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California Air Resources Board News Clips for December 28, 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

Mary Nichols Hopes to Carry on at California Air Resources Board.
In 1979, Gov. Jerry Brown tapped Mary Nichols, then an
up-and-coming environmental lawyer, to lead the state's top clean
air agency. Decades later, Brown is widely expected to reappoint
Nichols as chairwoman of the California Air Resources Board as he
pushes ahead with the state's landmark greenhouse gas reduction
policy. "There is so much at stake in California in terms of
climate change and energy policy, and there is so much need for
continuity," said Mark Baldassare, president of the Public Policy
Institute of California. "Mary is someone who is very
knowledgeable about the issues and who is committed to carry out
those policies."  Posted. 
http://www.sacbee.com/2010/12/28/3284071/mary-nichols-hopes-to-carry-on.html#ixzz19QXvFxHv

Ranchers, Pecan Growers and Experts Say Coal-Fired Power Plant
Emissions Killing Texas Trees. Along a stretch of Highway 21, in
Texas' pastoral Hill Country, is a vegetative wasteland. Trees
are barren, or covered in gray, dying foliage and peeling bark.
Fallen, dead limbs litter the ground where pecan growers and
ranchers have watched trees die slow, agonizing deaths. Visible
above the horizon is what many plant specialists,
environmentalists and scientists believe to be the culprit: the
Fayette Power Project — a coal-fired power plant for nearly 30
years has operated mostly without equipment designed to decrease
emissions of sulfur dioxide, a component of acid rain. Posted.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/wire/sns-ap-us-vegetative-wasteland,0,4272967.story

CLIMATE CHANGE

Can Carbon Emissions Markets Accelerate Smart Grid Progress? The
California Air Resources Board (ARB) recently initiated rule
making for the state’s cap and trade regulation as part of AB 32,
and it’s an important tactic towards reducing California’s
greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.  The first step to reduce the
state’s GHG emissions to 1990 levels by the year 2020, and then
an additional 80% reduction target by 2050.  Other tactics
include standards for cleaner vehicles, low-carbon fuels,
renewable electricity and energy efficiency, and the state’s big
three investor-owned utilities (IOUs), Pacific Gas and Electric,
San Diego Gas and Electric, and Southern California Edison have
already been building the percentages of electricity supplied by
renewable energy sources. Posted.
http://theenergycollective.com/christine-hertzog/49025/can-carbon-emissions-markets-accelerate-smart-grid-progress

GREEN ENERGY

Electric Car Rebates Running Low. In California, buying an
electric car or zero-emissions vehicle means you may also qualify
for a $5,000 rebate. It's a major incentive in the state's push
to go green, but there might not be enough money to go around,
the Los Angeles Times reports. The state Air Resources Board has
$8 million dollars for the program, which is enough for 1,600 car
buyers. But Jay Friedland, legislative director of Plug In
America, doesn't think that will be enough. "There's likely to be
more than that sold before July," he told the Times. "We believe
the rebates will run out." Posted.
http://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/green/Electric-Car-Rebates-Running-Low-112525389.html

SM To Consider Wind, Solar Energy. Santa Maria will explore the
possibility of harnessing energy from the sun and the wind. An
upcoming feasibility study will present practical and
cost-effective scenarios for alternative energy production on
city property for future City Council consideration, according to
the Santa Maria’s top utilities official. Wind and solar
facilities could be located at the municipal wastewater treatment
plant, city landfill, or other civic-owned properties, Utilities
Director Rick Sweet said in a Dec. 9 report to the City Council.
Posted.
http://www.lompocrecord.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/article_8ebb9f0a-1259-11e0-8f24-001cc4c002e0.html

A Renewable Market: Giant Machines Generating Green Energy. A
longtime Santa Maria manufacturer that built its reputation
serving the oil and gas industry is getting a big boost from
renewable energy. Atlas Copco Mafi-Trench Co., better known as
Mafi-Trench in the region, builds turboexpanders — huge machines
that use the differences in heat and pressure among gasses to
spin a turbine. That spinning can power the processes used to
refine natural gas and other chemicals or, in the case of
geothermal power, generate electricity. Posted.
http://pacbiztimes.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2070&Itemid=1

How to Grow Green Jobs – Business 101. In his recent feature
story for the Washington Post, “Retrained for green jobs, but
still waiting on work,” Michael A. Fletcher implies that there’s
no future in green jobs because a few people in Florida can’t
find them. But if you look at other parts of the country and
across the world, it’s evident that green jobs are, in fact,
growing. The answer to green jobs is Business 101.  Just like any
other industry, businesses in the clean energy sector need more
customers before they can hire more workers.  Clean energy
businesses are finding customers in California and New England,
and also abroad across Europe, China and Brazil where a
commitment to reducing carbon air pollution is strong and
growing. Posted.
http://www.favstocks.com/how-to-grow-green-jobs-%E2%80%93-business-101/2730475/

