‘Green News Report’ – February 14, 2017

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IN TODAY’S RADIO REPORT: California dodges a bullet — for the moment — at Oroville Dam; U.S. not prepared for climate impacts on infrastructure; Judge rejects tribe’s request to halt Dakota Access Pipeline construction; PLUS: Extreme heat waves brings extreme fire danger to Australia… All that and more in today’s Green News Report!

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IN ‘GREEN NEWS EXTRA’ (see links below): Oroville Dam is a window into a warmer future; New England CO2 emissions spike after Vermont Yankee nuclear closure; Locals say protesters willing to give their lives to stop Dakota Access Pipeline; Humans causing climate to change 170 times faster than natural forces; Ohio Critics Hope Bats Might Slow Down Pipeline Project; Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and ministers were told wind not to blame for South Australia blackout; DuPont settles lawsuits over leak of chemical used to make Teflon… PLUS: Trump Would Face Legal Battle For Dumping Treaty… and much, MUCH more! …

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

• Jason Chaffetz has no response for a little girl who asked if he believes in science (Climate Progress):
  After the clip above ends, Chaffetz kept going. He rehashed the hopelessly out-of-date myth that electric vehicles are dirty: “There’s a lot of people who want to move to electricity. Well how in the world do you think electricity is generated?” Yet more jeers (at about 1:10:00 in full video here).
• Judge rejects Standing Rock Sioux Tribe request to halt Dakota Access Pipeline construction:
• Judge rejects Standing Rock request to block Dakota Access pipeline drilling (Guardian UK):
  Tribes lost a challenge of the president’s decision to speed approvals for the last stretch of the $3.7bn pipeline under the Missouri river in North Dakota.
• Native American Tribe Files 1st Legal Challenge Over Dakota Access Pipeline Easement (ABC News) [emphasis added]:
  The Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe, which has joined the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe’s lawsuit against the pipeline, filed a motion at the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia this morning seeking a temporary restraining order “to halt construction and drilling” under and on either side of the land surrounding Lake Oahe. The tribe argues that the Dakota Access Pipeline “will desecrate the waters upon which Cheyenne River Sioux tribal members rely for their most important religious practices and therefore substantially burden the free exercise of their religion,” according to court documents obtained by ABC News.
• VIDEO: A Violation of Tribal & Human Rights: Standing Rock Chair Slams Approval of Dakota Access Pipeline (Democracy Now!)
• Oroville Dam – California dodges a bullet, for the moment:
• AUDIO: ‘This is Not a Drill’: Looming Catastrophe at Nation’s Tallest Dam (‘BradCast’ 2/13/2017):
  Guest: Eric Wesselman of FriendsoftheRiver.org on 12-year old warning, now-potential disaster at Oroville Dam in Northern California…
• Live updates: Frantic fight to lower Lake Oroville water level before new storms hit (LA Times)
• Oroville Dam: Feds and state officials ignored warnings 12 years ago (San Jose Mercury News):
  More than a decade ago, federal and state officials and some of California’s largest water agencies rejected concerns that the massive earthen spillway at Oroville Dam — at risk of collapse Sunday night and prompting the evacuation of 185,000 people — could erode during heavy winter rains and cause a catastrophe.
• Crews race weather to avoid disaster at California dam (CNN)
• Hatchery Emptied as Oroville Dam Spillway Crumbles (AP)
• US Infrastructure in dire need of repairs, upgrades:
• 2013 Report Card for America’s Infrastructure (American Society of Civil Engineers)
• 2016 Report Card for Humboldt County, California Water Infrastructure (American Society of Civil Engineers)
• Trump’s Infrastructure Delusions (Paul Krugman, NY Times)
• Eight Democratic senators propose 10-year trillion-dollar infrastructure plan (Daily Kos),/li>
• There’s the threat of Oroville Dam. Then there’s Trump (Sacramento Bee)
• The art of the New Deal (Curbed L.A.):
  Nobody—possibly excluding Trump and his advisors—has a concrete idea of where his proposed infrastructure plan goes next. But one thing that all the experts I spoke with agreed upon was that the main thing required for success wasn’t necessarily money, or great dealmaking, but political will.
• Editorial: Dams are hidden infrastructure risk (Kansas City Star)
• Trump’s Infrastructure Scam (Common Dreams)
• Everybody’s getting Trump’s infrastructure plan wrong (Yahoo Finance):
  There’s one huge catch, though. Private investors only typically put money into infrastructure projects when there’s a guaranteed revenue stream backed by tolls or other types of user fees that can’t be revoked.
• Australia’s extreme heat wave brings extreme fire threat:
• VIDEO: NSW RFS deputy commissioner Rob Rogers updates on the Sir Ivan fire. (ABC Australia)
• Australian firefighters on high alert as extreme heat creates ‘catastrophic conditions’ (South China Morning Post):
  Temperatures climb to mid-40s, producing conditions worse than those on Black Saturday in 2009, which claimed 173 lives
• Australia’s extreme heatwave is a preview of things to come (New Scientist)
• Australian Heat Wave Raises Concern for Country’s New, Sizzling Normal (Inside Climate News)
• Carbon Brief: Risk of ‘megafires’ to increase as climat warms: (Carbon Brief):
  The likelihood of extreme wildfires – or “megafires” – across the world is expected to increase as global temperatures rise, a new study says.

