IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Another fossil fuel explosion, this time in Wyoming; State Department delays as Cowboys & Indians protest the Keystone XL pipeline; Landmark $3m judgment against fracking company; Oil industry unprepared for oil spill in the Arctic; PLUS: The legacy of the BP Oil Disaster in the Gulf, four years later... All that and more in today's Green News Report!
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IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): Sweeping reforms to protect coal miners from black lung disease; Game Over: killer video uses Tetris to explain climate change; China says 59% of its groundwater is polluted; Tea Party wants to help you go solar; WV coal ash spill: Health Dept. reports finally admits negative health impacts; Apple offers free recycling of its products; Score another victory for climate science and Michael Mann ... PLUS: Let This Earth Day Be The Last ... and much, MUCH more! ...
STORIES DISCUSSED ON TODAY'S 'GREEN NEWS REPORT'...
VIDEO: Bad News For Ethanol on Earth Day (The Colbert Report):
The Colbert Report
Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Indecision Political Humor,The Colbert Report on Facebook
Biomass Fuel: Worse for Climate than Coal? (Investigate West)
Residents of Wyoming Town Allowed to Return Home After Natural Gas Plant Explosion (AP)
Fracking Company Ordered to Pay $3m in Damages:
In Landmark Ruling, Jury Says Fracking Company Must Pay $3 Million To Sickened Family (Climate Progress):
"As we get more and more information about what the impacts of this industry really are, I think we're going to see more and more of these kinds of verdicts."
Dallas Jury Awards Family $2.95M in Barnett Fracking Lawsuit (Natural Gas Intel)
'Straight from the Horse's Mouth': Former Oil Exec Says Fracking Not Safe (Common Dreams): Retired Mobil VP confirms technology is dangerous and untested
Keystone XL: State Dept Delays, Cowboys & Indians Step Up Pressure:
Obama's Last Shot: The president came into office promising to make fighting climate change a priority. Now, he finally seems to be getting serious about it (Rolling Stone) [emphasis added]:
[I]t's no surprise that I was told recently by members of the administration that the pipeline would, in fact, be rejected. "If the president is really serious about his legacy on climate change, he can't have that and approve Keystone," an Obama insider told me. "The only question now is the timing of the announcement."
Video: Self-described 'cowboys & Indians' fight Keystone XL pipeline (Ottawa Citizen):
Ranchers, farmers and aboriginal groups are protesting the Keystone XL pipeline together in Washington this week. The Obama administration has delayed a decision on the Alberta-Texas pipeline, possibly until next year.
US delays review of Keystone XL pipeline (AP):
The State Department didn't say how much longer agencies will have to weigh in but cited a recent decision by a Nebraska judge overturning a state law that allowed the pipeline's path through the state, prompting uncertainty and an ongoing legal battle. Nebraska's Supreme Court isn't expected to rule for another several months, and there could be more legal maneuvering after that. The delay potentially frees President Barack Obama to avoid making a final call on the pipeline until after the November election.
Delaying The Keystone XL Decision Wasn’t All About Politics (Climate Progress)
Cowboys And Indians Descend on Washington To Protest Pipeline (TIME):
A coalition of ranchers, farmers and native tribes are staging protests against the Keystone XL pipeline on the National Mall this week with teepees, horses and a sacred fire that will burn for days.
Many Canadian aboriginals see no compromise on oil sands pipeline (Reuters)
The Ongoing Disaster of the BP Oil Spill In the Gulf:
4th Anniversary of BP Oil Disaster In the Gulf: The Gulf Coast, four years after the BP disaster (Grist)
Compensation Battle Rages Four Years After BP's U.S. Oil Spill (Reuters)
Louisiana, Texas, Maryland, Private Pension Funds File Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Fraud Suits Aganst BP (New Orleans Times-Picayune)
Four Years After the BP Gulf Disaster --- More Spills, No Safeguards, and a Push to Drill (Oceana)
BP Is Refusing To Pay for Gulf Oil Spill Research (Salon)
Offshore Safety Remains Questionable Four Years after Deepwater Horizon (International Policy Digest)
Oil Industry, U.S. Unprepared for Arctic Oil Spill:
REPORT: Responding to Oil Spills in the U.S. Arctic Marine Environment (2014) (National Research Council, National Academies Press)
Ability to respond to oil spill in the Arctic called 'sorely lacking' (Alaska Dispatch):
“The lack of infrastructure in the Arctic would be a significant liability in the event of a large oil spill,” it said. “It is unlikely that responders could quickly react to an oil spill unless there were improved port and air access, stronger supply chains, and increased capacity to handle equipment, supplies, and personnel.”
U.S. Not Ready for Oil Spill in Arctic Waters (Environment News Service):
The warming climate is melting sea ice, opening U.S. Arctic waters to shipping and oil and gas development, but the National Research Council warned today that U.S. personnel, equipment, transportation, communication, navigation, and safety resources are not adequate for an Arctic oil spill response.
