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newsclips -- ARB Newsclips for December 9, 2016.

Posted: 09 Dec 2016 16:37:26
ARB Newsclips for December 9, 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.

CAP AND TRADE

National carbon tax soon to become a reality. Canada is on the
verge of adopting a national carbon price, a move that the
Trudeau government hopes will bring the country closer to
achieving its climate targets. Under the program, a price of 10
Canadian dollars ($7.60) will be placed on every ton of carbon
pollution in 2018 and continue increasing until 2022.
http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/2016/12/09/stories/1060046914 

AIR POLLUTION

Paris pollution: Medics on alert, outdoor sports not advised.
With more asthmatic children needing hospital treatment in Paris
amid exceptional air pollution, France’s government put medics on
alert Friday and warned residents to limit outdoor activity over
the weekend. The Paris public hospital authority reported that it
had 2,045 emergency visits by asthmatic children during the first
week of December, compared with 1,516 in the same period last
year.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/paris-pollution-medics-on-alert-outdoor-sports-not-advised/2016/12/09/8d5265fc-be1c-11e6-ae79-bec72d34f8c9_story.html?utm_term=.e5bd1bedfe35


A dire week for climate change activists closes on a grim note.
There was a brief flurry of optimism on the left earlier this
week when Ivanka and then Donald Trump met with Al Gore to
discuss the long-term threat of climate change. Gore came out of
his meeting with the president-elect expressing some confidence
in the conversation; that…
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/12/09/a-dire-week-for-climate-change-activists-closes-on-a-grim-note/?utm_term=.e7360887facd

Settlement requires EPA to prod states on ozone plans.  EPA has
agreed to prod 15 states and the District of Columbia to fully
address requirements for meeting the 1997 and 2008 air quality
ozone standards, under a tentative lawsuit settlement.  In what
amounts to a regulatory mop-up operation, EPA would file formal
findings of "failure to submit" full state implementation plans
(SIPs) and take other steps to enforce compliance deadlines in a
series of rounds starting next month…
http://www.eenews.net/greenwire/2016/12/09/stories/1060046969 

California Air Resources Board Chair Sounds Off On New EPA Head.
California's top pollution regulator says her agency is not
changing its approach to climate change and air regulation due to
the election of Donald Trump and his nominee for the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency. State Air Resources Board Chair
Mary Nichols says California will continue to tighten limits on
emissions…
http://www.capradio.org/articles/2016/12/08/california-air-resources-board-chair-sounds-off-on-new-epa-head/


European Comission agrees new air pollution law as dieselgate
lawsuit looms for UK. The European Commission has approved a new
air pollution law setting 2020 and 2030 targets for curbing
emissions of harmful pollutants such as nitrous oxides and fine
particulate matter harmful to human health.
http://www.businessgreen.com/bg/news/3000963/european-comission-agrees-new-air-pollution-law-as-dieselgate-lawsuit-looms-for-uk


Over 200 years of deadly London air: smogs, fogs, and pea
soupers. 60 years after the Clean Air Act, Londoners still suffer
from air pollution. What can we can learn from two centuries of
campaigns against city smog? On 9 December 1952 the Great Smog
officially ended – for five days a thick layer of air pollution,
mostly caused by coal fires, had covered London and caused the
deaths of thousands of residents.
https://www.theguardian.com/science/the-h-word/2016/dec/09/pollution-air-london-smogs-fogs-pea-soupers


CLIMATE CHANGE

Companies on Climate: Trump or No, Still Cutting Emissions. Scott
Pruitt’s appointment to lead EPA doesn’t change corporate
strategies. Many big corporations continue to support efforts to
reduce carbon emissions, vowing to stay the course despite the
election of Donald Trump, who has promised to dismantle the Obama
administration’s climate agenda and this week chose a
global-warming skeptic…
http://www.wsj.com/articles/as-trump-knocks-obama-on-climate-firms-recommit-to-carbon-reduction-1481218505


U.S. forecaster sees weak La Niña likely to fade in early 2017. 
A U.S. government weather forecaster on Thursday said weak La
Niña conditions were present but favored to dissipate in the
coming months. The National Weather Service's Climate Prediction
Center said in a monthly forecast that conditions were likely to
transition back to neutral during January through March.
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-weather-elnino-idUSKBN13X1LG 

U.K. Said to Prefer Staying in EU Carbon Market After Brexit (1).
The U.K. would prefer to remain in the European Union’s Emissions
Trading System after the country has completed its withdrawal
from the 28-nation bloc, according to a government official with
direct knowledge of the matter. The thinking of Prime Minister
Theresa May’s administration is that the benefits of being in the
EU-ETS are better than withdrawing, said the official…
http://washpost.bloomberg.com/Story?docId=1376-OHVIEL6JIJV001-34EM6CREJIS9BGKMP8FL8VF8DS


