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California Air Resources Board News Clips for March 4, 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.

What Should Schools Teach About Global Warming? The teaching of
climate change is under attack in some U.S. public schools. This
week, South Dakota's legislature passed a resolution calling  for
the "balanced teaching of global warming." "Carbon dioxide is not
a pollutant but rather a highly beneficial ingredient for all
plant life," says the resolution, which passed with mostly GOP
votes.  It also says global warming is "a scientific theory
rather than a proven fact" and a variety of "astrological" and
other "dynamics" affect weather. Posted.
http://content.usatoday.com/communities/greenhouse/post/2010/03/what-should-schools-teach-about-global-warming/1

A Proposal To Search The Past For Adaptation Clues. Research on
climate change today focuses mostly on the future, taking stock
of how humans have influenced the planet and using computer
models to project unwanted changes like warming temperatures or
rising seas and ways we might avoid them. But a new report
suggests that there's value in looking at not just how humans
shape the climate, but how the climate shaped human development
going back millions of years. "How we get here is relevant to
where we are going as a species," says the analysis released
yesterday by the National Academy of Sciences. Posted.
http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/print/2010/03/04/2

Administration Panel Attaches Price Tags To Carbon Emissions. An
Obama administration work group has settled on a broad spectrum
of costs to society for allowing each new ton of carbon to be
emitted into the atmosphere. It includes four dollar figures --
spanning from $5 to $65 for emissions in 2010 -- that represent
the damages of not acting to stop those emissions. The numbers
are set to inform a batch of future regulations: both climate and
energy policies meant to lower greenhouse gas levels and other
regulations that only have that side effect. The latter category
could include plans to slash power plant emissions of other
harmful air pollutants, for example. Posted.
http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/print/2010/03/04/4

Carbon Market Players' Hope For U.S. Cap And Trade Sinks –
Survey. Amsterdam -- The expectations of carbon market
participants and experts that the United States would set up a
cap-and-trade CO2 system by 2015 have fallen to a three-year low,
a survey released at a conference here yesterday showed. Only 61
percent of the respondents in the survey by carbon market
analysis firm Point Carbon said they believed the United States
will have a cap-and-trade system by that year, down 20 percentage
points from 2009. Posted.
http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/print/2010/03/04/5

Canada Opens Session With Promise Of Jobs And 'Balanced' Climate
Action. Canada opened a new session of Parliament yesterday with
a Speech from the Throne that mentioned climate change after a
long list of other issues, ranging from expelling hidden war
criminals to enhancing oil production. The most punctuated
message, however, centered on creating jobs, with the Queen's
Canadian liaison, Governor General Michaelle Jean, recognizing
that "unemployment continues to cast a long shadow" over the
economic recovery.  Posted.
http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/print/2010/03/04/7

Draft Climate Bill Has No Industry Emissions Limits. A draft of
a new Japanese climate bill does not include a limit on emissions
by industry, signaling that the government may not go through
with a promise to start a cap-and-trade system. The draft
released by the Environment Ministry last month does not propose
a mandatory emissions cap, nor does it specify what industries
would be subject to a carbon tax starting in 2011. Japan does
plan to start an emissions trading program, though there is no
timeline for it. Posted.
http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/print/2010/03/04/9

Focus On Clean Air, Not Climate, Ex-EPA Chief Whitman Says.
Advocates of capping carbon emissions would fare better
politically by framing their concerns in terms of energy needs
and clean air rather than sounding off with warnings about
climate change, a former U.S. EPA administrator said Tuesday.
Christine Todd Whitman, EPA administrator from 2001 to 2003 and
the Republican governor of New Jersey before that, said that
global warming has become so "politically fraught" that it is no
longer a useful point to bring up for those who seek to cap
carbon emissions. Posted.
http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/print/2010/03/04/10

