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California Air Resources Board News Clips for January 7, 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.

California Air Board, Port Truckers Strike Deal on Diesel
Emissions Rules. Averting a possible shutdown, the California Air
Resources Board (CARB) and Port of Oakland truckers agreed to a
last-minute deal that included additional funding to help the
truckers comply with stricter requirements on diesel emissions
that officially took effect on Jan. 1 and a deadline extension
that allow hundreds of big rigs to operate at the port for two
weeks while they work to meet the new regulations, reports the
San Francisco Chronicle. Posted.
http://www.environmentalleader.com/2010/01/07/california-air-board-port-truckers-strike-deal-on-diesel-emissions-rules/


EPA Replacing Bush Smog Limit With Stricter Rule. The
Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday proposed stricter
health standards for smog, replacing a Bush-era limit that ran
counter to scientific recommendations. The new limits -- which
are presented as a range -- will likely put hundreds more
counties nationwide in violation, a designation that will require
them to find additional ways to clamp down on pollution or face
government sanctions, most likely the loss of federal highway
dollars. Posted.
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2010/01/07/us/politics/AP-US-EPA-Smog.html
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/07/AR2010010701926.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/08/science/earth/08smog.html
http://www.eenews.net/Greenwire/2010/01/07/1
http://www.contracostatimes.com/environment/ci_14141322

Does Your Money Manager Worry About Climate Change Risk? The
odds are 50-50. Most money managers overseeing trillions of
dollars in investments are ignoring many risks that climate
change poses to the assets they operate for corporations,
governments and other institutions, according to a new analysis.
Nearly half of the asset managers surveyed, or 44 percent, said
they don't consider emerging climate risks a financial threat to
their clients' money. Posted.
http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/print/2010/01/07/1
http://www.nytimes.com/cwire/2010/01/07/07climatewire-does-your-money-manager-worry-about-climate-25295.html

Global Climate Funding Remains Undefined – Clinton. America's
contribution to $100 billion in annual global climate change
funding by 2020 may not be over and above existing foreign aid,
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton indicated yesterday.
The promised money -- which Clinton announced at the U.N. climate
summit in Denmark last month and pledged the United States would
take a lead role in mobilizing -- was a key element in the final
global warming accord that world leaders approved. Posted.
http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/print/2010/01/07/5

India to Combat Climate Change Without Waiting for Funds. India
will go ahead with its plans to combat climate change without
waiting for global finance as nations prepare for fresh talks
after failing to agree on a binding global treaty at Copenhagen
last month. “We’ve got to do what we’ve got to do,” Jairam
Ramesh, environment minister in the world’s fourth-biggest
polluter from burning fossil fuels, said in an interview in New
Delhi today. Posted.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601091&sid=aJPeXhdTRfdc#

Google Sets Sights On Interstate Power Market. Google Energy
wants to get into the business of interstate power trading as
part of a quest to become carbon neutral and to control the costs
of operating giant data hubs across the country. The Internet
behemoth in late December requested permission from the Federal
Energy Regulatory Commission to sell wholesale electric power at
market-based rates. Google said it plans to operate in the
nation's organized power markets by purchasing electricity and
reselling it to wholesale customers. In doing so, it can manage
its electricity costs on a grand scale. Posted.
http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/2010/01/07/3

Upside Of A Recession. Don’t let naysayers complain about the
slump! Why such negative press for the recession? Except for the
15.4 million Americans unemployed—up from 7.5 million two years
ago—and the 7.1 million properties foreclosed since January 2008,
the recession has done a ton of positive stuff. The recession is
good for the environment. It must be, because the California Air
Resources Board said so at a seven-hour hearing on diesel
emissions standards in early December. Posted.
http://www.newsreview.com/sacramento/PrintFriendly?oid=1348166

EPA Enforcement-Related Penalties Plummeted in Fiscal 2009. U.S.
EPA during the first year of the Obama administration saw deep
declines in the amount of penalties assessed against polluters
and pounds of pollution slashed through enforcement activities
compared with the previous year, according to data released by
the agency last month. In fiscal 2009, EPA enforcement required
polluters to invest more than $5 billion on cleanup and emission
controls, a drop from about $11.8 billion the previous year.
Posted.
http://www.nytimes.com/gwire/2010/01/05/05greenwire-epa-enforcement-related-penalties-plummeted-in-83306.html?pagewanted=print