Polar Vortex is back and it's going to get ugly. If you think
it's cold now, just wait until next week: Winter's favorite
whipping boy, the Polar Vortex, will again rear its ugly head.
After a chilly, snowy weekend and a brief stretch of slightly
milder weather early next week, the next cold blast will invade
the northern Plains and Upper Midwest by the middle of the week.
The frigid air will eventually make its way to the East Coast and
Southeast by week's end.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/weather/2016/12/08/polar-vortex-arctic-blast-cold-snap/95142654/


Environmental groups accuse Trump of 'head fake' on climate
change. For about a week, some environmentalists maintained hope
that President-elect Donald Trump might moderate his views on
climate change. The man who formerly called climate change a
"Chinese hoax" acknowledged to The New York Times earlier this
month that "there is some connectivity" between human activity
and climate change.
http://www.businessinsider.com/trump-climate-change-epa-scott-pruitt-2016-12


Global efforts to turn back climate change irreversible, Biden
tells premiers. Global efforts to turn back climate change
irreversible, said U.S. Vice-President Joe Biden, as he sought to
reassure Canadian politicians worried the Trump administration
will roll back progress. Global efforts to turn back climate
change are now irreversible, U.S. Vice-President Joe Biden says,
as he sought to reassure…
https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2016/12/09/global-efforts-to-turn-back-climate-change-irreversible-biden-tells-premiers.html

Democrats’ Domination May Save Calif. Climate Program. As
Democrats in Congress confront the specter of watching as the
country’s climate policies are dismantled by President-elect
Trump, key gains by the party in California could help Sacramento
take over as the nation’s leader in the fight against global
warming. With a Democrat last week securing the final seat in the
state senate, the party held onto its supermajority there.
http://www.climatecentral.org/news/democrats-domination-may-save-calif-climate-program-20945?utm_source=Inside+Climate+News&utm_campaign=08fd4e986a-Today_s_Climate12_10_2014&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_29c928ffb5-08fd4e986a-327747457


Great Barrier Reef not likely to survive if warming trend
continues, says report. Report projects by 2050 more than 98% of
coral reefs will be afflicted by ‘bleaching-level thermal stress’
each year. The Great Barrier Reef will not survive coral
bleaching if current sea temperature trends continue, according
to a new report charting increases over the past three decades
which blames manmade climate change for the problem.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/dec/09/great-barrier-reef-not-likely-to-survive-if-warming-trend-continues-says-report?utm_source=Inside+Climate+News&utm_campaign=08fd4e986a-Today_s_Climate12_10_2014&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_29c928ffb5-08fd4e986a-327747457


Inconvenient Truths About the Man-made Global Warming Scam. Texas
has been cooling since 1995, but that doesn’t suit NOAA’s global
warming agenda. So they keep cooling the past further and further
to create the appearance of a warming trend. The UN bans
skeptical journalists from climate summit for holding views not
particularly helpful. The Earth is heading towards another ice
age as solar magnetic activity is set to drop by up to sixty per
cent in the next fifteen years.
http://canadafreepress.com/article/inconvenient-truths-about-the-man-made-global-warming-scam


FUELS

UPDATE 3-Oil drilling advocate expected to be Trump pick for
Interior Dept. – sources. President-elect Donald Trump is
expected to pick U.S. Representative Cathy McMorris Rodgers, a
climate-change skeptic and an advocate for expanded oil and gas
development, to run the Interior Department, sources briefed on
the matter told Reuters on Friday. The appointment could mean
easier access for industry to more than a quarter of America's
territory…
http://in.reuters.com/article/usa-trump-interior-idINL1N1E40XF 

Trump to pick Rep. McMorris Rodgers for Interior secretary.
President-elect Donald Trump is expected to name Rep. Cathy
McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.) to lead the Interior Department, a
source close to the transition team told The Hill Friday. Trump
will tap McMorris-Rodgers, a five-term Republican who represents
eastern Washington and is the chair of the House GOP Conference,
to lead the department. The New York Times first reported the
news.http://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/309628-trump-to-pick-rep-mcmorris-rodgers-for-interior-secretary-report

North Dakota Could Be Biggest Loser in Ruling Against Oil
Pipeline. Energy Transfer Partners, the nation’s biggest pipeline
operator, has lost hundreds of millions of dollars from delays in
the completion of the Dakota Access Pipeline. And its standoff
with the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe over a section running through
tribal lands could mean an additional $80 million a month in
losses. But it is not the only one paying the price.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/08/business/energy-environment/dakota-access-pipeline-oil.html?_r=1&utm_source=Inside+Climate+News&utm_campaign=08fd4e986a-Today_s_Climate12_10_2014&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_29c928ffb5-08fd4e986a-327747457


