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IN TODAY’S RADIO REPORT: Occupy Wall Street movement pushes back against dirty fossil fuel corporations; World’s newest oil spill, now in New Zealand!; Keystone XL pipeline bombshell — pipeline company’s buddies help Obama/Clinton State Dept. approve the pipeline, but no complaints from Republicans; Million-dollar Solyndra bankruptcy gets more coverage than Billion-dollar Iraq war contracting corruption; PLUS: Rightwing freakout over peaceful Occupier protests challenging corporate greed … All that and more in today’s Green News Report!
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IN ‘GREEN NEWS EXTRA’ (see links below): Every $1 of coal power costs U.S. $2 in damages; Too late for Central Appalachia to prepare for collapse of the coal industry?; China’s PV Feed-In Law Results in Solar Boom, Unlike Weak US Subsidies; Illinois Team Wins Oil Spill Cleanup X Challenge; Study: 25% renewable energy by 2025 would create millions of new jobs; Algae biofuel industry wants equal fed treatment; Lessons for the Colorado River from drought-stricken Australia; EPA Whistle-Blower Warns EPA Must Not Buckle to Industry Pressure and Greenwash Fracking; Sandia Laboratory testing miniature glitter-sized solar cells; Pharmaceutical manufacturer fined for Violating Hazardous Waste Law; This is where your plants will come from after the Ecopocalypse; UN Ambitions in Check on Global Climate Deal; Conservation Funding Sparks Political Battle; Robo-Deer Used to Catch Poachers; CA Bans Possession, Sale of Shark Fins …PLUS: Obama Rips GOP Defeatism: ‘I’m Not Going To Surrender To Other Countries’ …
STORIES DISCUSSED IN TODAY’S ‘GREEN NEWS REPORT’…
- Panic of the Plutocrats: Rightwing freakout over peaceful Occupier protests challenging corporate greed:
- Glenn Beck Tries To Vilify Wall Street Protests, Fails To Disclose His Coordination With Bank Lobbyists And Oil Barons (Think Progress):
As Beck plays defense for billionaires and big banks, he conceals quite a bit to his listeners. Beck in fact works hand in hand with the same corporate lobbyists and plutocrats responsible for corrupting our political system.
- Rachel Maddow: Conservatives in panicked hysteria over Occupy Wall Street (The Rachel Maddow Show, MSNBC)
- Occupy Wall Street movement pushes back against dirty fossil fuel corporations:
- VIDEO: Bill McKibben At Occupy Wall Street: ‘Wall Street Has Been Occupying The Atmosphere’, ‘Exxon Does Not Own the Sky’ (Think Progress Green):
The reason that it’s so great that we’re occupying Wall Street is because Wall Street has been occupying the atmosphere. That’s why we can never do anything about global warming. Exxon gets in the way. Goldman Sachs gets in the way. The whole fossil fuel industry gets in the way. The sky does not belong to Exxon. They cannot keep using it as a sewer into which to dump their carbon. If they do, we’ve got no future and nobody else on this planet has a future.
- Climate Activists Stand With Occupy Wall Street Movement (Climate Progress)
- Keystone XL Pipeline Bombshell — Emails indicate conflict of interest in pipeline contractor environmental impact study:
- State Department Admits Its ‘Independent’ Tar Sands Pipeline Review Was Paid For By TransCanada (Think Progress Green) [emphasis added]:
The State Department has admitted their environmental review of the proposed Keystone XL tar sands pipeline was conducted by a contractor paid for by the pipeline company itself, a potentially illegal conflict of interest first reported by ThinkProgress Green.
…
The State Department’s approval hinges upon a positive Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), required by the National Environmental Policy Act to assess whether the pipeline is in the national interest.A State Department official has admitted to the New York Times that the EIS was conducted by a company chosen and paid by TransCanada itself, flouting NEPA’s conflict-of-interest rules.
- Pipeline Review Is Faced With Question of Conflict (New York Times):
The State Department assigned an important environmental impact study of the proposed Keystone XL pipeline to a company with financial ties to the pipeline operator, flouting the intent of a federal law meant to ensure an impartial environmental analysis of major projects.
The department allowed TransCanada, the company seeking permission to build the 1,700-mile pipeline from the oil sands of northern Alberta to the Gulf Coast in Texas, to solicit and screen bids for the environmental study. At TransCanada’s recommendation, the department hired Cardno Entrix, an environmental contractor based in Houston, even though it had previously worked on projects with TransCanada and describes the pipeline company as a “major client” in its marketing materials.
- Koch Subsidiary Told Regulators It Has ‘Direct and Substantial Interest’ in Keystone XL (Inside Climate News):
A document filed with Canada’s Energy Board appears to cast doubt on claims by Koch Industries that it has no interest in the controversial pipeline.
In recent months Koch Industries Inc., the business conglomerate run by billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch, has repeatedly told a U.S. Congressional committee and the news media that the proposed Keystone XL oil sands pipeline has “nothing to do with any of our businesses.”
But the company has told Canadian energy regulators a different story …“a direct and substantial interest in the application” for the pipeline under consideration..
- Conservation Groups Sue To Block Transcanada Pipeline (Bloomberg)
- Keystone Hearing in Nebraska Sandhills Draws Mostly Critics, and Passions Flare (Inside Climate News)
- IEA Warns of Ballooning World Fossil Fuel Subsidies Reuters):
Global subsidies for fossil fuel consumption are set to reach $660 billion in 2020 unless reforms are passed to effectively eliminate this form of state aid, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said on Tuesday.
- German State Minister: We Can Decarbonize With Renewables Because “We Don’t Have the … Koch brothers” (Think Progress):
“We don’t have the situation like you have in the U.S., where you have this Koch brothers,” Untersteller said, referring to the billionaire heirs of Koch Industries.
