‘Green News Report’ – February 13, 2025

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IN TODAY’S RADIO REPORT: Impacts of climate change are reshaping U.S. real estate markets; Trump Administration hiring freeze halts hiring of seasonal firefighters; Climate change made L.A. Fires significantly more likely; PLUS: Here we go again — Trump rolls back water and energy efficiency appliance standards that save you money… All that and more in today’s Green News Report!

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IN ‘GREEN NEWS EXTRA’ (see links below): DOGE lands at EPA; How Trump’s EPA threatens efforts to clean up areas affected most by dangerous air pollution; Will Trump cut the oil industry’s favorite climate subsidies?; Chevron set to lay off 20% of its global workforce; Why clearing the brush around Los Angeles won’t reduce the wildfire danger; Transformer supply bottleneck threatens power system stability… PLUS: The US smashed clean energy records last year. Can it keep up the pace?… and much, MUCH more! …

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

• Yes, White House Press Sec. Karoline Leavitt really said that:
• VIDEO: Leavitt waves around “screenshots of contracts” (Aaron Rupar/Twitter):
  Pressed to provide evidence of fraud that Musk has discovered, Leavitt waves around “screenshots of contracts” that go “against the president’s policies” (going against Trump’s policies is not fraud).
• Storms douse L.A. Fires as economic losses escalate:
• A Major Storm Is About to Soak California (NY Times):
  In Southern California, the flooding could be life-threatening in areas burned by wildfires.
• Storm bringing risk of mudslides, debris flows to trigger evacuation warnings in LA burn scars (CBS News)
• $250 billion
• State Farm asks for emergency 22% increase for California premiums, but critics cry foul (USA Today):
  All told, risk modelers have estimated it will cost the insurance industry $20 billion to $45 billion to pay for property damage, temporary housing costs and other claims stemming from the fires. That would make the blazes one of the country’s worst natural disasters but likely not as costly as Hurricane Katrina.
• California considers letting victims of natural disasters sue oil companies for damages (AP)
• Climate change made L.A. Fires much more likely:
• Study: Climate change increased the likelihood of wildfire disaster in highly exposed Los Angeles area (World Weather Attribution)
• Climate change made deadly Los Angeles wildfires 35% more likely: new attribution study (Yale Climate Connections):
  Human-caused climate change worsened the ferocious January 2025 Los Angeles wildfires by reducing rainfall, drying out vegetation, and increasing the overlap between fire season and the winter Santa Ana wind season, according to a rapid analysis released today by World Weather Attribution, conducted by 32 researchers, including leading wildfire scientists from the U.S. and Europe.
• Why California’s wildfire season keeps getting longer and more devastating (CalMatters/Yahoo News)
• Climate change is reshaping U.S. real estate markets:
• How Climate Change Could Upend the American Dream (Pro Publica/NY Times):
  First Street, in fact, correlates the rise in insurance rates and dropping property values with widespread climate migration, predicting that more than 55 million Americans will migrate in response to climate risks inside this country within the next three decades…Like many aspects of the climate challenge, this one will also drive climate haves and have-nots further apart, especially as relatively safe regions emerge, and discerning buyers flock to their appreciating real estate markets.
• Study: Climate Driven Population Shifts and Insurance Increases are set to Erase $1.4 Trillion in American Real Estate Value (First Street Foundation)
• Map Shows Where House Prices Risk Falling Due to Climate Change (Newsweek)
• A Trillion-Dollar Impact? How Natural Disaster Risk Could Reshape the U.S. Real Estate Market (Mortgage Point)
• VIDEO and transcript: Powell Testifies Before the Senate Banking Committee (Rev):
  So let me quickly note that we don’t regulate or supervise insurance companies for the most part, but we’re seeing the same thing, which is both banks and insurance companies are pulling out of areas, coastal areas and things like that or areas where there are a lot of fires. So what that is going to mean is that if you fast-forward 10 or 15 years, there are going to be regions of the country where you can’t get a mortgage… The risk is that they just won’t be there and that people won’t be able to get them. That’s really the issue.
• Home Values To Plunge in ‘Climate Abandonment’ Zones—Here’s Where To Buy Instead (Realtor.com)
• Trump hiring freeze halts hiring of firefighters:
• Trump’s freeze stalls federal firefighter hiring (NBC News)
• Trump’s federal hiring freeze halts onboarding of federal firefighting crews ahead of wildfire season (CNN):
  “It’s going to be really bad, really quick,” said Ben McLane, a federal hand crew captain and board member with Grassroots Wildland Firefighters. “We’re going to have a lack of personnel when fire season gets going…The precedent that we’ve seen over the last few decades at this point is making us pretty certain that it’s going to be a big fire season again.”
• Trump’s Hiring Freeze Throws Wildfire Fighters Into Disarray (Yahoo News/Bloomberg)
Potential reductions to the approximately 18,000 federal firefighters, who are trained to battle blazes deep inside forests as well as at the intersection of cities and nature, would come at a time when their work has never been more crucial. Rising temperatures are contributing to faster-burning fires and ensuring blazes occur more frequently and torch more land. Climate change has also extended the burning season by two months in the US since the 1970s. Yet the ranks of firefighters haven’t increased, and now reinforcements aren’t on the way.
• Oregon senators join letter urging Trump admin exempt firefighters from hiring freeze (WGME-Portland)
• Trump rolls back water and energy efficiency rules again:
• President Trump wants to make showerheads and toilets flow greatly again, but so may utility bills (AP)
• Trump to roll back rules on toilets, showers and lightbulbs (USA Today)
• VIDEO: Fox Host Larry Kudlow Asks Trump OMB Chief If He’s Looking Forward To ‘One Of These Great Pounding Trump Showers’ (Mediaite)

