Spotlight on Green News & Views (previously known as the Green Diary Rescue) appears twice a week, on Wednesdays and Saturdays. Here is the most recent previous Green Spotlight. More than 24,850 environmentally oriented stories have been rescued to appear in this series since 2006. Inclusion of a story in the Spotlight does not necessarily indicate my agreement with or endorsement of it.
OUTSTANDING GREEN STORIES
NBBooks writes—China proposes $50 trillion global renewable energy plan: “State Grid Corporation of China, which run’s China's electric power grid, has announced it has signed memorandums of understanding with Russian energy grid company Rosseti, Electric Power Co. of South Korea, and SoftBank Group of Japan, to begin moving forward with State Grid’s proposed $50 trillion global electricity network based entirely on renewable energy sources.The Wall Street Journal reported on March 30 that State Grid chairman Liu Zhenya outlined the $50 trillion plan to create a world grid that would deliver wind and solar energy from the Arctic and the Equator regions, to more populated areas around the world. It would easily be the largest infrastructure project in world history. The world grid would be completed by 2050, but Zhenya said his company has begun lining up partners to begin pilot projects to be completed within the next 10 years. [...] A few years ago, Mark Z. Jacobson, at the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Stanford University, and Mark A. Delucchi, at the Institute of Transportation Studies, University of California at Davis, calculated what is required to to shift the entire world to renewable energies. Jacobson and Delucchi found that $100 trillion in new investment is needed, as explained in a November 2009 article in Scientific American.”
SmartBomb writes—A Bottle's Journey: “Once upon a time, there was a soda bottle There was nothing particularly interesting about it. It wasn’t as big as the big one-liter bottles, or as expensive as the imported drinks. It was just a plain, ordinary soda bottle. For most of its existence It was content to be what it was, where it was. One day, a man bought the bottle and took it to his car. With a few quick twists, he unscrewed the bottles cap, licked his lips, and chugged it down. Though it was an inanimate object, the bottle felt something like a deep sense of satisfaction as it was drained of its contents. After all, that was its purpose in life: to be used. Once the bottle was empty, the man looked around for a trash can. When he couldn’t find one, he shrugged and tossed the bottle onto the side of the road. Sure it was littering, and sure the roadside was already cluttered with trash, but hey, it was just a little plastic bottle; what harm could it do?”
CRITTERS AND THE GREAT OUTDOORS
OceanDiver writes—The Daily Bucket - Point Colville wildflowers, early April: “Onward with my chapter of the ‘Illustrated Year-Catalogue of Tiny Life,’ this time at another rugged south-facing grassy bluff on my island. This headland is a few miles east of Iceberg Point and there’s some overlap of flowers, but there are some differences, mainly due to topography and soil. It’s also a week later, and as we know, the parade of blooming wildflowers marches rapidly on in spring. I want to get in as much observation as I can before I leave town for a couple of weeks. [...] As at Iceberg, most of the wildflowers are native. They are also mostly tiny and close to the ground, so I was crawling or lying flat to take these photos. These first few are wildflowers that range widely, and you may see them where you live, or related species in their genera.”
ban nock writes—Why I Hunt: “Not every hunter is calling their congressman about issues environmental twice a day, but consistently, from Teddy Roosevelt until the present day, hunters have been at the forefront of conservation, whether it’s habitat, or saving public lands from the privatizers, or funding for conserving nongame species, hunters have been there. Before conservation became a popular word, for 100 years now. Two and a half minute video, great mountains, snow, and animals. Hunting where Randy lives is not done from a tree stand. Take a look, and comment if you’d like.”
bwren writes—2016 Backyard Bird Race - Tally #4: “The Daily Kos Backyard Science Yardbird Race is a birding competition where, over the course of one year, participants strive to identify the most bird species - by sight and/or by sound - from the confines of their yards. April Notes: Welcome myboo, who joined in last tally and is the only participant reporting from the Rural >5 acre category so far this year. We ended up with a number of ties at the end of the March tally. In the RURAL <5 ACRES category besame and PHScott are tied for 1st with 27 each, and birdfeeder and wordwraith are tied for 4th with 12. The SUBURBAN category finds enhydra lutris and hilltopper tied for first with 33. There’s also a nice close race in the WATERFRONT category. Be kind to our record keepers as we proceed. Start your list with your new birds and ID your birds as close as you can. Don’t be shy about asking for help with IDs. We’ll do our best to give you a hand. The 4th Official Tally of the 2016 Backyard Science Yardbird Race is now open.”
