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California Air Resources Board News Clips for April 28, 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.

AIR POLLUTION

State Clean Air Agencies Lose $112 Million in EPA Budget-Cutting.
 Washington—Those conducting triage on the gimpy EPA budget that
limped out of the U.S. Capitol in mid-April describe the results
this way: House Republicans might not have landed the gigantic
bite they initially sought, but they still managed to launch
their share of substantial licks.  Posted. 
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/04/27/idUS132376617720110427
 
Valley's Bad Air Better, Slightly.  Most of the San Joaquin
Valley has reduced its air pollution, but the region still has
some of the dirtiest air in the nation, said a report Wednesday
from the American Lung Association.  It said Stanislaus County
had the 12th worst rate of particle pollution, including dust and
other lung irritants, out of 277 areas surveyed from 2007 through
2009. It ranked 14th for ozone, a component of smog.  Posted. 
http://www.modbee.com/2011/04/27/1664193/valleys-bad-air-better-slightly.html

CLIMATE CHANGE

DOE Expert Sees Growth In China's GHG Emissions Stopping In 2
Decades -- If Everything Goes Right. China's energy use should
flatten out sometime around 2030, with a similar leveling off of
its greenhouse gas emissions, a federal researcher said
yesterday. Mark Levine, director of the China Energy Group at
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, said his research bucks
the mainstream view that China's energy appetite is swelling
indefinitely. Instead, as Levine and others argue in a report
released yesterday, China will reach "saturation" around 2030 --
it simply won't have to make appliances, roads and raw materials
at the pace it needs to right now. Posted.
http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/print/2011/04/28/2

FUELS

UCD Researcher Gains Grant For Biofuel Work.  The National
Science Foundation has awarded $407,000 to a University of
California, Davis professor for her research on cellulosic
biofuels.  Tina Jeoh, a UC Davis assistant professor of
biological and agricultural engineering, will use the five-year
award to study how microbial enzymes break down plant cell walls
for the development of biofuels and other products.  Posted. 
http://www.modbee.com/2011/04/28/1664098/ucd-researcher-gains-grant-for.html
 
http://www.news.ucdavis.edu/search/news_detail.lasso?id=9856
China Coal-Fired Power Generation Share To Drop To 30% By 2050:
Study. The use of coal-fired power plants in China to generate
electricity will drop to as low as 30% by 2050 after the fossil
fuel accounted for 74% of the country's electricity generation in
2005, according to a study released Thursday by the US-based
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. The forecast is one of
many made by the authors of the study, which analyzed current and
past energy infrastructure and electricity demand trends in China
in an effort to predict the future of the country's energy use
and output of greenhouse gases linked to global warming. Posted.
http://www.platts.com/RSSFeedDetailedNews/RSSFeed/Coal/6033916

GREEN ENERGY

Google: Renewable Energy Is Long-Term Effort. Washington
(Reuters) - Google Inc has not given up on its goal of making
renewable energy cheaper than coal for consumers but it is not
predicting victory soon, its director of green business
operations said. "We are still moving forward," said Rick
Needham, in an interview at the company's office in Washington.
"I think that is an important goal and a very aspirational goal,
but we are doing what we can." Posted.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/04/28/us-google-cleanenergy-idUSTRE73Q8IR20110428

State's Efficiency Law Quickly Cuts Computer Energy Demands –
Report. A law signed by California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R)
last year to cut energy use by state-owned computer systems and
employees has already saved enough power to keep the lights on in
2,000 homes annually, the state said in a new analysis. The law,
known as A.B. 2408, directed information technology managers of
state systems to reduce electricity use by 20 percent by July 1
and another 20 percent by July 1, 2012. It went into effect about
six months ago. Posted.
http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/print/2011/04/28/5

Obama Highlights Energy Agenda At NYC Fundraisers. President
Obama cast energy reform as a major piece of unfinished business
for his administration in a trio of New York City fundraisers
last night, defending his spending on renewable power and
promising not "to sacrifice clean air and clean water" during
deficit-reduction talks. 
The president's remarks came as Republicans gear up for a summer
of slamming the White House over domestic fossil-fuel production
policies that they blame for driving gas above $4 per gallon in
many areas of the country. Posted.
http://www.eenews.net/Greenwire/print/2011/04/28/5

Small vs Big Solar: Small Solar Has Many Advantages.  When we
wrote our story, Small vs Large Solar, we thought we were alone
in wondering why mammoth solar plants that cover thousands of
acres of desert habitat were being emphasized over distributed
solar that would cover the roofs of millions of buildings in the
US.  Posted. 
http://www.sustainablebusiness.com/index.cfm/go/news.display/id/22325

MISCELLANEOUS

Boeing Prevails; State Cleanup Law Is Struck Down. Suit centered
on polluted field lab site. A federal judge this week struck down
as unconstitutional a landmark state law setting strict cleanup
standards at a polluted former rocket engine and nuclear test
site south of Simi Valley. Judge John F. Walter ruled the law,
Senate Bill 990, unjustifiably singles out one site, the Santa
Susana Field Laboratory, for "uniquely onerous treatment" with
requirements not related to a legitimate state interest. Posted.
http://www.vcstar.com/news/2011/apr/27/federal-judge-slaps-down-state-santa-susana-lab/?print=1

