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(Or use “Click here to listen…” link below.)IN TODAY’S RADIO REPORT: Polluters and their allies line up to attack Obama’s new landmark emissions rule; Majority of Americans support cutting emissions and fighting global warming; U.S. finally getting its first offshore wind farm; PLUS: Republicans get a new 2016 contender — try to guess his position on climate change. Go ahead, guess… All that and more in today’s Green News Report!
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IN ‘GREEN NEWS EXTRA’ (see links below): The Point of no return: climate change nightmares already here; G20 countries pay over $1,000 per citizen in fossil fuel subsidies, says IMF; US Forest Service running out of money to fight wildfires; US Raises Concerns About Pipeline Through Forests; Strawberries Are in Big Trouble. Scientists Race To Find Solution; Big-Ag-Fueled Algae Bloom Won’t Leave Toledo’s Water Supply Alone… PLUS: VIDEO: The Secrets of “The Climate Paradox”… and much, MUCH more! …
STORIES DISCUSSED ON TODAY’S ‘GREEN NEWS REPORT’…
- Jim Gilmore Announces Bid to Be 17th Republican Presidential Candidate:
- Long-shot? Yes, but Jim Gilmore says he’s most qualified in GOP field (WMUR)
- The Most (And Least) Extreme Republican Presidential Candidates On Climate Change (Climate Progress):
“We know the climate is changing, but we do not know for sure how much is caused by man and how much is part of a natural cycle change,†Gilmore said in a 2008 voter guide for the Virginia senate race against Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA). “I do believe we must work toward reducing emissions without damaging our fragile economy.â€
- Torrent of Lawsuits Against Clean Power Plan:
- Obama releases his most ambitious climate policy yet – the Clean Power Plan (Vox.com):
For the first time ever, the EPA will require power plants to cut their carbon emissions. Here’s why that’s a big deal.
- 16 States Ask Obama Admin To Put Power Plant Rules on Hold (AP):
The campaign to stop President Barack Obama’s sweeping emissions limits on power plants began taking shape Wednesday, as 16 states asked the government to put the rules on hold while a Senate panel moved to block them.
- Move to Fight Obama’s Climate Plan Started Early (NY Times) [emphasis added]:
Within minutes of the announcement, West Virginia’s attorney general, Patrick Morrisey, stepped before a bank of cameras for a news conference at the Greenbrier resort in his home state. Flanked by Mike Duncan, the president of the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity, one of the nation’s top coal lobbying groups, and Greg Zoeller, the attorney general of Indiana, Mr. Morrisey announced that a group of at least 15 Republican state attorneys general were preparing to jointly file a legal challenge to Mr. Obama’s proposal.
- Republican Governors Signal Their Intent to Thwart Obama’s Climate Rules (NY Times)
- GOP Candidates attack Clean Power Plan
- Republicans’ Climate Change Plan: Crickets (Bloomberg):
Top Republican presidential candidates took turns attacking President Barack Obama’s new Clean Power Plan unveiled Monday to combat climate change, dismissing the new rules to slash carbon emissions as “radical” or “irresponsible” or “a buzz saw on the nation’s economy.” Missing from the crowded field of contenders were any alternate proposals to address the growing threat…
- How 2016 candidates are reacting to Obama’s climate plan (Washington Post)
- Senate Panel Votes To Block Obama’s Climate Rule (The Hill)
- PPP Poll: Strong Support for Climate Action in Swing States:
- Poll: Climate plan overwhelmingly popular in swing states, especially in Florida (Political Animal):
The poll asked voters in eight swing states, including Florida, what they thought about the president’s recently released Clean Power Plan. The plan would require power plants to reduce their carbon emissions, thereby reducing the amount of carbon in the atmosphere to 22 percent below what it was in 2005 by 2030. The survey suggested the vast majority of swing state voters like the plan. “Sixty-three percent of voters support it,” said Tom Jensen, director of PPP. “Across those eight swing states. Only 35 percent oppose it.”
- Poll: Strong support for EPA Clean Power Plan to cut carbon pollution (Augusta Free Press)
- Clean Power Plan Prioritizes Renewables Over Natural Gas:
- Gas Just Another Fossil-Fuel Loser in Obama Renewables Push (Bloomberg) [emphasis added]:
“Given the relatively accelerated timeline required to meet the interim target, the so-called ‘bridge’ has been largely eliminated and replaced by renewables,†said Teri Viswanath, director of commodities strategy at BNP Paribas SA in New York.
- Clean Power Plan Has A Message For Natural Gas, And It’s Not Good (Clean Technica) [emphasis added]:
In recent months the Obama Administration has taken steps to address the “fugitive methane” issue, and that could have serious cost issues for the natural gas industry. That in turn will undercut any remaining price advantage natural gas has over wind and solar, further accelerating renewable energy investment.
- Study: Methane Leaks May Be Vastly Underestimated:
- Landmark Paper Underestimated Methane Leaks from Gas Production, Study Says (InsideClimate News):
A dispute between two environmental scientists is creating a controversy over how much methane is leaking from natural gas production and is contributing to global warming.
- Methane Leaks May Greatly Exceed Estimates, Report Says (NY Times):
A device commonly used to measure the methane that leaks from industrial sources may greatly underestimate those emissions, said an inventor of the technology that the device relies on.