Polly Syllabic writes—The Daily Bucket - first sighting of a desert giant: “Hope, AZ. My first fall migration from the green lushness of Wisconsin to a dry isolated winter camp in the heart of the Sonoran Desert was an awesome adventure. My eyes were flooded with foreign flora, quirky fauna and mind-boggling geology. I am a raw rookie in the desert southwest, a newbie, an excited student ready to fly headlong into this odd prickly world filled with incredibly thorny stuff and enchanting critters. I was still wrapping my clumsy tongue around unfamiliar words such as Ajo, cholla, jojoba and ocotillo when a stunning new visitor settled onto the crotch of a nearby saguaro. ‘rack! rack! rack! rack! rack!’ ‘tek! TEK! tektektektektektektektek TEK! tektektek...’ The startling introduction trailed to a low growling chatter. I’d been loudly scolded by a big brazen bird at least eight inches long, wearing a mottled black bib that flowed down its polka-dot breast. I noted the sweeping white eyestripe, and a long black and brown barred tail dipped in white.”
Besame writes—Daily Bucket: rock spirits and their plant guides: “Serpentine is a magical rock who paints abstract art with lichen partners and creates unusual plant communities. Botanists seek out serpentine because we are likely to find uncommon plants. We also learn to assess soil substrate using plants we see growing there because some plants, like California fawn lily (Erythronium californicum) above, have a strong affinity for serpentine. This plant guide links to serpentine’s spirit and tells us how the land formed. On a ridge a few miles from home, an extensive belt of serpentine begins at the main road and continues across the Sierras for miles. This habitat is between me and my vet’s office, so in early February when avatar eye guy Bailey had to stay there a couple hours for X-rays, I spent the wait time on serp.”
owktree writes—The Pond: “A baseline diary for periodic nature surveys of my brother’s house in Livonia, NY. Since I live in a urban environment I enjoy the opportunity to get a weekend now and then in a more rural setting where it is quieter, stars are visible at night, and there are better opportunities to interact with nature. (Though I would gladly forego getting bitten up by the mosquitoes and black flies!) This diary covers a visit in late March of 2016. The weather was just starting to warm up and plants just beginning to leaf out. The house itself sits in the middle of woods. There is an open backyard, but it is shady enough that it mainly grows moss rather than grass. The surrounding woods are primarily Shagbark hickory, maple, ash (dying due to emerald ash borer) and a few oaks with low undergrowth and enough multiflora rose and raspberry that you don’t just cut through it. On slightly lower ground to the north is the pond, a lower meadow, and then a row of evergreens lining the neighbor’s long driveway.”
CLIMATE CHAOS
Jamess writes—The Status Quo approach to Climate Change -- has NOT been Fast Enough: “Even President Obama has said as much himself — that we’re not moving fast enough on Climate Change. President Barack Obama late Monday issued a blunt, borderline apocalyptic call for global action on climate change, rallying world leaders to reach an agreement this year or ‘condemn our children to a world they will no longer have the capacity to repair.’ ‘Climate change is no longer some far-off problem; it is happening here, it is happening now,’ the President said in Anchorage, Alaska, addressing an international conference on the Arctic. ‘I have come here today, as the leader of the world’s largest economy and its second-largest emitter, to say that the United States recognizes our role in creating the problem, and we embrace our responsibility to help solve it.’”
SevenStrings writes—On climate change...: “So let us discuss the problem with some guiding principles in mind. • We are enjoying a prosperity in the US that is likely linked to the amount of damage we have done to the environment. Others in the world, are less fortunate, but they have also done less damage to the environment. • Going forward, they have the option of developing in a “green” manner (ie with renewable resources). Or they can do it the way we did ~ by burning coal. Both India and China are quite capable of burning a lot of coal to power their own prosperities ~ and eventually Sub Saharan Africa will also be quite capable of doing that. In addition, India is a democratic country ~ it’s leaders are obliged to deliver verifiable gains in per capita income to it’s people every 5 years… and the easiest way to do this is by burning coal. If the rest of the world develops the way we did, then we are all toast. • Looking at the total emissions (the Table up top), it is no longer sufficient for the US to cut per capita emissions. That is necessary, but not sufficient. The US must cut per capita emissions, and convince India/China to maintain current levels. This is a morally difficult proposition ~ how are you going to convince India to emit 1.7 tons per capita while you continue to spew out >10 tons per capita. You cannot...unless you offer them something in return.”
