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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: While we were out...The Trump Administration halted construction of major offshore wind farm; Trump EPA exempted U.S. coal plants from new mercury pollution rules; PLUS: Pope Francis, champion of climate action and environmental justice, has left the building... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

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IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): Exxon presses Supreme Court to rescind your rights; Restarting coal plants after Trump's executive orders makes no economic sense, report says; Trump opens a huge marine protected zone to industrial fishing; Trump touts 'clean coal' but cuts programs that protect miners; Appeals court halts federal judge's order mandating EPA disburse billions to climate groups... PLUS: Texas oilfield company and executive plead guilty in hydrogen sulfide deaths... and much, MUCH more! ...

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

• Earth Day 2025:
• EARTH DAY 2025: Earth Action Day (Earth Day.org):
  
  Earth Day’s 2025 theme is OUR POWER, OUR PLANET, calling for everyone to unite around renewable energy so we can triple clean electricity by 2030.
• Earth Day 2025: Why we celebrate the planet that keeps us grounded, how to get involved (USA Today)
• This Earth Day, there are some reasons to be hopeful about the climate (Washington Post):
  
  This Earth Day, take a break from the doomscrolling. Here are five reasons to hope — and maybe even feel a flicker of optimism.
• Wave of Earth Day Protests As Americans Mobilize Against Trump (Guardian)
• Trump EPA exempts coal plants from mercury pollution, and much more:
• Trump exempts nearly 70 coal plants from Biden-era rule on mercury and other toxic air pollution (AP)
• Environmental Groups Sue the Trump Administration to Restore Web Tools Critical for Gauging Climate and Pollution Impacts (Inside Climate News):
  
  The removal of websites designed to help disadvantaged communities will hurt those communities the most, lawyers argue.
• EPA Deletes Pollution Tracking Tools as It Offers Exemptions to Polluters (Truthout)
• Dominion Among Utilities Allowed Exemption for Coal Emissions From Trump’s EPA (Inside Climate News):
  
  On Monday, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency published a list of the companies, known as "Annex 1," that were given exemptions. The agency had allowed utilities to submit emails requesting an exemption, and Virginia’s regional grid operator, PJM Interconnection, wrote a letter in support of Dominion’s request.
• Trump USDA cancels climate funds for farmers:
• Trump Administration Cancels $3 Billion Climate-Friendly Farming Program (Reuters):
  
  The U.S. Department of Agriculture on Monday said it had canceled a $3 billion program for climate-smart farming projects after a review found it did not align with the priorities of the Trump administration...The Partnership for Climate-Smart Commodities allocated $3 billion to 135 projects in every state that encouraged soil health, carbon sequestration, reduced methane emissions and other climate-friendly practices, according to a project dashboard on the USDA website.
• Trump Interior Dept. expands oil and gas drilling:
• BLM will no longer require green analysis on thousands of oil, gas leases (Reuters)
• Trump administration kicks off plan for expanded offshore drilling (Reuters)
• Interior Sec. Doug Burgum halted construction of major offshore wind farm:
• Trump administration issues order to stop construction on New York offshore wind project (AP)
• Burgum Halts Work On NY Offshore Wind Project (E&E News)
• Interior orders offshore wind project halted as Trump seeks ‘no windmills’ (Yahoo News)
• AUDIO: A wind project is stalled in New York. Experts worry about impacts across the U.S. (NPR):
  
  "It should send alarm bells, not just to the offshore wind industry, but to industries beyond offshore wind," Freudenberg says, "that the federal government could choose to stop projects that had been approved and are underway at their whim."
• GAO report finds only 'limited risk' to whales from offshore wind projects:
• Offshore Wind Power Poses Only Limited Risk to Whales, Government Watchdog Report Finds (Scientific American)
• Offshore Wind Energy: Actions Needed to Address Gaps in Interior’s Oversight of Development (Government Accountability Office):
  
  [T]here are no known links between offshore wind energy development and large whale deaths.[44] Furthermore, vessels involved in offshore wind activities take measures to minimize strike risk, such as observing speed restrictions and employing observers to monitor and report marine mammal activity.
• India and Pakistan grapple with early onset of extreme summer heat:
• Climate Change largely responsible for April 2025 Heatwave in India and Pakistan: Study (Climate Fact Checks)
• April 2025 heatwaves in India, Pakistan are 4C warmer than past decades (India Express)
• Extended heatwave in India, Pakistan to test survivability limits, with temperatures reaching Death Valley levels (CNN)
• Heatwave grips southern Pakistan, disrupting public life (Arab News)
• Delhi ready against heatwaves, govt to deploy warning system, cool roof technology, under Delhi Heat Action Plan (DNA English)
• Pope Francis, climate and environmental justice champion, dies:
• Pope Francis and the Sun: Perhaps the world's greatest environmental champion is dead (The Crucial Years):
  
