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newsclips -- Newsclips for August 24, 2009
Posted: 24 Aug 2009 11:45:29
California Air Resources Board News Clips for August 24, 2009. 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. U.S. Needs Climate Law Before Copenhagen: Officials. Washington (Reuters) - The United States needs to have a climate change law in place before international talks on a climate pact begin in December, two top Obama administration officials said on Monday. The U.S. House of Representatives narrowly passed legislation in June to cut U.S. carbon emissions from utilities, manufacturers and others 17 percent below 2005 levels by 2020.The Senate is set to take up its own version of the bill in September when lawmakers return from their summer recess. Posted. http://www.reuters.com/article/GCA-GreenBusiness/idUSTRE57N3U220090824 Push For Tariff Provision In Climate Bill Causes Debate. Perrysburg, Ohio -- A group of Midwestern Democrats is pushing for tariffs on products from countries that don't limit greenhouse gas emissions, a controversial step the legislators say is needed to help American manufacturers survive expected emissions restrictions here. The Democrats say the measure would level the playing field for U.S. factories, which will likely face increased energy costs due to global warming legislation backed by the Obama administration. Posted. http://www.sacbee.com/702/v-print/story/2133567.html China Boosts Pollution Oversight. Beijing -- China said it will strengthen the ways it assesses the environmental impact of new projects, adding a continuing review to ensure they are on track or get revised if needed to comply with rules on limiting pollution. The State Council regulations, issued on the Web site of the central government over the weekend, gave information on changes that effect Oct. 1. From that date, environmental evaluations are required to be carried out before and after a project gets approved. Posted. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125106308865552125.html#printMode Waxman To Senate -- 'Get Your Act Together'. Climate policy heavyweights came out in force last week to drum up enthusiasm for the climate bill that passed the U.S. House in June and for California's role in national climate policy. Speaking at the University of California, Los Angeles, on Friday, Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), co-sponsor of the American Clean Energy and Security Act, said the specifics of H.R. 2454 are extremely open to negotiation. Posted. http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/print/2009/08/24/5 Oil Industry Details Costs of Climate Bill. Proposed federal legislation aimed at curbing global warming would drastically reduce domestic fuel production, according to a new study commissioned by the oil industry as part of its campaign to oppose new restrictions. The report's findings, which are expected to be released Monday, project that by 2030, U.S. refining production could drop 17% from today's levels if the climate bill is passed as currently proposed. Posted. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125108183527152913.html#printMode China Responds Better To Policy Shifts Than To Caps, Climate Group Says. Energy policies, not carbon caps, are ultimately what's most important for cutting carbon dioxide emissions in developing countries, an international climate group asserts. Clean technology policies can have significant effects on emissions from developing countries, even when no carbon cap is in place, said Mark Kenber, international policy director of the Climate Group. Posted. http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/print/2009/08/24/2 China Says Climate Talks Stymied By Political Interests – Report. Beijing - Little progress has been made so far on a new pact to combat global warming, with "commercial and political interests" continuing to prevail, China's senior climate change official said on Monday. Posted. http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2009/08/24/world/international-uk-china-climate-copenhagen.html How An Investors' Coalition Changes Corporate Climates. Investors hope they're about to reach a tipping point in their drive to get companies to consider climate change. Today, investor coalition Ceres will announce the results of its latest efforts to influence corporate actions on climate. Among its accomplishments: getting one company to scrap plans for a 1500-megawatt coal plant and persuading Chevron to set annual targets to reduce emissions. Posted. http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/print/2009/08/24/3 Lower Temperatures Grist For Global Warming Debate. Washington -- Has Earth's fever broken? Official government measurements show that the world's temperature has cooled a bit since reaching its most recent peak in 1998. That's given global warming skeptics new ammunition to attack the prevailing theory of climate change. The skeptics argue that the current stretch of slightly cooler temperatures means that costly measures to limit carbon dioxide emissions are ill-founded and unnecessary. Posted. http://www.modbee.com/politics/story/826907.html Agency Warns Current Climate Proposals Won't Work. Brussels -- Reversing global warming will cost up to $185 billion (euro130 billion) a year before 2020 and require more action by world governments than currently pledged, an international environmental analysis group said Thursday. ClimateWorks Foundation said U.N. climate change talks would fail to reach a meaningful agreement with the proposals made so far, and that a new approach was needed. Posted. http://www.modbee.com/world/story/823768.html Climate Change Campaign Creates Carbon Crimes. Amsterdam—Customs agents this week arrested nine people in the London area suspected of a multimillion dollar fraud in trading carbon permits, bringing attention to a rich new field for crime sprung from the fight against climate change. The arrest confirmed fears among law enforcement officers that swindlers—operating from the trading floors of Europe to the tropical forests of the Pacific—are being attracted to a market that has grown to more than $100 billion. Posted. http://www.contracostatimes.com/financialmarkets/ci_13177039 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/21/AR2009082101623.html http://www.modbee.com/business/story/825166.html Cleaning Up At The Ports Of Los Angeles And Long Beach. The friendly rivals are attracting, testing and funding cutting-edge technology to reduce emissions and fuel consumption. The ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach are so busy that they move more cargo than the next five largest U.S. ports combined. They're so efficient that they process more international trade in one month than most North American harbors handle in an entire year. Posted. http://www.latimes.com/news/science/environment/la-fi-cover-greenports23-2009aug23,0,1318904,print.story Experts: Water Issue Crucial In World Climate Deal. Stockholm—Thousands of scientists and experts urged world leaders Friday to include strategies for global water management in the planned Copenhagen climate agreement. Participants at the World Water Week conference said climate change will severely affect water supplies and poorer countries need support to help them adapt. Posted. http://www.contracostatimes.com/nationandworld/ci_13176246 http://www.modbee.com/world/story/824963.html Hybrids Getting Revved. "Experts" have long been saying the popularity of hybrid vehicles is waning, in parallel to lower gas prices. Say it ain't so? It ain't! The Hybrid Owners of America organization reported today that purchases of hybrids in July were up 35 percent from June numbers, and 31.8 percent from the year before. July sales also reached a record market share of 3.55 percent of new car sales. Posted. http://www.sacbee.com/702/v-print/story/2134049.html United States Becomes World Leader In Wind Power. Aggressive investments in 2008 helped the United States surpass Germany to become the world's leader in wind power, according to a report recently released by the U.S. Department of Energy. And for the fourth consecutive year, the United States is home to the fastest-growing wind power market in the world. Wind power capacity increased by 60 percent, or 8,558 megawatts, in 2008, representing $16.4 billion in federal and private investments in new wind projects. Posted. http://www.sacbee.com/702/v-print/story/2134071.html Shift To Wind Turbines Is Hardly A Breeze. A Michigan firm finds that converting from auto parts to a more green business is fraught with perils. Determined not to sink along with other links in the auto-supply chain, family-run Dowding Industries Inc. borrowed $12 million to leap into the "green" future and leave the dirty assembly line behind. Posted. http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-wind24-2009aug24,0,5701698,print.story Expanding A Network Of Ocean-Based CO2 Monitors. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is expanding an instrument network that will enable more extensive monitoring of when and where the ocean absorbs carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Oceans soak up about a quarter of the CO2 that humans now emit. That's enough carbon to every year fill up coal-carrying railroad cars that circle the Earth about 13 times, according to Chris Sabine, an oceanographer at NOAA's Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory. Posted. http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/print/2009/08/24/4 Bay Area Utility Turns Food Scraps Into Energy. Food waste from 2,300 restaurants ends up in a treatment facility where the food decomposes, creating methane gas that can be turned into renewable energy. Leftovers from San Francisco Bay Area restaurants may soon help power the region. The East Bay Municipal Utility District has created a program, believed to be the first of its kind in the nation, to generate electricity from the methane gas produced by food decomposition. Posted. http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-food-energy24-2009aug24,0,4258933,print.story Utilities, Groups At Odds Over Sources For Renewable Energy. California's electric utilities have accepted that they'll be required to get a third of their power from renewable sources by 2020. Now, they are battling environmental and labor groups over where it's going to come from. Utilities say they can't meet the 2020 goal unless the state allows them relatively free access to renewable power generated far beyond the state's borders, in places like