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California Air Resources Board News Clips for April 15, 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.


Cities Cleaning The Air With Draft Plan. Under an
environmentally charged Senate bill, Ventura County is required
to reduce greenhouse gases through smart building, public
transportation methods. Sometime in the 1960s, leaders in Oxnard
included in their general plan document some very ambitious ideas
for what the city would look like far, far into the future: the
Year 2000. “There’s a phrase in there from the consultant who
prepared the plan that says, ‘Orange County is the model, and
that’s what we should be doing.’ Posted.
http://www.vcreporter.com/cms/story/detail/cities_cleaning_the_air_with_draft_plan/7812/

Green-Collar Debate. Politicians dispute the immediate economic
impact of Assembly Bill 32. Is California’s landmark law to
ratchet down greenhouse-gas emissions good for the state’s
economy? It depends who gets asked. Backers of Assembly Bill 32,
the 2006 law that requires California to reduce emissions of
gases such as carbon dioxide to 1990 levels by the end of the
decade, argue that efforts to improve fuel and energy efficiency
will spark more innovation, kick-start new green industries and
generate thousands of white- and blue-collar jobs. Posted.
http://www.newsreview.com/sacramento/PrintFriendly?oid=1403923

Valley Braces For Tougher Fed Air-Quality Rule. Federal
officials are expected in August to announce a new ozone standard
that local air leaders say is virtually impossible to achieve by
the 2031 deadline. The new standard would be up to 30% tougher
than an earlier threshold — which the San Joaquin Valley Air
Pollution Control District is struggling to meet by 2024. To meet
the new standard just seven years later, the Valley would have to
eliminate gasoline, diesel and other fossil fuels used in
industries and vehicles, said district executive director Seyed
Sadredin. Posted.
http://www.fresnobee.com/2010/04/14/v-print/1896388/valley-braces-for-tougher-fed.html

Allergies Worse? Climate change could be culprit, study finds.
Allergies will worsen and trigger more asthma attacks if climate
changes continues, warns a new report by the National Wildlife
Federation. With spring arriving 10 to 14 days earlier than 20
years ago, pollination is starting sooner, according to the
report, which shows projected changes in habitat.  Tree pollen is
the most common trigger for spring hay fever. Posted.
http://content.usatoday.com/communities/greenhouse/post/2010/04/allergies-worse-climate-change-is-the-culprit-study-finds-/1

Greenhouse Gas, Other Pollution Go Hand In Hand, Report Finds.
California's top greenhouse gas polluters are disproportionately
located in minority and low-income communities where air
pollution has long threatened public health, including five
within a few miles of Long Beach. A report released Wednesday by
professors at three California universities found most of the
state's major polluters - oil refineries, power plants and cement
kilns - are almost exclusively located in cities and towns where
residents suffer from some of the worst air pollution in the
nation. Posted. http://www.presstelegram.com/news/ci_14883747 

Study Targets 5 South Bay Refineries for Negative Health
Effects. Five refineries in the South Bay and Harbor Area top a
list ranking the negative health effects created by California's
greenhouse gas emitters, according to a report issued Wednesday
that focused on the state's closely watched global warming law.
The report argues that while the state works to reduce greenhouse
gases throughout California, it should take into account air
pollution at the local level - particularly in poor and minority
communities that the authors say are disproportionately affected
by emissions from oil refineries, power plants and cement
facilities. Posted. http://www.dailybreeze.com/news/ci_14885369

Poor, Minority Communities Stand To Benefit From Well-Drawn AB32
Rules. Some of the biggest emitters of gases that contribute to
global warming sit in California's poorest neighborhoods. Oil
refineries, cement plants and power facilities aren't going
anywhere, but state law requires that their greenhouse gas
disappear. A new study from USC and other California researchers
points out that these carbon contributors also send out
pollutants that cause asthma and heart disease to surrounding
neighborhoods in their emissions. Regulators are considering a
carbon market for hundreds of the state's largest emitter.
Posted. http://www.scpr.org/news/2010/04/15/greenhouse-poor/
http://solveclimate.com/blog/20100414/study-minority-communities-suffer-most-if-california-suspends-ab-32

