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newsclips -- Newsclips for January 21, 2010
Posted: 21 Jan 2010 11:58:39
California Air Resources Board News Clips for January 21, 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. Calif. Supreme Court Upholds Development Emissions Rule. San Francisco -- The California Supreme Court declined to hear an industry group's challenge to the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District's indirect-source emission rules. The California Building Industry Association had disputed the district's right to impose fees if developers failed to mitigate their projects' air pollution. The rules govern nitrogen oxides and particulate matter generated by new development. Mitigation measures include developing closer to transit stops, including bike paths, or increasing buildings' energy efficiency. Posted. http://www.eenews.net/Greenwire/print/2010/01/21/17 Calif. Backs Off Threat To Fuel Rules. Board says it's committed to 35.5 m.p.g. Washington -- California officials backed away Wednesday from a threat to scuttle a compromise on national fuel economy standards if the Obama administration didn't make two changes to federal rules. In a statement on the California Air Resources Board's Web site, its chairwoman Mary Nichols said the agency was "fully committed" to the national plan for a 35.5 m.p.g. average by 2016. Posted. http://www.freep.com/article/20100121/BUSINESS01/1210434/1322/Calif.-backs-off-threat-to-fuel-rules http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN2018241920100121?type=marketsNews **U.S. Vote Dims Hopes For Stronger World Climate Pact. Singapore/Oslo - Hopes for stronger world action in 2010 to curb climate change have dimmed after the U.S. Democrats lost a key Senate seat to a Republican opposed to capping emissions, experts said on Wednesday. The election of Republican Scott Brown, an opponent of cap and trade, to the Senate after the death of Democrat Edward Kennedy dims prospects for U.S. action. Once Brown takes office, Democrats will have 59 seats in the Senate and the Republicans 41. Posted. (Complete story at end of page) http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE60J3N920100120 Brown Is A 'Blank Slate' On Climate, Drawing Concern And Optimism. Massachusetts Senator-elect Scott Brown has taken largely a back-seat role in his state's energy and climate debates but supported key environmental initiatives when voting in the Legislature, according to state officials, environmental advocates and state records. The Republican state senator who won a special election Tuesday was not heavily involved in Massachusetts issues related to renewable power, energy efficiency, greenhouse gases or other high-profile energy topics as part of a state Legislature that passed a major global warming bill in 2008, several sources said. Posted. http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/print/2010/01/21/1 Chu Defends Slow Pace Of 'Green' Stimulus. Federal funds have been slow to filter down to states and local agencies, Energy Secretary Steven Chu acknowledged yesterday. Speaking to the U.S. Conference of Mayors in Washington, D.C., Chu assured the about 250 local leaders that federal stimulus dollars will reach their targets. But, he said, mayors must ensure that the investments turn into jobs. "The federal government follows in your footsteps," Chu said. Chu also called for greater investment in research and development. Posted. http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/print/2010/01/21/7 Calif.'S 'Cool Car' Rule Could Inhibit Cell Signals. A rule currently being prepared by the California Air Resources Board to limit the solar heat that streams into cars could have the side effect of reducing the quality of cell phone signals, a trade group representing the nation's largest wireless carriers says. California's "cool cars" regulation, which could lower air conditioning use and therefore reduce CO2 emissions, "significantly and negatively affects wireless device and network performance in a number of situations, ….Posted. http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/print/2010/01/21/8 Port Of Oakland Trucker Strike Averted. Dellums tells drivers aid may be coming. Oakland — A planned strike Wednesday by frustrated Port of Oakland truckers was narrowly averted when Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums appealed to the drivers for patience. The Northern California Rail and Port Truckers Association had called for the work stoppage after hundreds of drivers were prevented from entering the port's marine terminals Tuesday, the deadline to comply with new state air-quality