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newsclips -- Newsclips for April 21, 2014
Posted: 21 Apr 2014 14:34:01
ARB Newsclips for April 21, 2014. 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. CLIMATE CHANGE Australia's Palmer says won't back government climate plan: report. Australia's government might fail to get the necessary backing for its planned A$1.55 billion ($1.45 billion) fund to pay big emitters to cut pollution, after a Senate minority party on Monday said it would vote against the plan. Mining billionaire Clive Palmer, whose Palmer United Party (PUP) will control the balance of power in the Senate from July, said he would not back the government's direct action Plan on climate change. Posted. http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/04/21/us-australia-climatechange-idUSBREA3K08V20140421 Setbacks Aside, Climate Change Is Finding Its Way Into the World's Classrooms. From Mauritius to Manitoba, climate change is slowly moving from the headlines to the classroom. Schools around the world are beginning to tackle the difficult issue of global warming, teaching students how the planet is changing and encouraging them to think about what they can do to help slow that process. Posted. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/21/business/energy-environment/setbacks-aside-climate-change-is-finding-its-way-into-the-worlds-classrooms.html?hpw&rref=education&_r=0 Fresh data and warning about climate change. International efforts to cut greenhouse-gas emissions haven’t been enough to stave off climate change, the world’s leading scientific organization on the issue warned last week. Emissions climbed at record rates for the first decade of this century, and only major action will keep warming at manageable levels, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change said in the final volume of a trilogy of reports about the science and policy of climate change. Posted. http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2014/apr/21/tp-fresh-data-and-warning-about-climate-change/ Climate changes visible by ZIP code with new online tools. With the click of a computer mouse, the potential risks of rising sea levels will soon be searchable — by ZIP code — for all U.S. coastal communities. An online mapping tool will show how much sea levels are expected to rise in each area, as well as the number of residents and buildings that could be flooded. Posted. http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/04/20/climate-change-new-online-tools/7739415/ Climate change increasing massive wildfires in West. Massive wildfires are on the increase in the Western USA due to rising temperatures and worsening drought from climate change, and the trend could continue in the decades to come, new research suggests. http://www.usatoday.com/story/weather/2014/04/19/western-wildfires-climate-change/7874841/ DROUGHT California’s Thirsting Farmland. This summer, Todd Allen’s only crop will be Pima cotton. He and his brother, Joel, usually also grow cantaloupes and, later in the season, winter wheat on about 600 acres or so. But this year, they and hundreds of others will get no water from the reservoirs that sustain farming in the Central Valley, where much of the nation’s fresh fruits, nuts and vegetables are grown. Posted. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/21/business/energy-environment/californias-thirsting-farmland.html?partner=rss&emc=rss&_r=1 California drought: Food banks drying up, too. The effects of California's drought could soon hit the state's food banks, which serve 2 million of its poorest residents. Fresh produce accounts for more than half the handouts at Bay Area food banks, but with an estimated minimum of 500,000 acres to be fallowed in California, growers will have fewer fruits and vegetables to donate. With less local supply, food prices will spike…Posted. http://www.sfgate.com/politics/joegarofoli/article/California-drought-Food-banks-drying-up-too-5416846.php DIESEL EMISSIONS Air quality board to consider another relaxation of diesel rules. Under pressure, air quality board might again give small trucking operations more time to comply with rules to clean up diesel emissions. California air quality officials are again moving to relax tough rules to clean up aging diesel trucks that are among the state's worst remaining sources of air pollution. The changes being considered this week by the state Air Resources Board come in response to pressure from small trucking firms and owner-operators…Posted. http://www.latimes.com/science/la-me-diesel-trucks-20140421,0,2318054,print.story http://www.modbee.com/2014/04/21/3302587/air-quality-board-considers-easing.html#storylink=cpy Price Chopper joins RPI test using air flow to stretch trucking fuel. A technology initially aimed at making jetliners more efficient by directing the flow of air may someday help the Price Chopper supermarket chain and other shippers squeeze more mileage out of delivery trucks. Developed at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, small devices called air-jet actuators are part of $4.3 million in state research funding announced this week for 17 different projects across the state meant to reduce the environmental footprint of trucks, cars, trains, subways and airports. Posted. http://www.sfgate.com/default/article/Price-Chopper-joins-RPI-test-using-air-flow-to-5414000.php FUELS Study: Fuels from corn waste not better than gas. Biofuels made from the leftovers of harvested corn plants are worse than gasoline for global warming in the short term, a study shows, challenging the Obama administration's conclusions that they are a much cleaner oil alternative and will help combat climate change. A $500,000 study paid for by the federal government and released Sunday in the peer-reviewed journal Nature Climate Change concludes that biofuels …Posted. http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_BIOFUELS_GLOBAL_WARMING?