What's New List Serve Post Display

California Air Resources Board News Clips for June 14, 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.

CLIMATE CHANGE/GHG

Initiative Won’t Thwart State’s Emissions Fight. Sacramento —
California’s aggressive campaign to curb global warming will
probably not come to a screeching halt even if voters eventually
apply the brakes. An initiative that appears all but certain to
qualify for the November ballot would suspend the state’s
landmark law to gradually reduce greenhouse gas emissions linked
to global warming until there’s a sustained economic recovery.
Posted.
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2010/jun/14/initiative-wont-thwart-states-emissions-fight/

CDM Critics Demand Investigation Of Suspect Offsets. United
Nations -- A broad coalition of activists are charging that as
much as a third of all Kyoto Protocol carbon offset credits ever
sold to banks and governments could be illegitimate because they
were generated by firms manipulating the marketplace. Companies,
the activists allege, are deliberately generating greenhouse gas
pollution in order to snag millions of dollars worth of carbon
credits when they then mitigate the emissions. Posted.
http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/print/2010/06/14/2

IEA Urges Governments, Industry to Advance CO2 Storage Projects.
Governments and industry should boost efforts to deploy carbon
capture and storage projects that reduce emissions of the
greenhouse gas and help fight global warming, the International
Energy Agency said in a report. The Group of Eight’s goal of
implementing 20 large-scale CCS demonstration projects by 2010
“remains a challenge,” IEA said in the report, which will be
presented to G-8 leaders at their summit in Canada later this
month. Posted.
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-06-14/iea-urges-governments-industry-to-advance-co2-storage-projects.html

Can Whiter Clouds Reduce Global Warming? A grant from Bill Gates
is helping researchers explore the possibility that making clouds
whiter and more reflective by spraying them with a fine seawater
mist could help block the sun's rays and 
send them back into space. Cloud whitening builds on the natural
cloud-forming Process, says Silicon Valley inventor Armand
Neukermans, who received the funding to 
test if the concept is doable. Posted.
http://www.usatoday.com/weather/research/2010-06-10-cloud-whitening_N.htm

Senate Votes Down Measure to Block EPA Regulation of Greenhouse
Gases. In a 47-53 vote, the U.S. Senate barely voted down a
measure Thursday that would have blocked the Environmental
Protection Agency from regulating greenhouse gas emissions. The
resolution, proposed by Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), was in
response to the EPA's efforts to regulate carbon dioxide
emissions under the Clean Air Act. Posted.
http://www.truckinginfo.com/news/news-print.asp?news_id=70686

Goodwill But Still Little Goods On Treaty Talks. International
climate change ambassadors and activists returned this week from
two-week treaty negotiations session in Bonn, Germany, hopeful of
nailing down agreements on deforestation and a few other issues
by the year's end. The meetings produced few specific results
beyond a draft treaty that -- like others before it -- is drawing
criticisms from developing countries. But the big change, many
agreed, was the tone. Posted.
http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/print/2010/06/14/3

Obama Plans To Push For New Global Warming Bill. According to
Politico.com, President Barack Obama is planning to utilize the
BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill as a springboard to initiate a new
push for a broad global-warming bill. Politico writer Mike Allen
says that Mr. Obama will use his Oval Office address about the
Gulf on Tuesday night to include a call for an energy bill.  The
White House has notified several senators that “an energy deal
must include some serious effort to price carbon as a way to slow
climate change,” according to a Senate Democratic leadership aid.
Posted.
http://www.examiner.com/blog/printexaminerarticles.cfm?section=examiners,examiners&blogtype=examiners&mode=alias&blogid=53091&blogURL=Pinellas-County-Political-Buzz-Examiner&byYear=2010&byMonth=6&byDay=14&byAlias=Obama-plans-to-push-for-new-global-warming-bill

The Choice to Move Forward on International Efforts to Address
Global Warming. Every day a huge amount of oil is spewing into
the Gulf of Mexico in the US.  This is symbolic of the energy
choices that we have made to date.  And it shows the dramatic
implications of that energy choice.  But those energy choices are
also having devastating impacts which are less visual but more
damaging.  Rampant global warming is impacting countries around
the world as a result of our energy and development choices. 
Posted.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jake-schmidt/the-choice-to-move-forwar_b_609022.html

