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California Air Resources Board News Clips for September 1, 2009.



This is a service of the California Air Resources Board’s Office
of Communications.  You may need to sign in or register with
individual websites to view some of the following news articles.


2 Local Motorcycle Dealers Fined For Sales Violations. The
California Air Resources Board yesterday announced $180,000 in
fines against two San Diego-area motorcycle dealers for sales
violations. The agency's enforcement officers worked off an
anonymous tip that San Diego-based GP Motorcycles and Moto Forza
of Escondido were illegally selling Husqvarna off-road
motorcycles as on-road models. The companies have agreed to pay
the penalties. Posted.
http://www3.signonsandiego.com/stories/2009/sep/01/2-local-motorcycle-dealers-fined-sales-violations/?northcounty&zIndex=158637

Palo Alto Plans For Electric Car Boom. When it comes to energy
policy, electric cars may be best known for the impacts they
don't have. They don't require foreign oil, and they don't spew
greenhouse gases. That's one reason green-conscious Palo Alto
officials are abuzz over electric automaker Tesla's plans for a
new powertrain plant in the Stanford Research Park. The move has
the city poised to be a hub for an environmentally friendly
industry that some believe will take off in the next decade.
Posted.
http://www.mercurynews.com/breakingnews/ci_13244410?source=rss

Audi, BMW Sell The Sizzle Of Diesel, Not The Soot. Imagine
trying to market a product that most Americans regard as old and
obsolete, that is remembered -- if at all -- as low-class and
low-tech, noisy and noisome, and whose most notable advocates are
truck drivers with prominent trouser cleavage. CB radio? An
excellent guess, but no. Diesel, the oilier cousin of gasoline,
dominates the European auto market, where fuel prices hover
around $7 a gallon. Posted.
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-ct-neil1-2009sep01,0,6428407,print.column

West Sac Biofuels Site Has Plan For Riding Out Slump. Though far
behind schedule, the major biofuel operation planned for the Port
of West Sacramento is still alive and its developer is in talks
with new investors. Long Beach startup Primafuel Inc. unveiled
plans in early 2007 to build the state's largest biodiesel plant
and a distribution terminal at the port. The company expected to
be churning out the diesel substitute within two years. At the
time, the market seemed ready to swallow all the biofuel the
nation could produce. Posted.
http://www.sacbee.com/business/story/2151679.html?mi_rss=Business

Climate Trouble May Be Bubbling Up In Far North. Mackenzie River
Delta, Northwest Territories (AP) -- Only a squawk from a
sandhill crane broke the Arctic silence — and a low gurgle of
bubbles, a watery whisper of trouble repeated in countless spots
around the polar world. "On a calm day, you can see 20 or more
`seeps' out across this lake," said Canadian researcher Rob
Bowen, sidling his small rubber boat up beside one of them. A
tossed match would have set it ablaze. "It's essentially pure
methane." Posted.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2009/08/30/international/i111058D49.DTL&type=printable

Hot Job: Calculating Products' Pollution. Until a few years ago,
Nuno da Silva's arcane occupation -- professional pollution
calculator -- was of little utility to the corporate world. But
in these days of global-warming worries and greener-than-thou
marketing, companies suddenly can't get enough of his services.
Revenue at the division he manages exploded 150% in 2008 and
continues to expand this year, despite the recession. Posted.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125176415696374409.html

AE Biofuels, Pearson Fuels Project Awarded $6.9 Million US
Department of Energy Grant. Companies to build and supply 55 new
E85 fueling stations throughout California. Cupertino, Calif.--
AE Biofuels, Inc., (OTCBB: AEBF), a global vertically integrated
biofuels company, and Pearson Fuels, an alternative fuels
provider, today announced that they have been awarded a $6.9
grant from the US Department of Energy (USDOE), through its Clean
Cities program. Posted.
http://www.reuters.com/article/pressRelease/idUS141411+01-Sep-2009+BW20090901

SCENARIOS: Fate Of Climate Change Bill In Congress. Washington -
The fate of U.S. climate control legislation is in the hands of
the Senate where it faces an uphill climb, as a year-end
international meeting in Copenhagen on coordinated action to slow
global warming looms. A Senate bill has not even been introduced
yet and Democratic backers say it could be late September before
one emerges. Nonetheless, Democratic leaders still hope for a
vote this year in the Senate. Posted.
http://www.reuters.com/article/vcCandidateFeed7/idUSTRE57U5Y720090831

