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California Air Resources Board News Clips for September 2, 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

Obama halts controversial EPA regulation. Washington (AP) —
President Barack Obama on Friday scrapped his administration's
controversial plans to tighten smog rules, bowing to the demands
of congressional Republicans and some business leaders. Obama
overruled the Environmental Protection Agency and directed
administrator Lisa Jackson to withdraw the proposed regulation to
reduce concentrations of smog's main ingredient, in part because
of the importance of reducing regulatory burdens and uncertainty
for businesses at a time of rampant uncertainty about an unsteady
economy. Posted.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gO5p7VJR33dSckCBKxCtNC8px9oA?docId=e973aea6f4694cfa84948931c2df278f

AP Newsbreak:

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/09/02/us-usa-obama-epa-idUSTRE7813TB20110902?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews&rpc=71
http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/obama-directs-epa-to-withdraw-controversial-proposed-regulation-on-smog-standards/2011/09/02/gIQApB0hwJ_story.html
http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/obama-pulls-back-proposed-smog-standards-in-victory-for-business/2011/09/02/gIQAisTiwJ_story.html
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/sep/2/obama-halts-epas-proposed-air-quality-regs/
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/03/science/earth/03air.html
http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-pn-obama-ozone-20110902,0,6899709.story
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2011/09/01/bloomberg1376-LQWG9I6K50YV01-6DD19E2E8A3PO1K8APPHKS92GO.DTL
http://www.nctimes.com/news/national/article_0321c16f-653e-55ab-bec3-003329222c8c.html
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0911/62554.html

San Joaquin Valley's August ozone under the limit. But valley air
pollution district's figures disputed. The San Joaquin Valley Air
Pollution Control District announced that last month had no
violations of the limit for ozone, a component of smog, as
measured by the hour. Officials credited the new Air Alert
campaign, which urges residents and businesses to cut down on
driving and take other steps when the ozone risk is high. Posted.
http://www.modbee.com/2011/09/01/1841658/august-ozone-under-the-limit.html
http://www.fresnobee.com/2011/09/01/2520692/valley-air-sets-cleanliness-mark.html
http://www.centralvalleybusinesstimes.com/stories/001/?ID=19253
http://www.hanfordsentinel.com/news/local/article_7e52ac7e-d57e-11e0-94d0-001cc4c03286.html

Air-quality researchers tackle health implications of ultra-fine
particles. Three studies by a University of California, Davis,
air-quality research group are adding to the growing body of data
suggesting that very fine and ultra-fine airborne metal particles
are closely linked to serious human-health problems, including
heart disease. UC Davis air-quality expert Thomas Cahill and
colleagues report the findings of the three studies in the
September special issue on aerosols and health of the journal
Aerosol Science and Technology. Posted.
http://www.news.ucdavis.edu/search/news_detail.lasso?id=9995

Pa. withdraws from 5 federal pollution lawsuits.  Pennsylvania
has withdrawn from five federal environmental lawsuits.  The
state's decision to end its participation in the federal cases
has raised concerns from local, state and national environmental
organizations, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette http://bit.ly/ouf5Bj
reports Friday.  Neither the governor's office nor the Department
of Environmental Protection announced that the state had ended
its participation in the one lawsuit concerning ozone, or
publicly discussed the reasons for withdrawing from the other
lawsuits, the paper reports.  Posted. 
http://www.insidebayarea.com/ci_18812890
http://www.contracostatimes.com/ci_18812890?IADID=Search-www.contracostatimes.com-www.contracostatimes.com

CLIMATE CHANGE

Market, Politicians Going Separate Ways on Climate Change: View
By the Editors - Hurricane Irene’s residue is likely to include a
confusing debate over whether insurers or property owners are
responsible for storm-caused water damage. There’s no lack of
clarity, however, over whether the insurance industry believes in
climate change and its ties to lethal weather: It does.  Posted.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/print/2011-09-01/market-politicians-going-separate-ways-on-climate-change-view.html

Climate change threatens mental health too: study; Droughts,
floods have psychological impact. Climate change doesn't just
wreak havoc on your physical surroundings -- it affects your
mental health too. Flooding, drought and superstorms cause actual
psychological fallout, according to Australian researchers. "The
damage caused by a changing climate is not just physical," they
said in a report released this week by the Brain and Mind
Institute at the University of Sydney. Posted.
http://www.nydailynews.com/lifestyle/health/2011/09/02/2011-09-02_climate_change_threatens_mental_health_too_study_droughts_floods_have_psychologi.html

