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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Trump Administration begins reopening national parks, despite coronavirus risks; Oil industry bankruptcies mean taxpayers clean up abandoned wells; PLUS: France pushes airlines to cut emissions in exchange for a bailout... 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): Trump dismantles environmental protections under cover of coronavirus; They're back: Trillions of locusts descend on East Africa in second wave; Hundreds evacuated as wildfires rage in Florida Panhandle; The Canals Are Clear Thanks to the Coronavirus, But Venice’s Existential Threat Is Climate Change; Antarctic glacier retreats nearly 3 miles, could foreshadow huge sea level rise... PLUS: Trump’s EPA just introduced a historic CO2 rule for planes. Wait, what?... and much, MUCH more! ...

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

• Trump Administration moves to reopen national parks, despite risks and warnings:
• The Energy 202: National parks start to reopen as agency 'worst case scenario' projects staff hospitalizations (Washington Post):
  
  According an internal agency memo, the Park Service's Washington headquarters told parks that house employees on site to prepare for 4 percent of the park's population to require hospitalization because of covid-19 — and for 40 percent to require isolation at some point because of potential exposure to the virus. Park Service spokeswoman Alexandra Picavet said the memo...is “out of date.”
• The Coalition to Protect America’s National Parks outlines protections necessary to reopen national parks (Billings Gazette)
• National parks visitors should plan for ‘new normal’ (AP)
• Visitors flock to Smoky Mountains park on reopening day (AP)
• Yosemite employees evicted amid coronavirus pandemic (AP)
• AUDIO: WRADradio - US Interior SecBernhardt Visits (WRAD)
• Some U.S. oil producers begin shutting in production:
• Exxon reports historic loss, closes 75% of Permian rigs (E&E News)
• Texas regulator drops plan to mandate oil output cuts (Reuters)
• Abandoned oil wells loom and states, taxpayers foot the cleanup bill:
• 'Orphaned' oil wells to squeeze state coffers (Politico):
  
  Tens of thousands of orphan wells already spread across oil-producing states, abandoned by failed companies that lacked the cash to properly plug them before walking away. Although states usually require deposits or bonding from operators to seal wells and ensure they aren't leaking methane gas or other pollutants that can contaminate air or water supplies, the payments are often inadequate.
• Deserted oil wells haunt Los Angeles with toxic fumes and enormous cleanup costs (LA Times)
• Environmentalists worry Colorado will see a surge of abandoned oil and gas wells as industry tanks (Colorado Sun)
• Oil supply glut in US worsens as Saudi Arabian tankers head to US Gulf Coast refineries
• Saudi Arabia's Oil Tanker Flotilla Is Reaching The U.S., Despite Some Objections (NPR)
• Oil tankers crowd outside of largest U.S. port with nowhere to unload: "There's no more space" CBS News)
• Oil tankers drag out sailing time with ports clogged and glutted (Houston Chronicle)
• Air France must clean up its pollution to receive recovery funds:
• Air France ordered to curb competition with rail in France (Rail Journal):
  
  One of three conditions imposed on Air France in exchange for a €7bn coronavirus aid package is to stop competing with TGV services where rail offers a viable alternative.
• Coronavirus aid: Air France 'must cut domestic flights to get state loan' (BBC)
• Seattle takes back some streets from cars, permanently:
• Seattle will permanently close 20 miles of residential streets to most vehicle traffic (Seattle Times):
  
  Over the next couple of weeks, the Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) will replace the temporary closure signs on the so-called Stay Healthy Streets with permanent markings, guiding drivers to other routes...Residents, delivery drivers, garbage and recycling workers, and emergency response vehicles can continue to use the streets, but no through traffic is allowed.
• Greenwood neighborhood has most popular ‘Stay Healthy Street’ in Seattle (Fox13-Seattle)

'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

• Trump Dismantles Environmental Protections Under Cover Of Coronavirus (Guardian UK)
• Trump’s EPA just introduced a historic CO2 rule for planes. Wait, what? (Grist)
• They're back: Trillions of locusts descend on East Africa in second wave (Washington Post)
• Hundreds evacuated as wildfires rage in Florida Panhandle (AP)
• The Canals Are Clear Thanks to the Coronavirus, But Venice’s Existential Threat Is Climate Change (Inside Climate News)
• America’s longest river was recently drier than during the Dust Bowl. And it’s bound to happen again. (Washington Post)
• Murray-Darling lower lakes were largely fresh before European settlement, CSIRO review finds (Guardian UK)
• Antarctic glacier retreats nearly 3 miles, could foreshadow huge sea level rise (CNET)
• Tunnel Vision: Lessons in the Impermanence of Permafrost (Undark)
• Exxon's Snake Oil: 100 years of deception (Columbia Journalism Review)
• 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, France, Green News, Fracking, Natural gas, Oil, Transportation, Saudi Arabia, Seattle, Dept. of Interior, Public lands, David Bernhardt, Pollution, Coronavirus/COVID-19