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IN TODAY’S RADIO REPORT: Toxic sludge in Hungary; Toxic campaign pledges from Republicans; Green Marines!; the White House goes solar — again — finally; PLUS: Trashing the louder-than-hell SunChips compostable bag … All that and more in today’s Green News Report!

Green News Report with Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen 10/5/2010

‘Green News Report’ – October 5, 2010  |  With Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen...   Â· · · · ·   ‘Green News Report’ – October 5, 2010  |  With Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen...

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IN ‘GREEN NEWS EXTRA’ (see links below): Republican governors could kill high speed rail projects; Monsanto’s fortunes turn sour; BP interfered in rig fire: contractor; Sony pulls out of the climate change campaign; VA AG continues “climategate” witch hunt; Brazil Presidential election a breakthrough for Greens, environment; Changes needed to make nuke plants secure: report; Remembering the miners lost in the Upper Big Branch Mine Disaster; Determined ignorance in the Senate …PLUS: As the World Burns: How the Senate and the White House missed their best chance to deal with climate change …

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

• Toxic Sludge ‘Tsunami’ Kills 4 in Hungary:
• Toxic Sludge Floods Several Hungarian Towns (NY Times):
  The Hungarian government declared a state of emergency in several towns in the southwest of the country on Tuesday, a day after a sludge reservoir at an aluminum production plant burst its banks, killing at least four people and injuring more than 120, according to government officials.
• Death toll rises to 3 [now 4] in Hungary sludge flood (Raw Story)
• Toxic Campaign Pledges from Republicans:
• WATCH: President Obama’s Weekly Address: Solar Power & a Clean Energy Economy: The President points to a revolutionary new solar plant that will employ 1,000 people and power 140,000 homes. The plant is possible because of the President’s investments in the clean energy economy, which Congressional Republicans want to eliminate. (WhiteHouse.gov)
• READ the TRANSCRIPT Weekly Address: President Obama Lauds Clean Energy Projects as Key to Creating Jobs and Building a Stronger Economy (WhiteHouse.gov)
• Feds Approve Big Solar Project in Southern California (Sign On San Diego)
• Bill McKibben: Not Bad Timing (Huffington Post Green)
• WATCH: Kate Sheppard on “Countdown”: Jim Sensenbrenner’s Climate Revenge (Mother Jones)
• Science idiot Sensenbrenner wants to use a committee to investigate real scientists. (Climate Worldwide)
• OP-EDThat’s Where the Money Is (Bob Herbert, NY Times) [emphasis added]:
  It’s beyond astonishing to me that John Boehner has a real chance to be speaker of the House of Representatives.
  …
  I remember writing about that day back in the mid-’90s when this slick, chain-smoking, quintessential influence-peddler decided to play Santa Claus by handing out checks from tobacco lobbyists to fellow Congressional sleazes right on the floor of the House.
  …
  Both major parties have, with great enthusiasm, turned more and more of the government over to corporate and banking interests. But the G.O.P., with Mr. Boehner currently the point person, is fanatical about it, has barely tried to hide its willingness to offer up the government wholesale, no questions asked.

  Just this past July, Mr. Boehner called for a moratorium on new federal regulations, saying it would be “a wonderful signal to the private sector that they’re going to have some breathing room.” Talk about an invitation to a nightmare. Try imagining how the public would be treated by banks, energy companies, food processors and myriad other powerful entities if the federal government were forced by law to ignore even more of their predations.
• The GOP: Defending Your Right to Life, Liberty, and Inefficient Lighting (Mother Jones)
• What to Expect When You’re Expecting a GOP Takeover: If Republicans win back the House, efforts to make lightbulbs less efficient are the least of the Democrats’ worries. (Kate Sheppard, Mother Jones)
• Green Marines: Dept. of Defense Push to Develop Renewable Fuel Sources
• U.S. Military Orders Less Dependence on Fossil Fuels (NY Times):
  Last week, a Marine company from California arrived in the rugged outback of Helmand Province bearing novel equipment: portable solar panels that fold up into boxes; energy-conserving lights; solar tent shields that provide shade and electricity; solar chargers for computers and communications equipment.
  …
  After a decade of waging wars in remote corners of the globe where fuel is not readily available, senior commanders have come to see overdependence on fossil fuel as a big liability, and renewable technologies – which have become more reliable and less expensive over the past few years – as providing a potential answer.
• The Big Green Buy (The Nation) [emphaiss added]:
  After all, the government didn’t just fund the invention of the microprocessor; it was also the first major consumer of the device.
  …
  The federal government will spend $3.6 trillion this year. In more concrete terms, Uncle Sam owns or leases more than 430,000 buildings (mostly large office buildings) and 650,000 vehicles. The federal government is the world’s largest consumer of energy and vehicles, and the nation’s largest greenhouse gas emitter. Add state and local government activity, and all those numbers grow by about a third again.

  A redirection of government purchasing would create massive markets for clean power, electric vehicles and efficient buildings, as well as for more sustainably produced furniture, paper, cleaning supplies, uniforms, food and services. If government bought green, it would drive down marketplace prices sufficiently that the momentum toward green tech would become self-reinforcing and spread to the private sector.