Texas-Based Refiners Pledge To Fund Fight Against California's
Global Warming Law. Valero and Tesoro have reportedly pledged as
much as $2 million to help gather signatures for a ballot
initiative to suspend the greenhouse-gas-cutting law until the
jobless rate improves. Two Texas-based refinery giants have
pledged as much as $2 million to fund signature gathering for a
ballot initiative to suspend California's landmark global warming
law, according to Sacramento sources. Posted.
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-climate-ballot4-2010mar04,0,7939184.story

http://www.fresnobee.com/2010/03/03/1845386/texans-fight-california-pollution.html
http://www.camajorityreport.com/index.php?module=articles&func=display&aid=4167&ptid=9

http://www.nytimes.com/cwire/2010/03/03/03climatewire-texas-refiners-mum-about-funding-push-to-hal-73127.html

http://www.triplepundit.com/2010/03/tesoro-valero-ab32/ 
http://seminal.firedoglake.com/diary/33069 
http://www.newsreview.com/sacramento/snog/blogs/post?oid=1380612

http://www.newsreview.com/chico/content?oid=1380661 
http://vvandermeer.freedomblogging.com/2010/03/03/logue-getting-boost-from-texas-for-ballot-initiative/491/


Author Cites Food Production As Villain In Climate Change. The
main culprit causing climate change isn't the Hummer; it's the
hamburger. That's the message Anna Lappé, the author of "Diet for
a Hot Planet," presented last week to a crowd of more than 100
regional gardeners and foodies at the annual Green Matters
Symposium at Brookside Gardens in Wheaton, which zeroes in on
pressing environmental issues. Posted.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/03/AR2010030302065.html

Air Quality Board Will Discuss Port Pollution in Long Beach on
Friday. The region's top air-quality board will meet Friday in
Long Beach to discuss, among other things, port anti-pollution
measures. The hearing begins at 9 a.m. at Long Beach City Hall,
333 W. Ocean Blvd., where the South Coast Air Quality Management
District Governing Board will host its monthly forum. Posted.
http://www.presstelegram.com/news/ci_14507640 

Dirty Air Boosts Hospitalizations. California's dirty air cost
more than $193 million in hospital-based medical care from 2005
to 2007, as people sought help for conditions such as asthma and
pneumonia that were triggered by elevated pollution levels.
Researchers at the RAND Corporation estimated that exposure to
excessive levels of ozone and particulate pollution caused nearly
30,000 emergency room visits and hospital admissions over the
study period. Posted.
http://www.cbs42.com/content/health/story/Dirty-Air-Boosts-Hospitalizations/fs9oIL3XhEC_DMHcvkCgQw.cspx

Pacific Partners With Community To Pinpoint Green Goals. It was
fitting that the latest forum in University of the Pacific's
Beyond Our Gates series on Wednesday focused on the environment.
After all, you don't have stray far off campus to understand the
challenges. Pacific is the only four-year college within the
legal boundaries of the fragile Delta. And it's located in the
San Joaquin Valley, where air pollution settles thickly between
the mountains. Posted.
http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100304/A_NEWS/3040325/-1/NEWSMAP


Will U.S. Companies Be Shut Out of Clean-Tech Markets by China
and Other Competitors? The United States must make long-term
investments in clean energy development or risk being shut out of
a $2.3 trillion industry, a new report by a liberal think tank
has found. The study (pdf) released today by the Center for
American Progress hails Germany, Spain and China as "early
winners in the next great technological and industrial
revolution" because each imposed policies to encourage low-carbon
energy development. Posted.
http://www.nytimes.com/cwire/2010/03/04/04climatewire-will-us-companies-be-shut-out-of-clean-tech-68154.html


Graham's Cap-And-Trade Pronouncement Reframes Hill Debate.  Is
cap and trade really "dead"? After all, didn't Sen. Lindsey
Graham say so? The South Carolina Republican's recent remarks --
or snippets of them -- have ricocheted around Capitol Hill and
beyond in recent weeks, lending momentum to the notion that the
congressional effort he is helping lead no longer plans to
implement a system that requires companies to buy and sell
emission credits. Posted.
http://www.nytimes.com/gwire/2010/03/03/03greenwire-grahams-cap-and-trade-pronouncement-reframes-h-19532.html