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT OTHER RELATED STORIES http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-biofuels-study-20140421,0,6597246.story#axzz2zXOph5Qj http://www.sfgate.com/default/article/Study-Fuels-from-corn-waste-not-better-than-gas-5417114.php http://www.modbee.com/2014/04/21/3302154/study-fuels-from-corn-waste-not.html#storylink=cpy http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/study-fuels-from-corn-waste-not-better-than-gas/2014/04/21/f2ea63c6-c92b-11e3-b81a-6fff56bc591e_story.html http://www.contracostatimes.com/AP%20Content/ci_25606746/Study:-Fuels-from-corn-waste-not http://www.insidebayarea.com/AP%20Content/ci_25606746/Study:-Fuels-from-corn-waste-not http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/apr/20/corn-biofuels-gasoline-global-warming Delay won't quell 2014 wrangling over Keystone XL. Democrats sweating this year's elections may be hoping that the Obama administration's latest delay to the proposed Keystone XL pipeline takes a politically fraught issue off the table for the midterms. Fat chance. An indefinite extension of the government's review of the contentious oil pipeline, announced late Friday by the State Department, almost certainly pushes a final decision past the November elections…Posted. http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_KEYSTONE_PIPELINE?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT OTHER RELATED STORIES http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/04/20/us-usa-keystone-obama-analysis-idUSBREA3J0CE20140420 http://www.sfgate.com/default/article/Decision-delayed-on-Keystone-pipeline-5414172.php http://www.sacbee.com/2014/04/18/6336139/keystone-pipeline-decision-delayed.html FEATURE-Many Canadian aboriginals see no compromise on oil sands pipeline. Just a few miles from the spot where Enbridge Inc plans to build a massive marine terminal for its Northern Gateway oil pipeline, Gerald Amos checks crab traps and explains why no concession from the company could win his support for the project. Amos, the former chief of the Haisla Nation on the northern coast of British Columbia and a community leader, has argued for years that the risk - no matter how small…Posted. http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/04/21/canada-pipeline-aboriginals-idUSL2N0NC05B20140421 Exporting Oil Will Lower Your Gasoline Bill? Since 1975, U.S. exports of crude oil have been largely banned under restrictions imposed by Congress in the aftermath of the 1973 Arab oil embargo. But with the U.S. entering into what many have termed a new era of oil abundance, U.S. lawmakers are now seriously thinking about lifting the ban. Some worry that exporting U.S. oil could raise domestic gasoline prices, eating into consumers' disposable incomes and hindering economic growth. Posted. http://www.sfgate.com/default/article/Exporting-Oil-Will-Lower-Your-Gasoline-Bill-5416201.php Canada Embracing Climate Control Measures to Support Oil Sector. Environmental advocacy groups put Canadian oil sands on the same footing as a weapon of mass destruction. With limited trade options on hand, provincial leaders are now trying to recast the Canadian oil sector's image with a green hue. The processes involved in exploiting the more viscous form of crude oil found in the Athabasca region of Alberta are viewed as detrimental to human health and the global environment. Posted. http://www.sfgate.com/default/article/Canada-Embracing-Climate-Control-Measures-to-5417543.php Can Biodiesel Investments Survive Without the Blender's Tax Credit? he blender's tax credit, or BTC, is a fixed $1 per gallon tax credit given to the first fuel blender of a volume of biodiesel that contains at least one-tenth of one percent petroleum-based diesel fuel. It is separate from renewable identification numbers, or RINs, that are used to track monthly production and are priced on the open market. In other words, biodiesel and renewable diesel producers…Posted. http://www.sfgate.com/default/article/Can-Biodiesel-Investments-Survive-Without-the-5410602.php How Natural Gas Prices Could Spike Over the Long Term. The future is generally not set in stone. Thousands of factors affect natural gas prices, and each factor can change at any moment. So far, these factors have kept U.S. natural gas trading at a significant discount to prices in the rest of the world. Natural gas contracts at Henry Hub, for example, trade at around $4.7/MMBtu while LNG trades at approximately $20/MMBtu in the Asian Pacific. Posted. http://www.sfgate.com/default/article/How-Natural-Gas-Prices-Could-Spike-Over-the-Long-5417872.php Gasoline prices hit 14-month high. Surging gasoline prices in the San Diego area have reached their highest level in more than a year. The average price of a gallon of regular-grade gasoline climbed to $4.27 on Friday at San Diego gas stations, up 12 cents from a week ago and 27 cents in a month, according to the AAA daily fuel gauge report. The last time gasoline sold for so much was March 2, 2013. Posted. http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2014/apr/18/gas-price-spike-unrelenting/ Former EPA official: Fracking transparency vital. Controversies over the fracking process may be inevitable, a former administrator with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency acknowledged recently, but Wisconsin can protect its place as the leading supplier of sand for the nation's fracking boom as long as the state has strong regulations, maintains maximum transparency and responds quickly to neighbors' concerns. Posted. http://www.modbee.com/2014/04/20/3301696/former-epa-official-fracking-transparency.html#storylink=cpy Study casts doubts on GHG savings of fuels made from corn stover, cobs. The loss of soil carbon that results from removing corn field wastes to make biofuels could negate their value as a low-carbon fuel ingredient, a recent paper suggests. Using corn residue -- corn stover and cobs -- to make cellulosic biofuels increases emissions from the burning of plant matter and other residue components in the biorefinery…Posted. http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/stories/1059998148/print BY SUBSCRIPTION ONLY FRACKING Fracking foes cringe as unions back drilling boom. After early complaints that out-of-state firms got the most jobs, some local construction trade workers and union members in Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia say they're now benefiting in a big way from the Marcellus and Utica Shale oil and gas boom. That vocal support from blue-collar workers complicates efforts by environmentalists to limit the drilling process known as fracking. Posted. http://www.sfgate.com/default/article/Fracking-foes-cringe-as-unions-back-drilling-boom-5416292.php National energy boom blurs political battle lines. The U.S. energy boom is blurring the traditional political battle lines across the country. Democrats are split between environmentalists and business and labor groups — and one key issue is the proposed Canada-to-Texas oil pipeline. Some deeply conservative areas are allying with conservationists against fracking, the drilling technique that's largely responsible for the boom. Posted. http://www.sacbee.com/2014/04/19/6337045/national-energy-boom-blurs-political.html#storylink=cpy VEHICLES Mazda recalls 109,000 SUVs in the United States for rust issue. Mazda Motor Corp (7261.T: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) is recalling 109,000 Tribute compact sport utility vehicles in the United States to address potential rusting frame parts in cold-weather states where road salt is heavily used in the winter. The recall affects Tribute SUVs from model years 2001 to 2004 as corrosion on a part of the vehicle's frame could result in the loss of steering control, Mazda said in a statement. Posted. http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/04/21/us-autos-mazda-recall-idUSBREA3K0RE20140421 UPDATE 1-VW to push electric cars in China as market opens. Volkswagen will keep expanding Chinese operations and start selling battery-powered cars in the biggest auto market as the country rewards electric-vehicle buyers to tackle air pollution. VW said on Saturday it will add capacity in its top market, the destination of over a third of its 2.4 million first-quarter group deliveries, as economic stimulus measures and demand in China's interior regions fuel sales. Posted. http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/04/19/autoshow-china-vw-idUSL6N0NB07U20140419 Clean Energy Fuels CEO: Why Tesla Isn't Competition, and Passenger Cars Aren't Clean Energy's Market. The difference between fleet and passenger vehicles is often misunderstood, Andrew Littlefair says. Andrew Littlefair is the CEO and co-founder of Clean Energy Fuels , the leading provider of natural gas for transportation in North America. Clean Energy provides CNG and LNG fuels to solid waste, trucking, and transit fleets, among others, and currently operates some 500 fueling stations in the United States and Canada…Posted. http://www.sfgate.com/default/article/Clean-Energy-Fuels-CEO-Why-Tesla-Isn-t-5417556.php 300mpg Diesel-Electric Hybrid Unveiled by Volkswagen. The star of this week's Qatar motor show will undoubtedly be Volkswagen's "one-liter car," the diesel hybrid XL1, which is able to achieve more than 300 mpg. The $60,000 XL1 is powered by an 800cc, two-cylinder turbodiesel powerplant (half a BlueMotion engine), producing 47bhp, supported by a 27bhp electric motor hat fuelled by lithium-ion batteries. Posted. http://www.sfgate.com/default/article/300mpg-Diesel-Electric-Hybrid-Unveiled-by-5409930.php New