‘Green News Report’ – March 30, 2023

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IN TODAY’S RADIO REPORT: House Republicans race to pass fossil-fueled energy bill; New studies warn extreme floods and droughts getting worse due to global warming; U.S. to see more frequent, intense ‘supercell’ storms with global warming; E.U. finalizes ban on new internal combustion engine cars by 2035; PLUS: Renewables surpass coal for electricity in the U.S. for the first time in history… All that and more in today’s Green News Report!

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IN ‘GREEN NEWS EXTRA’ (see links below): Melting Antarctic ice predicted to cause rapid slowdown of deep ocean current by 2050; UN sends question of countries’ climate responsibilities to The Hague; Swiss seniors take government to European court over climate; Insider Q&A: From oil to offshore wind, how Danish oil company transformed itself; Senate votes to overturn Biden water rule; Texas drove out Chinese firm, not the wind farm it planned… PLUS: Plastics cause wide-ranging health issues from cancer to birth defects, landmark study finds… and much, MUCH more! …

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

• NWS: Prepare for another series of storms:
• Dangerous storms, tornadoes may target Midwest, South (AP):
  An unusual weather pattern has set in, last week triggering the devastating tornado that hit Rolling Fork, Mississippi, and meteorologists fear this Friday will be one of the worst days, with much more to come. The National Weather Service said 16.8 million people live in the highest risk zone, and more than 66 million people overall should be on alert Friday. “It’s pretty darn clear that somebody is going to take it on the nose on Friday,” said Northern Illinois meteorology professor and tornado expert and chaser Victor Gensini. “It’s just a matter of where and exactly when.”
• Lethal supercell storms to increase in U.S., especially the South:
• Lethal Supercell Storms To Hit South More Often As World Warms: New Study (AP):
  America will probably get more killer tornado- and hail-spawning supercells as the world warms, according to a new study that also warns the lethal storms will edge eastward to strike more frequently in the more populous Southern states, like Alabama, Mississippi and Tennessee.
• How climate change made the Mississippi tornadoes more likely (Grist):
  A new study explores the link between rising temperatures and more deadly tornadoes.
• Yes, floods and droughts are getting worse due to global warming:
• Warming Makes Droughts, Extreme Wet Events More Frequent, Intense (NASA)
• Confirmed: Global floods, droughts worsening with warming (AP):
  “I was surprised to see how well correlated the global intensity was with global mean temperatures,” said Matthew Rodell, study author and deputy director of Earth sciences for hydrosphere, biosphere, and geophysics at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. The strong link between these climate extremes and rising global average temperatures means continued global warming will mean more drought and rainstorms that are worse by many measures – more frequent, more severe, longer and larger.
• Global warming driving more extreme droughts and floods, NASA satellites show (USA Today)
• Democrats slam GOP energy bill as giveaway to fossil fuel industry:
• Polluters Over People: H.R.1, Russian roulette, and other things to not think about too much (Hill Heat)
• Why House Republicans are really prioritizing an energy package (Washington Post/MSN):
  If Republicans pass the energy package now, they will be able to argue in the coming months that they tried to help frustrated motorists, but were blocked by Senate Democrats and Biden.
• House GOP’s energy bill hitting the floor amid market volatility (Roll Call):
  [I]t remains hazy how quickly and aggressively the measure would lower prices. The bill contains no obvious provisions to help consumers, like direct subsidies or tax credits. Instead, Republicans said they hope to spur domestic oil and gas production…The package would accelerate the permitting process under the National Environmental Policy Act, require more oil and gas lease sales, eliminate climate programs at the EPA and speed approval of liquefied natural gas, or LNG, exports, among other provisions.
• White House Threatens Veto For Republican Energy Package (The Hill)
• Why the Republicans’ “Lower Energy Costs Act” Won’t Lower Energy Costs (Kate Aronoff, The New Republic)
• VIDEO: Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on GOP’s H.R.1 Energy Bill (Acyn Torabi, Twitter):
  AOC: We saw last year how big oil more than doubled its profits to $219 billion while price gouging customers not because of supply issues but because they can.
• EU gives final approval for ICE car ban in 2035:
• EU Countries Approve 2035 Phaseout of CO2-Emitting Cars (Reuters)
• EU was set to ban internal combustion engine cars. Then Germany suddenly changed its mind (CNN Business)
• EU adds e-fuels loophole to 2035 ICE ban, EV charging guidelines (Green Car Reports)
• Renewables surpass coal for electricity in U.S. for the first time:
• Electricity Generated by Renewables Surpasses Coal for First Time in US (AP):
  “This booming growth is driven largely by economics,” said Gregory Wetstone, president and CEO of the American Council on Renewable Energy. “Over the past decade, the levelized cost of wind energy declined by 70 percent, while the levelized cost of solar power has declined by an even more impressive 90 percent.”
• Renewables beat out coal for electricity generation for first time in US (Houston Chronicle/MSN):
  Overall, nearly 21 percent of the 4.1 billion megawatt hours of electricity produced last year was from renewables. Coal-fired plants accounted for 20 percent of the total, falling from 23 percent in 2021 after a number of plants were retired or saw their use decline. One megawatt of electricity is able to power around 200 Texas homes during a hot summer day, according to ERCOT, the state’s grid operator.

‘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

• UN sends question of countries’ climate responsibilities to The Hague (Axios)
• Swiss seniors take government to European court over climate (AP)
• Insider Q&A: From oil to offshore wind, how Danish oil company transformed itself (AP)
• Senate votes to overturn Biden water rule (E&E News)
• Biden designates monuments: ‘It’s a big deal’ (E&E News)
• Plastics cause wide-ranging health issues from cancer to birth defects, landmark study finds (Guardian)
• 8th Circuit delivers climate blow to Big Oil (E&E News)
• Texas drove out Chinese firm, not the wind farm it planned (AP)
• Melting Antarctic ice predicted to cause rapid slowdown of deep ocean current by 2050 (Guardian)
• Companies bid $264M in Gulf oil sale mandated by climate law (AP)
• New climate paper calls for charging big US oil firms with homicide (Guardian)
• Why It’s Time to Officially Get Over Your EV Range Anxiety (Inside Climate News)
• Building Steam in Lithium Valley (The American Prospect)
• Feeling Overwhelmed About Going All-Electric at Home? Here’s How to Get Started (Inside Climate News)
• 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.