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IN TODAY’S RADIO REPORT: India’s Prime Minister praises environmental responsibility to Congressional Republicans; Bankrupt Peabody Coal secretly funded dozens of climate change denier groups; Coal use plunges in the U.S.; More oil companies abandon the Arctic; PLUS: Norway becomes the first nation to ban deforestation… All that and more in today’s Green News Report!

Green News Report with Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen 6/14/2016

‘Green News Report’ – June 14, 2016  |  With Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen...   · · · · ·   ‘Green News Report’ – June 14, 2016  |  With Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen...

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IN ‘GREEN NEWS EXTRA’ (see links below): Scientists Turn Carbon Dioxide Emissions to Stone; Lights Drown Out Milky Way For Third Of World’s Population; Arctic Sea Ice Breaks May Record . . . By A Lot; Supreme Court Rejects Challenge To Obama Mercury Air Pollution Rule; Idaho Superfund Site Is Still a Toxic Mess, With Legacy of Suffering; Is Coal Ash Killing an Oklahoma Town?; On Kodiak Island, Flywheels Are In And Diesel Is Out… PLUS: House Opposes Carbon And Oil Taxes In Symbolic Votes… and much, MUCH more! …

STORIES DISCUSSED ON TODAY’S ‘GREEN NEWS REPORT’…

• Solar Plane Lands In New York City During Bid To Circle The Globe (Reuters):
  A solar-powered airplane finished crossing the United States on Saturday, landing in New York City after flying over the Statue of Liberty during its historic bid to circle the globe, the project team said.
• India’s Prime Minister praises environmental responsibility to Congressional Republicans:
• India moves toward U.S. on climate change (Politico) [emphasis added]:
  [Obama] He pointed specifically to securing “the climate financing that’s necessary for India to be able to embark on a bold vision for solar energy and clean energy” laid out by Modi. Indian officials recognize how important the climate change issue is to this White House but have some concerns about the continuity of U.S. policy if a Republican wins the White House in November, said Tanvi Madan, director of the India Project at the Brookings Institution.
• The US and India just made progress on a little-known (but potent) climate problem (Vox):
  Obama and Modi agreed to work together in amending the Montreal Protocol so as to phase out HFCs in the coming decades…India would agree to an “ambitious phasedown schedule,” while the US would support a push to financial aid from wealthier countries to help manage the transition away from HFCs.
• Coal use plunges to lowest level in 35 years
• Coal Production Plummets to Lowest Level in 35 Years (NYTimes):
  The coal industry in recent years has been plagued by bankruptcies as power utilities increasingly moved to replace coal with cheap natural gas and renewable sources, like solar and wind energy. Coal was once the dominant source of the nation’s electricity generation, but consumption of the fossil fuel has declined by nearly a third since its peak in 2007.
• Peabody Coal secretly funded climate change denial groups:
• Biggest US coal company funded dozens of groups questioning climate change (Guardian UK):
  Analysis of Peabody Energy court documents show company backed trade groups, lobbyists and thinktanks dubbed ‘heart and soul of climate denial’
• More oil companies abandon the Arctic:
• Another Oil Company Ends Arctic Drilling Hopes (The Hill):
  A Spanish oil company has become the latest to abandon its federal drilling leases in the Arctic’s Chukchi Sea.
• Gazprom withdraws from Barents Sea (Barents Observer):
  “Our drilling program in the area is far too ambitious”, the company admits.
• EPA finds atrazine poses risks to wildlife:
• What You Need to Know About the EPA’s Assessment of Atrazine (Civil Eats):
  The agency’s new report on the second most widely used herbicide in the U.S. shows serious risks to birds, mammals, and fish. Don’t know why it matters? Here’s an explainer.
• Draft Ecological Risk Assessments for Triazines (EPA.ogv)
• EPA blasted for atrazine risk assessment (High Plains Journal) [emphasis added]:
  “In the terrestrial environment, there are risk concerns for mammals, birds, reptiles, plants and plant communities across the country for many of the atrazine uses. EPA levels of concern for chronic risk are exceeded by as much as 22, 198, and 62 times for birds, mammals and fish, respectively.”…terrestrial plant biodiversity and communities are likely to be impacted from off-field exposures via runoff and spray drift,” the abstract said.
• Is the EPA Being Pressured on Atrazine? New Findings of Environmental Concerns about Syngenta’s Crop Chemical Removed from EPA Site (PR Watch),/li>
• Norway becomes first nation to ban deforestation:
• Norway becomes first country to ban deforestation (CNN):
  Norway has become the first country to stop clear-cutting of trees, a huge step toward curbing global deforestation…In their pledge last week, Norwegian lawmakers also committed to find a way to source essential products such as palm oil, soy, beef and timber so that they leave little to no impact on their ecosystems. It’s a pledge Norway made at the U.N. Climate Summit in 2014, alongside Germany and the United Kingdom.

