This is the 489th edition of the Spotlight on Green News & Views (previously known as the Green Diary Rescue) usually appears twice a week, on Wednesdays and Saturdays. Here is the March 11 Green Spotlight. More than 26,645 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
Neapolitan writes—New York AG: SecState Tillerson used an email alias for climate messages while CEO of ExxonMobil: “Well, isn’t this special. Bloomberg is reporting this evening that US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson allegedly used an email alias account for many years to discuss climate change matters while he was CEO of ExxonMobil in what appears to be an effort to keep sensitive communications out of the eyes of the public, Exxon’s shareholders, and, possibly, investigators. [...] Tillerson sent messages from the account to discuss the risks posed by climate change, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said in a court filing about his office’s fraud investigation of the company. Tillerson, whose middle name is Wayne, used the Wayne Tracker account on the Exxon system from at least 2008 through 2015, Schneiderman said. The bottom line? According to the charge, Exxon failed to disclose Tillerson’s alias email account as part of an investigation into whether ExxonMobil misled investors about the impacts of climate change, meaning that no documents connected to that account were collected as part of that investigation.”
Thinking Fella writes—I went to Bears Ears National Monument Yesterday. Vicariously Join Me? *VERY photo heavy: “Bears Ears is our newest National Monument, as on December 28, 2016, President Obama proclaimed the 1,351,849 acres Bears Ears National Monument, a vast, eye-poppingly beautiful swath of America in southeastern Utah. The area was best described--geographically—by David Lavender in his book One Man's West (1943) as ‘a million and a quarter acres of staggering desolation between the San Juan and Colorado rivers, a vast triangle of land that even today is not completely mapped.’ Well, thanks to satellites, it is now well mapped but good luck traversing the Monument even with mechanical aides. Mapping only showed the improbable and impassible mesa’s, buttes, bluffs, washes, scrub, desert floor, monoclines, and other types of formations I have no idea of their names. This diary describes my adventure in pictures, & hopefully provides you some knowledge of Bears Ears National Monument, but doesn’t address the despicable Utah Leg or it’s land-raping opportunist Senator, Jason Chaffetz. That’s a different, spittle-flecked diary.”
CRITTERS AND THE GREAT OUTDOORS
enhydra lutris writes—The Daily Bucket - March Yard Report: “This is part of my ongoing project to document the changes in our yard from month to month.”
Kestrel writes—Dawn Chorus: Test Your Bird Song Skills!: “I don’t know about you, but I’m not very good at identifying birds by their calls and songs, aka ‘birding by ear.’ I know people who are good at it and they tell me it’s simply a matter of perserverance and experience. I’ve recently come to realize that I recognize more calls than I thought — and you probably do, too. I was walking my dogs in my neighborhood the other day and I heard three calls from unseen birds nearby — and I identifed each species without even thinking. These were calls I hear so often that I’ve just come to incorporate them in my normal, day-to-day world. Since we had some fun last Sunday trying to ID a bird by sight (a Western Screech Owl) I thought it might be fun to try out a bird song quiz. You might know more calls than you think, so why not give it a try?”
owktree writes—Daily Bucket: M is For...”Welcome to the thirteenth entry in our Backyard Science ‘Alphabet’ series. Today’s Bucket is brought to you by the letter ‘M’.”
owktree writes—Daily Bucket: Mountainous Be Thy Name: “I was working on the ‘M’ diary for the Alphabet series and realized that I had a large number of entry candidates that were there primarily for having ‘Mountain’ in their name. So I decided to break them off into their own separate diary. And here it is.”
OceanDiver writes—The Daily Bucket - a gull encounter: “The weather may be cold are grey these days in the Pacific Northwest but the wildlife knows what time of year it is. For one thing, I’m seeing a few gulls gathering at the nesting island offshore that’s been bare since last summer. Over the winter my local beaches are frequented by gulls since the hunting is good — plentiful crabs and clams in this eelgrass bed — before departing to nest on islands safely isolated from people and other land mammals. And for another, this is also where I see them revving up interactions in early spring. When I saw these two gulls recently on the beach clearly interacting with each other I suspected they might be a pair re-establishing their monogamous link in preparation for nesting season.”
