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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Democratic Presidential candidates focus on climate and clean energy in Iowa; Florida mayors ask Florida Senator and Presidential Candidate Marco Rubio to stop ignoring climate change; Flint, MI residents stuck with corroded pipes and contaminated water, for now; It's not just Flint --- poor Americans bear the brunt of the most toxic pollution; PLUS: Score one for coal miners in the fight against black lung disease... 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): ‘It was us or nobody': Meet the heroic professor who helped uncover the Flint lead water crisis; U.S. Senate begins hearings on comprehensive bipartisan energy bill; 3 more arrests in Oregon Standoff; Canada delays two pipeline projects; Air regulator sues California gas utility over historic methane leak; Ohio town also has high lead contamination in their water; Saudi Arabia keeps pumping oil despite financial and political risks... PLUS: Canadian scientists warn of pesticide risk to bees... and much, MUCH more! ...

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

• Florida mayors to Marco Rubio: Stop ignoring climate change (Grist):
  
  The mayors of 15 South Florida towns, including Miami and Fort Lauderdale, have reached out to Rubio, asking him to consider the costs of climate change in the region.
• 2 Democratic Candidates Expand On Climate, Clean Energy Policies:
• VIDEO: FULL CNN Democratic Presidential Town Hall Debate,Iowa Jan. 25, 2016 (YouFirst News)
• Martin O’Malley Says Hillary Clinton Will Let the Planet “Literally Burn Up” (New Republic):
  
  Like both Clinton and O’Malley, Sanders calls for new jobs and investment in solar and wind. More recently, Sanders went further than O’Malley on one key issue for climate activists, proposing a ban on all fossil fuel development on public lands. O’Malley would ban offshore drilling and increase fees for mining on public lands, but has not said he’d ban it altogether like Sanders has.
• O'Malley pinpoints climate change as most important issue for young voters (Daily Kos)
• Flint Water Crisis: No Replacement Pipes Yet, Customers Still Pay:
• VIDEO: Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder Has No Plan to Remove Poison Pipes in Flint (NBC News)
• Snyder lays out plan to make Flint's lead pipes safer (Detroit Free Press) [emphasis added]:
  
  Under mounting pressure to rip out and replace lead pipes that connect an estimated 15,000 or more customers to main water lines, Gov. Rick Snyder said at a news conference Wednesday that the state first intends to make the existing pipes safe by rebuilding a protective coating between the lead and the water.
• You can’t drink the water in Flint, but you still have to pay for it (Yahoo News)
• Should Flint residents pay for lead-poisoned water? (Detroit Free Press):
  
  [R]ecords obtained by the ACLU show state DEQ officials may have manipulated water-testing data to show the water was safe to drink when it wasn't.
• Gov. Snyder lied: Flint water switch was not about saving money, records show (Motor City Muckraker) [emphasis added]:
  
  So what was it about? Some have suggested that Snyder was motivated by a desire to break up DWSD and ultimately privatize it. In the summer of 2015, DWSD was split into two entities: the DWSD and the Great Lakes Water Authority.
• Suit: Safe Drinking Water Act violated in Flint (Detroit News)
• A Toxic Timeline of Flint's Water Fiasco (Mother Jones)
• Flint’s water crisis is a blatant example of environmental injustice (The Conversation)
• Snyder deploys top aide to work on Flint water response (Detroit News)
• Michigan Governor Names Panel To Fix Flint's Contaminated Water System (Reuters)
• Poor Americans Bear the Brunt of Extreme Pollution:
• It’s not just Flint: Poor communities across the country live with ‘extreme’ polluters (Washington Post) [emphasis added]:
  
  [T]he study found a significant disparity when it comes to how much different facilities pollute. “90% of toxic concentration present in the study area is generated by only 809 (about 5%) of facilities,” the paper reported....The highest polluting facilities were also more likely to be located in proximity to poor and minority neighborhoods.
• Targeting minority, low-income neighborhoods for hazardous waste sites (U. Mich. Press) [emphasis added]:
  
  "NIMBYism in more affluent, white communities...resulted in industry taking the 'path of least resistance' and targeting communities with fewer resources and political clout...These communities are where the poor and people of color live."
• Flint’s water crisis is a blatant example of environmental injustice (The Conversation)
• Score A Win For Coal Miners Against Black Lung Disease:
• Appeals Court rejects coal industry complaints, upholds health protections for miners (Science Blogs/Public Health):
  
