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newsclips -- ARB Newsclips for October 18, 2013.
Posted: 18 Oct 2013 14:30:12
ARB Newsclips for October 18, 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 Angela Merkel signals hope for carbon market fix. The European carbon price jumped to a three-month high yesterday, after German Chancellor Angela Merkel backed reforms to the bloc's emissions trading scheme. According to Bloomberg, the price of emissions allowances for December reached €5.50 per tonne, up 10.9 per cent, following Merkel's first post-election speech, in Hanover. Posted. http://www.businessgreen.com/print_article/bg/news/2301101/angela-merkel-signals-hope-for-carbon-market-fix http://www.energylivenews.com/2013/10/18/angela-merkel-supports-back-loading-in-eu-carbon-market/ EU Revives Airline Fees For Carbon Emissions. Aviation Industry Cries Foul After ICAO Agreement. The European Union (EU) has proposed a modified version its widely-panned Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) that would have charged all airlines regardless of country of registry for emissions during the full duration of their flights. The latest proposal would charge airlines using any airport in an EU member state for emissions expelled during the portion flights conducted in European airspace. Posted. http://www.aero-news.net/index.cfm?do=main.textpost&id=6d605c14-8707-4330-9724-f1d8b8313e20 Hub liquidity eyed in wake of Calif. cap-and-trade: analysis. Concerns about the impact of cap-and-trade on liquidity in California just won’t go away. The Sacramento Municipal Utility District has raised questions about the impact carbon costs might be having on liquidity at the key California-Oregon Border power import hub since the state’s greenhouse gas cap-and-trade program for electricity generators went into effect on January 1. Posted. http://www.platts.com/news-feature/2013/electricpower/uspower/index AIR POLLUTION State incentives offer polluters breaks to come clean. The state is asking businesses to report themselves if they break pollution rules, with the promise of lesser or no fines. There may even be a reward. Businesses could also cut deals quietly with the state to ensure their problems don't happen again. The so-called Environmental Audit Incentive Policy, released by Environmental Conservation Commissioner Joe Martens this week, is drawing praise from industry, which said it will encourage businesses to clean up. Posted. http://www.sfgate.com/default/article/State-incentives-offer-polluters-breaks-to-come-4905097.php No good argument to keeping coal plant open. It seems to be near foolhardiness to continue allowing the Bridgeport Harbor Generating Station to keep running, while claiming that this coal-producing plant is "not a large source of local air emissions." This is simply not true; coal combustion cannot be a completely "clean" process, despite PSEG Power Connecticut's $1.6 billion invested in scrubbers, catalytic reduction systems or baghouses. PSEG Power Connecticut can deny the truth all it wants, but what they cannot contradict is the effects that sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, particulate pollution…Posted. http://www.sfgate.com/default/article/No-good-argument-to-keeping-coal-plant-open-4904496.php Beijing tackles abominable air pollution with a car ban. Beijing will ban half of the city's cars on days with 'serious pollution' – but the stringent definition will leave most cars on the road. As air pollution levels in Beijing hovered between “hazardous” and “very unhealthy” according to the US embassy’s monitoring device on Friday, the Beijing city government unveiled a new plan to try to get the capital’s air quality under control. Posted. http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Global-News/2013/1018/Beijing-tackles-abominable-air-pollution-with-a-car-ban CLIMATE CHANGE Gore Says U.S. Likely to Beat ‘Inadequate’ Carbon Target. The U.S. will probably beat its own target for reducing greenhouse-gas emissions as the costs of wind and solar power fall and coal becomes inviable, former Vice President Al Gore said. President Barack Obama’s administration has said the U.S. is on track to meet a pledge of cutting heat-trapping gases by 17 percent from 2005 levels by 2020. Posted. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-10-18/gore-says-u-s-likely-to-beat-inadequate-carbon-target.html DIESEL EMISSIONS Daimler Challenge to EPA Diesel Certificates Is Tossed. A challenge by four truckmakers including Daimler AG (DAI) to an Environmental Protection Agency rule allowing Navistar International Corp. (NAV) to continue producing engines that didn’t comply with pollution standards by paying a fine was thrown out by an appeals court Posted. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/print/2013-10-18/daimler-challenge-to-epa-diesel-certificates-is-tossed.html FUELS Diesel Advances on Speculation Fed to Maintain Stimulus Levels. Diesel gained on indications that the Federal Reserve will delay tapering stimulus because the protracted government shutdown and political wrangling that preceded it may have disrupted growth. Futures rose amid optimism demand will increase as comments by two Fed regional presidents yesterday signaled a reduction in debt buying won’t occur this year. Posted. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-10-18/diesel-advances-on-speculation-fed-to-maintain-stimulus-levels.html Oil Companies Are Sued for Waste of Natural Gas. In the sharpest challenge yet to the surge in flaring of natural gas in the Bakken shale oil field, North Dakota mineral owners this week filed 10 class-action lawsuits seeking millions of dollars in lost royalties from some of the nation’s largest oil companies. Roughly 1,500 fires burn above western North Dakota because of the deliberate burning of natural gas by companies rushing to drill for oil without having sufficient pipelines to transport their production. Posted. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/18/business/energy-environment/oil-companies-are-sued-over-natural-gas-flaring-in-north-dakota.html?