IN TODAY'S AUDIO REPORT: Democrats in Congress join the fight for climate legislation; the gray wolf gets de-listed; billions of fish needlessly killed each year by power plants; flame-retardants in your water... PLUS: the fish you eat are guaranteed to be zit- and depression-free (even if they get sucked into your friendly local power plant)!... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

Got comments, tips, hate mail, love letters, fish with zits? Drop us a line at GreenNews@BradBlog.com or right here at the comments link below. All GNRs are always archived at GreenNews.BradBlog.com.

IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (links below): There's gold in them thar deep sea trenches just sitting there asking to be mined, but will the U.S. get shut out?; extremely rare dolphins spotted in coastal India; OPEC says don't blame oil for climate change!; a federal judge halts streamlined "nationwide permits" for Mountaintop Removal coal mining while a coal-fired power plant in Ohio announces it's leaving coal behind for good.... See below for more!

Info/links on stuff we talked about on today's episode, plus MORE green news, all follows below...

• House Climate Bill Aims to Please Environmental and Business Interests
• Obama climate plan hits Senate speed bump: Cap-and-trade on emissions will have to get 60 or more votes
• Senate energy policy markup begins, but heavy lifting is weeks away
• Conservatives Falsely Assert That Green Economy Legislation Would Impose $3,100 Tax On Families
• MIT Scientist: Republicans Misusing My Climate Change Paper
• Republicans Lie About Cost of Climate Change Legislation to American Consumers: Light-Switch Fever!
  
  John Boehner and other House Republicans have been going around saying that Obama's cap-and-trade proposal to reduce carbon emissions will cost each U.S. household $3,128 per year. Where'd they get that figure from? Apparently from this MIT analysis of a similar plan. Except when the St. Petersburg Times called up John Reilly, one of the authors of the report, he said of the GOP number: "It's wrong in so many ways it's hard to begin." Doh.
• UPDATE:Republicans: We Stand By Our Distortion of MIT Study
• April Fools Or Groundhog Day? GOP Budget Continues Bush-Cheney Energy Disaster
• Federal rule 'de-listing' gray wolves is issued: Activists and state of Wyoming to sue — but for different reasons
• Idaho Governor Calls for Gray Wolf Kill: Idaho governor wants to kill all but 100 gray wolves when animals are stripped of protection
  
  The 100 surviving wolves would be the minimum before the animals could again be considered endangered. "I'm prepared to bid for that first ticket to shoot a wolf myself," Otter said earlier Thursday during a rally of about 300 hunters....

  [A]dvocacy group Defenders of Wildlife in Boise...said Otter's proposal would return wolves to the verge of eradication.

  "Essentially he has confirmed our worst fears for the state of Idaho: That this would be a political rather than a biological management of the wolf population," Stone said. "There's no economic or ecological reason for maintaining such low numbers. It's simple persecution."

• Concerns raised about coastal levels of flame-retardant chemicals: U.S. study finds widespread, high concentrations near Southern California and Chicago, as well as Alaska
• Pharmaceuticals found in fish across U.S.: Residue of allergy, cholesterol, other meds were in fish near 5 major cities
• U.S. court upholds power plant cooling water rule
• Utilities win Supreme Court battle over fish: All eyes on EPA after justices rule cost-benefit analysis can be used
• Justices join debate over power plants, fish kills: Fish sucked into cooling systems; fix at one site alone priced at $1.5 billion

'GREEN NEWS EXTRA': More green news not covered in today's audio report...

• AP: Technology opens promise, perils of ocean mining
  
  There's gold in that thar sea floor. Silver, copper, zinc and lead, too. The problem is, it's a mile or two underwater and encased in massive mineral deposits that layer a dark, mysterious world....But new technology and worldwide demand have combined to make mining for these metals economically feasible for the first time.
• OPEC says oil not to blame for climate change
• Study finds 6,000 rare dolphins off Bangladesh: Warming, fishing still threats but discovery seen as 'great hope'
• New EPA Review Prompts Anxiety Over Mining Jobs
• Community Encouraged That Shadyside Power Plant Will Go Green
• U.S. Sees a Smaller Future for G.M. Than G.M. Does
• Some Say New EEOC Headquarters Is Making Them Sick
• Slide Show! TPM Photo Features: Your Guide to Climate Change Nay-Sayers

                 

Article Categories: Green News