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California Air Resources Board News Clips for June 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.


CLIMATE CHANGE/GHG’S

Democrats Use Oil Spill to Push Energy Bill, McConnell Says --
President Barack Obama and Democratic lawmakers are trying to
"seize on a crisis" to pass a "national energy tax," Senate
Republican Leader Mitch McConnell said. Legislation that charges
power plants, factories and oil refineries for carbon dioxide and
other greenhouse gases released into the atmosphere "doesn't have
anything to do with an oil spill in the Gulf," McConnell, a
Kentucky Republican, said yesterday on the "Fox News Sunday"
program. Posted.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2010/06/20/bloomberg1376-L4BZMZ0D9L35-7.DTL&type=printable

Major Climate Decisions May Come From Ozone Treaty. Geneva,
Switzerland -- Governments moved closer Friday to curbing the use
of chemicals commonly used as coolants in refrigerators, air
conditioners, hair spray and other household items in what some
say would be among their biggest climate decisions ever. The
obscure round of U.N. ozone treaty talks in Geneva, which few
people are following, laid the groundwork this week for a
possible decision in Uganda in November to halt the promotion of
hydrofluorocarbons, or HFCs, which are manmade chemicals not
found naturally in the environment, and are considered greenhouse
gases. Posted.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2010/06/18/international/i112132D08.DTL&type=printable
http://www.contracostatimes.com/science/ci_15326738

Climate Takes Backseat As China Hunts For Fossil Fuels. China's
three dominant state-owned oil companies spent the past year
securing access to major global oil and gas fields, raising fresh
questions about the country's commitment to cutting greenhouse
gas emissions. CNPC-PetroChina, Sinopec Group and CNOOC Ltd are
the three big national oil companies (NOCs). A series of deals in
Iraq and Africa puts China on a path to boost its overseas
commercial reserves by 40 percent, according to a new Wood
Mackenzie report. Posted.
http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/print/2010/06/21/2

Deep-Sea Research Aims To Find Coral Off Marin Coast.
Researchers are bobbing up and down in the Pacific off Marin's
coast this week, casting their eyes into the depths of the ocean
looking for life-providing coral. Posted.
http://www.insidebayarea.com/oaklandtribune/localnews/ci_15340514

Green Impact, By The Numbers. According to Walter Grazer's new
book: In 1862, 90 percent of Americans were farmers. Today, only
2 percent are. Posted.
http://www.insidebayarea.com/oaklandtribune/ci_15327495

Long Beach Seminar Looks At Ways To Power Up A Green Auto Grid.
Long Beach, California -- New auto-emission rules and a growing
market for plug-in hybrid and all-electric vehicles are spawning
investment in quick-charge stations across California. Posted.
http://www.contracostatimes.com/california/ci_15330285

Marin County Energy Project Saves Taxpayer Money. There's good
news at the Marin Civic Center for taxpayers and
environmentalists as officials embark on a conservation program
that cuts costs and saves energy. The county is moving ahead with
a $2 million energy conservation project that will cut utility
bills $127,000 a year, enabling the program to pay for itself in
11 years. Posted.
http://www.contracostatimes.com/news/ci_15341035

Editorial: ‘National Mission’. To anyone watching the oil spew
into the Gulf of Mexico, the argument for curbing this country’s
appetite for fossil fuels could not be clearer. President Obama
was right last week when he called on America to unify behind a
“national mission” to find alternative energy sources, sharply
reduce its dependence on oil and cut its greenhouse gas
emissions.  Posted.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/21/opinion/21mon1.html?sq=climate
change&st=cse&scp=8&pagewanted=print

AIR QUALITY

Residents Protest Proposed Railyard Air Pollution Plan. More
than 100 residents from rail-adjacent communities protested at
the Los Angeles home of the California Air Resources Board
chairwoman on Saturday, calling for more stringent and
enforceable regulations to combat air pollution. Air quality
regulators recently released a plan detailing a number of
pollution reduction goals for BNSF Railway but some activists say
the proposals are far from enough. Posted. 
http://www.sbsun.com/news/ci_15338974?source=rss#ixzz0rV9UBY9y
http://www.redlandsdailyfacts.com/sanbernardinocounty/ci_15338974
http://www.contracostatimes.com/california/ci_15338974

