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IN TODAY’S RADIO REPORT: House GOP votes again to expedite Keystone XL pipeline; New Energy Secretary Moniz declares climate change science ‘not debatable’; Oklahoma tornado the 2nd costliest in U.S. history; New rules for fracking on public lands; PLUS: California teen invents a battery that could charge your cell phone in 20 seconds … All that and more in today’s Green News Report!

Green News Report with Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen 5/23/2013

‘Green News Report’ – May 23, 2013  |  With Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen...   · · · · ·   ‘Green News Report’ – May 23, 2013  |  With Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen...

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IN ‘GREEN NEWS EXTRA’ (see links below): How Memorial Day gas price hikes enrich oil companies; The truth about the anti-wind movement (tiny, paranoid, disinformed, Koch-funded); Top 10 cities to be screwed by climate change (sorry, Phoenix); CBO: Carbon tax an option to avoid ‘catastrophic’ outcomes; China to launch carbon emissions market; Print solar panels at home … PLUS: Crazy Time: Alex Jones explains how “the government” caused deadly Oklahoma tornado … and much, MUCH more! …

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

• How to help Oklahoma tornado victims (NBC News:
  If you want to send a $10 donation to the Disaster Relief fund via text message, you can do so by texting the word REDCROSS to 90999.
• Oklahoma Tornado Update: 2nd Costliest in U.S. History:
• Oklahoma Tornado Damage Could Top $2 Billion (Weather Underground)
• Slideshow: Costliest Tornadoes in the U.S. (Weather Underground)
• A Survival Plan for America’s Tornado Danger Zone (NYT Dot Earth):
  [I]t’s important to understand the demographic shifts and regulatory gaps that have put so many people in harm’s way….
• Climate Scientist Trenberth Explains Climate Change Effect on Tornadoes Like Moore (The BRAD BLOG): PLUS: OK Senators favor federal disaster relief aid for constituents, even after voting against it following Superstorm Sandy…
• VIDEO: Jeff Masters on May’s Tornado Drought: More Evidence of Extremes (Climate Crocks):
  Despite last week’s lethal tornado in Texas, and the continued rash of storms today – the first part of May saw an unusually low number of tornadoes, – striking in contrast to 2 years ago, when in 2011 we saw an awesome eruption of tornado fury across the US.
• 800k Americans Live Near Potentially Explosive Fertilizer Storage Facilities:
• Interactive Map: Schools, Hosptials and People Near Ammonium Nitrate Storage: (Reuters) [emphasis added]:
  At least 800,000 people across the United States live near hundreds of sites that store large amounts of potentially explosive ammonium nitrate, which investigators are blaming as the source of last month’s deadly blast at a fertilizer plant in West, Texas, a Reuters analysis shows. [The data journalism project includes an interactive map that allows users to locate schools, hospitals, and population in their own areas that are near ammonium nitrate storage facilities.]
• Congressional Republicans Vote AGAIN to Expedite Keystone XL Pipeline:
• VIDEO: Rep. Alan Grayson: It’s Our Job to Pass Laws, Not Give Favors to Foreign Oil Companies (Rep. Alan Grayson Youtube Channel))



• House Attempts To Force Approval Of Keystone Pipeline That Would Create Just 35 Permanent Jobs (Climate Progress):
  The 241 members who voted for the bill have taken a collective $39,150,812 in career contributions from the oil and gas industry, compared to $5,094,217 for those who voted no. Even more starkly, in the last election cycle, that split widens to $11,529,335 versus $742,125.
• Keep climate change out of Keystone decision, GOP warns in letter to Obama (The Hill’s e2 Wire)
• Poll: Half of Americans Have Never Heard of KXL Pipeline: (CS Monitor): After years of debate, a new poll shows half of Americans have never heard of it. Is anyone listening to the Keystone XL pipeline debate?
• New Energy Secretary: Climate Change Science “Not Debateable”:
• VIDEO: Remarks of Dr. Ernest Moniz, at Swearing In as Secretary of Energy (DOE Youtube channel)
• Obama’s new Energy chief: Climate change ‘not debatable’ (The Hill’s e2 Wire)
• The Climate-Change Wars Begin This Summer (New York Magazine) [emphasis added]:
  Since President Obama took office, four vacancies have opened on the D.C. Circuit Court, and Obama has not managed to seat a single justice to fill any of the slots.
  …
  The Republican response is more audacious. They propose not merely to continue blocking Obama’s nominees but to simply eliminate all three vacancies on the D.C. Circuit, which will hear the inevitable legal challenge to power plant regulations.
• [Former Energy Sec. Steven ] Chu On Climate: ‘If We Don’t Change What We’re Doing, We’re Going To Be Fundamentally In Really Deep Trouble’ (Climate Progress)
• EPA Nominee Passes Committee Vote, But Broader Senate Vote Still On Hold: (National Journal)
• Interior: New (Draft) Rules for Fracking on Public Lands:
• Interior issues new drilling rule on public land (AP)
• Oil Rigs Make Bad Neighbors: Americans Harmed By Oil And Gas Drilling, Seek To Be Heard (Climate Progress):
  A coalition of people who live and work near the drilling rigs that have allowed the U.S. to see incredible booms in oil and gas production is in Washington, D.C. this week demanding that both government and industry be held accountable when drilling causes health and environmental problems.
• CA Teen Invents Supercapacitor Battery Breakthrough – Wins 2nd Place:
• Teen invents supercapacitor that could potentially recharge your cellphone in 30 seconds (CNN)
• This Teen Just Created A Device To Charge Your Cell Phone In Under 30 Seconds (Business Insider)

