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ARB Newsclips for October 23, 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

Jane Goodall pushes regulators to include international forest
protections in cap and trade. Famed primate researcher Jane
Goodall is lobbying California to include carbon offsets from
international forests in its cap-and-trade system. Under the
rules of California's economywide carbon market, which went into
effect this past January, businesses can use carbon offsets in
place of state-issued allowances for up to 8 percent of their
total greenhouse gas emissions. Posted.
http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/stories/1059989259/print BY
SUBSCRIPTION ONLY

AIR POLLUTION

EPA hits the road to seek input on power plant rules. The U.S.
states that already have a plan in place to cut carbon pollution
from power plants are likely to make the case to regulators this
week that their program offers a viable model for others to
follow. 
The Environmental Protection Agency on Wednesday kicks off an
11-city "listening tour" as part of its effort to craft emissions
rules for existing power plants. Posted.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/10/23/usa-climate-epa-idUSL1N0IC21I20131023


India Blocks Talks to Cut Greenhouse Gases Using Ozone Treaty.
India is blocking an international plan to reduce the polluting
gases used in air conditioners and refrigerators, saying
negotiators are trying to use the wrong treaty to bring about
changes. International envoys have sought to bypass log-jammed
United Nations climate-treaty talks by handing responsibility for
reducing hydrofluorocarbons, or HFCs, to the Montreal Protocol.
That’s an instrument designed to protect the ozone layer rather
than the climate. Posted.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/print/2013-10-23/india-blocks-talks-to-cut-greenhouse-gases-using-ozone-treaty.html


Beijing Air Worse Than Official Standard 62.5% of Last Quarter.
Air quality in the Chinese cities of Beijing, Tianjin and the
surrounding province of Hebei failed to meet government standards
on 62.5 percent of days in the third quarter, the nation’s
environmental ministry said. Seven of 10 Chinese cities with the
worst air pollution during the three-month period ended in
September were in Hebei, the Ministry of Environmental Protection
said in a statement posted to its website yesterday. Posted.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/print/2013-10-23/beijing-air-worse-than-official-standard-62-5-of-last-quarter.html


Valero to pay fine for air quality violations. The Valero
Refining Co. has agreed to pay more than $300,000 for repeated
air quality violations, including gas leaks, over the past few
years, regulators announced Tuesday.  The company will pay
$300,300 in civil penalties for 33 violations in 2011 and 2012 at
its petroleum refinery in Benicia, according to the Bay Area Air
Quality Management District. Posted.
http://www.sfgate.com/default/article/Valero-to-pay-fine-for-air-quality-violations-4917926.php


DEQ fines ESCO because of air-quality violation. The Oregon
Department of Environmental Quality has fined the ESCO Corp.
$2,200 because of an air-quality permit violation at its
Northwest Portland plant. The DEQ said Tuesday the company failed
to operate an emissions control system at the steel foundry and
casting facility on July 2, and that might have led to excess
emissions of particulate matter. Posted.
http://www.sfgate.com/default/article/DEQ-fines-ESCO-because-of-air-quality-violation-4917228.php


Intel hopes to keep bad air from hurting computers. In a
windowless lab at its Hillsboro campus, Intel scientists are
brewing foul air so they can study the effects of air pollution
on the innards of computers — a step toward figuring out how to
protect electronics in markets such as India and China that have
big pollution problems and the potential for big sales growth.
Posted.
http://www.sfgate.com/default/article/Intel-hopes-to-keep-bad-air-from-hurting-computers-4916944.php

EPA awards Okla. tribes grants for air quality. The U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency has awarded grants to four
Oklahoma tribes to monitor air quality on tribal lands. The EPA
says the grant money will help the tribes better protect their
land from toxic air pollution. The Cherokee Nation has been
awarded nearly $438,000, while the Quapaw Tribe has been awarded
more than $270,000. Posted.
http://www.sfgate.com/default/article/EPA-awards-Okla-tribes-grants-for-air-quality-4916558.php


Stagnant air to stay in central San Joaquin Valley. Local air
officials have forecast air quality as unhealthy for sensitive
groups for a second day in a row on Wednesday in Fresno and
Madera counties. "The air isn't moving, nothing is dispersing
whether it's ozone or particulates in Fresno County," said Ana
Reyes, spokeswoman for San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control
District. Although air quality was moderate on Tuesday in many
Valley counties…Posted.
http://www.fresnobee.com/2013/10/22/3567353/stagnant-air-to-stay-in-central.html#storylink=cpy


