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newsclips -- Newsclips for November 29, 2010.
Posted: 29 Nov 2010 14:38:35
California Air Resources Board News Clips for November 29, 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. GREEN ENERGY Capital Region Leads State In Clean-Tech Job Growth, Study Says. Clean-tech companies in the Sacramento region now employ more workers than the local agricultural sector, underscoring the importance of the fledgling industry's role to the area's economy. In a report released today, the Green Capital Alliance, which promotes local green industry, said Sacramento has led the state in clean-tech job growth during the past 13 years and now employs more than 13,000 workers. Posted. http://www.sacbee.com/2010/11/29/v-print/3217524/capital-region-leads-state-in.html Obama Administration Gives Billions In Stimulus Money Without Environmental Safeguards. In the name of job creation and clean energy, the Obama administration has doled out about $2 billion in stimulus money to some of the nation's biggest polluters while granting them exemptions from a basic form of environmental oversight, a Center for Public Integrity investigation has found. Posted. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/28/AR2010112804379_pf.html AIR POLLUTION To Clear Up Air Quality, Hong Kong Looks to the Sea. The most potent proof of Hong Kong’s long and abundant maritime history is, increasingly, the ubiquitous haze that blurs the city’s skyline. In this, the world’s third-busiest container port, after Singapore and Shanghai, according to the Hong Kong Marine Department, commercial tankers, ferries and fishing boats exhale noxious fumes into air that already, by the World Health Organization’s standards, is healthy only 41 days of the year. Posted. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/29/business/energy-environment/29iht-rbogship.html?src=busln Is State Being Burned By Woodstoves? Clean air officials in Northern California were startled earlier this year to learn that a county just 200 miles north in Oregon has landed $900,000 in federal stimulus money so that residents can trade in their old, smoky wood-burning stoves for cleaner models. But no such stimulus money is flowing to anywhere in California suffering from wintertime air pollution from wood-burning stoves and fireplaces, which is odd considering the recent spell of cold weather. Posted. http://www.dailydemocrat.com/news/ci_16732865 Holiday Traditions Can Affect Air Quality. The Thanksgiving holiday weekend can have poor air quality due to high particle concentrations primarily from residential wood burning according to the Yolo-Solano Air Quality Management District. "Combining weather conditions and an increase of wood burning during the holiday weekend can create poor air quality which contributes to health problems," stated Mat Ehrhardt, executive director. Posted. http://www.dailydemocrat.com/news/ci_16709440 UC RIVERSIDE: Project Studies Unique Hybrid Tugboat. The tale of the Carolyn Dorothy almost reads like a children's book story line for the green generation. She's the little tugboat in the harbor that could. Only she did by emitting 73 percent less soot emissions, 51 percent less smog-causing nitrogen oxides and 27 percent less carbon dioxide. UC Riverside researchers have the numbers to prove it. Posted. http://www.pe.com/localnews/stories/PE_News_Local_D_tugboat29.3f2eae3.html Air District Eyeing Air Quality During Cold Season. A lot of people in the Bay Area had their fireplaces going Thanksgiving night and that did a job on air quality. While it was OK to burn a fire Friday, authorities preferred people wait until the weekend. When the temperature drops, the firewood burns. That is the plan for the Wiggs family over the Thanksgiving weekend. With a bunch of out-of-town relatives visiting San Rafael, the holiday would not be the same without a crackling fire. Posted. http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=weather&id=7811396 Agency's Success Presents New Challenges – Jackson. With U.S. EPA taking intense criticism from Republicans and businesses, Administrator Lisa Jackson said today her 40-year-old agency is battling a new problem: Americans are taking a healthy environment for granted. When EPA was created in 1970, Cleveland's Cuyahoga River was so polluted that it caught fire. Pittsburgh and Los Angeles were choking on smog on a daily basis. And the widespread use of DDT and other toxic chemicals was killing off bald eagles -- the very symbol of the United States. Posted. http://www.eenews.net/Greenwire/print/2010/11/29/1 