‘Green News Report’ – August 21, 2018

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IN TODAY’S RADIO REPORT: Trump’s move to replace Obama’s Clean Power Plan will increase global warming and air pollution; Australia’s conservative government abandons its climate emissions targets; Kerala, India grapples with catastrophic flooding; PLUS: Interior Department cancels plan to sell off land stripped from national monument — for now… All that and more in today’s Green News Report!

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IN ‘GREEN NEWS EXTRA’ (see links below): The Trump administration keeps losing environmental court cases; Spokane’s hazardous air now worse than Beijing and Delhi combined; Unexpected future boost of methane possible from Arctic permafrost; Walmart drops chemical solvents linked to deaths; Pruitt used his $43,000 secure phone booth once; Are coastal nuclear power plants ready for sea-level rise?; Heatwaves, rains may become more severe as weather stalls; A Koch-fueled attack on electric buses picks up speed; Court torpedoes Trump EPA bid to delay chemical disaster safety standards… PLUS: Older Than Dinosaurs: S African Coelacanths Threatened By Oil Drilling… and much, MUCH more! …

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

• Trump Admin. moves to replace Obama’s Clean Power Plan:
• Trump administration proposes rule to relax carbon limits on power plants (Washington Post):
  One of the measure’s biggest impacts could be on public health, since it would allow coal-fired plants to run longer if they became more efficient, which could increase the total amount of soot and smog-forming pollutants they emit. The EPA projects that if finalized, the rule could lead to between 470 and 1,400 premature deaths each year compared to the Obama-era rule.
• Separating Fact from Fiction in EPA’s CPP Talking Points (NRDC)
• EPA’s new power plant rule shows Trump is fine with ‘runaway climate change,’ green groups say (Climate Progress)
• New Trump power plant plan would release hundreds of millions of tons of CO2 into the air (Washinton Post):
  The plan, which is projected to release at least 12 times the amount of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere compared with the Obama rule over the next decade, comes as scientists have warned that the world will experience increasingly dire climate effects absent a major cut in carbon emissions.
• A quick and dirty guide to the Clean Power Plan (Climate Progress, 9/22/2016)
• How Much Will the Clean Power Plan Cost?: FACT: The benefits of the EPA’s Clean Power Plan far outweigh the costs (Union of Concerned Scientists, 8/5/2015)
• US coal industry continues decline, despite Trump Admin. bail out efforts:
• Trump Promised to Bring Back Coal. It’s Declining Again (Bloomberg):
  [A] recent uptick in exports is masking a bigger problem that the White House hopes to address with its latest effort to aid coal-fired power plants: Simply put, the industry is still losing U.S. customers as utilities increasingly turn to natural gas and renewable power to generate electricity.
• Many hoped for a rebound in Kentucky coal jobs under Trump. It hasn’t happened. (Lexington Herald-Leader):
  The number of coal jobs edged down in Kentucky between April and the end of June, illustrating the continued struggles of the industry despite President Donal Trump’s campaign promise to “put our miners back to work.”
• Coal jobs have dropped in Eastern Kentucky. Income has followed, new report shows (Lexington Herald-Leader)
• Australia abandons climate targets:
• Australian Prime Minister Abandons Climate Targets, Bowing to Party Pressure (NY Times):
  Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull of Australia abandoned plans for emission targets Monday, bowing to pressure from conservatives who considered toppling Mr. Turnbull’s government over an energy policy that aimed to reduce prices and bring the country into line with international climate change commitments.
• Australian PM dumps key climate policy to stave off leadership revolt (Guardian UK)
• Malcolm Turnbull: Under-pressure Australia PM drops climate policy (BBC)
• Turnbull just showed what happens when ‘ideology and idiocy take charge of energy policy’ (op-ed, Guardian UK)
• Climate change is here: Historic flooding in Kerala, India:
• Kerala flood waters recede as thousands remain trapped (Guardian UK):
  Disease prevention and sanitation now top priority as bodies continue to be found….Flood waters have receded in the southern Indian state of Kerala, allowing authorities to retrieve the bodies of victims and enabling residents to start assessing the damage to their homes after the worst monsoon rains in a century.
• “I will die here”: Death toll rises in southern India’s worst flooding in a century (CBS News)
• Kerala floods kill hundreds as relentless Indian monsoon continues (Axios)
• Interior cancels sale of public land stripped from national monument:
• Trump Administration Scraps Plan To Sell Land Cut From Utah Monument (Huffington Post):
  An Interior Department official claims Secretary Ryan Zinke “did not see the proposal before it went out and was not happy about it.”
• Surprised by plan from his own BLM to unload land inside Utah’s former Grand Staircase monument, Interior boss cancels sale (Salt Lake Tribune)
• On second thought, Zinke nixes Interior’s plan to possibly sell public land (Washington Post):
  Bernhardt’s statement did not explain why Zinke allowed the idea to move forward to a 60-day public comment period when he was against it.

