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ARB Newsclips for December 11, 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

EU Carbon Falls as Nations Opt for Flexible Surplus-Fix Option.
Carbon fell for the first time in six days after European Union
governments gave their initial support to the most flexible
version of a rescue plan for the bloc’s emissions market. Carbon
allowances declined as much as 5.2 percent after member states at
a EU Climate Change Committee meeting in Brussels favored a
scenario that withholds fewer permits from auctions in 2014 than
the 400 million under an alternative option. Posted.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-12-11/eu-carbon-falls-as-nations-opt-for-flexible-surplus-fix-option.html


U.K. Urged to Keep Carbon Goal Even as Energy Costs Climb. The
U.K.’s ambition to cut carbon emissions by half is affordable and
mustn’t be watered down, the government’s adviser on global
warming said. “There is no reason to change the budget,” John
Gummer, chairman of the Committee on Climate Change and a member
of the parliament’s upper house, said in London. The advice is
included in a report today that concludes a two-part review of
Britain’s target to reduce emissions by half by 2025 from 1990
levels. Posted.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-12-11/u-k-urged-to-keep-carbon-goal-even-as-energy-costs-climb.html


Australian offset scheme hits milestone but future uncertain.
Australia this week surpassed 3 million credits issued under its
carbon offset scheme for agriculture, forestry and waste, but
uptake of new projects is low with regulatory uncertainty
weighing heavily on project developers, experts say. The Carbon
Farming Initiative (CFI) was launched in 2011 under the former
Labor government to drive emission reductions in sectors…Posted.
http://in.reuters.com/article/2013/12/11/australia-carbon-idINL3N0JQ1FX20131211


Report: Big U.S. Businesses Ready For A Carbon Price. First came
the news that a majority of the American public and many big
investors are increasingly open to curbing the effect of global
warming and supportive of mitigating carbon emissions by
government action. Now comes a new report from the CDP revealing
that many of the largest U.S. and global companies are ready for
it too. The CDP, which released its report last week, analyzed
data from many of the biggest companies in the U.S. or doing
business here. Posted.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/michaelkrancer/2013/12/11/report-big-u-s-businesses-ready-for-a-carbon-price/
 

Guangdong to Start Carbon Auction With China’s Highest Price.
China’s southern province of Guangdong will start auctioning 3
million metric tons of carbon permits on Dec. 16 with the highest
debut price in the nation. Guangdong, the largest of seven carbon
markets planned in China, set a minimum of 60 yuan ($9.90) per
ton of emissions for the auction, according to a statement
distributed on the website of the provincial Development and
Reform Commission. Posted.
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2013-12-11/guangdong-to-start-carbon-auction-with-china-s-highest-price


AIR POLLUTION

Justices Hear Case on Cross-State Pollution Rules.  The Supreme
Court heard arguments on Tuesday in a knotty environmental case
over how to hold states responsible for air pollution that drifts
across their borders and causes harm in downwind states. If there
was consensus among the justices, it concerned only the
complexity and difficulty of the issues before them. Posted.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/11/us/justices-hear-arguments-on-cross-state-air-pollution-rules.html?hpw&rref=politics


Air pollution battle pits administration against GOP-led states.
The Supreme Court seems receptive to the call for tougher
environmental rules to reduce cross-border air pollution from
Midwestern and Southern states. In a regional air pollution
battle with partisan overtones, the Obama administration appeared
to make headway Tuesday in persuading the Supreme Court to allow
tougher federal environmental standards to prevent ozone and
other emissions from coal-producing Midwestern and Southern
states from wafting over Northeastern states. Posted.
http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-court-air-pollution-20131211,0,709478.story#ixzz2nC0WqOU1


China: Here Are Some Great Things About Toxic Air. China' You
can’t make this stuff up. On Sunday, with swaths of eastern China
shrouded in a polluted haze, Chinese state media decided to
release a list of five “surprising benefits” of smog. Here,
courtesy of Wang Lei, an editor for China Central Television’s
website, are five good things about bad air: Posted.
http://world.time.com/2013/12/09/china-here-are-some-great-things-about-toxic-air/#ixzz2nBxBD4OT


CLIMATE CHANGE

Corbett pick gets nod after climate change dustup. Pennsylvania
state senators have confirmed Gov. Tom Corbett's latest nominee
to be his environmental protection secretary, but not before a
dustup over climate change. Christopher Abruzzo won the Senate's
42-8 confirmation vote Tuesday to head the Department of
Environmental Protection. Posted.
http://www.sfgate.com/default/article/Corbett-pick-gets-nod-after-climate-change-dustup-5052582.php


