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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Another one bites the dust: Oregon denies proposed coal export facility; It's official: July 2014 was the 4th hottest July on record; Fracking industry illegally using diesel fuel, threatening underground water supplies; PLUS: New report finds Republican officials DO accept climate change, they're just too cowardly to admit it publicly... 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): Toxic tale of Annie, Fannie, Mike in Toledo's water crisis; Wind energy prices hit all-time low; Solar boom driving global panel shortage; Breakthrough: spray-on PV solar cells; Food giant Kellogg pledges changes to battle climate change; Ford Motor Co. builds Michigan's largest solar array; Jet stream changes again linked to extreme weather around the world ... PLUS: Science FTW: ‘Cosmos’ wins four Emmys, ‘Years Of Living Dangerously’ wins Top Nonfiction Series ... and much, MUCH more! ...

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

• It's Official: July 2014 was the 4th Hottest July on Record:
• Globally, Last Month Was The Fourth Hottest July On Record (Climate Progress)
• June 2014 was Earth's warmest on record as ocean temperatures surged (Washington Post)
• It's Official: Hottest Ocean Temps on Record For 3rd Straight Month:
• July Ocean Temperature Hits Record High—Again (EcoWatch)
• NOAA Global Analysis - July 2014 (NOAA.gov)
• Cowards: Republicans Too Scared To Admit They Accept Climate Change:
• Many Republicans Privately Support Action On Climate (Bloomberg News) [emphasis added]:
  
  In stark contrast to their party's public stance on Capitol Hill, many Republicans privately acknowledge the scientific consensus that human activity is at least partially responsible for climate change and recognize the need to address the problem. However, they see little political benefit to speaking out on the issue...
  Most said they did not think Republicans will feel free to speak about climate change until the Tea Party loses some of its power to influence elections, a severe weather event forces serious discussion of the issue or the rhetoric on climate is dialed back among both Democrats and Republicans.
• Coaxing Congress Out of the Climate Closet (Climate Crock of the Week):
  
  Four years ago, a Wisconsin Republican urged his party to overcome its fear of environmental action, saying that a conservative green movement could strengthen both the economy and GOP candidates. Then he got clobbered.
• VIDEO: President Carter calls for carbon tax at Aspen renewable energy conference (KDVR Denver):
  
  “The biggest problem we have right now is some nutcases in our country who don’t believe in global warming. I think that they are going to change their position because the evidence of the ravages of global warming is coming or is already there.”
• VIDEO: John Boehner: ‘I’m Not Qualified To Debate The Science Over Climate Change’ (Climate Progress)
• When Did Republicans Start Hating the Environment? Roughly 1991, according to a new study. (Mother Jones)
• Fracking Industry Is Drilling Through Underground Aquifers:
• Oil companies fracking into drinking water sources, new research shows (LA Times):
  
  Energy companies are fracking for oil and gas at far shallower depths than widely believed, sometimes through underground sources of drinking water, according to research released Tuesday by Stanford University scientists.
• Report: Fracking Beyond the Law: Despite Industry Denials, Investigation Reveals Continued Use of Diesel in Hydraulic Fracturing (Environmental Integrity Project):
  
  The illegal injection of diesel fuel during hydraulic fracturing has continued over the last four years, despite repeated denials by the drilling industry, according to a report by the Environmental Integrity Project (EIP). In its investigation, EIP also found troubling evidence that drilling companies have been changing and eliminating their disclosures of past diesel use from the industry self-disclosure database of chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing, called FracFocus.
• Fracking Industry Illegally Using Diesel Fuel:
• Fracking probe finds oil and gas companies illegally injected diesel (Denver Post) [emphsis added]:
  
  Oil and gas companies illegally injected 9,173 gallons of diesel while fracking wells in Colorado, and 32,950 gallons nationwide, according to a report unveiled Wednesday by an attorneys' environmental group.

  Fracking with diesel without a permit has been illegal since at least 1997, and industry groups have said companies no longer do it.

• Diesel Used To Frack Oil And Gas Wells Without Permit, Report Finds (Climate Progress)
• Fracking Industry Harmed PA Water Supplies 200+ Times:
• PA auditor cites flaws in gas drilling regulation (Pittsburgh Tribune_Review) [emphasis added]:
  
  Auditor General Eugene DePasquale said the Department of Environmental Protection is plagued by a lack of resources but routinely failed to follow its policies for policing the burgeoning Marcellus shale-gas industry. “It is almost like firefighters trying to put out a five-alarm fire with a 20-foot garden hose,” DePasquale said in releasing a 158-page audit. ... DEP data show that since 2008, the agency determined oil and gas activity contaminated 209 private water supplies across the state. Drillers sunk more than 20,000 wells during that period, including 8,002 unconventional wells.
• Another Coal Export Terminal Bites the Dust in Oregon:
• Oregon Department of State Lands rejects Ambre Energy coal export permit, dealing major blow (Oregon Live):
  
  The project, the state agency said in a press release, "is not consistent with the protection, conservation and best use of the state's water resources."

  "This application has been scrutinized for months," said Mary Abrams, state lands director. "We believe our decision is the right one, considering our regulatory parameters laid out in Oregon law, and the wealth of information we have received from the applicant and the public."

