What's New List Serve Post Display

ARB Newsclips for April 8, 2013. 

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

Home depot to pay $8 million settlement. The Home Depot will pay
$8 million to settle allegations that the retail giant sold
thousands of gallons of paint, primers and sealers containing
excessive levels of air pollutants to customers in Riverside
County and across Southern California, authorities announced. The
Riverside County District Attorney’s Office, with the Los Angeles
City Attorney’s Office and district attorneys in Orange and San
Bernardino counties, sued The Home Depot in 2011. A similar
action was filed by the South Coast Air Quality Management
District. Posted.
http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2013/apr/07/tp-home-depot-to-pay-8-million-settlement/


San Diego County overcomes air quality challenge. Pollution
emitted into the air and blowing in the wind no longer is so high
the county locals always need relief. Supervisor Ron Roberts told
the public during an announcement downtown on Wednesday, April
3rd, after years fighting pollution, the county finally lowered
the ozone and particulate matter levels below the 1997 Federal
8-Hour Ozone Standard. "We have the cleanest air we have had in
the 50 years the Air Pollution Control District has been here,"
Roberts said. The county leads the nation in the effect on air
quality produced by work on air quality control. Posted. 
http://www.examiner.com/article/san-diego-county-overcomes-air-quality-challenge


End in sight for marathon pollution trial in NH. Jurors in the
longest state trial in New Hampshire's history will return to the
courtroom this week after a nearly two-week hiatus to hear
closing arguments in the state's groundwater contamination case
against Exxon Mobil Corp. Lawyers for the state want jurors to
hold Exxon Mobil liable to the tune of $240 million to monitor
and clean up wells and public water systems contaminated by the
gasoline additive MTBE, or methyl tertiary butyl ether. Lawyers
for Exxon Mobil counter that MTBE was used to comply with federal
Clean Air Act requirements to reduce smog. Posted. 
http://www.vcstar.com/news/2013/apr/07/end-in-sight-for-marathon-pollution-trial-in-nh/#ixzz2Pt1SjvNC


Air travel to get bumpier as CO2 emissions rise, scientists say.
Turbulence on transatlantic flights will become more frequent and
severe by 2050 as carbon dioxide emissions rise, leading to
longer journey times and increased fuel consumption, British
scientists said in a study on Monday. Any air traveller has
probably experienced turbulence. It can happen without warning
and is caused by climate conditions such as atmospheric pressure,
jet streams, cold and warm fronts or thunderstorms. Posted.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/04/08/climate-airlines-turbulence-idUSL5N0CQ3CA20130408


First proof that air pollution affects coral growth revealed
(Video).  A team of climate scientists and coral ecologists from
the United Kingdom, Australia, and Panama, is the first to
definitely prove that air pollution stunts coral growth in the
April 7, 2013, issue of the journal Nature Geoscience.  The team
lead by Lester Kwiatkowski, a doctoral student in Mathematics at
the University of Exeter, and colleagues used a combination of
records retrieved from within the coral skeletons, observations
from ships, climate model simulations, and statistical modeling
to examine coral growth rates in the Caribbean in the twentieth
century.  Posted. 
http://www.examiner.com/article/first-proof-that-air-pollution-affects-coral-growth-revealed
 

Air Quality Warnings Issued For Parts of San Luis Obispo County. 
Very windy conditions are prompting air quality warnings in some
coastal areas.  Aeron Arlin Genet of the San Luis Obispo County
Air Pollution Control District, or APCD, says, "they blow the
dust and the sand off the Oceano Dunes. And that gets lofted into
the air."  Arlin Genet is all too familiar with poor air quality
conditions stemming from the Oceano Dunes. The APCD monitors the
air quality in the county and even provides air quality forecasts
using special devices that are set up at various sites.  Posted. 
http://www.kcoy.com/story/21894681/air-quality-warnings-issued-for-parts-of-san-luis-obispo-county

CLIMATE CHANGE

Federal appeals court to hear climate change suit.  A federal
three-judge panel has agreed to review a lower court's ruling
that a group of Mississippi coastal landowners can sue energy and
chemical companies on allegations that linked greenhouse gas
emissions to Hurricane Katrina.  The lawsuit alleges that
greenhouse gas emissions from energy and chemical companies
contributed to global warming, caused sea levels to rise and
added to the intensity of Hurricane Katrina. Filed by landowners
in U.S. District Court in Gulfport in September 2005, the lawsuit
had been dismissed in 2007 and reinstated in 2009.  Posted. 
http://www.sfgate.com/default/article/Federal-appeals-court-to-hear-climate-change-suit-4416924.php
  