NRDC Sues Long Beach CA to Overturn Port Settlement. The Natural
Resources Defense Council (NRDC) announced it was filing suit
against the City of Long Beach CA to overturn a settlement with
the American Trucking Associations (ATA) that ended litigation
over the Port of Long Beach truck concession plan. Long Beach
settled the lawsuit after the US District Court of Appeals
declared the concession plan illegal. Posted.
http://bulktransporter.com/management/shippers/nrdc-sues-long-beach-0106/


What's Behind The Trash-To-Gas Fad? 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.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/01/06/tech/main6064003.shtml


Study: U.S. Biofuels Policies Flawed. The federal government’s
push to promote ethanol to diversify the country’s energy sources
and increase energy security is a waste of taxpayers’ dollars,
according to a new policy paper by Rice University’s Baker
Institute for Public Policy that was supported by a research
grant from Chevron Technology. Posted.
http://sacramento.bizjournals.com/sacramento/stories/2010/01/04/daily51.html


Scientists Find Dramatic Increase In Arctic Leakage. Methane
release from the Arctic seabed is higher than expected,
scientists say. Researchers from the University of Alaska,
Fairbanks, reported that methane seepage from the East Siberian
Shelf "looks stronger than it was supposed [to be]," between 100
and 1,000 times higher than normal background levels. High
concentrations of the gas contribute to rising temperatures, and
a rapid rise in atmospheric methane in the past may have led to
the mass extinction of species. Posted.
http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/print/2010/01/07/7

UCSB Professors Disappointed By Climate Change Gathering.
Although there was little consensus among the countries that
attended the United Nations Climate Change Conference in
Copenhagen last month, four UC Santa Barbara environmental
professors who attended were in agreement that the gathering was
a disappointment at best, and a failure at worst. Posted.
http://www.vcstar.com/news/2010/jan/06/ucsb-professors-disappointed-by-climate-change/


Report Takes Aim At U.S. Ethanol Policy. The federal biofuels
policy is expensive, ineffective from an energy security
standpoint and environmentally damaging, according to a think
tank policy study that urges Congress to revise ethanol targets
to more "achievable" levels. The study, published by the James A.
Baker III Institute for Public Policy at Rice University, focuses
primarily on corn-based ethanol and cites a host of problems with
current production models. Posted.
http://www.eenews.net/Greenwire/2010/01/07/7

Air Board Puts Off Vote On Groundbreaking Development
Guidelines. The Bay Area's air pollution board decided Wednesday
to wait three months before voting on cutting-edge development
review guidelines to limit global warming gases and toxic air
pollution. The guidelines — the first of their kind in the nation
— are so complex and far-reaching that the public as well as city
and county officials need more time to study them, members of the
Bay Area Air Quality Management District board agreed. Posted.
http://www.insidebayarea.com/oaklandtribune/localnews/ci_14135362
http://www.contracostatimes.com/news/ci_14139939?nclick_check=1

'Frozen Gore' Sculpture Fuels Debate In Alaska. Fairbanks,
Alaska—Another two-ton ice sculpture of former Vice President Al
Gore is back in front of a Fairbanks liquor store. "Frozen Gore"
is a dig at Gore's beliefs about climate change. The first statue
went on display last year. This year's version is hooked up to
the exhaust of a pickup truck to make it appear Gore is spouting
hot air. Posted.
http://www.insidebayarea.com/celebrities/ci_14133515

Experts: Cold Snap Doesn't Disprove Global Warming. Beijing had
its coldest morning in almost 40 years and its biggest snowfall
since 1951. Britain is suffering through its longest cold snap
since 1981. And freezing weather is gripping the Deep South,
including Florida's orange groves and beaches. Posted.
http://www.contracostatimes.com/science/ci_14135042

Harris: Startup Gets Funding For New Kind Of Wind Turbine. A
drive through Altamont Pass, where one of the world's largest
wind farms sprouted in the 1980s, is a consistent source of
wonder. The sight of nearly 5,000 wind turbines still seems like
an otherworldly invasion of robots performing an oddly static
technological ballet. Posted.
http://www.contracostatimes.com/columns/ci_14136302

