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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Remembering lives lost to coal; South hit by tornadoes and oil spills ... PLUS: Lindsey Graham's bizarre Senatorial hissy fit and how it could well scuttle comprehensive climate and clean energy legislation... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

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IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA': Swappable car batteries debut in Tokyo taxis; Scientists uncover deep ocean current near Antarctica; Report: new nuclear reactor less safe than America's current fleet; Report questions viability of Carbon Capture and Storage; Which parts of the Atlantic seaboard will be swallowed by rising seas?; Toxic soil found in LA neighborhood ... PLUS: Fact Check: Buying carbon offsets may ease eco-guilt but not global warming ...

Info/links on those stories and all the ones we talked about on today's episode follow below...

• Cluster of Tornadoes Leaves 10 Dead, Hundreds Homeless Across Southeastern U.S.:
• Rescuers Fan Out After Tornado Kills 10 in Miss.: National Guard Patrols Devastated Yazoo City; Miss. Gov. Haley Barbour Describes "Utter Obliteration" (CBS)
• A look at the victims killed by a Miss. tornado (AP)
• Miss. Mom Dies Saving Kids From Tornado:Massive Tornadoes Tore Through 17 Counties; Mother Dies Protecting Her Young Sons (CBS)
• How to help victims of the Mississippi tornado (USA Today)
• "A Slow-Motion Environmental Disaster": 42,000 Gallons a Day, Oil Slick Heads for Fragile Coast:
• Oil may spew for months after rig blast (Houston Chronicle):
  
  A slow-motion environmental disaster may be in the making with the discovery Saturday that 42,000 gallons a day of crude oil is spewing from a well on the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico near where a huge drilling rig sank last week — and it could be months before it's stopped.
• Oil Spill Likely to Reach Land in Days (Wall St. Journal)
• Robots Work To Stop Leak Of Oil in Gulf (NY Times)
• Oil leak from sunken rig off La. could foul coast (AP)
• Big Oil is awash in big profits — while Gulf of Mexico is awash in spilled oil (Climate Progress)
• Sen. Nelson requests Senate investigation into oil safety claim (Bradenton Herald)
• Remembering Lives Lost to Coal:
• WATCH IT: Memorial Service for West Virginia Miners, April 25, 2010 (C-SPAN)
• READ the Transcipt: Remarks by the President and Vice President at Memorial Service for Upper Big Branch Miners (White House)
• Massey Energy begins full-court press in wake of worst mining disaster in 40 years (Coal Tattoo)
• Massey Saw No Red Flags at Coal Mine Before Blast (Wall St. Journal)
• After mine disaster, MSHA considers new rules (Coal Tattoo)
• Broader mine safety reforms needed, experts say (Ken Ward, Charleston Gazette)
• Senatorial Hissy Fit? Or Principled Stand for Climate & Clean Energy Legislation?
• Sen. Graham walks away from climate and energy bill (Juliet Eilperin, Washington Post)
• Kate Sheppard of Mother Jones Covers All the Angles:
  • Gibbs: Climate and Immigration Not a Question of "Either-or"
  • Graham: "I Don't Want to Play Politics"
  • Climate Bill Damage Control
  • Graham: Energy First, or I Walk
• Dave Roberts: Graham says he’s going to bail on the climate bill (Grist):
  
  It's stupid to have a Dem majority leader from a red state, for the simple reason that his personal political fortunes are frequently going to run counter to the party's. Reid is facing a perilous reelection battle in Nevada this year. He's behind by double digits and desperately needs to mobilize his state's large Hispanic population. So he's trying to jam immigration through next, despite the fact that there's no legislative language and nobody thinks it has a chance of passing. As Jon Chait says, Reid's flail could end up sinking both bills.
• Ezra Klein: You wouldn't like Lindsey Graham when he's angry (Washington Post):
  
  And this is why Graham is angry: He's taken a huge risk to be the lone Republican on climate change.
  ...
  Moreover, Graham is right on the merits: Moving a climate change bill this year is more important than moving an immigration bill. There's a point-of-no-return on climate change: If you don't start getting carbon emissions down in the near future, it'll be too late. Immigration, conversely, is bad, but it's not getting dramatically worse or harder to fix with each passing month.
• NYT EDITORIAL: A Dangerous Squabble: Truth is, Mr. Reid and Mr. Graham need each other. And there is no reason this has to be a zero-sum game. (NY Times)
• WAPO EDITORIAL: Climate change bill shouldn't fall victim to immigration reform (Washington Post)
• Sen. John Kerry: Still Pushing Forward On Climate/Energy Bill (Talking Points Memo):
  
  Look, passing legislation is never easy - it's supposed to be that way. The bigger the reform, the tougher it gets. And there are always countless places along the way where it looks like it's difficultbecause, well, because it is difficult. Almost all of the snags get worked out without anyone noticing them, but sometimes, they get noticed, and you know what happens.

  But here are three things I want everyone to know....

• Friedman: Delaying Climate Bill a Disaster: Postponing Green Tech to Push Immigration in Senate Is Political Move That Leaves Chinese "High-Fiving Each Other" (CBS Face The Nation):
  

'GREEN NEWS EXTRA': More green news not covered in today's audio report...

• World’s first taxis with easily swapped batteries hit Tokyo (Grist)
• Scientists Uncover Deep Ocean Current Near Antarctica (Reuters)
• Coalition: Design for New Nuclear Reactor Less Safe Than America's Current Fleet: Report Raises Questions Over Safety of Global Nuclear 'Renaissance' (Solve Climate)
• U.S. Research Paper Questions Viability of Carbon Capture and Storage (Guardian UK)
• Buh-bye East Coast Beaches: Which parts of the Atlantic seaboard will be swallowed by rising seas? This EPA scientist can tell you. Too bad no one's listening. (Mother Jones)
• Toxic soil lurks beneath Los Angeles neighborhood: The discovery of methane gas and benzene has transformed a 50-acre neighborhood into an environmental case study — a reminder of Southern California’s history as a center of the oil industry. (LA Times)
• Buying carbon offsets may ease eco-guilt but not global warming: Voluntary carbon offsets are a 'Wild West' market ripe for fraud, exaggeration, and poorly run projects that probably do little to ease global warming. (Christian Science Monitor)

                 

Article Categories: Environment, Green News