CLIMATE CHANGE

Australia, U.N. spar over wildfires and climate change.
Australia's prime minister accused the U.N.'s climate change
chief on Wednesday of "talking through her hat" when she drew a
link between wildfires raging in his country and global warming.
Firefighters were battling about 60 fires burning across New
South Wales state, with strong winds fanning blazes in the Blue
Mountains, a major commuter area of small towns west of Sydney.
Posted.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/10/23/us-climate-australia-wildfires-idUSBRE99M0U920131023


BHP Board Candidate Says Chairman Misunderstands Climate Change. 
A former Royal Dutch Shell Plc (RDSA) executive who is seeking
election to the board of the world’s biggest mining company
believes BHP Billiton Ltd. (BHP) is underestimating the future
effects of climate change. Ian Dunlop, 71, once an advocate for
the industry as chairman of the Australian Coal Association
before turning to promoting climate change awareness, is standing
for election to the board of Melbourne-based BHP at its annual
general meeting today in London. Posted.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-10-23/bhp-board-candidate-says-chairman-misunderstands-climate-change.html


Pollen Study Points to Drought as Culprit in Bronze Age Mystery.
More than 3,200 years ago, life was abuzz in and around what is
now this modern-day Israeli metropolis on the shimmering
Mediterranean shore. To the north lay the mighty Hittite empire;
to the south, Egypt was thriving under the reign of the great
Pharaoh Ramses II. Cyprus was a copper emporium. Greece basked in
the opulence of its elite Mycenaean culture, and Ugarit was a
bustling port city on the Syrian coast. Posted.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/23/world/middleeast/pollen-study-points-to-culprit-in-bronze-era-mystery.html?pagewanted=print


Americans Consumed Less Energy In 2012, And Pumped Out Less
Carbon Dioxide To Do It. The United States emitted less carbon
dioxide through energy consumption in 2012, and while this is not
the whole picture of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, it is a
welcome sign. On Monday, the Energy Information Administration
released a report showing that the carbon dioxide pollution we
emit as we use energy dropped 3.8 percent in 2012. Posted.
http://cleantechnica.com/2013/10/23/americans-consumed-less-energy-2012-pumped-less-carbon-dioxide/#3vMdKbApiT8qiWDa.99


DIESEL EMISSIONS

Calif. officials conduct smoke inspections of big rigs in Fresno.
Inspectors from the California Air Resources Board and the
California Highway Patrol conducted a heavy-duty truck inspection
Tuesday along Jensen Avenue between highways 41 and 99. The
inspections, which measure the smoke coming out of a truck's
exhaust pipes and check for proper engine labeling, are part of
efforts to enforce state air-pollution laws governing emissions
from trucks. Posted.
http://www.fresnobee.com/2013/10/22/3567016/state-officials-conduct-smoke.html#storylink=cpy

http://www.modbee.com/2013/10/22/2988410/state-officials-conduct-smoke.html


Oakland truckers strike to protest pollution rules. The truckers'
strike at the Port of Oakland stems from complaints over work
conditions, but it also underscores a long-simmering tension
between the trucking industry and environmental regulators.
Dozens of nonunion truckers walked off the job this week in part
to protest what they said were the high costs of retrofitting or
replacing trucks to meet air quality standards in California,
home to cities with some of the worst air pollution in the
country. Posted.
http://www.sfgate.com/default/article/Oakland-truckers-strike-to-protest-pollution-rules-4917925.php


Lowe’s shifts dedicated fleet in Texas to natural gas. Home
improvement retailer Lowe’s has shifted its entire dedicated
fleet at its Mount Vernon, TX, distribution center to run on
natural gas. The distribution center transports up to 68
truckloads per day to stores in Texas, Louisiana and Oklahoma.
Lowe’s said it expects to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by
nearly 20% while controlling fuel costs at the facility. Posted.
http://fleetowner.com/running-green/lowe-s-shifts-dedicated-fleet-texas-natural-gas


FUELS

Coal Industry Eyes Comeback as Efficient Plants Encourage Use.
Coal use in the U.S. is set to grow this year and next from a
two-decade low as more efficient coal plants that can withstand
new environmental regulations supplant old ones, an industry
group predicted. Hal Quinn, the president of the National Mining
Association, said coal use is projected to be up 7.5 percent this
year compared to 2012, and its use will continue unabated through
2020, despite the boost in production of natural gas and a
deadline of 2015…Posted.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/print/2013-10-21/coal-industry-eyes-comeback-as-efficient-plants-encourage-use.html


