What's New List Serve Post Display

ARB Newsclips for July 24, 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.

CAP AND TRADE

Calif. launches EV-sharing for disadvantaged residents. An
electric vehicle-sharing program for lower income and other
disadvantaged California residents launches today in Los Angeles,
driven by a state law mandating expanded access to clean cars.
The effort is funded by $1.6 million in revenue from the Golden
State's cap-and-trade system for carbon emissions. It auctions
permits to businesses with high greenhouse gas releases.
http://www.eenews.net/greenwire/2015/07/24/stories/1060022373 

AIR POLLUTION

U.S. proposes voluntary oil and gas company cuts in methane
emissions. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency proposed a
program for oil and gas companies to make voluntary pledges to
cut and track emissions of methane, one component of its wider
strategy to target the potent greenhouse gas and combat climate
change, the agency said Thursday.
http://af.reuters.com/article/energyOilNews/idAFL1N1033J420150723

  
Nation's top 100 power plants cut carbon emissions 12%. The
nation’s top 100 power plants, including those run by power
companies in the Los Angeles region, reduced their collective
carbon emissions 12% from 2008 to 2013, according to a report
released Thursday. Though emissions have fallen in recent years,
carbon produced by the largest power plants was 14% higher than
in 1990, the report by Ceres said.
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-plants-cut-emissions-20150723-story.html


When is a tree a tree, when is it 'waste' and why does it matter
for the Clean Power Plan?  When presenting the case for wood
energy use under the Obama administration's proposed Clean Power
Plan, the Biomass Power Association created a simple diagram to
answer a complicated question: When is a tree a tree and when is
it "waste biomass"?
http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/2015/07/24/stories/1060022317 

Scientists sharply lower methane emissions from growing rice.
Rice is one of the world's most widely consumed staple foods, but
its prevalence comes with an environmental price tag. Rice
paddies account for between 7 and 17 percent of the methane in
the atmosphere, making them the world's largest source of
man-made methane emissions.
http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/2015/07/24/stories/1060022338 

CLIMATE CHANGE

Menlo Park: Officials look to shore up creek ahead of El Niño.
With El Nio conditions continuing to grow, officials met Thursday
to discuss ways to prevent the kind of flooding that has occurred
in previous years along San Francisquito Creek. 
"Even though we're in the middle of a drought, this is real,"
said Nai Hsueh, a Santa Clara Valley Water District board member…
http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/general-news/20150724/menlo-park-officials-look-to-shore-up-creek-ahead-of-el-ni241o


Stagnant Summer Days on the Rise in U.S. Those long, hot, sultry
days of summer, the ones where the air seems so still it wouldn’t
disturb a leaf, are also days where air quality can take a
nosedive. With winds barely above a whisper and
atmosphere-scouring rains nowhere in sight, pollutants can build
up in the air we breathe, with potentially serious health
consequences.
http://www.climatecentral.org/news/stagnant-summer-days-on-rise-19280


GAO Report Sees Climate Risks to Army Corps Projects. Thousands
of dams, levees, hurricane barriers and flood walls built across
the country by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers may be at risk
from extreme weather and sea level rise driven by climate change,
but the Army Corps has only just begun to assess how vulnerable
they are and suffers from a lack of funding...
http://www.climatecentral.org/news/gao-climate-risks-army-corps-projects-19282


In Swing States, Voters Want Action On Climate Change. If
Republican presidential candidates are looking to win votes in
key swing states, they may want to change their tone on climate
change. A poll released Thursday by Quinnipiac University found
that a majority of voters in Colorado, Iowa, and Virginia agree
with Pope Francis that the world should increase efforts to
combat the phenomenon…
http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2015/07/24/3684195/swing-state-climate-poll/


'Abrupt' climate changes may have helped kill mammoth and other
prehistoric species – study. Even as the buzz around bringing the
woolly mammoth back by cloning its DNA gets louder, a recent
study in Science Express was a gentle reminder that scientists
are still piecing together the mystery of their disappearance.
http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/2015/07/24/stories/1060022351 