Case Against California Air Resources Board’s LCFS Proceeds.
Judge denies the agency’s motion to dismiss the case.
GAITHERSBURG, MD – The Oil Price Information Service (OPIS)
reports that the case against California Air Resources Board's
(CARB) low carbon fuel standard (LCFS) will proceed. On
Wednesday, a U.S. district court judge denied CARB’s request to
dismiss the case. Posted.
http://www.nacsonline.com/NACS/News/Daily/Pages/ND0618104.aspx

The Buzz: Official State Rock Is Bad For Your Health, State
Senator Says. Serpentine may be stripped of title as official
state rock – it's unsafe. Oops! A state senator says there's
something very wrong with serpentine, California's official state
rock: It's bad for your health. Sen. Gloria Romero, D-Los
Angeles, has proposed legislation to strip serpentine of its
title because exposure to chrysotile asbestos, a cancer-causing
mineral inside it, can increase risk of lung disease, she says.
Posted.
http://www.fresnobee.com/2010/06/21/v-print/1977891/the-buzz-official-state-rock-is.html

More Smoke Seen Coming From Valero Refinery. Benicia — For the
third time in less than a week, a plume of smoke was seen coming
from one of the stacks at the Valero Refinery on Saturday
morning, but officials said there was no cause for alarm. Posted.
http://www.insidebayarea.com/oaklandtribune/localnews/ci_15335262

Valero Vapor Draws Area Fire Crews. Benicia - A vapor release at
the Valero refinery Thursday triggered a two-alarm response from
area fire departments. 
Oil company officials said the hydrocarbon release was reported
to them at about 10:10 a.m. The emissions, which appeared as a
white cloud, posed no threat to the public, Valero officials
said. Posted. http://www.contracostatimes.com/news/ci_15325833

Fire Boosted Harbor Area Pollution, But Not To Risky Levels. Air
samples collected in the Harbor Area during a recent scrap-yard
fire showed elevated levels of some pollutants, but not in
concentrations that would cause irreversible health effects, a
report has found. Posted.
http://www.contracostatimes.com/california/ci_15320937?nclick_check=1

FUELS

Ethanol Industry Continues To Prod EPA With Massive Anti-Oil Ad
Campaign. Amid a multimillion dollar ad blitz designed to boost
ethanol's image as an alternative to oil-laden beaches, a leading
ethanol group is pressing for answers from federal agencies and
the White House about why approval for higher blends of ethanol
fuel are facing new delays. Posted.
http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/print/2010/06/21/3

Ask AP: Kudzu As Biofuel, Reporting From Gaza. In parts of the
South, it's everywhere—kudzu, an invasive weed that a lot of
people would like to see eradicated. Why not use this
overabundant plant to produce some sort of fuel? Posted.
http://www.contracostatimes.com/nation-world/ci_15324910

47 Buses Go Green; SB District To Use Natural Gas. San
Bernardino - They will still be yellow on the outside, officials
say, but school buses are about to get greener on the inside.
Starting July 1, San Bernardino City Unified School District will
deploy 47 school buses fueled by cleaner compressed natural gas
in its new fleet of 280 school buses. Posted.
http://www.contracostatimes.com/california/ci_15336519

FORMALDEHYDE

U.S. Senate Passes Formaldehyde Bill. Would establish standards
for composite panel. Washington — The Senate has passed the
Formaldehyde Standards for Composite Wood Act, which establishes
the first national standards for formaldehyde in composite panel.
The bill is intended to protect consumers from hazardous levels
of the chemical bonding agent in composite panel and applies to
domestic and foreign products, according to one of the bill's
sponsors, Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho. Composite wood is used in
common household products such as furniture, cabinets, shelving,
countertops, flooring and molding. Posted.
http://www.furnituretoday.com/article/print/529630-U_S_Senate_passes_formaldehyde_bill.php

BLOGS

British Newspaper Apologizes to Climate Scientist. In 2007, the
top United Nations climate body, the Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change, said the Amazon was vulnerable to drought as a
result of trends linked to climate change. The panel backed its
conclusion with a report prepared for the W.W.F., an
environmental group, demonstrating that around 40 percent of the
Amazon rain forest could be sensitive to future changes in
rainfall. Posted.
http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/06/20/climate-scientist-gets-a-media-apology/