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newsclips -- ARB Newsclips for May 4, 2015.

Posted: 04 May 2015 14:20:36
ARB Newsclips for May 4, 2015. 

This is a service of the California Air Resources Board’s Office
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individual websites to view some of the following news articles.

CAP AND TRADE

Europe's top carbon emitters swap 255 million UN offsets for EU
permits. Firms in Europe’s Emissions Trading System (ETS) have
swapped a total of 255 million U.N.-backed carbon offsets for
European Union emissions allowances (EUAs) from April 2013-2014,
data published by the European Commission showed on Monday.
Traders in the EU carbon market watch the swap figure because it
can indicate both the current supply of EUAs and the future
demand for offsets.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/05/04/us-europe-carbontrading-offset-idUSKBN0NP1L620150504


Study Finds Symbiotic Relationship Between Voluntary, Compliance
Markets. When the US state of California developed its
high-profile cap-and-trade program, it drew on (and supported)
voluntary markets across North America. Many thought that when
the state’s compliance market kicked in, the voluntary markets
would quietly fade away. Instead, an Ecosystem Marketplace
analysis of 2014 offset transactions across North America shows
there is more than enough room for both – with voluntary volume
even higher than compliance volume.
http://www.ecosystemmarketplace.com/pages/dynamic/article.page.php?page_id=10937§ion=news_articles&eod=1


AIR POLLUTION
 
The High Price of China's Smoggy Skies.  A documentary on air
pollution hopes to spur action. Rachel Carson's 1962 take on the
environmental damage wrought by the U.S. chemical industry in The
Silent Spring is credited with spurring a nationwide ban on the
use of DDT in agriculture. Al Gore's 2006 documentary, An
Inconvenient Truth, and his 1,000-plus live slideshow
presentations brought global warming to the masses. Now, China
has Under the Dome.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-03-02/the-high-price-of-china-s-smoggy-skies


Scientists: EPA’s curbs on coal-burning will save thousands of
lives. The Obama administration’s proposed curbs on coal-burning
power plants could prevent thousands of deaths each year from
heart attack and respiratory disease, scientists said Monday in
the first peer-reviewed study to examine the measure’s health
impacts. Many parts of the country could see immediate
improvements in air quality as a side-effect…
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2015/05/04/scientists-epas-curbs-on-coal-burning-will-save-thousands-of-lives/

http://www.nbc12.com/story/28970789/study-cutting-carbon-dioxide-saves-3500-us-lives-a-year


How Growth in Dairy Is Affecting the Environment. On a map he
keeps in his office, Tom Frantz, an environmental activist and
retired math teacher, notes a spot near his home that he says is
within a five-mile radius of 10 big dairy farms and about 60,000
cows. This town, in the very fertile but poor and badly polluted
San Joaquin Valley in California, is near the heart of dairy
country in a state that produces 20 percent of America’s milk.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/04/business/energy-environment/how-growth-in-dairy-is-affecting-the-environment.html?ref=us



Study links childhood toxin exposure, poverty to lower IQs.
Airborne toxins and poverty combine to lower children's
intelligence, according to a recent study of New York City
children. Columbia University researchers found that children
from low-income households who are exposed to airborne chemicals
before birth demonstrated lower IQs than children from more
economically secure households who were exposed to less
pollution.
http://www.eenews.net/greenwire/2015/05/04/stories/1060017910 

CLIMATE CHANGE

Ex-US Rep. Inglis gets JFK courage award for climate stance.
Former U.S. Rep. Bob Inglis received the John F. Kennedy Profile
in Courage Award on Sunday for reversing his position on climate
change despite the predictable political fallout that helped cost
the South Carolina Republican his seat in Congress. Kennedy's
grandson, Jack Schlossberg, presented the award to Inglis…
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_PROFILE_IN_COURAGE_AWARD?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT


Correction: Greenhouse Gases-California-Things to Know story. In
a story April 29 about Gov. Jerry Brown's new target for reducing
carbon emissions, The Associated Press reported erroneously that
California has cut its emissions to about 25 percent below 1990
levels. The state is on track to cut its emissions to 1990 levels
by 2020 but does not plan to reduce emissions beyond that before
2020. A corrected version of the story is below:
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_GREENHOUSE_GASES_CALIFORNIA_THINGS_TO_KNOW?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

Pakistan pushes to put stalled climate policy into action.
Pakistan's provinces will create committees to oversee reductions
in carbon emissions and support climate change adaptation, in a
push to implement a long-stalled national climate policy.  Under
an agreement reached at the first meeting of the National Climate
Change Policy Implementation Committee in late April, climate
change sections will be established…
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/05/04/us-pakistan-climate-idUSKBN0NP0HL20150504


China says climate change threatens major projects. Climate
change threatens some of China's most important infrastructure
projects, China's top meteorologist warned in a state newspaper,
adding the country's rate of warming was higher than the global
average.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/05/04/us-climatechange-china-idUSKBN0NP05Z20150504


Fjords are unexpected natural allies against climate change:
study. Fjords from Alaska to Norway soak up potentially damaging
carbon from the atmosphere, making the steep-sided inlets an
overlooked natural ally in offsetting man-made climate change, a
study showed on Monday. Fjords cover only 0.1 percent of the
world's ocean surface but account for 11 percent of the organic
carbon in plants…
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/05/04/us-climatechange-fjords-idUSKBN0NP1DI20150504


Limiting global warming to 2 degrees 'inadequate', scientists
say. Holding global warming to a 2-degree Celsius temperature
rise – the cornerstone of an expected new global climate
agreement in December – will fail to prevent many of climate
change's worst impacts, a group of scientists and other experts
warned Friday. With a 2-degree temperature hike, small islands in
the Pacific may become uninhabitable, weather-related disasters…
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/05/01/us-climatechange-temperature-idUSKBN0NM40820150501


Report: Global emissions goals still aren’t enough to prevent a
dangerous level of climate warming. When it comes to combating
climate change, many scientists and policy makers focus on one
major goal: cut carbon emissions enough to keep the planet’s
average surface temperature from rising more than 2 degrees
Celsius above its pre-industrial level.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2015/05/04/report-global-emissions-goals-still-arent-enough-to-prevent-a-dangerous-level-of-climate-warming/


One in six species could be wiped out by climate change, study
says. About one in six species now alive on the planet could
become extinct as a result of climate change, according to a
study published in Friday’s edition of the journal Science. If
present trends continue, the Earth’s temperature will wind up 4.3
degrees Celsius higher than it was before the onset of the
industrial era.
http://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-climate-change-species-extinction-20150501-story.html


Clean Power Plan protects public health as much as high carbon
tax – paper. U.S. EPA's Clean Power Plan will protect public
health as much as a very stringent carbon tax would, but at less
cost to consumers, a paper published today found. The paper, by
researchers at Harvard University and the Washington, D.C., think
tank Resources for the Future (RFF), says that a flexible
nationwide model roughly approximating EPA's proposal for carbon
dioxide from existing power plants…
http://www.eenews.net/greenwire/2015/05/04/stories/1060017930 

DROUGHT

Drought’s Extremes Can Be Measured at Record-Low Lake Mead. Gail
Kaiser has spent much of her life here on Lake Mead, with its
crystal blue water pouring into canyons and splintering off like
blood vessels into coves and bays, forming the vast reservoir
that stretches into two states. She was just a child when, in
1957, her father took over the marina that has stayed in her
family’s hands ever since.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/05/us/droughts-extremes-can-be-measured-at-record-low-lake-mead.html?partner=rss&emc=rss&_r=0


Central Valley's growing concern: Crops raised with oil field
water. Here in California's thirsty farm belt, where pumpjacks
nod amid neat rows of crops, it's a proposition that seems to
make sense: using treated oil field wastewater to irrigate crops.
Oil giant Chevron recycles 21 million gallons of that water each
day and sells it to farmers who use it on about 45,000 acres of
crops, about 10% of Kern County's farmland.
http://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-drought-oil-water-20150503-story.html#page=1


