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CARB Newsclips for June 13, 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 June 14, 2017 meeting of the AB 32 Environmental Justice
Advisory Committee has been rescheduled to June 23, 2017 from
10:00 am to 3:30 pm (PDT) at the 
CalEPA Headquarters Building, Training Room 1
1001 “I” Street, Sacramento, California 95814. 

The meeting notice and agenda are posted at:
www.arb.ca.gov/cc/ejac/meetings/meetings.htm 

___________________________      

Thursday, June 15, 2017 at 10:00 a.m., PDT (WEBCAST) Sierra
Hearing Room, 2nd Floor, CalEPA Building
1001 I Street, Sacramento, California

The 2010 emission standards for heavy-duty engines have
established a limit for oxides of nitrogen (NOX) emissions of
0.20 g/bhp-hr, a 90% reduction from the previous emission
standards. However, it is projected that even when the entire
on-road fleet of heavy-duty vehicles operating in California is
compliant with the 2010 NOX emission standards, the upcoming
National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) requirements for
ambient particulate matter and ozone will not be achieved in
California without further significant reduction in NOX emissions
from the heavy-duty vehicles.
https://www.arb.ca.gov/research/seminars/sharp/sharp.htm      

CAP AND TRADE

Ontario earmarks $200M from cap and trade to make schools
greener. Money is part of the $1.4B slated for school renewal and
repair in the province this year. Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne
and Education Minister Mitzie Hunter announced on Tuesday that
$200 million from the province's cap and trade program will go
towards making schools in the province more energy efficient.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/ontario-cap-and-trade-schools-funds-energy-energy-wynne-hunter-1.4158260


AIR POLLUTION

L.A. and Long Beach mayors sign pact setting zero-emissions goals
for ports. The mayors of Los Angeles and Long Beach signed an
agreement Monday directing the nation’s largest port complex to
reduce air pollution by moving toward zero-emission trucks and
yard equipment. The two-page declaration signed by L.A. Mayor
Eric Garcetti and Long Beach Mayor Robert Garcia says the ports
“shall advance clean technologies and other efforts to move
toward the goal of zero emissions”…
http://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-ports-clean-air-20170612-story.html


Air monitoring program in San Ysidro launches public web tracker.
Researchers and health advocates have recently launched a website
to track in real time air pollution in San Ysidro, where
residents have long complained about emissions pollution from the
steady stream of vehicles crossing the U.S. border with Mexico.
Air monitoring at the San Ysidro Port of Entry, the busiest land
crossing in the Western Hemisphere, has been inconsistent and
inconclusive.
http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/environment/sd-me-ysidro-air-monitoring-20170613-story.html


Expert: Every home located on toxic plume in El Cajon should be
tested. There is no doubt now that some residents of two mobile
home parks in El Cajon have been exposed to toxic gas seeping
into their homes from a plume of contaminated groundwater. Recent
air testing and a newly released health risk study make that
clear. 
Residents of the Starlight Mobile Home Park and Greenfield Mobile
Estates…
http://inewsource.org/2017/06/12/whose-homes-will-be-tested/ 

IG scrutinizes EPA oversight of air quality models. U.S. EPA's
inspector general is set to look at the agency's approval process
for air quality dispersion models recommended for use by state,
local and tribal air pollution regulators, according to a notice
posted today on the IG's website. Regulators rely on such models
to simulate the paths of pollutants after they're released into
the atmosphere…
https://www.eenews.net/eenewspm/2017/06/12/stories/1060055909 

EPA fights green groups' bid to pursue Wyo. haze suit. U.S. EPA
and power companies are teaming up in opposition to
environmentalists’ legal challenge to a Wyoming haze reduction
rule to reduce pollution from several Wyoming coal-fired power
plants, including Dave Johnston Power Plant. PacifiCorp. U.S. EPA
is again siding with the state of Wyoming and power producers to
oppose a bid by environmentalists…
https://www.eenews.net/greenwire/2017/06/13/stories/1060055957 

FUELS

World Coal Production Just Had Its Biggest Drop on Record. It’s
the end of an era for coal. Production of the fossil fuel dropped
by a record amount in 2016, according to BP Plc’s annual review
of global energy trends. China, the world’s biggest energy
consumer, burned the least coal in six years and use dropped in
the U.S to a level last seen in the 1970s, the company’s data
show.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-06-13/coal-s-era-starts-to-wane-as-world-shifts-to-cleaner-energy


VEHICLES

China to clamp down on new car plants in fight against capacity
glut, pollution. China's top state planner said it would tighten
regulations for building new factories for traditional
petrol-burning vehicles, as the country cracks down on "zombie"
firms and pushes automakers to convert to non-polluting electric
vehicles. China's central government sees electric vehicles as a
way for its industry to leapfrog ahead of international
competitors…
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-autos-overcapacity-idUSKBN19314U