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

• Oroville Dam: Window into a warmer future — experts E&ENews):
  A deluge of repeated rainstorms set the stage for the near-disaster at the Oroville Dam in California, a crisis that foreshadows what the Golden State can expect more of with climate change, several experts said.
• New England CO2 emissions spike after Vermont Yankee nuclear closure (Utility Dive):
  The loss of Vermont Yankee’s carbon-free nuclear energy and the increased use of gas- and oil-fired generation in New England helped drive an increase in carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in 2015 compared to 2014, according to a new report from the grid operator.
• Locals say protesters willing to give their lives to stop Dakota Access Pipeline (Idaho State Journal)
• Humans causing climate to change 170 times faster than natural forces (The Guardian)
• Ohio Critics Hope Bats Might Slow Down Pipeline Project (AP)
• Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and ministers were told wind not to blame for South Australia blackout (Sydney Morning Herald)
• California regulators to consider shuttering Aliso Canyon gas storage facility (Utility Dive):
  The gas storage facility was the site of the nation’s worst-ever methane leak, which curtailed fuel supplies to area generators.
• Energy experts give Trump the hard truth: You can’t bring coal back (Climate Progress):
  Coal wasn’t killed by a political “war” — cheap renewables and fracked gas were the culprits.
• Climate: Trump Would Face Legal Battle For Dumping Treaty — CRS (E&E News):
  A complicated legal battle awaits the Trump administration if it tries to withdraw from the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change, said the Congressional Research Service in a new report.
• Exxon Adviser Resigns Over Oil Giant’s ‘Targeted Attacks’ On NGOs (Huffington Post):
  A research scholar at New York University has resigned from Exxon Mobil Corp.’s External Citizenship Advisory Panel, citing what she calls the oil giant’s ‘targeted attacks’ on environmental groups under former CEO Rex Tillerson’s watch.
• Big Utilities Try To Tilt Solar Energy Market In Their Favor (AP):
  Indiana’s energy utilities want state lawmakers to pass a law that critics say would muscle out smaller companies from the emerging solar energy market.
• DuPont settles lawsuits over leak of chemical used to make Teflon (Reuters):
  DuPont and Chemours Co have agreed to pay $671 million in cash to settle thousands of lawsuits involving a leak of a toxic chemical used to make Teflon, the companies said on Monday.
• Fishermen, Hunters, Bikers, and Hikers Lose Their Say on Public Land Use (Men’s Journal):
  Congress is racing to nullify an Obama-era order (the Bureau of Land Management’s “Planning 2.0 rule”) that gave hikers, bikers, hunters, fishers, and other outdoor recreation fans an equal voice with drillers, ranchers, loggers, and other industries in how the government manages over 250 million acres of federal lands.
• ‘Whistleblower’ says protocol was breached but no data fraud (E&E News):
  The federal climate scientist hailed by conservatives as a whistleblower for allegedly revealing manipulated global warming data said yesterday he was actually calling out a former colleague for not properly following agency standards for research.
• Once-cautious climate economist reverses course, issues warning against the cost of inaction (Climate Progress):
  William Nordhaus says social cost of CO2 much higher than he thought, while team Trump says it is zero.
• 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).