What's New List Serve Post Display

ARB Newsclips for May 19, 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

Better weather expected to damp down Canadian wildfire.
Firefighters battling a wildfire that has threatened oil sands
facilities north of Fort McMurray, Alberta, looked to cooler
weather, a change in winds and the promise of rain to help them
on Thursday. A shift in wind direction from west to east is
expected to push the fire back toward areas…
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-canada-wildfire-idUSKCN0YA0Z1  


CLIMATE CHANGE

UN appoints Mexican diplomat as new climate chief. The United
Nations has appointed a Mexican diplomat as the top U.N. official
leading the fight against global warming. Patricia Espinosa said
in a statement Thursday that she is "grateful and honored" to be
named executive secretary of the U.N. Framework Convention on
Climate Change.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/E/EU_UNITED_NATIONS_CLIMATE_CHIEF?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT


Stuck on hot: Earth breaks 12th straight monthly heat record.
Earth's heat is stuck on high. Thanks to a combination of global
warming and an El Nino, the planet shattered monthly heat records
for an unprecedented 12th straight month, as April smashed the
old record by half a degree, according to federal scientists. The
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's monthly climate
calculation…
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_SCI_HEAT_RECORD?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT


‘Fundamentally unstable’: Scientists confirm their fears about
East Antarctica’s biggest glacier. Scientists ringing alarm bells
about the melting of Antarctica have focused most of their
attention, so far, on the smaller West Antarctic ice sheet, which
is grounded deep below sea level and highly exposed to the
influence of warming seas.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2016/05/18/fundamentally-unstable-scientists-confirm-their-worries-about-east-antarcticas-biggest-glacier/?utm_source=Inside+Climate+News&utm_campaign=f7c34ea6ce-Today_s_Climate12_10_2014&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_29c928ffb5-f7c34ea6ce-327747457


‘Climate change is going to drive a lot of change in the national
parks.’ This year, in case you hadn’t heard, marks the 100th
anniversary of the National Park Service. 
The agency, which manages parks and monuments from Maine to
American Samoa and hundreds of places in between, has used its
centennial as an opportunity to try to secure its future while
highlighting its past.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2016/05/18/national-park-service-director-climate-change-among-the-biggest-challenges-ahead/


Mark Carney backs insurance drive for Paris climate deal. Banking
chief joins CEOs of Aviva, AXA and Swiss RE in supporting
initiative to help poor countries cope with projected climate
threats. Bank of England governor1 Mark Carney has added his name
to a high level list of leading insurers who have committed to
help developing countries cope with climate impacts.
http://www.climatechangenews.com/2016/05/18/mark-carney-backs-insurance-drive-for-paris-climate-deal/?utm_source=Inside+Climate+News&utm_campaign=f7c34ea6ce-Today_s_Climate12_10_2014&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_29c928ffb5-f7c34ea6ce-327747457


The Oil Industry Sought Patents for Low-Carbon Technologies
Decades Ago — Then Abandoned Them.  Around the same time NASA was
planning its moon missions, US oil companies were working on
technologies that could have reduced greenhouse gas emissions.
Scientists and engineers had submitted patents for techniques to
peel carbon dioxide out of fossil fuel exhaust…
https://news.vice.com/article/the-oil-industry-sought-patents-for-low-carbon-technologies-decades-ago-then-abandoned-them


Poor countries to suffer more extreme daily temperatures.
Bangladesh flooding
Poor countries like Bangladesh will suffer the worst effects of
climate change as hot days in developing countries increase, new
research finds. Poor countries will sustain the hardest hit from
climate change as daily temperatures hit extremes sooner in the
tropics than in other areas, according to a new report.
http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/2016/05/19/stories/1060037507 

DIESEL ACTIVITIES

German panel seeks more details from Opel on diesel controls. A
German government commission is seeking further explanation from
General Motors Co.'s Opel division of diesel engines that can
disable some pollution controls under certain circumstances. Opel
representatives appeared Wednesday before the panel looking into
diesel emissions controls…
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/E/EU_GERMANY_OPEL_EMISSIONS?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT


