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CAP AND TRADE

Ontario Plans to Raise $1.4 Billion From Carbon Pricing Program.
Ontario plans to raise C$1.9 billion ($1.4 billion) a year from
its proposed cap-and-trade program starting in 2017 as it joins
with Quebec and California to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Canada’s most-populous province projects it would generate about
C$18 per carbon tonne in the joint market where businesses buy
carbon-emission allowances in an auction.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-02-25/ontario-plans-to-raise-1-4-billion-from-carbon-pricing-ontario?utm_source=Inside+Climate+News&utm_campaign=900afc3d2d-Today_s_Climate12_10_2014&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_29c928ffb5-900afc3d2d-327747457


Chevron, Tesoro face $1.3 billion California carbon tab. 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 state’s biggest fuel suppliers, led by Tesoro
Corp. and Chevron Corp., face the biggest costs under
California’s carbon cap-and-trade system, among expenses that may
top $3 billion a year for the whole industry…
http://www.sfgate.com/green/article/Chevron-Tesoro-face-1-3-billion-California-6852220.php
 

State looks to adapt its carbon market to mirror federal rule.
California is planning a suite of changes to its cap-and-trade
market to make it suitable for federal greenhouse gas targets for
existing power plants -- as well as to link with a host of
potential trading partners in the future. The Golden State is
moving forward despite the Supreme Court's stay of the federal
program…
http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/2016/02/25/stories/1060032984 

AIR POLLUTION

Officials: Tehama County caught between a rock and Sacramento on
air quality. Officials on Tuesday presented the Tehama County
Board of Supervisors with its three-year Air Quality Attainment
Plan, which noted the county had 15 days in a three-year span
when pollutant levels rose above the acceptable threshold. But,
in what staff called a Catch-22 of sorts, most of that pollution
comes from traffic along highways or drifts north from the metro
Sacramento area.
http://www.redding.com/news/local/officials-tehama-county-caught-between-a-rock-and-sacramento-on-air-quality-2c563677-e11c-57b9-e053--370061291.html


ALISO CANYON

Gas company appeals order for housing extension after leak. A
utility that owns a natural gas well that leaked uncontrollably
for almost four months near Los Angeles and created the biggest
known methane release in U.S. history said Friday it was
appealing a court order to extend housing for displaced families.
Southern California Gas Co. said it challenged the order because
air quality has returned…
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_CALIFORNIA_GAS_LEAK?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT


Judge orders gas company to give Porter Ranch residents longer to
return home after leak. A Los Angeles County Superior Court judge
has ordered a 22-day extension of the time that Southern
California Gas Co. will continue footing the bill for residents
driven from their homes by the gas leak at its Aliso Canyon
storage facility.
http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-porter-ranch-restraining-order-20160225-story.html


Porter Ranch leak declared largest methane leak in U.S. history.
Scientists who flew an airplane equipped with sensors through the
plume of natural gas leaking into the Porter Ranch area have
found that at its peak, the nearly four-month leak released
roughly 100,000 tons of methane — effectively doubling the
methane emissions rate of the entire Los Angeles Basin.
http://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-porter-ranch-methane-20160225-story.html

http://www.businessinsider.com/r-california-methane-leak-was-biggest-ever-in-us-scientists-say-2016-2

http://hosted2.ap.org/CAANR/CA/Article_2016-02-25-US--California%20Gas%20Leak/id-1fc097378d1548ac92a7a6eba207acec

http://www.capradio.org/articles/2016/02/25/california-gas-leak-largest-methane-leak-in-us-history/


Like Porter Ranch, neighborhoods in Playa del Rey, Montebello sit
near aging gas wells.  Now that Southern California Gas Company
has plugged the natural gas well that polluted air around Porter
Ranch for months, the utility must address the problem that
caused the leak in the first place: it has dozens of wells that
are even older than the 63-year-old well that failed – wells that
in many cases are long overdue for maintenance.
http://www.scpr.org/news/2016/02/24/57876/like-porter-ranch-playa-del-rey-montebello-and-oth/