battery research initiative announces first corporate members. Duracell, Volkswagen and Hitachi are among the firms that last week joined CalCharge, an initiative that pools research resources from national laboratories, universities and private companies to design better batteries. The program aims to bridge a critical gap between fundamental improvements in battery technology and commercial products, smoothing over administrative hurdles…Posted. http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/stories/1059998157/print BY SUBSCRIPTION ONLY NASCAR begins an environmental cleanup with fuel cells. NASCAR, both the world's most popular motor sport and a sport widely disdained by environmentalists, is attempting to throw its green agenda into a higher gear. Five years into the NASCAR Green program, the racing series has launched ambitious recycling, clean air and renewable energy initiatives. NASCAR is now also looking to other clean energy technologies to improve its environmental credentials…Posted. http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/stories/1059998146/print BY SUBSCRIPTION ONLY HIGH-SPEED RAIL High-speed rail agency issues final environmental report for Fresno-Bakersfield route. A final version of an environmental report has been issued for the Fresno-Bakersfield stretch of California's proposed high-speed rail system. The 20,000-page report, released Friday afternoon by the California High-Speed Rail Authority, details the anticipated effects that construction of the rail line and operation of the bullet train would have on homes…Posted. http://www.fresnobee.com/2014/04/18/3884498/rail-agency-issues-final-environmental.html GREEN ENERGY Conservative heavyweights have solar industry in their sights. The Koch brothers and large utilities have allied to reverse state policies that favor renewable energy. Environmentalists are pushing back, but the fight is spreading and intensifying. http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-solar-kochs-20140420,0,7412286.story Earth-friendly. Earth Day is Tuesday, and if you've forsaken an eco-friendly lifestyle because you think going green requires a lot of green, think again. Investing in solar panels, hybrid cars and energy-efficient appliances can save cash long-term, but the initial investment can be costly and infeasible. Likewise, adopting an exclusively organic diet or using store-bought, all-natural cleaning products can hurt a grocery budget. Posted. http://www.sfgate.com/default/article/Earth-friendly-5413554.php 25 Amazing Facts About Solar. In the past few years alone, the solar industry has gone from a clean energy source that required subsidies just to stay afloat to a full-fledged economic force. Solar energy is now passing grid parity in Europe, the southwestern U.S., South America, South Africa, and many other parts of the world. As costs fall, even more locations will find solar power to be economical, opening up a global electricity market worth over $1 trillion annually. Posted. http://www.sfgate.com/default/article/25-Amazing-Facts-About-Solar-5416343.php Oxford schools' green reputation grows. The Oxford School District's traditional school colors of blue and gold are facing some stiff competition by the color green now that the district is becoming synonymous with healthy food choices, sustainability efforts and energy efficiency. The Oxford High School is headed toward becoming the first high school in Mississippi to become LEED Silver Certified. Posted. http://www.modbee.com/2014/04/20/3295138/oxford-schools-green-reputation.html#storylink=cpy BY SUBSCRIPTION MISCELLANEOUS Poll: Big Bang a big question for most Americans. While scientists believe the universe began with a Big Bang, most Americans put a big question mark on the concept, an Associated Press-GfK poll found. Yet when it comes to smoking causing cancer or that a genetic code determines who we are, the doubts disappear. When considering concepts scientists consider truths…Posted. http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_SCIENCE_POLL?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT Serial Bird Killers? The True Toll of Infamous Windmills. As if cats weren’t bad enough, humans have invented all sorts of torture devices for our winged friends. We’ve paved over their nesting sites to make room for Olive Gardens and have broken up their skyscapes with glass buildings and radio towers. Then came the most infamous bird killer of all: the wind turbine. As you can see in the chart below, these sky blenders top the list. Posted. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-04-21/beware-the-blades-of-death-world-s-top-serial-bird-killers-.html Top court declines Exxon's appeal in water pollution case. The Supreme Court on Monday declined to review a ruling against Exxon Mobil Corp that ordered the company to pay $105 million in damages for polluting New York City's groundwater with a toxic gasoline additive. The decision not to hear the case leaves intact a July 2 U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that upheld the judgment. Posted. http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/04/21/us-usa-court-environment-idUSBREA3K0L720140421 Fighting season for Brown, lawmakers. The governor and legislative leaders are about to begin an intense period of bartering on cap-and-trade, the bullet train and a rainy-day fund. High-stakes bargaining is about to begin in California's Capitol. As the weather heats up in Sacramento every year, so does the intensity. There'll be bartering over wonky programs and policies that for most citizens would be snooze-inducing. Posted. http://www.latimes.com/local/la-me-cap-budget-20140421,0,6500689,print.column Apple offering free recycling of all used products. Apple is offering free recycling of all its used products and vowing to power all of its stores, offices and data centers with renewable energy to reduce the pollution caused by its devices and online services. The iPhone and iPad maker is detailing its efforts to cultivate a greener Apple Inc. with an environmental section on the company's website that debuted Monday. Posted. http://www.sfgate.com/default/article/Apple-offering-free-recycling-of-all-used-products-5418208.php Farm Briefs: Range camp, Run Your Tail Off, greenhouse gases. The application deadline for Range and Natural Resource camp has been extended to April 28. The camp is a week-long event that immerses 24 students throughout California, ages 15-18, in science and topics related to rangelands, forests and riparian areas. Posted. http://www.chicoer.com/news/ci_25601005/farm-briefs-range-camp-run-your-tail-off BY SUBSCRIPTION OPINIONS Column: Climate is right for clean energy firms. If you're ecology minded, the news hasn't been all that green of late, with ice caps and glaciers melting and storms becoming more destructive. But there is a huge silver lining for long-term investors in environmentally-friendly companies and technologies. To stave off a nearly 5-degree global temperature increase by 2100, nations must cut their global greenhouse emissions by up to 70 percent by the middle of this century…Posted. http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/04/21/us-column-wasik-greenenergy-idUSBREA3K0PV20140421 Running Out of Time. Next year, in December, delegates from more than 190 nations will gather in Paris to take another shot at completing a new global treaty on climate change. This will be the 21st Conference of the Parties under United Nations auspices since the first summit meeting in Rio de Janeiro in 1992. For the most part, these meetings have been exercises in futility, producing just one treaty — in Kyoto in 1997 — that asked little of the big developing countries and was never ratified by the United States Senate. Posted. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/21/opinion/running-out-of-time.html?hp&rref=opinion Does fracking cause quakes? California needs to know. A swarm of Ohio quakes that geologists say may be linked to fracking illustrate the risks in California. Many concerns have been raised about hydraulic fracturing — also known as fracking — but the one scientists know the least about is the potential for earthquakes. Until recently, evidence linking earthquakes to fracking …Posted. http://www.latimes.com/opinion/editorials/la-ed-fracking-20140420,0,6379009,print.story Dan Morain: California could be in the running for Tesla’s battery factory, after all. Elon Musk probably would be a billionaire even if California didn’t exist. But this state’s green laws and subsidies certainly helped turn Musk golden. Musk founded Tesla Motors Inc., the sleek all-electric cars that sell for $70,000 or more, and SpaceX, which has the lucrative NASA contract to ferry cargo to the International Space Station. He’s also chairman of SolarCity, the largest installer of rooftop solar panels. Posted. http://www.sacbee.com/2014/04/20/6336181/dan-morain-california-could-be.html#storylink=cpy Editorial: Keystone XL pipeline needs green light, not stop signs. As the comic strip character Charlie Brown might say, "Good grief!" Last week President Obama decided yet again to delay a decision on the Keystone XL pipeline. Technically, the latest delay is tied to developments in Nebraska, which the northern leg of the pipeline must pass through. Posted. http://www.sfgate.com/default/article/Editorial-Keystone-XL-pipeline-needs-green-5413941.php Positive actions to celebrate Earth Day. The following editorial appeared in the Kansas City Star on Monday, April 21: As the nation celebrates Earth Day on Tuesday, it's an excellent opportunity to highlight the positive initiatives taken in the past to protect the air, water and land we all depend on for life. The special day, which began April 22, 1970, has spurred much progress. U.S. laws have cleaned up rivers and the air, especially in large cities. Posted. http://www.sacbee.com/2014/04/21/6340943/positive-actions-to-celebrate.html#storylink=cpy Learn about climate change at Earth Day forum. A public meeting dealing with climate change will be held Tuesday night in Atascadero. The free forum will be held in the Fellowship Hall of the Community Church beginning at 7 p.m. One of the issues to be answered, at least for me, will be the difference between weather change and climate change. I tend to use the terms interchangeably, as if they are the