‘Green News Report’ – July 16, 2020

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IN TODAY’S RADIO REPORT: Joe Biden unveils sweeping climate action plan to create jobs, jumpstart the economy, and solve climate change; Donald Trump officially rolls back yet another benchmark environmental law; PLUS: New analysis shows ‘extraordinary’ increase in U.S. coastal flooding… All that and more in today’s Green News Report!

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IN ‘GREEN NEWS EXTRA’ (see links below): Climate change made Siberian heatwave 600 times more likely; What Does Net Zero Emissions Mean for Big Oil? Not What You’d Think; Portugal kills coal two years ahead of schedule; The Wood Pellet Business is Booming. Scientists Say That’s Not Good for the Climate; More shoppers, more shops: report shows benefits of designing streets around cyclists and pedestrians; CNBC’s Cramer wakes up to battery technology… PLUS: VIDEO: Mason Ramsey Sings About Cow Farts in New ‘Eco Campaign’… and much, MUCH more! …

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

• With Dueling Environmental Events, Trump and Biden Define the Race (NY Times):
  [T]he major party candidates for the White House displayed in sharp relief just how far apart they are ideologically on infrastructure and environmental matters of vital importance to many American voters, particularly in critical battleground states, including Pennsylvania and Florida…The events captured the two candidates’ radically different beliefs about the global threat of the planet’s warming, and offered a glimpse of how they would lead a nation confronting a climate crisis over the next four years. For Mr. Trump, tackling global warming is a threat to the economy. For Mr. Biden, it’s an opportunity.
• ‘Extraordinary’ increase in U.S. coastal flooding since 2000:
• 2019 State of U.S. High Tide Flooding with a 2020 Outlook (NOAA)
• New Data Shows an ‘Extraordinary’ Rise in U.S. Coastal Flooding (NY Times):
  The increase in high-tide flooding along the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts since 2000 has been “extraordinary,” the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reported, with the frequency of flooding in some cities growing fivefold during that time.
• With Sea Level Rise, High-tide Flooding Spikes Along U.S. Coasts (Scientific American):
  Fifteen communities set records for the number of days with such floods last year.
• Coastal flooding in US will continue to increase as seas rise, report says (USA Today):
  Although not mentioned in the report Tuesday, seas are rising in part because of climate change… In a call with reporters Tuesday, LeBoeuf said that “climate change and carbon emissions are a factor at play when we look at how tides are rising.” In 2019 alone, 19 locations along the East and Gulf Coasts set or tied records…“Evidence of a rapid increase in sea-level rise related flooding started to emerge about two decades ago, and now is very clear,” the report said.
• G.A.O.:Trump Administration cooking the books to lie about climate costs:
• Social Cost of Carbon: Identifying a Federal Entity to Address the National Academies’ Recommendations Could Strengthen Regulatory Analysis (Government Accountability Office)
• G.A.O.: Trump Boosts Deregulation by Undervaluing Cost of Climate Change (NY Times):
  The Government Accountability Office has found that the Trump administration is undervaluing the cost of climate change to boost its deregulatory efforts…The report by the Government Accountability Office, Congress’s nonpartisan investigative arm, said the Trump administration estimated the harm that global warming will cause future generations to be seven times lower than previous federal estimates.
• Trump administration has been underestimating costs of carbon pollution, government watchdog finds (The Hill)
• GAO Finds Changes in Social Cost of Carbon Dramatically Lower Estimates of Climate Costs (Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-RI)
• Trump rolls back benchmark NEPA conservation law:
• VIDEO: President Trump announced rollback of National Environmental Policy Act (C-SPAN)
• Trump Weakens Major Conservation Law to Speed Construction Permits (NY Times):
  Because the action is coming so late in Mr. Trump’s term, it also elevates the stakes in the November elections. Under federal regulatory law, a Democratic president and Congress could eradicate the NEPA rollback with simple majority votes on Capitol Hill and the president’s signature.
• Why Trump’s rollback of the US’ most vital environmental law is bad for all of us (Electrek):
  [Trump] used the excuse of the economic crisis caused by the pandemic to ram through polluting projects — at a time when clean air couldn’t be more important.

