‘Green News Report’ – April 20, 2023

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IN TODAY’S RADIO REPORT: Fort Lauderdale struggles with gas shortage and other ripple effects after extreme rain disaster; Historic, record-shattering heat in Asia turns deadly; Republican appeals court judges overturn Berkeley, CA’s natural gas installation ban; PLUS: House Republicans hold U.S. clean energy sector hostage to raise the nation’s debt limit… All that and more in today’s Green News Report!

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IN ‘GREEN NEWS EXTRA’ (see links below): GOP House fails to override Biden’s veto of resolution to overturn EPA water rule; As states replace lead pipes, plastic alternatives could bring new risks; Hydro: Oil-rich Norway could become Europe’s ‘green battery’; Clogged transmission cost consumers $13B in 1 year; Growing insurance crisis spreads to Texas; Rapid snowmelt causing significant flooding across northern Plains… PLUS: Beyond The Poles: The far-reaching dangers of melting ice

… and much, MUCH more! …

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

• Join in! Earth Day 2023 is on Saturday:
• Earth Day 2023: Growing the movement since 1970. Earth Day Every Day (Earth Day)
• End The Era of Fossil Fuels (Hill Heat)
• House Republicans hold U.S. clean energy sector hostage to raise debt limit:
• McCarthy ties energy, regulatory demands to debt talks (E&E News)
• House Republicans target climate law in debt limit bid (E&E News)
• House GOP’s debt-limit plan seeks to repeal major parts of Democrats’ climate law (Politico):
  House Republicans’ proposal for averting a breach of the federal debt limit seeks to relitigate one of the most consequential congressional debates of last year – by taking an ax to President Joe Biden’s signature climate law. The White House quickly responded that that’s not going to happen.
• VIDEO: Speaker McCarthy Announces Plan to Raise Debt Ceiling, Calls for Talks (C-SPAN)
• ‘Transformational change’: Biden’s industrial policy begins to bear fruit (Financial Times/Reprint FDI Intelligence):
  More than 75 percent of all investment is headed to Republican-held Congressional districts, where it will create 58,000 jobs, according to FT data.
• Extreme, record-shattering heat in Asia turns deadly:
• Severe heatwave engulfs Asia causing deaths and forcing schools to close (Guardian)
• Historic Asia heat breaks hundreds of records, with extremes in Thailand and China (Washington Post)
• Extreme heat scorches Asia, affecting at least a third of the world’s population (The Verge/MSN)
• ‘Like none before:’ Deadly, record-smashing heat wave scorches Asia (USA Today)
• Ft. Lauderdale grapples with gas shortage after extreme rain, floods:
• VIDEO: South Florida faces fuel supply issues after devastating storm (CBS News)
• Panic buying causes widespread gas station closures in South Florida (CNN):
  “I would estimate that 80% of [station closings] are due to panic buying,” said Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis for GasBuddy, which tracks station closings and gas prices…”it’s a self-fulfilling prophesy, people see the gas lines, and they think they should fill up “
• Fort Lauderdale Was Inundated With 1/3 Of Its Annual Rainfall Within Hours (Washington Post)
• Appeals court overturns Berkeley, CA’s natural gas ban:
• Court throws out Berkeley, California’s ban on natural gas (AP)
• What 9th Circuit ruling means for building gas bans (E&E News):
  The decision from the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which struck down the landmark ordinance in Berkeley, Calif., has unclear ramifications, although some legal scholars expressed concerns that it could have a chilling effect on states and cities pursuing similar bans… Berkeley’s ban was included as part of the city’s municipal code — which concerns questions like the city’s authority to regulate health and safety — rather than through building codes or air emissions standards. That difference could make other cities’ gas bans more resilient to legal challenge, she said. San Francisco, for example, enacted its gas restrictions by amending its building code.
• The first natural-gas ban in the US just got shot down (Grist):
  Municipal gas bans in buildings could deal a financial blow to the fossil fuel industry… [T]he use of gas in residential and commercial structures accounted for 8.2 trillion cubic feet in 2021. In comparison, utilities used approximately 11.3 trillion cubic feet to power the grid. If the trend of cities taking up gas bans in buildings continues, companies like ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips may have to rethink their business models.
• The Climate 202: Appeals court tosses Berkeley ban on gas hookups (Washington Post):
  Instead of banning gas lines in new buildings, as Berkeley did, most other cities have written tougher efficiency standards into their buildings codes to effectively achieve the same result.
• Netherlands electricity prices briefly turn negative:
• Dutch Power Prices Turn Negative as Green Power Floods Grid (Bloomberg/Financial Ppost):
  Power prices in the Netherlands turned negative on Wednesday with the market so overloaded with green electricity that consumers are getting paid to use the excess supply.
• UK deploys almost 1GW of battery energy storage in 2022 as Europe hits 4.5GW capacity (Solar Power Portal)
• U.S. clean electric grid inches forward:
• US grid interconnection backlog jumps 40%, with wait times expected to grow as IRA spurs more renewables (Utility Dive)
• Billion-Dollar Power Lines Finally Inching Ahead to Help US Grids (Bloomberg/SEJ):
  For more than a decade, multibillion-dollar power-line projects have struggled to advance, slowed or halted by bureaucracy, NIMBYism or general industry stasis. Now suddenly, several are progressing — and with them the prospect of newly unleashed clean energy as well as more resilient grids in the face of ever-dangerous storms and extreme heatwaves.
• Interior OKs massive power line key for West’s renewables (E&E News):
  The 732-mile TransWest Express Transmission Project is one of the largest transmission projects to reach final approval on the Western grid in decades. Once built, it will add 3,000 megawatts of transmission capacity and connect three planning regions across four states as the U.S. seeks to ship more renewable power to areas of high demand in the West.
• Clogged transmission cost consumers $13B in 1 year — report (E&E News)

‘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

• House fails to override Biden’s veto of resolution to overturn EPA water rule (CNN)
• As states replace lead pipes, plastic alternatives could bring new risks (Grist)
• Hyrdo: Oil-rich Norway could become Europe’s ‘green battery’ (Politico Europe)
• Clogged transmission cost consumers $13B in 1 year — report (E&E News)
• Growing insurance crisis spreads to Texas (E&E News)
• Rapid snowmelt causing significant flooding across northern Plains (Washington Post/MSN)
• Minnesota braces for flooding on Mississippi, other rivers (AP)
• America’s 10 Most Endangered Rivers 2023: Which Waterways Are Most At-Risk (USA Today)
• Biden to Pledge $500 Million to Stop Deforestation in Brazil (NY Times)
• Seattle Airport, Alaska Air And Delta Sued Over Jet Pollution (Reuters)
• Beyond The Poles: The Far-Reaching Dangers Of Melting Ice (NPR)
• 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.