What do cows in Chino and the Porter Ranch-area gas leak have in
common? If anyone thought the Porter Ranch-area gas leak was the
only major contributor of methane to Southern California’s air,
think again, according to a new study. The findings, by UC Irvine
atmospheric scientists, show hundreds of “methane-emitting hot
spots” across the Los Angeles region.
http://www.dailynews.com/environment-and-nature/20160224/what-do-cows-in-chino-and-the-porter-ranch-area-gas-leak-have-in-common


Biggest methane leak in U.S. history at old Calif. well. The well
blowout in Aliso Canyon near Los Angeles was the largest methane
leak in U.S. history and could cost the world more than $100
million in climate damage, experts said. The well emitted 97,100
tons of methane over four months into the dry foothills just
north of Los Angeles' Porter Ranch neighborhood.
http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/2016/02/26/stories/1060033056 

CLIMATE CHANGE

Global warming doubts spur push to block science standards. Doubt
over man's contribution to global warming is fueling a push by
West Virginia lawmakers to block new science standards in
schools. The Republican-led state House voted 73-20 Friday for a
proposed delay of science standards that are taking effect July
1. The standards would be blocked for at least a year.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_XGR_GLOBAL_WARMING_EDUCATION?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT


UN science report warns of fewer bees, other pollinators. Many
species of wild bees, butterflies and other critters that
pollinate plants are shrinking toward extinction, and the world
needs to do something about it before our food supply suffers, a
new United Nations scientific mega-report warns. The 20,000 or so
species of pollinators are key to hundreds of billions of
dollars' worth of crops each year…
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_SCI_POLLINATOR_DECLINE?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT


County tallies up its greenhouse gas emissions. Napa County’s
greenhouse gas emissions tally for unincorporated areas comes to
489,933 metric tons being released annually by sources ranging
from automobiles to landfills to fertilizers. Ascent
Environmental Inc. consultants calculated this tentative figure.
The upcoming county climate action plan will list actions
designed to take a bite out of the total…
http://napavalleyregister.com/news/local/county-tallies-up-its-greenhouse-gas-emissions/article_6f010d17-9155-56e9-b7a6-600fceb5891b.html


Study Calls For Leaner ‘Carbon Budget’ to Slow Warming. If the
world hopes to avoid the most catastrophic effects of climate
change, humanity must emit less than half the carbon dioxide than
previously thought in the coming years, a new study shows. In
order to keep global warming to no more than 2°C (3.6°F) — the
basis for the Paris climate agreement struck last year…
http://www.climatecentral.org/news/leaner-carbon-budget-to-slow-warming-20075?utm_source=Inside+Climate+News&utm_campaign=15106198dc-Today_s_Climate12_10_2014&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_29c928ffb5-15106198dc-327747457


Who’s in line to be the next UN climate change chief? The UN
wants an official with ‘high professional standing and an
intimate knowledge of the issues’ to replace Christiana Figueres
when she leaves in July1. There’s a well-paid vacancy at the
United Nations going at the moment. 
http://www.climatechangenews.com/2016/02/23/whos-in-line-to-be-the-next-un-climate-change-chief/?utm_source=Inside+Climate+News&utm_campaign=900afc3d2d-Today_s_Climate12_10_2014&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_29c928ffb5-900afc3d2d-327494049


EPA won't cut carbon using international provision -- ex-counsel.
U.S. EPA is unlikely in the short term to embark on a rulemaking
to create a greenhouse gas program under the Clean Air Act's
international section, a former key player in the agency's
climate push said today. Some legal scholars have argued that the
agency should consider using that section while the Clean Power
Plan remains frozen by the Supreme Court.
http://www.eenews.net/eenewspm/2016/02/24/stories/1060032928 

Exxon Digs In Against Shareholder Pressure to Address Climate
Change. The latest resolution the oil giant opposes calls for an
accounting of how its business will be affected by global climate
action. ExxonMobil has challenged a shareholder resolution that
calls for the company to show how its business will be affected
by the global…
http://insideclimatenews.org/news/24022016/exxon-continues-resist-shareholder-calls-company-address-climate-change