  The world is a poorer place this morning. But far richer for his having lived.
• ‘The Earth Loses a Defender’: Pope Francis Fought for the Poor and the Planet (Inside Climate News):
  
  A leader on climate action, Francis will be remembered as an ally to Indigenous, poor and working people.
• Scientific consensus, climate and Catholicism: A look back at Pope Francis’s environmental legacy (Euronews)
• Pope Francis Put World's Focus on Protecting Climate and Nature (Bloomberg):
  
  When Argentina's Jorge Mario Bergoglio was elected pope in 2013, his vision for human justice and equality was so entwined with nature that he chose the papal name Francis, honoring the patron saint of ecology. That belief, and how passionately he advocated for it, influenced the course of global climate and energy policy and in particular the 2015 Paris Agreement. Francis’s 2015 papal letter or encyclical, Laudato Si' ("Praise Be to You"), was the first devoted to global warming. It tied together climate science, wealth inequality, consumption (what he lamented as a "throwaway culture") and technology in a 40,000-word missive shared with the world’s more than 1 billion Catholics. His words could be blunt: "The Earth, our home, is beginning to look more and more like an immense pile of filth," he wrote.
• Pope Francis focused on climate change as the planet continued to get hotter (NPR)
• Encyclical letter Laudato Si', on Care for Our Common Home (Vatican)
• How Pope Francis Helped Inspire the Global Movement Against Climate Change (NY Times)

'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

• Exxon presses Supreme Court to rescind your rights (Lever News)
• Restarting coal plants after Trump's executive orders makes no economic sense, report says (Reuters)
• Trump opens a huge marine protected zone to industrial fishing (NY Times)
• Trump’s EPA Plans to Stop Collecting Greenhouse Gas Emissions Data From Most Polluters (Pro Publica)
• Trump touts 'clean coal' but cuts programs that protect miners (Washington Post)
• Indigenous river campaigner from Peru wins prestigious Goldman Prize (Guardian)
• Trump may target environmental nonprofits' tax-exempt status in executive orders (Inside Climate News)
• As Trump promotes 'clean beautiful coal,’ a lit cigarette above a West Virginia coal mine leaves a woman fighting for her life (Inside Climate News)
• Texas oilfield company and executive plead guilty in hydrogen sulfide deaths (Inside Climate News)
• Appeals Court Halts Federal Judge’s Order Mandating EPA to Disburse Billions to Climate Groups (NTD)
• A guide to the 4 minerals shaping the world’s energy future (Grist)
• Wall Street Journal: Clean energy transition is unstoppable (This Is Not Cool blog)
• Can we avoid the enshittification of clean-energy tech? (David Roberts, Volts)
• Stop emissions, stop warming: A climate reality check (Dr. Andrew Dessler, Climate Brink)
• The Climate Fight Will Continue (This Is Not Cool blog)
• Who Will Care for Americans Left Behind by Climate Migration? (Pro Publica)
• Is the Atlantic Overturning Circulation Approaching a Tipping Point? (The Oceanography Society)
• How Oil Companies Manipulate Journalists (Drilled)
• Abrupt reduction in shipping emission as an inadvertent geoengineering termination shock produces substantial radiative warming (Nature)
• How To Spot 5 Of The Fossil Fuel Industry's Biggest Disinformation Tactics (Guardian)
• The Oceans We Knew Are Already Gone (The Atlantic)
• Plug-in hybrids vs. electric cars: We did the math on which is better for you (Washington Post)
• How to electrify your life when you rent (The Verge)
• Complete Series: Farmers Under Attack for Supporting Clean Energy (This Is Not Cool blog)
• Feeling Overwhelmed About Going All-Electric at Home? Here's How to Get Started (Inside Climate News)
• Feeling Hopeless About the Climate? Try Our 30-Day Action Plan (The Revelator)
• Climate Change Will Force a New American Migration (Pro Publica)
• Exxon's Snake Oil: 100 years of deception (Columbia Journalism Review)
• Project Drawdown: 100 Solutions to Reverse Global Warming (Drawdown.org)

                 

Article Categories: New York, Pakistan, Environment, GAO, Green News, EPA, Natural gas, Coal, Oil, Wind energy, Climate change, Extreme weather, Agriculture, India, Pope Francis, Dept. of Interior, USDA, Pollution