Dan Bacher writes—Pacific Fishery Management Council Chooses Options for 2017 Salmon Season: “Fisheries south of Cape Falcon (in northern Oregon) are limited by the need to protect Klamath River fall Chinook, and south of Point Arena (in northern California), they are also affected by the need to protect Sacramento River winter Chinook. Returns of spawning Klamath River fall Chinook are projected to be the lowest on record in 2017 due to drought, disease, poor ocean conditions, and other issues. At the same time, the Council must protect Sacramento winter-run Chinook, which are listed under the Endangered Species Act. Because both of these fish intermix with other stocks in the ocean, fisheries targeting more abundant stocks must be constrained.”
CLIMATE CHAOS
ClimateDenierRoundup writes—3,500 Reasons A Year to Keep the Clean Power Plan: “Yesterday, we talked about Delingpole’s outrageous ‘mass murderer’ allegation leveled at William Ruckleshaus, the EPA administrator who did the job well enough that Ronald Reagan asked him to serve a second time. Today we’ll flip the script. Because word on the street is that today’s the day President Trump will sign an executive order to begin the process of undoing the Clean Power Plan. In doing so, The Most Bankrupt President in History would be forfeiting the $7 in benefits for every dollar spent on compliance. Even someone who couldn’t make a casino profitable should be able to recognize that as a good return on investment! If the attack on the Clean Power Plan isn’t rebuffed by the courts, President ‘least racist person’ Trump will be turning his back on the communities of color who are disproportionately impacted by coal plant pollution.”
Jen Hayden writes—NY Attorney General uncovers email alias used by Rex Tillerson to discuss climate change at Exxon: “In July 2015, documents emerged proving that Exxon Mobil executives knew there was a connection between fossil fuels and climate change as early as the 1970s. New York Attorney General Eric Scheiderman began an investigation into whether Exxon Mobil committed fraud by concealing this information from investors. In a court filing this week, NY Attorney General Scheiderman revealed that Rex Tillerson used the email alias “Wayne Tracker” to communicate with executives. From Bloomberg: Tillerson sent messages from the account to discuss the risks posed by climate change, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said in a court filing about his office’s fraud investigation of the company. Tillerson, whose middle name is Wayne, used the Wayne Tracker account on the Exxon system from at least 2008 through 2015, Schneiderman said. Exxon officials gave a lame explanation for the secret account. Tillerson’s regular email inbox was just too darn full.”
Jeffrey mark writes—Reported: Donald Trump to drop climate change from Environmental Reviews: “President Trump plans to drop climate change as a factor in making government decisions, Bloomberg reported Tuesday. The move, which would allegedly environmental reviews of appliance standards, industry rules, and pipeline projects, would mostly reverse how the Obama administration addressed climate change. Former President Obama required government departments to publish official environmental reviews that included the possible economic harm and impact projects would have from climate change.”
SninkyPoo writes—Breaking devastation...: “Bloomberg is reporting that president* Trump is: ...set to sign an order to greatly reduce the role climate change plays in decision making across the U.S. government. The directive will urge the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to undo the Clean Power Plan. And, they further report: the measure would direct U.S. regulators to rescind Obama-era regulations limiting oil industry emissions of methane, a potent greenhouse gas.”
POPULATION, SUSTAINABILITY & EXTINCTION
newbyblogger writes—Understanding REALLY BIG numbers: the scope of human civilization and the planet: “I believe that the inability to understand scale is a major reason people fail to grip many important concepts and issues. The purpose of this series is to use simple math to re-analyze big numbers to show them on a scale we can easily relate to. Please feel free to check my numbers and my math!For example, common sense would seem to dictate that humans cannot have a great effect on the planet as a whole, since earth is quite clearly a very big place. I believe this is a major factor in why many people reject that human activity could result in climate change. Let us break down the really big numbers into something we can more easily grasp.”
