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 25,705 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
presenteorg writes—#SolarPoweredTacoTrucksOnEveryCorner Just the First Stop at the Presidential Debate: “Nevada, as the state with the fifth-highest percentage of Latinxs in the nation, is widely looked upon as representative of the changing face of our country. While the Latinx vote has been extensively covered in Nevada, Latinxs have almost been entirely absent from the debate over Nevada’s clean energy future. Nevada stands at the crossroads of a question our country and the world has to answer: will the clean energy we all need to survive on this planet belong to everyone, bringing jobs and prosperity for all, or just to elite monopolies like NV Energy, benefiting a few? Unfortunately, Nevada answered: clean energy for a few.”
annieli writes—Closing arguments of the Malheur Snack Commandos: “So the Occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge was apparently about wise use rather than some wacky Mormon land legacy and quasi-mad regional sovereignty secession deploying firearms and property destruction. And the government informants were the real cause, turning the siege site into a Conspiracy-Theory Machine factory that manufactures an endless vendetta against those who stand their ground….because Constitution. Darn them Federal outside agitators, discrediting and criminalizing the illegal actions of Nevada and Arizona’s outside agitators in… Oregon.”
CRITTERS AND THE GREAT OUTDOORS
6412093 writes—The Daily Bucket: Remodeled Frog Mitigation Area: ”Two years ago, I dug a shallow 25 foot long creek, and positioned a waterfall at one end. A fish-free pond at the other end provides breeding habitat for the Pacific Tree Frog. I am restless, and my mate Salmonwoman encourages those reckless landscaping tendencies. This year I remodeled the waterfall area, moved the falls back into a fence corner, and added another small pond for the frogs.”
AKALib writes—Spiders - Shhh, They Can Hear Us! “Researchers have discovered that jumping spiders, and quite likely other spiders too, can hear sounds over much greater distances than previously thought. Spiders don’t have ears or eardrums and instead rely on tiny hairs on their legs to sense air perturbations and sound. New research shows these hair vibrations get converted into neural signals we all know as hearing, and experiments show that jumping spiders are able to hear and react to sounds from sources much farther than originally thought. The paper by Shamble et al of Cornell University (www.cell.com/...) presents the behavioral and neurophysiological evidence that jumping spiders perceive and respond to airborne acoustic stimuli, even when the distance between the spider and the sound source is relatively large (∼3 m) at sound levels comparable to human conversation.”
nookular writes—Dawn Chorus: A Down Day in Florida? Let's Go Birding! ”My carefully laid plans for spending the first weekend of October at the Florida theme parks hit a glitch when one member of the group landed a new job (yeah!) and had to fly down a day late. So with a day to kill, I thought it might be an opportunity to see some locations and birds that I hadn’t seen for some number of years. The next morning I headed east from Orlando, towards the Atlantic coast. On the way, I made a stop at the Hal Scott Preserve in Orange County. I had never been there, but the brochures say it’s possible to see Red-cockaded Woodpecker, Brown-headed Nuthatch and other pinewoods species, and that was enough to get my attention.”
6412093 writes—The Daily Bucket: The Feathered Pterodactyl Returns: “The Great Storm of Ought ‘16 knocked down more than 60 pears out of my Bosc tree. I was astounded the tree yielded so many pears. Just a couple of years earlier, after the arborovitae near it had been cleared, it produced just a single pear. We’d planted several flowering plants recently to attract bees, and they must have super-pollenated the Bosc. I picked up the damaged pears to remove food sources for coons and skunks, and pocketed several of the better pear specimens for cooking; I will probably poach a few in red wine, or bake a pear pie. While I washed the chosen pears in the kitchen, I saw that a heron was intently fishing in my backyard pond.”
fll7612 writes—The Daily Bucket: Birds and Bees: “It was the sight of three blue birds playing in the sunshine that brought me outside with my camera. They were whizzing to and fro at high speed. I’m still a complete novice with the camera so I just pretty much winged it (excuse the bad pun) and took a ton of pics. The majority were rubbish, but some I like and there were a few surprises. [...]I really love the raspberry plumage of purple finches. They are really sweet birds who are always on the go and chirp non stop. They are wary and curious at the same time. Blue jays are always a lot of fun to watch. Their loud, hoarse call is one of the few I recognize immediately. They are bossy birds which is why I loved that the little guy in these next two photos is giving him major stink eye.”
