‘Green News Report’ – April 28, 2016

Follow @GreenNewsReport…

(Or use “Click here to listen…” link below.)

IN TODAY’S RADIO REPORT: ‘Presumptive’ GOP Presidential nominee Donald Trump goes nuclear over climate; CNN airs more ads for the fossil fuel industry than news stories on climate change; Volkswagen documents reveal scheme to defraud emissions tests; Mitsubishi admits cheating on fuel economy tests; PLUS: One major U.S. city is the first to mandate solar panels on all new buildings… 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 story behind Prince’s low-profile generosity to green causes; Punishing heat wave sets records across Asia; EPA launching new water infrastructure effort after Flint; Water Wars: GA Gov. Nathan Deal to Marco Rubio: ‘Maybe senators ought to have gag orders as well’; Exxon Mobil loses top credit rating it held since depression; Indian villagers have found a way to bottle the fragrance of monsoons; CO struggles with marijuana’s huge carbon footprint… PLUS: “There is no doubt”: Exxon knew CO2 pollution was a global threat by late 1970s… and much, MUCH more! …

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

• Hillary Clinton Rejects Charles Koch’s Non-Endorsement:
• What everybody missed about Charles Koch’s “endorsement” of Hillary Clinton (Salon):
  The Internet was abuzz yesterday when the billionaire supposedly threw his weight behind Clinton. But he didn’t.
• Donald Trump Denies National Security Impact of Climate Change:
• VIDEO: Presidential Candidate Donald Trump Primary Night Speech (C-SPAN):
  [@ 30:00] To me, always the number-one security threat to the United States is nuclear. That’s our biggest threat, it’s our biggest risk, the power of weaponry. And we have to be unbelievably careful. The single biggest – it is not global warming. President Obama said the biggest threat to our country is global warming – that’s called give me a break, okay? The biggest threat to our country is nuclear and we cannot let Iran get a nuclear weapon.
• Bernie Sanders Explains National Security Impacts of Climate Change:
• VIDEO: Senator Bernie Sanders Primary Night Speech (C-SPAN):
  [@ 44:00] “Climate is already causing devastating problems in our country and around the world. And here’s what the scientists also tell us, and this is scary stuff. They say if we do not get our act together and transform our energy system away from fossil fuel, then what we will be seeing in years to come is more drought, more flooding, more extreme weather disturbances, more acidification of the ocean, more rising sea levels, and more international conflict as people fight over limited natural resources.
• CNN Airs More Ads for Fossil Fuel Industry Than News Stories On Climate Change:
• STUDY: CNN Viewers See Far More Fossil Fuel Advertising Than Climate Change Reporting (Media Matters):
  Following temperature record announcements, oil industry ads outpaced climate-related coverage by almost 5-to-1.
• VIDEO: Vote4Energy :30 2016 TV Ad sponsored by American Petroleum Institute (YouTube),/li>
• Volkswagen Used PowerPoint Presentation to Explain Emissions Cheating:
• Volkswagen seriously made a PowerPoint presentation on how to cheat emissions tests (The Verge):
  In lieu of fitting better, cleaner systems that would’ve increased sticker prices, the presentation showed how VW could use embedded software to detect when an emissions test was underway and change engine parameters in response, making the cars appear cleaner than they actually were.
• Volkswagen agrees with US regulators to offer ‘substantial compensation’ to Dieselgate owners (The Verge)
• VW Presentation in ’06 Showed How to Foil Emissions Tests (NY Times):
  It is not known how widely the presentation was distributed at Volkswagen. But its existence, and the proposal it made to install the software, highlight a series of flawed decisions at the embattled carmaker surrounding the emissions problem.
• Mitsubishi Admits Cheating on Fuel Economy Standards:
• Mitsubishi admits it cheated on fuel mileage tests for 25 years (Guardian UK):
  Japanese carmaker has lost half of its market value, $3.9bn, since it said fuel-economy readings were being falsified…Ryugo Nakao, executive vice-president, said Japanese regulations changed in 1991 to require testing methods to better reflect stop-and-go urban driving, but Mitsubishi did not follow that rule change. “We should have switched, but it turns out we didn’t,” he said.
• Mitsubishi outdoes VW, admits 25 years of falsified economy tests (Ars Technica):
  But the problem only affects 600,000 cars sold in Japan.
• Mitsubishi Motors admits using wrong tests since 1991 (BBC):
  Almost 470,000 vehicles that Mitsubishi made for Nissan were affected and the issue was uncovered after Nissan found inconsistencies.
• NY Gov. Cuomo Rejects Permit For Proposed Natural Gas Pipeline:
• Within One Week, Plans For Two Major Proposed Natural Gas Pipelines Are Scrapped (Climate Progress):
  The agency wrote that the pipeline’s water quality application “fails in a meaningful way to address the significant water resource impacts that could occur from this Project and has failed to provide sufficient information to demonstrate compliance with New York State water quality standards.”
• Cuomo’s pipeline decision may have ripple effects for energy policy (Capital New York)
• Another fracking pipeline is rejected (CNN Money)
• San Francisco Becomes First City to Mandate Solar Panels In Building Codes:
• San Francisco Requires New Buildings To Install Solar Panels (NPR):
  [I]nstead of just preparing the roof for solar panels, such buildings would need to actually install some form of solar energy — either electricity-generating panels or solar heating units.
• Will San Francisco’s Solar Panel Mandate Increase Housing Costs? (Forbes)
• San Francisco is requiring solar panels on all new buildings. But here’s a much greener idea. (Vox):
  Limits on density may reduce San Francisco’s environmental impact, but they increase emissions elsewhere in the country. That’s because the people who can live in San Francisco emit far less carbon dioxide than people living in nearby suburban areas.