rules. Posted. http://www.insidebayarea.com/oaklandtribune/localnews/ci_14233580 Oakland Gate Operations Improve Wednesday. Second day of clean-truck program runs smoother. Gate operations at Oakland marine terminals were smoother Wednesday as the port's clean-truck program entered its second day. "There were a lot fewer problems at the marine terminals and diagnostic center," said Bruce Wargo, speaking for the Oakland Marine Terminal Operators Association. Terminal operators turned back a number of trucks on Tuesday when the port began enforcing a ban on pre-1994 trucks. Posted. http://www.joc.com/print/416156 Copenhagen’s Climate Deal Is at Risk, a U.N. Official Says. Washington — Just a month after world leaders fashioned a tentative and nonbinding agreement at the climate change summit meeting in Copenhagen, the deal already appears at risk of coming undone, the top United Nations climate official warned on Wednesday. Facing a Jan. 31 deadline, major countries have yet to submit their plans for reducing emissions of climate-altering gases, …. Posted. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/21/science/earth/21climate.html?pagewanted=print UPS Deploys Natural Gas Trucks in Fresno. Shipping company UPS deployed 16 new green trucks to Fresno today as part of its goal of reducing dependence on fossil fuels and lowering its carbon footprint. The trucks, powered by Compressed Natural Gas (CNG), join 900 similar vehicles already used by the company in the U.S., Germany, France, Chile and Brazil. UPS first began deploying the clean-burning trucks in 1989 resulting in 95 percent lower particulate emissions than diesel engines and 75 percent lower carbon monoxide emissions. Posted. http://www.thebusinessjournal.com/environment/3675-ups-deploys-natural-gas-trucks-in-fresno Climate Conference Ignored Overpopulation. During the Copenhagen conference in Denmark, leaders from around the world addressed climate change, carbon footprints and ways to solve the dilemma. However, they failed to address the core issue: human overpopulation. Posted. http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/jan/21/climate-conference-ignored-overpopulation/ Study Links Asia To Smog Component In Western US. Grants Pass, Ore. -- Ozone blowing over from Asia is raising background levels of a major ingredient of smog in the skies over California, Oregon, Washington and other Western states, according to a new study appearing in Thursday's edition of the journal Nature. The amounts are small and, so far, only found in a region of the atmosphere known as the free troposphere, at an altitude of two to five miles, but the development could complicate U.S. efforts to control air pollution. Posted. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/20/AR2010012002447_pf.html Murkowski Wins Dem Support On EPA Bill. Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.) is joining forces with Alaska Republican Lisa Murkowski in an effort to block the Environmental Protection Agency from regulating greenhouse gases. Lincoln, a politically vulnerable senator who comes from a manufacturing state that leans Republican, warned that “heavy-handed EPA regulation, as well as the current cap and trade bills in Congress, will cost us jobs and put us at an even greater competitive disadvantage to China, India and others.” Posted. http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0110/31797.html Opinion: Climate Change Camp Experiencing A Cooling-Off Period. Global warming's heyday of 2006 and 2007 is long gone. With temperatures dropping recently, skepticism may be rising. Climate change just isn't what it used to be. Case in point: The number of otherwise intelligent people who are saying that all the cold weather (in the East) and rain (here at home) are causing them to lose faith in the gospel of global warming. Posted. http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-daum21-2010jan21,0,6630778,print.column Don't Punish Producers. This is in response to the Jan. 17 article, "Group's 'green' facade crumble." Thank God for polluters. If we didn't have polluters -- I call them producers -- we wouldn't have an economy. They are the goose that lays the golden egg. For too long we've been passing laws and regulations that either put them out of business or drive them out of the state. Thank God for the AB 32 implementation group. It's high time that producers united in an effort to save our state from excessive environmental regulations. Posted. http://www.bakersfield.com/opinion/letters/x113240571/Dont-punish-producers Kettleman City Landfill Growth Sparks Suit. A group of Kettleman City residents is going to court to try to stop the expansion