‘Green News Report’ – March 3, 2011

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IN TODAY’S RADIO REPORT: Eastern Cougar goes extinct; Climate activist Tim DeChristopher goes on trial for fighting to save public lands; “Slash & Burn” Republicans cut the EPA, despite the trillions in dollars it saves; PLUS: Radio. Active. Water. Frack that! … All that and more in today’s Green News Report!

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IN ‘GREEN NEWS EXTRA’ (see links below): Navy Secretary says alt. fuels will save money and lives; Chevron employee: routine dumping of toxic chemicals in Ecuador; EPA Extends GHG Reporting Deadline; China’s 5 year plans for green growth; Google backs climate-change insurance start-up; China faces up to ‘terrible’ state of its ecosystems; Underwater kite-turbine may turn tides; Combining solar PV with Thermal; CA salmon to triple this year?; Salazar says ‘show me the money’; Conservatives oppose climate adaptation, too; Australia: farms “particularly vulnerable” to climate change; Microgrid electricity onthe rise; Global Public Health Implications of Electricity and Coal Consumption; Schwarzenegger calls for Tunisian-style green revolution; Charles Koch hypocritically blasts “Crony Capitalism” … PLUS: How Koch Industries makes billions by demanding bailouts and taxpayer subsidies ….

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

• Eastern Cougar Is Extinct, Agency Declares (NYT Green)
• Climate Activist Tim DeChristopher On Trial For Fighting to Save Public Lands (Near National Parks!):
• MUST-SEE VIDEO: Seven Talks with Tim DeChristopher #2: Crashing an Oil & Gas Auction (SolveClimate.com)
• TAKE ACTION: DONATE to the Tim DeChristopher Legal Defense Fund at Bidder70.org
• For the Latest Trial Updates: PeacefulUprising.org/ClimateTrial [emphasis added]:
  Tim is facing ten years in prison on two felony charges for derailing an illegal sale of public land from the outgoing Bush administration to private oil and gas developers.

  The government is embarrassed by this very public trial, and wishes it would go away, but Tim has refused any kind of plea bargain because he thinks a jury of his peers should decide if he was justified in defying an unjust system that is dooming us to an unlivable future.

  It is this kind of peaceful, powerful, and courageous civil disobedience that is largely missing from the climate movement. An outbreak of jury trials (and willingness to serve time if necessary) could create a political atmosphere that allows a reasonable governmental response to climate change–while bringing the damaging injustices of our current system into the spotlight. People pay attention when others make sacrifices.

  Tim forced a trial so we would have a chance to show the world that if you stand up for a livable future, others will stand with you. Can you join us?

• Tim DeChristopher on trial for sabotaging oil and gas land auction: The climate activist, who bid $1.7m for land parcels for which he could not pay, faces up to 10 years in jail if found guilty (Guardian UK)
• Climate activist Tim DeChristopher goes to trial in Salt Lake City [VIDEO] (Grist)
• The Trial Of Bidder 70: US V. Tim DeChristopher, Climate Hawk (The Wonk Room):
  In the waning days of the Bush presidency, an auction of 130,000 acres of pristine Utah lands near national parks was organized by the Bureau of Land Management as a last-minute gift to the oil and gas industry. Tim DeChristopher, “then a 27-year-old economics student at Utah, walked into the auction and signed up as Bidder 70.” DeChristopher successfully bid for $1.7 million in parcels, breaking up the auction. The Bush leasing plan was found in court to be flawed and has been withdrawn, but DeChristopher faces 10 years in jail for his brave act of non-violent civil disobedience. Furthermore, the judge in charge of DeChristopher’s case is stacking the case against him…
  …
  Meanwhile, the Obama administration approved the first offshore drilling permit today since the BP disaster, for which no criminal charges have been filed.
• Tim DeChristopher: Civil Disobedience on Trial: How does the United States try cases of civil disobedience? Defendant Tim DeChristopher on how much has changed since the founding fathers. (YES! Magazine):
  The prosecution has been very clear that they’re hoping to make an example out of me, to convince other people not to fight the status quo.
  …
  We could have actually asked the jury to make a decision about whether or not I was preventing greater harm by keeping that oil from being extracted and burned. But the judge has prohibited that defense.
• DeChristopher trial rally: ‘Free Tim, free Tim’ (Salt Lake Tribune)
• READ the daily TRIAL TRANSCRIPT (Salt Lake Tribune)
• NYT BOMBSHELL: ‘Fracking’ Wastewater Potentially Radioactive, Dumped Untreated Into America’s Rivers:
• Drilling Down: Regulation Lax as Gas Wells’ Tainted Water Hits Rivers (Ian Urbina, NYT):
  The documents reveal that the wastewater, which is sometimes hauled to sewage plants not designed to treat it and then discharged into rivers that supply drinking water, contains radioactivity at levels higher than previously known, and far higher than the level that federal regulators say is safe for these treatment plants to handle.

