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newsclips -- Newsclips for December 22, 2010.
Posted: 22 Dec 2010 13:21:21
California Air Resources Board News Clips for December 22, 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. AIR POLLUTION EPA Sends Updated Carbon Monoxide Standard To White House. U.S. EPA has sent the White House Office of Management and Budget a proposed update to the national air quality standards for carbon monoxide, signaling that the agency is just about ready to come out with a draft rule. EPA is under a court-ordered deadline to decide whether to change the limits on ambient levels of carbon monoxide (CO), a chemical that is best known for its deadly effects indoors but is also linked to public health impacts in the outdoor environment. Posted. http://www.eenews.net/Greenwire/print/2010/12/21/3 CLIMATE CHANGE Cap-and-Trade Rules: Hold the Applause. There has been a lot of cheering over the Dec. 16 decision by the California Air Resources Board to adopt rules setting up the nation’s first cap-and-trade system for reducing carbon emissions. While the regulations represent an important first step and contain several positive elements, their flaws are serious and shouldn’t be ignored. As the regulations now stand, their ultimate result could be a massive giveaway to the state’s biggest polluters. Posted. http://www.californiaprogressreport.com/site/?q=print/8502 EPA To Double Down On Climate. The Obama administration is expected to roll out a major greenhouse gas policy for power plants and refineries as soon as Wednesday, signaling it won’t back off its push to fight climate change in the face of mounting opposition on Capitol Hill. The Environmental Protection Agency has agreed to a schedule for setting greenhouse gas emission limits, known as “performance standards,” for the nation’s two biggest carbon-emitting industries, POLITICO has learned. Posted. http://dyn.politico.com/printstory.cfm?uuid=0B6F4294-B06E-28EB-6F698FE46275EDF2 EPA Girds For Texas Permitting Takeover. U.S. EPA is a day away from seizing control of a Texas program that issues air pollution permits to power plants, refineries and other large sources of greenhouse gases, the agency said yesterday in a final warning to state officials. If the Obama administration proceeds with the takeover -- a rare occurrence in the 40-year history of the Clean Air Act -- it would be the most dramatic step in EPA's feud with Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) and his appointees, who have fought federal climate rules in court and have refused to limit the amount of planet-warming emissions released by Texas businesses. Posted. http://www.eenews.net/Greenwire/print/2010/12/22/1 GREEN ENERGY Nordic Windpower Leaving California. Nordic Windpower, a Berkeley-based wind turbine manufacturer that is currently spread among three locations, announced Tuesday that it is leaving California and moving to Kansas City. The small company, which makes large two-bladed wind turbines, has 50 employees. Ten work in Berkeley; the others work at an assembly facility in Idaho and a technology office in the United Kingdom. Posted. http://www.mercurynews.com/business/ci_16913416?source=rss Audit: Calif. Agencies Overstate Stimulus Jobs. Sacramento, Calif.—A state audit on Tuesday found that some California agencies inflated the number of jobs created by the federal stimulus program. In a sampling of five state agencies, the California State Auditor found that two overstated the number of jobs by 617 positions. For example, the Water Resources Control Board did not follow guidelines and triple-counted the number of jobs created with the money. It ended up overstating the number of jobs by 71. Posted. http://www.mercurynews.com/news/ci_16914453?nclick_check=1 'Energy Independence' Bill Alt-Fuel, Vehicles Measures. Two House members have introduced legislation that aims to reduce domestic oil imports by supporting a range of alternatives including biofuels, electric vehicles, rail transport, and heating oil and propane conservation measures. The bill, presented by Reps. Jay Inslee (D-Wash.) and Mike Castle (R-Del.) and called the "Oil Independence for a Stronger America Act of 2010," corresponds to a Senate-proposed measure of the same name that was introduced in July by Democratic Sens. Jeff Merkley of Oregon, Tom Carper of Delaware and Tom Udall of New Mexico (E&E Daily, July 16). Posted. http://www.eenews.net/Greenwire/print/2010/12/22/6 VEHICLES UC Davis Professor Is Charged Up Over His New Chevy Volt. For Andrew Frank, his new Chevrolet Volt is literally the car of his dreams. The University of California, Davis, engineering professor is often considered "the father of plug-in hybrid vehicles," a field that is entering into the mass marketing stage with this month's rollout of the new Volt. "I've been working on this idea for 30 years," said Frank, as he handled his new car's plug-in cords like a proud father. "This is kind of like a culmination of all my work." Posted. http://www.sacbee.com/2010/12/22/v-print/3274808/uc-davis-professor-is-charged.html BYD To Expand Electric Bus Production. Chinese carmaker BYD Co. Ltd. will expand into green buses next year. Spokesman Paul Lin said the company already has two electric buses running in China and is in talks to send more to Hong Kong, Europe and the United States. The buses are made at a plant in Changsha that can produce about 1,000 buses a year. The company has already promised 500 buses each to Shenzhen and Changsha, though Lin said the company hopes to secure more