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AIR POLLUTION

Why air pollution is sometimes good news for the climate 
BURNING fossil fuels for heating, generating electricity or for
transport does not simply produce carbon-dioxide emissions, but
also other greenhouse gases (GHG), such as particulate matter
(PM), sulphur dioxide (SO2), nitrogen oxides (NOx) and volatile
organic compounds (VOC).
http://www.economist.com/blogs/freeexchange/2015/10/climate-change


Indian Express journalists awarded for series on Delhi’s air
pollution
Express journalists Pritha Chatterjee and Aniruddha Ghosal were
awarded the Young Environment Journalism Award in the print
category for their Death by Breath series on Delhi’s air
pollution.
http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-news-india/indian-express-journalists-awarded-for-series-on-delhis-air-pollution/#sthash.kN1Le9hN.dpuf


Benzene in traffic emissions tied to childhood leukemia
Traffic pollution near the home – and specifically, benzene in
the air - increases the risk of one type of childhood leukemia,
according to a nationwide study in France.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/10/06/us-health-airpollution-kids-leukemia-idUSKCN0S02Q520151006


CAP AND TRADE

California has unspent billions from carbon auctions.
One of the chores the Legislature left undone when it adjourned
was spending billions of dollars from auctioning carbon dioxide
emission credits. There’s no shortage of suggestions on how to
spend the “cap-and-trade” money, but state law says it’s supposed
to be spent on reducing carbon emissions and thus combating
climate change. Gov. Jerry Brown already has a big chunk of the
money – $250 million a year and growing – to spend on his pet
bullet train project on the assertion that it will make a big
dent in tailpipe carbon emissions.
http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/dan-walters/article38765793.html


CLIMATE CHANGE 

Even as climate change gets worse, U.N. climate reports are
getting harder to read.
Let’s face it: Climate science isn’t always the easiest subject
to explain to non-scientists. However, the political charge
surrounding global conversations about climate change makes it
all the more important to communicate the science to the general
public as clearly and accurately as possible. Unfortunately, new
research suggests that the world’s foremost body dedicated to
reviewing and communicating climate science may be falling short
in this area.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2015/10/12/even-as-climate-change-gets-worse-u-n-climate-reports-are-getting-harder-to-read/


EU climate boss says emissions cuts not enough.
Europe's climate chief has acknowledged for the first time that
climate pledges made by national governments ahead of a major
U.N. conference fall short of meeting the international goal of
keeping global warming below 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees
Fahrenheit). In an interview Monday with The Associated Press,
Climate Commissioner Miguel Arias Canete said the EU's
projections show the current pledges to curb greenhouse gas
emissions would put world on a path toward 3 degrees Celsius (5.4
degrees Fahrenheit) of warming.
http://www.fresnobee.com/news/business/article38802903.html 

Paying to Pollute Gains Ground as Nations Seek Climate Solution.
The world is coming to terms with the idea that putting a price
on carbon emissions is necessary to fight global warming. Now
there’s a growing consensus on how to make it happen. Cap and
trade. After years of political defeats and operational snafus,
systems that let companies buy and sell the right to pollute are
gaining traction as a way to reduce emissions without dragging
down the economy. With less than two months before nations are
expected to finish a binding global deal to rein in greenhouse
gases, Japan, South Korea, dozens of U.S. states and the Canadian
provinces of Ontario and Quebec are among governments coming out
in favor of these carbon markets.
http://washpost.bloomberg.com/Story?docId=1376-NVIBAN6KLVR901-0DTC2GU9FI2QJQUAVMP3RQ50NK


What Exxon knew about the Earth's melting Arctic
Back in 1990, as the debate over climate change was heating up, a
dissident shareholder petitioned the board of Exxon, one of the
world’s largest oil companies, imploring it to develop a plan to
reduce carbon dioxide emissions from its production plants and
facilities. http://graphics.latimes.com/exxon-arctic/ 

SANDAG board adopts regional plan
The SANDAG Board of Directors voted unanimously Friday to adopt
the final version of San Diego Forward: The Regional Plan, a
sweeping blueprint for the future that will invest $204 billion
into transportation infrastructure projects over the next 35
years.
http://www.kusi.com/story/30228083/sandag-board-adopts-regional-plan


