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IN TODAY’S SPECIAL RADIO REPORT: All-out Info War: The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the nation’s largest & most powerful corporate lobbying firm, caught plotting a $12 million disinformation campaign against progressive U.S. organizations, journalists and citizens, including yours truly…
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IN ‘GREEN NEWS EXTRA’ (see links below): EXTENDED (non-Chamber-related) EXTRA!:… Obama budget, GOP’s draconian cuts; Judge fines Chevron $8 Billion for Ecuador pollution; Strip-mining to begin on sea floor; Actor Costner sued over Gulf oil invention; World approaching “peak phosphorous”?; Alaska warming at 3x rate of Lower 48; Natural gas surge in BP spill; KY protestors sit-in at gov’s office against mountaintop removal mining; GE pays handsomely for stake in oil business; EU Carbon trading system plagued by fraud; Smog continues to plague Joshua Tree NP; Insurers warn premiums set to rise for natural disasters; Solar panels can help your home sell faster; Generation HOT: Calling out “climate cranks”; Pesticide co. hires federal agency to challenge pesticide-Parkinson’s link … PLUS: The worst eco-disasters of all time! …
STORIES DISCUSSED IN TODAY’S ‘GREEN NEWS REPORT’…
- A Green News Report SPECIAL REPORT: All-Out Info War: The U.S. Chamber of Commerce Secret Smear Campaign Against Progressive Journalists, Advocacy Groups:
- Late Updates on the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Plot to Target, Discredit, Defraud Political Enemies (BRAD BLOG)
- U.S. Chamber of Commerce Thugs Used ‘Terror Tools’ for Disinfo Scheme Targeting Me, My Family, Other Progressive U.S. Citizens, Groups, And why they are likely to get away with it… (BRAD BLOG)
- Hacked Emails Show U.S. Chamber of Commerce Targeted VelvetRevolution.US, Other Progressive Groups With Massive Disinfo Campaign; ‘Brad Friedman’ and family personally targeted as well… (BRAD BLOG)
- US Chamber’s Lobbyists Solicited Hackers To Sabotage Unions, Smear Chamber’s Political Opponents (Think Progress)
- Executive Who Worked On ChamberLeaks Project Previously Complained About Personal Privacy Invasion (Think Progress)
- Bombshell: Chamber of Commerce lobbyists solicited firm to investigate opponents’ families, children (Climate Progress)
- Energy group targets Oscar-nominated ‘Gasland’: An association representing oil and natural gas producers contends the film should be ineligible for best documentary feature due to its ‘many errors, inconsistencies and outright falsehoods.’ (LA Times)
- MUST-READ: How One Man Tracked Down Anonymous – And Paid a Heavy Price (Wired)
‘GREEN NEWS EXTRA’ (Stuff we didn’t have time for in today’s audio report)…
- After 20 Years of Litigation, Judgement Against Chevron:
- Ecuador Judge Orders Chevron to Pay $9 Billion (NY Times)
- Chevron Toxico: Statement on Ecuador Court Ruling Against Chevron (Chevron Toxico)
- Big news: Ecuador court orders Chevron to pay $8 billion (LA Times)
- Strip-Mining the Ocean Floor: Let’s stripmine life’s birthplace on Earth because we suck at recycling!(Grist)
- Stephen Baldwin sues Kevin Costner over Gulf oil spill invention
- World phosphorous use crosses critical threshold (PhysOrg):
Recalculating the global use of phosphorous, a fertilizer linchpin of modern agriculture, a team of researchers warns that the world’s stocks may soon be in short supply and that overuse in the industrialized world has become a leading cause of the pollution of lakes, rivers and streams.
