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ARB Newsclips for February 12, 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

COLUMN-FutureGen presses on with oxyfuel technology: Kemp.
Following President Barack Obama's second inaugural address,
which reaffirmed his commitment to clean energy, there has been
mounting speculation the administration will impose stricter
emission standards on existing coal-fired power plants across the
United States. Cutting emissions from existing coal-fired plants
is essential to the administration's goal of limiting carbon
dioxide (CO2) emissions. Posted.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/02/11/column-kemp-cleancoal-idUSL5N0BBG3820130211

 
CLIMATE CHANGE

Range of Change: Obama to Signal Extent of Climate Push.
President Barack Obama is sure to bring up climate change in the
State of the Union address, energy consultants say, though
there’s no consensus on how much emphasis he’ll give to the
subject. “They’re going back and forth about how many times he’s
going to actually say climate and change,” said Joshua Greene, a
Washington attorney who represents energy developers and has
talked to White House officials about the speech. “Right now the
words ‘climate change’ are in the speech.” Posted.
http://go.bloomberg.com/political-capital/2013-02-12/range-of-change-obama-to-signal-extent-of-climate-push/


Sunlight stimulates release of carbon dioxide in melting
permafrost. Ancient plant and animal matter trapped within Arctic
permafrost can be converted rapidly into climate-warming carbon
dioxide when melted and exposed to sunlight, according to a new
study. In a report published Monday in the Proceedings of the
National Academy of Sciences, a team of environmental and
biological scientists examined 27 melting permafrost sites in
Alaska and found that bacteria converted dissolved organic carbon
materials into the greenhouse gas CO2 40% faster when exposed to
ultraviolet light. Posted.
http://www.latimes.com/news/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-carbon-sunlight-permafrost-20130211,0,5550833.story?track=rss

 
Obama pushed to keep climate action momentum going. President
Obama lit the match for renewed action on climate change three
weeks ago. Now advocates are clamoring for him to ignite the
nation with the idea during tonight's State of the Union address.
They want Obama to announce the pursuit of carbon dioxide
standards for the nation's fleet of existing power plants,
perhaps the biggest step the administration can take without
Congress toward reduction of warming gases. Posted.
http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/print/2013/02/12/1 BY
SUBSCRIPTION ONLY

Melting tundra releases CO2 more quickly than previous estimates.
Sunlight is speeding up the conversion of Arctic soil carbon into
carbon dioxide, raising the possibility that future warming could
occur at a much faster pace, according to a new study. Scientists
generally agree that higher temperatures increase the likelihood
of collapses of long-frozen Arctic ground, or permafrost,
creating large holes in the tundra and landslides. Posted.
http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/print/2013/02/12/4 BY
SUBSCRIPTION ONLY

Painting one roof at a time to curb global warming. Painting
roofs white and using light-colored pavement are simple -- and
effective -- ways to cast away more heat from the Earth. Roofs
and pavements amount to 60 percent of the surface area of cities.
Making all flat roofs white would be equivalent to taking half
the world's cars off the roads, in terms of the warming effect of
carbon dioxide. In fact, if all "eligible" flat urban roofs
worldwide were whitened…Posted.
http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/print/2013/02/12/8 BY
SUBSCRIPTION ONLY

FUELS

Brazil Ethanol Above Sugar Shows Mills May Favor Biofuel.
Brazilian ethanol prices trading above raw sugar futures for the
first time in almost two years are spurring speculation that
millers will favor making the biofuel over the sweetener in the
season starting in April. Hydrous ethanol, used in flex fuel cars
in Latin America’s largest economy, is trading at about 19 cents
a pound, according to Lausanne, Switzerland-based Kingsman SA,
which has provided sugar and biofuels research for more than 20
years. Posted.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-02-11/brazil-ethanol-topping-sugar-signals-millers-may-favor-biofuel.html


Iran Converts Enriched Uranium to Reactor Fuel, Reports Say. As
it prepares for two sets of negotiations with outsiders on its
disputed nuclear program, Iran said on Tuesday that it was
converting some of its enriched uranium into reactor fuel, the
state news agency IRNA reported, potentially limiting the
expansion of stockpiles that the West fears could be used for
weapons. Iranian officials are to meet on Wednesday in Tehran
with Herman Nackaerts, the deputy director of the International
Atomic Energy Agency…Posted.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/13/world/middleeast/iran-converts-enriched-uranium-to-reactor-fuel-reports-say.html


VEHICLES

Tesla isn’t taking criticism lying down, will publish reviewer’s
driving log. If you get into a dispute over facts, it always
helps to have a nice, clean, data trail. Tesla Motors chief
executive Elon Musk is unhappy enough with a recent New York
Times review of his company’s new electric Model S sedan that he
says he’ll publish the car’s digital log of the reviewer’s actual
drive — which, he says, differs substantially from the account in
the Times. Posted.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/02/12/idUS52830577920130212 
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-02-11/tesla-falls-after-n-y-times-model-s-test-drive.html

http://www.sfgate.com/business/article/Tesla-s-Musk-slams-N-Y-Times-review-4270134.php

http://www.mercurynews.com/business/ci_22567808/teslas-stock-dips-after-negative-review-its-model?source=rss


