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California Air Resources Board News Clips for November 21, 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

25 sickened by carbon monoxide at tractor pull.  Fire officials
had to close down a tractor pull event at the Pennsylvania Farm
Show complex after carbon monoxide sickened more than two dozen
people.  The Patriot-News of Harrisburg reports the Mid-Atlantic
Antique Tractor Super Pull was shut down Saturday after
firefighters responding to a report of a sick man recorded carbon
monoxide levels four times the permissible level.  Posted. 
http://www.insidebayarea.com/ci_19382437?IADID=Search-www.insidebayarea.com-www.insidebayarea.com

http://www.contracostatimes.com/ci_19382437 
http://www.therepublic.com/view/story/359a5d1429924a48867fe0f8ae4ffe24/PA--Farm-Show-Carbon-Monoxide/


CLIMATE CHANGE

UN: Concentrations of greenhouse gases hit record.  Global
warming gases have hit record levels in the world's atmosphere,
with concentrations of carbon dioxide up 39 percent since the
start of the industrial era in 1750, the U.N. weather agency said
Monday.  The new figures for 2010 from the World Meteorological
Organization show that CO2 levels are now at 389 parts per
million, up from about 280 parts per million a quarter-millenium
ago. The levels are significant because the gases trap heat in
the atmosphere.  Posted. 
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jT7hsgJmLMhVXQk-trNgl6PZXRCw?docId=b117c5d49f4f46528445f6f600b69150

AP Newsbreak:
http://www.fresnobee.com/2011/11/21/2622262/un-concentrations-of-greenhouse.html#storylink=misearch

http://www.insidebayarea.com/ci_19382389?IADID=Search-www.insidebayarea.com-www.insidebayarea.com

http://www.vcstar.com/news/2011/nov/21/un-concentrations-of-greenhouse-gases-hit-record/
http://www.contracostatimes.com/ci_19382389?IADID=Search-www.contracostatimes.com-www.contracostatimes.com


Himalayan nations agree on climate adaptation plan.  Four
Himalayan nations facing the threat of weather changes have
agreed to collaborate on ways to adapt to climate change after a
two-day summit in Bhutan.  India, Nepal, Bangladesh and Bhutan
were part of the Climate Summit for a Living Himalayas held in
Bhutan's capital Thimphu on Saturday. They agreed to cooperate on
energy, water, food and biodiversity issues.  Posted. 
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5ivjC_wKZjfGv7xILziTb7kw8w2xQ?docId=d7bcbaad80f04041be52e5f6ca3d2d0d


AP Newsbreak:
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/nov/20/himalayan-nations-agree-on-climate-adaptation-plan/

http://www.fresnobee.com/2011/11/20/2621244/himalayan-nations-agree-on-climate.html#storylink=misearch
http://www.vcstar.com/news/2011/nov/20/himalayan-nations-agree-on-climate-adaptation/
http://www.modbee.com/2011/11/20/1955060/himalayan-nations-agree-on-climate.html
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2011/11/18/international/i073303S64.DTL

http://www.insidebayarea.com/ci_19377596?IADID=Search-www.insidebayarea.com-www.insidebayarea.com

http://www.contracostatimes.com/ci_19377596?IADID=Search-www.contracostatimes.com-www.contracostatimes.com


Congress kills request for National Climate Service.  At first
look, the proposal is as dull, bureaucratic and routine as an
agency request to Congress can be.  The National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration wanted to reshuffle its offices to
establish a National Climate Service akin to the agency’s
National Weather Service. It asked for no new funding to do so. 
Posted. 
http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/congress-nixes-national-climate-service/2011/11/18/gIQAxYvIgN_story.html


Studies show climate change's impact on California.  A spate of
recent research offers new insight into how global warming is
changing or could change California, from the mountains to the
seashore, in both predictable and unusual ways.  The studies show
that common trees are fading from their current ranges, premium
wine grape varieties are under siege, marine creatures are
shifting locales, the hub of the state’s water system faces
increasing risks and — surprisingly — birds in the state are
getting bigger as the weather warms.  Posted. 
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2011/nov/20/grapes-birds-trees-fish-respond-climate/