China is urged to lead the world by tightening its pledge to
lower CO2 emissions. China is at a clean energy tipping point and
can bend the scales in favor of global decarbonization by putting
an aggressive cap on coal and peaking its own greenhouse gas
emissions earlier than promised, a new study finds.
http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/2015/07/24/stories/1060022333 

DROUGHT

Feinstein to unveil bill before August recess. California Sen.
Dianne Feinstein (D) is preparing to release her much-anticipated
drought measure before lawmakers leave town for August recess. In
an interview this morning, Feinstein said she expects to unveil
the legislation as soon as next week.
http://www.eenews.net/greenwire/2015/07/24/stories/1060022383 

FUELS

California Coastal Commission to weigh in on fracking off Long
Beach. The California Coastal Commission will insist that Long
Beach officials and their corporate partners running the city’s
oil islands obtain an additional permit before following through
on proposals to “frack” 13 local oil wells. At this point, Long
Beach officials and managers of the California Resources Corp.
subsidiary in charge of oil extraction…
http://www.presstelegram.com/environment-and-nature/20150723/california-coastal-commission-to-weigh-in-on-fracking-off-long-beach


Jeb Bush Calls For End to Fossil-Fuel Subsidies. The 2016
contender says tax credits for the oil and gas sector should be
eliminated. Jeb Bush wants to get rid of tax credits for the oil
and gas industry. "I think we should phase out, through tax
reform, the tax credits for wind, for solar, for the oil and gas
sector, for all that stuff…
http://www.nationaljournal.com/2016-elections/jeb-bush-fossil-fuel-subsidies-oil-gas-20150723


Efficient one-pot process to convert bio-oil fractions to
gasoline-range hydrocarbons.  A team at South China University of
Technology has developed a one-pot process to convert the diesel
distillate and residual oil fractions in bio-oil into
high-quality fuels by catalytic hydrocracking with combined
CoMoS/Al2O3 and HZSM-5 catalysts. A paper on their process is
published in the journal Fuel.
http://www.greencarcongress.com/2015/07/20150724-scut.html 
 
VEHICLES

ICCT: ongoing cost reductions in full- and mild-hybrid systems
could bring them into consumer mainstream by 2025. According to a
new technology briefing paper on hybrid system technologies by
John German at the International Council on Clean Transportation
(ICCT), the costs of full-function hybrid systems are likely to
drop to half the cost of their 2010 counterparts before 2025.
http://www.greencarcongress.com/2015/07/20150724-icct.html  

GREEN ENERGY

Kenya vows to cut emissions 30 per cent by 2030, but subject to
conditions. African nation submits INDC that commits it to
mobilizing increased investment in clean technologies and
afforestation. Kenya has become the latest country to submit a
climate action plan to the UN ahead of this year's Paris Climate
Summit, pledging to cut emissions by 30 per cent by 2030 against
business-as-usual levels.
http://www.businessgreen.com/bg/news/2419181/kenya-vows-to-cut-emissions-30-per-cent-by-2030-but-subject-to-conditions


Obama Thinks Solar Power Will Boost Kenya; Kenyans Aren't So
Sure. When Jackline Mumbua decided to go solar, she knew the cost
would be steep. The 35-year-old housewife in Machakos, Kenya, can
barely cover the expenses of raising three school-age children on
the little money her husband earns driving a motorcycle taxi.
They have no savings.
http://www.capradio.org/news/npr/story?storyid=425376544 

Red tape cut for home solar. Installing solar energy systems will
get easier and cheaper in San Diego under a new law unanimously
approved this week by the City Council. The goal of the new law
is to accelerate the number of homes switching to solar, which
will help the city meet some of the goals in its climate action
plan.
http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/2015/jul/23/solar-home-install-law-cheap-streamline/?st


Wind industry sees strong Q2 growth but remains wary of
boom-and-bust incentives. The U.S. wind industry is entering
cautiously optimistic ground after a slow start to the year
(ClimateWire, May 1) with its best second quarter ever and Senate
approval of an on-again, off-again tax credit. Wind companies
added about 1,660 megawatts of new power to the U.S. grid this
quarter…
http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/2015/07/24/stories/1060022332 

