What's New List Serve Post Display

ARB Newsclips for May 17, 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

EPA taking comments on ND air pollution matter. Environmental
groups say the federal government should order two coal-fired
power plants in western North Dakota to use more sophisticated
pollution-control technology, but state officials say the matter
already has been settled and no more debate is needed. The
federal Environmental Protection Agency is taking written
comments through June 17 on an appeal of North Dakota's regional
haze plan approved last year. Posted.
http://www.sfgate.com/business/energy/article/EPA-taking-comments-on-ND-air-pollution-matter-4521655.php#ixzz2TZadJVkb


Environmentalists say lawsuit could trigger nationwide PM 2.5
standards. Environmentalists say a suit filed this week that
charges U.S. EPA has not done enough to ensure that Utah is
cleaning up fine particulate matter could force the agency to
require more stringent action on fine particulates in other
states. The lawsuit from WildEarth Guardians filed Wednesday
builds on a January decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the
District of Columbia Circuit that said EPA must re-examine how it
implements standards for fine particulates, or PM 2.5. Posted.
http://www.eenews.net/greenwire/2013/05/17/stories/1059981390 BY
SUBSCRIPTION ONLY

Preliminary results of air quality study stoke beach fire ban
debate: Should they be regulated as a pollutant? In one night, a
single beach fire can emit the same amount of harmful particulate
matter as a heavy-duty truck driving 564 miles, according to the
preliminary results of a study by the South Coast Air Quality
Management District (AQMD). Read the full report below. The
research comes before a public meeting Friday in Huntington Beach
to discuss a regional ban on beach fires. Air samples were
collected in Huntington Beach, Corona del Mar, Balboa Island and
Dockweiler State Beach in March. Posted.
http://www.scpr.org/news/2013/05/16/37302/preliminary-results-of-air-quality-study-stoke-bea/?utm_source=feedly&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+893KpccSouthernCaliforniaNews+%28KPCC%3A+News%29


CLIMATE CHANGE

Blue crabs in Maine? Something fishy about global warming.
Warming oceans are changing the mix of species in the world's
fisheries, according to a new study. Marine-ecosystem models have
indicated that this could be an effect from global warming.
Warming oceans are changing the mix of species in the world's
fisheries as fish try to remain in waters in their preferred
temperature range, according to a new study. Posted.
http://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2013/0516/Blue-crabs-in-Maine-Something-fishy-about-global-warming

http://science.time.com/2013/05/16/why-warming-oceans-could-mean-dwindling-fish/


From 'Potent' Pollen to Double Whammy Allergy Seasons: How
Climate Change Could Affect Seasonal Allergies.  Climate changes
and rising carbon dioxide levels don't just affect the
environment. Experts say they also affect your nose. Warmer
temperatures and higher carbon dioxide levels mean certain plants
will thrive, and those are the plants that tend to make us sneeze
during allergy season.  Allergies may seem like a minor nuisance,
but according to the CDC there are an estimated 50 million
Americans living with allergies, and $18 billion is spent every
year dealing with the affliction.  Posted. 
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/Allergies/potent-pollen-double-whammy-allergy-seasons-climate-change/story?id=19192495#.UZZlD8pglNs
  

State struggles to adjust to problems posed by 'the new normal' 
As California continues its groundbreaking push to lower its
greenhouse gas emissions, it wants to remind the public and other
governments why it's taking action. State and federal projections
of sea-level rise underscore the need for California to keep
reducing its emissions, officials told state legislators at an
oversight hearing in Sacramento yesterday. Posted.
http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/stories/1059981360/print BY
SUBSCRIPTION ONLY

Melting glaciers are big contributors to sea-level rise – study.
The melting of the world's glaciers contributes as much to rising
global sea levels as the Greenland and Antarctica ice sheets
combined, according to a new study. The research, published
yesterday in Science, found that glacial regions caused roughly
29 percent of the rise in global sea levels between 2003 and
2009, even though glaciers hold a tiny percentage of the world's
land ice -- about 1 percent. Posted.
http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/stories/1059981348/print BY
SUBSCRIPTION ONLY 

