‘Green News Report’ – October 27, 2016

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IN TODAY’S RADIO REPORT: Leaked audio exposes utility companies’ deliberately deceptive anti-solar ballot initiative in FL; Court rejects eminent domain for natural gas in PA; New ruling allows future climate impacts to be used to protect threatened species now; One weird trick could drastically cut methane emissions from cows; PLUS: Massive settlement approved in Volkswagen’s emissions cheating scandal… All that and more in today’s Green News Report!

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IN ‘GREEN NEWS EXTRA’ (see links below): Energy poverty is a real problem. Coal is a bogus solution.; Air pollution more deadly in Africa than malnutrition or dirty water, study warns; Renewable energy capacity overtakes coal in new capacity generation; Sandy’s Lessons Lost: Jersey Shore Rebuilds in Sea’s Inevitable Path; Antarctica’s Ice Sheets Are Melting Faster — And From Beneath; Resettling China’s ‘Ecological Migrants’; Whaling Nations Block South Atlantic Sanctuary Plans… PLUS: ‘The atmosphere is being radicalized’ by climate change… and much, MUCH more! …

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

• Today’s Song: “Now We Can Blame the Cows” by Victoria Parks (Victoria Parks.com)
• Florida: Leaked audio exposes utility companies’ deliberately deceptive anti-solar ballot initiative:
• AUDIO: The BradCast 10/26/16, ‘Political Jujitsu’: Utility Company Shill Caught Admitting to Shady Anti-Solar Measure in Florida (The BRAD BLOG)
• Leaked Audio Shows How Florida Utilities Sought to Deceive Voters to Support Amendment 1 (Energy and Policy Institute):
  Audio obtained by the Center for Media and Democracy and the Energy and Policy Institute has confirmed that the Florida utility companies’ funded campaign, Consumers for Smart Solar, has been attempting to deceive voters into voting for Amendment 1 on election day.
• AUDIO: Leaked Audio Shows How Florida Utilities Sought to Deceive Public Into Believing Amendment 1 is Pro-Solar (Center for Media and Democracy)
• “Consumers for Smart Solar” behind Florida’s Amendment 1 collected only $10 from actual consumers (Energy and Policy Institute)
• Insider reveals deceptive strategy behind Florida’s solar amendment (Miami Herald)
• Florida Ballot Measure Could Halt Rooftop Solar, but Do Voters Know That? (Inside Climate News)
• Volkswagen agrees to nearly $15 billion settlement with federal, state regulators:
• Judge approves Volkswagen’s $14.7 billion diesel settlement, automaker to start buy-back (Sacramento Bee):
  Under the settlement approved by U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer, the automaker will spend up to $10 billion repurchasing as many as 475,000 polluting Volkswagens and Audis. It will spend another $4.7 billion on a host of government programs designed to offset air pollution and promote zero-emission vehicles, of which about $1.1 billion will be spent in California. The settlement was first announced in June.
• VIDEO: U.S. judge approves $14.7 billion settlement deal in VW diesel emissions scandal: (Reuters)
• Pennsylvania court rejects eminent domain for natural gas storage:
• Pennsylvania Ruling on Eminent Domain Puts Contentious Pipeline Project on Alert (Inside Climate News):
  The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has unanimously ruled unconstitutional a section of state law that lets companies seize private land for certain natural gas projects, with potentially major implications for one of the biggest proposed pipelines in the state.
• Appeals Court: future climate impacts can be used to protect species today:
• Appeals Court Reinstates Endangered Species Act Protections for Bearded Seals (Center for Biological Diversity)
• Court rules future climate projections can be used to protect species now (Climate Progress):
  A federal court found that animals can be listed as endangered based on climate projections….Parenteau said he expects the decision to be appealed to the Supreme Court, though it’s possible that the court might not choose to hear the case…
• Species may be listed as threatened based on climate change projections, court says (LA Times):
  “The service need not wait until a species’ habitat is destroyed to determine that habitat loss may facilitate extinction,” Judge Richard A. Paez, a Clinton appointee, wrote for the court…”The Endangered Species Act does not say a species can be listed “only if the underlying research is ironclad and absolute,” Paez wrote… “All parties agree that there will be sea ice melt,” the court said. “The only uncertainty is the magnitude of warming, the speed with which warming will take place, and the severity of its effect.”
• Seaweed trick could drastically reduce methane emissions from cows:
• STUDY: The red macroalgae Asparagopsis taxiformis is a potent natural antimethanogenic that reduces methane production during in vitro fermentation with rumen fluid (CSIRO)
• Asparagopsis taxiformis decreases enteric methane production from sheep (CSIRO)
• Seaweed could hold the key to cutting methane emissions from cow burps
• How to Stop Farts From Warming the Planet: Feed Cows Seaweed (Take Part):
  Livestock accounts for 5 percent of greenhouse gas emissions…The question, then, is where would all that seaweed come from? The researchers estimated that some 23 square miles of seaweed farms would be needed to create enough additive for just 10 percent of all Australian livestock. Producing enough product for the 92 million cattle in the United States alone would require seaweed farming on an unprecedented scale. But that might be a good thing. Many seaweeds thrive in acidifying ocean waters…