CLIMATE CHANGE Wind Seems Knocked Out Of Obama's Climate Agenda. The fight over U.S. environmental policy will shift next year as Republicans take control of the House of Representatives, leaving the Obama administration chasing smaller victories in the effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. What's dead for now is the ambitious climate bill that President Obama had backed, which sought to commit the U.S. to reduce industrial pollution 17% from 2005 levels by 2020. Posted. http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/environment/2010-11-29-climatepolicy29_ST_N.htm U.S. Carbon Trading Centers on California. Product Launches Set for the State as Emissions Exchanges Gear Up to Compete in Global Efforts. California will become the next test site for emissions trading in the U.S. as exchanges line up new climate-related markets in the state, following the shelving of a national cap-and-trade plan to cut greenhouse gases. Three exchange groups are preparing product launches for California after voters endorsed the state's 2006 climate law in a referendum earlier this month. Supporters believe California will breathe new life into a U.S. carbon-trading market that has fallen dormant after a federal program was shelved this summer and interest cooled in other regional initiatives. Posted. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703730304575632961052313910.html?mod=googlenews_wsj Sandy, White Beaches and a 'Toxic' Issue Confront Negotiators as Cancun Talks Begin. To hear climate change negotiators describe it, this week's U.N. global warming summit in Cancun, Mexico, is shaping up like a confab of homebuilders. Delegates say they are "laying foundations," setting up "frameworks" and installing the "building blocks" for a future treaty. They might also need a bomb shelter. Posted. http://www.nytimes.com/cwire/2010/11/29/29climatewire-sandy-white-beaches-and-a-toxic-issue-confro-40061.html?pagewanted=print Companies Adopt Green Policies on Their Own. London — While politicians bicker over international action on global warming, many companies are taking the lead and cutting greenhouse gas emissions on their own. While such efforts are unlikely to be enough without strong incentives and regulation from governments, environmentalists are encouraged by how seriously some in the private sector are taking climate change. Posted. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/29/business/global/29iht-rboguk.html?_r=1&src=busln&pagewanted=print How to Change the Global Energy Conversation. Forcing countries to agree to emissions caps will never work, argue Ted Nordhaus and Michael Shellenberger. Instead, they say, the focus should be on technology innovations. It's time for a rethink on climate change. For two decades, world leaders have been trying—and failing—to hammer out a workable deal on global warming. Posted. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704312504575618972157288244.html?mod=googlenews_wsj Even When Frozen, Soils Get Busy Emitting CO2. Microbes have long done the world's dirty work. They gobble up oil spills. They defend our guts against disease. And even in rugged northern latitudes, hosts of bacteria filter through the soil, feeding on falling leaves and decay, freeing carbon and nutrients for each spring's renewal. For a long time, scientists thought the essential role played by soil bacteria in the northern carbon cycle was purely seasonal: During summer, heat-loving bugs would tear through leaf litter and waste with a frenzy, multiplying rapidly. Posted. http://www.eenews.net/Greenwire/print/2010/11/29/4 VEHICLES New Hybrid Buses Arriving In Peninsula Communities. New hybrid buses are joining the fleet of the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) and gradually hitting the streets of Peninsula communities. Last month, the first nine diesel-electric hybrid buses — each costing $650,000 — were unveiled on VTA bus line 66, which connects San Jose and Milpitas. Since then, another 20 buses have been delivered. The hybrids are now being used on bus lines 23 and 68, which connect Cupertino and Gilroy with San Jose. Posted. