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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: 2021 brought a wave of deadly, and expensive, extreme weather disasters in the U.S., but also some very good news; Big battery storage is soaring on America's electric grid; Sales of gas-guzzling SUVs hit new record; PLUS: Biden Administration mobilizes to rid the nation of millions of lead pipes... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

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IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): 'Top of the list': W.Va. faces surprising climate dangers; Schumer promises January vote on BBB climate spending bill; he hidden, ugly truth behind Joe Manchin’s stance on BBB’s climate provisions; Biden administration moves to expand solar power on US land; Native Americans’ farming practices may help feed a warming world; GOPer on wind turbines: "They don't kill birds like they said"; $475 million ettlement proposed in longest-running US oil spill; GAO: DOE risks wasting ‘significant funds’ on CCS... PLUS: Halliburton keeps 'losing' evidence of its fossil fuel screwups... and much, MUCH more! ...

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

• 2021 brought a wave of deadly, expensive extreme weather disasters:
• 2021 brought a wave of extreme weather disasters. Scientists say worse lies ahead. (Washington Post):
  
  "The weather of the past will not be the weather of the future," said Stephanie Herring, a climate scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. "As long as we are emitting greenhouse gases at a historically unprecedented rate, we should expect this change to continue."
• Cold, heat, fires, hurricanes and tornadoes: The year in weather disasters (Washington Post)
• The Year in Climate News (NY Times):
  
  2021 was yet another year that felt like five. It began with a presidential transition, riots at the Capitol and a blackout in Texas. Before summer had even begun, drought, heat and fires had already torn across the West. The Biden administration faced a number of challenges to its climate agenda at home. And then came the United Nations international climate conference in Glasgow in the fall.
• Goodbye to 2021, you plague-ridden paradox (Climate Change News)
• December tornado record crushed by historic onslaught of storms in U.S. (Washington Post):
  
  No December on record has seen as many tornadoes in the United States as 2021. And no December has seen such a devastating toll on life.
• 2021 brought positive environmental and climate progress:
• The Top Positive Environmental News Stories from 2021 (Mongabay)
• Year in review: environmental victories in 2021 (Environment America)
• Protests, pledges and alpacas: 2021’s environmental year in review (New Statesman UK)
• Exclusive: Youth climate activists get boost from Dutch tech billionaire (Axios)
• IEA: global demand for coal on track to hit new all-time high:
• Coal power’s sharp rebound is taking it to a new record in 2021, threatening net zero goals (press release, International Energy Agency)
• Coal-fired power hits record level despite momentum for climate pledges (Axios)
• The World Is on Track to Generate a Record Amount of Power From Coal in 2021, the IEA Says (Time/Yahoo News)
• Global use of coal approaching record highs, IEA says (E&E News)
• U.S. to be world's biggest LNG exporter in 2022 (Reuters/Yahoo News)
• IEA: global sales of SUVs hit new record:
• Global SUV sales set another record in 2021, setting back efforts to reduce emissions (International Energy Agency):
  
  If SUVs were an individual country, they would rank sixth in the world for absolute emissions in 2021, emitting over 900 million tonnes of CO2...The good news is that skyrocketing electric car sales in 2021 are expected to be just about sufficient to cancel out the additional emissions stemming from the 35 million SUVs that were purchased instead of average-sized cars.
• U.S. added record amounts of big batteries to the electric grid:
• The Battery Boom is Here (Climate Crocks, no paywall):
  
  Wall Street Journal: Companies are poised to install record amounts of batteries on America’s electric grid this year, as government mandates and a steep decline in costs fuel rapid growth in power storage.
• Biden Administration mobilizes to rid nation of lead pipes and paint:
• Biden administration details push to finally rid the nation of millions of lead pipes (Washington Post)
• Lead pipes have contaminated water for decades. Biden’s new plan will replace them (Oregon Public Radio)
• VIDEO, transcript: Kamala Harris Lead Pipe Action Plan Speech (Rev.com)
• Shell opens first gas-station-to-EV-hub conversion in U.K.:
• "Future of petrol stations:" Shell opens first EV charging hub fully converted from fossil fuels (Driven)

'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

• 'Top of the list': W.Va. faces surprising climate dangers (E&E News)
• Schumer promises January vote on climate spending bill (E&E News)
• Biden administration moves to expand solar power on US land (AP)
• Opinion: The hidden, ugly truth behind Joe Manchin’s stance on BBB’s climate provisions (Washington Post)
• Native Americans’ farming practices may help feed a warming world (Washington Post)
• Analysis - Global farmers facing fertiliser sticker shock may cut use, raising food security risks (Reuters/Yahoo News)
• Solar power has changed Syrian refugees’ lives in Jordan – and they want more (Climate Change News)
• VIDEO: Retired County Chairman on Wind Turbines: "They don't Kill Birds like they said.." (Climate Crocks)
• Inside Clean Energy: Here’s How Compressed Air Can Provide Long-Duration Energy Storage (Inside Climate News)
• The Coming Electric Vehicle Wave: In 2022, Consumers Get Options (Morning Consult)
• $475M Settlement Proposed In Longest-Running US Oil Spill (AP)
• GAO: DOE Risks Wasting ‘Significant Funds’ on CCS (E&E News)
• How the Building Industry Blocked Better Tornado Safeguards (NY Times)
• Halliburton Keeps ‘Losing’ Evidence Of Its Fossil Fuel Screwups (Earther)
• UK floats 'climate compatibility' test for new oil and gas drilling (Climate Change News)
• Military exempt from Biden order to cut federal emissions (E&E News)
• Stanford study demonstrates 100% renewable US grid, with no blackouts (Renew Economy)
• Can Reality Denial be Countered? (Climate Crocks)
• Green Upheaval: The New Geopolitics of Energy (Foreign Affairs)
• VIDEO: 2050: what happens if we ignore the climate crisis (Guardian UK)
• Guilt, grief and anxiety as young people fear for climate's future (Reuters)
• 99.9 percent Of Scientists Agree Climate Emergency Caused By Humans (Guardian UK)
• An Empire of Dying Wells: Old oil and gas sites are a climate menace. Meet the company that owns more of America's decaying wells than any other. (Bloomberg)
• 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 9 Years) Really Mean? (Inside Climate News)
• VIDEO: A Message From the Future With Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (The Intercept)
• 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.

                 

Article Categories: California, Environment, Green News, EPA, Natural gas, Coal, Wind energy, Solar energy, Climate change, Extreme weather, U.K., Water, Transportation, Electric vehicles, Dept. of Interior, Kamala Harris, Infrastructure, Electricity