IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Surprise! Second toxic chemical also contaminating WV's water supply; Texas homeowners don't care for fracking earthquakes; Southern leg of Keystone XL pipeline now open for business; Score one for the Arctic - court setback for Shell's Arctic Adventure; PLUS: Full speed ahead for L.A.'s first-ever outdoor pro hockey game --- in a record heat wave... All that and more in today's Green News Report!
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IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): Obama: Fossil fuels are here to stay; Targets of climate hate mail rally to support one another; Coal terminals and climate chaos: is this the future we want?; WA State moves on its own to stop ocean acidification; How Oil Drilling Is Like the "Civil Rights Revolution"; Extreme El Nino events to double ... PLUS: Big Green to Obama: "All of the above" a compromise we can't afford ... and much, MUCH more! ...
STORIES DISCUSSED ON TODAY'S 'GREEN NEWS REPORT'...
- L.A. Hosts 1st Ever Outdoor Hockey Game Amid Record Heat Wave, Drought:
- California's Record Warmth and Drought Won't Stop Outdoor NHL Hockey (Dr. Jeff Masters, Weather Underground): Most of the southern half of the state needs more than a year of rainfall to fall in one month.
- Even with the heat, it's game on for hockey at Dodger Stadium (L.A. Times):
An inch of ice requires 10,600 gallons of water, and they use a standard local water source. - VIDEO: NHL brings outdoor hockey to Southern Calif. (KCBS Los Angeles)
- What Californians Can Expect from the Drought (Peter Gleick, ScienceBlogs)
- Southwest’s Dwindling Water Supply (NYT)
- WV Chemical Spill: Bankrupt Company Admits 2nd Chemical Involved:
- Company in WV spill failed to disclose 2nd chemical (NBC News) [emphasis added]:
Governor Earl Ray Tomblin said he was "very disappointed" that it took Freedom Industries, a maker of specialty chemicals, 12 days to disclose the presence of PPH. - CDC: Pregnant women should have been warned about water sooner (Charleston Gazette)
- Water questions unanswered in rural W.Va. (Charleston Gazette):
"If it seeps into the ground, what's it going to do to the people who have well water?" - New Accusations Against Freedom Industries in West Virginia Spill (BusinessWeek)
- How the West Virginia Spill Exposes Our Lax Chemical Laws (Mother Jones)
- VIDEO: Truth behind WV spill company's bankruptcy with guest Bob Kincaid (All In With Chris Hayes, MNSBC)
- AUDIO: Drinking in WV's Toxic 'Freedom' Disaster: KPFK 'BradCast' [at about 47 mins in] (The BRAD BLOG)
- "Watchdog Reporting at its Finest": Follow Ken Ward Jr. on Twitter
- TX: Homeowners Demand Halt To Fracking Earthquakes:
- Angry North Texans Demand State Shut Down Wells Linked to Earthquakes (State Impact Texas):
Those disposal wells have been scientifically linked to quakes in other parts of North Texas. Within a mile or two of the current quake swarm are two active disposal wells, injecting some hundreds of thousands of gallons of wastewater a month into the earth below. Studies have shown that large volumes of wastewater can cause inactive faults to slip, triggering earthquakes. Until recently, the Railroad Commission of Texas has maintained that the link between quakes and oil and gas wastewater disposal are purely hypothetical... - Texas regulators say there's little they can do on quakes (E & E News)
- VIDEO: North Texans Protest Fracking, Earthquakes At Railroad Commission Meeting (CBS Dallas-Ft.Worth)
- Texans want frackers to stop causing earthquakes (Grist)
- USGS Study Connects Earthquake Risk To Wastewater Injection, Fracking Advocates Say, "Who Cares?"
- Earthquakes shake Texas town on Thanksgiving, and fracking might be to blame (Grist)
- 'Giant Neighborhood Watch' As Southern Leg of Keystone XL Opens For Business:
- 'Overwhelming Majority' Of Pipeline Spills Are Discovered By People, Not Spill Detectors, Review Finds (Climate Progress)
- Keystone Builder’s 2013 U.S. Lobbying Topped $1 Million (Bloomberg News)
- Score One For the Arctic: Setback for Shell's Arctic Adventure:
- Shell’s Arctic Offshore Drilling Ambitions Stymied In Appeals Court (Climate Progress)
- U.S. appeals court throws Arctic drilling into further doubt (Reuters)
- Arctic Ocean oil drilling opponents win appeal (LA Times) [emphasis added]:
The groups also said that when the federal government analyzed the sale, it underestimated how much development could occur if companies discovered oil, a failure that "runs the risk of understating the impacts and the risks of catastrophic spills"...
'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (Stuff we didn't have time for in today's audio report)...
- Big Green to Obama: A Compromise We Can't Afford (Sierra Club):
[We] sent a letter to President Obama in which we asked him to stop basing national energy policy on an "all of the above" strategy. If we want to reach the goal of 100 percent clean energy before our climate is catastrophically disrupted, then common sense demands that we prioritize clean energy --- and make it official --- right now. - Obama: Fossil fuels are here to stay, so let's clean them up (The Hill's e2 Wire)
- Targets of climate hate mail rally to support one another (E & E News)
- Pipelines, coal terminals and climate chaos: is this the future we want? (RTCC)
- Sea Change: Washington State is moving on its own to curb ocean acidification (Seattle Times)
- Solar wins: How sunshine will save the planet (really!) (Grist)
- How Oil Drilling Is Like the "Civil Rights Revolution," and Other Gems From the Tea Party's Rising Star (Mother Jones):
Niger Innis worked as a paid energy spokesperson—accusing environmental groups of racism—for a decade. Now he's running for Congress in Nevada. - Current rate of carbon emissions will double devastating El Niño weather events: study (Raw Story)
- Republicans' Strategy on New EPA Coal Rule: Kill It Now Before It's Finalized (InsideClimate News): The unusually early challenges to EPA's power plant regulations could complicate the Obama administration's attempt to complete them this year.
- Australia should probably get used to these devastating heat waves (Quartz)
- Europe wimps out on climate and clean energy (Grist):
The E.U., mired in recession and jealous of the fracking boom in the U.S., is backing away not just from its emissions goals but from an aggressive renewable energy strategy:
On Wednesday, the European Union proposed an end to binding national targets for renewable energy production after 2020. Instead, it substituted an overall European goal that is likely to be much harder to enforce. - VIDEO: South Florida’s Rising Seas (Climate Crocks)
- Transportation planners ponder costs and benefits of stormproofing (E & E News):
While experts can't directly tie individual storms to climate change, there is little debate among scientists that global warming is helping increase the frequency and severity of such storms. - Kenya to generate over half of its electricity through solar power by 2016 (Guardian UK): Kenya government invests $1.2bn jointly with private companies to build solar power plants across the country
- Breakthrough: Cheap Liquid Battery Provides Large-Scale Energy Storage for a Rainy Day (Scientific American)
FOR MORE on Climate Science and Climate Change, go to our Green News Report: Essential Background Page
- Video Proof That Global Warming is a 'Hoax'!: NASA Temperature Data 1888-2011 (The BRAD BLOG):
- NASA climate change video: This is the U.S. in 2100 (NASA).