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newsclips -- ARB Newsclips for January 20, 2015

Posted: 20 Jan 2015 15:14:39
ARB Newsclips for January 20, 2015. 

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

Weyerhaeuser pays $37K fine for air pollution over limits. 
Weyerhaeuser Co.’s Columbus pulp mill is paying a $37,500 civil
fine for exceeding emissions limits during a 2013 test. Based in
Federal Way, Washington, Weyerhaeuser agreed to pay the fine to
the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality. A Nov. 24
order published by the department says that Weyerhaeuser’s boiler
exceeded limits for emitting fine particles.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/jan/19/weyerhaeuser-pays-37k-fine-for-air-pollution-over-/#ixzz3PNpZ2nzm

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA: Wood-burning ban extended through Tuesday.
Regional air quality officials have issued a fireplace
wood-burning ban at least through Tuesday, Jan. 20, because of
unhealthful air quality. The ban, which started Sunday will be in
place until midnight Tuesday, applies to the greater Los Angeles
area, Orange County and the Inland Empire, according to the South
Coast Air Quality Management District. District officials said
the ban may be extended several more days.
http://www.pe.com/articles/air-758499-burning-ban.html 

Coughing neighbors make Bay Area rethink outdoor cooking. The
booming popularity of outdoor kitchens among homeowners in the
San Francisco Bay Area has an increasing number of their
neighbors coughing and hacking from the smoke, leading
air-quality officials to consider tightening rules on
wood-burning pizza ovens and smokers. Residents like Noelle
Robbins of Alameda are calling complaint lines and public
officials to urge limits on backyard grilling and barbecuing.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_OUTDOOR_KITCHENS_SMOKY_AIR?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

CLIMATE CHANGE

The End of the Partisan Divide Over Climate Change. The
revelation late last week that global average temperatures set a
new record in 2014 seemed to underscore a political and cultural
shift on climate change that, by many accounts, was already well
underway. From the stock markets and Wall Street to the
boardrooms of Big Oil — and even the living rooms of Republican
voters — the era of reflexive skepticism and denial of basic
climate science appears to be coming to a close.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/tomzeller/2015/01/18/the-end-of-the-partisan-divide-over-climate-change/


Latest climate change battle may center on food pyramid.  The
political clash over climate change has entered new territory
that does not involve a massive oil pipeline or a subsidy for
renewable energy, but a quaint federal chart that tries to nudge
Americans toward a healthy diet. The food pyramid, that
3-decade-old backbone of grade-school nutrition lessons, has
become a test case of how far the Obama administration is willing
to push its global warming agenda.
http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-climate-food-20150118-story.html


A Bad Day for Climate Change Deniers … and the Planet.  It’s not
often that the climate change deniers get clobbered three times
in just two days. But that’s what happened with the release of a
trio of new studies that ought to serve as solid body blows to
the fading but persistent fiction that human-mediated warming is
somehow a hoax. Good news for the forces of reason, however, is
bad news for the planet—especially the oceans.
http://time.com/3672276/climate-change-oceans/ 

Pope’s climate-change stand deepens conservatives’ distrust.
Conservative distrust of Pope Francis, which has been building in
the U.S. throughout his pontificate, is reaching a boiling point
over his plan to urge action on climate change — and to do so
through a document traditionally used for the most important
papal teachings. For months, Francis has been drafting an
encyclical on the environment and global warming which he hopes
to release by June or July. Encyclicals are written with the help
of a small group of advisers working under strict secrecy. 
http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/popes-climate-change-stand-deepens-conservatives-distrust/2015/01/19/848bdd56-9fef-11e4-91fc-7dff95a14458_story.html


Scientists turn CO2 in solid rock in potential fix to climate
change.  
In Iceland scientists are developing a new way to cut carbon
emissions and improve air quality by turning toxic air in solid
rock. CCTV’s Zhang He reported this story from Reykjavik,
Iceland. To store carbon dioxide underground, Iceland scientists
dissolve CO2 in water, and inject it into reactive volcanic
basalt rock. Within a year, over 80 percent of the CO2 will
transform into solid carbonate minerals, experts said. 
http://www.cctv-america.com/2015/01/16/scientists-turn-co2-in-solid-rock-in-potential-fix-to-climate-change


