‘Green News Report’ – February 16, 2017

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IN TODAY’S RADIO REPORT: Trump repeals anti-corruption regulation for the fossil fuel industry; From the folks bringing you the Dakota Access Pipeline, another major pipeline spill; Good news for breathers, bad news for coal miners in Arizona; US emissions still declining; PLUS: Scientists discover man-made toxic chemicals in the deepest part of the ocean… All that and more in today’s Green News Report!

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IN ‘GREEN NEWS EXTRA’ (see links below): Climate Change Plus Aging Infrastructure = Multiplying Disasters; Oroville Is a Warning for California Dams, as Climate Change Adds Stress; Scientists have just detected a major change to the Earth’s oceans linked to a warming climate; Indigenous People Should Have Rights Over Their Land, Pope Francis Says; Endangered Species Act heading for the threatened list; ‘A large blowtorch’: worker missing in Paradis pipeline explosion; Ohio GOP targets clean energy standards, efficiency rules… PLUS: India’s polluted air now kills 1.1 million people per year… and much, MUCH more! …

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

• Trump repeals anti-corruption regulation for the fossil fuel industry:
• Trump signs law rolling back disclosure rule for energy and mining companies (Washington Post):
  The bill cancels out a Securities and Exchange Commission regulation that would have required oil and gas and mining companies to disclose in detail the payments they make to foreign governments in a bid to boost transparency in resource-rich countries.
• VIDEO: Trump signs legislation to scrap Dodd-Frank rule on oil extraction (USA Today):
  Having more information about how much money their governments receive from oil and gas companies would enable citizens to question how incoming revenues are spent and fight corruption and fraud, Branegan said. “Transparency is not panacea, but sunlight is the best disinfectant,” he said.
• VIDEO: White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer: anti-bribery rule hurts small businesses (Twitter)
• Tribes file new lawsuit against Dakota Access Pipeline:
• Standing Rock Sioux Tribe Asks Federal Court To Set Aside Trump’s Pipeline Reversal; Critical Motion Charges Trump Administration Circumvents Law And Ignores Treaty Rights. (EarthJustice)
• Tribe Files New Suit as Army Corps Announces Eviction Deadline for Water Protectors (Common Dreams)
• North Dakota governor signs emergency evacuation order for DAPL protest camp (Death And Taxes Blog):
  The order, issued on Wednesday, cites safety and pollution concerns from flooding due to warm weather. It’s a shame that environmental concerns only seem to be directed at protesters and not the pipeline itself, but that’s where we are now.
• Massive pipeline oil spill in Texas:
• Dakota Access Pipeline Approved a Week After Co-Owner’s Pipeline Spilled 600,000 Gallons of Oil in Texas (DeSmogBlog):
  On January 30, 600,000 gallons (14,285 barrels) of oil spewed out of Enbridge’s Seaway Pipeline in Blue Ridge, Texas, the second spill since the pipeline opened for business in mid-2016.
• VIDEO: Collin County spill affects oil prices worldwide (KDFW-Dallas)
• Toxic chemicals have contaminated deepest reaches of the ocean:
• AUDIO: Pollution Has Worked Its Way Down To The World’s Deepest Waters (NPR):
  The amphipods were contaminated with PCBs – polychlorinated biphenyls – toxic chemicals used for decades in industry, as well as other industrial pollutants known as persistent organic pollutants. “Every sample we had,” Jamieson says, “had contaminants in it at very high or extraordinarily high levels.”
• Scientists discover pollution 10,000 meters below the ocean’s surface in the Mariana Trench (Washington Post):
  The authors suspect one of the more likely explanations is that the chemicals in the Mariana trench originated around the “great Pacific garbage patch,” a swirling mass of debris in the northern Pacific. Chemical pollutants in that region could easily cling to plastic waste as it drops through the water column toward the bottom of the ocean.
• ‘Extraordinary’ levels of pollutants found in 10km deep Mariana trench (Guardian UK):
  An expedition conducted by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration last year also found various man-made items on the slopes leading to the Sirena Deep, part of the Mariana trench, and the nearby Enigma Seamount. They included a tin of Spam, a can of Budweiser beer and several plastic bags.
• Good news for breathers, bad news for miners in Arizona:
• VIDEO: Utilities vote to close Navajo coal plant at end of 2019 (AZ Central):
  “Right from day one when they signed that lease 50 years ago, the Navajo and Hopi tribes … they have no excuse because from day one they knew this day was coming,” said Percy Deal, a representative of the group Diné CARE and a nearby resident of the mine. “There should have been a plan,” he said. “There should be a contingency plan that would transition into new economic development and to transition jobs. In my eye, there is no excuse. They weren’t thinking this thing was going to go on forever.”
• Our View: The market doomed Navajo Generating Station, not the feds (AZ Central)
• The question of renewable energy on tribal lands (Arizona State Univ.)
• EPA: U.S. greenhouse gas emissions continue decline:
• Climate pollution in the U.S. is falling – for now (Climate Progress):
  Greenhouse gas emissions fell in 2015, thanks in part to a mild winter.
• EPA: US greenhouse gas emissions declined in 2015 (The Hill)

