‘Green News Report’ – April 11, 2013

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IN TODAY’S RADIO REPORT: Profits vs. People at Obama’s EPA confirmation hearing; Victory for the people in the federal fracking wars; GAO says nuke evacuation plans inadequate; Climate change is coming for your wine; PLUS: Environmental groups push back against Big Oil with hysterical ads … All that and more in today’s Green News Report!

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IN ‘GREEN NEWS EXTRA’ (see links below): Solar panels could destroy U.S. utilities, according to U.S. utilities; Wind Energy Record in California, equal to 2 nuke plants; Obama Budget Drains Tax Breaks For Big Oil; Keystone XL using old, badly welded pipelines?; Rep. Joe Barton Says Biblical ‘Great Flood’ Proves Climate Change Not Man Made; Tea Party Leader arrest after Agenda 21 threats; 85% of tax experts support a carbon tax; Climate change’s big tax on Americans; Nike: betting against climate scientists is ‘false hope’ … PLUS: Video: Sen. Bernie Sanders’ call for climate action is full of awesome … and much, MUCH more! …

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

• Study: Climate Change Will Threaten Wine Production (Climate Central):
  [T]he latest findings, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, still took the researchers by surprise. “We expected to see significant shifts, but we didn’t expect to see shifts like these,” said Hanna.
• GAO: Expand Evacuation Zones Around US Nukes:
• Alert to Congress: Nuclear evacuation may bog down (AP):
  Nuclear sites were originally picked mainly in rural areas to lessen the impact of accidents. However, in its 2011 series, the AP reported population growth of up to 350 percent within 10 miles of nuclear sites between 1980 and 2010. About 120 million Americans — almost 40 percent — live within 50 miles of a nuclear power plant, according to the AP’s analysis of Census data.
• NRC Ex-Regulator Says U.S. Reactors Are Flawed (NY Times) [emphasis added]
• The Long, Tragic Trail of Failed General Electric Nuclear Plants: (Cascadia Times)
• Exxon Vows To Fight $238 Water Pollution Fine in NH:
• Jury finds Exxon liable for $236.4 million in U.S. pollution suit (Reuters):
  Exxon was the only one of the 22 original defendants in the original suit to go to trial. Other defendants either had the suits against them dismissed or agreed to settlements.
• Exxon’s Arkansas Tar Sands Spill a Bargain: How world’s most profitable company pays almost nothing for continuing violations of federal law (The BRAD BLOG)
• Victory for the People in Federal Fracking Wars:
• AUDIO: U.S. Judge Rules Obama Admin Violated Law in CA Shale Oil Land Leases; Finds BLM Failed to Consider Environmental Effects of Fracking (The BRAD BLOG):
  We discussed the case and its first-of-its-kind ruling, the impact it may (hopefully) have on similar fracking land leases elsewhere in the state and nation, and what the hell supposedly “liberal” Democrats like Barack Obama and CA Gov. Jerry Brown must be thinking.
• U.S. Judge Rules Obama Admin Violated Law in CA Shale Oil Land Leases; Finds BLM Failed to Consider Environmental Effects of Fracking (The BRAD BLOG)
• Profits vs. People in EPA Nominee Gina McCarthy’s Senate Confirmation Hearing:
• McCarthy EPA Hearing: GOP Senators Focused On Climate Denial, Email, And IM (Climate Progress) [emphasis added]:
  After hearing Senator Barrasso’s hyperbolic opening statement about “extreme emissions rules” and the “war on coal” (in fact, the industry is growing under President Obama), [Sen. Bernie Sanders] cut to the chase.

  “This is not a debate about Gina McCarthy. Senator Barrasso made it very clear what this debate is about. It is a debate about global warming, and whether or not we are going to listen to the leading scientists of this country who are telling us that global warming is the most serious planetary crisis that we and the global community face — and whether we are going to address that crisis in a serious manner.

  And in essence what Senator Barrasso has just said is “no” — he does not want the EPA to do that. He does not want the EPA to listen to science.

• EPA nominee’s supporters stress history of work for GOP (The Hill’s e2 Wire)
• Inhofe on climate ‘hoax’: Don’t forget Soros, MoveOn.org (The Hill’s e2 Wire)
• Barbara Boxer Reveals EPA Email Aliases During Gina McCarthy Hearing (AP): The EPA has said that whenever it provided copies of Jackson’s emails to Congress or to citizens under the Freedom of Information Act, it provided emails from both accounts, including the secret “Windsor” one.
• Hilarious: New Ads Push Back Against Big Oil:
• All Risk, No Reward: New Coalition Makes Compelling Case Against Keystone XL Pipeline (Climate Progress):
  A group called “All Risk, No Reward” aired ads opposing the Keystone pipeline yesterday during the Sunday news shows and will soon be targeting Democratic donors and youth.
• Exxon revolutionizes energy by delivering it straight to your face (Grist)
• Exxon – Energy Everywhere (Heavy Crude Video Youtube channel):

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

• Sen. Bernie Sanders’ Awesome Call For Climate Action: (Raw Story):