Billionaire Tom Steyer eyes climate change, education in
potential Senate bid.  Billionaire environmental activist Tom
Steyer, who is weighing a run for the U.S. Senate seat that will
be vacated by Barbara Boxer in two years, is outlining a policy
agenda focused on climate change, education and tax reform and
pledging to serve only one term if he cannot achieve his goals,
sources close to Steyer said Sunday.
http://www.latimes.com/local/political/la-me-pc-steyer-senate-20150118-story.html


California’s Forests: Where Have All the Big Trees Gone? 
California has lost half its big trees since the 1930s, according
to a study to be published Tuesday in the Proceedings of the
National Academy of Sciences—and climate change seems to be a
major factor. The number of trees larger than two feet in
diameter has declined by 50 percent on more than 46,000 square
miles of California forests, the new study finds.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2015/01/150119-california-forests-shrinking-climate-drought-science/


Food diversity under siege from global warming, U.N. says.
Climate change threatens the genetic diversity of the world's
food supply, and saving crops and animals at risk will be crucial
for preserving yields and adapting to wild weather patterns, a
U.N. policy paper said on Monday. 
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/01/19/us-food-climatechange-un-idUSKBN0KS1N420150119


Pope's statement on climate change: 5 things to know. Pope
Francis, who pledged on the day of his installation as pontiff to
make the environment a priority, is drafting a highly anticipated
encyclical on ecology and climate change.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_POPE_CLIMATE_CHANGE_5_THINGS_TO_KNOW?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT


DROUGHT

California drought could end with storms known as atmospheric
rivers.  California's drought crept in slowly, but it could end
with a torrent of winter storms that stream across the Pacific,
dumping much of the year's rain and snow in a few fast-moving and
potentially catastrophic downpours. Powerful storms known as
atmospheric rivers, ribbons of water vapor that extend for
thousands of miles, pulling moisture from the tropics and
delivering it to the West Coast, have broken 40% of California
droughts since 1950, recent research shows.
http://www.latimes.com/science/la-me-atmospheric-rivers-20150119-story.html


DIESEL ACTIVITIES

CARB fines four for fuel switch failures.  The California Air
Resources Board has fined four shipping companies a combined
$146,719 for failing to switch from  bunker fuel to cleaner,
low-sulfur marine distillate fuel upon entering Regulated
California Waters – within 24 nautical miles of the California
coast.
http://www.marinelog.com/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&id=8596:carb-fines-four-for-fuel-switch-failures&Itemid=230

http://www.marinelink.com/news/california-shipping-fines384137.aspx


VEHICLES

Solar plane pioneers lay out round-the-world flight plan. The
team behind a Swiss-made solar-powered aircraft that is
attempting to fly around the world said Tuesday the clean-energy
plane will stop in India, China and the United States in a
historic journey set to begin as early as next month.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/M/ML_ABU_DHABI_SOLAR_PLANE?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

GREEN ENERGY

Green-Energy Inspiration Off the Coast of Denmark.  Before dawn
one morning in October, a handful of Americans gathered at a
lonely pier on Samso, a small Danish island about four hours from
Copenhagen. Bundled in layers of fleece and wool, the Americans,
mostly from islands off the Maine coast, had come to get a closer
look at a wind farm — 10 mighty turbines spinning in the Kattegat
strait — that has helped make Samso a symbol for a greener
future, one powered entirely by renewable energy.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/18/business/energy-environment/green-energy-inspiration-from-samso-denmark.html?_r=0

Google Makes Two More Solar, Wind Investments.  We’re barely
three weeks into 2015, and Google has already disclosed two
substantial investments in renewable energy projects. The total
so far: more than $1.5 billion. The most recent transaction (its
19th so far) will see the Internet giant put $76 million into the
Balko Wind project in Oklahoma, according to a Google spokesman.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/heatherclancy/2015/01/19/google-makes-two-more-solar-wind-investments/

U.S. Solar Industry Sees Growth, But Also Some Uncertainty.
The solar energy business is growing fast, thanks in part to a
steep drop in panel prices. The Solar Energy Industries
Association reports that prices dropped by more than half since
2010. But the industry's future looks a little hazy. Generous
government subsidies expire soon and the price for natural gas —
a competitor that's also used to generate electricity — keeps
dropping.
http://www.npr.org/2015/01/19/377719667/u-s-solar-industry-sees-growth-but-also-some-uncertainty