Drought to persist in Southwest, Texas; wildfires will menace
Calif. – outlook. Drought conditions will worsen before they get
better, said experts today at a briefing on this summer's drought
outlook. California, Texas and the Southwest will continue to be
immersed in drought conditions, an environment set by low
snowpack, a short-lived rain season and high temperatures,
according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration's summer drought outlook. New drought patches may
emerge in Oregon and Idaho, as well as the few spots in the
Southwest that have been spared to date. Posted.
http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/stories/1059981362/print BY
SUBSCRIPTION ONLY

FUELS

Proposed New Fracking Rules Draw Fire From Industry. The Interior
Department proposed relaxing some of the requirements it wants to
impose on energy companies that conduct hydraulic fracturing on
federal land, but the industry remains opposed to the new rules,
saying they are unnecessary. The department said Thursday it is
replacing a proposed rule issued in May 2012 with a new version
that grants additional flexibility to oil and natural-gas
companies. Posted.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324082604578487482397534830.html?mod=WSJ_WSJ_US_News_5
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-fracking-standards-20130517,0,6391538.story

http://www.kcet.org/news/rewire/government/draft-fracking-rules-for-public-indian-lands-bend-to-industry.html?utm_source=feedly


Hydrogen energy the chloroplast way: solar-to-fuel with the
artificial leaf.  With atmospheric carbon dioxide recently
hitting a record 400 parts per million, the discovery of
alternative renewable energy sources has taken on added urgency.
One effort is the so-called “artificial leaf,” a photosynthetic
system that uses light energy to split water molecules and
produce hydrogen. Researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab
have recently published details of their new nanowire-based
system that mimics the way plant chloroplasts transport charged
particles.  Posted. 
http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/hydrogen-energy-the-chloroplast-way-solar-to-fuel-with-the-artificial-leaf/2013/05/17/d7223be6-be91-11e2-b537-ab47f0325f7c_story.html


Shale drilling boosts Ohio gas and oil output.  Officials say
drilling in Ohio's Utica shale region nearly doubled the output
of oil and natural gas there since 2011, although some industry
experts remain cautious about the long-term potential for
production. The Ohio Department of Natural Resources announced
Thursday that the drilling process known as hydraulic fracturing,
or fracking, in the shale region of eastern Ohio increased the
oil output year-over-year by 93 percent and the natural gas
output by 80 percent in that time. Posted. 
http://www.sfgate.com/business/energy/article/Shale-drilling-boosts-Ohio-gas-and-oil-output-4525012.php#ixzz2TZL7dyDf


VEHICLES

Mercedes-Benz launches new S-Class with hybrid, diesel, gasoline
models; 59 mpg PHEV model to come.  Mercedes-Benz’s new
generation flagship S-Class, introduced at an elaborate event at
Airbus in Finkenwerder, marks a number of technology firsts in
numerous areas from comfort, to driver control, to efficiency. As
one example of the last, the new S-Class is the first car in the
world to completely dispense with conventional electric bulbs,
making exclusive use of energy-saving LED technology both inside
and outside.  Posted. 
http://www.greencarcongress.com/2013/05/sclass-20130516.html   

HIGH-SPEED RAIL

Judge to hear lawsuit over high-speed rail bonds.  State
officials on Thursday agreed to drop a request to consolidate all
lawsuits challenging California's use of voter-approved
high-speed rail bonds, allowing a trial seeking to prevent the
state from spending bond money to begin later this month. 
Opponents of the $68 billion bullet train project and attorneys
for the California High-Speed Rail Authority submitted their
agreement to a Sacramento County Superior Court judge.  Posted. 
http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-news/ci_23259005/judge-hear-lawsuit-over-high-speed-rail-bonds
 
http://www.bakersfieldcalifornian.com/special-sections/rail/x480781390/Judge-to-hear-lawsuit-over-high-speed-rail-bonds?utm_source=widget_182&utm_medium=latest_entries_widget&utm_campaign=synapse


