‘Green News Report’ – March 17, 2022

Follow @GreenNewsReport…

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

IN TODAY’S RADIO REPORT: Republicans and Joe Manchin quash nomination of a climate hawk to the Fed; Methane emissions from coal mining far higher than previously thought; ExxonMobil loses another court bid to stop climate change legal probes; PLUS: Lake Powell hits new historic low, threatening hydro-power supplies… All that and more in today’s Green News Report!

Click here to listen or download MP3 (6 mins)…

Link:
Embed:

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): Moldova, Ukraine Hail Connection to EU Energy System; Koch, Halliburton, Subway, others fund Putin’s Ukraine war. Boycott them.; The Big Sneeze: Climate Change To Make Pollen Season Nastier; The Sarah Bloom Raskin debacle is another strike to Biden’s climate agenda; $75 Million For Residents Whose Homes Were Built On Toxic Landfill; Texas And Other States Want To Punish Fossil Fuel Divestment; Somalia’s Worst Drought In Four Decades Means Millions Need Aid; As Drought Deepens, Californians Are Saving Less Water… PLUS: Let’s go on an Energy Adventure!… and much, MUCH more! …

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

• Oil prices fall, but gas prices remain high in U.S.:
• Oil prices dropped 30% in a week. What gives? (CNN):
  Analysts warn that we’re not out of the woods yet. Oil is still trading significantly above what it costs to produce it, and extreme swings are likely to persist at a moment of huge uncertainty.
• Gas Prices Around The World Stay High As Oil Falls Below $100 A Barrel (Motor1/MSN)
• China’s Covid resurgence is part of the reason oil prices plummeted from record highs (CNBC)
• Here’s Who Stands To Win From High Gas Prices (The Hill)
• Lake Powell hits historic low, threatening water and power supplies:
• Lake Powell hits historic low, raising hydropower concerns (AP):
  A massive reservoir known as a boating mecca dipped below a critical threshold on Tuesday raising new concerns about a source of power that millions of people in the U.S. West rely on for electricity…marking yet another sobering realization of the impacts of climate change and megadrought.
• VIDEO: Lake Powell hits historic low, raising hydropower concerns (KSTU-TV Salt Lake City)
• Republicans, Manchin, and fossil fuel industry tank Biden’s Fed nominee:
• Why Joe Manchin Sank Sarah Bloom Raskin’s Nomination (The New Republic):
  Manchin, the Senate’s top recipient of coal, oil and gas donations, didn’t mention climate-related financial regulations during his remarks on Friday. His industry donors have been plenty outspoken about it, though. And his address to them indicated a willingness to do what they want.
• Sarah Bloom Raskin Withdraws Her Nomination to the Federal Reserve Board (The New Yorker):
  In commentary last September, Bloom Raskin suggested that regulators should “ask themselves how their existing instruments can be used to incentivize a rapid, orderly, and just transition away from high-emission and biodiversity-destroying investments.”…