OPINION

Viewpoints: Flame Retardants Are The Asbestos Of Our Time. A half
century ago, asbestos seemed a wondrous material. Added to
building insulation, brake pads and other products, the fibrous
substance stopped the spread of fire and saved lives. But it has
ended up killing countless others: Asbestos fibers lodge in the
linings of the lungs, where they cause a fatal form of cancer
called mesothelioma. There are more than 10,000 deaths per year
due to the legacy of asbestos exposure. 
Posted.
http://www.sacbee.com/2011/04/28/3584223/viewpoints-flame-retardants-are.html

Warming Up To Climate-Change Rhetoric. Have you considered that
our planet would die without carbon dioxide? Every living being —
including humans — breathe in oxygen and exhale CO2. And, plants
do the exact opposite. In fact, some people refer to CO2 as plant
food. So, we have this cool, synergistic thing going on here
between plants and animals. What, exactly, is the problem with
this so-called phenomenon of global warming? Posted.
http://www.santamariatimes.com/news/opinion/editorial/commentary/article_83bc341a-7155-11e0-a845-001cc4c002e0.html

BLOGS

U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions Projected to Grow Slowly. Even if
the United States takes no explicit action to regulate greenhouse
gases, emissions of carbon dioxide and other climate-altering
substances will grow slowly over the next two decades, not
returning to 2005 levels until 2027, according to a new
projection from the Energy Information Administration, the
research branch of the Energy Department. Carbon dioxide
emissions fell by 3 percent in 2008 and 7 percent in 2009,
largely because of the recession. Posted.
http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/04/28/u-s-greenhouse-gas-emissions-projected-to-grow-slowly/?pagemode=print

American Lung Association to Los Angeles: Your Air Quality Sucks!
The American Lung Association just released a health report Los
Angeles politicians will most probably try to ignore, and hope
the public will not notice, but facts are facts: Los Angeles' air
quality sucks, and its residents are paying the price. According
to the ALA's "State of the Air 2011" study, Los Angeles ranks
number one in the United States with the worst "ozone pollution,"
number four with the worst "short-term particle pollution," and
number two with the worst "annual particle pollution." Posted.
http://blogs.laweekly.com/informer/2011/04/los_angeles_air_quality.php

Why The Government Is Missing The Point In Chasing Reduced CO2
Emissions. The government's relentless pursuit of reducing CO2
emissions is at high risk of failure if it continues to miss the
point about the reason for high outputs. By focusing less on CO2
and more on energy, we would have a much better chance of success
in the short term. Current thinking simply fails to differentiate
between supply side energy and demand side energy management.
Long-term success is less certain and depends on fundamental
changes in energy production. Posted.
http://www.businessgreen.com/bg/industry-voice-blog/2045969/government-missing-chasing-reduced-co2-emissions

What’s Next For The Enviro-Business Coalition That Defeated
California’s Prop 23?  Much of the green movement has been
mounting a rearguard fight in Washington to fend off attempts to
gut the U.S. EPA in the wake of the Republican sweep of the 2010
elections.  California, as usual, is heading down a different
road. The enviro-business coalition that defeated Prop 23, Texas
oil companies' attempt to derail the state's global-warming law,
is stepping up effort to push lawmakers to expand California's
climate-change efforts.  Posted. 
http://www.grist.org/cleantech/2011-04-27-whats-next-enviro-business-coalition-that-defeated-calif-prop-23

Review of Spencer’s ‘Great Global Warming Blunder’ A good writer
knows their audience, and Roy Spencer knows his. There are plenty
of people who would love to hear a compelling argument for why no
action is needed to mitigate global warming, and Spencer’s book
“The Great Global Warming Blunder: How Mother Nature Fooled the
World’s Top Climate Scientists” will give uncritical readers the
argument they’ve been looking for. Posted. 
http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2011/04/review-of-spencers-great-global-warming-blunder/
  
Want To Be An Energy Star Superstar?  You, too, can be an Energy
Star, as part of the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s)
Earth Month efforts to show how citizens all over the country are
going green and saving money with energy efficient improvements. 
EPA’s “Be an Energy Star” video challenge encourages Americans to
pick up their home video cameras and document all the ways
they’re taking action on improving the energy efficiency of their
homes, schools, workplaces and communities.  Posted. 
http://www.earthtechling.com/2011/04/want-to-be-an-energy-star-superstar/

Imported Products Undo All Developed Countries' Emissions
Reductions Since 1990. Here's some news that should be obvious on
some level, but is now backed up with the data to prove it: the
cuts in carbon emissions that developed countries have made since
1990 have been cancelled out "many" times over by increases in
imported goods from developing countries. We already knew that
we've been outsourcing our carbon emissions for years. Posted.
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2011/04/imported-products-undo-all-developed-countries-emissions-reductions-since-1990.php