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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Democrats keep pushing climate action, Republicans keep ignoring it; FL mayors beg Marco Rubio to address rising sea levels; CA Attorney General files criminal suit over massive Porter Ranch gas leak; PLUS: Plenty of blame to go around as FBI launches investigation into Flint's Water Crisis... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

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IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): Klamath River dams moving toward removal despite congressional barriers; Review reveals problems protecting workers from pesticides; Are bee-killing pesticides impacting our health?; Peabody Coal clean-up protections questioned in Illinois; Appeals Court orders EPA to issue rules on mining cleanups and bankruptcy; Industrial chemical finds its way into Great Lakes trout; Climate change poses threat to fish stocks, study finds... PLUS: Conservationists sue federal wolf-killing program in Oregon... and much, MUCH more! ...

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

• Porter Ranch Gas Leak: CA Offiicals File Criminal Charges
• California attorney general sues over gas leak near Los Angeles (Reuters)
• L.A. County files criminal charges in Porter Ranch gas leak (LA Times)
• Negligence by Southern California Gas Co. led to massive Porter Ranch-area gas leak, AQMD says (LA Times)
• Editorial: Why does affluent Porter Ranch get more urgent environmental relief than working-class Boyle Heights? (LA Times)
• Porter Ranch gas leak begins taking big toll on small business (Al Jazeera America)
• Methane Is Leaking All Over The Place (538.com)
• Democrats Push Climate Action on the Way to New Hampshire:
• One Simple Chart Explains The Climate Plans Of Hillary Clinton And Bernie Sanders (Climate Progress)
• Iowa Caucuses: Bernie Sanders Rallies to Tie Hillary Clinton; Ted Cruz Upsets Donald Trump (Democracy Now!)
• VIDEO: Watch: Bernie Sanders Says Iowa is Beginning of a "Political Revolution" (Demcracy Now!),/li>
• Here's the full text of Bernie Sanders's Iowa speech (Vox.com)
• VIDEO: Presidential Candidate Hillary Clinton Caucus Night Speech (C-SPAN)
• Hillary Clinton: I'm breathing a "big sigh of relief" after Iowa caucus (Vox.com)
• Florida Mayors Beg Marco Rubio for Assistance on Rising Sea Levels:
• AUDIO: Rising Ire, Rising Tides: FL Mayors Slam Rubio on Climate Flip-Flop (The BRAD BLOG):
  
  "Our infrastructure was never built to contemplate addressing the capacity needs that we now find ourselves in," she explains. "We are literally drowning here in South Florida and have no leadership, clearly, at the state level, and have to rely on our next President understanding the risk that we, and the other coastal communities all over this country, are facing."
• South Florida mayors press Marco Rubio, Jeb Bush on climate change (Miami Herald):
  
  "As mayors representing municipalities across Florida, we call on you to acknowledge the reality and urgency of climate change and to address the upcoming crisis it presents our communities," both letters begin. "Our cities and towns are already coping with the impacts of climate change today. We will need leadership and concrete solutions from our next president."
• Florida Mayors Want To Give Bush And Rubio A Climate Science Lesson (Climate Progress):
  
  The region has been called "ground zero" for sea level rise, as the region's porous ground and proximity to the coast puts it at particular risk of inundation. Already, many cities in the region are seeing "sunny day flooding," when high tide causes seawater to fill the streets.
• Florida Is Sinking. Where Is Marco Rubio?: The Republican savior hasn't lifted a finger to deal with his state's existential crisis. (Mother Jones) [emphasis added]:
  
  [I]n the fine print of resolutions and memoranda being passed around among the various task forces in the area, one sees the mantra "Elevate. Isolate. Relocate." Abandonment of some parts of the community to water is now accepted as unavoidable. Even the most conservative estimates assume that a percentage of the next generation of Floridians will become internally displaced Americans, climate change refugees.
• Goodbye, Miami: By century's end, rising sea levels will turn the nation's urban fantasyland into an American Atlantis. But long before the city is completely underwater, chaos will begin (Rolling Stone, 6/20/2013)
• "They Lied": VA Tech Researcher Blames MI Dept. of Env. Quality in Flint Water Crisis:
• VIDEO: Contaminated Drinking Water in Flint, Michigan (C-SPAN)
• FBI joins Flint drinking water investigation (Detroit Free Press)
• Water expert blames DEQ 'cover-up' for Flint crisis (Detroit News) [emphasis added]:
  