Conservatives just as wrong on climate economics as they are on
climate science. Just a quick note to follow up on my two posts
about conservative pundits and their flailing attempts to respond
to the charge that Republicans are anti-science. The fact that
conservatives are so proudly flat-earth on climate science has
preoccupied the press and pundits to the point that it's obscured
another conservative pathology, one that is, if anything, more
consequential: their discredited take on the economics of climate
policy. Posted.
http://www.grist.org/climate-skeptics/2011-09-02-conservatives-just-as-wrong-on-economics-as-on-science

The ‘radical’ faces of climate change.  Those of us who believe
the overwhelming number of scientists who document and report on
the existence of climate change tend to use those scientific
conclusions to convince skeptics. There may be a better way.
There are a number of institutions respected for their
credibility and cautious approach to facts that have adopted this
science and acted on the conclusion that climate change is
occurring, that it is caused by us, and that the consequences are
alarming.  Posted. 
http://www.grist.org/climate-skeptics/2011-09-02-the-radical-faces-of-global-warming

Study: Reducing Soot is Fastest Way to Slow Climate Change. Soot
second only to carbon dioxide when it comes to global warming
emissions. A new study finds that reducing carbon-rich soot
emissions could be the fastest and most economical way to slow
climate change and protect human health. Those dust-like
particles released in the exhaust of diesel-powered vehicles and
wood fires rank second only to carbon dioxide as a major cause of
global warming.  Posted.
http://www.voanews.com/english/news/environment/Study-Reducing-Soot-is-Fastest-Way-to-Slow-Climate-Change-129070528.html

GREEN ENERGY

It’s not easy being green.  Q: I’m really confused about the
whole green building movement. There seem to be conflicting
messages, especially when it comes to products advertised as
being green. They appear to be the same products I saw 10 years
ago. If it’s so important to be environmentally friendly, why
didn’t companies push this agenda decades ago? After all, we’ve
been concerned about the earth since the 1970s, right? I want to
be a responsible person but don’t want to get hoodwinked. 
Posted. 
http://www.washingtonpost.com/realestate/products-that-claim-to-be-green-can-have-unexpected-problems/2011/08/28/gIQANVZpwJ_story.html

OPINIONS

INNIS: No health benefits without affordable energy. New
air-quality rules will further impoverish poor communities. The
Environmental Protection Agency insists that its air-quality
initiatives will protect minority and poor Americans from
pollution that disproportionately affects their health and
impairs “environmental justice.” Their argument is not
convincing. Public health, pollution control and justice are
important goals. However, the EPA’s proposed rules actually
undermine those objectives by impairing access to affordable,
reliable energy - thus impairing people’s health and welfare.
Posted.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/sep/1/no-health-benefits-without-affordable-energy/

Obama blows smog in everyone’s face. President Obama has yanked
back the EPA's proposed new restrictions on ground-level ozone
(i.e. smog). That's a huge win for Big Business, which had
claimed it couldn't weather an economic downturn AND keep from
suffocating people at the same time. But it's an equally huge
loss for everyone else -- especially since the reason the EPA was
revising the smog standards in the first place was because the
allowable limit was well above safe levels, according to the
agency's science advisors. Posted.
http://www.grist.org/list/2011-09-02-obama-blows-smog-in-everyones-face

BLOGS

Obama decides against tougher ozone standards. President Obama
decided Friday not to raise federal ozone standards for air
pollution, causing a rift with environmentalists but winning
praise from industry groups and congressional Republicans. In his
decision, relayed to Environmental Protection Agency
Administrator Lisa Jackson, Obama cited the need to remove
uncertainty for businesses that would be affected.
http://content.usatoday.com/communities/theoval/post/2011/09/obama-decides-against-change-in-ozone-standards/1
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2011/09/02/140142406/obama-withdraws-proposed-regulation-on-smog

A balloon and hosepipe as the answer to climate change? It's just
pie in the sky Increasingly bizarre attempts at geo-engineering
simply deflect attention from the fact we need to cut greenhouse
gases. It's atmospheric liposuction: a retrospective fix for
planetary over-indulgence. Geo-engineering, which means either
sucking carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere or trying to shield
the planet from the sun's heat, is an admission of failure, a
failure to get to grips with climate change. Is it time to admit
defeat and check ourselves into the clinic? Posted.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/sep/02/giant-balloon-and-hosepipe-geoengineering

Can New Refrigerators Help Cool Global Warming? News of global
warming continues to worsen, with epic storms and melting
Siberian permafrost. As assaults continue on the already
beleaguered atmosphere in the form of massive, dirty energy
projects pushed through by a new cadre of increasingly ignorant
politicians, there are, indeed, a steady stream of efforts, some
tiny, some substantial, that are actually trying do something
about the problem. One of these came out of Washington last week
in the form of a new set of energy efficiency standards for
refrigerators. Posted.
http://www.triplepundit.com/2011/09/new-refrigerators-cool-global-warming/