What's New List Serve Post Display

ARB Newsclips for April 5, 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.

ALISO CANYON

California’s ARB finalises Aliso Canyon mitigation plan, rebuffs
SoCalGas disapproval. California’s Air Resources Board (ARB) on
Friday published its final report on how SoCalGas should mitigate
the methane leaked at its Aliso Canyon facility, with the
regulator reiterating its draft recommendations despite
disapproval from the natural gas provider.
http://carbon-pulse.com/17918/ 

CLIMATE CHANGE

Hogan signs bills to slash greenhouse gas emissions, expand open
space. Maryland must sharply reduce its greenhouse gas emissions
and restore funding to preserve open space as a result of two
bills that Gov. Larry Hogan (R) signed into law Monday. With a
week left in the legislative session, the governor also signed a
bill to extend the age…
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/md-politics/hogan-signs-environmental-bills-and-a-benefits-bill-for-surviving-children-of-police-officers-killed-in-the-line-of-duty/2016/04/04/ae686530-fa6c-11e5-80e4-c381214de1a3_story.html?utm_source=Inside+Climate+News&utm_campaign=f633b9a81e-Today_s_Climate12_10_2014&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_29c928ffb5-f633b9a81e-327747457


Can we gauge the impact of climate change on extreme weather?
While scientists have long avoided attributing specific extreme
weather events to changes in global climate, a recent report
suggests that some of these events can be attributed to climate
change with a high degree of confidence.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2016/04/05/climate-change-extreme-weather-science/82647252/


DROUGHT

Californians fall a bit short of Brown's call for 25% cut in
water use after 9 months of conservation.  After nine months of
fervent conservation, drought-fatigued Californians narrowly
missed meeting the water-savings target set by Gov. Jerry Brown a
year ago. Urban dwellers reduced their consumption by 23.9%
between June and February, state regulators said Monday, just
short of the 25% cut required under Brown's executive order.
http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-water-conservation-20160404-story.html


Drought still grips Southern California, keeping pressure on
state water supplies. El Niño has been little more than a cruel
joke in Southern California this winter. The torrential rains
haven’t materialized. Groundwater aquifers have been pumped to
near-historic lows. A sizable reservoir two hours east of Los
Angeles, built for $2 billion as drought insurance…
http://www.sacbee.com/news/state/california/water-and-drought/article69946222.html#storylink=cpy
 

California water-saving rules to ease, but nobody's off the hook.
Poised to ease California's mandatory drought rules after
rebounding rain and snow levels this winter, state water
officials on Monday made it clear that -- even where reservoirs
are 100 percent full -- no community is likely to get an entirely
free pass from conservation targets this summer.
http://www.mercurynews.com/drought/ci_29724935/california-drought-water-conservation-rules-ease-but-no

County's drought conservation plummets. Region's water savings in
February were the worst since governor's conservation mandate
began. While El Niño has put a dent in California’s historic
drought, conservation efforts by urban water users in the state
have tapered off in recent months — a trend reflected in San
Diego County.
http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/2016/apr/04/drought-water-use-san-diego-conservation/


FUELS

Judge Issues Final Order in BP Case. U.S. District Judge Carl
Barbier's April 4 order confirms the company's $18.7 billion
settlement of federal and state claims announced last July. U.S.
District Judge Carl Barbier of New Orleans issued a final order
April 4 that approves BP's $18.7 billion settlement of federal
and state claims from the April 20, 2010, Deepwater Horizon
disaster…
https://ohsonline.com/articles/2016/04/05/bp-settlement-final-order.aspx?admgarea=news


VEHICLES

Race car drivers headed for EPA collision over truck emissions. 
Amateur race car drivers want to slam the brakes on a U.S. EPA
proposal to reduce emissions and boost fuel economy. Led by the
Specialty Equipment Market Association (SEMA), a trade group for
auto spare parts manufacturers, the group argues that language in
an EPA draft rule would make it harder to recycle used auto parts
for hobby race car driving.
http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/2016/04/05/stories/1060035086 

