This is the 491st 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 22 Green Spotlight. More than 26,700 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
Earthjustice writes—Back to the Dirty Old Future: “America’s waterways have benefitted enormously from the Clean Water Act and the Environmental Protection Agency, which were established in the early 1970s. We no longer regularly dump raw sewage into our lakes, and rivers no longer burn from chemical pollution. Today, on World Water Day 2017, it’s clear that the Clean Water Act and cleanup programs under the law have succeeded in tackling the worst industrial pollution and that we now have cleaner water to show for it. But there is still more work to be done. ‘Nonpoint’ source pollution (i.e. pollution not coming from a single pipe) from sources like large-scale agriculture and storm water runoff continues unaddressed. This remaining pollution is the reason that many waterways still don’t meet basic standards of cleanliness. Now, President Trump has proposed to drastically cut clean water funds, essentially reverting America’s water protection measures back to pre-EPA, pre-1970 standards. Trump has placed essential programs on the chopping block, including initiatives to clean iconic waters, such as Puget Sound, the Chesapeake and San Francisco Bays, the Great Lakes and the Gulf of Mexico.”
John Crapper writes—Time Waits for No One and Time Has Come Today: “In researching a book I’m writing I’ve been collecting prognostications about climate change. These have been gathered over time from numerous sources and I’m constantly updating it. But they are projections and hence a best guess as to what is in our collective future.I must confess that during the time I have been compiling these predictions the timeframe has been trending towards an acceleration of events rather than an elongation of them. I challenge you to plug yourself into it and contemplate just what priority you should assign the issue.It starts out in our recent past then projects out all the way until the year 2200.”
CRITTERS AND THE GREAT OUTDOORS
OceanDiver writes—The Daily Bucket - Rufous migration changing: “Rufous hummingbirds migrate to my neighborhood every spring, make a big splash breeding, and then depart to spend the winter in warmer southerly climes. They compete with the resident Anna’s hummingbirds all summer, who likely give a big sigh of relief when they have the yard (and feeders) to themselves in winter. The first Rufous appeared on March 12 this year, later than usual, possibly because we’ve had a very cool grey spring so far. All the flowering plants that hummingbirds feed on are several weeks late in blooming so the hummers depend on the feeders outside my windows for now. For 5 days Mr Rufous was the only one, and then several more arrived. Things were fairly peaceable at the feeder for a few days. It’s typical for the males to arrive first, staking out breeding territories. The females should be along any time.”
foresterbob writes—The Daily Bucket: Brasstown Bald, the highest peak in Georgia: “Sometimes it takes a visitor to force me to explore the natural wonders of the Southeast. When I’m in Georgia, I tend to stay within a two-hour drive of home. The mountains in the northern part of the state are great places to explore, but getting there can be an ordeal, as many of the routes require me to navigate the entire Atlanta metro area from south to north. Within the mountains, highways twist through built-up valleys, and have their own traffic problems. [...] Earlier this month, my sister and her husband visited from Nevada. They teamed up with my brother’s family from the Atlanta area, and spent a week exploring Georgia and the Carolinas. My sister has a passion for climbing peaks (the non-technical ones) and has recently become interested in the Highpointers Club whose members strive to reach the summits of the highest point in each state, whether it be Florida’s Britton Hill at 345 feet, or Alaska’s Denali at 20,320 feet. It was only natural that we’d end up atop Sassafras Mountain in South Carolina (3,553 feet), and Brasstown Bald in Georgia (4,784 feet). Summiting Sassafras required driving skills rather than hiking endurance, as there is a public road leading nearly to the top.”
foresterbob writes—The Daily Bucket: Wild Clouds over Brasstown Bald, Georgia: “My previous Bucket, Brasstown Bald, the highest peak in Georgia, documented a hike up the mountain. I left you with a teaser, that the views from the top were worth saving for a second Bucket. The hike took place on March 17. The weather was not unusual at all, just a cool overcast day. Viewed from the valleys, the clouds were unspectacular. From the top of Brasstown Bald, it was a different story. At that elevation, the bottoms of the clouds were close, perhaps a few hundred feet above us. They were moving fast, and constantly twisting into fascinating shapes. Some formations looked a bit like funnels, but this was clearly not tornado weather. Having no need to run and hide, I took a lot of pictures. As you might expect, extracting details from cloud pics is not always easy.”
ban nock writes—How Uninformed Lefties Want to Contribute to Food Insecurity of Indigenous Alaskan Natives: “Under welfare reform when a Native Alaskan community has more than 50% unemployment they are not restricted to the five year welfare cap. A heck of alot of rural people in Alaska, Alaskan Natives no less, some of the most vulnerable populations imaginable, are largely dependent on government largess. Now my fellow Democrats want to reduce the very food these people harvest from the land as they have been doing for millennia uncounted. It simply defies belief. Today there are maybe 140,000 rural Alaskan Natives. Most all of them depend to a greater or lesser extent on meat from caribou and moose they harvest to eat. Studies show up to 90% of Alaskan Native populations depend on wild meat for food.”
