‘Green News Report’ – June 6, 2023

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IN TODAY’S RADIO REPORT: Biden’s debt ceiling deal averts economic crisis, while Joe Manchin gets his pipeline payoff; Major insurer ditches California over wildfire risk; Arizona slams the brakes on new developments over water concerns; PLUS: Rightwing U.S. Supreme Court’s wetlands ruling is a major victory for polluters and developers… All that and more in today’s Green News Report!

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IN ‘GREEN NEWS EXTRA’ (see links below): Ukraine accuses Russia of blowing up a major dam; Kremlin blames Kyiv; Atmospheric CO2 levels hit new peak, growing at near-record rate; Debt-ceiling deal wildly profitable for mystery trader; Earth past its safe limits for humans, scientists say; Chemical makers settle PFAS-related claims for $1.19 billion; Chaco Canyon moratorium sparks calls for wider oil ban; New alarms over consequences of Antarctic ice melt; Industry documents show firms knew about forever chemicals for decades… PLUS: How wind energy became ‘woke’… and much, MUCH more! …

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

• Biden’s Debt Ceiling Deal gives Sen. Joe Manchin his Pipeline Payoff:
• Here’s how the debt ceiling bill would change the US energy permitting process (The Hill)
• Debt Deal Pares Federal Role in Environmental Permitting Reviews (Bloomberg):
  Permitting changes included in the deal to suspend the debt limit are drawing concern from environmentalists who say many projects would escape federal review under the proposal making its way through Congress.
• Manchin’s Pipeline Payoff Strangles Future Permitting Reform Negotiations (The American Prospect)
• Debt Deal Includes a Green Light for a Contentious Pipeline (NY Times)
• VIDEO: President Biden remarks on the debt ceiling with a rare address from the Oval Office (NPR)
• Transcript: Remarks by President Biden on Averting Default and the Bipartisan Budget Agreement (White House)
• VIDEO: A Dirty Debt Deal: Biden Blasted for Backing Fast-Track Approval of Mountain Valley Pipeline (Democracy Now!)
• Biden’s climate gamble in the debt deal (E&E News)
• Mountain Valley pipeline poised for completion (E&E News)
• SCOTUS strips pollution protections from half of the nation’s wetlands:
• Supreme Court Wetlands Ruling Defies “Scientific Understanding” (Mother Jones)
• Supreme Court erases protections for most wetlands (E&E News):
  That interpretation provides an even more narrow reading of Clean Water Act jurisdiction than the Trump administration proposed in its 2020 Navigable Waters Protection Rule. That regulation only protected wetlands as waters of the United States, or WOTUS, if they had “relatively permanent” surface water connections with other nearby waterways and included protections for wetlands that were cut off from nearby waterways by human-made structures like roads or berms.
• Post-Sackett, chaos erupts for wetlands oversight (E&E News)
• Supreme Court weakens EPA power to enforce Clean Water Act (Washington Post)
• The US Supreme Court has gutted federal protection for wetlands — now what? (Nature):
  Most US wetlands just lost federal protection, but there’s still time for state and local governments to act. Scientists and the public can help.
• Arizona slams the brakes on new developments over water concerns:
• Arizona will halt new home approvals in parts of metro Phoenix as water supplies tighten (Arizona Republic)
• Arizona Limits Construction Around Phoenix as Its Water Supply Dwindles (NY Times):
  In what could be a glimpse of the future as climate change batters the West, officials ruled there’s not enough groundwater for projects already approved.
• Arizona announces limits on construction in Phoenix area as groundwater disappears (CNN):
  State officials said the announcement wouldn’t impact developments that have already been approved. However, developers that are seeking to build new construction will have to demonstrate they can provide an “assured water supply” for 100 years using water from a source that is not local groundwater.
• Arizona governor slams the brakes on Phoenix development because it doesn’t have enough water (Business Insider)
• State Farm ditches California over rising wildfire risks, reconstruction costs:
• Uninsurable America: Climate change hits the insurance industry (Axios):
  It is also bedeviling regulators. “I never thought I would see in my lifetime houses that are flat-out uninsurable,” says Robb Lanham, chief sales officer for insurance brokerage HUB Private Client, which works with about 500 insurers.
• VIDEO: Allstate also halting home insurance policies in California due to wildfire risk (ABC7-San Francisco)
• VIDEO: State Farm: Climate, Inflation, Regs, Squeezing Insurers in California (CNBC/Climate Crocks)
• Calif. scared off its biggest insurer. More could follow. (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

• Ukraine accuses Russia of blowing up a major dam; Kremlin blames Kyiv (NBC News)
• Climate: Carbon Dioxide In Air Hits New Peak, Growing At Near-Record Rate (AP)
• Debt-ceiling deal wildly profitable for mystery trader, raising suspicions of insider trading (Fortune)
• Earth past its safe limits for humans, scientists say (Financial Times)
• Chemical makers settle PFAS-related claims for $1.19 bln (Reuters)
• Financial peril looms nationwide as hurricane season starts (E&E News)
• Chaco Canyon moratorium sparks calls for wider oil ban (E&E News)
• How Wind Became Woke (Climate Crocks)
• Climate Change Comes for ‘Selling Sunset’ (Heatmap)
• Georgia Nuclear Plant a Step Closer to Operation (Climate Crocks)
• New alarms over consequences of Antarctic ice melt (Axios)
• Supreme Court won’t review ruling barring offshore fracking in California (The Hill)
• Industry Documents Show Firms Knew About Forever Chemicals for Decades (Earther)
• Saudi oil cut could lead to long-term gas hike if demand climbs (The Hill)
• Global Study Of 71,000 Animal Species Finds 48% Are Declining (Mongabay)
• US Judge Yanks Approval For Idaho Mine, Finding That BLM Violated NEPA (AP)
• Rich Nations Undermining Climate Funds To Help Poor Countries: Report (Guardian)
• Hansen: Earth on Track for Catastrophic Warming (Climate Crocks)
• These are the places most at risk from record-breaking heat waves as the planet warms (CNN)
• 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)
• 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.