‘Green News Report’ – August 4, 2022

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IN TODAY’S RADIO REPORT: Back-to-back extreme storms reveal the U.S. is not ready for climate impacts; Climate change is increasing summertime humidity; Big corporations launch ad blitz to sink Democrats’ landmark budget deal; PLUS: America’s first-ever national EV charging network is on its way… All that and more in today’s Green News Report!

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IN ‘GREEN NEWS EXTRA’ (see links below): The Manchin climate deal is both a big win and a deal with the Devil; Why utilities are lining up behind the climate bill; ‘They are not slowing down’: The rise of billion-dollar disasters; China has a new global development initiative; A hiker tried to burn a spider and sparked a wildfire in Utah; Will a Nile Canal project dry up Africa’s largest wetland?; How coal mining and years of neglect left Kentucky towns at the mercy of flooding; ‘Apocalyptic skies’: the dust storms devastating Gulf states and Syria; Why the Texas grid causes the High Plains to turn off its wind turbines; Inside the fight over California’s last nuclear power plant… PLUS: Hyperion, world’s tallest tree, now off-limits to visitors… and much, MUCH more! …

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

• Big corporations launch last-ditch effort to kill Democrats’ budget/climate deal:
• “Come on, Kyrsten”: Koch network pleads with Sinema to kill Manchin’s climate deal (Slate/MSN)
• Koch network pressures Sens. Manchin, Sinema to oppose $739 billion tax-and-spending bill (CNBC)
• Sinema Gets Earful From GOP and Business Lobby in Bid to Halt Tax Plan (Bloomberg/MSN)
• Corporate America strikes back with 11th-hour assault on Democrats’ reconciliation package (Axios)
• On The Money — All eyes on Sinema with Biden plan in the balance (The Hill/MSN)
• Kyrsten Sinema Is Demanding Democrats Keep A Tax Break For The Super-Wealthy (Huffington Post/MSN)
• Senator Sinema Holds the Cards (Climate Crocks)
• Back-to-back extreme storms show U.S. not ready for climate impacts:
• We haven’t built for this climate (Axios):
  We have long designed our infrastructure as if the climate conditions and extremes of the past, such as the definition of a 100-year, 500-year or even 1,000-year flood in a particular location, would hold true in the future…”One thing is clear: The modeled climate impacts we assumed were 25 to 50 years away are in some cases already occurring today,” Bowen said. “The cost-benefit to invest now to save real money tomorrow should be an important driving factor to how we assess risk and limit potential physical damage and loss of human life.”
• More than 10 inches of rain falls in Illinois, another exceptional deluge (Washington Post/MSN)
• Illinois gets a foot of rain, the U.S.’s 3rd 1,000-year rain in 1 week (Yahoo News)
• VIDEO: Dr. Michael Mann — Kentucky’s Floods More Evidence of Climate’s Jet Stream Impacts (Climate Crocks)
• Kentucky Flooding, NW Heat not Separate Events (Climate Crocks)
• Heavy Downpours Increasing (NOAA, Global Change Report, 2014)
• Climate change is increasing humidity, too:
• Humid Heat: Hidden but Hazardous (Climate Central):
  During the summer, when we experience the highest air temperatures across the U.S., much of the country has also experienced increasing humid heat, as represented by equivalent temperature. Since 1950, summer equivalent temperature has increased three times more than summer air temperature on average across the contiguous U.S.
• It’s not your imagination, summers in Virginia are more humid (Richmond Times-Dispatch)
• Biden Administration boosts community assistance, reverses Trump-era drilling in CA:
• White House Retrofits Infrastructure Bill to Better Help Poor Communities (NY Times):
  The Biden administration is increasing assistance to areas that lack the capacity to apply for improvements to their sanitation and storm water systems.
• Feds agree to reverse Trump-era decision opening central California lands to drilling (The Hill)
• Settlement blocks new federal fracking leases in California (AP)
• National E.V. charging network moves closer to concrete reality:
• The future of America’s EV charging network takes shape (Axios):
  As of this week, all 50 states, plus Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia, have submitted plans for their share of the EV charger money, which comes by way of last year’s bipartisan infrastructure bill…Details: A lot of the nitty-gritty will be determined after regulators review public comments on proposed requirements for projects funded under the bill.
• VIDEO: Sec. Granholm: Electric Vehicle Fast-Chargers Are Coming To All 50 States, Puerto Rico & D.C. (The Late Show with Stephen Colbert/CBS)
• Biden Administration Announces All 50 States, DC, and Puerto Rico Submitted Plans for National Electric Vehicle Charging Network (Roads and Bridges)
• W.Va. Electric Vehicle Charging Station Plan Revealed (NPR)
• Georgia DOT submits electric vehicle infrastructure plan to get federal funding (Savannah Now)

‘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

• The Manchin Climate Deal Is Both a Big Win and a Deal With the Devil (New Republic)
• Hyperion, world’s tallest tree, is off-limits to visitors now (NPR)
• Why utilities are lining up behind the climate bill (E&E news)
• China has a new global development initiative, but who will actually benefit from it? (The Conversation)
• A hiker tried to burn a spider and sparked a wildfire in Utah, police say (Washington Post)
• ‘They are not slowing down’: The rise of billion-dollar disasters (Washington Post)
• Will a Nile Canal Project Dry Up Africa’s Largest Wetland? (Yale e360)
• How Coal Mining and Years of Neglect Left Kentucky Towns at the Mercy of Flooding (NY Times)
• ‘Apocalyptic skies’: the dust storms devastating Gulf states and Syria (Guardian UK)
• Climate change: As drought-hit Scotland is forced to build dams to store water, the economic case for fighting global warming should be crystal clear to all (The Scotsman)
• ‘Grotesque greed’: immoral fossil fuel profits must be taxed, says UN chief (Guardian UK)
• First photos of cougars killing donkeys in Death Valley suggest big impacts for ecosystem (Science)
• Why the Texas grid causes the High Plains to turn off its wind turbines (Texas Tribune)
• Inside the Fight Over California’s Last Nuclear Power Plant (Vice)
• The Gas Industry Is Pumping Money Into A Tiny Local Race To Crush A Climate Champion (Huffington Post)
• US high tide flooding breaks records in multiple locations (the Hill)
• How Paving With Plastic Could Make a Dent in the Global Waste Problem
  (Yale e360)
• How to rent an electric car — everything you need to know (Tom’s Guide/MSN)
• The 7 climate tipping points that could change the world forever (Grist)
• The 1977 White House climate memo that should have changed the world (Guardian UK)
• Four solutions to mitigate climate change, from the IPCC (Dr. Michael Mann, Penn Today)
• UN warns Earth ‘firmly on track toward an unlivable world’ (AP)
• 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.