CLIMATE CHAOS
Meteor Blades writes—Arctic, Antarctic clock record lows in sea ice extent. We're in 'uncharted territory' scientist says: “While most of our attention has of late been focused with good reason on the Trump regime’s efforts to dismantle the Great Society, New Deal, the Affordable Care Act, safety, health and environmental regulations, along with making the U.S. diplomacy a scary joke worldwide, climate change has not stopped for a breather. Indeed, the news on that front is, for the most part, deeply unsettling, with just occasional bright spots. Bright is not latest word from the National Snow and Ice Data Center—one of those federally funded operations the regime would like to ax. Every year, ice floating in the Arctic Ocean grows and shrinks with the season. The center has calculated that this year ice in the Arctic Ocean reached its maximum extent on March 7 and has now begun its decline, headed toward its minimum extent around Sept 10-15. That maximum registered at its lowest level in the 38-year satellite record. Contributing to this, according to NSIDC scientists, was a very warm autumn and winter with air temperatures 4.5 degrees Fahrenheit above average over the Arctic Ocean. In addition to this general warmth, there were several extreme winter heat-waves over the ocean for the second winter in a row. The maximum has been declining by 2.8 percent a decade since 1979, and the minimum has been declining 13.8 percent a decade. While dwindling in extent, the ice has also been thinning.”
Pakalolo writes—In Siberia's arctic, over 200 lakes have been identified that are bubbling methane like a Jacuzzi: “More disturbing news regarding the changes from human caused global warming occurring in the arctic regions of Siberia. The Siberian Times reports that over 200 lakes have been identified in the thermokarst landscape of Siberia that are bubbling methane. This landscape is full of water from thawing permafrost consisting mainly of marshes. It is also full of craters called pingos, trembling earth and lakes. The permafrost soil consists of vast amounts of organic material such as plants and the rotting carcasses of mammoth, horse and other ancient plains species. Once the permafrost thaws, the soil decomposes and releases into the atmosphere the greenhouse gases, carbon dioxide and methane. These greenhouse gases heat the earth which causes even more warming, which in turn releases even more gases from the permafrost in a vicious cycle called a feedback loop.”
boatsie writes—Kitchen Table Kibitzing: Young Climate Activists Take On Climate Change: “Note: Tonight I’m going to share this story about the current project my nonprofit 2050kids is working on. I’m thinking some of you might have ideas on groups who might be interested in participating in our ‘Cookstove Challenge.’) Emerging young Marin climate activists are incorporating Traditional Environmental Knowledge to produce an ancient soil amendment which sequesters carbon while increasing crop yields in their school and community gardens. Students at the Marin City Conscious Kitchen Community Garden at Martin Luther King Academy and the Sausalito New Village School are participants in 2050kids Cookstove Challenge, using infographics to build a biochar producing cookstove. The Challenge will help determine if the project would work in communities around the world which are most threatened by climate change. The stove is made from tin cans using basic hand tools and other simple materials and produces biochar, a type of charcoal first used by Native Americans as a soil amendment thousands of years ago. Scientists have discovered that this simple charcoal, if used correctly, has the ability to store harmful carbon for thousands of years.”
Wagatwe writes—Maine state rep's new bill forbids discrimination ... against climate change deniers: “When prominent climate change denier Jonathan Reisman wanted to make discrimination against people like him illegal, he quickly found a friend with power willing to make it happen. State Rep. Lawrence Lockman (R) introduced a new bill that’d do exactly that. The Associated Press reports: State representative Larry Lockman has introduced a bill that would limit the state attorney general’s ability to investigate or prosecute people based on their political speech, including their views on climate change. It would also prohibit the state from making decisions on buying goods or services or awarding grants or contracts based on a person’s ‘climate change policy preferences.’ Lockman, an independent business consultant from Amherst, told the Associated Press that he believed it was an open question whether human activity is the primary cause of climate change. Reisman, who’s an associate director at the University of Maine at Machias, admits this was in direct response to last year’s ExxonMobil investigations. Because if we don’t look out for the giant multinational corporations, who will?!”