of a hazardous-waste landfill that they suspect has caused birth defects. People for Clean Air and Water, a group of Kettleman City residents, and Greenaction for Health and Environmental Justice said Wednesday the county's environmental review of the project was flawed and a permit for the expansion should be thrown out. Posted. http://www.fresnobee.com/265/story/1790305.html Bio-Coal: An Innovative Solution For Producing Clean Energy From Beetle Kill. It would be hard to think of an economic problem that couldn’t be solved if industry, government, finance, politicians, and environmentalists all agreed on the solution. Currently, there are two big problems in the Intermountain West begging for just such a comprehensive solution. They are what to do with millions of acres of dead lodgepole pine trees killed by beetle infestation, and how to reach the goal of cleaner coal-generated electricity production. Posted. http://www.deltacountyindependent.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12991:bio-coal-an-innovative-solution-for-producing-clean-energy-from-beetle-kill&catid=34:delta&Itemid=347 Retail Giant Completes Major Solar Electric Installation. Walmart has completed its largest solar power project at its Apple Valley distribution centre in southern California. The 5300 ground-mounted solar electric panels cover 7 acres and have total capacity of 1 MW. The facility is part of a solar power pilot project that Walmart first announced in May 2007, to purchase solar PV systems for 22 Walmart stores, Sam’s Club locations and distribution centers in California and Hawaii. Posted. http://www.renewableenergyfocus.com/view/6616/retail-giant-completes-major-solar-electric-installation/ 20 Percent Wind Power By 2024 Possible But 'Challenging' – Study. Wind power could supply more than 20 percent of electricity demand for the nation's eastern grid in 2024 if a large overlay of new transmission lines is built and grid operations are reorganized to share wind energy widely across the region, according to the most detailed study of the issue to date, led by the Energy Department's National Renewable Energy Laboratory. Posted. http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/print/2010/01/21/3 http://www.sanluisobispo.com/environment/story/996585.html Blogs Smog in the Western U.S.: Blame China? Ozone from Asia is wafting across the Pacific on springtime winds and boosting the amount of the smog-producing chemical found in the skies above the Western United States, researchers said in a study released Wednesday. The study, published in the journal Nature, probes a phenomenon that has puzzled scientists in the last decade: Ground-level ozone has dropped in cities thanks to tighter pollution controls, but it has risen in rural areas in the Western U.S., where there is little industry or automobile traffic. Posted. http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/greenspace/2010/01/ozone-smog-air-pollution-greenhouse-gases-china-pollution-owen-r-cooper-kathy-law.html Climate Change Bill Is in Doubt. As Democrats on Capitol Hill and the White House contemplated the fallout of the special election results in Massachusetts on Tuesday, proponents of major climate change legislation said they would persist in their efforts to win passage of a bill this year, despite a hostile political environment. Posted. http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/01/20/climate-change-bill-is-in-doubt/ White House Not Backing Down On Climate. A senior White House official on Thursday said the Obama administration is continuing to press Congress to endorse cap-and-trade legislation, deflecting calls to back a more limited package of energy measures that omits mandatory greenhouse gas cuts. Posted. http://thehill.com/blogs/e2-wire/677-e2-wire/77255-white-house-official-cap-and-trade-has-strong-support-on-capitol-hill **U.S. vote dims hopes for stronger world climate pact * Raises questions about Kyoto pact follow-up * Risks of Doha-type stalemate in climate talks * Knock-on risks in Australia, Japan, Canada * Hoyer says cap and trade "not dead" (Adds California official in paragraphs 6-7) By David Fogarty and Alister Doyle SINGAPORE/OSLO, Jan 20 (Reuters) - Hopes for stronger world action in 2010 to curb climate change have dimmed after the U.S. Democrats lost a key Senate seat to a Republican opposed to capping emissions, experts said on Wednesday. The election of Republican Scott Brown, an opponent of cap and trade, to the Senate after the death of Democrat Edward Kennedy dims prospects for U.S. action. Once Brown takes office, Democrats will have 59 seats in the Senate and the Republicans 41. The bill needs 60 