What's New List Serve Post Display

ARB Newsclips for February 23, 2016. 

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

These Seven Firms Bear $3 Billion Brunt of California
Cap-and-Trade.  The bill from battling climate change is just
about due in California, and for some oil companies that do
business in the state, it’s in the nine figures. The Golden
State’s biggest fuel suppliers, led by Tesoro Corp. and Chevron
Corp., face the biggest costs under California’s carbon
cap-and-trade system…
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-02-23/california-s-oil-companies-face-a-3-billion-cap-and-trade-bill


Paris Pact Promotes But Complicates Carbon Trading. One out of
every six molecules of climate pollution released to the
atmosphere next year will be regulated under a cap-and-trade
system, according a new global estimate that highlights the
remarkable ongoing growth in carbon markets around the world.
Under cap-and-trade systems — pioneered in recent years in Europe
and some U.S. states…
http://www.climatecentral.org/news/paris-pact-promotes-but-complicates-carbon-trading-20058?utm_source=Inside+Climate+News&utm_campaign=2023c41f8e-Today_s_Climate12_10_2014&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_29c928ffb5-2023c41f8e-327747457


AIR POLLUTION

Indians breathe in more pollution than Chinese.  It’s a
never-ending debate in Asia -- whose air quality is worse,
China’s or India’s? A new study by Greenpeace released Monday is
trying to answer that question.  Analysts looked at NASA
satellite images and found that measurements of particulate
matter -- the microscopic particles that invade your lungs and
can cause cancer and heart disease…
http://www.ocregister.com/articles/india-705209-pollution-air.html


Florez To Push Valley Air District To Move Quicker. Former
Senator Dean Florez says the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution
Control District isn't doing enough to protect the health of
local residents. Last week Florez was appointed to the powerful
California Air Resources Board (CARB) by California Senate leader
Kevin de Leon. 
http://kvpr.org/post/florez-push-valley-air-district-move-quicker


Swiss company poised to commercialize carbon capture. Climeworks
AG may become the first company to capture carbon in the air and
sell it on an industrial scale, Bloomberg Business reports. The
Swiss company plans to remove 1,000 metric tons (1,100 tons) a
year of the greenhouse gas from the atmosphere when its first
commercial plant starts working this summer.
http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/2016/02/23/stories/1060032778 

ALISO CANYON

Porter Ranch residents, their pets still impacted days before gas
leak was capped. Porter Ranch residents and their pets continued
to experience health effects from a four-month old gas leak near
their homes, even days before the breached well was controlled,
according to results from the latest Los Angeles County health
department report. Reports of symptoms felt to be related to the
gas leak continued to be reported through January and into early
February…
http://www.dailynews.com/health/20160222/porter-ranch-residents-their-pets-still-impacted-days-before-gas-leak-was-capped

Why this Porter Ranch resident is afraid to return home.  While
the massive natural gas leak has been plugged and the offending
well sealed, Alice Karkodorian wants to know it’s safe before her
husband can safely move back into their Porter Ranch home. And
she has good reason. Andre Karkodorian, who has been struggling
with severe respiratory issues in recent months, spent more than
three weeks in the hospital, his wife said.
http://www.dailynews.com/environment-and-nature/20160223/why-this-porter-ranch-resident-is-afraid-to-return-home


CLIMATE CHANGE

Could an African become the new U.N. climate chief? The next head
of the U.N. process to tackle climate change should come from one
of the world's poorest countries, which led an ambitious drive to
limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius in the new Paris
deal, a leading expert has proposed. With Christiana Figueres
stepping down as executive secretary of the U.N. climate change
convention in July…
http://in.reuters.com/article/us-global-climatechange-un-idINKCN0VV2DA


Seas Are Rising at Fastest Rate in Last 28 Centuries. The
worsening of tidal flooding in American coastal communities is
largely a consequence of greenhouse gases from human activity,
and the problem will grow far worse in coming decades, scientists
reported Monday. Those emissions, primarily from the burning of
fossil fuels, are causing the ocean to rise at the fastest rate…
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/23/science/sea-level-rise-global-warming-climate-change.html?ref=energy-environment&_r=1&utm_source=Inside+Climate+News&utm_campaign=2023c41f8e-Today_s_Climate12_10_2014&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_29c928ffb5-2023c41f8e-327747457