CLIMATE CHAOS
Meteor Blades writes—Signing of hydrofluorocarbon ban a good time to remember how corporate liars denied the ozone hole: “There are many stories relevant to the amendment: The quiet, but strong and early diplomacy made by Barack Obama to make it happen. The science of cooling. The unintended consequences of substituting one set of chemicals for another. The changes in economic well-being that is bringing air conditioning and refrigeration to nations emerging from poverty. The rationale behind giving poor emerging economies more extended deadlines than the wealthy developed economies for complying with the amendment. The matter I want to spotlight, however, is how in the 1970s and ‘80s—in what almost seems like a dry run for corporate-funded climate denial— a propaganda campaign smeared scientists and challenged the very idea that a relatively small amount of molecules of a widely used, supposedly benign chemical could have a dangerous impact on the Earth’s atmosphere.”
ClimateDenierRoundup writes—ExxonMobil Alleges Investigations Are Conspiracy: “On Monday, ExxonMobil filed a motion to add New York AG Eric Schneiderman to its court case against Massachusetts AG Maura Healy’s investigation. Apparently emboldened by last week’s ruling that Healy needed to provide the court with evidence that they were not unduly biased in presuming guilt before beginning the investigation, ExxonMobil asked that the same standard be applied to the New York case. For Healy, the Texas District Court must first be satisfied that the investigation wasn’t biased before it will decide on whether to throw out ExxonMobil’s complaint or force the AG to back down. Alleging that the investigations are part of a broad conspiracy, Exxon’s filing is a reversal of their prior cooperation with Schneiderman. The purported reason for this newfound conspiracy charge is the reporting that Schneiderman is investigating whether or not ExxonMobil properly accounted for climate risk and stranded assets when valuing its reserves and dealing with investors.”
ClimateDenierRoundup writes—Affluent Europeans at WSJ Marginalize Non-European Experience: “In honor of the day commemorating Christopher Columbus’s noble “discovery” of a land where millions of people had already been living for millennia, last week the WSJ opinion page ran a piece defending European imperialism. Seems Columbus doesn’t deserve the bad rap he’s been getting because Europeans were once enslaved too, and because colonizers imposed on conquered groups the idea that ‘one group of people didn’t have the right to impose its will on another group.’ Apparently thinking non-Europeans needed yet another slap in the face, the Journal then published a second offensively white-privileged piece on Friday, this time by handsomely paid, serial deceiver Bjorn Lomborg. In the past, he’s misled Bangladeshis on sea level rise, and now he turned his lopsided sights on the Marshall Islands. Lomborg calls the many well-reported stories on how residents of the Marshall Islands and other Pacific Islanders are struggling to cope with rising waters merely ‘hype and exaggeration.’ Which must surely be comforting to Nuatambu, where half of the village’s houses have sunk since 2011. How pleased these people will be to find out that the salt water killing their crops and rendering drinking wells unusable is just ‘hype.’”
