What's New List Serve Post Display

ARB Newsclips for May 4, 2012. 

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.

AIR POLLUTION

Nevada tribe fights coal plant in pollution battle. Kami Miller's
heart flutters irregularly, she needs an inhaler to breathe and
she's been diagnosed with thyroid problems. Even more troubling,
her 12-year-old son already has the same health woes. For the
Miller family, there is little doubt why they and their fellow
tribe members living on the tiny Moapa Band of Paiutes
reservation outside Las Vegas are struggling with a litany of
medical problems. Posted.
http://hosted2.ap.org/azmes/788acee4e023427bbfc19d9278ac9378/article_2012-05-03-coal%20plant-moapa%20paiutes/id-d913b53bed76472a8d59e50561943098

CLIMATE CHANGE

Climate activists seek to highlight flood risk in Sacramento
region. Activists plan to stage two demonstrations Saturday to
highlight the potential for climate change to increase flood risk
in the Sacramento region. In Sacramento, participants are being
asked to meet at 10 a.m. on the Guy West Bridge over the American
River near California State University, Sacramento, and wear
blue-colored swim, snorkeling or dive gear. And in Davis,
organizers plan to converge with umbrellas on the levee at 9 a.m.
on the west edge of the Yolo Bypass Wildlife Area, alongside
Interstate 80. Posted.
http://www.sacbee.com/2012/05/04/v-print/4465235/climate-activists-seek-to-highlight.html

Scientists drill into Clear Lake to see future. Drilling deeply
into ancient sediments beneath Clear Lake, UC Berkeley scientists
are seeking vital clues to the future of plant and animal life by
investigating how changing climates have altered life in the
distant past. The drilling will end next week, and then the 17
scientists on the project will begin analyzing thousands of tiny
pollen grains brought up in drill cores from far beneath the
lakebed to learn how plant species large and small met the
challenge of survival during past periods of climate change.
Posted.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/05/04/MNAQ1OBS11.DTL

As Japan shuts down nuclear power, emissions rise. The Fukushima
crisis is eroding years of Japanese efforts to reduce greenhouse
gas emissions blamed for global warming, as power plants running
on oil and natural gas fill the electricity gap left by
now-shuttered nuclear reactors. Before last year's devastating
tsunami triggered meltdowns at the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant,
Japan had planned to meet its carbon emissions reduction targets
on the assumption that it would rely on nuclear power, long
considered a steady, low-emissions source of energy. Posted.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2012/05/03/international/i234558D07.DTL
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/as-japan-swings-away-from-nuclear-power-higher-oil-dependency-erases-greenhouse-gas-gains/2012/05/04/gIQA90Cc0T_story.html

Federal coal sales in Powder River Basin draw suit.
Environmentalists have filed a lawsuit seeking to derail efforts
by the federal government to lease an estimated 2 billion tons of
coal near two major Wyoming mines. The lawsuit filed Wednesday in
U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., targets four recent and
proposed coal lease sales in the Powder River Basin. That's an
area of Montana and Wyoming that produces more coal than any
other region of the country. The Sierra Club and Wild Earth
Guardians say mining and burning coal from the federal leases
would release huge amounts of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide,
exacerbating climate change. Posted.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2012/05/03/financial/f143638D82.DTL

FUELS

U.S. Announces Compromise on Fracking Disclosure. Washington —
The Obama administration on Friday issued a proposed rule
governing hydraulic fracturing for oil and gas on public lands
that will for the first time require disclosure of the chemicals
used in the process. But in a significant concession to the oil
industry, companies would have to reveal the composition of
fluids only after the drilling of a well is completed, not
before, a sharp change from the government’s original proposal,
which would have required disclosure of the chemicals 30 days
before a well could be started. Posted.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/05/us/new-fracking-rule-is-issued-by-obama-administration.html?_r=1&ref=science&pagewanted=print

VEHICLES

EV confab this weekend is about more than cars. The electric car
might not be enjoying a good moment as the Electric Vehicle
Symposium, EVS26, powers up for its run this weekend at the Los
Angeles Convention Center. GM stopped production for five weeks
on the Chevy Volt, and sales of new all-electric cars such as the
Volt or the Nissan Leaf are dismal. It's further evidence that
transitioning American drivers to electric vehicles (EV) is
simply a hard sell. Posted.
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/environment/la-me-gs-electric-vehicle-symposium-cars-public-transit-20120503,0,2383543.story?track=rss

