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ARB Newsclips for November 5, 2012. ARB Newsclips for November 5,
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.

AIR POLLUTION

WILDOMAR: Families suspect houses in illnesses. PART ONE: Four
families walk away from their homes after an array of illnesses
that some suspect was caused by contamination. Jennifer and
Javier Muñiz moved out of their 3,000-square-foot dream home in
Wildomar in January, fearful that staying would harm their
daughter soon to be born. They gave up five bedrooms and a
spacious yard at the end of cul-de-sac for a 900-square-foot,
two-bedroom apartment that’s a tight fit for the couple and their
four children. Posted.
http://www.pe.com/local-news/riverside-county/wildomar/wildomar-headlines/20121102-wildomar-families-wonder-if-their-houses-made-them-sick.ece


CLIMATE CHANGE

Sandy a galvanizing moment for climate change? Hurricane Sandy
images and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg's endorsement of
Obama based on his climate change policies could bring attention
to the issue of global warming, political observers say. One
Sunday afternoon in 1969 the filthy, oil-coated Cuyahoga River in
Ohio caught fire and quickly became a potent symbol of industrial
pollution, helping galvanize public opinion and set the stage for
passage of national environmental laws the following decade.
Posted.
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-climate-politics-20121105,0,234626.story
http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/columnist/vergano/2012/11/03/bloomberg-climate-sandy-sea/1677463/

http://www.forbes.com/sites/kensilverstein/2012/11/05/hurricane-sandy-may-turn-the-tide-on-climate-change/

West Coast at risk for hybrid storms, too. The California coast
probably will never see a storm as violent as the one that
pounded the East Coast, but the future for Westerners will be
rife with environmental problems caused by global warming,
including torrential rain, flooding, fire and drought, climate
experts say. Posted.
http://www.sfgate.com/science/article/West-Coast-at-risk-for-hybrid-storms-too-4005146.php#ixzz2BNLEHy5w


SLV Water District tables decision on possible carbon credits.
With the state's first greenhouse gas permit auction less than
two weeks away, local water district officials will soon have a
better idea of how much their own carbon credits could yield. The
California Air Resources Board will hold the auction Nov. 14,
then four times each year through 2020. The cap-and-trade program
is part of the 2006 Global Warming Solutions Act, which requires
the state to develop regulations to bring greenhouse gas
emissions down to 1990 levels by 2020…Posted.
http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-news/ci_21917539/slv-water-district-tables-decision-possible-carbon-credits


Carbon trade program goes before planners in Napa. Developers
concerned about higher costs of local mitigation. As planners in
Napa County continue development of a strategy to address
state-mandated reductions to greenhouse gas emissions, industry
groups have expressed concern that a proposed local market for
carbon credits will increase costs for developers and suppress
new vineyard and agricultural projects in the region. Posted.
http://www.northbaybusinessjournal.com/64039/countywide-carbon-trade-program-goes-before-planners-in-napa/
 

Gas Flaring is Wasting Fuel and Fueling Climate Change. Gas
flaring in 20 of the world's leading oil-producing countries
contributes as much to climate change as a major economy like
Italy, new estimates show. While flaring has been cut by 30
percent since 2005, $50 billion worth of gas is still wasted
annually, the World Bank said. New satellite analysis of the
flares – that are a by-product of oil drilling and which commonly
light the night skies in oil fields around the world. Posted.
http://www.climatecentral.org/news/gas-flaring-is-wasting-fuel-and-fueling-climate-change-15163

REDD+ carbon projects are losing ground – report. Initiatives
that pay landowners to keep forests standing saw a two-thirds
decline from 2010 to 2011 due to high costs and uncertainty,
according to a survey of forest carbon projects. Ecosystem
Marketplace's "State of the Forest Carbon Markets" report, a
survey of 215 forest carbon projects in 40 countries, found that
the complexity of new methodologies to verify credits, as well as
lower demand from a financially strapped Europe and legal issues
with land ownership in forests, reduced the volume of
transactions in 2011.Posted.
http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/print/2012/11/05/4  BY
SUBSCRIPTION ONLY

VEHICLES

Tesla shares rise as company says production grew. Shares of
Tesla Motors Inc. rose more than 3 percent Monday as the electric
vehicle maker said it was now making enough cars to generate
positive operating cash flow. But the Palo Alto, Calif.,
company's third-quarter net loss grew almost 70 percent, to
$110.8 million, or $1.05 per share, compared with a loss of $65.1
million, or 63 cents per share, a year earlier. Revenue was $50.1
million, down 13 percent from a year earlier. Posted.
http://www.modbee.com/2012/11/05/2442693/tesla-shares-rise-as-company-says.html#storylink=misearch
 BY SUBSCRIPTION ONLY