ClimateDenierRoundup writes—New Low for Delingpole, Same Lows for Ridley, GWPF at Royal Society: “Coming as a surprise to literally no one at all, Matt Ridley’s speech at the Royal Society for the Global Warming Policy Foundation (GWPF) was chock full of the sort of climate science denial the Royal Society said wouldn’t take place when they rebuffed calls to cancel the event. DeSmogUK’s new Deputy Editor Mat Hope covered the event, gathering quotes from members of the Royal Society who were...less than impressed, shall we say, with Ridley’s speech. Joanna Haigh, for example, told DeSmog, “Ridley claims not to dispute the science, he then disputes climate sensitivity estimates with selective citations.” Bob Ward had harsher words, saying that the Royal Society was “duped” by GWPF’s assurances that Ridley wouldn’t deny the science. Ward does retain a bit of optimism though, hoping that this will serve as a lesson for the Royal Society and in the future they won’t “be misled into providing a platform for the foundation’s campaign of misinformation.”
committed writes—Climate Deniers Recant: “...or is it Climate Deniers Lament. It looks like Florida GOP types are starting to see the reality of climate change and are now starting to sing a new tune. I think the Democratic Party/Candidate needs to do a little I told you so dance on this. We lost 16 yrs in the GOP denial since Al Gore was overthrew in the gang of five coup. 19 yrs since Kyoto. Their nominee for President calls it a Chinese inspired hoax, which the party seems to agree with. None of their candidates for nominee pointed out the reality of climate change (well maybe Bush but he was pretty mild). No way should they get away with changing their religion against science and get away scot-free on this reversal.”
Walter Einenkel writes—SEC Chair tells Texas Rep. Lamar Smith to step the f*ck off in his climate denier fight: “A couple of weeks ago Texas Rep. Lamar Smith continued the abuse of his powers as Chair of the House Science committee by attempting to bully the United States Securities and Exchange (SEC) to disclose everything they may or may not have done in starting an investigation into ExxonMobil. This comes after months and months of Rep. Smith using his position on a SCIENCE committee to subpoena state attorneys general in a seemingly never-ending attempt to defend the fossil fuel industry from charges that they perpetrated a fraud for decades concerning what was known about greenhouse emissions and climate change. The (SEC) has come back with a short and sweet letter. Here are two of the three paragraphs: Thank you for your September 29, 2016 letter regarding media reports of a purported investigation of Exxon Mobil Corporation. While I am aware of the press accounts referenced in your letter, the Securities and Exchange Commission conducts investigations on a confidential basis. We do so in order to protect the integrity of our investigations, safeguard the privacy of witnesses, and avoid damaging the reputations of parties who may not be charged. For these reasons, the Commission generally does not acknowledge the existence or non-existence of as investigation unless and until charges are filed. Accordingly, I cannot comment specifically on the matter raised in your letter.”
OCEANS, WATER, DROUGHT
Dan Bacher writes—Klamath Irrigators' Illegal "Piggy Bank" Broken Up: “Federal auditors have found that the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation wasted millions in drought and wildlife relief funds that ended up as subsidies to Klamath Basin irrigators. This scandal takes place as the Yurok, Karuk and Hoopa Valley Tribes, recreational anglers, commercial fishing families and river and coastal communities are suffering from the big economic loss caused by low numbers of returning salmon on the Klamath River this year. Hopefully, this illegal spending of $32 million in federal funds supposed to help fish and wildlife to further subsidize already heavily subsidized agribusiness interests will result in criminal convictions.”
CANDIDATES, STATE AND DC ECO-RELATED POLITICS
xgz writes—An environmental Trojan horse by big utility and Koch brothers: Florida's Amendment 1 on the ballot: “A grassroots initiative to put a solar power amendment on the November ballot in Florida failed to gather enough signatures. In the mean time, Koch brothers, Ralph Reed, and big utility, with the help from state legislature, put an alternative — Amendment 1— on the ballot. It is disguised as ‘Consumers for Smart Solar’ but it is anything but: Consumers for Smart Solar is a front group for organizations that have an interest in fossil fuels. If you take a look at the organization's campaign-finance filings, that's not such a far-fetched notion. The most recent reports indicate that nearly $300,000 of the $799,045 Consumers for Smart Solar has raised has come straight from some of the state's biggest utility companies: Duke Energy, Florida Power and Light, Gulf Power Company and Tampa Electric. Another $125,000 came from disgraced lobbyist Ralph Reed's Florida Faith and Freedom Coalition. Reed, you may recall, helped mobilize Christians to assist another disgraced lobbyist, Jack Abramoff, who was sentenced in 2006 to six years in federal prison for mail fraud, tax evasion and attempting to bribe politicians. Another $100,000 was provided by the 60 Plus Association, which receives support and funding from the Koch brothers. It barely survived a legal challenge. If it passes, then solar power customers may pay as much as twice the rate of other customers.”
