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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.

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