California Air Resources Board reveals future carbon-cutting
strategy.  The California Air Resources Board has today released
a comprehensive summary of its proposed Advanced Clean Cars
regulation package, setting tough new emissions standards for
cars and light trucks from 2015 through 2025.  The package
continues California’s leadership role in developing innovative
and ground breaking standards for vehicles. It is designed to
clean the air, fight climate change, and deliver savings to
consumers and drive job development in California.  Posted. 
http://www.internationalfleetworld.co.uk/news/2011/Nov/California-Air-Resources-Board-reveals-future-carbon-cutting-strategy/0444004045/


DIESEL EMISSIONS

California Tightens Class 7 Truck Emission Rules.  The California
Air Resources Board’s order of all Class 7 drayage trucks to meet
the same emission standards that have been in effect for larger
Class 8 trucks is intended to close loopholes in the state’s
clean-truck regulations.  Also, the practice of dray-offs —–using
a compliant truck to pull a container from a port or rail yard
and then transferring the container to a non-compliant truck
outside of the facility — is now illegal in California.  Posted. 
http://www.joc.com/portsterminals/california-tightens-class-7-truck-emission-standards


FUELS

The road to new fuel economy standards was not smooth.  On an
August morning in 2008, a handful of executives from the
country's top car companies, several environmentalists and two of
California's most powerful pollution regulators met in a
windowless conference room in a hotel next to Los Angeles
International Airport.  For 30 years, the car companies had been
locked in battle with California and environmentalists over
increasing vehicle fuel efficiency and cutting air pollution. 
Posted. 
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-fuel-economy-deal-20111119,0,1512018,full.story


GREEN ENERGY

AP Exclusive: Conn. rethinks costly fuel cells.  After spending
millions of dollars to run a state complex with fuel cells,
partly to boast of their size and also to tout a homegrown
industry, Connecticut officials concede privately that the cost
is too high and they're looking to get out of a complicated,
long-term contract.  The state spends $1.4 million every year for
the fuel cells at its 10-year-old juvenile center, an amount that
Connecticut's energy commissioner, Daniel Esty, called excessive
in an email Sept. 6 to the governor's budget chief.  Posted. 
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gMFLVLeech_MjmzSzeLWSJmR1acw?docId=95934037298444c5b2ef5d2cbe07f45d

AP Newsbreak:
http://www.sacbee.com/2011/11/20/4068311/ap-exclusive-conn-rethinks-costly.html#storylink=misearch

http://www.fresnobee.com/2011/11/20/2621444/ap-exclusive-conn-rethinks-costly.html#storylink=misearch
http://www.nctimes.com/news/national/ap-exclusive-conn-rethinks-costly-fuel-cells/article_e7d1f1b0-3885-553d-95ad-aadc1cb5b038.html
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2011/11/20/national/a092623S27.DTL

http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_19377596 
http://www.insidebayarea.com/ci_19378520?IADID=Search-www.insidebayarea.com-www.insidebayarea.com

http://www.contracostatimes.com/ci_19378520?IADID=Search-www.contracostatimes.com-www.contracostatimes.com


W. Pa. program offers cheaper wind energy.  A Pittsburgh
nonprofit says it's offering renewable wind energy at bargain
prices.  Citizen Power Inc. says the 100 percent wind energy plan
provides residential customers who sign a two-year contract with
the lowest electricity rates now available to customers in
Allegheny and Beaver counties.  The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (
http://bit.ly/ubpaps) reports Sunday that the nonprofit is
partnering with a Texas energy company to provide the service. 
Posted. 
http://www.insidebayarea.com/ci_19378473?IADID=Search-www.insidebayarea.com-www.insidebayarea.com


Energy pioneer. Meet Dale Stocking - environmentalist, and guinea
pig. Last spring, the city set an ambitious goal of making 8,500
homes more energy efficient by winter 2013. Stocking urged
approval of that proposed ordinance. And after it passed, he
decided it was only fair to start off by sealing his own drafty
house. "I wanted to see, what are we requiring the citizens to
do, and is it rational?" the 72-year-old Stocking said last week,
sitting at his dining table of his two-story midtown English
Tudor. Posted. 
http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20111121/A_NEWS/111210314&cid=sitesearch

VEHICLES

O.C. hybrid car company raises $58 million more.  Anaheim luxury
hybrid car maker Fisker Automotive Holdings Inc., has raised
another $58 million in equity funding, according to a filing with
the Securities and Exchange Commission, bringing its total
funding to $1.22 billion even before its first cars are sold. 
Fisker has now received $688 million in private funding in
addition to a low-interest $529 million loan from the U.S.
Department of Energy.  Posted. 
http://www.ocregister.com/articles/fisker-327739-company-solyndra.html