_r=0 VEHICLES Tesla Tops California Green-Car Credit Sales in Past Year. Tesla Motors Inc. (TSLA:US), the electric-car maker led by Elon Musk, was the top seller of California zero-emission vehicle credits in the past year as Toyota Motor Corp. (7203) led hybrid-car credit trades, according to a state tally. Tesla transferred 1,311.52 ZEV credits from Oct. 1, 2012, through Sept. 30 of this year, 32 times the number of Suzuki Motor Corp. (7269), the next biggest seller…Posted. http://www.businessweek.com/news/2013-10-16/musk-s-tesla-tops-california-green-car-credit-sales-in-past-year http://www.evworld.com/news.cfm?rssid=31543 Volvo Develops Structural, Supercapacitor Nanobatteries For Future Electric Cars. Batteries in electric and hybrid cars--and this may not come as much of a surprise--are large, and they're heavy. Reducing the size and weight of these vital components is priority number one for scientists all over the world, and Volvo is among them with its latest technological development. Posted. http://www.greencarreports.com/news/1087770_volvo-develops-structural-supercapacitor-nanobatteries-for-future-electric-cars http://www.complex.com/rides/2013/10/volvo-body-panel-batteries GREEN ENERGY Australian Clean Energy Bank Profitable Before Possible Closing. Clean Energy Finance Corp., the Australian green development bank earmarked for closing by newly-elected Prime Minister Tony Abbott, is making a profit and prodding commercial banks to lend, according to its chief executive officer. “We’re operating profitably already, with our contracted investments expected to earn an average return of around 7 percent,” which is above the bank’s capital cost of about 3 percent…Posted. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/print/2013-10-18/australian-clean-energy-bank-profitable-before-possible-closing.html California regulators pushing for electricity storage. California's electric utilities and other power sellers better hope that scientists and engineers come up with a surefire way to bottle lightning. That's a dramatic way of describing the more prosaic goal of finding a way to store large amounts of electricity, something that, up until now, did not seem practicable. On Thursday, the state Public Utilities Commission voted to create a formal "energy storage target"…Posted. http://www.latimes.com/business/money/la-fi-mo-regulators-pushing-for-electricity-storage-20131017,0,4492806.story http://www.mercurynews.com/business/ci_24331470/california-adopts-first-nation-energy-storage-plan?source=rss Living Smart: Energy-efficiency tax credits. If you're considering a home-improvement project that will cut energy costs, it's not too late to take advantage of special federal tax credits. But be aware that time is running out. The residential energy-efficiency tax credit had been set to expire at the end of 2011. But early this year, as part of the "fiscal cliff" deal, Congress extended it to include projects undertaken during tax years 2012 and 2013. Posted. http://www.sacbee.com/2013/10/17/5828631/living-smart-energy-efficiency.html#storylink=cpy Renewables now provide Scotland with 40% of its power. Renewable energy sources now provide Scotland with 40 percent of its electricity. Despite the fact much of Scotland is closer to the Arctic Circle than London, wind, solar and tidal energies are utilized to best effect and have slashed carbon emissions. The British Energy Minister, Michael Fallon, highlighted this news in answer to a Parliamentary Question, saying: “Renewables now generate the equivalent of 40 percent of the demand for power from every home and business in the country…Posted. http://www.digitaljournal.com/print/article/360427#ixzz2i6II7v8V MISCELLANEOUS UN sees mercury use phase-out within 3 decades. A new global treaty could eliminate within three decades the commercial use of mercury in everything from batteries, paints and skin-lightening creams to utility plants and small-scale gold mining, the head of the U.N.'s environment agency said Thursday. Achim Steiner, the executive director of the U.N. Environment Program, describes the Minamata Convention on Mercury as a major game-changer for a naturally occurring element that…Posted. http://www.sfgate.com/default/article/UN-sees-mercury-use-phase-out-within-3-decades-4903608.php OPINIONS Analysis: Brewing U.S. ethanol legal battle hinges on meaning of 'supply' The fate of a landmark U.S. requirement to blend increasing amounts of biofuels into the nation's gasoline pool rests on the meaning of three words tucked into a mammoth law: unless there is "inadequate domestic supply." But "supply" of what? The law does not say. As a years-long battle over the future of the U.S. fuel supply begins to shift to the courts, the two fierce foes - the biofuel industry and oil refiners …Posted. http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/10/18/us-ethanol-supply-analysis-idUSBRE99H02N20131018 40 Years After Embargo, OPEC Is Over a Barrel. Today marks the 40th anniversary of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries embargo against the U.S. and states that supported Israel after Egypt and Syria initiated simultaneous offensives against it on Yom Kippur in 1973. While it’s not an anniversary that many will celebrate, it’s a good opportunity to reflect on how much more secure our energy situation is, despite our continued heavy reliance on fossil fuels. Posted. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-10-17/40-years-after-embargo-opec-is-over-a-barrel.html Tesla Success Fueled by U.S. Innovation Policy? I truly love cars, and, having turned 40 recently, I went on a year-long search for the perfect car to celebrate with. I had given up for a while until I came across the amazing Tesla Model S. Tesla Motors TSLA +0.91% represents everything I appreciate in life – innovation, technology, and even tax policy. In my last post I discussed how corporate tax credits and other incentives can fuel innovation. Posted. http://www.forbes.com/sites/joeharpaz/2013/10/18/tesla-success-fueled-by-u-s-innovation-policy/