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IN TODAY’S RADIO REPORT: Drought in East Africa was caused by man-made climate change; U.S. Supreme Court to hear case challenging federal agency authority to regulate pollution; PLUS: SpaceX grounded in Texas after catastrophic rocket failure damages wildlife reserves… All that and more in today’s Green News Report!
Green News Report
with Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen
5/2/2023
‘Green News Report’ – May 2, 2023 | With Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen... · · · · · ‘Green News Report’ – May 2, 2023 | With Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen...
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IN ‘GREEN NEWS EXTRA’ (see links below): Global ocean temperatures spike to record levels as El Niño nears; EU adopts “biggest climate protection law of all time”; Farewell Transmission: Texas’ plan to fix its power grid is a disaster; Lack of snow condemns Italy’s Po River to a desperately dry summer; GM announces Chevy Bolt is over, long live the Equinox; Flooding on Upper Mississippi River to halt barge traffic for weeks; New York to ban natural gas, including stoves, in new buildings; Deadly Illinois dust storm raises soil questions – is solar the answer?… PLUS: U.S. coal plants cost more money to maintain than to simply replace … and much, MUCH more! …
STORIES DISCUSSED ON TODAY’S ‘GREEN NEWS REPORT’…
- Horn of Africa drought caused by climate change:
- Human-induced climate change increased drought severity in Horn of Africa (World Weather Attribution)
- Deadly drought in Horn of Africa ‘would not have happened’ without climate change (Carbon Brief)
- Climate Change Caused Catastrophic East Africa Drought, Scientists Say (Washington Post):
Rising global temperatures — largely from the burning of fossil fuels — have disrupted the weather patterns that typically bring rainfall to Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia, the scientists found. Last fall, the once-dependable rains failed for a record-setting fifth season in a row. Hotter conditions have also caused more moisture to evaporate from the landscape, desiccating croplands and causing millions of livestock to starve.
- Catastrophic drought that’s pushed millions into crisis made 100 times more likely by climate change, analysis finds (CNN)
- Climate change is behind the Horn of Africa drought, study finds (Axios)
- Rightwing U.S. Supreme Court supermajority to reconsider Chevron Doctrine:
- Supreme Court move could spell doom for power of federal regulators (Politico/MSN)
- Supreme Court Takes Up Case That Could Curtail Agency Power to Regulate Business (NY Times):
The court’s Republican-appointed majority appears poised to chip away again at the authority of the administrative state to issue rules for the economy.
- Supreme Court to decide important case on government power (AP)
- Supreme Court to hear major case on limiting the power of federal government, a long-term goal of legal conservatives (CNN):
“If it’s up to courts rather than agencies to resolve ambiguities even in statutes delegating highly technical authority to the executive branch, that will give courts more power — and the executive branch less — on everything from environmental regulation to immigration to public health to meat inspections to telecommunications policy,” [Steve Vladeck, CNN Supreme Court analyst and professor at the University of Texas School of Law] said. “In that respect, it’s consistent with the current conservative majority’s pattern of weakening the administrative state — in favor of judicial power to answer all of these questions.”
- Supreme Court to consider weakening power of federal agencies in fisheries case (NBC/MSN)
- Chevron v. Natural Resources Defense Council (Ballotpedia)
- FAA grounds SpaceX in Texas after rocket’s catastrophic failure:
- FAA sued over SpaceX Starship launch program following April explosion (CNBC):
SpaceX’s Starship Super Heavy test flight on April 20 blew up the company’s launchpad, hurling chunks of concrete and metal sheets thousands of feet away into sensitive habitat, spreading particulate matter including pulverized concrete for miles, and sparking a 3.5-acre fire on state park lands near the launch site.
- SpaceX Starship explosion spread particulate matter for miles (CNBC)
- SpaceX’s Texas Rocket Caused a Big Mess – What’s Next? (ESG Hound):
SpaceX rolled the dice instead. And now we know why these protections are in place.
- SpaceX’s Texas Rocket is Going To Cause A Lot More Damage Than Anyone Thinks (ESG Hound, 4/16/2023)
- Senate Republicans succeed in repealing Biden truck rule with Feinstein’s absence:
- Dianne Feinstein’s ongoing absence allowed Senate Republicans and Joe Manchin to overturn a Biden rule reducing pollution from large trucks (Business Insider/Yahoo News)
- Senate revokes Biden clean-truck rules, without Feinstein vote (Green Car Reports)
- Senate votes to revoke tougher EPA emissions regulation for trucks (CNN):
Republicans utilized the Congressional Review Act, which allows them to bypass Democrats who control the chamber and force a floor vote to revoke the rule at a majority threshold, not the 60 votes often needed to pass legislation.
