‘Green News Report’ – May 18, 2021

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IN TODAY’S RADIO REPORT: Calls grow for federal oversight of energy infrastructure cybersecurity; More disasters for Lake Charles, Louisiana; Pipeline company Enbridge defies Michigan Gov. Whitmer’s shut down orders; PLUS: EPA shuts down U.S. Virgin Islands oil refinery due to ‘imminent risk to public health’… All that and more in today’s Green News Report!

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IN ‘GREEN NEWS EXTRA’ (see links below): A ‘narrow’ pathway to a net zero future for greenhouse gases, IEA says; White House announces efforts to curb emissions in buildings; Former coal mines in Britain are being tested to see if they can become a geothermal energy plant; Supreme Court Gives Big Oil a Win in Climate Fight With Cities; Greenland ice sheet on brink of major tipping point… PLUS: Ancient Swedish Hamlet Holds Lessons for Future of Clean Power… and much, MUCH more! …

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

• Yet another disastrous flooding emergency for Lake Charles, LA
• VIDEO: At least 80 people rescued in Lake Charles, pummeled by punishing rains (NBC News):
  “We’ve been through enough in the past year, and we’re seeing flooding that we didn’t even see from Delta,” one woman said, referring to the October hurricane.
• State of Emergency Declared as Severe Flooding Hits Lake Charles, Louisiana (Yahoo News)
• ‘Inundated’: Flooding swamps Louisiana, south-central US; rainfall in Lake Charles may be a 100-year event (USA Today)
• Calls grow for federal cybersecurity standards after Colonial Pipeline shutdown:
• Pipeline Hack Points to Growing Cybersecurity Risk for Energy System (NY Times):
  The risks to the nation’s energy systems are widespread and varied. Many oil and gas pipelines, for instance, rely on decades-old control systems that are not well defended against more sophisticated cyberattacks and can’t be easily updated.
• Biden Proposes Billions for Cybersecurity After Wave of Attacks (Bloomberg)
• Buttigieg urges new regs for private-sector infrastructure (E&E News)
• VIDEO: Transportation Sec. Pete Buttigieg on Colonial Pipeline hack (The Hill)
• Colonial Pipeline Restarts Operations After Cyberattack On Fuel Supply Lines (Huffington Post):
  [S]ince the Colonial cyberattack, major fossil-fuel lobbyists, like the American Petroleum Institute, have tried to block such requirements for the country’s energy industry.
• Ransomware Infection on Colonial Pipeline Shows Potential for Worse Gas Disruption (Kim Zetter)
• Anatomy of a $2 Million Darkside Ransomware Breach (Kim Zetter)
• Hacks Drive Growing Calls For Mandatory Cyber Data Sharing (Breaking Defense)
• Statement: FERC Chairman Richard Glick Calls for Examination of Mandatory Pipeline Cyber Standards in Wake of Colonial Pipeline Ransomware Incident (Federal Energy Regulatory Commission):
  “Simply encouraging pipelines to voluntarily adopt best practices is an inadequate response to the ever-increasing number and sophistication of malevolent cyber actors…Mandatory pipeline security standards are necessary to protect the infrastructure on which we all depend.”
• Pipeline company defies MI governor’s shut down orders:
• Enbridge Line 5 Now Trespassing on State Land After Missing Deadline (WDET)
• Company Defies Michigan Governor’s Order To Close Pipeline (AP)
• A Nasty Pipeline Showdown Is Brewing Today in Michigan, and Canada Is Pissed (Earther)
• EPA shuts down USVI refinery due to ‘imminent’ threat to public health:
• Citing an ‘Imminent’ Health Threat, the EPA Orders Temporary Shut Down of St. Croix Oil Refinery (Inside Cliamte News):
  [A] fire broke out at the facility and a flaring event spewed droplets of oil into the air, covering homes and contaminating the drinking water in neighborhoods as far as seven miles away. It was the second instance of the refinery raining oil on residents since the facility reopened under new management in February.
• EPA Alert: Limetree Bay Terminals and Limetree Bay Refining, LLC (EPA):
  On May 14, EPA ordered Limetree Bay to pause all operations at its St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands refinery due to multiple improperly conducted operations that present an imminent risk to public health.
• EPA orders Virgin Islands refinery to shut down, citing ‘imminent’ health threat (Washington Post):
  It was 7:10 p.m. on a Wednesday night. The EPA employee who had been deployed to the U.S. Virgin Islands to investigate an accident-plagued refinery emailed colleagues to give them the news: “there is oil on my windshield.” On Friday, the Biden administration shut the plant down, citing an “imminent” threat to people’s health after several recent accidents contaminated St. Croix’s drinking water and left hundreds of people sick…”The odor I briefly encountered was overwhelming and nauseating,” recounted another EPA staffer…
• St. Croix Refinery Halts Operations After Raining Oil On Residents Again (Washington Post)
• Biden Admin. moves to repeal Trump-era rule restricting future pollution standards:
• EPA revokes Trump-era policy that loosened clean-air rules (AP):
  EPA said the previous rule imposed broad restrictions and requirements on when and how the agency conducts cost-benefit analyses, without explaining why the requirements were needed. The Trump rule was unnecessary to carry out provisions of the Clean Air Act, because EPA already conducts cost-benefits analyses for clean air rules, the agency said.
• Biden Administration to Repeal Trump Rule Aimed at Curbing E.P.A.’s Power (NY Times):
  The cost-benefit rule limited the way the E.P.A. could justify clean air regulations.

• Biden administration to roll back Trump-era rule on clean air regulations (CNBC)
• EPA Rescinds Unnecessary Benefit-Cost Rule (EPA)
• EPA cost-benefit rule could undermine Biden climate action (E&E, 12/15/2020)

‘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

• A ‘narrow’ pathway to a net zero future for greenhouse gases, IEA says (Washington Post)
• White House announces efforts to curb emissions in buildings (Reuters)
• Ancient Swedish Hamlet Holds Lessons for Future of Clean Power (Bloomberg)
• Former coal mines in Britain are being tested to see if they can become a geothermal energy plant (CNBC)
• Supreme Court Gives Big Oil a Win in Climate Fight With Cities (NY Times)
• Greenland ice sheet on brink of major tipping point, says study (Guardian UK)
• Electric cars: What will happen to all the dead batteries? (BBC)
• Climate Fund Choices for Investors Are Multiplying (Bloomberg/Yahoo)
• 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).