to tackle the climate crisis.” “At the direction of Congress, DOE is continuing to review and finalize energy standards for household appliances, such as residential furnaces, to lower costs for working families by reducing energy use and slashing harmful pollutants in homes across the nation,” Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said in September.  In addition to reducing the U.S. economy’s carbon footprint, DOE said its regulations will further save Americans an estimated $570 billion over three decades. BIDEN ADMIN AIMS TO PUSH TOWNS, CITIES TO ADOPT GREEN ENERGY BUILDING CODES: ‘VERY SUSPICIOUS’ DOE, meanwhile, has pointed to its authority under the 1975 Energy Policy and Conservation Act (EPCA), which established a federal program consisting of test procedures, labeling, and energy targets for consumer products. The 1987 National Appliance Energy Conservation Act then established minimum appliance efficiency standards and requires DOE to periodically update the standards. Then, in the decades that followed, Congress passed additional legislation establishing new appliance standards and requiring DOE to regularly review and update all standards and test procedures. WHITE HOUSE UNVEILS STRICT HYDROGEN REGULATIONS IN VICTORY FOR ENVIRONMENTALISTS “Ostensibly, these DOE efficiency standards are supposed to benefit consumers. That’s the way the law is written,” Ben Lieberman, a senior fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, told Fox News Digital in an interview. “But they’re clearly being done as part of the climate agenda, especially this agenda to electrify everything.” Experts, including Lieberman, have repeatedly warned over the last 12 months that the Biden administration’s energy efficiency actions will ultimately harm consumers and drive prices higher since manufacturers will be forced to adopt newer technologies to achieve the standards. In April, Lieberman led a comment letter alongside more than 15 other consumer organizations, arguing DOE’s efficiency standards for stovetops proposed in February “almost certainly compromise some of the features that gas stove users want, and all for the sake of saving an insignificant amount of energy.” According to the agency’s analysis, those standards would effectively ban half of all available stoves. “The agency’s exaggerated claims of climate change benefits do not alter the fact that proposed rule violates the consumer protections in the statute,” the comment letter stated. “For these reasons, we believe the proposed rule should be withdrawn.” JOE MANCHIN VOWS TO FIGHT BIDEN’S WAR ON APPLIANCES: ‘NOT SUPPORTING ANY OF THE CRAZINESS’ In the months after DOE released its proposed stovetop regulations, it proposed regulations in February for clothes washers and refrigerators that it said would reduce emissions by 233 million metric tons; finalized standards for air conditioners in March; proposed regulations cracking down on dishwashers in May; issued a proposal targeting water heaters in July; and proposed standards for furnaces in September. In addition, in November, Biden invoked wartime powers, awarding $169 million to companies to accelerate electric heat pump manufacturing.  BIDEN INVOKES WARTIME POWERS TO FUND ELECTRIC HEATERS AS HE CRACKS DOWN ON GAS APPLIANCES And the Environmental Protection Agency recently finalized a rule to push an economy-wide transition to more advanced refrigeration and cooling technologies replacing “climate-damaging” hydrofluorocarbons. Energy experts warned that the EPA’s regulations targeting the chemical will ultimately drive prices higher for new air conditioners and refrigerators, and repairs while harming consumers. “They are trying to reshape the place that you live to make it look like the home they would like you to live in,” O.H. Skinner, the Alliance For Consumers’ executive director, told Fox News Digital in October. “They’re really trying to impose what are progressive preferences from places in coastal enclaves and make it so that everyone has to live like that. And that affects you every day.” “What’s crucial is to understand this administration isn’t just tweaking regulations. They’re doing things that effectively ban whole categories of things that exist on the market,” Skinner continued. “Almost all of these decisions, as you work through it, are influenced by the overall climate agenda and the green agenda and the desire for us to change our lives.” Environmentalists have long argued in favor of appliance and energy efficiency regulations given their high use of electricity and natural gas. Green energy groups have called for the electrification of homes and businesses, reducing reliance on natural gas and simultaneously replacing current fossil fuel-fired power with alternatives like wind and solar. According to federal data, the commercial and residential sector accounts for 30% of total end-use carbon emissions in the U.S., the largest share of any sector including industry, transportation and agriculture.