What's New List Serve Post Display

ARB Newsclips for September 19, 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.

LOW CARBON FUEL STANDARDS

Court upholds Calif.'s low carbon fuel standard. A panel of
federal judges on Wednesday upheld California's
first-in-the-nation mandate requiring fuel producers to reduce
greenhouse gas emissions. A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S.
Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday rejected arguments from
fuel makers that California's "Low Carbon Fuel Standard"
discriminated against out-of-state producers. Posted.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_LOW_CARBON_FUELS?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT


OTHER RELATED STORIES
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-09-18/california-fuel-standard-doesn-t-discriminate-court-says.html

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/09/18/us-california-emissions-idUSBRE98H0Y620130918

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324492604579083474010303010.html?KEYWORDS=low+carbon+fuel

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/19/us/california-court-upholds-emissions-curbs.html?_r=0

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-carbon-footprint-20130919,0,646250.story

http://www.sfgate.com/default/article/State-s-low-carbon-fuel-standards-upheld-4826006.php

http://www.sacbee.com/2013/09/18/5747485/court-upholds-califs-low-carbon.html
http://www.fresnobee.com/2013/09/18/3504687/court-upholds-califs-low-carbon.html

http://www.modbee.com/2013/09/18/2927760/court-upholds-califs-low-carbon.html

http://www.insidebayarea.com/ci_24123183/court-upholds-calif-s-low-carbon-fuel-standard?IADID=Search-www.insidebayarea.com-www.insidebayarea.com

http://www.mercurynews.com/business/ci_24123259/ninth-circuit-upholds-californias-low-carbon-fuel-standard

http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130918/A_NEWS/130919879&cid=sitesearch

http://www.vcstar.com/news/2013/sep/18/court-upholds-califs-low-carbon-fuel-standard/

http://www.chron.com/business/energy/article/Court-upholds-Calif-s-low-carbon-fuel-standard-4824874.php


AIR POLLUTION

Officials Near Deal on Aviation Emissions. World aviation
officials are "very close" to resolving a long-running fight over
airplane pollution that has threatened to spark a global trade
war, said European Union Transport Commissioner Siim Kallas.
Air-transport officials from across the globe meet in Montreal
Tuesday to tackle issues including airline security, air-traffic
control modernization and flight safety. Their top priority,
though, is striking a deal to limit aircraft emissions of
greenhouse gases. Posted.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324492604579085012307454226.html#printMode


Exide ordered to cut production after lead emissions exceed
standards. The battery recycler's latest infraction stuns
activists and officials, who have been calling for the Vernon
plant's closure. Air quality regulators have ordered the
embattled Vernon battery recycler Exide Technologies to cut
production after an air monitor revealed lead emissions had
exceeded health standards over a 30-day period. The excessive
lead emissions occurred even as…Posted.
http://www.latimes.com/local/la-me-exide-20130919,0,144482.story


Democrats, state AGs ready to challenge new EPA anti-coal
regulation. Democrats from coal states, along with 17 state
attorneys general, are ripping the Environmental Protection
Agency's forthcoming New Source Performance Standards regulation
that would essentially ban all new coal-fired power plants. The
NSPS, which EPA will officially propose Sept. 20, will require
new coal plants to be built with expensive carbon capture and
storage technology that has only been tested at small scales.
Posted.
http://washingtonexaminer.com/democrats-state-ags-ready-to-challenge-new-epa-anti-coal-regulation/article/2536074


Black-carbon researcher wins highest U.N. environmental award. A
scientist at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the
University of California, San Diego, has won the United Nations'
highest environmental award. The United Nations last night in New
York gave its Champions of the Earth prize to Veerabhadran
Ramanathan, a distinguished professor of climate and atmospheric
sciences. The accolade was bestowed for his work on research
showing that cutting emissions of black carbon…Posted.
http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/stories/1059987485/print BY
SUBSCRIPTION ONLY

CLIMATE CHANGE

Warming lull haunts authors of key climate report. Scientists
working on a landmark U.N. report on climate change are
struggling to explain why global warming appears to have slowed
down in the past 15 years even though greenhouse gas emissions
keep rising. Leaked documents obtained by The Associated Press
show there are deep concerns among governments over how to
address the issue ahead of next week's meeting of the
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Posted.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/E/EU_CLIMATE_CHANGE?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

 
OTHER RELATED STORIES
http://www.sfgate.com/default/article/Warming-lull-haunts-authors-of-key-climate-report-4826829.php

http://www.sacbee.com/2013/09/19/5749570/warming-lull-haunts-authors-of.html
http://www.contracostatimes.com/ci_24129568/warming-lull-haunts-authors-key-climate-report?IADID=Search-www.contracostatimes.com-www.contracostatimes.com
 
http://www.insidebayarea.com/ci_24129568/warming-lull-haunts-authors-key-climate-report?IADID=Search-www.insidebayarea.com-www.insidebayarea.com


