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newsclips -- ARB Newsclips for September 4, 2013.
Posted: 04 Sep 2013 15:41:09
ARB Newsclips for September 4, 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. CAP AND TRADE World Bank targets air pollution in climate battle. The World Bank said on Tuesday it was planning "aggressive action" to help developing nations cut emissions of soot and other air pollutants blamed for causing climate change, in a shift also meant to protect human health and aid crop growth. Of its funding to poor nations, almost 8 percent - $18 billion from 2007-12 - goes to sectors such as energy, farming, waste and transport that have a potential to cut emissions, a bank report said. Posted. http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/09/03/us-climate-pollution-idUSBRE9820YD20130903 Cap-and-trade auctions look safer after court ruling. In case you missed it, California’s cap-and-trade system scored a big win in court last week. A Sacramento Superior Court judge ruled the state’s 2006 climate change law, Assembly Bill 32, gives authority to the California Air Resources Board to create the cap-and-trade program, according to the Sacramento Bee. Posted. http://www.bizjournals.com/sacramento/news/2013/09/03/cap-and-trade-emissions-auctions-ruling.html AIR POLLUTION EPA says Ill. sand company violated clean air law. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says it's reached a settlement with a northern Illinois sand manufacturer over alleged air pollution violations. The agency said Tuesday that HA International will install equipment to reduce hazardous chemicals and sand emitted at its Oregon facility in Ogle County. Oregon is about 100 miles west of Chicago. Posted. http://www.sfgate.com/default/article/EPA-says-Ill-sand-company-violated-clean-air-law-4785049.php School gets parking lot outlets for car heaters. A construction project aimed at improving Fairbanks air quality is affecting a high school during the opening weeks of school. Crews are installing electrical outlets in the parking lot of West Valley High School so students and staff can plug in vehicle headbolt heaters. The heaters warm car engines and cut down on pollution emitted by cold starts. Posted. http://www.sfgate.com/default/article/School-gets-parking-lot-outlets-for-car-heaters-4785904.php CLIMATE CHANGE Sandy's 'freaky' path may be less likely in future. Man-made global warming may further lessen the likelihood of the freak atmospheric steering currents that last year shoved Superstorm Sandy due west into New Jersey, a new study says. But don't celebrate a rare beneficial climate change prediction just yet. The study's authors said the once-in-700-years path was only one factor in the massive $50 billion killer storm. They said other variables such as sea level rise and stronger storms will worsen with global warming…Posted. http://online.wsj.com/article/AP977c805021d942faa60b7fd78a46a3c6.html?KEYWORDS=climate+change Wildfires and Climate Change. The huge wildfire scorching one of America’s most beloved national parks, Yosemite, has rained ash on San Francisco’s water supply and jolted the nation. Experts say this is just a foretaste of major fires to come, in the United States and much of the world. Increasing incursions by humans into forests, coupled with altered forest ecology and climate change, will make fires bigger and more destructive, with implications for air quality as well as homes and infrastructure. Posted. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/05/business/energy-environment/wildfires-and-climate-change.html?ref=earth&_r=0 Black soot forced early retreat of Alpine glaciers in the 1800s. Black soot from 19th century homes and factories in Europe hastened the end of the Little Ice Age and caused glaciers in the Alps to retreat decades sooner than they would have otherwise, according to a new study. The black carbon particles caused the snow to absorb more heat, speeding up the melting process. As a result, the glaciers beneath the snowpack were exposed earlier in the year, giving them more time to melt. Posted. http://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-black-carbon-alps-glaciers-20130904,0,1354331.story DIESEL EMISSIONS Redding Joins North State Counties in Opposing New Clean-air Standards for Big Rigs. Redding became the first city to ask the California Air Resources Board to delay pending diesel-truck emission regulations that one council member said would decimate the north state trucking industry and lead to higher prices and empty store shelves. In a 5-0 vote, the Redding City Council... Posted. http://anewscafe.com/2013/09/04/redding-joins-north-state-counties-in-opposing-new-clean-air-standards-for-big-rigs/ FUELS 'Fracking' moratorium proposed by two L.A. City Council members. Los Angeles City Council members Paul Koretz and Mike Bonin are calling for a moratorium on the practice of hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” which is used by energy companies to extract hard-to-reach oil. In a prepared statement Tuesday, the councilmen called fracking and its related processes a “major threat” to the city’s local water supply, air quality and private property. Posted. http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-fracking-moratorium-20130903,0,313998.story?track=rss VEHICLES Toyota Avalon adds fuel-thrifty hybrid. Move over, Toyota Camry. It's time for Toyota's other sizable sedan, the Avalon, to get some well-deserved attention. Recently revamped with a stylish body and new features, the five-door Avalon now also has an impressive, fuel-sipping, gasoline-electric hybrid model. Not only does the Avalon Hybrid provide comfortable seating for five, with a roomy back seat, the new hybrid is rated by the federal government at 40 miles per gallon in city driving and 39 mpg on the highway — the best of any Avalon ever. Posted. http://www.sfgate.com/news/science/article/Toyota-Avalon-adds-fuel-thrifty-hybrid-4731614.php DOE invests $45M in accelerating vehicle efficiency. The Department of Energy announced a $45 million investment today in 38 projects aimed at making motor vehicles leaner and greener. The projects examine every aspect of trimming automobiles' energy use -- including lighter-weight materials; electric batteries; power electronics; fuels and lubricants; and efficient heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems, DOE said. Posted. http://www.eenews.net/greenwire/stories/1059986711/print BY SUBSCRIPTION ONLY GREEN ENERGY Hero Group Plans 1 Gigawatt of Indian Renewable-Energy Capacity. Hero Group, the parent of India’s biggest motorcycle maker, plans to build 1,000 megawatts of renewable energy capacity by 2017. Its new unit, Hero Future Energies, completed its first 37.5-megawatt wind farm in Rajasthan state and has won a license to build a 10-megawatt solar photovoltaic plant in Karnataka, Hero Future Managing Director Rahul Munjal said in an e-mailed statement today. Posted. