What's New List Serve Post Display
Below is the List Serve Post you selected to display.
newsclips -- ARB Newsclips for August 27, 2013.
Posted: 27 Aug 2013 11:33:37
ARB Newsclips for August 27, 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. CAP AND TRADE Linking Carbon Supply to Growth Is Complicated, PwC’s Grant Says. Jonathan Grant, director of sustainability and climate change at PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP in London, comments on rule changes being considered to the European Union emissions trading program, in an e-mailed response to questions on Aug. 23. The European Commission would consider implementing changes to the market’s structure that would cut supply of carbon permits…Posted. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/print/2013-08-27/linking-carbon-supply-to-growth-is-complicated-pwc-s-grant-says.html California Cap And Trade Comes To A Crossroads As Carbon Prices Fall. California’s cap-and-trade market recently held its fourth carbon allowance auction, with prices slipping below their expected level on news state regulators may increase the amount of free allocations they provide to polluters in 2014. But even though permit sales to cover emissions trended downward for the first time in the system’s existence, dropping 12.7% from May 2013’s record-setting auction…Posted. http://cleantechnica.com/2013/08/27/california-cap-and-trade-comes-to-a-crossroads-as-carbon-prices-fall/ Tracking AB 32: Latest Carbon Auction Numbers Push Market Above $1 Billion. California’s Global Warming Solutions Act, Assembly Bill 32, and its cap-and-trade program continues to evolve as more companies buy into the billion-dollar carbon auction market and the state works through a spending plan to reinvest in communities. The most recent cap-and-trade auction was held August 16…Posted. http://lbbusinessjournal.com/long-beach-business-journal-newswatch/1755-lawsuits-against-city-of-la-bnsf-railway-consolidated.html AIR POLLUTION Smoky Reno air quality concerns continue. Health officials say concerns about air quality in the Reno area are likely to continue for at least another day or two as a result of the smoke pouring in from the huge wildfire 150 miles away at Yosemite National Park. The air quality index in Washoe County improved on Sunday but deteriorated again on Monday to the level considered unhealthy for the general population. Posted. http://www.sfgate.com/default/article/Smoky-Reno-air-quality-concerns-continue-4762215.php http://www.sacbee.com/2013/08/26/5682381/smoky-reno-air-quality-again-unhealthy.html http://www.vcstar.com/news/2013/aug/26/smoky-reno-air-quality-again-unhealthy-for-all/#ixzz2dBXzFfMS http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2013/aug/26/smoky-reno-air-quality-again-unhealthy-for-all/ Port of Los Angeles Slashes Emissions. Air pollution associated with operations at the Port of Los Angeles is at its lowest level since the port adopted a formal plan to reduce emissions nearly seven years ago, according to the latest emissions data. The Port’s 2012 Inventory of Air Emissions shows a 79 percent drop in diesel particulate matter (DPM) over a seven-year period that began in 2005. Posted. http://www.environmentalleader.com/2013/08/26/port-of-los-angeles-slashes-emissions/ CLIMATE CHANGE Mutually Insured Destruction. In March 1947, a winter of heavy snowfall followed by a quick thaw and torrents of rain swelled rivers throughout England and Wales. Over the course of just 13 days, at least 27,000 homes and businesses were flooded. It was one of the worst natural disasters in British history. But thanks to climate change, which can prevent the thick snowpack from which spring floods draw their strength, that sort of flood may be less likely to happen today. Posted. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/01/magazine/mutually-insured-destruction.html EPA chief warns against climate change on visit to Alaska glacier. As she marveled at the site of a shrinking Alaska glacier, the newly installed leader of the Environmental Protection Agency said Monday that the president told her that fighting climate change should be her primary focus. “The president’s main priority for me was to recognize when I was coming in here that this is going to be a significant challenge…Posted. http://www.sacbee.com/2013/08/26/5682988/epa-chief-warns-against-climate.html#storylink=cpy http://www.modbee.com/2013/08/26/2885912/epa-chief-warns-against-climate.html#storylink=cpy http://www.fresnobee.com/2013/08/26/3462986/epa-chief-warns-against-climate.html Silicon Valley may follow in Richmond, Berkeley climate change efforts. In the 1980s, hundreds of American cities, states and universities sold their investments in South African companies as part of a protest against that country's former apartheid government. Now, environmental