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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: A nuclear re-start for Japan --- but also a solar revolution; Most anti-environment Congress in history, gutting everything --- or at least trying to; Rio+20: UN Sustainability summit gets underway in Brazil; PLUS: Oh really, Donald Trump? OPEC is in the tank for Obama?!? .... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

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): The Great German Energy Experiment; Carbon Capture Fail: Earthquakes caused by process would defeat purpose; Massive Twitter storm against fossil fuel subsidies; Arctic sea ice death spiral 2012; San Onofre nuclear problems caused by faulty models; Global warming's evil twin threatens West Coast fishing grounds; Debunking Fox News' EPA drone lie; EPA: new rules on soot pollution; VA-GOP Fail: Norfolk is sinking; Another virus infects Canada’s salmon farms; CA gov seeks new restrictions on toxic flame retardants ... PLUS: Pollution, Poverty, People of Color: Falling into the 'climate gap' ... and much, MUCH more! ...

STORIES DISCUSSED IN TODAY'S 'GREEN NEWS REPORT'...

• Donald Trump: OPEC is in the tank for Obama!:
• Right-Wing Media Promote Another Trump Conspiracy: Oil Edition (Media Matters.org)
• Oil Prices Keep Falling, But a Strange Gap Persists (BusinessWeek)
• VIDEO: Trump: Obama's Secret Saudi Oil Deal To Win Re-Election: (Fox Nation) [emphasis added]:
  
  DONALD TRUMP: I think Saudi Arabia is doing Obama a big fat favor. I think he asked for the favor and prices are coming down, but also the economy's going bad so maybe it won't help that much. but as soon as --- assuming if Obama got elected, you're going to see something with oil like you've never seen before, it will go through the roof. The favor will be repaid many times over.
• VIDEO: Fox's Gas Price Predictions Fall Flat (Media Matters.org)
• STUDY: Media Missing The Mark On Gas Prices (Media Matters.org)
• What Reporters Are Getting Wrong About Gas Prices (Media Matters.org)
• VIDEO: Divided OPEC grapples with whether to cut production, prop up oil prices (Washington Post) [emphasis added]:
  
  With the global economy at a tipping point, a deeply divided Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries meeting in Vienna wrangled over whether to cut production and prop up crude oil prices.
• JAPAN: Nuclear Reactors to Re-Start:
• Japan PM orders nuclear restart amid protests (AFP):
  
  Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda on Saturday received approval for the restarts from Issei Nishikawa, the pro-nuclear power governor of central Fukui prefecture, which hosts the plant.
• Fukushima evacuees, citizens groups vexed by Oi restart decision (Asahi Shimbun)
• Jitters as Japan decides to restart nuclear reactors: Critics of Prime Minister Noda's decision to restart nuclear reactors in the town of Oi worry that nearby communities are unprepared to deal with a Fukushima-scale nuclear crisis. (CS Monitor)
• Work begins on controversial Japan nuclear restart (AFP)
• Japan to restart nuclear reactors despite widespread fear (LA Times)
• Japan To Get New Atomic Regulatory Body Within Three Months (Reuters)
• Businesses in push to restart more reactors (Asahi Shimbun)
• Japanese authorities sat on data showing radiation spread (Reuters):
  
  Japanese authorities failed to disclose U.S. data about the spread of radiation spewing from a crippled nuclear plant last year, a cabinet minister said on Tuesday, leaving some evacuees fleeing in the same direction as the radioactive emissions.
• JAPAN Announces New Solar Revolution:
• Japan Approves Renewable Subsidies In Shift From Nuclear Power (Reuters):
  
  Japan approved on Monday incentives for renewable energy that could unleash billions of dollars in clean-energy investment and help the world's third-biggest economy shift away from a reliance on nuclear power after the Fukushima disaster.
  ...
  Subsidies have spurred explosive growth in renewable energy in countries such as Germany, which has nearly tripled its output in less than a decade.

• Japan Poised to Become Second-Biggest Market for Solar Power (NY Times) [emphasis added]:
  
  Japan is poised to overtake Italy and become the world’s second-biggest market for solar power, as incentives starting July 1 propel sales. It could eventually top Germany, which holds the No. 1 spot.

  Industry Minister Yukio Edano on Monday set a price for solar electricity that is about triple what industrial users now pay for conventional power. That may drive at least $9.6 billion in new installations with 3.2 gigawatts of capacity, Bloomberg New Energy Finance forecast. That is about equal to the output of three atomic reactors.

• Solar Makers Climb After Japan Announces Subsidized Rates (Bloomberg)
• Panasonic Sees Japan Share of Solar Sales Jump on Tariff (BusinessWeek):
  
  “We expect a boom in the residential market as the FIT [feed-in tarrif] price was set at a very good level,” Kazuhiro Yoshida, who heads the Osaka-based electronics-maker’s solar business, told reporters in Tokyo today.
• U.S. solar installations jump 85% in first quarter (Reuters)
• Anti-Environment Week on Capitol Hill: Most Anti-Environment Congress in History
• REPORT: Most Anti-Environment House Of Representatives In History Voted 109 Times To Enrich Big Oil (Climate Progress):
  