Free app will measure your carbon footprint. If you want to know
what your carbon footprint is — either for yourself or for your
small business — there’s an app for that.
The California Air Resources Board developed a free app for
iTunes and Android that allows users to calculate their carbon
footprint. To use the calculator, a user plugs in his or her
car’s mileage rating, and other factors, such as how much is
spent on electricity or natural gas. Posted.
http://www.bizjournals.com/sacramento/news/2013/12/11/free-app-will-measure-your-carbon.html

California Releases Draft Climate Change Preparation Plan. The
draft “Safeguarding California Plan” is an update of the state’s
2009 California Climate Adaptation Strategy. It outlines the
preparations needed in nine key sectors like energy, public
health, agriculture and water. The plan recommends a long-term
sustainable funding source for climate change mitigation and
better coordination between government agencies, private business
and individual citizens.
http://www.capradio.org/14451 
 
B.C.’s once-lauded green agenda now in disarray. It was not that
long ago that B.C. was being hailed as a leader in the fight
against rising greenhouse gas emissions. Former premier Gordon
Campbell was the toast of enviro-crusaders everywhere, his bold
reduction targets held up as an example of the kind of brave
political leadership required to save the Earth from burning up.
Mr. Campbell, of course, was pushed from office prematurely, the
victim of one of the biggest public policy blunders in recent
memory – the harmonized sales tax. Posted.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/british-columbia/bcs-once-lauded-green-agenda-now-in-disarray/article15857839/


Global Climate Change Primarily Impacting Fresh Water Supply says
Climatologist. The primary impact of global warming and climate
change will be on the availability of fresh water, according to
former NASA Climatologist DeWayne Cecil. This comes as bad news
in a world already experiencing widespread water shortages, water
wars, famine and drought. Posted.
http://www.hispanicbusiness.com/2013/12/11/global_climate_change_primarily_impacting_fresh.htm


Scrapping sea level protection puts Australian homes at risk. As
the science on the coastal impacts of climate change gets
stronger, the protections for Australia’s coastal communities are
getting weaker. If that continues, everyone will pay. Along the
eastern seaboard of Australia, where most of us live, state
governments are relaxing their policies and largely leaving it to
local councils to decide if homes can be built in low-lying
areas. The Queensland government confirmed this week that sea
level rise will be removed from its State Planning Policy…Posted.
http://theconversation.com/scrapping-sea-level-protection-puts-australian-homes-at-risk-21271


USGS releases tool quantifying county-scale impacts of climate
change. Wondering what the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
Change's most recent report might mean for your county?
Yesterday, the U.S. Geological Survey released an online tool to
help. Developed in collaboration with Oregon State University's
College of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences, the tool
provides future temperature and precipitation projections for all
counties within the contiguous United States. Posted.
http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/stories/1059991647/print BY
SUBSCRIPTION ONLY

IPCC scientists outline areas of climate uncertainty, but panel's
future is also uncertain. Scientists affiliated with the U.N.
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) highlighted
areas for future scientific focus during a presentation at the
American Geophysical Union conference here. While the IPCC
scientists focused on presenting areas of scientific interest,
they were repeatedly asked about the future of the panel and its
reports.
http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/2013/12/11/stories/1059991629 
BY SUBSCRIPTION ONLY

DIESEL EMISSIONS

CARB sued over older trucks. A lawsuit filed by the
Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association (OOIDA) against
the California Air Resources Board (CARB) last week seeks an
injunction against the agencies truck and bus emission
regulations because those rules interfere with interstate
commerce and discriminate against out-of-state truckers. “It’s
not about emission compliance of older trucks or newer trucks;
it’s about violating the Commerce Clause” of the U.S.
Constitution, Norita Taylor, OOIDA’s spokesperson, told Fleet
Owner. Posted.
http://fleetowner.com/regulations/carb-sued-over-older-trucks
http://www.forconstructionpros.com/news/11273174/lawsuit-calls-carb-truck-retrofit-rules-a-barrier-to-interstate-commerce


Under fire, facing suit: CARB hears from truck owners. Already
under fire from many in the trucking industry and facing a new
lawsuit, the California Air Resources Board unveiled new
exemptions and hinted it would consider other loopholes for its
Truck and Bus Regulation last week. Though CARB’s Truck and Bus
Rule went into effect two years ago, most small trucking fleets
haven’t been required to install diesel particulate filters or
replace older trucks until January 2014. As the deadline
approached, complaints about the rule have increased. Posted.
http://www.landlinemag.com/Story.aspx?StoryID=26296#.Uqi_PhCB33U


