What's New List Serve Post Display

CARB Newsclips for June 15, 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 Large Spark-Ignition Engine Fleet Requirements Regulation
(LSI Regulation) requires specific equipment be initially
reported to the California Air Resources Board (CARB or Board) by
June 30, 2017 and labeled by July 30, 2017.  
The LSI Regulation reporting user guides, importing equipment
guides, the amended regulation language, and other useful LSI
regulation information are available at
https://www.arb.ca.gov/lsi  

___________________________


CAP AND TRADE

This is how an oil giant uses internal carbon pricing. Exxon
Mobil Corp.'s Kearl project in Alberta. It's unclear if the
company used an internal carbon price to analyze its climate
risks. Exxon Mobil. Exxon Mobil Corp. proprietary records laying
out a highly technical and advanced view of the company's climate
strategy have surfaced, and the company is upset they've been
made public. The files provide an unusually detailed window into
how Exxon thinks about climate change behind closed doors…
https://www.eenews.net/climatewire/2017/06/15/stories/1060056076


AIR POLLUTION

‘We can smell it’: Frustrated Paramount parents still worry about
odors, toxic emissions. Keep at it. That’s the message Paramount
residents have for air officials who have intermittently shut
down two metal forging facilities for releasing a cancer-causing
substance. And this week the South Coast Air Quality Management
District announced it will be going after another metal-related
business that received 190 odor complaints since December.
http://www.presstelegram.com/health/20170614/we-can-smell-it-frustrated-paramount-parents-still-worry-about-odors-toxic-emissions


From Uber drivers to Zuckerberg’s security officers, Palo Alto
has an idling problem. What do Mark Zuckerberg’s private security
officers and drivers of school buses, Uber cars and the many
construction vehicles sitting curbside on Palo Alto’s streets
have in common? They’re all idlers — of parked vehicles. And to
the dismay of many city residents, their idling vehicles spew
pollutants into the air that could harm people and the
environment.
http://www.mercurynews.com/2017/06/15/from-uber-drivers-to-zuckerbergs-security-officers-palo-alto-has-an-idling-problem/


Air Pollution From Wildfires Much Worse Than Previous Estimates.
Particle pollution from wildfires, long known for containing soot
and other fine particles known to be dangerous to human health,
is much worse than previously thought, a new study shows.
Naturally burning timber and brush from wildfires release
dangerous particles into the air at a rate three times as high as
levels known by the EPA…
http://www.capradio.org/articles/2017/06/15/air-pollution-from-wildfires-much-worse-than-previous-estimates/


App for Air Pollution Could Be Coming to Your City. Air pollution
is typically seen as a problem that affects entire cities or
regions. But a new study shows that air quality can vary
tremendously within a city — even block by block. The unexpected
finding suggests that it might be possible for local authorities
to pinpoint pollution hot spots that would otherwise go
undetected — and help citizens avoid living in or traveling
through those areas.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/app-for-air-pollution-could-be-coming-to-your-city/ar-BBCHI0V


Air pollution plan 'unfair' on local authorities. The UK
government is abdicating its responsibilities and "unfairly
shifting the burden" of dealing with dirty air on to local
authorities, says an industry body. The Chartered Institute of
Environmental Health outlined its views in response to the
government's consultation on air pollution. Under pressure from
the courts, an outline plan was published last month. A detailed
scheme must be in place by the end of July.
http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-40274238 

Air Pollution Effects On Humans: Wildfire Smoke More Hazardous
Than Thought. Scientists have flown through wildfires to learn
more about the air pollution they produce, and the news is worse
than expected. The emissions of fine particles when timber and
brush burn are three times higher than the U.S.  Environmental
Protection Agency has estimated…
http://www.ibtimes.com/air-pollution-effects-humans-wildfire-smoke-more-hazardous-thought-2552757


Summer Wildfires Produce More Air Pollution than Previously
Thought. Naturally burning timber and brush launch what are
called fine particles into the air at a rate three times as high
as levels noted in emissions inventories at the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency, according to a new study.
http://www.azocleantech.com/news.aspx?newsID=24133 

CLIMATE CHANGE

Swedish pension fund sells out of six firms it says breach Paris
climate deal. Sweden's largest national pension fund, AP7, has
sold its investments in six companies that it says violate the
Paris climate agreement, a decision environmentalists believe is
the first of its kind. AP7, which provides pensions to 3.5
million Swedes, said on Thursday it had sold out of ExxonMobil
(XOM.N), Gazprom (GAZP.MM), TransCanada Corp (TRP.TO…
http://in.reuters.com/article/us-climatechange-investment-sweden-idINKBN1962CC

Energy Department Closes Office Working on Climate Change Abroad.
The Energy Department is closing an office that works with other
countries to develop clean energy technology, another sign of the
Trump administration’s retreat on climate-related activities
after its withdrawal from the Paris agreement this month. The 11
staff members of the Office of International Climate and
Technology…
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/15/climate/energy-department-closes-office-working-on-climate-change-abroad.html?ref=energy-environment&_r=0