VW RECALL

U.S., Volkswagen may not reach emissions deal by April 21: gov't
official. The top U.S. environmental official expressed
uncertainty on Tuesday about whether the Obama administration and
Volkswagen AG (VOWG_p.DE) will meet an April 21 court deadline to
come up with a plan to address excess emissions from 580,000
diesel vehicles sold in the country.
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-volkswagen-emission-epa-idUSKCN0X21R0?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews


VW Diesel Recalls in Europe Halted on Suspicion of Fuel
Consumption Increase. Back in September, Volkswagen became the
center of attention in the automotive world in the most
undesirable way: the US Environmental Protection Agency
discovered that most of its diesel-powered cars had a defeat
device that fooled readings during tests, releasing a lot more
nitrous oxides when driven out in the real world.
http://www.autoevolution.com/news/vw-diesel-recalls-in-europe-halted-on-suspicion-of-fuel-consumption-increase-106211.html#ixzz44yZKuYEE


HIGH-SPEED RAIL

Lawmakers want beefier details on California high speed rail.
California lawmakers say the state's latest plan for a $64
billion high-speed railway lacks the details that could spur
additional investment in the project. Sen. Jim Beall, the Senate
transportation committee chairman, said Monday that the High
Speed Rail Authority must provide "more beef" in its revised
business plan.
http://hosted2.ap.org/CAANR/CA/Article_2016-04-04-CA-XGR--California%20High-Speed%20Rail/id-ae3d9dbf9a4448698fb999e5f9cc0151

http://www.latimes.com/local/politics/la-me-train-funding-doubts-20160405-story.html


GREEN ENERGY

What Will California Do With Too Much Solar? Solar energy records
are falling left and right in California these days, as the state
steams ahead toward its ambitious renewable energy goals. But the
success of solar has brought about a hidden downside: on some
perfectly sunny days, solar farms are being told to turn off.
http://ww2.kqed.org/science/2016/04/04/what-will-california-do-with-too-much-solar/


Solar And Wind Energy May Be Nice, But How Can We Store It?
Renewable energy like solar and wind is booming across the
country as the costs of production have come down. But the sun
doesn't always shine, and the wind doesn't blow when we need it
to.
This challenge has sparked a technology race to store energy —
one that goes beyond your typical battery.
http://www.npr.org/sections/alltechconsidered/2016/04/05/470810118/solar-and-wind-energy-may-be-nice-but-how-can-we-store-it


What do Texas and California have in common? 'Negative power'
caused by renewables glut. A phenomenon in wholesale power
markets that forces prices below zero when renewable energy
supplies surge is occurring more than ever in markets from
California to Texas. Even the Midwest and Northeast aren’t
immune. It’s expensive for nuclear plants and coal- and natural
gas-fired units to turn on and off.
http://www.dallasnews.com/business/energy/20160405-what-do-texas-and-california-have-in-common-negative-power-caused-by-renewables-glut.ece


Xerox Could Blow Open Concentrating Solar Power Field With New
Printer. Concentrating solar tech has been getting the stinkeye
from some industry observers, with the main beefs being high
complexity and high costs compared to conventional solar panels.
Nevertheless, the US Energy Department has made a national
showpiece out of five gigantic utility-scale thermal solar power
plants…
http://cleantechnica.com/2016/04/05/xerox-tackles-micro-solar-with-new-parc-project/


Leaving clean energy policies to states can spur jobs – study.
State policies that promote advanced energy technologies could
stimulate more than 160,000 new jobs annually in the Southeast
and establish long-term economic stability for states from
Florida to Virginia, new research from the American Jobs Project
shows. In Rust Belt states Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania,
advances in wind and solar power…
http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/2016/04/05/stories/1060035083 

Calif. opens inquiry into future of utilities. California
regulators are taking up the big-picture question of where
traditional utilities will get their revenue in a distributed
energy future. California Public Utilities Commissioner Mike
Florio yesterday afternoon issued a proposal and a request for
comment on "fundamental changes to the rules governing how energy
utilities are compensated."
http://www.eenews.net/energywire/2016/04/05/stories/1060035080 