Antarctic team digs deep to predict climate future. Nancy Bertler
and her team took a freezer to the coldest place on Earth,
endured weeks of primitive living and risked spending the winter
in Antarctic darkness, to go get ice - ice that records our
climate's past and could point to its future. They drilled out
hundreds of ice cores, each slightly longer and wider than a
baseball bat, from the half-mile-thick ice covering Antarctica's
Roosevelt Island. The cores, which may total 150,000 years of
snowfall, almost didn't survive the boat ride to New Zealand
because of a power outage. Posted.
http://www.vcstar.com/news/2013/apr/06/antarctic-team-digs-deep-to-predict-climate/#ixzz2Pt2bzIBw


Oceans may explain slowdown in climate change: study. Climate
change could get worse quickly if huge amounts of extra heat
absorbed by the oceans are released back into the air, scientists
said after unveiling new research showing that oceans have helped
mitigate the effects of warming since 2000. Heat-trapping gases
are being emitted into the atmosphere faster than ever, and the
10 hottest years since records began have all taken place since
1998. But the rate at which the earth's surface is heating up has
slowed somewhat since 2000, causing scientists to search for an
explanation for the pause. Posted.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/04/07/us-climate-oceans-idUSBRE93608420130407


FUELS

Fracking coalition upsets both greens and drillers.  Like a
marriage the in-laws don't approve of, a new plan to strengthen
standards for fracking is creating unusual divisions among
environmentalists and supporters of the oil and gas industry.  At
first glance, it's hard to fathom all the angst over the
Pittsburgh-based Center for Sustainable Shale Development. 
Environmental groups, foundations, and major oil and gas
companies came together to support stringent measures to protect
air and water from pollution in the Appalachian region, and they
invited other groups to join in and help limit pollution from
fracking.  Posted. 
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_GAS_DRILLING_UNLIKELY_PARTNERS?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT


OTHER RELATED STORIES
 
http://www.contracostatimes.com/nation-world/ci_22974327/fracking-coalition-upsets-both-greens-and-drillers

http://www.insidebayarea.com/news/ci_22974327/fracking-coalition-upsets-both-greens-and-drillers

http://www.fresnobee.com/2013/04/07/3247355/fracking-coalition-upsets-both.html#storylink=misearch

http://www.scpr.org/blogs/environment/2013/04/05/13191/aqmd-approves-rule-requiring-disclosure-of-frackin/

Southern California air regulators adopt fracking rules.  In the
absence of statewide regulations for hydraulic fracturing,
Southern California air-quality officials have enacted their own
reporting rules for the controversial extraction process driving
the country's oil and gas boom.  On Friday, the governing board
of the South Coast Air Quality Management District adopted a rule
that requires oil companies to notify the air agency 10 days to
24 hours before beginning drilling operations, including
"fracking," which involves injecting large volumes of
chemical-laced water and sand deep into the ground to break apart
rock and release oil.  Posted. 
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/political/la-me-pc-southern-california-air-regulators-adopt-fracking-rules-20130405,0,7462664.story

VEHICLES

Here's why real-world mpg doesn't match EPA ratings.  Has this
happened to you? You go shopping for a new car and great fuel
economy is high on the list of things you want. You buy a car
that's rated 30 mpg on the highway and 28 mpg overall by the
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). But after a month or so of
driving around, you find that the best fuel efficiency you can
get is a measly 24 mpg average. You might acknowledge that you
drive a little faster than the speed limit, but you're no
hot-rodder.  Posted. 
http://autos.yahoo.com/news/here-s-why-real-world-mpg-doesn-t-match-epa-ratings-175746134.html

GREEN ENERGY

NY moves toward adopting wind, other green energy. A new study
says New York could get the power it needs from wind, water and
sunlight by 2030 with a concerted push, though the state's
decade-long effort to significantly boost green energy shows how
challenging that could be. The study, led by researchers from
Stanford and Cornell universities, provides a theoretical road
map to how New Yorkers could rely on renewable energy within 17
years. It would require massive investments in wind turbines,
solar panels and more from the windy shores off Long Island to
sun-exposed rooftops upstate. Posted. 
http://www.vcstar.com/news/2013/apr/07/ny-moves-toward-adopting-wind-other-green-energy/#ixzz2Pt3TyiFt


OPINION

Schwarzenegger: California's silent disaster.  I will always
remember the day I woke to the news that more than 2,000 fires
were burning in California. I thought I must not have heard
correctly. Two thousand fires? How could that be?  In the end,
the state's brave firefighters, joined by contingents from out of
state, won the battle. But not before 11 emergency declarations
were issued and more than 400,000 acres burned. Countless lives
and livelihoods were ruined.  Posted. 
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-0408-schwarzenegger-climate-report-20130408,0,6026654.story


Clear the tracks for new port rail yard.  The ports of Los
Angeles and Long Beach are a powerful economic engine for
Southern California. They produce more jobs than the entire movie
business, and they connect the United States to ports across the
Pacific Ocean. The hundreds of billions of dollars' worth of
goods that pass through them are an essential source of economic
livelihood, and yet at times the ports impose a burden on those
who live closest to them, forcing policymakers to weigh what is
best for the nation and the region against what harm it might do
to neighbors. Posted. 
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/editorials/la-ed-ports-20130408,0,5401694.story