Keystone Foes Pledge Sit-Ins If Pipeline Advances. Critics of the
Keystone XL pipeline say they’re still optimistic President
Barack Obama will block TransCanada Corp. (TRP)’s planned $5.3
billion link between the oil sands in Alberta and refineries
along the U.S. Gulf Coast. Just to be sure, they’re organizing a
nationwide civil-disobedience campaign to keep up the pressure
should the U.S. State Department recommend Obama approve the
project. Posted.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/print/2013-10-23/keystone-foes-pledge-sit-ins-if-pipeline-advances.html


In Canada's Alberta province, oil sands boom is a two-edged
sword. In the Cree language, the word "athabasca" means "a place
where grass is everywhere." Here in Alberta, the Athabasca River
slices through forests of spruce and birch before spilling into a
vast freshwater delta and Lake Athabasca.  But 100 miles
upstream, the boreal forest has been peeled back by enormous
strip mines, where massive shovels pick up 100 tons of earth at a
time and dump it into yellow trucks as big as houses. Posted.
http://www.latimes.com/world/la-fg-canada-oilsands-cancer-20131021,0,3944866.story#axzz2iZ5MLDOC
 http://www.sacbee.com/2013/10/23/5844769/in-canadas-alberta-province-oil.html#storylink=cpy


GREEN ENERGY

Koch Brother Wages 12-Year Fight Over Wind Farm. If the vast wind
farm proposed for Nantucket Sound is ever built, William I. Koch
will have a spectacular view of it. Of course, that is the last
thing he wants. Mr. Koch, a billionaire industrialist who made
his fortune in fossil fuels and whose better-known brothers
underwrite conservative political causes, has been fighting the
wind farm, called Cape Wind, for more than a decade, donating
about $5 million and leading an adversarial group against it.
Posted.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/23/us/koch-brother-wages-12-year-fight-over-wind-farm.html?_r=0&pagewanted=print


Rush to deploy clean energy tech is costly recipe for failure –
report. Environmentalists' push to rapidly deploy existing clean
energy technology instead of focusing on innovation will be an
expensive and possibly failed path for reducing heat-trapping
carbon emissions, according to a report released today by a
nonpartisan Washington, D.C., think tank. The Information
Technology and Innovation Foundation report calls for emphasizing
five phases of innovation -- not just deployment…Posted.
http://www.eenews.net/greenwire/stories/1059989299/print BY
SUBSCRIPTION ONLY

OPINIONS

Mystery of the 'Missing' Global Warming. Have you heard the one
about how global warming stopped in 1998? It’s been called a
“pause,” a “hiatus,” a “slowdown” and a “siesta.” Above all, it’s
a red herring, and it isn’t difficult to find where some of the
‘missing’ heat has gone.  First, in case you haven’t been paying
attention: 97 percent of climate scientists agree about global
warming and its man-made causes, now with 95 percent certainty,
according to a report this month by the IPCC, the world’s most
authoritative body of climate scientists. Posted.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-10-23/mystery-of-the-missing-global-warming.html


COLUMN-EU, U.S. carbon emissions on downward trend: Wynn. Both
European Union and U.S. carbon emissions have fallen sharply over
the past five years, but working out whether that will continue
requires teasing out short-term and one-off factors, and
pinpointing lasting efficiency gains. Some causes are temporary
or one-off: clearly, over the last several years energy demand
was lower as a result of the financial crisis; while the weather
can have a large impact, including a mild 2011/2012 winter in the
United States. Posted.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/10/23/column-wynn-co-idUSL5N0IC1RC20131023


Saving the Earth While Killing Some Protected Birds. Wind offers
one the lowest-impact, most environmentally benign energy
technology available to us today. Regarding Robert Bryce's
"Fighting Climate Change by Killing Eagles" (op-ed, Oct. 11):
While all forms of energy have some type of impact on the
environment, wind offers the lowest-impact, most environmentally
benign energy technology available to us today. Plus, wind
attracted $25 billion in private investment last year…Posted.
http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304402104579149492879773288#printMode