DROUGHT

California board allows water districts to set their own
conservation targets. For its first four years, the California
drought spread its pain across most corners of the state. The
great peaks of the Sierra Nevada were snow-deprived. Central
Valley agricultural fields lay fallow. And the trademark green
lawns of Southern California suburbia slowly turned brown.
http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-water-conservation-20160518-snap-story.html

http://www.dailynews.com/article/20160518/NEWS/160519489 

California Removes Drought Restrictions. But officials hope many
anti-drought improvements will stick. California’s state water
regulators eased measures aimed at reducing water waste Wednesday
following a winter of El Niño rains that have eased somewhat the
state’s years-long drought.
http://time.com/4341489/california-drought-water-restrictions-jerry-brown/


FUELS

Japan Faces More Pressure on Coal Funding Ahead of G7 Meet. 
Environmental groups urged the Japanese government to use the
Group of Seven summit meeting to be held later this month in
western Japan as a platform to announce a shift away from
fossil-fuel financing.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-05-19/japan-faces-more-pressure-on-coal-funding-ahead-of-g7-meeting?utm_source=Inside+Climate+News&utm_campaign=f7c34ea6ce-Today_s_Climate12_10_2014&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_29c928ffb5-f7c34ea6ce-327747457


Feds want to ensure coal companies can clean up land they damage.
he federal agency that oversees surface coal mining said
Wednesday that it would consider drafting new rules to ensure
that coal companies can afford to clean up land they damage –
though the announcement is not likely to lead to change soon. The
announcement…
http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-sej-coal-self-bonding-20160518-snap-story.html?utm_source=Inside+Climate+News&utm_campaign=f7c34ea6ce-Today_s_Climate12_10_2014&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_29c928ffb5-f7c34ea6ce-327747457
 

Canada fires cost oil sands production $760m. The analysis says
the blaze has meant the loss of 1.2 million barrels of oil a day
over two weeks.  The sum is equivalent to 0.33% of the province
of Alberta's projected GDP this year, as well as representing
0.06% of the country's projected GDP.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-36316368?utm_source=Inside+Climate+News&utm_campaign=f7c34ea6ce-Today_s_Climate12_10_2014&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_29c928ffb5-f7c34ea6ce-327747457


EPA proposes new RFS levels. Total renewable fuel volumes would
grow by nearly 700 million gal. between 2016 and 2017, EPA said.
Advanced renewable fuels – which require 50% reductions in
life-cycle carbon emissions – would grow by nearly 400 million
gal. between 2016 and 2017. The non-advanced, or “conventional,”
fuel portion of total renewable fuels…
http://feedstuffs.com/story-epa-proposes-new-rfs-levels-45-141521


VEHICLES

German government slams Fiat no-show in emissions probe.
Germany's transport minister has accused Fiat Chrysler of
"uncooperative behavior" after the Italian-American automaker
failed to show up for a meeting to discuss the emission levels of
its diesel vehicles.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/E/EU_GERMANY_FIAT?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT


Tesla to sell $2 billion in stock to speed up the production of
its Model 3 sedan. Tesla Motors Inc. plans to sell $2 billion
worth of stock — $1.4 billion held by the company, and the rest
by its chief executive, Elon Musk — to fund faster production of
its Model 3 sedan. Tesla said in a Securities and Exchange
Commission filing that it would begin “volume production and
delivery” of the battery electric car in late 2017. 
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-hy-tesla-stock-20160518-snap-story.html

http://labusinessjournal.com/news/2016/may/19/tesla-electrifies-production/


3 trends on track to transform transportation. Car sharing,
self-driving cars and electrification of vehicles are merging to
shift the future of transportation, potentially helping cut
carbon emissions dramatically, experts said here. Cars right now
are used about 2.6 percent of the time and otherwise sit idle for
most of the day…
http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/2016/05/19/stories/1060037539 

HIGH-SPEED RAIL

Key construction deadline for California bullet train pushed back
four years. The Obama administration threw the California bullet
train project another lifeline Wednesday, extending the schedule
by four years for construction of 118 miles of rail through the
Central Valley, according to congressional officials.
http://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-bullet-train-warning-20160518-snap-story.html

High-speed rail gets a four-year delay. The California bullet
train megaproject was even less shovel-ready than advertised.
High-speed rail is turning out to be a slow-speed proposition.
The first segment of California’s first-in-the-nation
bullet-train project, currently scheduled for completion in 2018,
will not be done until the end of 2022…
http://www.politico.com/agenda/story/2016/05/high-speed-rail-gets-a-four-year-delay-000123#ixzz497TX83TC