OCEANS, WATER, DROUGHT
Dan Bacher writes—Showdown at Delta Stewardship Council over Jerry Brown's Twin Tunnels Thursday: “The Delta Stewardship Council (DSC) on Thursday, March 23 will consider a controversial motion to amend the Delta Plan to automatically accept new conveyance (the Delta Tunnels) into their master plan for the Delta, ‘without proper public vetting,’ according to a news release from Restore the Delta (RTD). [...] Delta advocates will make the following points before the Council: 1. Do not make the Delta Tunnels (dual conveyance) a promoted option or preferred alternative at this time. 2. Do the comprehensive review and analysis required by the Delta Reform Act and a benefit-cost analysis before declaring the Tunnels or anything else to be the promoted option and preferred alternative. 3. There is no need to rush an approval for the Delta Tunnels without Federal permits, and without a financial plan. 4. Think first, Act later.”
Dan Bacher writes—Breaking: Yurok Tribe braces for worst fisheries disaster in Klamath River history: “As a journalist who has reported extensively on the September 2002 fish kill on the Klamath River and the struggle to restore the river and its fish by the Yurok, Karuk and Hoopa Valley Tribes, fishing groups and environmental organizations, this year's collapse of the fall-run Chinook salmon population is very alarming. To put the 2017 prediction in context, consider that this year’s projected fish run is substantially smaller than the actual number of Chinook salmon that made it to the spawning grounds in 2002, when up to 60,000 fish died from disease. The collapse is going to have dramatic implications for the region’s recreational and commercial salmon industries and even worse implications for the Yurok and other Tribes. The Yurok Tribe will have to cancel its commercial fishing season for the second year in a row. This scope of this fisheries collapse is unprecedented in Tribe’s long history on the Klamath River.”
Food and Water Watch writes—Water is a Racial and Economic Justice Issue: “This week, Rep. John Conyers of Michigan reintroduced the Water Affordability, Transparency, Equity and Reliability (WATER) Act, a bill to make water service safer and more affordable for all. The legislation is particularly timely since today is World Water Day, where we highlight the critical importance of water and the need to preserve it as a common good. These days, more and more communities struggle to provide adequate drinking and wastewater services. That’s because the federal government used to be one of the most reliable stewards of our public water resources, but over the past forty years, that financial support has dwindled.”
WILDERNESS, NATIONAL FORESTS AND PARKS & OTHER PUBLIC LANDS
jbob writes—Hiking the Borrego Palm Canyon Nature Trail at Anza Borrego Desert State Park CA. (photo diary): “I hiked this canyon trail on March 20, 2017 the morning of the Vernal Equinox . Winter rains helped the blooming plants achieve “super bloom” status this spring. I’ll just let the photos do the "talking" from here on out. I used a SONY A200 camera with an 18 to 200mm zoom lens. All photos were taken by me. They have been reduced in size only. No other alterations were made to them.”
ENERGY
Fossil Fuels
Mark Sumner writes—Global goals on climate change may be attainable after all, due to rapid collapse of coal: “Good news is a rare thing in climate change stories. Coming off the hottest year ever, following the hottest year ever, with sea ice levels falling to record lows and the North Pole incredibly balmy even in the darkness of winter, it’s clear that we’ve passed a whole teeter-totter factory worth of tipping points. But there is one bit of news that indicates things may actually beat the current, most dire, predictions. The amount of new coal power being built around the world fell by nearly two-thirds last year, prompting campaigners to claim the polluting fossil fuel was in freefall. The rapid rise of low-cost natural gas had already swept every planned coal plant into the dustbin in the United States. There are exactly zero new coal plants planned for the future in the North American market, and conversion (or closure) of many existing plants is underway.”
Eric Nelson writes—3/24/2017: North Dakota Oil Spill 3 Times Larger Than First Estimated: “This article and the many that have come before, and the many that will follow unfortunately, tell the story. BISMARCK, N.D. — A December oil pipeline spill in western North Dakota might have been three times larger than first estimated and among the biggest in state history, a state environmental expert said Friday. About 530,000 gallons of oil is now believed to have spilled from the Belle Fourche Pipeline that was likely ruptured by a slumping hillside about 16 miles northwest of Belfield in Billings County, Health Department environmental scientist Bill Seuss said. The earlier estimate was about 176,000 gallons. [...] Soil remediation work could take ‘a year or more,’ Seuss said.”