Watsonville enlists community for climate action plan: City
develops plan to meet state requirement to reduce greenhouse
emissions.  As Watsonville's residents suffered through the
economic recession in recent years, the city's environment may
have benefitted. As business activity declined, so did greenhouse
emissions -- about 15 percent from 2005 to 2010, according to a
city study released Wednesday. That's enough to meet a 2020 state
requirement for reductions of the carbon dioxide emissions tied
to climate change. Posted.
http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/watsonville/ci_24127888/watsonville-enlists-community-climate-action-plan-city-develops

 
Despite cooler year, ominous long-term melting trend to continue
– experts. This year's Arctic sea ice cover currently is the
sixth-lowest on modern record, a ranking that raises ongoing
concerns about the speed of ice melt and the effects of ice loss
on global weather patterns, geopolitical fights, indigenous
peoples and wildlife, scientists said yesterday. In an analysis,
the National Snow and Ice Data Center said the sea ice extent as
of Sept. 16 was 2 million square miles, an amount just below
revised estimates for 2009…Posted.
http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/stories/1059987507/print BY
SUBSCRIPTION ONLY

FUELS

U.S. charges 6 people, 3 firms with $100 million biofuels fraud.
Six people and three companies, including an Indiana operation
claiming to make biofuel from chicken fat and vegetable oils,
were charged with defrauding investors and consumers out of more
than $100 million, prosecutors in Indianapolis said on Wednesday.
The indictment alleged four men operating E-Biofuels of
Middletown, Indiana and two others with New Jersey-based Caravan
Trading Co and CIMA Green conspired to exploit a government
incentive program that offers tax credits for biofuel use.
Posted.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/09/18/us-usa-biofuels-fraud-idUSBRE98H16W20130918

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-09-18/imperial-petroleum-executive-charged-with-fraud-over-biofuels.html
 
http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2013/09/18/feds-allege-more-than-100m-biofuels-scam/2834487/
 
http://www.biodieselmagazine.com/articles/9332/feds-charge-e-biofuels-imperial-cima-egren-and-others-in-scheme
 http://www.truckinginfo.com/news/story/2013/09/truckers-supposedly-aware-of-biodiesel-scheme-six-indicted.aspx


Tribunal finds Ecuador released Chevron from pollution liability.
In a dispute stemming from a lengthy legal battle over Amazon
rain forest pollution, arbitrators ruled that Chevron had already
settled claims for damages in agreements with Ecuador despite a
$19 billion award against the oil company. The international
tribunal, acting under The Hague's Permanent Court of
Arbitration, said in a ruling on Tuesday that Ecuador opted not
to pursue damages beyond the country's 1995 and 1998 release
agreements with Texaco…Posted.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/09/18/us-chevron-ecuador-idUSBRE98H15P20130918?feedType=RSS&virtualBrandChannel=11563


Ethanol Advances on Lower Supply and Federal Reserve Decision.
Ethanol rose the most in more than a week after a government
report showed stockpiles of the fuel declined and after the
Federal Reserve unexpectedly left intact its level of bond
buying. Futures jumped 3.3 percent after the Fed said it would
continue buying $85 million in Treasuries each month. Separately,
an Energy Information Administration report showed record-low
ethanol supply and below-average production levels for this time
of year. Posted.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/print/2013-09-18/ethanol-s-discount-to-gasoline-narrows-as-discount-spurs-use.html


Pacific Ethanol buys time with preferred shareholders.
Sacramento-based Pacific Ethanol Inc. secured an agreement with
holders of the company’s Series B convertible preferred stock to
take 196,784 shares of common stock in lieu of $731,492 in cash.
The conversion represents partial payment for accrued and unpaid
dividends. In return for the exchange, the preferred stock
shareholders have agreed to not exercise shareholder rights on
unpaid dividends through March 31, 2015. Posted.
http://www.bizjournals.com/sacramento/news/2013/09/18/pacific-ethanol-buys-time-shareholders.html


Biofuels More Effective, ‘Cheaper Than EVs’ to Cut Emissions.
Increasing the amount of biofuels blended into road transport
fuels from 5 percent to 19 percent could cut the UK’s annual car
emissions up to 27 percent, or 12 million metric tons, by 2030,
according to a report by consultancy Element Energy and
commissioned by oil company BP. The Role of Biofuels Beyond 2020
says increasing biofuel blends will push up yearly fuel costs for
drivers by £13 ($20.77). Posted.
http://www.environmentalleader.com/2013/09/18/biofuels-more-effective-cheaper-than-evs-to-cut-emissions/


Americans Want More E15, Other Ethanol Blends, New Poll Says.
Policymakers may be fighting over it, but consumers seem to like
E15. At least, that's what a new poll of 1,211 Americans from
advocacy group Fuels America says. Of those people, 82 percent
said they supported having E15--a blend of 15 percent ethanol and
85 percent gasoline--at their local gas stations. And 76 percent
said they wouldn't mind seeing blends with even more ethanol,
such as E20 and E30. Posted.
http://www.greencarreports.com/news/1087045_americans-want-more-e15-other-ethanol-blends-new-poll-says