- California clears the air with 2 new transportation pollution rules:
- California air regulators approve landmark zero-emission rules for trucks and locomotives (LA Times/MSN):
Taken together, the two rules are expected to bring tremendous relief to such communities as Long Beach and San Bernardino, which have been besieged by diesel exhaust and smog-forming emissions from heavy truck traffic and trains. The rules are estimated to prevent more than 5,000 premature deaths by 2050, decrease cancer risk near rail yards by 90% and bring nearly $60 billion in health benefits statewide.
- California phases out diesel trucks: What happens next? (CalMatters)
- California passes 1st-in-nation emission rules for trains AP)
‘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
- Global ocean temperatures spike to record levels as El Niño nears (Axios)
- EU adopts “biggest climate protection law of all time” (Energy Monitor)
- In the Crossroads State of Illinois, Nearly 2 Million People Live Near Warehouses Shrouded by Truck Pollution (Inside Climate News)
- New York to ban natural gas, including stoves, in new buildings (NY Times)
- Deadly Illinois Dust Storm Raises Soil Questions. Is Solar the Answer? (Climate Crocks)
- VIDEO: After Dry Winter — Spain’s April Heat Hits Hard (Climate Crocks)
- Deadly Illinois Dust Storm Raises Soil Questions. Is Solar the Answer? (Climate Crocks)
- Farewell Transmission: Texas’ plan to fix its power grid is a disaster. (Slate)
- Lack of snow condemns Italy’s Po River to a desperately dry summer (AP)
- John Kerry: relying solely on CO2-removal technology is ‘dangerous’ (Guardian)
- A New Tax on Greenhouse Gases: European Union imposes a charge on some high-emissions imports (NY Times)
- GM announces Chevy Bolt is over, long live the Equinox (Electrek)
- Earth in hot water? Worries over sudden ocean warming spike (AP)
- Flooding on Upper Mississippi River to halt barge traffic for weeks, USDA says (Reuters)
- New study reveals a startling fact about America’s coal-based power plants: ‘All but one’ cost more money to maintain than to simply replace (The Cool Down/MSN)
- New climate paper calls for charging big US oil firms with homicide (Guardian)
- Why It’s Time to Officially Get Over Your EV Range Anxiety (Inside Climate News)
- 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.
Desi and Brad,
Please help me, if you can, locate a key number/percentage I seek.
There are numerous spots on TV from an obviously corporate-based source (Californians For Energy Independence) which imply that California’s decrease in drilling has resulted in higher gas prices in CA, and that increasing drilling in CA will bring gas prices down.
I know that CA has strict pollution requirements that result in California refining ALL of its gasoline here in the state.
But here is the fact I seek:
How much of the oil that is drilled *here in California* is refined for sale and use within the state?
I have searched and searched and cannot find this number (perentage) anywhere.
This is a key fact, IMO, and will reveal the degree of hypocrisy in those TV spots.
Thank you for any response.
DonL
DonL:
I don’t have an exact percentage either, though Desi said she would check with Kassie Siegel of Center for Biological Diversity, with whom we discussed related issues on our April 10, 2023 show. She may respond to your question here as well.
I’ve also seen those commercials, and it’s obvious that they are largely bullshit.
For now, I think we can glean a few things about the question you’re asking from this recent article (that I believe we covered on air?) from Grist:
So, it’s really not a matter of gas being expensive here because we don’t drill enough of it.
There is much more to that end in the article, including a “mystery surcharge” that the oil industry ADDS to the price of CA refined gas. The piece speaks, in general, to some of the (good) questions I believe you’re asking here.
Thanks very much for the response!
I’ll check out that article.
That key stat/percentage I seek (amount of California-drilled oil that is refined in CA), if it is findable, should tell the final naked truth about those claims.
Another issue—–If the number is not findable, is that somehow intentional?
Seeking is easier than finding, and finding is easier than understanding what was found.
I suppose that we are not “meant” to understand some things (MetaSUB – 5).
Where there is smoke there are fumes (Smoke & Fumes).
DonL @3:
Well, it might be intentional on the part of that Fossil Fuel Industry group masquerading as “Californians For Energy Independence”. If they are the ones making the claims, their website should have a link to the source of the claim. But it wouldn’t surprise me if they don’t.
Otherwise, I don’t think it’s a matter of CA somehow trying to hide those numbers. It may not be something that they previously tracked, which is just another reason why that new CA law that I spoke about with Kassie Siegel last month may be important. It will mean that CA tracks what the oil producers are doing much more closer, so we know when they are unlawfully price gouging, etc!
But, as we can ascertain from that Grist article I linked, if CA is actually *exporting* oil, that means we do not have a shortage here!
For example:
(What Next, Mass Depraved-Heart Murder?).
Oil companies and guns——The freest things
in America.
🙁
Hi, Don — We received a reply for you from Kassie Siegel at Center for Biological Diversity with some new info on your query:
Thanks for the valuable info!!!!!
As expected, oil companies are lying scum.
DonL