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newsclips -- ARB Newsclips for April 23, 2014.
Posted: 23 Apr 2014 14:55:12
ARB Newsclips for April 23, 2014. 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 De Blasio wants to ban new wood fireplaces. Mayor Bill de Blasio celebrated Earth Day on Tuesday by proposing more regulations — including a ban on new wood-burning fireplaces. The mayor made the proposal, along with those for other sweeping regulations that he said would update emission standards and help curb air pollution. Instead of wood-burning fireplaces, de Blasio wants to allow only cleaner-burning units, such as those that use natural gas. Posted. http://nypost.com/2014/04/23/de-blasio-wants-to-ban-new-fireplaces/ http://www.foxnews.com/us/2014/04/23/new-york-city-mayor-wants-to-ban-new-fireplaces/ New map could refocus state's pollution battles. After being criticized for assessing environmental hazards only by the state's 1,800 ZIP Codes, Cal/EPA issues scores for its 8,000 census tracts. The California Environmental Protection Agency has released a statewide list of census tracts most burdened by pollution, providing a first-of-its-kind ranking certain to pressure regulators to clean up neighborhoods with long-standing health risks. Posted. http://www.latimes.com/science/la-me-0423-pollution-neighborhoods-20140423,0,1487851.story#ixzz2zjUf4nrj Exide to temporarily lay off nearly all workers at its Vernon plant. The company notifies 124 employees of the layoffs after its shutdown last month by air-quality regulators over pollution concerns. The beleaguered operator of a Vernon battery-recycling plant announced the temporary layoffs of nearly all of its employees Monday, weeks after air-quality regulators shut down its operations over air pollution concerns. Posted. http://www.latimes.com/local/la-me-exide-20140423,0,7226962.story#ixzz2zjWNy41Y Air quality officials warn that strong winds are likely to kick up clouds of dust across Valley. Air quality officials warned this morning that strong winds are likely to kick up clouds of dust across the San Joaquin Valley for the rest of the day, resulting in high levels of harmful particle pollution. Posted. http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20140422/A_NEWS/140429954 CLIMATE CHANGE Climate change likely to make Everest even riskier. Climbing to the roof of the world is becoming less predictable and possibly more dangerous, scientists say, as climate change brings warmer temperatures that may eat through the ice and snow on Mount Everest. Nepal was left reeling when a sudden ice avalanche slammed down onto a group of Sherpa guides on Friday and killed 16 in the deadliest single disaster on Everest. Posted. http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/A/AS_NEPAL_EVEREST_RISK?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT U.N. Report: Avoiding Climate Change Possible With ‘Substantial Emission Reductions’. The effects of climate change are undeniable, but governments are still behind the curve in taking action to slow the spread of greenhouse gases. The U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has just released its fifth report on the rapidly closing window of time to take action on reducing greenhouse gases. Posted. http://www.kpbs.org/news/2014/apr/21/un-report-finds-climate-change-mitigation-possible/ FUELS Correction: Biofuels-Global Warming story. In a story April 20 about new research showing biofuels made with corn leftovers are worse for global warming than gasoline in the short term, The Associated Press erroneously reported that cellulosic biofuels that failed to release 60 percent less carbon than gasoline wouldn't earn a $1 per gallon subsidy. That tax subsidy expired on Dec. 31, 2013. A corrected version of the story is below: Study: Fuels from corn waste not better than gas. Posted. http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_BIOFUELS_GLOBAL_WARMING?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT EPA sends 2013 cellulosic blending requirement sharply downward. U.S. EPA has revised the number of cellulosic biofuel gallons in 2013 that needed to be blended in the U.S. fuel supply to 810,185 ethanol-equivalent gallons -- about five ten-thousandths of a percent of the country's fuel -- a move supported by both oil and renewable fuel groups. It's a drastic reduction from the amount EPA had decided on eight months ago -- 6 million gallons -- and an even larger decline from the 1 billion gallons the industry was meant to produce in 2013…Posted. http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/stories/1059998290/print BY SUBSCRIPTION ONLY VEHICLES Tesla bringing plant to Central Valley, but it’s not the big one. Tesla Motors Inc. is opening a factory in the San Joaquin Valley, but it’s almost certainly not the 6,500-job battery plant that’s being coveted by governors and community leaders in California and other states. The maker of luxury electric cars leased a 430,000-square-foot facility in Lathrop, officials from the San Joaquin Partnership announced Tuesday. Posted. http://www.sacbee.com/2014/04/22/6345191/tesla-bringing-plant-to-central.html#mi_rss=Our%20Region#storylink=cpy Menlo Park poised to get solar panels, electric vehicle charging stations. Menlo Park is hoping to reel in four new electric vehicle charging stations and five solar panels early next year. Rebecca Fotu, the city's environmental programs manager, said the panels could be obtained through the Regional Renewable Energy Procurement Project, an effort involving Menlo Park and 18 