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California Air Resources Board News Clips for August 18, 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.

AB 32

Texas Oil Vs. California Clean Tech: The Battle Over Proposition
23. The Climate War Has Shifted To California. Proposition 23, an
initiative that would suspend Assembly Bill 32 (AB 32), the
state's landmark global warming law, provides the first ballot
box test for climate change legislation -- and for the prospects
of reviving a national cap-and-trade bill. So far, much of the
media attention has focused on Prop 23's funding. It's being
underwritten by the Texas oil companies Tesoro and Valero along
with other mostly out-of-state petrochemical and fossil fuel
interests. Posted.
http://www.grist.org/article/2010-08-17-texas-oil-v.-california-clean-tech-the-battle-over-Prop-23/PALL/print

CLIMATE CHANGE/GHG’S

Newsom Touts Business Sense Of Climate Change Law. The state's
global climate change law not only makes good environmental
policy but it also makes sense economically, San Francisco Mayor
Gavin Newsom said today. Newsom, the Democratic nominee for
Lieutenant Governor, told a packed crowd at Sacramento Mayor
Kevin Johnson's monthly "Greenwise" initiative meeting that
sustainability efforts spearheaded by his administration helped
create jobs and attract new clean-tech businesses in San
Francisco. Posted.
http://www.sacbee.com/2010/08/17/v-print/2965299/newsom-touts-business-sense-of.html
http://www.fresnobee.com/2010/08/17/2044576/newsom-touts-business-sense-of.html

EPA Push On Emission Regs Sparks State Permitting Scrambles,
Fury. U.S. EPA is planning to take over permitting programs for
states that can't or won't comply with the Obama administration's
climate rules by next year, and that isn't sitting well with some
state regulators. Officials in Texas and Arizona are staunchly
opposing EPA's plans to force states into compliance with
controversial climate regulations, while others fear the agency
is rushing forward without giving states enough guidance as they
prepare to begin regulating greenhouse gases for the first time.
Posted. http://www.eenews.net/Greenwire/print/2010/08/18/1

California's Choice: Build The Future, Or Burn The Planet. The
most important decision Californian voters might ever make: Yes
or no on the state's global warming law. As midterm elections go,
California faces a doozy this November. There's a juicy
governor's race, with former eBay CEO Meg Whitman, a Republican,
determined to spend whatever it takes to deny Jerry Brown a
second go-round in Sacramento. Posted.
http://www.salon.com/technology/how_the_world_works/2010/08/17/california_burning

Cap and Trade Makes a Comeback. Many of us thought that earlier
this year we saw the end of cap and trade. But with the oil
disaster, cap and trade is poised to make a big comeback. But is
emissions trading the answer or just a Band-Aid on a bullet hole?
Though there has been a great deal of debate surrounding cap and
trade in its most recent context of carbon trading, cap and trade
in history has had its successes. Posted.
http://www.environmentalleader.com/2010/08/18/cap-and-trade-makes-a-comeback/

Indonesia's Coral Reefs Dying At Alarming Rate. Jakarta,
Indonesia—Coral that survived the 2004 tsunami is now dying at
one of the fastest rates ever recorded because of a dramatic rise
in water temperatures off northwestern Indonesia,
conservationists said, warning Wednesday that the threat extends
to other reefs across Asia. Posted.
http://www.contracostatimes.com/science/ci_15814776

ENERGY

Many Americans In The Dark About Saving Energy – Survey.
Governments and utilities are trying many ways to get people to
save energy, but one of them -- old-fashioned education -- may be
underperforming. Despite decades of public awareness campaigns,
some Americans are still misinformed about which habits would
save the most energy, according to a new survey. The study
published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,
surveyed 500 Internet users. Posted.
http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/print/2010/08/18/4

SBA Loan Is Wind At Back Of San Leandro Firm. Inside a
graffiti-tagged warehouse in San Leandro, Louis Rigaud leads a
team of 11 people who recently took over the site to rebuild
giant wind energy turbines. "If we don't have enough space to lay
things out, it ends up taking too much time and costing more to
do things," said Rigaud, 38, who recently received a $2.1 million
loan from Wells Fargo that is backed by a guarantee from the
Small Business Administration. Posted.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/08/18/BUSC1EV7T9.DTL&type=printable

