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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Biden makes history with climate-focused Congressional address; Senate GOP won't vote for Biden's infrastructure bill, no matter what's in it; New report finds reduction of methane crucial for climate; PLUS: Washington State passes landmark cap and trade law... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

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IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): U.S. climate 'normals' that are warmer than ever; Satellites show world’s glaciers melting faster than ever; Leaked docs: Gas industry secretly fights electrification; Biden admin proposes phase out of climate-damaging refrigerant HFCs; Hidden Super Polluters Revealed in Wake of Texas Energy Crisis; Forest Offsets Actually Adding Millions of Tons of CO2 Into Atmosphere; RIP Indian Point Nuclear Power Plant in New York; Lithium-ion battery soaks up the sun for recharge... PLUS: Electric cars: What will happen to all the dead batteries?... and much, MUCH more! ...

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

• Biden's address to Congress historic, weaving climate action throughout:
• VIDEO, Transcript: Joe Biden Speech to Congress April 28 (Rev.com)
• Biden Tells Congress Climate Action and Job Creation Are the Same (E&E News/Scientific American):
  
  Biden last night outlined a transformative vision of muscular government, with climate policy driving both domestic and international affairs. He cast decarbonization as an engine of his economic plans. And he framed competition with China as a struggle over the future of clean energy. "We are at an inflection point in history," Biden said. "If we act to save the planet, we can create millions of jobs and economic growth and opportunity."
• Biden stakes claim to being America's most pro-union president ever (Guardian UK)
• VIDEO: Biden says U.S. is "way behind the rest of the world" on infrastructure (CBS News)
• Biden: Jobs Plan Is Blue Collar Blueprint to Build America (Bloomberg/MSN)
• For Biden, China Rivalry Adds Urgency To Infrastructure Push (NPR)
• Senate GOP Leader McConnell pre-emptively rejects Biden's infrastructure proposal:
• McConnell says every GOP senator will vote against Biden's infrastructure plan (The Hill)
• Senate Republicans propose $568 billion infrastructure plan to counter Biden (USA Today)
• Transportation Department jump starts interstate transmission line construction:
• Gridlocked: These policies might put Biden's transmission infrastructure plans on hold (Grist):
  
  Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg announced last week that his department will encourage states to host transmission lines along transportation rights-of-way such as public highways.
• FACT SHEET: Biden Administration Advances Expansion & Modernization of the Electric Grid (White House)
• New Report Identifies 22 Shovel Ready Regional & Interregional Transmission Projects (Clean Technica)
• White House begins push for more transmission lines with $8 billion loan fund (Axios)
• Biden releases money in push to modernize US electric grid (ABC News)
• Transmission month: everything in one place (David Roberts, Volts)
• Senate Democrats use CRA to reinstate Obama's methane regulations:
• The Senate Reinstates Methane Emissions Regulations Rolled Back by Trump, Marking a Clear Win for Climate Activists (Inside Climate News):
  
  Three Republicans joined Democrats in curtailing pollution from the potent greenhouse gas, reinstating emissions limits on oil and gas wells enacted during the Obama administration.
• AUDIO: Senate Votes To Restore Regulations On Climate-Warming Methane Emissions (NPR)
• UN report warns methane reduction crucial for climate action:
• Halting the Vast Release of Methane Is Critical for Climate, U.N. Says (NY Times) [emphasis added]:
  
  The report, a detailed summary of which was reviewed by The New York Times, singles out the fossil fuel industry as holding the greatest potential to cut its methane emissions at little or no cost. It also says that — unless there is significant deployment of unproven technologies capable of pulling greenhouse gases out of the air — expanding the use of natural gas is incompatible with keeping global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, a goal of the international Paris Agreement.
• Urgent methane cuts needed to rein in climate change, U.N. says (Reuters)
• Methane cuts more crucial in climate fight than previously thought, UN finds (Independent UK)
• Washington State finally passes cap and trade law:
• After a decade of failures, Washington state passes a cap on carbon emissions (Grist):
  
  The cap-and-trade program would require Washington to set a statewide “cap” on greenhouse gas emissions that steadily lowers over time. It also creates a market for businesses to buy and “trade” pollution allowances that will become increasingly expensive — an incentive to cut emissions. The revenue raised will go toward renewable energy projects, reducing emissions from buildings and transportation, and adapting to the effects of climate change — such as supporting the relocation of tribes as the sea rises. In an unusual move, the bill also establishes a regulatory program to reduce air pollution in areas where people are breathing particularly unhealthy air.
• Washington passes 'cap-and-invest' legislation, giving utilities incentive to further decarbonize (Utility Dive)
• Cap-and-trade law tackles big polluters, fractures political alliances (KUOW)

'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

• NOAA unveils new U.S. climate 'normals' that are warmer than ever (Washington Post)
• Satellites show world’s glaciers melting faster than ever (AP)
• Leaked docs: Gas industry secretly fights electrification (E&E News)
• Biden admin proposes phase out of climate-damaging refrigerant (Reuters)
• Hidden Super Polluters Revealed in Wake of Texas Energy Crisis (Blomberg/Yahoo)
• Electric cars: What will happen to all the dead batteries? (BBC)
• U.S. Approves Massive Solar Project In California Desert (Reuters)
• Forest Offsets Actually Adding Millions of Tons of CO2 Into Atmosphere (Pro Publica)
• RIP Indian Point Nuclear Power Plant, 1962-2021 (Earther)
• Solar lithium-ion battery soaks up the sun for recharge (C&EN)
• Prepare for meat war: The climate battle over meat is "going to be worse than energy" (Heated.World)
• Biden wants to build 500,000 EV charging stations. Where will they all go? (Grist)
• Infinitely Recyclable Plastic on the Horizon with Next-Gen Polymers (Triple Pundit)
• Wind power a smaller contributor to Texas electricity crisis than initially estimated, ERCOT analysis shows (Texas Tribune)
• VIDEO: Noam Chomsky: Rare Interview on Climate and Biden Admin (Climate Crocks)
• Climate Fund Choices for Investors Are Multiplying (Bloomberg/Yahoo)
• How climate change could undo 50 years of public health gains (Grist)
• Climate Change Will Force a New American Migration (Pro Publica)
• Exxon's Snake Oil: 100 years of deception (Columbia Journalism Review)
• What Does '12 Years to Act on Climate Change' (Now 11 Years) Really Mean? (Inside Climate News)
• VIDEO: A Message From the Future With Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (The Intercept)
• SEJ Backgrounder: Green New Deal Proposes Sweeping Economic Transformation (Society of Environmental Journalists)
• Explainer: The 'Green New Deal': Mobilizing for a just, prosperous, and sustainable economy (New Consensus)
• What genuine, no-bullshit ambition on climate change would look like: How to hit the most stringent targets, with no loopholes. (David Roberts, Vox)
• 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.

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).

                 

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