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-09-04/hero-group-plans-1-gigawatt-of-indian-renewable-energy-capacity.html Silsbee-based company teams with Coca-Cola to create first-of-its-kind bottle. It's in the plastic bottles you drink from, the carpet you walk on, the clothes you wear and in the fuel in your tank. And a Silsbee company working alongside the Coca-Cola Co. is transforming that chemical into the first environmentally-friendly product of its kind. Gevo, adjacent to the South Hampton Resources plant on Farm-to-Market Road 418 in Silsbee, is tinkering with the molecules to make the new product. Posted. http://www.sfgate.com/default/article/Silsbee-based-company-teams-with-Coca-Cola-to-4785676.php DOE study finds wind farms have no economic impact on neighbors. A new study from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory finds that wind farms have no measurable effect on real estate prices in communities where turbines are built within 10 miles of homes. But the analysis, prepared for the Energy Department's Office of Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency, is unlikely to quell ongoing debate over wind farms' effects on property values, especially at the local level. Posted. http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/stories/1059986673/print BY SUBSCRIPTION ONLY Wary of cultural impacts, tribe wants to slow review of massive Calif. Project. An American Indian tribe with a history of challenging the Obama administration over the effects of renewables development on cultural resources wants regulators to slow down the review of a proposed solar power project in Southern California's Chuckwalla Valley. The Quechan Tribe of the Fort Yuma Indian Reservation submitted a three-page comment letter to the California Energy Commission…Posted. http://www.eenews.net/greenwire/stories/1059986708/print BY SUBSCRIPTION ONLY MISCELLANEOUS Economist's Theories Led to Carbon Trading. Economist Ronald Coase garnered a Nobel Prize for work that, among other things, provided the intellectual framework for reducing pollution by trading carbon credits instead of enforcing antipollution laws, as well as for auctioning the airwaves for cellphones and pagers. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324202304579053280483349094.html?KEYWORDS=carbon OPINION A sampling of editorials from around New York. The Albany Times-Union on the value of cap-and-trade of greenhouse emissions. Sept. 1 Imagine a program that lowers pollution and raises hundreds of millions of dollars for energy savings, investment and research without taxation. That, in a nutshell, is the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative. Posted. http://www.sacbee.com/2013/09/04/5706207/a-sampling-of-editorials-from.html#storylink=cpy Clock is running out for real CEQA reform: Editorial. State residents are still waiting for the Legislature to complete meaningful reforms of the California Environmental Quality Act, the four-decades-old law that has done a lot of good but also has been exploited by powerful interests to stall development projects for selfish reasons. With the deadline for passing bills only 10 days away, the state senator who’s supposed to be leading CEQA reform efforts for the good of all Californians has been focusing on a narrow fix that would mostly help his Sacramento-area district. Posted. http://www.presstelegram.com/opinion/20130903/clock-is-running-out-for-real-ceqa-reform-editorial BLOG Beijing Eyes Car Congestion Fee. Faced with often catastrophic air pollution, Beijing is considering taking a page out of London’s playbook: a congestion fee for car owners. A notice published on the Beijing government website (in Chinese) late Monday said the city is mulling a policy to impose a congestion fee for cars as it aims to keep less than 6 million vehicles licensed by the end of 2017, from about 5.35 million now. Posted. http://blogs.wsj.com/riskandcompliance/2013/09/03/beijing-eyes-car-congestion-fee/?KEYWORDS=air+pollution Global warming in one unmistakably compelling chart. If you have any doubt the balance of the globe has warmed over the last century, view this chart: (Chart) Produced by NASA, the chart illustrates how temperatures have compared to “normal” (or the 1951-1980 average) from 1880 to present, from pole to pole (-90 latitude to 90 latitude). From the 1880 to the 1920s, blue and green shades dominate the chart, signaling cooler than normal temperatures in that era. Posted. http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/capital-weather-gang/wp/2013/09/04/an-unmistakably-compelling-chart-of-global-warming/ 260.5 EVs set world record for electric vehicle parade. Norway has long led Europe in electric vehicle adoption, and now the country's EV advocates can boast of holding a new world record: the largest-ever gathering of moving electric vehicles. We are particularly amused that the record was set by 260 and a half EVs, since one of the cars was a cutaway version of the Nissan Leaf. Posted. http://green.autoblog.com/2013/09/03/260.5-evs-set-world-record-electric-vehicle-parade-video/ Battery Recycler to Test Soil for Dangerous Metals; Neighbors Skeptical. State-ordered testing of the soil for lead and other toxins around a battery recycling plant in Vernon, just east of downtown Los Angeles, is underway. The plant, Exide Technologies, has already been accused of endangering the lives of 110,000 people who live nearby. But neighborhood residents and community leaders say they’re skeptical that the test results will force Exide’s factory to close before it can do any more harm. Posted. http://blogs.kqed.org/stateofhealth/2013/09/04/neighbors-skeptical-battery-recycler-to-test-soil-for-dangerous-metals-exide-arsenic-los-angeles/