USDA to buy more sugar for fuel production. The Department of
Agriculture is planning another purchase of excess sugar for
resale to ethanol producers in a bid to boost falling domestic
sugar prices. USDA yesterday called for bids from sugar and
bioenergy producers for the Feedstock Flexibility Program, a 2008
farm bill program that lets the government buy sugar to avoid
loan forfeitures by sugar producers. Posted.
http://www.eenews.net/greenwire/stories/1059987525/print BY
SUBSCRIPTION ONLY
 
VEHICLES

DOE-supported EV-charging station maker files for bankruptcy.
ECOtality Inc., a prominent manufacturer of electric car
chargers, filed for bankruptcy protection this week despite
having received $114.8 million in federal funding over the last
four years. The San Francisco-based company filed for Chapter 11
protection Monday at a U.S. bankruptcy court in Arizona, joining
a growing list of clean technology companies to go belly-up.
Posted.
http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/stories/1059987509/print BY
SUBSCRIPTION ONLY

GREEN ENERGY

German industry group seeks green energy overhaul after election.
Germany's BDI industry association has proposed a plan for a
radical overhaul of government policy on renewable energy after
Sunday's elections, including scrapping the feed-in-tariff
system. 
The BDI has long warned that high energy prices, caused largely
by the rising cost of incentives for green energy, threaten
industry's competitiveness. Posted.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/09/19/us-germany-energy-idUSBRE98I0D420130919
 

Germany’s Effort at Clean Energy Proves Complex.  It is an
audacious undertaking with wide and deep support in Germany: shut
down the nation’s nuclear power plants, wean the country from
coal and promote a wholesale shift to renewable energy sources.
But the plan, backed by Chancellor Angela Merkel and opposition
parties alike, is running into problems in execution that are
forcing Germans to come face to face with the costs and
complexities of sticking to their principles. Posted.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/19/world/europe/germanys-effort-at-clean-energy-proves-complex.html?pagewanted=all


Energy & Green Military buys San Diego-made solar. French
semiconductor maker Soitec will provide solar modules from its
San Diego factory to build a demonstration-scale power plant for
the U.S. military at Ft. Irwin, the company announced Wednesday.
The project is part of a broader Defense Department evaluation of
innovative energy technologies to develop more secure power
supplies, reduce its facility costs and meet renewable energy
goals. Posted.
http://www.utsandiego.com/news/business/energy-and-green-business/


MISCELLANEOUS

Social costs of electricity from coal make it uneconomical,
researchers assert. New research from a national environmental
group finds that the cost of producing electricity from renewable
resources like wind and solar is lower than that of conventional
coal-fired generation when factoring for the adverse costs of
climate change and human health impacts. Posted.
http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/stories/1059987412/print BY
SUBSCRIPTION ONLY

OPINIONS

Our View: What's the sense in these diesel emission regulations?
Some belated complaining and a note to self: The complaining is
too late to do much good. It's just pure grousing about some
questionable environmental regulations that are bound to vex a
fair number of our area agri-businesses. Protestations would have
had greater impact had they come months or years ago. Posted.
http://www.appeal-democrat.com/articles/self-127688-note-communities.html#ixzz2fMLXt4Z1


Bill to open carpool lanes to solo drivers deserves signature.
Building additional traffic lanes isn’t the only way to relieve
congestion. Los Angeles Assemblyman Mark Gatto has a plan that we
hope will be signed into law: a bill to open freeway carpool
lanes to solo drivers before and after rush hours. Most everyone
in San Diego who commutes by freeway has no doubt encountered an
accident or road work that clogs the regular lanes during the
middle of the day or at night while the carpool lanes are
practically vacant. Posted.
http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2013/sep/18/bill-to-open-carpool-lanes-to-solo-drivers/all/?print


BLOGS

Protecting Americans from Power Plant Pollution. On September 20,
the Environmental Protection Agency will release new safeguards
against carbon pollution that, if expectations are on target,
will confirm something investors, governors, community leaders,
and everyday Americans have been saying for a decade - in the
21st century, it just doesn't make sense to build new coal-fired
power plants. To be specific, we've said that 179 times.  Posted.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mary-anne-hitt/protecting-americans-from_b_3942416.html?view=print&comm_ref=false


Delaying climate action will triple costs.  If the world puts off
cooperative efforts to fight climate change until 2030, they will
be more than three times as expensive as they would be in 2015. 
That’s according to a study led by the Potsdam Institute for
Climate Impact Research, published Wednesday in the journal
Environmental Research Letters.  Posted. 
http://grist.org/news/delaying-climate-action-will-triple-costs/ 
 

How energy efficient is your city?  Does your city have a plan to
cut greenhouse gas emissions dramatically? Is it seeking to
reduce car use through bikeshare programs and public transit
subsidies? Does it partner with utility companies to help small
businesses and homeowners save energy? And does it lobby for
statewide energy-efficiency legislation?  Posted. 
http://grist.org/climate-energy/how-energy-efficient-is-your-city/