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

• VIDEO: Climate Change Plus Aging Infrastructure = Multiplying Disasters (Climate Crocks):
  As climate changes, one of the most reliable predictions is that precipitation patterns will change – with more water coming in extreme events rain (or snow) events, like we’ve witnessed recently in California and elsewhere. US infrastructure, already badly frayed by decades of neglect from a congress willing to spend any amount for oil war, but stingy when it comes to actual responsibility.
• Oroville Is a Warning for California Dams, as Climate Change Adds Stress (NY Times):
  The St. Francis Dam was a proud symbol of California’s engineering might and elaborate water system – until just before midnight on March 12, 1928, when it collapsed, killing more than 400 people in a devastating wall of water. Ever since, the state has had a reputation of diligent inspections as it has built the largest network of major public dams in the nation.
• Scientists have just detected a major change to the Earth’s oceans linked to a warming climate (Washington Post):
  A large research synthesis, published in one of the world’s most influential scientific journals, has detected a decline in the amount of dissolved oxygen in oceans around the world – a long-predicted result of climate change that could have severe consequences for marine organisms if it continues.
• Indigenous People Should Have Rights Over Their Land, Pope Francis Says (Christian Post):
  Days after a federal judge refused to halt work on the final stretch of the Dakota Access pipeline opposed by American Indians for religious and safety reasons, Pope Francis said Wednesday that indigenous people must give prior consent to any economic activity affecting their ancestral lands.
• The Endangered Species Act may be heading for the threatened list. This hearing confirmed it. (Washington Post):
  A Senate hearing to “modernize the Endangered Species Act” unfolded Wednesday just as supporters of the law had feared, with round after round of criticism from Republican lawmakers who said the federal effort to keep species from going extinct encroaches on states’ rights, is unfair to landowners and stymies efforts by mining companies to extract resources and create jobs.
• India’s polluted air now kills 1.1 million people per year (Climate Progress):
  About 1.1 million people die prematurely each year due to India’s air pollution.
• ‘A large blowtorch’: 1 worker seriously injured, 1 missing in Paradis pipeline explosion (NOLA):
  Two workers suffered burns, one seriously, and another was unaccounted for after a large explosion and fire Thursday night (Feb. 9) at a 20-inch high-pressure Phillips 66 pipeline near the Williams Discovery natural-gas plant in Paradis, according to St. Charles Parish Sheriff Greg Champagne and Louisiana State Police. The pipeline is located at the Phillips 66-operated Paradis Pipeline Station.
• Enviro groups seek immediate block to Mariner East 2 pipeline (Philly.com)
• The United States of oil and gas (Washington Post);
  President Trump said he plans to double down on the oil and gas industry, lifting regulations and drilling on federal land. Here is the state of the petroleum extraction industry that the new administration will inherit.
• Ohio GOP targets clean energy standards, efficiency rules (Cleveland Plain Dealer)
• Judge blasts WVDEP, EPA over lack of mine pollution cleanup (Charleston Gazette-Mail)
• Philippine Environment Secretary Cancels 75 Mining Deals (AP)
• 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.
• Republicans Try a New Tack on Climate Change (NY Times):
  Let us ponder the craftsmanship of that second sentence. “With precision” is the key phrase, of course, and it renders the statement almost axiomatically true. Do we have trouble taking the precise temperature of an entire planet and then divining, for a given period, exactly how much of the change in that temperature is caused by human activities? Well, yes.

• 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).