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California Air Resources Board News Clips for July 9, 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

Voters To Decide Fate Of Environmental Legislation. Voters in
November will decide the fate of a law originally designed to
help transform California into a greener state, but has also
ignited a storm of debate about the state's business and economic
climate. Secretary of State Debra Bowen recently certified a
ballot measure to suspend AB32 - also known as the Global Warming
Solutions Act - until the state's unemployment rate dropped.
Posted.
http://www.sbsun.com/news/ci_15470357?source=rss#ixzz0tCRbLeou
http://www.contracostatimes.com/california/ci_15470357

Slight Majority Opposes Bid To Suspend Climate Law – Poll.
Nearly half of the respondents to a statewide California poll
released today said they would oppose a referendum on the
November ballot that would suspend the state's climate law. The
Field Poll found 48 percent of those surveyed would vote against
a ballot measure that seeks to suspend the global warming law
until unemployment dips to 5.5 percent in the state for one full
year. Posted.
http://www.eenews.net/Greenwire/print/2010/07/09/11

CBO Says Climate Bill Would Cut Deficit By $19B. Washington –
Congressional budget experts say a climate and energy bill now
stalled in the Senate would reduce the federal deficit by about
$19 billion over the next decade. The report by the nonpartisan
Congressional Budget Office was the second positive analysis of
the bill by a government agency in a month, but is likely to
carry more weight than a similar report issued by the
Environmental Protection Agency. Posted.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5h5iS14YOIUrpdmPuNylwKcVpSnmAD9GQDHEG0

OPINION: On Climate Change, Let Cool Heads Prevail. It's odd how
little we've heard lately from the skeptics who deny that climate
change is real. What's the matter, people? Heat stroke? The
Venus-like heat that much of the country has been suffering this
summer is almost enough to make anybody a believer in global
warming. Almost, but not quite: Honesty compels me to acknowledge
that a few weeks of record-setting temperatures do not constitute
proof of anything. Posted.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/08/AR2010070804271_pf.html

Researchers Warn Sweltering Americans That Climate Change Could
Lead To More Heat Waves. Washington - Folks sweating out the heat
wave battering parts of the country may just have to get used to
it. As global warming continues such heat waves will be
increasingly common in the future, a Stanford University study
concludes. Posted.
http://www.latimes.com/news/science/wire/sns-ap-us-sci-heat-waves-future,0,2802512,print.story
http://www.contracostatimes.com/science/ci_15468231

Multiple Heat Waves Cap Planet's Warming Trend. This time, the
heat is really on. From Boston to Washington, D.C., temperatures
have soared to 100 degrees or more in recent days, stressing
electrical grids, scrambling rail transportation and prompting
the swift creation of cooling centers for those who lack air
conditioning. Central Canada, portions of the Middle East and
China are also coping with searing heat. Posted.
http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/print/2010/07/09/3 

Measures On Pot, Pollution Trail In Field Poll. Sacramento -
Voters are poised to reject a ballot measure to legalize adults'
recreational use of marijuana in California and another that
would suspend the state's landmark greenhouse gas reduction law,
according to a Field Poll of to be released today. Posted.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/07/09/BA8B1EBI7V.DTL&type=printable

AIR POLLUTION

EPA Says Tests Show Moderate Health Concerns With Air 50 Miles
From Gulf Oil Spill. New Orleans - The Environmental Protection
Agency says the air in some places along the Louisiana coast
poses a health risk to vulnerable people. The EPA says recent air
sampling shows a moderate health risk in Venice and Grand Isle,
two Louisiana towns about 50 miles from the Deepwater Horizon oil
spill site. The agency says anyone unusually sensitive to
low-quality air should avoid "prolonged or heavy exertion.
Posted.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/wire/sns-ap-us-gulf-oil-spill-air-testing,0,447441,print.story
http://www.contracostatimes.com/nation-world/ci_15470641
http://www.fresnobee.com/2010/07/08/2000124/epa-moderate-health-concerns-with.html

A Promise of Cleaner Air. The Obama administration has proposed
new air-quality rules that represent another important step in
the long, litigious struggle to clean up older power plants. But
there is still a considerable distance to go before Americans,
especially those in large cities, can enjoy truly healthy air as
envisioned by the Clean Air Act of 1970. Posted.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/09/opinion/09fri2.html?_r=1&scp=2&sq=air%20pollution&st=cse

LEAF BLOWERS

Sonoma Leaf-Blower Ban on Hold, For Now. Landscapers and home
gardeners can continue using their leaf blowers in Sonoma, for
now, after the City Council on Wednesday sent the possibility of
a ban on the yard cleanup tools to a subcommittee for more
research. The issue of banning leaf blowers has drawn
considerable passion from Sonoma residents, and eight of them
spoke during the council meeting, urging the city to either ban
the noisy tools completely, restrict their hours of use or stay
out of it. Posted.
http://yourtown.pressdemocrat.com/2010/07/sonoma/sonoma-leaf-blower-ban-on-hold-for-now/