• Green Marines Phase Out Fuel, Take Solar Generators to War: The greenest Marine company ever is going to war, as they prep to deploy with a new collection of solar-powered equipment that could reduce their fuel consumption in Afghanistan by 30 to 50 percent. (Wired)
• The Upside of War (Collide-A-Scape)
• Missing weapons: The US defence department should be at the centre of the nation’s energy policy, says Daniel Sarewitz. (Nature)
• READ the Report: Powering America’s Economy: Energy Innovation at the Crossroads of National Security (CNA)
• The White House Goes Solar — AGAIN
• Here Comes the Sun: White House to Go Solar: Solar panels are to be installed on the White House by spring 2011, and will heat water for the first family and supply some electricity. (AP)
• WATCH IT: Energy Sec. Steven Chu: The White House Is Going Solar (Think Progress Wonk Room):
• The White House Goes Solar (Steven Chu, Secretary of the Department of Energy) [emphasis added]:
  As we move towards a clean energy economy, the White House will lead by example. I am pleased to announce that by the end of this spring, there will be solar panels that convert sunlight into electricity and a solar hot water heater on the roof of the White House. It’s been a long time since we’ve had them up there. These two solar installations will be part of a Department of Energy demonstration project. The project will show that American solar technology is available, reliable, and ready to install in homes throughout the country.
  …
  Around the world, the White House is a symbol of freedom and democracy. It should also be a symbol of America’s commitment to a clean energy future.
• Priorities, People!: Trashing the “Noisy” SunChips Compostable Bag
• Why We’re Doomed: (Kate Sheppard, Mother Jones):
  What miffs me is that a little noise was apparently too much for Americans to handle.
  …
  In the grand scheme of things, this is the absolute, bare-minimum level of sacrifice Americans are asked to make. They still get to eat the same chips, they just come from a different bag; they still light their homes, but with a slightly different bulb. But apparently that’s still too much. Even worse is the fact that Americans can’t must the support to pass a climate bill, but a bunch of angry couch potatoes can successfully mobilize to force Frito-Lay to drop their innovative product.
• Frito-Lay sends noisy, ‘green’ SunChips bag to the dump (USA Today)
• The Loud Sun Chips Bag Is Dead (Gawker)
• FLASHBACK: The New Sun Chips Bags Are Louder Than a Lawnmower (Gawker):
  A Facebook group called “SORRY BUT I CAN’T HEAR YOU OVER THIS SUN CHIPS BAG” has attracted 29,949 fans, with many posting outraged comments. It’s “the worst when your stoned at 2am and trying to not wake up the house,” one person said.

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

• Rail Service Expansion Imperiled at State Level (NY Times):
  Republicans running for governor in a handful of states could block, or significantly delay, one of President Obama’s signature initiatives: his plan to expand the passenger rail system and to develop the nation’s first bullet-train service.
• After Growth, Fortunes Turn for Monsanto After Problems with Seeds (NY imes):
  Sales of Monsanto’s Roundup, the widely used herbicide, has collapsed this year under an onslaught of low-priced generics made in China. Weeds are growing resistant to Roundup, dimming the future of the entire Roundup Ready crop franchise. And the Justice Department is investigating Monsanto for possible antitrust violations.
• BP interfered in rig fire, contractor says: Dropping robot to try to shut valve was delayed several hours, he tells hearing (MSNBC)
• Sony Pulls Out of Climate Campaign: Japanese giant Sony has decided to pull out of the climate change campaign 10:10 after the group made a video that showed school children being blown up. (The Inquirer)
• Virginia Fight Over Climate Documents Will Continue: The University of Virginia and an embattled climate scientist said Monday that it would continue to fight state AG Ken Cuccinelli II’s efforts to obtain documents related to the scientist’s work, just hours after Cuccinelli reissued a civil subpoena for the papers. (Washington Post)
• Brazil Election Sees Breakthrough for Greens and Environmental Agenda: Environmental campaigners and Green party activists heralded a breakthrough after a former rubber-tapper from the Brazilian Amazon who rose to be a world-famous rainforest defender became the central figure in the second round of the country’s presidential election. (Guardian)
• Report: Changes Needed to Make Nuke Plants Secure: The Nuclear Regulatory Commission should be given better access to criminal databases and foreign travel history to try to keep terrorists from getting jobs inside the nation’s nuclear power plants, federal auditors said in a report Monday. (AP)
• The Upper Big Branch Mine Disaster: Remembering the miners lost six months ago in West Virginia (Ken Ward, Coal Tattoo):
  Six months ago this afternoon, Massey Energy’s Upper Big Branch Mine in Raleigh County, W.Va., blew up. Twenty-nine miners – husbands, fathers, sons, brothers, nephews and grandfathers – were taken from their families.
• Know-nothings: no, nothing: Lessons from the climate fight: determined ignorance in the Senate (David Roberts, Grist):
  Americans tend to envision corrupt government elites as all-knowing, all-seeing evildoers. That’s how government corruption tends to be portrayed in popular media — think every Secret Government Agency in every TV show ever. They know more than us and they’re using their knowledge to achieve their nefarious ends.

  The truth, which becomes more and more apparent the closer one gets to centers of power, is that decisionmakers are often woefully uninformed. I was talking once with a staffer for a senator who was in the middle of the climate fight. “When I first got here, I was like everyone else,” he said, “wondering how much was malice and how much was ignorance. The longer I’ve been here, the more I’ve concluded it’s ignorance.”
• As the World Burns: How the Senate and the White House missed their best chance to deal with climate change: (Ryan Lizza, The New Yorker):
  “Graham was the most inspirational part of that triumvirate throughout the fall and winter,” Michael Brune, the executive director of the Sierra Club, said. “He was advocating for strong action on climate change from an ethical and a moral perspective.”

  But, back in Washington, Graham warned Lieberman and Kerry that they needed to get as far as they could in negotiating the bill “before Fox News got wind of the fact that this was a serious process,” one of the people involved in the negotiations said. “He would say, ‘The second they focus on us, it’s gonna be all cap-and-tax all the time, and it’s gonna become just a disaster for me on the airwaves. We have to move this along as quickly as possible.’ “