‘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

• DOGE lands at EPA (E&E News)
• EPA chief says Biden was ‘irresponsibly shoveling boatloads of cash,’ vows to get back $20 billion (Washington Post)
• How Trump’s EPA threatens efforts to clean up areas affected most by dangerous air pollution (Pro Publica)
• Will Trump cut th oil industry’s favorite climate subsidies? (E&E News)
• Chevron set to lay off 20% of its global workforce (Oil Price)
• Transformer supply bottleneck threatens power system stability as load grows (Utility Dive)
• The US smashed clean energy records last year. Can it keep up the pace? (Canary Media)
• Trump hostility to US offshore wind reverberates through supply chain (Yahoo Finance/Reuters)
• NOAA imposes limits on scientists, sparking concerns over global forecasts (Guardian)
• Trump names oil and gas advocate to lead agency that manages federal lands (Guardian)
• Her parents were injured in a Tesla crash. She ended up having to pay Tesla damages (AP)
• Why clearing the brush around Los Angeles won’t reduce the wildfire danger (NPR)
• Trump revokes $80 million from NYC after threat to claw back FEMA cash used to care for migrants (Yahoo News)
• Can we avoid the enshittification of clean-energy tech? (David Roberts, Volts)
• Stop emissions, stop warming: A climate reality check (Dr. Andrew Dessler, Climate Brink)
• The Climate Fight Will Continue (This Is Not Cool blog)
• Who Will Care for Americans Left Behind by Climate Migration? (Pro Publica)
• Is the Atlantic Overturning Circulation Approaching a Tipping Point? (The Oceanography Society)
• How Oil Companies Manipulate Journalists (Drilled)
• Abrupt reduction in shipping emission as an inadvertent geoengineering termination shock produces substantial radiative warming (Nature)
• How To Spot 5 Of The Fossil Fuel Industry’s Biggest Disinformation Tactics (Guardian)
• The Oceans We Knew Are Already Gone (The Atlantic)
• 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)
• 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)
• Project Drawdown: 100 Solutions to Reverse Global Warming (Drawdown.org)