groups are trying to duplicate that effort, but with global warming polluters in the role of villain. Posted. http://www.contracostatimes.com/news/ci_23948942/silicon-valley-water-district-moves-join-global-warming?source=rss Alabama professor creates carbon-capturing system. A Colorado company has licensed a method of capturing carbon dioxide pioneered by a University of Alabama assistant professor, with the hope of developing the method as a more energy-efficient way of reducing emissions at fossil-fuel power plants. ION Engineering in Boulder, Colo., has licensed a carbon-capture process using imidazole solutions, or solvents, developed by Jason Bara…Posted. http://www.modbee.com/2013/08/27/2886744/alabama-professor-creates-carbon.html#storylink=cpy http://www.wtva.com/content/news/alabama/story/Alabama-professor-creates-carbon-capturing-system/eFl6hNZQlUK0xG_dXG64YQ.cspx Environmental group wants to name hurricanes for global warming 'deniers' The environmental group 350.org has launched a new campaign called Climate Name Change that proposes to revise to how hurricanes are named: call them, the groups says, after policymakers who say that humans are not to blame for global warming. This will save the Katrinas and Sandys of the world from the injustice of having their names attached to major disaster, the group says. And, as a bonus, it will produce some peculiar weather reports. Posted. http://www.csmonitor.com/Environment/2013/0827/Environmental-group-wants-to-name-hurricanes-for-global-warming-deniers DIESEL EMISSIONS South Korea Tests New Technology for Electric Bus. Vehicles Can Be Recharged Wirelessly While in Motion. South Korea is experimenting with electric buses that can charge wirelessly while in motion, a technology that could help ease the pollution plaguing cities. The city of Gumi, about 150 miles southeast of Seoul, is the testing ground for two so-called on-line electric vehicles, which ply a 15-mile route up to 10 times a day. Posted. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323980604579030340856307338.html?KEYWORDS=air+pollution FUELS California, federal methods to push renewable-fuel use stir conflict. It's even possible that conflicting state and federal policies on renewable fuels, both aimed at reducing global warming, could actually make things worse, some scientists say. California and the federal government want drivers to use more renewable fuels in their cars and trucks. That's where the trouble lies. The state and federal governments share a goal, but have adopted very different ways to reach it. Posted. http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-biofuels-20130827,0,4105604.story http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/breaking/la-fi-biofuels-20130827,0,5067068.story?page=2 VEHICLES CORRECTED-Gasoline fuels comeback for China's electric car maker BYD. BYD Co Ltd, the Warren Buffett-backed company best known for electric cars, is in the midst of a revival thanks to traditional gasoline-fueled vehicles. Its car sales jumped 25 percent to more than 250,000 units in the first six months of this year, outpacing China's overall auto market growth rate of 11 percent. The vast majority of those were gasoline-powered, not electric. The recovery in gasoline car sales, which account for half of BYD's revenues…Posted. http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/08/26/byd-comeback-idUSL4N0GM1N120130826 Tesla outsells Porsche, Buick, Lincoln, others in California (+video). Yes, it's shocking. California automaker Tesla Motors [NSDQ:TSLA] is outselling a number of very well established vehicle brands in its home state—with only one model: the all-electric Model S. In June, Tesla outsold (on the basis of registrations) Buick, Lincoln, Porsche, Volvo, and Cadillac—and far outsold Jaguar and Land Rover combined. And the long-established, full-line luxury brand Infiniti only posted just 51 more registrations in the state than Tesla. Posted. http://www.csmonitor.com/Business/In-Gear/2013/0827/Tesla-outsells-Porsche-Buick-Lincoln-others-in-California-video Advancing electric mobility through electric car-sharing – Part I. Mobility experts think that through electric vehicle (EV) sharing and rental schemes, EVs could become an integral part of the urban environment. By renting an electric car customers can get the EV experience without the risks usually associated with buying one. cars21.com takes a closer look at the electric car-sharing schemes in different cities and the price plans offered. Posted. http://www.cars21.com/news/view/5572 GREEN ENERGY New efforts aim to turn smokestack pollution into usable energy. If pollution had a mascot, it would be the smokestack. Do a Google image search for “pollution.” What do you see? A bunch of smokestacks with ominous gray clouds billowing out the top. It’s a reasonable