What's New List Serve Post Display

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.


FUELS UNDER CAP AND TRADE

Eco-friendly California looks beyond gas tax to fix roads.  As
state legislatures across the nation grapple with declining
funding to maintain roads, bridges and other transportation
infrastructure, California lawmakers are confronting the
unintended consequences of policies aimed at achieving ambitious
environmental goals. Gov. Jerry Brown, a Democrat, has called on
the state to expand its landmark global warming law by slashing
gasoline consumption in half and adding 1.5 million zero-emission
vehicles by 2030.
http://www.fresnobee.com/2015/02/21/4387403_eco-friendly-california-looks.html?rh=1


CAP AND TRADE

Carbon Pricing Pays the Way for Cleaner Energy.  Following more
than two centuries of fossil-fueled industrialization, during
which the atmosphere has been used as a free dump for
climate-changing pollution, an incipient era of carbon-pollution
pricing is paying dividends to the climate. More than 80 percent
of the $4.8 billion raised by the European Union’s emissions
trading system (ETS) in 2013 was spent supporting growth of clean
energy and other climate-friendly initiatives.
http://www.post-gazette.com/frontpage/2015/02/22/Carbon-Pricing-Pays-the-Way-for-Cleaner-Energy/stories/201502220205


AIR POLLUTION

Filthy India air cutting 660 million lives short by 3 years. 
India’s filthy air is cutting 660 million lives short by about
three years, according to research published Saturday that
underlines the hidden costs of the country’s heavy reliance on
fossil fuels to power its economic growth with little regard for
the environment. While New Delhi last year earned the dubious
title of being the world’s most polluted city, India’s air
pollution problem is extensive, with 13 Indian cities now on the
World Health Organization’s list of the 20 most polluted.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/A/AS_INDIA_AIR_POLLUTION?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT


Related articles:
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/22/world/asia/polluted-air-cuts-years-off-lives-of-millions-in-india-study-finds.html

http://www.sfgate.com/world/article/India-660-million-dying-early-from-air-pollution-6094120.php
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/filthy-india-air-cutting-660-million-lives-short-by-3-years/2015/02/21/35d3d3c0-b9b3-11e4-bc30-a4e75503948a_story.html

http://news.discovery.com/earth/indias-polluted-air-could-cut-short-660-million-lives-150223.htm


NASA Langley is home base for major winter air pollution study. 
Scientists have a handle on what happens to air pollution spewing
from tailpipes and smokestacks in the summer when sunlight and
moisture can quickly interact with and transform key pollutants.
They know far less about what happens to those pollutants in the
relative cold and dark of winter.
http://www.dailypress.com/news/science/dp-nws-nasa-winter-air-pollution-20150223-story.html


Indian thermal plants worst polluters.  A first-ever
environmental rating of coal-based power plants has found that
India's thermal power generating units figure among the world's
"most inefficient" in terms of compliance to pollution norms, use
of resources and overall operation efficiency. Though private
sector thermal plants in the country perform better than
government-owned ones, there is "immense scope for improvement"
in almost all units so that they can pollute less and generate
more electricity with efficient use of available resources.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Indian-thermal-plants-worst-polluters/articleshow/46337908.cms


Lumber Liquidators Invests in State-of-the-Art Wood Products
Quality Testing Lab.  The approximately 1,500 square-foot
facility, located within the Company's new distribution center
outside Richmond, Virginia, is the latest addition to the
Company's product development and quality assurance lab network.
Lumber Liquidators is one of the only flooring retailers to
invest in, install and operate a lab with emission-testing
capabilities. The lab includes two temperature and
humidity-controlled conditioning rooms, and two formaldehyde
emission chambers that mirror the capabilities of the California
Air Resources Board (CARB) and other state-of-the-art emission
testing facilities. 
http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/prnewswire/PH38169.htm