ClimateDenierRoundup writes—Shining a Light on the Dark Art of Propaganda: “James Hoggan at DeSmog has written a review of a new book by Yale professor Jason Stanley, How Propaganda Works. While we can see examples on a daily basis of propaganda in action, the book focuses more on the threat it poses to an informed democracy, as propaganda works by turning ‘a political ideal against itself.’ In effect, propaganda shuts down free speech even as it often claims to endorse it, by distorting the the meaning of words (e.g. ‘clean coal’) and confusing the public by ‘systematically concealing their interests from them.’ When political speech is so heavily spun as to spin 1% as consensus-busting or name a proposal opposed by grassroots and solar groups ‘Consumers for Smart Solar,’ it reframes the discussion in such a way that an honest debate is impossible. Propaganda also disenfranchises the public. For example, when a group purporting to be representing small business is actually just another Koch front group, it leads the public to ignore all the discussion around an issue, since it’s so difficult to distinguish between honest free speech and self-serving propaganda.”
ClimateDenierRoundup writes—LA Times Op-Ed Veers off the Edge of Reason: “The Los Angeles Times published an op-ed [by Salim Furth] that leads with a reasonable-enough headline: ‘Want to fight global warming? Forget fuel economy standards and focus on land use.’ Considering that land use issues like slash-and-burn agriculture, grassland carbon sequestration, and deforestation are important aspects of climate change, there is certainly an intelligent discussion that could be had around how to prioritize action. One could pit MPGs against trees, gas against grass, or tires against fires. But after the headline, things go downhill fast. The piece is about repealing California’s fuel standards, which mandate that auto manufacturers build cars that get an average of 35 miles per gallon by 2020. These state-based standards became obsolete when President Bush made them the national standard in 2007 and doubly so when President Obama raised the national mandate to 36.6 mpg by 2017 and 54.5 by 2025. [...] Furth, an employee of a group with a long history of taking fossil fuel money from the Kochs, Exxon and Chevron, is arguing for the repeal of a policy that reduces fossil fuel consumption.”
ENERGY
Nuclear & Fossil Fuels
rjsigmund writes—USGS cites induced quake threat to Perry Nuclear & other fracking quakes, oil exports drop, et al: “news of a new report on man-made induced earthquakes from the USGS was at the top of my news feeds all week, with coverage of it in not just the US media but also the global press...in this report, they expanded on their previous assessment of eastern and central US earthquakes that are being caused by high pressure injection of drilling wastewater underground, and endeavored to produce an earthquake hazards forecast for public use by everyone from insurance company actuaries to potential first responders, as they found that more than 7 million of us are at risk of damaging shaking from such quakes....most of the press called these assessments new findings, but i'm sure you all recall the many times in the past where we've cited USGS designations of induced earthquakes...in fact, it was less than a year ago we went into detail about a similar USGS report which we sent out and posted under the heading "earthquakes induced by Lake and Ashtabula county injection wells are a threat to Perry Nuclear" which was our assessment of the risk at the time, not that of the USGS...however, in this year's seismic hazard assessment, the Perry nuclear power plant risk is included, and prominently featured on each of the maps showing the locations of the induced earthquake hot-spots in the US.”
