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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Texas power crisis over, for now, as water crisis continues; Texas Republicans that falsely scapegoated wind energy are getting big bucks from the fossil fuel industry; U.S. rejoins U.N. Paris Climate Agreement; PLUS: The case for rebuilding U.S. infrastructure for climate resilience... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

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IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): El Paso Heeded the Warnings and Avoided a Winter Catastrophe; Partisan Fight Over Deb Haaland, First Native American Cabinet Pick; FERC gives preliminary permit to 2.2 GW storage project in NM; New Data Reveal Where Flood Damage Is An Existential Threat; As Cities Grapple With Climate, Gas Utilities Fight To Stay In Business; 20 percent Of Wisconsin Wolves To Be Killed After Court Sides With Hunters... PLUS: Texas electricity crisis and the energy transition... and much, MUCH more! ...

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

• Texas power crisis now a water crisis, as officials pledge reforms:
• After a deadly storm, some Texans must change electric providers while others still don't have water (CNN)
• Texas power outages: Water problems mount, food runs scarce and hospitals scramble (Texas Tribune)
• Texas leaders failed to heed warnings that left the state's power grid vulnerable to winter extremes, experts say (Texas Tribune):
  
  Texas officials knew winter storms could leave the state’s power grid vulnerable, but they left the choice to prepare for harsh weather up to the power companies — many of which opted against the costly upgrades. That, plus a deregulated energy market largely isolated from the rest of the country’s power grid, left the state alone to deal with the crisis, experts said.
• How to submit public comment for legislative hearings on the Texas power crisis (Houston Chronicle/MSN)
• Houston grandma who froze to death victimized after her death (ABC-Houston)
• Additional 31 Texas counties included in federal major disaster declaration (Dallas Morning News)
• Texas was "seconds and minutes" away from catastrophic monthslong blackouts, officials say (Texas Tribune)
• Texans hit with massive electricity bills:
• Why some Texans are facing catastrophic electric bills after a winter storm (Vox)
• Texas suspends utility disconnections after 'skyrocketing' power bills (Utility Dive)
• FERC to examine potential market violations in wake of massive Texas power outages (Utility Dive)
• Congress, Texas should 'rethink' ERCOT's 'go it alone approach': FERC Chair Glick (Utility Dive)
• State of Texas should pay for enormous energy bills after power outages, Houston mayor says (CNBC)
• Texas electricity retailer Griddy hit with $1 billion class action lawsuit for ‘price gouging’ after outages (Dallas Morning News)
• Texas wholesale electric prices spike more than 10,000% amid outages (Reuters)
• Anti-wind Texas Republicans pulling in big bucks from Big Oil:
• How Much the Oil and Gas Industry Paid Texas Republicans Who Are Lying About Wind Energy (Earther)
• VIDEO: How Fox News is exploiting Texas' power outages to fearmonger about clean energy (Media Matters)
• Fact check: Biden approved emergency measures in response to Texas freeze
• Texas AG Ken Paxton left Austin for Utah during power outages. Democrats say he ‘couldn’t care less about the people.’ (Washington Post)
• Texas power crisis is a warning the US is not ready for climate change impacts:
• Texas Blackouts Point to Coast-to-Coast Crises Waiting to Happen (NY times):
  
  The crisis carries a profound warning. As climate change brings more frequent and intense storms, floods, heat waves, wildfires and other extreme events, it is placing growing stress on the foundations of the country’s economy...Failures in just one sector can set off a domino effect of breakdowns in hard-to-predict ways.
• Deadly Texas blackout shows our vulnerability to coming climate extremes (Washington Post):
  
  [W]hat makes the blackout in Texas and other states so baffling and foreboding is that the grid failed during an extreme event that was largely within the boundaries of a “normal” climate...“We’re living in a society that’s not designed for the weather that we’re living with and the weather to come."
• A Glimpse of America’s Future: Climate Change Means Trouble for Power Grids (NY Times):
  
  Systems are designed to handle spikes in demand, but the wild and unpredictable weather linked to global warming will very likely push grids beyond their limits.
• VIDEO: Biden Tranportation Sec. Pete Buttigieg makes the case for an infrastructure bill, part two of Biden's Build Back Better agenda (Twitter)
• U.S. officially rejoins Paris Climate Agreement:
• US rejoins Paris climate accord with warning: this year’s talks are ‘last, best hope’ (Guardian UK):
  
  The US has marked its return to the Paris agreement by urging countries to do more to confront the climate crisis, with America’s climate envoy, John Kerry, warning that international talks this year are the “last, best hope” of avoiding catastrophic global heating.
• Biden climate envoy John Kerry sounds alarm as US rejoins Paris climate accord (ABC News/MSN)
• VIDEO: US rejoins Paris climate accord 107 days after leaving it: 'We've lost too much time' (USA Today)
• VIDEO: Biden to Munich Security Conference: "We can no longer delay or do the bare minimum to address climate change. This is a global existential crisis." (Twitter)

'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

• The Texas electricity crisis and the energy transition (Utility Dive)
• El Paso Heeded the Warnings and Avoided a Winter Catastrophe (Texas Monthly)
• Partisan Fight Over Deb Haaland, First Native American Cabinet Pick (NY Times)
• As Millions in Texas Lack Safe Water, Activists Rally for Green New Deal (Truthout)
• FERC gives preliminary permit to 2.2 GW storage project that would use the existing transmission infrastructure of the now-retired Navajo Generating Station coal plant (Utility Dive)
• Possible hundreds of billions in US power sector securitizations spur ratepayer protection debate (Utility Dive)
  

• New Data Reveal Where Flood Damage Is An Existential Threat (NPR)
• As Cities Grapple With Climate, Gas Utilities Fight To Stay In Business (NPR)
• 20 percent Of Wisconsin Wolves To Be Killed After Court Sides With Hunters (Huffington Post)
• Florida water utility hack reveals thousands of organizations vulnerable to Window 7 exposure (Utility Dive)
• Long Road, Tough Choices Ahead for Biden Car-Charging Pledge (Bloomberg)
• Supreme Court Weighs Blame in Georgia, Florida Water War (Bloomberg)
• 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: Texas, Environment, Oil, Climate change, Extreme weather, Water, Transportation, Paris Agreement, Infrastructure, Pete Buttigieg