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ARB Newsclips for October 1, 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

Air Quality Watch issued for Santa Maria.  The Santa Barbara
County Public Health Department and county Air Pollution Control
District Monday issued an Air Quality Watch for the Santa Maria
area to be in effect until Wednesday.  This watch is only for the
Santa Maria area, and is in effect until Wednesday morning. 
Levels of particles recorded at the Santa Maria monitoring
station have exceeded the state standard six out of the last
seven days. Areas affected and levels of particles…Posted. 
http://santamariatimes.com/news/local/air-quality-watch-issued-for-santa-maria/article_fa21ff56-2a06-11e3-abb9-001a4bcf887a.html?comment_form=true
 

APCD study to be reviewed at meeting.  Over the last year,
implementation has been under way of the San Luis Obispo County
Air Pollution Control District’s Rule 1001 that requires the
Off-Highway Vehicle Division of State the California Department
of Parks and Recreation to mitigate the silica dust coming from
its park on the Dunes.  Recently, APCD director Larry Allen told
the board of directors the State Parks Department has not been
complying with Rule 1001.  Posted. 
http://www.theadobepress.com/articles/2013/09/30/columns/versaw/versaw.txt


CLIMATE CHANGE

Climate Change Rescue in U.S. Makes Steyer Converge With Paulson.
 Billionaire Tom Steyer recalls a dinner at the U.S. Treasury in
Washington with two senior department officials and six money
managers. It was August 2012, and the meal was part of an effort
by the agency to keep up with what the financial community was
worrying about. The diners discussed China’s slowdown, Federal
Reserve policy and other trends affecting the U.S. economy.
Posted.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-10-01/climate-change-rescue-in-u-s-makes-steyer-converge-with-paulson.html


EU Carbon Market Main Hurdle to Aviation Deal, India Says. The
European Union’s plan to keep its curbs on pollution from
airlines is the main hindrance to an international agreement on a
carbon market for the industry, according to a senior Indian
official. An accord discussed by the International Civil Aviation
Organization shouldn’t authorize EU measures prior to the global
deal unless they are mutually agreed with other states…Posted.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/print/2013-10-01/global-aviation-co2-deal-stumbles-on-eu-plan-india-says.html

UPDATE 1-U.S. Supreme Court takes no action on climate change
cases. The U.S. Supreme Court took no action on Tuesday on
petitions that could have it undertake a potentially wide-ranging
legal review of the Obama administration's first wave of
regulations aimed at battling climate change. The rules, which
apply to a cross-section of polluters from vehicles to industrial
facilities, are aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
Scientists say these are the prime contributor to climate change.
Posted.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/10/01/usa-court-climate-idUSL1N0HR0SA20131001

 
Reducing dangerous greenhouse gas emissions at DOE facilities. 
While the Department of Energy (DOE) has long been committed to
reducing greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to global
warming, Josh Silverman discovered that many of the department’s
facilities were unknowingly emitting a very powerful pollutant. 
Silverman, the DOE’s director of sustainability support, examined
the operations at the department’s national laboratories…Posted. 
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/federal_government/reducing-dangerous-greenhouse-gas-emissions-at-doe-facilities/2013/10/01/1536b86c-2a8a-11e3-8ade-a1f23cda135e_story.html


Gov. Brown sees his ambitious agenda as a template for nation. He
says his efforts in California to combat global warming, reverse
income inequality and give undocumented immigrants new rights
could change national political climate. For the first two years
of his late-in-life second act as governor, Jerry Brown focused
almost exclusively on California's woeful budget situation.
Posted.
http://www.latimes.com/local/politics/la-me-gov-brown-20131001,0,4808269.story


Defending its coast, New York elevates homes.  Nearly a year
after Hurricane Sandy inundated the Northeastern Seaboard, New
York City is enacting coastal building codes that will elevate
some homes by as much as 11 feet. New York Mayor Michael
Bloomberg has pledged that buildings will not retreat from the
coastline, as the city contemplates rising sea levels linked to
climate change and extreme weather. Posted.
http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2013/oct/01/new-york-raises-homes/
 