ClimateDenierRoundup writes—WSJ Continues Defending Fossil Fuels: “The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) continued its predictable obsession with defending fossil fuels from the ongoing #ExxonKnew investigations, with its fourth opinion piece on the issue in just the last month. Media Matters has the play-by-play, if you need catching up. Their new editorial attacks Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) for daring to correct the record about how the Journal is ‘trying to saddle me with arguments I am not making, because they have no good answer to the arguments I actually am making.’ As he states in an email to supporters, Whitehouse’s argument is that, ‘fraud is not protected by the First Amendment.’ [...] Whitehouse responded with a detailed post about the ‘WSJ’s Long Record of Protecting Polluters’ on how the Journal has exhibited a clear pattern on environmental issues for decades, from CFCs to acid rain to climate. According to Whitehouse, the editors ‘Deny the science, question the motives, exaggerate the costs, help the polluters.’ He clearly shows that the WSJ’s climate contrarianism is neither new nor unique.”
tirelessirony writes—The Washington Posts Fossil Fuel Fact Check: Careful Framing, Borderline Propaganda: “... the author Glenn Kessler argues rather bizarrely that it’s no big deal Hillary has taken six times (~$300,000) the money from Fossil Fuel 'employees' that Sanders has (~$50,000). According to the Center for Responsive Politics, those totals don’t speak to influence because those donations are supposedly from cashiers and clerks at gas stations. Yet, according to the analysis quoted by the Sanders Campaign, Clinton’s aren't entirely from such employees. The article tries to make it seem as if money received on both side could make Bernie a hypocrite and his overall claim false. A line of reasoning one can find among top officials with the Clinton campaign. ‘We have not accused Senator Sanders of being beholden to the oil and gas industry on that basis, nor should he say that of Hillary Clinton.’ — Brian Fallon, Clinton's Press Secretary. What Brian Fallon ignores, and the WaPo author only begrudgingly mentions, is that Bernie has pledged to return those funds when found. Hillary was asked by The Nation at the same time Bernie and Martin O’Malley were but didn’t respond. When she was recently questioned about this by an activist for 350.org, she yelled about the Sanders campaign lying. Most people citing this Washington Post source gloss over that - even though it's at the heart of the story.”
Mark Sumner writes—Update: Twenty-nine men died and Don Blankenship sentenced to one year in prison: “Don Blankenship faces sentencing today, which makes this a day that many people have wanted to see for a long, long time. However, even if Blankenship gets the maximum sentence for ignoring safety rules—a year in prison along with a $250,000 fine—it won’t be enough. Not nearly enough. Six years after 29 miners were killed in a West Virginia coal dust explosion, the man who ran the mining company like a fiefdom—a coal baron and power broker who earned millions of dollars a year—will learn on Wednesday whether he goes to prison. Blankenship didn’t just ignore safety regulations. He actively told his supervisors and workers to break the rules. In a memo to mine superintendents he directly instructed them to stop work on addressing problems with safety and ‘run coal.’ [...] Update: Blankenship has been sentenced. His judge, herself the daughter of a coal miner, handed down the maximum sentence. Former coal executive Don Blankenship has been sentenced to one year in prison and fined $250,000 for conspiracy to violate mine safety standards in the deadliest U.S. mine explosion in four decades.”
Hydraulic Fracturing
Truth Hertz writes—A Case for Regulated Fracking: “Lately there has been much ado about Hillary Clinton’s support for the fracking industry and how that squares with her record on environmental issues. While it may be easy to view the various reports about the risks involved — and there are many — and draw a negative conclusion about the industry as a whole, I propose that a closer inspection of all the risks and benefits may cast a different light on the subject and make a case for Secretary Clinton’s nuanced approach. This, my first diary (so be gentle), is by no means an exhaustive examination of the all the risks and rewards. Just a few to get the conversation started. MIT students participating in Solving Complex Problems, a course — according to their website — “designed to provide students the opportunity to work as part of a team that proposes solutions to a complex, or “unsolvable”, problem that requires a strongly interdisciplinary approach”, have taken on Global Water Security as their 2017 mission. To achieve this mission, they have researched engineering, political, economical, and social solutions. One of the engineering solutions they proposed was the expansion, and regulation, of fracking.”
Igualdad writes—NYT: Fracktivists Skeptical of Hillary's "Safe & Responsible Fracking" Position: “Environmental issues have taken somewhat of a backseat throughout this primary but as the race heats up in NY, one of only two states that has banned fracking, the issue is getting more attention. An article in today’s NYT highlights the point that fractivists are not comfortable with Hillary’s refusal to ban fracking: A nasty row that erupted between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders over oil and gas industry donors last week is catapulting the issue of climate change into the race for the Democratic presidential nomination as it moves to New York, where an army of activists upstate is driven by opposition to drilling. The imminent dangers of fracking are well documented. From toxic water to man made earthquakes, any form of fracking poses serious dangers to the planet. The fracking fall-out puts millions at risk and will do irreversible damage to the planet.”
