‘Green News Report’ – January 5, 2023

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IN TODAY’S RADIO REPORT: Biden promotes bipartisan infrastructure repairs and upgrades as funding flows from new climate laws; U.S. West braces for another round of major storms; PLUS: Republican dysfunction in U.S. House a bad omen for climate policy… All that and more in today’s Green News Report!

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IN ‘GREEN NEWS EXTRA’ (see links below): How to prepare for this week’s Atmospheric River storm; In famed Mt. Kilimanjaro game park, the animals are giving up; Protests near German village eradicated to expand coal mine; Biden rolls out new rules. Courts may torpedo them; Farewell to the Senate’s biggest climate denier; The toll extreme weather took in the U.S. during 2022, by the numbers; Winter warm spell stifles skiing in the Swiss Alps; A hotter, wetter Arctic spells trouble for everyone… PLUS: Alaska’s Arctic waterways are turning a foreboding orange… and much, MUCH more! …

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

• Republican dysfunction in US House a harbinger of congressional chaos to come:
• How Republicans Plan To Use Their House Majority To Delay Climate Action (Distilled):
  Republicans are getting ready to attack a clean energy program they invented back in 2005. Here’s how it could slow down America’s energy transition.
• Burning down the House: The colorful chaos of a speaker-less chamber (Politico)
• Republicans get a louder voice on climate change as they take over the House (NPR)
• House Republicans Attack Each Other, State Republicans Attack ESG Investing (EcoWatch)
• US West pummeled by series of major storms:
• California Weather Event Astonishes (Climate Crocks)
• Deaths, Flash Flooding and Widespread Power Outages in Wake of Bay Area Bomb Cyclone (KQED)
• Evacuations ordered as California ‘bomb cyclone’ unleashes powerful winds, heavy rain; state of emergency declared (USA Today)
• Will California’s ‘atmospheric river’ storms end the drought? (Grist)
• What is an atmospheric river? (Inside Climate News)
• Extreme winter weather pummeled most of the US:
• VIDEO: Cleanup and warmup continue in Buffalo after deadly blizzard (CBS News/MSN)
• The blizzard is just one reason behind the operational meltdown at Southwest Airlines (NPR)
• Boil water order issued in Mississippi capital amid freeze (AP)
• A Crisis Is Looming For The U.S. Energy Grid (Oil Price)
• Freakish, unprecedented winter heat wave hits Europe:
• Thousands of records shattered in historic winter warm spell in Europe (Washington Post/MSN):
  As 2022 turned to 2023, an exceptionally strong wintertime heat dome pounced on much of Europe, producing unprecedented warmth for January. As temperatures soared 18 to 36 degrees Fahrenheit (10 to 20 Celsius) above normal from France to western Russia, thousands of records were broken between Saturday and Monday — many by large margins…It’s “the most extreme event ever seen in European climatology,” Herrera wrote. “Nothing stands close to this.”
• European weather: Winter heat records smashed all over continent (BBC):
  Warsaw, Poland, saw 18.9C (66F) on Sunday while Bilbao, Spain, was 25.1C – more than 10C above average…Temperatures in the Netherlands, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Latvia, Czech Republic, Poland, Denmark and Belarus broke national records.
• Europe’s Warm Winter is Off the Charts (Climate Crocks)
• Warm Weather in Europe and US Drops Gas Prices (Climate Crocks):
  The map above is terrifying if you understand the dynamics of climate change, but for the economic press, it’s only about the price of natural gas.
• USPS increases electric vehicle purchases:
• The USPS Fleet Is Going Electric (Mother Jones):
  Beep, beep: Starting in 2026, the USPS expects all of its new acquisitions to be electric.
• Audi to go all EV:
• Audi presents electrification plan; from 2026 only BEVs launched (Just Auto):
  Audi targets halved factory costs by 2033 and only all-electric product launches from 2026.
• EPA enacts first new pollution rules for trucks and buses in decades:
• EPA finalizes tougher pollution standards for large vehicles like trucks and buses (CNN):
  EPA Administrator Michael Regan said in a statement the new rule would protect public health, “especially the health of 72 million people living near truck freight routes in America, including our most vulnerable populations in historically overburdened communities.”
• Biden touts infrastructure funding now flowing to states:
• Transportation Department allocates $2 billion to repair vital interstate bridges (American Independent)
• VIDEO: President Biden and Sen. Minority Leader McConnell Deliver Remarks on Infrastructure (C-SPAN)
• ‘We can get things done’: Biden praises bipartisanship and Brent Spence Bridge project (Cincinnati Inquirer)
• New incentives now in effect from Inflation Reduction Act:
• How you can take advantage of tax breaks in the Inflation Reduction Act (Vox):
  On January 1, Americans became eligible to save thousands of dollars when they buy electric cars, induction stoves, and modern appliances under the Inflation Reduction Act that Democrats passed last fall.
• How the Inflation Reduction Act Will Save Households Money in 2023 (Center for American Progress)

‘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

• How to Prepare for This Week’s Atmospheric River Storm: Sandbags, Emergency Kits and More (KQED)
• In a Famed Game Park Near the Foot of Mount Kilimanjaro, the Animals Are Giving Up (Inside Climate News)
• Protests Near German Village Vacated To Expand Coal Mine (AP)
• EPA clampdown on soot pollution imminent (E&E News)
• Biden rolls out new rules. Courts may torpedo them. (E&E News)
• The toll extreme weather took in the U.S. during 2022, by the numbers (Washington Post)
• Winter Warm Spell Stifles Skiing in Swiss Alps (Yale e360)
• Biden WOTUS rule revives decades-old protections (E&E News)
• A new EPA proposal is reigniting a debate about what counts as ‘renewable’ (Grist)
• Report: A hotter, wetter Arctic spells trouble for everyone (Grist)
• Are Home Insurers Abandoning Communities Vulnerable to Climate Change? (E&E News)
• Alaska’s Arctic Waterways Are Turning a Foreboding Orange (High Country News)
• Lula’s First Pro-Environment Acts Protect Indigenous People And The Amazon (Mongabay)
• Farewell To The Senate’s Biggest Climate Denier (Huffington Post)
• Energy requirements and carbon emissions for a low-carbon energy transition (Nature)
• 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.