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newsclips -- ARB Newsclips for May 25, 2012.
Posted: 25 May 2012 12:35:50
ARB Newsclips for May 25, 2012. 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 Climate Deadlock Breaks as Slow UN Talks Frustrate U.S., EU. Climate change envoys broke a deadlock at United Nations talks in Germany, with European, U.S. and island nations warning the slow pace of negotiations threatens the chance of reaching a deal at the end of the year. After a week of wrangling about the structure of the agenda that will guide talks leading to a new climate deal in 2015, delegates at the discussions in Bonn today bridged a divide that pitted about 36 nations including China and India against the European Union, U.S. and blocs of island and developing nations. Posted. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-05-25/climate-deadlock-breaks-as-slow-un-talks-frustrate-u-s-eu.html Global CO2 Price of $50 May Avert Climate Catastrophe, MIT Says. A global carbon price of $50 a metric ton may be enough to limit catastrophic climate change, according to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. China, the world’s biggest emitter, is crucial to curbing emissions to limit temperature rises to 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit), according to a study published in the Energy Economics journal. Emissions reductions elsewhere will be more expensive without having China’s participation in a global climate treaty, according to the research. Posted. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-05-25/global-co2-price-of-50-may-avert-climate-catastrophe-mit-says.html Climate change: Carbon dioxide emissions reach record high. Emissions of heat-trapping carbon dioxide reached an all-time high last year, further reducing the chances that the world could avoid a dangerous rise in global average temperature by 2020, according to the International Energy Agency, the energy analysis group for the world’s most industrialized states. Global emissions of carbon-dioxide, or CO2, from fossil-fuel combustion hit a record high of 31.6 gigatonnes in 2011, according to the IEA’s preliminary estimates, an increase of 1 Gt, or 3.2% from 2010. Posted. http://www.latimes.com/news/nation/nationnow/la-na-nn-carbon-dioxide-20120524,0,7337834.story Butterfly Species Expands Range With Climate Change. A butterfly species in England is expanding its range, thanks to climate change. In the current issue of Science, researchers at the University of York report that the brown argus butterfly has spread its reach in England northward by about 50 miles over 20 years as a warmer climate allow its caterpillars to feed off wild geranium plants, which are widespread in the countryside. “There was something unusual about the degree to which it was spreading its range,” said an author of the study, Jane K. Hill, a biologist at York. “It was turning up in places that were unexpected.” Posted. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/29/science/butterfly-species-expands-range-with-climate-change.html?ref=science http://www.mercurynews.com/nation-world/ci_20705840/global-warming-winner-once-rare-butterfly-thrives Climate Analytics Global Warming Report: Governments Not Meeting Emissions Reductions Pledges. Greenhouse gas emissions in 2020 could rise to nine billion tonnes above what is needed to limit global warming as some countries look set to miss their emissions cut targets, a report by three climate research groups said on Wednesday. Countries have agreed that deep emissions cuts are needed to limit an increase in global average temperature to less than 2 degrees Celsius this century above pre-industrial levels… Posted. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/24/climate-change-report-global-warming_n_1541839.html?ncid=edlinkusaolp00000003 CARB Targets “Short-lived” Greenhouse Gases. Sacramento - California's top air quality regulator is trying to reduce so-called "short-lived" greenhouse gas emissions.T he California Air Resources Board claims methane, black carbon soot, and hydrofluoro carbons are more harmful to the environment than carbon dioxide. Unlike carbon dioxide, which stays in the atmosphere for about one hundred years, these short lived gases have a relatively short atmospheric lifetime, ranging from a few days to a few decades. Posted. http://www.kcoy.com/story/18621605/carb-targets-short-lived-greenhouse-gases State ponders how to spend cap-and-trade billions. As California readies its first-in-the-nation economywide cap-and-trade program for greenhouse gases, all eyes are on the billions of dollars in revenue that the auctions are expected to generate. While the money won't start coming in until at least November, lawmakers, industry and environmental groups are already jockeying for a piece of the pie. The state