Valtin writes—Charges Bernie Invested in Fracking Company Easily Proven Wrong, Critics Look at Wrong Info: “Let’s dissect this latest attempt to throw mud on the Senator from Vermont. Briefly, the diary purports to prove that Bernie Sanders is a hypocrite. He criticizes Hillary Clinton for taking money from oil and gas companies and frackers, while all the time he has been investing in a mutual fund that includes a fracking oil company, Diamondback Energy, Inc. [...] Now even if Bernie did invest in the fund that included Diamondback (of which there’s no proof), at the maximum of the investment he is documented as having, $50,000 (but it could be less), the amount of his investment that included Diamondback comes to approximately $700.00! (50,000 x 1.4%) And since Diamondback does more than fracking as a proportion of their revenue, then the amount “invested” in fracking is less than that. In any case, it’s much less than even one of the $2,700 donations Clinton has received from lobbyists from companies involved in the oil and gas industry. But such suppositions are irrelevant, since the diarist isn’t even looking at the correct fund and there is zero evidence Bernie Sanders has a penny invested in the fracking company mentioned!”
Pipelines & Other Oil and Gas Transport
Dave Elder writes—Pipeline Wars Part 1 — What the FERC? “A couple of comments posted on DK in response to my piece about the Koch Bros. from 3 weeks ago alerted me to the fact that I have acquired some knowledge over the past few years that may not be commonly understood, and that realization prodded me into sharing some of this acquired knowledge, which relates primarily to recent battles between landowners in various states and the companies that want to build pipelines across the properties of those landowners. Before I get to the relevant details of these struggles, though, as an aside, I do want to acknowledge the reality of actual shooting-and-killing pipeline wars, such as the current conflict in Syria, and to say that I oppose all the Middle East carnage caused by petrochemical greed, but that’s a totally different subject. In the clashes I’ll speak of here, usually no one dies, but plenty of U.S. property owners have their lives destroyed by that same petrochemical greed monster.”
Meteor Blades writes—Keystone I pipeline springs a leak in remote SD; Lakota protesters ride against another pipeline: “A leak was detected Saturday in the 30-inch Keystone I pipeline. Calgary-based owner TransCanada shut the pipeline down and sent a clean-up crew to carry out remediation work. So far, there’s been no estimate of how much oil was spilled. While flow from the pipeline has been stopped from the tar sands depot in Hardisty, Alberta, Canada, to Wood River, Illinois, and from Steele City, Nebraska, to Cushing, Oklahoma, the 36-inch Gulf Coast line, the southern segment of the Keystone XL. which runs from Cushing to Nederland, Texas, is still in operation. An application to build the northern segment of the Keystone XL pipeline was rejected by President Obama in November. [...] A spokeswoman for Dakota Rural Action, a grassroots organization focused on family agriculture and conservation, issued a statement of complaint about the lag-time in TransCanada’s notification of authorities after the leak was detected.”
OCEANS, WATER, DROUGHT
Dan Bacher writes—Broad Coalition Urges State, Feds to Update Bay-Delta Water Quality Plan: “A large coalition of conservation, fishing, recreational, and tribal organizations today sent letters to the California State Water Resources Control Board and to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency regarding California’s failure to update Bay-Delta Water Quality Standards. The letter was sent as Governor Jerry Brown’s California Water Fix Plan to build the Delta Tunnels is in complete chaos while the economic, scientific and financial justifications for the project become increasingly untenable.”
Dan Bacher writes—Major Announcement on Klamath Dam Removal Set For Wednesday on Yurok Reservation: “On Wednesday, April 6, U.S. Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell will join Governor of California Edmund G. Brown Jr. and Governor of Oregon Kate Brown to make a major announcement about environmental restoration, water reliability and hydroelectric dams along the 263-mile Klamath River. Federal, state and Native American tribal leaders, businesses, non-governmental organizations and water users will also join in the announcement, which will further progress toward the largest river restoration project in U.S. history. ”
Dan Bacher writes—Parties Reconvene To Discuss Klamath Dam Removal Agreement: “Representatives from the state, federal, Tribal and county governments, environmental and fishery conservation NGOs and the public convened in a packed meeting room in Sacramento in March to discuss amendments to the Klamath Hydroelectric Settlement Agreement (KHSA) that proposes the removal of four Klamath River dams. The amended KHSA, a 133-page document, focuses on removing three dams in California and one in Oregon, through the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) dam relicensing process. PacifiCorp, a subsidiary of Warren Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway Corporation, owns the dams. The parties had previously tried to pass legislation empowering the KHSA through Congress, along with two other related agreements including the Klamath Basin Restoration Agreement (KBRA), but those efforts failed during the past two Congressional Sessions.”