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

• Energy poverty is a real problem. Coal is a bogus solution. (David Roberts, Vox):
  Are they right? Is coal the key to providing universal energy access? A new paper, from 12 international poverty and development organizations (led by the Overseas Development Institute), argues no. In fact, the opposite is true: Not only will more coal plants do nothing for energy access, they will impose unnecessary suffering on the poor.
• Air pollution more deadly in Africa than malnutrition or dirty water, study warns (Guardian UK):
  Annual human and economic cost of tainted air runs to 712,000 lost lives and £364bn, finds Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development/
• ”The atmosphere is being radicalized’ by climate change (Guardian UK):
  To paraphrase Donald Trump, this is radical atmospheric change and Republicans wont even mention the words.
• Renewable energy capacity overtakes coal in new capacity generation (BBC):
  The IEA says in a new report that last year, renewables accounted for more than half of the increase in power capacity…The report says half a million solar panels were installed every day last year around the world. In China, it says, there were two wind turbines set up every hour.
• Sandy’s Lessons Lost: Jersey Shore Rebuilds in Sea’s Inevitable Path (Inside Climate News):
  Superstorm Sandy crushed N.J. communities like Toms River, but InsideClimate News and WNYC report that rebuilding has not accounted for rising seas.
• Antarctica’s Ice Sheets Are Melting Faster — And From Beneath (NPR):
  Antarctica’s ice has been melting, most likely because of a warming climate. Now, newly published research shows the rate of melting appears to be accelerating.
• Resettling China’s ‘Ecological Migrants’ (NY Times):
  Ankle-deep sand blocked the door of their new home. Pushing bicycles through the yard was like wading in a bog. The “lake” part of Miaomiao Lake Village turned out to be nothing but a tiny oasis more than a mile from the cookie-cutter rows of small concrete-block houses.
• Living in China’s Expanding Deserts (NY Times):
  People on the edges of the country’s vast seas of sand are being displaced by climate change.
• Aboriginal, Environmental Groups To Sue Canada On Petronas LNG Project (Rueters):
  Aboriginal and environmental groups will file lawsuits on Thursday against the government of Canada to overturn the permit for a controversial $27 billion liquefied natural gas (LNG) project in British Columbia.
• Whaling Nations Block South Atlantic Sanctuary Plans (Guardian UK):
  Conservation groups dismayed as Japan and other pro-whaling nations vote against plans for a protected area for whales, dolphins and porpoises/
• No country on Earth is taking the 2 degree climate target seriously (Vox):
  If we mean what we say, no more new fossil fuels, anywhere.

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).