What's New List Serve Post Display

ARB Newsclips for October 22, 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

Invalidated Carbon Offsets Highlight Controversial Rule in
California. Now you see them, now you don’t regarding offsets in
California’s carbon program, IKEA wrenches up its carbon emission
pricing ambition and the Shanghai Emissions Trading System gets
in the express lane. California regulators invoked the
"draconian" enforcement provisions of their cap-and-trade program
for carbon emissions by moving to invalidate more than 230,000
ozone-depleting substances (ODS) offsets…
http://www.ecosystemmarketplace.com/pages/dynamic/article.page.php?page_id=10596§ion=home&eod=1


AIR POLLUTION

Southland's bad-air days jump in 2014; hot, stagnant weather
blamed.  Hot, stagnant weather in Southern California pushed smog
levels above federal health standards on 94 days in 2014, up from
88 day last year, regional pollution regulators said. This year
had been shaping up to be cleaner than 2013, officials with the
South Coast Air...
http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-bad-air-days-smog-los-angeles-20141022-story.html


More than 5 million in state live near oil or gas well, report
says.  ... environmental group.  The Natural Resources Defense
Council, analyzing state environmental data, identified 5.4
million people who live within a mile of at least one of the
state's 84,000 active or new wells. They are the most likely to
be affected by potential air and water pollution caused by oil
and gas production if advanced extraction methods…
http://www.latimes.com/science/la-me-1022-drilling-study-20141022-story.html
  

Traffic Pollution May Be a Risk While Pregnant.  Children of
mothers exposed to high levels of traffic air pollution during
pregnancy may be at increased risk for lung damage, according to
a new study.  Researchers tested the lung function of 620
children in Spain when they were 4 years old. Their mothers'
exposure to the traffic air pollutants...
http://health.usnews.com/health-news/articles/2014/10/21/traffic-pollution-may-be-a-risk-while-pregnant

Living With a Smoker Like Living in a Polluted City: Study.
Nonsmokers who live with smokers are exposed to triple the World
Health Organization's recommended safe levels of harmful air
particles, a new study warns. That means that air-particle levels
in a home with a smoker are similar to that of the air in large,
polluted cities, the study found. Living in smoke-free homes
could offer major health benefits to nonsmokers...
http://health.usnews.com/health-news/articles/2014/10/21/living-with-a-smoker-like-living-in-a-polluted-city-study

CLIMATE CHANGE

UPDATE 1-EU nations threaten to block green energy rules at
summit talks. EU leaders face a long day on Thursday as they seek
to agree on a new decade of climate and energy policy at a summit
in Brussels, with nations from Poland to Portugal threatening to
block a deal. If the European Union can manage an accord,
including a more ambitious greenhouse gas cut, it will be the
first major economic bloc to set an emissions target for 2030…
http://uk.reuters.com/article/2014/10/22/eu-summit-climatechange-idUKL6N0SH54620141022


Brazil protects giant swathe of Amazon rainforest.  ...Declaring
a federal reserve means forest clearing and similar development
are forbidden.  Putting large areas of mostly intact rainforest
under federal protection is one of the tools the Brazilian
government has to combat deforestation and reduce its greenhouse
gas emissions.    The creation of these reserves is part of the
country's climate policy.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/10/21/us-brazil-wildlife-carbon-idUSKCN0IA2EX20141021?feedName=globalEnergyNews&feedType=RSS&virtualBrandChannel=14230


U.S. insurance firms failing to address climate change risk
–report. Most U.S. insurance companies are completely unprepared
to address the risks related to climate change, a new survey
published Wednesday found, a finding that could have negative
consequence for the wider debate over how to tackle the issue.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/10/21/insurance-climatechange-usa-idUSL2N0SG33D20141021


Environment Is Grabbing Big Role in Ads for Campaigns. In
Michigan, an ad attacking Terri Lynn Land, the Republican
candidate for the United States Senate, opens with a shot of
rising brown floodwaters as a woman says: “We see it every day in
Michigan. Climate change. So why is Terri Lynn Land ignoring the
science? ”
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/22/us/politics/environmental-issues-become-a-force-in-political-advertising.html?ref=politics&_r=1


Researchers find record leaks of methane from oil shale boom
areas Oil and gas. basins in North Dakota and East Texas leaked
around 10 percent of natural gas they produced to the atmosphere
between 2006 and 2011. Natural gas is composed primarily of
methane, a potent greenhouse gas that exacerbates climate change.
http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/stories/1060007693/print

