What's New List Serve Post Display

CARB NEWSCLIPS FOR April 18, 2017. 
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.

CARB BUSINESS

The Air Resources Board (ARB or Board) will conduct a public
meeting at the time and place noted below to consider Truck Field
Enforcement Activities and New Screening Technology for High
Emitting Vehicles.

DATE:  	        April 27, 2017
TIME:  	        9:00 a.m.
LOCATION: 	California Environmental Protection Agency
          	Air Resources Board
         	Byron Sher Auditorium, 2nd Floor
          	1001 I Street
          	Sacramento, California 95814

WEBCAST: http://www.cal-span.org/             

Air Resources Board staff have posted a white paper on the health
benefits of physical activity and air pollution exposure while
walking and bicycling for transportation.  
Download the White Paper:
https://www.arb.ca.gov/research/vprp/physical_activity_and_health_final_161216.pdf
            

For more information, including the White Paper and other
resources, visit our Built Environment webpage:
https://www.arb.ca.gov/research/vprp/vprp.htm            

A fact sheet summarizing this document can be found here:
https://www.arb.ca.gov/html/fact_sheets/physical_activity_fact_sheet.pdf
      

On Monday, April 24th, the California Air Resources Board will
host a research seminar focusing on household transportation
choices and commitments of statewide greenhouse gas reductions
required by SB 375. Announcement available here:
https://www.arb.ca.gov/research/seminars/mokhtarian/mokhtarian.htm
     

AIR POLLUTION

EPA stalling Harley-Davidson settlement — source. U.S. EPA is
reportedly slow-walking a settlement with Harley-Davidson over
emissions violations amid Republican concerns about a clean air
project set up by the deal. The motorcycle giant agreed last
August to pay $12 million in civil penalties and $3 million on a
pollution mitigation project after EPA found the company had
manufactured…
https://www.eenews.net/greenwire/2017/04/18/stories/1060053229 

CLIMATE CHANGE

3M-year-old sediment tells the story of today's climate. In 2009,
studies of deep sediment layers from a largely unknown,
unexplored lake in the tundra of Russia's eastern Arctic released
a flood of new evidence about what global warming had done to the
Arctic 3 million years ago. It is a distant mirror reflecting an
image of growing climate instability that scientists warn is
beginning to reappear today.
https://www.eenews.net/climatewire/2017/04/18/stories/1060053182


Sea-level rise will shift U.S. populations. Migration from
sea-level rise could reshape America's population in the coming
decades as people move out of harm's way, a new demographic
analysis suggests. Florida could lose as many as 2.5 million
people, and Texas could gain nearly 1.5 million residents,
according to predictions…
https://www.eenews.net/climatewire/2017/04/18/stories/1060053199


Your guide to who's who in the Paris Agreement showdown. Trump
and cabinet
President Trump will meet with Cabinet secretaries, his National
Security Council advisers and likely also his daughter Ivanka and
son-in-law, Jared Kushner, for a final decision on how to proceed
with the Paris Agreement. Photo courtesy of President Trump
twitter account.
https://www.eenews.net/climatewire/2017/04/18/stories/1060053205


Warming climate requires new approach to blazes — study. Land
managers across the West must fundamentally change the way they
address wildfires as the climate warms and the risk of blazes
increases, according to a new study that argues against the Trump
administration's calls for more logging to reduce fuel loads.
https://www.eenews.net/greenwire/2017/04/18/stories/1060053225 

DROUGHT

What a difference! How drought-buster winter has changed NorCal.
But it will take a long time to fully recover from the worst dry
spell in 450 years. he Great California Drought is over, Gov.
Jerry Brown declared earlier this month, but it's too early to
parade in our rain, scientists say. A new study by National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration scientists found that
while October 2011 to September 2015…
http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/What-a-difference-How-a-rainy-winter-has-changed-11078953.php


Now that the governor declared the drought is history, what’s a
conservationist to do? Seems like California is not the only land
mass to benefit from a surplus of water these days. The moon of
Saturn, Enceladus, is swimming in warm liquid water, enough to
create plumes of hydrogen gas erupting from the subsurface of the
ocean floor, NASA and Jet Propulsion Laboratory scientists
reported Thursday.
http://www.record-bee.com/article/NQ/20170418/LOCAL1/170419857 

Sierra Nevada Mountain Snowpack Is Larger Than Previous 4 Years
Combined. Measurements of the Tuolumne River Basin show there's
enough snow to fill the Rose Bowl in Pasadena about 1,600 times.
The monster snowpack in California's Sierra Nevada Mountains is
larger than it has been in the four previous years combined, new
NASA data shows.
http://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/california/California-Water-Drought-Sierra-Nevada-Mountains-Snowpack-419756113.html


