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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Big Oil a big winner in Trump's new NAFTA trade deal; The Pacific has two simultaneous Category 5 storms for the first time in years; First-ever container ship crosses the Arctic as sea ice hits a new low; PLUS: Tesla's Big Battery in South Australia succeeding beyond all expectations... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

Got comments, tips, love letters, hate mail? Drop us a line at GreenNews@BradBlog.com or right here at the comments link below. All GNRs are always archived at GreenNews.BradBlog.com.

IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): How Brett Kavanaugh could help Trump weaken mercury pollution regulations; "Jobs Alliance," funded by Trump backer Murray Energy, tries to block gas plants that would bring jobs; Gov. Snyder, Enbridge reach deal for oil pipeline tunnel under straits; Climate scientists struggle to find the right words for very bad news; Trump DOT repeals train safety regulation, triggers new oil spill fears; Trump nominates coal, nuclear bailout supporter to U.S. power agency; 'You just don't touch that tap water unless absolutely necessary'; Death by Fertilizer: Nitrogen fertilizer is a disaster... PLUS: Nighttime in Trump’s America: A void of child gulags, rising mercury and unheard prayers... and much, MUCH more! ...

STORIES DISCUSSED ON TODAY'S 'GREEN NEWS REPORT'...

• Big Oil is a big winner in Trump's new NAFTA trade deal:
• AUDIO: Journalist David Dayen on new NAFTA: 'BradCast' 10/2/2018 (The BRAD BLOG)
• Big oil and gas companies are winners in Trump's new trade deal (Washington Post):
  
  The oil business convinced the White House to keep a number of features of the old NAFTA deal in the new agreement, including provisions that help protect U.S. oil companies' investments abroad and allowed for tax-free transport of raw and refined products across borders...Among their biggest concerns was the preservation of a system of resolving international trade disputes called "investor-state dispute settlement," or ISDS.
• The new NAFTA gets rid of controversial corporate legal rights-for now (Quartz)
• The Good and the (Potentially Very) Bad in Trump's NAFTA Renegotiation (David Dayen, In These Times, 8/30/18)
• Trump Admin. takes deregulation to new levels:
• Trump Administration Prepares a Major Weakening of Mercury Emissions Rules (NY Times)
• Experts say Trump's EPA is moving to loosen radiation limits (AP)
• Report: As EPA rewrites mercury rules, new cost-benefit approach could curtail future regulations (Utility Dive)
• Rolling Back Regulations, and Arctic Sea Ice Keeps Melting (NY Times)
• Trump admin touts children's health programs amid questions about ousting top scientist (ABC News)
• Trump administration abruptly ends key law enforcement program at wildlife refuges (The Hill)
• Extreme 2018 Pacific typhoon season continues + new El Nino on the way?:
• Walaka and Kong-rey Become First Simultaneous Category 5 Storms in 13 Years (Weather Channel)
• A rare combination of Category 5 storms in the Pacific (Axios)
• There's still a good chance we'll have an El Nino winter (KING-5 Seattle)
• El Nino brewing: Another mild winter ahead? (Minnesota Public Radio)
• Farmers facing dry conditions as El Niño looms (Radio New Zealand)
• Global warming is intensifying El Niño weather (Guardian UK)
• Big changes in the Arctic: sea ice minimum 6th lowest on record:
• Arctic sea ice extent arrives at its minimum (National Snow and Ice Data Center)
• Arctic sea ice minimum continues downward trend, with implications beyond the Arctic (Alaska Public Radio):
  
  That’s a striking image: an ice country on the scale of the Lower 48 that’s been cut nearly in half as the Arctic has warmed. The borders of that country are essentially what the “ice minimum” is a measure of.
• Global warming's melting of polar ice allows 1st commercial container ship to cross Arctic Ocean (ABC News)
• 9 Arctic nations + EU agree to ban commercial fishing in the Arctic --- for now:
• Commercial fishing banned across much of the Arctic (Guaridan UK):
  
  International agreement will protect vast areas of sea that have opened up as the ice melts
• Fishing in Arctic Ocean to be banned under new global deal (Independent UK)
• Governments to Sign Unprecedented Deal to Protect Arctic Ocean (Pew Charitable Trusts):
  
