‘Green News Report’ – July 14, 2016

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IN TODAY’S RADIO REPORT: Porn is dirty, but coal is clean, says the Republican Party platform; Senate Democrats call out the ‘web’ of professional climate deniers; June 2016 was the hottest on record for the U.S.; PLUS: Another fracking explosion, this time in New Mexico… All that and more in today’s Green News Report!

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IN ‘GREEN NEWS EXTRA’ (see links below): Republicans just escalated the war over ExxonMobil and climate change; Once-respected science group has one more chance to reject Exxon Mobil funding; Transportation Dept. proposes new oil train rules; Puget Sound to close another coal plant; State’s Delta smelt plan calls for more water flowing to sea; Fake bio-diesel factory made millions; Loneliest natural gas terminal bucks pipeline trend; Number of Americans “alarmed” by climate change rises in latest poll… PLUS: Clean energy investment in 2016 undershoots last year’s record… and much, MUCH more! …

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

• Porn is dirty, but coal is clean, says Republican Party Platform Draft Committee:
• The Republican Party’s Platform Says Coal Is ‘Clean’ Energy (Climate Progress):
  For the Republican Party, internet porn is a “public health crisis.” Coal, however, is perfectly “clean.”
• Emerging Republican Platform Goes Far to the Right (NY Times)
• “Clean” Coal? Yeah, Not So Much. (Slate) [emphasis added]:
  “Clean coal” is a myth, a marketing term. Coal isn’t clean. Not even close. If you want to be honest, the term should be “cleaner coal,” or more accurately “somewhat less dirty coal.” Coal is one of the major sources of energy production in the U.S. (providing 33 percent of the total, comparable to natural gas). It gets burned, which turns water into steam, which drives turbines, which then generate electricity.
• Carbon capture technology plant an epic failure in Mississippi:
• Piles of Dirty Secrets Behind a Model ‘Clean Coal’ Project (NY times)
• Short Answers to Hard Questions About Clean Coal Technology (NY Times)
• AUDIO: ‘The New York Times’ Investigates An Ailing Clean Coal Project (NPR)
• Nineteen Senate Democrats call out climate change ‘web of denial’ industry:
• Senators Launch Resolution, Speech Blitz Calling Out #WebOfDenial Blocking Climate Action (DeSmogBlog):
  Nineteen U.S. Senators who understand the need to clear the PR pollution that continues to block overdue climate policy spoke out on the Senate floor Monday in support of the Senate Web of Denial Resolution calling out the destructive forces of fossil fuel industry-funded climate denial.
• VIDEO: Sen. Al Franken’s full speech on ‘Web of Denial’ (Sen. Al Franken)
• Exxon Mobil still funding climate denial groups:
• ExxonMobil: New Disclosures Show Oil Giant Still Funding Climate Science Denial Groups (DeSmogBlog):
  The company has pleaded innocence, with CEO Rex Tillerson telling the company’s shareholders that his views on climate science were perfectly in line with the United Nations. But the latest disclosures on donations by ExxonMobil, reported publicly here for the first time, show it continues to support organisations that claim greenhouse gases are not causing climate change, or that cuts to emissions are a waste of time and money.
• There is no doubt: Exxon Knew CO2 Pollution Was A Global Threat By Late 1970s (DeSmogBlog)
• NOAA: June 2016 hottest on record for continental U.S.:
• June was record-hot for the U.S., and billion-dollar weather disasters surge to eight (Washington Post):
  Last month was the hottest June on record for the Lower 48. If this kind of headline is starting to feel like a record on repeat, you’re correct — it’s the second June in a row that’s become the warmest on record for the U.S., although that fact is dwarfed by the string of globally hot months we’ve experienced over the past year.
• Fort McMurray fires most expensive disaster in Canadian history:
• Alberta Wildfires Costliest Disaster in Canadian History (Climate Central):
  “This wildfire, and the damage it caused, is more alarming evidence that extreme weather events have increased in both frequency and severity in Canada,” IBC President Don Forgeron said in a statement on Thursday. “We must build a more resilient country to better protect those affected by the very real impacts of our changing climate.”
• Fort McMurray wildfire now considered under control (CBC):
  The next phase is to extinguish the fire, which will likely take until the summer of 2017…On May 3, it entered Fort McMurray, forcing a mass evacuation of the city’s 80,000 residents.
• New Mexico: Fracking site explosion in high wildfire-risk area:
• VIDEO: Crews monitor fire at WPX oil production site (Farmington Daily-Times):
  Thick plumes of black smoke billowed over U.S. Highway 550 today as a fire continued to burn on a five-acre oil production site near Nageezi.
• VIDEO: Company: Oil tank fire in San Juan County 75 percent extinguished (KOB-TV Albuquerque)
• Life around New Mexico’s gas wells: how fracking is turning the air foul (Guardian)

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

• Republicans just escalated the war over ExxonMobil and climate change (Washington Post):
  House Science, Space and Technology Committee Chairman Lamar Smith (R-Tex.) said Wednesday his committee was issuing subpoenas to the New York and Massachusetts state attorneys general, who have issued their own subpoenas as part of probes into whether ExxonMobil misled the public and investors about what it knew about the dangers of climate change decades ago.
• Can A Once-Respected Science Group Give Up Exxon Funding? It Will Soon Have One More Chance. (Climate Progress):
  In April, we reported that the board of the 62,000-member American Geophysical Union (AGU) had decided to Sell Its Scientific Integrity For $35,000 In ExxonMobil Money. But as evidence continues to spill showing that the oil giant is still funding climate science denial nearly a decade after it said it would stop, the board of this leading group of climate scientists will apparently take another look in September at the decision to take Exxon money.
• New Rules For Oil Trains Proposed By Transportation Department (Sacramento Bee):
  The Department of Transportation on Wednesday released proposed new spill-response rules for rail carriers carrying crude oil.
• Puget Sound to close Colstrip Units 1, 2 by 2022 (Billings Gazette)
• State’s Delta smelt plan calls for more water flowing to sea (Sacramento Bee)
• The Fake Factory that Pumped Out Real Money (Bloomberg)
• Loneliest Natural Gas Terminal in U.S. Bucks Pipeline Trend (Bloomberg)
• Number of Americans “alarmed” by climate change rises in latest poll (InsideClimate News)
• Clean energy investment in 2016 undershoots last year’s record (Bloomberg)
• Utility clean energy rankings reveal “unprecedented shift” in power sector paradigms (Utility Dive)
• ‘Healing’ detected in Antarctic ozone hole BCC):
  Researchers say they have found the first clear evidence that the thinning in the ozone layer above Antarctica is starting to heal. The scientists said that in September 2015 the hole was around 4 million sq km smaller than it was in the year 2000 – an area roughly the size of India. The gains have been credited to the long term phasing out of ozone-destroying chemicals.
• 7 Things You Should Do After Watching ‘How to Let Go of the World’ (Eco Watch):
  ‘How to Let Go of the World’ is unlike any other documentary you’ve ever seen on climate change. Traveling to 12 countries on six continents, the film acknowledges that it may be too late to stop some of the worst consequences and asks, what is it that climate change can’t destroy? What is so deep within us that no calamity can take it away?

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).