- U.S. Gets Its First Offshore Wind Farm:
- Construction Begins on U.S. First Offshore Wind Farm (Ecology Today):
Because the island uses only 1 megawatt of power in the off-season and 4 megawatts in the summer peak season, the remaining 90 percent of the energy produced during the off season will be sent to other state customers via a 25-mile bi-directional submerged transmission cable between Block Island and the Rhode Island mainland.
- Cape Wind seeks more time to restart stalled wind farm (Boston Globe)
‘GREEN NEWS EXTRA’ (Stuff we didn’t have time for in today’s audio report)…
- The Point of No Return: Climate Change Nightmares Are Already Here (Rolling Stone):
The worst predicted impacts of climate change are starting to happen — and much faster than climate scientists expected.
- VIDEO: The Secrets of “The Climate Paradox” (Planetary Advocates):
Based on “What We Think About When We Try Not To Think About Global Warming” by Per Espen Stoknes.
- G20 countries pay over $1,000 per citizen in fossil fuel subsidies, says IMF (Guardian UK):
New figures from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) show that the US, which hosted the G20 summit in 2009, gives $700bn a year in fossil fuel subsidies, equivalent to $2,180 for every American. President Barack Obama backed the phase out but has since overseen a steep rise in federal fossil fuel subsidies.
- California wildfire is ‘creeping and smoldering’ its way near thousands of homes (Mashable):
“The time has come for Congress to change the way it funds the Forest Service,” said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack in a press release. “No other natural disasters are funded this way.”
- US Raises Concerns About Pipeline Through Forests (AP_”
The U.S. Forest Service has raised hundreds of concerns about a proposed natural gas pipeline that would carve a 30-mile swath through national forests in Virginia and West Virginia.
- Strawberries Are in Big Trouble. Scientists Race To Find Solution (Washington Post):
EPA is trying to phase out the soil fumigant methyl bromide, on which the commercial strawberry crop has been dependent. Methyl bromide damages the ozone layer of the atmosphere. But the effort to find an adequate substitute has scientists scrambling.
- Big-Ag-Fueled Algae Bloom Won’t Leave Toledo’s Water Supply Alone (Mother Jones):
As August warms waters seasonally in many parts of the U.S., harmful algal blooms are causing health hazards. A prime example is Toledo, where high levels of an algal toxin made city drinking water unusable last year. Algal blooms in the warm, shallow Lake Erie are worsened by agricultural runoff. With climate warming, new algal blooms are showing up in new places, like the Pacific Ocean.
- Wilderness: Bill To Protect Central Idaho Mountains Clears Congress (E&E News):
A decadelong push to protect central Idaho’s Boulder-White Clouds region came to a close yesterday afternoon with the Senate’s unanimous approval of H.R. 1138.
- Ted Cruz expresses ‘full out denial’ of global warming during forum (Guardian UK):
Republican presidential candidate said the debate was a device used by liberals to appease ‘environmentalist billionaires and their campaign donations’
- Every country is now pledging to tackle CO2 emissions. It’s still not enough. (Vox.com):
In other words, if the world wants to stay below 2°C of global warming – which has long been considered the danger zone for climate change – these pledges are only a first step. Countries will have to do a whole lot more than they’re currently promising. And the IEA has a few ideas for what “do a whole lot more” might entail.
…
1. Increase energy efficiency in the industry, buildings, and transport sectors.
2. Progressively reduce the use of the least efficient coal-fired power plants and banning their construction.
3. Increase investment in renewable energy technologies in the power sector from $270 billion in 2014 to $400 billion in 2030.
4. Gradually phase out fossil fuel subsidies to end-users by 2030.
5. Reduce methane emissions in oil and gas production. - Now’s Your Chance to Help Save the Imperiled Monarch Butterfly-and Get Paid to Do So (Take Part) [emphasis added]:
Another threat, according to Grant, has been well-intentioned individuals who have planted a tropical form of milkweed, which competes with native varieties and is not beneficial to monarchs or other pollinators.
FOR MORE on Climate Science and Climate Change, go to our Green News Report: Essential Background Page
- Skeptical Science: Database with FULL DEBUNKING of ALL Climate Science Denier Myths
- 4 Scenarios Show What Climate Change Will Do To The Earth, From Pretty Bad To Disaster (Fast CoExist):
But exactly how bad is still an open question, and a lot depends not only on how we react, but how quickly. The rate at which humans cut down on greenhouse gas emissions–if we do choose to cut them–will have a large bearing on how the world turns out by 2100, the forecasts reveal.- How to Solve Global Warming: It’s the Energy Supply (Scientific American):
Restraining global warming to no more than 2 degrees Celsius will require changing how the world produces and uses energy to power its cities and factories, heats and cools buildings, as well as moves people and goods in airplanes, trains, cars, ships and trucks, according to the IPCC. Changes are required not just in technology, but also in people’s behavior.- Warning: Even in the best-case scenario, climate change will kick our asses (Grist)
- NASA Video: Warming over the last 130 years, and into the next 100 years:
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“There is such a thing as too late when it comes to climate change.” – President Obama