‘Green News Report’ – December 13, 2022

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IN TODAY’S RADIO REPORT: The Keystone Pipeline spills again, this time in Kansas; Surprise! Big Oil is greenwashing and deceiving the public about its clean energy investments; PLUS: U.S. scientists reportedly achieve nuclear fusion breakthrough… All that and more in today’s Green News Report!

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IN ‘GREEN NEWS EXTRA’ (see links below): African countries are tapping their fossil fuel wealth. Why aren’t they getting rich?; Climate change is driving millions in Africa to ‘raging food catastrophe’; Britain approves new coal mine despite climate concerns; U.S. clean energy held up in permitting; L.A. City Council votes to ban Styrofoam, single-use plastics; Truck makers lobby to weaken U.S. climate policies; That empty space next to highways? Put solar panels on it; Misinformation on clean energy rampant in the Heartland… PLUS: The myth of plastic recycling…. and much, MUCH more! …

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

• Keystone Pipeline spills again, this time in Kansas
• In Kansas, crews contain largest-yet breach of Keystone Pipeline (NBC News)
• Oil Spill In Rural Kansas Creek Shuts Down Keystone Pipeline (AP)
• Keystone oil pipeline spill cleanup expected to last weeks -officials (Reuters/Yahoo News)
• TC Energy’s troubles mount as Keystone spill remains unexplained after five days (Financial Post/Yahoo News)
• Federal data: Kansas oil spill biggest in Keystone history (AP)
• House Democrats: Big Oil is greenwashing and deceiving the public, again:
• Big Oil talks ‘transition’ but perpetuates petroleum, House documents say (Washington Post/MSN):
  The documents…reveal oil company executives dismissing the potential for renewable energy to quickly replace fossil fuels, while working to secure a future for natural gas. They also detail industry efforts to secure government tax credits for carbon capture projects that might relieve them of the need to drastically alter their business models.
• Exxon, Chevron and rest of Big Oil ‘greenwash’ climate efforts and plan to pump more, Democrats say in new report (MarketWatch/MSN)
• VIDEO Rep. Ro Khanna on Hallie Jackson Reports on MSNBC discussing his new explosive Big Oil report (Youtube)
• Multiple attacks on the nation’s vulnerable electric grid in last 3 months:
• The Grid Is Under Attack From Snipers, Hackers and Hurricanes (Washington Post):
  The uncomfortable truth is that, unless grid operators find cost-effective ways to meet the emerging confluence of threats — sabotage, climate change, cyber weapons — the societal compact that undergirds those grids will fray. If wealthier consumers feel compelled to invest in their own forms of individual resilience, that can shift more of the cost burden onto remaining customers less able to afford it.
• Attacks on grid infrastructure in 4 states raise alarm (E&E News)
• ‘This is not new’: Tampa Bay substation break-ins reveal power grid’s vulnerability (Tampa Bay Times/Yahoo News)
• As North Carolinians regain power, investigators probe terrorism and threats against power substations across the US. One expert explains what needs to be done (CNN)
• DOE issues new rules for federal buildings to cut energy and emissions:
• Biden to require new federal buildings to slash greenhouse gas emissions (CNBC/MSN):
  The Biden administration on Wednesday unveiled a new building performance standard that would require federal agencies to slash energy use and electrify equipment and appliances in 30 percent of their building space by 2030.
• Biden gas ban: A national model or ‘executive fiat’? (E&E News):
  The Biden administration’s new plans to phase out fossil fuel use in federal buildings is spurring indignation from gas advocates and reviving questions about the climate promises of federal agencies.
• DOE announces nuclear fusion breakthrough:
• Inertial Confinement Fusion: How to Make a Star (Lawrence Livermore Laboratory)
• Fusion breakthrough sparks hope of unlimited clean power (Washington Post):
  Scientists caution that while fusion energy holds potential to provide around-the-clock electricity without the pollution or radioactive risks of traditional coal, gas and nuclear power plants, it would be a decade or even decades before any of it is brought to the grid, if it ever is.
• VIDEO: US officials announce nuclear fusion breakthrough (CNN)
• Fusion Breakthrough? Big, if True (Climate Crocks):
  Nuclear fusion has been, so the joke goes, 10 years away for the last 50 years.
  Now reports circulating of a breakthrough. Don’t get your hopes up, even if this is everything we would hope, it’s a long, long way from a proof of concept to a working generator – a decade? or decades?
• What is nuclear fusion? Harnessing the power of the sun to create clean energy (CBS News)
• VIDEO: Energy Secretary Granholm News Conference on Fusion Energy Breakthrough (C-SPAN)
• The Fusion Breakthrough Suggests That Maybe Someday We’ll Have a Second Sun (Bill McKibben, The New Yorker)

‘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

• African countries are tapping their fossil fuel wealth. Why aren’t they getting rich? (Grist)
• Climate Change is Driving Millions in Africa to ‘Raging Food Catastrophe’ (Inside Climate News)
• Mozambique Park Rangers Are Using Silent Ebikes to Catch Poachers (Wired)
• Britain Approves New Coal Mine Despite Climate Concerns (NY Times)
• Clean Energy Held Up in Permitting (Climate Crocks)
• Paper-thin solar cell can turn any surface into a power source (MIT)
• Self-Driving Taxis Are Causing All Kinds of Trouble in San Francisco (Slate)
• L.A. City Council votes to ban Styrofoam, single-use plastics (KTLA-Los Angeles)
• Truck Makers Lobby To Weaken U.S. Climate Policies, Report Finds (NPR)
• Toxic PFAS Chemicals Found In Virtually Every S. Carolina River Tested (Phys.Org)
• That empty space next to highways? Put solar panels on it. (Grist)
• Misinformation on Clean Energy Rampant in Heartland (Climate Crocks)
• The Myth of Plastic Recycling (NPR)
• How to Live in a Catastrophe: In search of a way to think clearly about the planetary crisis. (NY Magazine)
• Beyond Catastrophe: A New Climate Reality Is Coming Into View (gift link, no paywall – NY Times)
• Feeling Overwhelmed About Going All-Electric at Home? Here’s How to Get Started (Inside Climate News)
• Focusing on the climate actions that can make a real difference (David Roberts, Volts)
• VIDEO: See what three degrees of global warming looks like (The Economist/YouTube)
• 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)
• Feeling Hopeless About the Climate? Try Our 30-Day Action Plan (The Revelator)
• VIDEO: 2050: what happens if we ignore the climate crisis (Guardian UK)
• 99.9 percent Of Scientists Agree Climate Emergency Caused By Humans (Guardian UK)
• 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)
• 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.