contracts. Posted. http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/print/2010/12/22/9 An Electric Vehicle For The Frugal. A company based in Salinas, Calif., is working on a gasless electric vehicle that's more wallet-friendly than its rivals in the market. The Triac car is the product of Green Vehicles, a company started in 2007 by Mike Ryan, who had just earned computer science and electrical engineering degrees from the University of California, Berkeley, and Ehab Youssef, an intellectual property lawyer. The $25,000 auto is "centered around what we call the Green Core," Ryan said. Posted. http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/print/2010/12/21/8 Oil-Absorbing Boom To Be Remade Into Volt Parts. Plastic boom materials used in the cleanup of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill will be recycled for parts in the Chevrolet Volt extended-range electric car. General Motors Co. announced it will use 100,000 pounds of plastic resin from the booms for vehicle components. The parts, which are used to deflect air around the vehicle's radiator, also contain 25 percent recycled tires from another GM plant. Posted. http://www.eenews.net/Greenwire/print/2010/12/21/21 OPINION Rodents Foretell A Brutal Winter, Climate Change. In the waning days of summer, I noticed some shredded newspaper on the floor of the shed where I keep gardening tools. It was impossible to miss the tiny tears when I opened the door and daylight flooded the dark space. The rodent-like vandalism hadn't happened last year when I moved into the bungalow. The roof of the shed was leaking in 2009, and until I made the badly needed repairs the shed smelled of cold, rotting, damp wood. But it has stayed clean and dry since, making it more inviting for critters seeking shelter. Posted. http://www.sacbee.com/2010/12/22/v-print/3275355/rodents-foretell-a-brutal-winter.html A Clean New Year As Potrero Hill Power Plant Shuts. San Francisco will be ringing in the New Year with a new and far cleaner chapter in the city's environmental history. State officials have given notice to the city's last fossil-fuel power plant, currently operating in Potrero Hill. The plant, one of the dirtiest in California, will be terminated on Jan. 1. It's hard to overstate either the importance of this event, or the torture of the journey it took for San Francisco to get to this place. During its decades of operation, it burned both diesel and natural gas, right in spitting distance of a densely packed residential neighborhood. Posted. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/12/21/EDEK1GTQBJ.DTL#ixzz18s0i0Yvk BLOGS Alternative mobility tops list of 2011 green trends. Luxury green vehicles and alternative mobility, such as peer-to-peer car-sharing, top the list of "Green Things to Watch in 2011," a new report from the global market research firm JWT. "A lot of people have been wondering if the recession hurt the momentum of the green movement, but it is still very much alive," said Ann Mack, director of trend spotting for JWT, a New York firm that counts Ford Motor Co. and Microsoft among its clients. More luxury green vehicles will enter the marketplace, following a trail blazed by San Francisco electric sports-car maker Tesla, the report said. Posted. http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/greenspace/2010/12/2011-green-trends.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+GreenspaceEnvironmentBlog+%28Greenspace%29 Seeking a Meaningful Price on Carbon. One month ago, Wesleyan University hosted a weekend conference called “Pricing Carbon.” It was a revival meeting of sorts, bringing together about 500 economists, campaigners, scientists, students and lawmakers seeking, despite recent setbacks, to apply the age-old “polluter pays” principle to carbon. A prime goal of many attendees, from carbon campaigners Charles Komanoff and Peter Barnes to James Hansen of NASA, was to explore various strategies for creating a carbon tax that American consumers could accept. Posted. http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/12/22/seeking-a-meaningful-price-on-carbon/?pagemode=print Congress Waddles Ahead on Cleaning Up Diesel Fuel. From our colleagues at Green: On Tuesday, presumably one of the last days of the 111th Congress, the House gave final passage to a five-year extension of the Diesel Emissions Reduction Act, which aims to clean up old diesel engines. The bill authorizes the $500 million in spending over the next five years, but does not actually appropriate any money; that is a battle for the next Congress. Diesels need a clean-up strategy that is different from the one used for cars. Posted. http://wheels.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/12/22/congress-waddles-ahead-on-cleaning-up-diesel-fuel/?scp=6&sq=environment&st=cse So Much for La Nina. Pacific Ocean conditions that often portend a dry winter sure haven't so far. Scientists like to joke that “climate is what you expect, weather is what you get.” The relatively soggy winter so far is a classic example of that. A closely-watched oscillation in the Pacific is in the La Nina phase this winter, creating colder-than-normal surface temperatures and distorting weather patterns. Usually a La Nina means drier-than-normal conditions for Southern California in particular and often for northern parts of the state as well. Not this year--at least not so far. Posted. http://blogs.kqed.org/climatewatch/2010/12/21/so-much-for-la-nina/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+kqed%2FClimateWatchBlog+%28KQED%27s+Climate+Watch+Blog%29&utm_content=Google+Reader