‘Green News Report’ – May 9, 2024

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IN TODAY’S RADIO REPORT: Tornado outbreaks leave trail of destruction across multiple states; Republicans ban climate change in Florida, just in time for hurricane season; House Republicans’ latest salvo in their ‘War on Woke Appliances’; PLUS: A shift is underway in how U.S. culture portrays climate reality… All that and more in today’s Green News Report!

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IN ‘GREEN NEWS EXTRA’ (see links below): What Trump promised oil CEOs as he asked them for $1 billion for his campaign; From flooding in Brazil and Houston to brutal heat in Asia, extreme weather seems nearly everywhere; World’s top climate scientists expect global heating to blast past 1.5C target; Microsoft made the biggest renewable energy agreement ever to fuel its AI ambitions; Corporate climate watchdog document deems carbon offsets largely ineffective… PLUS: The world’s largest carbon removal plant is here, and bigger ones are on the way… and much, MUCH more! …

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

• Stunning devastation from extreme floods in southern Brazil:
• Southern Brazil is still reeling from massive flooding as it faces risk from new storms (AP):
  “It will take at least a year to recover.”…Gov. Leite has said that the enormous impact will require something akin to the Marshall Plan for Europe’s post-WWII recovery. Already the state has asked the federal government to suspend debt payments and create a fund for the southern region.
• Brazil’s Historic Floods Create a ‘Katrina Moment’ for Lula’s Presidency (Bloomberg/Yahoo News)
• Tornado outbreaks leave trail of destruction across Plains, southern states:
• Powerful storms kill 3 as tornadoes tear through central and southeastern US (AP)
• Severe storms unleash tornadoes on Midwest, Ohio Valley after slamming Plains (Axios)
• U.S. had 300 tornadoes in April, second-most on record (Washington Post):
  Although April is often a busy time for tornadoes, the 300-plus twisters this year dwarfed the average of 182 and trails only the unbelievable total of 757 in April 2011 in modern records, according to a preliminary analysis by the National Weather Service Storm Prediction Center.
• Michigan just had its first rare Tornado Emergency alert this week – what does that mean? (AP)
• Nashville area weather updates: One person killed in Columbia tornado; more storms overnight (The Tennessean)
• Governor’s veto of some emergency funding for rural Oklahoma upsets some rural lawmakers (CNHI, 10/6/2022)
• ‘Surprising’ Surge in US Tornadoes Explained (Newsweek)
• What we know about how climate change affects tornado outbreaks (Axios, 4/3/2023)
• GOP House majority continues War on Woke Appliances:
• House passes bill to make it harder to regulate home appliance energy efficiency (The Hill):
  The House on Tuesday passed a bill aimed at making it more difficult for the Energy Department to enact energy efficiency rules for household appliances – the latest in Republicans’ efforts related to such appliances.
• House GOP focuses on home appliances (KLST-San Antonio)
• VIDEO: House Republican Leadership News Conference, Rep. Stefanik and Rep. Lesko (C-SPAN)
• Florida Republican lawmakers ban climate change, just in time for hurricane season:
• Bill awaiting DeSantis’ OK would end years of renewable energy policies (Orlando Sentinal/MSN)
• Climate change could virtually disappear in Florida — at least according to state law (AP):
  Payne, who spent nearly four decades in the power industry before retiring, said he isn’t convinced that humanity’s energy consumption is destroying the planet. He also notes three-quarters of the state’s energy is provided by natural gas, leaving it vulnerable to market fluctuations.
• Florida Says No to Federal Funding Aimed at Greenhouse Gas Emissions (Inside Climate News)
• EIA: US power grid getting cleaner, but not fast enough:
• Renewables make up the lion’s share of new electric generation, federal agency finds (The Hill):
  Rising US demand for electricity is being met almost entirely by renewables, a new federal report has found…It also cast doubt on a key rationale for a proposed national buildout in gas power plants — and gas exports. The EIA numbers showed that rising gas exports are increasing the amount of money households pay for electricity — even as the agency found that the relative importance of gas to the power sector is falling.
• U.S. electric power sector reported fewer delays for new solar capacity projects in 2023 (U.S. Energy Information Agency):
  Solar power is the fastest-growing source of new electricity generation in the United States because of falling costs, tax credits, and other policies that provide incentives for adding renewable energy sources.
• Solar to contribute over 60% of new U.S. electricity generation in 2024 (PV Magazine)
• NYT: Big batteries are surging, stabilizing the US energy grid:
• Giant Batteries Are Transforming the Way the U.S. Uses Electricity (NY Times):
  California has installed more giant batteries than anywhere in the world apart from China. They can soak up excess solar power during the day and store it for use when it gets dark…Over the past three years, battery storage capacity on the nation’s grids has grown tenfold, to 16,000 megawatts. This year, it is expected to nearly double again, with the biggest growth in Texas, California and Arizona.
• Globally, clean energy is surging:
• Wind and solar are ‘fastest-growing electricity sources in history’ (Carbon Brief)
• More and faster: Electricity from clean sources reaches 30% of global total (AP):
  For the first time, 30% of electricity produced worldwide was from clean energy sources as the number of solar and wind farms continued to grow fast…China added more renewable energy than any other country last year – 51% of the new solar power and 60% of the new wind power globally.
• Culture shift underway in portrayal of climate reality:
• Only 32 of the Top Movies in the Last Decade Say Climate Change Exists – Study (Indie Wire/MSN):
  The good news is that more movies over the last five years mentioned climate change than those released in the first half of the 2010s, and awareness in major films is rising…”Like the legendary Bechdel Test before it, the Climate Reality Check is designed to serve as both a creative tool and an invitation to investigate the presence of climate representation on-screen.”
• How climate change is portrayed in popular culture (David Roberts, Volts podcast)
• The Climate Reality Check: A Bechdel-Wallace Test for a World on Fire (Good Energy)

