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IN TODAY’S RADIO REPORT: L.A. to be 100% coal-free; TN conservatives slam mountaintop removal coal mining – by China; NV coal company faked air pollution reports; Green jobs are the fastest growing job sector in the nation; PLUS: Leave it to beavers – ‘hero’ beaver dam halts oil spill … All that and more in today’s Green News Report!

Green News Report with Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen 3/21/2013

‘Green News Report’ – March 21, 2013  |  With Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen...   · · · · ·   ‘Green News Report’ – March 21, 2013  |  With Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen...

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IN ‘GREEN NEWS EXTRA’ (see links below): State Dept. hid ties to Keystone XL pipeline company; Toyota Unveils New I-Road; NOAA: ‘Robust’ independent evidence confirms thermometer measurements; Climate Science Denier Leads House Science Subcommittee; Pope Francis calls for defending environment; Report: Security risks of climate change; Enviro groups criticize Obama’s DOE nominee energy industry ties; Polar bear habitat shrinks even more… PLUS: How to cut U.S. gasoline use in half by 2030 … and much, MUCH more! …

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

• VIDEO: Fox News: Solar Power “Might Be Tanking Our Economy” (Media Matters):
  Experts note that it is common for an industry to consolidate as it matures, as some companies are out-competed or bought out by larger companies.
• NV Coal Plant Faked Air Pollution Data:
• More coal-fired idiocy and mendacity in Nevada (Grist)
• Tribe accuses NV Energy of sending phony pollution data to regulators (Las Vegas Review-Journal):
  The Moapa Band of Paiute Indians bases its claim on documents showing the Nevada Division of Environmental Protection had to discard about five years of dust pollution data for one monitoring station at the Reid Gardner Generating Station after a 2011 investigation determined the information was logged incorrectly by a contractor hired by the utility to monitor the air around the plant.

  State environmental regulators blamed the phony data on “human error” by the contractor and let NV Energy off with a warning.

• Despite Harry Reid’s objections, EPA clears coal-fired power plant to operate (Las Vegas Sun):
  The Sierra Club and the Moapa Band of Paiutes located near the plant had also called for its closure.There were complaints the haze caused by the pollution contributed to the visibility at the Jarbidge Wilderness area and in the Grand Canyon and Bryce Canyon.
• TN Conservatives Slam MTR Coal-Mining — by China:
• VIDEO: Conservatives Outraged About Mountaintop Removal in Tennessee… By Chinese Company (Mother Jones):
  The Tennessee Conservative Union ad warns that they will become “the first state in our great nation to permit the red Chinese to destroy our mountains and take our coal…”We’re proud that Tennessee is a red state,” the ad concludes. “But just how red are we willing to go?”
  …
  The ad comes off as anti-China, but it also offers a critique of mountaintop removal coal mining in general, which is the big news here.



• L.A. To Be Coal-Free by 2025:
• L.A. moves to eliminate reliance on coal-powered energy (LA Times):
  DWP commissioners proceed with plans to dump the utility’s interest in a coal-burning plant in Arizona and convert another plant in Utah to natural gas.
• VIDEO: Kicking LA’s Coal Addiction (YouTube, Office of LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa)
• EXCLUSIVE: Antonio Villaraigosa on getting off of coal, renewables, green legacy (KPCC)
• Green jobs grow four times faster than others (LA Times) [emphasis added]:
  Clean-energy jobs make up a small part of U.S. employment, but a new federal report shows they are growing much faster than other work, even healthcare. The nation had about 3.4 million green energy jobs in 2011, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said Tuesday in its second annual and final look at this emerging category of employment. (More on why it’s the last report later.)

  In all, so-called green jobs accounted for just 2.6% of all employment that year, but a comparison with 2010 data shows that these jobs grew at four times the rate of all the others combined.

• Utah Encourages Kids to Support Fossil Fuels on Earth Day:
• Utah Schoolchildren Asked To Celebrate Fossil Fuels And Mining On Earth Day (Climate Progress)
• Official Contest Rules: 2013 Theme: Where Would WE Be Without Oil, Gas & Mining? [PDF] (UT Div. of Oil, Gas & Mining): “DO NOT USE GLITTER.”
• Hero Beavers: Beaver Dam Halts Chevron Pipeline Oil Spill:
• Beaver dams block Chevron oil spill in Utah (Grist)
• Crews work to clean up diesel spill, beavers near Willard Bay (Standard-Examiner)
• Hero beavers of Willard Bay spill on mend at wildlife center
• Diesel spill closes portions of Willard Bay State Park: Emergency responders on Tuesday flocked to Chevron’s third petroleum pipeline spill in Utah in less than three years. (Salt Lake Tribune)

