‘Green News Report’ – July 8, 2010

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IN TODAY’S RADIO REPORT: Record summer heat around the world (where are the climate change deniers?); Is air conditioning making America fat(ter)?… PLUS: BP says relief wells will be ready, just in time for their quarterly earnings report … All that and more in today’s Green News Report!

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IN ‘GREEN NEWS EXTRA’ (see links below): Nevada Test Site to house solar projects; Don’t expect global warming skeptics to give up on Climategate; PA finds spike in environmental violations from natural gas fracking: PA cattle quarantined from gas fracking contamination; UT kids contaminated with arsenic from pet chickens’ feed; Oil industry ramps up opposition to repealing tax breaks; Critics call Valdez cleanup a warning for Gulf workers …PLUS: A Beach Walk With the Ghosts of Exxon Valdez …

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

• Record Heat Waves Around the World (well, the Northern Hemisphere):
  • The Link Between Record-Breaking Global Heat Waves and Climate Change (Treehugger)
  • Heat wave smothers climate skeptic jokes: As temperatures rise, smart-assed tweets about Al Gore from Republican senators appear to fall…. silent (Salon):
    Why isn’t Senator John Kerry tweeting something lame like : “It’s so hot I can feel Congressional resistance to cap-and-trade melting away”? Why isn’t Barbara Boxer tweeting: “California Gurlz showdown: Heat wave will melt Carly Fiorina’s climate skeptic popsicle for sure”?
  • Global heat wave hits US, reignites climate change debate: Worldwide, the first five months of 2010 were the warmest on record. With the US now getting its share of a heat wave, how will it affect the public perception of climate change? (Christian Science Monitor)
  • China on heatwave alert as temperatures soar: Now with plagues of locusts! (AFP)
  • Temperatures reach record high in Pakistan: Meteorologists record a temperature of 53.7C (129F) in Mohenjo-daro as heatwave continues across Pakistan and India (Guardian UK, June 2010)
  • European heatwave raises power plant strain (Reuters):
    Weather forecasters have issued extremely hot weather warnings for seven western European countries this week, with the heatwave potentially straining electricity supplies as air conditioning use soars.
    …
    Western Europe has not seen a prolonged heatwave since 2006, when sizzling temperatures caused cooling problems for some power plants. River and cooling reservoir temperatures rose so much that environmental legislation prevented the plants from warming the water up any more.
  • East Coast seeks respite as temps soar above 100: Eumetnet, the public European weather services network within the World Meteorological Organization, has issued severe hot weather warnings for most of Spain, the western half of Germany, most of Belgium and parts of the Netherlands. (AP)
• Is Air Conditiong Making America Fat — er, Fatter?:
• “Losing Our Cool”: The high price of staying cool: How air conditioning changed the American landscape, transformed our politics, and is endangering our health (Salon)
• Air conditioning ruined America (MaddowBlog)
• Heat wave air conditioners of doom: From China to New York, the more we cool ourselves, the hotter we’re going to get (Salon)
• The Undead: Climate and Clean Energy Legislation; CBO Projects Savings of $19 Billion:
• CBO: Kerry-Lieberman bill trims deficit by $19B over 10 years (The Hill)
• CBO Says Climate Bill Would Cut Deficit by $19 Billion, But It May Come Too Late (Washington Independent)
• Manufacturers target EPA’s Kerry-Lieberman analysis (The Hill):
  A group of energy-intensive and trade-sensitive industry groups have “considerable concerns” that a recent cost analysis by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for a draft climate bill offered by Sens. John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) does not take into account how the plan would affect their industries.
• An Energy Bill Wrapped in an Enigma: The new package is supposed to be finalized next week. So why doesn’t anyone know anything about it? (Mother Jones)
• The Numbers Game: Manchin/Big Coal 2010? (Mother Jones)
• Sen. Snowe is working quietly to find ‘consensus’ on capping utility emissions (Climatewire)
• LATEST on BP Oil Disaster in the Gulf
• Allen sticks with mid-August date for BP well kill (The Hill)
• BP Sets New Spill Target, Aims to Cap Well by July 27 Earnings: Backup Plans as Obama, Cameron Meet (Wall St. Journal)
• Relief well drilling ahead of schedule (CNN)
• Relief well timing depends on oil’s spread through multiple rings in original well pipe (AP)
• Some blame dispersants for movement of tar balls into Lake Pontchartrain (NOLA.com)
• BP’s Gulf oil spill is a sin, visiting clergy say after touring the coast (NOLA.com)
• Morning reconnaissance flight along Baldwin’s shores reveals widespread oil landfall in form of tarballs and sheen mixed with emulsified oil (Mobile Press-Register)
• Mississippi coastal community sees oil-coated materials from beaches going into landfill as double whammy (McClatchy Newspapers)
• Obama Presses BP on Procedures to Recover More Oil (NY Times)
• BP May Have Third Ship Collecting Oil in Three Days (Bloomberg)
• Fla. gov calls legislature for oil drilling ban (AP)
• Appeals Court Hearing on Reversing the Reversal of the Deepwater Drilling Moratorium
• Moratorium Case Goes to Another Oily Court (Kate Sheppard, Mother Jones)
• Ken Salazar urges court to uphold ban on oil drilling: The Interior secretary tells appellate judges that the moratorium is needed to prevent another disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. But opposing lawyers say the economic harm is too great. (LA Times)
• READ THE REPORT: Judicial Gusher: The Fifth Circuit’s Ties to Oil [.pdf] (Alliance for Justice)
• Watching for conflicts issues between judges and the moratorium case (NOLA.com)
• Majority of judges hearing drilling moratorium appeal attended oil-funded junkets (Climate Progress)

‘GREEN NEWS EXTRA’ (Stuff we didn’t have time for in today’s audio report)…

• Nevada Test Site To House Solar Projects (Fox5 Las Vegas)
• Don’t expect global warming skeptics to give up on Climategate: An inquiry ruling out fraud by climate scientists should quiet naysayers, says Bryan Walsh in Time, but it won’t (The Week)
• What the Frack?: Spike in Environmental Violations Highlights Downside of Natural Gas Drilling Surge in PA (Chesapeake Bay Daily)
• Gas what!: Pennsylvania cattle quarantined from gas fracking contamination (Grist)
• Poison: It’s what’s for dinner!: Arsenic found in Utah kids’ pee traced to their pet chickens’ feed: Arsenic-based additives commonly used in animal feed supposedly don’t pass through to chicken meat or liver. Yet somehow it’s ended up in eggs, and in two kids that ate a lot of them. Time for the FDA to ban their use. (Grist)
• Oil industry ramps up opposition to repealing tax breaks (The Hill)
• Critics call Valdez cleanup a warning for Gulf workers (CNN)
• The Enduring Legacy of the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill: A Beach Walk With the Ghosts of Exxon Valdez (PHOTOS) (Huffington Post Green)