OCEANS, WATER, DROUGHT
Pakalolo writes—It's time to start worrying. Widespread loss of ocean oxygen to become noticeable in the 2030s: “Climate change is posing three deadly threats for marine life: acidification (lowering pH), rising temperatures and decreased oxygen levels. NOAA just reported that ocean acidification is spreading rapidly in the Arctic. Mass bleaching is hitting the world’s coral reefs due to warming temperatures. Deep sea life will face starvation in the next few decades. Oxygen depletion happens naturally mostly around the world’s coasts and shallow waters, but a new study published in the journal Nature found a eye popping 2% decline in ocean oxygen in just 50 years. It will plummet up to a 7% loss before the end of this century. The recent study confirms a previous study published 2016 in Global Biogeochemical Cycles, a journal of the American Geophysical Union. ‘While 2% may sound like only a small change, it doesn't take much of a drop to threaten the state of oceans. The only organism in the ocean that thrives with little-to-no oxygen is bacteria’.”
Dan Bacher writes—Breaking: Restore the Delta Releases California's Sustainable Water Plan: “Proponents of the Governor Jerry Brown’s Delta Tunnels plan constantly claim that the project, called the ‘California WaterFix,’ is the ‘solution’ to addressing California’s water supply and ecosystem needs. As an alternative to the environmentally destructive and enormously expensive California WaterFix, Restore the Delta (RTD) today released a survey of water projects and proposals that improve California’s regional water sustainability and provide good-paying jobs. ‘California’s Sustainable Water Plan highlights projects in communities statewide that are far smarter investments than Jerry Brown’s controversial and expensive Delta Tunnels (CA WaterFix) proposal,’ according to a news release from RTD.”
CANDIDATES, STATE AND DC ECO-RELATED POLITICS
Ivy Main writes—Dominion Power buys votes in Virginia--but not the way you think: “Observers, critics, and even legislators agree that utility giant Dominion Resources is the single most powerful force in the Virginia General Assembly. It gets the legislation passed that it wants, and it almost always succeeds in killing bills it doesn’t like. Media stories point out one reason for this huge influence: the company gives more money to political campaigns than does any other individual or corporation. But it’s more complicated than that. Dominion distributes its largesse among Republicans and Democrats alike according to rank and power, not according to party affiliation, and not according to how they vote. Legislators stay on the gravy train even when they occasionally vote against Dominion’s interests. (No lawmaker consistently votes against Dominion’s interests. That would be weird. It is, after all, a utility.)”
ClimateDenierRoundup writes—Oil Industry Quietly Throws Its Weight Around Academia: “A new post up at the Guardian from two researchers highlights a worrying problem facing academia: oil industry funding. While we often point out the industry funding behind fake news outlets like the Daily Caller, less visible but more insidious is the funding provided to universities to advance the oil industry’s agenda. Case in point, as told by Drs. Benjamin Franta and Geoffry Supran, is a recent event at Harvard that showcased a movie by Shell called the ‘Rational Energy Middle Series.’ The event was sponsored by Shell, the panel featured a Shell VP, and the Harvard Kennedy School has received millions in funding from Shell. The various speakers were all oil-funded to some extent, and of course this wasn’t clearly disclosed. So it should come as no surprise that the ‘rational energy’ choice was the continued use of fossil fuels, particularly natural gas.”
WILDERNESS, NATIONAL FORESTS AND PARKS & OTHER PUBLIC LANDS
Thinking Fella writes—I went to Bears Ears National Monument Yesterday. Vicariously Join Me? *VERY photo heavy: “Bears Ears is our newest National Monument, as on December 28, 2016, President Obama proclaimed the 1,351,849 acres Bears Ears National Monument, a vast, eye-poppingly beautiful swath of America in southeastern Utah. The area was best described--geographically—by David Lavender in his book One Man's West (1943) as ‘a million and a quarter acres of staggering desolation between the San Juan and Colorado rivers, a vast triangle of land that even today is not completely mapped.’ Well, thanks to satellites, it is now well mapped but good luck traversing the Monument even with mechanical aides. Mapping only showed the improbable and impassible mesa’s, buttes, bluffs, washes, scrub, desert floor, monoclines, and other types of formations I have no idea of their names. This diary describes my adventure in pictures, & hopefully provides you some knowledge of Bears Ears National Monument, but doesn’t address the despicable Utah Leg or it’s land-raping opportunist Senator, Jason Chaffetz. That’s a different, spittle-flecked diary.”