The other 'chargers'. Among the nation's small-but-growing cadre
of electric car drivers, San Diego motorists stand out for their
enthusiasm and savvy, according to a major study of driving and
charging practices for plug-in vehicles. They recharge batteries
more during cheap off-peak hours, capitalize more often on public
infrastructure and put their cars to greater use all-around,
according an analysis by ECOtality, the administrator of a
public-private project designed to smooth the adoption of
electric vehicles. Posted.
http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2012/nov/04/other-chargers/ 

GREEN ENERGY

Jobs dwindle during green power debate. An eerie quiet has
settled over the Walker Components plant, which assembles custom
cables for a global wind turbine company. Orders are down from
earlier in the year and one-third of its employees have been laid
off this year. "At the beginning of this year we just didn't feel
we had enough time, and now we've got too much time on our
hands," said one of its workers, 25-year-old Calvin Huddleston.
"I really thought wind would be a sustainable business." Posted.
http://www.nctimes.com/news/national/jobs-dwindle-during-green-power-debate/article_58d478f2-0735-56b9-98ec-8761d03c7b8f.html


OPINIONS

November surprise: An EPA crackdown on coal. On the eve of the
2012 election, more than 50 of President Obama's EPA staffers are
crashing to finish new greenhouse gas emission standards. The
rules would make the construction of new coal-fired power plants
nearly impossible. A government-imposed switch from coal to other
forms of energy would cost the economy about $700 billion over
several years, according to the Manhattan Institute. The
bureaucrats are clearly in a hurry to get this done. Never before
has the EPA devoted so many staffers to a single regulation.
Posted.
http://washingtonexaminer.com/november-surprise-an-epa-crackdown-on-coal/article/2512571#.UJgQvdVp33U


The brawl over who or what caused climate change is beside the
point. The challenge is to deal with the kind of savage storms
that have hit N.Y. twice in 14 months. The debate over whether
humans are responsible for melting ice caps, and whether this
demands new policies at the national level, will continue for
years in the halls of academia and in Congress. It is irrelevant
to this far more urgent reality staring New Yorkers in the face:
Extreme weather is here, and it’s threatening people previously
thought immune to its ravages. Posted.
http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/flood-article-1.1196580#ixzz2BNF7hm3c


A Climate Change To-Do List for the Next President. In the 2008
campaign, both candidates for president called for comprehensive
action on climate change through a declining cap on carbon. This
time around, the economy has taken center stage; while Barack
Obama and Mitt Romney have presented different visions on energy
policy, climate change has largely been relegated to the
sidelines. Nonetheless, the magnitude and urgency of the
challenge have not diminished. Posted.
http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-11-05/a-climate-change-to-do-list-for-the-next-president


There's no more denying climate change. New York must face the
truth, or else more storms like Sandy will come our way. When
terrorists attacked our city more than a decade ago, New Yorkers
insisted that politicians do everything in their power to prevent
another similar massacre. In the wake of the vicious assault from
Sandy, we should similarly be demanding that changes be made,
federally and locally, to mitigate another disaster like this —
because the likelihood that we’ll have one is high. Posted.
http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/denying-climate-change-article-1.1196554#ixzz2BN0SFhCY


Editorial: State air rules an overreach. Our view: The air is
dirty in the San Joaquin Valley and Los Angeles. The rules needed
there shouldn't be imposed everywhere in California. You'd think
the people charged with keeping California's air clean would
realize it isn't as dirty in some places as it is in others.
Apparently not, as the state Air Resources Board is in the
process of drafting yet another set of one-size-fits-all
regulations, this one covering diesel ag equipment. The so-called
"tractor rules" actually cover far more than just tractors.
Posted.
http://www.chicoer.com/opinion/ci_21911835/editorial-state-air-rules-an-overreach


Letter: Criticism and climate change. Some of your readers have,
no doubt, stopped to help an able-bodied person get his, or her,
vehicle out of a ditch. Imagine that — while you did — the driver
had stood idly by criticizing your efforts to retrieve the car!
Imagine how President Obama feels about his efforts to get the
nation’s economy back on the road to recovery under similar
circumstances. On another subject, I have little doubt that those
who have denied climate change science for the past 30 years will
keep right on denying. ”Sandy,” I am sure, is just an aberration.
Posted.
http://thedailynewsonline.com/opinion/article_fcf3ad54-2770-11e2-bb25-001a4bcf887a.html

LOIS HENRY: Air monitor problems go way beyond location. If the
Arvin-Edison Water Storage District board of directors doesn't
want to put the infamous "lost" air monitor back on district land
along Bear Mountain Boulevard, it absolutely should not.
Arvin-Edison should stick to its guns no matter how much Mary
Nichols, California Air Resources Board (CARB) chairman, stamps
her little feet and tries to blame the water district for a $30
million fine valley motorists are now paying. Posted.
http://www.bakersfieldcalifornian.com/health/x1250044056/LOIS-HENRY-Air-monitor-problems-go-way-beyond-location
BY SUBSCRIPTION ONLY
 