New Carbon Trading Phase In Europe Holds More Lessons For U.S.
Part Two Of A Two-Part Series On Europe's Carbon Market. Click
here to read the first part. Wider auctioning under the third
phase of Europe's carbon trading scheme will bring more bumps in
the road. Under the E.U. climate and energy package agreed to in
December 2008, power plants in Western Europe will pay for all
carbon permits starting in 2013. Posted.
http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/print/2010/06/14/1

Views on Climate Change: What the Polls Show. To the Editor: Re
“The Climate Majority,” by Jon A. Krosnick (Op-Ed, June 9):
Regarding poll findings about climate change, Mr. Krosnick posits
that his question is more legitimate than others. It is but one
approach and hardly ideal. The question’s preamble is “you may
have heard about the idea that the world’s temperature may have
been going up slowly” and then asks whether this is “probably”
happening. Such wordings often encourage a positive response:
this is known in the polling world as acquiescence bias. Posted.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/14/opinion/l14climate.html?pagewanted=print

Republicans Shouldn’t Become the Dirty Energy Party. With huge
amounts of oil continuing to pollute the waters off Louisiana,
the Gulf oil spill is yet another reminder that it is important
for our economy, our environment, and our national security to
wean our nation off dirty fossil fuels. Yet most Republicans in
California don’t seem to get it. Instead of embracing the
job-creating clean energy economy, Sacramento’s Republican
leadership is actively attacking it, ridiculing the more than
500,000 clean tech jobs already in the state and solar
technologies that are putting thousands back to work in the
Inland Empire. Posted.
http://www.capitolweekly.net/article.php?_c=ywjltqoypblbpx&xid=ywj1pmt6e95tna&done=.ywjltqoypc8bpx

Fontana City Council Supports Effort to Try to Suspend AB 32. As
expected, the Fontana City Council unanimously approved on May 26
a resolution that supports the California Jobs Initiative, a
proposal by State Sen. Bob Dutton (R-Rancho Cucamonga) which
would temporarily suspend AB 32, the Global Warming Solutions Act
of 2006. The resolution was proposed by Fontana Council Member
John Roberts, who described AB 32 as “worrisome” and a huge issue
that negatively impacts jobs in the region, causing unemployment
rates to rise. Posted.
http://www.fontanaheraldnews.com/articles/2010/06/10/news/doc4c111bfc813d8463014004.txt

AIR POLLUTION

Air Quality Officials Say BNSF Will Cut Emissions at San
Bernardino Rail Yard, Westside Residents Not Satisfied. An
agreement between air quality regulators and BNSF Railway
promises to cut pollution at the company's Westside rail yard,
but that's not enough for many who breathe the diesel fumes
generated there. The proposal would commit BNSF to the following:
 Reduce diesel particulate emissions from railyard 45 percent
from 2005 levels by 2011. Diesel pollution is to be further cut
by 85 percent by 2020. Posted.
http://www.sbsun.com/news/ci_15271992#ixzz0qqMUtqlT

Research Reveals Cow Feed As Air Pollutant. Researchers and
other scientists who have assiduously studied cow manure as an
air pollutant might have focused their attention on the wrong end
of the cow. Dairy animal feed, especially corn silage, is now
being tagged as a significant cause of ozone creation, the major
contributor to air pollution, especially in the San Joaquin
Valley. Air quality in the valley, home to one of the highest
concentrations of dairy animals in the world, has been identified
for years as substandard, even dangerous. Posted.
http://www.appeal-democrat.com/articles/feed-95982-gasses-air.html

FUELS

Canada Plans Northeast Blitz To Fight Fuel Standards. The fight
over reducing the carbon content of transportation fuels heats up
this week with a new push from critics in Canada and the
Northeast. Alberta's Environment Minister Rob Renner is launching
a multistate tour from Massachusetts to New Jersey today to warn
about the economic impact of proposed Northeast and mid-Atlantic
fuel standards on his province. He joins a slew of groups in
Boston that have blasted new carbon mandates on transportation
fuels as a job killer that could lead to skyrocketing gas and
heating oil prices. Posted.
http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/print/2010/06/14/5

