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California Air Resources Board News Clips for December 1, 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

Fracturing-Pollution Rule to Burden U.S. Gas Producers, API Says.
Air-pollution limits proposed by the Environmental Protection
Agency for U.S. oil and gas production, including hydraulic
fracturing, will be costly and waste time, the American Petroleum
Institute said. The EPA’s plan to cut emissions of smog-forming
volatile organic compounds by about a quarter, with an almost 95
percent reduction from new and updated gas wells using
fracturing, or fracking, will require too many tests and reports,
said Howard Feldman, API director of regulatory and scientific
affairs. Posted.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-12-01/fracturing-pollution-rule-to-burden-u-s-gas-producers-api-says.html
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-12-01/fracturing-pollution-rule-to-burden-u-s-gas-producers-api-says.html

Your Town: Air district allows burning. Monterey Bay - Backyard
burning allowed. Backyard burning season opens today and
continues through April 30 in Monterey, San Benito and Santa Cruz
counties, according to the Monterey Bay Unified Air Pollution
Control District. Fires to dispose of dry vegetation cleared
before a construction project are also permitted, but burning
garbage or treated wood is prohibited at all times. Posted.
http://www.mercurynews.com/california/ci_19446762

FUELS

Pacific Ethanol purchases additional interest in production
plant. Sacramento ethanol maker/marketer Pacific Ethanol Inc. has
purchased an additional 7 percent ownership interest in New PE
Holdco LLC, the owner of PEI's four production facilities with a
combined annual capacity of 200 million gallons. PEI said it paid
$4.5 million in cash for the additional interest, bringing its
total ownership to 27 percent. "Ethanol continues to grow as a
cost effective and low-carbon component of transportation fuel,
and we intend to seek additional ownership opportunities…Posted.
http://www.sacbee.com/2011/12/01/4093248/pacific-ethanol-purchases-additional.html

VEHICLES

BMW to Supply Diesel Engines to Toyota in Europe. Tokyo—Toyota
Motor Corp. and BMW AG said Thursday they have forged a
partnership in which the two will conduct joint battery research
for next-generation green cars and BMW will supply diesel engines
to Toyota. "We think that this collaboration will allow for
development of next-generation batteries to be done faster and to
a higher level," Takeshi Uchiyamada said at a press conference in
Tokyo. In addition to the research on lithium-ion batteries, the
two car makers will discuss other possible
environmental-technology projects. Posted.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203833104577071554239661524.html?_nocache=1322766527126&user=welcome
 BY SUBSCRIPTION
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-12-01/bmw-to-supply-toyota-with-diesel-engines-in-partnership-deal.html

State analyst slams high-speed rail plans. The High-Speed Rail
Authority's recently revised plans still fall short, according to
a new report from the state's independent legislative analyst,
and could leave the state with nothing more than a useless
130-mile stretch of tracks in the Central Valley. The report,
released to the Assembly Transportation Committee Tuesday, says
the overhauled draft business plan, and a financial plan to start
construction late next year, fail to satisfy the requirements of
Proposition 1A, …Posted.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/12/01/BAKN1M69CU.DTL&type=printable

BLOGS

Congressman Presses California on Fuel-Economy Standards. 
Suspecting that California regulators may be exerting unlawful
influence over the agencies that determine federal fuel-economy
standards, Representative Darrell Issa has begun an inquiry into
the practices of the California Air Resources Board, or CARB, the
agency charged with setting pollution standards for the state. 
Posted. 
http://wheels.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/11/30/congressman-presses-california-on-fuel-economy-standards/

Inquiry into California's Role in CAFE Standards Launched.  Rep.
Darrell Issa, R-Calif., chairman of the House Oversight and
Government Reform Committee, has launched an inquiry to determine
if the California Air Resources Board (CARB) exerted influence
"outside the scope of law" over the setting of the next round of
the Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards. The state
board is tasked with regulating greenhouse-gas emissions, while
the authority to set national CAFE standards is delegated by
Congress exclusively to the National Highway Traffic Safety
Administration.  Posted. 
http://editorial.autos.msn.com/blogs/autosblogpost.aspx?post=486e54b3-3ed6-42f4-aebb-f370f5b3e198

How local weather influences our climate beliefs. Weather isn’t
the same thing as climate. Just because it’s sunny or chilly on a
given day doesn’t tell us all that much about long-term
temperature trends. Even so, plenty of research suggests that
local weather does heavily influence how people think about
climate change. Back in 2009, survey data from Patrick Egan and
Megan Mullin found that Americans were more likely to agree that
there was “solid evidence” of climate change on
hotter-than-average days. Posted.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/post/how-local-weather-influences-our-climate-beliefs/2011/12/01/gIQAY6C3GO_blog.html

Four city members appointed to Valley air board.  Four new
members have been appointed this week to the San Joaquin Valley
Air Pollution Control District's governing board. All represent
cities in the Valley.  They include: Councilmember Oliver L.
Baines III of Fresno, Vice Mayor Melvin "Skip" Barwick of Tulare,
Councilmember Sally J. Bomprezzi of Madera and Councilmember
Harold Hanson of Bakersfield.  Posted. 
http://fresnobeehive.com/news/2011/11/four_new_members_have_been.html#storylink=misearch


California shows its oddity over low sulfur regulations.  There
never has been a public agency that made a regulation that makes
complete sense. From December 1 the California air Resources
Board is enforcing low sulfur fuel requirements, the most
important of which come into effect on June 1, 2012.  What does
come into effect immediately is the 24-nm mile zone in which the
low sulfur rules apply. And here is the big change.  Posted. 
http://www.maritimeprofessional.com/Blogs/Martin-Rushmere/November-2011/California-shows-its-oddity-over-low-sulfur-regula.aspx

Growth isn't so green at the Port of Long Beach's Pier S project.
The Port of Long Beach is still the cause of frightening levels
of toxic air pollution in harbor area neighborhoods, despite the
progress the port has made in reducing its air pollution levels. 
They are now proposing to build a new cargo terminal at the port,
on a piece of land called “Pier S.”  While they are proposing to
include a host of technologies to reduce the air pollution from
this project, the reality is that we just do not yet have enough
technology to reduce the air pollution down to safe levels. 
Posted.
http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/mwyenn/growth_isnt_so_green_at_the_po.html