Follow and stream @GreenNewsReport!…



(Or use “Click here to listen…” link below.)

IN TODAY’S RADIO REPORT: Oil and gas prices continue to spike as Iran War continues to escalate; Trump Administration orders restart of oil pipeline off California coast in violation of state law; U.N. warns prolonged conflict in Middle East could trigger record global hunger; PLUS: Trump Administration weighs incredible new strategy to use taxpayer money to block new offshore wind farms… All that and more in today’s Green News Report!

Green News Report with Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen 3/19/2026

‘Green News Report’ – March 19, 2026  |  With Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen...   · · · · ·   ‘Green News Report’ – March 19, 2026  |  With Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen...

30s 30s

0:00 0:00

Download Episode Link to this page Embed on your site! Subscribe RSS/Podcast

Got comments, tips, love letters, hate mail? Drop us a line at GreenNews@BradBlog.com or right here at the comments link below. All GNRs are always archived at GreenNews.BradBlog.com.

IN ‘GREEN NEWS EXTRA’ (see links below): For 100 years, Big Oil knew it was turning Louisiana’s coast into ‘Swiss cheese,’ records show; Revealed: the world’s worst mega-leaks of methane driving global heating; How blue California and red Texas became green powerhouses; Fossil fuels ‘ripping away national security’ but renewables ‘turn the tables’, says UN climate chief; Democrats introduce windfall profit tax as big oil set to make billions from Iran war … PLUS: A solid-state EV battery that can achieve 800 miles of driving range – It’s becoming a reality … and much, MUCH more! …