Dozens of agencies seek to alter reports on how much water
residents used. When California’s State Water Resources Control
Board announced last month that it was basing its orders for
mandatory water cutbacks on each community’s per capita water
use, it elevated a somewhat obscure figure into the spotlight:
residential gallons of water used per person per day.
http://www.sacbee.com/news/investigations/the-public-eye/article20156682.html#storylink=cpyhttp://www.sacbee.com/news/investigations/the-public-eye/article20156682.html#storylink=cpy


California Drought Kills 12 Million Forest Trees Since Last Year.
An estimated 12 million trees across California’s forestlands
have died over the past year because of extreme drought
conditions, according to an aerial survey conducted April 8-17 by
the U.S. Forest Service. In San Diego County, 82,528 trees,
mostly Jeffrey pines across Mt. Laguna, have succumbed to a lack
of rainfall, with many more struggling to survive…
http://www.kpbs.org/news/2015/may/04/california-drought-kills-12-million-forest-trees-l/


California drought: Landscape of abundance becomes landscape of
scarcity. Photographer Matt Black grew up in California's Central
Valley. He has dedicated his life to documenting the area's small
towns and farmers. Last year, he says he realized what had been a
mild drought was now severe.
http://www.scpr.org/news/2015/05/04/51429/california-drought-landscape-of-abundance-becomes/


Drought forces Lake Mead marina to move. One measure of how hard
the Western drought has been on boaters and marina owners in the
West can be found at Lake Mead in Nevada, where crews recently
began the process of moving a marina farther out into the lake.
The lake, which is part of the Colorado River system, feeds into
the Hoover Dam.
http://www.tradeonlytoday.com/2015/05/lake-mead-marina-forced-move-drought/


FUELS

The Shale Boom Has Already Gone Bust - At Least for Now. The
meteoric rise in U.S. oil production has ended, easing a global
glut and driving a rebound in crude prices from below $50 a
barrel, according to crude trader and hedge fund manager Andrew
J. Hall. “We have now reached a turning point,” Hall said in a
letter Friday to investors in Astenbeck Capital Management LLC,
his commodities hedge fund.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-05-03/the-shale-boom-has-already-gone-bust-at-least-for-now


New Oil Train Rules Are Hit From All Sides. Ending months of
uncertainty and delays, federal regulators on Friday unveiled new
rules for transporting crude oil by trains, saying the measures
would improve rail safety and reduce the risks of a catastrophic
event. But the rules quickly came under criticism from many
sides. Lawmakers and safety advocates said the regulations did
not go far enough in protecting the public…
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/02/business/energy-environment/us-sets-new-rules-for-oil-shipments-by-rail.html?ref=energy-environment&_r=0


With its pilot project, one Irvine company is turning emissions
into electricity. One thousand cubic feet of methane is flared
every minute at Santiago Canyon Landfill, methane generated by
23.7 million cubic yards of trash now capped by 5 feet of dirt
and blanketed by coastal sage scrub. The burning prevents a
powerful, heat-trapping greenhouse gas – about 25 times more
potent than carbon dioxide – from getting into the atmosphere and
speeding global warming.
http://www.ocregister.com/articles/landfill-660309-electricity-core.html

RFS delay has 'chilled necessary investment' in industry –
report. The Obama administration's delays in setting annual
renewable fuel targets are responsible for up to a $13.7 billion
shortfall in investment for the advanced biofuels industry,
according to a new industry report. The Biotechnology Industry
Organization report also found that the delays at U.S. EPA have
limited the industry's ability to create more than 80,000 direct
jobs.
http://www.eenews.net/greenwire/2015/05/04/stories/1060017924 