estimates the quarterly auction of emissions allowances will bring in $1 billion through 2013, with billions more through 2020 as prices and the size of the market increase. Posted. http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/print/2012/05/25/2 BY SUBSCRIPTION ONLY Spectrum of interest groups comment on EPA carbon proposal. More than 200 speakers representing environmentalists, ethnic organizations, religious groups, public health advocates, electric utilities, coal mining companies and ordinary citizens met in Washington, D.C., and Chicago yesterday to offer comments and suggestions on U.S. EPA's first-ever proposal to limit carbon dioxide emissions from newly built power plants. Posted. http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/print/2012/05/25/5 BY SUBSCRIPTION ONLY GREEN ENERGY Obama urges Congress to extend clean-energy tax credits. The president says continuing the production tax credit and an investment tax credit would save 37,000 jobs that otherwise would be at risk. From a wind-power factory in this battleground state, President Obama urged Congress to extend tax credits he said would save jobs in the field of clean-energy production. Obama said continuing the production tax credit would save 37,000 jobs that would otherwise be at risk, an estimate his aides based on reports from industry officials. Posted. http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-obama-tax-credits-20120525,0,5703974.story California PUC ruling boosts solar industry. The solar industry scored a major win Thursday when California regulators more than doubled the number of homeowners and businesses who will get full financial credit for the surplus electricity that their rooftop panels produce. The California Public Utilities Commission unanimously approved changes to a policy known as "net energy metering," which allows solar system owners to cut their utility bills by receiving credit for any excess electricity they send to the state's power grid. Posted. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/05/25/BUAF1ON5RC.DTL http://www.mydesert.com/article/20120525/BUSINESS06/205250312/Rooftop-solar-given-boost?odyssey=nav%7Chead http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/print/2012/05/25/3 BY SUBSCRIPTION ONLY BLM nearing approval of Calif. project that would be world's largest. The Bureau of Land Management is advancing what could become the world's largest solar power project in a region of the Southern California desert where environmental groups and American Indian tribes have filed multiple federal lawsuits to stop already approved, large-scale renewables projects. BLM announced today in a Federal Register notice that it has completed a draft environmental impact statement (EIS) for the McCoy Solar Energy Project, which would sit on 7,700 acres of public land in the Colorado Desert, about 13 miles northwest of Blythe, Calif. Posted. http://www.eenews.net/Greenwire/print/2012/05/25/1 BY SUBSCRIPTION ONLY MISCELLANEOUS California sport fish survey: mercury, PCBs higher. A sweeping state survey of contaminants in sport fish that were hooked, netted or speared in 68 spots on the California coast underscores a lesson for seafood lovers: Choose well your next fillet. In general, mercury levels in the fish - caught during 2009 and 2010 - were of "high concern," particularly along the North and Central coasts, said a report released Thursday by the State Water Resources Control Board. But while San Francisco Bay and other urban spots showed higher mercury pollution, the key driver of the contamination wasn't location but type of fish. Posted. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/05/25/MNG81ON96B.DTL&tsp=1 OPINIONS Another View: My agenda for a new term is to move Sacramento forward. Kevin Johnson, the mayor of Sacramento, is responding to the Monday editorial "Mayor Johnson needs to offer a clear agenda," which stated, "If he wants the June 5 election to be more than a popularity contest – if he wants to claim a mandate for action – he needs to tell voters specifically what his to-do list is. A campaign is about more than just winning; it's about laying the groundwork for governing." Earlier this week, I visited a cavernous warehouse at McClellan Park and met with the owners of a small business that has developed a new generation of energy-efficient air conditioners. Posted. http://www.sacbee.com/2012/05/24/4512607/my-agenda-for-a-new-term-is-to.html A green future starts at home for Californians. To its great credit, the California Energy Commission has enlisted the support of major stakeholders who are often at odds - builders, utilities, environmental groups - for its proposed building efficiency standards. Now, if the commission could only persuade our teenagers to take shorter showers, unplug their chargers and turn off the lights when they leave the house ... then this state would truly redefine the cutting edge of resource conservation. On May 31, the commission is expected to approve the nation's most stringent energy efficiency standards for residential and commercial buildings. Posted. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/05/24/EDSR1OMF8R.DTL San Diego embracing renewable energy. San Diego is emerging as one of the nation’s leading clean-tech hubs by embracing renewable energy and clean vehicles as drivers of economic growth. At the Union of Concerned Scientists, where we have a plan to cut America’s projected oil use in half in 20 years, we are looking to San Diego as a model for what communities across the country can do to employ advanced technologies that clean our air, reduce global warming emissions and drive economic growth. Posted. http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2012/may/24/embracing-renewable-energy/ BLOGS Getting Serious About the “Other” Greenhouse Gases. Are we too focused on CO2? While carbon dioxide reductions are at the heart of efforts in California to curb greenhouse gas emissions, state air regulators were reminded in a hearing on Thursday not to overlook a number of other “short-lived” greenhouse pollutants in meeting targets outlined under AB 32, the state’s Global Warming Solution’s Act. A panel of noted scientists was on hand, several from California universities and research labs, to discuss the effects of black carbon, methane and hydrofluourocarbons on regional and global climate. Posted. http://blogs.kqed.org/climatewatch/2012/05/25/getting-serious-about-the-other-greenhouse-gases/ NASCAR working with EPA to conserve energy while burning lots of fuel. Think of it as a "do as we say, not as we do" scenario. Stock-car racing organization NASCAR and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) are going to work together to help the environment by using NASCAR's marketing punch to push more environmentally sustainable behavior. Not addressed? Running a bunch of cars at full speed around an oval for a few hundred miles. Posted. http://green.autoblog.com/2012/05/25/nascar-working-with-epa-to-conserve-energy-while-burning-lots-of/ Driving an EV is like paying a buck a gallon, eternally. For those nostalgic for mullets, the Cosby Show and Oakland A's dominance, the Nissan Leaf may be for you. Those late 1980s hallmarks harken back to the days of $1-a-gallon gas, and that's what you're in for – forever – if you drive a battery electric vehicle, says Green Car Reports, citing a study from Natural Resources Defense Council staff member Max Baumhefner. Baumhefner found that, while oil and gas prices fluctuate because of various supply shocks and political shenanigans, electricity prices stay relatively constant, meaning that the cost of juicing up an EV isn't going to change much. Posted. http://green.autoblog.com/2012/05/25/driving-an-ev-is-like-paying-a-buck-a-gallon-eternally/ Alt-fuel cars unsustainable without government assistance. According to the 2012 U.S. Automotive Industry Survey and Confidence Index by Booz & Co., alternative vehicle powertrains may take up as much as 10 percent of the total market by 2020, but only if the federal government continues to support development. Without a helping hand from Uncle Sam, only 30 percent of the researchers, executives and consumers who participated in the survey believe alternative-fuel machines will be able to carve out that small slice of the market. Posted. http://green.autoblog.com/2012/05/25/alt-fuel-cars-unsustainable-without-government-assistance/ Who's ready now? Nissan deploys first of 400 planned DC fast chargers in Europe. Nissan has installed the first of 400 quick-charging electric-vehicle chargers in Europe that it's planning to deploy during the next few years, the Detroit News reports. The Japanese automaker, which along with alliance partner Renault is said to be investing more than $5 billion (U.S.) in electric-vehicle and infrastructure development, will install 40 quick chargers each in France and the Netherlands. Once the Dutch chargers are deployed, all of the country's drivers will be within 20 miles of a Nissan quick charger. Posted. http://green.autoblog.com/2012/05/25/nissan-deploys-first-400-planned-dc-fast-chargers/ The lure of the plug: two-thirds of Chevy Volt buyers trade in non-GM vehicle. Whaddya think, that Volt buyers were trading in a Cadillac for their new plug-ins? Nope. Most buyers of Chevrolet Volt extended-range plug-in vehicles are coming in from outside of the General Motors family, the automaker says. About two-thirds of Volt buyers are trading in non-GM cars, and more than 90 percent of recently surveyed Volt drivers said they'd buy another one. Posted. http://green.autoblog.com/2012/05/24/chevy-volt-buyers-trade-in-non-gm-vehicles/