With Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen...
By Desi Doyen on 12/22/2015, 12:15pm PT  


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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: ABC News hosts a presidential debate, but climate change and energy aren't invited; President Obama warns Republicans the world is moving forward on climate; Officials knew Flint, MI's water contaminated with lead; Massive natural gas leak continues in Southern CA; PLUS: British court rejects Donald Trump's wind farm objection... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

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IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): Internet has revelation that climate change action won't kill the economy after all; Obama says climate deal with outlast GOP denial; U.S. power grid hacked multiple times; Oil industry lobbyists succeed in opening Alaskan refuge to drilling; U.S. issues biggest energy efficiency rules ever; Oil prices slump to 11-year lows; Opposition builds to offshore drilling...PLUS: 'Intersex' male bass fish found throughout protected U.S. waters... and much, MUCH more! ...

STORIES DISCUSSED ON TODAY'S 'GREEN NEWS REPORT'...

'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (Stuff we didn't have time for in today's audio report)...

  • Internet has revelation that climate change action won't kill the economy after all (Mashable):
    Researchers have found that the global warming economics conversation has flipped, with the issue now being seen as beneficial for the economy if it is addressed.
  • Obama Insists Climate Deal Will Outlast GOP 'Climate Denial' (NPR):
    With a Paris climate agreement just over a week old, President Obama is singling out the GOP on climate change. In an interview with NPR's Steve Inskeep, the president lambasted Republicans, whom he views as excessively contrarian on the issue.
  • AP Investigation: US Power Grid Vulnerable To Foreign Hacks (AP):
    Security researcher Brian Wallace was on the trail of hackers who had snatched a California university's housing files when he stumbled into a larger nightmare: Cyberattackers had opened a pathway into the networks running the United States' power grid.
  • ‘Somebody Intervened in Washington’ (Pro Publica):
    How oil industry lobbyists played the long game — wearing down an overmatched federal bureaucracy to gain access to a fuel-rich corner of the Alaskan wilderness.
  • Obama Just Released the Biggest Energy Efficiency Rule in US History (Washington Post):
    They dribble out regularly — Energy Department rules or 'standards' that require ever improving levels of energy efficiency for dishwashers, refrigerators, and much more. On Thursday, though, the Department dumped what it is describing as the 'largest energy-saving standard in history' and one that 'will save more energy than any other standard issued by the Department to date' — a standard governing commercial air conditioners and furnaces.
  • Oil Prices Slump to 11-Year Lows in Asia and Europe (NY Times):
    Oil prices hit 11-year lows in Asia and Europe on Monday, as a glut of crude on world markets and the recent global climate accord continue to depress fossil-fuel prices.
  • SandRidge Defies Okla. Directive To Close 6 Wells (E&E News):
    SandRidge Energy Inc., the financially troubled oil producer focused on earthquake-prone northern Oklahoma, is defying a state directive to shut down six disposal wells linked to quakes.
  • Concerned on Safety, Feds Put Los Alamos Nuke Lab Contract Out for Bid (Winnipeg Free Press):
    The $2 billion contract to manage one of the federal government's premier nuclear weapons laboratories will be up for grabs after 2017.
  • Opposition Builds To Atlantic Offshore Drilling (Washington Post):
    When then-Gov. Robert F. McDonnell (R) first pushed the idea in 2010, it was easy to find Virginians who favored oil and gas drilling along the Virginia coast, even in this tourism-dependent city of 450,000. The Virginia Beach City Council voted 8 to 3 that year in support of the giant offshore rigs, betting, along with the mayor, that 'there’s going to be money made.'
  • 'Intersex' Male Bass Found Throughout Protected Northeast US Waters (Environmental Health News):
    Eighty-five percent of male smallmouth bass tested in or nearby 19 National Wildlife Refuges in the U.S. Northeast had signs of female reproductive parts, according to a new federal study.
  • Iranian Hackers Infiltrated New York Dam in 2013 (CNN):
    Iranian hackers infiltrated the control system of a small dam less than 20 miles from New York City two years ago, sparking concerns that reached to the White House, according to former and current U.S. officials and experts familiar with the previously undisclosed incident.

  • Tentative Agreement Reached in Dispute Over Endangered Fish (AP):
    Wildlife advocates reached a tentative agreement with the U.S. government in a legal dispute over an endangered fish in the Yellowstone River along the Montana-North Dakota border.
  • Using Pocket Vetoes, Obama Rebuffs GOP Attempt To Kill Clean Power Plan (USA Today):
    President Obama has vetoed attempts by the Republican-controlled Congress to kill the Clean Power Plan that's a cornerstone of his climate change initiatives, the White House announced Saturday.
  • Congress OKs Bill Banning Plastic Microbeads in Skin Care Products (CBS News):
    Plastic microbeads used in soaps, body washes and other personal-care products will be phased out starting in 2017 under legislation approved by Congress and sent to the president.
  • Fighting Wildfires Is Expensive, But Congress Refuses To Pay the Bill (Washington Post):
    As Congress headed home for the Christmas break after passing a budget deal, Agriculture Department Secretary Tom Vilsack presented lawmakers with an angry ultimatum: Put up more cash if you want the U.S. Forest Service to keep putting out huge wildfires.
  • Coal demand stalls internationally (The Hill):
    International demand for coal stalled internationally in 2014 for the first time since the 1990s, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said. The IEA blamed the stall mostly on China, where power demand grew at about half the rate of the country’s gross domestic product, despite the fact that the two are usually linked more closely. China uses about half the world’s coal. Environmental policies are the other big challenge for coal, including the new Paris climate accord.
  • China Seen Laying Down $15 Billion Bet on Electric Vehicles (Bloomberg):
    “China will be the epicenter for electrification of the auto industry globally,” said Bill Russo, Shanghai-based managing director at Gao Feng Advisory Co., who estimates that China would have invested 100 billion yuan ($15.5 billion) by 2020 on new-energy vehicles.
  • How US Negotiators Ensured Paris Climate Deal Was Republican-Proof (Guardian UK):
    U.S. diplomats spent much effort, time, and political capital engineering a Paris climate agreement that could not be derailed by Congressional Republicans.


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
  • 4 Scenarios Show What Climate Change Will Do To The Earth, From Pretty Bad To Disaster (Fast CoExist):
    But exactly how bad is still an open question, and a lot depends not only on how we react, but how quickly. The rate at which humans cut down on greenhouse gas emissions--if we do choose to cut them--will have a large bearing on how the world turns out by 2100, the forecasts reveal.
  • How to Solve Global Warming: It's the Energy Supply (Scientific American):
    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.
  • 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:
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