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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris make history in introducing their full climate team; Congressional COVID relief package includes climate and clean energy legislation; PLUS: Trump Administration ends the tyranny of efficient showerheads... 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): Changes caused by worsening wildfires in California forests will last centuries; Which Way to Solve Climate? 5 pathways; 'This is bad.' Hacking chaos engulfs FERC, DOE, Microsoft; A midnight regulation to end regulations; CDC Questioned EPA Rule Declining To Impose Tougher Soot Regulations ... PLUS: Demolition of the largest coal-fired power plant in the West brings hope to the Navajo Nation... and much, MUCH more! ...

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

• Trump Admin. racing to approve big mining projects ASAP:
• In Last Rush, Trump Grants Mining and Energy Firms Access to Public Lands (NY Times):
  
  The outgoing administration is pushing through approval of corporate projects over the opposition of environmental groups and tribal communities...In Arizona, the Forest Service is preparing to sign off on the transfer of federal forest land — considered sacred by a neighboring Native American tribe — to allow construction of one of the nation’s largest copper mines...The final push on the mining and energy projects has come in part from senior Trump administration officials, including the commerce secretary, Wilbur Ross, a steel industry investor before joining Mr. Trump’s cabinet.
• Feds Fast-Track Plan To Lease Uinta Basin Lands For Tar Sands Mining (Salt Lake Tribune)
• Trump Tries to Ruin the Environment as Much as Possible Before Leaving (Rolling Stone)
• Trump wins his war against the tyranny of efficient showerheads:
• U.S. finalizes shower head rule after Trump complaints about hair rinsing (Reuters)
• Donald Trump Ends Efficient Showerheads' Reign of Terror (Earther)
• Trump has won the only war he ever cared about (Washington Post)
• COVID economic relief package contains climate, clean energy provisions:
• Congress takes aim at climate change in massive relief bill (AP):
  
  The huge pandemic relief and spending bill includes billions of dollars to promote clean energy such as wind and solar power while sharply reducing over time the use of potent coolants in air conditioners and refrigerators that are considered a major driver of global warming.
• AUDIO: Bundled In Coronavirus Relief Bill Is Sweeping Climate Change Legislation (WBUR)
• Congress sets sites on climate change in Covid relief bill (CNBC):
  
  Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., the Senate minority leader, said the chemical-reduction measure was the 'single biggest victory in the fight against climate change to pass this body in a decade.'
• Biden-Harris introduce their climate team:
• Biden Put Climate at the Heart of His Campaign. Now He’s Delivered Groundbreaking Nominees (Inside Climate News)
• Biden introduces his climate team, says ‘no time to waste’ (AP)
• ‘We’re in a crisis’: Biden says U.S. needs to defeat climate change as he introduces team, priorities (Washington Post)
• VIDEO, Transcript: Biden introduces appointees for climate, energy team (Rev.com)
• A voice like hers: Haaland would make history as Interior Secretary (Bangor Daily News)
• Michael Regan, Biden’s E.P.A. Pick, Faces ‘Massive Reconstruction and Rebuilding’ (NY times)
• Meet the N.C. 'star' Biden could tap to lead EPA (E&E News)
• Biden picks top North Carolina environmental official to run EPA (Washington Post)
• Brenda Mallory: Biden CEQ pick signals NEPA changes (E&E News)
• VIDEO: Biden administration has 'most robust climate change plan ever': Jennifer Granholm (ABC This Week)
• Biden picks former EPA chief Gina McCarthy as White House climate czar (Washington Post):
  
  McCarthy, 66, who spearheaded the Obama administration’s efforts to curb greenhouse gases from power plants and vehicles, will be responsible for implementing Biden’s plan to weave climate policy throughout the federal government as the first-ever “national climate adviser.”
• Biden’s Twin Climate Chiefs, McCarthy and Kerry, Face a Monumental Task (NY Times):
  
  In short, Mr. Kerry must find a way to persuade foreign leaders that the United States has the credibility to once again to drive global climate action — something he can do only if Ms. McCarthy is successful in expanding federal policy to reduce America’s own emissions.
• Biden's expected Energy Department pick, Granholm, could lead charge on electric cars (Reuters):
  
  When Jennifer Granholm was governor of auto-manufacturing Michigan, she led a charge that secured a whopping $1.35 billion in federal funding for companies to make electric cars and batteries in her state.
• Biden taps Buttigieg for transportation, Granholm for energy (Washington Post)
• Buttigieg would make history if confirmed as Biden's transportation secretary (ABC)
• Can Joe Biden rebuild the ravaged US Environmental Protection Agency? (Nature)
• Biden to Pick Brenda Mallory to Run White House Environment Office (Reuters)

'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

• Changes caused by worsening wildfires in California forests will last centuries (LA Times)
• VIDEO: Which Way to Solve Climate? (Climate Crocks)
• Biden picks Deb Haaland. Now comes the hard part (E&E News)
• 'This is bad.' Hacking chaos engulfs FERC, DOE, Microsoft (E&E News)
• The Midnight Regulation to End Regulations (The Regulatory Review)
• CDC Questioned EPA Rule Declining To Impose Tougher Soot Regulations (The Hill)
• Slow Start for Plan by Eastern States to Cap Tailpipe Emissions (NY Times)
• 50-Year Old Morgantown Coal Plant Announces Retirement (Southern Maryland Chronicle)
• The demolition of the largest coal-fired power plant in the Western US brings reflection, hope to the northern Navajo Nation (Salt Lake Tribune)
• How climate change could undo 50 years of public health gains (Grist)
• Climate Change Will Force a New American Migration (Pro Publica)
• 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: Georgia, Environment, Joe Biden, Green News, EPA, Donald Trump, Natural gas, Oil, Wind energy, Solar energy, Climate change, Mining, Native Americans, Dept. of Interior, Public lands, Infrastructure, Deb Haaland, Pollution, Coronavirus/COVID-19