- State Department’s Keystone Conflict of Interest: Former Clinton Campaign Staffer ‘Coached’ TransCanada:
- TransCanada Pipeline Foes See U.S. Bias in E-Mails (NY Times)
- READ the Emails: Keystone XL: New documents reveal bias and complicity at State Department (Friends of the Earth)
- State Department Keystone XL Hearings Run By TransCanada Contractor (Think Progress Green)
- Controversial decision awaits as hearings on oil sands pipeline ends (McClatchy DC)
- State Dept. hires TransCanada consultant to approve Keystone pipeline (Creekside Blog)
- American Enterprise Institute Spends $4 Million on Pro-Pipeline Ads (Open Secrets.org)
- Keystone Pipeline: Demanding Hillary Clinton’s E-Mail “” Now (NYT Green):
Its principal lobbyist is a man named Paul Elliott. Remember him? He was a deputy director of Hilary Clinton’s presidential campaign three years ago.
- Million-dollar Solyndra bankruptcy gets more coverage the Billion-dollar Iraq war contracting corruption
- Out Of Proportion? The Solyndra Media Storm By The Numbers (Media Matters)
- TV News Outlets Ignore Keystone XL Email Release (Media Matters)
- The world’s newest oil spill, now in New Zealand!:
- Oil spill is New Zealand’s ‘worst maritime disaster’ (Guardian UK):
Oil leaking into the sea has increased by as much as ten-fold, with the government calling it New Zealand’s worst ever maritime environmental disaster.
- Rena spill: ‘Tomorrow much worse’ (NZ Herald):
Ms Taylor said the oil which has washed up over the last two days is only from the initial spill.
Much more has since spilled from the ship.
“I must prepare you for tomorrow morning it will be much worse.”
- New Zealand’s Biggest Oil Spill Worsens, Hits Beaches (Environment News Service)
- Rena oil spill: ship’s captain arrested, 70 containers fall into sea (NZ Herald)
- Rena oil spill an unfortunate lesson (Greenpeace USA)
- Dispersant to break up Rena oil ‘harms sea life’ (NZ Herald)
‘GREEN NEWS EXTRA’ (Stuff we didn’t have time for in today’s audio report)…
- Coal is the enemy of the human race, mainstream economics edition (David Roberts, Grist):
[S]pread this around. Coal’s net economic effects on the U.S. are poorly understood, to say the least, and this paper’s findings are stunning.
Once you strip away the econ jargon, the paper finds that electricity from coal imposes more damages on the U.S. economy than the electricity is worth. That’s right: Coal-fired power is a net value-subtracting industry. A parasite, you might say. A gigantic, blood-sucking parasite that’s enriching a few executives and shareholders at the public’s expense.
- Is it too late for Central Appalachia to prepare for the coming collapse of the coal industry? (Coal Tattoo)
- China’s PV Feed-In Law Results in Solar Boom, Unlike Weak US Subsidies (Grist)
- Illinois Team Wins Oil Spill Cleanup X CHALLENGE
- Study Finds 25% By 2025 Renewable Energy Target Could Create Millions Of New Jobs
- Backers Of Algae Biofuel R&D Want Equal Treatment (Talking Points Mem0
- Lessons for the Colorado River from drought-stricken Australia (High Country News)
- EPA Whistle-Blower Warns EPA Must Not Buckle to Industry Pressure and Greenwash Fracking Yet Again (Grist)
- Sandia researchers are working to make miniature glitter-sized solar cells
- This is where your plants will come from after the Ecopocalypse
- Ambitions in Check on Global Climate Deal (AFP):
With just weeks to go before UN talks on climate change open in South Africa, negotiators have shifted their goal from striking a historic deal to ensuring that the global system survives.
- Conservation Funding Sparks Political Battle (Washington Post):
The 50,000 drivers who cruise daily along Interstate 25 between Denver and Colorado Springs drive through ranch and farm land marked by dramatic buttes and the presence of wild animals, a vista that might have been very different but for a little-known federal program. The Land and Water Conservation Fund, which Congress created in 1965, helped pay for this open space, along with large swaths of land in other areas across the country. But there is a fight looming in Washington as Congress plans to drastically cut the program’s budget, and President Obama, who had accepted cuts in the past, appears ready to oppose them.
- Robo-Deer Used to Catch Poachers Across the U.S. (Huffington Post Green):
Nighttime deer poachers beware – that shadowy creature on the side of the road may just be remote-controlled.
- CA Bans Possession, Sale of Shark Fins (Environment News Service):
Governor Jerry Brown [Friday] signed legislation to ban the possession and sale of shark fins in California, saying shark finning for culinary purposes has led to substantial declines in shark populations worldwide. California is the fourth U.S. state to enact a ban on the sale of shark fins, joining Hawaii, Washington, and Oregon.
- Obama Rips GOP Defeatism: ‘I’m Not Going To Surrender To Other Countries’ (Think Progress Green):
I heard there was a Republican member of Congress who is engaging in oversight on this. And despite the fact that all of them in the past have been supportive of this loan guarantee program, he concluded, “You know what? We can’t compete against China when it comes to solar energy.”
Well, you know what?
I don’t buy that. I’m not going to surrender to other countries the technological leads that can end up determining whether we’re building that in this country. So we’re going to have to keep on pushing hard to make sure the manufacturing is located here, new businesses are located here and new technologies are developed here. And there are going to be times when it doesn’t work out, but I’m not going to cave to the competition when they are heavily subsidizing all these industries.
The American Journal of Public Health links an increase of unexpected types health problems of strange sorts to the continued use of petroleum as peak oil reality passes on by.
Texas edits out references to climate change in official documents.