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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Month of May starts off with a fossil fuel bang --- Oil train explodes in Virginia; Coal train spills in Maryland; Natural gas explodes in Florida; More natural gas explodes in Texas; PLUS: World's largest solar plant opens in Arizona, explosion and spill-free ... 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): "Here's What Happened When I Told Fox News I Wanted to Talk about Climate Change"; Ocean acidification already threatening bottom of marine food chain; Antibiotic resistance now 'global threat', WHO warns; L.A., Central Valley have worst air quality; Chicago bans most plastic bags; WA State will take climate fight into its own hands; Space-age insulation uses mostly air; Pipeline Company: Oil spills create 'employment opportunities' ... PLUS: The Quantum Theory of Climate Denial: Schrodinger's cat, anyone? ... and much, MUCH more! ...

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

• VIDEO: When Politicians Take "Money From The Oil And Gas Industry," They're "Taking Money To Help America" (Media Matters)
• Virginia: Oil Train Derails, Explodes, Dumps Oil Into City Water Supply:
• NTSB investigating derailment, oil spill in Lynchburg (Richmond Times-Dispatch):
  
  The National Transportation Safety Board has launched an investigation of a freight train derailment in Lynchburg that destroyed three oil tanker cars, lifted a plume of black smoke into the sky and spilled thousands of gallons of crude oil into the James River. No one was killed or injured when more than a dozen CSX tanker cars derailed on Wednesday afternoon, but the resulting fire and spill prompted City Manager Kimball Payne to declare an emergency and temporarily evacuate part of downtown.
• 'A huge pillar of smoke and fire' Train derails in downtown Lynchburg (Roanoke Times)
• VIDEO: First Responders Describe Chaotic Scene At James River (WSET-TV)
• Lynchburg, Virginia train derailment spills crude oil into James River (CBC)
• DOT-111 tank car (Wikipedia)
• NTSB Warns US Lagging In New Oil Train Tanker Car Standards:
• Trailing Canada, U.S. Starts a Push for Safer Oil Shipping (NY Times)
• Canada orders 5,000 most dangerous tanker cars off rail system (BusinessWeek)
• The Bad Oil Boom: Train Explodes in Virginia Town While Regulators Chug Along (BusinessWeek):
  
  Proposals for how to improve safety have been around since at least 2012, when the National Transportation Safety Board suggested crude oil should travel in upgraded tank cars with thicker, more puncture-resistant walls and sophisticated relief valves. But the NTSB can only make recommendations-it's up to the Department of Transportation to pass final rules.
• Oil-train wreck brings demands for more regulation (AP)
• Maryland: Coal Train Derailment Dumps Coal Into Wetlands:
• Less Than 24 Hours After Virginia Oil Train Spill, Same Company Derails Again In Maryland (Climate Progress)
• CSX train carrying about 8,000 tons of coal derails in Bowie (Baltimore Sun)
• Texas: Natural Gas Wellhead Explodes:
• Two Texas Oil Field Workers Die In Explosion: The oil and gas industry fatality rate is almost eight times the average industry rate. (Climate Progress),/li>
• Oil well explosion kills two workers, injures nine in West Texas (LA Times)
• Texas Oil Field Explosion Kills 2, Injures 9 (Huffington Post)
• Florida: Natural Gas Explosion Destroys Prison Facility:
• 'Complete destruction': 2 die, dozens hurt as explosion shatters Florida jail (CNN):
  
  The building sustained flooding damage last week and in this week's recent torrential rains, [Sheriff David] Morgan said. But it is unclear if that damage could have contributed to the accident, officials said.
• Two inmates dead in suspected gas explosion at Florida jail (Yahoo News)
• Florida Jail Explosion Kills 2, 184 Injured (AP)
• Record Rains Flood Pensacola:
• The Calamitous Climate Responsible for Florida's Record Rainfall (Slate) [emphasis added]:
  
