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ARB Newsclips for November 18, 2016. 

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.

AIR POLLUTION

Navajo youth travel to San Francisco to protest coal plant.
Nineteen-year-old Sheldon Natoni worries about the haze hanging
over his tribe's sacred mountains in Arizona and the impact it is
having on the health of others in the Navajo Nation. His friend
Sebale Tsosie, 21, has the same concerns, saying it's unfair that
the massive coal-fired power plant blamed for the pollution…
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_NAVAJO_COAL_PLANT_YOUTH?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT


Wildfires cause hacking and wheezing across the South.  Asthma
sufferers and others with breathing problems are turning up at
hospitals and doctors’ waiting rooms, wheezing and hacking.
Schoolchildren are being kept inside at recess. And people whose
lungs are easily irritated are being told to close the windows
and run the air conditioner if they have one.
http://www.sfchronicle.com/nation/article/Wildfires-cause-hacking-and-wheezing-across-the-10621731.php


CLIMATE CHANGE

Earth's warm October not record; 2016 likely record hot.  While
last month merely tied for the world's third warmest October in
history, 2016 is still on track to be the hottest year on record,
federal meteorologists said Thursday. The National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration announced that the globe averaged 58.4
degrees (14.7 Celsius), which is 1.3 degrees (0.7 Celsius) warmer
than the 20th-century average but not as warm as Octobers in 2015
and 2014.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_SCI_HOT_OCTOBER?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT


OTHER RELATED STORIES
http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/2016/11/18/stories/1060045973 
Host of UN climate talks asks Trump to show 'pragmatism'. A
Moroccan official hosting United Nations climate talks appealed
to U.S. President-elect Donald Trump on Friday to be pragmatic
and to engage with the rest of the world in halting the global
temperature rise. Moroccan Foreign Minister Salaheddine Mezouar,
the president of the two-week talks in Marrakech, said the
conference's "message to the new American…
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/UN_CLIMATE_TALKS?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

UN talks tangle over cash to ease climate pain for poor. The
Marrakesh climate talks may not deliver the substantial boost in
international funding poorer countries need to cope with
worsening floods, droughts, storms and rising seas brought by
climate change, negotiators and development agencies fear.
Negotiators sparred on Thursday over the future of the Adaptation
Fund to help vulnerable communities cope with climate change…
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-climatechange-accord-adaptation-idUSKBN13C1ID

Trump fears push nations at Morocco talks to call climate action
an 'urgent duty'. Fears that U.S. President-elect Donald Trump
will pull out of the 2015 Paris Agreement to limit global warming
pushed almost 200 nations at climate talks in Morocco on Thursday
to declare action an "urgent duty". Trump has called man-made
global warming a hoax and has said he will withdraw from the
Paris Agreement…
http://in.reuters.com/article/climatechange-accord-idINKBN13C2J9

Octopus in the parking garage is climate change’s canary in the
coal mine. The canary in the coal mine once served as a natural
warning system in a bygone industrial era. Now, for Florida at
least, maybe it ought to be the octopus in the parking garage.
Photos of an octopus splayed out in a flooded Miami Beach parking
garage have been floating around the internet all week, prompting
some skeptics to call “bogus” on both the discovery of the
eight-legged creature out of its element and the force blamed for
its appearance — climate change.
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/miami-beach/article115688508.html
In graveyard of dead coral in Pacific, hope and life bloom. In a
ghost town of dead coral off a remote Pacific island, scientists
have found a bit more life. In excursions a year ago and then
last April, scientists examined the normally stunning coral reefs
around the island of Kiritimati and pronounced it mostly a
boneyard of dead coral. About 85 percent of the coral was dead…
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_SCI_CORAL_HOPE?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT


Intensified by Climate Change, ‘King. Tides’ Change Ways of Life
in Florida. King tides, which frequently flood South Florida even
when the sun shines, are the most blatant. example of the
interplay between rising seas and the alignment of the moon, sun
and Earth. In an enclave of a city known as the Venice of
America, where dream-big houses look out over a maze of
picturesque canals…
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/18/us/intensified-by-climate-change-king-tides-change-ways-of-life-in-florida.html?_r=0

http://www.sfgate.com/nation/article/Climate-change-King-Tides-change-ways-of-10621868.php


Climate Change's Most Vulnerable Nations Vow to Run Entirely on
Renewable Energy. The climate summit in Morocco has produced few
tangible results, but did feature an ambitious pledge by 47
countries fighting for their own survival. As talks on
implementing last year's landmark climate treaty closed in
Marrakech, a group of 47 developing countries that are highly
vulnerable to the climate crisis…
https://insideclimatenews.org/news/18112016/climate-changes-most-vulnerable-countries-vow-complete-transformation-clean-energy


Message to Trump? Countries say climate fight 'irreversible'. If
Donald Trump pulls the US out of the UN climate process in early
2017, the world’s sixth largest economy could try and fill the
sizeable hole it leaves1. Asked by Climate Home on Thursday if
the golden state could replace the United States, California
senate leader Kevin De Leon said it was an “option that I want to
keep open”.
http://www.climatechangenews.com/2016/11/17/if-trump-quits-california-could-apply-to-join-un-climate-talks/?utm_source=Inside+Climate+News&utm_campaign=b908482ce9-Today_s_Climate12_10_2014&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_29c928ffb5-b908482ce9-327747457


The North Pole is an insane 36 degrees warmer than normal as
winter descends. Political people in the United States are
watching the chaos in Washington in the moment. But some people
in the science community are watching the chaos somewhere else —
the Arctic. It’s polar night there now — the sun isn’t rising… 
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2016/11/17/the-north-pole-is-an-insane-36-degrees-warmer-than-normal-as-winter-descends/?utm_campaign=b908482ce9-Today_s_Climate12_10_2014&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Inside
Climate News&utm_term=.769f7a2fc785   

Kerry tells climate conference that the U.S. will fight global
warming — with Trump or without. Secretary of State John F. Kerry
took the stage at United Nations climate talks in Morocco on
Wednesday, seeking to reassure nervous negotiators that a
groundbreaking agreement to fight global warming will survive
with Donald Trump in the White House. The Republican
president-elect has called climate change a “hoax” and…
http://www.latimes.com/world/africa/la-fg-morocco-climate-conference-20161116-story.html


The Problem With Abandoning the Paris Agreement. Bill O’Reilly
and Barack Obama agree: President-Elect Trump shouldn’t walk away
from the first international climate treaty. If the Trump
administration withdraws the United States from the Paris
Agreement, the country would face a massive global diplomatic
backlash and permanently cede worldwide leadership on climate and
renewable-energy issues to...
http://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2016/11/the-problem-with-abandoning-the-paris-agreement/508085/


UK signs up for Paris climate agreement. The UK government has
signed a document ratifying the world's first comprehensive
agreement on tackling climate change. Parliament raised no
objections to the Paris deal; after the government signed the
deal on Thursday, it is now just awaiting deposition at the UN.
The government is set to announce tomorrow that ratification is
complete. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/amp/38014611 

EPA's big bet on nuclear put U.S. climate goals at risk. In the
spring of 2013, Exelon Corp. Executive Joe Dominguez briefed
President Obama's new energy secretary, Ernest Moniz, on a
slow-burning energy and climate threat. Rising operating costs
and declining revenues were starting to cripple nuclear power
across the Midwest and in the East, he told the secretary, a
nuclear physicist himself and an industry ally.
http://www.eenews.net/energywire/2016/11/18/stories/1060045989

Climate scientists brace for funding battles under Trump. Some
climate scientists are terrified that the coming Trumpstorm will
decimate their field, while others think it could lead to a
rejuvenation. Now that the smoke has cleared a little since
election night, scientists say they are trying to take a
clear-eyed look at what the next four to eight years might bring.
http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/2016/11/18/stories/1060045966 

