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newsclips -- ARB Newsclips for April 7, 2016.

Posted: 07 Apr 2016 14:17:09
ARB Newsclips for April 7, 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

Smog Forces 40% of Mexico City Cars Off Road as Uber Surges.
Mexico City residents and local industry struggled to cope after
a spike in smog levels forced authorities to impose restrictions
on industry and ban 40 percent of cars from the roads, driving
Uber prices up as much as 10 times. Cement, electricity and other
industrial plants were told to reduce emissions by up to 40
percent, while many trucks with federal…
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-04-06/mexico-city-residents-battle-new-restrictions-as-smog-worsens


Mexico City Doubles Driving Ban as Pollution Persists.
Authorities order two out of every five private vehicles off the
road amid heavy smog. Mexico City authorities have doubled down
on the capital’s emergency driving ban, ordering two out of every
five private vehicles to stay off the road Wednesday as heavy
smog continued to blanket the megalopolis. Mexico City has
struggled since mid-March to contain high levels of ozone…
http://www.wsj.com/articles/mexico-city-doubles-driving-ban-as-pollution-persists-1459976212


CLIMATE CHANGE

To help curb climate change, stop wasting food: scientists.
Reducing food waste around the world would help curb emissions of
planet-warming gases, lessening some of the impacts of climate
change such as more extreme weather and rising seas, scientists
said on Thursday. Up to 14 percent of emissions from agriculture
in 2050 could be avoided by managing food use and distribution
better…
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-climatechange-emissions-food-idUSKCN0X41PQ


Trying to Put a Price on Big Oil's 'Climate Obstruction' Efforts.
Oil giants and trade groups spend an estimated $115 million per
year blocking climate policies. ExxonMobil, Royal Dutch/Shell,
and three oil-industry groups together spend $115 million a year
on advocacy designed to “obstruct” climate change policy,
according to new estimates released by Influence Map, a British
nonprofit research organization.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-04-07/trying-to-put-a-price-on-big-oil-s-climate-obstruction-efforts


Another study says warming may be worse than experts think. Most
computer simulations of climate change are underestimating by at
least one degree how warm the world will get this century, a new
study suggests. It all comes down to clouds and how much heat
they are trapping. According to the study published Thursday in
the journal Science, computer model simulations say there is more
ice…
http://www.sacbee.com/news/nation-world/article70507077.html#storylink=cpy


Can we accurately 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.dailynews.com/environment-and-nature/20160406/can-we-accurately-gauge-the-impact-of-climate-change-on-extreme-weather


The U.S. Is Experiencing Its Third Warmest Year-to-Date. With a
mild March following a record warm winter, the contiguous U.S. is
experiencing its third warmest year-to-date in 135 years of
record keeping, according to data released Wednesday by the
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
http://www.climatecentral.org/news/us-experiencing-third-warmest-year-to-date-20217?utm_source=Inside+Climate+News&utm_campaign=ac836d787b-Today_s_Climate12_10_2014&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_29c928ffb5-ac836d787b-327747457


What the North American bison's diet says about climate change.
The bones of mammoths and bison are revealing the secrets of how
North American grasslands responded to past climate change.
Scientists are looking to prehistory to understand how
environmental shifts could affect two major types of grass --
those scientists refer to as C3 plants like wheat and rice, and
C4 plants like corn.
http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/2016/04/07/stories/1060035211 

DROUGHT

Exceptional And Extreme Drought Persists In California. The
weekly U.S. Drought Monitor shows slight improvement in
California’s drought last week even though there was "little or
no precipitation." "Improved reservoirs and surface moisture
indicators led to the removal of exceptional drought (in favor of
D3 - extreme drought) in the Sacramento Valley," according to the
report released April 7.
http://www.capradio.org/articles/2016/04/07/exceptional-and-extreme-drought-persists-in-california/


Menlo Park: District seeks way to boost city's emergency water
supply.  A plan to increase Menlo Park's emergency water supply,
which stalled last year as the city dealt with the drought, is
back on track. Currently, there are "no storage facilities or
local 
water services" for the city's Municipal Water District customers
northeast of El Camino Real.
http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/general-news/20160407/menlo-park-district-seeks-way-to-boost-citys-emergency-water-supply
 

FUELS

Oil Prices Slip as Investors Dismiss Inventories Decline. Growing
doubts major oil producers will agree to curb output keep prices
in check. Oil prices are fading Thursday from earlier gains as
some investors are dismissing an unexpected decline in U.S. crude
inventories and having growing doubts that major oil producers
will agree to curb their output.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/oil-prices-gain-in-volatile-trade-1460021129


VEHICLES

CARB research seminar on new car buyers’ valuation of ZEVs. On 20
April, Dr. Ken Kurani of the UC Davis Institute of Transportation
Studies will present findings from a study commissioned by the
California Air Resources Board (ARB) assessing consumer
attitudes, barriers, and motivators toward purchasing zero,
near-zero, and low-emission vehicles. The project produced a
statistically robust representation of California’s new car
buying population to identify the factors…
http://www.greencarcongress.com/2016/04/20160407-kurani.html 