ENERGY

Utilities Face The Decision Point Of Big Shifts -- To Gas,
Renewables And Efficiency. With or without a climate bill,
electric utilities are shifting their investments to efficiency
measures that cut long-term costs and integrate more natural gas
and renewable energy into their power supplies, according to a
new report. "The business landscape for electric utilities is
shifting quickly," says a report authored by Navigant Consulting
for Ceres, a Boston-based coalition of institutional investors
and environmental groups. Posted.
http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/print/2010/07/09/2

UC Berkeley's Kammen Recommends Upgraded Feed-In Tariff. A new
paper from a leading climate policy expert makes the case that
California should have a feed-in tariff like the ones in Germany
and Spain that have been credited with creating unprecedented
demand for solar power. Dan Kammen is a professor of energy,
policy and nuclear engineering at the University of California,
Berkeley, and was an adviser to President Obama on energy policy
during the 2008 campaign. Posted.
http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/print/2010/07/09/5

Shareholders Muscle More Companies To Go Green. U.S. investors
are putting pressure on companies to take climate change
seriously and adopt environmentally friendly policies, according
to ethical investor coalition Ceres. More than 100 climate- and
energy-related resolutions were put forward by shareholders this
proxy season -- up nearly 50 percent over last year. Posted.
http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/print/2010/07/09/7

SMUD Signs Pact For Solar Energy. The Sacramento Municipal
Utility District signed a 20-year agreement with a San Francisco
company to provide enough solar energy to power 14,000
households. SMUD said Wednesday that independent power producer
Recurrent Energy will install solar panels on 12 pieces of leased
farmland in Elk Grove and Galt previously used to grow alfalfa
and wheat. Posted.
http://www.sacbee.com/2010/07/08/v-print/2875704/smud-solar.html

Obama Seeks Billions To Replenish Clean Manufacturing Tax
Credits. President Obama today continued his push to extend a
widely popular stimulus program that provides billions of dollars
in tax credits for renewable energy technologies. "I believe that
if an American company wants to create jobs and grow, we should
be there to help them do it," Obama said in a speech at the
University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Posted.
http://www.eenews.net/Greenwire/print/2010/07/09/2
http://www.contracostatimes.com/california/ci_15476395

Cal Poly Gives Students Extra Incentives To Go Green. Pomona -
Getting a buck off a sandwich at Cal Poly Pomona can be as easy
as recycling a couple of cans and bottles. The university is now
the home to two Internet-connected recycling Dream Machine kiosks
that offer recyclers a chance to get rewards every time they
decide to go green. Posted.
http://www.contracostatimes.com/california/ci_15470456

VEHICLES

Coulomb Gets $3.4M From California Energy Commission To Install
Electric Vehicle Charging Stations. Coulomb Technologies Inc.
said Thursday it was awarded about $3.4 million from the
California Energy Commission to install 1,600 home and public
charging stations for electric vehicles statewide. Campbell-based
Coulomb said the grant was made through matching funds, bringing
a $12 million project into California. Posted.
http://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/stories/2010/07/05/daily46.html?t=printable

BLOGS

Hot Weather in a Warming Climate. The headline above is a play
on the headline from a March 2008 post, “Cold Weather in a
Warming Climate,” written when climate stasists were crowing
about snow falling in Johannesburg and Baghdad. The last few days
have seen lots of payback, with climate campaigners working hard
to build a teachable moment around the brutal heat that first
baked, and now is merely poaching, much of the northeastern
United States (not to mention many parts of Asia). Posted.
http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/07/09/hot-weather-in-a-warming-climate/?pagemode=print

The Heat Wave and the Climate Divide. The temperature hit 103
degrees in Central Park on Tuesday, part of a record-breaking
heat wave. Extreme heat also scorched much of the rest of the
East Coast, from Boston to Virginia. Brownouts and blackouts
threatened as residents reaching for air-conditioner controls
strained the power grid. And the heat reached beyond the United
States, with record temperatures recorded in Pakistan and China.
Posted.
http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/07/09/the-heat-wave-and-the-climate-divide/

Battle Over California Climate Law Will Have National Ripple
Effect. This is not your father’s classic “tree hugger” vs. “big
business” fracas. Instead, a Nov. 2 ballot initiative aimed at
derailing California’s landmark global warming legislation pits a
coalition of about 400 local business, civic, labor and
environmental organizations against a smattering of out-of-state
oil refiners and connected groups.. Posted.
http://solveclimate.com/blog/20100708/battle-over-california-climate-law-will-have-national-ripple-effect