The Dutch Have Solutions to Rising Seas. The World Is Watching.
The wind over the canal stirred up whitecaps and rattled cafe
umbrellas. Rowers strained toward a finish line and spectators
hugged the shore. Henk Ovink, hawkish, wiry, head shaved, watched
from a V.I.P. deck, one eye on the boats, the other, as usual, on
his phone.
Mr. Ovink is the country’s globe-trotting salesman in chief for
Dutch expertise on rising water and climate change.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/06/15/world/europe/climate-change-rotterdam.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fclimate&_r=1


Host of next United Nations climate conference turns to
California in the global warming battle. As the president of this
year’s United Nations conference on climate change, Fiji’s prime
minister is responsible for rallying countries to battle global
warming. But on Tuesday, that effort drew him not to a national
capital but to Sacramento, where he endorsed Gov. Jerry Brown’s
ambitious plans on climate change. Prime Minister of Fiji Frank
Bainimarama signed an international agreement that California has
spearheaded with states and provinces…
http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-pol-sac-california-fiji-climate-20170613-story.html
 

Trump's EPA wants to focus on Superfund cleanups. Will its plans
take climate change into account? he pioneers who built Seattle
polluted and plumbed the lower Duwamish River for a century,
straightening its wild curves and saturating its sediment with
toxic chemicals from an asphalt plant, Boeing manufacturing
facilities and other industries.
http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-epa-superfund-20170614-story.html


El Niño helped melt Antarctic ice sheet twice as big as
California. The El Niño that caused huge beach erosion on the
West Coast in 2015-16 also help cause an ice sheet twice the size
of California to melt in the Antarctic, the Scripps Institution
of Oceanography said in a paper released Thursday in the journal
Nature Communications.
http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/science/sd-me-elnino-antarctic-20170615-story.html


What Ice Age Fossils Can Teach Us About Climate Change Today.
Scientists have drawn a new road map for ocean temperatures and
carbon dioxide that could help predict coming climate changes,
and they did it using data on what happened in Earth’s seas
during the last ice age. It’s hard to look into the past and see
how warm or cold the ocean surface was, but fossils held the
answer for the researchers.
http://www.ibtimes.com/what-ice-age-fossils-can-teach-us-about-climate-change-today-2552241


Pruitt to be challenged on climate and regional programs. Climate
change is unlikely to be a primary focus today as U.S. EPA
Administrator Scott Pruitt takes the stand to defend his agency's
proposed budget, despite the Trump administration's efforts to
cut climate funding. "Top priority is how, with a 30 percent cut,
EPA will function to fulfill its mission,"…
https://www.eenews.net/climatewire/2017/06/15/stories/1060056075


DIESEL ACTIVITIES

How air quality advocates are trying to win over truck drivers...
again. Long Beach Harbor Commissioner Rich Dines was standing in
front of a group of 25 or so skeptical truck drivers, doing his
best to convince them to try low emission trucks... again.
He was speaking at a workshop sponsored by the natural gas
vehicle industry, and all day long, the drivers had been hearing
that they should give the natural gas trucks, which many of them
loathed, a second chance.
http://www.scpr.org/news/2017/06/14/72874/how-air-quality-advocates-are-trying-to-win-over-t/


FUELS

Enviros eye multiple legal battles as Trump admin freezes regs.
The Trump administration will likely end up in court defending
recent decisions to postpone Obama-era requirements for slashing
greenhouse gas emissions from the oil and gas industry.
In a one-two punch this week, U.S. EPA and the Interior
Department announced delays to separate regulations designed to
reduce the amount of heat-trapping methane released…
https://www.eenews.net/energywire/2017/06/15/stories/1060056068

VEHICLES

SDG&E hands out $200 credits for owners of electric vehicles.
Nearly 7,000 San Diego Gas & Electric customers who own or lease
clean-energy vehicles will soon receive a $200 credit on their
residential utility bills. The credits are part of the California
Air Resources Board’s efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions
and will go to customers who enrolled in the Electric Vehicle
Climate Credit Program by the May 31 deadline.
http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/business/energy-green/sd-fi-electricvehicle-credit-20170614-story.html


VW RECALL

California story: Tracking down VW fraud. The California Air
Resources Board’s aggressive questioning of Volkswagen about
emission test results led to the company admitting in 2015 that
it used a “defeat device” designed to cover up diesel emissions
that greatly exceeded legal limits. The massive fraud case
ultimately included a $14.7 billion settlement in 2016, $4.7
billion in civil and criminal fines and an executive-level
shakeup.
http://capitolweekly.net/california-tracking-down-vw-fraud/  

GREEN ENERGY

Support for clean energy driven by economics — report. Demand for
clean energy is no longer a political issue — it's an economic
one. That's the conclusion drawn by Deloitte in its annual report
on global energy trends. The report, which was released
yesterday, found increased support for renewable energy last year
among both consumers and businesses. And it attributed this
support to declining costs across the renewables sector…
https://www.eenews.net/energywire/2017/06/15/stories/1060056066

