What's New List Serve Post Display

ARB Newsclips for April 9, 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

Air Pollution Exposure in Pregnancy Linked to Cancers.  Children
whose mothers have an increased exposure to air pollution from
motor vehicles while pregnant may have a higher chance of
developing certain cancers, a study found.  Each increase in
exposure to pollution from gasoline vehicles and diesel trucks
was associated with a 4 percent higher risk of developing acute
lymphoblastic leukemia, the most common childhood cancer, as well
as increased chances of developing rarer cancers of the eye and
of cells that form the reproductive system, according to data
presented today at the annual meeting of the American Association
for Cancer Research in Washington.  Posted. 
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-04-09/air-pollution-exposure-in-pregnancy-linked-to-cancers.html
 
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/04/08/air-pollution-tied-to-birth-defects/


Air pollution scourge underestimated, green energy can help: U.N.
 Air pollution is an underestimated scourge that kills far more
people than AIDS and malaria and a shift to cleaner energy could
easily halve the toll by 2030, U.N. officials said on Tuesday. 
Investments in solar, wind or hydropower would benefit both human
health and a drive by almost 200 nations to slow climate change,
blamed mainly on a build-up of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere
from use of fossil fuels, they said.  Posted. 
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/04/09/us-pollution-idUSBRE9380PZ20130409


Mont. asks EPA to redo sulfur dioxide designation.  Montana
officials said sulfur dioxide emissions are decreasing in
Yellowstone County and they want it removed from a federal list
of pollution violators.  Sources of sulfur dioxide in Yellowstone
Valley include three refineries, two power plants, a sugar beet
plant and a sulfur-recovery plant.  The Montana Department of
Environmental Quality made the request in an April 3 letter to
the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. It included an analysis
the state agency says shows decreasing emissions, The Billings
Gazette reported (http://bit.ly/10Q1v0V ) on Monday.  Posted. 
http://www.sfgate.com/default/article/Mont-asks-EPA-to-redo-sulfur-dioxide-designation-4420961.php


Beijing's polluted air provides Jerry Brown a political
opportunity.  The local media have given it a name: "Beijing Ke,"
or the Beijing Cough, defined by the China Daily as "a bout of
persistent dry cough or throat tickle because of Beijing's poor
air quality."  Earlier this year, the local air-quality reading
was so bad that citizens were warned to stay in doors for days on
end. The international media called it the "Airpocolypse." 
Posted. 
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/political/la-me-pc-california-jerry-brown-china-air-pollution-20130409,0,7386481.story


CLIMATE CHANGE

California Governor Clears Way for Carbon Market Link to Quebec. 
California Governor Jerry Brown approved a proposal to link the
state’s carbon cap-and-trade system with a program in Quebec, a
step that would allow companies to trade carbon permits across
borders.  Brown found that the request from the state Air
Resources Board, which has been working with the Canadian
province for more than five years to develop complementary
systems, met all necessary state requirements, according to a
letter posted on the governor’s website late today.  Posted. 
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2013-04-08/california-governor-clears-way-for-carbon-market-link-to-quebec

http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/2013/04/09/7 

Making progress in the fight against global warming.  California
remains at the forefront of the nation in the fight against
climate change through its government’s use of various tools to
reduce energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions –
primarily through the Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 known
as AB 32.  “California is implementing groundbreaking programs
under AB 32 to reduce greenhouse gas emissions across our economy
and the progress so far makes us confident the targets for 2020
and beyond will be achieved,” David Clegern, spokesperson for the
California Air Resources Board (ARB), told the Business Journal
in an e-mail.  Posted. 
http://lbbusinessjournal.com/long-beach-business-journal-newswatch/1434-ab-32-update-making-progress-in-the-fight-against-global-warming-.html


Climate Change Could Equal Teeth-Rattling Flights.  Buckle up —
climate change could make this a bumpy flight.  That's according
to a newly published study by two British scientists who say
increased levels of CO2 in the atmosphere will make "clear air
turbulence" — which can't be easily spotted by pilots or
satellites — more common over the North Atlantic. That means the
potential for gut-wrenching flights between the U.S., Europe and
points east.  Posted. 
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/04/08/176598063/climate-change-could-equal-teeth-rattling-flights


FUELS

Moniz backs natural gas 'revolution'.  Ernest Moniz, chosen by
President Barack Obama to lead the Energy Department, says he
will push to increase use of natural gas as a way to combat
climate change even as the nation seeks to boost domestic energy
production.  Moniz, a physics professor at the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology, said "a stunning increase" in domestic
natural gas and oil production in recent years was nothing less
than a "revolution" that has led to reduced emissions of carbon
dioxide and other gases that cause global warming.  Posted. 
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_ENERGY_SECRETARY?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
  
http://www.sfgate.com/default/article/Moniz-backs-natural-gas-revolution-4420915.php

http://www.modbee.com/2013/04/09/2660853/moniz-backs-natural-gas-revolution.html#storylink=misearch


