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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: VETOED: Obama nixes Keystone XL pipeline bill; EXPOSED: prominent climate denier researcher funded by fossil fuel industry; BUSTED: Duke Energy clipped by the Feds; Sorry, deniers: Climate change is not caused by the sun; PLUS: It's GNR's 6th Anniversary!.... 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): Obama is right: climate change kills more people than terrorism; New U.S. heat records outnumber new cold records; Solar energy now unstoppable force; White House proposes first-ever Arctic oil drill rules; Roll up those windows: traffic pollution is killing you; Bjorn Lomborg: we must pollute the world's poor with coal pollution; Marines graduate into solar industry... PLUS: The true impact of not recycling your old electronics... and much, MUCH more! ...

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

• THANK YOU for your support and for sharing the last six years of environment news and snark with us!
  

• VETOED: Obama Nixes Keystone XL Pipeline Fast-Track Bill:
• Obama Vetoes Keystone XL Pipeline Bill (NY Times)
• Read Obama's Keystone veto statement (The Hill's e2 Wire)
• 5 ways the Keystone saga could end (Politico):
  
  Obama's decision to approve or reject the oil pipeline could come weeks or months after he vetoes Congress' pro-Keystone bill.
• Obama Just Vetoed The Keystone XL Pipeline. Now What? (Climate Progress),/li>
• Obama Vetoes Keystone Pipeline (National Journal): The veto marks the first high-profile clash between the White House and Capitol Hill Republicans.
• 9 questions about the Keystone XL pipeline debate you were too embarrassed to ask (Vox)
• Dr. Michael Mann: It's game over for the Keystone pipeline (Guardian UK):
  
  A vote in the Senate should be the beginning of the end for this dangerous, climate change-generating project. Even conservative estimates don't add up.
• EXPOSED: Climate Change-Denying Researcher Funded By Fossil Fuels:
• The Slick Willie of Climate Denial – Science as “Deliverables” for the Disinfo Machine (Climate Crocks)
• Deeper Ties to Corporate Cash for Doubtful Climate Researcher (NY Times) [emphasis added]:
  
  [N]ewly released documents show the extent to which Dr. Soon's work has been tied to funding he received from corporate interests. He has accepted more than $1.2 million in money from the fossil-fuel industry over the last decade while failing to disclose that conflict of interest in most of his scientific papers. At least 11 papers he has published since 2008 omitted such a disclosure, and in at least eight of those cases, he appears to have violated ethical guidelines of the journals that published his work.
• Heartland Institute 58 Experts Poster Remixed by DeSmog, Willie Soon Among Denialist Dozens (DeSmog Blog)
• Senator Calls For Investigation Into Climate 'Denial-For-Hire Scheme (Huffington Post Green)
• Sorry, Deniers - Global Warming Not Caused by the Sun:
• VIDEO: Oft-Cited Climate 'Skeptic' Received $1.2M from Fossil Fuel Industry, Failed to Disclose Payments (The BRAD BLOG):
  
  Dr. Wei-Hock 'Willie' Soon took payments from Kochs, Southern Co., ExxonMobil; Peddled discredited scientific global warming theory...
• VIDEO: Fox Climate Reporting Rates “Pants on Fire” – “Retired Accountant” as Climate Expert (Climate Crocks)
• VIDEO: Richard Muller: I Was Wrong on Global Warming (Climate Crocks)



• BUSTED: Duke Energy Charged by the Feds for Dan River Coal Spill:
• Duke Energy: Coal Giant Dumped Waste Directly Into Rivers, Now Faces Criminal Charges (Climate Progress):
  
  Federal prosecutors charged Duke with nine counts of misdemeanors under the Clean Water Act late Friday, saying that the energy company had been dumping coal ash from power plants in five North Carolina locations since at least 2010.
• US charges Duke with illegal pollution from 5 coal ash dumps (WRAL-TV Raliegh) [emphasis added]:
  
  The administration of Gov. Pat McCrory, a Republican who worked at Duke for 29 years, then proposed what environmentalists derided as a "sweetheart deal" under which the Charlotte-based company worth more than $50 billion would have paid fines of just $99,111 to settle violations over toxic groundwater leeching from two of its plants. That agreement, which included no requirement that Duke immediately stop or clean up the pollution, was pulled amid intense criticism after the Dan River spill.
• Criminal charges in spills to cost Duke Energy $100 million (Charlotte News-Observer) [emphasis added]:
  
  Duke would pay a $100 million fine under a settlement agreement. Duke took a charge against earnings of that amount Tuesday to reflect its "probable financial exposure" to a grand jury probe of its coal ash practices.
• VIDEO: Duke Energy Charges with Crime Over Spill (The Rachel Maddow Show)

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

• The true impact of not recycling your old electronics (Treehugger):
  