Renewable Energy Record Set in U.S. The U.S. set a new renewable
energy milestone in March, in data released Wednesday. For the
first time, wind and solar accounted for 10 percent of all
electricity generation, with wind comprising 8 percent and solar
coming in at 2 percent.The report was published by the U.S.
Energy Information Administration(EIA), which collects and
disseminates environmental data that is used to inform
policymakers.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2017/06/solar-wind-renewable-energy-record/

OPINIONS

If McAuliffe wants to lead on climate change, he should stop
supporting pipelines. Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe’s (D) June 11
Local Opinions essay, “Why Virginia acted on climate change,”
promoted a positive agenda for cooperative, progressive energy
policies but omitted his hypocritical and dangerous support of
the Atlantic Coast Pipeline and Mountain Valley Pipeline
projects.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/if-mcauliffe-wants-to-lead-on-climate-change-he-should-stop-supporting-pipelines/2017/06/14/6c5abc5e-5053-11e7-b74e-0d2785d3083d_story.html?utm_term=.efac257d3eb7

Trump's planned EPA cuts will hit America's most vulnerable. The
Trump administration is using a deliberate and systematic
approach to undermine, weaken and disempower America’s most
vulnerable communities. The Environmental Protection Agency’s
proposed budget cuts are a clear-cut example of this attack. The
cuts will gravely reduce the ability to enhance communities
across the United States…
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/jun/15/trumps-planned-epa-cuts-americas-most-vulnerable
 

Op-ed: Air pollution is bad for business. Since taking office,
President Donald Trump and his Environmental Protection Agency
chief, Scott Pruitt, have been busy waging a “breathtaking”
(literally) war on environmental regulations. Here are just a few
of the highlights: America’s U.N. climate commitment — broken.
EPA budget — butchered. Ozone standard — delayed. Protection of
waterways…
http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865682969/Op-ed-Air-pollution-is-not-only-a-health-liability-but-also-an-economic-liability.html


OIRA works quietly on updating social cost of carbon. Not far
from the White House, some of the federal government's most
influential number crunchers are still working on the social cost
of carbon. President Trump's executive order on energy
independence effectively signaled "pencils down" on federal work
to estimate the monetary damage of greenhouse gas emissions,
disbanding the interagency working group…
https://www.eenews.net/greenwire/2017/06/15/stories/1060056112 

BLOGS

Cities fight climate change through ecosystem restoration.
Flooding and extreme heat are projected to increase over the next
few decades and will be extremely costly for cities to manage.
But a new study from Simon Fraser University shows how cities
working together to restore and maintain ecosystems can be
cheaper than building hard infrastructure to respond to climate
change…
https://phys.org/news/2017-06-cities-climate-ecosystem.html#jCp 

How Will Climate Change Affect the California Current Upwelling?
The results of new simulations that account for internal climate
variability contrast with previous projections of how this vital
West Coast current will respond to anthropogenic warming. From
southern British Columbia to Baja California, the California
Current transports cold water southward for 3000 kilometers along
North America’s West Coast.
https://eos.org/research-spotlights/how-will-climate-change-affect-the-california-current-upwelling


Chad is the country most vulnerable to climate change – here’s
why. Poverty and conflict mean the nation is struggling to deal
with rising temperatures. Of the 186 countries assessed in a
recent survey of climate vulnerability, Chad was rated most in
peril. A combination of high poverty, frequent conflicts, and the
risk of both droughts and floods means the central African nation
is bottom of the list…
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/chad-is-the-country-most-vulnerable-to-climate-change-here-s-why-a7785246.html


States and industries face more climate court action. Governments
that make promises they do not keep to cut greenhouse gases or to
protect their citizens against climate change are finding
themselves more frequently facing climate court action by their
own citizens. According to a UN environment (the United Nations
Environment Programme, UNEP) report, climate change cases have
been filed in 24 countries – with the US…
http://climatenewsnetwork.net/states-and-industry-face-more-climate-court-action/


Climate change: Could melting Antarctic ice actually help to
combat it? A team of scientists has found evidence that ancient
volcanoes in Antarctica played a role in global climate and could
help combat climate change now. A study, published in the
journal, Nature Communications, explains how the chance discovery
of a calcite crust in Antarctica, confirmed the region was
subject to volcanic activity 24,000 years ago.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-06-15/climate-change-antarctic-volcanoes-shed-new-light/8619574


The Colorado River is shrinking because of climate change. The
nation’s two largest reservoirs, Lake Mead on the Arizona/Nevada
border and Lake Powell on the Arizona/Utah border, were brim full
in the year 2000. Four short years later, they had lost enough
water to supply California its legally apportioned share of
Colorado River water for more than five years. Now, 17 years
later, they still have not recovered.
http://www.hcn.org/articles/colorado-river-shrinking-climate-change-drought


The great myth of the global warming ‘pause’. While sceptics
obsess over a global-warming hiatus, the sea gets steadily
hotter. Readers of The Spectator will be familiar with the
argument that climate change, like Britpop, ended in 1998. Raised
on a diet of Matt Ridley and James Delingpole, you may have
convinced yourself that climate scientists…
https://www.spectator.co.uk/2017/06/the-great-myth-of-the-global-warming-pause/#