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California Air Resources Board News Clips for September 14, 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

Economists say sea level rise could be costly. Economists say
erosion from rising sea levels and storm damage could cost
California hundreds of millions of dollars in lost tourism and
tax revenues. The Los Angeles Times (http://lat.ms/pQSYKP) says
the San Francisco State study released Tuesday shows climate
change and rising seas this century will diminish state beach
appeal to tourists. The California Department of Boating and
Waterways-commissioned study examined sea level projections at
five beach communities. One of them was Venice Beach, which could
lose up to $440 million in tourism and tax revenue if the Pacific
Ocean rises 55 inches by 2100. Posted. 
http://www.modbee.com/2011/09/14/1859644/economists-say-sea-level-rise.html

VEHICLES

Cooper, Goodyear, PPG each get $1.5 million in U.S. funds to
boost fuel economy. The U.S. Department of Energy has awarded
$1.5 million grants to Cooper Tire & Rubber Co., Goodyear Tire &
Rubber Co. and PPG Industries Inc. to study, evaluate and develop
technologies for improving the fuel economy of the nation's
vehicle fleet. The grants, the first awarded by the DOE to
companies in the tire industry, will fund vastly different
projects: Cooper aims to cut the weight of replacement
passenger-vehicle tires and improve fuel efficiency by 3
percent.Goodyear will work on technology to keep truck tires
properly inflated automatically without external assistance. PPG
will study new materials for reduced rolling resistance and
better pressure retention. Posted. 
http://www.autonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20110913/OEM01/110919939/1186

GREEN ENERGY

House probing $528M loan to failed solar company. Leaders of a
House subcommittee want to make the Obama administration answer
for putting taxpayers on the hook for a half-billion-dollar loan
to a now-bankrupt solar panel manufacturer. A hearing Wednesday
will examine what went wrong with Solyndra Inc., which received a
federal loan of nearly $528 million and recently filed for
bankruptcy. GOP leaders of the subcommittee describe the loan as
a "half-billion bust" that raises red flags about the
administration's efforts to generate more jobs in the renewable
energy sector. Posted. 
http://www.vcstar.com/news/2011/sep/14/lawmakers-will-wait-on-testimony-from-solar/
http://www.nctimes.com/news/national/govt-and-politics/article_8949e01a-374f-58a0-9cb9-6f404f35cd47.html
http://www.modbee.com/2011/09/14/1859407/lawmakers-will-wait-on-testimony.html
http://www.c-span.org/Events/Lawmakers-Probe-Solar-Energy-Company/10737424118/

Orange, black and green: Pacific earning recognition for
increased environment, sustainability efforts. Turns out,
University of the Pacific is cooler than anyone thought. The
midtown campus has moved up sharply on the Sierra Club's annual
list of colleges and universities tackling climate change and
making efforts to become more sustainable. Pacific, ranked 117th
a year ago, has moved up to 68th on Sierra magazine's list of
"coolest schools" in America. University of Washington was top
rated. Posted. 
http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20110914/A_NEWS/109140326&cid=sitesearch

OPINION

Would looser environmental regulations help the economy?
Republicans in the House of Representatives are waging an all-out
war to block federal regulations that protect the environment.
They loaded up a pending 2012 spending bill with terms that would
eliminate a broad array of environmental protections, everything
from stopping new plants and animals from being placed on the
endangered species list to ending federal limits on water
pollution in Florida. The terms also include a rollback of
pollution regulations for mountaintop mining and a red light on
federal plans to prevent new uranium mining claims near the Grand
Canyon. Posted. 
http://www.modbee.com/2011/07/13/1810002/would-looser-environmental-regulations.html

