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newsclips -- ARB Newsclips for March 16, 2016.

Posted: 16 Mar 2016 12:28:32
ARB Newsclips for March 16, 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.

AIR POLLUTION

Mexico City Suffers First Pollution Emergency in More Than a
Decade. Local authorities restrict vehicle use and warn residents
to stay indoors as much as possible. Mexico´s capital had its
first pollution emergency in more than a decade this week,
prompting local authorities to restrict vehicle use and warn
residents to stay indoors as much as possible on Tuesday.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/mexico-city-suffers-first-pollution-emergency-in-more-than-a-decade-1458075581


Pigeons in tiny backpacks are measuring air pollution in London. 
Air pollution caused by diesel vehicles in London is bad — so bad
that it is blamed for 9,500 premature deaths a year and has
prompted Britain’s Supreme Court to order the government to make
a plan for cleaning up the skies. Now what is commonly seen as
another scourge of the city, the pigeon, is helping in the fight
against smog.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/animalia/wp/2016/03/16/pigeons-in-tiny-backpacks-are-measuring-air-pollution-in-london/


This Type Of Pollution Hid Global Warming From Us For Years. Less
acid rain, more heat. No good deed goes unpunished. Two papers
published in Nature Geoscience today found a strange link between
pollution and global warming. Namely, some air
pollution—specifically an aerosol called sulfur dioxide—acted as
a disguise from global warming for part of the 20th century. Now
that we've gotten rid of it, temperatures are continuing their
ascent unabated.
http://www.popsci.com/pollution-helped-hide-global-warming-for-decades?dom=rss-default&src=syn


House offers regulatory break to 19 waste-coal power plants. A
handful of power plants that burn so-called "coal refuse" would
get a break from air pollution regulations under a bill approved
by the House yesterday on a 231-183 vote that fell mostly along
party lines. It was the second time in two weeks that the
Republican-controlled chamber had advanced legislation to relax
emissions standards for a select industry.
http://www.eenews.net/eedaily/2016/03/16/stories/1060034079 

CLIMATE CHANGE

Rapid melt of New Zealand glaciers ends hikes onto them. New
Zealand is renowned for its wondrous scenery, and among the
country's top tourist attractions are two glaciers that are both
stunning and unusual because they snake down from the mountains
to a temperate rain forest, making them easy for people to walk
up to and view. But the Fox and Franz Josef glaciers have been
melting at such a rapid rate…
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/A/AS_NEW_ZEALAND_MELTING_GLACIERS?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT


U.K. Treasury Will Get $648 Million Bonus in Carbon Tax Reform.
The U.K. government will get a 460 million pound ($648 million)
bonus by scrapping one unpopular carbon tax while it increases
another levy in 2019, despite claiming the move is cost neutral.
Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne said he would abolish
the Carbon Reduction Commitment, which requires large companies…
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-03-16/u-k-treasury-will-get-648-million-bonus-in-carbon-tax-reform

When 'Global Warming' Became 'Climate Change' When exactly did
one become the other, and why? First there was "global warming."
Then came "climate change." Turns out, use of the latter became
more prevalent in 2008 and that dominance became irreversible in
2009. Here's how use of the terms compare in stories on the
Bloomberg Professional service. The term "global warming," which
describes an increase…
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-03-15/climate-change-replaces-global-warming-as-preferred-term-for-a-changing-world


Global energy sector CO2 emissions flat in 2015: IEA. Global
emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) from the energy sector were
flat in 2015, despite an uptick in economic growth, the IEA said
on Wednesday. The energy sector is the largest source of man-made
greenhouse gas emissions and traditionally its emissions have
only fallen or stayed flat during economic downturns.
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-iea-emissions-report-idUSKCN0WI1KI?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews

http://www.ibtimes.com/global-co2-emissions-stayed-flat-2015-even-world-economy-grew-report-2337658

http://mashable.com/2016/03/16/economy-grew-carbon-emissions-stalled/#7F20fhJ0Xmq4


Japan Signs Off on Climate Change Plan to Meet Paris Targets.
Japan’s government signed off on a set of measures ranging from
energy-saving steps to a broader use of hydrogen to reduce
greenhouse gas emissions in a bid to meet the country’s
commitments made last year at the Paris climate meeting. The
cabinet of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is expected to approve the…
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-03-15/japan-signs-off-on-climate-change-plan-to-meet-paris-targets?utm_source=Inside+Climate+News&utm_campaign=60c67fc1d4-Today_s_Climate12_10_2014&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_29c928ffb5-60c67fc1d4-327747457


