‘Green News Report’ – January 31, 2017

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IN TODAY’S RADIO REPORT: President Trump’s new two-for-one deal to repeal regulations, while his Muslim immigration ban undermines US leadership in science; Congressional Republicans move quickly to gut pollution and corruption regulations; PLUS: California pushes back, moving full speed ahead on renewable energy transition… All that and more in today’s Green News Report!

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IN ‘GREEN NEWS EXTRA’ (see links below): A new battle over politics and science could be brewing. And scientists are ready for it; New York Approves a 90 MW Wind Farm Off The Coast Of Long Island; U.S. Auto Dealers Look To Trump To Ease Vehicle Emissions Rules; Keystone XL Opponents Promise Trump a Mass Mobilization ‘On a Scale Never Seen’; Florida Fracking Ban Bill Draws Bipartisan Support; Trump’s Promise to Pay for Infrastructure With Fossil Revenue Is Iffy… PLUS: Warming Ocean Waters Off Alaska Bring Widespread Ecological Changes… and much, MUCH more! …

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

• Trump’s Muslim immigration ban damaging U.S. science leadership:
• Trump’s Immigration Ban Is Already Harming American Science (The Atlantic):
  Iranian scientists have been a major boon to everything from Mars exploration to Ebola-fighting to advanced mathematics.
• Scientists’ lives upended by Trump’s immigration order (Science)
• AAAS CEO Responds to Trump Immigration and Visa Order (AAAS)
• AGU, GSA Respond to Immigration Ban’s Impact on Science (American Geophysical Union)
• 40 Nobel laureates, thousands of academics sign protest of Trump immigration order (Washington Post)
• US tech without Iranian immigrants: No eBay, Oracle, Google, Dropbox, Tinder (Venture Beat)
• Scientists plan March on Washington (Scientists’ March on Washington)
• Trump’s arbitrary 2-for-1 ‘deal’ to gut environmental regulations:
• Trump’s order to ‘kill two regulations for every one adopted’ is a mess (Vox):
  “It is primarily an instrument for harassing agencies and slowing the regulatory process.”
• Trump orders “1 in, 2 out” rule for federal regulations (Ars Technica) [emphasis added]:
  [M]any existing EPA rules are specifically required by law, or the regulations exist to clarify how states and other entities can meet requirements in federal law. The directive to offset costs does not appear to take into account the monetary benefits of any regulations, either.
• Trump targets regulations with arbitrary add one, cut two approach that ignores benefit of rules (NRDC):
  Trump’s executive order, which is based on an arbitrary “add one, cut two” approach, requires that the total cost of new regulations in 2017, as determined by the White House’s Office of Management and Budget, be no greater than zero. Moreover, OMB’s evaluation would not take into account a regulation’s benefits to public health, job creation, or environmental services.
• Presidential Order Reducing Regulations (WhiteHouse.gov)
• Republicans to use Congressional Review Act to gut Obama environment regulations:
• How Republicans Will Try to Roll Back Obama Regulations (NY Times)
• GOP lines up resolutions to undo coal, methane rules (The Hill)
• Republican Congress can now start erasing some of Obama’s environmental rules. Here’s what they’re targeting. (Washington Post)
• GOP moves to undo Obama rules protecting streams from coal mines (PBS NewsHour)
• House Republicans ready bill to overturn methane rule (Fuel Fix)
• Republicans gear up to eliminate BLM’s methane waste rule (Utility Dive)
• Proposed Repeal of U.S. Extractives Transparency Rule Would Increase Corruption and Poverty (Natural Resource Governance Institute)
• Defiant National Park Service employees open alternate social media accounts:
• Defying Trump, Twitter feeds for U.S. government scientists go rogue (Reuters)
• There is Now an Underground EPA (Climate Crocks)
• National Parks Service ‘goes rogue’ in response to Trump Twitter ban (Guardian UK):
  Badlands National Park sent out a series of (now-deleted) tweets on climate change, seemingly in defiance of Trump administration
• Rogue National Park Accounts Emerge On Twitter Amid Social Media Gag Orders (NPR)
• California moves full speed ahead on renewable energy transition:
• VIDEO: Gov. Jerry Brown Gives Fiery State of the State Address: ‘When California Does Well, America Does Well’ (KQED),/li>
• California Governor Defiant in Face of Trump Agenda (AP) [emphasis added]:
  “California is not turning back. Not now, not ever,” he declared…While no one knows what President Donald Trump’s administration will bring, the governor said, “there are signs that are disturbing. We have seen the bold assertion of ‘alternative facts.’ We have heard the blatant attacks on science,” Brown told a joint session of the Democratic-controlled Legislature. “Familiar signposts of our democracy — truth, civility, working together — have been obscured or swept aside.”
• In California, the Future Is Still Electric (CIty Lab):
  At every level, the state is ramping up for widespread electric vehicle adoption. And it’s ready to throw down with President Trump.
• A Climate Action Roadmap: California Steps Up in Uncertain Times (Common Dreams)
• A Big Test for Big Batteries in California (NY Times):
  Utilities have been studying batteries nationwide. But none have moved ahead with the gusto of those in Southern California.

