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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Trump EPA holds climate hearings in Coal Country; Winter heat wave hits Greenland and breaks records in the U.S. West; New federal contracting scandal exposed in Puerto Rico's very slow recovery; PLUS: Good news for breathers in Wisconsin and Missouri... 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): NOAA nominee contradicts Trump administration talking points on cause of climate change; Atlantic hurricane season from hell is finally over; EPA curb on PFOA may have reduced number of low birth weight babies; Ex-convict coal baron Blankenship to seek WV Senate seat; Environmentalists assail plan for endangered wolf; Trump Admin may share nuclear technology with Saudi Arabia; Climate scientists watch their words for grant funding; Trump to visit UT to announce national monument cuts; MI wants to replace all lead pipes within 20 years; San Diego sues Monsanto over water pollution; Rising seas will destroy historic East Coast sites; Missouri DNR causes a stink after shutting down attempt to rein in hog farm odors... PLUS: NYT Video series: How to fix global warming... and much, MUCH more! ...

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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: At U.N. climate talks in Bonn, Germany, the U.S. presence is a bit schizophrenic; New report shows Paris Agreement targets are not nearly enough; Senate approves fossil fuel lobbyist for top EPA air pollution position; PLUS: Puerto Rico governor estimates damages after Hurricane Maria at nearly $95 billion... 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): Trump dines on shark fin soup in Viet Nam; African-Americans take brunt of oil industry air pollution; EPA proposes reversing truck exhaust air pollution standards; Methane leaks in NM worse than thought; Republicans' tax cut bill has good news, bad news for renewable energy; Slow EPA response to Harvey pollution cleanup angers residents; NM's ancient Chaco Canyon endangered by drilling operations; U.S. fishery managers reject bid for catch limits on crucial menhaden; Author of DOE grid study describes being pressured to fault regulations; Trump's China natural gas deal raises ethics issues for Wilbur Ross... PLUS: After Flint water crisis, Michigan pushes to have nation's toughest lead water rules ... and much, MUCH more! ...

On today's BradCast: It's kind of remarkable, but things continue to get even worse for Republicans this week. Worse even than the thumping they from Democrats at the polls on Tuesday. [Audio link to show is posted below.]

A bombshell investigative Washington Post report today details allegations of inappropriate sexual contact by Roy Moore, the controversial far-right, homophobic, anti-Muslim, religious zealot and twice removed AL Supreme Court Justice, who is also currently the Republican nominee for the U.S. Senate Special Election in December. Moore is accused of inappropriate conduct with several teenage girls, one as young as 14, while serving as an Assistant District Attorney in his 30s. The charges have led to GOP Senators calling on him to immediately drop out of the race, even though the deadline for doing so before the December 12 election to fill the seat left vacant by Attorney General Jeff Sessions appears to have passed.

Moore and his campaign vehemently deny the reporting as "fake news" by "the National Democrat Party" and Washington Post, though the now 53-year old woman at the center of the report has nothing to do with Democrats and voted for Republicans in the last three Presidential elections (including for Donald Trump). She, like the other women in the story, who do not know each other, reportedly had to be convinced to tell their stories to the paper.

We're joined today by The Nation's JOHN NICHOLS, progressive journalist and author of Horsemen of the Trumpocalypse, to discuss that stunning breaking news as well as the remarkable Democratic victories in Tuesday's elections up and down the ballot in VA, NJ and many other states. Nichols, a long time progressive champion, offers insight into the quickly escalating "chaos" for Congressional Republicans and the ongoing divides among progressives --- even in the wake of Tuesday's victories --- between grassroots activists and more establishment Democrats.

On the breaking Moore news, Nichols offers wryly: "Who would've thought, in what wild imagination might would you have possibly thought that a xenophobic, racist, lawless, just brutal character, by any measure, would turn out to be a bad guy? The story, if it is true --- and let us be fair, let's be more fair than Roy Moore would be --- if it is true, this is really scary, ugly, awful stuff." He adds: "I'm not sure that Roy Moore will stand down. Remember Roy Moore has made his career by not following the rules, not accepting political logic or reason, and also by absolutely denying that which appears in the media. He makes Trump look like a cautious, responsible believer in mainstream media."