association to make: Smokestack emissions contain nasty chemicals, including mercury, sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides, not to mention carbon dioxide, the biggest threat to our environment over the long term. Posted. http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/new-efforts-aim-to-turn-smokestack-pollution-into-usable-energy/2013/08/26/cdf5cb5e-0370-11e3-a07f-49ddc7417125_story.html Cheap Substitute For Silicon Grows From Carbon Nanotube “Seeds”. While we’ve been busy touting graphene as the “miracle material of the new millennium,” there’s another advanced materials kid on the block called carbon nanotubes and they haven’t exactly been on the snooze either. A team of researchers at the University of Southern California (USC) has just announced that they’ve cracked the code for cooking up single-walled carbon nanotubes with precise atomic structures. Posted. http://cleantechnica.com/2013/08/27/cheap-substitute-for-silicon-grows-from-carbon-nanotube-seeds/ MISCELLANEOUS Never Mind Citi Bike, Here’s Campus Bike. In 1892, a song celebrated “a bicycle built for two.” More than a century later, a campaign for a university is upping the ante with an offer of bicycles built for a hundred. The University of Dayton, in Dayton, Ohio, is promising 100 incoming freshmen free bikes in exchange for pledges to forgo bringing cars to campus for the first two years they are enrolled. Posted. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/26/business/media/never-mind-citi-bike-heres-campus-bike.html?pagewanted=all Bill mandates 3-foot buffer between cars, bikes. The state Senate approved a bill on Monday that would require drivers to stay at least three feet away from bicyclists when they are passing in the same direction, despite Gov. Jerry Brown's previous vetoes of similar legislation. Lawmakers approved AB1371 by Assemblyman Steven Bradford, D-Gardena, on a 31-7 vote. Posted. http://customwire.ap.org/dynamic/stories/C/CA_XGR_BICYCLE_BUFFER_ZONES_CAOL-?SITE=CASON&SECTION=STATE&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2013-08-26-20-00-12 OPINIONS People Don’t Fear Climate Change Enough. With respect to the science of climate change, many experts regard the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change as the world’s authoritative institution. A draft summary of its forthcoming report was leaked last week. It describes the panel’s growing confidence that climate change is real, that it is a result of human action, and that if the world continues on its current course, it will face exceedingly serious losses and threats (including a significant rise in sea levels by century’s end). Posted. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-08-27/people-don-t-fear-climate-change-enough.html Ditch ethanol mandates. Try a carbon tax. WASHINGTON IS seeing a great fight between two extremely powerful lobbies, Big Ethanol and Big Oil. Neither should win. At issue is the Renewable Fuel Standard, a huge subsidy meant for companies making all kinds of ethanol but that mostly benefits the least-attractive type, derived from corn. The policy demands that increasing amounts of various sorts of ethanol be blended into the nation’s gasoline supply. Posted. http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/ditch-ethanol-mandates-try-a-carbon-tax/2013/08/25/ac5332ba-0ab0-11e3-b87c-476db8ac34cd_story.html John Hoffmire: Fighting air pollution one electric car at a time. If one were to identify the top problems in the areas 40 miles north and south of Salt Lake City, most people would name air pollution among the top five. Six counties in Utah have been graded “F” in “State of Air 2013,” according to the report issued by the American Lung Association. Throughout many years, for quite a number of days each year, inversion, a phenomenon characterized by haze, exists over valleys in Utah…Posted. http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865585284/Fighting-air-pollution-one-electric-car-at-a-time.html?pg=all BLOGS Papers Find Mixed Impacts on Ocean Species from Rising CO2. Britain’s Royal Society has published a helpful new collection of papers in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B that provide fresh insights on how the global buildup of carbon dioxide released by human activities could affect ocean ecology. The work adds to a growing body of science pointing to large changes, with some types of marine organisms and ecosystems seemingly able to adjust and even thrive, while others ail. Posted. http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/08/26/papers-find-mixed-impacts-on-ocean-species-from-rising-co2/ Explained in 90 Seconds: How Climate Change Fuels Wildfires. (video) From the Rim fire currently engulfing California to the Black Forest fire that burned more than 500 homes in Colorado, wildfires are becoming