  "T]he Mine Act evinces a clear bias in favor of miner health and safety. The duty to use the best evidence and to consider feasibility are appropriately viewed through this lens and cannot be wielded as counterweight to MSHA’s overarching role to protect the life and health of workers in the mining industry....[T]he Mine Act directs the agency to ‘prevent,’ not merely reduce the incidence of, ‘occupational diseases originating in...mines.'”
• Court upholds coal dust rule for miners (The Hill) [emphasis added]:
  
  In a pair of lawsuits, various coal industry representatives said that the regulation did not properly take into account the scientific body of evidence, which the industry said shows it would not result in nearly the health benefits the government claims.
• Appeals court upholds MSHA dust rule (Charleston Gazette):
  
  While mine fires and explosions garner a lot of attention from the media and politicians, black lung kills far more miners — perhaps as many as 10,000 between 1995 and 2005, according to estimates from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. Since 1968, 76,000 coal miners nationwide have died from black lung...

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

• ‘It was us or nobody': Meet the heroic professor who helped uncover the Flint lead water crisis (Washington Post):
  
  [I]n 2010, he was vindicated when it was proven that the CDC had lied to the public in a misleading report, which falsely claimed lead levels in the water had not posed a health risk to D.C. residents. “I’m obsessed with what happened in Washington, D.C.,” Edwards said in an interview last week. “Since 2005 through the present day, I’ve been trying to make sure another D.C. wouldn’t happen.”
• EPA Official Resigns Over Flint Water Crisis (Reuters):
  
  The head of the Midwest region of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency offered her resignation over the water contamination crisis in Flint, Michigan, the agency said on Thursday, as it issued an emergency order to resolve the growing problem.
• Senate Begins Debate on Comprehensive Bipartisan Energy Bill (NY Times):
  
  The Senate on Wednesday started debating its first comprehensive energy legislation since the George W. Bush administration, a bipartisan measure meant to update the nation’s power grid and oil and gas transportation systems to address major changes in the ways that power is now produced in the United States.
• 3 More Arrests in Oregon as Protest Leader Says ‘Go Home’ (NY Times):
  
  The armed occupation of a wildlife refuge in eastern Oregon, which flashed into violent confrontation with law enforcement on Tuesday when eight members of the group were arrested and one was killed, appeared to be unraveling on Wednesday night when the jailed leader of the siege advised his followers to go home.
• Canada Imposes Further Delays On Two Major Pipeline Projects (Reuters):
  
  Canada announced new interim rules on Wednesday for environmental reviews that will impose delays on two projects - TransCanada Corp's Energy East pipeline and Kinder Morgan Inc's expansion of its Trans Mountain Pipeline.
• Air Regulator Sues California Utility Over Historic Methane Leak (Reuters):
  
  A California utility failed to protect residents from the largest methane leak in state history at its natural gas field near Los Angeles, a regional pollution watchdog said in a lawsuit filed against the company.
• Another Town Gripped By Fear Over Lead-Tainted Tap Water (AP):
  
  In a furor with echoes of the crisis in Flint, Michigan, parents in and around Sebring no longer trust the water coming out of their taps — or the explanations from community leaders — after learning just days ago that high levels of lead were detected in some homes over the summer.
• Saudi Arabia Keeps Pumping Oil, Despite Financial and Political Risks (NY Times):
  
  Call it the Saudi calculus. Oil prices were already plummeting 14 months ago when, at Saudi Arabia’s insistence, OPEC put the global petroleum industry on notice: The member countries would not try to prop up prices by cutting production.
• Top Canada Watchdog Worried About Pesticide Linked To Bee Deaths (Reuters):
  
  Canada's official environmental watchdog on Tuesday expressed concern that authorities were allowing the long-term use of pesticides linked to bee deaths despite not having enough information about the products.
• Record Warmth `Almost Certainly' Due to Humans, Scientists Say (Bloomberg):
  
  The odds are “vanishingly small” that recent years of record warmth aren’t due to human emissions of greenhouse gases, researchers in the U.S. and Germany said, adding to pressure on world governments to cut back on fossil fuel use.

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: Florida, Iowa, Environment, Hillary Clinton, Democrats, Republicans, Michigan, Green News, EPA, Coal, Wind energy, Solar energy, Climate change, Election 2016, Marco Rubio, Oceans/Sea Level Rise, Water, Martin O'Malley, Mining, Rick Snyder