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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Nations gather in Geneva to again confront the global crisis of plastic pollution; Trump EPA moves to claw back billions in community grants for rooftop solar; PLUS: As energy costs rise, Trump Administration escalates its war on cheap renewable energy... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

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IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): You Are Contaminated [with plastic]; Document shows plastics industry knew recycling was false solution in 1974; At least one killed as massive wildfire in southern France continues to burn; Costs to build gas plants triple; Why a NASA satellite that scientists and farmers rely on may be destroyed on purpose; JD Vance’s team had water level of Ohio river raised for family’s boating trip; Solar is EU’s biggest power source for the first time ever in June 2025... PLUS: The Air Conditioning Dilemma: Cooling homes heats the planet... and much, MUCH more! ...

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

• Nations gather in Geneva to address global plastic pollution crisis:
• VIDEO: Nations gather in Geneva to again confront the world’s spiraling plastic pollution crisis (AP):
  
  It’s the sixth time negotiators are meeting and they hope the last. A key split is whether the treaty should require cutting plastic production, with powerful oil-producing nations opposed; most plastic is made from fossil fuels. They say redesign, recycling and reuse can solve the problem, while other countries and some major companies say that’s not enough.
• Countries gather to thrash out deal on 'plastic crisis' (BBC)
• The final straw? Plastic pollution talks get underway in Geneva (United Nations)
• VIDEO: Geneva Summit: Global Leaders Convene to Forge Plastic Pollution Treaty (Spectrum News)
• Oil-rich nations and plastics industries move to derail plastics treaty talks:
• VIDEO: Oil producer pressure, Trump rollbacks threaten global treaty on plastics pollution (Reuters)
• Exclusive-Trump administration memo urges countries to reject plastic production caps in UN Treaty (Reuters)
• Dems urge Trump admin to step aside for plastic treaty talks (E&E News)
• ‘Total Infiltration’: How Plastics Industry Swamped Global Treaty Talks (Guardian):
  
  Petrostates and well-funded lobbyists at UN-hosted talks are derailing a deal to cut plastic production and protect people and the planet...At another event in Ottawa, Carney Almroth was "harassed and intimidated" by a plastic packaging representative, who barged into the room and shouted that she was fearmongering and pushing misinformation. That meeting was an official event organised by the UN. "So I filed the harassment reports with the UN," said Carney Almroth. "The guy had to apologise, and then he left the meeting. He was at the next meeting."
• New study warns plastic pollution poses a 'grave danger' to human health:
• Report calls plastics 'grave danger' to health as nations negotiate treaty (The New Lede)
• World in $1.5tn 'plastics crisis’ hitting health from infancy to old age, report warns (Guardian):
  
  Plastic production has increased more than 200 times since 1950 and hits health at every stage from extraction to disposal, says review in the Lancet...The driver of the crisis is a huge acceleration of plastic production, which has increased by more than 200 times since 1950 and is set to almost triple again to more than a billion tonnes a year by 2060...Plastics endangered people and the planet at every stage, the review said, from the extraction of the fossil fuels they were made from, to production, use and disposal. This results in air pollution, exposure to toxic chemicals and infiltration of the body with microplastics. Plastic pollution can even boost disease-carrying mosquitoes, as water captured in littered plastic provides good breeding sites.
• VIDEO: Study author Dr. Philip Landrigan (Global News)
• The Lancet Countdown on health and plastics (The Lancet):
  
  Coincident with the expected finalisation of this treaty, we are launching an independent, indicator-based global monitoring system: the Lancet Countdown on health and plastics. This Countdown will identify, track, and regularly report on a suite of geographically and temporally representative indicators that monitor progress toward reducing plastic exposures and mitigating plastics' harms to human and planetary health.
• Trump Interior escalates Trump's war on wind energy:
• Suddenly, the Trump Administration Tightens the Vise on Wind Farms (NY Times):
  
  Federal agencies have recently issued a barrage of restrictions that could halt construction of solar and wind farms on public and private lands.
• Trump’s Total War on Wind Power (Heatmap News):
  
  In the past week, a series of Trump administration actions has presented fresh threats to wind developers seeking everyday sign-offs for things that have never before presented a potential problem. Renewables developers and their supporters say the rush of actions is intended to further curtail investment in wind after Congress earlier this summer drastically curtailed tax breaks for wind and solar.
• Interior Order Chokes Off Permits for Solar and Wind on Federal Lands (Heatmap News):
  