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/inthepeninsula/detail?entry_id=77893 Triac, An Electric Car Made In Salinas, Getting Ready To Hit The Streets. Is there a Triac in your future? Maybe -- if your conscience has evolved to a deep shade of green and you have $25,000 to spare on a locally manufactured, three-wheeled gasless electric vehicle with a 100-mile range. I drove one around Los Gatos the other day with Mike Ryan, president of Green Vehicles, the Salinas company that makes them. A prototype, one of just a dozen made so far, it had a stick shift that will be replaced in the upcoming Triac 2.0 with an automatic transmission. Posted. http://www.mercurynews.com/top-stories/ci_16693879?nclick_check=1 DOWNEY: Cars 99 Percent Cleaner Than 1960s Models. Here's something you don't see every day: An environmental group is praising cars, instead of denouncing them as the source of much of what is wrong with society today. Environment California recently released a study that found cars are 99 percent cleaner than they were 40-some years ago. The typical automobile that rolled off new-car lots in the 1960s coughed up 1 ton of air pollution every 100,000 miles. Today, in California, the typical new car generates 10 pounds of pollution over the same distance. And it shows, the report said. Posted. http://www.nctimes.com/news/local/columnists/downey/article_a3702dec-2bbd-53ed-bd70-9383c0332b5b.html Obama Transportation Emission Control Initiatives. As I begin writing a book compiling my Examiner articles from the past two years coinciding with Obama’s first two years in office there is one story I recently picked up that has received little popular press coverage. According to one of my regional transportation air quality contacts President Obama has authorized development of Tier 3 Tailpipe Out Transportation Emission Standards for automobile and truck makers under 12,500 pounds loaded weight. Posted. http://www.examiner.com/environmental-policy-in-national/obama-transportation-emission-control-initiatives Cali Launches VRRRM Program. No, that's not the sound of a Toyota when you apply the breaks. VRRRM is short for Vehicle Repair, Retirement and Replacement for Motorists, a program sponsored by the Foundation for California Community Colleges and launched in the State this weekend, VRRRM calls for repairing, retiring, and replacing around 17,000 vehicles considered to be polluting the atmosphere, in an attempt to remove some 850 tons of pollutants from California.s air within the next three years. Posted. http://www.autoevolution.com/news/cali-launches-vrrrm-program-27172.html As Expected, the Port of Los Angeles and Port of Long Beach signed off last week on the first update to their 4-year-old Clean Air Action Plan. The updated plan was approved during a joint meeting of the two harbor commissions. Coming off a successful effort to cut truck emissions at the two ports, the updated plan turns its focus toward ships and trains. Shipping lines will be encouraged to bring their cleanest ships to Southern California and the railroads to use their newest locomotives. Posted. http://www.cunninghamreport.com/news_item.php?id=1386 UC RIVERSIDE: Project Studies Unique Hybrid Tugboat. The tale of the Carolyn Dorothy almost reads like a children's book story line for the green generation. She's the little tugboat in the harbor that could. Only she did by emitting 73 percent less soot emissions, 51 percent less smog-causing nitrogen oxides and 27 percent less carbon dioxide. UC Riverside researchers have the numbers to prove it. Posted. http://www.pe.com/localnews/stories/PE_News_Local_D_tugboat29.3f2eae3.html Market Pressure Pushed GM To Produce Volt. More than a decade after pulling the plug on the $1 billion EV1 electric car project, General Motors Co. is back in the game with the launch of its Chevrolet Volt, an extended-range plug-in car. The Volt decision came after executives saw the praise being heaped on Toyota for its Prius gas-electric hybrid. But GM executives did not want to mimic Toyota by making a hybrid, nor did they want to repeat the failure of the EV1 by going purely electric. Posted. http://www.eenews.net/Greenwire/print/2010/11/29/15 OPINION LOIS HENRY: Regulating The Truth And Other Hot Air. There I was last week, minding my own business (well, sort of), when this morsel of an e-mail popped up from the California Air Resources Board. CARB will have a workshop Dec. 1 to discuss a new regulation "Prohibiting False Statements." It goes on to read: "The contemplated regulation would forbid dishonest statements offered to the Board or to its staff. Such a regulation would be especially beneficial because the Board's rulemaking and rule implementation relies on accurate technical, scientific, and economic data submitted to the Board." That is so rich it almost makes my teeth hurt. Posted. http://www.bakersfield.com/news/local/x1263267080/LOIS-HENRY-Regulating-the-truth-and-other-hot-air A Quiet Orinda Member Sounds Off On Leaf Blowers. JoAnneh Nagler is