As to electoral politics, Nichols agrees with my assertion "one hundred percent" that the Democratic Party establishment continue to underestimate their chances in "red" states and jurisdictions. He cites, for example, the lack of support previously given to Moore's Democratic opponent, former U.S. Attorney Doug Jones, "an exemplary candidate for this position, with some unique abilities to pull together the traditional Democratic coalition in Alabama" where, he argues, "you can build a multi-racial, multi-ethnic, urban-rural coalition."

Nichols goes on to describe the "amazing day for the Democrats" on Tuesday, while noting that "a heck of a lot of it was dumb luck," given the mood of the country toward Donald Trump. He argues Dems might have done even better had they "put a candidate on the ballot in every district, and [found] ways to get resources and support to that candidate, because you have the potential, in a wave election, of winning in places you could never win." He cites a number of progressive and minority candidates, some "abandoned by Dems", who ending up winning nonetheless. "What we want to take away from Tuesday night is that where Democrats thought outside the box --- where they pushed harder, did more interesting things --- they won!"

In the bargain, he adds, for Republicans in Congress, the result is now utter "chaos" and he believes the current tax cut proposals by the GOP may never even get passed at all, at least not as current proposed.

Also today on today's show: As expected, still more top GOPers in the U.S. House announce they will not run again in 2018 following Tuesday's thumping; Outgoing Senator and Trump adversary Bob Corker (R-TN) announces long-overdue hearings in the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee (which he chairs) on Presidential authority to declare war and deploy nuclear weapons; And Desi Doyen joins us for the latest Green News Report' on, among other things, U.S. isolation on the world stage regarding climate change and some late breaking newly bad news for Puerto Rico, nearly two months after Hurricane Maria made landfall to devastate the island...

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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Syria joins Paris Climate Agreement, leaving U.S. alone in climate denial; U.S. cities, states and businesses are picking up the slack; Tuesday's election results in a big 'Blue Wall' for climate action on the U.S. West Coast; PLUS: The ozone hole is the smallest on record, thanks to a 28-year old global climate treaty... 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): Emissions Gap: Why the post-Paris climate challenge is even harder than we thought; CA Gov. Jerry Brown delivers a blunt climate change message in Germany; Homeland nominee questions human role in climate change; Trump environmental nominee doesn’t believe science should ‘dictate policy’; Shell Enchilada oil platform in Gulf of Mexico shut after fire; Paradise Papers: Coal-fired plant pocketed $117m from Australian taxpayers; End may be nearing for CA's Diablo Canyon nuclear plant; A new group of kids are taking Trump to court over his climate denial; Republican-controlled Congress ordered destruction of vital sea-ice monitoring satellite; WHO to farmers: stop giving your animals so many antibiotics... PLUS: Media can't let Puerto Rico become the next Flint.... and much, MUCH more! ...

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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: 'GNR' SPECIAL COVERAGE - The comprehensive National Climate Assessment is out, with dire warnings on the impacts of climate change, but also hope that governments can act in time to reduce emissions... 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): America is officially the world's climate pariah. Syria joins Paris Climate Agreement; Here's how far the world is from meeting its climate goals; Puerto Rico needs as much as $21 billion in aid to rebuild; EPA science advisor defends comments that dirty air helps kids; Contractors billed $114 per nut for SC nuclear reactor; ND officials seek $1 billion water pipeline; Rich nations failing to reduce emissions, assist poor nations with climate change impacts; House Republicans wants to 'invalidate' endangered species act; Loss of federal protections will endanger coral reefs, fisheries; Earth's ozone hole smallest since 1988... PLUS: Texas toxicologist who rejects basic science named to EPA science advisory board.... and much, MUCH more! ...

Trump may be leaving the country for a couple of weeks, but the sordid lies and demonstrable fraud he leaves behind still need truth and facts to take their place.

Among the many stories covered, lies called out, and frauds revealed on today's BradCast [Audio link to show is posted below.]...