Camarillo residents say their neighborhood stinks and is causing
illness. There's no pretty way to describe what some Camarillo
residents say they are living with — the smell of rotten eggs.
Residents of the Palm Colony housing area off West Ponderosa
Drive, near the new Springville/Highway 101 exit, blame the well
water used at a nearby agricultural field to grow strawberries.
Henry Scanzio, 69, said the smell was so bad when he woke up
early one morning that he thought the plumbing in his house was
broken. Posted.
http://www.vcstar.com/news/2012/nov/03/camarillo-residents-say-their-neighborhood/


Letters: alternative fuels, yoga. I greatly appreciate the
coverage by your reporter Bradley Fikes of famed genomics
researcher J. Craig Venter’s insights into developing alternative
fuels and the prices that their development would have on
petroleum fuels and alternative fuels (“Venter says federal
mandate needed for alternate fuels,” Business, Nov. 1). In my
view his expertise ends, and his vent begins, when he gets into
politics insisting on a carbon policy seemingly in the near
future. Posted.
http://www.nctimes.com/news/opinion/letters/letters-alternative-fuels-yoga/article_2104224f-eb4f-52d5-9cd4-cc6a5c127d6b.html?print=true&cid=print


BLOGS

Study Finds Fuel Thrift in U.S. Vehicles at All-Time High. Here’s
a quick note on driving and fuel trends from one of my go-to
analysts of transportation and energy issues (as well as air
conditioning trends!), Michael Sivak, who directs the project on
sustainable worldwide transportation of the University of
Michigan’s Transportation Research Institute: The average fuel
economy (window-sticker value) of new vehicles sold in the U.S.
in October was 24.1 miles per gallon — the highest level yet, and
up 4.0 miles per gallon from October 2007. Posted.
http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/11/05/study-finds-fuel-thrift-in-u-s-vehicles-and-driving-at-all-time-high/?ref=earth
 

Laying Down Stakes to Measure Glacier Melt. Finally, after months
of planning, six days of trekking and days of reconnaissance
work, on Oct. 5 we found ourselves poised to begin collecting
important information that will help us to identify links among
glaciers, climate and water resources in Bhutan. On the day after
the successful scouting mission to the glacier, our teams snapped
into action. Posted.
http://scientistatwork.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/11/05/laying-down-stakes-to-measure-glacier-melt/
 

Short on Gasoline and Running Low on Patience. WHERE are drivers
struggling to find gasoline for their vehicles? According to
motorist Tony Kurasz, WHEN was the last time this problem
occurred? HOW have governors of the affected states and officials
from the Pentagon tried to solve the problem? HOW long are the
lines for gas in some places? WHO is the mayor of New York City?
WHY will some of the gas stations need generators along with
fuel? WHY do you think National Guard troops will operate the
pumps when the fuel arrives? Posted.
http://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/11/05/short-on-gasoline-and-running-low-on-patience/
 

Environmentally Correct Europe Turns to Coal. You may think that
coal is fading away as a fuel, but it isn’t. It’s booming. As I
write in my latest Green Column, last year coal as a proportion
of world energy was at its highest since the 1960s. A lot of the
growth in coal use is happening in Asia, particularly China. But
coal — the largest CO2 emitter among fossil fuels — is also in
demand in Europe, including in ultra-green Germany. One reason:
The U.S. shale gas boom has encouraged American power plants to
switch from coal to gas, cutting energy-related CO2 emissions in
the U.S. to their lowest in 20 years. Posted.
http://rendezvous.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/11/05/environmentally-correct-europe-turns-to-coal/


Delhiites: Why Don’t You Use Public Transportation? The
foreboding omen that winter is coming to the country’s capital is
back: a thick gray blanket of smog has smothered Delhi for days.
The smog, referred to by city romantics as the “fog,” or more
deceivingly as the “mist,” is a pack-a-day mix of smoke, car
exhaust and construction dust. On Monday afternoon, air quality
at various spots in the city was deemed “very unhealthy” by a
government Web site, which frequently measures particulate matter
in the air. Posted.
http://india.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/11/05/delhiites-why-dont-you-use-public-transportation/


Climate Change and Sandy's Impact in the Age of Inequality. One
clear lesson in the wake of Hurricane Sandy is that extreme
weather in the age of climate change and global warming knows no
class, race and privilege boundaries. Many, many communities in
the New York metropolitan area need help, but as David Rohde
wrote this week in The Atlantic, "Sandy humbled every one of the
19 million people in the New York City metropolitan area. But it
humbled some more than others in an increasingly economically
divided city." Posted.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/hugh-hogan/hurricane-sandy-recovery_b_2067605.html