European electric and plug-in hybrid sales for January-February
2016. The Renault-Nissan Alliance has sold more electric cars
than any other company, with most of those sales coming from the
Nissan brand. The Nissan Leaf is the bestselling electric car in
history, and is popular in multiple markets. But so far in 2016,
at least, it's Renault that is leading the charge in European
electric-car sales.
http://www.greencarreports.com/news/1103283_european-electric-and-plug-in-hybrid-sales-for-january-march-2016


The Tesla Model 3 Is Still a Rich Person's Car. And that’s all it
may ever be. Tesla calls the Model 3, which the company revealed
last week, “our most affordable car yet.” At a starting price of
$35,000, they’re not wrong, but affordability is relative. In
their eagerness to see Elon Musk’s electric car empire overthrow
the old, traditional combustion engine…
http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2016/04/tesla-model-3-/477243/


VW RECALL

Volkswagen Dealerships Sue Auto Maker Over Emissions Scandal.
U.S. lawsuit claims company badly hurt sales and the VW brand.
Three family-owned dealerships sued Volkswagen AG, alleging the
German auto maker intentionally defrauded them when installing
software on diesel-powered vehicles capable of duping government
emissions tests.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/volkswagen-dealerships-sue-auto-maker-over-emissions-scandal-1459969923

Is lower fuel economy to blame for the halt on European VW diesel
update? Six months on, an update for affected VW diesel cars in
Europe is still in the works. Six months into the Volkswagen
diesel scandal, the company still hasn't reached an agreement
with regulators on how it will recall nearly 600,000 affected TDI
cars in the U.S. But things didn't look so bad in Europe, at
least for a while.
http://www.csmonitor.com/Business/In-Gear/2016/0407/Is-lower-fuel-economy-to-blame-for-the-halt-on-European-VW-diesel-update


GREEN ENERGY

SunEdison setback may delay Modi's "ultra mega" solar drive in
India. The likely collapse of SunEdison Inc's solar project in
India, the first of 32 planned "ultra mega" complexes, could
delay Prime Minister Narendra Modi's goal to increase renewable
energy fivefold by several years and probably cost consumers
more. As the U.S. solar giant fights to stave off bankruptcy, the
500 megawatt project…
http://af.reuters.com/article/energyOilNews/idAFL3N1772TN?sp=true


Google Backs Renewable Energy in Asia. All those Google searches
take a whole lot of power. Google announced Thursday that the
company is funding the Center for Resource Solutions in Taiwan in
what the company hopes could be a first step toward buying more
renewable energy for its data centers in Asia. The plan is that
the San Francisco-based nonprofit can help create renewable
energy certification programs in Asia.
http://fortune.com/2016/04/07/google-backs-renewable-energy-in-asia/


State portfolio standards spur national expansion – report.
States with renewable portfolio standards have been highly
successful at meeting their targets, with a handful of states
setting higher targets within the past year while at the same
time average compliance costs added an average of 1.3 percent to
customer bills. Those are among the findings of an annual report
from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory that looks at the
mandatory renewables…
http://www.eenews.net/energywire/2016/04/07/stories/1060035203 

Building with wood is good, right? Some might 'flip out' Forest
advocates are divided on an update to the popular Leadership in
Energy and Environmental Design, or LEED, green building
certification program that opens it up to previously unacceptable
sources of wood. The U.S. Green Building Council, which governs
the LEED program, announced it was creating a pilot program to
reduce…
http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/2016/04/07/stories/1060035233 

MISCELLANEOUS

Airbus, Siemens to Cooperate on Electric Plane Project. Companies
to pool 200 engineers to demonstrate possibilities by 2020.
European plane maker Airbus Group SE and German industrial
conglomerate Siemens AG said Thursday they are joining forces to
work on electric aircraft technology. The companies said they
would pool about 200 engineers to demonstrate by 2020 the
possibility of using electric or hybrid-electric technologies on
aircraft.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/airbus-siemens-to-cooperate-on-electric-plane-project-1460024827


OPINIONS

An Overheated Climate Alarm. The White House launches a scary
campaign about deadly heat. Guess what: Cold kills more people.
The Obama administration released a new report this week that
paints a stark picture of how climate change will affect human
health. Higher temperatures, we’re told, will be deadly—killing
“thousands to tens of thousands” of Americans. The report is
subtitled “A Scientific Assessment,” presumably to underscore its
reliability.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/an-overheated-climate-alarm-1459984226


SoCal Gas CEO: We're honoring our Aliso Canyon mitigation
commitment. To the editor: Your characterizations as to how
Southern California Gas Co. may not mitigate the greenhouse gas
impact of the Aliso Canyon leak are unfair. ("Ignoring its
promises, SoCal Gas intends to offset Porter Ranch leak on its
own terms," editorial, April 3)
We will honor the letter and spirit of our commitment.
http://www.latimes.com/opinion/readersreact/la-le-0407-thursday-socal-gas-leak-mitigation-20160407-story.html

SoCalGas must live up to its promises after Porter Ranch leak.
Southern California Gas Co. hasn’t said if it will follow a state
plan to mitigate the effects of an estimated 100,000 tons of
methane that billowed from its outdated wells at Porter Ranch.
The company shouldn’t leave everyone in the dark. The leak at the
Aliso Canyon facility — equal to about a quarter of what is
emitted across the whole state in a year..
http://www.pasadenastarnews.com/opinion/20160406/socalgas-must-live-up-to-its-promises-after-porter-ranch-leak




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

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