CANDIDATES, STATE AND DC ECO-RELATED POLITICS
Keith Pickering writes—Dr. James Hansen condemns Sanders' "fear mongering" on Indian Point nuclear plant: “Dr. James E. Hansen, one of the world’s foremost climatologists and a leading climate activist, has strongly condemned Bernie Sander’s proposed shutdown of the Indian Point nuclear power plant in New York. ‘The last few weeks have seen an orchestrated campaign to mislead the people of New York about the essential safety and importance of Indian Point nuclear plant to address climate change. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has repeatedly certified the safety of Indian Point. The scaremongers have taken minor maintenance questions and wrongly suggested they point to significant problems with the plant. [...] Sanders has offered no evidence that NRC has failed to do its job, and he has no expertise in over-riding NRC’s judgement. For the sake of future generations who could be harmed by irreversible climate change, I urge New Yorkers to reject this fear mongering and uphold science against ideology.’”
Whamadoodle writes—Washington Post Gets Three Pinocchios--Should Apologize to Bernie Sanders: “So? Who’s right? Well, there’s a beautiful thing—Greenpeace’s source for their claim is easy to check. Greenpeace’s claim listed several dozen lobbyists, which is a lot, but not too much to check. They got their information that these are fossil fuel industry lobbyists from the Senate’s own website, which lists lobbyists. So, take the first nine lobbyists, the in-house lobbyists, listed in Greenpeace’s list of bundler lobbyists. They are NOT PART OF VIVECA NOVAK’S “BIG CAVEAT.” Here are results for the first few of them, from the Senate website: Susan Carter: Exxon/Mobil ONLY. Theresa Fariello: Exxon/Mobil ONLY. Ben Norris: American Petroleum Institute AND Transocean Offshore Deepwater Drilling, Inc. Kevin Avery: Conoco Phillips AND Marathon Oil Corporation/Marathon Petroleum Corporation. It’s ALL fossil fuel money and clients, then, for those first nine people Greenpeace mentions.”
Bimmerella Zone writes—If Bernie Sanders Doesn't Support Fracking, He Should Check His Investments: “Bernie Sanders has been making a lot of points lately, criticizing Hillary Clinton on her ties to big oil & gas. He’s even been given 3 Pinocchios by WaPo fact checkers on his claims about her financial ties to them. He was criticized for overstating the significance and actual amount she received from big oil. Normally, I wouldn’t find this type of exaggeration too offensive, because it’s politics. HOWEVER, Mr Sanders has throughout his campaign emphasized transparency, and made more out of facts than were ACTUALLY there in this particular area. It’s for that reason I’ll drop this info on you, and then you can decide on the level of hypocrisy if any. It doesn’t take long to find info that the good Senator might find a bit embarrassing, especially due to the statements his camp has been releasing regarding Secretary Clinton. Exhibit one...find his assets on OpenSecrets. Find Valic Mid Cap Index Fund. The next step in this process, is to see who Valic Mid Cap Index Fund is, and look at it’s holdings. Notice Diamondback Energy Inc. Find Diamondback Energy Inc. and let’s see what they are into...Oh my…..They’re FRACKERS. Yes, Bernie himself has a connection to a company that fracks. This is in no way a blockbuster, or stop the presses story.”
i dunno writes—Oil Companies Donated To Clinton Foundation While Lobbying State Department: “In 2009, the Clinton-led State Department approved a permit for the 400-mile Alberta Clipper pipeline, which is designed to pump up to 450,000 barrels of oil per day from the Canadian oil sands to Wisconsin (where recent polls show Democratic primary voters are concerned about its impact). According to federal lobbying records reviewed by the IBT, Chevron and ConocoPhillips both lobbied the State Department specifically on the issue of ‘oil sands’ in the immediate months prior to the department's approval, as did a trade association funded by ExxonMobil. [...] In the year prior to the approval, Chevron’s Laurence Humphries was a top fundraising ‘bundler’ for Clinton’s 2008 presidential bid, raising more than $100,000 for her run, according to the watchdog groupPublic Citizen.”