DROUGHT

Drought, drawdowns and death of the Salton Sea.  The Salton Sea,
California's largest lake at 370 square miles, once supported
resorts that drew celebrities such as Frank Sinatra and Jerry
Lewis. It is now in danger of shrinking by half. Water diverted
to metropolitan areas along the coast will expose large swaths...
http://www.latimes.com/la-me-g-drought-drawdowns-and-death-of-the-salton-sea-20141021-htmlstory.html


Amid California's drought, a bruising battle for cheap water. 
...old farm wagons parked along quiet two-lane roads and bustling
Interstate 5.  "Congress Created Dust Bowl." "Stop the
Politicians' Water Crisis." "No Water No Jobs."  They dot the
Westlands Water District like angry salutations, marking the
territory of California's most formidable water warrior. Their
message is clear: Politicians and environmental laws are more to
blame for Westlands' dusty brown fields than the drought that has
parched California for the last three years.
http://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-westlands-20141021-story.html


San Diego adopts mandatory water limits.  San Diego officials
have instituted mandatory water restrictions amid California's
historic drought.   The City Council voted unanimously Monday to
shift from Stage 1 "drought watch" conditions to Stage 2 "drought
alert" restrictions. U-T San Diego reports (http://bit.ly/1CQvitK
) the heightened measures are designed to reduce city water use
by 20 percent and forestall deeper cuts in the future.
http://news.vocus.com/?a=19319403371&p=19f&v=1&x=Za9Lgu4qX9-6AUBQ9yw6sA

California water agencies lose millions of gallons underground. 
...Baker/Los Angeles Daily News/File    Fontana (Inland): 1.9
million gallons    Long Beach: 1.8 million gallons    City of
Pasadena: 1.5 million gallons    Palos Verdes Peninsula: 455,000
gallons   San Gabriel Valley Water Co.: 1 million gallons   
Source: California Urban Water Management Council    As 20
million gallons of drinking water rushed down Sunset Boulevard
and flooded the UCLA campus this summer, drought-conscious
residents threw up their hands.  
http://www.pasadenastarnews.com/article/20141021/NEWS/141029843

FUELS

Natural gas fleets tout fuel savings, call for return of 15L
engine. ...gas from the product you haul, the savings are even
greater. Olivier Sylvestre, director of development for natural
gas in transportation with Quebec trash hauler EBI, shared his
company's success story. Last year, EBI displaced about four
million litres of diesel fuel by instead burning renewable
natural gas the company creates from the residential waste its
trucks collect.
http://www.trucknews.com/business-management/natural-gas-fleets-tout-fuel-savings-call-return-15l-engine/1003061243

Daimler Tesla Stake Sale Might Clear The Way For BMW.  ...Motors
Tesla Motors, and pocketed a $780 million profit came out of the
blue, not least because in January, Daimler CEO Dieter Zetsche
said the cooperation deal had room for further expansion. Tesla
supplies electric motors and batteries for the Smart For Two
electric vehicle and the Mercedes B-class electric car.  Daimler
announced that the sale of the stake didn't mean that cooperation
with Tesla would end.   
http://www.forbes.com/sites/neilwinton/2014/10/22/daimler-tesla-stake-sale-might-clear-the-way-for-bmw/


The Price of Gasoline and Your Happy Wallet.  The average
national price of a gallon of gasoline as of Monday is $3.12,
according to the Department of Energy. That is 52-cents cheaper
than we were paying just four months ago in June. The drop comes
as the price for a barrel of domestic crude oil fell $25 from its
peak this year in June to...
http://www.forbes.com/sites/billtucker/2014/10/21/the-price-of-gasoline-and-your-happy-wallet/

VEHICLES

Where We're Going, We'll Probably Still Need Cars. The future of
the car: from the fuels they’ll run on, to the materials they’ll
be made of, to the computers that may drive them. In the year
2025, cars and the rules of the road could look a whole lot
different. Cars that drive themselves. Run on hydrogen. Made out
of futuristic materials. That know your musical preferences.
http://onpoint.wbur.org/2014/10/21/future-of-the-car-driverless-technology-tesla


Plug-In Hybrids Are The Best Competitors To Fuel-Cell Vehicles:
Here's Why. With the imminent unveiling of the Toyota Fuel Cell
Vehicle, and the Hyundai Tucson Fuel Cell already on sale, you
can expect to hear a lot more about hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles
in the coming months. Initially they will be offered only in very
low numbers, and restricted to Southern California, where the
state and the carmakers are jointly funding the installation of
several dozen hydrogen fueling stations.
http://www.greencarreports.com/news/1090724_plug-in-hybrids-are-the-best-competitors-to-fuel-cell-vehicles-heres-why

