‘Green News Report’ – May 21, 2019

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IN TODAY’S RADIO REPORT: Yet another round of extreme weather hits the Midwest; Yet another U.S. coal company declares bankruptcy; BP and Shell lobby for a carbon tax (but there’s a catch!); PLUS: 2020 Democratic hopefuls Gov. Jay Inslee and Sen. Elizabeth Warren unveil ambitious, comprehensive climate policies… All that and more in today’s Green News Report!

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IN ‘GREEN NEWS EXTRA’ (see links below): Trump EPA plans to lower air pollution deaths by changing how it calculates them; Teen climate activist Greta Thunberg featured on Time Magazine cover; Fossil fuels are underpriced by a whopping $5.2 trillion; New evidence may explain why more coal miners are dying from black lung; Trump threatens to cut millions from fire departments in CA; Climate change deniers win federal elections in Australia; Use of Antibiotics To Fight Citrus Bacteria Alarms Health Officials… PLUS: These huge new wind turbines are a marvel. They’re also the future… and much, MUCH more! …

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

• Yet another round of extreme weather for the Midwest, Plains states:
• Severe Weather Brings Flooding, Multiple Tornadoes Across Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Missouri (Weather Channel)
• Severe storms, tornadoes, and flooding expected in Oklahoma and Texas through Monday night (Washington Post)
• As many as 67 tornadoes batter southern Plains states: (NBC News)
• “High risk” tornado outbreak and flooding underway in Plains states (Axios)
• Tinker Air Force Base evacuates aircraft ahead of severe weather (The Oklahoman)
• VIDEO: Oklahoma City faces “high risk” on anniversary of deadly tornado in Moore, Oklahoma (CBS News)
• In Flood-Hit Midwest, Mayors See Climate Change as a Subject Best Avoided (NY Times)
• How climate change is affecting tornadoes (Pacific Standard, 3/30/2019)
• Yet another U.S. coal company files for bankruptcy:
• Wyoming coal giant Cloud Peak files for bankruptcy (Casper Star-Tribune)
• All The Takeaways From Cloud Peak’s First Week Of Bankruptcy (Wyoming Public Radio):
  The company gave bonuses to its executive team totaling $10.7 million already, with $5.4 million still left to be paid this year. Cloud Peak owes Wyoming counties $14.5 million in ad valorem taxes and fees, according to its own figures…Campbell County is nervous it’s on the hook for millions of dollar in yet-unpaid taxes from Cloud Peak. Not to mention hundreds of millions of dollars in reclamation obligations.
• A Major Coal Company Went Bust. Its Bankruptcy Filing Shows That It Was Funding Climate Change Denialism (The Intercept)
• BP, Shell fund carbon tax campaign – in exchange for immunity from liability:
• The big corporate shift on climate change (Axios):
  Several years-long trends are driving corporations to ask for government policy — but it’s not really about saving the planet…The fervor around the Green New Deal, backed by AOC and Sanders, has accelerated this shift among businesses, which are worried about the far-reaching impacts of that progressive proposal.
• Corporate America Is Terrified of the Green New Deal (New Republic):
  There’s a reason more big businesses are pushing for a carbon tax—and it’s not because they want to fight climate change.
• Oil companies slipped a present to themselves into this carbon tax plan (Climate Progress)
• Exxon is lobbying for a carbon tax. There is, obviously, a catch. (Vox, 10/18/2018)
• Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) proposes mobilizing Defense Dept. on climate action:
• Our military can help lead the fight in combating climate change (Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Medium)
• Warren reveals plan for U.S. military to combat climate change (Axios):
  Instead of rolling out one comprehensive, one-size-fits-all climate plan, Warren is choosing to release multiple climate proposals.
• The Military Is the Largest Single User of Fossil Fuels. Elizabeth Warren Wants to Change That. (Pacific Standard)
• How Warren’s Climate Defense Bill Undermines Itself (Jacobin Magazine)
• Gov. Jay Inslee (D-WA) unveils comprehensive, economy-wide U.S. climate blueprint:
• An Evergreen Economy for America: Investing in good jobs, clean energy, & modern infrastructure (Jay Inslee)
• Jay Inslee Unveils $9 Trillion Climate Jobs Plan To Cut Emissions And Bolster Unions (Huffington Post)
• Jay Inslee is writing the climate plan the next president should adopt (Vox):
  More than a campaign document, it’s an instruction manual.
• VIDEO: Gov. Jay Inslee on his ‘Evergreen Economy’ climate policy on CNN (Jay Inslee, Twitter)
• Inslee drops new climate plan focused on creating 8 million jobs over 10 years (Climate Progress)
• Jay Inslee wants to save the planet and unions at the same time (Washington Post):
  While much of what’s in his plan is the kind of thing you think of when you hear “green jobs,” Inslee also includes proposals to reshape the American workplace.

‘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

• E.P.A. Plans to Get Thousands of Pollution Deaths Off the Books by Changing Its Math (NY Times)
• ‘Now I Am Speaking to the Whole World.’ How Teen Climate Activist Greta Thunberg Got Everyone to Listen (Time Magazine)
• Fossil fuels are underpriced by a whopping $5.2 trillion (Vox)
• More Coal Miners Are Dying From Black Lung, and These Researchers May Know Why (Earther)
• Dem Hopeful Bennet Unveils Climate Plan With Farm, Conservation Focus (Reuters)
• These huge new wind turbines are a marvel. They’re also the future. (Vox)
• Trump Threatens To Cut Millions From Fire Departments In California (McClatchy DC)
• Covering Collapse: Top U.S. Newspapers Offer Uneven Reporting on United Nations Extinction Warning (Public Citizen)
• Why the Guardian is changing the language it uses about the environment (Guardian UK)
• Middle America’s Low-Hanging Carbon: The Search for Greenhouse Gas Cuts from the Grid, Agriculture and Transportation (Inside Climate News)
• It Was Supposed to Be Australia’s Climate Change Election. What Happened? (NY Times)
• SoCal Edison rolls out $356M charging program to spur electric trucks, buses and other large vehicles (Utility Dive)
• Senate agriculture climate change hearing reinforces industry resistance to action (Climate Progress)
• Trump EPA cuts off funding for kids’ health research centers (E&E News)
• Supreme Court Rules For Native American Rights In Wyoming Hunting Case (NPR)
• Use of Antibiotics To Fight Citrus Bacteria Alarms Health Officials (NY Times)
• This one weird trick can help any state or city pass clean energy policy (Vox)
• VIDEO: A Message From the Future With Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (The Intercept)
• This Is How Human Extinction Could Play Out (Rolling Stone)
• SEJ Backgrounder: Green New Deal Proposes Sweeping Economic Transformation (Society of Environmental Journalists)
• Explainer: The ‘Green New Deal’: Mobilizing for a just, prosperous, and sustainable economy (New Consensus)
• What genuine, no-bullshit ambition on climate change would look like: How to hit the most stringent targets, with no loopholes. (David Roberts, Vox)
• A Global Shift To Sustainability Would Save Us $26 Trillion (Vox)
• Project Drawdown: 100 Solutions to Reverse Global Warming (Drawdown.org)
• 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)
• 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.

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).