Honda Civic Natural Gas named 2012 Green Car of the Year.
GreenCar Journal announced the Honda Civic Natural Gas as the
2012 Green Car of the Year winner at a press conference Thursday
morning during the Los Angeles Auto Show’s press days. The
cleanest running internal combustion vehicle certified by the
EPA, the all-new 2012 Civic Natural Gas is the fifth generation
of this alternative fuel vehicle and the only assembly-line
produced natural gas passenger model manufactured for sale in the
United States. It runs on a clean fuel that is almost exclusively
domestically sourced and typically priced about 30 percent less
than gasoline. Posted. 
http://www.vcstar.com/news/2011/nov/19/honda-civic-natural-gas-named-2012-green-car-year/

At least 15% of California vehicles to be zero-emission by 2025. 
The California Air Resources Board (ARB) has developed the
Advanced Clean Vehicle Cars programme, seeking to reduce
greenhouse gas emissions, smog and sooth causing pollutants for
model years 2015 through 2025. The proposals foresee that one in
seven new vehicles sold in 2025 will be a zero-emission or
plug-in hybrid car.  Reaffirming its leading position in
promoting clean vehicles and developing tough emission standards,
California has presented a package of regulations setting strong
requirements on carmakers.  Posted. 
http://www.cars21.com/content/articles/69720111121.php 

BLOGS

OECD Says Czechs Should Cut Carbon Emissions While Smog over
Prague Thickens.  The Czechs got more than one reminder Friday
that burning copious amounts of fossil fuels is a poor path to
achieving long-term economic growth.  The Organization for
Economic Cooperation and Development, the Paris-based think tank,
just released its latest semi-annual report on the Czech Republic
and among the results was a reprimand on the country for its
over-reliance on fossil-fuel driven economic activity.  BY
SUBSCRIPTION ONLY.  Posted. 
http://blogs.wsj.com/emergingeurope/2011/11/18/oecd-says-czechs-should-cut-carbon-emissions-while-smog-over-prague-thickens/?KEYWORDS=fuels


New Delhi, Now More Polluted Than Beijing. India has recently
pulled far ahead of China on one dubious development marker – air
pollution in the country’s capital. The air quality in New Delhi
on Monday afternoon was significantly worse than the air quality
in Beijing, according to real-time air monitors run by the Indian
and U.S.  governments in both cities. Posted. 
http://india.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/11/21/new-delhi-now-more-polluted-than-beijing/?scp=2&sq=air%20pollution&st=cse

Is Global Warming an Election Issue After All ? Conventional
wisdom has it that the next election will be fought exclusively
on the topic of jobs. But President Obama’s announcement   last
week that he would postpone a decision on the Keystone XL
pipeline until after the 2012 election, which may effectively
kill   the project, makes it clear that other issues will weigh
in—and that, oddly enough, one of them might even be climate
changThe pipeline decision was a true upset.  Everyone—and I mean
everyone who "knew" how these things work—seemed certain that the
president would approve it. The National Journal runs a weekly
poll   of “energy insiders”—that is, all the key players in
Washington. Posted:
http://www.celsias.com/article/global-warming-election-issue-after-all/

Harmonizing Low Carbon Fuel Standards.  In a draft of the first
Review Report for the California Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS),
the staff of the California Air Resources Board (ARB) notes that
the harmonization of LCFS programs globally will be important
“for ensuring that global GHG emission reductions actually result
from these programs”.  Harmonizing LCFS programs means bringing
key elements of different LCFS regulatory frameworks into accord
with one another, while recognizing that these elements will not
necessarily be (or need to be) identical, staff notes in the
report.  Posted. 
http://www.greencarcongress.com/2011/11/lcfs-20111121.html 

California ARB considering amendments to Low Carbon Fuel
Standard; handling high carbon-intensity crude oil (HCICO).  The
California Air Resources Board (ARB) will consider at its
December 2011 meeting amendments to the Low Carbon Fuel Standard
(LCFS) regulation. The LCFS intends to reduce, on a full-fuel
lifecycle basis, the carbon intensity (CI) of transportation
fuels (measured in gCO2e/MJ) used in California by an average of
10% by the year 2020.  Posted. 
http://www.greencarcongress.com/2011/11/lcfs-20111120.html