What's New List Serve Post Display

ARB Newsclips for February 6, 2017. 

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.

ARB BUSINESS

Applications sought from public schools for statewide pilot
project to clean up California’s school buses. $10 million
available for zero- and near-zero emission school buses.  A new
program funded by proceeds from the State’s cap-and-trade program
aims to encourage the turnover of California’s school bus fleet
to zero-emission and cleaner-burning school buses. The program,
known as The Rural School Bus Pilot Project, is a partnership
between the North Coast Unified Air Quality Management District
(AQMD)… https://arb.ca.gov/caclimateinvestments

The AB 32 Environmental Justice Advisory Committee (Committee)The
AB 32 Environmental Justice Advisory Committee (Committee) will
be meeting on February 14, 2017 from 1:00 pm to 5:00 pm (PST) at
the CalEPA Headquarters Building, Training Room 5, 1001 “I”
Street, Sacramento, California 95814 and February 15, 2017 from
9:30 am to 12:30 pm (PST) at the CalEPA Headquarters Building,
Coastal Hearing Room, 1001 “I” Street, Sacramento, California
95814. For more information please visit the Environmental
Justice Advisory Committee website at:
www.arb.ca.gov/cc/ejac/ejac.htm. 

Notice of Public Availability of Modified Text - GHG Standards
for Crude Oil and Natural Gas Facilities. The California Air
Resources Board has posted the 15-day Notice of Public
Availability of Modified Text for the Oil and Gas Regulation. All
regulatory documents for this rulemaking are available online at
the following ARB website: 
https://www.arb.ca.gov/regact/2016/oilandgas2016/oilandgas2016.htm


The Public Agenda is now available for the February 16, 2017,
Board Meeting. https://www.arb.ca.gov/board/ma/2017/ma021617.pdf



CAP AND TRADE

Cap and Trade carbon tax starting to show. The provincial
government's Cap and Trade program to reduce carbon emissions
started on Sun., Jan. 1, 2017, and by Tues., Jan. 3. the increase
started to show at local gas stations. Prices were variable by
towns, with Chesterville showing the price of 106.9 cents per
litre for both gasoline and diesel fuel, but in Russell the price
was still 99.6 cents, as it was on Dec. 30. Brockville still
showed prices in the 97 to 99 cent range…
http://www.agrinewsinteractive.com/fullstory.htm?ArticleID=15450&ShowSection=News


AIR POLLUTION

LA delays vote on major cleanup plan. Los Angeles air regulators
are set to vote next month on a plan to address the region's
chronically poor air quality, after postponing a decision last
week. The South Coast Air Quality Management District, which
regulates air pollution in the 17-million-person Los Angeles
Basin, is considering a plan that would subject some of the
largest sources of pollution…
http://www.eenews.net/greenwire/2017/02/06/stories/1060049601 

CLIMATE CHANGE

Exclusive: Polish 'bluff' in EU climate talks tests bloc's
patience. Poland is threatening to challenge a draft European
Union climate law in court, EU documents seen by Reuters show, in
its latest move to slow an EU campaign against global warming
that Warsaw sees as a menace to its coal-powered energy industry.
In what Polish diplomats describe as leverage for talks now under
way…
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-poland-eu-climatechange-exclusive-idUSKBN15I2N7?utm_source=Inside+Climate+News&utm_campaign=a9f781c6b5-Today_s_Climate12_10_2014&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_29c928ffb5-a9f781c6b5-327747457


Lamar Smith sees liberal cover-up on warming pause. The chairman
of the House Science, Space and Technology Committee claimed
yesterday he has new evidence showing that scientific research
discrediting a purported pause in temperature increases was
politically motivated. John Bates, who recently retired from the
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's National
Climatic Data Center, told the Daily Mail newspaper in…
http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/2017/02/06/stories/1060049580 

DROUGHT

California regulators want to extend statewide drought
restrictions despite wet winter. Despite an enormous snowpack and
more rainfall than California can store in its reservoirs, the
state’s drought regulators say the water crisis hasn’t ended. The
staff of the State Water Resources Control Board proposed keeping
statewide drought emergency controls, which expire Feb. 28, in
place for another 270 days. “Some reservoirs remain critically
low…
http://www.sacbee.com/news/state/california/water-and-drought/article130562194.html#storylink=cpy


Despite rain, Santa Clara Valley Water District wants people to
continue to conserve. The Santa Clara Valley Water District has
dropped its call for mandatory water restrictions aimed at
reducing water use by 20 percent from 2013 levels, but officials
are encouraging people to voluntarily conserve. Water companies
imposed the mandatory restrictions in response to the drought…
http://www.mercurynews.com/2017/02/03/despite-rain-water-district-wants-people-to-continue-to-conserve/


Desalination of aquifers offers drought-weary California new
hope. California’s historic drought may be winding down. But
water officials across the Golden State are increasingly
exploring a hidden but promising way to add to the state’s water
supply: removing salt from the billions of gallons of brackish —
or distastefully salty — water that lies deep below the Earth’s
surface.
http://www.mercurynews.com/2017/02/05/desalination-of-salty-aquifers-offers-drought-weary-california-new-hope/


As the snowpack piles up, is California's drought over? No, say
experts. New measurements of the Sierra Nevada snowpack show
California's snowiest winter in 20 years. But it may be too soon
for sweeping policy changes. Though heightened snowpack in
California’s Sierra Nevada is cause for optimism, reducing water
use remains as important as ever, scientists say.
http://www.csmonitor.com/Environment/2017/0204/As-the-snowpack-piles-up-is-California-s-drought-over-No-say-experts