Looser requirements for dairies make slashing methane a tall
order. California's push to reduce greenhouse gases 40 percent by
2030 will be a steeper climb than expected due to protections for
the state's largest methane emitters. Dairy and livestock cows
produce more than half of California's methane emissions, via
decomposition of manure as well as enteric fermentation, also
known as burping. But the state has yet to require facilities to
reduce emissions, given high technological and financial hurdles.
http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/2016/12/09/stories/1060046942 

VEHICLES

PG&E poised to install 7,500 electric car chargers. Early last
year, Pacific Gas and Electric Co. proposed spending $654 million
to install 25,000 electric-car chargers across Northern and
Central California — the largest charging program the nation had
ever seen. Those plans have since been scaled back, though they
are still ambitious.
Next week, California utility regulators are expected to vote on
a considerably smaller, $130 million version of the program…
http://www.sfchronicle.com/business/article/PG-E-poised-to-install-7-500-electric-car-chargers-10784185.php


Electric vehicle market footprint growing.  Study from IHS Markit
finds EV sales up roughly 1000 percent from 2010. Europe and
China are expected to dominate the consumer electric vehicle
market as the footprint grows into double-digit percent, a market
report finds. "Significant advances in battery technology,
financial support from governments, regulations and values of
millennials will be key factors…
http://www.upi.com/Electric-vehicle-market-footprint-growing/2211481288574/


VW RECALL

Swiss seize evidence from AMAG group in VW emissions case. Swiss
prosecutors have opened criminal proceedings and seized evidence
from the AMAG dealership network after an appellate court ruled
Swiss investigators must conduct their own investigation of an
emissions scandal at German carmaker Volkswagen AG (VOWG_p.DE),
they said on Friday. The Swiss Office of the Attorney General
"has meanwhile opened a criminal investigation and carried out
measures…
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-volkswagen-emissions-swiss-idUSKBN13Y1SI


GREEN ENERGY

Clean Energy ‘Moving Forward’ Despite Trump’s E.P.A. Pick,
Experts Say. President-elect Donald J. Trump’s choice of a
fossil-fuel advocate and climate-change denier to head the
Environmental Protection Agency comes at a moment when the
American energy market has already shifted away from the most
polluting fossil fuels, driven more by investors and economics
than by federal regulations.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/08/us/politics/trump-climate-epa-coal-jobs.html?_r=0


Solar's scorching demand for silver set to cool. Scorching demand
for silver used in solar cells is set to peak this year as
technology advances slash the amount of metal required. Solar
power accounts for around 8 percent of overall silver consumption
and has been a rare bright spot this year as falls in jewelry
demand, industrial use and physical investment feed into a 9
percent fall in demand.
http://www.reuters.com/article/silver-solar-idUSL8N1DV4R5    

SunPower to cut 2,500 jobs amid struggles in the solar industry. 
A San Jose solar company announced plans Wednesday to cut 2,500
jobs, including about 200 in California, as part of an effort to
restructure operations and reduce expenses. Most of SunPower
Corp.’s layoffs, which represent 25% of its workforce, are
expected to come from its operations in the Philippines, the
company said. SunPower Chief Executive Tom Werner said that
"given the current market dislocation, we have made the strategic
decision to implement a broad restructuring program to position
the company for sustained, long term profitability.”
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-sunpower-job-cuts-20161207-story.html


Solar power plant in Nevada commissioned to serve California.
Officials have flipped the switch on a $1 billion solar power
generation station in the Mojave Desert south of Las Vegas that
they say can produce enough electricity to power about 80,000
California homes. Officials with Arizona-based First Solar and
Florida-based NextEra Energy Resources said at a ceremony
Thursday that the project…
http://www.mercurynews.com/2016/12/09/solar-power-plant-in-nevada-commissioned-to-serve-california/

Sempra Subsidiary Supports Pilot Program for Hydrogen Energy
Project. A pilot program funded by a subsidiary of San
Diego-based Sempra Energy is producing hydrogen from excess
renewable energy then using the gas for heating and other
purposes. The project, already running for more than a year at
the University of California, Irvine, could increase efficiency
of solar and…
http://www.sdbj.com/news/2016/dec/09/sempra-subsidiary-supports-pilot-program-hydrogen-/


PG&E approaches private rooftop solar milestone. PG&E announced
the company will soon reach a milestone of 2,409 megawatts of
installed private rooftop solar capacity on the energy grid,
representing more than 275,000 solar power customers in Northern
and Central California. Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E)
announced the company will soon reach a milestone of 2,409
megawatts of installed private rooftop solar…
http://www.pennenergy.com/articles/pennenergy/2016/12/pg-e-approaches-private-rooftop-solar-power-milestone.html