more destructive. In this video, Matthew Hurteau—assistant professor of forest resources at Penn State University—explains how warming temperatures, prolonged drought, and a century’s worth of fire suppression policy are “priming the system to make it more flammable. Posted. http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2013/08/wildfires-climate-change/ 14 U.S. Cities That Could Disappear Over The Next Century, Thanks To Global Warming. There is really no way around it: Thanks to climate change, sea levels are rising. A huge question on the minds of many is, what does this mean for America? Will sea walls and city planning protect major metropolises, or are we bound to lose some national gems? Unfortunately, the latter is a significant possibility. Posted. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/26/global-warming-flooding_n_3799019.html Study Shows Biodiesel’s Growth in California. California is poised to make some big waves in the biodiesel market… at least according to a new study from the Environmental Defense Fund and E2. This story from Biodiesel Magazine says the report profiles six companies in California revolutionizing the industry. “Once again, California is ahead of the curve when it comes to delivering on fuels that not only protect the environment but also make good business sense to produce…Posted. http://domesticfuel.com/2013/08/27/study-shows-biodiesels-growth-in-california/ Report: The More Carbon Emissions We Cut, The Better The World Economy Does. Work from an international effort to model climate change’s effects show that the more carbon emissions humanity cuts, the better the global economy will perform over the next century. The report is part of the Fifth Assessment Report (AR5) by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which was set up by the United Nations to offer a comprehensive assessment of climate science. Posted. http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2013/08/27/2530391/carbon-cut-better-economy/ To meet emissions targets, we’ve all got to be like France. Even with a terrible recession and natural gas bonanza, the U.S. isn’t cutting emissions fast enough. Some experts still think it is possible to reduce emissions 50 percent globally by 2050, a somewhat arbitrary goal thought to minimize the risk of climate change disasters. But they say hitting that goal is possible only if we try really hard. Posted. http://www.salon.com/2013/08/26/to_meet_emissions_targets_weve_all_got_to_be_like_france_newscred/ Nissan Tests New Heat-Resistant Battery For Leaf Electric Car. Nissan is testing a revised lithium-ion cell chemistry for its Leaf electric car that the company says appears to be as durable in sustained extreme heat as its current battery is under normal conditions. If tests confirm that the new cells degrade at no more than the standard rate, even at high temperatures, the company hopes to have battery packs using those cells available next April. Posted. http://www.greencarreports.com/news/1086498_nissan-tests-new-heat-resistant-battery-for-leaf-electric-car We’re already sick of climate change — and getting sicker. If there’s any doubt remaining in your mind that climate change is a plague on humanity, Linda Marsa will take care of that for you. Marsa is a longtime medical writer. She’s made a career as a muckraker, taking on the pharmaceutical industry and dispensers of scientific snake oil. And she’s recently turned her attention to how our warming of the planet increases the chances for a wide array of epidemic illnesses. Posted. http://grist.org/climate-energy/were-already-sick-of-climate-change-and-getting-sicker/ Oil refinery affecting air quality – study. Chevron’s oil refinery in California is twice as big as its refinery in Table View, Cape Town, yet the US operation produces fewer toxic emissions because California has stricter air pollution laws. Now Table View residents are calling on the city to ensure that Chevron’s emissions in Cape Town are also capped at a lower level because there is evidence that the plant’s emissions are affecting air quality and the health of people living in neighboring areas. Posted. http://www.iol.co.za/scitech/science/environment/oil-refinery-affecting-air-quality-study-1.1568902#.UhzpmJzd33U Wildfires a Growing Air Quality Issue. Where there’s fire, there’s smoke. And when the fire is more than 200 square miles and growing like California’s Rim Fire, there’s a lot of it. And in that smoke is quite the witch’s brew of air pollutants. Gabriele Pfister runs down just some of the list: “You have carbon monoxide, you have mercury, you have nitrogen oxide, sulfur dioxide.” Pfister studies the air quality impacts of wildfires, at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). Posted. http://blogs.kqed.org/science/2013/08/26/wildfires-a-growing-air-quality-issue/