other public agencies and led by Alameda County to boost green energy. Posted. http://www.insidebayarea.com/News/ci_25617787/Menlo-Park-poised-to-get-solar GREEN ENERGY The 'invisible renewable' struggles with slow U.S. growth. Geothermal energy is sometimes referred to as the "invisible renewable." That is in part because the resource is located thousands of feet underground. But it's also just not on the radar for many utilities and policymakers. The geothermal energy industry saw "lackluster growth" over the past year due to policy barriers, gridlock at the federal level, inadequate transportation infrastructure and low natural gas prices…Posted. http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/stories/1059998291/print BY SUBSCRIPTION ONLY MISCELLANEOUS Decades after first Earth Day, hope endures. More than 40 years after the first Earth Day, there’s much improvement and some challenges for the greater Orange County area. Here are four updates from the eco front lines. Posted. http://www.ocregister.com/articles/county-610830-orange-pollution.html OPINIONS Fracking expert Mark Zoback: We need good science, good engineering, good regulations and good enforcement. "Fracking" — now there's a word that just begs for a bumper sticker. Short for "hydraulic fracturing" — the process of breaking open rock with high-pressure liquids to get at otherwise untappable oil and natural gas — fracking conjures up a welcome energy boom for some, ecological disaster for others. Posted. http://www.latimes.com/opinion/commentary/la-oe-0423-morrison-fracking-zoback-20140422,0,65426.column#ixzz2zjVAOWy2 Koch brothers and big utilities campaign to unplug solar power. The Koch brothers have a new ploy to protect the traditional energy business that helped make them the planet’s fifth- and sixth-richest humans. They are funding a campaign to shackle solar energy consumers who have escaped the grip of big electric utilities. Of all the pro-business, anti-government causes they have funded with their billions, this may be the most cynical and self-serving. Posted. http://www.latimes.com/opinion/topoftheticket/la-na-tt-koch-brothers-and-solar-power-20140422,0,1087398.story#ixzz2zjWs1d4q Obama's Keystone pipeline trap. The president's predicament is just the latest example of how climate change monomania has become a problem for environmentalists — and the country. On Good Friday, President Obama made a bad call. The State Department announced that it would delay its decision on the Keystone XL pipeline until after the Nebraska Supreme Court rules in a case involving the route. Posted. http://www.latimes.com/opinion/commentary/la-oe-goldberg-keystone-democrats-20140422,0,7790783.column#ixzz2zjVk1l3M Combating climate change and keeping energy costs low. California’s pathbreaking market approach to combating climate change just celebrated its first anniversary in ho-hum fashion. Thinking back to the state’s ill-fated experiment with markets to deregulate utilities, critics said that my cap measure, part of Assembly Bill 32, would cause electricity and other energy prices to skyrocket. Posted. http://www.sacbee.com/2014/04/23/6345604/viewpoints-combating-climate-change.html Gas price increase a hidden tax. A recent Associated Press news item warns us that we may experience an immediate 12-cent increase in gas prices as a direct result of California’s greenhouse gas reduction law. Moreover, this 12-cent gouge is just the beginning; gas prices could ultimately increase by as much as 40 cents per gallon. Posted. http://www.thecalifornian.com/article/20140423/OPINION04/304230014/Gas-price-increase-hidden-tax BLOGS A Deeper Look at a Study Finding High Leak Rates From Gas Drilling. Most efforts to slow the natural gas drilling boom in the United States have focused on questions about the environmental impacts of the process called hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, which occurs deep underground after a well is drilled. That’s why a great deal of attention was paid last week to the results of a two-day aerial survey over gas fields in southwestern Pennsylvania that calculated emission rates of methane…Posted. http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/04/23/a-deeper-look-at-a-study-finding-high-leak-rates-from-gas-drilling/?_php=true&_type=blogs&src=twrhp&_r=0 A Jesuit carbon offset programme in Cambodia. The Jesuits in Cambodia have initiated a carbon offset programme in conjunction with the modest seedling nursery set up in Banteay Prieb, the Jesuit-run vocational school for people with disabilities, in late 2012. Primarily intended for Jesuits within the country, volunteers and visiting friends, the carbon offset programme provides an opportunity for air travelers to counterbalance the carbon emissions from their flights to or from Cambodia. Posted. http://sjapc.net/content/jesuit-carbon-offset-programme-cambodia Happy Earth Day. We Just Reached Another Scary Climate Change Milestone. In May 2013, it was big news when, for the first time, the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere hit 400 parts per million. Now, researchers say that number has been consistently above 400 for the last month. "This is higher than it's been in millions of years," said Pieter Tans, a senior scientist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Climate Monitoring and Diagnostics Laboratory. Posted. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/04/22/carbon-dioxide-climate-change_n_5187844.html California is in a drought emergency. Visit www.SaveOurH2O.org for water conservation tips.