• After the terror attack in NYC this past week, Donald Trump called the U.S. justice system a "joke" and a "laughing stock" (and he also suggested sending the perp to prison in Guantanamo Bay, where the system of "justice" really is a joke and a laughing stock.) But just hours later, the White House Press Secretary said he never said any of that, even though he very much did;
• At the same time, he failed to mention that a white guy opened fire in another mass shooting at a Walmart this week, killing three Latinos, and terrifying customers, some of whom pulled out guns of their own and, according to police, made it much more difficult to identify the perp (who the President has not called for sending to Gitmo);
• Puerto Rico is still in desperate need, according to a new United Nations report this week which slams FEMA for failing to respond as quickly and thoroughly as they did after hurricanes in Florida and Texas this year, and yet, a U.S. House Committee overseeing FEMA once again canceled a planned oversight hearing this week --- though only after the Mayor of San Juan flew all the way to Washington D.C. to testify before the panel;
• Taking a signal from the President of the United States, hate crimes are still very much on the rise this year, including anti-Semitic incidents, which are up 67% compared to last year, according to a new study, especially following this year's White Supremacist rally and murder in Charlottesville;
• Kris Kobach's so-called Presidential "Election Integrity" Commission has gone missing --- or so it seems to its few Democratic commissioners, to Democrats in the U.S. Senate charged with oversight of the panel, and to GOP "voter fraud" fraudster Kobach's own hometown paper, which now calls for the fraudulent Commission to be disbanded entirely;
• And, speaking of frauds, the Republicans unveiled their long-awaited tax cut scheme this week, but the highly-touted $1,182 tax cut promised to the average middle-class American family of four, will actually turn into a $500 tax increase for that same family, as the GOP scheme is currently devised. That, even as wealthy individuals and huge corporations will see their taxes slashed permanently. And who will pay the price for those massive tax cuts that will result in trillions of dollars in GOP deficits? Senators Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders have some thoughts in answer to that question today;
• And, finally today, the White House signed off on Friday on the Congressionally mandated National Climate Assessment, which finds, among other things, that there is "no convincing alternative explanation" for global warming other than that human beings are causing it. So Donald Trump no longer believes climate change is a hoax created by the Chinese after all? I guess he can ask them when he gets there...

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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: EPA Chief Scott Pruitt purges scientists from EPA science boards; Winters in the U.S. are getting shorter; Exxon Mobil fined for Gulf Coast air pollution; Hurricane Maria has officially caused the longest blackout in U.S. history; PLUS: Trump Administration proposes doubling entrance fees to your national parks... 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): Non-scientist Sam Clovis withdraws his nomination for USDA’s top scientist post after being linked to Russia probe; Coastal town bans tar sands, gets in big fight with tar sands industry; Coal miners reject retraining awaiting Trump's coal comeback; Alaska reviews all North Slope wells after spill linked to melting permafrost; Senate Democrats tear into Trump's NASA nominee, a climate science denier; U.S. to halt controversial 'nuisance animal' killing methods in CA; New data analysis suggests emissions have already ‘peaked’ in 49 countries... PLUS: Top Trump environmental pick said goal of UN 'climate crusade' is 'all-powerful' government... and much, MUCH more! ...

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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Puerto Rico cancels controversial grid repair contract; Tesla restores power to PR children's hospital with solar and battery storage; Tropical Storm Philippe knocks out power in 7 Northeastern states; Global CO2 jumps to highest level in more than 3 million years; PLUS: Congressional Republicans may support resilient electric grids. Just don't mention climate change... 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): EPA Pruitt to fill science panels with industry representatives; CO residents condemn regulators for allowing drilling near homes; NOAA about-face on red snapper revives overfishing threat; Same lake, but unequal water rates for minority communities; 'Emissions gap' alarmingly high, says UN; Loss of federal sanctuary protections endangers crucial reefs; Fish rebounding two years after CA dam removal; Trump to shrink 2 national monuments in UT; Native American professor resigns over censorship of DAPL seminars... PLUS: Trump's gang of climate change deniers has grown into an army in top government positions.... and much, MUCH more! ...

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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Tiny Montana company's mysterious $300 million contract to repair Puerto Rico's electric grid; Non-partisan GAO reports climate disasters have already cost US taxpayers $350 billion; Trump's US Ambassador to Canada invents new form of climate denial; PLUS: On the 5th anniversary of Superstorm Sandy, new study warns no US city is prepared for climate change impacts... 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): GOP Senate advances Trump industry nominees to key regulatory positions; Tesla installs solar + storage battery system at Puerto Rico children's hospital; Interior Dept. scrubs climate change from its strategic plan; Trump to auction off vast swath of Gulf of Mexico to oil companies; Plan to drill in US marine sanctuaries sent to Trump, not to public; Electric buses are coming and they're going to help fix 4 problems; EPA to review impact of efficiency rules, environmental rule on fossil fuel jobs; 17 national parks could see huge fee hike... PLUS: Donald Trump: Bird Killer.... and much, MUCH more! ...