Fracking foes in California win in court.  racking opponents in
California have won what may be their first victory in court,
with a federal magistrate's ruling that federal authorities broke
the law when they leased land in Monterey and Fresno counties to
oil drillers without studying the possible risks of hydraulic
fracturing.  The decision, made public Sunday, will probably
delay fracking on four sites leased by the U.S. Bureau of Land
Management in 2011.  Posted. 
http://www.sfgate.com/green/article/Fracking-foes-in-California-win-in-court-4419423.php
 

VEHICLES

Giving a charge to grocery shoppers: More places to plug in.  San
Francisco-based Ecotality Inc., which operates the nation's
second-largest network of public electric charging stations for
vehicles, announced today that it plans to install 225 new
chargers at Kroger Co. stores in California and Arizona.  Kroger
is the country's largest grocery chain, and includes Ralphs and
Food 4 Less. It will invest about $1.5 million to install
Ecotality's Blink charging stations and DC Fast Chargers. 
Posted. 
http://www.latimes.com/business/autos/la-fi-hy-more-ev-charging-stations-coming-to-california-grocery-stores-20130408,0,5313784.story


HIGH-SPEED RAIL

Jerry Brown seeks Chinese funding for California high-speed rail.
 California Gov. Jerry Brown heads to China this week to seek
investments in his state’s “green” projects, including an
astronomically expensive high-speed rail project that is
floundering despite receiving tens of billions in federal
stimulus money.  Brown begins a week of meetings on Tuesday with
a focus on bilateral trade and investment opportunities, as well
as opening a new California foreign trade and investment office. 
Posted. 
http://washingtonexaminer.com/jerry-brown-seeks-chinese-funding-for-california-high-speed-rail/article/2526588


GREEN ENERGY

With Help From Nature, a Town Aims to Be a Solar Capital.  There
are at least two things to know about this high desert city. One,
the sun just keeps on shining. Two, the city’s mayor, a
class-action lawyer named R. Rex Parris, just keeps on competing.
 Two years ago, the mayor, a Republican, decided to leverage the
incessant Antelope Valley sun so that Lancaster could become the
solar capital “of the world,” he said. Then he reconsidered. “Of
the universe,” he said, the brio in his tone indicating that it
would be parsimonious to confine his ambition to any one planet. 
Posted. 
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/09/us/lancaster-calif-focuses-on-becoming-solar-capital-of-universe.html?partner=rss&emc=rss&_r=1&
 

MISCELLANEOUS

Green school in Washington has its own farm with vegetables and
bees.  ‘Going green” isn’t just talk at Walker-Jones Education
Campus. The D.C. school, which opened in 2009, was designed to
save energy and provide a healthful environment for preschoolers
through eighth-graders. But in the past three years, students,
teachers and lots of volunteers have taken the school’s green
commitment much further. They transformed a weedy lot across the
street into a thriving farm.  “It’s a farm and not a garden,”
said David Hilmy, Walker-Jones’s P.E. teacher and a trained
biologist, who oversees the farm. “Our aim is to produce food.” 
Posted. 
http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/kidspost/dc-school-creates-its-own-farm/2013/04/08/09bced74-9c84-11e2-a941-a19bce7af755_story.html


OPINION 

Dividends of cleaner air.  Whenever the federal government enacts
new standards to reduce pollution, we can count on affected
industries to complain loudly about the cost to them and
ultimately to their customers of implementing the changes. What
sometimes gets lost in the clamor are the health benefits of the
new standards.  That appears to be the case with the decision
last month by the environmental Protection Agency to move forward
with a rule requiring cleaner gasoline and lower-pollution
vehicles nationwide. The change amounts to one of the most
significant air pollution initiatives of President Barack Obama’s
administration.  Posted. 
http://www.heraldonline.com/2013/04/08/4755581/dividends-of-cleaner-air.html


ANOTHER VIEW: Port Leads Way In Shore Power.  Effective Jan. 1,
half of all container, refrigerated cargo and cruise ships
calling at the ports of Long Beach, Los Angeles, Oakland, San
Francisco, San Diego and Hueneme will be required to shut down
auxiliary engines and use onshore electricity to power their
onboard systems at berth. The new state rules come with emissions
reduction requirements and phase in higher standards for
pollution reduction through 2020.  This revolutionary program,
known as shore power or cold ironing, represents a major leap
forward in the greening of our seaports, and we are proud to say
that the clean air initiatives we have pioneered here at the Port
of Long Beach, along with our neighbor, the Port of Los Angeles,
preceded these new statewide regulations.  Posted. 
http://www.gazettes.com/opinion/another_view/another-view-port-leads-way-in-shore-power/article_353e7fea-9c97-11e2-b537-0019bb2963f4.html


Foes should get on track with rail plan.  The Government
Accountability Office injected a sense of realism into the
high-speed rail debate, detailing in its March 28 report just how
large infrastructure projects of this kind work.  But the
naysayers led by House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy,
R-Bakersfield, and Rep. Jeff Denham, R-Turlock, don't seem to be
listening.  Posted. 
http://www.mercedsunstar.com/2013/04/09/2931730/our-view-foes-should-get-on-track.html


BLOGS

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/