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

• A new battle over politics and science could be brewing. And scientists are ready for it (Washington Post):
  [I]f it turns out that the scientific community’s worst fears are realized, it’s important to recognize that they will also have more tools to counter politicization today than they did a decade ago.
• New York Approves a 90 MW Wind Farm Off The Coast Of Long Island (Ars Technica):
  On Wednesday, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced that the state had approved a 90 MW offshore wind farm to be installed off the coast of Long Island. That would make what will be called the South Fork Wind Farm the biggest offshore wind farm in the US.
• U.S. Auto Dealers Look To Trump To Ease Vehicle Emissions Rules (Reuters):
  U.S. auto dealers gathered for their annual convention in New Orleans said they want President Donald Trump to ease federal regulation of vehicle emissions and consumer lending, reversing action taken by his predecessor.
• Keystone XL Opponents Promise Trump a Mass Mobilization ‘On a Scale Never Seen’ (Common Dreams):
  Trump “declared war on indigenous nations”—and now they’re ready to fight back.
• Florida Fracking Ban Bill Draws Bipartisan Support (Inside Climate News):
  Florida lawmakers have debated fracking regulations for years, but a new bill would end the debate and has Republican and Democratic support.
• Warming Ocean Waters Off Alaska Bring Widespread Ecological Changes (alaska Dispatch):
  As the global climate heats up, so do the ocean waters off Alaska, meaning big changes for marine ecosystems and bad news for some species.
• B.C. Court of Appeal Upholds Laws Protecting Asbestos Removal Workers (Vancouver Sun):
  The B.C. Court of Appeal has overturned a ruling that found laws protecting asbestos removal workers from the deadly substance were too complex to enforce.
• Trump’s Promise to Pay for Infrastructure With Fossil Revenue Is Iffy (Inside Climate News):
  Among the fuzzy pledges President Trump has made in his energy plans, his idea to pay for a $1 trillion public infrastructure program with a bonanza of fossil fuel mining and drilling revenue stands out as particularly far-fetched.
• Otter Revival In Peril (Santa Cruz Sentinel):
  The hairiest creature on Earth — and perhaps the cutest — peacefully drifts through offshore currents with perpetual bedhead and an urchin in its hands. That is, until it’s in the toothy grasp of the world’s largest predatory fish — the great white shark.
• Hottest year ever and Arctic meltdown put the world on the brink of catastrophe (Climate Progress):
  The Trump presidency may kill our last chance to avoid the worst…”The fact that we’re punching at the ceiling every year now, that is the real indicator that we’re undergoing big changes,” said Deke Arndt, NOAA’s chief of global climate monitoring.
• 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).