• Solar panels could destroy U.S. utilities, according to U.S. utilities (Grist):
  Solar power and other distributed renewable energy technologies could lay waste to U.S. power utilities and burn the utility business model, which has remained virtually unchanged for a century, to the ground. That is not wild-eyed hippie talk. It is the assessment of the utilities themselves.
• Wind Energy Record in California: (Green Tech Media) [emphasis added]:
  Winds that reached over 90 miles per hour on mountain ridges … raising their outputs to a record-shattering 4,196 megawatts on Sunday evening, according the California Independent System Operator (the ISO). The output was nearly the equivalent of the combined capacities of San Onofre and Diablo Canyon, California’s two nuclear generating stations.
• The Obama Budget Drains Tax Breaks For Big Oil (Climate Progress):
  President Barack Obama’s budget proposal for fiscal year 2014 would eliminate $39 billion of special tax breaks for Big Oil companies over the next decade as part of comprehensive business tax reform. These companies earned billions of dollars in recent years due to high oil and gasoline prices and do not need additional support from taxpayers.
• Keystone XL: Using aging, retrofitted pipelines to ship oil — what could go wrong? (Grist)
• VIDEO: Stupid Sh*t Republicans Say: Rep. Joe Barton Says Biblical ‘Great Flood’ Proves Climate Change Not Man Made (The BRAD BLOG)
• Oklahoma Tea Party Leader Al Gerhart Charged After Agenda 21 Threats (Huffington Post Green)
• Huge survey of tax policy experts find that 85% support a carbon tax (Univ of Michigan’s Office of Tax Policy Research):
  + 91% believe there should be a gasoline tax “to pay for all the highway construction and maintenance.”
  + 85% think there should be a carbon tax (tax on carbon content of energy sources or uses).
• Grandmother Arrested For Blocking Keystone Pipeline Construction (Huffington Post Green)
• Nike, Starbucks: Betting against climate scientists is ‘false hope’ (The Hill’s e2 Wire):
  “We cannot risk our kids’ futures on the false hope that the vast majority of scientists are wrong. But just as America rose to the great challenges of the past and came out stronger than ever, we have to confront this challenge, and we have to win,” states a joint declaration from more than 30 companies.
• Keystone XL protestor cleverly disrupts Valero golf tournament, explains how he did it (Grist)
• Score one for the Arctic: Conoco-Philips Drops Drilling in 2014: (NY Times):
  “ConocoPhillips has made a good choice,” said Michael LeVine, a lawyer for the environmental group Oceana. “As we’ve learned again and again, operating in Alaskan water demands preparation, care and attention to details companies have not yet proven able to provide.”
• Unhappy Returns: Climate Change’s Big Tax on Americans (Live Science):
  The US Government Accountability Office warned in February that climate change is a “significant financial risk to the federal government.” It threatens everything — not just federal lands and buildings, but food, flood and crop insurance, and disaster relief.
• VIDEO: Storm hits Mayflower, Arkansas site of Exxon oil spill. Contaminated water pumped into Lake Conway as citizen journalists report live. (Treehugger)
• How Far Can Climate Change Go?: (Scientific American) [emphasis added]:
  How far can we push the planet?
• First California Fracking Challenge Is Defeat for U.S (Bloomberg):
  U.S. Magistrate Judge Paul Grewal in San Jose, California, said the BLM violated the National Environmental Policy Act by relying on outdated reviews, conducted before the extraction process known as fracking spurred massive development of energy deposits, when the U.S. sold four leases in 2011 for 2,700 acres of federal land in Monterey and Fresno counties.
• You Can Have More Fossil Fuel. Or You Can Have Water. Your Choice. (Climate Crocks):

• COVER STORY: It’s Global Warming, Stupid (Businessweek):
  If all that doesn’t impress, forget the scientists ostensibly devoted to advancing knowledge and saving lives. Listen instead to corporate insurers committed to compiling statistics for profit.
• Ocean Acidification: Animals are already dissolving in Southern Ocean (New Scientist)
• Global warming targets further out of reach, UN says (Phys.org):
  Based on current pledges, global average temperatures could rise by 3 to 5 degrees Celsius (5.4 to 9.0 degrees Fahrenheit) this century — way above the two degrees Celsius being targeted, said a UN Environment Programme (UNEP) report.

• Skeptical Science: Get the FULL DEBUNKING of ALL Climate Science Denier Arguments
• VIDEO: James Hansen: Why I must speak out about climate change (TED Talks):
  Top climate scientist James Hansen tells the story of his involvement in the science of and debate over global climate change. In doing so he outlines the overwhelming evidence that change is happening and why that makes him deeply worried about the future.
• VIDEO ANIMATION: Time history of atmospheric CO2 (NOAA Carbon Tracker YouTube channel):
• VIDEO: Animation Charts Modern Global Warming (NYT Green)
• Thinking Big: NREL Study Shows 80 Percent Renewables Possible By 2050 (Climate Progress)
• Part 1: The brutal logic of climate change (David Roberts, Grist) [emphasis added]:
  It’s simple: If there is to be any hope of avoiding civilization-threatening climate disruption, the U.S. and other nations must act immediately and aggressively on an unprecedented scale. That means moving to emergency footing. War footing. …It is unpleasant to talk like this. People don’t want to hear it.
• Part 2: The brutal logic of climate change mitigation (David Roberts, Grist)
• How to Buy Time in the Fight against Climate Change: Mobilize to Stop Soot and Methane: A short list of relatively simple actions taken to reduce greenhouse gases other than CO2 could help put the brakes on global warming–if implemented globally (Scientific American)
• World headed for irreversible climate change in five years, IEA warns: If fossil fuel infrastructure is not rapidly changed, the world will ‘lose for ever’ the chance to avoid dangerous climate change (Guardian UK) [emphasis added]:
  “The door is closing,” Fatih Birol, chief economist at the International Energy Agency, said. “I am very worried – if we don’t change direction now on how we use energy, we will end up beyond what scientists tell us is the minimum [for safety]. The door will be closed forever.”
• Concise Overview: The IPCC report on extreme climate and weather events (Real Climate)
• The Real Global Warming Signal (Tamino)