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IN TODAY’S RADIO REPORT: Summer of Floods continues with deadly flash flooding in the Northeast; NASA analysis finds a dramatic increase in the severity of extreme weather events in the U.S.; PLUS: Trump Defense Department cuts off access to satellites used for hurricane forecasting… All that and more in today’s Green News Report!

Green News Report with Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen 7/17/2025

‘Green News Report’ – July 17, 2025  |  With Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen...   · · · · ·   ‘Green News Report’ – July 17, 2025  |  With Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen...

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IN ‘GREEN NEWS EXTRA’ (see links below): Power prices projected to soar under new tax cut and spending law; Amid politics, research on harmful health impacts of wildfire smoke piles up; Trump hails $90 billion push to make Pennsylvania a natural gas hub; OSHA just reduced the value of a worker’s life; Texas failed to spend millions in federal aid for disaster protection… PLUS: The nightmare mess left by one closed paper pulp mill… and much, MUCH more! …

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

• Northeast hammered with record rainfall, deadly flash floods:
• New York begins drying out after being stunned and soaked by record-breaking rainfall (AP)
• VIDEO: Explaining New York’s Deluge (This Is Not Cool)
• At least two killed in New Jersey as heavy rains and flash floods hit the region (Washington Post):
  Radar estimates show more than 6 inches of rain fell in a matter of hours in northern New Jersey…New York City experienced its second-highest hourly rainfall since 1943 “” receiving 2 inches in 30 minutes — and considerable flooding. Train services were disrupted, subways were flooded in “multiple stations,” the NYCT subway service said, and roads were inundated, though precipitation was expected to weaken into Tuesday morning.
• ‘More frequency and more intensity’: Gov. Phil Murphy speaks after storms kill 2 (Bergen Record):
  “We’re seeing more of this — more frequency and more intensity,” Murphy said. “This clearly was a significant weather event.”..Murphy also noted that during his time in office there have been more deaths related to water emergencies than to any other weather pattern…
• New Jersey flash flood blamed for at least 2 deaths as Gov. Phil Murphy says state was “crushed” by storms (CBS News)
• VIDEO: Gov. Phil Murphy tours flood damage in Berkeley Heights, N.J. (CBS News)
• VIDEO: Flash Floods Submerge New York Subways (Weather Channel)
• Yes, the U.S. is seeing abnormal rainfall this year:
• This is why there’s been so much extreme rainfall and flooding in the U.S. (Washington Post):
  There’s been an abnormal amount of extreme rainfall across the United States in recent days…Barely halfway through, it’s already been a hyperactive season of often fatal flooding, with more than twice as many floods as usual so far this July, according to National Weather Service reports.
• Why the US is under water (CNN)
• Flood deaths are rising in the U.S., fueled by heavier rainfall (Washington Post)
• Extreme Temperature Diary-Wednesday July 16th, 2025 (Guy Walton):
  The toll of intensifying storms is becoming increasingly apparent. In the first 15 days of July, the National Weather Service has reported twice the usual number of flash floods — including the deluge that killed at least 130 people in Central Texas and heavy rains in the northeast that drowned two people in New Jersey and left New York subway stations submerged.
• As the World Warms, Extreme Rain Is Becoming Even More Extreme (NY Times, no paywall)
• NASA data show dramatic increase in severity and frequency of extreme weather:
• NASA data reveals dramatic rise in intensity of weather events (Guardian):
  The steepness of the rise was not foreseen. The researchers say they are amazed and alarmed by the latest figures from the watchful eye of NASA’s Grace satellite, which tracks environmental changes in the planet. They say climate change is the most likely cause of the apparent trend, even though the intensity of extremes appears to have soared even faster than global temperatures.
  A Met Office expert said increases in extremes have long been predicted but are now being seen in reality. He warned that people were unprepared for such weather events, which would be outside previous experience.
• No, cloud seeding is not behind extreme rainfall around the U.S.:
• FACT FOCUS: No, weather modification did not cause the deadly flash floods in Texas (AP)
• VIDEO: Matthew Cappucci – Cloud seeding technology explained by weather expert (YouTube)
• This conspiracy theory used to be niche. Now it’s embraced by GOP lawmakers. (Washington Post):
  Florida’s attorney general flags a law against cloud seeding, saying: ‘We don’t jeopardize public health so we can bend the knee to the climate cult.’
• Misinformation on Cloud Seeding Swirls After Deadly Texas Floods (Insurance Journal)
• Commerce Dept. halts NOAA flood prediction tool for communities:
• NOAA was developing a tool to help communities prepare for future rainfall. Trump officials stopped it. (Washington Post):
  The Commerce Department has indefinitely suspended work on a tool to help communities predict how rising global temperatures will alter the frequency of extreme rainfall, according to three current and former federal officials familiar with the decision, a move that experts said will make the country more vulnerable to storms supercharged by climate change…The release of Atlas 15 had been long awaited by civil engineers, regional planners and other groups that use NOAA’s precipitation frequency estimates to develop regulations and design infrastructure
• Defense Dept. cancels access to 3 key weather satellites:
• Dangerous weather predictions will get tougher after these Trump administration actions (USA Today)
• Hurricane expert sounds alarm that Trump’s admin killed key weather satellites (Raw Story)
• Trump admin says it won’t publish climate report on NASA site as promised (AP)
• Defense Department will stop providing crucial satellite weather data (NPR):
  “It’s not an issue of funding cuts,” says Mark Serreze, the director of the National Snow and Ice Data Center, a federally funded research center in Colorado that has relied on the soon-to-be-terminated Defense Department data to track sea ice since 1979. “There are cybersecurity concerns. That’s what we’re being told.”…”That was a really good indication that the storm was about to intensify much more quickly than the computer models indicated it was going to intensify,” Tang says, which allows forecasters to publish early warnings. The storm hit Mexico as a destructive Category 3 hurricane.
• U.S. government cuts key hurricane forecasting data from satellites (CBC):
  Data helps identify rapid intensification: The microwave data gives critical information that can’t be gleaned from conventional satellites, and helps peer under a regular image of a hurricane or a tropical cyclone to see what’s going on inside. It is especially helpful at night.

‘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

• Power prices are expected to soar under new tax cut and spending law (NPR)
• Amid politics, research on harmful health impacts of wildfire smoke piles up (Inside Climate News)
• Trump hails $90 billion push to make Pennsylvania a natural gas hub (Inside Climate News)
• OSHA just reduced the value of a worker’s life (Inside Climate News)
• Just 9 percent of Americans think FEMA should be eliminated (The Hill)
• Removing aging dams could bolster communities facing extreme weather: report (The Hill)
• Texas failed to spend millions in federal aid for disaster protection (E&E News)
• The nightmare mess left by one closed paper pulp mill (Pennsylvania Capital-Star)
• 20 states sue the Trump admin for cutting disaster prevention money (UK Independent)
• 10 Ways to Keep Your Home Cool This Summer (Bloomberg, no paywall)
• David Attenborough’s ‘Ocean’ is a brutal, beautiful wake-up call from the sea (AP)
• What’s missing from the U.S. debate on electric vehicles (CSIS)
• 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)