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newsclips -- ARB Newsclips for May 24, 2012.
Posted: 24 May 2012 12:55:11
ARB Newsclips for May 24, 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 BP agrees to cut air pollution at refinery, pay $8-million fine. The Obama administration announced that BP North America Inc. has agreed to pay an $8-million fine and install more than $400 million in equipment to cut air pollution from an oil refinery in Whiting, Ind., as part of a settlement over alleged violations of the Clean Air Act. The Environmental Protection Agency and the Justice Department said in a statement that the pollution reduction plan, when fully implemented…Posted. http://www.latimes.com/news/nation/nationnow/la-na-nn-bp-refinery-clean-air-fine-20120523,0,5179489.story http://www.contracostatimes.com/ci_20691824/us-reaches-pollution-agreement-at-bp-indiana-plant?IADID=Search-www.contracostatimes.com-www.contracostatimes.com Dusty wind prompts San Joaquin Valley air alert. Gusty winds have prompted air officials in the San Joaquin Valley to warn of a potential health hazard from blowing dust. The San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District issued the warning on Wednesday for San Joaquin, Stanislaus, Merced, Madera, Fresno, Kings and Tulare counties and parts of Kern County. Winds there may produce areas of localized blowing dust that could trigger asthma attacks and acute bronchitis, aggravate lung disease and increase the risk of respiratory infections. Posted. http://www.contracostatimes.com/ci_20690967/dusty-wind-prompts-san-joaquin-valley-air-alert?IADID=Search-www.contracostatimes.com-www.contracostatimes.com CLIMATE CHANGE Rich-poor divide reopens at UN climate talks. The advances made in U.N. climate talks last year appeared at risk Thursday as a rift between rich and poor countries reopened in negotiations aimed at crafting a global pact to stop the planet from overheating. The session in Bonn was meant to build on a deal struck in Durban, South Africa, in December, but the talks were faltering heading into the penultimate day amid disputes over what, exactly, was agreed on last year. Posted. http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hr9p5dm_KF0H5t8LWHD9PbFWqfHQ?docId=e7f6ff0aa485418190eaf0beabbb8fe6 AP Newsbreak: http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/un-climate-talks-deadlocked-in-bonn-as-divisions-between-rich-and-poor-reopen/2012/05/24/gJQACbEhmU_story.html http://www.fresnobee.com/2012/05/24/2848742/rich-poor-divide-reopens-at-un.html#storylink=misearch http://www.nctimes.com/news/world/rich-poor-divide-reopens-at-un-climate-talks/article_adb75990-cfc6-5fd0-8f9d-fd7a72e3d382.html Greenhouse Gas Gap Grows as Climate Pledges Fall Short. The gap between the emissions cuts needed to contain global warming and actual reductions by 2020 is at risk of widening as countries including the U.S., Brazil and Mexico fail to meet pledges, Climate Action Tracker said. At best, commitments would lead to emissions 9 gigatons (9 billion tons) higher than the 44 gigatons needed in 2020 to stop the planet warming more than 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit) since industrialization, the project said in Bonn, where two weeks of United Nations talks end tomorrow. Posted. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-05-24/greenhouse-gas-emissions-gap-grows-as-climate-pledges-founder.html Analysis: U.N. Doha climate talks risk sinking "like Titanic". Hopes are fading that climate talks in Qatar late this year will make even modest progress towards getting a new globally binding climate deal signed by 2015, as preliminary negotiations in Germany this week have left much work to be done. The fear is that if work plans and agendas are not set by the end of this year at the latest it could have a knock-on effect, holding up the entire effort to avert potentially devastating global warming. Posted. http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/05/24/us-un-climate-idUSBRE84N1AQ20120524 Calif. subpanel blocks linking cap-and-trade plans, funding high-speed rail. A California budget subcommittee yesterday voted to bar California from linking its cap-and-trade market to Quebec's, with the panel's chairman saying he wants more legislative scrutiny of the state's greenhouse gas activities. The same panel also voted to delay until 2014 the use of the cap-and-trade market's auction revenue to build the state's high-speed rail system. Gov. Jerry Brown (D) has proposed using that money to fill funding gaps for the bullet train. Posted. http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/print/2012/05/24/8 BY SUBSCRIPTION ONLY Report: 150,000 U.S. heat deaths possible by 2099 as climate change continues. Ahead of National Heat Awareness Day, a new report released by the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) on Wednesday says tens of thousands could die from increasing heat as a result of climate change by 2099 in the United States. The New York-based advocacy group projects more than 150,000 Americans will be stressed to the point of death as carbon pollution continues to rise, resulting in a steady increase in dangerously hot summer days with global temperatures rising some four to 11 degrees Posted. http://www.examiner.com/article/report-150-000-u-s-heat-deaths-possible-by-2099-as-climate-change-continues The carbon consequences of Northwest coal exports. There are at present six proposals to export coal from Northwest ports. If all of these proposals are built, and if all of them operate at full capacity, the Northwest would be shipping 145 million tons of per coal year. When burned, that coal will produce roughly 262 million tons of carbon dioxide per year. It’s such a staggering figure that it’s a little hard to grasp. So here’s some context…Posted. http://grist.org/coal/the-carbon-consequences-of-northwest-coal-exports/ FUELS E15 attack renews PR