Regional officials take steps to address health effects of
climate change.  For years scientists have warned that climate
change will cause melting ice caps, rising sea levels and severe
droughts and floods. But global warming's effects can also be far
more personal, seriously harming human health. Most recently, the
mosquitoes that can transmit the Zika virus, once found only in
Africa and Asia…
http://www.latimes.com/local/cityhall/la-me-climate-health-20160223-story.html


EPA: US greenhouse gas emissions increased slightly in 2014. 
American greenhouse gas emissions increased by less than 1
percent in 2014, according to new Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA) data released this week. In the draft version of the EPA’s
annual greenhouse gas report, the agency said emissions in the
U.S. increased by 0.9 percent…
http://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/270264-epa-us-greenhouse-gas-emissions-increased-slightly-in-2014?utm_source=Inside+Climate+News&utm_campaign=2023c41f8e-Today_s_Climate12_10_2014&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_29c928ffb5-2023c41f8e-327747457


Scientists find tundra shifting from carbon sink to carbon
source. Elizabeth Webb zipped up her parka and tramped out into a
vast, frozen expanse armed with a bucket and a Mason jar of lime
soda. The winter trip was a regular one from the remote
sub-Arctic cabin where Webb, a researcher with the University of
Florida, and other scientists huddled at the coldest time of the
year to measure the escape of carbon from under the snow…
http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/2016/02/23/stories/1060032807

Climate change, drought turn up heat on U.S. trees. New research
finds nearly all U.S. forests are now experiencing changes and
are vulnerable to future hot, dry and water-scarce conditions.
Published yesterday online in the journal Global Change Biology,
the synthesis of forest and drought research found the effects of
drought have been most pronounced in Western forests.
http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/2016/02/23/stories/1060032805

El Niño pummels coast in preview of warmer world. This winter's
El Niño has brought warm temperatures and big waves to this
coastal college town, where surfing is a favorite pastime. But
it's also gobbling up cliffs under student housing at an
alarmingly fast rate. California has been counting on El Niño to
quench its historic, four-year drought.
http://www.eenews.net/greenwire/2016/02/23/stories/1060032834 

Sea levels rise at fastest rate in 3 millenia. Sea-level rise in
the 20th century occurred faster than at any time in the past
2,700 years, partly due to global warming, a new study finds. The
results, previously reported by ClimateWire, were published
yesterday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The study is the first to resolve the past rates of sea-level
rise globally at such high resolution (ClimateWire, Feb. 18).
http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/2016/02/23/stories/1060032809 

DROUGHT

Without a 'March miracle,' drought-like conditions will continue
in Southern California. Southern Californians can expect dry
conditions and above-average heat this week as a stubborn
high-pressure system continues to block the heavily anticipated
El Niño rainstorms that weather officials warned of over the
winter. From Monday to Wednesday, coastal temperatures in Los
Angeles County …
http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-la-rain-february-heat-20160222-story.html

http://www.contracostatimes.com/breaking-news/ci_29548645/el-nino-summer-drought-rules-likely-continue-unless


Not just a western problem, drought threatens forests across US.
Scientists are scrambling to understand how changing climate will
affect American ecosystems in hopes of developing better
management practices. The effects of drought on the American West
have been well documented. Scientists already have seen that
unusually warm and dry conditions kill communities of trees…
http://www.csmonitor.com/Environment/2016/0222/Not-just-a-western-problem-drought-threatens-forests-across-US


DIESEL ACTIVITIES

Diesel cars may be worse than petrol for carbon emissions, report
claims. Carbon emissions linked to diesel cars may be up to 50%
higher than previously thought, according to new research. Diesel
engines may be doing nothing to slow global warming despite being
the backbone of Europe’s policy to reduce car emissions, a new
report claims. Tailpipe emissions of sooty ‘black carbon’ could
be as much as 25-50%...
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/feb/19/diesel-cars-may-be-be-worse-than-petrol-for-co2-emissions-report-claims
 

FUELS

The highway to high octane: Ethanol's attempts to gain ground in
US gasoline. The US is likely to raise its gasoline octane
standard over the next decade or so, which has the ethanol
industry shifting into high gear its fight to become a preferred
blendstock. Platts senior editor Herman Wang talks with Jeff
Bair, Platts' managing editor for light ends, at the National
Ethanol Conference…
http://www.platts.com/podcasts-detail/crude/2016/february/capitol-crude-022216?hootpostid=876eb7db1abf9c3ac2d9ebdacef393b8