Climate change, energy is back on EU summit agenda: draft. EU
leaders meeting in Brussels this week will debate the Paris
Agreement on climate change, a draft EU text showed, after
officials previously said the migrant crisis had knocked it off
the agenda.
EU officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said European
Council President Donald Tusk, who will chair the summit…
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-europe-migrants-climatechange-idUSKCN0WI1NY?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews


As temperatures soar, new doubts arise about holding warming to 2
degrees C. February 2016 was a stunningly warm month. According
to NASA data, it was the most anomalously hot month the Earth has
seen since record keeping began — fully 1.35 degrees Celsius
(2.43 degrees Fahrenheit) warmer than the average from
1951-1980.
In the context of international climate policy, February is
ominous as well.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2016/03/15/temperatures-are-spiking-can-we-keep-global-warming-in-the-safe-range/?postshare=4321458136213097&tid=ss_tw


Scotland urged to adopt more ambitious carbon emissions target.
UK Committee on Climate Change says Holyrood should aim to reduce
greenhouse gases by 61% over next 14 years. Scottish ministers
should aim to cut the country’s greenhouse gas emissions by a
challenging but achievable 61% by 2030, an influential advisory
committee has recommended.
http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/mar/15/scotland-urged-adopt-ambitious-carbon-emissions-target?utm_source=Inside+Climate+News&utm_campaign=60c67fc1d4-Today_s_Climate12_10_2014&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_29c928ffb5-60c67fc1d4-327747457


Rising seas may disrupt lives of millions in U.S., study says.
Sea-level rise, a problem exacerbated by greenhouse gas
emissions, could disrupt the lives of more than a million people
in California and more than 13 million in the United States,
three times more than most current estimates, according to a
study published Monday. Rising seas, which already endanger
coastal communities through tidal floods…
http://www.ocregister.com/articles/rise-368998-ocprint-sea-level.html


MIT Energy Initiative report on transforming the US
transportation system by 2050 to address climate challenges.  A
new MIT Energy Initiative report spearheaded by John Heywood, Sun
Jae Professor of Mechanical Engineering Emeritus at MIT,
identifies three important paths forward reducing light-duty
vehicle energy use and greenhouse gas emissions…
http://www.greencarcongress.com/2016/03/20160316-mitei.html  

Lawmakers move to block climate rule planning.  Missouri
lawmakers are pushing legislation to prohibit the state from
planning for the Obama administration's climate change regulation
until a Supreme Court stay on implementing the rule is lifted.
Two separate bills are working their way through the state
Legislature: One, which advanced this week, would suspend U.S.
EPA Clean Power Plan…
http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/2016/03/16/stories/1060034060 

Warming poses 'severe' threat to wheat. Could bread become a
victim of climate change? Not if researchers can help it. The
Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is announcing today that it
will provide a $24 million grant over four years to develop the
Delivering Genetic Gain in Wheat project. Researchers at Cornell
University will expand an ongoing global hunt for wheat varieties
that can handle higher temperatures…
http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/2016/03/16/stories/1060034088 

DROUGHT

California water cutbacks draw flood of complaints as reservoirs
rise. Rick Williams stood on his dead front lawn near Sacramento,
California, wondering why he still pays a drought surcharge on
his water bill and cannot run his sprinklers as often as he needs
when a nearby reservoir is so full it could overflow come spring.
After four years of catastrophic drought and nearly a year of
mandatory water conservation…
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-california-drought-idUSKCN0WH2CQ?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews&utm_source=Inside+Climate+News&utm_campaign=60c67fc1d4-Today_s_Climate12_10_2014&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_29c928ffb5-60c67fc1d4-327747457
 

DWP unveils a plan to punish water wasters--but it could take
some time to implement. The revelation was as shocking as it was
incomprehensible: Someone in Bel-Air used 11.8 million gallons of
water in a single year. Appalled officials had no choice but to
react when they found out last fall. Councilman Paul Koretz
called the consumption “a slap in the face to neighbors” who had
conserved…
http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-dwp-rates-20160315-story.html


DID Storms end the drought?  Is California's drought almost over?
That's the question officials with some water districts have
raised after this winter's rain and snow. That has prompted
regulators to consider relaxing or even dropping strict
water-conservation orders. However, while Northern California has
reservoirs filled to the brim and a deep snowpack in the Sierra
Nevada, Southern California hasn't fared so well.
http://www.ocregister.com/articles/california-368920-ocprint-water-officials.html