Growing competition among fast-charging battery standards could
chill EV sales. The fast charging is key to easing the range
anxiety associated with electric vehicle owners, but mounting
tension over which type of fast-charging system will prevail in
the marketplace could, ironically, end up killing consumer
interest in the electric car. CHAdeMO fast-charging standard,
spearheaded by Tokyo Electric Power Co., is currently the only
internationally certified fast-charging system and enjoys backing
from prominent electric vehicle (EV) manufacturers Nissan, Toyota
and Mitsubishi. Posted.
http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/print/2013/02/12/7 BY
SUBSCRIPTION ONLY

HIGH-SPEED RAIL

Amtrak, California High Speed Rail Authority partner to buy new
trains.  When it comes to advancing true high-speed rail projects
in the United States — trains that operate at top speeds of at
least 150 mph, according to the Federal Railroad Administration —
Amtrak's Northeast Corridor and the California High Speed Rail
Authority's (CHSRA) proposed statewide system are the signature
projects. Now, officials from both organizations are teaming up
to explore procurement opportunities for high-speed trains. 
Posted. 
http://www.progressiverailroading.com/amtrak/article/Amtrak-California-High-Speed-Rail-Authority-partner-to-buy-new-trains--35119


LaHood to high-speed faithful: 'Keep on keepin' on' In the
not-so-distant future, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said,
he expects commuters in California and in parts of the Midwest to
hop on trains that reach speeds of up to 200 mph. Private
investors would help pay for the high-speed infrastructure, and
government-led partnerships would manage some, if not all, of the
lines. Once riders experienced the benefits of traveling faster
than an Italian sports car on an open road, LaHood argues,
enthusiasm for the fast-moving trains would spread across the
nation. Posted. http://www.eenews.net/Greenwire/2013/02/12/6 BY
SUBSCRIPTION ONLY

GREEN ENERGY

In radical refit, buildings to generate more power than they use.
Two office blocks by the Oslo fjord will generate more power than
they use from 2014 after a radical refit meant to show that the
world's energy-squandering building sector can do more to fight
climate change. Geothermal and solar energy generated on site
will make the 1980s buildings "energy positive" in a tiny step to
cut demand from the building sector that burns about 40 percent
of world energy and emits a third of man-made greenhouse gas
emissions. Posted.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/02/12/us-buildings-idUSBRE91B0VC20130212


Proposal would help link investors to state clean energy
projects. Vice Adm. Dennis McGinn, president of the American
Council on Renewable Energy, stressed the need for government
policies to attract private investments in renewable energy at a
briefing last week in Washington, D.C. "The right kinds of policy
make it less difficult to marry up the tens of billions of
dollars that are sitting on the sidelines in America, looking for
a place to be invested, with the great existing and emerging
forms of renewable energy," McGinn said. Posted.
http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/print/2013/02/12/6 BY
SUBSCRIPTION ONLY

MISCELLANEOUS

Interior green-power guru moves to California Energy Commission. 
An Interior Department renewable energy expert is one of two new
appointees to the California Energy Commission. Gov. Jerry Brown
(D) appointed Janea Ashanti Scott to the Golden State's energy
agency. Scott, 39, of Arlington, Va., has been deputy counselor
for renewable energy and special assistant to the counselor at
Interior since 2009. Posted.
http://www.eenews.net/Greenwire/print/2013/02/12/7 BY
SUBSCRIPTION ONLY

Rulemaking chops seen as edge for 2 inside candidates to replace
Jackson. With U.S. EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson leaving the
agency today, two of her lieutenants are being discussed in
Washington, D.C., as leading candidates to succeed her. Deputy
Administrator Bob Perciasepe and EPA air chief Gina McCarthy --
both with extensive experience at EPA and as state regulators --
have the regulatory chops that environmentalists prize and also
have reputations for giving industry a seat at the table for
rulemakings. Posted.
http://www.eenews.net/Greenwire/print/2013/02/12/2 BY
SUBSCRIPTION ONLY

OPINIONS

In the dark on San Onofre. Ratepayers and the public deserve to
know more about who knew what and when concerning the nuclear
plant's problematic steam generators. If what two federal
lawmakers say is true, there's more to the shutdown at the San
Onofre nuclear plant than the public has been told. According to
Sens. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) and Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), a
leaked internal report by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, which
manufactured the problem-riddled steam generators that forced the
shutdown…Posted.
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/editorials/la-ed-san-onofre-generators-20130210,0,7939081.story


BLOGS

Why the fight over natural gas exports may be overblown.  One of
the big energy issues Congress will face in the coming year is
what to do about the glut of cheap natural gas in the United
States. Should we start exporting some of that gas abroad and
earn a tidy profit? Or keep it here at home?  Since the
Department of Energy would need to approve any new export
terminals, politicians get to weigh in here. And so far,
lawmakers have been split. Some Republicans insist that the
United States should expedite natural-gas exports to allies such
as Japan. Posted. 
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/02/11/why-the-fight-over-natural-gas-exports-may-be-overblown/