FUELS

G.O.P. Hurries to Slash Oil and Gas Rules, Ending Industries’
8-Year Wait. The document carried the title “A Roadmap to
Repeal,” a concise list of Obama administration environmental
regulations that a Koch brothers-backed group was pressing
President Trump and Congress to quickly reverse after
Inauguration Day.
It was a tally of rules that energy industry executives and
lobbyists had waged…
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/04/us/politics/republicans-oil-gas-regulations.html?smid=tw-share


Thousands turn out in downtown L.A. to protest Trump's orders on
Keystone, Dakota pipelines. Thousands of people converged on
downtown Los Angeles on Sunday to protest the proposed
$3.8-billion Dakota Access pipeline, which activists across the
country say threatens the water supply and sacred sites of the
Standing Rock Sioux Tribe in North Dakota.
http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-dapl-protest-los-angeles-20170205-story.html?utm_source=Inside+Climate+News&utm_campaign=a9f781c6b5-Today_s_Climate12_10_2014&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_29c928ffb5-a9f781c6b5-327747457


More funding on deck for some state oil and gas agencies. Energy
regulators in the biggest oil-producing states are seeing an
uneven recovery as the economic pain of the price bust lingers
into its third year.Five states — Texas, North Dakota, Alaska,
California and Oklahoma — produce about two-thirds of the U.S.
daily crude output, according to the Energy Department. That
makes their oil and gas agencies important…
http://www.eenews.net/energywire/stories/1060049560/search?keyword=california


GREEN ENERGY

Californians are paying billions for power they don't need. We're
using less electricity. Some power plants have even shut down. So
why do state officials keep approving new ones? The bucolic
orchards of Sutter County north of Sacramento had never seen
anything like it: a visiting governor and a media swarm — all to
christen the first major natural gas power plant in California in
more than a decade.
http://www.latimes.com/projects/la-fi-electricity-capacity/ 

In the sunny Southwest, the taxman calls solar's name. The only
things guaranteed in life are death and taxes, goes the old
cliche. So it is for the solar industry in the Southwest these
days. State lawmakers in New Mexico and Utah are each considering
tax credits for residents who install panels on their homes. The
debates follow familiar outlines.
http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/2017/02/06/stories/1060049554 

MISCELLANEOUS

LA doctor sounds alarm over effects of Aliso Canyon gas leak. A
Porter Ranch physician says a pattern of health symptoms has
emerged among the almost 50 patients he’s followed since last
year’s Aliso Canyon natural gas leak and he hopes other doctors
in the area as well as outside researchers will collaborate with
him on a long-term study.
http://www.dailynews.com/health/20170205/la-doctor-sounds-alarm-over-effects-of-aliso-canyon-gas-leak


Trump: 'California in many ways is out of control'. Declaring
California to be “out of control,” President Trump threatened to
withhold federal funding to the state if it votes to declare
itself a sanctuary state. A state Senate committee on Tuesday 
approved a bill   from State Senate President Pro Tem Kevin de
León that would prohibit state and local law enforcement…
http://www.latimes.com/politics/washington/la-na-essential-washington-updates-trump-bill-to-make-california-a-1486330796-htmlstory.html
http://www.sfgate.com/politics/article/Trump-calls-California-out-of-control-in-10910183.php

http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/article130942769.html


Scott Pruitt Is Seen Cutting the E.P.A. With a Scalpel, Not a
Cleaver. Scott Pruitt, President Trump’s pick to run the
Environmental Protection Agency, is drawing up plans to move
forward on the president’s campaign promise to “get rid of” the
agency he hopes to head. He has a blueprint to repeal climate
change rules…
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/05/us/politics/scott-pruitt-is-seen-cutting-the-epa-with-a-scalpel-not-a-cleaver.html


Climate Scientists Challenge Conservatives' NOAA Suit, Fearing
More to Come Under Trump. As researchers strive to keep their
unpublished work private, many brace for more anti-science
government interference under Donald Trump. Three scientific
advocacy groups have filed a legal brief in support of federal
climate scientists who are being sued by the conservative
organization Judicial Watch. Judicial Watch has sought to force
the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). 
https://insideclimatenews.org/news/16012017/climate-change-noaa-donald-trump-lamar-smith-global-warming-hiatus
 

OPINIONS

Shh, scientists hope Trump overlooks major climate report. Its
acronym is just obscure enough to be benign, so little-known that
even people in the know stumble over the name of the federal
program that guides much of the country's climate research.
That's exactly what the U.S. Global Change Research Program
appears to want right now…
http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/2017/02/06/stories/1060049561

In California, scarcer water will mean deeper trouble: Guest
commentary. Water, the lifeblood of California, will be where the
state experiences the most severe impacts of climate change.
Unfortunately, most water agencies have yet to adjust to this
“new normal” and are operating on outmoded assumptions and
practices that place the state at risk of water shortages and
worse.
http://www.presstelegram.com/opinion/20170205/in-california-scarcer-water-will-mean-deeper-trouble-guest-commentary
 

BLOGS

Climate Change Causes Fundamental Shifts in the Chemistry of
Mountain Soil. New research says the changes will likely displace
some plants altogether and dramatically shift the range of
others. A warming climate will fundamentally change the chemistry
of mountain soils by shifting the balance of nutrients, visibly
disrupting fragile, high-elevation ecosystems of grasses, flowers
and trees within decades.
https://psmag.com/global-warming-is-changing-mountain-soils-8b527fe1b7ec#.s6mt1hz64




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