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California Air Resources Board News Clips for February 15, 2011. 


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.

CLIMATE CHANGE

UN Climate Chief Urges Generals To Help Curb Global Warming To
Avoid Conflict, 'Climate Chaos'. Global warming is a looming
threat to stability and national security around the world, and
militaries should spend some of their ever-expanding budgets on
reducing carbon emissions to avoid "climate chaos," the U.N.'s
top climate official said Tuesday. Christiana Figueres, head of
the U.N. climate secretariat, warned of the destabilizing effects
created by growing water stress, declining crop yields and damage
from extreme storms in some of the world's poorest countries,
which could set off mass international migration and regional
conflicts. Posted.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/wire/sns-bc-eu--climate-defense,0,7266864,print.story

Climate Change May Cause 'Massive' Food Disruptions. (Updates
prices in eighth paragraph.) Feb. 15 (Bloomberg) -- Global food
supplies will face "massive disruptions" from climate change,
Olam International Ltd. predicted, as Agrocorp International Pte.
said corn will gain to a record, stoking food inflation and
increasing hunger. "The fact is that climate around the world is
changing and that will cause massive disruptions," Sunny
Verghese, chief executive officer at Olam, among the world's
three biggest suppliers of rice and cotton, said in a Bloomberg
Television interview today. Posted.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2011/02/15/bloomberg1376-LGMXDJ0YHQ0X01-165M84880SLMVEOTH3P6GRTE3K.DTL&type=printable

Corn Advances as Adverse Weather Threatens Crops; Soybeans Gain.
Corn futures advanced as adverse weather continued to threaten
crops around the world, tightening global supply. Soybeans also
gained. May-delivery corn climbed 0.5 percent to $7.1025 a bushel
on the Chicago Board of Trade at 10:38 a.m. Singapore time. The
price yesterday advanced to $7.21 a bushel, the highest level for
the most-active contract since July 2008, before ending 1.5
percent lower. Posted.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2011/02/15/bloomberg1376-LGN0PU1A74E901-108PU0L8CN3350EHGG191JJS7O.DTL&type=printable

President Tries To Keep Climate Change And Renewable Energy
Programs Intact. The Obama administration offered a budget
proposal yesterday that would tighten the purse strings for a
nation mired in red, while shoring up climate change and energy
efforts for environment, land management and natural resources
programs. President Obama's blueprint for fiscal 2012 offers
modest funding levels for many climate and energy initiatives,
underscoring this area as an administration priority even during
a tough budget year when trade-off decisions were par for the
course. Posted.
http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/print/2011/02/15/3

Group Teaches High Schools About Climate Change. In the last year
and a half, the Alliance for Climate Education has hit 1,100 high
schools and performed in front of 700,000 teens. The Oakland,
Calif.-based nonprofit's mission is to convey a pro-green message
that's friendly to teenage audiences. This consists of a free
production of a video and a live presentation that can be
described as an Al Gore-like climate sermon with a hip-hop twist.
Posted. http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/print/2011/02/15/9

DIESEL EMISSIONS

Changes To Diesel Rules Give Options To Truck Owners. Recent
changes to state air-quality regulations governing diesel trucks
have given farmers and ranchers more time to qualify trucks for
the agricultural provisions of the rules, and more options for
complying if their trucks don't meet the mileage limits for
agricultural trucks. "If you've reported before, you'll be a step
ahead. But if you did not report before, you can still do it,"
said Cynthia Cory, director of environmental affairs for the
California Farm Bureau Federation, during a seminar on the truck
rules at last week's World Ag Expo in Tulare. Posted.
http://www.cfbf.com/agalert/AgAlertStory.cfm?ID=1680&ck=11D0E6287202FCED83F79975EC59A3A6

Salinas Trash Service Will Roll Out The First Of Natural Gas
Trucks In April. Clean air and garbage trucks don't usually go
together in people's minds, but that's just what Salinans can
expect from their garbage service over the next three years.
Starting in April, Republic Services, formerly Browning-Ferris
Industries (BFI), will begin to replace its diesel-powered fleet
with trucks fueled by compressed natural gas. Compressed natural
gas vehicles, which run on a pressurized version of the same
natural gas used in homes, produce significantly lower amounts of
harmful emissions, officials say. Posted.
http://www.thecalifornian.com/print/article/20110215/NEWS01/102150310/Salinas-trash-service-will-roll-out-first-natural-gas-trucks-April

FUELS

Biodiesel Boom Catches Drivers In Grease Trap. Fry-Oil Scavengers
Lose Free Rides to Paying Rivals. Filling up his Ford Excursion
is a headache for Eric Sobalvarro. So many choices: Taco joint or
sandwich shop? Scent of banana peppers or of tempura? Mr.
Sobalvarro is a greaser—one of a small but growing band of
drivers who fuel their cars and trucks with used frying oil. It
takes grit to be a greaser: Stalwarts must recruit restaurants as
back-alley sources, filter the smelly liquid in the garage or
backyard, and modify a vehicle with a diesel engine to burn it.
Posted.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703960804576119871385049448.html?mod=WSJ_Energy_leftHeadlines