Arlington Task Force Will Develop A Plan To Create An
Energy-Efficient Community. Arlington County's new Community
Energy and Sustainability Task Force will tackle how to reduce
Arlington's carbon footprint through county, state and federal
actions, but individuals also have work to do. Posted.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/06/AR2010010601450.html

'Intense Immersion in Climate Science'. Among the thousands of
people who participated in last month's United Nations climate
change conference in Copenhagen was a Cherry Valley resident.
Posted.
http://www.pe.com/localnews/inland/stories/PE_News_Local_E_ewood07.46ba754.html


Enviro Group Plans Senate Call-In on Climate Bill. An
environmental group today announced plans to flood Senate offices
with calls urging action on climate legislation. 1Sky asked
supporters to sign up for the Jan. 12 effort. "Our path forward
in 2010 is very clear -- we must show the U.S. Senate that public
support exists to pass climate legislation for green jobs, the
climate, and our future," 1Sky said on its Web site page
regarding the call-in. Posted.
http://www.nytimes.com/gwire/2010/01/06/06greenwire-enviro-group-plans-senate-call-in-on-climate-b-46668.html

Whatever Happened To Global Warming? Beijing had its coldest
morning in almost 40 years and its biggest snowfall since 1951.
Britain is suffering through its longest cold snap since 1981.
And freezing weather is gripping the Deep South, including
Florida's orange groves and beaches. 
Whatever happened to global warming? Posted.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/01/07/tech/main6067800.shtml
 
Liberals Have No Shame. The San Jose Mercury News editorial,
which appeared in The Reporter ("Obama must lead cap, trade law
effort," Jan. 5), is a prime example of the unmitigated arrogance
of the liberal left and the government in this country. Liberals
have no shame. Their masthead of climate change, the East Anglia
Climate Research Unit, has been shown to be an outright fraud.
Their response: "The data was bit off but the science was
correct." Posted. http://www.thereporter.com/opinion/ci_14139914

Cities Want Input On Mandatory Recycling. Two San Mateo County
cities are asking commercial businesses how best to craft a
mandatory recycling ordinance in hopes of getting ahead of state
requirements that could begin as early as this year. Both San
Mateo and San Carlos kicked off a pilot project last summer to
introduce the idea of mandatory commercial recycling and are
ready now to move it toward permanence. Posted.
http://www.smdailyjournal.com/article_preview.php?id=122404

Op-Ed: Killian's City Hall Round Up. On Tuesday, the Oakland
City Council convened this week for the first meeting of 2010. 
It was a full agenda of issues.  One of the more pressing issues
is the Oakland Port truckers’ compliance with the rules from the
California Air Resources Board. The state has mandated that
diesel trucks built prior to 1994 must be replaced.  Trucks built
after 1994 must have a soot scrubbing filter to reduce emissions.
 Posted.
http://www.theoakbook.com/MoreDetail.aspx?Aid=3633&CatId=8

BLOGS

Q&A: Google’s Green Energy Czar. As Google’s resident “green
energy czar,” Bill Weihl is charged with pursuing the company’s
stated goal of making renewable energy, through a mix of internal
research and external investments, cheaper than coal. Since 2007,
Google has invested more than $45 million toward that end.
Posted.
http://greeninc.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/01/07/qa-googles-green-energy-czar/


Warming Goes Global. While we've been hearing about Global
Warming for decades, its "globalness" has been debated. Some have
argued that one continent--Antarctica--did not seem to be warming
like the rest of the planet. That all changed last year with two
new reports. Posted.
http://blogs.redding.com/dcraig/archives/2010/01/warming-goes-gl.html

Carbon Market Grew as Prices Fell in 2009. In spite of the
global economic slowdown, the market for trading carbon dioxide
jumped by 68 percent last year compared with the previous year,
but the value of the market remained roughly unchanged after
carbon prices fell. Posted.
http://greeninc.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/01/07/carbon-market-grew-as-prices-fell-in-2009/


You Probably Won’t Hear Much About This Global Warming News. The
theory - unproven and contrived as it is - of catastrophic
manmade global warming all hinges on the supposed evils of CO2
building up in the atmosphere to a point that heats the earth
like a pressure cooker. Unfortunately, the theory assumes - among
other unwarranted assumptions - that CO2 builds up in the
atmosphere. Posted.
http://orangepunch.freedomblogging.com/2010/01/06/you-probably-wont-hear-much-about-this-global-warming-news/15639/