‘Green News Report’ – July 31, 2025

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IN TODAY’S RADIO REPORT: Trump EPA moves to kill its own authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions; 2025 on track to be one of the hottest years ever recorded; PLUS: The economic toll of climate-intensified wildfires and severe storms is soaring… All that and more in today’s Green News Report!

Green News Report

with Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen

7/31/2025

‘Green News Report’ – July 31, 2025  |  With Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen...   · · · · ·   ‘Green News Report’ – July 31, 2025  |  With Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen...

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IN ‘GREEN NEWS EXTRA’ (see links below): Trump’s EPA is hurting the automakers it’s claiming to help; EPA to suspend methane limits without public input; Trump yanks millions of acres of ocean designated for wind power; The West’s data centers suck (water and power);
The EU’s ‘fantasy’ $750B energy promise to Trump; Trump moves to cut Chemical Safety Board… PLUS: Solar is Liberation… and much, MUCH more! …

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

• 2025 on track to be on of the hottest years ever recorded:
• State of the climate: 2025 on track to be second or third warmest year on record (Carbon Brief):
  The first six months of 2025 have been very warm, each of them coming in the top-three warmest on record across all the different scientific groups that report on global surface temperatures. This is despite the presence of moderate La Nina conditions in the tropical Pacific at the start of the year, which typically suppress global temperatures.
• The cost of climate-fueled weather disasters is soaring:
• Extreme Fires, Storms Fan Worst Insured Losses Since Fukushima (Bloomberg)
• Wildfires around Los Angeles, severe thunderstorms: US natural catastrophes dominate global losses in the first half of 2025 (Munich Re)
• Billion-dollar disasters: The economic toll of wildfires, severe storms and earthquakes is soaring (NBC News):
  The analysis by Munich Re, the world’s largest reinsurer, found that more than 70% of all damage globally from weather disasters so far this year occurred in the U.S., with uninsured Americans and their local governments experiencing a whopping $22 billion in damage.
• VIDEO: Natural disasters have caused $131 billion in losses so far in 2025 (CBS News)
• ‘A new reality’: Price tag for LA fires pegged at $65 billion, report says (USA Today)
• Cheap Tricks for Hard Problems: Picking up nickels in front of the climate steamroller. (Hamilton Nolan)
• Trump EPA moves to kill its own authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions:
• In Game-Changing Climate Rollback, E.P.A. Aims to Kill a Bedrock Scientific Finding (NY Times):
  The proposal is President Trump’s most consequential step yet to derail federal climate efforts and appears to represent a shift toward outright denial of the scientific consensus.
• EPA moves to end climate regulation under Clean Air Act (Washington Post):
  If the rule takes effect, it would immediately reverse the vehicle regulations and spark a legal battle that probably would take years. Should the Trump administration prevail in court, the rule would severely limit the ability of future presidents to curb fossil fuel emissions.
• Trump Environmental Protection Agency moves to repeal finding that allows climate regulation (AP)
• AUDIO: Trump’s EPA now says greenhouse gases don’t endanger people (NPR)
• Revoking EPA’s endangerment finding – the keystone of US climate policies – isn’t simple and could have unintended consequences (The Conversation)
• Trump effort to ditch greenhouse gas finding ignores ‘clearcut’ science, expert says (Guardian)
• ‘A Serious Misuse of My Research’: Climate Scientists Say New Trump Energy Report Botches Their Work (NOTUS)
• EPA Climate Rollback Based On Document Authored By 5 Climate Contrarians [Deniers] CNN)
• Environmental groups vow to sue to stop Trump EPA assault on climate regulations:
• Trump’s EPA is attacking its own power to fight climate change (Grist):
  Now that Zeldin has announced a plan to strike down the finding, the EPA will open a 45-day period for the public to weigh in on the proposal. The agency is supposed to take that feedback into account before moving to finalize the rule. At that point, states and environmental groups may sue the EPA in what’s expected to be a yearslong court battle.
• Trump Environmental Protection Agency moves to repeal finding that allows climate regulation (AP):
  “As Americans reel from deadly floods and heat waves, the Trump administration is trying to argue that the emissions turbocharging these disasters are not a threat,” said Christy Goldfuss, executive director of the Natural Resources Defense Council. “It boggles the mind and endangers the nation’s safety and welfare.”
• Trump, EPA Aim to Remove Finding That Mandates Action on Greenhouse Gas Pollution (Inside Climate News):
  Lawyers who vehemently oppose the endangerment finding argue that recent Supreme Court decisions limiting federal agency authority dictate a retreat for EPA. Other legal scholars strongly disagree, but they believe the Trump administration could effectively defer climate action by embarking on an open-ended reexamination of endangerment or a narrow analysis of the impacts of greenhouse gases in specific sectors.
• AUDIO: Climate Champions Ready Legal Battle Against Trump EPA ‘Kill Shot’ at Emissions Regulations (The BRAD BLOG)

‘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

• Trump’s EPA Is Hurting the Automakers It’s Claiming to Help (The New Republic)
• EPA to suspend methane limits without public input (E&E News)
• Solar Is Liberation (Rolling Stone)<
• Trump yanks millions of acres of ocean designated for wind power (Financial Post)
• Resignation of nuclear regulator seen as an attack on agency independence (Mother Jones)
• The West’s data centers suck (water and power) (High Country News)
• Trump moves to cut Chemical Safety Board, putting Texans and others at risk (Capital and Main)
• The EU’s ‘fantasy’ $750B energy promise to Trump (Politico)
• USDA reorganization will cut agricultural and forest research (Science)
• Countries failing to act on UN climate pledge to triple renewables (Guardian)
• Governments legally required to address climate change, global court says (Inside Climate News)
• 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)