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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt uses the Bible to justify exploitation of natural resources; EPA to eliminate office that studies impacts of chemicals on children; New study finds communities of color disproportionately bear the burden of pollution; ExxonMobil withdraws from massive deal with Russia; PLUS: Good news and bad news for the environment in the courts... 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): Solar and wind power alone could provide 80 per cent of U.S. power; California agriculture faces serious threats from climate change; European agency concludes controversial neonicotinoid pesticides threaten bees; North Atlantic Right whales face extinction after no new births recorded; US solar company lays off hundreds of workers due to Trump's solar tariffs; Judge orders CA to stop pesticide use; More than 100 cities around the globe get most of their electricity from renewables; Petcoke plant linked to asthma epidemic at elementary school... PLUS: Congress just got a whole lot of F's on their report card... and much, MUCH more! ...

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

• Exxon withdraws from massive deal with Russia:
• Exxon to Quit Russian Oil Ventures Frozen by U.S. Sanctions (Bloomberg):
  
  Exxon will post an after-tax loss of $200 million as a result of pulling out of the Rosneft deal but the true costs for the company run much deeper. Exploring and developing giant offshore fields in Russia was supposed to provide long-term growth for the company.
• Exxon Mobil Scraps a Russian Deal, Stymied by Sanctions (NY Times):
  
  Under the last four years of sanctions, Exxon and other Western oil companies have been prevented from using their technological expertise to help Rosneft’s oil and gas development...In recent years, Rosneft has increasingly become a foreign-policy tool of the Kremlin, embarrassing its Western oil company partners.
• Exxon Mobil Fined for Violating Sanctions on Russia (NY Times, 7/20/2017)
• EPA Chief Pruitt believes the God wants humans to exploit natural resources:
• VIDEO: Unraveling the 'Weaponization' of the EPA Is Top Priority for Scott Pruitt (Christian Broadcasting Network):
  
  Pruitt believes God commands us to take care of the environment and that also means to use what He has provided. "The biblical world view with respect to these issues is that we have a responsibility to manage and cultivate, harvest the natural resources that we've been blessed with to truly bless our fellow mankind."
• Scott Pruitt vs. The Pope (The New Republic):
  
  The EPA administrator has become the de facto spokesperson for a fringe version of Christian environmentalism...Some Christians wrongly believe that this passage “invites us to subjugate the earth, the savage exploitation of nature would be encouraged, presenting the image of human beings as ruler and destroyer,” Francis wrote. “This is not the correct interpretation of the Bible as intended by the Church.”
• Scott Pruitt Is Gutting the EPA Because He Thinks It’s God’s Plan (Mother Jones):
  
  “Is true environmentalism ‘do not touch’?” Pruitt remarked last year. “It’s like having a beautiful apple orchard that could feed the world, but the environmentalists put up a fence around the apple orchard and say, ‘Do not touch the apple orchard because it may spoil the apple orchard.’”
• Scott Pruitt cited the Bible to defend his oil-friendly policies (Vox):
  
  For many evangelicals, this idea of “dominion” is about mastery: Human beings have the right to take what they want from the earth, in terms of natural resources, without regards to how it might affect other species.
• Scott Pruitt Thinks Limited Government Is Divine (NY Magazine)
• Letter to Administrator Pruitt (Evangelical Environment Network)
• EPA: Black communities disproportionately bear burden of pollution:
• Trump's EPA Concludes Environmental Racism Is Real (The Atlantic):
  
  A new report from the Environmental Protection Agency finds that people of color are much more likely to live near polluters and breathe polluted air—even as the agency seeks to roll back regulations on pollution...As the study details, previous works have also linked disproportionate exposure to particulate matter and America’s racial geography.
• EPA study shows dangerous air pollution overwhelmingly impacts communities of color (Climate Progress),/li>
• In 46 States, People Of Color Deal With More Air Pollution Than White People Do, Study Finds (Buzzfeed):
  
  [P]eople of color encounter the most air pollution in the US, increasing their risk of asthma, heart disease, and other illnesses.
• EPA proposes shutting down research office studying chemcial harm to children:
• Major EPA reorganization will end chemical research program (The Hill):
  
  “The children centers were really the first and only centers to uncover the relationship with prenatal exposure to flame retardants and IQ deficiencies in children.”
• Scott Pruitt plans to close an EPA office that studies how chemicals harm children. Is the EPA administrator trying to look like a movie villain? (Grist)
• What You Should Know About the EPA's Proposal to Close Its Environmental Research Center (Earther)
• Trump administration dissolves EPA office that tests effects of chemical exposure on adults and children (Independent UK):
  
  In 2016, one of department's grant recipients discovered infants were being exposed to dangerous levels of arsenic through rice-based cereals...
• Good news, bad news for the environment in the courts:
• Trump once called Judge Curiel a ‘hater,’ but jurist now sides with him in border wall ruling (LA Times):
  
  "It is not our job to protect the people from the consequences of their political choices."
• Judge Curiel, once attacked by Trump, rules border wall can proceed (CNN)
• Judge Strikes Down Sec. Zinke’s Delay of Methane Waste Rule (Pagosa Daily Post) [emphasis added]:
  
  This marks the fourth failure to scuttle the BLM methane waste rule, which enjoys support from 75 percent of Westerners and in principle from at least one oil and gas giant — ExxonMobil — since the present administration took office. About $330 million worth of gas is wasted every year, $100 million of that in New Mexico. Wasted gas would rob taxpayers of $800 million in royalties over the next decade, cause unacceptable damage to public health, and exacerbate climate change.
• BLM moves on methane emission reduction rule; proposes to return to pre-Obama standards (Farmington Daily Times)
• BLM Proposes to Eliminate Emissions-Related Provisions of Currently-Postponed Waste Prevention Rule (Lexology)

'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

• Stunner: Solar and wind power alone could provide four fifths of U.S. power (Climate Progress)
• California agriculture faces serious threats from climate change, study finds (Desert Sun)
• North Atlantic Right Whales May Face Extinction After No New Births Recorded (Guardian UK)
• US Solar Company To Lay Off Hundreds Of Workers After Trump Tariffs (The Hill)
• Judge Orders California Agricultural Officials To Cease Pesticide Use (LA Times)
• Congress Just Got a Whole Lot of F’s on Their Environmental Report Card (Mother Jones)
• Energy Department Review Led To Delays At Green Projects: GAO (Reuters)
• GOPers Claim Climate Caucus Credentials, But Votes Tell Another Story (Inside Climate News)
• Coke Plant Linked To “Asthma Epidemic” In Pittsburgh Elementary School (Environmental Health News)
• What Land Will Be Underwater in 20 Years? Figuring It Out Could Be Lucrative (NY Times)
• More than 100 cities around the globe get most of their electricity from renewables. (Carbon Disclosure Project)
• European agency concludes controversial neonicotinoid pesticides threaten bees (Science)
• EPA staff aired concerns on Pebble announcement — emails (E&E News)
• California’s attorney general puts polluters on notice with new environmental justice unit (Climate Progress)
• Black Lung Disease Comes Storming Back in Coal Country (NY Times)
• How $225,000 Can Help Secure a Pollution Loophole at Trump’s E.P.A. (NY Times)
• 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: Environment, Green News, Fracking, Natural gas, Oil, Wind energy, Solar energy, Climate change, Exxon Mobil, Religion, Pope Francis, Dept. of Interior, Scott Pruitt, Rex Tillerson, Public lands