LakeSuperior writes—EPA's ECHO System Shows Some Donald Trump Facilities with Past Environmental Violations: “This blogpost is about a useful research tool for all political activists and operatives out there doing opposition research on candidates, campaign contributors and corporations. The tool is U.S. EPA’s Enforcement and Compliance History Online (ECHO) Database which is publicly available here: echo.epa.gov. EPA’s ECHO system contains environmental violation records in detail for the last 3 years in a graphically presented format, and less detailed but still useful supplementary environmental enforcement information going back 5-6 years. The listings would include such things as violations of the federal Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, Resource Conservation and Recovery Act and Safe Drinking Water Act (and others) or violation of state laws, regulations and permits that are issued pursuant to such federal requirements. All of your favorite villains are listed in EPA-ECHO…..the Kochs (and their progeny i.e. Georgia Pacific), ExxonMobil, most every electric utility company in the nation, etc. etc. ….but for this particular blogpost…Try It Out On DONALD TRUMP.”
Kerry Eleveld writes—Environmental group makes major ad buy targeting GOP Sen. Richard Burr's energy votes: “The League of Conservation Voters is dropping $3 million into the North Carolina Senate race with an ad campaign linking Sen. Richard Burr's voting record on environmental issues to both his personal and professional gain. The ad notes that Burr has taken ‘hundreds of thousands’ of dollars from oil and energy companies as a politician, but it also charges him with personally profiting from the relationship. ‘See, Burr had tens of thousands of dollars invested in oil and gas stocks,’ says the narrator. ‘Big oil profits. So does Richard Burr. But in two decades, what’s he done for you?’ LCV National Campaigns director Clay Schroers says Burr has continually voted in support of big oil profits and against sustainable solutions.”
WILDERNESS, NATIONAL FORESTS AND PARKS & OTHER PUBLIC LANDS
6412093 writes—OMG! FBI Agent Provocateur at the Malheur Refuge Takeover?? “The defendants on trial for the armed takeover of the Malheur bird Refuge are claiming that one of the FBI’s 15 informers promoted use of firearms. After perusing redacted reports from the 15 informers who infiltrated the Refuge takeover, the defense now claims that ‘confidential source #2 is a “John Killman,”’ a mysterious figure with a foreign accent. Killman trained the defendants in firearms and military-style maneuvers, and hand to hand combat. He also participated in target practice with semi-automatic firearms. The Feds showed a tape of that shooting to the jury.”
ENERGY
Nuclear & Fossil Fuels
Next Conservatism writes—The War on Coal is Over. Capitalism Won: “For years Wal-Mart has driven the adoption of energy-efficient technologies for itself and its customers. Not surprisingly, retailers are among the top adopters of solar energy generation, given their need to power big-box buildings that offer plenty of roof space for sizable installations. Wal-Mart leads the pack, but also on the list of the Top 25 Companies by Solar Capacity are Target, Kohl’s, Costco, IKEA, and Macy’s (www.seia.org/...). The incentives are obvious: anything that drives down operating costs in the stores creates savings that can be passed along to shoppers. This is the War on Coal, even in states like California where coal isn’t a power source, because these best practices, developed under intense market and regulatory pressure in a laboratory state, achieve measurable proof that works anywhere, including on non-retail facilities with big roofs: distribution centers, data centers, corporate offices, and large manufacturing plants.”
