What's New List Serve Post Display

ARB Newsclips for September 24, 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.

CAP AND TRADE

California, Quebec Seek Partners to Grow Carbon Market. Less than
a year after establishing North America’s largest carbon market,
Quebec and California are aggressively recruiting the province of
Ontario and other U.S. states to join, Quebec’s premier said.
Quebec is discussing a regional market with the governors of New
England states and leaders in Ontario while California is working
with Oregon and Washington in the western U.S. …Posted.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/print/2014-09-24/quebec-california-seeking-to-boost-size-of-carbon-market.html


Grand Prairie farmers taking part in carbon markets. The rice
growers are in Stuttgart, Humnoke, Hazen, Slovak and one near
Osceola. Arkansas farmers are participating in carbon markets.
The agriculture-based carbon offsets, such as those created from
rice management practices, can be sold to corporations to meet
their internal sustainability goals, reduce their carbon
footprints and to green their supply chains. Posted.
http://www.stuttgartdailyleader.com/article/20140923/News/140929877#ixzz3EGTDvJmO


AIR POLLUTION

Port of L.A. fire extinguished; crews begin demolition, repairs.
The Port of Los Angeles fire that sent a thick plume of toxic
smoke into the air Tuesday, forcing a nearby elementary school to
evacuate, has been fully extinguished, officials said Wednesday.
Crews will now begin the process of demolition and cleanup after
the fire smoldered for more than a day in multiple layers of
heavy pre-World War II timber soaked in dark, tar-like liquid
creosote. Posted.
http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-port-of-los-angeles-fire-extinguished-20140924-story.html
 

Port of L.A. fire spews toxic fumes, prompting air-quality
concerns.  A plume of toxic fumes from a stubborn fire at the
Port of Los Angeles that continued to burn World War II-era
lumber pylons soaked in creosote prompted air quality concerns
Tuesday as firefighters attacked the blaze from above and below
the water. The fumes, which led to a shelter-in-place advisory
overnight for nearby residents, have not been measured at a
hazardous level beyond the immediate vicinity of the fire…Posted.
http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-port-los-angeles-fire-toxic-air-20140923-story.html

California wildfires send waves of smoke, particulates as far as
Canada. Smoke from wildfires raging in Northern California has
reached far beyond the state's borders to affect Utah, Michigan
and even Canada, according to NASA. The fires, including the
massive King fire in Eldorado National Forest, have been sending
large amounts of smoke and particulate matter into the
sky…Posted.
http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-california-wildfires-smoke-nasa-20140922-story.html
 

Sacramento air quality officials sued over crude oil trains.  A
Bay Area environmental group has filed a lawsuit against the
Sacramento Metropolitan Air Quality Management District for
failing to require an environmental review of a crude oil
transfer station at McClellan Business Park. The group,
Earthjustice, accuses local air quality managers of quietly
rubber-stamping permits for InterState Oil Company…Posted.
http://www.sacbee.com/2014/09/23/6729786/sacramento-air-quality-officials.html#storylink=cpy


CLIMATE CHANGE

Companies Take the Baton in Climate Change Efforts.  With
political efforts to slow global warming moving at a tortuous
pace, some of the world’s largest companies are stepping into the
void, pledging more support for renewable energy, greener supply
chains and fresh efforts to stop the destruction of the world’s
tropical forests. Forty companies, among them Kellogg, L’Oréal
and Nestlé, signed a declaration on Tuesday pledging to help cut
tropical deforestation in half by 2020 and stop it entirely by
2030. Posted.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/24/business/energy-environment/passing-the-baton-in-climate-change-efforts.html


Flooding Risk From Climate Change, Country by Country. If global
carbon emissions continue on current trends are reduced sharply
are reduced extremely sharply and sea levels are affected by
climate change much more than expected about as much as expected
much less than expected, about 2.6 percent of the global
population (about 177 million people) will be living in a place
at risk of regular flooding. Posted.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/24/upshot/flooding-risk-from-climate-change-country-by-country.html?_r=0&abt=0002&abg=1