i dunno writes—People Before Polluters: “The scientists are virtually unanimous that climate change is real, is caused by human activity and is already causing devastating problemsin the United States and around the world. And, they tell us, if we do not act boldly the situation will only become much worse in years to come in terms of drought, floods, extreme storms and acidification of the oceans. Sadly, we now have a Republican Party that is more concerned about protecting the profits of Exxon, BP and Shell and the coal industry than protecting the planet. While fossil fuel companies are raking in record profits, climate change ravages our planet and our people—all because the wealthiest industry in the history of our planet has bribed politicians into ignoring science.”
CCBOhio writes—Hillary is making it hard for me to defend her as a climate candidate: “I, like 92.2 percent of those in Climate Hawks Vote who endorsed Bernie Sanders, believe that his climate plan is stronger than Hillary’s. But Hillary has promised an expansion of renewable energy large enough to power every home, and continuation of the Clean Power Plan that undergirds the U.S. pledge to the Paris Agreement. [...] In these debates, I have argued the other side. My position has been that we should vote for Hillary because we cannot afford four years of a Republican who will roll back progress on climate. If a Republican pulls us out of the Paris Agreement, as Cruz has promised, or dismantles the EPA which oversees the Clean Power Plan, as Trump has promised, then the planet is officially screwed. [...] If Clinton rejected fossil fuel funding, it would be much easier for Bernie supporters such as myself to defend a vote for her in the general election to other climate-conscious Bernie supporters. Fossil fuel money is tainted, and as long as she takes it, she will be tainted as well in the eyes of many climate-conscious voters.”
poopdogcomedy writes—FL-Sen: Former Sierra Club Head Carl Pope Endorses Alan Grayson (D): “Former Sierra Club executive director Carl Pope has endorsed Alan Grayson for the Florida U.S. Senate race. ‘Alan Grayson is the candidate in Florida’s Senate race who best possesses both the intellect and political courage to effectively end our fossil fuel dependency,” Pope said. ‘If we want to give our grandchildren a planet that has not been ravaged by climate change, he’s our best hope.’ ‘Nearly every candidate Grayson faces seems oblivious to the Gulf oil spill, California’s methane leak, Michigan’s disastrous pipeline rupture, and the everyday environmental damage that our fossil fuel addiction inflicts,’ Pope added. ‘But Alan Grayson gets it. He’s the only candidate in this race we can trust to take up this generational fight in a serious way.’ Pope served the Sierra Club in the position of Executive Director from 1992 until 2010.”
TRADE AND ECO-RELATED FOREIGN POLICY
SevenStrings writes—On Climate change... free trade and CO2 emissions: “I am a very strong supporter of environmentalism, and I do believe that global warming is the primary threat to all of us. I do not like socialism, and have strong disagreements with Bernie on his health care plans etc., on his 2007 immigration vote, and on his gun control votes… but I really like the fact that he speaks so strongly on climate change. And I also like the fact that he inspires the Millennials. And so, based on climate change along, he would have gotten my vote (with concerns on climate change overriding everything else). It is just that when he talks about free trade the way he does, not only is he proposing something that would worsen the lot of the poorest people in the world (and here, I really don’t understand how a socialist can propose this), he is also making it very difficult to make progress on climate change.”
BYPRODUCTS, TRASH, TOXIC & RADIOACTIVE WASTE
RepHankJohnsonGA04 writes—Toxic Coal Ash Could Be Coming to Landfill Near You — Here’s Why It Matters: “Power companies are closing down old, air polluting, coal-fired power plants as we move toward cleaner, more sustainable ways to generate electricity. As these plants close, they leave behind a material known as coal ash. Coal ash is a public health hazard if it is not disposed of safely. It is a dangerous substance known to cause cancer and other illnesses and must be kept out of our drinking water. Coal ash contains known carcinogens such as arsenic, lead and mercury. This is why the EPA is now regulating coal ash. As power companies shut down or upgrade their facilities while closing existing coal ash ponds, where much of this toxic material is temporarily stored, the need to permanently dispose of this hazardous byproduct is growing. We now know that some waste disposal companies have been quietly exploiting a loophole in the new EPA rules, allowing them to dump toxic coal ash into municipal solid waste landfills. So far, these companies have dumped millions of tons of coal ash into unlined landfills across America — putting our water supply at risk.”