• Proposed Coal Export Terminal In Oregon Suffers Major Setback (Climate Progress):
  
  Oregon has dealt what could be a fatal blow to a proposal to build a coal export facility on the Columbia River, dismissing the plan by Australia-based Ambre Energy as “not consistent with the protection, conservation and best use of the state’s water resources.”
• Report: Proposed Exports of Federal Coal Will Result in as Much Carbon Pollution as 35 Million New Cars (Center For American Progress):
  
  Matt Lee-Ashley, a Senior Fellow and Director of the Public Lands Project at the Center... “The prospect of shipping massive amounts of U.S. taxpayer-owned coal to be burned in China defies common sense, risks undercutting U.S. climate goals, and is fiscally indefensible.”
• VIDEO: Sierra Club's Beyond Coal Rally Opposing Oregon Coal Exports (Youtube)

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

• Science FTW: ‘Cosmos’ Garners Four Emmys, ‘Years Of Living Dangerously’ Wins As Top Nonfiction Series (Climate Progress):
  
  It was a great night at the Emmys for non-fiction series with a science and/or climate theme.
• Toxic tale of Annie, Fannie, Mike: Blue-green villains behind Lake Erie’s history of algae woes (Toledo Blade):
  
  We begin today’s attempt to sort out the highly arcane, often-confusing science of Lake Erie algae with three simple names: Annie, Fannie, and Mike. They’re not your friends.

  According to David Culver, a retired Ohio State University algae researcher who has delivered congressional testimony on such things, Annie, Fannie, and Mike are among the oldest living things on Earth.

• Wind Energy Prices at All-Time Low, According to U.S. Report (Yale e360):
  
  The cost of wind power in the U.S. is at an all-time low of 2.5 cents per kilowatt hour, according to a new report from the U.S. Department of Energy, and utility companies are in some cases electing to use wind as an energy source over fossil fuels because of its low cost.
• Solar Boom Driving First Global Panel Shortage Since 2006 (Bloomberg):
  
  The solar industry is facing a looming shortage of photovoltaic panels, reversing a two-year slump triggered by a global glut....With installations expected to swell as much as 29 percent this year, executives are bracing for the first shortfall since 2006.
• Spray-on solar PV cells could slash the cost of solar electricity (Gizmag):
  
  Although the cell's efficiency is only a modest 11 percent, it can be manufactured very cheaply, paving the way for significant reductions in the cost of large-scale solar panel production.
• Food giant Kellogg announces efforts to battle climate change (Des Moines Register):
  
  Cereal and snacks giant Kellogg Company said Wednesday it will take steps to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions throughout its supply chain, a response to consumer pressure to be more accountable for its impact on climate change.
• Ford to Launch Largest Solar Array in Michigan (Triple Pundit):
  
  Scheduled to start construction next month with a finish date targeted for early 2015, the carport at Ford’s global headquarters will be the second-largest solar carport in the Midwest. After completion, DTE will continue to operate and maintain the installation for 20 years.
• VIDEO: "Fair And Balanced": Fox News Leans Towards Fracking (Media Matters):
  
  Fox News segments on a method of natural gas extraction called hydraulic fracturing or "fracking" gave over five times as much airtime to guests touting the benefits of fracking as it did to one guest warning of its risks.
• How Fracking In Maryland Would Threaten The Health Of Anyone Who Breathes Nearby (Climate Progress)
• Texas Judge Throws Out Family’s Lawsuit That Blames Nosebleeds, Asthma On Fracking Fumes (Climate Progress)
• Jet Stream Changes Driving Extreme Weather Linked Again To Global Warming, Arctic Ice Loss (Climate Progress):
  
  But in recent years you may have noticed a disproportionate increase in record-smashing extreme weather and suspected that’s also linked to global warming. A new study from a team of scientists from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) says you’re right.
• California Drought Transforms Global Food Market (Bloomberg) [emphasis added]:
  
  [C]rop switching is one sign of a sweeping transformation going on in California --- the nation's biggest agricultural state by value --- driven by a three-year drought that climate scientists say is a glimpse of a drier future. The result will affect everything from the price of milk in China to the source of cherries eaten by Americans. It has already inflamed competition for water between farmers and homeowners.
• Rapidly Warming Arctic Leading to Deadly Extreme Weather Events (Mashable):
  
  Rapid Arctic warming since 2000 may be reshaping and rerouting the narrow current of high winds across the Northern Hemisphere known as the jet stream, forcing it to act like a giant stop light at 30,000 feet. This leads to stalled and prolonged weather systems that can bring deadly extreme heat and rainfall events, a new study has found.
• Put a price on nature? We must stop this neoliberal road to ruin (Guardian UK):
  
  As Lakoff has pointed out, these people are trying to do the right thing but they are completely failing to apply a frames analysis. A frame is a mental structure through which you understand an issue. Instead of framing the issue with our own values and describing and projecting our values - which is the only thing in the medium- to long-term that ever works - we are abandoning them and adopting instead the values of the people who are wrecking the environment. How could there be any long-term outcome other than more destruction?
• Huge gap in pollution exposure by race surprises U of M researchers (MinnPost)
• Humans to Blame for Much of Recent Glacier Melt (Climate Central):
  
  Their conclusions, detailed online Aug. 14 in the journal Science Express, were that while just 25 percent of the melt since the mid-19th century could be linked to human-induced warming — suggesting that natural variation was the dominant factor behind melt early in the period — that fraction increased to 69 percent for the period from 1991 to 2010.

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: Oregon, Accountability, Environment, Republicans, Green News, EPA, John Boehner, Fracking, Natural gas, Coal, 'Tea Party', Wind energy, Solar energy, Climate change