MISCELLANEOUS

Time For a Reality Check On Computer Models.  First, a new study
by economists at Iowa State University exposed the absurdity of
the results from economic models used by the California Air
Resources Board to estimate indirect land use change (ILUC)
emissions for biofuels regulated under the Low Carbon Fuel
Standard.
http://www.ethanolproducer.com/articles/11816/time-for-a-reality-check-on-computer-models


Preserved Under Fiberglass Domes, a Counterculture Spirit
Thrives.  The trill of panpipes from a yurt wafted across the
mulch hillocks of the Domes, a 1970s experiment in communal
housing in which students live in igloolike fiberglass domes and
snuggle up in snow-white interiors of plastic foam. Although
plenty of campuses offer specialized housing — often reserved for
vegans, teetotalers, athletes and other like-minded souls — it is
probably safe to say that there is no place quite like the Domes,
an early venture into sustainable living at the University of
California, Davis. 
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/21/us/domes-at-uc-davis-counterculture-spirit-thrives.html?ref=earth


OPINIONS

Make Forests Pay.  In the last 40 years, more than one billion
acres of tropical forests have vanished, equivalent in size to
over half of the continental United States. The rate of cutting,
burning and clearing shows no signs of abating. Tropical forests
store huge amounts of carbon. When their trees are cut or burned,
the carbon is eventually released into the atmosphere, mixing
with oxygen to form the long-lasting greenhouse gas carbon
dioxide. The pace of deforestation is so great today that it
accounts for an estimated 12 to 15 percent of global carbon
dioxide emissions annually.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/20/opinion/a-carbon-offset-market-for-trees.html?emc=eta1


BLOGS

 Report: Hyundai to cut price of fuel cell vehicle in Korea to
compete with Toyota.  The Korea Herald reports that unnamed
sources say that Hyundai Motor has decided to lower the price of
the Tucson fuel cell sport utility vehicle to compete with Toyota
Motor’s Mirai fuel cell car. Gwangju City, which purchased five
Hyundai FCVs last year, has a plan to buy 10 more Tucson FCVs
this year for use during the Gwangju Summer Universiade in July,
the newspaper reported.
http://www.greencarcongress.com/2015/01/20150119-hyundai.html 

BMW i3 Electric Car To Appear In Super Bowl TV Ad. Advertising is
crucial for automakers trying to explain the benefits of electric
cars to an often-skeptical public. So what better forum than the
advertising mecca that is the Super Bowl? While teams battle for
the National Football League championship during Super Bowl XLIX,
BMW will try to catch customers' attention with an ad for its i3
electric car on Sunday, February 1.
 http://www.greencarreports.com/news/1096360_bmw-i3-electric-car-to-appear-in-super-bowl-tv-ad


Beijing’s toxic air is literally off the charts.  No matter what
desperate steps the Chinese government takes — banning
coal-burning plants within the city limits, shuttering more than
300 factories, wiping out old vehicles and boilers, forcing heavy
trucking to go nocturnal — this just keeps happening: Beijing’s
smog has yet again soared off the charts.
http://grist.org/cities/beijings-toxic-air-is-literally-off-the-charts/


Why cheap gas can’t kill the electric car. From 2010 to 2014,
U.S. electric car sales surged from almost nothing to about
120,000 per year. But the haters and doubters persist. Analysts
and investing forums are buzzing about a coming stagnation. After
all, in the past seven months the price of oil has collapsed from
$115 a barrel to below $50. Gasoline prices have plummeted, too,
fast approaching $2 per gallon nationally, and commuters are
rejoicing. That means a key selling point for electric vehicles —
low fuel costs — is gone. The electric car appears to be in
trouble.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/why-cheap-gas-cant-kill-the-electric-car/2015/01/16/131341ba-9c10-11e4-bcfb-059ec7a93ddc_story.html
  

California needs cost-effective clean energy solutions now: Guest
commentary.
In the 1970s, the smog in Southern California was so bad we
couldn’t even see the nearby San Gabriel Mountains from downtown.
Smog alerts forced school kids indoors, canceled outdoor events
and sent people to emergency rooms. In 2015, our air may look
cleaner, but we still have much to do to eliminate air pollution.
We also now face the added challenge of tackling climate change.
http://www.dailynews.com/opinion/20150116/california-needs-cost-effective-clean-energy-solutions-now-guest-commentary




California is in a drought emergency.
Visit www.SaveOurH2O.org for water conservation tips.

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