• Why Sarah Bloom Raskin’s climate views sank her Fed nomination (Axios/Yahoo News):
  Why it matters: The stiff headwinds facing this nomination demonstrate how much resistance there is among the fossil fuel industry and its allies in Congress to integrating climate change risk analysis into the work of the country’s top financial regulatory institution.
• The Senator from Fossil Fuel is ‘Beating Biden Badly’ (Bill McKibben, The Crucial Years)
• Sarah Bloom Raskin’s letter of withdrawal to President Biden [PDF] (The New Yorker)
• Sarah Bloom Raskin withdraws amid GOP, Manchin opposition (E&E News)
• VIDEO: Reporter Michael McKee, Raskin Withdraws From Fed Nomination (Bloomberg):
  “Republicans were looking for a scalp, and they basically got it.”
• Explainer-Raskin’s withdrawal from Fed nomination spells more delays for rule changes (Reuters/MSN)
• SEC to require private sector to disclose climate risks:
• The SEC will force companies to reveal their carbon footprint (Quartz/MSN)
• SEC plans to force public companies to disclose greenhouse gas emissions (Washington Post/MSN):
  “These disclosure rules are critical to ensuring that Wall Street cannot continue to get away with making investments that exacerbate the climate crisis,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) said in an emailed statement. “The American people and financial investors have a right to know the risks of these investments, and it’s taken far too long for the SEC to take action.”
• SEC will consider climate disclosure rules for US companies on March 21 – it’s already facing threats of lawsuits (The Conversation/MSN)
• Coal mines emit more methane than the oil and gas industry, study finds:
• Coal Mining Emits More Super-Polluting Methane Than Venting and Flaring From Gas and Oil Wells, a New Study Finds (Inside Climate News):
  So much methane is released from coal mining, the Global Energy Monitor says, that it exceeds the carbon dioxide emissions from burning coal at over 1,100 coal-fired power plants in China.
• New coal mine projects seen swelling global methane emissions by a fifth (Reuters)
• Bigger than oil or gas? Sizing up coal mine methane (Global Energy Monitor)
• Major ConocoPhillips methane gas leak in Alaska:
• ConocoPhillips Alaska employees evacuated due to prolonged natural gas leak on the North Slope (Anchorage Daily News)
• ConocoPhillips says Alaska leak is in a ‘shallow gas zone’ – spokesperson (Reuters)
• Source of ConocoPhillips gas leak remains unknown after more than a week (Faibanks News-Miner)
• ExxonMobil loses another bid to stop climate change probes:
• Exxon Mobil loses appeal to stop climate change probes (Reuters/Yahoo News):
  Exxon argued that its federal lawsuit should continue because Healey’s “viewpoint bias” violated its constitutional free speech rights under the First Amendment, while James kept defending her office’s conduct and could choose to sue again.
• Exxon Loses Appeal to Revive Suit Over State Climate Probes (Bloomberg Law):
  Exxon Mobil Corp. lost its appeal to revive a 2016 lawsuit claiming the Democratic attorneys general of New York and Massachusetts were motivated by politics when they opened investigations into the energy giant’s statements to investors about climate change.

‘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

• Moldova, Ukraine Hail Connection to EU Energy System (Balkan Insight)
• Koch, Halliburton, Subway, others fund Putin’s Ukraine war. Boycott them. (Washington Post)
• The Big Sneeze: Climate Change To Make Pollen Season Nastier (AP)
• The Sarah Bloom Raskin debacle is another strike to Biden’s climate agenda (Grist)
• Let’s go on an Energy Adventure! (Hill Heat newsletter)
• Here’s a Cool New EV from VW, but You Can’t Have It (Inside Climate News)
• The Stealth Operative for Big Oil Who’s Out to Derail America’s Climate Fight (The Nation)
• Biden’s Greenhouse Gas Climate-Cost Rules Restored, for Now (Bloomberg)
• Appeals Court Clears Path For Izembek Road (E&E News)
• Record ‘bomb cyclone’ bringing exceptional warmth to North Pole (Washington Post)
• Why we still don’t yet know how bad climate migration will get (Vox)
• Citing Chevron Tanker, Ukraine Seeks Tougher Restrictions at Russian Ports (NY Times)
• Report: Climate Change Threatens These 29 Michigan Chemical Sites (Bridge Michigan)
• Texas And Other States Want To Punish Fossil Fuel Divestment (NPR)
• $75 Million For Residents Whose Homes Were Built On Landfill (AP)
• Somalia’s Worst Drought In Four Decades Means Millions Need Aid (Reuters)
• As Drought Deepens, Californians Are Saving Less Water (LA Times)
• Chicken, Turkey Farmers Struggle To Keep Birds Safe From Flu (AP)
• Groups Sue For Records In Montana Mine Pollution Case (AP)
• Illinois AG Asked To Ensure Proper Cleanup Of Marathon Pipeline Oil Spill (Belleville News-Democrat),/li>
  

• California’s Climate Reputation Tarnished by Inaction and Oil Money (Inside Climate News)
• Biden, Democrats Take Aim At Oil Companies For High Prices (E&E News)
• Environmental Sacrifice Zones: 8 Places We’ve Given Up-Probably Forever (Environmental Health Network)
• “Rare Earths” from Coal Waste (Climate Crocks)
• Feeling Hopeless About the Climate? Try Our 30-Day Action Plan (The Revelator)
• Green Upheaval: The New Geopolitics of Energy (Foreign Affairs)
• VIDEO: 2050: what happens if we ignore the climate crisis (Guardian UK)
• Guilt, grief and anxiety as young people fear for climate’s future (Reuters)
• 99.9 percent Of Scientists Agree Climate Emergency Caused By Humans (Guardian UK)
• An Empire of Dying Wells: Old oil and gas sites are a climate menace. Meet the company that owns more of America’s decaying wells than any other. (Bloomberg)
• 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 9 Years) Really Mean? (Inside Climate News)
• VIDEO: A Message From the Future With Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (The Intercept)
• 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.