BLOGS

Five myths about the Solyndra collapse. There are still plenty of
nagging questions about the collapse of Solyndra, the
California-based solar-panel maker that went bankrupt last month
after getting $535 million worth of loan guarantees from the
Obama administration. Such as: Did the Energy Department fail to
do due diligence? And did the White House intervene
inappropriately in pressing for the loan guarantees? But as
Solyndra becomes the newest political chew toy, there’s been no
shortage of hyperbole about the affair — especially over what it
means for energy policy more broadly. On Tuesday, for example,
Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-FL), who chairs the oversight subcommittee
of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, said that Solyndra’s
downfall proves “that green energy isn’t going to be the
solution.” That’s quite a leap. Posted. 
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/post/five-myths-about-the-solyndra-collapse/2011/09/14/gIQAfkyvRK_blog.html

Replacing Coal With Gas Is No Panacea, Study Says. Although power
plants fired by natural gas emit about half the carbon dioxide
that conventional coal plants do, shifting from coal to natural
gas to generate electricity will do little to slow climate
change, according to a new study from the National Center for
Atmospheric Research. Posted. 
http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/09/14/replacing-coal-with-gas-is-no-panacea-study-says/?scp=5&sq=air%20pollution&st=cse

‘Serious’ Error Found in Carbon Savings for Biofuels. The
European Union is overestimating the reductions in greenhouse gas
emissions achieved through reliance on biofuels as a result of a
“serious accounting error,” according to a draft opinion by an
influential committee of 19 scientists and academics. The
European Environment Agency Scientific Committee writes that the
role of energy from crops like biofuels in curbing warming gases
should be measured by how much additional carbon dioxide such
crops absorb beyond what would have been absorbed anyway by
existing fields, forests and grasslands. Posted. 
http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/09/14/serious-error-found-in-carbon-savings-for-biofuels/?ref=earth

Database Tracks a Congressional Onslaught. Resentment of the
Environmental Protection Agency and “job-killing” environmental
regulations is a hallmark of this session of the
Republican-dominated House of Representatives. In a wave of
legislative proposals, lawmakers have sought to scale back
protections ranging from the Endangered Species Act to limits on
mining around the Grand Canyon. Representative Henry Waxman, the
California Democrat, has declared the chamber “the most
anti-environment House in history.” Posted. 
http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/09/14/reversing-environment-rules-the-database/?ref=earth

California approves pay-as-you-drive 'green' insurance program.
State regulators have approved an auto insurance policy that
rewards car owners for driving less and potentially emitting
fewer pollutants into the atmosphere. The new program, called
SAVE, will go on sale in January by CSE Safeguard Insurance Co.
Motorists will be charged only for the number of miles they
drive. "This is a true pay-by-the-mile program, where our
customers pay for the miles they drive," said CSE President
Pierre Bize. Posted.
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/money_co/2011/09/auto-insurance-green-pay-as-you-drive.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+MoneyCompany+%28Money+%26+Company%29&utm_content=Google+Reader

Rising sea levels could take financial toll on California
beaches. Beach communities in California will suffer huge
economic losses in tourism and tax revenues as rising sea levels
eat away at the California coastline over the next century,
according to a state-commissioned study released Tuesday. As
climate change warms the ocean, causing it to swell, storm damage
and erosion will narrow the state's beaches and diminish their
appeal to tourists, recreational visitors and wildlife,
economists at San Francisco State predict. Posted.
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/greenspace/2011/09/rising-sea-levels-could-take-financial-toll-on-california-beaches.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+GreenspaceEnvironmentBlog+%28Greenspace%29

Al Gore’s Climate Reality Project: The Denial Ends Today. Al Gore
is mad as hell about his campaign to get the word out about
global warming being smothered by a heavily funded doubt campaign
and a disinterested media, and he’s not going to take it anymore.
But unlike Howard Beale in the 1976 film “Network,” he hasn’t
simply gone to the nearest window to shout it out at the top of
his lungs. Instead, he decided that the lies have to stop, the
truth has to come out, and he formed an organization called the
Climate Reality Project to make it happen, and today: September
14th 2011 is the day, through an event called 24 Hours of
Reality. Posted. 
http://www.triplepundit.com/2011/09/al-gores-climate-reality-project-denial-ends-today/