FIAT/CHRYSLER (FCA)

Diesels Spew More Pollution Than Allowed Too. Emissions
documented by same lab that uncovered VW scandal. U.S. alleges
Fiat used defeat devices to evade emissions tests. Fiat Chrysler
diesel vehicles spewed pollution as much as 20 times the legal
limit, according to testing by the same researchers who exposed
the Volkswagen AG emissions cheating scandal. 
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-06-13/vw-sleuths-say-fiat-diesels-spew-more-pollution-than-allowed-too


GREEN ENERGY

Global energy demand stumbles for third year –BP. Global energy
demand continued its sluggish growth last year as China's growth
fell to its lowest in nearly 20 years while renewables
flourished, BP said in a report on Tuesday. Slower demand growth
helped stall the acceleration of greenhouse gases emissions for a
third year to levels not seen since the 1980s, although emissions
remained well above targets set out by nations in Paris in 2015
to fight climate change, BP said.
https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-bp-energy-idUSKBN1941S7 

OPINIONS

Life Support for Coal Will Make the U.S. an Energy Backwater. The
market made natural gas more appealing, and the future is in
renewables anyway. In the run-up to World War I, German general
Erich Ludendorff was said to have described his country’s
alliance with the decaying Austro-Hungarian empire as like being
“shackled to a corpse.” That phrase aptly describes the situation
the U.S. will find itself in if it continues to bet on coal as
the fuel of the future. The coal industry is dying.
https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2017-06-13/life-support-for-coal-will-make-the-u-s-an-energy-backwater


BLOGS

The EPA Budget Cuts Are A Direct Attack on Our Air, Water, and
Health. Congress will have a chance this week to question why
Scott Pruitt proposes to eviscerate the Environmental Protection
Agency budget by 30%. Let that sink in—nearly a third of the
agency’s activities could vanish. That is unless leaders in
Congress stop such a hemorrhage and restore safeguards put in
place to protect the air that Americans breathe and the water we
drink.
http://blog.ucsusa.org/brenda-ekwurzel/trump-pruitt-epa-budget-cuts


Survey: Majority of Americans want states to take the lead on
climate change. A majority of Americans believe states should
take the lead to address climate change if the federal government
fails to act. That’s one of the findings of the latest in a
series of National Surveys on Energy and Environment. Sarah Mills
is with the Center for Local, State and Urban Policy at the
Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy at the University of
Michigan.
http://michiganradio.org/post/survey-majority-americans-want-states-take-lead-climate-change


California to Trump: We’ll Fund Clean Energy If You Won’t. Amid
federal cuts, some state scientists and senators think California
should create an energy research effort similar to its breakaway
stem-cell initiative. In 2004, nearly 60 percent of California
voters approved a ballot measure that dedicated $3 billion to
embryonic-stem-cell research, in an act of democratic defiance
aimed at President George W. Bush’s earlier ban on federal
funding.
https://www.technologyreview.com/s/608083/california-to-trump-well-fund-clean-energy-if-you-wont/


Big Oil lauds Paris pullout but warns of rising seas, severe
storms. Fossil fuel companies are among the biggest supporters of
President Donald Trump’s decision to pull out of the Paris
climate accord. Yet federal documents reveal that some companies
are well aware of the severe risks of a warming planet. In
filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, several oil
and pipeline companies acknowledge that climate change…
https://www.revealnews.org/article/big-oil-lauds-paris-pullout-but-warns-of-rising-seas-severe-storms/


Miami Considers Converting Residential Land Into Floodwater
Parks. In order to mitigate the increased flooding risk in
Miami’s low-lying neighborhoods, scientists and government
officials in the Southeast Florida Regional Climate Change
Compact have considered converting developed residential land
back into natural spaces designed to hold floodwater.
http://www.builderonline.com/land/development/miami-considers-converting-residential-land-into-floodwater-parks_c


The three-minute story of 800,000 years of climate change with a
sting in the tail.There are those who say the climate has always
changed, and that carbon dioxide levels have always fluctuated.
That's true. But it's also true that since the industrial
revolution, CO₂ levels in the atmosphere have climbed to
levels that are unprecedented over hundreds of millennia. So
here's a short video we made, to put recent climate change and
carbon dioxide…
https://phys.org/news/2017-06-three-minute-story-years-climate-tail.html#jCp


Google can now map the air pollution levels of city roads: Firm
can pinpoint toxic hot spots in a bid to help commuters find a
healthier route. Google is now using its all-seeing Street View
vehicles to map the pollution levels of city roads.
The cars have been fitted with sensors to detect pollutants and
map a city's most toxic hot spots in a bid to help commuters find
a healthier route. The map reveals that levels of harmful
pollutants at junctions
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-4599902/Google-Street-View-maps-air-pollution-help-commuters.html#ixzz4jubMzI9D