GREEN ENERGY

San Onofre nuclear plant may resume partial service in June.
Southern California Edison says the plant may have to run at a
reduced capacity forever. The plant was shut down three months
ago because steam generator tubes began leaking radioactive
steam. The problems at the San Onofre nuclear power plant are
serious enough that the facility will not be able to operate at
full capacity when it reopens, perhaps as early as June. The
announcement comes as officials continue to investigate problems
in the reactors that have forced the plant to remain shut for
three months, the longest closure in San Onofre's history.
Posted.
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-0503-san-onofre-20120504,0,2811016.story

San Onofre technology outmoded, Rep. Rohrabacher says. Rep. Dana
Rohrabacher, R-Costa Mesa, tours the troubled nuclear plant and
says a new generation of nuclear plant is achievable that could
address critics’ concerns. San Onofre's shut-down nuclear power
plant should not be relicensed in its current state but should be
replaced by a new generation of nuclear plants that remove the
objections cited by critics, Rep. Dana Rohrabacher said Thursday.
Posted.
http://www.ocregister.com/news/onofre-352566-san-new.html

MISCELLANEOUS

Rio de Janeiro stripping away 'visual pollution' Officials in Rio
de Janeiro are trying to make one of the globe's most beautiful
cities even more stunning. Some 50 workers began tearing down
billboards in front of iconic Guanabara Bay on Thursday,
launching a campaign to remove distractions from the view of the
emerald green Atlantic rain forest on the mountainsides and the
white-sand beaches where visitors from around the world will be
tanning during the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympics. Posted.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2012/05/03/international/i082934D84.DTL

OPINIONS

Another View: California cap-and-trade will be costly. Allan
Zaremberg, president and CEO of the California Chamber of
Commerce, is responding to the April 29 Viewpoints article, "Cap
and trade has lessons for California." That commentary argued
that a cap-and-trade system for utilities in the Northeast "has
boosted the economy of every state that has participated."
Reducing carbon emissions in California will cost consumers and
businesses money, but that can be mitigated by a well-designed
market mechanism, also called cap-and-trade. Posted.
http://www.sacbee.com/2012/05/04/4464809/california-cap-and-trade-will.html

Viewpoints: Don't let utilities undermine solar economy. A
radiant bright spot is shining through the sea of gloomy economic
news in California. The clean energy industry is supplying the
state with more than 35,000 high-paying jobs and positioning
California at the front of the line for private investment
dollars. California's trademark sunshine and spirit of innovation
are sparking a solar power explosion within the clean energy
sector, and forward-thinking state policies are making our
state's solar industry a global leader. Posted.
http://www.sacbee.com/2012/05/04/4464816/dont-let-utilities-undermine-solar.html

BLOGS

A Fresh Look at Clouds, and Heat, in the Greenhouse. Here’s a
deeper look at some of the points explored by Justin Gillis in
his article earlier this week on the persistent questions, and
hints of answers, surrounding how clouds will respond as
concentrations of greenhouse gases continue to rise. Much of the
heated discussion of the article on the Web focuses on its
treatment of the skeptical stance of Richard Lindzen, the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology climate scientist who has
long been a hero of those fighting efforts to restrict greenhouse
gases. Posted.
http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/05/03/a-fresh-look-at-clouds-and-heat-in-the-greenhouse/

A Student’s Conversation With Michael Mann on Climate Science and
Climate Wars. Casey Doyle, a student at Warren Wilson College who
writes for the Swannanoa Journal, the publication of the school’s
Environmental Leadership Center, had the opportunity to speak
with the climate scientist Michael Mann when he visited the
campus to speak about his book, “The Hockey Stick and the Climate
Wars.” Posted.
http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/05/03/a-students-conversation-with-michael-mann-on-climate-science-and-climate-wars/

New Clues to California’s Climate Future From the State’s Oldest
Lake. Clear Lake is one of the largest lakes in the state, and
one of the oldest in North America. For half a million years or
more, pollen and dead bugs have been collecting on the bottom.
That gives scientists a unique opportunity to look deep into
California’s past to learn what’s grown here through ice ages and
warmer “interglacial” periods. Dr. Cindy Looy, an assistant
professor in Berkeley’s Department of Integrative Biology, is
leading a project to core Clear Lake, unearthing sediment that’s
been collecting on the lake bed for up to 200,000 years. Posted.
http://blogs.kqed.org/climatewatch/