Who Loses if California’s Climate Law is Halted? No doubt you've
heard the warnings -- the melting ice caps and rising sea levels,
the extinct polar bears and extreme weather conditions. From pop
culture movies like The Day After Tomorrow, to the tireless work
of advocates like Al Gore, the discussion around climate change
has often focused on environmental catastrophe and what the
future may hold if humans don't change their carbon-emitting
ways. Posted.
http://www.grist.org/article/2010-04-14-who-loses-if-californias-climate-law-is-halted/

Coal Chiefs Go On Offensive as Pickens Pushes Case for Natural
Gas. A dramatic preamble to an upcoming climate policy fight
played out yesterday on Capitol Hill, pitting the coal, oil and
natural gas industries against each other as lawmakers fired up
debate about powering a low-carbon U.S. economy. Posted.
http://www.nytimes.com/cwire/2010/04/15/15climatewire-coal-chiefs-go-on-offensive-as-pickens-pushe-62650.html

Coal Executives Split on Carbon Caps, Climate Science. A trio of
executives from the world's largest coal companies told Congress
yesterday their industry is providing the fuel of the future, but
the officials remained divided on several key policy questions.
Posted.
http://www.nytimes.com/gwire/2010/04/15/15greenwire-coal-executives-split-on-carbon-caps-climate-s-57111.html


Clean Energy Dreams. It was December 11, 1997, and I was
standing next to Ed Smeloff in a giant room in Kyoto, Japan, as
hundreds of people from dozens of nations jumped to their feet
and began applauding wildly. It was one of those transcendent
moments that remain etched in one’s memory, as it was announced
that the Kyoto Accord on climate change had been reached. Posted.
http://www.newsreview.com/sacramento/content?oid=1404199
 
Companies Get Sold On Green, Consumers Wary. U.S. corporations
looking to slash costs during the recession found some savings in
environmentally conscious business practices, but a higher price
tag on green products is a barrier to many consumers. Posted.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/04/14/AR2010041402671.html

Obama: China Must Act On Climate Change. Sydney — U.S. President
Barack Obama says the world cannot wait for China to commit to
tackling global warming. Obama was speaking in an interview with
Australian television broadcast Thursday ahead of a trip to Asia
next month. Asked specifically about China's commitment to
curbing greenhouse emissions, Obama told the Australian
Broadcasting Corp. that the impulse of the Asian giant's leaders
at the moment was to let developed countries deal with the
problem first. He said that "the point we have tried to make is
that we can't allow China to wait." Posted.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hpD4HAQBi9lJJicpOGek-AOPGUAwD9F3ENT80

Blogs

Who Loses If California’s Climate Law Is Halted? No doubt you've
heard the warnings -- the melting ice caps and rising sea levels,
the extinct polar bears and extreme weather conditions. From pop
culture movies like The Day After Tomorrow, to the tireless work
of advocates like Al Gore, the discussion around climate change
has often focused on environmental catastrophe and what the
future may hold if humans don't change their carbon-emitting
ways. These are, of course, serious concerns and we need to
address them to secure our planet's future. Posted.
http://www.grist.org/article/2010-04-14-who-loses-if-californias-climate-law-is-halted/print/PALL

Could Obama's Supreme Court Pick Kill Climate-Change Bill? Sen.
Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) has a warning for President Obama -- pick
your next Supreme Court nominee wisely, or else you might not get
a climate-change bill this year. Graham was asked yesterday
whether the high court confirmation process would harm the effort
to pass a climate bill this year. His answer: If Obama “picks
somebody that is going to be controversial, yeah; if he picks
somebody that is genuinely believed to be acceptable to a wide
range of people, no.” Sounds almost threatening. Posted.
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/postpartisan/2010/04/could_obamas_supreme_court_pic.html