GREEN ENERGY

Blackstone creates new renewable energy firm.  The Blackstone
Group will partner on a new push to develop utility scale wind
and solar power projects in North America.    Blackstone is
teaming up with Matthew Roseblum, the founder and CEO at Solops,
to create Onyx Renewable Partners. The company will develop,
finance, construct and operate renewable energy projects....
http://www.businessweek.com/ap/2014-10-21/blackstone-creates-new-renewable-energy-firm

ENERGY: Europe splits on whether more energy efficiency and
renewables can ease its natural gas crunch.  Europe's dependence
on natural gas imports could be cut in half by adopting more
robust efficiency standards and adding more renewable energy
resources to Europe's power portfolio, new research sponsored by
the World Resources Institute says.
http://news.vocus.com/?a=19317262858&p=19f&v=1&x=C5LBx7uPZSAEMeEtZGWWJw

U.S. wind power industry feels a new breeze, may soon double. The
U.S. wind power industry continued its modest recovery over the
third quarter of 2014, with 419 megawatts of new generation
capacity coming online in Texas, Nebraska, Michigan and
California.  But officials said the quarterly numbers, which
reflect a 600 percent increase over the same quarter of 2013 when
the industry was emerging from a near-standstill, do not
accurately reflect the pace of wind energy development in the
United States.
http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/stories/1060007692/print 

BLOGS

Oil industry huddles on ways to sway public opinion. Still
stinging from last year's passage of California's first fracking
law, petroleum industry representatives in Bakersfield Tuesday
shared ideas for swaying public opinion to head off regulatory
activity they warned could kill jobs, raise gas prices and
increase reliance on foreign oil.
http://www.bakersfieldcalifornian.com/business/kern-gusher/x782602398/Oil-industry-huddles-on-ways-to-sway-public-opinion


Counties Vie for ‘Disadvantaged’ Cap-and-Trade Bucks. In the
fictional town of Lake Woebegon, all of the children are above
average. But in the real world of California, all of the counties
are disadvantaged. Or so it seemed at a recent California Air
Resources Board meeting as officials from all over the state
poor-mouthed their districts to gain a share of cap-and-trade
funds set aside for “disadvantaged communities.”
http://www.publicceo.com/2014/10/counties-vie-for-disadvantaged-cap-and-trade-bucks/


Deciphering Monsoons in a Time of Drastic Changes.  ...unknowing
has direct impact on the daily lives of billions who depend on
monsoon rains annually. Without fully understanding the
conceptual basis of a monsoon, researchers cannot predict the
future behavior of monsoons as the climate changes. Providing
accurate climate change information to communities dependent upon
a steady monsoon rainfall lies in being able to accurately model
future changes of the monsoon.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sarah-casson/deciphering-monsoons-in-a_b_6004032.html?utm_hp_ref=climate-change


Rooftop solar is just the beginning; utilities must innovate or
go extinct.  By now, most people are aware that solar power --
particularly distributed solar power, in the form of rooftop
panels -- poses a threat to power utilities. And utilities are
fighting back, attempting to impose additional fees and
restrictions on solar customers. These...
http://grist.org/article/rooftop-solar-is-just-the-beginning-utilities-must-innovate-or-go-extinct


More on the Mercedes-Benz 2014 B-Class alternative drive systems:
electric and natural gas.  ...the already successful B-Class a
thorough facelift, giving particular attention to an upgrade of
the interior. (Earlier post.) The revamped B-Class offers a
choice of five diesel models with fuel ranging from 3.6 to 5.0
l/100 km (65.3 to 47 mpg US) and four gasoline engines at between
5.4 and 6.6 l/100 km (43.6 and 35.6 mpg US) as well as…
http://www.greencarcongress.com/2014/10/20141021-bklasse.html  

EPA researchers find widespread use of nano cerium diesel fuel
additives could have measurable impact on air quality.  Predicted
surface-level concentrations of cerium due to use of nCe diesel
fuel additives. Credit: ACS, Erdakos et al. Click to enlarge.
Results of a modeling study by researchers from the US
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) suggest that widespread use
of nanoparticulate cerium (nCe) diesel
fuel...	http://www.greencarcongress.com/2014/10/20141021-nce.html



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