Winter storms put California drought emergency in question. 
Recent storms that nearly filled Northern California's major
reservoirs and created a deep snowpack in the Sierra Nevada have
some water districts questioning whether a drought emergency
still exists. While key reservoirs in Northern California are
reaching normal levels, those in central and Southern California
remain low.
http://www.ocregister.com/articles/water-368948-ocprint-california-emergency.html


California Experiencing 'Miracle March,' Says Water Manager. The
northern Sierra has seen nearly double the average precipitation
since the beginning of March. It may seem hard to believe after
such a dry February, but some of California’s largest reservoirs
have approached flood operations. Lake Oroville, the largest
state-operated reservoir, is 106 percent of its historical
average as of March 15th.
http://www.capradio.org/articles/2016/03/15/california-experiencing-miracle-march-says-water-manager/


FUELS

Peabody shares plunge; coal producer raises bankruptcy risk.
Peabody Energy Corp, the largest U.S. coal producer, may have to
seek bankruptcy protection, the company said in a regulatory
filing on Wednesday, citing poor economies in countries that
import coal and other factors battering the coal industry.
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-peabody-energy-bankruptcy-idUSKCN0WI19Z
Major oil producers to talk output freeze in Qatar in April. OPEC
member states and other major oil producers plan to meet next
month to discuss a freeze in oil output levels, Qatar's top
energy official said Wednesday. The gathering, which will build
on earlier talks that included major suppliers Russia and Saudi
Arabia, reflects a growing sense of urgency among producers to
try to shore up crude prices…
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/M/ML_QATAR_OIL_MEETING?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT


If Oil Prices Have Hit Bottom, the Top May Not Be Too Far Away.
The top of the oil market may be closer than you think. With
Brent futures having bounced back as high as $41 a barrel, the
International Energy Agency sees “light at the end of the
tunnel,” and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. is spotting “green shoots.”
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-03-15/if-oil-prices-have-hit-bottom-the-top-may-not-be-too-far-away


Natural Gas Rally Gives Way to Skepticism.  A dip in natural-gas
prices is putting a March rally into limbo amid continued
skepticism that producers will slow down despite heavy stockpiles
and low prices. Natural-gas prices turned down in early trading
Wednesday, putting a March rally into limbo amid continued
skepticism that producers will slow down despite heavy stockpiles
and low prices.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/natural-gas-rally-gives-way-to-skepticism-1458138649


VEHICLES

The Future Is Electric for BMW. German luxury-car maker has
announced a strategy shift. BMW AG is betting that the future of
the automotive industry is electric. The German luxury-car maker
announced a strategy shift on Wednesday that includes plans to
invest in new technology to head off upstart competitors, such as
the ride-sharing service Uber Inc. and Alphabet Inc.’s Google,
which threaten to upend the global auto industry.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/the-future-is-electric-for-bmw-1458142897


Consumer Reports: avoid buying used 2014 BMW i3 electric cars.
The BMW i3 electric car has been on sale in the U.S. since May
2014, meaning some of the earliest examples are now likely
turning up on used-car lots. So does BMW's radical electric city
car make a good used-car purchase?
http://www.greencarreports.com/news/1102878_consumer-reports-avoid-buying-used-2014-bmw-i3-electric-cars


VW RECALL

VW missing out on European car boom. Volkswagen, penalized down
by its emissions scandal, continues to miss out on the booming
European car market. The European carmakers' association, ACEA,
said Wednesday that February sales in Europe accelerated by 14.3
percent, but VW brand deliveries nudged up just 4.4 percent. VW
group sales, boosted by Audi and Skoda, grew by 8 percent, as
market share eroded to 23.9 percent.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/E/EU_EUROPE_CAR_SALES?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT


Volkswagen’s Global Vehicle Recall Gets Stuck in First Gear. U.S.
and European regulators have yet to give the green light for the
German auto firm’s proposed fixes. Volkswagen AG ’s global recall
of millions of tainted diesel vehicles is stuck in first gear as
regulators in the U.S. and Europe continue to hold back on
approving the company’s proposed fix for millions of cars that
don’t meet emissions standards.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/volkswagens-global-vehicle-recall-gets-stuck-in-first-gear-1458131854