Why We Support a Revenue-Neutral Carbon Tax. Americans like to
compete on a level playing field. All the players should have an
equal opportunity to win based on their competitive merits, not
on some artificial imbalance that gives someone or some group a
special advantage. We think this idea should be applied to energy
producers. They all should bear the full costs of the use of the
energy they provide. Posted.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323611604578396401965799658.html?KEYWORDS=air+pollution


BLOGS

Air Pollution Tied to Birth Defects. Exposure in the first two
months of pregnancy to air pollution from traffic sharply
increases the risk for birth defects, a new study has found.
Researchers used data from two large studies carried out in eight
counties in the San Joaquin Valley in California. One has tracked
birth defects since 1997, and the other has recorded
concentrations of nitrogen dioxide, nitrogen oxide, carbon
monoxide and particulate matter at 20 locations in the valley
since the 1970s. The results are posted online in The American
Journal of Epidemiology. Posted.
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/04/08/air-pollution-tied-to-birth-defects/


U.S. Moves Toward Teaching Climate Change; Britain Does the
Opposite. 
New science teaching standards in the United States will include
extensive lessons on human-made climate change. Expected to be
unveiled this week, the guidelines will bring the subject to
classrooms in up to 40 states, in many cases for the first time.
Eighth-grade pupils should understand that “human activities,
such as the release of greenhouse gases from burning fossil
fuels, are major factors in the current rise in Earth’s mean
surface temperature (global warming),” according to the Next
Generation Science Standards. Posted.
http://rendezvous.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/04/08/u-s-moves-toward-teaching-climate-change-britain-does-the-opposite/


Fear of global warming on the rise.  Americans’ fear of global
warming is on the rise, though they still aren’t as concerned as
they were before the 2008 financial collapse.  A new Gallup poll
shows 58 percent of Americans are concerned a great deal or a
fair amount about global warming. That’s up from 51 percent in
2011 but down from 66 percent in 2008 and the record high of 72
percent in 2000.  Posted. 
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-politics/wp/2013/04/08/fear-of-global-warming-on-the-rise/


200,000 Plug-In Electric Vehicles Equipped With
Vehicle-to-Building Technology Will Be Sold Through 2020. 
According to a recent report from Navigant Research, nearly
200,000 PEVs equipped with vehicle-to-building (V2B) technology
will be sold from 2012 through 2020.  With V2B technology – which
makes the energy stored in plug-in electric vehicle (PEV)
batteries available to commercial and residential buildings –
vehicles can compete with both traditional local generation and
stationary storage for offsetting demand charges or providing
peak saving services.  Posted. 
http://www.hybridcars.com/200000-plug-in-electric-vehicles-equipped-with-vehicle-to-building-technology-will-be-sold-through-2020/


CO2 regulations – Are they strict enough?  Fuel economy standards
are at the top of the agenda in the US and Europe. However, it
seems that most manufacturers have already outperformed 2015
targets, which means that 2020 or 2025 objectives are “easy”
targets, especially in view of the fact that automakers have
managed to obtain key concessions such as CO2 credits in the US
or supercredits and eco innovations in Europe.  According to a
report from the US EPA published in March 2013, Toyota and Honda
have earned so many credits in the US that their current fleets,
unchanged, could meet EPA requirements through to the 2016 model
year, said David Friedman, a senior engineer at the Union of
Concerned Scientists.  Posted. 
http://www.cars21.com/news/view/5335 

For Cleveland, climate change could mean tons of toxic green
algae.  A vast plain of poisonous green slime stretching to the
horizon, bobbing gently on the waves — that was the view of Lake
Erie from Cleveland just a couple years ago. It could become a
permanent feature if humans don’t scramble to do something about
it.  Take a closer look at the boxed-in area in the above image
(larger version), captured by NASA’s Aqua satellite in October
2011…Posted. 
http://grist.org/climate-energy/for-cleveland-climate-change-could-mean-tons-of-toxic-green-algae/

Frackers lose $1.5 billion yearly thanks to leaky pipes.  Of all
the many and varied consequences of fracking (water
contamination, injured workers, earthquakes, the list goes on)
one of the least understood is so-called “fugitive” methane
emissions. Methane is the primary ingredient of natural gas, and
it escapes into the atmosphere at every stage of production: at
wells, in processing plants, and in pipes on its way to your
house. According to a new study [PDF], it could become one of the
worst climate impacts of the fracking boom — and yet, it’s one of
the easiest to tackle right away. Best of all, fixing the leaks
is good for the bottom line.  Posted. 
http://grist.org/climate-energy/frackers-lose-1-5-billion-yearly-thanks-to-leaky-pipes/