• Norway Becomes World’s First Country to Ban Deforestation (EcoWatch):
  Products that contribute to deforestation will not be used in the country.
• Norway to Help Protect Guyana’s Forests (World Watch Institute)
• Norway’s complete ban on deforestation is an important step and a lesson for the world (New Hampshire Voice)

‘GREEN NEWS EXTRA’ (Stuff we didn’t have time for in today’s audio report)…

• Scientists Turn Carbon Dioxide Emissions to Stone (AP):
  For the first time, carbon dioxide emissions from an electric power plant have been captured, pumped underground and solidified “” the first step toward safe carbon capture and storage, according to a paper published Thursday in the journal Science.
• Lights Drown Out Milky Way For Third Of World’s Population (AP):
  More than one-third of the world’s population can no longer see the Milky Way because of man-made lights.
• Supreme Court Rejects Challenge To Obama Mercury Air Pollution Rule (Reuters):
  The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday turned aside the latest effort by a group of states led by Michigan to block Obama administration environmental regulations limiting power plant emissions of mercury and other toxic pollutants.
• Landmark Water Transfer Creates Environmental Wasteland (E&E News):
  The Salton Sea has gone from a midcentury vacation spot for movie stars to a post-apocalyptic desert with mounds of dead fish here, gurgling ‘mud pots’ there, blasts from a military bombing range on the horizon and sulfuric stench everywhere.
• Idaho Superfund Site Is Still a Toxic Mess, With Legacy of Suffering (Newsweek):
  Dust and emissions from an Idaho smelter left a legacy of lead poisoning among a generation of children near what is now a Superfund site.
• Is Coal Ash Killing an Oklahoma Town? (Inside Climate News):
  The wind that blows through Bokoshe, Okla. is an ominous one. A small, low-income town near the Arkansas border, Bokoshe sits in the shadow of a coal power plant. Its toxic byproduct, coal ash, is trucked daily to a nearby dump, and when the wind blows through town, that ash rains down on its residents. They believe it is to blame for the asthma and cancer that runs rampant there.
• Arctic Sea Ice Breaks May Record . . . By A Lot (Climate Central):
  Arctic sea ice shrank to its lowest level in 38 years last month, setting a record low for the month of May and setting up conditions for what could become the smallest Arctic ice extent in history, according to National Snow and Ice Data Center data released Tuesday.
• On Kodiak Island, Flywheels Are In And Diesel Is 99.8% Out (E&E News):
  Darron Scott, CEO of the Kodiak Electric Association, unlocked the door to a small building on a gravel road along Chiniak Bay and pointed to two innocuous metal boxes tucked into a corner beyond a bank of computers. ‘Those are the flywheels,’ Scott said, turning on a computer screen to follow the ebb and flow of the system’s electrical output.
• House Opposes Carbon And Oil Taxes In Symbolic Votes (Reuters):
  The Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives voted largely along party lines on Friday to reject any new taxes on carbon emissions and oil production.
• Ryan unveils plan to roll back Obama-era regulations (AP):
  House Speaker Paul Ryan Tuesday unveiled the third installment of his “agenda project,” with a sweeping 57-page plan to roll back regulations on energy and the environment, labor issues and the financial services industry.
• EPA Proposes $746M Portland Harbor Superfund Cleanup (Oregon Public Broadcasting):
  The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says it will take 30 years and around $746 million to clean up a 10-mile stretch of the Willamette River known as the Portland Harbor Superfund Site.
• Want to fight climate change? Here are the 7 critical life changes you should make (Grist) [emphasis added]:
  So, given the imperfections of this world, what is a lone wolf such as yourself to do? Here are some conclusions gleaned from this study: 1. Buy the most fuel-efficient car you can afford, then drive it as little as possible….

FOR MORE on Climate Science and Climate Change, go to our Green News Report: Essential Background Page

• NASA climate change video: This is the U.S. in 2100 (NASA).