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newsclips -- ARB Newsclips for November 8, 2012.
Posted: 08 Nov 2012 13:54:46
ARB Newsclips for November 8, 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 Auction to kick-start California carbon market. California will next week sell more than 60 million CO2 emission permits in a move that will get the world's second biggest carbon market off the ground. More than 350 of the state's biggest emitters, including utilities Pacific Gas & Electric and Southern California Edison, will be bound by the scheme, which aims to help California bring greenhouse gas emissions back down to 1990 levels by 2020. "We're ready to go, we're ready to launch," Mary Nichols, the chair of California Air Resources Board (ARB), the agency that administers the program, said at Stanford University this week. Posted. http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/11/08/us-california-carbon-idUSBRE8A70O620121108 Australia Promotes Carbon Market With First Trading Licenses. Australia’s Securities and Investments Commission granted the first 11 licenses to trade emission permits in Australia, a sign that a carbon market is taking shape despite a political threat to end the program. “A market is beginning to develop, premised on the steady flow of issuance of carbon units,” Craig McBurnie, a senior specialist for the commission, said today at the Carbon Expo in Melbourne. Posted. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-11-07/australia-promotes-carbon-market-with-first-trading-licenses.html Obama to continue efforts to curb greenhouse gases, push energy efficiency.President Obama’s reelection, along with key wins by Senate Democrats, ensures that the federal government will press ahead with efforts to promote renewable energy and energy efficiency and to curb greenhouse gas emissions linked to climate change. But the scope of these policies could be constrained by congressional opposition and by concern over their economic impact, making it likely that a second Obama term will deliver some, but not all, of environmentalists’ top priorities. Posted. http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/obama-to-continue-efforts-to-curb-greenhouse-gases-push-energy-efficiency/2012/11/07/06c70c66-28f9-11e2-96b6-8e6a7524553f_print.html FUELS Oil back above $85 a barrel after largest drop of year fueled by fears of US fiscal trouble. Oil prices rose above $85 per barrel on Thursday as postelection volatility continued. Crude oil rose 75 cents to $85.19 in afternoon trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. That followed a decline of 5 percent on Wednesday, when traders were spooked by worries about budget negotiations in the U.S. Analysts also say that oil supplies and production are high, which tends to drive down prices. Posted. http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/oil-recoups-some-lost-ground-after-biggest-drop-of-year-as-global-economy-jitters-continue/2012/11/08/85628bda-2968-11e2-aaa5-ac786110c486_story.html OPEC report sees strong future fossil fuel demand with coal use growing, oil decreasing. OPEC says that fossil fuels will remain the main energy source in the coming decades with coal’s share growing and oil’s falling. In its annual World Oil Outlook, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries also projects that a barrel of benchmark crude will cost $155 by 2035, compared with under $100 now. The report, published Thursday, says the use of fossil fuels as a percentage of world energy use will decrease only marginally from 87 percent now to 82 percent by 2035. Posted. http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/opec-report-sees-strong-future-fossil-fuel-demand-with-coal-use-growing-oil-decreasing/2012/11/08/ba391b68-29ad-11e2-aaa5-ac786110c486_story.html Stockton Ethanol plant to upgrade facility. Pacific Ethanol Inc. this week announced it would install a corn oil extraction system at its Stockton plant, the company's second such upgrade, and put it into operation before the end of the first quarter. The new technology, which has become widespread in the corn ethanol industry, provides additional value in the production of ethanol and byproducts, including wet distillers grain, which is commonly used as animal feed. Posted. http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20121108/A_BIZ/211080319&cid=sitesearch Argentine judge embargoes Chevron assets on spill. An Argentine judge embargoed Chevron Corp.'s assets in Argentina to carry out an Ecuadorean court order that awarded $19 billion to plaintiffs in an environmental damage lawsuit in the Amazon, a lawyer said Wednesday. Judge Adrian Elcuj Miranda ordered the freezing of Chevron's assets in Argentina as plaintiffs try to collect the judgment won in Ecuador last year, Argentine lawyer Enrique Bruchou told reporters in a conference call. Posted. http://www.vcstar.com/news/2012/nov/07/argentine-judge-embargoes-chevron-assets-on/ Prices still falling, a month after SoCal gasoline crisis. What a difference a month can make. Southern California gasoline prices have fallen 82 cents since hitting an all-time high on Oct. 8. A gallon of regular grade gas sold for $3.91 on average in San Diego on Thursday, down from $4.73 a month ago. The Energy Information Administration is forecasting a continuing decline in retail gasoline prices nationwide through the end of this year. The agency, a statistical arm of the Energy Department, expects global oil markets to loosen, as supplies slightly outstrip demand. Posted. http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2012/nov/08/prices-still-falling-month-after-socal-gasoline-cr/ VEHICLES California gets 200 EV charging stations in settlement. Federal energy regulators have approved a legal settlement between California and a New Jersey energy company that will see more than 200 electric vehicle charging stations get built around the state. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission approved the settlement between the California Public Utilities Commission and a subsidiary of Princeton, N.J.-based NRG Energy Inc. The settlement came in response to lawsuits filed after California's energy crisis, when NRG and other companies overcharged Californians for power. Posted. http://www.mercurynews.com/business/ci_21948838/california-gets-200-ev-charging-stations-settlement GREEN ENERGY Swiss firm says its new switch to aid green energy. A Swiss engineering group said Wednesday it has developed a new circuit breaker that will help utilities transfer power over longer distances, making for more efficient and reliable electric supplies. Zurich-based ABB Group announced it developed the world's first circuit breaker for high-voltage direct current, which will facilitate the long-distance transfer of hydropower, wind and solar power. Posted. http://www.vcstar.com/news/2012/nov/07/swiss-firm-says-its-new-switch-to-aid-green/ Election results: What it means for energy in CA. Energy took the stage in Tuesday's elections, from the presidential race to California's long list of ballot propositions, and the results hold immediate and long-term implications for Southern California. The approval of Proposition 39 should funnel an estimated $500 million a year for five years into energy efficiency retrofits on buildings, starting with public schools and universities. Posted. http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2012/nov/08/election-and-energy/ Berkeley research facility tackles renewable energy issue. A futuristic GPS device, given the task of locating a solution for today's transportation-energy versus environmental-sustainability battle instead of an address, might very well lead to the new, five-story, $133 million biofuels research building located near the northwest edge of the UC Berkeley campus. There, the Energy Biosciences Institute, established in 2007 by international oil and gas company BP as a public-private partnership with UC Berkeley and now including the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, is leading the race to develop nonfood, liquid biofuels. Posted. http://www.insidebayarea.com/ci_21956937/berkeley-research-facility-tackles-renewable-energy-issue KiOR starts production at Mississippi biorefinery. Alternative fuel firm KiOR says it started production in October in Mississippi and plans to make its first commercial shipment before November's end. Based in Pasadena, Texas, KiOR built a $222 refinery in Columbus, Miss., to extract the equivalent of light crude oil from wood chips. It refines the oil into gasoline and diesel fuel. KiOR said researchers have found a way to increase how much oil it can extract from wood. Posted. http://www.insidebayarea.com/ci_21957056/kior-starts-production-at-mississippi-biorefinery OPINIONS Guarding Against Solar Storms. Regarding “Not ready for a ‘Solar Sandy’” (Views, Nov. 3): Solar storms do pose a great threat. That’s why NOAA operates the Space Weather Prediction Center. It has provided warnings and alerts for grid operators, airlines and other vulnerable sectors since 1970. But Yousaf Butt errs when he says there is no plan to replace the aging Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE) satellite, which provides warnings. Posted. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/09/opinion/guarding-against-solar-storms.html Green Goals Without Rancor. Energy and climate change, two issues that deeply divide the country, stand out as major pieces of unfinished business for the Obama administration. Sadly, it is not clear how many disasters it will take and how many billions we will have to spend before we take the potential consequences of climate change seriously. But as the president has said, even for those who don’t believe climate change is real, the benefits of clean energy -- cleaner air, energy independence, American jobs and enhanced global competitiveness -- are just too important to ignore. Posted. http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2012/11/07/a-to-do-list-for-president-obamas-next-four-years/obama-needs-green-goals-without-rancor BLOGS Climate change is making your coffee more expensive. Climate change has already been blamed for major storms and melting arctic ice, but now it may be coming after your morning cup of joe. Researchers have found that climate change will reduce the number of suitable growing locations for the Arabica coffee plant, which provides about 70 percent of the world’s coffee supply, according to a new study in the journal PLOS ONE. Posted. http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2012/11/08/climate-change-is-making-your-coffee-more-expensive/ First Things First: An Efficient Abode. At the beginning of our build project, Mr. Tobe lent us a simple low-tech device called a Solar Pathfinder. It’s designed to figure out where to place solar panels for maximum effect, but we used it to site the house on the property for optimal passive solar performance. The pathfinder is essentially a reflective plexiglass dome and a stack of circular black pieces of paper called sun path diagrams. The diagrams are covered with a series of white arcs delineating the path of the sun at different times of year for different latitudes. Posted. http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/11/08/first-things-first-an-efficient-abode/?ref=earth