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IN TODAY’S RADIO REPORT: Torrential rains and floods in New Zealand shatter all-time records; Building new wind and solar projects is cheaper than running existing coal plants, new study confirms; Pennsylvania taxpayers may foot the bill for thousands of newly discovered abandoned oil and gas wells; PLUS: Biden Interior Dept. protects northern Minnesota wilderness from mining for 20 years… All that and more in today’s Green News Report!

Green News Report with Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen 1/31/2023

‘Green News Report’ – January 31, 2023  |  With Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen...   · · · · ·   ‘Green News Report’ – January 31, 2023  |  With Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen...

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IN ‘GREEN NEWS EXTRA’ (see links below): EPA vetoes Pebble Mine; What happens if the largest owner of oil and gas wells in the US goes bankrupt?; Heat pumps: the obstacles to installing a transformative technology; Climate Homicide: prosecuting Big Oil for climate deaths; Amazon’s ‘The Rig’ brings new energy to old eco-terrors; Clean energy saw as much investments as fossil fuels for the first time in 2022; How the war in Ukraine is killing marine mammals; California lone holdout in agreement over Colorado River cuts … PLUS: In the fight over gas stoves, meet the industry’s go-to scientist… and much, MUCH more! …

STORIES DISCUSSED ON TODAY’S ‘GREEN NEWS REPORT’…

• Torrential rains and floods in New Zealand shatter records:
• Rain pounds northern New Zealand; further flooding expected (AP)
• Auckland floods: More heavy rain ahead for New Zealand’s largest city (BBC)
• VIDEO: PM Chris Hipkins says Auckland floods are a result of climate change (1News, TVNZ)
• Pennsylvania: regulators find 3,000 new abandoned oil and gas wells in 5 years:
• PA drillers abandoned thousands of natural gas wells in 5 years, ignored state law, report says (State Impact PA/NPR):
  “Part of their business model is to abandon wells and make the taxpayers pay to plug them. And it’s one thing for the Sierra Club to be saying that, but it’s another thing for DEP to be saying that,” said Ankit Jain, an associate attorney with the Sierra Club’s Environmental Law Program.
• VIDEO: More Orphaned Oil Wells on the Way? (Climate Crocks)
• Building new wind/solar projects cheaper than operating existing coal plants:
• Replacing US coal plants with solar and wind is cheaper than running them, report says (Seattle Times):
  Replacing coal power plants across the United States with renewable energy projects would reduce carbon emissions and require less water. Add to the list: It would also save money.
  …The report authors calculated the costs of operating each of 210 coal plants in the United States, taking into account fuel and operations as well as future maintenance expenditures. They then compared those numbers to costs associated with installing and operating new wind and solar projects nearby. In all but one case, the renewable project required less cash.
• New Wind and Solar Are Cheaper Than the Costs to Operate All But One Coal-Fired Power Plant in the United States (Inside Climate News)
• World has enough raw materials to transition to clean energy:
• Study: Enough rare earth minerals to fuel green energy shift (AP):
  “Decarbonization is going to be big and messy, but at the same time we can do it,” said study co-author Zeke Hausfather, a climate scientist at the tech company Stripe and Berkeley Earth. “I’m not worried we’re going to run out of these materials.”
• Yes, we have enough materials to power the world with renewable energy (MIT Technology Review)
• Biden Interior Dept. protects Minnesota’s Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness:
• Biden Administration Cements Mining Ban Near Minnesota’s Boundary Waters (Huffington Post):
  The order establishes a 20-year mining ban on 225,000 acres next to the Minnesota wilderness, further crippling a Chilean firm’s plans for a copper mine.
• Biden Administration Sets a Mining Ban in Boundary Waters Wilderness (NY Times)
• VIDEO: Biden admin moves to protect Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness from planned mine (CBS News)
• Biden protects Boundary Waters in blow to copper mine (E&E News)

‘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

• EPA vetoes Pebble mine (E&E News)
• What happens if the largest owner of oil and gas wells in the US goes bankrupt? (Environmental Health News)
• What Could Chill Heat Pumps: The obstacles to installing a transformative technology (The American Prospect)
• Climate Homicide: Prosecuting Big Oil For Climate Deaths (David Arkush, Public Citizen/SSRN)
• Will Steffen, ‘courageous’ climate scientist, dies in Canberra aged 75 (Guardian)
• Amazon’s ‘The Rig’ brings new energy to old eco terrors (Grist)
• Tropical storm leaves 30 dead, 20 missing in Madagascar (AP)
• This group is sharpening the GOP attack on ‘woke’ Wall Street (Washington Post)
• VIDEO: Biden hails plans for big East Coast railroad tunnel fix (PBS NewsHour)
• Clean Energy Saw as Much Investment as Fossil Fuels for the First Time in 2022 (Yale e360)
• How the war in Ukraine is killing marine mammals (BBC)
• In the Fight Over Gas Stoves, Meet the Industry’s Go-To Scientist (NY Times),/li>
  

• California Holdout In Agreement Over Colorado River Cuts (AP)
• This Group Is Sharpening the GOP Attack On ‘Woke’ Wall Street (Washington Post)
• In Israel, Disposable Plastics Trigger Culture War, Test PM (AP)
• Dereliction of Doodie: Ontario’s Sewage Plans Could Hurt Great Lakes (The Narwhal)
• Ski Resorts Can Now Make Fake Snow In 80 Degrees. Why That’s A Problem (Washington Post)
• Building Steam in Lithium Valley (The American Prospect)
• Feeling Overwhelmed About Going All-Electric at Home? Here’s How to Get Started (Inside Climate News)
• VIDEO: See what three degrees of global warming looks like (The Economist/YouTube)
• The 7 climate tipping points that could change the world forever (Grist)
• The 1977 White House climate memo that should have changed the world (Guardian UK)
• Four solutions to mitigate climate change, from the IPCC (Dr. Michael Mann, Penn Today)
• UN warns Earth ‘firmly on track toward an unlivable world’ (AP)
• Environmental Sacrifice Zones: 8 Places We’ve Given Up-Probably Forever (Environmental Health Network)
• Feeling Hopeless About the Climate? Try Our 30-Day Action Plan (The Revelator)
• VIDEO: 2050: what happens if we ignore the climate crisis (Guardian UK)
• 99.9 percent Of Scientists Agree Climate Emergency Caused By Humans (Guardian UK)
• 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)
• 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.