California Hits Precipitation Record. California hits
precipitation record as spring warming commences  By Daniel Swain
on April 16, 2017. Record wet in Northern California; huge
snowpack threatens floods. It’s official: the Northern Sierra
“8-Station Index”–comprised of 8 precipitation observation sites
in the northern half of the Sierra Nevada watershed–has eclipsed
1982-1983 to become the wettest Water Year (Oct-Sep) period on
record!
http://knau.org/post/california-hits-precipitation-record#stream/0


As historic drought ends, Californians vow to retain water-saving
habits
surfacing models of thought. California Gov. Jerry Brown
announced the end of the state's six-year drought earlier this
month, but Golden State residents say they have no plans to
return to their wasteful ways. Cooper Olson was relieved when he
first heard that California Gov. Jerry Brown had declared the end
of the state’s drought this month. 
http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2017/0418/As-historic-drought-ends-Californians-vow-to-retain-water-saving-habits

FUELS

States, industry debate litigation's fate as EPA reviews rule.
Supporters and opponents of an Obama-era effort to slash methane
emissions from the oil and gas industry made their pitches last
night for whether litigation over U.S. EPA's rule should
continue. As expected, industry and state critics of the methane
standards argued to freeze a legal battle while the Trump
administration reviews New Source Performance Standards…
https://www.eenews.net/energywire/2017/04/18/stories/1060053194

Does methane rule review shut out public input? Don Nelson
estimates he can spot 60 or 70 natural gas flares from his North
Dakota ranch — even now that the state has raised its gas capture
rate to nearly 90 percent. Ahead of the release of the Bureau of
Land Management's final Methane and Waste Prevention Rule, Nelson
attended two hearings to testify in support of the regulation to
curb gas flaring…
https://www.eenews.net/energywire/2017/04/18/stories/1060053185 

GREEN ENERGY

Benefiting from Green Jobs. The renewable energy industry and its
proponents regularly draw attention to the industry’s job
creation potential. For example, the American Wind Energy
Association reported that the US wind industry supported 88,000
jobs at the start of 2016, a 20% increase in one year. The Solar
Foundation announced there were over 260,000 solar workers in
2016, which was a 25% increase over the prior year.
https://energyathaas.wordpress.com/2017/04/17/benefiting-from-green-jobs/


Study of how renewables hurt the grid puzzles analysts. Energy
Secretary Rick Perry's call for a report on the grid and market
impacts of renewable energy is raising eyebrows among clean
energy experts. In a memo dated April 14, Perry directed his
chief of staff, Brian McCormack, to develop a study by tomorrow
to look at "[t]he extent to which continued regulatory burdens…
https://www.eenews.net/climatewire/2017/04/18/stories/1060053204


World's first battery-gas peaker plant arrives in Calif. General
Electric Co. and a Southern California utility announced
yesterday that they have for the first time added batteries to a
peaker plant, a tweak that could slash carbon emissions and water
use while making it easier to incorporate renewable energy onto
the grid. Peaker plants are used only when energy demand is
cresting, but their energy and carbon footprint is wider than the
peak.
https://www.eenews.net/energywire/2017/04/18/stories/1060053202 

OPINIONS

Why Big Oil wants Trump to stay in Paris climate deal. President
Trump could deal the landmark Paris climate agreement a massive
blow this week. The U.S. president is huddling with advisers on
Tuesday to explore whether he should yank America from the
international accord aimed at slowing global warming.  But some
powerful forces -- with real skin in the game -- are urging Trump
not to abandon the 2015 Paris deal brokered among more than 175
nations.
http://money.cnn.com/2017/04/18/investing/big-oil-paris-deal-trump/


Now that the governor declared the drought is history, what’s a
conservationist to do?. Seems like California is not the only
land mass to benefit from a surplus of water these days. The moon
of Saturn, Enceladus, is swimming in warm liquid water, enough to
create plumes of hydrogen gas erupting from the subsurface of the
ocean floor, NASA and Jet Propulsion Laboratory scientists
reported Thursday.
http://www.record-bee.com/article/NQ/20170418/LOCAL1/170419857 

What the end of the emergency drought means to HOAs. On April 7,
2017, Governor Brown issued Executive Order B-40-17, formally
ending the drought emergency. The order is not only confirmation
of good news for California, but also immediately changes the
applicability of two important statutes in the Davis-Stirling
Common Interest Development Act.
http://www.pe.com/2017/04/17/what-the-end-of-the-emergency-drought-means-to-hoas/