Website to offer neighborhood-level air data.  Many residents of
the San Joaquin Valley are pretty savvy about the quality of the
air they breathe. They know when summer ozone levels are spiking
in Arvin or wintertime particulate pollution is off the charts in
Bakersfield. And vice versa. But they've never had a tool to help
understand whether the air in their neighborhood is cleaner or
dirtier -- at any given time, day or night -- than the air
quality in other parts of town. Or even a few blocks away.
http://www.bakersfieldcalifornian.com/health/x1559712667/Website-to-offer-neighborhood-level-air-data


CLIMATE CHANGE

Obama's climate change wonk.  President Barack Obama’s plan to
combat greenhouse gases is entering its final lap, and now, with
White House climate change hawk John Podesta gone, the baton has
been handed to Gina McCarthy. As the administrator of the
Environmental Protection Agency, she’s become the face of Obama’s
plan that will, for the first time in U.S. history, regulate the
amount of carbon dioxide released by the nation’s fleet of power
plants as part of the strategy to shrink the pollution that
scientists blame for global warming.
http://www.politico.com/story/2015/02/barack-obamas-gina-mccarthy-climate-change-wonk-115372.html


Things just got very hot for climate deniers’ favorite scientist.
 Wei-Hock Soon is always in hot demand. Among climate change
skeptics, few commodities are rarer. Soon isn’t just a scientist.
He’s a scientist who doubts climate change is man-made. Soon
doesn’t work for just any university — he works for the
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. If you doubt
man-made climate change, Soon isn’t just your man. He’s your high
priest.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/02/23/the-favorite-scientist-of-climate-change-deniers-is-under-fire-for-taking-oil-money/


Van Hollen moving climate change with 2016 leverage.  With
Republicans in control of both houses of Congress, the odds of
passing a climate change bill this year are virtually
non-existent. But Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-Maryland, plans to
reintroduce legislation to cap carbon emissions this week,
anyway, due in part to the impact it could have on the 2016
election.
http://www.cnn.com/2015/02/22/politics/global-warming-chris-van-hollen/

Deeper Ties to Corporate Cash for Doubtful Climate Researcher. 
For years, politicians wanting to block legislation on climate
change have bolstered their arguments by pointing to the work of
a handful of scientists who claim that greenhouse gases pose
little risk to humanity. One of the names they invoke most often
is Wei-Hock Soon, known as Willie, a scientist at the
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics who claims that
variations in the sun’s energy can largely explain recent global
warming. He has often appeared on conservative news programs,
testified before Congress and in state capitals, and starred at
conferences of people who deny the risks of global warming.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/22/us/ties-to-corporate-cash-for-climate-change-researcher-Wei-Hock-Soon.html?ref=earth

EU Pushes for Tough Paris Climate Deal-Draft.  European Union
leaders want to enshrine in international law a goal to cut
global emissions by 60 percent by 2050, according to a draft
document that puts the bloc on a collision course with the
biggest polluters. The EU is keen to inject urgency into the
climate change debate ahead of an international conference in
Paris at the end of this year to seek a successor to the Kyoto
Protocol on curbing greenhouse gas emissions. On Wednesday the
European Commission, the EU executive, will publish a blueprint
for tackling climate change.
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2015/02/23/world/europe/23reuters-eu-climate-paris.html

DROUGHT

Dry conditions in Calif. eased slightly by winter storms.  Two
atmospheric rivers, or heavy storms, have dropped about a foot of
water in some parts of California, modestly easing the ongoing
drought, experts said Thursday. According to Mark Svoboda, a
climatologist with the National Drought Mitigation Center at the
University of Nebraska, the portion of the state experiencing the
most extreme category of drought has decreased by 13 percent
since the middle of November.
http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/stories/1060013789/feed 

LOW CARBON FUEL STANDARD

Gov. Brown supports clean fuels bill.  Gov. Kate Brown said
Friday she supports a bill that seeks to lower the carbon
intensity of fuels despite Republican threats to hold up a
transportation package if it passes.  Brown held her first press
conference as Oregon’s chief executive in her ceremonial office.
She was asked three times about GOP attempts to tie the Low
Carbon Fuel Standards bill to Cylvia Hayes, the fiancee of former
Gov. John Kitzhaber, and her work that is now under federal
investigation. 
http://www.bendbulletin.com/home/2902455-151/gov-brown-supports-clean-fuels-bill#