‘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

• What Trump Promised Oil CEOs As He Asked Them For $1 Billion To His Campaign (Washington Post)
• From flooding in Brazil and Houston to brutal heat in Asia, extreme weather seems nearly everywhere (AP)
• The world’s largest carbon removal plant is here, and bigger ones are on the way (The Verge)
• Corporate Climate Watchdog Document Deems Carbon Offsets Largely Ineffective (Reuters)
• World’s top climate scientists expect global heating to blast past 1.5C target (Guardian)
• USDA Rubber-Stamped Tyson’s “Climate Friendly” Beef; No One Has Seen the Data (Inside Climate News)
• TVA Ignores Warnings In Moving Forward With New Natural Gas Plant (AP)
• Microsoft made the biggest renewable energy agreement ever to fuel its AI ambitions (The Verge)
• Scores Of Starving Brown Pelicans Found On Southern California Beaches (LA Times)
• Mangroves, Expanding With Warming Climate, Are Re-Shaping The Texas Coast (Texas Tribune)
• Oceans’ record heat streak reaches 13 months (Axios)
• A ban on single-use plastics takes effect in Hong Kong in a bid to reduce pollution (AP)
• How To Spot 5 Of The Fossil Fuel Industry’s Biggest Disinformation Tactics (Guardian)
• The Oceans We Knew Are Already Gone (The Atlantic)
• ‘In A Word, Horrific’: Trump’s Extreme Anti-Environment Blueprint (Guardian)
• Plug-in hybrids vs. electric cars: We did the math on which is better for you (Washington Post)
• How to electrify your life when you rent (The Verge)
• Complete Series: Farmers Under Attack for Supporting Clean Energy (This Is Not Cool blog)
• These are the places most at risk from record-breaking heat waves as the planet warms (CNN)
• Feeling Overwhelmed About Going All-Electric at Home? Here’s How to Get Started (Inside Climate News)
• Feeling Hopeless About the Climate? Try Our 30-Day Action Plan (The Revelator)
• 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)
• Project Drawdown: 100 Solutions to Reverse Global Warming (Drawdown.org)
• An Optimist’s Guide to Solving Climate Change and Saving the World (Vice)