Merced hires firm to streamline climate plan, officials say. With
the city’s climate action plan in place for a year, Merced has
hired a firm to develop a streamlined plan for reducing
greenhouse gases that is easy for developers to use. Merced City
Council hired Rancho Cordova-based PMC Inc. at $190,550 to
develop the “programmatic climate action plan,” or PCAP. It must
be completed in no longer than three years. Posted.
http://www.sacbee.com/2013/10/01/5782999/merced-hires-firm-to-streamline.html

http://www.modbee.com/2013/10/01/2951124/merced-hires-firm-to-streamline.html#storylink=cpy
 

In science of climate change, still much to be learned. The
science of climate change has advanced significantly in the years
since the release of the last Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
Change (IPCC) physical science report in early 2007. Yet despite
key advances in areas like sea-level rise and humans' role in a
changing climate, a nagging question remains. The question, often
referred to as climate sensitivity, is simple:..Posted.
http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/2013/10/01/stories/1059988117
BY SUBSCRIPTION ONLY

Environment Canada projects 2 C of warming by 2050. Environment
Canada predicts even faster warming of the atmosphere than a
consensus reached last week by the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel
on Climate Change. In the best-case scenarios for limiting growth
of greenhouse gas emissions, the Canadian federal department's
computer models project an average global warming of about 2
degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels by 2050, said
Environment Canada senior scientist Greg Flato. Posted.
http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/stories/1059988094/print BY
SUBSCRIPTION ONLY

High court mum on whether it will review EPA emissions regs. The
Supreme Court took no action today in deciding whether to review
a potentially wide-ranging challenge to U.S. EPA's regulations
for addressing heat-trapping greenhouse gas emissions. Justices
were scheduled yesterday to consider nine petitions asking the
high court to reverse all or part of an appeals court's June 2012
decision that upheld four EPA rules, including the agency's
finding that greenhouse gases pose a risk to human health.
Posted. http://www.eenews.net/greenwire/stories/1059988153/print
BY SUBSCRIPTION ONLY

FUELS

EPA to be hit hard in shutdown, could delay renewable fuel
standard. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will take one
of the biggest hits of any federal agency if the government shuts
down this week, operating with under 7 percent of its employees,
according to guidance issued by the agency. Among those
furloughed would be most workers at the Office of Air and
Radiation, which is in charge of writing and implementing most of
the EPA's major air pollution rules. Posted.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/09/30/us-usa-fiscal-epa-idUSBRE98T12E20130930


Britain seen putting off subsea coal gasification projects. Plans
to burn Britain's large reserves of coal to produce gas for power
plants may wait for years because of concerns about climate
change and a public perception that the technology is similar to
fracking. Cluff Resources, one of the companies trying to develop
underground coal gasification in Britain, said the technology is
not likely to be deployed for at least another five years, while
government officials are tied up with the public opposition to
hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, for shale gas. Posted.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/10/01/coal-britain-syngas-idUSL5N0HL2PT20131001


Ethanol’s Discount to Gasoline Tightens on Below-Average Supply.
Ethanol’s discount to gasoline tightened on concern the delayed
corn harvest will cut supplies of the biofuel. The spread, or
price difference, narrowed 1.22 cents to 92 cents a gallon at
11:41 a.m. New York time as stockpiles of the additive are below
average for this time of year. Ethanol is made mostly from corn
in the U.S., and the fall harvest for the grain is behind
schedule. Posted.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/print/2013-10-01/ethanol-s-discount-to-gasoline-tightens-on-below-average-supply.html
.
 