‘GREEN NEWS EXTRA’ (Stuff we didn’t have time for in today’s audio report)…

• How to cut U.S. gasoline use in half by 2030 (Washington Post):
  [I]f the United States ever plans to deal seriously with climate change, the transportation sector will have to change drastically. And the National Academy of Sciences report concludes that no one single policy or technology will do the trick.
• EXCLUSIVE: State Dept. Hid Contractor’s Ties to Keystone XL Pipeline Company (Mother Jones):
  A top expert who helped write the government’s latest Keystone report previously consulted on three different TransCanada projects””a fact the State Department tried to hide.
• VIDEO: Toyota Unveils New I-Road. I-Want One. (Climate Crocks)
• NOAA: ‘Robust, Unambiguous’ Independent Evidence Confirms The Recent Global Warming Measured By Thermometers: Yes, The Modern Instruments Are Right. Just Ask The Coral. Or The Caves. Or The Ice Cores. Or The…. (Climate Progress)
• Climate Science Denier Leads House Science Subcommittee (Climate Progress)
• At inaugural Mass, Pope Francis calls for defending environment, poor (Religion News)
• A New Harvard Report Probes Security Risks of Extreme Weather and Climate Change (Harvard University for the Environment)
• Drilling Deeper: The Wealth of Business Connections for Obama’s Energy Pick (Pro Publica):
  [Energy Department cabinet nominee Ernie] Moniz’s work for energy companies since he served in President Clinton’s Energy Department has irked some environmentalists.
• LEDs: New [cheaper] Reasons to Change Light Bulbs (NY Times)
• Warming Arctic: Receding ice leaves Hudson Bay polar bears less time to eat (CS Monitor):
  Polar bears’ territorial tendencies and the diminishing ice season on Hudson Bay are conspiring to leave the animals less time to eat, researchers say. This bodes ill for their ability to reproduce, and survive.
• Days of Promise Fade for Ethanol (NY Times):
  Nearly 10 percent of the nation’s ethanol plants have stopped production over the past year, in part because the drought that has ravaged much of the nation’s crops pushed commodity prices so high that ethanol has become too expensive to produce.
• Canada: Ottawa seeks emergency cleanup of abandoned northern mine (CTV News):
  Federal officials are scrambling to clean up a crumbling, abandoned northern gold mine that is in imminent danger of releasing massive amounts of arsenic, asbestos and other toxins.
• Debunker: How the Daily Mail’s David Rose Hides the Rise in Global Warming (Skeptical Science)

• COVER STORY: It’s Global Warming, Stupid (Businessweek):
  If all that doesn’t impress, forget the scientists ostensibly devoted to advancing knowledge and saving lives. Listen instead to corporate insurers committed to compiling statistics for profit.
• Ocean Acidification: Animals are already dissolving in Southern Ocean (New Scientist)
• Global warming targets further out of reach, UN says (Phys.org):
  Based on current pledges, global average temperatures could rise by 3 to 5 degrees Celsius (5.4 to 9.0 degrees Fahrenheit) this century — way above the two degrees Celsius being targeted, said a UN Environment Programme (UNEP) report.

• Skeptical Science: Get the FULL DEBUNKING of ALL Climate Science Denier Arguments
• VIDEO: James Hansen: Why I must speak out about climate change (TED Talks):
  Top climate scientist James Hansen tells the story of his involvement in the science of and debate over global climate change. In doing so he outlines the overwhelming evidence that change is happening and why that makes him deeply worried about the future.
• VIDEO ANIMATION: Time history of atmospheric CO2 (NOAA Carbon Tracker YouTube channel):
• VIDEO: Animation Charts Modern Global Warming (NYT Green)
• Thinking Big: NREL Study Shows 80 Percent Renewables Possible By 2050 (Climate Progress)
• Part 1: The brutal logic of climate change (David Roberts, Grist) [emphasis added]:
  It’s simple: If there is to be any hope of avoiding civilization-threatening climate disruption, the U.S. and other nations must act immediately and aggressively on an unprecedented scale. That means moving to emergency footing. War footing. …It is unpleasant to talk like this. People don’t want to hear it.
• Part 2: The brutal logic of climate change mitigation (David Roberts, Grist)
• How to Buy Time in the Fight against Climate Change: Mobilize to Stop Soot and Methane: A short list of relatively simple actions taken to reduce greenhouse gases other than CO2 could help put the brakes on global warming–if implemented globally (Scientific American)
• World headed for irreversible climate change in five years, IEA warns: If fossil fuel infrastructure is not rapidly changed, the world will ‘lose for ever’ the chance to avoid dangerous climate change (Guardian UK) [emphasis added]:
  “The door is closing,” Fatih Birol, chief economist at the International Energy Agency, said. “I am very worried – if we don’t change direction now on how we use energy, we will end up beyond what scientists tell us is the minimum [for safety]. The door will be closed forever.”
• Concise Overview: The IPCC report on extreme climate and weather events (Real Climate)
• The Real Global Warming Signal (Tamino)