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California Air Resources Board News Clips for December 30, 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

Union Sues to Block 100 New Jobs for Central Valley. Construction
of a 500,000 square foot distribution center in Visalia should be
stopped because the company planning it as well as the city of
Visalia have violated state environmental and public health laws
says Teamsters Joint Council 7 in a lawsuit filed Wednesday. VWR
International LLC of West Chester, Pa., which sells medical lab
materials, announced the warehouse, its second in California, in
August. It will be nearly twice as large as the other California
facility, which is in the Bay Area city of Brisbane. Posted.
http://www.centralvalleybusinesstimes.com/stories/001/?ID=17233

New Law Will Require Carbon Monoxide Detectors. If you don’t have
a carbon monoxide detector in your home, this may be the last
winter you can make that choice without committing a crime. A
state law designed to prevent carbon monoxide casualties – like
the recent deaths of a Mount Shasta retiree and Castella father
and daughter – requires many Californians to install the
detectors by this summer. The law applies to homes with a fossil
fuel burning heater or appliance, fireplace or an attached
garage.  Owners of single family homes must install the devices
by July 1, 2011. Posted.
http://www.mtshastanews.com/features/x9843289/New-law-will-require-carbon-monoxide-detectors

CLIMATE CHANGE

Obama Supporting EPA Carbon Permit Requirement In Spite Of
Strained Economy. Obama couldn’t get his cap and trade agenda
through Congress, so he is taking a backdoor approach instead. 
The Environmental Protection Agency has been given permission to
require companies to purchase a permit, or pay a tax, for
releasing greenhouse gases into the air, according to a
www.foxnews.com article on Tuesday.  January 2nd is the target
date for what environmental scientist Ken Green of the
conservative American Enterprise Institute refers to as, “Job
killers. Posted.
http://www.examiner.com/christianity-politics-in-national/obama-supporting-epa-carbon-permit-requirement-spite-of-strained-economy

Massachusetts Sets Targets to Slash Carbon Emissions.
Massachusetts officials on Wednesday announced a plan to curb
heat-trapping gases emitted by homes, cars and businesses in the
state by 25 percent below 1990 levels over the next decade. The
targets set by the plan are the highest allowed under climate
legislation passed by the state in 2008 and among the most
stringent in the nation, placing Massachusetts in the company of
California, New Mexico and other states that have taken strong
action to address global warming. Posted.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/30/science/earth/30climate.html?_r=1&ref=us&pagewanted=print

GREEN ENERGY

Utilities Seek Fresh Talent for Smart Grids. Granville, Ohio —
Speaking to a classroom of seventh and eighth graders at the
middle school here, Lisa Magnuson shared a popular dictum from
the power industry: if Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor of the
telephone, could see how his technology had evolved over the last
century, how would he react? “He’d be amazed,” offered one
student, mentioning that his cellphone can play music, display
movies and send text messages.  And if Thomas Edison, the pioneer
of power distribution, were to return?  Posted.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/30/business/energy-environment/30utility.html?sq=climate
change&st=cse&scp=6&pagewanted=print

When Homeowners Can Profit from Solar Power, We'll all Win. The
stock and real estate markets may be iffy, but there is one thing
you can bank on in 2011: The sun will shine. And in the Coachella
Valley, the sun will shine a whole lot! Our bright sunny winters
are the lifeblood of the valley's tourism. But today, abundant
sunlight also translates into a marketable commodity: renewable
energy. Per state law, California utilities are obligated to
increase the amount of renewably generated electricity to 33
percent of their “energy portfolios” by 2020. Posted.
http://www.mydesert.com/article/20101230/COLUMNS26/12290363/When-homeowners-can-profit-from-solar-power-we-ll-all-win

Electric Wheel. A new generation of hybrid and electric vehicles
hits the streets of Sacramento this month: the Chevrolet Volt and
the Nissan Leaf. With hybrid and electric vehicles expected to be
increasingly common in the future—Ford plans to release a hybrid
plug-in in 2012—SN&R asked Bill Boyce, an electric transportation
supervisor with SMUD, about what was involved in becoming a green
car owner. Posted.
http://www.newsreview.com/sacramento/content?oid=1896492

