‘Green News Report’ – June 30, 2020

Follow @GreenNewsReport…

(Or use “Click here to listen…” link below.)

IN TODAY’S RADIO REPORT: U.S. fracking pioneer Chesapeake Energy files for bankruptcy; BP warns investors of a future with less oil; Sorry, endangered species, U.S. Supreme Court won’t stop Trump’s border wall for you; PLUS: Flood risks to U.S. homes far higher than previously estimated… All that and more in today’s Green News Report!

Got comments, tips, love letters, hate mail? Drop us a line at GreenNews@BradBlog.com or right here at the comments link below. All GNRs are always archived at GreenNews.BradBlog.com.

IN ‘GREEN NEWS EXTRA’ (see links below): House Democrats unveil ambitious climate package, steering toward a net-zero economy by 2050; South Pole warmed three times the global rate in last 30 years; PGE first major utility to support bans on natural gas; Democrats’ infrastructure bill has a special delivery: Electric mail trucks; Clean Energy Milestone: First offshore wind installed in U.S. federal waters; China’s CO2 emissions surged past pre-coronavirus levels in May… PLUS: Space agencies unveil site showing lockdown changes to Earth… and much, MUCH more! …

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

• Flood risks to U.S. homes far higher than previously estimated, report finds:
• Look up your address: Defining America’s Flood Risk (First Street.org)
• New Data Reveals Hidden Flood Risk Across America (NY Times):
  The federal government’s flood maps guide where and how to build, whether homeowners should buy flood insurance, and how much risk mortgage lenders take on. If the new estimates are broadly accurate, it would mean that homeowners, builders, banks, insurers and government officials nationwide have been making decisions with information that understates their true physical and financial risks.
• Millions more US homes are at risk of flooding than previously known, new analysis shows (CNN):
  “If you’re a homeowner, renter or buyer in this country and you want to understand flood risk, the only data that’s available to you are the FEMA flood maps,” said Matthew Eby, First Street’s founder and executive director. “And the FEMA flood maps are made to determine flood insurance rates — not necessarily to determine what your personal flood risk is.”
• VIDEO: 15 million U.S. homes are at risk of flooding — 70% higher than FEMA estimates (CBS News)
• U.S. Supreme Court won’t stop Trump’s border wall for endangered species:
• U.S. Supreme Court spurns environmental challenge to Trump’s border wall (Reuters):
  The justices turned away an appeal by the groups of a federal judge’s ruling that rejected their claims that the administration had unlawfully undertaken border wall projects in Arizona, California, New Mexico and Texas harmful to plant and animal life. The groups had argued that the 1996 law under which the administration is building the wall gave too much power to the executive branch in violation of the U.S. Constitution.
• High Court Rejects Border Wall Case That Challenged Agency Power (Bloomberg)
• DC Attorney General sues oil majors for deceptive practices in lying about climate science:
• D.C. attorney general sues oil and gas companies, alleging industry misled public about climate change (Washington Post):
  The D.C. case is built on what Racine said was a multiyear investigation that allegedly uncovered intentionally deceptive public relations campaigns by the four companies to conceal the environmental damage of fossil fuels for their own profit.
• District of Columbia sues four oil majors for misleading consumers on climate change (Reuters)
• Two new climate lawsuits give Big Oil the tobacco treatment (Grist):
  William Boyd, a law professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, says the two new lawsuits might get more traction than past attempts. “These are broad consumer protection statutes, and the facts that are alleged in the complaints are pretty damning for the big oil companies in the sense that they show a systematic effort to suppress and divert climate science and to mislead the public about the impacts of climate change,” said Boyd.
• Alleging Consumer Fraud, Minnesota Sues Exxon, Koch, and API for Climate Change Deception (Drilled)
• Investigative Series: Exxon – The Road Not Taken (Inside Climate News)
• Exxon’s Snake Oil: 100 years of deception (Columbia Journalism Review)
• Chesapeake Energy files for bankruptcy:
• Chesapeake Energy, fracking pioneer, files for bankruptcy owing $9bn (Guardian UK):
  With the colourful McClendon as chief executive, Chesapeake grew with lightning speed and was known for its aggressiveness in acquiring oil and gas drilling rights. McClendon pushed the company to acquire enormous tracts of land in several states, taking on mounting debt along the way. Chesapeake in some ways became a victim of its own success as other companies followed its lead and US energy production soared, driving down prices…McClendon was forced to resign in 2013 over allegations of conspiring to rig bidding for oil and gas contracts over several years, and amid investor concerns over his heavy spending in what was already a hugely indebted sector. McClendon died in a car crash in 2016 hours after charges were lodged by the US justice department over the alleged market malpractice.
• Chesapeake Energy gets bankruptcy court approval for $925 million DIP loan (Market Watch)
• Energy expert explains possible impact of Chesapeake Energy filing for bankruptcy protection (KOCO-TV Oklahoma City)
• Chesapeake Energy files for bankruptcy, as details emerge of wine cellars and botox (NBC News):
  From 2010 to 2012, the company spent $30 billion more in drilling and leasing than it made from its operations.
• BP warns investors of a future with less oil:
• BP Prepares for a Future That Needs Less Oil (NY Times):
  BP sent a signal to investors on Monday that the economic shock of the pandemic would reverberate for years, and that less gas and oil would probably be needed in the future…The write-downs are an acknowledgment that the oil and gas fields on BP’s books are not worth as much as they used to be, and will probably stay that way for the foreseeable future.
• BP sells petrochemical business to Ineos for $5bn (Guardian UK):
  BP has sold its petrochemicals business for $5bn (£4.1bn) to Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s Ineos, in a deal that will boost the oil company’s under-pressure balance sheet…[CEO] Looney said: “Strategically, the overlap with the rest of BP is limited and it would take considerable capital for us to grow these businesses.”
• BP Writedown is Writing on the Wall (Climate Crocks):
  Chris Hughes in Bloomberg: “BP Plc’s potential $18 billion writedown underscores just how significant a turning point 2020 is becoming for the oil industry. It baldly acknowledges that the major hydrocarbon producers are sitting on oil fields that will never be developed — because the pandemic has curbed energy demand and increased the desire for renewables within the supply mix.”

‘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

• South Pole warmed three times the global rate in last 30 years: study (Reuters)
• House Democrats unveil ambitious climate package, steering toward a net-zero economy by 2050 (Washington Post)
• A Call for Massive Reinvestment Aims to Reverse Coal Country’s Rapid Decline (Inside Climate News)
• PG&E First Major Utility to Support State Bans on Natural Gas (Bloomberg)
• Why 2020 to 2050 Will Be ‘the Most Transformative Decades in Human History’ (Medium)
• Democrats’ infrastructure bill has a special delivery: Electric mail trucks (Vox)
• Space agencies unveil site showing lockdown changes to Earth (AP)
• Clean Energy Milestone: First Offshore Wind Installed in U.S. Federal Waters (Get Energy Smart Now)
• Analysis: China’s CO2 emissions surged past pre-coronavirus levels in May (Carbon Brief)
• Two Louisiana Activists Charged with Terrorizing a Lobbyist for the Oil and Gas Industry (Inside Climate News)
• Driller charged over contamination in ‘Gasland’ town (AP)
• Trump Plan Would Open Huge Area of Alaska’s National Petroleum Reserve to Drilling (Inside Climate News)
• Exxon’s Snake Oil: 100 years of deception (Columbia Journalism Review)
• What Does ’12 Years to Act on Climate Change’ (Now 11 Years) Really Mean? (Inside Climate News)
• VIDEO: A Message From the Future With Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (The Intercept)
• 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).