Plan to disburse climate change funds challenged by Bay Area
officials. Bay Area public officials are challenging a state plan
to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to fight climate change
by cleaning the air in some of California's poorest and most
polluted communities, most of which are in Southern California.
Posted.
http://www.latimes.com/science/la-me-adv-climate-funds-20140924-story.html


Google pulls out of conservative group amid environmentalist
pressure.  Google's effort to build strong alliances with
Republican politicians and conservative advocacy groups is paying
dividends on Capitol Hill but has created a growing marketing and
public-relations headache for the company. Climate-change
activists have shown up at shareholder meetings demanding that
executives explain how the firm can…Posted.
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-google-gop-20140924-story.html


US Clean Air Act cited as big first step in emissions control. 
World leaders met in New York on Tuesday to discuss how to tackle
the risks posed by climate change, but there was little
discussion of one increasingly obvious observation: The planet
might be in better shape today if more countries had followed the
lead of Richard Nixon's administration when it and Congress
enacted the pioneering Clean Air Act in 1970. Posted.
http://www.vcstar.com/news/world/us-clean-air-act-cited-as-big-first-step-in-emissions-control_90555500


UN SUMMIT

Obama Presses Chinese on Global Warming. President Obama,
emboldened by his use of executive powers to fight climate change
at home, challenged China on Tuesday to make the same effort to
reduce its greenhouse-gas emissions and join a worldwide campaign
to curb global warming. Declaring that the United States and
China — the world’s two largest economies and largest
polluters…Posted.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/24/world/asia/obama-at-un-climate-summit-calls-for-vast-international-effort.html?_r=0


The Benefits of Easing Climate Change. On Tuesday, more than 100
world leaders gathered at the United Nations to open a climate
summit meeting that Secretary General Ban Ki-moon hopes will
provide momentum to a new round of negotiations toward a global
environmental agreement to be signed in Paris next year. You’re
forgiven if you hold your applause. Posted.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/24/business/economy/the-hidden-benefits-of-mitigating-climate-change.html?_r=0


Ban Ki-Moon Says U.N. ‘Must Answer the Call’ to Fight Climate
Change, Ebola and Extremism.  Scolding the powerful and the
power-hungry, the United Nations secretary general, Ban Ki-moon,
opened the 69th annual session of the General Assembly on
Wednesday morning, in a 13-minute speech that rued the state of
the world, from the conflict in Ukraine to the bombing of United
Nations schools in Gaza to beheadings in Iraq and Syria — all
before warning of the Ebola outbreak. Posted.
http://www.nytimes.com/news/un-general-assembly/2014/09/24/ban-ki-moon-says-u-n-must-answer-the-call-to-fight-climate-change-ebola-and-extremism/
 

Obama calls for more aggressive fight against climate change.
President Obama on Tuesday called on both emerging economies and
world powers to take more aggressive steps to slow climate
change, saying "nobody gets a pass” on addressing the foremost
challenge of the century.  In brief remarks at the U.N. during a
summit on climate change, the president acknowledged the many
crises facing world leaders…Posted.
http://www.latimes.com/nation/nationnow/la-na-nn-obama-climate-change-un-20140923-story.html


U.S. joins other nations in deforestation accord at UN summit.
Moving to halt a powerful contributor to climate change, the
United States has joined more than 110 corporations, civil
society groups and governments to launch a global initiative to
reduce deforestation sharply over the next 15 years, with the
goal of eliminating the practice by 2030. Posted.
http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-deforest-climate-change-20140923-story.html


Obama at Summit: ‘We Have to Answer the Climate Call'.  Desperate
warnings from world leaders and celebrities about the
consequences of unmitigated climate change filled the General
Assembly Hall at U.N. Headquarters in New York on Tuesday
morning, as a daylong climate summit began. "Climate change is
the defining issue of our age," U.N. Secretary General Ban
Ki-moon said in his opening remarks. "Our response will define
the future. Posted.
http://www.vcstar.com/news/state/climate-summit-opening-remarks-reflect-urgency_14913291