Venture Firm’s ‘Green’ Funds Top $1 Billion. Menlo Park, Calif.
— Vinod Khosla, the prominent venture capitalist who has been
investing hundreds of millions of his own dollars in green
technology companies for the last several years, will now invest
other people’s money, too. Khosla Ventures, the firm he founded
in 2004 after leaving Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, is
announcing on Tuesday that it has raised $1.1 billion in two
funds that will invest in green technology and information
technology start-ups. Posted.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/01/business/01khosla.html?_r=2&ref=todayspaper&pagewanted=print

Webcast: CARB ‘Smartway’ Rule To Be Explained Sept. 14. The
California Air Resources Board has approved some complicated
regulations for trucking carriers to decipher. In order to
explain its rules, CARB occasionally airs discussions of the
rules and broadcasts them on the agency’s Web site. Truck owners
have their next opportunity to hear a CARB explanation on Sept.
14, when it will Webcast an informational session on the
Heavy-Duty Vehicle Greenhouse Gas Emission Reduction Regulation.
Posted.
http://www.landlinemag.com/todays_news/Daily/2009/Sept09/083109/083109-06.htm

Workshops Set On Clean Air Plan. Workshops Set On Clean Air
Plan: Public workshops on a plan to clean up air pollution in the
Bay Area's nine counties will be held Wednesday morning in
Mountain View and Thursday afternoon in Oakland. Posted.
http://www.insidebayarea.com/oaklandtribune/localnews/ci_13241053

Smoky Air Likely To Hang Around Today. Fresh air was hard to
find Monday with the Inland Valley sandwiched between the Oak
Glen and the Station fires. 
The Inland Valley today can expect more unhealthy air for
sensitive groups, according to the South Coast Air Quality
Management District. That means people with respiratory or heart
disease, senior citizens and children should stay indoors.
Posted. http://www.contracostatimes.com/california/ci_13241531

Air Quality Very Poor Around Southland. los angeles - Smoke and
ash from the Station Fire caused unhealthy to hazardous air
quality today in the San Gabriel Mountains and the west San
Gabriel Valley, the South Coast Air Quality Management District
reported. Posted.
http://www.contracostatimes.com/california/ci_13239275

EU Presses US On Climate Change. Brussels—The European Union
urged U.S. lawmakers on Tuesday to ensure the United States makes
deep cuts in carbon emissions as part of negotiations to reach a
new global climate change accord. Sweden's Environment Minister
Andreas Carlgren said the 27-nation bloc, as well as the United
States and other developed countries, "should deliver" on
promises to cut emissions by 80 percent by 2050, from 1990
levels. Posted.
http://www.contracostatimes.com/nationandworld/ci_13244910
http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20090901-706637.html

US Agriculture Interests Split Over Energy Bill. Omaha,
Neb.—Legislation to confront climate change could be an economic
godsend to farmers and ranchers. Or it could be an enormous
financial burden. It depends on whom you ask, and not even
farmers and ranchers agree on the matter. Posted.
http://www.contracostatimes.com/nationandworld/ci_13244371

Editorial: Global-Warming Welfare Is On Its Way. Anticipating
hundreds of millions of dollars a year in greenhouse gas fees
collected from California businesses, the Legislature is planning
to redistribute much of the bounty to the state's "most impacted
and disadvantaged communities." Posted.
http://www.ocregister.com/articles/fees-air-global-2547482-board-state

Editorial: Global Warming: Get Facts Right First. Before
overhauling the U.S. economic system and imposing Draconian
restrictions on nearly every aspect of life, it's advisable to
get the facts straight. Posted.
http://www.ocregister.com/articles/warming-global-government-2545076-chamber-alarmists

Opinion: Global Warming And The Sun. Recent studies seem to show
that there's more to climate change than we know. Assuming there
are no sunspots today, a 96-year record will have been broken: 53
days without any solar blemishes, giant magnetic disruptions on
the sun's surface that cause solar flares. That would be the
fourth-longest stretch of stellar solar complexion since 1849.
Wait, it gets even more exciting. Posted.
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-goldberg1-2009sep01,0,2797425.column

Opinion: Leslie Eastman: Sacramento March Is Ironic But
Passionate. I was one of the 10,000 Californians at the Aug. 28th
march in Sacramento: Saving California from Big Government
Ego-regulations. Hundreds of tractors and 200 trucks circled the
Capitol building this past Friday, to spotlight how devastating
environmental activism has been on our trucking, mining, farming,
and logging communities. Posted.
http://www.sdnn.com/sandiego/2009-09-01/news/leslie-eastman-sacramento-march-is-ironic-but-passionate#ixzz0PsTgitFE

