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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Trump administration moves to shore up oil industry amid crashing oil prices; Coronavirus shutdown clears Italy's air; China's shutdown cuts emissions by a quarter; PLUS: Last men standing --- remaining Democratic Presidential candidates duke it out over climate action... 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): Scientists warn we may need to live with social distancing for a year or more; Oil Nations Could See Income Crash By Up To 85 Percent In 2020; Greenland, Antarctica Melting Six Times Faster Than in the 1990s; Medical waste companies preparing for potentially elevated volumes as coronavirus concerns accelerate; Military Sees Surge In Sites With 'Forever Chemical' Contamination... PLUS: There's an unlikely beneficiary of coronavirus: The planet... and much, MUCH more! ...

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

• Trump moves to prop up oil industry amid crashing oil prices:
• Fill 'er up: Trump to buy oil to fill the Strategic Petroleum Reserve — and help companies (Washington Post):
  
  By buying oil in an emergency rather than selling it, the move runs contrary to the original purpose of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve...Many analysts want to end the current policy of gradually selling off the reserve. That was designed to raise money to maintain the reserve without running up the federal deficit; some lawmakers believed that higher U.S. production made the country less vulnerable.
• VIDEO: Remarks by President Trump, Vice President Pence, and Members of the Coronavirus Task Force in Press Conference (White House)
• Trump declares national emergency to combat coronavirus, authorizes waiving of laws and regulations (NBC News)
• The hurdles facing Trump's planned strategic oil purchase (Axios)
• Trump Orders U.S. to Stock Up Oil Reserve After Price Crash (Bloomberg)
• The Real Oil Demand Shock Is Yet To Come (Oil Price)
• Crude Oil Prices - 70 Year Historical Chart (Macro Trends)
• Exxon pledges 'significant' spending cuts amid coronavirus, oil slide (Reuters)
• Can Fracking Survive at $50 a Barrel? (Investopedia)
• Perverse silver lining: Coronavirus shutdowns clear the air in Italy:
• Air pollution clears in northern Italy after coronavirus lockdown, satellite shows (Reuters)
• Coronavirus causes air pollution over northern Italy to plummet as factories close and travel (Independent UK):
  
  The European Space Agency (ESA) timelapse video taken from above the Earth, which runs from the start of the year until this week, shows a marked drop in emissions of nitrogen dioxide, a noxious gas emitted by power plants, cars and factories, over northern Italy.
• Coronavirus: Satellite data shows Italy's pollution plummet amid COVID-19 lockdown (EuroNews)
• Air pollution likely to increase coronavirus death rate, warn experts (Guardian UK):
  
  Lung damage from dirty air may worsen infections, but isolation measures improving air quality.
• The Oil Collapse Raises Fears of Financial Crisis (David Dayen, The American Prospect)
• Coronavirus shutdowns reducing carbon emissions:
• How the Coronavirus Pandemic Is Affecting CO2 Emissions (E&E News):
  
  These kinds of disruptions stand to get more severe in the coming weeks. They could also come with an unexpected side effect: an impact on carbon emissions. The spreading virus has caused a dip in global greenhouse gas emissions. Reasons include a temporary blow to industrial activities in China, falling demand for oil and a decline in air travel.
• Coronavirus 'Really Not the Way You Want To Decrease Emissions' (Inside Climate News)
• The Coronavirus Is A Wake-Up Call For Climate Change (Common Dreams):
  
  If the world can do this for one virus, it can begin to do this for the even more catastrophic—and predictable—danger of climate change.
• The Coronavirus Pandemic Is Bringing Down Emissions, But Not for Long (Wired)
• Remaining Democratic candidates duke it out on climate change in latest debate:
• VIDEO: March Democratic Debate Transcript: Joe Biden & Bernie Sanders (Rev)
• Who’s your climate champion? Sanders and Biden vied for the title at Sunday’s debate (Grist):
  
  It only took 10 debates, a worldwide pandemic, and the winnowing of the Democratic field down to two men in their late 70s — but on Sunday night, for about 12 minutes, the American public finally got to hear a substantive debate about climate change.
• Biden, Sanders debate electability versus Trump (AP)
• Fact-Checking the Biden-Sanders Democratic Debate (NY Times)
• 4 winners and 2 losers from the March Democratic debate (Vox):
  
  Winner: The Green New Deal.

'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

• Scientists warn we may need to live with social distancing for a year or more (Vox)
• There's an unlikely beneficiary of coronavirus: The planet (CNN)
• Oil Nations Could See Income Crash By Up To 85 Percent In 2020 (Oil Price)
• Greenland, Antarctica Melting Six Times Faster Than in the 1990s (NASA)
• Medical waste companies preparing for potentially elevated volumes as coronavirus concerns accelerate (Waste Dive)
• 'An immediate and dramatic business concern': How COVID-19 is disrupting the energy sector (Utility Dive)
• The U.S. Nuclear Deterrent Is Not Prepared For Climate Catastrophe (Forbes)
• Military Sees Surge In Sites With 'Forever Chemical' Contamination (The Hill)
• Chem Plant Cites Study It Funded to Ask Regulators to OK Higher Emissions (NOLA)
• The Park Service Is Selling Out To Telecom Giants (High Country News)
• Russia Makes Move On Antarctica’s 513 Billion Barrels Of Oil (Oil Price)
• What Does '12 Years to Act on Climate Change' (Now 11 Years) Really Mean? (Inside Climate News)
• VIDEO: A Message From the Future With Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (The Intercept)
• SEJ Backgrounder: Green New Deal Proposes Sweeping Economic Transformation (Society of Environmental Journalists)
• Explainer: The 'Green New Deal': Mobilizing for a just, prosperous, and sustainable economy (New Consensus)
• What genuine, no-bullshit ambition on climate change would look like: How to hit the most stringent targets, with no loopholes. (David Roberts, Vox)
• A Global Shift To Sustainability Would Save Us $26 Trillion (Vox)
• Project Drawdown: 100 Solutions to Reverse Global Warming (Drawdown.org)
• An Optimist's Guide to Solving Climate Change and Saving the World (Vice)
• The great nutrient collapse: The atmosphere is literally changing the food we eat, for the worse. And almost nobody is paying attention. (Politico)
• The world's bleak climate situation, in 3 charts: We've got a long way to go and a short time to get there. (Vox)
• 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.

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, Democrats, Joe Biden, Green News, Fracking, Donald Trump, Bernie Sanders, Oil, Climate change, China, Paris Agreement, Dept. of Energy, Election 2020, Green New Deal, Pollution, Coronavirus/COVID-19