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California Air Resources Board News Clips for October 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

California Greenhouse Gas Trade to Start "Gently”. California’s
climate change chief expects a gentle start to a scheme to trade
greenhouse gases, as the recession has done much of the work of
cutting pollution by idling businesses and people. The state late
this month will unveil details of a plan to cap the amount of
greenhouse gas emissions and let big power plants and factories
trade rights to emit carbon dioxide. But the plan won't start
with a dramatic "bang," said Mary Nichols, head of the state's
Air Resources Board. Posted.
http://uk.reuters.com/article/idUKTRE69D00320101014

U.S. Agencies Urged to Plan for the `Inevitable Effects' of
Global Warming. The Obama administration, which has been unable
to push climate-change legislation through Congress, is urging
government agencies to prepare for the “inevitable effects” of
global warming. Strategies should be considered in every
decision, and scientific data on rising temperatures and sea
levels should be easily accessible to officials, according to a
report from President Barack Obama’s interagency task force on
adapting to climate change. Posted.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/print/2010-10-14/agencies-urged-to-plan-for-inevitable-effects-of-warming-in-u-s-report.html

GREEN

Local Efforts to Help the Earth. EVEN as some saw The Unbearable
Heaviness of Being this summer as evidence that the globe is
indeed warming, the attempt to live greener still engenders some
dispute. An 82-year-old woman behind the effort to ban the sale
of bottled water in Concord, Mass., plans to keep up the fight,
despite challenges from the bottled water industry and the
state’s attorney general. Raleigh, N.C., is a candidate for the
Nice Try award, after a measure to outlaw garbage disposals there
was repealed, preserving every citizen’s right to add even more
gunk to the municipal water system. Posted.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/14/fashion/14CircaNow.html?_r=1&pagewanted=print

Experts: Green Jobs Not Enough To Help Labor Market. Sacramento —
For Jerry Brown and many of his fellow Democrats, the future of
California's struggling labor force hinges on a clean energy
industry they say is poised to take off. They picture a green
California where hundreds of thousands of people work to install
solar panels and build electricity-powered cars. Posted.
http://www.sacbee.com/2010/10/13/v-print/3103257/experts-green-jobs-not-enough.html

Natural Gas Elbows Its Way To Center Stage. New York - By
unlocking decades' worth of natural-gas deposits deep underground
across the United States, drillers have ensured that natural gas
will be cheap and plentiful for the foreseeable future. It's a
reversal from a few years ago that is transforming the energy
industry. The sudden abundance of natural gas has been a boon to
homeowners who use it for heat, local economies in gas-rich
regions, manufacturers that use it to power factories and
…Posted.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5j5GXYdWUchI3DjYtdYS0QE4a77JAD9IQV65G0?docId=D9IQV65G0

PACE program could gain power, again. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger
this week signed a bill into law that could give a boost to an
energy efficiency financing program that stalled this summer.
Assembly Bill 1873 can provide funding to the Property Assessed
Clean Energy (PACE) program in California by allowing certain
state agencies to invest in PACE bonds. Such bonds make
investments in energy efficiency improvements, such as
energy-efficient windows and insulation, more affordable for
homeowners and businesses. Posted.
http://www.bizjournals.com/sacramento/stories/2010/10/11/daily31.html?t=printable

OPINION

Get High-Speed Rail on Fast Track to Reality. High-speed rail
represents the opportunity to transform transportation throughout
California. Given that the state is expected to grow by more than
20 million people, to roughly 60 million by 2050, we need to
develop and support this environmentally sustainable
transportation option in order to remain economically
competitive, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and support our
quality of life. Posted.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/10/13/EDFB1FRQDK.DTL#ixzz12Lm6St3E

No On Proposition 23. Let's Keep Working Toward Clean Air And Not
Fall Victim To False Claims. Proposition 23 on the Nov. 2 ballot
is being sold as a way to protect jobs and business in
California. Don't believe it. The ballot measure, with strong
financial backing from out-of-state oil companies, is designed to
do just one thing: protect them. They couldn't care less about
California's air quality. Why should they? They don't live here.
Of course, that's not how it's being sold. Prop. 23 backers would
have you believe they all belong to the Sierra Club. Posted.
http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20101014/A_OPINION01/10140314/-1/A_OPINION

BLOGS

Proposition 23: Opponents Surge Ahead In Fundraising. California
green technology companies and wealthy environmentalists are
pouring money into a campaign to defeat Proposition 23, a
November ballot initiative that would suspend the state's global
warming law.  So far, opponents of Prop 23 have raised $16.3
million, nearly twice as much as supporters of the initiative,
which was launched by two Texas oil companies with refineries in
California. Posted.
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/greenspace/2010/10/proposition-23-contributions-clean-tech-oil-companies.html

League of Conservation Voters Targets Prop 23. The League of
Conservation Voters today added California’s Proposition 23 to
its “Dirty Dozen” list, the first time a the environmental group
has placed a ballot initiative on the listing of congressional
candidates with poor environmental records. LCV President Gene
Karpinski told reporters today that Prop 23 is “the single most
important race in the country.” Posted.
http://washingtonindependent.com/100695/league-of-conservation-voters-targets-prop-23

New Green Jobs: Introducing Some Local Decision Makers. Know your
Los Angeles Port Commissioners! 'Cause you have two new ones,
thanks to the LA City Council.  David Arian is a retired
longshoreman, former ILWU president, and father of a law school
graduate. (I learned that last part when Arian talked to former
NPR reporter Rick Karr 2 years ago for a PBS Frontline.) …Posted.
http://www.scpr.org/blogs/environment/2010/10/13/new-green-jobs-introducing-some-local-decisionmake/

EPA's Ethanol Decision Sparks Controversy. On the face of it,
having a federal agency get behind renewable fuel seems like it
should elicit cheers from environmentalists, and from pretty much
anyone who is leery of our dependence on foreign oil. Not quite.
Here's what happened: The EPA issued a partial waiver Wednesday
allowing the amount of ethanol in automotive fuel to rise to 15%,
from 10%, but for use only in cars no older than the 2007 model
year. Posted.
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/greenspace/2010/10/epa-ethanol-decision-sparks-controversy.html
http://ecocentric.blogs.time.com/2010/10/13/energy-the-epa-will-put-more-ethanol-in-your-tank%E2%80%94but-its-going-to-cost-you/

On Climate, How Much Could E.P.A. Do? One near-term alternative
to a cap-and-trade bill is a big increase in funds for clean
energy research. Another alternative is having the Environmental
Protection Agency crack down on greenhouse gas emissions. As
Bradford Plumer has written, “back in 2007, the Supreme Court
ruled that the E.P.A. was required to regulate greenhouse gases
under the existing Clean Air Act if it found those gases posed a
threat to public health and welfare (which, most scientists
agree, they do).” Posted.
http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/10/14/on-climate-how-much-could-e-p-a-do/

Stopping Climate Change 2.0. I've spent the past few weeks
gathering string on a column about the best strategies for
addressing climate change without a carbon price. Unfortunately
for me, David Leonhardt wrote that exact column today.
Fortunately for you, he did a better job with it than I would've.
The basic story here is that for years, climate-policy wonks
advocated a market-based solution to climate change: …Posted.
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra-klein/2010/10/the_new_strategy_on_climate_ch.html