VOLKSWAGEN EMISSIONS

US: California authorities give VW deadline for diesel fix
The most populous US state, a well known fair haven for
environmentalists, has now prompted German automaker Volkswagen
AG to deliver a repair strategy by November 20 for diesel-powered
cars.
http://www.inautonews.com/us-california-authorities-give-vw-deadline-for-diesel-fix


California gives VW Nov. 20 deadline for technical fix in diesel
scandal
California has given carmaker Volkswagen until November 20 to
come up with a plan to fix the diesel cars affected by its
rigging of emissions tests, a spokesman for the California Air
Resources Board (CARB) said on Friday.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/reuters/article-3266842/California-gives-VW-Nov-20-deadline-technical-fix-diesel-scandal.html#ixzz3oOUXwHHZ
http://www.autonews.com/article/20151009/OEM11/151009800/vw-faces-nov.-20-deadline-in-california-to-fix-diesel-violations


As Clouds Grow Darker Over Volkswagen, What’s Next For The
Automotive Giant?
This has been a particularly dramatic week for floundering
automotive giant Volkswagen—one that played out with an air of
intrigue and subterfuge that’s becoming almost Nixonian in scale.
http://www.popsci.com/as-evidence-gathers-volkswagen-announces-plan-to-fix-its-cars


VW may have a second device to skirt emissions
Federal regulators are investigating if Volkswagen used a second
device to avoid federal regulations on one of the automaker's new
"clean diesel engines."
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/vw-may-have-a-second-device-to-skirt-emissions/article/2573819

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-10-09/epa-s-new-volkswagen-probe-may-reveal-failure-to-disclose


Q&A How much pollution did VW's emissions cheating create? 
Here's a look at how VW's emission standards cheating might
affect Californians.
Volkswagen has admitted equipping half a million diesel cars in
the U.S. with software to cheat on emissions tests — and then, in
normal driving, to spew between 10 and 40 times the allowable
levels of nitrogen oxides.
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-vw-pollution-footprint-20151007-htmlstory.html

DIESEL ACTIVITIES

EPA, Calif. hit carrier with $400k in fines for not using diesel
particulate filters.
A Virginia trucking company will pay $100,000 to the
Environmental Protection Agency and an additional $290,000 to
California in the first federal enforcement of the state’s Truck
and Bus Regulation. The EPA has fined Estes Express Lines
$100,000 for lacking diesel particulate filters on 73 trucks
operating in California. That represents 15 percent of the fleet
Estes operates there, but the national carrier now only uses new
trucks in the state.
http://www.overdriveonline.com/epa-calif-hit-carrier-with-400k-in-fines-for-not-using-diesel-particulate-filters/


Cutting ozone will require radical transformation of California's
trucking industry At a laboratory in downtown Los Angeles, a big
rig spins its wheels on massive rollers as a metal tube funnels
its exhaust into an array of air quality sensors. Engineers track
the roaring truck's emissions from a bank of computer screens.
http://www.latimes.com/science/la-me-adv-ozone-transportation-20151011-story.html


FUELS

MIT study finds carbon prices more cost-effective than fuel
economy regs at reducing CO2 emissions; fuel economy regs more
efficient at reducing fuel use.
Researchers at the MIT Joint Program on the Science and Policy of
Global Change have compared the worldwide economic,
environmental, and energy impacts of currently planned fuel
economy standards (extended to the year 2050) with those of
region-specific carbon prices designed to yield identical CO2
emissions reductions. Their study, which appears in the Journal
of Transport Economics and Policy, finds that such stringent fuel
economy standards would cost the economy 10% of global gross
domestic product (GDP) in 2050, compared with a 6% cost under
carbon pricing.
http://www.greencarcongress.com/2015/10/20151012-mit.html 

VEHICLES

Québec lays out C$420M action plan for electrification of
transport through 2020.
The Government of Québec has unveiled a new Action Plan for the
electrification of transport in 2015-2020. With a budget of more
than C$420 million (US$324 million), the plan has the following
objectives: Increase the number of electric vehicles in the car
park of Québec; Reduce greenhouse gas emissions; Reduce energy
dependence on oil and improve the trade balance of Quebec; and
Contribute to Québec’s economic development by focusing on a
future industry and using the electrical energy available in
Quebec.
http://www.greencarcongress.com/2015/10/20151012-quebec.html 