VEHICLES

SGL Carbon Jumps as Investors See Benefit From Tesla Batteries.
SGL Carbon SE shares climbed the most in almost three months as
investors anticipate the maker of carbon components could benefit
from Tesla Motors Inc.’s push into batteries that store
electricity for buildings. SGL supplies graphite anodes to
Japanese electronics companies Hitachi Ltd. and Panasonic Corp.,
which in turn sell components to electric carmaker Tesla,
according to Marc Gabriel, a Bielefeld, Germany-based analyst at
Bankhaus Lampe.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-05-04/sgl-carbon-jumps-as-investors-see-benefit-from-tesla-batteries


U.S. Auto Buyers Spend to Trade Up. Buyers’ demand for more
luxury in new vehicles shows up in rising prices paid. Americans
snapped up pricey automobiles in April amid low gasoline prices
and favorable lending terms, with buyers paying on average
hundreds of dollars more than in the same period a year ago. In a
season when the pace of auto sales typically weakens…
http://www.wsj.com/articles/chrysler-sales-rise-5-8-in-april-1430484083?KEYWORDS=emissions


Chevy Volt Emits Significantly Less Smog-Forming Pollution Than
Other PHEVs. The Chevy Volt is in a class of its own compared to
other plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs). The Volt emits
significantly less smog-forming pollution than other PHEVs,
according to a GM study presented to the Society of Automotive
Engineers. Furthermore, GM-Volt reports that the engineering
analysis for the new 2016 Volt that will be on the market soon…
http://cleantechnica.com/2015/05/02/chevy-volt-emits-significantly-less-smog-forming-pollution-phevs/


GREEN ENERGY

Supreme Court to Review FERC Energy Saving Rule. Court will
consider the case during its next term, which begins in October.
The Supreme Court said Monday it would consider whether a federal
regulator overstepped its authority with a rule to promote energy
conservation using incentives for big energy consumers to cut
power use. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which
oversees wholesale electricity markets, had appealed a lower
court decision striking down the 2011 regulation…
http://www.wsj.com/articles/supreme-court-to-review-ferc-energy-saving-rule-1430748924?KEYWORDS=emissions


New utility-driven community solar program takes shape in Calif. 
A new chapter in utilities' relationship with rooftop solar is
evolving in California. The state's three major investor-owned
utilities are developing proposals to buy rooftop solar power and
sell it to customers who want to be greener than the norm. There
are community renewables programs under development or already
being implemented in several other states, including Colorado…
http://www.eenews.net/energywire/stories/1060017807/search?keyword=california


MISCELLANEOUS

The Uphill Battle to Better Regulate Formaldehyde. A decade after
emergency trailers meant to shelter Hurricane Katrina victims
instead caused burning eyes, sore throats and other more serious
ailments, the Environmental Protection Agency is on the verge of
regulating the culprit: formaldehyde, a chemical that can be
found in commonplace things like clothes and furniture. But an
unusual assortment of players, including furniture makers, the
Chinese government…
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/04/business/energy-environment/the-uphill-battle-to-better-regulate-formaldehyde.html


Coal ash contamination upsets residents near North Carolina
plants. As a boy, Ron Thomas often watched murky water pour from
a pipe into the Yadkin River behind his family's farmhouse,
dumped from coal ash storage ponds at Duke Energy's Buck
electricity plant. Now 80, Thomas worries that he and his wife,
Joann, 72, have for decades been drinking well water contaminated
by the ponds.
http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-coal-ash-pollution-20150504-story.html#page=1


Compressed Air Car Wins $5 Million Deal on Shark Tank.  AIRPod, a
$10,000 car that runs on compressed air, has won a development
deal on the American TV program “Shark Tank.” Robert Herjavec,
one of the investors, or sharks, Friday night agreed to invest
US$5 million in Zero Pollution Motors, the U.S. licensee for
Luxembourg-based MDI, developer of the Air Car as a
compression-based alternative to the internal combustion engine. 
http://ens-newswire.com/2015/05/04/compressed-air-car-wins-5-million-deal-on-shark-tank/


OPINIONS

Carbon Taxes In Revenue Fantasyland. There’s nothing neutral
about plans for offsetting the added expenses. Let’s take a look
at Yale’s new green brainstorm. The words “carbon tax” are
appearing ever more frequently on the lips of economists and
policy makers. Earlier this month, former Rep. Bob Inglis (R.,
S.C.) received the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award for
advocating it.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/carbon-taxes-in-revenue-fantasyland-1430436869?KEYWORDS=emissions