U.S. and China announce plans to curb greenhouse gases.  At a
summit Tuesday to kick off the drafting of an international
climate change accord, President Obama spoke bluntly of American
responsibility for global warming and pledged that ambitious
steps would be unveiled over the next year to cut greenhouse gas
emissions. Posted.
http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-climate-summit-20140924-story.html
http://www.vcstar.com/news/world/us-china-announce-plans-to-curb-greenhouse-gases_77282862


Obama offers few climate details. Perhaps the most interesting
thing about President Barack Obama’s climate change speech at the
United Nations is what he didn’t say.
Obama didn’t promise $1 billion to help poor countries adapt to
the dire effects of climate change, like France did. And he
didn’t offer any hints about how sharply greenhouse gas emissions
would be cut in the years after 2020, like the European Union and
several other countries did. Posted.
http://www.politico.com/story/2014/09/barack-obama-climate-change-pitch-111273.html#ixzz3EG6R4plJ


Climate Change Summit: World leaders reach fragile consensus on
global warming. World leaders arrived in New York today for a day
dedicated to addressing arguably the gravest threat of all to
peace and security – the sabotaging of the world’s fragile
climate – while at the same time trying not be distracted by a
burst of diplomatic static caused by strikes overnight against
extremists inside Syria. Posted.
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/climate-change-summit-world-leaders-reach-fragile-consensus-on-global-warming-9751958.html


DROUGHT

Wildfires in California show no sign of abating, officials say.
An unprecedented drought that has parched Northern California has
led to one of the most active fire seasons on record and there is
little hope of a wet and cool end in sight. In an interview, Ken
Pimlott, director of the California Department of Forestry and
Fire Protection, said his agency has fought almost 5,000 fires
this year, a thousand more than the five-year average. Posted.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/wildfires-in-california-show-no-sign-of-abating-officials-say/2014/09/23/10557418-435d-11e4-b437-1a7368204804_story.html


Ensuring our water supply.  Proposition 1 on November’s ballot is
a statewide water bond measure authorizing $7.5 billion in bonds
to improve the state’s water quality, supply and infrastructure.
The worse the drought gets — and by “worse,” we mean the longer
it lasts — the more Californians want to “do something.” So it’s
not surprising that Proposition 1 enjoys widespread, and
apparently steady, support. Posted.
http://www.vvdailypress.com/article/20140923/OPINION/140929936/13030/OPINION


DIESEL EMISSIONS

Port of Long Beach diesel emissions down 82% since 2005. Diesel
particulate matter emissions from ships, trucks, trains and other
big machines at the Port of Long Beach has declined by 82 percent
since 2005, according to an annual analysis of the area’s air
quality. Port officials in Los Angeles and Long Beach credit
several programs, including carriers’ use of fuel-efficient
ships, increased use of on-dock rail and shore power for berthed
ships…Posted.
http://www.joc.com/port-news/us-ports/port-long-beach/port-long-beach-diesel-emissions-down-82-2005_20140923.html
BY SUBSCRIPTION ONLY

FUELS

Businesses won’t have to return BP spill payouts. BP wanted its
money back — hundreds of millions of dollars of it — but a
federal judge says the oil giant must stick by an agreement with
companies that got payouts after claiming the 2010 Gulf oil spill
hurt their business. BP argued Wednesday that a flawed funding
formula in the settlement is giving money to businesses for
questionable claims, and they should be forced to return it.
Posted.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/judge-hears-oil-spill-cleanup-workers-claims/2014/09/24/f6cb1dd4-43cc-11e4-8042-aaff1640082e_story.html