POLLUTION

Court Rules Mud From Logging Roads Is Pollution. Grants Pass,
Ore. A federal appeals court decided Tuesday that mud washing off
logging roads is pollution and ordered the Environmental
Protection Agency to write regulations to reduce the amount that
reaches salmon streams. A conservation group that filed the
lawsuit said if the ruling by the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of
Appeals stands, logging roads on federal, state and private lands
across the West will eventually have to be upgraded to meet Clean
Water Act standards. Posted.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/08/18/BAMV1EVF36.DTL&type=printable

County Agrees To Reduce Pollution, But Questions By How Much.
County leaders on Tuesday agreed on their common goal to curb
future planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions, but they differed
on how much those emissions should be reined in. The discussion
was called as the state's Air Resources Board and the Association
of Monterey Bay Area Governments are in talks to limit the amount
of greenhouse gas pollution created by transportation - in other
words, vehicle exhaust - that is emitted by Central Coast
residents. Posted.
http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-news/ci_15807335

Coal Plants Emitting Less SO2, NOx This Year, EPA Says.
Coal-fired power plants have continued to cut their soot- and
smog-forming emissions this year, according to newly released
estimates from U.S. EPA. Preliminary emissions data (pdf) for the
first two quarters of 2010 show declines in total emissions as
well as emissions intensity -- the amount of pollution produced
per unit of electricity. Posted.
http://www.nytimes.com/gwire/2010/08/17/17greenwire-coal-plants-emitting-less-so2-nox-this-year-ep-17893.html

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.modbee.com/2010/06/21/1299004/the-buzz-official-state-rock-is.html#ixzz0wyRbdl00

VEHICLES

G.M. to Develop Small Engines With China Partner. SHANGHAI —
Deepening cooperation with one of its major partners in China,
General Motors said Wednesday that it planned to jointly develop
small, fuel-efficient engines and advanced transmissions here
with S.A.I.C. Motor Corp. The agreement is part of the American
automaker’s plan to create more environmentally friendly
technologies and expand its range of offerings in China’s
fast-growing auto market, which has overtaken the United States
as the world’s largest. Posted.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/19/business/global/19engines.html?_r=1&ref=business&pagewanted=print

RAIL ROAD

Activists Take On Railway. SAN BERNARDINO - Community activists
on Tuesday attempted to deliver a certificate to BNSF Railway
managers naming the company as "Polluter of the Year" but were
locked out of the firm's offices here. The protest took place
outside BNSF Railway's offices near Hospitality Lane. Posted.
http://www.contracostatimes.com/california/ci_15809666?nclick_check=1

FUELS

Drink, Then Drive? Whisky Fuel Could Power Cars. London—How about
a whisky to go? Scientists say they have developed biofuel for
cars from waste produced in distilling Scotch whisky. Researchers
at Edinburgh Napier University have produced a type of fuel
called butanol using "pot ale"—the liquid residue from copper
stills—and "draff," or leftover grain. Posted.
http://www.contracostatimes.com/nation-world/ci_15813578

GAS

New Australian Discovery Could Pave Road To World Dominance.
Australia could emerge as the world's top natural gas exporter as
three new gas discoveries were made off its west coast this week
by Chevron Corp. and Woodside Petroleum Ltd. The Acme well, 150
kilometers (about 93.2 miles) off the coast of Western Australia
state, had a net gas pay of 896 feet, making it the largest such
find in the country, according to Chevron. Since August 2009, the
company has found nine other pockets of gas, but this is the
largest by twice the size of the previous finds. Posted.
http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/print/2010/08/18/6

OPINION: Thank God Global Warming Is A Hoax. I mean, right? You
know? Because gosh Jesus in angry apocalyptic heaven, wouldn't it
be just terrible if it were all true? Wouldn't it be horrible if
all this stunning, insanely mounting, irrefutable evidence --
death, floods, fires, heat waves, the worst this and the most
violent that in 1,000 years -- were some sort of surefire,
cumulative sign that we have, if not directly caused, then wildly
accelerated and amplified the imminent implosion of this planet?
Posted.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2010/08/18/notes081810.DTL&type=printable