County Shelves Solar Project. Solano County leaders have put a
hold -- for now -- on a planned $1 million solar project in
Fairfield. The Board of Supervisors pulled from Tuesday's agenda
a proposal to use $1.45 million from a heating and ventilation
fund to pay for the project. "We have several concerns,"
Supervisor John Vasquez said after the meeting. "We're definitely
concerned with the cost." Staffers recommended a transfer of
funding from a heating and air-conditioning project at the
county's Law and Justice Center -- the county jail in downtown
Fairfield -- to pay for a 261-kilowatt solar array parking shade
structure. Posted.
http://www.timesheraldonline.com/news/ci_14510692

California Drops 'Carbon Credits for Clearcuts'. California has
withdrawn its carbon credit accounting protocols that counted
clearing all life off of 40 acres at a time a good thing. The
protocols, which the Center for Biological Diversity called
"Carbon Credits for Clearcuts," were discarded in response to a
letter from the environmental group, complaining that the policy
violated the California Environmental Quality Act. Posted.
http://www.courthousenews.com/2010/03/04/25251.htm

Discrediting Climate Change. Dear editor, for those of us who
doubt the theory of manmade global climate change, there is a new
resource to be aware of. It is a series of videos created by John
Coleman, founder of the Weather Channel. It can be seen at
www.kusi.com/weather/co1emanscorner/8153352.html. Despite this
discrediting of the global warming theory — which we are told is
an established scientific fact — it is unlikely that the United
States will respond any differently. Entrenched economic and
political interests have invested trillions of dollars in the
global warming farce. Posted.
http://www.napavalleyregister.com/news/opinion/mailbag/article_d548da6c-273d-11df-a3cb-001cc4c03286.html

Will U.S. Companies Be Shut Out Of Clean-Tech Markets By China
And Other Competitors? The United States must make long-term
investments in clean energy development or risk being shut out of
a $2.3 trillion industry, a new report by a liberal think tank
has found. The study released today by the Center for American
Progress hails Germany, Spain and China as "early winners in the
next great technological and industrial revolution" because each
imposed policies to encourage low-carbon energy development.
Japan, Denmark and South Korea, the authors predict, also will
profit handsomely as the industry expands. Posted.
http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/print/2010/03/04/1

Wood-Fire Snitching Way Up This Season. Complaints by Bay Area
residents about neighbors lighting wood fires on no-burn nights
rose 63 percent in the second season of a smoke rule, regional
clean air regulators reported Wednesday. The number of people
issued letters for suspected violations showed a more modest
increase of 22 percent, the Bay Area Air Quality Management
District said in a report. Posted. 
http://www.fresnobee.com/2010/03/03/1845293/complaints-about-wood-fires-on.html

Marin Again Leads Bay Area In Bad-Air Complaints And Warnings.
Marin once again led Bay Area counties in both the number of
complaints received and warning letters issued regarding wood
smoke on "Spare the Air" winter days, according to data released
Wednesday by the Bay Area Air Quality Management District.
Posted.
http://www.contracostatimes.com/news/ci_14507569?nclick_check=1

Farmers Need More Government Support To Use Methane Digesters,
Report Says. San Francisco -- Farmers may be susceptible to the
water, temperature and seasonal changes posed by climate change,
but they can take steps to reduce their own greenhouse gas
emissions, says a new report from University of California
researchers. The report, by law professors at the UC Berkeley and
UC Los Angeles campuses, was sponsored by Bank of America. The
company has funded three reports so far on how climate change
could create business opportunities. Posted.
http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/print/2010/03/04/8

Automakers Roll Out Hybrids, But Motivations Remain Unclear.
More automakers are placing their bets on the future of hybrid
cars, with a stream of new model announcements at this year's
Geneva Auto Show. Porsche opened the show this week with a hybrid
version of the Cayenne S sport utility vehicle, followed by
French group PSA Peugeot Citroen SA's announcement of a hybrid
launch in 2012. Toyota also announced plans to have a hybrid in
every model by 2020. That has left some in the industry wondering
if automakers were just capitalizing on the trend. Posted.
http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/print/2010/03/04/11

Eight Steps To A More Eco-Friendly Kitchen. Once upon a time, 30
or 40 years ago, the words "green kitchen" meant that your
kitchen looked like the inside of an avocado. Now (thankfully)
those words mean something quite different. Posted.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/02/AR2010030202932.html