Fracking not as bad as you fear, panelists say; some activists
disagree. Panel insists the oil drilling technique poses little
danger to North Orange County residents and the environment.
Don’t worry, fracking won’t harm you. That was the underlying
message from a six-expert information session about the
controversial oil drilling technique Tuesday night at Cal State
Fullerton. Posted.
http://www.ocregister.com/articles/fracking-636103-water-fullerton.html


Monterey County Supervisors hear facts on fracking. It could
possibly be the most controversial action never to have taken
place in Monterey County. Hydraulic fracturing, commonly known as
fracking, is a potential new oil boom in California with the
discovery of a geologic zone of trapped oil deposits called the
Monterey Shale. Ironically, very little Monterey Shale is
actually in Monterey County. Posted.
http://www.thecalifornian.com/story/news/local/2014/09/23/monterey-county-supervisors-hear-facts-fracking/16130025/


VEHICLES

Calif. Gov. Brown signs bill to urge more drivers into
eco-friendly vehicles. Seeking to put more California drivers in
electric cars, Gov. Jerry Brown signed legislation Sunday
providing financial incentives and other perks to entice
consumers to buy the environmentally friendly vehicles.  The push
for low-emission cars, combined with the governor's approval of
climate-conscious measures such as one to encourage residential
solar energy use…Posted.
http://www.sacbee.com/2014/09/23/6728410/calif-gov-brown-signs-bill-to.html#storylink=cpy


GREEN ENERGY

Kyushu to Suspend Grid Access for New Renewable-Energy Producers.
Kyushu Electric Power Co. (9508) will suspend responding to
applications from renewable-energy producers applying to access
its grid while it reviews how much more clean energy it’s capable
of handling. The utility, which supplies power to the southern
island of Kyushu, said the restriction begins tomorrow, according
to a statement posted on its website. Posted.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/print/2014-09-24/kyushu-to-suspend-grid-access-for-new-renewable-energy-producers.html


Desert plan seeks to balance environment, renewable energy. With
towering white wind turbines turning slowly in the background,
U.S. Interior Secretary Sally Jewell on Tuesday unveiled a plan
to manage both conservation and renewable energy production on
more than 22 million acres in California — nearly one-quarter of
the state — as part of a federal and state effort to promote
clean energy production. Posted.
http://www.latimes.com/science/la-me-desert-plan-20140924-story.html

http://www.modbee.com/2014/09/23/3554923_us-unveils-state-solar-project.html?sp=/99/1526/&rh=1#storylink=cpy

http://www.pe.com/articles/plan-750629-energy-projects.html  

Wind Energy Proposal Would Light Los Angeles Homes. The push for
clean energy to reduce greenhouse gases has led to
multibillion-dollar investments in wind and solar projects, but
finding an economical way to store renewable energy that comes
and goes like the breeze or the sun has proved challenging. An
alliance of four companies say they have found an answer in an
underground salt formation. Posted.
http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory/wind-energy-proposal-light-los-angeles-homes-25718476

http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2014/sep/23/wind-power-proposed-to-supply-los-angeles-area/
http://insideenergy.org/2014/09/23/will-wind-power-storage-be-a-game-changer/#


OPINIONS

Climate change deserves front-page coverage. To the editor: More
than 310,000 people demonstrated in New York on Sunday, urging
the United Nations to take strong action on climate change. Many
thousands marched worldwide in support. ("Thousands pack New
York's streets to march against climate change," Sept. 21). You
would never have known that reading The Times, which confined its
print coverage of both the New York march…Posted.
http://www.latimes.com/opinion/readersreact/la-le-0924-wednesday-climate-change-20140924-story.html


Editorial, Sept. 24, 2014: Vote yes on Proposition 1. Voters
around the state are being asked to pass a $7.5 billion bond
measure for a whole menu of water projects — from new
infrastructure including new dams to new conservation measures
that would expand recycling. We encourage a yes vote. The water
measure, Proposition 1 on the Nov. 4 ballot, will pay for
additional water storage, cleaning up groundwater and a variety
of conservation measures…Posted.
http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/opinion/ci_26592453/editorial-sept-24-2014-vote-yes-proposition-1


