What's New List Serve Post Display

ARB Newsclips for February 8, 2013. 

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

Appeals court upholds ruling against AVX.  A federal appeals
court has agreed with a lower court that electronics manufacturer
AVX Corp. is responsible for pollution at its old plant in Myrtle
Beach. The Sun News of Myrtle Beach reported
(http://bit.ly/W2Xt5N ) a panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of
Appeals in Richmond, Va., upheld the decision by U.S. District
Judge Terry Wooten in 2011.  Posted. 
http://www.sfgate.com/news/science/article/Appeals-court-upholds-ruling-against-AVX-4262657.php#ixzz2KKN8Yemv

CLIMATE CHANGE

Americans Warming to Climate Change Reality.  The nor’easter
bearing down on the East Coast is the second abnormally intense
storm to strike the region in less than a year. Perhaps in
response to the increased frequency of deadly storms and weather
disasters, a Duke University poll found that American belief in
climate change has rebounded to its highest level since 2006. 
Posted. 
http://news.discovery.com/earth/weather-extreme-events/americans-warming-to-climate-change-reality-130208.htm


DIESEL EMISSIONS

New diesel emission rules to be aired at logging conference. 
State air officials could get an earful Saturday at the
Sierra-Cascade Logging Conference in Anderson.  Representatives
from the California Air Resources Board (CARB) will talk to
loggers and farmers about new off-road diesel vehicle regulation
standards that start taking effect next year.  "It's something
that affects a lot of vehicles we have on the road right now,"
conference spokesman Mike Quinn said, adding the rules are a
threat to an already-fragile economy.  Posted. 
http://www.chicoer.com/news/ci_22540222/new-diesel-emission-rules-be-aired-at-logging


VEHICLES

$1 gas price rise big for small-car sales, not hybrids,
electrics.  You might think that a $1 increase in gasoline prices
would result in a big boost for the sale of hybrids and electric
vehicles. Not so, according to a new report by Experian
Automotive.  The Schaumberg, Ill., group says sales of small
gas-powered cars would climb quickest, while sales of some
hybrids would actually fall during such an increase.  Posted. 
http://www.latimes.com/business/autos/la-fi-hy-gasoline-price-rise-big-for-small-cars-not-hybrids-electrics-20130208,0,1232159.story

US natural gas futures edge higher as blizzard hits Northeast. 
Front-month U.S. natural gas futures edged higher early on
Friday, as a powerful blizzard swept into the Northeast and
extended weather forecasts continued to trend colder. Despite
Thursday's bearish weekly inventory report and the milder outlook
for several days next week, traders expected heating demand to
pick up when another shot of cold air moves into the Midwest
later next week and then spreads east.  Posted. 
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/02/08/markets-nymex-natgas-idUSL1N0B833020130208

Lawmaker wants to extend carpool lane access for clean cars.  A
Los Angeles-area lawmaker wants to extend free access to some
carpool lanes for Californians driving clean-energy cars.  The
legislation, written by Assemblyman Bob Blumenfield (D-Woodland
Hills), applies to vehicles running on electricity, hydrogen or
natural gas.  Posted. 
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/political/la-me-pc-carpool-lane-car-20130207,0,6230558.story

Santa Fe High crew debuts solar-electric Bomber.  The Santa Fe
High Bomber is ready to take on all comers — even though it spent
much of its initial test drive in an unexpected pit stop
Wednesday morning.   Students in the school's automotive,
automotive-collision and welding classes teamed up to build the
8-foot-long, 200-pound solar-electric midget car — made out of
fiberglass and other materials — over the past 18 months. Senior
Joaquin Piñeda sat in the driver's seat Wednesday as he prepared
to test the car's speed, stability and safety.  Posted.
http://www.sfgate.com/news/science/article/Santa-Fe-High-crew-debuts-solar-electric-Bomber-4262422.php#ixzz2KKQn8hmf

HIGH-SPEED RAIL

Is High Speed Rail the Next Big Transportation Investment Play? 
Despite the odds and opposition, California will become home to
the nation’s first truly high-speed rail system.  In late July
2012, the governor of California decided to match the $3 billion
dollars of federal funds that were almost due to expire to build
the Fresno – Bakersfield line.  The $6 billion, 130-mile initial
segment in the Central Valley will begin construction in summer
2013. This will be a huge milestone in a decades-long effort to
bring fast trains enjoyed all over the world to the United
States.  Posted. 
http://www.benzinga.com/trading-ideas/long-ideas/13/02/3309102/is-high-speed-rail-the-next-big-transportation-investment-pla