...
The Arctic poses challenges to oil spill response, such as extreme weather and environmental settings, limited operations and communications infrastructure, a vast geographic area, and vulnerable species, ecosystems, and cultures.
'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (Stuff we didn't have time for in today's audio report)...
U.S. announces sweeping reforms to protect coal miners from black lung disease (Center for Public Integrity):
“I’ve heard people say we should wait and study this more,” Perez said. “We have, quite literally, studied the issue to death. … We have the tools to prevent this devastating disease. Now it’s time to muster the will to do it.”
GAME OVER: Here’s a killer video that explains climate change with Tetris (Grist)
Let This Earth Day Be The Last (Wen Stephenson, The Nation):
Let go of the pretense that “environmentalism” as we know it—virtuous green consumerism, affluent low-carbon localism, head-in-the-sand conservationism, feel-good greenwashed capitalism—comes anywhere near the radical response our situation requires. So, yeah, I’ve had it with Earth Day—and the culture of progressive green denial it represents.
China says more than half of its groundwater is polluted (Guardian UK):
Number of groundwater sites of poor or extremely poor quality increases to 59.6%, Chinese government says
The Tea Party Wants to Help You Go Solar (Slate):
Utility companies are waging war on the solar industry. But the clean energy movement has found an unexpected ally in their fight.
Report: WV coal ash spill sent thousands to hospital with symptoms ‘consistent’ with MCHM exposure (Charleston Gazetter):
“There is every reason to believe from these data that hundreds of people, if not more, were directly affected by exposure to MCHM-contaminated water,” said Richard Denison, an Environmental Defense Fund scientists who has closely followed the leak and its impacts. “The state seems intent on minimizing any connection, while the data strongly suggest there is one.”
Apple Offering Free Recycling of All Used Products (AP):
Apple is offering free recycling of all its used products and vowing to power all of its stores, offices and data centers with renewable energy to reduce the pollution caused by its devices and online services.
Score Another Victory for Scientists, Michael Mann and the Freedom of Inquiry (Climate Progress)
'Straight from the Horse's Mouth': Former Oil Exec Says Fracking Not Safe (Common Dreams): Retired Mobil VP confirms technology is dangerous and untested
Ohio’s Clean Energy Programs Save Customers $2 For Every $1 They Spend (Climate Progress)
Why American Apples Just Got Banned in Europe (Mother Jones):
DPA isn't believed to be harmful on its own. But it has the potential to break down into a family of carcinogens called nitrosamines—not something you want to find on your daily apple. And that's why European food safety regulators wanted more information on it.
Bye Bye Miami: U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson calls Miami Beach ground zero for sea level rise (Miami Herald)
Canada moves ahead of U.S. in phasing out older tank cars for shipping crude oil (McClatchy DC)
March Was 4th Warmest on Record Globally (Climate Central)
How to Solve Global Warming: It's the Energy Supply (Scientific American):
Carbon storage has to expand rapidly, or coal burning has to cease, if the world is to avoid dangerous climate change.
...
Restraining global warming to no more than 2 degrees Celsius will require changing how the world produces and uses energy to power its cities and factories, heats and cools buildings, as well as moves people and goods in airplanes, trains, cars, ships and trucks, according to the IPCC. Changes are required not just in technology, but also in people's behavior.
Climate Panel Stunner: Avoiding Climate Catastrophe Is Super Cheap - But Only If We Act Now (Climate Progress) [emphasis added]:
Now you might think it would be a no-brainer that humanity would be willing to pay a very high cost to avoid such catastrophes and achieve the low emission "2°C" (3.6°F) pathway in the left figure above (RCP2.6 - which is a total greenhouse gas level in 2100 equivalent to roughly 450 parts per million of CO2). But the third report finds that the "cost" of doing so is to reduce the median annual growth of consumption over this century by a mere 0.06%.
You read that right, the annual growth loss to preserve a livable climate is 0.06% - and that's "relative to annualized consumption growth in the baseline that is between 1.6% and 3% per year." So we're talking annual growth of, say 2.24% rather than 2.30% to save billions and billions of people from needless suffering for decades if not centuries.
Scientists Discover How to Generate Solar Power in the Dark (The Atlantic):
Meet 'photoswitches,' a breakthrough set of materials that act as their own batteries, absorbing energy and releasing it on demand.
FOR MORE on Climate Science and Climate Change, go to our Green News Report: Essential Background Page
Skeptical Science: Database with FULL DEBUNKING of ALL Climate Science Denier Myths
Warning: Even in the best-case scenario, climate change will kick our asses (Grist)
NASA Video: Warming over the last 130 years, and into the next 100 years:
Video Proof That Global Warming is a 'Hoax'!: NASA Temperature Data 1888-2011 (The BRAD BLOG):
NASA climate change video: This is the U.S. in 2100 (NASA).