a Burlingame resident and member of Quiet Orinda, a group seeking to ban the use of leafblowers. Here, she explains her reasoning for asking for such a ban. The news that Orinda's City Council dismissed the issue of prolific leaf blower use in their community is not surprising. As more progressive cities have instituted bans and regulations, Orinda, sadly, sidestepped the health hazards by voting down any attempts to regulate. Posted. http://lamorinda.patch.com/articles/a-quiet-orinda-member-sounds-off-on-leaf-blowers Health Challenge: Climate Change. In Jerry Brown's new administration, the state Department of Public Health has an opportunity and an obligation to help drive home the implications of climate change. As outgoing Gov. Schwarzenegger has explained, global warming doesn't affect only penguins and polar bears. He points to air pollution-related impact on the health of valley children who suffer from asthma. Posted. http://www.modbee.com/2010/11/28/1448575/health-challenge-climate-change.html#ixzz16gwIwZ5k BLOGS Western Climate Initiative Offers Hope Despite Federal Government Paralysis. Canada committed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) by 6% below 1990 levels by 2012 under the Kyoto protocol. Instead, Canada’s emissions have increased by 24%. The Harper government ties its climate action to the US, which didn’t even sign on to Kyoto. There was some hope for legislative action in both countries when Obama was elected, but that hope sank with the most recent US election of climate deniers and the unelected Canadian senate’s obliteration of the House of Representative’s climate bill. Posted. http://www.vancouverobserver.com/blogs/earthmatters/2010/11/29/western-climate-initiative-offers-hope-despite-federal-government The "Green New Deal" meets the "New Austerity" - Making Clean Energy Cheaper. A little less than 18 months ago many in the United States were heralding what appeared to be the beginning of the "Green New Deal" at the national level. It now appears that this ushering in of what I will refer to as "Green New Deal 1.0" was at best premature as efforts to create a national green house gas cap-and-trade regime and related clean energy measures at the federal level have stalled in the face of the "New Austerity"; indeed, there is a real risk that federal and state elections in the U.S. next week could result in a reversal of significant existing clean energy policies at the state and federal levels, most notably policies in California that mirror Green New Deal 1.0. Posted. http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/11/29/the_green_new_deal_meets_the_new_austerity_-_makin/ California's Year In Climate Action. So, what's the state of California done since the last UN conference on climate change in Copenhagen, a year ago? Let's take a (brief) (but semi-detailed) look. The one most people have heard of is the one the most people did: defeat proposition 23, which would have suspended AB 32 greenhouse gas reduction efforts, notably, carbon trading. We care about that because California's become the US center of efforts to trade and - through trading, reduce - carbon...in the absence of federal action: Posted. http://www.scpr.org/blogs/environment/2010/11/28/californias-year-climate-action/ Clearing the Air at Cancun Climate Summit. As COP-16 begins in Cancun, Mexico, world leaders need to understand that global warming isn’t only about carbon dioxide. In a world that is stepping close to a steep and dangerous precipice, doing more to reduce non-CO2 climate change contributors such as methane, black carbon soot, tropospheric ozone, and hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) might help head global warming off at the pass, according to Professors Veerabhadran Ramanathan of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, and David G. Victor at the University of California, San Diego. Posted. http://www.triplepundit.com/2010/11/clearing-air-cancun-climate-summit/ California's Year in Climate Action. So, what's the state of California done since the last UN conference on climate change in Copenhagen, a year ago? Let's take a (brief) (but semi-detailed) look. The one most people have heard of is the one the most people did: defeat proposition 23, which would have suspended AB 32 greenhouse gas reduction efforts, notably, carbon trading. We care about that because California's become the US center of efforts to trade and - through trading, reduce - carbon...in the absence of federal action. Posted. http://www.scpr.org/blogs/environment/2010/11/28/californias-year-climate-action/