On today's BradCast, we offer a bit of a response to those who are still under the impression, for some reason, that Trump is a "different kind of Republican", or that he's a non-ideological populist "draining the swamp" and taking on Wall Street and the Big Banks, or --- perhaps most dangerously --- that he has no coherent agenda. We also dive into the upcoming November 7 race for Governor in Virginia and questions about the corrupt past (and future?) of the GOP nominee. [Audio link to show follows below.]

As chaotic as everything he is doing seems to be, Trump's agenda is, in fact, very coherent, and little more than radical George W. Bush right-wing Republicanism on steroids --- albeit without the educated and politically correct artifice. Among the exhibits in today's argument: His administration's attempt to physically (and emotionally) prevent a teen immigrant from receiving a Constitutionally lawful abortion by keeping her locked up, despite court orders; and the Republican Senate vote late Tuesday night, with a huge assist from the Trump Administration, to dismantle a key consumer protection reform that had been five years in the making following the 2008 mortgage crisis and subsequent global economic meltdown.

That big win for Trump and Wall Street will prevent American consumers from having the right to sue huge corporations even after being screwed by deceptive, fraudulent practices. Yes, elections have consequences. And there is another big one set for just under a week from now to replace the outgoing Democratic Governor of Virginia.

The polls are reportedly tightening in the race between Democratic Lt. Governor Ralph Northam and former RNC chair, corporate lobbyist and George W. Bush Administration official Ed Gillespie. We're joined from Capitol Hill today by muckraking ShareBlue reporter MIKE STARK, who has been covering the Gillespie campaign and recently plowed through Bush-era White House visitor logs during Gillespie's term as a White House advisor, to find several instances of meetings with executives and lobbyists for big banks and energy companies that Gillespie had previously represented. The very next day after those meetings, Stark reports, the Bush Administration changed policies on issues those companies had been lobbying for.

The revelations and concerns of quid pro quo corruption come on the heels of the last Republican Governor from Virginia, Bob McDonnell, having been convicted of multiple counts of public corruption related to expensive gifts and huge sums of cash received from the CEO of a company hoping to win favors from the Governor.

Stark details his findings from those 2007 White House logs; his attempts to press Gillespie on the stump regarding his corporate lobbying work for big banks, big tobacco, big energy, and big pharma; his ties to the NRA, which, along with the Koch Brothers' Americans for Prosperity, is making huge television ad buys on Gillespie's behalf; the GOP candidate's claims to oppose bigotry and racism in all forms, despite racist ads and disgraced former U.S. Sen. George Allen (R-VA), forced out of the Senate after racist comments, serving as Gillespie's campaign chair. We also discuss Trump's role in the race and whether Democrats may be on the verge of losing what should be an otherwise easy off-year election victory in Virginia.

Finally, Desi Doyen joins us to discuss the bizarre news regarding the tiny company from Montana that was, for some reason, granted a $300 million contract to rebuild Puerto Rico's energy grid after the devastation of Hurricanes Irma and Maria, and the report late today from the Wall Street Journal that a federal oversight board plans to install an Emergency Manager to takeover, and potentially privatize, Puerto Rico's state-owned power company. We get comment from a former Puerto Rico Power Commissioner who describes why the news is "unfortunate" for the island's 3.5 million struggling residents...

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The struggle for 3.5 million U.S. citizens in Puerto Rico is "getting worse by the day", my guest who recently returned from the island tells me on today's BradCast. So, I'm afraid, is everything else, it seems, as the President of the United States continues to put the nation on a war footing (potentially, a nuclear war footing) in advance of his upcoming trip to Asia. [Audio link to show is posted below.]

A disturbing new report over the weekend cites the U.S. Air Force readying a Louisiana military base to place "nuclear-armed bombers back on 24-hour ready alert" for the first time since the end of the Cold War in 1991. Why? What is the imagined threat that makes such a dangerous (and expensive) posture necessary? Particularly as nuclear armed land- and submarine-based Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles are already in place by the hundreds or thousands and would surely provoke response from adversaries real and perceived?

And, of course, all of that, even as Americans are still fighting for their lives in Puerto Rico, thanks in part, to a shortage of relief funding. Yes, power remains out for some 80% of the island, more than a month after Hurricane Maria made her devastating landfall. We're joined today by former Puerto Rico Energy Commissioner, RAMON CRUZ, who is now on the Sierra Club's National Board of Directors and serves as an advisor to the United Nations on climate policy.