U.S. Loses $53.3 Million on Sugar Deal. Government Sells to
Ethanol Makers for Less than It Paid, in Bid to Keep Sugar Prices
Up. The U.S. Department of Agriculture bought sugar from domestic
processors and sold it to ethanol makers at a loss of $53.3
million, the latest move by the agency to reduce domestic
supplies. This was the second use of a sugar-to-ethanol program
outlined in the 2008 Farm Bill…Posted.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303918804579107672636781520.html


Cheneyesque fracking loophole leaves home and land owners
uncertain (Video). A Cheneyesque fracking loophole in
California’s recent SB4 fracking legislation re-sets the national
tone of the oil & gas industry towards home and land owner’s
properties to 'uncertain.' The “Golden” state, known for leading
the way in its renewable portfolio standards to 33% by 2020, may
now instead be marred with the unintended consequences of ‘green
lighting,’ rather than abating the practice of fracking. Posted.
http://www.examiner.com/article/cheneyesque-fracking-loophole-leaves-home-and-land-owners-uncertain


Methane's warming potential rises in latest report. The
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has revised upward its
estimate for the global warming potential of methane. Methane is
34 times more potent a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide on a
100-year time scale. It was previously assumed to be 25 times
more potent. The number was published in the IPCC's most recent
report, which was released in full yesterday. The global warming
potential (GWP) is the basis for a number of inventories, from
U.S. EPA's greenhouse gas reporting program…Posted.
http://www.eenews.net/energywire/stories/1059988104/print BY
SUBSCRIPTION ONLY

VEHICLES

Father of the Prius sees long road to a fully electric future.
Toyota Motor Corp. Chairman Takeshi Uchiyamada rode his
pioneering work on the Prius hybrid to the top of the world’s
biggest car company. But that doesn’t mean he is a zealot when it
comes to the growing expectations for electric vehicle
technology. The technical barriers to better battery life and
performance are real, he said in an interview on Monday, and are
not on the verge of disappearing. Posted.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/father-of-the-prius-sees-long-road-to-a-fully-electric-future/2013/09/30/f1c540c2-29f0-11e3-b139-029811dbb57f_story.html


In Electric BMW I3, Hopes for a Stylish Future of Green.  When
the BMW i3 finally rolls out this year in Europe and next year in
North America, it will undoubtedly turn heads, but it is also
very different in that it is designed to cash in on the space,
handling and design that an electric drive train and ultra light
carbon fiber body allow. Posted.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/01/business/energy-environment/in-electric-bmw-i3-hopes-for-a-stylish-future-of-green.html?_r=0


UC Riverside gets more eco-friendly.  Researchers from the
University of California, Riverside, will be part of a new
national sustainable transportation research center to be funded
with $11.2 million in federal, state and local money.  The
National Center for Sustainable Transportation, which will be
based at the University of California, Davis, will help the U.S.
Department of Transportation reduce greenhouse-gas emissions from
passenger and …Posted. 
http://www.mydesert.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2013309300021 


Toyota Green Vehicles Awarded In California.  Toyota, Lexus and
Scion took top honors in the 2013 Green Car Guide, published
today by the Automobile Club of Southern California.  Six of the
top ten overall green vehicle and “best value” scores are held by
the Toyota family.  The 2013 Toyota RAV4 EV compact SUV achieved
the highest overall green car score in the history of Green Car
Guide…Posted. 
http://www.hybridcars.com/toyota-green-vehicles-awarded-in-california/


Calif. approves a $2B package of incentives for clean cars, cuts
some regulatory powers. A new law in California will generate $2
billion in funding to advance cleaner cars, but as part of a
political deal, it also will block a top environmental agency
from enforcing one of its rules. Gov. Jerry Brown (D) on Saturday
signed A.B. 8 from Assembly members Henry Perea (D) and Nancy
Skinner (D) and Sen. Fran Pavley (D). Posted.
http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/2013/10/01/stories/1059988122
BY SUBSCRIPTION ONLY

