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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: White House withdraws nomination of wildly unqualified climate science denier to top environmental post; Drought returns with a vengeance to California and Southern U.S.; Exxon Mobil pulled in an extra $8 billion in profits thanks to the Republicans' tax cut; PLUS: California's governor hits the accelerator on statewide electric vehicle charging network... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

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IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): Oil from the Sanchi oil spill may have reached Japan; White House seeks 72 percent cut to clean energy research; EPA Pruitt evades key questions in Senate hearing; Coal’s demise in Appalachia leaves education in the lurch; Nebraska Republican seeks to hobble wind power by redefining it as not ‘renewable’; Trump again proposes eliminating Chemical Safety Board; Polar bears can't catch enough food to survive; Monsanto faces anti-trust suit over Dicamba pesticide, resistant seeds; Arctic is full of mercury, and climate change is going to release it... PLUS: Two ships colliding in the night: Fossil fuels and climate change... and much, MUCH more! ...

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

• White House withdraws nomination of climate science denier to science policy post:
• VIDEO: White House Pulls Nomination of Hartnett White To Head CEQ (Washington Post):
  
  Hartnett White, who once headed the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality and now serves as a fellow at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, has stirred controversy because of her statements on climate change. Testifying in the fall before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, she said that while humans probably contribute to current warming, “the extent to which, I think, is very uncertain.”
• Texan Kathleen Hartnett White Too Extreme for Trump Administration (Texas Observer):
  
  During her time on the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality and at the conservative Texas Public Policy Foundation, she argued that renewables are “a false hope” and that coal helped abolish slavery. Among her many demonstrably false proclamations, White called climate change the “dogmatic claim of ideologues and clerics” and said that carbon dioxide is not a pollutant.
• 300 Scientists Oppose Trump Nominee Kathleen Hartnett White: 'More Dangerous Than Climate Change is Lying' (Inside Climate News)
• Cape Town officials cut water allotments, buy time until 'Day Zero':
• Cape Town pushes possible tap closure on 'Day Zero' to May (AP):
  
  Cape Town has pushed back "Day Zero" — the date when it might have to turn off most taps because of a long drought — by nearly a month to May 11. Cape Town authorities said Monday that the reprieve is due to an anticipated decline in agricultural use of water because many farms in Western Cape province, which includes the city, have used up water supplies allocated to them...They say seasonal rainfall expected to start around May is likely to be low.
• Cape Town Drought: 'Day Zero' projection pushed bac to 11 May (Independent UK)
• VIDEO: Farmers donate millions of litres of water to Cape Town (News 24)
• The Next Cape Town: The water crisis facing the drought-stricken South Africa city is only a preview of things to come—even in the United States (The New Republic)
• Why Cape Town Is Running Out of Water, and Who’s Next (National Geographic)
• Exxon Mobil gets profit windfall thanks to GOP tax cut bill:
• Exxon Mobil posts $8.4 billion profit, largely from new tax law (Houston Chronicle)
• Exxon Mobil profit quintupled after Trump tax cut (USA Today) [emphasis added]:
  
  Exxon Mobil's fourth-quarter profit nearly quintupled after President Trump's tax cuts gave the oil giant a big lift. Exxon reported a quarterly profit of $8.38 billion, up from $1.68 billion a year earlier. The spike came in part due to increasing oil prices and a $5.94 billion one-time boost from the tax reform package...Unlike many major U.S. employers, Exxon did not announce wage increases or worker bonuses pegged to the corporate tax cut from 35% to 21%.
• The tax cut is a $6 billion gift to Exxon (CNN):
  
  The tax windfall helped Exxon's (XOM) net profits surge fivefold, the world's largest publicly traded oil company said on Friday.
• Drought returns with a vengeance to California and Southern U.S.:
• The West is in the middle of a serious snow drought (Climate Progress):
  
  Snowpack is far below average, thanks to a combination of low precipitation and above-average temperatures.
• Is California's Drought Returning? Snowpack Nears 2015's Historic Lows (Inside Climate News)
• VIDEO: California May Be Returning to Drought Again and Sierra Snow Droughts May Become More Common (Weather Channel)
• Why Low Snowfall In The Rockies Is Concerning For Western Water Managers (NPR):
  