Fancy This Fun-sized Fuel Sipper. Mazda has done very well with
its MAZDA3 compact sedan and hatchback. But the world needs
smaller cars, too, so the MAZDA2 represents the company’s entry
in the subcompact segment. And, as the manufacturer responsible
for the enormously successful MX-5 Miata, Mazda provides some
Zoom-Zoom with it. It’s a good exercise to look at a couple of
other small cars. Take today’s Honda Civic. Available in
four-door and two-door coupe body styles, it’s relatively huge
compared to its cute little ancestor. Posted.
http://news.ebpublishing.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=413:fancy-this-fun-sized-fuel-sipper-&catid=40:san-leandro-automotive&Itemid=111

El Dorado County Firm Earns Green Certification. Unique
Aeriography, located in Camino, CA has been awarded a Sustainable
Business Certification by the Sacramento Area Sustainable
Business Program for dedicated efforts in reducing their
environmental footprint. The low altitude aerial photography firm
implemented green measures such as: installing a programmable
thermostat to control heating and air conditioning; replacing
appliances with Energy Star efficient units; upgrading the air
conditioning system with a high EER unit; installing a tankless
…Posted. http://my.edhtelegraph.com/detail/167934.html

OPINION

Viewpoints: Suggestions for Improving Cap-And-Trade Program Here.
The California Air Resources Board's new "cap-and-trade"
regulation would limit greenhouse gases at unnecessary expense.
The goal, articulated in AB 32, the Global Warming Solutions Act,
is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020.
While the new regulation has been applauded by Gov. Arnold
Schwarzenegger, environmentalists and electric utilities, and
survived Proposition 23, the likely impacts of the program have
not been publicized. Posted.
http://www.sacbee.com/2010/12/30/3287997/suggestions-for-improving-cap.html#ixzz19c6gcTMs

Climate Change. I'd like to do a thought-experiment: "Let's
pretend" for grownups. Let's pretend that it's been proved that
our sun is moving into a cycle of slightly greater output of
energy: a trivial matter for the sun, but important on Earth
since there would be a period of climate change. The question
would be what humans could do to moderate the effects of this
sun-caused climate change? Some bright scientist might note the
"greenhouse effect" on our neighbor Venus, whose surface is very
hot not just from Venus' nearness to the sun, but also from its
(mostly) carbon dioxide atmosphere, which very efficiently traps
heat. Posted.
http://www.vcstar.com/news/2010/dec/29/climate-change/#ixzz19cDJLbdg

The EPA Goes After Carbon. The following editorial appeared in
the Miami Herald on Wednesday, Dec. 29: The Clean Air Act turned
40 this year, as did the Environmental Protection Agency, which
was created to enforce that new law and others Congress adopted
to reduce all types of pollution. But it has taken this many
years for the EPA to begin flexing its regulatory muscles to
reduce emissions of carbon dioxide, the principle culprit linked
to climate change. Posted.
http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/12/30/1993744/the-epa-goes-after-carbon.html#ixzz19cFYG3Wz

BLOGS

Schwarzenegger's Environmental Legacy: Green or 'Olive-Drab'?
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's long effort to cast himself in the
role of a national environmental champion is losing luster in the
waning weeks of his administration, as green groups protest
last-minute deals with polluting businesses. "How green is he?"
asked Bill Magavern, the Sierra Club's California director. "We
came to the conclusion that he's olive-drab." How many
disappointments in the eyes of environmentalists? Posted.
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/greenspace/2010/12/arnold-schwarzenegger-environmental-record.html

Obesity Caused By What You Breathe? At least one study found that
air pollution — known to contribute to asthma — also spurs both
obesity and diabetes in young mice, suggesting that it may also
contribute to the ubiquitous problems in humans. Ohio State
researchers found that young mice exposed to air pollution had
larger and more fat cells in their abdominal area and higher
blood sugar levels than mice eating the same diet but breathing
clean air. Posted.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/green/detail?entry_id=79968#ixzz19c2d8rd1

Another Setback for a West Coast Coal Port. Reuters A worker
unloading coal at a storage site by a railway station in
Shenyang, China. When my colleague Elisabeth Rosenthal wrote last
month about the growth of coal exports to China from all over the
world, she noted that the Port of Tacoma in Washington had nixed
proposals for a new coal export terminal in the area. Now the
state government has blocked a proposed export terminal in the
southwestern corner of Washington, which could have provided
another outlet for coal companies like Peabody Energy, which have
found in Asia a growing market for coal from Wyoming’s Powder
River Basin. Posted.
http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/12/30/another-setback-for-a-west-coast-coal-port/?pagemode=print