Industry lawyer: Trump won't wait for courts to kill rule. A
lawyer for a trade group challenging U.S. EPA's Clean Power Plan
said he believes President-elect Donald Trump is more likely to
unravel the electric-sector climate regulation with rulemaking,
rather than waiting for the courts to decide its fate. Trump's
administration has several options for lines of attack.
http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/2016/11/18/stories/1060045972 

FUELS

Obama blocks new oil, gas drilling in Arctic Ocean. The Obama
administration is blocking new oil and gas drilling in the Arctic
Ocean, handing a victory to environmentalists who say industrial
activity in the icy waters will harm whales, walruses and other
wildlife and exacerbate global warming. A five-year offshore
drilling plan announced on Friday blocks the planned sale of new
oil and gas…
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_ARCTIC_DRILLING?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT


Fires, explosions at Torrance refinery have neighborhood on edge.
 An explosion last year at a Torrance oil refinery spewed smoke
and dust into surrounding neighborhoods and alerted residents to
the dangers of living near the sprawling industrial complex.
Since then, shutdowns, flaring incidents and a fire that broke
out Tuesday have only increased anxiety about the Torrance
Refining Co.
http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-torrance-refinery-20161116-story.html


New Way of Transforming CO2 Is More Efficient Than What Plants
Do.  A new method for fixing carbon dioxide. By tinkering with
the process that plants use to breathe in carbon dioxide, a team
of German scientists has just discovered a far more efficient way
to get rid of it. Biochemists led by Tobias Erb at the Max Planck
Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology in Marburg, Germany, have
developed a new, super-efficient method for living organisms to
suck CO2 out of the atmosphere.
http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/energy/a23938/fix-carbon-dioxide-useful-products/


European groups oppose any phase-out of conventional biofuels.
ePURE, the European ethanol association, was among a group of
trade organizations that recently issued a letter to the European
Commission strongly opposing any phase-out of European Union
support for conventional biofuels produced in Europe from
European-grown crops and feedstock.
http://www.ethanolproducer.com/articles/13919/european-groups-oppose-any-phase-out-of-conventional-biofuels


VEHICLES

Volkswagen to shed 30,000 jobs, cutting costs after scandal.
Volkswagen announced plans Friday to cut 30,000 jobs in a
wide-ranging restructuring of its namesake brand as it tries to
recover from a scandal over cars rigged to cheat on diesel
emissions tests. The German company said the job cuts, which
account to around 5 percent of its global workforce, are part of
a long-term plan…
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/E/EU_VOLKSWAGEN?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT


OTHER RELATED STORIES
https://www.bloomberg.com/gadfly/articles/2016-11-18/vw-job-cuts-sound-big-but-do-little-to-boost-efficiency


Toyota sharpens focus on electric cars through new in-house unit.
Toyota Motor Corp is setting up a new in-house unit to develop
electric cars, offering its strongest endorsement yet of a
technology it has not embraced wholly, as take up of a rival
technology it pioneered remains slow. Japan's biggest automaker
said on Thursday it will launch next month a unit that will
start…
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-toyota-electric-idUSKBN13C0HW 

The charge is on for more electric cars in New Jersey. As a new
campaign launches to put more electric vehicles on New Jersey’s
roads, Democratic lawmakers say an increased number of charging
stations would be a big help. Advanced by a legislative committee
on Monday, a measure sponsored by Assemblyman Dan Benson,
D-Mercer, would require the installation of electric vehicle
charging stations at certain service areas…
http://nj1015.com/the-charge-is-on-for-more-electric-cars-in-new-jersey/?trackback=tsmclip


GREEN ENERGY

World's poorest countries to aim for 100% green energy.
Representatives from 47 of the world's most disadvantaged nations
have pledged to generate all their future energy needs from
renewables. Members of the Climate Vulnerable Forum issued their
statement on the last day of the Marrakech climate conference.
Bangladesh, Ethiopia, and Haiti, among others, say they will
update their national plans on cutting carbon before 2020.
http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-38028130 