VW RECALL

GREEN ENERGY

NY comptroller: Best Buy, Nordstrom to pursue renewables. New
York's comptroller says Best Buy and Nordstrom have agreed to
increasingly use renewable energy in their operations and supply
chains. Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli is trustee of the New York
pension fund that's an investor in both retailers. He said
Wednesday that he has withdrawn shareholder proposals that asked
them to set…
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_ENERGY_AGREEMENTS_SHAREHOLDER?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT


Pro-nuclear GOP senator urges Tennessee to reject wind farm.
Republican U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander is urging his fellow
Tennesseans to oppose what he calls an "unsightly" wind farm near
the Cumberland Mountain State Park. The longtime supporter of
nuclear power argued on the Senate floor this week that the 23
wind turbines Apex Clean Energy…
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_UNSIGHTLY_WIND_FARM?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT


Storing more heat cheaply is the next challenge for solar power.
At Germany's aerospace agency, the next frontier is capturing the
sun here on Earth and keeping it on tap. In a 4-year-old glass
and steel building near the Cologne-Bonn Airport, researchers at
the German Aerospace Center (DLR), Germany's equivalent of NASA,
are working on new ways to produce more heat than light in order
to smooth over intermittency, one of the biggest drawbacks of
solar power on the grid.
http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/2016/05/19/stories/1060037506 

MISCELLANEOUS

Oregon county says no to Nestle water-bottling plant. Voters in
an Oregon county imposed a ban on commercial water bottling on
Tuesday, killing a plan in which Nestle would have built a
water-bottling plant in the job-scarce town of Cascade Locks in
the scenic Columbia River Gorge. Those who supported Measure
14-55, which sought the ban on the production and transport of
bottled water…
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_ELECTION_OREGON_BOTTLED_WATER?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT


Southern California faces potential lack of summer power supply.
The manager of the state's electric grid expects current power
supplies to meet summer needs for keeping the lights and air
conditioning running, except in Southern California, where power
plants might lack the needed natural gas.
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-summer-electricity-20160518-snap-story.html


OPINIONS

Trump’s Bizarre Climate Beliefs Would Jeopardize Meaningful
Global Climate Action. Donald Trump’s climate science denial and
dubious deal-making skills just raised the stakes of this
election to “existential.”  As Reuters reported Tuesday, the
presumptive GOP nominee said he would seek to renegotiate the
Paris Climate Agreement, “spelling potential doom for an
agreement many view as a last chance to turn the tide on global
warming.”
http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2016/05/18/3779417/donald-denier-destroy-paris-climate-deal/

Sierra meadows studied for role in capturing harmful gases.
Snowpack in the Sierra Nevada this spring approached average
levels for the first time in five years, meaning that the rivers
that supply most of our fresh water will flow with cold, clean
water as it slowly melts through summer and fall. Tens of
millions of Californians use this water all year, for everything
from…
http://www.sacbee.com/opinion/op-ed/soapbox/article78459052.html#storylink=cpy


Ontario passes cap-and-trade legislation. Ontario has passed
legislation creating a cap-and-trade system to fight climate
change, which the government predicts will add $5 a month to home
heating bills and 4.3 cents to the price of a litre of gasoline,
or $8 a month on average.  "The costs, according to our
economists, are $13 a month, and that's before we consider any of
the investments…
http://forums.canadiancontent.net/canadian-politics/143395-ontario-passes-cap-trade-legislation.html


BLOGS

Oil Industry Tries a New Tack: Blowing Smoke at CA’s Climate
Change Policies. The major lobby group for the California oil
industry has launched a new, and particularly dimwitted, effort
to denigrate California’s climate change policies. Californians
for Affordable and Reliable Energy, or CARE…
http://cal.streetsblog.org/2016/05/18/oil-industry-tries-a-new-tack-blowing-smoke-at-cas-climate-change-policies/


California Moves Toward a More Sustainable Freight System.
Sustainable freight. Almost sounds like an oxymoron, especially
to anyone that lives near a truck route, port, or warehouse. How
can a system of trains, ships, planes, and trucks designed to
move billions of dollars’ worth of goods from factories around
the world to your doorstep be “sustainable”? Despite that
challenge, California officials released a draft…
http://blog.ucsusa.org/don-anair/california-sustainable-freight-system




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