FUELS

Obama’s Expected Keystone Pipeline Veto Is Likely to Be the First
in a Wave.  Wielding the weapon of his pen, President Obama this
week is expected to formally reject a Republican attempt to force
construction of the Keystone XL oil pipeline. But in stopping the
transit of petroleum from the forests of Alberta to the Gulf
Coast, Mr. Obama will be opening the veto era of his presidency.
The expected Keystone veto, the third and most significant of Mr.
Obama’s six years in office, would most likely be followed by
presidential vetoes of bills that could emerge to make changes in
the Affordable Care Act, impose new sanctions on Iran and roll
back child nutrition standards, among others.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/23/us/politics/with-expected-keystone-veto-obama-to-open-new-era-of-presidency.html?ref=energy-environment&_r=1


VEHICLES

California to spend $20 million on building part of 'hydrogen
highway'.  It's been more than a decade since former Gov. Arnold
Schwarzenegger regularly talked about his dream of building a
"hydrogen highway" that would speed fleets of non-polluting cars
from Mexico to Canada. The vision never materialized anywhere
other than in the governor's upbeat, eco-friendly speeches. Now,
finally, a modest form of Schwarzenegger's highway might actually
become a reality.
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-capitol-business-beat-20150223-story.html


Utilities Push Into Fuel Stations for Electric Cars.  Since
hitting the mass market about five years ago, electric vehicles
have failed to take off, largely, experts say, because a robust
network of public charging stations has not been built. Car
companies, retail chains and members of an infant charger
industry have announced partnership after partnership to build
the stations, but their number still falls well short of what is
needed to nudge millions of drivers into making the switch,
analysts say.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/20/business/utilities-push-into-fuel-stations-for-electric-cars.html?ref=energy-environment&_r=0


GREEN ENERGY

Carbon Pricing Pays the Way for Cleaner Energy.  Following more
than two centuries of fossil-fueled industrialization, during
which the atmosphere has been used as a free dump for
climate-changing pollution, an incipient era of carbon-pollution
pricing is paying dividends to the climate. More than 80 percent
of the $4.8 billion raised by the European Union’s emissions
trading system (ETS) in 2013 was spent supporting growth of clean
energy and other climate-friendly initiatives. 
http://www.climatecentral.org/news/carbon-pricing-pays-way-for-cleaner-energy-18691


Solar energy’s new best friend is … the Christian Coalition.  The
politics of solar power keeps getting more and more interesting. 
In Indiana, a fight over net metering — basically, whether people
with rooftop solar can return their excess power to the grid and
thereby lower their utility bills — has drawn out groups ranging
from the state chapter of the NAACP to the conservative TUSK
(Tell Utilities Solar won’t be Killed) in favor of the practice.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2015/02/20/solar-energys-new-best-friend-is-the-christian-coalition/


OPINIONS

The real threat of climate change alarmism.  For nearly four
decades, we’ve increasingly been bombarded with global warming
alarmism. What actually should alarm us is the corruption of
science and, consequently, the undermining of knowledge-based
authority. “Global warming” began being called “climate change”
about the time warming so obviously had tapered off that annual
differences were essentially immeasurable, and well within the
margin of error.
http://www.ocregister.com/articles/warming-651875-global-control.html

Cutting Through India’s Smog.  Proof of the grave air pollution
problem confronting India is seen not just in the suffocating
smog that on many days crowds out the sun in New Delhi, the
world’s most polluted city. It can be measured as well in the
fact that the country has the world’s highest death rate from
chronic respiratory diseases, which kill an estimated 1.5 million
Indians every year. A 2014 World Health Organization report
concluded of the 20 most polluted cities in the world, India has
13.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/23/opinion/cutting-through-indias-smog.html


