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January 5th, 2010. California Air Resources Board News Clips for
January 5, 2010.

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.

Truckers Scramble To Qualify For $11 Million In New Grant Money
During Two-Week Reprieve. Hundreds of anxious truckers lined up
after work Monday to renew their grant applications for diesel
trucks and filters now that an extra $11 million has been found
to help them comply with new strict air regulations that took
effect Friday. More than 1,300 drivers who previously were denied
grants when a $22 million fund ran dry were given a two-week
extension to keep hauling cargo at the Port of Oakland while they
secure new grants and line up the extra financing needed to pay
for the equipment. Posted.
http://www.contracostatimes.com/news/ci_14121203?source=rss
http://www.insidebayarea.com/oaklandtribune/localnews/ci_14121203

Ports Celebrate Clean Truck Program Anniversary. Long Beach - A
steady stream of clean trucks has taken over local roadways
during the past year following a sweeping and controversial ban
on less environmentally friendly trucks by port authorities that
has spurred talk of a revolution within the trucking industry at
major ports across the country. Posted.
http://www.contracostatimes.com/california/ci_14121493

Air Board, Port Truckers Agree On Upgrading. A last-minute deal
between California air pollution regulators and Port of Oakland
truckers Monday will allow hundreds of big rigs to operate at the
port for two weeks while they work to meet stricter requirements
on diesel emissions that officially took effect for the new year
Friday. The truckers had planned a work stoppage at the Oakland
facility to protest regulations passed in 2007 that prohibit
large diesel trucks made before 1994 from operating at the
state's ports and rail yards and require pricey filters on trucks
made between 1994 and 2003. Posted.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/01/05/BAML1BDGHJ.DTL&type=printable

New Lawsuit Restarts Tug Of War Over Calif. Ports. Environmental
groups have sued to block an arrangement between the Port of Long
Beach, Calif., and the American Trucking Associations that ended
litigation last year over the port's clean trucks program and an
associated labor component. Attorneys at the Natural Resources
Defense Council and the Sierra Club last week moved to block the
agreement, calling it illegal under state and local law. In
briefs filed in California Superior Court for Los Angeles County,
the groups said the "backroom" deal would exclude the public and
short-circuit the environmental review. Posted.
http://www.eenews.net/Greenwire/2010/01/05/14/
On The Waterfront: Port Runs Into Legal Trouble on Clean Trucks
Enforcement. The Port of Long Beach just can't seem to get itself
out of legal jams these days. Weeks after approving a deal with
the trucking lobby over enforcement measures in its Clean Trucks
Plan, the port is being sued by a coalition of environmental and
community groups who believe the agreement violates local, state
and federal laws. Posted.
http://www.contracostatimes.com/california/ci_14121488 
Pot Shots Continue To Fly Over Port Programs. Pot shots over
port programs continue to fly, with the Natural Resources Defense
Council and the Sierra Club alleging in a lawsuit that the
American Trucking Associations and the Long Beach Harbor
Commission are reversing air clean-up efforts in a “backroom
agreement” and the ATA crying foul and saying the claims are
“baseless and inaccurate.” Posted.
http://www.thetrucker.com/News/Stories/2010/1/5/Potshotscontinuetoflyoverportprograms.aspx

Truckers Get Break From Rules. Hundreds of truckers who haul
goods at the Port of Oakland will be able to continue working
there for the next two weeks under an agreement that postpones
new pollution rules for them. The Oakland Mayor's Office helped
broker a deal Saturday that gives 1,300 truckers more time to
comply with stricter diesel emissions standards that went into
effect Jan. 1. Posted.
http://www.pressdemocrat.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100105/BUSINESS/1051022/1036&template=printart
http://www.modbee.com/state/story/994419.html 

Ethanol Group Sues California over Emission Standards. Ethanol
makers sued California over the state’s low-carbon fuel
standards, charging that the regulation will hurt the industry
and the nation’s need for more diversified transportation fuels,
Bloomberg News reported. Posted.
http://www.ttnews.com/articles/lmtbase.aspx?storyid=667