Federal judges reject EPA rule on heavy-duty truck engine
emissions. Federal appellate judges today again threw out a U.S.
EPA rule related to its approval of heavy-duty truck engines that
did not meet its air standards. At issue is a long-running
challenge to EPA's rulemaking following its 2001 engine emission
standards for smog- and soot-forming nitrogen oxides, or NOx. The
standards required manufacturers to cut emissions by 95 percent
by 2010. The industry split on how to accomplish that goal.
Posted.
http://www.eenews.net/greenwire/2013/12/11/stories/1059991672 BY
SUBSCRIPTION ONLY

FUELS

Uphill Battle in Europe Over Fracking. A recent lecture on energy
and climate change at the London School of Economics and
Political Science by John Browne, the former chief executive of
the oil giant BP, showed how contentious the debate on the merits
of extracting natural gas from shale rock has become in Britain
and Europe. Posted.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/12/business/energy-environment/uphill-battle-in-europe-over-fracking.html?_r=0
 

California said to be poised for oil boom – maybe. To hear the
oil industry tell it, California stands poised for an economic
boom. Development of the Monterey Shale, a vast geologic
formation that could hold 15.4 billion barrels of oil, will flood
the state with new jobs and tax revenue, according to the
industry and its allies. They've used that argument as an
effective shield against environmentalists bent on banning
fracking in California. But not everyone is convinced the
Monterey Shale can be developed, at least not on a grand scale.
Posted.
http://www.sfgate.com/business/article/California-said-to-be-poised-for-oil-boom-maybe-5054568.php


Biofuels industry struggles with economic, political climate
biofuel industry faces hurdles. Companies developing renewable
fuels and chemicals face extraordinary political uncertainty in
getting the government to support their needs, said speakers at a
San Diego conference on industrial biotechnology.  The
renewable-fuel market is now dominated by ethanol, produced from
corn and added to gasoline. That mandate has been widely
criticized for competing with food production and for a
questionable energy benefit. Posted.
http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2013/dec/11/tp-biofuels-industry-struggles-with-economic/


VEHICLES

Fiat 500e Wins Road & Track’s Best Electric Car for 2013. With
all electric vehicles on the market such as the Tesla Model S, it
was surprising that the Fiat 500e won Road & Track’s Best
Electric Car for 2013. But you have to stop and consider, while
this car is on the tiny side, it delivers some undeniably fun to
drive feature, including 111 horsepower that will run for 87
miles on a single charge. The regenerative braking system and
handling also helped put this subcompact into the winners circle.
Posted.
http://automotivediscovery.com/fiat-500e-wins-road-tracks-best-electric-car-2013/9218359/?mkt_tok=3RkMMJWWfF9wsRoks6rLZKXonjHpfsX56ekoWKS%2BlMI%2F0ER3fOvrPUfGjI4ASsFiI%2BSLDwEYGJlv6SgFSrfMMbd52bgEUhE%3D

 
GREEN ENERGY

U.S. poised to pass Germany in solar installation for first time
in 15 years. Germany is still the world's juggernaut when it
comes to installed solar, with twice the capacity of second-place
Italy and roughly five times that of the United States. For the
first time in 15 years, however, the United States appears to be
closing that gap, surpassing Germany in 2013 in terms of new
installed solar power. Posted.
http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/stories/1059991645/print BY
SUBSCRIPTION ONLY

MISCELLANEOUS

Mercury pollution a step closer to being curbed. Mercury, a
neurotoxin and one of the world's most prevalent pollutants, has
been a public health concern for decades. But its days as a major
environmental health issue may be numbered under a new
international treaty that limits its use for the first time. The
U.N. treaty, known as the Minamata Convention, has been signed by
about 140 countries and, in November, the United States became
the first to ratify it.
http://www.sfgate.com/health/article/Mercury-pollution-a-step-closer-to-being-curbed-5052908.php


Health report ranks CA 21st in nation.  Though Californians are
more physically active than their peers in other states, obesity
is on the rise, according to a nationwide health report released
Tuesday by the nonprofit United Health Foundation. The 24th
annual “America’s Health Rankings” report for 2013 examines a
range of publicly available government data to rank states across
31 categories, from smoking and drug deaths to infant mortality
and diabetes. Posted.
http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2013/dec/10/health-report-united-california/


BLOGS

Purify The Air As You Ride, With This Photosynthesis Bike.
Developed by designers in Bangkok, this bike is like a
two-wheeled plant, powered by your feet. Bicycles are often cited
as the most efficient modes of transportation in the world.
They’re five times more efficient than walking, and 100 calories
on a bike can send a person three miles. In a car, 100 calories
would only take a passenger 280 feet. What if a bike of the
future could perform more than one function, earning even more
efficiency brownie points? ...Posted.
http://www.fastcoexist.com/3023176/purify-the-air-as-you-ride-with-this-photosynthesis-bike#1