  Record-low snowfall in some parts of the Rocky Mountains this winter isn't just bad for the ski industry. It's also a real problem for water managers throughout the western United States.
• 44 Percent of California, Including All of San Diego County, in Drought: US Drought Monitor (NBC San Diego)
• California Appears Headed Back To Drought (NPR)
• CA Gov. Brown hits the accelerator on electric vehicle infrastructure:
• Governor Brown Takes Action to Increase Zero-Emission Vehicles, Fund New Climate Investments (Office of CA Gov. Edmund G. Brown)
• California Gov. Jerry Brown unveils $2.5 billion plan to boost electric vehicles (AP):
  
  Brown’s plan, announced Friday, would extend subsidies to help people buy emission-free vehicles. It seeks to have 250,000 electric-vehicle charging stations and 200 hydrogen fueling stations, an increase from about 14,000 charging stations and 31 hydrogen stations.
• California Gov. Jerry Brown pushes for 5 million zero-emission cars by 2030 (AP)
• Governor Brown Aims to Boost California’s Leadership on Electric Cars (Union of Concerned Scientists)
• Gov. Jerry Brown defends blueprint for California’s future in final State of State speech (San Jose Mercury News):
  
  California was still in economic free-fall from the Great Recession when he was inaugurated in January 2011, and the state’s budget deficit was $27 billion. Brown’s final budget, which he released earlier this month, features a $6.1 billion surplus. The state’s unemployment rate is at 4.3 percent, a record low and a steep drop from the 12 percent Brown inherited.
• Transcript And Analysis: Gov. Jerry Brown's State Of The State Address (Cap Radio)

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

For a comprehensive roundup of daily environmental news you can trust, see the Society of Environmental Journalists' Daily Headlines page

• Oil From the Sanchi “May Have Reached Japan” (Oil Change International)
• White House seeks 72 percent cut to clean energy research, underscoring administration’s preference for fossil fuels (Washington Post)
• Two ships colliding in the night: Fossil fuels and climate change (Axios)
• Scott Pruitt Evades Key Senate Questions, Can't Recall Saying Trump Would Abuse Constitution (Inside Climate News)
• Coal’s demise in Appalachia leaves education in the lurch (Climate Progress)
• Nebraska Republican seeks to hobble wind power by redefining it as not ‘renewable’ (Climate Progress)
• Trump to Again Propose Eliminating Chemical Safety Board, Official Says (Bloomberg)
• Polar Bears Can't Catch Enough Seals To Stay Fed: Study (AFP)
• Leading Ivory Trade Investigator Found Dead In Kenya (Reuters)
• Monsanto Faces Farmer Antitrust Suit on Dicamba, Resistant Seed (Big Law Business)
• Arctic Is Full Of Toxic Mercury; Climate Change Is Going To Release It (Washington Post)
• Fertilizer Is Fouling The Air in California: Study (Environmental Health News)
• EPA Program To Study Toxic Chemicals Fights for Its Life — Against EPA (C&EN)
• Defenders of science, this is the messaging strategy you've been waiting for (Climate Progress)
• Trump's failing war on green power: Wind and solar energy may have come too far for even a pro-fossil-fuel administration to stuff back into the barrel. (Politico)
• AUDIO: An Inconvenient 'BradCast' with Al Gore (The BRAD BLOG):
  
  Guest Host Angie Coiro's exclusive interview with the former Vice President on elections, pollution, persuasion, activism, and hope...
• The Climate Risks We Face (NY Times):
  
  To stabilize global temperature, net carbon dioxide emissions must be reduced to zero. The window of time is rapidly closing to reduce emissions and limit warming to no more than 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit or 2 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels, the goal set in the Paris climate accord. The further we push the climate system beyond historical conditions, the greater the risks of potentially unforeseen and even catastrophic changes to the climate - so every reduction in emissions helps.
• The Uninhabitable Earth: When will climate change make earth too hot for humans? (New York Magazine):
  
  Famine, economic collapse, a sun that cooks us: What climate change could wreak - sooner than you think.
• A beginner's guide to the debate over 100% renewable energy (Vox):
  
  Clean-energy enthusiasts frequently claim that we can go bigger, that it's possible for the whole world to run on renewables - we merely lack the "political will." So, is it true? Do we know how get to an all-renewables system? Not yet. Not really.
• 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

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

                 

Article Categories: California, Environment, Republicans, Green News, Donald Trump, Climate change, Extreme weather, Jerry Brown, Exxon Mobil, Agriculture, Transportation, Electric vehicles, Africa