What's New List Serve Post Display

California Air Resources Board News Clips for January 27, 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 Northern Railroad Converts To Green Locomotives. New
Locomotives Cut Emissions, Fuel. Historically, massive
locomotives have been the antithesis of quiet, environmentally
friendly machines. But the Davis-based California Northern
Railroad Co. has converted its locomotive fleet to
environmentally friendly GenSet N-ViroMotive locomotives, which
have lower emissions, emit less noise and are more fuel-efficient
than standard locomotives. Posted.
http://www.sacbee.com/business/story/2492052.html

Ventura Gets First Plug-In Hybrid Electric School Bus In
Southern California. The Ventura Unified School District will put
the $200,000, state-of-the-art bus into service this week. It's
expected to achieve 30% better fuel economy than a conventional
bus. Major automakers are readying a wave of plug-in hybrid and
electric vehicles for consumers, but one local school district is
already taking advantage of the technology. The Ventura Unified
School District unveiled a $200,000, state-of-the-art, plug-in
hybrid electric school bus Tuesday, the first in Southern
California. The bus will start hauling students this week and
replaces a polluting, 1977 model. Posted. 
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-electric-bus27-2010jan27,0,6990748,print.story

Climate, Energy Programs Could See Boosts Despite Budget Freeze.
Climate change and clean energy programs, which the Obama
administration has championed, are expected to remain priorities
at U.S. EPA and the Energy Department in the president's fiscal
2011 budget request despite a request to freeze non-military
discretionary spending for the next three years. In an effort to
make a dent in the federal deficit, the White House announced its
plan yesterday to freeze non-military, discretionary spending for
the next three years. Posted.
http://www.nytimes.com/gwire/2010/01/27/27greenwire-climate-energy-programs-could-see-boosts-despit-7681.html?pagewanted=print

Courts Become Battlefield Over Climate Change. The tiny village
of Kivalina, Alaska, does not have a hotel, a restaurant or a
movie theater. But it has a very big lawsuit that might affect
the way the nation deals with climate change. Kivalina, an
Inupiat Eskimo community of 400 perched on a barrier island north
of the Arctic Circle, is accusing two dozen fuel and utility
companies of helping to cause the climate change that it says is
accelerating the island's erosion. Posted.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/01/27/MN891BO2GK.DTL&type=printable
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/27/business/energy-environment/27lawsuits.html?scp=2&sq=environment&st=cse

Climate Law Delay Would Jolt Economy, Hurt Clean Tech –
Analysis. Suspension of California's climate law this November
would mean a positive jolt to the state economy in the near term
followed by a delay in new energy technology investment, says an
audit being circulated this week in Sacramento by a bipartisan
group of government analysts. The study from the state's
Legislative Analyst's Office (LAO), which is charged with
advising the attorney general on legislation, was required by law
as a first step toward placing on the statewide ballot an effort
to halt A.B. 32 until the economy recovers. It was sent to
Attorney General Jerry Brown (D) yesterday. Posted.
http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/print/2010/01/27/2

EPA's Jared Blumenfeld Promises Accountability. The happy days
are over for polluters and those who would exploit resources in
downtrodden inner-city communities, Indian reservations and San
Francisco Bay, the new regional administrator for the
Environmental Protection Agency declared Tuesday. Jared
Blumenfeld, who took over the federal post this month, vowed
during a news conference to make "revolutionary" changes that
will end EPA invisibility and reconnect the agency to the
citizens, whose health and livelihoods are at stake. Posted.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/01/27/BA591BNU5G.DTL&type=printable

Iceland Leads Environmental Index as U.S. Falls. A new ranking
of the world’s nations by environmental performance puts some of
the globe’s largest economies far down the list, with the United
States sinking to 61st and China to 121st. In the previous
version of the Environmental Performance Index, compiled every
two years by Yale and Columbia University researchers, the United
States ranked 39th, and China 105th. The top performer this year
is Iceland, which gets virtually all of its power from renewable
sources — hydropower and geothermal energy. Posted.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/27/science/earth/27index.html

EPA To Investigate Cluster Of Birth Defects In Kettleman City,
Calif. Some residents blame a nearby toxic waste dump for health
problems. U.S. says the study shows the Obama administration's
commitment to environmental justice. The U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency said Tuesday that it plans to investigate a
cluster of facial birth defects and other health issues among
migrant farm workers in the impoverished California enclave of
Kettleman City as part of the Obama administration's pledge to
shift the agency's attention toward issues of environmental
justice. Posted.
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-toxic27-2010jan27,0,4862438,print.story.