BLOGS

Fallout Shelter: Team Obama Seeks to Limit Reach of CO2 Ruling.
The Obama administration is studying ways to limit the reach of
any greenhouse-gas regulations it might eventually set to large
industrial sources, such as power plants and factories, rather
than small businesses. The move could help the administration
limit the political and legal fallout of the Environmental
Protection Agency’s decision in April to declare greenhouse gases
a threat to public health.
Posted.http://blogs.wsj.com/environmentalcapital/2009/09/01/fallout-shelter-team-obama-seeks-to-limit-reach-of-co2-ruling/tab/print/

California’s Proposed 33% Renewable Portfolio Standard.
California's legislature is close to passing a requirement to
raise the state's Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) to 33% in
2020. If it is enacted, this law will once again place California
at the forefront of efforts to expand the role of renewable
energy resources like wind, solar, and geothermal in supplying
electricity to homes, businesses, and industry. Posted.
http://www.greenandsave.com/green_news/green-politics/california-s-proposed-33-renewable-portfolio-standard-4873

Air Quality At Hazardous Levels In Foothill Cities. The Angeles
National Forest fire has reduced air quality to hazardous levels
in foothill communities in the San Gabriel and San Fernando
valleys, officials say.  The cities of Altadena, La Cañada
Flintridge and La Crescenta are directly affected by the smoke,
as are the Los Angeles communities of Tujunga and Sunland. The
area Sunday recorded an air Quality index of 398. Anything above
100 is considered unhealthful, officials said. Posted.
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/greenspace/2009/08/air-quality-at-hazardous-levels-in-foothill-cities.html

Royal Society Says Geoengineering Humanity's Last Hope - But
Emissions Reductions Must Be Top Priority. Saying that "man-made
climate change is happening and its impacts and costs will be
large, serious and unevenly spread, the Royal Society's new paper
"Geoengineering the climate: science, governance and uncertainty"
[PDF] lays out the case for the necessity for greater
consideration of geoengineering schemes as humanity's backup
plan, in case emission reduction efforts fail: Posted.
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/09/royal-society-report-on-geoengineering.php?dcitc=th_rss

Europe’s Emissions Recipe: A Dash Of Regulation, A Dollop Of
Recession. Europe Has Found A Sure-Fire Way To Cut Emissions: The
Recession.The European Union said yesterday that emissions of
greenhouse gases in main member states in 2008 fell 1.3%, the
fourth straight year of declines. The EU said the bloc has now
cut emissions by 6.2% over 1990 levels, putting it on track to
meet its obligations under the Kyoto Protocol. Posted.
http://blogs.wsj.com/environmentalcapital/2009/09/01/europes-emissions-recipe-a-dash-of-regulation-a-dollop-of-recession/tab/print/

Getting Cooler? Senate Misses Another Climate Bill Deadline.
Stephen Power reports on climate change. For the second time in
two months, the chairman of a key Senate panel with jurisdiction
over climate legislation plans to postpone the introduction of
her bill.  Sen. Barbara Boxer of California, chairman of the
Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, had said
earlier this summer that she planned to introduce her bill before
Congress left for its August recess; she later extended her
timetable to Sept. 8, the day lawmakers return to Washington.
Posted.
http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2009/08/31/getting-cooler-senate-misses-another-climate-bill-deadline/tab/print/

Grid Lock: New Transmission Lines Key for Clean Energy–And Coal.
Environmentalists are already hoping that the Senate tackles both
energy and climate change this fall, rather than simply dealing
with the clean energy bits (which are popular) and punting on the
climate-change stuff (which isn’t so popular). Here’s another
reason greens will want to make sure they go together. Beefing up
the nation’s electricity-transmission system to make renewable
energy a reality could backfire and make coal an even more
widespread source of electricity—unless carbon emissions are
reined in at the same time. Posted.
http://blogs.wsj.com/environmentalcapital/2009/08/31/grid-lock-new-transmission-lines-key-for-clean-energy-and-coal/tab/print/

Engineering a Climate Solution. Some questions are relatively
straightforward. For example: Could engineers pump chemicals into
the atmosphere to increase the amount of sunlight reflected away
from Earth, cooling the planet? Almost certainly, the answer will
turn out to be yes. Posted.
http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/09/01/engineering-a-climate-solution/?scp=2&sq=climate%20change&st=cse

Illuminating the Future of Energy. The era of fossil fuels is a
blip in history. What will replace it the subject of a polarized
debate. An essay by David J. C. MacKay, a professor of physics at
the University of Cambridge and the author of the book
“Sustainable Energy — Without The Hot Air.” A few centuries ago,
the developing world got most of its energy from windmills, from
water mills, from whales and from plants. Posted.
http://greeninc.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/09/01/illuminating-the-future-of-energy/?pagemode=print