OPINION 

Opinion: U.S. Should Lead On Transportation, Not Be Playing Catch
Up. The modern assembly line, telephone, polio vaccine, airplane,
air conditioning, breakfast cereal, shopping cart, integrated
circuit, solar cell and more: American inventions all. America
has a long, proud history of changing the world, making it
better, leading the way with epic efforts. But that is no longer
the case with transportation and, most notably, with high-speed
rail. At the seventh World Congress on High-Speed Rail held in
Beijing this month, thousands of national transportation
officials from around the world shared successes. More than 30
functioning high-speed lines and another 30 in construction were
represented, including every industrialized country in the world
-- except the U.S. Could we really be the only one right in
continuing to rely primarily on petroleum-powered planes and
cars? Posted.
http://www.mercurynews.com/opinion/ci_16945394?nclick_check=1

Editorial: New Nuclear Power Is Vital To Nation's Future. IN
AMERICA'S effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, decrease our
dependence on imported oil and move toward energy independence,
no new clean technology should be ignored. Solar, wind,
geothermal, biomass, clean coal and eventually fusion sources of
energy must be pursued. All of the above are either in the
beginning stages of development or are unlikely to produce major
quantities of energy for many years. However, there is one
available source of energy that shows considerable promise in
producing large amounts of electric power in a relatively short
time. Posted. http://www.insidebayarea.com/opinion/ci_16952183

Editorial: EPA Blows Off Congress, Voters. After his climate
agenda was dealt a major setback by Republican victories in
November, President Barack Obama said, "Cap-and-trade was just
one way of skinning the cat; it was not the only way." Now his
administration has announced its intention to skin the cat
another way, despite questionable underlying science and certain
economic harm. Legislative efforts to impose costly cap-and-trade
restrictions on greenhouse gases, ostensibly to curb global
warming, already had ground to a halt in the
Democratic-controlled Congress before November's balloting. After
the election, the president acknowledged his preferred method to
reduce emissions would be dead on arrival in the new Congress,
where Republicans will have control of the House and have picked
up six seats in the Senate. Posted.
http://www.ocregister.com/opinion/regulations-281791-congress-epa.html

Larry Bell: Climate Change: Hot Sensations vs. Cold Facts. As
2010 draws to a close, do you remember hearing any good news from
the mainstream media about climate? Like maybe a headline
proclaiming "Record Low 2009 and 2010 Cyclonic Activity Reported:
Global Warming Theorists Perplexed"? Or "NASA Studies Report
Oceans Entering New Cooling Phase: Alarmists Fear Climate Science
Budgets in Peril"? Or even anything bad that isn't blamed on
anthropogenic (man-made) global warming--of course other than
what is attributed to George W. Bush? (Conveniently, the term
"AGW" covers both.) Remember all the media brouhaha about global
warming causing hurricanes that commenced following the
devastating U.S. 2004 season? Opportunities to capitalize on
those disasters were certainly not lost on some U.N.
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change officials. Posted.
http://www.ocregister.com/opinion/warming-281849-global-sea.html

EDITORIAL: California's 'Cap-And-Trade' Escapade. The fact that
the lame-duck Congress balked at endorsing "cap-and-trade"
legislation didn't deter California from approving its own
version of the extreme green scheme for restricting industrial
emissions. The move bolsters the state's reputation as the left
coast's home for ideas out of left field. Soon Americans will
witness what happens when global-warming hysteria worsens an
already sick economy. California's Air Resources Board approved a
cap-and-trade system on Dec. 16 that covers 360 businesses at 600
locations statewide. In its first phase, starting in 2012,
electric utilities and other large manufacturers will receive
free permits allowing emissions at their current levels. Posted.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/dec/27/californias-cap-and-trade-escapade/

EDITORIAL: Bloodmobiles Targeted By Climate Crazies. The San
Diego Blood Bank is scrambling this holiday season to raise big
bucks to replace its fleet of bloodmobiles. There's nothing wrong
with these life-saving vehicles - unless you're one of the
eco-extremists at the California Air Resources Board (CARB). This
state equivalent of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has
approved an "On-road heavy-duty diesel vehicles" rule designed to
force businesses to "retrofit" or replace all of its engines to a
2010 model-year equivalent within the next few years. Posted.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/dec/27/bloodmobiles-targeted-by-climate-crazies/

BLOGS

Global Warming: Farmers Will Need to Adapt to Changing
Climates—but They've Done So in the Past. Of all the projected
impacts of climate change, the scariest one in a world is the
effect warming could have on our ability to feed ourselves.
Scientists have looked at the impact of major heat waves in the
past, and have found that such abnormally hot weather tends to
hurt agriculture, with maize productivity levels falling by more
than 30% in Italy during the blistering summer of 2003. A study
from last year predicted that there was more than a 90% chance
that average growing-season temperatures by the end of the
century would be hotter than the most extreme levels seen in the
past—and that such hot weather could wilt out crops. Posted. 
http://ecocentric.blogs.time.com/2010/12/27/global-warming-farmers-will-need-to-adapt-to-changing-climates%e2%80%94but-theyve-already-done-so/#ixzz19Qh4cmn4