Strangely, electric car data being kept quiet.  A transportation
planner told me he doesn’t emphasize electric vehicles because
they are primarily for the rich. And I must be Donald Trump. The
rich? Electric cars are in the high $20,000s to mid $30,000
range. For example, the MSRP on a Chevrolet Spark EV is $27,645.
The popular Nissan Leaf MSRP is $29,860. What he and others don’t
know is that buyers get an immediate $7,500 from the federal
government for an electric car or a plug-in electric. My 2013
Chevrolet Volt, for example, gets about 40 miles per charge but
has a small, 9.5-gallon gasoline engine to increase the range to
about 380 miles on a charge+tank. That’s why I’m able to drive to
San Diego next weekend without a bout of range anxiety.
http://www.pasadenastarnews.com/environment-and-nature/20150221/strangely-electric-car-data-being-kept-quiet

California needs a simpler gas tax, not a higher one.  With
prices at the pump heading back up, news of a possible cut to the
state’s gas tax will surely cheer California drivers. On Tuesday,
the State Board of Equalization will consider a proposal to cut
the state’s gas tax by 7.5 cents a gallon. The proposal stems
from a complicated formula enacted by the Legislature in 2010. 
http://www.sacbee.com/opinion/op-ed/soapbox/article10553594.html


BLOGS

You can change the minds of climate change skeptics. Here’s how. 
Last week the National Academy of Sciences made headlines by
calling for stepped-up research into geoengineering.
Geoengineering comprises technologies designed to counteract
human-caused climate change: towering “carbon scrubbers” that
would suck carbon dioxide from the atmosphere; the injection of
iron pellets into the ocean to stimulate growth of
carbon-consuming phytoplankton blooms; or — my personal favorite—
deploying zillions of mirror-coated nanotechnology flying saucers
to form a stratospheric solar reflector.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/monkey-cage/wp/2015/02/23/you-can-change-the-minds-of-climate-change-skeptics-heres-how/

Map: These will be Europe’s most polluted cities by 2030.  When
Europeans talk about air pollution, they often think of India or
China, but rarely consider their own continent to be at risk. And
while levels of air pollution have decreased throughout Europe
over the past decades, a new study by Austrian scientists
concludes that smog is far from being defeated on the continent.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2015/02/23/map-these-will-be-europes-most-polluted-cities-by-2030/


Al Gore on Pollution in Delhi.  Climate change crusader and
former United States Vice-President Al Gore is in Delhi to warn
the country about the dangers of pollution and rising global
temperatures. “Indians must know that this is a life or death
issue,” Mr. Gore said in an interview with the television channel
NDTV.
http://blogs.wsj.com/indiarealtime/2015/02/23/al-gore-on-pollution-in-delhi/


Preventing Sea Level Rise in New York City While Cleaning the Air
in India and China.  Last week, the New York City Panel on
Climate Change predicted a hot and stormy future for the city
that never sleeps. Apparently, by the end of the century New
Yorkers will have ample reason to lose sleep. I view these
projections as possible yet avoidable scenarios. New York City is
spending $20 billion to help ensure it can adapt to a more
difficult future, but if the panel's prediction of two feet of
sea level rise comes to pass, we will need many multiples of $20
billion to protect New York. These projections should be seen as
probabilistic warnings, not certain predictions of the future.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/steven-cohen/preventing-sea-level-rise_b_6734948.html


Climate Questions From Smart Young Students.  One of the perks of
my job is answering emails from high school and junior high
students doing their first research projects on climate change
science, policy, and politics.  A little while back, I got an
email from a 14 year-old Virginia middle-schooler named Emily,
who was working on a debate project about global warming. She
asked me the six good questions below, and I thought I'd answer
them via this post. But first, my apologies to Emily for taking
so long - her debate probably has already taken place. I hope
these responses will help some other students with their
assignments.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-doniger/climate-questions-from-smart-young-students_b_6728116.html




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