BLOGS

U.N. Climate Summit Harvests a Host of Commitments.  It’s
heartening to review the summary of governmental and private
climate and energy commitments compiled by United Nations
Secretary General Ban Ki-moon at the end of his daylong climate
change summit. They range from a substantial new push to reduce
and eventually eliminate forest loss to boosted investment in a
planned clean-energy corridor in Africa. Posted.
http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/09/23/u-n-climate-summit-harvests-a-host-of-commitments/


The Climate Movement Is About Much More Than Just Climate.  Some
unlikely groups marched side by side among the estimated
300,000-strong People’s Climate March, organized to put pressure
on politicians gathering at this week’s United Nations Climate
Summit. Wearing purple T-shirts, a group of Sisters of Mercy — as
one of them put it, “commonly known as nuns” — came to the march
from all around the northeast of the country. Posted.
http://op-talk.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/09/23/the-climate-movement-is-about-much-more-than-just-climate/
 

France promises $1bn for climate change fund at UN summit. Pledge
comes on a day of impassioned speeches from some 120 world
leaders – as well as a cameo from Leonardo DiCaprio. France
promised $1bn to a near-empty climate change fund for poor
countries on Tuesday and called for the establishment of a new
green economy in the first concrete result of a milestone United
Nations summit.  Posted.
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/sep/23/france-promise-climate-change-summit


Did We Just Find a Cool Trillion Dollars for Green Energy
Projects? Here's a big idea that expresses the frustration,
discontent, and anger we feel about how hard it's been bring
about the changes we need to address climate change. This
proposal shows how easy it can be. We have plenty of practical
solutions -- we lack access and financing. It's increasingly
obvious to open-minded people that a clean future would pay off.
Posted.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/daniel-m-kammen-phd/did-we-just-find-a-cool-t_b_5867356.html?utm_hp_ref=green


The Next Climate Bomb Is About to Explode in Quebec. Most of us
have heard of the Alberta oil sands climate bomb. Canada's
fastest-growing source of climate pollution is also one of the
few places in the world where the fate of our planet's climate is
being decided. If the oil sands are to expand, the bitumen has to
reach ocean ports. Posted.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/karel-mayrand/the-next-climate-bomb-is-_b_5864440.html?utm_hp_ref=green


An Open Letter to My Neighbors Regarding Drought and My Dead,
Weedy Lawn. Dear Neighbors, Hello! My name is Jonathan Kim and I
have been living at the house on the corner of _____ and _____
since December 2011. I had previously lived in an apartment just
two blocks from my current location, and I am very glad that I
decided to stay in this terrific neighborhood. Many of you may
know my house, a handsome Steinkamp, by its front lawn…Posted.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jonathan-kim/an-open-letter-to-my-neig_b_5865846.html?utm_hp_ref=green


L.A.'s Drought Response: An Open Letter to Mayor Garcetti and the
Office of Sustainability. Drought is hammering California. In our
cities, we are swapping out water-thirsty landscaping with
drought-tolerant plants. And the problem is? Here's an analogy:
After your house burns down -- a house that was inadequate for
your family's needs -- do you upgrade only the plumbing and
rebuild the rest exactly the way it was? Posted.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lisa-novick/las-drought-response-an-o_b_5854356.html


Tesla could need another $6 billion to really change the auto
landscape.  Telsa Motors has some big plans. The electric car
company is building its $5-billion Gigafactory near Reno, NV to
guarantee a steady supply of lower-cost batteries, has plans to
release two new models and is even talking about providing home
energy storage on a large scale. The California automaker is
ramping up EV production, and hopes to eventually be producing
500,000 cars per year. Posted.
http://green.autoblog.com/2014/09/24/tesla-could-need-another-6-billion-to-really-change-the-auto-la/





California is in a drought emergency.
Visit www.SaveOurH2O.org for water conservation tips.