Argonne study finds lightweight material substitution increases
vehicle-cycle GHGs, but results in total life-cycle benefit.
A team at Argonne National Laboratory has taken a closer look at
vehicle-cycle (all processes related to vehicle manufacturing)
and vehicle total life-cycle (vehicle-cycle plus fuel cycle—i.e.,
the use phase) impacts of substituting lightweight materials into
vehicles. In a study published in the ACS journal Environmental
Science & Technology, they reported that while material
substitution can reduce vehicle weight, it often increases
vehicle-cycle greenhouse gas emissions GHGs—for example,
replacing steel with wrought aluminum, carbon fiber reinforced
plastic (CRFP), or magnesium increases the vehicle-cycle GHGs.
http://www.greencarcongress.com/2015/10/20151012-kelly.html 

GREEN ENERGY

Solar panels getting cool reception from homeowners
associations.
Ilam Mougy wanted to green up his condominium with solar power.
The 49-year-old software engineer won approval to install panels
on his home from PG&E and the city of San Jose. He expected
little trouble from the Tuscany Hills homeowners association
since another neighbor had an array on his roof. He was wrong.
http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/technology/20151011/solar-panels-getting-cool-reception-from-homeowners-associations


MISCELLANEOUS

California pushes to make landfills food-free.
Heather Maloney thinks of herself as an environmentalist but, as
a working mother, doesn’t have the time to create a backyard
compost heap. The little bucket for food waste that Napa’s
recycling authority sent her offers a more convenient way to keep
her leftovers from lining a landfill. “You’re already scraping
plates and rinsing them off to put in the dishwasher, so it’s a
pretty easy system,” Maloney said, standing in her kitchen. “It’s
definitely cut down on our trash.”
http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article38764776.html


OPINION
Greener, cheaper electricity with community choice.
Even though our federal government seems gridlocked when it comes
to bold plans for renewable energy, this year Silicon Valley is
leading the way with innovative solutions for Community Choice
Energy. Municipalities across Silicon Valley are taking on
special interests to offer cleaner and cheaper energy directly to
their residents. Given the flurry of recent activity, it very
much seems that CCE is an idea whose time has come.
http://www.sfchronicle.com/opinion/openforum/article/Greener-cheaper-electricity-with-community-choice-6565076.php


Op-ed: Air pollution threatens Utah’s national parks and economy

Live. Climb. Repeat. It's a phrase often recited here at Black
Diamond, where we work every day to create innovative products
that help get people and families, young and old, outside to
enjoy wild places like Utah's "Mighty Five" national parks.
http://www.sltrib.com/opinion/3044373-155/op-ed-air-pollution-threatens-utahs-national


State’s vehicle testing programs have an Achilles’ heel 
Cheating on “clean diesels”? I am shocked! Shocked! But I was
really shocked when told in 2009 that the Volkswagen diesel had
passed the California Air Resources Board’s stringent dynamometer
emission tests.
http://www.sacbee.com/opinion/op-ed/soapbox/article38047368.html#storylink=cpy


Teaching the Truth About Climate Change
Misinformation about climate change is distressingly common in
the United States — a 2014 Yale study found that 35 percent of
Americans believe that global warming is caused mostly by natural
phenomena rather than human activity, and 34 percent think there
is a lot of disagreement among scientists about whether global
warming is even happening.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/11/opinion/sunday/teaching-the-truth-about-climate-change.html?_r=0


BLOGS

The CEO and the Activist: Meet Renewable Energy’s Odd Couple.
Meet the renewable-energy odd couple, the environmental activist
and his onetime target, the chief of Italy’s largest utility. A
year ago, Kumi Naidoo, the head of Greenpeace International, and
Francesco Starace were sworn enemies, after the group said Enel
SpA’s coal plants were killing people. Now, they’re drinking
orange juice together at the Four Seasons in New York, discussing
the urgent need to fight global warming.
http://washpost.bloomberg.com/Story?docId=1376-NVGRSW6KLVR701-0VBLS8CPSRR8IUN3R2NFCUEE8J


UN climate science head calls for carbon pricing.
The new head of the United Nations’s climate science agency said
countries around the world need to implement systems to put a
price on carbon dioxide emissions. Hoesung Lee, chairman of the
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), said at a news
conference in his native South Korea that he wants the agency to
put more focus on solving problems around climate change.
http://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/256646-un-climate-science-head-calls-for-carbon-pricing




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