ENERGY: Gasoline price dip may be due to oversupply.  Area
refiners lower inventories before switching to summer blend April
1. Inland gasoline prices continue their decline, but this past
week’s fall has been a bit larger than most – possibly prompted
by a surplus. The AAA Fuel Gauge Report put California’s
statewide price at $2.31.7. AAA said that despite the lower
prices…
http://www.pe.com/articles/prices-795089-gallon-price.html

VW RECALL

Volkswagen, EPA Unlikely To Settle Before End Of March: Report.
Five months after it first hit the press, U.S. owners of 580,000
diesel vehicles with Volkswagen TDI engines are no closer to
knowing how or when their cars will be modified than they were in
mid-September. And if a report last week by the Reuters news
service is accurate, they have at least another month to
wait--and potentially longer yet.
http://www.greencarreports.com/news/1102498_volkswagen-epa-unlikely-to-settle-before-end-of-march-report


GREEN ENERGY

U.S. no longer top wind turbine producer, replaced by China.
General Electric Co. has ceded its position as the world's No. 1
wind turbine manufacturer to a Chinese competitor, according to
2015 market data compiled by Bloomberg New Energy Finance.
Xinjiang Goldwind Science & Technology Co. Ltd. received orders
for 7.8 gigawatts of new wind turbines in 2015, exceeding GE,
which dropped to No. 3…
http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/2016/02/23/stories/1060032808 

White House touts wind, solar tax credits to curb emissions.  The
White House yesterday spiked the ball in the end zone, cheering a
new report from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory finding
that the resurrection of key renewable energy incentives could
curb more than a billion tons of carbon dioxide emissions. The
study paints a rosy picture for the wind and solar industry in
the United States…
http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/2016/02/23/stories/1060032804 

OPINIONS

Volkswagen’s Electric Shock.  It's an odd state of affairs when a
company could be better off by simply paying a massive fine. But
that's the situation Volkswagen may find itself in. Cheating
doesn't pay. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency may force
the company to build electric cars in the U.S. and fund a network
of electric charging points as part of its settlement over
dieselgate…
http://www.bloomberg.com/gadfly/articles/2016-02-22/epa-forcing-vw-to-build-electric-vehicles-could-be-costly


COLUMN-U.S. gasoline demand is critical to oil outlook in 2016:
Kemp. U.S. gasoline consumption increased by more than 2.6
percent last year thanks to a combination of lower oil prices and
economic growth (tmsnrt.rs/1WG3inq). In volume terms, consumption
rose by around 240,000 barrels per day (bpd), one of the largest
increases in the last 40 years…
http://www.reuters.com/article/usa-gasoline-kemp-idUSL8N16239U  

On the Ground I knew Beijing's bad air was killing me slowly. But
is it making me fat too? In the two years since I moved to
Beijing, I thought I had heard quite enough, thank you very much,
about the perils of being exposed to the Chinese capital’s
chronically smoggy skies. There were the studies linking
pollution to lower birth rates, and reports about the explosion
of lung cancer cases…
http://www.latimes.com/world/asia/la-fg-beijing-air-fat-20160221-story.html


The Paris climate deal won’t even dent global warming. Two months
after the Paris climate-treaty negotiations concluded with
fanfare, the world is figuring out it was sold a lemon. In
December, global leaders patted each other on the back and
declared a job well done. The treaty will come into force later
this year after it has been signed by representatives of at least
55 nations representing 55 percent of global greenhouse-gas
emissions.
http://nypost.com/2016/02/22/the-paris-climate-deal-wont-even-dent-global-warming/


Tom Elias: Gasoline price gouging indications grow stronger.  As
corporate profit reports rolled in this winter from the gasoline
refining industry, the case for gas price gouging grew steadily
stronger. Start with the profits of the largest refiners
operating in California. Then proceed to strange activities by an
oil tanker, Exxon Mobil's SR American Progress.
http://www.redding.com/opinion/columnists/tom-elias/tom-elias-gasoline-price-gouging-indications-grow-stronger-2c5f97ec-989c-771a-e053-0100007fda1c-369686281.html




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