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newsclips -- ARB Newsclips for March 10, 2016
Posted: 10 Mar 2016 12:30:26
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 Southern California air quality board is sued over adoption of industry-friendly smog rules. Co mmunity groups and environmentalists filed suit Wednesday over Southern California air quality regulators' adoption of oil industry-backed smog regulations, saying the measures are so weak they violate state law and will hurt public health. The lawsuit seeks to negate the South Coast Air Quality Management District board's vote in December that rejected a staff recommendation to overhaul a cap-and-trade program for smog-forming emissions from oil refineries, power plants and other major polluters and instead adopted a proposal by the Western States Petroleum Assn. http://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-0310-air-board-lawsuit-20160310-story.html AQMD's weaker new smog rules under attack from state and environmentalists. State leaders and environmentalists are pushing back against the board overseeing air quality regulators for the Los Angeles basin because of its adoption of new anti-smog regulations favored by the oil industry. The South Coast Air Quality Management District is under attack from three directions over its Dec. 4 decision to adopt weaker pollution rules preferred by the Western States Petroleum Association over a more stringent program proposed by AQMD staffers. http://www.scpr.org/news/2016/03/09/58386/aqmd-s-weaker-new-smog-rules-under-attack-from-sta/ Schools prepare for poor air quality. The Hanford Elementary School District is taking preventative measures to help students who are sensitive to poor air quality. The district has partnered with the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District and the Central California Asthma Collaborative to implement the Healthy Air Living Schools program. The program was developed to notify schools when there is poor air quality and to also educate people how they can improve students’ health in ways: like not idling their cars in front of schools. http://hanfordsentinel.com/news/local/schools-prepare-for-poor-air-quality/article_3a4b3ef7-4441-5807-9ede-4a3e5dc71102.html ALISO CANYON Door-to-door Porter Ranch health survey starts Thursday following massive gas leak. Spurred by ongoing health complaints, Los Angeles County Public Health officials are launching a three-day, door-to-door health survey on Thursday of Porter Ranch residents who live close to the site of the massive gas leak. "The purpose is to gather more information on health symptoms currently being experienced," said Dr. Cyrus Rangan, director of the L.A. County health department's Bureau of Toxicology and Environmental Assessment. “ http://www.scpr.org/news/2016/03/09/58389/door-to-door-porter-ranch-health-survey-starts-thu/ CLIMATE CHANGE Obama Looks to Collaborate With Trudeau on Curbing Climate Change. President Barack Obama and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau are set to discuss new ideas for curbing climate change and expanding trade during an Oval Office meeting this week, White House officials said during a preview on Tuesday. Trudeau, who pledged to repair frayed ties with the United States when he took office in November, will meet with Obama on Thursday ahead of a star-studded state dinner. http://fortune.com/2016/03/09/white-house-collaborate-trudeau-climate-change/ Related articles: http://www.cnbc.com/2016/03/10/obama-fully-united-in-combating-climate-change-with-canada.html http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-canada-summit-idUSKCN0WC1BX http://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/272538-obama-us-and-canada-fully-united-in-combating-climate-change Teens challenge US government for not protecting them from climate change. Twenty-one teenagers appeared in an Oregon courtroom to challenge the federal government over what they claim is a failure to protect them from the impacts of climate change, while several hundred schoolchildren protested outside. While the mass of children, their parents, chaperones and local activists lined up in the rain on Wednesday, trying to get in to watch the proceedings, Judge Thomas Coffin of the US district court in Eugene, Oregon, questioned the lawyers on the government’s claim that the case should be thrown out. http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/mar/09/climate-change-teens-sue-us-government-failing-protect Democrats finally talk climate change — and remind us all how politically tricky it can be. At the moment that I write this, the measured water levels at Virginia Key, Fla., are about eight inches above predicted levels. In January, levels were regularly a foot or more above predicted levels. The sensor station at Virginia Key is located just off the coast of Miami, just south of Miami Beach, where rising sea levels mean that the streets flood regularly. So regularly that it's been covered by The Post, the Times and the Miami Herald — and likely many others. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/03/10/democrats-finally-talk-climate-change-and-remind-us-all-how-politically-tricky-it-can-be/ Scotland's climate change progress 'exemplary. he Climate Change Act, passed in 2009 by the Scottish Parliament, set binding targets to cut emissions for each year until 2020. Christiana Figueres told BBC Scotland that, despite the Scottish government not meeting its interim targets, she was impressed by the pace of change. http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-35772636 FUELS California Energy Commission Awards $1 Million for CNG Engine Project. The California Energy Commission has awarded the Gas Technology Institute a $1 million grant to develop and demonstrate an advanced natural gas engine to be installed in 18 vehicles, such as delivery trucks and school buses. The Cummins-Westport Inc. ISB6.7 G natural gas engine meets the 2018 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Heavy-Duty Onboard Diagnostics (HD-OBD) requirements, as well as the California Air Resources Board’s (CARB) optional low NOx emissions. http://ngtnews.com/california-energy-commission-awards-1-million-for-cng-engine-project/ VW RECALL Volkswagen's top U.S. executive is quitting amid emissions scandal. Volkswagen's top U.S. executive is stepping down amid the company's ongoing emissions cheating scandal, the company announced Wednesday. U.S. President and CEO Michael Horn is leaving “to pursue other opportunities effective immediately,” the automaker said. He had been with the German carmaker for 25 years, assuming his most recent post in 2014. http://www.ocregister.com/articles/company-368028-ocprint-cars-regulators.html There may never be a full fix for Volkswagen diesels in the US. One of the two regulatory bodies overseeing Volkswagen's diesel debacle is the California Air Resources Board. It's responsible for verifying and signing off on any fix for VW's beleaguered 2.0 TDI engines, and it's already rejected one solution outright. Now it appears that CARB is wising up to the reality that there might never be a light at the end of the tunnel. http://www.cnet.com/roadshow/news/there-may-never-be-a-full-fix-for-volkswagen-diesels-in-the-us/ VEHICLES California Awards $8.9 Million For Completion Of Fast Charge Corridor. California Energy Commission allocated $8.9 million for nine fast charging infrastructure project along major corridors (North-South). Perhaps finally California will catch up with Oregon and Washington with their part of the I-5 West Coast Electric Highway. http://insideevs.com/california-awards-8-9-million-for-completion-of-fast-charge-corridor/ GREEN ENERGY Will We Soon Be Riding on Solar Roads? The Idea Gains Traction. Solar is popping up just about everywhere, even landfills and parka pockets. So why not roads? Indeed, solar road projects are gaining interest around the world, and some promise to even charge electric cars while moving. The Netherlands built the first solar road, a bike path, in 2014. France announced a bolder move in January—over the next five years, it plans to install 1,000 kilometers (621 miles) of solar roads, designed to supply power to five million people. http://news.nationalgeographic.com/energy/2016/03/160310-will-we-soon-be-riding-on-solar-roads/ MISCELLANEOUS State Senate leader wants to add seats to air quality board. The leader of the state Senate plans to introduce legislation this week to expand the number of seats on the board that regulates Southern California air quality and counter Republican-led efforts to make pollution rules more business-friendly. Senior staff in the office of Senate President Pro Tem Kevin de Leon, D-Los Angeles, said Wednesday that he is finalizing a bill to add three seats to the Air Quality Management District board, to give a voice to communities most affected by air pollution. http://www.ocregister.com/articles/air-707554-board-leon.html NASA Selects Instruments to Study Air Pollution, Tropical Cyclones. NASA has selected two proposals for new Earth science investigations that will put new instruments in low-Earth orbit to track harmful particulate air pollutants and study the development of tropical cyclones. Observations of small atmospheric aerosols from the Multi-Angle Imager for Aerosols (MAIA) will be combined with health information to determine the toxicity of different particulate matter types in airborne pollutants over the world's major cities. David Diner of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California, is the principal investigator. http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/nasa-selects-instruments-to-study-air-pollution-tropical-cyclones-300234250.html OPINION Our coastal waters are in trouble. Here's how we can help save them and fight the drought. As a scientist and the executive director of the Bay Foundation, I’ve spent years filling in Angelenos on the important but admittedly unpleasant details of how Los Angeles treats and discharges its sewage and stormwater into the ocean. For decades, this L.A. story had a serious yuck factor. It was only a few years ago that we were looking at a wide dead zone on the bottom of Santa Monica Bay. The water had little or no oxygen in it, a result of bacterial decomposition of the less-than-complete treatment of our human waste. Fish were few, and the ones that survived had lesions and other infirmities. http://www.latimes.com/opinion/livable-city/la-ol-el-nino-pollution-water-drought-20160307-story.html California is in a drought emergency. Visit www.SaveOurH2O.org for water conservation tips.