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

• Unprecedented, historic heat wave is broiling the U.S. West :
• ‘Unprecedented heat wave’: Records shattered across Southern California (Las Vegas Review-Journal)
• Dangerous heat wave breaks records across Southern California as temperatures still expected to peak (CBS News)
• Historic Heat Wave Tied March US High, May Set Monthly Records In Over 140 Cities, From California To Missouri (Weather Channel):
  This isn’t an ordinary heat wave. Many locations could set new all-time March, even April, record highs from the West Coast into the Plains. And this will have one other impact that could linger into summer.
• Climate change intensifies record-breaking early-spring heatwave across the West (Climate Central):
  Human-caused climate change is making this heat more likely and will also accelerate snowmelt, during a year already marked by widespread snow drought across the region… A CSI 5 indicates that human-caused climate change is making this event at least five times more likely, signaling a significant climate change event.
• Most Intense Heatwave in History Due in Southwestern US (This Is Not Cool)
• Iran War escalates, again:
• Strikes hit world’s largest natural gas field in Iran, and Tehran retaliates with more attacks (AP)
• Israel says US helped coordinate gasfield attack, despite Trump’s claim he knew nothing about it (Guardian)
• Live Updates: Iran war escalates, energy prices spike after Israeli strike on South Pars gas field (CBS News)
• Iran targets Gulf countries’ energy infrastructure after Israeli strike on gas field (ABC News)
• After Tehran strikes, Trump says Israel won’t attack Iran gas fields anymore (Axios)
• VIDEO: Iran War: Oil and gas prices surge after Israel strikes world’s biggest gas field (BBC News)
• The attacked South Pars natural gas field is an energy lifeline for Iran (AP)
• February 2026 – Commentary from Dan Pickering (PEP Library):
  It is time to be more optimistic about oil markets and energy stocks… The biggest risk in oil markets is now shifting from oversupply to the implications of higher prices. If high oil prices tip global economies into recession, oil will not “be all that it can be”. Assessing economic impacts and global economies is just as difficult as figuring out geopolitical conflicts. However, net, net, net, we believe an overall 2026-2027 oil market headwind has now become a tailwind and our previous enthusiasm for a strong 2028+ is bolstered (and accelerated).
• UN warns prolonged Middle East conflict will increase global hunger:
• UN warns of record hunger, 45 million more at risk, if Iran war continues (Al Jazeera)
• U.N. Says Attacks on Iran Set to Drive Hunger to Record Levels (NY Times):
  Disruption of shipping lanes since the start of the war on Feb. 28 is already delaying deliveries of lifesaving food aid. Shipping costs have risen 18 percent. And higher oil prices are driving up the agency’s operating costs, Carl Skau, the World Food Program’s deputy executive director and operations chief, told reporters. Around 319 million people already suffer from acute hunger. That represents a threefold increase in the last five years, and the food agency estimates that if the wider Middle East war goes on through June, it would push another 45 million people into acute hunger.
• WFP projects food insecurity could reach record levels as a result of Middle East escalation (World Food Programme)
• US gas prices continue to spike:
• National average gas prices now nearly 90 cents higher than one month ago (ABC News)
• Diesel tops $5 a gallon for the first time since 2022. Here’s what it means for the economy. (CBS News)
• Why This Jump in Gas Prices Feels Different (NY Times):
  The only bigger jump came after Hurricane Katrina in 2005, when gas supply fell significantly.
• DOE: Fuel prices will stay high long term (This Is Not Cool)
• Trump Energy Department coal plant orders costing ratepayers millions:
• 13 DOE emergency orders have cost Americans $235M, Sierra Club says (Utility Dive):
  The Energy Department’s 90-day orders to keep six retiring fossil-fueled power plants online are adding millions to customer utility bills..”The coal sector is in decline because it is incredibly expensive to create electricity by burning coal…Grid-responsible entities had already determined that the plants could retire without destabilizing the grid, and in many cases linked retirement of the power plants with construction plans for cheaper and cleaner replacement.”
• Sierra Club Calls Out Trump’s Expensive, Illegal Coal Plant Orders at U.S. Senate (Sierra Club)
• Trump’s pro-coal crusade hits a snag in Washington state (Canary Media)
• Earthjustice and Sierra Club Blast Trump Administration Order to Keep Washington’s Last Coal Plant Open (Sierra Club)
• VIDEO: Energy Costs Roundtable (Senate Energy Democrats)
• Energy Sec. Wright orders troubled SoCal pipeline to restart:
• Oil Begins Flowing Through California Pipeline Under Trump Order (NY Times):
  Oil had not flowed through the pipeline since a 2015 rupture caused an environmental disaster on California’s Central Coast. It sets up a new fight between the Trump administration and state officials.
• Energy Secretary directs oil company to restore operations off California coast (AP)
• AUDIO: Talia Nimmer, Center for Biological Diversity: Trump Targets CA with ‘Wartime’ Order Reopening Offshore Oil Drilling, Pipeline Near Santa Barbara (‘BradCast’ 3/16/2026/The BRAD BLOG)
• Trump Admin. mulls new strategy to sabotage U.S. offshore wind energy:
• Trump Officials Weigh New $1 Billion Deal to Stop Offshore Wind Farms (NY Times):
  Under the terms of the proposed settlements, the Interior Department would cancel the leases in federal waters for the two projects, known as Attentive Energy and Carolina Long Bay, the documents show. The Justice Department would then pay more than $928 million to TotalEnergies, reimbursing the company for its winning bids in lease sales during the Biden administration. In exchange, TotalEnergies would abandon its plans to begin building the wind farms. It would also commit to investing in natural gas infrastructure in Texas.
• Trump wants to bribe energy companies to kill wind energy (Public Notice):
  Trump’s rage against the wind machines hasn’t lessened… Having failed to kill offshore wind through executive fiat and stymied by the courts, the Trump administration seems to have settled on a new strategy: paying companies to quit producing clean energy…This proposal aims to neutralize that advantage by disappearing both the permits and the preparations the company took in reliance on them. Trump’s loathing for wind turbines is so all-encompassing that he hopes to buy TotalEnergy off with taxpayer dollars and ensure that, even if a Democrat succeeds him, the projects will have to start from scratch.

‘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

• For 100 years, Big Oil knew it was turning Louisiana’s coast into ‘Swiss cheese,’ records show (The Lens-NOLA)
• Revealed: the world’s worst mega-leaks of methane driving global heating (Guardian)
• How blue California and red Texas became green powerhouses (Yale Climate Communications)
• Fossil fuels ‘ripping away national security’ but renewables ‘turn the tables’, says UN climate chief (Euronews)
• Energy Dept keeps demanding a coal plant stay open that’s not even running (Electrek)
• A solid-state EV battery that can achieve 800 miles of driving range – It’s becoming a reality (Electrek)
• Inside the fiery, deadly crashes involving the Tesla Cybertruck (Guardian)
• Democrats introduce windfall profit tax as big oil set to make billions from Iran war (Guardian)
• Federal regulators mull fracking project off California coast (E&E News)
• Coastal El Nino threatens Peru’s booming agro-exports with heavy rains (Reuters)
• Entire Team of Oil and Gas Experts Got DOGE’d Before Iran War (The New Republic)
• Yes, Climate Still Matters. Here’s How It Connects to Every Other Crisis in the World Today. (Drilled)
• What Are The Biggest Climate Polluters Near You? (Yale Climate Connections)
• 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)