Emissions Controls & Carbon Pricing
ClimateDenierRoundup writes—Trump Pruitt and the Heartbreakers Have Us Waiting, But We Won’t Back Down: “We know the heartbreaking executive order to begin the long process of rolling back the Clean Power Plan is coming. As for when, reports indicate that if healthcare passes and Gorsuch is confirmed, it could be as soon as Monday. Or if those things don’t happen quickly, the EO could be next month. But we’re pretty sure it’s going to happen at some point. We take it on faith and take it to the heart, but the waiting is the hardest part. In the meantime, let’s take a look at some recent rebuttals to contrarian claims. For example, Jeff Jacoby, a columnist at the Boston Globe, recently wrote about how Scott Pruitt was right to question the link between climate change and CO2. According to some actual scientists over at Climate Feedback, Jacoby’s column was ‘highly inaccurate’ and ‘full of logical fallacies.’ Speaking of inaccurate and illogical, the Trump administration’s U-turn on fuel efficiency standards, and specifically their claims about saving jobs, are addressed by professor John DeCiccio, who unpacks the fiction behind these claims. Because the lies will just keep coming, but we won’t back down.”
Renewables, Efficiency & Conservation
Ivy Main writes—Memo to legislators: Virginia is not a low-cost energy state: “Anyone who has attended the annual meeting of the House Energy Subcommittee has watched the Republican majority vote down all manner of legislation designed to improve Virginia’s poor ranking on energy efficiency. Since energy bills have to survive this subcommittee before the rest of the General Assembly gets to hear them, this little band of naysayers effectively holds back progress on initiatives that would save money and reduce energy use. Why would they do that? As discussed in my last post, these delegates almost invariably vote the way Dominion Virginia Power wants them to. And Dominion doesn’t like these bills. The utility is in the business of selling electricity, and energy efficiency is bad for business. Of course the utilities don’t put it that way.
Walter Einenkel writes—Indiana Republicans working hard to make solar energy unaffordable will vote next week: “Indiana has a thing called the Indiana Energy Association. Sounds like a good thing, right? Not so much as it’s basically an alliance of Indiana’s big energy companies and that means they are sick and tired of new energy sources getting the same treatment that the old ones used to get. Indiana Energy Association President Mark Maassel told a House committee that phasing out a state program that allows homeowners, schools and churches to harness the sun's bill-lowering potential would add a "level of certainty" to the industry. Solar power provides only about 1 percent of the country's energy, and an even smaller percentage in Indiana. But the industry's recent rapid growth has traditional power utilities worried that it could eventually eat away at their business. What Maassel and Republicans are pushing for in the state is to end something called “net metering,” which allows people with solar to get good compensation rates for feeding their extra energy back into the grid.”
Pipelines & Other Oil and Gas Transport
Meteor Blades writes—No surprise. State Department will approve construction of Keystone XL pipeline, probably on Monday: “Ben LeFebvre at Politico reports that the Trump regime will approve the permit requested by TransCanada Corp. to build the northern leg of the Keystone XL pipeline, reversing President Obama’s decision to reject it [...] Just days after his inauguration, Pr*sident Trump signed an executive order to push construction of KXL and the Dakota Access Pipeline, which is being built to carry shale oil from the Bakken Formation of North Dakota and Montana to Illinois refineries. The 36-inch KXL pipeline is slated to carry up to 830,000 barrels a day (34.9 million gallons) from a depot in the heart of tar sands territory at Hardisty, Alberta, to Steele City, Nebraska, where it will link up with the southern leg of the pipeline, completed in 2014, to carry oil in the form of diluted bitumen—dilbut—to Port Arthur, Texas, on the Gulf Coast. Several times during his campaign and in his executive order, Trump said KXL would be required to use U.S.-made steel to build the pipeline. But that, like so many of the man’s promises, was cast aside.”
Walter Einenkel writes—The Keystone XL pipeline will create 35 permanent jobs—probably the most Trump's ever created: “The news has come out that the State Department will most likely approve construction of the Keystone pipeline that will funnel oil from Canada through the United States on 1,200 miles of pipeline, and then right out of America into the world. And while the oil money goes to Canada, don’t you economically anxious Republicans worry—there are potentially 35 new jobs that may be divided up through about 6 states! ‘It's a great day for American jobs,’ Trump said from the Oval Office on Friday after the State Department issued a permit allowing the pipeline proposed by TransCanada to go forward. ‘Today, we take one more step towards putting the jobs, wages and economic security of American citizens first,’ the president said. See? Unpopular president and pathologically deceitful person Donald Trump said ‘great day’ and ‘American jobs.’”
