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California Air Resources Board News Clips for December 23, 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

Air District: Think Twice About Fireplace Use During Holidays.
Valley air district officials may be willing to look a bit
Scrooge-like as Christmas approaches -- if it results in more
breathable air in the valley. Officials with the San Joaquin
Valley Air Pollution Control District are urging residents to
think twice about burning that traditional Yule log in their
fireplace this holiday season. Consider first, they ask, the
health and well-being of your neighbors. “Share the good cheer of
the holidays, not wood smoke," Seyed Sadredin, the air district's
executive director, said in a statement Wednesday. "The fires
that seem so cozy and inviting," he added, "can actually cause
your neighbors distress."Posted.
http://www.bakersfield.com/news/local/x2146356981/Air-district-Think-twice-about-fireplace-use-during-holidays

Tehama County Tractor Program Provides Benefit To Brentwood
Farms. As part of a state air pollution control grant, the Tehama
County Board of Supervisors approved an agreement Tuesday that
would help a sixth local farmer replace an older, less efficient
tractor. Brentwood Farms, of Orland, is the latest county farm to
benefit from the program. The grant will reimburse $27,640 to the
dairy farm for a portion of the cost of a John Deere Model 5095M
diesel engine tractor that will replace an older model already in
use. The Tehama County Air Pollution Control District has been
soliciting applications from county farmers to replace tractors
through the Carl Moyer Air Quality Attainment Standards. Posted.
http://www.redbluffdailynews.com/news/ci_16928794

A Cell Phone That Detects Air Pollution? Berkeley high-tech
company is developing a tiny sensor that could boost air quality
in West Oakland. Circled by three freeways, scattered with
industrial factories and a stone’s throw from one of the largest
ports in the United States, West Oakland has a high pollution
rate. According to a report released in 2009 by the Alameda
County Public Health Department, because of their proximity to
diesel emissions, the cancer risk rate for West Oakland residents
is twice as high as for other people in the Bay Area, and the
area has one of the highest rates of asthma hospitalization in
the county. Posted.
http://www.baycitizen.org/environment/story/cell-phone-detects-air-pollution/print/

CLIMATE CHANGE

San Diego Blood Bank Launches Fundraising Campaign. The San Diego
Blood Bank launched a $1 million fundraising campaign Wednesday
to replace its fleet of 38-foot-long blood mobiles, which
together collect half of the organization's donated blood. A plea
from board president R. Elaine Hanson began, "The state of
California recently adopted stricter anti-pollution regulations
which obligate the blood bank to progressively decommission seven
out of eight of its existing bloodmobiles. As a consequence, we
need an extra $1 million for our bloodmobile fleet." Posted.
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2010/dec/22/san-diego-blood-bank-launches-fundraising-campaign/

Can a 'Global Thermostat' Turn Climate Change Around? Global
Thermostat sounds too good to be true: It's a startup company
that aims to address the threat of  climate change by capturing
carbon dioxide from the air, and then making productive use of
it. The CO2 could be used to help plants grow faster in
greenhouses, as a feedstock for algae, for enhanced oil
production, as an ingredient in bottling plants, as a natural
refrigerant, or as a circulating fluid in a geothermal energy
installation. Posted.
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUS307584726120101223

EPA Announces Plans To Regulate Power Plant, Oil Refinery
Emissions. The Environmental Protection Agency announced Thursday
that it would regulate greenhouse gas emissions from power plants
and oil refineries next year, targeting the nation's two biggest
sources of carbon dioxide. The move, which comes as part of a
legal settlement with several states, local governments and
environmental groups which have sued EPA under the Bush
administration for failing to act, highlights the Obama
administration's intent to press ahead with curbs on carbon
despite congressional resistance. Posted.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-12-23/epa-plans-modest-pace-for-setting-new-standards-on-greenhouse-gases.html
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/post-carbon/2010/12/epa_announces_plans_to_regulat.html

Clean Air Standards Coming for America's Biggest Carbon
Polluters. In a big step forward to protect Americans’ health and
well-being, EPA is announcing today a two-year plan to set clean
air standards for power plants and oil refineries, the two
largest industrial sources of the dangerous pollution that drives
global warming.  Following on the heels of the Obama
administration’s breakthrough clean car standards, EPA is now
taking the next logical steps under the Clean Air Act and the
Supreme Court’s landmark global warming decision in 2007. Posted.
http://theenergycollective.com/nrdcswitchboard/48944/clean-air-standards-coming-americas-biggest-carbon-polluters
DIESEL EMISSIONS

Groups File Petition To Stop Drayage-Truck Registries. The
Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association (OOIDA), the New
Jersey Motor Truck Association and the Port Drivers Federation 18
have jointly filed a petition with the Department of
Transportation (DOT) to prohibit the formation of mandatory
drayage truck registries being compiled by various ports as well
as one currently used by California Air Resources Board (CARB)
since 2007. Posted.
http://fleetowner.com/management/news/groups-file-petition-drayage-truck-1223/

FMCSA Posts Proposed HOS Revisions. The Federal Motor Carrier
Safety Administration has posted long-awaited proposed revisions
to the hours of service rule. Key provisions: * Keep the 34-hour
restart but require two consecutive off-duty periods from
midnight to 6 a.m. in that period. * Keep the 14-hour workday but
require completion of all on-duty work-related activities within
13 hours to allow for at least a one-hour break. * The agency
favors cutting the daily driving limit to 10 hours but is looking
for comments on whether or not to keep the 11-hour limit. Posted.
http://www.truckinginfo.com/news/news-print.asp?news_id=72526