ENERGY
CA148 NEWS writes—Choice - You're Better Off Without It: “Electric Choice schemes began to spread around the turn of the century. Information on increased costs to elderly and poor is not easily available but data by states and major classes of users is published by the Energy Information Agency. Prices for Residential customers have been increasing at a faster rate than Commercial customers. Where deregulation or ‘Electric Choice,’ has been foisted on a state residential customer’s share of the costs have increased relative to Commercial Customers. [...] Before deregulation state utility commissions negotiated rates with utility companies. Rates were set based on cost factors and public policy. The nationwide average residential rate in 2002 was 7% more than the commercial rate. In 2016 the average differential was 21%. The more choice you have the more you pay. Here’s what’s happened in the states with the biggest advocates of ‘choice.’
Fossil Fuels
whipple1078 writes—What we can to do help rid ourselves of oil: “We are starting to go electric for transit, and as time goes on this trend will continue until most people travel by electric vehicle. The last holdout in America is electrification of our rails. This obviously means less consumption. However, it is the final step that is the death to petroleum and coal: instead of burning fuel and decreasing the amount, we will actually begin the reverse: making petroleum out of thin air!
All we need are carbon dioxide, water vapor, and electricity from wave or tide or solar or geothermal, and we can simulate photosynthesis. We can create butane, propane, octane, fructose, or any other fuel as needed. And solar and wind continue to drop so rapidly they will be viable at present projections even without the federal credit.”
Mark Sumner writes—Coal mining is in decline everywhere, and that's NOT Obama's fault: “The closing coal mines and out of work miners in this story are in China. But their story is the same one we’ve heard so many times in the United States. It wasn't always this way. Thousands used to work inside this mine on the northern fringe of China's rust belt. It was established in 1960 at the height of Mao's China, when the Communist Party considered this region a worker's paradise. Coal mines and steel mills here employed millions. Now it's littered with deserted fossils of a bygone era. The 21st century's Communist leaders are transforming China's economy into a paradise for consumers, and have ordered inefficient, state-run mines like this one to close. The story of the miners in China, and their attitude toward the mines, is remarkably like those we hear in the United States, but what’s happening in China is not what’s happening here and now—it’s what happened here decades ago.”
Hydraulic Fracturing
billofrights writes—Economic Power, The Legislative Process, and a Ban on Fracking in Maryland: “I sent the following letter to many members of the Maryland Legislature today, March 13, 2017: Dear Chairwoman Carter-Conway and Committee Members: I thought the following quote from the economist Kenneth Arrow, who just passed away, was important to keep in mind as you and the committee consider a permanent ban on fracking for natural gas in Maryland, a ban I strongly support. 'A democratic polity is supposed to be based on egalitarian distribution of political power. In a system where virtually all resources are available for a price, economic power can be translated into political power by channels too obvious for mention. In a capitalist society, economic power is very unequally distributed, and hence democratic government is inevitably something of a sham. In a sense, the maintained ideal of democracy makes matters worse, for it adds the tensions of hypocrisy to the inequality of power’."
Renewables, Efficiency & Conservation
Ivy Main writes—New solar options result from Virginia legislative session: “Negotiations between utilities, the solar industry trade association MDV-SEIA, and the group Powered by Facts produced three pieces of legislation that appear likely to become law (and all of which I’ve discussed previously). The most significant of these ‘Rubin Group’ bills (named for facilitator Mark Rubin) is SB 1393 (Wagner), the so-called ‘community solar’ bill, which is designed to launch a utility-controlled and administered solar option for customers. The utilities will contract for the output of solar facilities to be built in Virginia and will sell the electricity to subscribers under programs to be approved by the State Corporation Commission. Critical details such as the price of the offering will be determined during a proceeding before the State Corporation Commission.”