Recently back from the island, Cruz, a Puerto Rican native, details the deteriorating situation on the ground, particularly away from the capital of San Juan, and warns, as he did in his recently published op-ed for The Hill, that the "vultures" are already descending "to feast on the opportunities presented by the recovery efforts."

Cruz tells me that things in the interior of the island are "getting worse by the day," despite Trump grading his own federal relief efforts with a "10" out of 10 last week during a press avail at the White House. "Ultimately, who cares about what grade he gives? There's still people that [lack] all these necessities. It's really infuriating. The fact that they lost everything, and they still are drinking contaminated water, in ways that are completely preventable. That's the real disaster. In that case, if I could give negative points, I would give that."

He notes that his own father, for instance, who lives just 40 minutes from San Juan "still has no electricity, cell or water service" and many in mountain towns "have received a visit from the authorities only once, if any, and to bring a couple of water bottles and some canned sausages." The relief effort is failing, he charges, citing, for example, a delivery of "100 pallets of solar panels, but it still will take at least a month to go through the shipping process" before they can actually be deployed.

Cruz details why PR's power grid took such a hit from the storm, why it is so difficult to restore it to the already-deficient state it was in prior to the storm, and how decentralized energy micro-grids, relying on clean, renewable energy and battery storage, are now more important than ever, even as opportunists begin to take advantage of relief funds and the desperate Puerto Rican people.

"A lot of these [power generating stations] are decades old," he notes. "So you have these monstrosities of this very centralized system. They're very inefficient, they operate with some of the dirtiest fuels, and they should have been changed, should have been retired [a] long time ago. But because of several reasons --- everything from mismanagement, corruption, lack of capital, lack of creativity, bad business models, etc., they were not changed. And now you see these kinds of effects."

"In terms of human power, you have a lot of able Puerto Ricans to help," Cruz argues. "As a policy person, I think Americans in the mainland could help a lot by putting pressure on their elected officials to send a decent relief package to Puerto Rico, or to hurricane-affected areas. And to have, for example, a climate adaptation plan. I think everywhere on the coast, everywhere that is vulnerable to climate change, to global warming, there should be a plan for how to deal with essential infrastructure." That, he says, is "extremely important" but lacking in Puerto Rico and, unfortunately, too many other locations which could find themselves, before long, in as bad or worse condition than Puerto Rico...

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"This storm [Hurricane Maria] is no longer killing Americans," an exasperated Rachel Maddow exclaimed on MSNBC in mid-October. "The federal government's response to this storm is now killing Americans."

Setting aside Donald Trump's own self-assessment that his government's response was a "10" out of 10 --- that it couldn't have been better --- actual facts reveal otherwise.

Congress need not await the outcome of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into whether the Trump campaign conspired with Russia in the 2016 election, before determining if President Donald J. Trump should be impeached.

The phrase "high crimes" that appears in the Impeachment Clause of the U.S. Constitution, according to the Constitution Society, "refers to those punishable offenses that only apply to high persons, that is, to public officials, those who, because of their official status, are under special obligations that ordinary persons are not under, and which could not be meaningfully applied or justly punished if committed by ordinary persons."

It is an impeachment threshold that can be found in President Trump's reckless and callous disregard of his special obligation to protect the lives and safety of the 3.6 million American citizens who reside in the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico --- a U.S. territory that the President formally recognized, as early as September 21, as the site of a "major disaster"...

On today's BradCast: Donald Trump declares the U.S. government response to the devastating Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico couldn't have been better, and a bi-partisan effort in the U.S. Senate gains support, but struggles to overcome the President's sabotage of ObamaCare and schizophrenic response to the measure. [Audio link to show follows below.]

First, the President met with Puerto Rican Gov. Ricardo Rosselló at the White House on Thursday, and gave himself a "10 out of 10" rating for his federal government's response to the disaster and ongoing humanitarian crisis following Hurricanes Maria and Irma on the island of 3.5 U.S. citizens. During the sometimes uncomfortable 30-minute press avail, Trump sought approval for the response from an on-the-spot Rosselló.