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

• The True Cost Of Gasoline: Memorial Day Driving By The Numbers (Climate Progress)”
  [E]xperts predict that prices will plateau or increase throughout the summer, providing little relief at the pump for American families during this vacation season. These high prices enable the five biggest oil companies—BP, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, ExxonMobil, and Shell — to reap huge profits even though they are producing less oil worldwide than this time last year.
• VIDEO: Alex Jones Explains How Government “Weather Weapon” Could Have Been Behind Oklahoma Tornado: The Government “Can Create And Steer Groups Of Tornadoes,” But Jones Isn’t Sure That Happened In Oklahoma (Media Matters.org):



• Sorry, Phoenix!: Screwed by climate change: 10 cities that will be hardest hit (Grist)
• CBO: Carbon tax an option to avoid ‘catastrophic’ outcomes (The Hill’s e2 Wire):
  CBO said in a new report that there are many uncertainties about how to design and implement a carbon tax, but waiting too long to curb greenhouse gas emissions would have clear results. “[D]elays would increase the expected damage from climate change by increasing the risk of very costly, potentially even catastrophic, outcomes.”
• Seven thrilling facts about carbon taxes from the CBO (Washington Post)
• China Poised to Launch Much-Anticipated Carbon-Trading Project (Yale Environmet 360)
• Survey shows 70% of Americans think global warming should be a priority, but… (Treehugger)
• Solar power delivers clean water to rural Kenya: bit.ly/14ChXGu
  Another powerful potential of renewable energy

• This Printer Spits Out 10 Meters of Solar Panel Every Minute (Gizmodo)
• Solar plane lands in Texas, completes 2nd leg of trip intended to boost clean energy interest (Washington Post)
• Tesla Motors Pays Back Energy Department Loan 9 Years Early (Climate Progress)
• Tesla CEO Musk: ‘Reframe’ climate argument (The Hill’s e2 Wire) [emphasis added]:
  [I]t’s better to actually say, ‘Look, how certain are you that it is not catastrophic?’ And then you’ll get the correct answer,” Musk said Wednesday night at the Climate Leadership Gala. Musk also said he had a solution — albeit one Republicans have outright rejected — for reducing carbon emissions.

  “The thing they’ve got to do is try to put a tax on carbon,” he said, inducing cheers.

  After a pause, he added, “It’s funny, when I was talking to Congress about this I didn’t nearly get that much applause.”

• Milestone: U.S reaches 100,000 plug-in vehicles sold (Treehugger)
• The Truth about the Anti-Wind Movement: A Tiny, Paranoid, Disinformed, Koch-Funded Fringe (Climate Crocks)
• New Mexico setting new records with drought (KOB-TV Albuquerque)
• Former NY Army Corps Commander On Post-Sandy Reality: ‘Climate Change Is Real,’ ‘We’ve Got To Stop Ignoring It’ (Climate Progress)
• Friday Trash Dump: Obama DOE Approves 2nd Fracked Gas LNG Export Terminal (DeSmogBlog)
• We Have Met the Unknown Unknowns and They are Us (Legal Planet):
  There are uncertainties about climate science such as tipping points and feedback effects. But these pale in comparison to the biggest source of uncertainties: people. Here are some of the major things we don’t know and really can’t know about future society.
• Utilities vs. rooftop solar: What the fight is about (Grist)
• Oil CEO: Humans are involved with climate change (Fuel Fix):
  But when asked about the role of government in discouraging greenhouse gas emissions, Lance said it needed careful consideration, even though ConocoPhillips operates in countries with such rules….”But we do think, as we think about this and try to tackle this issue as a global community, it needs to be tackled on a global scale and it needs to be industry blind. It needs to cut across all industries. you shouldn’t be picking on one industry or another to try to solve the problem.”
• New Study: Climate change: human disaster looms: Forecast global temperature rise of 4C a calamity for large swaths of planet even if predicted extremes are not reached (Guardian UK)
• 97% Scientisfic Consensus: Scientists united on climate change, at odds with public view (Reuters)
• Heat-Trapping Gas Passes 400ppm Milestone, Raising Fears (NY Times):
  “It feels like the inevitable march toward disaster,” said Maureen E. Raymo, a scientist at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, a unit of Columbia University.
• Wall Street Journal’s Idiocracy: CO2 Is What Plants Crave (Media Matters.org)
• U.S. Supreme Court Rules for Monsanto in Patent Fight (Reuters)
• Warning: Even in the best-case scenario, climate change will kick our asses (Grist)
• Unburnable fuel: Either governments are not serious about climate change or fossil-fuel firms are overvalued (The Economist) [emphasis added]:
  But what if some of those [fossil fuel] reserves can never be dug up and burned? … If governments were determined to implement their climate policies, a lot of that carbon would have to be left in the ground…

• 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)

• 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.