votes to overcome procedural hurdles. Backers of the existing international Kyoto Protocol, which obliges all industrialized nations except the United States to cut emissions until 2012, will be more reluctant to take on tougher new goals for 2020 unless Washington also joins in. U.N. climate talks in Mexico in November are meant to build on a weak "Copenhagen Accord" worked out last month by nations including the United States that sets a goal of limiting warming to no more than 2 Celsius (3.6 F) above pre-industrial times. But the Mexico meeting will be undermined if the United States, the top emitter behind China, has not set caps on carbon emissions. That might dash hopes for a Kyoto successor from 2013 and mean a system of domestic pledges instead. "We can't afford climate to be a dysfunctional regime like trade," said Nick Mabey, head of the E3G climate think-tank in London. He said there were risks talks would stall, like the inconclusive Doha round on freer world trade launched in 2001. Mary Nichols, the top official implementing California's state climate change law, told Reuters that state and regional climate change efforts could now take center stage in the United States. "We've been feeling ever since Copenhagen that the focus was going to be on regional efforts for the coming year, regardless of what happened in the Massachusetts election," she said in a telephone interview. Many nations have been sitting on the fence before deciding firm carbon policies, waiting for U.S. legislation. President Barack Obama wants to cut emissions by 4 percent below 1990 levels by 2020, or a 17 percent cut from 2005 levels. Countries are supposed to propose carbon-cutting policies under the Copenhagen Accord by Jan. 31. U.S. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said the legislation might have to be split in two to ensure that less controversial parts encouraging use of alternative energies can pass. Tougher elements limiting emissions could then be handled separately. "I don't believe that cap and trade is dead," he said. MOMENTUM Yvo de Boer, head of the U.N. Climate Change Secretariat, said U.S. willingness to act had built since ex-President George W. Bush took office in 2001 and said Kyoto would cost jobs and wrongly omitted carbon curbs by poor nations. "I don't think that any political development in the United States means turning back nine years on the climate change agenda," he said. Many Americans were concerned, for instance, with energy security and hoped for jobs in a greener economy. But some experts said failure to pass U.S. legislation could have a knock-on in countries such as Australia, Japan or Canada which are considering stronger action beyond 2012 that aims to avert ever more heatwaves, droughts, floods and rising sea levels. "2009 was fairly disappointing and 2010 could be another year of slow policy development to those trying to launch their own cap and trade schemes," said Trevor Sikorski, director of carbon markets research at Barclays Capital. Still, he predicted the value of global carbon markets would grow in 2010 -- boosted by an increase in prices even though the growth of trading volume would slow. "The issue of cap and trade does not necessarily go away. I expect banks will continue low-key capacity building as there is no downside if a market doesn't develop by 2011 or later," said Garth Edward, head of environmental products at Citi. "They'll keep building the franchise," he said. The European Union sees itself as a leader in combating climate change, and has set a goal of cutting emissions by 20 percent below 1990 levels by 2020, or 30 percent if others join. "We need global cooperation and progress will only be possible with internationally binding commitments -- but for everyone," German Chancellor Angela Merkel told the Bundestag lower house of parliament on Wednesday. The Pacific island of Tuvalu fears rising seas could wash it off the map. Ian Fry, who represents Tuvalu in U.N. talks, said U.S. carbon caps had to be passed by mid-year or would be put back into 2011 because of November elections that cover about a third of the Senate seats. Environmental activists saw only bad news from the Senate. "On the international front, China is constantly looking to the U.S. on climate bills ... This is definitely bad news. It doesn't bring new confidence to international negotiations," said Ailun Yang of Greenpeace in Beijing. (With extra reporting by Michael Szabo in London, Pete Harrison in Brussels, Bappa Majumdar in New Delhi, Ralph Jennings in Beijing, Madeline Chambers and Paul Carrel in Berlin and Peter Henderson in San Francisco; Editing by Jon Boyle and Cynthia Osterman