Shell And Brazilian Sugar Company Form Joint Ethanol Venture.
Royal Dutch Shell PLC and Brazilian sugar company Cosan have
announced they plan to join forces to create one of the largest
ethanol ventures in the world, an entity to be called Raizen. The
two companies hope Raizen will employ 40,000 people and produce
more than 580 million gallons of ethanol from 62 million tons of
crushed sugar cane annually. "Due to the size of its operations,
Raizen will help sugar cane ethanol, a sustainable, clean and
renewable source of energy …Posted.
http://www.eenews.net/Greenwire/print/2011/02/15/13

GREEN ENERGY

Proposed $4 Billion Slash In Incentives For Fossil Fuels. The
Department of Energy's budget proposal deals a blow to
traditional fossil fuels, terminating incentives for oil, gas and
coal while dramatically expanding low-carbon programs. The
proposal makes good on President Obama's State of the Union
pledge to trim fossil-fuel subsidies by $4 billion, on the
grounds that these industries are healthy, while the government's
books are in the red. And the argument will run headlong into
congressional Republicans who don't buy it. Posted.
http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/print/2011/02/15/4

VEHICLES

Routes For High-Speed Rail Segment From Stockton To San Jose
Stirs Debate. Pleasanton city leaders view a possible California
high-speed rail line through their downtown as a party crasher
that would upset their scenic city center popular with strollers
and restaurant-goers. Tracy and Union City leaders say they would
welcome the high-speed railroad as key to revitalizing their
downtowns and making them more transit friendly. Posted.
http://www.insidebayarea.com/oaklandtribune/localnews/ci_17387209?source=rss

Going Green: Lodi Resident Richard Harty Purchases Nissan Leaf.
Lodi resident Richard Harty is one of roughly 100 people in the
country currently driving a zero-emission Nissan Leaf. The
physical therapist was interested in buying an electric car for
more than four years, but finally found one he liked in 2011. The
Leaf is the first mass-marketed, battery-operated vehicle in the
United States and became available in December. “I love how quiet
the engine is,” he said Wednesday.
http://www.lodinews.com/news/article_883c92f2-b396-55d6-ad23-73c84884e98b.html?mode=print

OPINION

Tom Elias: State alone in carbon battle? Far from it Because
Republicans in Congress have steadfastly stymied attempts to get
the federal government to act against global warming and climate
change, critics of California's new carbon trading rules usually
get little contradiction when they insist those regulations will
see this state going it alone and putting itself at an economic
disadvantage. But they're wrong, at least in large part. For
California isn't going it alone at all. Posted.
http://www.redding.com/news/2011/feb/15/elias_215/?print=1

BLOGS

Climate Change Drives Instability, U.N. Official Warns. The
United Nations’ top climate change official said on Tuesday that
food shortages and rising prices caused by climate disruptions
were among the chief contributors to the civil unrest coursing
through North Africa and the Middle East. Agence France-Presse —
Getty Images Christiana Figueres, in white blouse, met with
children in Sehwan, Pakistan, who have been displaced by floods.
Posted.
http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/02/15/climate-change-drives-instability-u-n-official-warns/?pagemode=print

Obama’s Shout-Out for Energy. Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
President Obama explained his budget priorities as Jack Lew,
director of the Office of Management and Budget, listened during
a visit to a middle school in Baltimore specializing in
technology. Over all, the Obama administration has pledged to
hold the line on “discretionary spending” in its budget for the
2012 fiscal year — that is, everything it can control, which
leaves out areas like Medicare and Social Security. Posted.
http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/02/14/obamas-shout-out-for-energy/?pagemode=print

Net Zero Energy, Transmuted Into Art. Patrick Andrade for The New
York Times Photovoltaic panels soak up the first rays of sunrise
on the roof of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory’s new
hyperefficient office building in Golden, Colo. The relationship
and, often as not, tension between hardheaded engineers and
design-conscious architects is woven into the fabric of every
great building. But a question kept coming back to me on a recent
day I spent inside the National Renewable Energy Lab’s new
hyper-efficient office building in Golden, Colo., to report this
article: Posted.
http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/02/15/net-zero-energy-transmuted-into-art/?pagemode=print

President Obama To Hit Bay Area Thursday For Jobs Session With
High Tech Leaders. President Barack Obama will visit the Bay Area
Thursday to meet with high tech business leaders -- a session
that will stress jobs, innovation, green tech and education
themes, White House sources tell the Chronicle. So far, no
information on where the meeting will be held -- or whether any
part of it will be public -- but here's what we know from a White
House official: the session is "a part of our ongoing dialogue
with the business community on how we can work together to win
the future, strengthen our economy, support entrepreneurship, and
get the American people back to work.'' Posted.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/nov05election/detail?entry_id=83021#ixzz1E31v5TMm

NASA Climate Funding Under Attack. The head of a major NASA
research facility in California is downplaying efforts by a
handful of House Republican members to strip the agency’s budget
of its climate science funding. S. Pete Worden, the director of
NASA Ames Research Center in Mountain View, expressed confidence
that the agency’s 2012 budget would remain intact, despite a
letter sent to committee heads from Congressmen from Florida and
Utah, urging an end to climate science research at the agency.
Posted.
http://blogs.kqed.org/climatewatch/2011/02/14/nasas-climate-science-funding-under-attack/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+kqed%2FClimateWatchBlog+%28KQED%27s+Climate+Watch+Blog%29&utm_content=Google+Reader