‘Green News Report’ – March 9, 2021

Follow @GreenNewsReport…

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

IN TODAY’S RADIO REPORT: Global oil prices are rising again, and so is the price at the pump; Interior Department moving swiftly to roll back Trump-era rollbacks; Bankrupt coal company seeks to shed responsibility for mine clean-up; PLUS: Cities thwarted in effort to change building codes to combat climate change… 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): Big Oil May Want Carbon Tax, But Biden and GOPers Not So Much; Tesla’s secret big battery revealed in Texas;
First major U.S. offshore wind project moves closer to reality under Biden; Big Banks Make a Dangerous Bet on the World’s Growing Demand for Food; White House’s Reworked Climate Metric Draws Lawsuit from [GOP-controlled] States; Caribbean Refinery To Test Biden’s Promises On Poverty And Pollution… PLUS: For Planet Earth, No Tourism is a Curse and a Blessing… and much, MUCH more! …

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

• North Carolina gasoline spill estimates wildly underestimated:
• One of the Nation’s Largest Pipelines Caused the Biggest Spill in Decades-And We’re Just Hearing About It (Earther):
  The slowly-unfolding, little-reported-on saga in the state involves a company controlled by special interests like the Koch brothers and Shell, and a pipeline that has been transporting dirty energy for decades…[T]hroughout the fall, that number steadily crept up: 273,000 gallons in September, 311,000 gallons in November. The company now says nearly 1.2 million gallons have been leaked; that number could still rise as more assessments are done.
• Massive gasoline spill near Huntersville almost 18 times greater than first reported (Charlotte Observer, 1/21/2021)
• Colonial Pipeline Co. violated NC law in massive gasoline spill, state says (Charlotte Observer, 1/20/2020)
• Global oil prices are rising again, and so are gas prices:
• Surprise oil supply cut from OPEC won’t just hit gas prices Axios):
  Oil is being driven by the production cuts of OPEC, a consortium of the world’s largest producers, and expectations for a rebound in global demand as more countries emerge from coronavirus lockdowns.
• Who Is To Blame For Rising Gasoline Prices? (Forbes)
• Saudi in no hurry to end its voluntary oil production cut, says minister (Reuters)
• Texas freeze helps rival oil exporters like Saudi Arabia ‘tremendously,’ may influence OPEC decisions (CNBC)
• VIDEO: Gas prices soaring and could go even higher by spring: Analyst (Fox Business)
• Cities thwarted in effort to update building codes to combat climate change:
• After Championing Greener Building Codes, Local Governments Lose Right To Vote (Huffington Post)
  The nonprofit consortium that oversees much of the nation’s building codes just gave the construction and gas industries more control over the process.
• Biden Administration Wades Into Major Fight Over Green Building Codes (Huffington Post):
  The Energy Department wants the nonprofit that sets model codes to justify its industry-backed bid to block cities from adopting more energy-efficient rules.
• Turning Trash to Natural Gas: Utilities Fight for Their Future Amid Climate Change (Inside Climate News)
• Bankrupt Blackjewel coal company seeks to escape cleanup costs:
• COAL: Blackjewel’s Bankruptcy Filing Is a Harbinger of Trouble Ahead for the Plummeting Coal Industry (Inside Climate News)
• Blackjewel pitches plan to abandon Appalachian coal mines (Energy News Network)
• Federal government strikes deal with coal firm over $61 million in unpaid royalties (Casper Star-Tribune)
• Despite dismissed suit against DEP, concerns remain about WV mine reclamation funding (WV Gazette)
• Interior Dept. moving to roll back Trump-era rollbacks:
• Biden’s interior secretary pick, Deb Haaland, is headed to confirmation as two Republicans announce support. (NY Times)
• Biden Team Tosses Trump-Era Opinion That Gave Industry A Free Pass To Kill Birds (Hufington Post):
  A 2017 legal interpretation of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act “allowed industry to kill birds with impunity,” a Biden administration official said Monday.
• Interior grounds Trump-era migratory bird legal restrictions (E&E News)
• Biden admin ditches Trump ‘open science’ order (E&E News):
  Like a similar rule implemented at EPA, the order sought to end the use of what conservatives and industry groups have called “secret science.” But critics say the policy targeted studies involving legitimate scientific findings that reasonably keep some underlying data private, such as to protect participants’ health information.
• Reversing Trump, Interior Department Moves Swiftly on Climate Change (NY Times)

‘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

• Big Oil May Want Carbon Tax, But Biden and GOPers Not So Much (Inside Climate News)
• Tesla’s secret big battery revealed in Texas (Renew Economy)
• First major U.S. offshore wind project moves closer to reality under Biden (Axios)
• Journalists Face Record Levels Of Persecution Globally (Axios)
• Biden FDA Nears Limiting Toxic Heavy Metals In Commercial Baby Foods (Washington Post)
• Big Banks Make a Dangerous Bet on the World’s Growing Demand for Food (Inside Climate News)
• Social Cost of Carbon: White House’s Reworked Climate Metric Draws Lawsuit from [GOP-controlled] States (Bloomberg)
• Caribbean Refinery To Test Biden’s Promises On Poverty And Pollution (Reuters)
• For Planet Earth, No Tourism is a Curse and a Blessing (NY Times)
• Use of Disinfectants Has Soared, Sparking New Scrutiny Of Ingredients (Environmental Health News)
• Study Finds Wildfire Smoke Harms Humans More Than Pollution From Cars (NPR)
• U.S. Billionaire Stan Kroenke Wins Fight to Kill Public Access to Lakes (Daily Beast)
• How climate change could undo 50 years of public health gains (Grist)
• Climate Change Will Force a New American Migration (Pro Publica)
• 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).