Happy New Smog Alert! Air quality officials declared the new
year's first "spare the air alert" for Tuesday, banning indoor
and outdoor fires throughout the Bay Area. "Wood smoke poses
serious health risks and is particularly harmful to children, the
elderly and those with respiratory problems," said Jack
Broadbent, executive officer of the Bay Area Air Quality
Management District. Posted.
http://www.contracostatimes.com/california/ci_14121622

Opinion: Smoke And Mirrors. A recent commentary by the Bay Area
Air Quality Management District claimed that wood fires are the
leading source of particulate matter pollution (size less than
2.5 micrometers) in the Bay Area. Posted.
http://www.contracostatimes.com/opinion/ci_14120680

San Rafael Remains In County Energy Alliance. The San Rafael
City Council signed off Monday night on countywide plans to go
into the energy business. The council unanimously reaffirmed its
participation in Marin Clean Energy, an initiative of the Marin
Energy Authority that would compete with Pacific Gas & Electric
Co. Mayor Al Boro recused himself, saying he owned stock in PG&E.
Posted. http://www.contracostatimes.com/news/ci_14123958

Trash To Gas: Landfill Energy Projects Increasing. Livermore,
Calif.—Hundreds of trash trucks across California are rumbling
down city streets using clean fuel made from a dirty source:
garbage. The fuel is derived from rotting refuse that San
Francisco and Oakland residents and businesses have been
discarding in the Altamont landfill since 1980. Posted.
http://www.contracostatimes.com/california/ci_14124816

C.I.A. Is Sharing Data With Climate Scientists. The nation’s top
scientists and spies are collaborating on an effort to use the
federal government’s intelligence assets — including spy
satellites and other classified sensors — to assess the hidden
complexities of environmental change. They seek insights from
natural phenomena like clouds and glaciers, deserts and tropical
forests. The collaboration restarts an effort the Bush
administration shut down and has the strong backing of the
director of the Central Intelligence Agency. Posted.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/05/science/earth/05satellite.html?pagewanted=print

Path From Climate Summit Unclear for Many. When presidents and
prime ministers departed the U.N. climate conference in
Copenhagen last month, they left behind a vast legal tangle that
experts have barely begun to unravel. A half-dozen edicts that
world leaders handed down -- dealing with everything from
verifying carbon emission cuts to mobilizing billions of dollars
for poor nations -- require formal enactment rulings from the
parties to the U.N. climate conference. Posted. 
http://www.nytimes.com/cwire/2010/01/04/04climatewire-path-from-climate-summit-unclear-for-many-3832.html

South Africa Wants To Cut Emissions, But Lacks Policies To Match
Its Rhetoric. Slashing emissions in coal-dominated South Africa
will require an overhaul of national policies as well as
significant funding, a new study finds. South Africa surprised
nations in the run-up to climate talks in Copenhagen last month
when it offered to curb the growth of carbon dioxide emissions 34
percent by 2020 and 42 percent by 2025 with financial support.
The goal, leaders said, would be to have the country's emissions
peak between those years and start to decline in absolute terms
by 2035. Posted.
http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/print/2010/01/05/1

Green Car Summit Coming to Capitol Hill. The Washington Auto
Show (WAS) and Green Car Journal will host the third annual Green
Car Summit(TM) on Monday, January 25, sharing important insights
from industry and environmental leaders including Stefan Jacoby,
CEO of Volkswagen Group of America, and Dr. Alan Lloyd, President
of the International Council on Clean Transportation. Dr. Lloyd
formerly served as Secretary of CalEPA and Chairman of the
California Air Resources Board. 
Posted.
http://www.foxbusiness.com/story/markets/industries/health-care/green-car-summit-coming-capitol-hill/#

