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IN TODAY’S RADIO REPORT: Debunking Trump’s environmental bunk from his first address to Congress; New emails indicate EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt lied to the U.S. Senate; PLUS: Record February heat wave brings early spring across U.S…. All that and more in today’s Green News Report!
Green News Report
with Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen
3/2/2017
‘Green News Report’ – March 2, 2017 | With Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen... · · · · · ‘Green News Report’ – March 2, 2017 | With Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen...
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IN ‘GREEN NEWS EXTRA’ (see links below): Shell’s 1991 warning: climate changing ‘at faster rate than at any time since end of ice age’; Homeowners being sued over plan to build 800-mile pipeline; The struggles of coal retirees come roaring back into the congressional spotlight; Hundreds of North American Bee Species Face Extinction; Trump Poised To Lift Federal Coal Ban, Other Green Rules; L.A. keeps building near freeways, even though living there makes people sick; Massive Permafrost Thaw Seen in Canada, Portends Huge Carbon Release… PLUS: How to Steal a River… and much, MUCH more! …
STORIES DISCUSSED ON TODAY’S ‘GREEN NEWS REPORT’…
- Debunking Trump’s environmental bunk in his first address to Congress:
- VIDEO, Transcript: President Trump’s surprisingly presidential speech to the nation, annotated (Washington Post)
- Trump Says He Loves Clean Air and Water. So Why Is He Gutting the EPA? (Mother Jones):
The dirty details of the president’s environmental policies.
- Why coal jobs aren’t coming back, despite Trump’s actions (CNN)
- Trump’s address to Congress was riddled with falsehoods about the energy industry (Climate Progress)
- Trump is making promises on coal mining he can’t possibly keep (Vox)
- Is the coal industry really roaring back to life under Trump? (LA Times)
- Trump to roll back Obama’s climate, water rules through executive action (Washington Post):
While both directives will take time to implement, they will send an unmistakable signal that the new administration is determined to promote fossil-fuel production and economic activity even when those activities collide with some environmental safeguards.
- The Heritage Foundation has a plan for gutting EPA’s budget. And they have Trump’s ear. (Vox)
- White House eyes plan to cut EPA staff by one-fifth, eliminating key programs (Washington Post)
- Trump orders EPA to ‘revise’ Waters Of The United States clean water rule:
- Trump has begun dismantling Obama’s EPA rules. First up: the Clean Water Rule. (Vox)
- The Waters of the United States (WOTUS) Rule: What It Is and Why It’s Important (Audubon Society):
President Trump has ordered the EPA to begin reviewing the rule that governs how the agency protects waterways. Here’s what WOTUS means to wildlife and people alike.
- Trump seeks WOTUS redo (Volokh Conspiracy, Washington Post)
- Emails indicate EPA’s Scott Pruitt lied about private email in Senate confirmation hearing:
- EPA administrator lied about private email use in Senate testimony (Climate Progress):
Thousands of emails Scott Pruitt sent to oil and gas companies still haven’t been disclosed.
- Five takeaways from the Scott Pruitt emails (The Hill)
- VIDEO: Oklahoma City Fox Affiliate Reveals EPA Chief Scott Pruitt Lied To Senate About His Emails (Media Matters)
- Emails: EPA’s Pruitt cozy with fossil fuel industry (AP):
The emails show Pruitt and his staff coordinating their legal strategy with oil and gas industry executives and conservative advocacy groups funded by those profiting from fossil fuels, including the billionaire brothers David and Charles Koch.
- Senate Confirms Trump’s Controversial EPA Pick-Without Reading His Emails (Mother Jones)
- Rep. Ryan Zinke confirmed for Interior Secretary:
- The Interior Secretary, and the Horse He Rode in On (Literally) (NY Times):
On his first day on the job, the new Interior Department secretary, Ryan Zinke, proved he knows how to make an entrance: arriving high in the saddle on Tonto, an Irish sport horse. Mounted police escorted him a few blocks through Washington.
- Senate confirms Ryan Zinke as interior secretary (Washington Post):
Zinke will head a department that manages a fifth of the land in the United States, about 500 million surface acres, a total that doesn’t include millions more acres and natural resources underground. Interior has an enormous environmental footprint, with agencies that decide how resources such as coal are managed and which animals are eligible for listing under the Endangered Species Act.