  Other documents and interviews show that many E.P.A. scientists are alarmed, warning that the drilling waste is a threat to drinking water in Pennsylvania.
  …
  The Times also found never-reported studies by the E.P.A. and a confidential study by the drilling industry that all concluded that radioactivity in drilling waste cannot be fully diluted in rivers and other waterways. But the E.P.A. has not intervened.

• Wastewater Recycling No Cure-All in Gas Process (Ian Urbina, NYT)
• Politics Seen to Limit E.P.A. as It Sets Rules for Natural Gas: Amid pressure from the industry and Congress, federal regulators are divided over the scope of their powers, leading to limited enforcement and narrowed research.(Ian Urbina, NYT)
• Oscar-Nominated Doc Gasland May Have Undersold Dangers Of Fracking
• Pressure Grows for Answers on Fracking (NYT Green)
• E.P.A. Struggles to Regulate Natural Gas Industry (NY Times): Amid industry and Congressional pressure, federal regulators are deeply divided over how to police the natural gas industry, leading to limited enforcement and narrowed research.
• Response from PA’s Former State Environmental Regulator, John Hanger (Facts of the Day blog)
• Just Hot Air?: Are Natural Gas’s Environmental Benefits Overstated? (Scientific American):
  Although natural gas generates less greenhouse gas than coal when burned, when its total life-cycle emissions associated with extraction and distribution are factored in, it does not seem much cleaner than coal
• E.P.A. Subpoenas Halliburton on Fracking (NYT Green)
• Groundtruthing Academy Award Nominee ‘Gasland’ (Greenwire)
• Fiscal Responsibility!: House GOP Caucus Votes Unanimously to Preserve Big Oil’s Taxpayer Subsidies, Gut the EPA, and Return Styrofoam to the House Cafeteria — Yes, GOP Wants More Trash:
• Republicans to Introduce Bill to Block EPA Climate Rules Thursday (The Hill)
• Budget Hearings on the Hill (cont.) (NYT Green)
• House GOP Says ‘So Be It’ To Taxpayers, Votes Unanimously to Protect Big Oil Subsidies (Think Progress)
• Free Oil!: Bureaucratic Snafu Means Some Oil Companies Don’t Pay Royalties to Taxpayers (Kevin Drum, Mother Jones)
• Ex-Shell CEO Says Big Oil Can Live Without Subsidies (National Journal)
• Oil prices: When record-breaking becomes a problem (Climate Progress)
• Republicans recycle an old idea: the foam plastic coffee cup (Guardian UK)
• WATCH: Rachel Maddow on Record Oil Industry Profits, Record Taxpayer Subsidies: (The Rachel Maddow Show, MSNBC)

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

• U.S. Military Links Alternative Energy Research to Lives–and Dollars–Saved: Inventing the future of energy may be the key to improving U.S. national security, economic prosperity and health. (Scientific American):
  Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus announced two such development and deployment partnerships on March 2 for power electronics modules and batteries capable of storing megawatts of power—both to be funded by a requested $25 million each from DOD and ARPA–e in the fiscal year 2012 budget.

  “Twenty-five million dollars is the cost of one H-1 helicopter,” Mabus said. “The change that $25 million from DOD and ARPA–e can generate, can multiply that one helicopter hundreds and thousands of times.”

  Mabus was referring both to lives saved—for every 24 fuel convoys in Afghanistan and Iraq, one soldier or Marine is killed or wounded, according to a U.S. Army study—and money saved.

• VIDEO: Former Chevron/Texaco employee describes routine dumping of toxic chemicals in Ecuadorian Amazon (Chevron Toxico blog)
• EPA Extends GHG Reporting Deadline (Reuters)
• China Says It Wants Green Growth within Five Years (AFP):
  China, the world’s biggest polluter, plans to “go green” in the next five years, emphasising energy efficiency and the battle against pollution in its plans to revamp the economy, experts say.
• Google backs climate-change weather insurance start-up
• China faces up to ‘terrible’ state of its ecosystems (Scientific American)
• Underwater kite-turbine may turn tides into green electricity (Guardian UK)
• Get More Energy from the Sun by Combining PV with Thermal (CleanTechies Blog)
• Biologists forcast tripling of Calif. salmon pops this year
• Salazar knocks judge’s ruling in offshore drilling permits case (The HIll)
• Conservatives oppose adaptation, too (Grist)
• Australia’s farms “particularly vulnerable” to climate change, adviser says (Australia Broadcasting Corp.)
• Why microgrids are showing way to the green energy future. (Sustainable Industries Magazine)
• Estimating the Global Public Health Implications of Electricity and Coal Consumption
• Schwarzenegger calls for Tunisian-style green revolution (Grist)
• Blinding Hypocrisy Alert: Charles Koch Blasts “Crony Capitalism” (Wall St. Journal)
• How Koch Industries Makes Billions By Demanding Bailouts And Taxpayer Subsidies (Think Progress)