VEHICLES

Utilities Brace For Electric Cars. Public grid needs upgrades as
transportation future looms. The gleaming, squeaky-clean future
promised by electric cars comes with a burden: The region's
electricity infrastructure will have to be ready to charge all
those big, thirsty batteries. The first thousand-vehicle fleet of
Nissan Leafs is scheduled to flutter into San Diego County
beginning in December, followed in short order by plug-in hybrids
like the Chevy Volt. Posted.
http://www.nctimes.com/business/article_c2b1a23b-093b-5791-8e94-cb95dc56cfd8.html?print=1

ENERGY

U.S. Continues To Lag In Solar Adoption. Government incentives
and growing interest in clean, renewable energy have not yet
translated into substantial increases in U.S. solar energy
capacity, signaling that demand for solar power remains
relatively weak. Solar power provides a fraction of 1 percent of
energy used by Americans, according to the Solar Energy
Industries Association. Despite its size, the United States ranks
fourth in total power capacity behind Germany, Italy and Japan.
Posted. http://www.eenews.net/Greenwire/print/2010/06/14/13

Gates Seeks More Spending On Clean Energy Research. Billionaire
Bill Gates is urging the government to triple spending on what he
says everyone, rich and poor, will need in the future: clean,
cheap energy. Gates and other business leaders were meeting with
President Barack Obama and lawmakers Thursday to pitch their plan
to increase the annual federal spending on clean energy
innovation to $16 billion, from $5 billion now. But tight budgets
make it a tough sell. Posted.
http://www.modbee.com/2010/06/10/1203064/gates-seeks-more-spending-on-clean.html#ixzz0qqV9jLmR

GREEN

Pondering the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. As librarians, we
operate in the public sphere. And we "enlighten" people. The
funny thing about enlightening, though, is that to enlighten one
has to first educate oneself, to be well informed. But which
issues are relevant? Quality-of-life questions, environmental
questions, are particularly relevant because they affect all of
us, from the homeless guy to the professor, from the pauper to
the millionaire. Plastic pollution is one of those problems that
has a negative effect on our environment and our quality of life.
Posted.
http://www.bakersfield.com/opinion/community/x1008891574/Pondering-the-Great-Pacific-Garbage-Patch

BLOGS

Americans Want To Do Something On Climate -- Just Not the Right
Thing. Today’s New York Times carries an op-ed that trumpets
supposedly encouraging numbers about what Americans want Congress
to do about climate change. Under the triumphant headline, The
Climate Majority, Jon A. Krosnick argues that most people still
buy climate science -- and they even favor federal action to deal
with rising temperatures. Posted.
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/postpartisan/2010/06/americans_what_to_do_something.html


Killing AB 32 Will Threaten California's Leadership in Wind
Energy. Just when California is about to start closing the gap
with Texas and Iowa in the amount of wind energy it produces,
there's a move afoot by out-of-state oil companies to pull the
rug out from under us and thwart the development of these
projects. Located in more than 10 California counties and
totaling 3,000 MW in capacity (enough to power about a million
homes, and much more in the pipeline), these projects will more
than double the current amount of wind energy in our state.
Posted.
http://www.publicceo.com/index.php/local-governments/151-local-governments-publicceo-exclusive/1598-killing-ab-32-will-threaten-californias-leadership-in-wind-energy

Fighting For Our "Right" To a Clean Energy Future. A new
proposed initiative for the California ballot purports to defend
the people of California’s unalienable right to air, water,
energy, and natural resources by prohibiting the government from
regulating the industries that exploit these common resources.
This referendum is either an attempted shell game on the
citizenry or a product of dire ignorance. Posted.
http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/kgrenfell/a_new_proposed_initiative_for.html

Twilight of the Coal Era? Siemens Siemens will furnish gas
turbines like this one for two power plants in North Carolina
that now rely on coal. The electricity market is in the doldrums,
but the market for new generating stations that use natural gas
is going strong, industry experts say. Why? Because gas is
beginning to replace coal, according to Randy H. Zwirn, president
of the Siemens Power Generation Group. On Monday, Siemens is
announcing [pdf] that it has won contracts to supply five new
high-efficiency gas plants to Progress Energy at two sites in
North Carolina that have old coal-fired generators. It is also
replacing old gas-fired plants in Florida. Posted.
http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/06/14/twilight-of-the-coal-era/?pagemode=print