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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Colonial Pipeline restarts operation days after major cyberattack; Out of gas in the Southeast because panic-buying and hording caused shortages; Biden Administration greenlights nation's first major offshore wind farm; PLUS: Tesla ditches Bitcoin due to massive carbon footprint... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

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IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): U.S. Has Entered Unprecedented Climate Territory, EPA Warns; Company Defies Michigan Governor’s Order To Close Pipeline; EPA to Jackson, Miss.: Water Safe To Drink Despite Numerous Problems; Study warns housing trends could cancel out CO2 cut; Miami appoints Heat Officer... PLUS: Biden bets offshore wind will fix his climate jobs problem... and much, MUCH more! ...

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

• Colonial Pipeline restarts operation after major cyberattack:
• Gas stations await relief from panic-buyers while Colonial Pipeline restores service (Washington Post):
  
  Despite warnings from government officials and experts, panicked drivers flocked to pumps all over the Eastern U.S., draining more than 17,000 stations, including many that would not otherwise have been affected by the pipeline hack. The heightened demand also pushed the national average price for a gallon of gas to $3.02 on Thursday, its highest level since 2014 according to AAA.
• Colonial Pipeline slowly restarts as Southeast U.S. scrambles for fuel (Reuters)
• Biden cybersecurity order mandates new rules for government software (Reuters)
• VIDEO: Colonial Pipeline begins restarting pipeline operations following ransomware attack (CBS News)
• An attack on a critical pipeline highlights the need for stronger ransomware policies (Washington Post)
• Pipeline shutdown causes panic-buying and spikes global oil prices:
• Colonial Pipeline Restarts: There's No Need To Panic-Buy Gas (And Never Was) (NPR)
• Colonial Pipeline Officials Say There is No Fuel Shortage Amid Service Disruption (Newsweek)
• VIDEO: Gas shortages worsen as fuel prices spike after Colonial Pipeline ransomware attack (CBS News)
• 'Do not fill plastic bags with gasoline' U.S. warns as shortages grow (Reuters)
• Tropical Storm Andres breaks record for earliest storm formation in eastern Pacific:
• The earliest East Pacific tropical storm on record, Andres, formed Sunday (Washington Post)
• Earliest tropical storm on record develops in the eastern Pacific (CNN):
  
  Tropical Storm Andres is the earliest tropical storm to ever form during the satellite era in the eastern Pacific, surpassing Adrian in 2017. Andres also holds the distinction of developing before the official start of eastern Pacific hurricane season, which begins on May 15.
• Elon Musk: Tesla will ditch Bitcoin (for now) due to massive carbon footprint:
• Why everyone from Elon Musk to Janet Yellen is worried about bitcoin’s energy usage (CNBC):
  
  The cryptocurrency uses more energy than entire countries such as Sweden and Malaysia, according to the Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index. To understand why bitcoin is so energy-intensive, you have to look at its underlying technology, the blockchain.
• Elon Musk says Teslas can no longer be purchased with Bitcoin for car payments (Boston Globe):
  
  Bitcoin miners unlock bitcoins by solving complex, unique puzzles. As the value of bitcoin goes up, the puzzles become increasingly more difficult, and it requires more computer power to solve them... A 2019 study...concluded that, in late 2018, the entire bitcoin network was responsible for up to 22.9 million tons of CO2 per year - similar to a large Western city or an entire developing country like Sri Lanka.
• This power plant stopped burning fossil fuels. Then Bitcoin came along. (Grist):
  
  On the sleepy shores of New York's Seneca Lake, a cryptocurrency company is showing how Bitcoin can keep fossil fuel use alive.
• Why is Bitcoin mining so harmful to the environment? (Independent UK)
• VIDEO: Bitcoin boom may be a disaster for the environment (CNN, 12/7/2017)
• Biden approves new utility-scale CA desert solar project:
• U.S. approves massive solar project in California desert (Reuters)
• New solar plant for California desert gains federal approval (AP):
  
  The Interior Department said the Crimson Solar Project was proposed before the Desert Renewable Energy Conservation Plan was created to determine which areas should be conserved and which should not, but the site is within an area designated for development.
• Biden approves nation's first major offshore wind farm
• Biden Administration Approves Nation's First Major Offshore Wind Farm (NY Times)
• After many delays, Massachusetts' Vineyard Wind is finally approved (Ars Technica):
  
  The new project will be over 20 times larger than anything built in the US.
• All hands on deck over Colonial shutdown (Politico):
  
  Vineyard Wind CEO Lars Pedersen told reporters the manufacturing of many of the project's components will need to be done outside of the U.S., since the U.S. lacks the supply chain to do so. But he hoped that Tuesday's announcement could spur necessary investment.
• Donald Trump seems pretty unhappy about the newly approved wind project off Martha's Vineyard (Bostom.com)
• Biden hopes to boost offshore wind as Mass. project advances (AP 3/9/2021):
  
  ‘A huge moment’: U.S. gives go-ahead for its first major offshore wind farm (CNBC):
  

  Looking at the global picture for offshore wind, the U.S. still has a ways to go before it catches up with more mature markets, such as the one found in Europe. Last year, the sector there attracted over 26 billion euros (around $31.5 billion) of investment, a record amount, according to figures from industry body WindEurope. In 2020, 2.9 GW of offshore wind capacity was installed in Europe.

'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

• U.S. Has Entered Unprecedented Climate Territory, EPA Warns (Washington Post)
• Company Defies Michigan Governor’s Order To Close Pipeline (AP)
• EPA to Jackson, Miss.: Water Safe To Drink Despite Numerous Problems (Jackson Clarion-Ledger)
• Biden bets offshore wind will fix his climate jobs problem (E&E News)
• Study warns housing trends could cancel out CO2 cut (E&E News)
• St. Croix Refinery Halts Operations After Raining Oil On Residents Again (Washington Post)
• As Drought Dries California Rivers, Salmon Take Truck Rides To Sea (Reuters)
• Young Evangelicals Push To 'Build Bigger Choir Loft' For Climate Action (Reuters)
• N.C. Pets Have High Levels of PFAS in Blood. Has It Made Them Sick? (NC Health News)
• Facing Rising Temperatures, Miami Appoints Chief Heat Officer (Washington Post)
• Lawyer Who Sued Chevron Over Ecuador Pollution Faces NY Contempt Trial (Reuters)
• Canada Needs To Plug Methane Pollution From Abandoned Wells (National Observer)
• Conservation easements: More than a tax dodge, report finds (E&E News)
• Electric cars: What will happen to all the dead batteries? (BBC)
• Climate Fund Choices for Investors Are Multiplying (Bloomberg/Yahoo)
• 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: California, Massachusetts, Environment, Green News, Natural gas, Coal, Oil, Wind energy, Solar energy, Climate change, Extreme weather, Transportation, Tesla, European Union, Public lands, Colonial Pipeline