Walter Einenkel writes—Chile has three solar thermal plants that are hoping to generate electricity all day AND night: “Chile’s government has agreed to the creation of an enormous solar thermal plant. Besides the size, what is particularly ambitious is the hope that this plant will generate electricity 24 hours a day, seven days a week. That heat is transferred to molten salt, which circulates through the plant during the day and is stored in tanks at night. The salt, a mixture of sodium nitrate and potassium nitrate that’s kept at a balmy 1,050 degrees Fahrenheit (566 degrees Celsius), is used as a “heat transfer fluid.” As energy is needed, the salt can be dispatched to a heat exchanger, where it will lend its heat to water to create a super-heated steam. That steam is used to move a traditional steam turbine to create electricity. Because the molten salt will stay hot for hours in its thermal storage tank—even throughout the night or during a cloudy morning—the molten salt is said to store that thermal energy. Each tower will have 13 hours of energy storage, for a total of 5.8 gigawatt-hours of energy storage capacity.”
Pipelines & Other Oil and Gas Transport
navajo writes—Water Protectors barred from entering the National Museum of the American Indian: “In a stunning violation of free speech, Water Protectors attending the four-day Native Nations Rise event in D.C. were barred March 11, 2017 from wearing their Mni Wiconi, Water is Life patches into the National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI). [...] A Tule River Yokut tribal member was told she had to take off her jacket because it had a Standing Rock patch on it.The blatant free speech violation is shocking and then further compounded by the ironic action of not allowing Natives into a museum which should be honoring them.”
linkage writes—San Francisco March for Native American Rights - March 10, 2017 (Photos & Personal Reflections): “The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and Indigenous grassroots leaders called on all allies across the U.S. and around the globe to peacefully March for Native American Rights on March 10th. One of the goals of the event is to demand that President Trump meet with tribal leaders before continuing work on the Dakota Access Pipeline. And demonstrate solidarity with the Indigenous peoples of the world whose rights protect Mother Earth for the future generations of all. A short rally and orientation meeting was held at the Federal Building before the march to Civic Center. Most importantly, and not recorded electronically by request of the organizers, a spiritual ceremony was performed before we left the Federal Building for a march down Market Street to the the Civic Center.”
Tamar Mag Raine writes—Native Americans went to DC to protest DAPL, but nobody broadcasted it.
REGULATIONS & PROTECTIONS
SkepticalRaptor writes—Climate denier Scott Pruitt is now chief of EPA – doesn't know his science: “We have substantial evidence that global warming is real. We have evidence that it continues today. We have powerful evidence that humans are the largest contributor to greenhouse gases. And we know that greenhouse gases cause global warming. That’s a really robust chain of scientific evidence, accepted by the leading scientific minds of our world. To deny this science would mean you have an equivalent amount of powerful evidence from the best scientists in the field. I wonder if Scott Pruitt has some access to secret scientific research produced at the Attorney General’s office in Oklahoma. Because none of us have seen any data that would push us to conclude that global warming does not exist, nor that humans have not caused it. I know I’m “preaching to the choir” here. I realize most people who visit this blog come for the science, and accept that people smarter than you and I have established the scientific facts of climate change through evidence and logic. Maybe a few pretty graphs and scientific reasoning will appeal to one or two Trump supporters.”
Mark Sumner writes—Scott Pruitt turns the EPA into his personal PR firm: “There’s a lot of things you can do with EPA employees if you’re intent on not actually enforcing any environmental laws. For Scott Pruitt—plaintiff in at least eight active lawsuits against the agency he’s also running, and America’s top climate change denier—the best use of the agency is promoting Scott Pruitt. The agency's work on climate and energy policy has slowed to a crawl, but it has been replaced with a different focus: the promotion of the new EPA administrator, Scott Pruitt. With one exception, all of the EPA's tweets and Facebook posts since Pruitt's confirmation have been about his various appearances or sharing quotes from the EPA chief or President Donald Trump. The only time the EPA tweeted about an environmental issue, it was to promote Trump's executive order attempting to roll back a Clean Water Act rule. (On Monday, outside of the three-week period we used for this analysis, the EPA finally tweeted about a local grant.)”
