‘Green News Report’ – April 13, 2017

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IN TODAY’S RADIO REPORT: State of emergency for entire state of Florida, as they battle unprecedented early wildfire season; Court upholds California’s cap-and-trade emissions trading system; Trump’s Bureau of Land Management to prioritize fossil fuel extraction; Now’s your chance to weigh in on EPA regulations; PLUS: An ‘iceberg armada’ is invading the Arctic… All that and more in today’s Green News Report!

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IN ‘GREEN NEWS EXTRA’ (see links below): Is 100% renewable energy realistic? Here’s what we know; Earth’s melting permafrost threatens to unleash a dangerous climate feedback loop; Rising Salt Levels Threaten Twin Cities Lakes by 2050; Top 10 Most Endangered Rivers in the U.S.; On Navajo Nation, Students Await Water That Doesn’t Stink; Alarm Raised As Mystery Pest Destroys Mississippi Delta Marsh; U.S. Steel Chemical Spill Closes Beaches, EPA Measuring Toxic Damage… PLUS: A beginner’s guide to the debate over 100% renewable energy… and much, MUCH more! …

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

• Florida: Governer declares state of emergency over unprecedented early wildfire season:
• Worst wildfire season in years prompts a state of emergency in Florida (PBS NewsHour):
  The unusually dry conditions are raising fears there could be a repeat of the historic 1998 wildfires that swept through the state, destroying at least 342 homes and causing an estimated $393 million in damage.
• VIDEO: Governor Rick Scott declares state of emergency for Florida due to increased wildfire risk this year (AP)
• More Than 100 Florida Wildfires Scorch State, A Sign Of How Dry We Are (Tampa Bay Times):
  Last year Florida was waterlogged. This year Florida is on fire. More than 100 active wildfires are burning across the state right now, according to the Florida Forest Service. Twenty-seven of them are scorching more than 100 acres each.
• Court upholds CA’s cap-and-trade emissions trading system:
• California’s Climate Leadership Gets a Boost as Court Upholds Cap and Trade (Inside Climate News):
  [D]espite the costs to industry, the court ruled that California’s solution was not a tax. A tax, it said, is a compulsory payment for which the taxpayer receives nothing of specific value in return. “The system is the voluntary purchase of a valuable commodity and not a tax under any test,” the judges ruled in a 2-1 decision.
• Appeals court upholds California’s cap-and-trade system (Sacramento Bee):
  “These twin aspects of the auction system, voluntary participation and purchase of a specific thing of value, preclude a finding that the auction system has the hallmarks of a tax,” Justice Elena J. Duarte wrote for the majority.
• Court Upholds California’s Cap-and-Trade Program (E&E News) [emphasis added]:
  “It removes one of the key legal clouds hanging over the program and I think forcefully rebukes the notion that selling essentially the privilege to pollute constitutes taxation.”
• BLM to prioritize fossil fuel extraction on public lands:
• BLM ‘priority’ list pushes drilling, wall — leaked docs (E&E News):
  The draft five-point “BLM Priority Work” list [PDF], which sources say has not been circulated yet to staff, was written by BLM administrators and reviewed by members of the Trump administration’s “beachhead team” of temporary political officials who assumed key Interior Department roles after the inauguration.
• Debunking BLM: Leaked memo reveals how the Trump administration will fast-track drilling and mining on public lands (Center for Western Priorities) [emphasis added]:
  The first item, a supposed “backlog” of permit applications, is simply a red herring. BLM’s own data show there is no significant backlog of applications, and that the permitting process is held up more by oil and gas company delays than BLM’s processing.
• Leaked documents show Trump administration plans more mining and drilling on public lands (Climate Progress)
• Leaked ‘Priority List’ Shows Massive Focus on Fossil Fuel Extraction on Public Lands (EcoWatch)
• BLM website changed photo to massive coal seam:
• Public lands agency changes website from family visiting a park to a giant pile of coal (Mashable)
• A Kentucky coal museum is installing solar panels on its roof: Even a coal museum has a better understanding of energy’s future than Trump. (David Roberts, Vox):
  Is that coal on your website, or are you just glad to see me?…
• The federal coal leasing program is ripping off taxpayers. Zinke just canceled plans to reform it. (Vox)
• Peabody Energy’s Bankruptcy Shows the Limits of “Clean Coal” (MIT Technology Review):
  Peabody Energy, the world’s largest private-sector coal producer, filed for bankruptcy Wednesday after a long decline in prices and demand for coal in the U.S. When I spoke to Peabody CEO (now executive chairman) Greg Boyce in his St. Louis office two years ago, he enthusiastically detailed the two strategies that would send Peabody to greater heights: sending coal to China and building so-called “clean coal” plants.
• SPEAK UP: Tell the EPA which regulations you want to survive Trump:
• Public Comment Deadline May 15: Evaluation of Existing Regulations (EPA.gov):
  Executive Order 13777, issued 2/24/17, directs agencies to establish a Regulatory Reform Task Force to oversee the evaluation of existing regulations to make recommendations about potential repeal, replacement, or modification.
• What’s at Stake in Trump’s Proposed E.P.A. Cuts (NY Times):
  What is at stake as Congress considers the E.P.A. budget? Far more than climate change.
• Iceberg swarm, dead ahead:
• Unusually large swarm of icebergs drifts into shipping lanes (AP):
  Experts are attributing it to uncommonly strong counter-clockwise winds that are drawing the icebergs south, and perhaps also global warming, which is accelerating the process by which chunks of the Greenland ice sheet break off and float away.
• Icebergs Are Swarming Shipping Lanes in the Arctic (Climate Central):
  Around 450 icebergs…well above the average of 80 usually found for this time of year. The swarm appeared suddenly, too. Just last week, there were only 37 icebergs in the region.
• An Armada of Icebergs Has Just Invaded The North Atlantic (Robert Scribbler):
  “I have about a decade of experience with the Ice Patrol, and in my time here, and talking with people who have been here longer, I’ve never seen anything like this or heard of anything like this before” – Gabrielle McGrath Coast Guard Commander of the US Ice Patrol.
• Coal museum opts to go solar:
• A Kentucky coal museum is installing solar panels on its roof: Even a coal museum has a better understanding of energy’s future than Trump. (David Roberts, Vox):
  [E]ven in the heart of coal country, even in Benham, Kentucky, people are beginning to understand that coal belongs in a museum and solar belongs on the roof.
• Sign of the times? Solar panels power Kentucky Coal Museum (AP):
  It’s also the best place in town to get the most direct sunlight, which made it an ideal location for solar panels. “The people here are sort of in awe of this solar thing,” Humphrey said.
• VIDEO: Kentucky Coal Mining Museum converts to solar power (WYMT Western Kentucky):
  “It is a little ironic,” said Robinson, “But you know, coal and solar and all the different energy sources work hand-in-hand. And, of course, coal is still king around here.”
• Kentucky Coal Museum shifts to solar power (Louisville, KY Courier-Journal) [emphasis added]:
  “Really the first time that I sat down and was talking about it with everybody, I was like…are you for real? They’re really going to go for this?” Sexton said. “I mean, that would be like showing up at a bank and they ask you if you’d mind taking some of this money out of the vault.”…This solar project won’t solely benefit the museum. It’s also expected to benefit the small city of Benham, which is home to the coal museum as well as approximately 500 residents.