GM Makes Largest Green Energy Purchase To Date. General Motors
announced its largest green energy purchase to date this week,
acquiring 50 MW of wind power as the equivalent of the company’s
electricity needs at 16 of its US facilities. General Motors, or
simply GM, announced on Wednesday that it had signed an agreement
with Renewable Energy Systems (RES), a global renewable energy
and energy storage…
https://cleantechnica.com/2016/11/18/gm-makes-largest-green-energy-purchase-date/


Obama launches challenge program for low-income communities.
President Obama launched a nationwide challenge today to expand
solar power to low- and moderate-income communities, marking a
commitment to renewable energy even in the last days of his
presidency. The program, being conducted under the Energy
Department's SunShot Initiative, calls for 100 teams across the
country to create scalable…
http://www.eenews.net/greenwire/2016/11/18/stories/1060046013    


MISCELLANEOUS

California’s Democrats Are Ready for Political War. “We’re going
to do everything in our power to protect our people and our
values.” The Republicans are about to control Congress and the
presidency for the first time in a decade, and they have an
ambitious agenda. They’ve promised to undo Obamacare, deport
undocumented immigrants, and roll back environmental regulations.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-11-18/california-s-democrats-are-ready-for-political-war


Los Angeles port unveils $1.3 million effort to better track
cargo. While consumers can shop online and track packages from
the minute they leave the distribution center to their front
door, some of the country’s biggest importers can’t get the same
precise information about their own imports. That’s because of an
antiquated tracking system at the nation’s busiest seaports of
Los Angeles and Long Beach…
http://www.dailynews.com/business/20161117/los-angeles-port-unveils-13-million-effort-to-better-track-cargo


OPINIONS

Could California drought deal actually get done? CALIFORNIA
(DROUGHT) DREAMIN’: Lawmakers on both sides of the Capitol are
hopeful that this could be the year Congress finally reaches a
deal on California water. Time is running out, but the success or
failure of drought talks could have big implications for the rest
of Congress’ unfinished business, including a major water
infrastructure package, an energy bill and…
http://www.politico.com/tipsheets/morning-energy/2016/11/could-california-drought-deal-actually-get-done-217480


On environment policy, Trump won't be the only driver. For
environmentalists and climate activists, the dangers of a Donald
Trump presidency are myriad, particularly when his recent victory
is combined with Republican Congress. They worry about a
withdrawal from the Paris climate agreement and a rollback of
Obama’s Clean Power plan; about increased drilling on public
lands and a shift away from clean energy…
http://www.csmonitor.com/Environment/Inhabit/2016/1117/On-environment-policy-Trump-won-t-be-the-only-driver


Today's energy system could blow Paris climate goals. Amid whiffs
of chemicals and the electric hum of transformers, Kraftwerk
Jaenschwalde rises like an ash-colored fortress over a landscape
disfigured by decades of open-pit coal mining. The communist-era
colossus in eastern Germany is one of Europe’s dirtiest power
plants, belching 24 million tons of climate-warming carbon
dioxide into the air every year.
http://www.toledoblade.com/Energy/2016/11/18/Today-s-energy-system-could-blow-Paris-climate-goals.html
 
OTHER RELATED STORIES
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2016/11/18/world/europe/ap-eu-coal-plants-climate-goal-.html

BLOGS

America's rural voters are ready for renewable energy too. By now
everyone knows Clinton lost much of her husband’s famed “Bubba
vote.” Rural Americans, including a lot of Democrats and
Independents, voted in large numbers for Trump. Why? Jobs and
economics were certainly primary factors. Despite recent national
economic growth, much of rural America is still suffering and
more needs to be done.
http://thehill.com/blogs/pundits-blog/energy-environment/306660-americas-rural-voters-are-ready-for-renewable-energy




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