same. Posted. http://www.sanluisobispo.com/2014/04/21/3030568/climate-change-forum-atascadero.html#storylink=cpy Voices: On Earth Day 2014, a climate change challenge. Two other reporters and I wrote those words about the first Earth Day in 1970 for the Elizabeth, N.J., Daily Journal. At the time, concerns about the environment were only beginning to enter the mainstream, prompted by worsening smog in our major cities and pictures of Ohio's Cuyahoga River on fire in 1969. Congress had created the Environmental Protection Agency just months before that first Earth Day, but the agency had not yet opened for business. Posted. http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/04/21/earth-day-environment/7905743/ BLOGS Climate Change: Who Will Lead? With the latest warnings delivered by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) over the past few weeks, no world leader will ever be able to claim that they were caught off-guard by climate change. As former heads of state ourselves, we've experienced global crises from within the corridors of power. Some may take the world by surprise, but sometimes the warning signals are such that there is no excuse not to act. Posted. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jimmy-carter/climate-change-who-will-l_b_5185328.html Earth Day: Promoting Urban Revitalization and Green Cities. April 22nd is Earth Day--an annual celebration of the planet's biodiversity and an important opportunity to highlight solutions to some of the world's most pressing environmental and social challenges. Through more than one billion pledges to buy local produce, start composting, eat less meat, reduce energy consumption, and many other actions…Posted. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/danielle-nierenberg/earth-day-promoting-urban_b_5187097.html Fueling the Future: How California Businesses are Advancing Earth Day’s Vision. To mark the 44th Earth Day, EDF has released a new Green Roads map celebrating clean transportation, an economic sector that is helping the Earth by producing groundbreaking and sustainable technologies. We Californians like to drive, but unfortunately our dependence on petroleum is harming our state, giving us the nation’s most polluted cities and the state’s biggest contributor to climate pollution (see the graph). Posted. http://blogs.edf.org/californiadream/2014/04/21/fueling-the-future-how-california-businesses-are-advancing-earth-days-vision/#sthash.cjkU8YqU.dpuf “Climate change war” is not a metaphor. The U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has just completed a series of landmark reports that chronicle an update to the current state of consensus science on climate change. In a sentence, here’s what they found: On our current path, climate change could pose an irreversible, existential risk to civilization as we know it – but we can still fix it if we decide to work together. Posted. http://grist.org/climate-energy/climate-change-war-is-not-a-metaphor/ Honda Concept B Hybrid production version coming to China in 2016. At the Beijing Motor Show this weekend, Honda took the wraps off of the Concept B Hybrid, a "new-value concept" that will apparently do its level best to get the Japanese automaker back into the entry-level gas-electric game. Powertrain details for the five-door concept hatch are noticeably absent, so we are assuming that what Honda wants with this concept is for us to focus on the looks. Posted. http://www.autoblog.com/2014/04/21/honda-concept-b-hybrid-beijing-2014/ Lexus NX debuts in turbocharged and hybrid guise. Lexus showed off its polarizing new NX at the 2014 Beijing Motor Show, trotting out both the turbocharged 200t model (Lexus' first production turbo) alongside the hybrid-powered 300h. We still don't know a great deal about the turbocharged model, aside from the fact that the engine underhood is a 2.0-liter four-cylinder, although we're hoping to get details sooner rather than later. Posted. http://www.autoblog.com/2014/04/20/lexus-nx-200t-300h-beijing-2014/ DOE offers $10M to advance biomass-to-biofuel efforts. The Department of Energy has made it clear that it favors a technology-somewhat-neutral, "all-of-the-above" strategy for developing energy alternatives for the US, as the new Strategic Plan 2014-2018 (PDF) states. What this looks like in the real world is another $10 million for "Technologies to Produce Advanced Biofuel Products from Biomass." Posted. http://green.autoblog.com/2014/04/19/doe-offers-10m-to-advance-biomass-to-biofuel-efforts/ Montreal sets new EV gathering record: 431. The Nissan Leaf models are the easiest to spot, since they dominate the foreground. But Tesla Model S EVs and Chevy Volt plug-in hybrids are represented as well. Look a little closer and you'll see a Ford Focus Electric and Mistubishi i EVs. And is that a Cadillac ELR we see? Yes, it's kind of fun to take a good look at the picture above which was released by the Electric Vehicle Association of Quebec (AVEC) showing off the group's successful 431-EV gathering…Posted. http://green.autoblog.com/2014/04/20/montreal-sets-new-ev-gathering-record-431/ California is in a drought emergency. Visit www.SaveOurH2O.org for water conservation tips.