One year after Sandy — ignoring climate change at our own peril. 
It’s been one year since Hurricane Sandy made landfall on the
eastern coast of the United States, affecting 24 states and
devastating parts of New Jersey and New York. Thousands of homes
and businesses were destroyed. Millions were left without power.
As many as 100 people died; most of whom drowned as the storm
surged in Staten Island and Queens. At $65 billion, Sandy was the
second costliest storm in U.S. history. Posted.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/katrina-vanden-heuvel-one-year-after-sandy--ignoring-climate-change-at-our-own-peril/2013/10/22/5d34cd52-3a52-11e3-a94f-b58017bfee6c_story.html


LOIS HENRY: Enforcing smog rules this way is bad for business.
I've been saying for years, to no avail, that new rules requiring
drastically reduced emissions from trucks, buses and heavy
equipment were going to cost far more than they would ever
benefit the public in terms of better health. Now, those rules
are coming home to roost. Posted.
http://www.bakersfieldcalifornian.com/business/local/x196574834/LOIS-HENRY-Enforcing-smog-rules-this-way-is-bad-for-business?utm_campaign=flyout&utm_medium=flyout&utm_source=columnists_lois_henry


Editorial: Limit on greenhouse gases faces court challenge. This
wasn't the dramatic news that opponents of the Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) were hoping for: Last Tuesday, the
Supreme Court declined to consider a variety of challenges to the
EPA's effort to slash greenhouse gas emissions. But the news
wasn't a total victory for environmentalists. Posted.
http://www.currentargus.com/carlsbad-opinion/ci_24368795/edit-epa


Oil and gas development is key to US future. Don't ban it.
Regulate it. Oil and gas production through 'fracking' and
horizontal drilling will improve US energy security – and support
US foreign policy. This development should be encouraged. The
reasonable response to environmental and health concerns is
sensible regulation, not wholesale bans. Hydraulic fracturing
(“fracking”) and horizontal drilling are allowing the United
States to produce greater quantities of domestic oil and gas,
bringing closer the once unthinkable prospect of America being a
net energy exporter within the next decade. Posted.
http://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/Opinion/2013/1023/Oil-and-gas-development-is-key-to-US-future.-Don-t-ban-it.-Regulate-it


BLOGS

Is China the last hope for carbon capture technology? Remember
carbon capture and storage? Five years ago, the idea of grabbing
the carbon dioxide from coal and gas power plants and burying it
deep underground was considered an essential technology for
curbing the world's greenhouse-gas emissions. But carbon capture
hasn't fared well in the years since. Posted.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/10/22/is-china-the-last-hope-for-carbon-capture-technology/?print=1


Exploring Solar, Efficiency, Gas and More with Amory Lovins and
Joel Makower.  Last Thursday I spent a half hour onstage in San
Francisco discussing energy trends and choices with the energy
analyst Amory B. Lovins and green business maven Joel Makower.
This was the capping event of Verge 2013, a conference on
commerce and sustainability run by Makower’s GreenBiz Group. The
talk (preceded by my performance of “Liberated Carbon”) is
energetic, tight and, I think, well worth watching. Posted.
http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/10/22/exploring-solar-efficiency-gas-and-more-with-amory-lovins-and-joel-makower/?ref=earth
 

A Climate and Energy Roundup.  If you care about
greenhouse-driven global warming and related energy policies, I
encourage you to subscribe to the “Hot News” feed from Climate
Nexus and/or the Daily Climate. To keep a full view of the debate
over relevant policies, you’d also do well to track the flow of
links from the Global Warming Policy Foundation, a pro-fossil,
anti-regulation group* in Great Britain. Posted.
http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/10/22/a-climate-and-energy-roundup/?ref=earth
 

JURUPA VALLEY: School board backs solar farm plan.  The Jurupa
Unified School District board of education on Monday, Oct. 21,
voted to expand its solar energy program to include two “solar
farms” to be constructed on two school campuses. The vote was
5-0. Representatives of Chevron Energy Solutions — which will
oversee the project for the district — told board members that
when the solar panels at Mission Middle School and Nueva Vista
Continuation School become operational…Posted.
http://blog.pe.com/education/2013/10/22/jurupa-valley-school-board-backs-solar-farm-plan/

 
SCAQMD Moves To Shut Down Lead Smelter Exide. Exide Technologies
is a lead-acid battery recycling company in Vernon, California,
with a history of air pollution and soil pollution problems. 
Exide has been operating with an interim permit to dispose of its
waste issued by the California Department of Toxic Substances
Control (DTSC) since 1981 – over thirty years – with no
environmental review.  It is the only facility in California that
DTSC has treated this way.  Posted.
http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/dpettit/scaqmd_moves_to_shut_down_lead.html