- Record February temperatures bring on early spring:
- The U.S. Geological Survey hails an early spring “” and ties it to climate change (Washington Post):
As the agency points out, the new analysis reaffirms a fact scientists have known for at least a decade now “” that “climate change is variably advancing the onset of spring across the United States.”
- The atmosphere has forgotten what season it is in the U.S. (Mashable)
- February heat records: Here’s why it’s so frickin’ hot right now (Mashable)
- These maps show how early spring is arriving in your state this year (Vox)
‘GREEN NEWS EXTRA’ (Stuff we didn’t have time for in today’s audio report)…
- VIDEO: Shell’s 1991 warning: climate changing ‘at faster rate than at any time since end of ice age’ (Guardian UK):
The company’s farsighted 1991 film, titled Climate of Concern, set out with crystal clarity how the world was warming and that serious consequences could well result.
- Homeowners being sued over plan to build 800-mile pipeline (Detroit Free Press):
The Federal Energy and Regulatory Commission on Feb. 2 gave Energy Transfer Rover approval to build an 800-mile interstate natural gas pipeline. The Rover Pipeline will pass through about 15 miles of Livingston County, coming from the south through Washtenaw and Lenawee counties. Now the company is suing property owners in the three Michigan counties, to gain easements to build the pipeline. In Livingston County, that includes eight private property owners and the county’s drain commission.
- The struggles of coal retirees come roaring back into the congressional spotlight (McClatchy DC):
They face the same hardship as they did only a few months ago, that their benefits might end. On Wednesday, they began receiving notice that the benefits would terminate at the end of April. “At this time, Congress has not taken the action needed to continue your benefits,” the notice read.
- Hundreds of North American Bee Species Face Extinction: Study (Reuters):
More than 700 of the 4,000 native bee species in North America and Hawaii are believed to be inching toward extinction due to increased pesticide use leading to habitat loss, a scientific study showed on Wednesday.
- Trump Poised To Lift Federal Coal Ban, Other Green Rules: White House (Reuters):
U.S. President Donald Trump will target a handful of Obama-era green regulations, including a federal coal mining ban and an initiative forcing states to cut carbon emissions, in an executive order as soon as next week, a White House official told Reuters on Wednesday.
- L.A. keeps building near freeways, even though living there makes people sick (LA Times):
For more than a decade, California air quality officials have warned against building homes within 500 feet of freeways. And with good reason: People there suffer higher rates of asthma, heart attacks, strokes, lung cancer and pre-term births. Recent research has added more health risks to the list, including childhood obesity, autism and dementia. Yet Southern California civic officials have flouted those warnings, allowing a surge in home building near traffic pollution.
- Oil production, expenditure down in Canada’s Alberta: regulator (Reuters):
Production, capital expenditure and remaining reserves in Canada’s oil-rich province of Alberta fell in 2016, a “challenging” year with low oil prices and a wildfire that hurt the industry, according to a provincial report on Tuesday.
- California Flood Control A Crisis, But Federal Funding Is Uncertain (McClatchy DC):
Experts say California’s Oroville dam crisis demonstrates the life-and-death urgency of federal spending to upgrade aging dams. But there are doubts about whether President Donald Trump will agree.
- How to Steal a River (NY Times):
To feed an enormous building boom, India’s relentless sand miners have devastated the waterways that make life there possible.
- Massive Permafrost Thaw Seen in Canada, Portends Huge Carbon Release (Inside Climate News):
Study shows 52,000 square miles in rapid decline, with sediment and carbon threatening the surrounding environment and potentially accelerating global warming.
- 15 AGs Defend NY, Mass. Probes of Exxon From Lamar Smith Subpoenas (Inside Climate News):
A coalition of 15 Democratic state attorneys general has urged Congressman Lamar Smith to withdraw subpoenas sent to the AGs of Massachusetts and New York seeking records related to their investigations of ExxonMobil. In a letter to Smith sent Tuesday, the attorneys general argue the demand for documents interferes with the investigative authority of the states.
- California Senate leader’s new bill: 100% clean energy (Desert Sun):
De León’s bill would require California to hit 50 percent renewable energy by 2025, five years sooner than under current law, and phase out fossil fuels entirely by 2045. It’s not yet clear whether the Senate leader will move forward the proposal.
- 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.
FOR MORE on Climate Science and Climate Change, go to our Green News Report: Essential Background Page
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