feud between fuel industry's 'Hatfields and McCoys' .The biofuels industry promised a swift response yesterday to petroleum producers' attack on E15. Tom Buis, CEO of ethanol trade group Growth Energy, said his industry would not let the debate over E15 to get away from it as the "food versus fuel" argument did a few years ago. The final straw on E15, he said, was the oil industry's promotion of a report showing E15 -- gasoline blended with 15 percent ethanol -- damaged car engines. Posted. http://www.eenews.net/Greenwire/print/2012/05/24/1 BY SUBSCRIPTION ONLY GREEN ENERGY Are biomass accounting problems beyond simple solutions? Uncertainty and complexity in how to account for carbon emissions from power plant-based energy have some worried they will hurt chances for the industry and undermine climate goals, interest groups and scientists say. For the next two years, U.S. EPA will mull over how to account for carbon emissions from burning biomass for energy. Its Scientific Advisory Board on Biogenic Carbon Emissions, a panel of 18 experts from universities, the federal government and private research groups, will help it wrestle with this complex issue. Posted. http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/print/2012/05/24/3 BY SUBSCRIPTION ONLY MISCELLANEOUS Calif. desert project gets big assist from governor. California Gov. Jerry Brown yesterday signed legislation clearing major obstacles in the path of a controversial project slated for the desert home of rare animals. The Democrat endorsed A.B. 1073, which allows K Road Power to go directly to the California Energy Commission (CEC) for clearance to build its 663-megawatt Calico Solar plant. The company will no longer need to obtain permits from local agencies. Posted. http://www.eenews.net/Greenwire/print/2012/05/24/3 BY SUBSCRIPTION ONLY OPINIONS Tell the EPA You Support Carbon Pollution Protections. At public hearings in Chicago and Washington, D.C. yesterday, supporters, public health officials, and scientists are testifying in favor of the Environmental Protection Agency's Carbon Pollution Standard, the first-ever limit on life-threatening carbon pollution from power plants. Thousands of Americans have already spoken out via email in support of these standards to protect our health and clean our air, and now hundreds more have done it in person at these hearings. Posted. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mary-anne-hitt/tell-epa-you-support-carb_b_1542379.html?ref=green BLOGS Protesters ask Edison to decommission San Onofre nuclear plant. Environmental and anti-nuclear activists gathered at Southern California Edison headquarters in Irvine on Wednesday calling for the San Onofre nuclear plant to be decommissioned and for the utility to implement more extensive conservation programs. The plant has been shut down for nearly four months due to safety concerns over excessive wear on tubes in the plant's newly installed steam generators. Posted. http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2012/05/san-onofre-edison-protest-irvine.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+lanowblog+%28L.A.+Now%29 Parlez-Vous Cap-and-Trade? To some observers, Arnold Schwarzenegger only became an action hero on July 31, 2006. On that day, with Tony Blair by his side, then-Governor Schwarzenegger declared, "California is a great part of the United States, but we happen to be a leading state with a huge economy, and we are, like I say, a nation state." Two weeks ago California moved one step closer to this "nation state" status, as the California Air Resources Board, or CARB…Posted. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/douglas-a-kysar/parlezvous-capandtrade_b_1540799.html California leads nation in climate change preparation. With climate change continuing to create a myriad of new and uncertain weather and water-related issues, no state in America is better at getting ready for our environmental future than California. As reported by the Hermosa Beach Patch, a recent study by the National Resources Defense Council found that California is one of only nine states (including Alaska and Wisconsin) that has created strategies to deal with the host of predicted situations like water shortages and droughts. Posted. http://www.scpr.org/blogs/environment/2012/05/23/6281/california-leads-nation-climate-change-preparation/ How a Cookstove Becomes a Carbon Credit. To make a cookstove into a carbon credit is one serious abstraction, isn’t it? Take a region where charcoal is the cooking fuel of choice, switch it out for a cleaner burning fuel that doesn’t contribute to global warming quite so dramatically, then, somehow, track the whole thing accurately enough that it’s possible to measure the tons of emissions the switch represents. Posted. http://www.triplepundit.com/2012/05/cookstove-becomes-carbon-credit/ Americans Save $4.6 Billion Every Year Just By Biking. There are obvious environmental and health benefits to cycling, however the financial rewards of cycling are coming to light with a new report from the League of American Bicyclists, Sierra Club, and National Council of La Raza (NCLR). According to them, cyclists in the U.S. save a whopping $4.6 billion every year on gas and transportation costs. Posted. http://www.triplepundit.com/2012/05/americans-save-46-billion-every-year-biking/ Global Greenhouse Gas Emissions Rose 3.6%, Hit New High in 2011. The International Energy Agency has released some preliminary data on global greenhouse gas emissions for 2011 and the news isn't good. IEA says emissions rose 3.2% last year, with a 9.3% increase in China offsetting declines in the US and EU (Reuters). The news comes as Climate Action Tracker reports that current emissions cut pledges are well short of what is needed to keep temperature rise below the critical 2°C threshold. Posted. http://www.treehugger.com/climate-change/global-greenhouse-gas-emissions-hit-new-high-2011.html