- BP Oil Disaster in the Gulf: Gulf Also Suffered a Natural Gas Surge, Study Finds (NYT Green)
- GE pays handsomely for stake in oil business (Guardian UK)
- Carbon trading’s credibility goes up in smoke of fraud (Financial Times)
- Smog continues to plague Joshua Tree NP
- Insurers warn premiums set to rise due to increase in natural disasters
- Climate change keenly felt in Alaska’s national parks (Reuters):
Since the mid-1970s, Alaska has warmed at three times the rate of the Lower 48 states, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
…
In some far northern parks such as Gates of the Arctic, average temperatures are expected to shift in coming years from below freezing to above freezing, crossing a crucial threshold, said Bob Winfree, Alaska science adviser for the Park Service. “The effects of melting ice and thawing permafrost, I think, will be major,” Winfree said. - First Egypt, Now Frankfort (Bill McKibben, 350.org)
- Fourteen Protesters Emerge Victorious from Kentucky Governor’s Office Sit-In Protesting Mountaintop Removal Mining (Kentucky Rising):
In a statement delivered before the cheering throng of supporters, internationally-known writer Wendell Berry explained, “We came because the land, its forests, and its streams are being destroyed by the surface mining of coal, because the people are suffering intolerable harms to their homes, their health, and their communities.
- How Solar Power Can Help Your Home Sell Faster (Treehugger):
[T]he U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy states that a solar home will sell twice as quickly as a home without solar panels, and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development reports that energy-saving improvements “attract attention in a competitive market.”
Homeowners have started to speak to the benefits of solar for home sales as well. For example, a San Jose resident who purchased a solar home explained, “even if my house didn’t come with solar, I would have put panels on it because I know it will save money on utility bills, and I want my house to match or surpass the value of others in my neighborhood.”
- Calling Out the Climate Cranks (The Nation):
On Tuesday, February 15, Mark (author of the new book HOT: Living Through the Next Fifty Years on Earth) and supporters will head to Capitol Hill, the Fox TV bureau, the Chamber of Commerce and other hotbeds of climate denial [Noam Chomsky video]. The goal? Put the climate cranks on the spot and make them explain-on camera and in front of kids-why they have condemned the young people of “Generation Hot” (as Mark calls them), to spending the rest of their lives coping with the hottest climate in human history.
- Company pays federal NIOSH researchers to challenge pesticide-Parkinson’s link (Investigative Reporting Workshop):
In an unusual scenario that raises questions of conflict of interest, a company that conducts research on behalf of the pesticide industry has paid a U.S. government agency to help prove some controversial chemicals are safe.
- Budget Battle: Obama v. the GOP:
- Budget Spares Energy Research, Despite Hits to Other Programs (NY Times)
- My obligatory grumpy budget post: Budget posturing is a big game, and the left is losing (David Roberts, Grist)
- Spending plans preview upcoming energy clashes (The Hill)
- Republicans Attempt to Gut EPA Climate Rules, Slash Deeply Into Climate Research, Aid and Technology Programs (NY Times)
- Obama Budget Upholds Energy Research
- Obama 2012 Budget Provides $8 Billion For Clean Energy (Reuters)
- New GOP Spending Plan Takes Chainsaw to EPA (Mother Jones)
- Agency-by-Agency Budget Reports (Washington Post)
- White House budget proposal cuts funding for EPA, but GOP wants more (The Hill)
- Liberals break into two clear camps on Obama’s budget (Washington Post)
- Administration to Push for Small ‘Modular’ Reactors (NY Times)
- EPA Budget Proposal Focuses on Air and Climate Rules, Cuts Water Grants (Greenwire)
- Obama defends proposal to cut LIHEAP funding
- The Republican war on the EPA, debunked point by point (La Vida Locavore)
- Obama Seeks to Cut Clean-Diesel, Fuel-Cell Funding (Bloomberg):
His budget proposes diverting funds from a dozen energy-company tax breaks to help pay for putting more electric vehicles on the road, doubling the share of electricity from so-called clean energy by 2035 and increasing the efficiency of energy use in buildings by 20 percent.
The budget proposal would transform a $7,500 tax credit for buyers of plug-in electric cars into a rebate at the dealership so purchasers wouldn’t have to wait to claim the credit on tax returns.
- Oil industry pounces on Obama’s budget request (The Hill)
- Ex-Big Oil CEO: Subsidies For Oil Companies ‘Are Not Necessary’ (Wonk Room)
- Waxman attacks Upton over ‘one-sided’ hearing on enviro rules
- Ever wondered what the worst eco-disasters of all time would be? Wonder no more (Australian Broadcasting Corp.)