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

• “There is no doubt”: Exxon Knew CO2 Pollution Was A Global Threat By Late 1970s (DeSmog Blog):
  “There is no doubt that increases in fossil fuel usage and decreases of forest cover are aggravating the potential problem of increased CO2 in the atmosphere. Technology exists to remove CO2 from stack gases but removal of only 50% of the CO2 would double the cost of power generation.” Those lines appeared in a 1980 report, “Review of Environmental Protection Activities for 1978-1979,” produced by Imperial Oil, Exxon’s Canadian subsidiary.
• Punishing Heat Wave Sets Records Across Asia (VOA News):
  “In Southeast Asia this heat wave joins the historical ones of 1960, 1983 and 1998, but as for duration, intensity and affected area it is definitely the strongest heat wave for Thailand, Laos and Cambodia,” said Maximiliano Herrera, a prominent climatologist who investigates world temperature records.
• The story behind Prince’s low-profile generosity to green causes (Grist):
  “[H]e sent the check back and I sent it back again, and then he sent it back and then I sent it back, until finally a representative called and said, ‘Will you please accept this check? I won’t tell you who it is from, but the guy’s favorite color is purple.’ I said, ‘Well, now you have a different problem: I’m not gonna cash this check, I’m gonna frame it.’”
• EPA launching new water infrastructure effort after Flint (The Hill):
  The agency will focus on issues like state and federal oversight of drinking water and ways to help low-income communities disproportionately impacted by water problems. The effort will look at implementation of rules guiding lead and copper levels and how to regulate other chemicals that might be found in drinking water.
• Water Wars: GA Gov. Nathan Deal to Marco Rubio: ‘Maybe senators ought to have gag orders as well’: (Atlanta Journal-Constitution):
  He’s pontificating about the fact that the governors should be doing about this. He seems to forget that his governor, and his state, sued the state of Georgia in the U.S. Supreme Court. And that is an ongoing case and we’re under a gag order not to comment.” Deal added: “Maybe senators ought to have gag orders as well.”
• Exxon Mobil Loses Top Credit Rating It Held Since Depression (Bloomberg):
  The worst oil crash in a generation has cost Exxon Mobil Corp. the gold-plated credit rating it had held since the Great Depression.
• Making Perfume From the Rain: Indian villagers have found a way to bottle the fragrance of monsoons.
• Colo. Struggles With Marijuana’s Huge Carbon Footprint (E&E News):
  Colorado, which gets 60 percent of its electricity from coal-burning power plants, has set some of the more ambitious greenhouse gas reduction targets in the United States. It wants to cut emissions from its power plants 38 percent by 2030. … One of the immediate problems of the target-setters, however, is that the state lacks plans from its fastest-growing, most energy-hungry users: owners of indoor marijuana farms.
• Plants Emitting Pollutants Illegally, Report Claims (Texas Tribune):
  Hundreds of industrial facilities across Texas are illegally spewing millions of pounds of toxic pollutants into the air each year when they break down or perform maintenance, and state environmental regulators are not adequately policing the rogue emissions, according to a new report.
• Imperial Oil Described Its Climate-Warming Business As ‘Anti-Social’ (National Observer Canada):
  The Canadian affiliate of ExxonMobil, the world’s largest publicly traded multinational oil and gas corporation, has known for decades that its operations were causing environmental damage and contributing to climate change, according to newly-released documents from a Calgary museum.
• Scientists Say Oilfield Wastewater Spills Release Toxins (AP):
  Brine spills from oil development in western North Dakota are releasing toxins into soils and waterways, sometimes at levels exceeding federal water quality standards, scientists reported Wednesday.
• Why Malheur Wildlife Refuge Is Seeing Green After The Siege (CS Monitor):
  The armed occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge which ended in February has left an unexpected legacy to the park, one that appears to be in conflict with the occupiers’ original intent. Since the siege on the refuge ended in early February, the park has seen a surge of financial support.
• Chicago To Start Testing Water In Some Schools For Toxic Lead (Chicago Tribune):
  Shortly after Chicago Public Schools disclosed the district has not tested water fountains for lead contamination, Mayor Rahm Emanuel said the nation’s third-largest school system will begin checking water in a small number of schools this year. The announcement Wednesday came more than a month after the Tribune requested the results of any water quality tests conducted by or for CPS since 2012.
• Child’s Letter Stirs Obama’s Visit To Flint (Detroit News):
  President Barack Obama is planning to visit Flint on May 4 to spotlight the city’s lead-contaminated water that has deprived the city’s 100,000 residents of reliable access to drinking and bathing water.
• Want to fight climate change? Here are the 7 critical life changes you should make (Grist) [emphasis added]:
  So, given the imperfections of this world, what is a lone wolf such as yourself to do? Here are some conclusions gleaned from this study: 1. Buy the most fuel-efficient car you can afford, then drive it as little as possible….

FOR MORE on Climate Science and Climate Change, go to our Green News Report: Essential Background Page

• NASA climate change video: This is the U.S. in 2100 (NASA).