U.S. Law Firm Seeks Meeting With Volkswagen to Negotiate Victims’
Compensation.  Hausfeld LLP urges VW to avoid litigation by
negotiating settlement with German, European consumers. Michael
Hausfeld has put Volkswagen AG on notice. The German office of
U.S. law firm Hausfeld LLP on Tuesday sent a letter to the
management of Volkswagen AG requesting a meeting by the end of
the month to begin negotiating a settlement…
http://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-law-firm-seeks-meeting-with-volkswagen-to-negotiate-victims-compensation-1458075303
 

HIGH-SPEED RAIL

Bullet train to potentially change course into Southern
California. The bullet train was to either barrel through Santa
Clarita and San Fernando, disrupting homes, schools and
businesses, or soar over and under San Fernando Valley horse
country, disrupting equestrians. But now the proposed California
High-Speed Rail run from Burbank to Palmdale may be changing
course, the Daily News learned late Tuesday.
http://www.dailynews.com/article/20160315/NEWS/160319645 
http://www.scpr.org/news/2016/03/15/58591/high-speed-rail-officials-realign-proposed-burbank/


GREEN ENERGY

$2 Billion Loss for Generators as a Million U.S. Roofs Get Solar.
Rooftop solar is casting a $2 billion shadow over power
generators across the eastern U.S. With more than a million U.S.
houses set to have solar panels by the end of next month, grid
managers serving the eastern U.S. plan to cut the amount of
electricity they buy from conventional plants by about 1,400
megawatts, starting in 2019…
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-03-16/-2-billion-loss-for-generators-as-a-million-u-s-roofs-get-solar

80k acres off Long Island coast dedicated for wind energy.
Federal officials say 81,130 acres off the coast of Long island
will be dedicated for the development of commercial wind energy.
Interior Secretary Sally Jewell said Wednesday that New York
state has "tremendous" wind potential. Officials say the area is
large enough to make major renewable energy contributions.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/AP72addf15d9764d118ce640bc41f539af 

Senior Senator Launches Inquiry on ‘Green Energy’ Grants. Sen.
Orrin Hatch requests details about $25 billion distributed by the
Treasury Department, IRS. A senior U.S. senator has begun an
initial inquiry into a federal stimulus plan that has distributed
roughly $25 billion in cash grants to solar companies and other
“green energy” firms during the Obama administration.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/senior-senator-launches-inquiry-on-green-energy-grants-1458079073


EUROPE POWER-Sharp wind power decline lifts spot prices. European
prompt power prices for next day delivery rose on Wednesday as a
sharp decline in wind power supply offset a slight increase in
solar power availability amid a marginal decrease in consumption.
Wind power supply in Germany and Austria is expected to fall by 4
gigawatts (GW) on Thursday to 3 GW out of over 40 GW installed
capacity…
http://af.reuters.com/article/energyOilNews/idAFL5N16O3DI 

India Opens Market for Solar Battery Makers Such as Tesla (1).
India plans for the first time to include energy storage as a
requirement when a solar project is tendered this month, opening
what could become a significant new market to battery makers such
as Tesla Motors Inc., Samsung SDI Co. and Panasonic Corp. The
state-owned Solar Energy Corp. of India, which is responsible for
implementing the government’s green targets…
http://washpost.bloomberg.com/Story?docId=1376-O3TQDO6S972Z01-6RPPKEHTO0SIVRGSCSN4A9FLDO


Surge in renewable energy stalls world greenhouse gas emissions.
Falling coal use in China and the US and a shift towards
renewable energy globally saw energy emissions level for the
second year running, says IEA. Falling coal use in China and the
US and a worldwide shift towards renewable energy have kept
greenhouse gas emissions level for a second year running, one of
the world’s leading energy analysts has said.
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/mar/16/surge-in-renewable-energy-stalls-world-greenhouse-gas-emissions
http://www.platts.com/latest-news/electric-power/london/global-energy-related-co2-emissions-hold-steady-26398118?hootpostid=00f98de5c9c0337b731abb0dd4cbb15f

http://fortune.com/2016/03/16/good-news-world-gdp-growth-is-getting-greener/


MISCELLANEOUS

Los Angeles area can claim the worst traffic in America. Again.
Southern California has, yet again, clinched the dubious
distinction of having the country’s worst traffic. Drivers in the
Los Angeles-Long Beach-Santa Ana region spent 81 hours idling on
freeways in 2015, the worst cumulative delay of any U.S.
metropolitan area, according to a study released Tuesday by the
data company Inrix.
http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-la-worst-traffic-20160314-story.html