Wyoming and British Columbia. Posted. http://www.sacbee.com/business/v-print/story/2133283.html Alternative Energy Powerhouse Brazil Finds Big Oil. Rio de Janeiro—Brazil, long proud of its push to develop renewable energy and wean itself off oil, has a bad case of fossil-fuel fever. An enormous offshore field in territorial waters—the biggest Western Hemisphere oil discovery in 30 years—has Brazilians saying, "Drill, baby, drill," while environmentalists fear the nation will take a big leap backward in its hunt for crude. Posted. http://www.contracostatimes.com/financialmarkets/ci_13189145 Group Wants Military Energy Offensive. Retired generals, admirals back new technologies for security's sake. A blue-ribbon panel of retired military leaders is pressing the Department of Defense to bolster its national-defense strategy by boosting energy conservation and embracing power sources other than fossil fuels. Posted. http://www3.signonsandiego.com/stories/2009/aug/21/group-wants-military-energy-offensive/?uniontrib SD Board Oks Air Quality Permit For Oil Refinery. Pierre, S.D.—A state board voted unanimously Thursday to approve an air quality permit for a $10 billion oil refinery that Hyperion Resources wants to build in southeastern South Dakota. The Board of Minerals and Environment found that Dallas-based Hyperion has met the requirements set in state laws and rules. It endorsed the state Environment Department's recommendation to issue the permit for the first new U.S. oil refinery built since 1976. Posted. http://www.contracostatimes.com/ci_13171311 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/20/AR2009082003789.html Central Figure In Amador County Environmental Case Collects $1.25 Million. It started with an $80 city demolition permit and the removal of an underground tank from a shuttered gas station. But what developed in the small Amador County town of Jackson was a massive environmental crimes investigation. The episode would span more than a decade, inflame talk radio, tarnish careers – and yield no criminal conviction. Posted. http://www.sacbee.com/378/v-print/story/2130267.html Opinion: The Cap-and-Trade Bait and Switch. The climate bill in Congress is not the market solution the president promised. As a candidate for president in April 2008, Barack Obama told Fox News that "a cap-and-trade system is a smarter way of controlling pollution" than "top-down" regulation. He was right. With cap and trade the market decides where and how to cut emissions. With top-down regulation, as Mr. Obama explained, regulators dictate "every single rule that a company has to abide by, which creates a lot of bureaucracy and red tape and often-times is less efficient." Posted. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203609204574314312524495276.html#printMode Editorial: A Real Fish Story. Here is an unusual fish story. And a positive one. On Thursday, Gary Locke, the secretary of commerce, approved a plan that would prohibit commercial fishing in a huge swath of American waters in the Arctic that have never been actively fished and that nobody is much interested in fishing now. That sounds odd, but it’s a smart move based on the assumption that the rapid melting of Arctic sea ice caused by climate change will someday make the area more accessible and commercially more attractive. Posted. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/24/opinion/24mon2.html?_r=2&ref=todayspaper&pagewanted=print Allergies: Time to Harvest Nuts Means More Dust In the Air. Since almonds and walnuts are in the top 13 profitable crops in Tulare County, it’s no surprise that there are groves everywhere. And since Visalia and its surrounding communities have grown, they’ve also grown around these trees. Which means that residents nearby have to contend with pollen in the spring, and dust from the fall harvest. For those who have allergies or asthma, the dust can be a health hazard. Posted. http://www.visaliatimesdelta.com/article/20090824/LIFESTYLE/90824002 Lead Poisoning Investigation Begins In China. Beijing—Health and environmental officials have been sent to central China to investigate who is responsible for pollution from a manganese processing plant that caused more than 1,300 children to become sickened with lead poisoning, a local government official said Monday. The poisoning near the Wugang Manganese Smelting Plant in Wenping township in Hunan province was the second such case involving a large number of children in the last month. Posted. http://www.contracostatimes.com/nationandworld/ci_13190588 Hope for Cap-and-Trade? Ironically, the difficulties of passing health-care reform may boost the chances that cap-and-trade legislation is revived and passed by the Senate. President Obama and Hill Democrats are going to need a major legislative victory and a way to change the subject. Posted. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/21/AR2009082102312.html A Farm on Every Floor. IF climate change and population growth progress at their current pace, in roughly 50 years farming as we know it will no longer exist. This means that the majority of people could soon be without enough food or water. But there is a solution that is surprisingly within reach: Move most farming into cities, and grow crops in tall, specially constructed buildings. It’s called vertical farming. Posted. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/24/opinion/24Despommier.html?_r=1&scp=8&sq=climate%20change&st=cse Defense Depot Just About Cleaned Up. A half-century ago, 150 drums of waste oil were tossed in a trench at what was then the Tracy Defense Depot. The environment, in those days, was an afterthought. Pesticides, battery acids, radioactive materials and even embalming fluids were dumped, buried or burned on site, explaining why the depot - like so many other military installations - is today among the nation's most polluted places. Posted. http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090824/A_NEWS/908240321 Beetles, Wildfire: Double Threat In Warming World. Haines Junction, Yukon Territory—A veil of smoke settled over the forest in the shadow of the St. Elias Mountains, in a wilderness whose spruce trees stood tall and gray, a deathly gray even in the greenest heart of a Yukon summer. "As far as the eye can see, it's all infested," forester Rob Legare said, looking out over the thick woods of the Alsek River valley. Posted. http://www.contracostatimes.com/nationandworld/ci_13190387 http://www.modbee.com/business/story/827097.html http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2009/08/23/science/AP-Climate-09-Beetles-and-Smoke.html Financing Options Revised For TRU ATCM Compliance. The California Air Resources Board (ARB) has revised the Financing Options list on the transport refrigeration unit (TRU) compliance assistance document titled Funding Opportunities for TRU ATCM Compliance. The revised document is posted at the TRU website at www.arb.ca.gov/diesel/tru.htm. Look for this document under the Compliance Assistance Contacts heading. Posted. http://refrigeratedtrans.com/2010-emissions/financing_options_revised_for_tru_atcm_compliance_0824/ Oakland Truckers Face Lengthy Process To Qualify For Retrofit Grants. Mamdoh Ibrahim applied in early June for grant money to install diesel filters on two trucks he owns and uses to haul cargo from the Port of Oakland. After more than two months, he's still waiting. Starting next year, all diesel trucks hauling cargo from the port — at least 2,000 of them, based on conservative estimates — must comply with state air regulations concerning diesel emissions or get locked out at the gate. Posted. http://www.insidebayarea.com/oaklandtribune/localnews/ci_13171133 http://www.contracostatimes.com/news/ci_13171133 San Jose City Officials To Consider Curb On Plastic Bags. San Jose officials will begin deciding this week whether to join some of the world's largest cities in banning the ever-useful but prodigiously polluting plastic bag. On Monday, a council committee will consider how to scale back San Jose's contribution to the 19 billion plastic bags California residents carry out of stores each year, according to state reports. Posted. http://www.insidebayarea.com/oaklandtribune/localnews/ci_13189879 Santa Cruz: Pristine Skies Returning After Lockheed Fire? Santa Cruz's oxygen-challenged air improved Saturday, just in time for the beach weekend, as exhausted crews drew close to containing the smoky Lockheed fire. With full containment expected today, soot levels should drop and skies should brighten — much to the relief of tourism officials. In terms of publicity, the nationally reported fire was about as desirable as a flurry of great white shark attacks. Posted. http://www.contracostatimes.com/health/ci_13186245 In Hot Water: World Sets Ocean Temperature Record. Washington—Steve Kramer spent an hour and a half swimming in the ocean Sunday—in Maine. The water temperature was 72 degrees—more like Ocean City, Md., this time of year. And Ocean City's water temp hit 88 degrees this week, toasty even by Miami Beach standards. Posted. http://www.contracostatimes.com/environment/ci_13168698 http://www.modbee.com/24hour/healthscience/story/823887.html Research Finds Higher Acidity In Alaska Waters. Anchorage, Alaska—Erosion threatens to topple coastal Alaskan villages. Melting ice threatens polar bears. Now, a marine scientist says the state's marine waters are turning acidic from absorbing greenhouse gases faster than tropical waters, potentially endangering Alaska's $4.6 billion fishing industry. Posted. http://www.contracostatimes.com/nationandworld/ci_13192135 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/24/AR2009082400438.html http://www.modbee.com/news/national/story/827674.html Local Harbors Going Greener. The ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach have become a magnet for the testing and development of technologies aimed at moving more cargo with less pollution. In the past two years, the ports and their partners have handed out nearly $40 million for the development of devices and systems, such as a pollution-reducing hood for a ship's smokestack, a Los Angeles newspaper reported. Posted. http://www.contracostatimes.com/california/ci_13190919 A Rail Boondoggle, Moving at High Speed. The Obama administration's enthusiasm for high-speed rail is a dispiriting example of government's inability to learn from past mistakes. Since 1971, the federal government has poured almost $35 billion in subsidies into Amtrak with few public benefits. Posted. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/23/AR2009082302037.html Winery Celebrates A Year As Green Business. Livermore Valley — Red and white aren't the only colors on the minds of Livermore winemakers Linda and Earl Ault, owners of Alameda County's only certified "green" winery. Friday marked the one-year anniversary of Cedar Mountain Winery's certification by the county's Green Business Program. Alameda County is home to about 450 certified green businesses. Posted. http://www.modbee.com/business/story/825959.html Water-Wise Tip: Washing Machines. With California suffering from drought conditions, the Contra Costa Water District offers weekly tips on using water wisely. When you save water, you also save energy. It takes energy to pump and treat water so more water saved means less energy used. Also, if you save hot water, you save a lot of the energy that goes into heating it. And when you save energy you reduce carbon emissions, a leading contributor to global climate change. Posted. http://www.contracostatimes.com/homeandgarden/ci_13180062 Blogs Urban Farming Back in Vogue. As economies around the world have faltered, abundant signs suggest growing interest among city dwellers in growing fresh produce and raising livestock. In Britain, the demand for plots of farmland on the outskirts of cities has been so strong that there are waiting lists in many places. Some seed companies have begun selling more products to grow vegetables than flowers. Posted. http://greeninc.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/08/24/urban-farming-back-in-vogue/?scp=5&sq=climate%20change&st=cse Buying Into the Health of the Planet. This month the health care debate seems to be sucking most of the oxygen out of the policy atmosphere. Meanwhile, we’re still emitting levels of carbon dioxide that threaten the long-run health of the planetary economy. The House of Representatives took historic action in June, approving the Waxman-Markey bill (officially titled the American Clean Energy and Security Act, or ACES) that would implement a “cap-and-trade” system of carbon-emissions permits, increasing the prices of carbon-based fuels to discourage their consumption. Posted. http://greeninc.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/08/24/buying-into-the-health-of-the-planet/ Future Shock: Refiners’ Visions of Doom. Forget The Road , Nine and The Book of Eli. This year’s scariest dystopian tale comes from U.S. refiners, who see the federal push to curb carbon emissions, scheduled to hit the Senate in September, as the beginning of the end. That’s the dire warning coming from a study commissioned by the American Petroleum Institute. The study is due for release on Monday; check back for a link when it’s available. Posted. http://blogs.wsj.com/environmentalcapital/2009/08/24/future-shock-refiners-visions-of-doom/tab/print/ "Cash For Clunkers": Did It Work? On the sidewalks of the far west side of Manhattan, two well-dressed car salesmen are taking a break. Have they noticed a difference in their business since the government's "cash for clunkers" program began in July? "Oh, yes," says one, waving his cigarette. "Totally," echoes his colleague, between drags. "There was nothing going on before, and now we're being run off our feet." Their bosses, who do not allow sales people to speak to reporters, would doubtless agree. Posted. http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2009/08/24/business/econwatch/entry5262084.shtml http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=112141127&ps=cprs Perspectives On The Future Of Ethanol. Since the farm gate blog was initiated in the late fall of 2005, ethanol has been one of the most powerful dynamics driving farm policy, economics, and marketing in the Cornbelt. On this 1,000th installment of the farm gate blog it is appropriate to take a closer look at how well ethanol is driving this bus and check the roadmap to see what hazards lie ahead. Posted. http://www.cattlenetwork.com/Perspectives-On-The-Future-Of-Ethanol/2009-08-24/Article.aspx?oid=828912&fid=CN-LATEST_NEWS_ What Are The Best Strategies For Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions In Transportation? As climate change legislation moves from the House to the Senate, the transportation sector -- which contributed 28 percent of all U.S. greenhouse gas emissions in 2007, according to EPA's latest inventory -- is being called upon to provide a substantial share of the reductions needed to meet the goal of slashing carbon emissions from major U.S. sources by 80 percent (compared to 2005 levels) by 2050. Posted. http://transportation.nationaljournal.com/2009/08/what-are-the-best-strategies-f.php?print=true Climate Study Projects Hotter Augusts for D.C. August in the Mid-Atlantic is notorious for its heat and humidity, which has long driven an annual exodus of official and unofficial Washington to cooler destinations. It's no accident; after all, that Congress takes the month of August - and not say October - off. According to a new analysis by the nonprofit organization Climate Central, by the middle of this century climate change is likely to make August in Washington significantly hotter and more uncomfortable, making the congressional schedule even more enviable. Posted. http://voices.washingtonpost.com/capitalweathergang/2009/08/think_august_is_hot_now_hotter.html?hpid=news-col-blog