EPA Report: Shipyard Project Minimizing Dust. For years, critics
of the plan to redevelop the Hunters Point Naval Shipyard have
said the project is kicking up toxic dust and causing residents
to have nosebleeds, headaches and other health problems. But a
draft of a federal report obtained by The Chronicle found the
project has effective safeguards in place to minimize asbestos
exposure. Posted.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/01/05/MNS91BDFIJ.DTL&type=printable

Another Spare The Air Day Called For Tuesday. Late nights and
early mornings are pretty cold in these parts lately, but burning
wood in a fireplace is not a heating option because a Spare The
Air Day has been called for Tuesday, banning people from burning
wood for heat indoors or outdoors unless that is your only heat
source. The alert for Napa County and the entire Bay Area is
being called by the Bay Area Air Quality Management District,
indicating air quality in the entire region should be unhealthy.
Posted.
http://www.napavalleyregister.com/articles/2010/01/05/news/local/doc4b42a414b7bb6035510065.prt

City Council To Consider Chico Wood-Burning Ban. Chico — The
Chico City Council will consider moving forward with a mandatory
no-wood-burning policy at tonight's meeting, a ban that could
potentially go into effect by November of this year. Following
the Butte County Air Quality Management District Board's failure
to pass a wood-burning ban in September, a resident came before
the City Council asking for a city ordinance restricting
wood-burning on certain winter days. Due to a high level of air
pollution linked to smoke from wood burning, the Air Quality
District was considering the ban in an effort to clean up Chico's
air during peak pollution times. Posted.
http://www.chicoer.com/news/ci_14124347?source=rv

New Plant Proposed In Calif. A Paris nuclear engineering firm
and a group of Central Valley investors announced last week they
hope to build one or two nuclear power plants near Fresno, Calif.
Environmentalists doubt that the agreement, which is expected to
be finalized in March, will lead to anything. California has a
30-year-old law banning the construction of nuclear power plants
unless the state can certify that the federal government has
devised a plan for the permanent storage of spent nuclear fuel.
Posted. http://www.eenews.net/Greenwire/print/2010/01/04/7

Greenhouse Gas Rules Would Be Mixed Bag For Microchip Makers.
Microchip makers such as Texas Instruments are among those with
the most to gain from regulations on greenhouse gas emissions,
but they are also among those with the most to lose. The company
expects that a cap-and-trade law or carbon tax would increase
demand for its microchips, used in products such as solar panels,
smart meters and energy-efficient household appliances. But the
process of manufacturing those chips also places Texas
Instruments among the nation's larger emitters of greenhouse
gases.
Posted. http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/print/2010/01/05/5

Western Lakes Warming Faster Than Atmosphere -- Study Several
large lakes in California and Nevada are warming about twice as
quickly as the surrounding air, according to a new NASA study,
suggesting that climate change could affect those marine
environments sooner and with greater impact. The study, by
researchers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena,
Calif., was based on 18 years of data from satellite sensors. The
lakes included in the study were California's Lake Tahoe, Clear
Lake, Lake Almanor and Mono Lake, as well as Nevada's Pyramid
Lake and Walker Lake. Posted.
http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/print/2010/01/05/6
BLOG
The Geology of Climate Change. By now I am sure it is obvious
from my last couple blogs and this one, I am working on a theme.
Physics, Chemistry and now the Geology of Climate Change. The not
so radical idea is that we might turn to these major scientific
organizations to see if they have released statements on the most
important issue to ever face the human race. And they have. And
if you study these, they all say the same thing. Posted.
http://blogs.redding.com/dcraig/archives/2010/01/the-geology-of.html

The Endangered Climate Act Of 2010. The Endangered Species Act,
as written and as restored by the Obama administration shortly
after coming in to office, effectively requires federal agencies
to study the effects of proposed projects on endangered species.
The administration is now poised to expand the National
Environmental Policy Act to require government agencies to
consider projects' effects on the climate. Posted.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/green/detail?&entry_id=54544