Meteor Blades writes—'Inhofe brigade' of climate-science deniers and program slashers settle in as EPA's top staffers: “A year ago, Republican Sen. Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma was a joke. The former mayor of Tulsa was first elected to the Senate in 1994 and since then has built a reputation as an anti-scientific numbskull. From his perch at the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works from 2003 on, he has championed the idea that human-caused climate change is a conspiracy of ‘far left environmental extremists.’ [...] Inhofe is still a joke. But he’s the one doing the laughing these days. That’s because the ‘Inhofe Brigade’—as it’s called by Stephen Brown, the vice president for government affairs at Tesoro, a major oil refiner—has landed in high places at the Environmental Protection Agency.”
morrna writes—Authority and Science: “David Roberts has an excellent piece on Scott Pruitt's climate denialism and how it fits into our broader political culture over on Vox. Please do go read it. His main point is that all of this is bigger than Pruitt and has little to do with the facts. Rather, this is a question of whether our society will accept the authority of scientists and the scientific process. Restating, underscoring, or even strengthening those scientific results won’t solve that problem. The results already come from multiple fields, are reinforced by multiple lines of evidence, and have been vetted (extremely vetted, you might say) by several extended, multi-layered review processes. Collectively, we don’t know how to “know” anything more confidently than we know this stuff. If someone chooses to simply reject those scientific institutions, procedures, and results, then piling on more facts is beside the point. It’s not about facts any more, it’s about the authority of the institutions.”
Wahid Bill writes—Combating the Spawn of Inhofe: “Inhofe doesn’t care about climate change. He’s gonna die before Florida is under water. But his acolytes now stalk the halls of the EPA. How to resist. I don’t know if this is a real way to strike back. As a climate scientist I have boycotted Exxon for more than a decade because of the lying shit they helped promulgate. Here’s the question...would it help to only buy from oil companies that are based in countries that accept man made climate change? Eg. BP and Shell while staying away from Exxon, Conoco, and the like. Just a thought/question.”
MISCELLANY
ClimateDenierRoundup writes—Revisionist History 101: Delingpole Calls Former EPA Admin a Mass Murderer Over DDT Ban: “On Friday, everyone’s favorite new state propaganda tool Breitbart.com featured as its top story a typically fact-free attack from James Delingpole, everyone’s favorite writer of screeds so deliberately outrageous even courts roll their eyes at him. In this latest nails-on-a-chalkboard example of what happens when pompous self-righteousness is left unchecked by any editor with a sense of moral decency or desire for accuracy, Delingpole uses a NY Times op-ed as a news hook to call the EPA’s original Administrator William Ruckelshaus a mass murderer. Yes, you read that right. Delingpole’s accusation dusts off a classic myth from the world of industry propaganda, deployed originally to tarnish the legacy of Rachel Carson, but also extending to the EPA. It’s fairly simple- Ruckelshaus, by removing DDT from use as a pesticide in the US in 1972, also magically prevented its use in Africa to control malaria-spreading mosquitoes. Except the 1972 EPA order Delingpole uses as a smoking gun specifically exempts the use of DDT as a public health tool and has no impact on its use overseas.”
CorpFlunky writes—Recycling is backwards: “Producers should pay the costs of recycling, not consumers or taxpayers. If producers had to pay a higher fee for using non-recyclable materials and packaging, then they would switch. If McDonalds could save money by making their drink containers 100% compostable, then suppliers would compete to fill that contract. If companies paid local waste companies the true cost of the trash their products create, then regular residential recycling pickup would be free. The idea isn't new. It’s sometimes called 'extended producer responsibility’, and there’s a paper out from Yale going into more depth, but I just like the simple idea.”
gmoke writes—To Earth [also known as Gaia], Mother of All.