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California Air Resources Board News Clips for August 10, 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

Global Warming Mission Could Survive Prop. 23, Experts Say.
Passage of the ballot measure would put some programs on hold,
including the cap-and-trade provision, but most of the effect
would be political, not practical. Even if voters decide to
suspend California's landmark global warming law at the polls in
November, most of its goals to reduce greenhouse gases can still
be met, according to experts. Posted.
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/politics/la-me-global-warming-20100810,0,1147658,print.story

ARB Staff Moves Forward With SB 375 Goals. The Air Resources
Board took another step today toward its implementation of a
state law meant to encourage local governments to adopt planning
and transportation policies that cut automobile use and lead to a
reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. The ARB released a staff
recommendation that will likely lead to goals for regions around
the state to reduce their per capita emissions of the gases
believed to contribute to global warming. Posted.
http://www.healthycal.org/arb-staff-moves-forward-with-sb-375-goals.html/print/

California SB 375 Report Proposes GHG Reduction Targets to Curb
Sprawl Emissions from Transportation. The California Air
Resources Board released a draft report that proposes targets for
land use and transportation planning in 2020 and 2035 to reduce
greenhouse gas emissions associated with passenger vehicle travel
in the state’s eighteen Metropolitan Planning Organizations,
including the four largest: Southern California, San Diego, the
Bay Area, and the Sacramento region. Posted.
http://www.favstocks.com/california-sb-375-report-proposes-ghg-reduction-targets-to-curb-sprawl-emissions-from-transportation/1022467/

Missouri Conservative Group Fights For Prop. 23. Sacramento - One
of the largest single contributions to the campaign for a
November ballot measure to suspend California's greenhouse gas
reduction law has come from an obscure, Missouri-based
conservative organization that ended 2009 with just $109. Yet
four months later, the Adam Smith Foundation made a $498,000
contribution to the campaign to pass Prop. 23, prompting some
Sacramento officials to call for a federal investigation into
whether it was a legal move for the designated nonprofit. Posted.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/08/08/BANO1EQFE6.DTL&type=printable

Study Says Rising Temperatures Thwart Rice Growth. MANILA,
Philippines—A projected rise in temperatures because of climate
change will slow the growth of rice production in Asia, an
international team of scientists says in a new study. The study
published Monday in the peer-reviewed journal of the U.S.-based
National Academy of Sciences builds on previous findings that
rising temperatures during the last 25 years have already cut the
rice yield growth rate by 10 percent to 20 percent in several
parts of Asia. Posted.
http://www.contracostatimes.com/nation-world/ci_15724396

ENERGY/GREEN ENERGY

Solar Power Steps Up To The Starting Line. Although they haven’t
gotten the go-ahead yet, several major solar power plant
proposals in California have advanced to the starting line.
According to E&E News PM, in just the past few days, the
California Energy Commission and the U.S. Bureau of Land
Management have issued final environmental impact statements for
a handful of major solar power plants and recommended final
approval for others. Posted.
http://www.californiawatch.org/watchblog/california-solar-power-moves-toward-creating-4-plants-23

Clorox Goes Green With New Natural Product Line. Wearing a white
lab coat and blue plastic gloves, Inderjeet Ajmani needed just a
few minutes and five ingredients to whip up a batch of dish soap
in her lab at the Clorox Co.'s research and development facility
in Pleasanton. Ajmani, a master technician who holds five patents
related to Liquid-Plumr, was promoting the eco-friendliness of
Clorox Green Works, the company's line of "natural" cleaners
derived from plants. Posted.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/08/10/BULS1EOETD.DTL&type=printable

Nuclear Energy Has Environmental Pluses; Safety Remains An Issue.
Some environmentalists are indeed coming around to nuclear
energy. That's because the nuclear fission process produces
virtually no greenhouse gas emissions, unlike the burning of
fossil fuels such as coal and natural gas. (Those two fossil
fuels accounted for about 70 percent of U.S. electricity in 2008.
Nukes made 20 percent.) Posted.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/08/09/AR2010080904141.html

FUELS

Modesto Irrigation District Wood-Burning Plant Debated. It made
sense to cavemen: If you need fuel, start with the branches and
twigs all around you. Eons later, the Modesto Irrigation District
is thinking along the same lines. A plant proposed for the Beard
Industrial District would burn wood from the region's orchards to
make electricity. Proponents see this as an ideal source for the
MID's power customers: It would create local jobs, unlike fossil
fuels from distant places. Posted.
http://www.modbee.com/2010/08/09/v-print/1287472/wood-burning-power-plant-debated.html

Butter Holds The Secret To The Latest Biodiesel Fuel. Butter is
not the fuel of the future, but it is possible to churn perfectly
good diesel fuel out of it. “It was something we wanted to show
could be done,” said Michael J. Haas, a research biochemist at
the United States Department of Agriculture. “It’s quirky,” he
acknowledged of the dairy-to-diesel research, which was published
in June in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry. The
impetus was an 800-pound sculpture of Benjamin Franklin and the
Liberty Bell. Posted.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/10/science/10butter.html?ref=science&pagewanted=print
http://www.eenews.net/Greenwire/2010/08/10/9

VEHICLES

Only 16 Electric Cars Sold In Spain Despite Government Push. The
good news: Spain's ambitious electric-car effort has spurred 16
times as many sales of electric cars this year as last. The bad
news -- that's just 16, total, so far this year, vs. 1 last year,
the Associated Press reports from Madrid. The country said it
would invest close to $800 million in electric cars and
infrastructure, hoping to hit sales of 2,000 electrics this year.
Those 16 are little two-seat, Swedish Think cars, not the nifty
sedan shown above that's the teaser on the government-project's
website. Posted.
http://content.usatoday.com/communities/driveon/post/2010/08/ap-only-16-electric-cars-sold-in-spain-despite-government-push/1

