‘Green News Report’ – June 10, 2021

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IN TODAY’S RADIO REPORT: Finally! Hard-won victory for tribes and environmentalists as controversial Keystone XL pipeline is actually dead; Mass arrests at Line 3 pipeline protest in Minnesota; G7 spent $50 billion more on fossil fuel projects than renewable energy in 2020; PLUS: Biden’s infrastructure talks with Republicans collapse, and start all over again… All that and more in today’s Green News Report!

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IN ‘GREEN NEWS EXTRA’ (see links below): Alaska Native Corp. To Protect Its Land, Deals Blow To Pebble Mine; Amid Mega-Drought, Rightwing Militia Stokes Water Rebellion in West; Canada Launches C$647 Million Bid To Avert Pacific Wild Salmon Collapse; B.C. Agrees To Defer Old-Growth Logging For 2 Years In Fairy Creek Area; Red States Warn of ‘Collusive’ Tactics by Biden in Kids’ Climate Case… PLUS: Oregon House Moves To Curb Forest Institute’s Power and Budget in Wake of Blockbuster Investigation… and much, MUCH more! …

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

• Keystone XL pipeline officially, finally, really cancelled:
• Keystone XL pipeline developer pulls plug on controversial project (Washington Post):
  Republicans and oil and gas industry officials decried the news, hammering Biden for putting the nail in the pipeline’s coffin. They argue that the project would have provided thousands of construction jobs. However, with most of the pipeline construction complete, including the fully operating southern leg, relatively few jobs are still at stake.
• Developer Abandons Keystone XL Pipeline Project, Ending Decade-Long Battle (NPR)
• VIDEO: Big Oil ‘Never Lost A Fight Like This’: McKibben On Death Of Keystone XL Pipeline (MSNBC)
• TC Energy confirms termination of Keystone XL Pipeline Project (press release, TC Energy)
• Mass arrests at Line 3 pipeline protest in Minnesota:
• Thousands Came to Minnesota to Protest New Construction on the Line 3 Pipeline. Hundreds Left in Handcuffs but More Vowed to Fight on. (Inside Climate News)
• Police Make Mass Arrests at Protest Against Oil Pipeline (NY Times)
• Border Protection helicopter team under investigation for rotor washing Line 3 protesters (Twin Cities Pioneer Press)
• Low-Flying DHS Helicopter Showers Anti-Pipeline Protests With Debris (The Intercept)
• Line 3 Foes In Northern MN Block Road, Chain Themselves To Equipment (Inside Climate News)
• Biden’s infrastructure talks collapse, as GOP ‘negotiates’ in bad faith:
• White House infrastructure talks with Capito collapse, leading to fingerpointing as Biden shifts strategy (Washington Post)
• Biden returns to bipartisan talks after infrastructure negotiations with Republicans collapse (Salon)
• Collapse of Infrastructure Talks Puts Climate Action at Risk (NY Times)
• Bipartisan groups will keep working on infrastructure – the hard part is how to pay for it (CNBC)
• G7 countries gave $50 billion more to fossil fuel projects than clean energy last year:
• G7 nations vow to phase out international financing for coal projects (Washington Post)
• The World’s Richest Countries Have Given $190 Billion to the Fossil Fuel Industry Since 2020 Alone (Earther):
  Around 80% was given to polluting industries with what the report calls no “green strings” attached. That is, no requirements that the recipients work to reduce emissions or clean up their acts. By comparison, the report finds, governments approved less than $150 billion in funding for “clean” forms of energy during that same time period.
• Biden moves to repeal Trump’s rollback of clean water rules:
• Biden regulators to revise Trump rollback of water protection (Reuters)
• Biden moves to restore clean-water safeguards ended by Trump (AP):
  The Trump-era rule, finalized last year, was long sought by builders, oil and gas developers, farmers and others who complained about federal overreach that they said stretched into gullies, creeks and ravines on farmland and other private property…The Trump-era rule removed protections from several public lakes, including Lake Keowee in South Carolina, a reservoir that provides drinking water for nearly 400,000 people.
• Biden Administration to Restore Clean-Water Protections Ended by Trump (NY Times)
• Maine legislature becomes first to pass fossil fuel divestment bill:
• Maine Legislature votes to divest public funds invested in fossil fuels (Boston Globe/MSN):
  Maine lawmakers have passed landmark legislation that would bar the state from investing pension and annuity assets in fossil fuels, records show.
• ‘A Gift to the Planet’: Maine Lawmakers Pass Landmark Fossil Fuel Divestment Bill (Common Dreams)
• Divestment goes Maine-stream (Grist):
  Maine just became the first state in the nation to pass an actual law requiring divestment of public funds from oil, gas, and coal companies.

‘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

• Alaska Native Corp. To Protect Its Land, Deals Blow To Pebble Mine (Washington Post)
• Amid Mega-Drought, Rightwing Militia Stokes Water Rebellion in West (Guardian UK)
• Canada Launches C$647 Million Bid To Avert Pacific Wild Salmon Collapse (Reuters)
• B.C. Agrees To Defer Old-Growth Logging For 2 Years In Fairy Creek Area (CBC)
• Vale’s Decomissioned Brazil Dam At Risk Of Collapse, Labor Body Says (Reuters)
• Red States Warn of ‘Collusive’ Tactics by Biden in Kids’ Climate Case (Bloomberg)
• US-Funded Study Of Whale Hearing Going Ahead Despite Concerns For Whales (NPR)
• After Exposé, Oregon House Moves To Curb Forest Institute’s Power, Budget (Oregon Public Radio)
• Hook To Plate: Blockchain Tech Could Turn Tide For Sustainable Fishing (Guardian UK)
• AUDIO: ‘Black Wednesday’ Sending ‘Shockwaves Through the Oil and Gas Industry’: ‘BradCast’ 6/4/2021 (The BRAD BLOG)
• Nations Must Drop Fossil Fuels, Fast, World Energy Body Warns (NY Times)
• 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).