MISCELLANEOUS

California’s Worst-in-Nation Roads Face $5.7 Billion Funding Gap.
The dilemma that California and other U.S. states face is that
their main road-funding source—gasoline taxes—is shrinking as
engines improve and electric vehicles become more common.
California’s streets are some of the most potholed and rutted in
the U.S., with three-fourths in Los Angeles and San Francisco
rated poor in a new national study calling on lawmakers to boost
road funding.
http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2015-07-24/california-s-worst-in-nation-roads-face-5-7-billion-funding-gap


OPINIONS

Brown and pope are kindred spirits on climate change. Brown began
his speech at the Vatican by misappropriating St. Paul – the
apostle, not the Minnesota city – and ended by invoking Italian
Communist Party founder Antonio Gramsci. “God is not mocked, for
whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap,” the governor
said Tuesday, quoting from the apostle’s famous letter to the
Galatians.
http://www.sacbee.com/opinion/op-ed/ben-boychuk/article28443196.html#storylink=cpy


A glaring omission in summit. Re “Brown’s climate alarm” (Page
1A, July 22): I scoured the article searching for the smallest
hint that Pope Francis and Gov. Jerry Brown would address one of
the big causes of global warming, the overpopulation of human
beings on this little planet we call Earth. 
http://www.sacbee.com/opinion/letters-to-the-editor/article28438216.html#storylink=cpy


Green lawns in Land Park, too.  Re “Curtis Park lawns spark
debate during drought” (Local, July 22): Kudos to Michael
Feliciano for taking action and bringing attention to neighbors
who care more about their green lawns than helping with
California’s water crisis. In the neighborhood I live, Land Park,
I witness the same thing. 
http://www.sacbee.com/opinion/letters-to-the-editor/article28438216.html#storylink=cpy


BLOGS

Drought and climate change fuel high-elevation California fires,
study finds. Wildfires in California’s fabled Sierra Nevada
mountain range are increasingly burning high-elevation forests,
which historically have seldom burned, reports a team of
researchers led by the John Muir Institute of the Environment at
the University of California, Davis. The phenomenon — likely
driven by climate change, forest-management practices and other
factors…
http://news.ucdavis.edu/search/news_detail.lasso?id=11268 

US Missed An Opportunity To Cut Carbon At Lower Cost. The United
States missed an opportunity to fuel its renewables revolution at
a fraction of the cost when it failed to put a price on carbon,
John Rowe, former CEO and chairman emeritus of Exelon Corp, said
Wednesday in Chicago. “As far as I’m concerned the renewables
industry is built on the proposition that we should always do the
most expensive thing first…
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jeffmcmahon/2015/07/23/renewables-cost-twice-what-carbon-cuts-might-have-rowe/


The California drought is killing almond trees, too. Salted
almonds are essentially God’s gift to snack food, salads, and ice
cream. But when it comes to growing almonds, salt can really
screw things up. Unfortunately for California’s almond orchards,
salty groundwater has become a huge problem and it’s killing
trees across the state.
http://grist.org/list/the-california-drought-is-killing-almond-trees-too/


A look at California’s ambitious climate plans. Nearly a decade
ago, California policymakers, facing a frightening future of
shriveling snow packs and rising seas, created the nation’s most
aggressive program to combat global warming. The 2006 law
mandated broad reductions of greenhouse gas emissions by 2020.
http://grist.org/climate-energy/a-look-at-californias-ambitious-climate-plans/


Pope’s climate encyclical divides American opinion.  A clear-cut
majority of swing-state voters agreed in a recent Quinnipiac
poll: Pope Francis was right to call on the world to do more to
address climate change. There is, however, a deep divide along
party lines – Democrats and Republicans split on the topic by a
margin of more than 40 percent in every state polled.
http://grist.org/news/popes-climate-encyclical-divides-american-opinion/


Whiplash Warning When Climate Science is Publicized Before Peer
Review and Publication. Who wins when a scary, but edge-pushing
new climate study led by one of the world’s most prominent
climate scientists makes headlines before it is either peer
reviewed or published? Everybody, and nobody. Let me explain what
I mean.
http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/07/23/whiplash-warning-when-climate-science-is-publicized-before-peer-review-and-publication/?_r=1



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