  If that last image looks like climate change to you, you'd be on the right track. It probably wouldn't be correct to say that climate change caused Pensacola's floods, but it surely made them more likely. Climate change is playing a role in extreme rainfall events like the one on Tuesday.
  ...
  Essentially, we're supercharging the atmosphere by quickening the hydrologic cycle. In addition to causing more downpours, these enhanced evaporation rates are also leading to an increase in drought severity in places that are already dry, like California.
• North Central Gulf Coast Historic Flash Flood Event – 29-30 April 2014 (National Weather Service)
• Hundreds rescued from floodwaters in Fla., Ala. (Miami Herald)
• VIDEO: 'Life-Threatening' Flooding Submerges Pensacola, Florida (NBC News)
• Florida starts cleanup amid receding floodwaters (AP)
• World's Largest Solar Plant Opens in Arizona, Explosion- and Emissions-Free:
• Arizona’s enormous solar plant is up and running (Grist)
• 290-MW Solar Project Says Get Over It: The Age Of Solar Is Here (Clean Technia):
  
  The gigantic solar array, which sits on 2,400 acres of land in Arizona, has achieved “substantial completion” and is cranking up to speed according to the Energy Department. When at peak capacity it will crank out enough electricity for 230,000 homes.

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

• The Quantum Theory of Climate Denial (Huffington Post Green): How Schrödinger's cat illustrates the mental state of climate science deniers
• Antibiotic resistance now 'global threat', WHO warns (BBC)
• L.A., Central Valley have worst air quality, American Lung Assn. says (LA Times)
• It's Time to Stop Ignoring the Bad Air We Breathe (TIME Magazine):
  
  Since 1980 levels of ozone pollution - one of the main ingredients in smog - have fallen by 25% in the U.S., while nitrogen dioxide has fallen by 55% and sulfur dioxide by 78%. The change is visual too - the smog-obscured skies that were once a constant backdrop to cities like Los Angeles in the 1960s and '70s are far less common. It's easy to assume that America won the war on air pollution, and to look with pity on developing cities like Beijing and New Delhi where the air is still poisoned.

  There's just one problem with that sense of satisfaction: the data doesn't back it up.
• Climate change: Pacific Ocean acidity dissolving shells of key species (San Jose Mercury-News):
  
  In a troubling new discovery, scientists studying ocean waters off California, Oregon and Washington have found the first evidence that increasing acidity in the ocean is dissolving the shells of a key species of tiny sea creature at the base of the food chain.
• Chicago aldermen vote to ban plastic bags (Chicago Tribune)
• Here's What Happened When I Told Fox News I Wanted to Talk about Climate Change (Scientific American)
• Ending Corporate Welfare for Oil (Legal Planet):
  
  "There Will Be Blood" was the title of 2007 movie about an old-time oilman. If you were doing a similar movie about the situation today, you might call it, "There Will Be Tax Write-Offs." The taxpayers have been generous to the industry. Oil companies get about $5 billion per year in favored tax treatment.
• Duke Energy says removal of coal ash ponds could take 30 years, cost $10B (Al Jazeera America)
• Supreme Court's Decision Upholding Cross-State Air Rule Is Good Sign for Greenhouse Gas Rules (Legal Planet)
• Washington State Announces Effort To Take Climate Fight Into Its Own Hands (Climate Progress)
• This space-age insulation company you’ve never heard of is planning to go public (Giga-Om)
• The Huge Obama Transportation Bill You Heard Nothing About (TIME Magazine)
• Pipeline Company: Oil Spills Create 'Employment Opportunities' (Huffington Post Green)
• How to Solve Global Warming: It's the Energy Supply (Scientific American):
  
  Carbon storage has to expand rapidly, or coal burning has to cease, if the world is to avoid dangerous climate change.
  ...
  Restraining global warming to no more than 2 degrees Celsius will require changing how the world produces and uses energy to power its cities and factories, heats and cools buildings, as well as moves people and goods in airplanes, trains, cars, ships and trucks, according to the IPCC. Changes are required not just in technology, but also in people's behavior.

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).

                 

Article Categories: Texas, Arizona, Maryland, Virginia, Environment, Green News, Natural gas, Coal, Canada, Oil, Solar energy, Climate change, Extreme weather