  How the science-based accord benefits ecosystems, and what comes next.
• Tesla's 'Big Battery' succeeding beyond all expectations:
• VIDEO: Tesla's Giant Battery Confounds Critics (ABC Australia via Climate Crocks)
• Tesla battery proves a leading source of dispatchable power, AEMO says (ABC Australia)
• Tesla big battery defies skeptics, sends industry bananas over performance (Renew Economy Australia)
• Revealed: True cost of Tesla big battery, and its government contract (Renew Economy Australia)

'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (Stuff we didn't have time for in today's audio report)...

For a comprehensive roundup of daily environmental news you can trust, see the Society of Environmental Journalists' Daily Headlines page

• Nighttime in Trump’s America: A void of child gulags, rising mercury and unheard prayers (Will Bunch, Philadelphia Enquirer)
• How Brett Kavanaugh Could Help Trump Weaken Mercury Pollution Regulations (The New Republic)
• "Jobs Alliance," funded by Trump backer Murray Energy, tries to block gas plants that would bring jobs (Pro Publica)
• Gov. Snyder, Enbridge Reach Deal For Oil Pipeline Tunnel Under Straits (Detroit Free Press)
• Climate Scientists Struggle To Find The Right Words For Very Bad News (Washington Post)
• Trump DOT Repeals Train Safety Regulation, Triggers New Oil Spill Fears (McClatchy DC)
• Trump Nominates Coal, Nuclear Bailout Supporter To U.S. Power Agency (Reuters)
• 'You Just Don't Touch That Tap Water Unless Absolutely Necessary' (NPR)
• Death by Fertilizer: Nitrogen fertilizer is a disaster. Abandoning it would be a bigger disaster. Now a dozen billionaires are funding an alternative (Grist)
• EPA MATS rollback threatens DOE carbon capture priorities, critics warn (Utility Dive)
• A tiny, beleaguered government agency seeks an energy holy grail: long-term energy storage (Vox)
• D.C. is nearing a record for 80-degree days in 2018, with more ahead (Washington Post)
• With disaster costs rising, states don’t know what they’re spending (The Hill)
• A Global Shift To Sustainability Would Save Us $26 Trillion (Vox)
• Project Drawdown: 100 Solutions to Reverse Global Warming (Drawdown.org)
• An Optimist's Guide to Solving Climate Change and Saving the World (Vice)
• The great nutrient collapse: The atmosphere is literally changing the food we eat, for the worse. And almost nobody is paying attention. (Politico)
• The world's bleak climate situation, in 3 charts: We've got a long way to go and a short time to get there. (Vox)
• The Climate Risks We Face (NY Times):
  
  To stabilize global temperature, net carbon dioxide emissions must be reduced to zero. The window of time is rapidly closing to reduce emissions and limit warming to no more than 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit or 2 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels, the goal set in the Paris climate accord. The further we push the climate system beyond historical conditions, the greater the risks of potentially unforeseen and even catastrophic changes to the climate - so every reduction in emissions helps.
• The Uninhabitable Earth: When will climate change make earth too hot for humans? (New York Magazine):
  
  Famine, economic collapse, a sun that cooks us: What climate change could wreak - sooner than you think.
• A beginner's guide to the debate over 100% renewable energy (Vox):
  
  Clean-energy enthusiasts frequently claim that we can go bigger, that it's possible for the whole world to run on renewables - we merely lack the "political will." So, is it true? Do we know how get to an all-renewables system? Not yet. Not really.
• No country on Earth is taking the 2 degree climate target seriously (Vox):
  
  If we mean what we say, no more new fossil fuels, anywhere.

FOR MORE on Climate Science and Climate Change, go to our Green News Report: Essential Background Page

• NASA climate change video: This is the U.S. in 2100 (NASA).

                 

Article Categories: Mexico, Environment, Green News, EPA, Donald Trump, Coal, Oil, Wind energy, Climate change, Extreme weather, NASA, NAFTA/USMCA, Australia, Oceans/Sea Level Rise, Tesla, Arctic, Trade