Walter Einenkel writes—Largest private coal producer calls Elon Musk a 'fraud,' gets smashed by Musk on Twitter: “Robert Murray, the CEO of the largest privately owned coal producer in the U.S. Murray Energy, attacked Tesla Motors’ Elon Musk on television the other day. Murray said that Musk was a fraud for his inability to turn a profit with subsidies. In his interview with CNBC on Monday, Murray said Tesla was an example of the many companies collecting subsidies through energy policies supported by Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton. ‘Here again, it’s subsidies, and Hillary Clinton said they need government help,’ he said. Murray added that such policies were about Clinton ‘supporting her friends’ rather than protecting the environment, and that the shutdown of all U.S. coal plants would do nothing to fight climate change. For his part Musk decided to just release this statement:
Renewables, Efficiency & Conservation
EXPOSEDbyCMD writes—Leaked Audio Shows How FL Utilities Sought to Deceive Public Into Believing Amendment 1 is Pro-Solar: “Leaked audio offers new evidence that Florida utilities and their allies have sought to deceive the public into believing that the utility-funded Amendment 1 ballot initiative is pro-solar. Two energy industry watchdog organizations, the Center for Media and Democracy and the Energy and Policy Institute, obtained the audio recording, which captures the James Madison Institute (JMI), a Florida-based think tank and member of the national State Policy Network (SPN), boasting that it and other Amendment 1 backers successfully misled the public into believing it is pro-solar.”
Meteor Blades writes—Utility industry consultant confirms what foes already knew about Florida's Amendment 1: It's a scam: “The solar power companies of Florida said it. The Tampa Bay Times said it. The Miami Herald said it. The Orlando Sentinel said it. The League of Women Voters said it. The Green Party of Florida, the Libertarian Party of Florida, the Christian Coalition, the AFL-CIO, the Democratic Environmental Caucus of Florida, the Capital Young Republicans all said it. Al Gore said it. And now, an insider has said it, too, sort of. What they said is that constitutional Amendment 1—with the tricksy name of ‘Rights of Electricity Consumers Regarding Solar Energy Choice’—on the Florida ballot November 8 is a scam by the state’s electric utility companies, a misleading proposal masquerading as pro-solar. The utilities hope to get voters to support their effort to do what their utility counterparts did in Nevada: Undermine rooftop solar and ‘net metering’ to maintain their monopoly and profits.”
TRANSPORTATION & INFRASTRUCTURE
Next Conservatism writes—Tesla’s Battery Deal with SCE: “Ever since its San Onofre Nuclear Generation Station went offline forever in 2013, Southern California Edison, the station’s owner, has had to fill the electricity supply gap by any means available, and to adapt as a business from the old wasteful model of unlimited centralized generation and one-way delivery to a leaner, two-way interactive relationship with customers. This measure signals another step in the new direction: ‘Tesla has just won a massive contract to provide Southern California Edison with grid-scale power, a deal intended to prevent future power shortages like the one experienced following last October’s Aliso Canyon natural gas leak, the worst in U.S. history. Tesla Motors Inc. will supply 20 megawatts (80 megawatt-hours) of energy storage via its Powerpacks, a contribution the company claims is enough to power approximately 2,500 homes for a full day. The most significant aspect of the deal (besides the tens of millions of dollars the packs are worth) is the record time in which Tesla will be delivering them: by the end of the year.’”
MISCELLANY
Aximill writes—Thanks to an accidental discovery, we can turn CO2 into ethanol: “Last time I wrote about carbon sequestration, I commented that I always viewed it as ‘one of those “10 years off” technologies’—something that sounds cool, game-changing, but for some reason(s) it was too hard to pull off on a large scale, wasn’t economical, or needs more research and support. Then again, never doubt human ingenuity, or dumb luck. As with the sea urchin discovery, scientists stumbled upon another way to remove CO2 from the air and make it into a useful product, ethanol.”