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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Unresolved questions and conflicts of interest for Trump's nominee for Secretary of State; Outgoing Sec. of State John Kerry warns MIT students time is running out to act on climate change; China to invest nearly half a trillion dollars in renewable energy; PLUS: President Obama says global transition away from fossil fuels in now irreversible... 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): Exxon Continued Paying Millions To Climate Deniers Under Tillerson; Without Action On Climate Change, Say Goodbye To Polar Bears; America's First 'Clean Coal' Plant Is Now Operational; GOP To Revive 'Secret Science' Bill — And Now It Could Pass; Nuke Site Reopens But Work Remains; Wisconsin Tribe Votes Against Renewing Enbridge Pipeline Agreements... PLUS: Coal Country Bought Trump's Promise, but the 19th Century is Not Coming Back... and much, MUCH more! ...

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

• VIDEO: Seth Myers 'A Closer Look: Climate Change' (Late Night with Seth Myers)
• Unresolved conflicts of interest for ExxonMobil CEO before Senate confirmation hearings:
• AUDIO: SEC Filing Suggest Conflicts of Interest Continue for Trump SoS Nom, ExxonMobil CEO Tillerson ('BradCast' 1/9/2017)
• Does Tillerson's deal with Exxon eliminate his conflicts of interest? (Citizen Vox, Public Citizen):
  
  We found a discrepancy in the documents Exxon filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
• Rex Tillerson's potentially huge conflict of interest over Russia and oil, explained (Vox)
• The Confirmation Hearing Schedule Is Packed - Again (538.com):
  
  Scheduling multiple hearings on the same day forces many senators to split their time...The Office of Government Ethics reports that it is concerned that several of Trump's nominees haven't completed the ethics review process, meaning that some nominees may have ethical issues that have not yet been revealed or addressed.
• SEC: Tillerson did business with Iran, Syria as ExxonMobil CEO (Daily News)
• #ExxonKnew: The Road Not Taken (InsideClimate News)
• Sec. of State John Kerry's final push for climate action:
• VIDEO: Sec. Kerry Remarks at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (State.gov)
• John Kerry Makes Final Plea to Continue Progress on Climate Change (InsideClimate News):
  
  Without mentioning Trump by name, Kerry offered clear warnings for the next administration, predicting that other countries were already eager to tap into a lucrative clean-energy boom. "If we don't do it, I'm telling you, the rest of the world is going to go there," Kerry said.
• Sec. Kerry Remarks at a Press Availability (State.gov)
• Obama publishes clean energy policy paper in prestigious Science:
• Obama: Trump Cannot Undo All Climate Progress (InsideClimate News):
  
  President Obama, writing in the nation's leading science journal, declared that 'the trend toward clean energy is irreversible' regardless of the different policy choices likely to come from his successor.
• The irreversible momentum of clean energy, by President Barack Obama (Science Magazine) [emphasis added]:
  
  The United States is showing that GHG mitigation need not conflict with economic growth. Rather, it can boost efficiency, productivity, and innovation. Since 2008, the United States has experienced the first sustained period of rapid GHG emissions reductions and simultaneous economic growth on record. Specifically, CO2 emissions from the energy sector fell by 9.5% from 2008 to 2015, while the economy grew by more than 10%.
• Obama Just Made the Case for His Clean Energy Legacy (Climate Central):
  
  By laying out his views in one of the world's leading academic journals, Obama is signaling that he believes fact-based analysis matters more than ever. He sees the world as at a tipping point and that a clean energy revolution is already underway.
• China is betting big on renewable energy. Really big.
• China is betting big on renewable energy. Really big.China to Plow $361 Billion into Renewable Fuel by 2020 (Climate Central):
  
  China will plow 2.5 trillion yuan ($361 billion) into renewable power generation by 2020, the country's energy agency said on Thursday, as the world's largest energy market continues to shift away from dirty coal power towards cleaner fuels. The investment will create over 13 million jobs in the sector, the National Energy Administration (NEA) said in a blueprint document that lays out its plan to develop the nation's energy sector during the five-year 2016 to 2020 period.

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

• VIDEO: Coal Country Bought Trump's Promise, but the 19th Century is Not Coming Back (Climate Crocks)
• Without Action On Climate Change, Say Goodbye To Polar Bears (Washington Post):
  
  As the Arctic warms faster than any other place on the planet and sea ice declines, there is only one sure way to save polar bears from extinction, the government announced Monday: decisive action on climate change.
• America's First 'Clean Coal' Plant Is Now Operational (Washington Post):
  
  The first large scale U.S. 'clean coal' facility was declared operational Tuesday - by the large energy firm NRG Energy and JX Nippon Oil & Gas Exploration Corp.
• Exxon Continued Paying Millions To Climate Deniers Under Tillerson (Huffington Post):
  
  The company, led by Donald Trump’s pick for secretary of state, has supposedly shifted its stance on global warming. But the receipts suggest otherwise. Exxon Mobil Corp. promised nine years ago to stop donating to groups that spread misinformation about climate change. Yet between 2008 and 2015, the oil giant’s charitable arm gave over $6.5 million to groups that deny that burning fossil fuels is causing global warming, a new analysis shows.
• Politics: GOP To Revive 'Secret Science' Bill — And Now It Could Pass (E&E News):
  
  A move by conservative lawmakers and business groups to fundamentally alter how science is used in crafting environmental policy has a greater chance than ever of becoming law.
• Energy Boss: Nuke Site Reopens But Work Remains (AP):
  
  The reopening of the nation's only underground nuclear waste repository nearly three years after a radiation leak marks a key step toward cleaning up a decadeslong legacy of bomb-making and research, but the U.S. energy secretary said more needs to be done before a backlog of contaminated material starts heading to the New Mexico desert again.
• Wisconsin Tribe Votes Against Renewing Enbridge Pipeline Agreements (Reuters):
  
  A Native American tribe in Wisconsin has voted against renewing agreements allowing Enbridge Inc to use their land for a major crude oil pipeline, the latest sign of increasing opposition to North American energy infrastructure.
• How to Save $23 Trillion Per Year: 100% Renewable Energy for the World (Weather Underground)
• Corals: Accidental discovery spurs coral growth, ignites hope (E&E News)
  
  "We can [cycle through] an entire life cycle of a coral and make a selection predicting better survival," Vaughan said. "Otherwise, you would have said I got to wait 75 years and see if the next offspring are OK. And now, literally it's our lifetime. We can do something in our lifetime."
• No country on Earth is taking the 2 degree climate target seriously (Vox):
  
  If we mean what we say, no more new fossil fuels, anywhere.

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

NASA Video: If we don't act, here's what to expect in the next 100 years:

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

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Article Categories: United Nations, Environment, U.S. Senate, Barack Obama, Democrats, Republicans, State Department, Green News, Donald Trump, Wind energy, Solar energy, Climate change, Extreme weather, China, Exxon Mobil, Paris Agreement, Rex Tillerson