MISCELLANEOUS

Air Resources Board selects Riverside site.  Cal Poly Pomona’s
College of Agriculture students are breathing a collective sigh
of relief: the California Air Resources Board has decided on UC
Riverside as the new location for its facility. Last quarter,
agriculture students were faced with the possibility of the ARB
acquiring portions of Spadra Farm to construct new laboratories.
http://www.thepolypost.com/air-resources-board-selects-riverside-site/article_6f9efd30-fa00-11e5-9c91-f3e444450b61.html


Watchdog: San Onofre should have a say in 'consent' nuclear waste
disposal, Rep. Issa says. The U.S. Department of Energy is taking
baby steps toward figuring out what to do with tons of spent
nuclear fuel that have been piling up across America for decades,
turning commercial reactors like the shuttered San Onofre Nuclear
Generating Station into makeshift nuclear waste dumps.
http://www.ocregister.com/articles/nuclear-710796-department-waste.html


OPINIONS

Making Way for Wind Power. If the United States is going to get
serious about cutting carbon emissions from oil and gas, it will
have to find ways to scale up its use of renewable energy.
Converting wind and solar power into electricity is, in some
ways, the easy part. The bigger challenge is developing the
infrastructure to transmit that electricity across the country.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/05/opinion/making-way-for-wind-power.html?_r=0


Ignoring its promises, SoCal Gas intends to offset Porter Ranch
leak on its own terms. Even before Southern California Gas Co.
plugged the damaged storage well blamed for the worst methane
leak in U.S. history, its executives promised to fully offset the
emissions released during the break. It was a big commitment that
the utility's leaders said proved the company was a good neighbor
and responsible corporate citizen.
http://www.latimes.com/opinion/editorials/la-ed-0403-aliso-canyon-mitigation-20160402-story.html


The best mitigation for the Aliso Canyon leak: Don't use natural
gas. To the editor: Natural gas has been the golden child of
energy production in the last decade because it “cuts greenhouse
gas emissions.” But it was never meant to replace coal and oil
production. It's a fossil fuel, and using it will never cut
greenhouse gas emissions enough to offset global carbon dioxide
levels. ("Ignoring its promises, SoCal Gas intends to offset
Porter Ranch leak on its own terms," editorial, April 3)
http://www.latimes.com/opinion/readersreact/la-le-0405-tuesday-socal-gas-mitigation-20160405-story.html


After an environmental debacle, a big gas utility tries to
dictate terms for a cleanup. For most of the period after Oct.
23, when a massive gas leak in at a Southern California Gas Co.
storage well in Aliso Canyon was discovered ,the gas company made
all the right noises.  The company pledged to counteract
pollution from the methane leak and help the residents of nearby
Porter Ranch…
http://www.latimes.com/business/hiltzik/la-fi-hiltzik-socalgas-20160404-snap-htmlstory.html


BLOGS

Carbon market opportunities could benefit Oregon’s private
timberland owners. Dick Kempka, chief commercial officer for The
Climate Trust, on how forest carbon offsets can help California
companies reduce greenhouse gas emissions. In Oregon, nearly half
of the state — 29 million acres — is considered forestland, with
approximately 10.3 million acres privately held.
http://www.bizjournals.com/portland/blog/sbo/2016/04/carbon-market-opportunities-could-benefit-oregon-s.html


EPA head says next administration must expand climate change work
to meet Paris goal. If the United States is to meet the climate
change goal agreed to in Paris last year, actions taken by
President Obama to reduce greenhouse gas emissions will need to
be expanded, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Gina
McCarthy said Tuesday.
http://fuelfix.com/blog/2016/04/05/epa-head-says-next-administration-must-continue-climate-change-work-to-meet-paris-goal/


Clean Energy Is Worth Trillions, John Kerry Says. It could be
bigger than the tech revolution. Clean energy is the biggest
economic opportunity the world has ever seen, Secretary of State
John Kerry said Tuesday. Compared to the initial phase of the
tech revolution, he added, clean energy offers far bigger rewards
— with a value of many trillions of dollars and billions of
potential customers.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/clean-energy-economic-opportunity_us_5703cc2ce4b0daf53af0dc08




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