  If we collectively did our part and Americans recycled the 130 million cellphones that are thrown away each year, we would save enough energy to power 24,000 homes....For every million cell phones recycled, 35,274 pounds of copper, 772 pounds of silver, 75 pounds of gold and 33 pounds of palladium could be recovered.
• Obama Is Right: Climate Change Kills More People Than Terrorism (The New Republic):
  
  Twenty governments commissioned an independent report in 2012 from the group DARA International to study the human and economic costs of climate change. It linked 400,000 deaths worldwide to climate change each year, projecting deaths to increase to over 600,000 per year by 2030.
• VIDEO: Cold Snap Freezes East, but Across US, It’s Mostly Heat Records that Are Being Set (Climate Crocks)
• Unstoppable: Solar Power Comes of Age - How Harnessing the Sun Got Cheap and Practical (Foreign Affairs):
  
  This time really is different: solar power is ready to compete on its own terms. The momentum behind solar power is a result of innovations in regulation, industry, technology, and financing. In a number of markets, it no longer needs public subsidies to compete on price with conventional power sources, such as coal, natural gas, and nuclear power.
• White House Proposes First-Ever Rules For Oil Drilling In The Arctic (Climate Progress) [emphasis added]:
  
  “There is no proven way to respond to a spill in icy Arctic waters and, as Shell unfortunately demonstrated, companies simply are not ready for the Arctic Ocean,” Susan Murray, Ocean’s deputy vice president for the Pacific, told the Guardian. “Until and unless companies can operate safely and without harming the Arctic Ocean ecosystem, the government has no business allowing them into the region.”
• Your Car Is Slowly Killing You (Take Part):
  
  A new study shows that drivers are exposed to high levels of pollution when stopped at traffic lights—here's some strategies to reduce that risk.
• For Bjorn Lomborg, Shilling For Anti-Environmental Causes Is A Matter Of Life And Death (Media Matters) [emphasis added]:
  
  Of course, that wasn't the conclusion of the study Lomborg was citing. The University of Minnesota researchers instead emphasized that "electric vehicles (EVs) powered by electricity from natural gas or wind, water, or solar power are best for improving air quality, whereas vehicles powered by corn ethanol and EVs powered by coal are the worst." In other words, the solution is moving away from coal as quickly as possible, not scrapping electric cars.
  ...
  So to recap Lomborg's argument: Electric cars kill people because they are powered with coal, but poor countries should embrace coal in order to prevent deaths.
• On Rajendra Pachauri's Resignation from the UN Climate Panel: (Dot Earth, NY Times):
  
  Rajendra K. Pachauri, the chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change since 2002, resigned today amid allegations of sexual harassment by a 29-year-old female employee of the Indian energy institute he has long run.
• Marines Graduate to Second Career in Solar (Triple Pundit):
  
  On February 13, the Department of Energy announced the first class of Marines graduated from the pilot phase of its SunShot Initiative solar energy industry training program. As the Energy Department explains, the groundbreaking program prepares “service members for careers in the solar industry as solar photovoltaic system installers, sales representatives, system inspectors, and other solar-related opportunities.”
• US Oyster, Clam Farms Face Economic Blow From Acidification: Study (Reuters):
  
  U.S. shellfish producers in the Northeast and the Gulf of Mexico will be most vulnerable to an acidification of the oceans linked to climate change that makes it harder for clams and oysters to build shells, a study said on Monday.
• New York City Could See 6-Foot Sea Rise, Tripling of Heat Waves by 2100 (Scientific American):
  
  Coastal communities, like many on Staten Island and in low-lying Brooklyn and Queens, could be in particular jeopardy, with storms likely to alter local beaches and coastlines. To date, the city has already dumped 26,000 linear feet of sand along Staten Island's shorelines, for instance, but that number could pale in comparison with future adaptation needs, the report said.
• "More research" into geoengineering is not such a hot idea (Grist):
  
  Regarding albedo modification, I cannot improve on the piquant words of environmental scientist Raymond T. Pierrehumbert: "the idea of 'fixing' the climate by hacking the Earth's reflection of sunlight is wildly, utterly, howlingly barking mad."
  ...
  If it's crazy today, it would be crazy tomorrow, so why not just abandon it?
• Now's Your Chance to Help Save the Imperiled Monarch Butterfly-and Get Paid to Do So (Take Part) [emphasis added]:
  
  Another threat, according to Grant, has been well-intentioned individuals who have planted a tropical form of milkweed, which competes with native varieties and is not beneficial to monarchs or other pollinators.
• It's Not Too Late To Stop Climate Change, And It'll Be Super-Cheap (Climate Progress):
  
  I rarely disagree with Dave Roberts. But he has a column on Grist, "We can solve climate change, but it won't be cheap or easy," that is wrong, pure and simple....The most important climate issue is the cost and consequences of inaction.

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: North Carolina, Mainstream Corporate Media, Accountability, Environment, Barack Obama, Republicans, Nebraska, State Department, Green News, James Inhofe, Koch Industries, Coal, Canada, Oil, Climate change, Keystone XL, Exxon Mobil, eminent domain