OPINIONS

Here's Why Oil Prices Have Tanked Four Times in Three Decades.
It's all about too much supply. Oil may have hit its top price.
Prices are in the middle of a rally, having inched up to about
$38 a barrel from a 12-year low of $27.10 in January. Analysts
are warning that this recovery might sputter out once prices
climb high enough to convince U.S. shale producers to increase
production—about $55 a barrel. The problem is supply.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-03-16/here-s-why-oil-prices-have-tanked-four-times-in-three-decades


The economy is growing, but carbon emissions aren’t. That’s a big
deal. Roughly a year ago, the International Energy Agency
announced a wonky yet nonetheless significant development.
Looking at data for the year 2014, the agency found that although
the global economy grew — by 3.4 percent that year — greenhouse
gas emissions from the use of energy (their largest source) had
not.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2016/03/16/this-key-rule-of-economics-and-the-environment-just-failed-again/


‘Keep It in the Ground’ Obama reneges on his offshore oil lease
off the Atlantic coast. Climate-change activists once believed
they could tolerate fossil fuels as long as their price was high
enough to make wind and solar power competitive. But these days
the climate left’s agenda is to “keep it in the ground,” as the
green slogan goes, and on Tuesday the Obama Administration
followed orders.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/keep-it-in-the-ground-1458083731 

Plenty of Political Climate Change.  Sen. Whitehouse used to
pretend he opposed jailing dissenters. Sheldon Whitehouse took to
the Senate floor last fall to assail our coverage of his climate
agenda. We had criticized his plan to use the RICO law, created
to prosecute mobsters, against people who disagree with him about
global warming.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/plenty-of-political-climate-change-1458083603


Clinton and Sanders Are Wrong on Fracking. The fracking-based
natural gas revolution has resulted in the U.S. becoming the only
nation in the world to reduce its CO2 footprint over the past 10
years. In addition to the economic and scientific hypocrisy of
opposing fracking as outlined in your editorial “Clinton Against
American Energy” (March 8), I find it ironic that the
environmental opposition to fracking ignores the fact that the
fracking-based natural gas revolution…
http://www.wsj.com/articles/clinton-and-sanders-are-wrong-on-fracking-1458078936


Leonard Pitts Jr.: Gov. Scott’s silence on climate change. Dear
Florida Gov. Rick Scott: So it turns out the experts were
mistaken. It turns out the impact of climate change on Florida –
and much of the coastal United States – is not going to be
anywhere near as bad as had been predicted. Apparently, it’s
going to be much worse. That’s the sobering finding of a study
published this week in the journal Nature Climate Change.
Previous scenarios, grim as they were…
http://www.sacbee.com/opinion/op-ed/article66216997.html#storylink=cpy


Saving for when California’s March miracle goes away. The
snowpack is back and the water is rising. Between last weekend’s
storms and this weekend’s forecast, drought-weary California
appears to have gotten the March miracle we were all hoping for.
That’s the good news. The bad news is that, between this state’s
natural climate and global warming, drought is now perpetually
around the corner…
http://www.sacbee.com/opinion/editorials/article66241662.html#storylink=cpy


All Solar-Power RE Sales. Climate change is a reality caused by
overpopulation and burning fossil fuels. As more people migrate
to a better living environment, like Santa Barbara, we must
encourage the preservation of our natural resources. One such
solution is to require that for every real estate transaction, a
solar-powered system…
http://www.independent.com/news/2016/mar/16/all-solar-power-re-sales/
 

BLOGS

Supreme Court ruling on Clean Power Plan doesn't halt EPA action
or change timeline. Last month, the Supreme Court unexpectedly
issued a "stay" of the Clean Power Plan, the centerpiece of the
Obama administration's efforts to mitigate climate change. This
decision unquestionably bars the Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA) from enforcing any of the rule's requirements until the
lawsuits against it are fully resolved.
http://thehill.com/blogs/pundits-blog/energy-environment/273189-supreme-court-ruling-on-clean-power-plan-doesnt-halt


Could climate-change warnings on gasoline pumps actually work?
Later this year, someone stopping to fuel up in North Vancouver
will be the first customer to see the controversial warning
labels. They’ll be wrapped around the gas pump handles. The exact
wording isn’t settled yet, but here’s the gist of it: Every time
you pump gas, you’re contributing to air pollution and climate
change.
http://grist.org/climate-energy/could-climate-change-warnings-on-gasoline-pumps-actually-work/




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

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