The official death toll after Maria stands at 48, though independent analyses put the number of dead at more than 400. The power grid is still down across the vast majority of the island, and many are still struggling for fresh running water, though CNN offers some good news today regarding the many desperate citizens who had been drinking from wells at toxic Superfund sites.

Then, following Trump's announcement late last week that he was cutting off subsidy payments mandated by the Affordable Care Act (or 'ObamaCare') to help cover out-of-pocket health care expenses for low-income Americans, a bi-partisan agreement was struck in the U.S. Senate to pay those Cost-Sharing Reductions (CSR) subsidies. Trump originally lauded the deal announced between Senators Lamar Alexander (R-TN) and Patty Murray (D-WA) on Tuesday. But he has since flip-flopped on support of the bill by the Chair and Ranking Member of the Senate Health Committee in the 48 hours since. Trump's cut-off to those CSR payments has already resulted in health care premiums sky-rocketing around the country, including in states like Pennsylvania, where, its insurance commissioner announced Monday, rates are now set to soar some 30% for many in 2018.

We're joined by TPM's Congressional reporter ALICE OLLSTEIN from the Capitol today for the latest on what the Alexander-Murray measure, now co-sponsored by some 24 U.S. Senators from both parties, would actually do; how members are reacting to Trump's predictably unpredictable roller-coaster responses to it; how each party is attempting to sell the bill to its members; and whether GOP leadership will even allow the legislation to come to the floor for a vote, much less whether it can be passed by the Senate or the even more rabidly-opposed right-wing members of U.S. House.

Trump "has been all over the map on this," Ollstein explained, when I asked about the response on Capitol Hill to his ever-shifting statements. "Every time he opens his mouth, it's a new and confusing statement. No one has any idea, really, where he stands on this. So I think they're just trying to rally as many votes as they can, and worry about the President later."

"Keep in mind, this bill is coming kind of too late to make anything better for 2018," she says. "If they had gotten it done by mid-September, the insurers could have lowered their rates and prevented some of the big increases we're seeing. Now they blew past that deadline because they wanted to take one more whack at repeal, which failed. So now it's all about stabilizing the market, preventing additional chaos, and we won't really see the benefits of this until [the] end of 2018, beginning of 2019. That's right when the midterms are going to be. And so does the Republican leadership want their members to face re-election amid all of this healthcare chaos that they might get blamed for, as many polls indicate?"

Finally, Desi Doyen joins us for the latest Green News Report on the newest GOP scheme to allow drilling in the pristine Alaska National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) to export oil to China; updates on the deadly wildfires in CA and storm disasters in Puerto Rico and US Virgin Islands; and some very good news indeed regarding electric vehicles...at least in Europe.

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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Alaska National Wildlife Refuge on the chopping block --- again; California officials warn of toxic ashes from the state's devastating wildfires; Like Puerto Rico, US Virgin Islands struggling without power or clean water; PLUS: Shell Oil opens electric vehicle charging network at gas stations --- in Britain... 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): Video: 1 million Americans without power in Puerto Rico; Paris talks set in awkward moment for Trump Admin; With fast-charging, electric cars will soon match or beat gasoline cars in every respect; Iowa governor: Trump 'committed' to ethanol; Hurricane Maria recovery requires extensive federal response; Trump abandons plans to help climate refugees; Developing world struggles with obsolete pesticides; EPA says higher radiation levels pose 'no harmful effect'; Company to pipe water out of Mojave desert to cities... PLUS: Trump voters in storm-ravaged county confront climate change.... and much, MUCH more! ...

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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Hurricane Ophelia batters Ireland --- yes, Ireland; Firefighters gain ground against deadliest wildfire week in California history; Desperate Puerto Ricans obtaining water from toxic Superfund sites; PLUS: Search for missing worker suspended after oil rig explosion in Louisiana... 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): Trump's Love Affair with Coal: Why a president who struggles to stay on topic has a laser focus on one shrinking industry; EPA head seeks to avoid settlements with environmental groups; Why Puerto Rico's electric grid didn't stand a chance against Maria; Is Uber killing mass transit?; Trump taps climate skeptic for top White House environmental post; Plant more trees to combat climate change; Interior Dept. secretly working on 'land swap' for long-sought road through Alaskan wilderness; Europe's largest oil company buys Europe's largest electric vehicle charging network; Bananapocalypse: The race to save the world’s most popular fruit... PLUS: How deep ocean wind turbines could power the world.... and much, MUCH more! ...