GREEN ENERGY

California: Energy Death Valley.  California is rich in both
conventional and renewable energy resources. It is the country’s
most populous state and has the second largest energy consumption
in the nation, second only to Texas. California has large energy
resources, but also one of the lowest per capita energy
consumption rates in the country. The state is frequently hailed
as a leader on energy policy and California’s policies are
leading to higher energy prices.  Posted. 
http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/55273 

BLOGS

The Other Climate Science Gap. Much has been made this week of
the gap between what the public thinks about the consensus among
climate scientists over the human factor in global warming and
the actual level of consensus. The discussion has centered on a
new study reviewing how anthropogenic global warming was
characterized in more than 12,000 climate science papers between
1991 and 2011. More than 97 percent of the papers stating a cause
for warming, the authors found, pointed to humans. Posted.
http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/05/17/the-other-climate-science-gap/?ref=science


Smoke Permeates Nonsmoking Hotel Rooms.  Staying in a nonsmoking
room in a hotel that allows smoking elsewhere does not prevent
exposure to tobacco smoke, a new study reports.  Writing in
Tobacco Control, researchers examined a sample of 10 hotels with
complete smoking bans and 30 with designated smoking rooms. They
analyzed air and surfaces for tobacco smoke pollutants, took
finger wipe samples to measure the presence of tobacco
carcinogens, and tested the urine of nonsmoking occupants after
they had stayed in the rooms.  Posted. 
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/05/17/smoke-permeates-nonsmoking-hotel-rooms/


Experts Affirm the Benefits and Importance of California's Clean
Energy and Climate Leadership. In the face of daunting
challenges, California stands strong as a national leader on
climate action, according to experts who testified today at a
state Senate committee hearing on climate change and
implementation of the state’s clean energy law, AB 32. Also known
as the Global Warming Solutions Act, AB 32 is California’s
groundbreaking effort to mitigate climate risks and lower
statewide greenhouse gas emissions. Posted.
http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/stanenhaus/international_experts_affirm_t.html


Climate Change Impacts Ripple Through Fishing Industry While
Ocean Science Lags Behind.  With a limberness that defies his 69
years, Frank Mirarchi heaves himself over the edge of a concrete
wharf and steps out onto a slack, downward sloping dock line
bouncing 20 feet above the lapping waters near Scituate, Mass. He
shimmies laterally along the pylons, steadying himself with a
grip on some steel rigging, until he reaches the roof of the
pilot house on his boat, a groundfish trawler called the Barbara
L. Peters, after his mother-in-law.  Posted. 
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/17/ocean-climate-change-fishing-industry_n_3275505.html
  

The Next Big Thing in Green Power: Community Ownership.  Any
socially transformative movement gets to a point where it needs
to be fully embraced by the people it impacts. The green power
movement within Canada is at just such a point. Previously, the
development of new renewable energy projects was out of reach to
all but the most committed hobbyist or has been on a scale
requiring government-level planning. But there are growing ways
for individuals to have a voice in shaping the energy market in
Canada within their own communities.  Posted. 
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/ron-seftel/green-power-cooperatives_b_3281440.html
  

California Now Has More Than 150,000 Solar Roofs. And that number
keeps climbing. According to the California Solar Statistics
website, the number of California roofs generating power from the
sun reached 150,428 as of Wednesday, with a total generating
capacity of 1,560 megawatts -- about equivalent to three typical
coal-fired power plants. Los Angeles County now leads the state
in the amount of rooftop generating capacity, with 171.4
megawatts of rooftop solar installed. Posted.
http://www.kcet.org/news/rewire/solar/photovoltaic-pv/california-now-has-more-than-150000-solar-roofs.html?utm_source=feedly


Australian Scientists Develop Printable A3-Sized Solar Cells.
Solar energy sounds like a dream, but buying and installing the
equipment necessary to harness the power of the Sun can be
expensive. But what if you could print your own solar panels? The
researchers at Australia's Victorian Organic Solar Cell
Consortium (VICOSC) — a collaboration between the Commonwealth
Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO)…Posted.
http://mashable.com/2013/05/17/print-a3-sized-solar-cells/?utm_medium=feed&utm_source=feedly&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Mashable+%28Mashable%29