GREEN ENERGY

Nominee for energy regulatory post withdraws. President Barack
Obama's nominee to be the nation's top energy regulator withdrew
Tuesday, conceding he did not have enough support for
confirmation. Ron Binz, a former Colorado energy regulator who
strongly backs renewable energy, was opposed by at least half of
the 22-member Senate Energy Committee, including all 10
Republicans and at least one Democrat. Posted.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_ENERGY_REGULATOR?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT


OTHER RELATED STORIES
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303464504579109140381446728.html?KEYWORDS=ENERGY

North Carolina team's solar house: surprise in the concrete
walls. For Solar Decathlon 2013, we put a virtual microphone in
front of some teams and let the competitors explain their home
design, in their own words. First up: the University of North
Carolina at Charlotte, which like the 19 other teams in the
Department of Energy competition, is racing to finish
construction by Wednesday, so it could open to the public Tuesday
at the Orange County Great Park. Posted.
http://www.latimes.com/home/la-lh-north-carolina-solar-decathlon-house-20130930,0,5771891.story


Terminal Island plant converts solid waste to energy for Long
Beach residents. Much of the garbage being picked up along curbs
citywide returns as energy that is enough to power more than
35,000 homes annually. Situated on Terminal Island is the
Southeast Resource Recovery Facility, a waste-to-energy plant
where lease operator Covanta Energy processes 1,380 tons of solid
waste a day generated from the city and the Sanitation Districts
of Los Angeles County, which own the facility under a joint
agreement. Posted.
http://www.presstelegram.com/environment-and-nature/20130930/terminal-island-plant-converts-solid-waste-to-energy-for-long-beach-residents


OPINIONS

COLUMN-Carbon budgets can provide emissions guide: Wynn. A U.N.
panel of climate scientists has for the first time backed a limit
on cumulative global carbon emissions, in a so-called budget
approach that is useful but with certain limitations. Carbon
budgets estimate the maximum greenhouse gases that countries can
emit cumulatively for the world to stay below a certain amount of
global warming, and so are related to targets that set an
emissions limit in any particular year. Posted.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/10/01/column-wynn-climate-carbon-idUSL6N0HQ0S120131001

 
Climate of Uncertainty. A U.N. report can't explain the hiatus in
global warming. Between 1998 and 2012 the global economy more
than doubled in size—to some $71 trillion in GDP from $30
trillion. That's the good news. Over the same period the world
pumped more than 100 billion tons of carbon dioxide into the
atmosphere. That is supposedly the bad news. Yet global surface
temperatures have remained essentially flat. Posted.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304713704579092883286839894.html?mod=hp_opinion
 BY SUBSCRIPTION

The Political Science of Global Warming. The U.N.'s latest
climate-change report should be its last. "Human influence
extremely likely to be the dominant cause of observed warming
since the middle of the last century," was the headline from
Friday's release of the first installment of the
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's fifth assessment
report. "Extremely likely"—indicating a 95%-100% likelihood—was
ratcheted up one notch from the 2007 fourth assessment report's
"very likely." Posted.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303464504579106993839343868.html?KEYWORDS=CLIMATE+CHANGE
 BY SUBSCRIPTION

Letters: Preparing for climate catastrophe. Re "Experts set
threshold for climate-change calamity," Sept. 28 Twenty-five
years to reach the climate-change tipping point sounds like a
long time. But the truth is it will take all of that time, and
more, to rebuild our fossil fuel-based energy system using clean
renewable energy. It will take a concerted, sustained effort to
make it happen, not business as usual. A good place to start is
to implement the "polluter pays" principle: …Posted.
http://www.latimes.com/opinion/letters/la-le-1001-tuesday-global-warming-20131001,0,3749266.story


Time for an economywide carbon tax. Re "U.N.panel endorses global
emissions ceiling" (Page A6, Sept. 28): The world's top
scientists have concluded with 95 percent certainty that humans
are causing global warming and climate change. Even more
importantly, they endorse action by humanity to establish a limit
on carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas pollution. Posted.
http://www.sacbee.com/2013/09/30/5779675/focus-on-political-action-not.html#storylink=cpy


