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IN TODAY’S RADIO REPORT: Trump Administration is trying to reverse coal’s decline, but apparently no one wants to buy it; Officials announce arrest in connection to the catastrophic Pacific Palisades Fire; Solar and wind power are growing faster than demand globally (but not in the U.S.); PLUS: Winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics warns Trump’s science cuts will have long term, negative consequences… All that and more in today’s Green News Report!

Green News Report with Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen 10/9/2025

‘Green News Report’ – October 9, 2025  |  With Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen...   · · · · ·   ‘Green News Report’ – October 9, 2025  |  With Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen...

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IN ‘GREEN NEWS EXTRA’ (see links below): Wildfires are getting deadlier and costing more. Experts warn they’re becoming unstoppable; After gutting subsidies, Trump White House finds new ways to stifle solar; Exxon steps back from Texas Gulf Coast plastics plant; New England’s final coal plant shuts down years ahead of schedule; Supreme Court shoots down challenge to WA carbon market… PLUS: Experts warn that Colorado River use needs cutting immediately… and much, MUCH more! …

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

• Officials announce arrest in connection to Pacific Palisades Fire:
• Man charged with sparking the most destructive wildfire in Los Angeles history (AP)
• Timeline: Two fateful hours that planted the seeds of destruction in Pacific Palisades (LA Times)
• New details emerge about start of deadly Palisades Fire. See a timeline of events (NBC-Los Angeles)
• 5 takeaways from NPR’s investigation into the role of distribution lines in LA fires (NPR)
• Investigation Sheds New Light On What May Have Sparked Eaton Fire (KQED):
  An NPR investigation now reveals that transmission lines were not the only kinds of electrical equipment that caused problems on Jan. 7. Distribution lines that power individual homes malfunctioned in Altadena as early as 11 a.m., NPR found, and at least one fire linked to a problem with a distribution line started in Altadena hours before the sparks near Eaton Canyon. Throughout that morning and afternoon, firefighters were dispatched to different parts of Altadena to respond to problems with power lines…[T]he utility did not turn the power off to most of the circuits in Altadena on Jan. 7, NPR found.
• Trump Energy Dept. cancels Congressionally-funded ‘Hydrogen Hubs’:
• Trump to Axe All 7 Hydrogen Hubs, Bucking Bipartisan Law (Heatmap):
  A new list of Department of Energy grants slated for termination will hit clean energy and oil majors alike, including Exxon and Chevron.
• Trump’s hydrogen bombshell (Politico)
• DOE floats new cuts to hundreds of clean energy grants (E&E News):
  The compendium marks more than 600 grants totaling more than $20 billion as “terminate.” It appears to include all of the more than 300 grants canceled last week.
• Hydrogen hubs, grids, and transmission targeted in Trump’s blue-state funding cut (Washington Examiner)
• Nobel Prize winner issues warning over Trump’s science research cuts:
• Trio win Nobel prize for revealing quantum physics in action (Reuters)
• VIDEO: Federal funding cuts could ‘cripple science,’ says Nobel Prize winner (Reuters)
• Research on metal-organic frameworks gets the chemistry Nobel Prize (AP):
  From capturing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere or sucking water out of dry desert air, the trio’s new form of molecular architecture can absorb and contain gases inside stable metal organic frameworks.
• Chemistry Nobel Prize awarded to trio in field of metal organic frameworks (Al Jazeera)
• Harvesting water from desert air: What won 3 scientists the Nobel in Chemistry (The Business Standard)
• Irvine-Based Startup Leads Field to Make Water Out of Thin Air (Bloomberg)
• Trump Interior Dept. postpones coal lease sale after failed auction:
• US postpones Wyoming coal lease sale after disappointing Montana auction (Reuters)
• Company bids less than a penny per ton in biggest US coal sale in over a decade (AP)
• National Parks Open With Limited Staff. Oil/Gas Permitting Continues Apace (Public Domain)
• Solar and wind power overtake coal globally, growing faster than electricity demand:
• In a first, renewables generate more power than coal globally (Electrek):
  Solar and wind power aren’t just keeping up with global electricity demand anymore ““ they’re pulling ahead…solar and wind combined outpaced global electricity demand growth in the first half of 2025. That shift led to a drop in both coal and gas generation compared to the same period last year. For the first time ever, renewables generated more power than coal globally.
• Global Electricity Mid-Year Insights 2025 (Ember):
  Solar and wind outpaced demand growth in the first half of 2025, as renewables overtook coal’s share in the global electricity mix.
• Solar And Wind Power Grew Faster Than Electricity Demand This Year: Report (AP)
• Chart: Global investment in renewables hits record even as US falters (Canary Media)
• Renewables Surging Worldwide — But Going Backward in US Under Trump (Common Dreams):
  Led by Chinese expansion, global adoption of renewable energy is accelerating, with the world’s wind and solar farms generating more electricity than coal for the first time this year””however, the US embrace of fossil fuels under President Donald Trump is proving a drag on humanity’s transition to clean power.

‘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

• Wildfires are getting deadlier and costing more. Experts warn they’re becoming unstoppable (Guardian)
• After gutting subsidies, Trump White House finds new ways to stifle solar (Washington Post)
• Exxon steps back from Texas Gulf Coast plastics plant (Inside Climate News)
• New England’s final coal plant shuts down years ahead of schedule (Canary Media)
• Supreme Court shoots down challenge to WA carbon market (Seattle Times)
• Newsom signs 1 bill to speed geothermal approvals, vetoes another (Utility Dive)
• VIDEO: Authors of ‘Science Under Siege’ warn of concerted effort to discredit science (PBS Newshour)
• EPA sued for terminating $7B Solar for All program (Utility Dive)
• Experts warn that Colorado River use needs cutting immediately (Inside Climate News)
• Climate change is accelerating, scientists find in ‘grim’ report (Yale Climate Connections)
• How Trump’s War on Climate Science impacts all Americans (Bloomberg)
• Solar Is Liberation (Rolling Stone)
• Governments legally required to address climate change, global court says (Inside Climate News)
• David Attenborough’s ‘Ocean’ is a brutal, beautiful wake-up call from the sea (AP)
• 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)
• 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)
• How To Spot 5 Of The Fossil Fuel Industry’s Biggest Disinformation Tactics (Guardian)
• The Oceans We Knew Are Already Gone (The Atlantic)
• 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)