Gov. Brown strikes a blow for climate science. To the editor: The
reverberating power of one single state finally doing the right
thing to address the most critical and urgent threat to humanity
cannot be underestimated. Gov. Jerry Brown has thrown down the
gauntlet, challenging other politicians of conscience to follow.
http://www.latimes.com/opinion/readersreact/la-le-0503-sunday-climate-change-20150503-story.html


The GOP attack on climate change science takes a big step
forward. Living down to our worst expectations, the House
Committee on Science, Space and Technology voted Thursday to cut
deeply into NASA's budget for Earth science, in a clear swipe at
the study of climate change. The committee's markup of the NASA
authorization bill for fiscal 2016 and 2017 passed on a
party-line vote, Republicans in the majority.
http://www.latimes.com/business/hiltzik/la-fi-mh-gop-attack-on-climate-change-science-20150501-column.html


BLOGS

With Pope Francis’s Encyclical on Climate Change Done, Now a
Vatican Sales Push – and Pushback. The much-anticipated
environmental encyclical that Pope Francis plans to issue this
summer is already being translated into the world’s major
languages from the Latin final draft, so there’s no more tweaking
to be done, several people close to the process have told me in
recent weeks.
http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/04/28/spin-substance-and-pope-franciss-environmental-encyclical/?emc=edit_tnt_20150504&nlid=46426900&tntemail0=y&_r=0



Q. and A.: Ma Jun on Using Mobile Phones to Fight Pollution. Ma
Jun, a former journalist who has become one of China’s most
prominent environmentalists, was recently honored with a Skoll
Award for Social Entrepreneurship for the work of his
nongovernmental organization, the Institute of Public and
Environmental Affairs, in increasing awareness about sources of
pollution in China.
http://sinosphere.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/04/28/q-and-a-ma-jun-on-using-mobile-phones-to-fight-pollution/?emc=edit_tnt_20150504&nlid=46426900&tntemail0=y
 

Catastrophic California drought causing infestation wave of
rodents looking for water. As California's climate fades to
desert, rats are coming out of their hiding places in search of
water. They are coming out to parks to steal water from dog bowls
and attacking horse troughs in desperate need of something to
drink. They are finding new ways into homes and becoming a menace
like never before.
http://www.naturalnews.com/049588_California_drought_rat_infestation_thirsty_rodents.html#ixzz3ZBpHr4Vw


Refrigeration Battery is a cool idea for saving energy at the
supermarket. Elon Musk gets all the pixels for his new Powerwall
battery system, but here's another cool battery that is making a
splash. It's the Refrigeration Battery from Axiom. Apparently
those giant coolers and fridges full of all that unhealthy frozen
prepared food eat up 56 percent of a grocery store's electricity.
http://www.treehugger.com/energy-efficiency/refrigeration-battery-cool-idea-saving-energy-supermarket.html


Warm Oceans Caused The Mega-Drought And Hottest Years In The
1934-36 Dust Bowl. Two ocean hot spots have been linked to the
hottest summers on record for the central United States, in 1934
and 1936. Those two summers and the "Dust Bowl" that saw farming
devastated were accompanied by the worst drought in America of
the last 1,000 years.
http://www.science20.com/news_articles/warm_oceans_caused_the_megadrought_and_hottest_years_in_the_193436_dust_bowl-155308#ixzz3ZBnBZG5z


A Novel Dutch Lawsuit Demands Government Cut Carbon Emissions. A
lawsuit in the Netherlands is taking an unusual approach to
climate change. So unusual, in fact, that experts around the
world are watching it closely, wondering whether it might spark a
major shift in environmentalists' efforts to limit carbon
emissions.
http://www.npr.org/blogs/parallels/2015/05/04/401971833/a-novel-dutch-lawsuit-demands-govt-cut-carbon-emissions





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

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