‘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

• The Trump administration keeps losing environmental court cases (Washington Post)
• Welcome to Deregulation Nation: The EPA Is Gutting Regulations That Keep Us Safe (Outside Magazine)
• ‘A smokestorm is imminent’: Spokane’s hazardous air now worse than Beijing and Delhi combined (Climate Progress)
• Unexpected Future Boost of Methane Possible from Arctic Permafrost (NASA)
• Trump administration moves forward with Arctic oil plan wildlife staff deem ‘not adequate’ (Washington Post)
• NC science panel: Health goal for PFAS and PFOA chemicals in water is right (AP)
• Exclusive: China shifts to Iranian tankers to keep oil flowing amid U.S. sanctions – sources (Reuters)
• How Much Damage are Trump’s Solar Tariffs Doing to the U.S. Industry? (Inside Climate News)
• Pruitt Called White House Once From His $43,000 Phone Booth: Records (Washington Post)
• Walmart To Shed Solvents Linked To Deaths, Birth Defects (Bloomberg)
• Are Coastal Nuclear Power Plants Ready for Sea-Level Rise? (Ensia)
• Heatwaves, Rains May Become More Severe As Weather Stalls-Study (Reuters)
• A Koch-Fueled Attack on Electric Buses Picks up Speed (DeSmog Blog)
• Chemicals: Court Torpedoes Trump EPA Bid To Delay Safety Standards (E&E News)
• Science Says: Hotter Weather Turbocharges US West Wildfires (AP)
• Trump Keeps Trying To Kill Agency That Probes Chemical Plant Disasters (Reveal)
• Clean Water Rule: Judge Revives WOTUS in 26 States (E&E News)
• Government Pushes To Depose Youth Plaintiffs In Climate Case (Eugene Register-Guard)
• Older Than Dinosaurs: S African Coelacanths Threatened By Oil Drilling (Guardian UK)
• VIDEO: Can Climate Coverage Improve? It Can Hardly Get Worse… (Climate Crocks)
• An Optimist’s Guide to Solving Climate Change and Saving the World (Vice)
• The great nutrient collapse: The atmosphere is literally changing the food we eat, for the worse. And almost nobody is paying attention. (Politico)
• The world’s bleak climate situation, in 3 charts: We’ve got a long way to go and a short time to get there. (Vox)
• AUDIO: An Inconvenient ‘BradCast’ with Al Gore (The BRAD BLOG):
  Guest Host Angie Coiro’s exclusive interview with the former Vice President on elections, pollution, persuasion, activism, and hope…
• The Climate Risks We Face (NY Times):
  To stabilize global temperature, net carbon dioxide emissions must be reduced to zero. The window of time is rapidly closing to reduce emissions and limit warming to no more than 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit or 2 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels, the goal set in the Paris climate accord. The further we push the climate system beyond historical conditions, the greater the risks of potentially unforeseen and even catastrophic changes to the climate – so every reduction in emissions helps.
• The Uninhabitable Earth: When will climate change make earth too hot for humans? (New York Magazine):
  Famine, economic collapse, a sun that cooks us: What climate change could wreak – sooner than you think.
• 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.
• 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).