MISCELLANEOUS

Trump Team’s Memo Hints at Broad Shake-Up of U.S. Energy Policy.
Advisers to President-elect Donald Trump are developing plans to
reshape Energy Department programs, help keep aging nuclear
plants online and identify staff who played a role in promoting
President Barack Obama’s climate agenda. The transition team has
asked the agency to list employees and contractors who attended
United Nations climate meetings…
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-12-09/trump-team-s-memo-hints-at-broad-shake-up-of-u-s-energy-policy?utm_source=Inside+Climate+News&utm_campaign=08fd4e986a-Today_s_Climate12_10_2014&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_29c928ffb5-08fd4e986a-327747457


ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE

Environmentalism Was Once a Social-Justice Movement. It can be
again. The incoming Trump administration is likely to see the
greatest revival of environmentalism as a confrontational,
grassroots, sometimes radical movement since at least 1970, when
more than a million people took part in the first Earth Day. The
vigil at Standing Rock, which surprised nearly everyone by
blocking the proposed route of the Dakota Access Pipeline through
traditional Sioux lands…
https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2016/12/how-the-environmental-movement-can-recover-its-soul/509831/


Will a weakened EPA set environmental justice back?
President-elect Donald Trump on Dec. 7 nominated Scott Pruitt to
head the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Pruitt has close
ties with the fossil fuel industry and has been an ardent critic
of the agency. As attorney general of Oklahoma, Pruitt has led
the legal fight against many of the EPA’s signature regulations
during the Obama administration, including the Clean Power Plan…
http://www.newstimes.com/news/article/Will-a-weakened-EPA-set-environmental-justice-10781814.php

.
OPINIONS

Time to hit the accelerator to ensure electric vehicle policies
are expanded. Foon Rhee reported on a study questioning whether
California will achieve its goal of placing 1.5 million electric
vehicles on our roads by 2025, characterizing California as
moving “agonizingly slowly” (“California is stuck behind a Prius
on electric car goal”; The Numbers Crunch, Dec. 3). While I share
his concern about how quickly California will achieve 1.5 million
vehicles…
http://www.sacbee.com/opinion/california-forum/article119502433.html#storylink=cpy


Clean air – at what price?  Although the San Joaquin Valley has
some of the most stringent smog-fighting laws in the United
States, people should brace for even harsher rules that could
affect home stoves and fireplaces, farmers, restaurants, food
processors and Modesto’s Gallo winery, as well as cars, trucks
and other vehicles. Air quality has improved immensely in recent
years, but new requirements of the federal Clean Air Act are
kicking in.
http://www.modbee.com/news/article119842483.html#storylink=cpy 

Who Is Really Politicizing Climate Science, Trump Or NASA?
Climate research conducted at NASA had been “heavily
politicized,” said Robert Walker, a senior adviser to US
President-elect Donald Trump. This has led him to recommend
stripping funding for climate research at NASA. Walker’s claim
comes with a great deal of irony. Over the past few decades,
climate science has indeed become heavily politicized.
https://cleantechnica.com/2016/12/09/really-politicizing-climate-science-trump-nasa/


Roberts: Bravo Trump. It's about time we do something about all
that clean air. Let the inquisition begin. I, for one, am fed up
with all of this clean air I am forced daily to breathe. I long
for the hazy days of old, when you couldn’t see the mountains,
when we were oozing with ozone and good old-fashioned
carcinogens.
http://www.azcentral.com/story/opinion/op-ed/laurieroberts/2016/12/09/robertsbravo-trump-s-time-we-do-something-all-clean-air/95206828/

California Legislature’s gaseous impulses. The California
Legislature last week received a load of bad publicity because of
a new law that attempts to reduce the methane output of dairy
cows dramatically — putting California on the cutting edge of
worldwide efforts to regulate cow flatulence. It sounds like one
of those overstated internet memes, but sadly, it’s a true story.
And it’s not even the most ridiculous case of gaseous emissions
coming from Sacramento.
http://www.rstreet.org/op-ed/california-legislatures-gaseous-impulses
/ 

The Spectator's View: Don’t hide the cost of cap-and-trade.
Everyone seems to think it's a good idea to let Ontario natural
gas consumers know exactly how much of their monthly heating bill
will go toward paying for the provincial government's cap and
trade program. So why is the Ontario Energy Board so reluctant to
do so? Seventy five of 80 stakeholder groups consulted by the OEB
said they wanted to see cap and trade…
http://www.thespec.com/opinion-story/7010427-the-spectator-s-view-don-t-hide-the-cost-of-cap-and-trade/


BLOGS

Corals tie stronger El Niños to climate change. Kim Cobb and two
team members, clad in black scuba gear, have been scouring the
coral-studded seabed near the equatorial Pacific's Christmas
Island here for nearly an hour. Then Cobb emerges with a
victorious "Yes!" A few minutes later, Cobb, a paleoclimatologist
at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, dives back to
the bottom and, from under a coral head, extracts the prize…
http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2016/12/corals-tie-stronger-el-ni-os-climate-change





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