• Trump rolls back landmark environmental law to speed up approval of federal projects (CNN)
• Trump weakens environmental law to speed up permits for pipelines and other infrastructure (CNBC):
  Environmentalists swiftly condemned Trump’s announcement, arguing that the decision curtail the public’s right to have a say in the development of pipelines and other projects in their neighborhoods and disproportionately affects poor and minority communities, many of whom live in areas with higher rates of pollution.
• Understanding Trump’s Harmful Attack on NEPA (NRDC):
  One irony…it’s actually going to lead to more of a legal mess that will slow down all kinds of projects. Trump cannot change what the statute that Congress passed requires. Courts have said over and over again that NEPA’s requirements include analyzing cumulative impacts. Agencies and developers who ignore this will find themselves in court over and over again.
• VIDEO: Trump turns White House Rose Garden event into campaign rally, attacking Biden climate plans (C-SPAN)
• Remarks by President Trump in Press Conference (White House):
  “Joe Biden is pushing a platform that would demolish the U.S. economy — totally demolish it…He wants to kill American energy…Mandate net-zero carbon emissions for homes, offices, and all new buildings by 2030. That basically means no windows, no nothing…I tell people when they want to go into some of these buildings, “How are your eyes? Because they won’t be good in five years. And I hope you don’t mind cold office space in the winter and warm office space in the summer, because your air conditioning is not the same as the good old days.” Mandate zero carbon emissions from power plants by 2035. Zero. We’re talking about zero. Nothing can go in the air.”
• Joe Biden unveils sweeping, comprehensive climate action plan to revive U.S. economy:
• VIDEO: Joe Biden Remarks on Energy Policy in Wilmington, Delaware (C-SPAN)
• Joe Biden Clean Energy Plan Speech Transcript July 14 (Rev)
• Biden’s $2 Trillion Climate Plan Promotes Union Jobs, Electric Cars and Carbon-Free Power (Inside Climate News):
  The former vice president linked a new green economy with America’s recovery from the coronavirus pandemic, saying the nation needs to “Build Back Better.”
• Biden Announces $2 Trillion Climate Plan (NY Times)
• Joe Biden sets out aggressive plan to tackle climate change (LA Times):
  “Climate change is a challenge that’s going to define our American future,” Biden said. “I know meeting the challenge will be a once in a lifetime opportunity to jolt new life into our economy, strengthen our global leadership, protect our planet … We’re not just going to tinker around the edges. We’re going to make historic investments that will seize the opportunity to meet this moment in history.”
• Thread by UCSB climate policy prof Lea Stokes: Joe Biden released a new climate plan, expanding his commitments…What’s the Democratic nominee pledging on climate change? A lot… (Leah Stokes, Twitter thread)
• The Gap in Joe Biden’s $2 Trillion Climate Plan Reveals the Biggest Fight to Come (Earther)
• The US is headed for climate disaster – but Joe Biden’s green plan might just work (Guardian UK)
• Joe Biden Cribbed Jay Inslee’s Climate Plan. Inslee Couldn’t Be Happier About That. (NY Magazine)
• Biden’s New Climate Plan Is Also His Stimulus Plan (NY Magazine)

‘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

• What Does Net Zero Emissions Mean for Big Oil? Not What You’d Think (Inside Climate News)
• VIDEO: Mason Ramsey Sings About Cow Farts in New ‘Eco Campaign’ (Rolling Stone)
• Climate change made Siberian heatwave 600 times more likely – study (Guardian UK)
• EPA declines to tighten smog standards amid pressure from green groups (The Hill)
• Portugal kills coal two years ahead of schedule (Electrek)
• The Wood Pellet Business is Booming. Scientists Say That’s Not Good for the Climate. (Inside Climate News)
• For Sustainable Oyster Harvesting, Look to Native Americans’ Historical Practices (Scientific American)
• More shoppers, more shops: TfL stats show benefits of designing streets around cyclists and pedestrians (Road.CC)
• VIDEO: Cramer on Tesla: It’s the Battery (it’s fun watching the financial guys wake up to what’s happening) (Climate Crocks)
• Nissan unveils 300-mile Ariya electric SUV with liquid-cooled battery, 130kW CCS charging, starts at $40k (Electrek)
• 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).