  The House of Representatives holds the title of the most anti-environment House in congressional history. Led by Republicans, the House has voted against the environment 247 times in the last 18 months, averaging one anti-environmental vote for every day the House has been in session.
• House Considers ‘Drone Zone’ Bill To Roll Back Dozens Of Environmental Laws Within 100 Miles of U.S. Borders (Climate Progress)
• Hearing to revive natural-gas climate battle (The Hill's E2 Wire)
• House bill to exempt DHS from enviro regs 100 miles from border (The Hill's E2 Wire)
• IEA Report: Natural Gas Is Not The Answer To Climate Problem, Existing Cleantech Is — And It Could Save $100 Trillion By 2050 (Climate Progress):
  
  The once staid International Energy Agency continues its string of blunt, must-read reports laying bare the reality of our climate and energy system.
• Sen. James Inhofe Attempts To Block New Mercury Pollution Rules:
• White House waves veto pen at measure to nix EPA pollution rules (The Hill's E2 Wire)
• They Fought The Law: Big Utilities Sue the EPA and Lobby the Senate to Stop Public Health Protection (Climate Progress):
  
  Today more than 130 coal companies, electric utilities, trade associations, other polluting industries, and states are suing the EPA in federal court to obliterate, undermine, or delay these essential health protection standards.
• Report: The Positive Outlook for Cleaner Air and Reliable Electric Service (Analysis Group):
  
  “Americans need not compromise cleaner air for affordable, reliable electricity...”
• Mayors: We’d appreciate it if coal plants stopped poisoning people with mercury, thanks (Grist):
  
  [W]e want to express our strong support for the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) recently issued Mercury and Air Toxics Standards for Power Plants (MATS). Mayors are on the front lines of protecting public health and this long overdue safeguard will reap tremendous benefits for our communities.
• Think Air Quality Regulations Don't Matter? Look at Pittsburgh in the 1940s! (Treehugger)
• BRAZIL: Rio+20 UN Conference on Sustainable Development Gets Underway:
• MAIN: United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (United Nations)
• Factbox: The Rio+20 Development Conference (Reuters):
  
  The conference aims to secure fresh political commitment from world leaders for "sustainable development" that takes into account economic growth, social development and environmental protection.
• Rio+20 conference's search for green solutions hampered by deep divisions: Expectations for action are low despite UN assessment that the world's environment is declining rapidly (Guardian UK)
• Rio+20 negotiators accused of strong-arm tactics (Guardian UK)
• What to Expect from the UN Conference on Sustainable Development, Rio+20 (Treehugger)
• UN Envoys Plan Sustainability Goals Without Impact in Draft (Bloomberg)
• VIDEO: 12-year-old whose awesome speech floored 1992 Rio Summit returns to Rio+20 as a mom (Grist)
• IEA Warns of Runaway Emissions (Yale 360) [emphasis added]:
  
  [Fatih Birol on] why the global community must take action in the next several years if it hopes to avert temperature increases that could range as high as 6 degrees Celsius (11 degrees Fahrenheit), way past the 2 degrees C increase that climate scientists say is a prudent upper limit.

• Earth may be near tipping point, scientists warn: A group of scientists warns that population growth, climate change and environmental damage are pushing Earth toward calamitous and irreversible changes. (LA Times): [emphasis added]
  
  A group of international scientists is sounding a global alarm, warning that population growth, climate change and environmental destruction are pushing Earth toward calamitous — and irreversible — biological changes.
• Analysis: Can Economic Growth Last? (UC San Diego Dept. of Physics blog):
  
  [T]he U.S. has expanded its use of energy at a typical rate of 2.9% per year since 1650. We learned that continuation of this energy growth rate in any form of technology leads to a thermal reckoning in just a few hundred years (not the tepid global warming, but boiling skin!). What does this say about the long-term prospects for economic growth, if anything?

'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (Stuff we didn't have time for in today's audio report)...

• The Great German Energy Experiment (MIT Technology Review):
  
  Germany has decided to pursue ambitious greenhouse-gas reductions—while closing down its nuclear plants. Can a heavily industrialized country power its economy with wind turbines and solar panels? [Yes.]
• Researchers say Earthquakes Would Let Stored CO2 Escape: A study by Stanford researchers says seismic risks could undermine large-scale carbon capture. (MIT Technology Review):
  
  The oil and gas industry already uses techniques that are similar to CCS during resource extraction and wastewater disposal, and these processes are known to induce small earthquakes.
  ...
  Zoback says the risks associated with such quakes can be managed through careful site selection, but large-scale CCS could be more problematic. "You have to be far more restrictive" when choosing a carbon dioxide repository, he explains, since the task is to "keep a buoyant fluid in place for hundreds to thousands of years."
• Activists hail success of Twitter storm against fossil fuel subsidies:
  High-profile support for #endfossilfuelsubsidies campaign helps it to top trending topic in US and second place globally (Guardian UK)
• Death Spiral Watch: Arctic Sea Ice Takes A Nosedive (Climate Progress):
  
  If you want to mislead people into thinking that there is nothing weird going on in the Arctic, you have to do it during winter. In winter things almost look normal on some graphs, with gaps between trend lines and long-term averages not as ridiculously big as during spring and summer.
  ...
  The Arctic is becoming ever more problematic for their life work, ie denying AGW could ever be a problem and thus delaying any meaningful action on mitigating the consequences of AGW. Thank God water still freezes in winter.
• Faulty computer modeling caused San Onofre equipment problems (LA Times): NRC officials give their first public account of their investigation into the plant's problems. They don't indicate how long it is likely to remain out of service.