  "One-hundred percent of responsibility lies with those employees at the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality. There's no question," Marc Edwards, a water expert at Virginia Tech University, told the U.S. House Committee on Oversight & Government Reform...."EPA had the chance to be the hero here, and Ms. Hedman snatched defeat for EPA from the jaws of victory," he said.
• Democrats prepare to block Senate energy bill over Flint aid (Washington Post) [emphasis added]:
  
  Republican senators remained split on the deal, with some arguing that the package represents an unfair "earmark" for one city and could create a precedent for federal aid for other incidents that they see as a largely state and local responsibility.
• As Grilling Over Flint Water Begins, Partisan Divisions Surface (NY Times) [emphasis added]:
  
  While there was bipartisan condemnation of how officials handled the crisis, Democrats and Republicans split over what the federal government should do to help resolve it. Many Republicans said they would oppose a Democratic proposal to add $600 million in aid to Michigan to the energy bill, a position that Democrats said was Republicans' passion for smaller government gone bad.

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

• Klamath River Dams Moving Toward Removal Despite Congressional Barriers (LA Times):
  
  California, Oregon and the federal government are working on a way around congressional barriers to the removal of hydroelectric dams on the Klamath River.
• Review Reveals Problems Protecting Workers From Pesticides (AP):
  
  Dozens of farmworkers looked up at the little yellow plane buzzing over the Florida radish field, a mist of pesticide falling from its wings.
• Are Bee-Killing Pesticides Impacting Our Health? (Civil Eats):
  
  What do we know about the human health effects of neonicotinoids? Astonishingly little. Here’s why scientists say that isn’t good enough.
• Peabody Coal Clean-Up Protections Questioned In Illinois (AP):
  
  A Midwest environmental group is questioning the ability of the country's largest coal producer to guarantee it has enough money for future cleanup of its Illinois mines, and it's threatening to sue the state if regulators don't change their approach.
• Appeals Court Orders EPA To Issue Rules On Mining Cleanups (AP):
  
  The Environmental Protection Agency was ordered Friday to begin issuing long-overdue rules aimed at stopping mining companies from declaring bankruptcy to avoid pollution cleanups.
• An Industrial Chemical Finds Its Way Into Great Lakes Trout (Michigan Public Radio):
  
  An industrial chemical is showing up in trout from the Great Lakes. It’s called perfluoro-1-butane sulfonamide, or FBSA.
• Fossil Fuel Super PAC Gifts Came Before Congress Ended Oil Export Ban (Huffington Post):
  
  A handful of the biggest oil and gas companies and their CEOs poured millions into a super PAC created to boost the election of Senate Republicans as the industry made a successful lobbying effort to repeal the 40-year-old ban on oil exports.
• Conservationists Sue Federal Wolf-Killing Program In Oregon (Oregon Public Broadcasting):
  
  Conservationists filed a federal lawsuit in Oregon on Wednesday that challenges the authority of a federal government program to kill wolves in the state.
• Climate Change Poses Threat To Fish Stocks, Study Finds (Boston Globe):
  
  Over the coming decades, dozens of marine species from the Carolinas to New England will be threatened by the warming, changing currents and the increased acidity expected to alter the region’s waters, according to a new study by scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
• Sweden's Indigenous Sami People Win Rights Battle Against State (Guardian UK):
  
  Sweden’s nomadic reindeer herders have won a 30-year battle for land rights in a court case that has seen the state accused of racism towards the country’s only indigenous people.
• Poor, Minorities Carry The Burden Of Frack Waste In South Texas (Environmental Health News):
  
  Poor, heavily Hispanic neighborhoods shoulder a disproportionate fracking wastewater burden in Texas' booming Eagle Ford.
• 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, California, Accountability, U.S. House, Environment, Hillary Clinton, Democrats, Republicans, Michigan, Los Angeles, Green News, EPA, Bernie Sanders, Oil, Climate change, Election 2016, Oceans/Sea Level Rise, Water, Elijah Cummings, Rick Snyder