ImpeccableLiberalCredentials writes—Updated: Submit Comments Now Against Enbridge Line 67 Tar Sands Pipeline Presidential Permit: “A few weeks ago the State Department held it’s only Open House on the pending Presidential Permit to expand Enbridge Line 67 in Bemidji, MN. Bemidji is close to the pipeline, the three surrounding First Nations reservations belonging to the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe bands of Red Lake, Leech Lake and White Earth, and is home to the Indigenous Environmental Network and well known activists like Dallas Goldtooth (link to Dallas Goldtooth’s youtube). Nevertheless, the Leech Lake Band felt an off-reservation meeting site was a breach of trust with the State Department, and the Leech Lake Tribal Council has received a call from its land management professionals to remove itself as a named partner in the Draft SEIS document. Here is a link to a Indigenous Environmental Network (IEN) fact sheet on Line 67. Here is a link to the Sierra Club’s page on line 67.”
REGULATIONS & PROTECTIONS
Tamias writes—Sierra Club: Gorsuch's ideology threatens environmental law and the rights of citizens: “Pat Gallagher, Sierra Club Program Director, speaking before the US Senate, opposing the confirmation of Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court as recorded by C-SPAN3. [...] In 2013, the Sierra Club moved to intervene in a lawsuit that an off-road vehicle group brought against the Forest Service challenging the closure of certain forest trails to off-road vehicles. The court granted us intervention, but Judge Gorsuch dissented, Judge Gorsuch concluding that we should have been excluded from the case. Tellingly, neither the government, the off-road vehicle group, nor the majority of judges objected to our participation in that case. Second, in 2005, a coalition of citizens groups, including the Wilderness Society and the Sierra Club, challenged a Utah County's attempt to take over Red Rock Wilderness Areas that were managed by the Bureau Of Land Management by claiming that they were county highways. Judge Gorsuch ruled that the citizens did not have standing to sue; they did not get into the courtroom. In an emphatic dissent to Judge Gorsuch’s ruling, one that echoes my testimony here today, Judge Luciero, also of the 10th Circuit stated ‘a citizen’s right to protest and be heard on the supremacy of federal rules and regulations is ignored’.”
AGRICULTURE, FOOD & GARDENING
robctwo writes—Saturday Morning Garden Blog V13.12: Official Spring Edition: Photo diary.
MISCELLANY
Walter Einenkel writes—New York judge orders Exxon to hand over Tillerson's 'shadow' emails: “Secretary of State Rex Tillerson might be ‘too old for this shit,; but he’s going to shoveling a lot more of it. A New York judge has ordered Exxon to explain how they seemed to have missed Tillerson’s private work emails when asked to hand them over by the New York attorney general’s office. Judge Barry Ostrager ordered Exxon to provide sworn affidavits describing the company's process for identifying and turning over documents. He also demanded an explanation of what documents may have been lost and how that happened. Ostrager also gave the company until March 31 to surrender documents associated with Tillerson, now serving as secretary of state, and five other members of Exxon's management committee. The secret email account has at least eight years of potentially compromising information.”
ClimateDenierRoundup writes—Tracking Down Wayne Tracker’s Emails, and Does Denial Deserve Protection? “This week, on a very special Adventures of Wayne Tracker: a judge gave Exxon until the end of the month to ‘find’ emails that should’ve been included in the company’s response to New York AG Eric Schneiderman's requests. They also need to explain why those emails weren’t included in the first place. No doubt Exxon will come up with a good excuse for excluding the eight years of emails from Rex Tillerson’s alias, and an even better one for the year-long period from September 2014-2015 in which it apparently lost track emails from the Tracker account. (A time that, as Bloomberg points out, covers the period when Exxon and Russian state oil company Rosneft had to stop drilling in the Arctic to comply with sanctions.) Poor, beleaguered Exxon and its downtrodden former-CEO-turned-secretary-of-State. Who will step up and defend them from these heinous attacks? Enter Maine Representative Larry Lockman (R-Amherst), who has proposed a bill to protect one’s climate policy preferences at the same level as race, religion and sexual orientation. It would specifically prohibit the state from pursuing the RICO case against Exxon, and ensure that purchasing and hiring decisions don’t take climate policy preferences into account.”