Viewpoints: A preventive approach to keeping harmful chemicals
out of everyday products. Persistence and energy prevail. During
the past five years, those who believe in making consumer
products free from toxic ingredients traveled a long and
sometimes tortuous path that has led to the nation’s first
comprehensive process for making the goods we buy safer. Starting
today, California’s Safer Consumer Products regulation will set
in motion a process that reduces …Posted.
http://www.sacbee.com/2013/10/01/5782576/viewpoints-a-preventative-approach.html#storylink=cpy


Economic boom or environmental failure?  The U-T on Sept. 29
reports there are 2.8 million oil field jobs for the asking if
California exploits its oil reserves via new fracking technology.
These jobs would provide average compensation of $50,000 a year.
The total economic impact in California would come close to $1
trillion a year! All this at a time when the middle class in
California is suffering, and poverty rates are soaring. Posted.
http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2013/sep/30/letters-fracking/ 

BLOGS

Hybrids Not a Driving Force in Making China Greener. After 16
months of waiting for a permit to register a car in the capital,
a Beijing resident surnamed Cao bought a Lexus CT200h
gasoline-electric hybrid last year. He put down a hefty 300,000
yuan ($48,000) figuring he would at least make a small
contribution to keeping the city’s already woefully polluted air
from getting worse. Posted.
http://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2013/10/01/hybrids-not-a-driving-force-in-making-china-greener/?KEYWORDS=electric+vehicles


Toyota on All-Electric Cars: ‘We Do Not Believe There is a
Market’ Toyota Motor Corp.7203.TO 0.00% isn’t going to be
investing heavily into electric vehicles and the company
Chairman, Takeshi Uchiyamada, doesn’t think there is much of a
market for them. “The reason why Toyota doesn’t introduce any
major [all-electric product] is because we do not believe there
is a market to accept it,” Mr. Uchiyamada said in an interview
following a speech on Monday at the Economic Club of Washington,
D.C. Posted.
http://blogs.wsj.com/japanrealtime/2013/10/01/toyota-on-all-electric-cars-we-do-not-believe-there-is-a-market/?KEYWORDS=electric+vehicles
BY SUBSCRIPTION

SUSTAINABLE LIVING: EcoFest coming to CSUSB.  Live music,
vendors, games and workshops about sustainable living will be the
focus of an EcoFest celebration at Cal State San Bernardino on
Friday, Oct. 18. EcoFest will be held from 2 p.m. to 10 p.m. in
the university’s Lower Commons and surrounding areas. Admission
is free. Posted.
http://blog.pe.com/colleges-universities/2013/09/30/sustainable-living-ecofest-coming-to-csusb/


California's Cap-and-Trade Market Still Needs a Price Ceiling. 
Back in May, I blogged about the problem of low GHG allowance
prices in the EU-ETS.  I explained the sound reasons for having
both a price floor and a price ceiling in any allowance market
where science doesn’t dictate a single do-or-die target for
emissions.  At that time, I held up the California cap and trade
market as a good example because the market has a price floor and
I reported that the regulator (the California Air Resources
Board, CARB) was on the way to adopting a price ceiling.  Posted.
 http://theenergycollective.com/severinborenstein/282621/californias-cap-and-trade-market-still-needs-price-ceiling
 

In the renewable energy race, solar power is hot hot hot.  Solar
power installations are expected to edge out new wind farms this
year for the title of fastest-growing clean energy source. 
Bloomberg New Energy Finance has projected that photovoltaic
plants like this monster that we reported on last week will add
36.7 gigawatts of capacity this year — up 20 percent from last
year. New wind farms, meanwhile, will add 35.5 gigawatts. 
Posted. 
http://grist.org/news/in-the-renewable-energy-race-solar-power-is-hot-hot-hot/