GREEN ENERGY

Solar Project Would Destroy Half of Rare Plant's Population in
California.  The Hidden Hills Solar Electric Generating System,
proposed by BrightSource Energy for the Pahrump Valley in Inyo
County, would destroy half the known occurrences of a rare plant
in California, according to the California Native Plant Society
(CNPS) -- and the California Energy Commission (CEC) isn't doing
enough to make sure that loss of population won't result in the
plant's extinction in the state, says the group.  Posted. 
http://www.kcet.org/news/rewire/solar/concentrating-solar/solar-project-would-destroy-half-a-rare-plants-population-in-california.html

MISCELLANEOUS

Thefts hit catalytic converters. The Temecula Police Department
is reporting an uptick in thefts of catalytic converters, the
emission-control devices on vehicles that contain a honeycomb of
precious metals. Lt. Greg Negron told the city’s Public/Traffic
Safety Commission at the group’s last meeting that there has been
a rash of recent incidents targeting vehicles such as raised SUVs
and trucks. It’s easier for thieves to get at the converters when
a vehicle is raised, he said. Posted.
http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2013/feb/08/tp-thefts-hit-catalytic-converters/


OPINION 

More fossil-fuel power plants unnecessary. Last week, we watched
the implosion of the South Bay Power Plant – just one day after
the California Public Utilities Commission heard public comments
on two new SDG&E-proposed fossil fuel power plants in San Diego.
We’re playing a game of Whack-a-Mole with our regional energy
policy at ratepayers’ expense. Though the demolition of the South
Bay Power Plant is striking, we can’t let SDG&E continue to turn
a blind eye to the reasons why we don’t need that plant anymore.
Posted.
http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2013/feb/08/tp-more-fossil-fuel-power-plants-unnecessary/

BLOGS

Fate of the Earth Takes Center Stage. Where is the great American
play about climate change? Is there even a good one? Say what you
will about the potential end of civilization as we know it, but
there’s no denying it is dramatic stuff. That’s why it’s odd that
as climate change finally moves forward in the national
conversation, with President Obama making it a centerpiece of his
inauguration speech, New York theater has mostly avoided it.
Posted.
http://theater.nytimes.com/2013/02/10/theater/this-clement-world-a-play-about-climate-change.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0


A Climate Proposal: Bundling Consumer Buying Power. Each year, an
estimated 46 percent of the population is responsible for 77
percent of discretionary spending in the United States. To
strengthen individual buying power, a Santa Barbara-based
entrepreneur and philanthropist has proposed a new social
enterprise to finance climate change solutions, among other
social justice and humanitarian issues. Posted.
http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/02/07/a-climate-proposal-bundling-consumer-buying-power/?smid=tw-nytimesgreen&seid=auto


Air Pollution Causes More than 6 Million Deaths Worldwide.  For
the last three weeks, residents of Beijing have been breathing
thick, soupy air so choked with pollutants that it has registered
far off the scale of acceptable levels.  Yet places like Beijing
or New Delhi, India, which has also had extremely unhealthy air
quality levels, are far from the only cities to be plagued. Air
pollution affects practically everyone on the planet and causes
more than 6 million premature deaths every year, according to the
World Health Organization. Yet, this insidious and long-standing
issue really only generates headlines when it hits extreme
levels.  Posted. 
http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/around-the-world-abc-news/air-pollution-causes-more-6-million-deaths-worldwide-120237732.html


EPA moves forward with climate change protection plan; asks for
comments.  The Environmental Protection Agency is formally moving
forward with its Climate Change Adaptation Plan.  Beginning
Friday, the EPA is accepting comments on its draft plan, which
calls for the agency to amend its operations – including the
promulgation of new regulations – to account for increasingly
rapid global warming.  Posted. 
http://thehill.com/blogs/regwatch/energyenvironment/281915-epa-puts-forward-climate-change-adaptation-plan


Environmental groups, unions team up to oppose CEQA push.  The
battle lines are being drawn in the upcoming legislative fight
over California's environmental review laws.  More than a dozen
environmental, labor and social justice groups announced
Wednesday that they are joining forces to oppose an expected push
to overhaul the California Environmental Quality Act.  Posted. 
http://blogs.sacbee.com/capitolalertlatest/2013/02/california-environmental-groups-unions-oppose-ceqa-push.html#storylink=cpy

Climate Change: Americans Are Okay With Regulations, Not Taxes. 
President Obama, who was going to heal the Earth in his first
term, didn't do much of that but he put climate change back on
the table in his second inaugural address and a new national poll
says public support for regulating greenhouse gas emissions is
with him - just not with the ways he tried in his first term. 
The percentage of Americans who think climate change is occurring
fluctuates with the weather and media coverage, so it has
rebounded due to a hot summer and a storm hitting New York City
media offices, according to the Duke University national online
survey.  Posted. 
http://www.science20.com/news_articles/climate_change_americans_are_okay_regulations_not_taxes-103129