Business Groups Call for Action on Emissions. Washington—The
debate over how the U.S. should control emissions of greenhouse
gases is heating up again, with some business groups calling for
congressional action despite reluctance among many lawmakers to
move on a broad climate bill in an election year. Posted.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704905604575027680736562068.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_MIDDLENexttoWhatsNewsSecond

No "Scaling Back" On US Cap-And-Trade - Sen. Kerry. Washington,
- Senator John Kerry, a key U.S. lawmaker trying to craft a
cap-and-trade bill, denied a report on Wednesday that advocates
of this plan to curb climate change were scaling back their
efforts. Posted.
http://uk.reuters.com/article/idUKN2716573920100127

Editorial: Carbon monoxide Mandate Makes Sense. A bill mandating
carbon monoxide detectors in all one-and-two family homes stands
out in the current session of the State Legislature because it is
a measure certain to save lives across Wisconsin. Of the plethora
of acts and resolutions that will be debated and discussed this
year, few can make that claim with as much certainty. Posted.
http://www.thenorthwestern.com/article/20100127/OSH0602/1270386

Green Spaces (Lawns) Are Not So Green: University Of California
Study. Those verdant green lawns in parks, athletic fields and --
gasp! --your front yard may do more environmental harm than good,
says a new study by University of California-Irvine researchers.
Posted.
http://content.usatoday.com/communities/greenhouse/post/2010/01/green-spaces-are-not-so-green-after-all/1

BLOGS

Clean Energy's Prominent Place in the State of the Union. While
few people outside the White House ever know what will be in the
final version of the State of the Union before the president
takes the dais, I remain confident that on Wednesday night,
President Obama will say that clean energy investments can
generate jobs and keep America competitive. Posted.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/frances-beinecke/clean-energys-prominent-p_b_437567.html

Kerry: Climate Change Supporters Must Match Tea Party Intensity.
Climate change advocates must match the intensity of conservative
“tea party” activists, Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) said Wednesday.
“I want you to go out there and to start knocking on doors, and
talking to people and telling people, ‘This has to happen,’ ”
Kerry said in a speech at a climate and energy forum hosted by
labor, farm and environmental groups. Posted.
http://thehill.com/blogs/e2-wire/677-e2-wire/78241-kerry-match-tea-party-intensity-in-fight-for-climate-legislation

Is Climate-Change Litigation the New Asbestos? Back in October,
LB colleague Nathan Koppel offered up this post on a Fifth
Circuit decision allowing a lawsuit brought by Hurricane Katrina
victims. The plaintiffs’ allegation: That oil and coal companies
emitted greenhouse gasses that contributed to global warming
that, in turn, caused a rise in sea levels, adding to Hurricane
Katrina’s ferocity. Posted.
http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2010/01/27/is-climate-change-litigation-the-new-asbestos/

TRU Blue: CARB Citing Reefer-Unit Violators. The California Air
Resources Board (CARB) began enforcing the Transport
Refrigeration Unit (TRU) Airborne Toxic Control Measure (ATCM)
in-use performance standards this month. According to a news
release,  CARB inspectors issued nearly 100 citations for
violations of the TRU ATCM in the first part of this month. CARB
adopted its Airborne Toxic Control Measure (ATCM) for TRUs and
TRU generator sets on February 26, 2004. The Board is “fully
committed to fully enforcing all aspects of the TRU ATCM,” CARB
noted. Posted.
http://fleetowner.com/green/archive/tru-blue-carb-0127/