  There’s also a whole host of other implications in this order. Crucially, does the Interior expect that by choking off the flow of permits, cities and companies will just pony up to build what the Trump administration considers "reasonable alternatives" instead? Is the federal government going to tell communities in Nevada, for example, that they must suddenly build gas plants in the desert instead of solar farms to meet their increasing energy needs?
• Another Burgum order coldcocks solar and wind (E&E News):
  
  Burgum’s secretarial order requires that Interior agencies evaluating new onshore solar and wind project proposals, as well as offshore wind projects, consider "capacity density," or how much area the projects cover...That could place into doubt the future of an estimated 35 solar projects and three wind projects proposed on federal lands that are awaiting action in the permitting pipeline..."At some point, someone is going to have to point out to his administration that we need more power and the power that’s ready to go is wind and solar."
• Trump administration cancels plans to develop new offshore wind projects (AP)
• Experts warn Trump Admin is curtailing energy sources as costs soar (Jesse Jenkins/Twitter)
• Power prices are expected to soar under new tax cut and spending law (NPR)
• Transportation Dept. issues new restrictions for wind energy projects:
• Duffy says Buttigieg ignored safety concerns to build wind turbines near roads (Washington Examiner):
  
  [I]n 2024, the DOT withdrew the recommendation, stating, "DOT continues to review and analyze the potential for harmful interference that might result from turbines placed within proximity of rail, highway, and other transportation infrastructure, and reserves the right to make setback recommendations, or any other recommendation deemed necessary by the Department, on future projects." In both recommendations, the Interdepartment Radio Advisory Committee said it did not identify any concerns regarding radio frequency blockage.
• Experts warn Trump Admin is curtailing energy sources as costs soar (Jesse Jenkins/Twitter)
• Trump administration yanks loan from transmission line project meant to carry Kansas wind energy (Kansas Reflector)
• Trump EPA moves to kill Biden's Solar For All program:
• E.P.A. Moves to Cancel $7 Billion in Grants for Solar Energy (NY Times):
  
  The Trump administration is preparing to terminate $7 billion in federal grants intended to help low- and moderate-income families install solar panels on their homes, according to two people briefed on the matter....If finalized, the move would escalate the Trump administration’s efforts to claw back billions of dollars in climate grants awarded under the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act.
• Trump EPA delays first-ever methane leak rule:
• EPA to suspend methane limits without public input (E&E News)
• Environmental Protection Agency in Name Only (The American Prospect):
  
  Delaying methane limits exposes communities to the worst of climate change, but they have no say in the matter. Maggie Coulter, an attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity’s Climate Law Institute, told the Prospect the process has been reduced to :a conversation between EPA and industry," adding that the Trump administration has been limiting opportunities for public engagement more frequently.
• Largest offshore wind project in U.S. forges ahead:
• Biggest US Offshore Wind Project Marches Ahead Despite Trump Attacks (E&E News)
• IEA: Renewables will be world’s top power source ‘by 2026’ (Carbon Brief)
• EPA public comment period open on 'endangerment finding': Make your voice heard:
• Register a public comment on Trump EPA's repeal of its landmark 'endangerment finding', using docket tracking number 2025-14572 (Regulations.gov)
• How to Write Effective Public Comments (Environmental Data and Governance Initiative)

'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

• You Are Contaminated [with plastic] (NY Times)
• Document shows plastics industry knew recycling was false solution in 1974 (DeSmog Blog)
• Massive central California wildfire keeps growing and becomes state’s largest blaze of the year
• At least one killed as massive wildfire in southern France continues to burn (EuroNews)
• Costs to build gas plants triple, says CEO of NextEra Energy (Gas Outlook)>/li>
  

• First-of-a-kind US class-action lawsuit would force EPA to reinstate $3 billion climate program (Guardian)
• Why a NASA satellite that scientists and farmers rely on may be destroyed on purpose (NPR)
• JD Vance’s team had water level of Ohio river raised for family’s boating trip (Guardian)
• National Weather Service is now hiring back hundreds of positions that got cut in the DOGE chaos (CNN)
• Solar is EU’s biggest power source for the first time ever in June 2025 (Ember)
• Denial of gray wolf protections violated Endangered Species Act, judge rules (Public Domain)
• The Air Conditioning Dilemma: Cooling homes heats the planet
  (Thompson Reuters Foundation)
• The oil industry wrote a wishlist. Trump Interior Department is delivering (Public Domain)
• Solar Is Liberation (Rolling Stone)<
• 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)

                 

Article Categories: United Nations, Environment, Green News, EPA, Natural gas, Nuclear power/weapons, Oil, Wind energy, Solar energy, Paris Agreement, Dept. of Interior, Switzerland, Infrastructure, Pollution, Dept. of Transportation, Electricity, Doug Burgum, Inflation Reduction Act