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

For a comprehensive roundup of daily environmental news you can trust, see the Society of Environmental Journalists’ Daily Headlines page

• Is 100% renewable energy realistic? Here’s what we know. (Vox):
  Reasons for skepticism, reasons for optimism, and some tentative conclusions.
• A beginner’s guide to the debate over 100% renewable energy (Vox):
  Clean-energy enthusiasts frequently claim that we can go bigger, that it’s possible for the whole world to run on renewables — we merely lack the “political will.” So, is it true? Do we know how get to an all-renewables system? Not yet. Not really.
• Earth’s melting permafrost threatens to unleash a dangerous climate feedback loop (Climate Progress):
  New permafrost study underscores the critical importance of ambitious climate targets, like the Paris agreement.
• Rising Salt Levels Threaten Twin Cities Lakes by 2050 (Minneapolis Star-Tribune):
  Twin Cities is a hot spot in a national study of lakes and road-salt runoff. It showed that salt concentrations in the Mississippi, mostly from road salt, have increased 81 percent since 1985.
• Top 10 Most Endangered Rivers in the U.S. (National Geographic):
  These rivers face a number of threats, from dams to pollution and a possible reduction in conservation funding.
• On Navajo Nation, Special Ed Students Await Water That Doesn’t Stink (NPR):
  On the Navajo Nation, kids with the most severe developmental disabilities attend a school called Saint Michael’s Association for Special Education.
• Alarm Raised As Mystery Pest Destroys Mississippi Delta Marsh (NOLA):
  The roseau cane plague is only the latest in the long line of threats to Louisiana’s crumbling coast. Storm surge, rising seas and wetlands canals dug by oil and gas explorers are considered the main culprits, so the state is pushing a $50 billion, 50-year master plan to mitigate further losses…But the damage – and the wider implications – are becoming hard to ignore. The delta has one of the world’s largest stands of roseau cane. The cane is, quite literally, what holds the delta together. Its disappearance could hasten the erosion that’s fast turning land into water.
• U.S. Steel Chemical Spill Closes Beaches, EPA Measuring Toxic Damage (Chicago Tribune):
  A spill at the U.S. Steel plant in Portage this week leaked a toxic chemical into Burns Waterway, a Lake Michigan tributary, forcing the closure of beaches in and around the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore and leaving officials scrambling to determine the extent of damage caused to the local environment.
• U.S. Government Sued Over Plan To Kill Cougars And Bears In Colorado (Reuters):
  Wildlife conservation groups sued the U.S. government on Wednesday seeking to halt a plan to trap and kill as many as 120 mountain lions and black bears in Colorado in a bid to stem declines in populations of mule deer favored by hunters.
• Analysis: Just four years left of the 1.5C carbon budget (Carbon Brief):
  Four years of current emissions would be enough to blow what’s left of the carbon budget for a good chance of keeping global temperature rise to 1.5C.
• 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).