FUELS

Strong Ethanol Industry An Important Step. When Mark Twain said
truth is more of a stranger than fiction, he might as well have
been talking about ethanol. The public discourse, which recently
celebrated ethanol as a good way to create jobs and combat
foreign oil dependence, now has turned negative on ethanol.
Separating fact from fiction in the ethanol debate is not easy.
"Food versus fuel" is a nice catch phrase, but worldwide, biofuel
production accounts for less than 1 percent of total agricultural
acreage. Corn ethanol refineries use only cornstarch, preserving
the high quality protein for animal feed markets. Posted.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/12/23/EDJV1GTUN8.DTL&type=printable

New Interest in Turning Gas to Diesel. Washington — Diesel and
jet fuel are usually made from crude oil. But with oil prices
rising even as a glut of natural gas keeps prices for that fuel
extraordinarily cheap, a bit of expensive alchemy is suddenly
starting to look financially appealing: turning natural gas into
liquid fuels. A South African firm, Sasol, announced Monday that
it would spend just over 1 billion Canadian dollars to buy a
half-interest in a Canadian shale gas field, so it can explore
turning natural gas into diesel and other liquids. Posted.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/24/business/energy-environment/24fuel.html?src=busln&pagewanted=print

NASCAR Gives Ethanol Green Flag; Who Will Follow? When it comes
to ethanol, price, fuel economy and engine performance matter to
lots of American drivers. The ethanol industry fights hard to
shape public opinion of the fuel, and it has now found a new way
to get its message across in a partnership with NASCAR. Our
series on ethanol concludes with a report from Harvest Public
Media's Jessica Naudziunas on the ethanol industry's attempt to
answer longtime critics of the alternative fuel. Posted.
http://www.npr.org/2010/12/23/132082997/nascar-gives-ethanol-green-flag-who-will-follow

Fuel Vs. Food: Ethanol Helps Boost Meat Prices. The U.S. corn
crop is enormous. But about a third of it doesn't go to cereal or
cows — instead, it helps run your car. To boost our use of
renewable fuels, the federal government subsidizes corn-based
ethanol. This has the meat and dairy industries up in arms over
the high cost of their main feed. The rise of ethanol has pitted
livestock producers against the oil industry.In part 2 of our
ethanol series, Harvest Public Media's Kathleen Masterson reports
on what supporting ethanol means for the food we eat. Posted.
http://www.npr.org/2010/12/22/132082743/if-your-meat-prices-rise-you-can-blame-ethanol

Milpitas Schools Receive Two Of Three Green Awards From State
Architect. Milpitas Unified School District was recognized by the
California Department General Services' Division of the State
Architect with two statewide awards this month for boasting a
nationwide achievement. Milpitas Unified won awards in two of the
three categories for the first ever Grid Neutral awards for
kindergarten through 12th-grade schools that have shown
leadership in energy efficiency, on-site alternative energy
generation and environmental responsibility. Posted.
http://www.mercurynews.com/milpitas/ci_16922075?nclick_check=1

OPINION

Robert Lawrence: CARB Diet Bad For California Economy. The
California Air Resources Board adopted last week a
"cap-and-trade" program, beginning in 2012, to limit greenhouse
gas emissions. The regulations are based on Assembly Bill 32, the
Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006, and are intended to reduce
greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020. However,
California's cap-and-trade program is little more than a complex
tax that does not induce green energy investment and runs a
serious risk of harm to California's economy. Posted.
http://www.ocregister.com/common/printer/view.php?db=ocregister&id=281411

Trapper Keepers. By Storing Carbon, Timber Companies Stand To
Profit Under Cap-And-Trade. But At What Cost? When the California
Air Resources Board last week approved a landmark cap-and-trade
plan, it marked a monumental step in the effort to reduce
greenhouse gas emissions. But some unlikely critics worry that
the new policy was something of a misstep. The new regulations —
which fulfill the keystone aspect of A.B. 32, the 2006 Global
Warming Solutions Act — aim to reduce the state’s carbon dioxide
emissions to 1990 levels by 2020. Posted.
http://www.northcoastjournal.com/news/2010/12/23/trapper-keepers/
BLOGS

Climate Change and ‘Balanced’ Coverage. Jonathan Kingston for The
New York Times Steve Ryan, a physical scientist at the Mauna Loa
Observatory in Hawaii, checks an infrared analyzer that measures
the concentration of carbon dioxide in the air in parts per
million. In an article this week on the relentless rise of carbon
dioxide in the atmosphere, I outlined one of the canonical
projections of climate science: if the amount of carbon dioxide
doubles, the average surface temperature of the earth is likely
to increase by 5 or 6 degrees Fahrenheit, a whopping change.
Posted.
http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/12/23/climate-change-and-balanced-coverage/?pagemode=print

California Leads the US in Comprehensive Climate Protection.
California has long been leading the US towards environmentally
sound policies, starting with air quality standards in the early
1970s. The California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 (AB32)
established a comprehensive program of regulatory and market
mechanisms to achieve quantifiable, cost-effective reductions in
greenhouse gases. 2010 was an exciting year for AB32. Oil
companies tried to defeat AB32 on the ballot, but then were
themselves defeated - the ballot didn’t pass. Posted.
http://environmentalresearchweb.org/blog/2010/12/california-leads-the-us-in-com.html