Alternative to Clean Power Plan not catching on. Last month, a
group of law school professors claimed Paris had armed U.S. EPA
with an unprecedented tool that would allow it to achieve
something like President Obama's first-term goal of a national
carbon program. But so far, the agency doesn't appear to be
interested.
http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/2016/02/26/stories/1060033059 

Mont. farms feel the heat from climate change. Climate change
could cost Montana more than $700 million in production costs and
the loss of tens of thousands of jobs as warmer temperatures harm
the state's wheat crops, new research finds. The study prepared
for the Montana Farmers Union finds drier summers will hit the
state's cash crops hard.
http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/2016/02/26/stories/1060033038 

DROUGHT

Clean water versus the sucker fish: Drought creates a bizarre
dilemma. The California drought has created many oddities over
the last few years but none as bizarre as a scene that unfolds
regularly on a tributary of the Santa Ana River. The stream's
modest flow, provided almost entirely by a San Bernardino water
treatment plant, suddenly stops, quickly stranding thousands of
threatened Santa Ana sucker fish.
http://www.latimes.com/science/la-me-sucker-rescue-20160226-story.html


California increases water allocation to farms, cities. In an
encouraging note for California’s farms and cities, the State
Water Project has doubled the amount of water it expects to
deliver this year. The Department of Water Resources announced
Wednesday that the State Water Project will increase its
allocation to an estimated 30 percent of what’s been requested by
the project’s customers.
http://www.sacbee.com/news/state/california/water-and-drought/article62320887.html

San Jose Water Co. drought rules upheld by state regulators.
Strict water conservation rules that have been in effect since
last June for 990,000 residents of San Jose and neighboring
Silicon Valley communities are here to stay. On Thursday, the
state Public Utilities Commission voted 5-0 at a meeting in San
Francisco to reject appeals to drought regulations that San Jose
Water Co. imposed on its residential customers.
http://www.mercurynews.com/drought/ci_29563361/california-drought-san-jose-water-co-drought-rules?source=rss


Strong El Niño No Help For Long-Term California Drought. The U.S.
Drought Monitor says warmer weather has increased concerns of
early snow melt in California and the overall trend is for the
multiyear drought to continue or even worsen. "Out west,
progressively warmer weather heightened concerns of early snow
melt…
http://www.capradio.org/articles/2016/02/25/strong-el-nino-no-help-for-long-term-california-drought/

18 elephants to be flown to US zoos as drought puts pressure on
Swaziland wildlife. Conservation groups hope rehoming the
elephants will leave more food and water for endangered rhinos as
the country suffers worst drought in its history. Eighteen
elephants, due to be culled because the intense drought in
southern Africa has left a national park in Swaziland without
food, could be flown to zoos in the US. It is hoped that moving
them will give endangered rhinos more chance of survival.
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/feb/26/18-elephants-to-be-flown-us-zoos-drought-puts-pressure-on-swaziland-wildlife


'Water's for fighting over' -- especially Calif. Deliveries.  A
House Natural Resources subcommittee yesterday debated the cause
of water cutbacks to farms in California's drought-strapped
Central Valley but arrived at no conclusions. Republicans on the
Water, Power and Oceans Subcommittee hammered federal water
officials on their management of the Central Valley Project…
http://www.eenews.net/eedaily/2016/02/25/stories/1060032949

VEHICLES

New Lawsuit Claims Mercedes Diesel Emissions Are 65X The EPA
Limit. A new lawsuit brought against Mercedes-Benz states that
the company’s existing diesel engines pollute up to 65x
(sixty-five times) more than the legal amount when it’s cold out.
The claim is that when the temperature drops below 50 degrees
fahrenheit the nitrogen oxide reduction system simply turns off.
If that’s true, it could be bad news for Mercedes-Benz.
http://cleantechnica.com/2016/02/26/new-lawsuit-claims-mercedes-diesel-emissions-are-65x-the-epa-limit/


Electric cars 'will be cheaper than conventional vehicles by
2022'.  Analysis predicts that the total cost of ownership of
electric cars will dip below those with internal combustion
engines in 2022. Electric cars will be cheaper to own than
conventional cars by 2022, according to a new report. The
plummeting cost of batteries is key in leading to the tipping
point…
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/feb/25/electric-cars-will-be-cheaper-than-conventional-vehicles-by-2022
 