DIELSELS

CARB Eyes Changing Guidelines For SCR 2011 Technology And Beyond;
Engine Battle Continues. Sacramento, Calif. — The California Air
Resources Board is considering changing the guidelines for
manufacturers to certify their 2011 and future SCR (selective
catalytic reduction) engines, says a CARB spokesman. “As
presented in the July [SCR] workshop,” said Karen Caesar, an
information officer for CARB, “the focus is on tightening up or
shortening time or mileage that a vehicle would be allowed to
operate when out of diesel exhaust fluid (DEF), using improper
DEF [fluid] such as water or tampering with their systems.
Posted.
http://www.thetrucker.com/News/Stories/2010/8/10/CARBeyeschangingguidelinesforSCR2011technologyandbeyondenginebattlecontinues.aspx

New Science And Technology Study Findings Have Been Reported From
University Of California. Current study results from the report,
'Effects of retrofitting emission control systems on in-use heavy
diesel vehicles,' have been published. "Diesel engines are now
the largest source of nitrogen oxides (NO(x)) and fine
particulate black carbon (soot) emissions in California. The
California Air Resources Board recently adopted a rule requiring
that by 2014 all in-use heavy trucks and buses meet current
(2007) exhaust particulate matter (PM) emission standards,"
scientists in the United States report. Posted.
http://www.powergenworldwide.com/index/display/wire-news-display/1238739619.html

CARBON OFFSETS

Japan to Subsidize Studies for Carbon-Offset Projects. (Adds
details of projects in fourth paragraph.) Toshiba Corp., Tokyo
Electric Power Co. and Mitsubishi Corp. are among 15 Japanese
companies selected by the government to carry out feasibility
studies for pollution-cutting projects to earn carbon credits
overseas. The government will provide about 500 million yen ($6
million) for research into projects aimed at exporting low-
carbon technology to developing countries, the trade ministry
said in a statement released in Tokyo today. Posted.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2010/08/10/bloomberg1376-L6X7O06TZ02401-4FKFUTQPHLNPS0V00CC8JQN0CI.DTL&type=printable

CEMENT PLANTS

EPA Limits Mercury And Other Pollutants From Cement Plants.
Officials say the rules will save lives, especially in
California, but the industry warns they could send jobs abroad.
The Environmental Protection Agency on Monday completed
regulations limiting the release of mercury and other toxic air
pollutants from cement plants, a move the Obama administration
said would save lives but that cement makers warned could drive
jobs overseas. Posted.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/washingtondc/la-na-cement-epa-20100810,0,3197552,print.story
MISC

ChicoBag To Be Honored By Products Council. Sacramento — ChicoBag
will the first business in the state to receive the California
Product Stewardship Council's inaugural Green Arrow Award. The
award will be made Tuesday to founder and executive Andy Keller,
along with awards to Assembly members Wesley Chesbro (D-North
Coast) and Ira Ruskin (D-Redwood City). Posted.
http://www.contracostatimes.com/california/ci_15721534?nclick_check=1

Maine Lobsterman In Tiny Boat Pulls Traps By Hand. Matinicus
Island, Maine -- It's muscle power - not a diesel engine's
horsepower - that propels Nat Hussey's lobster boat as he tends
to his lobster traps. In a throwback to the past - with a nod to
the environment - Hussey pulls his traps by hand from the cold
ocean waters around this island 23 miles out to sea. Posted.
http://www.fresnobee.com/2010/08/10/2035964/maine-lobsterman-in-tiny-boat.html

BLOGS

The Technology Imperative for Energy and Climate. If you care
about  fostering prosperity in poor places while limiting the
buildup of greenhouse gases in the globe’s shared atmosphere,
it’s time to recognize the  technology imperative that lies
behind the world’s entwined climate and energy challenges.
Without greatly intensified work to advance and disseminate
energy choices that don’t come with heat-trapping emissions,
there’s no smooth path as human populations and appetites crest
in the next two generations. Posted.
http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/08/10/the-technology-imperative-for-energy-and-climate/?scp=7&sq=climate%20change&st=cse

Secretary General Appoints A Panel On Global Sustainability. UN
Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on August 9, 2010 appointed a panel
on global sustainability that is tasked with finding ways to lift
people out of poverty while tackling climate change and ensuring
that economic development is environmentally friendly. Posted.
http://www.examiner.com/x-56403-Montgomery-United-Nations-Examiner~y2010m8d10-Secretary-General-appoints-a-panel-on-global-sustainability

Iceberg As A Metaphor For Inaction. Last week a vast block of ice
broke off from the Greenland ice sheet, creating the largest
iceberg to form off the country in nearly 50 years. On Saturday,
Representative Edward J. Markey, Democrat of Massachussets, and
chairman of the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and
Global Warming, used the unusual event to fire a salvo at
Republican opponents of climate change legislation in the Senate.
Posted.
http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/08/09/iceberg-as-a-metaphor-for-inaction/?pagemode=print

First They Came For The Climate Scientists. Everyone knows that
the American right has problems with science that yields
conclusions it doesn’t like. Climate science — which says that we
face a huge global externality that requires not just government
intervention, but coordinated international action (black
helicopters!) has been the target of a sustained, and
unfortunately largely successful, attempt to damage its
credibility. Posted.
http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/08/10/first-they-came-for-the-climate-scientists/?scp=9&sq=climate%20change&st=cse