ECO-ESSAYS & PROPOSALS
SuzanneCloud writes—Vision Song--the children ask,"Are We Worth Saving?" “It wasn’t until my 13-year-old grandson Vincent and I were stuck in traffic near City Hall one rainy night. The rush hour downpour was probably going to make us late for a theater performance of Aladdin, so I thought I would talk to him about the future, his generation’s future. I’d recently been curious as to how his age group saw the specter of global warming encroaching on their adulthood. They hear the news, they feel the fear, but they don’t show it. The natural optimism of youth keeps the conversation light, I guessed. But do they really think about it? I asked. They do. ‘The Earth will be brown and dying,’ Vincent said. ‘It’s hard to imagine, though...like it’s not really real.’ I asked him if he ever talked with his friends about climate change and he said no. And then I wondered if Jazz Bridge could modify the Kimmel challenge a bit. Who are the makers in the world who have already built the infrastructure for a future that is threatening our children and grandchildren — how has our humanity been shaped by that and could we ask these future adults to remake the world into one they could actually live in and grow? What would these kids say to us, their elders who have made a world that is choking their future?”
BeAwareAndSpeakUp writes—How do we incentivize those benefitting from causing Global Warming so they give up their profits? “However the biggest impact on this topic comes from those GETTING RICH off of ruining our world. It seems like they do not care what they are doing to the world — because if they have enough money they can protect themselves from the result because of their wealth. They believe they will NOT experience the consequences of their actions (or even if they do, they will still be in power, control and on top). So HOW do we get them to KNOW they WILL experience the results? Not be protected from their actions? Perhaps not even keep the benefits of their actions? They currently control the power structures — and courts — here in US. Does the push come from other countries? Is their any lesson from the past that can be applied???? Where those profiting off the exploitation of a people/land/community held power and influence yet were still held accountable? From Slavery? From Robber Barons? From industrialization? From Cigarettes? From the Housing corruption? There must be some do’s and don’ts we learned as a result?”
TRANSPORTATION & INFRASTRUCTURE
terrypinder writes—The Transportation Roundup: Some High Speed Rail news! ”Welcome to the Transportation Roundup, an occasional series I’m going to write on transportation. Hey, something has to break up the now-tedious back-and-forth morass of diaries all about the primary (that was partially a joke.) Anyway, for the first diary, this basically is just going to be links and a short paragraph to interesting transportation news that’s occurred recently. I hope you enjoy. • On March 11, FRA (Federal Railroad Administration) issued a Notice for Request for Proposals to Implement a High Speed Rail Corridor. [...] • This was a great article and it showed why if a national high speed rail network ever gets underway, it will be slowly built and done with a whole lot of bickering. It’s a shame Christie canceled ARC. Even if the project would not have benefited Amtrak directly, all of the NJ Transit trains would have their own right-of-way instead of sharing one with Amtrak, and then Amtrak could repair the Hudson tubes with minimal delays. Now? LOL.”
MISCELLANY
Leslie Salzillo writes—Pres. Carter and Rosalynn Carter of THE CARTER CENTER receive Earth Month Achievement Award: “The Earth Month Network, in honor of the 46th Anniversary of Earth Month, is paying tribute to former President Jimmy and First Lady Rosalynn Carter with the prestigious Life Time Achievement Award. The award honors the couple with these words: ‘It is often stated that behind every good man is a great woman; indeed this is the situation at hand for many progressive years in the development of a lifelong theme “Together We Can Make A Difference.” Together you have made an extraordinary positive difference in thousands of individual lives globally in more ways than can be counted.’ The award adds: That process includes but not limited to decades of untiring effort and self-sacrifice building hope to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, in the advancement of democracy, civil and human rights, preventing disease, improving mental health, promoting economic development and social justice through diplomacy and advocacy.’”