Robocars could invite longer trips, erasing fuel savings.
Driverless cars may boost the time people spend on roads,
offsetting the technology's potential fuel savings benefits,
according to a new study. Cars that require little-to-no human
input appear closer to reality than ever as Google Inc. sends
driverless cars around the streets of California and other
carmakers continue developing automated vehicle features.
http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/2016/02/26/stories/1060033057 

VW RECALL

UPDATE 2-U.S. judge turns up heat on VW with March emissions fix
deadline.  A federal judge turned up the heat on Volkswagen AG on
Thursday, setting a March deadline for the German automaker to
state whether it has found an emissions fix for 600,000 diesel
vehicles that is acceptable to U.S. regulators.
http://www.reuters.com/article/volkswagen-emissions-idUSL8N1645XA
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-02-25/vw-s-lawyer-cites-progress-on-settling-emissions-rigging-claims

http://www.autonews.com/article/20160225/OEM/160229906/vw-faces-march-deadline-to-disclose-diesel-emissions-fix


Judge gives Volkswagen one month to come up with plan to fix
emissions scandal. Volkswagen is on the clock. A California judge
has given the German automaker one month to present a plan for
remove the widespread emissions cheating software in its
so-called "clean diesel" vehicles and get the cars into
compliance with clean air laws.
http://www.nydailynews.com/autos/news/judge-vw-1-month-emissions-scandal-solution-article-1.2544806


VW board hires law firm to advise on emissions scandal
liabilities. Volkswagen's top committee has hired a German law
firm to advise it on the liabilities the carmaker could face as a
result of its cheating of diesel emissions tests. Europe's
biggest automaker admitted in September to rigging U.S. diesel
emissions tests and shortly afterwards appointed U.S. law firm
Jones Day to investigate… 
http://www.businessinsider.com/r-vw-board-hires-law-firm-to-advise-on-emissions-scandal-liabilities-2016-2


Volkswagen pressed to fix dirty diesel cars in emissions cheat
scandal. Automaker has been under fire since revelations last
September that it had installed software on diesel cars that
allowed them to cheat on pollution tests. A federal judge on
Thursday pressed Volkswagen to find a way to fix its dirty diesel
cars that are still on the roadways.
http://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/feb/25/vw-volkswagen-emissions-cheat-scandal-software-judge-orders-fix


GREEN ENERGY

As gas and renewables grow, should there be concern? In a country
where wind, solar and natural gas seemingly own the future of
power generation, one question hung in the air here yesterday.
"Are we losing fuel diversity, and should we be concerned about
that?" Doug Giuffre, the moderator for an electric market panel
at IHS CERAWeek, posed the query and added that regional
transmission organizations…
http://www.eenews.net/energywire/2016/02/26/stories/1060033052 

Dynegy venture scoops up $3.3B in power plants. Dynegy Inc.
continued its post-bankruptcy buying spree yesterday, forming a
joint venture with private equity firm Energy Capital Partners LP
to buy 17 power plants across eight states for $3.3 billion.
Houston-based Dynegy will initially own two-thirds of the
venture, called Atlas Power, which will acquire almost 9,000
megawatts…
http://www.eenews.net/energywire/2016/02/26/stories/1060033054  


Turbines in the Arctic? Chinese say sure.  A top energy official
in China wants to construct a global power grid that would
connect solar farms in the Middle East and wind turbines in the
Arctic to power lines that could supply energy across the globe.
State Grid Corp. of China Chairman Liu Zhenya said the foundation
of the global grid would be an ultra-high voltage power line…
http://www.eenews.net/greenwire/2016/02/26/stories/1060033078 

OPINIONS

Here’s How Electric Cars Will Cause the Next Oil Crisis. A shift
is under way that will lead to widespread adoption of EVs in the
next decade. With all good technologies, there comes a time when
buying the alternative no longer makes sense. Think smartphones
in the past decade, color TVs in the 1970s, or even gasoline cars
in the early 20th century. Predicting the timing of these shifts
is difficult, but when it happens, the whole world changes. 
http://www.bloomberg.com/features/2016-ev-oil-crisis/ 



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