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IN TODAY’S RADIO REPORT: Trump Administration proposes rolling back fuel economy standards, making you pay more for gas; Trump’s threats against Venezuela are all about the oil; Youth climate activists sue Utah to stop new fossil fuel development; PLUS: Seed Bombs for SoCal… All that and more in today’s Green News Report!

Green News Report with Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen 12/4/2025

‘Green News Report’ – December 4, 2025  |  With Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen...   · · · · ·   ‘Green News Report’ – December 4, 2025  |  With Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen...

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IN ‘GREEN NEWS EXTRA’ (see links below): Electricity Should Be Free at Noon, and other ideas for lowering electricity costs; The rapid approach of the 1.5°C global warming threshold since the Paris Agreement; As Countries Set Trade Rules at CITES, Animal and Plant Trafficking Rages On; Trump Dismantles Programs Designed To Cut Electricity Demand … PLUS: Rare Win for Renewable Energy: Trump DOE Funds Geothermal Network Expansion

… and much, MUCH more! …

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

• 2025 set to be second or third warmest year on record, continuing exceptionally high warming trend (WMO)
• November 2025: Record-Breaking Heat Caps Off One of the Warmest Years in History (Tourist Maker, no paywall):
  The exceptional November temperatures follow an already remarkable year globally. October 2025 was the third-warmest October on record globally, and 2025 is virtually certain to finish as the second- or third-warmest year on record, according to the Copernicus Climate Change Service.
• US Monthly Attribution Overview – November 2025 (Climate Central)
• Meteorological Fall 2025 Superlatives: Which US Cities Were Hot, Which Were Wet And Which Were Dry (Weather Channel)
• The rapid approach of the 1.5°C global warming threshold since the Paris Agreement (Copernicus EU)

• Trump Promises To Make Cars Cheaper, By Making You Pay More For Gas (Inside EVs):
  Fuel efficiency standards save you money on gas. Deleting them is a gift to car companies and big oil.
• Trump proposal would weaken vehicle mileage rules that limit air pollution (AP)
• Trump announces plans to weaken fuel efficiency rules for cars and trucks (Washington Post, no paywall):
  Although automakers can already ignore the rules without penalty, officially rolling back the standards makes it harder for a future administration to reinstate them, according to Dan Becker, director of the Safe Climate Transport Campaign at the environmental nonprofit Center for Biological Diversity. With weaker rules, car companies will “make more gas guzzlers that guzzle oil and produce a lot of pollution and cost consumers more at the gas pump,” Becker said.
• VIDEO: Dan Becker, Center for Biological Diversity: Trump administration proposes rollback of fuel economy standards (CBS News)
• AUDIO: Trump administration rolls back fuel economy standards (NPR)
• Trump Says He’s Making Cars Cheaper. Nope (Inside EVs):
  “It does not appear like any of the policies will result in people paying less to buy and own vehicles in 2028 or 2029 than they do today,” said Chris Harto, senior policy analyst at Consumer Reports.
• The White House Has A New Enemy: Fuel Economy (Inside EVs)
• The reckless policies that helped fill our streets with ridiculously large cars (Vox/67nj, no paywall)

• “Narco Terrorists” are the New WMDs (This Is Not Cool)
• Is Trump Going After Venezuela’s Largest Oil Reserves? (Kenya Times):
  In a letter to OPEC members published by state broadcaster TeleSUR, Maduro accused the U.S. of attempting to “seize” Venezuela’s oil reserves, which are the world’s largest.
• US-Venezuela tensions: Your questions answered (Al Jazeera)
• Trump’s push for war with Venezuela is indeed about addiction “” but not to drugs (op-ed, Raw Story):
  We’ve seen this tragic play before. The Bush administration justified its disastrous 2003 invasion of Iraq with the pretext that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction which, as it turned out, it didn’t.

• Canada Lifts Climate Laws for Alberta Oil Sands, Planning Pipeline (NY Times):
  Prime Minister Mark Carney reached a tentative deal with the province as part of his program to curb the country’s economic dependence on the United States.
• Alberta Energy Regulator stopped enforcing gas flaring limits after government pressure, documents show (CBC):
  Alberta’s dismantling of its 20-year-old flaring limit after companies blew through the limit two years in a row, with no objections from the federal government, is an example of the challenges Canada faces in reconciling its environmental commitments with a renewed focus on economic growth…In the lead-up to that decision, the government urged the regulator to take a “softer” tone in its communication with offending companies, taking a “humble and collaborative” approach, previously unreported email records show.

• EU agrees full ban on all Russian gas imports by 2027 (Financial Times, no paywall)
• EU agrees deal to ban Russian gas by autumn 2027 (AFP):
  European Union lawmakers and member states reached a deal Wednesday to ban all imports of Russian gas before the end of 2027, as the bloc seeks to choke off key funds feeding Moscow’s war chest.
• EU agrees to end Russian gas imports by late 2027; Hungary, Slovakia oppose (Reuters):
  Hungary, which opposes the move, will challenge the legislation at the EU’s Court of Justice on the grounds the measure was wrongfully disguised as a trade policy to circumvent the unanimous voting required for sanctions, its foreign minister said on Wednesday.

• ‘Protect us before it’s too late’: Utah youth take fossil fuel fight back to court (Salt Lake Tribune)
• ‘Fighting for Our Lives’: Youth Sue to Block Utah Fossil Fuel Permits (Common Dreams):
  “Some days I can’t even go outside because the air is so polluted,” said one plaintiff. “I get headaches, feel dizzy when it’s too hot, and sometimes I can’t even see down my own street because of smoke from wildfires.”

• The Seed Bomb Project: Earth Health = Mental Health (Seed Bomb Project
• This mother and son are sowing purpose and hope, one wildflower at a time (LA Times):
  Except in this case, instead of sowing apple trees, they want to blanket the burned and scraped lots of Pacific Palisades and Altadena with wildflowers native to Southern California…[W]hen Dana suggested making wildflower seed bombs for his school-required service learning project, he grabbed the idea like a lifeline. “I think it’s really helped me,” said Rummy, looking out over his fledgling wildflower garden, sprouting in the area where the family’s living room used to be.
• My House Burned in the L.A. Fires. What Happens Now? (Dana Goodyear, The New Yorker)

‘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

• Electricity Should Be Free at Noon: And two other ideas for lowering electricity costs (Leah Stokes, The Atlantic)
• The rapid approach of the 1.5°C global warming threshold since the Paris Agreement (Copernicus EU)
• As Countries Set Trade Rules at CITES, Animal and Plant Trafficking Rages On (Inside Climate News)
• Trump Logging Plan Threatens Centuries-Old Trees, Fuels Lawsuits (Bloomberg Law)
• Trump Dismantles Programs Designed To Cut Electricity Demand (E&E News)
• Whitmer 7th Governor Urging EPA To Monitor Microplastics In Drinking Water (Michigan Advance)
• Rare Win for Renewable Energy: Trump DOE Funds Geothermal Network Expansion (Inside Climate News)
• New Analysis Provides More Evidence That Heat Standards Save Lives (Inside Climate News)
• There’s a $10 trillion antidote to Trump’s climate backlash (Bloomberg)
• 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)