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newsclips -- CARB Newsclips for May 10, 2017.

Posted: 10 May 2017 16:27:53
CARB Newsclips for May 10, 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.

CARB BUSINESS

Staff from the California Department of Transportation, the
California Air Resources Board, the California Energy Commission,
and the Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development
invite you to participate in workshops to discuss implementation
of the California Sustainable Freight Action Plan (Action Plan).

The workshops will be held at the locations and on the dates
noted below.  The agencies will follow the same format and show
the same presentation at each of the workshop locations.    

LOS ANGELES:  May 30, 2017

SAN DIEGO:       May 31, 2017 

For more information on the California Sustainable Freight Action
Plan including upcoming workshops, please visit the webpage at
http://www.casustainablefreight.org/     
_________________________

The California Air Resources Board in collaboration with the
South Coast Air Quality Management District and the Los Angeles
Department of Water and Power, is holding a free professional
wet
cleaning demonstration workshop.   

The free workshop will be held on Sunday, June 11, 2017 from

2:00PM - 4:00PM in Los Angeles.  Doors open at 1:45 PM.

Venue: London Cleaners, 1073 Gayley Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90024. 

Space is limited.  Register early at
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/free-professional-wet-cleaning-demonstration-workshop-for-dry-cleaners-tickets-33498967313
or by searching for "wet cleaning workshop" on Eventbrite at:
http://www.eventbrite.com.

For more details about the workshop, please visit ARB's Non-Toxic
Dry Cleaning Incentive Program (AB998) website at:
http://www.arb.ca.gov/toxics/dryclean/ab998.htm

__________________________


David Cocker, PhD
University of California, Riverside. 

Tuesday, May 16, 2017 at 10:00 a.m., PDT (WEBCAST) Sierra Hearing
Room, 2nd Floor, CalEPA Building
1001 I Street, Sacramento, California

Low vapor pressure-volatile organic compounds (LVP-VOCs) are a
set of VOCs currently exempted for VOC content based on a
combination of boiling point, vapor pressure, and/or elution time
from a GC-column. This work explores evaporation rates and
secondary pollutant formation from a series of individual
LVP-VOCs associated with consumer products, select generic
consumer products that include these LVP-VOCs, and several
hydrocarbon solvents. For more go to the announcement at:
http://www.arb.ca.gov/research/seminars/cocker/cocker.htm       


CAP AND TRADE

Canada: California Dreaming: The Golden State Considers
Overhauling Its Cap & Trade System. California continues to blaze
a climate change policy trail in pursuit of a state-of-the-art
carbon pricing mechanism. Bill SB 775 (California Global Warming
Solutions Act of 2006: Market-based Compliance Mechanisms) was
introduced into the California Senate on May 2, 2017…
http://www.canadianeraperspectives.com/2017/05/california-dreaming-the-golden-state-considers-overhauling-its-cap-trade-system/?utm_source=Mondaq&utm_medium=syndication&utm_campaign=View-Original

AIR POLLUTION

President Trump and California soon could spar over air quality
rules. A legal battle over regulations for construction vehicles
could become the first test of whether President Trump wants to
limit California’s unique ability to limit air pollution. The
issue stems from a 2013 decision by the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency that allowed California to require emission
filters on bulldozers, forklifts and other diesel-powered
equipment.
http://www.latimes.com/politics/essential/la-pol-ca-essential-politics-updates-1494361070-htmlstory.html


Valero refinery cited for two more violations three days after
big smoke release. Air quality regulators have slapped the Valero
oil refinery with two more pollution violation notices, bringing
the total to six since Friday when black plumes of smoke led to
the evacuation of an industrial park and a shelter-in-place order
at two schools.
http://www.mercurynews.com/2017/05/09/valero-refinery-cited-for-two-more-violations-three-days-after-big-smoke-release/

ND could become 1st state to regulate injection wells to store
carbon dioxide underground.  The Environmental Protection Agency
administrator announced Tuesday, May 9, he has signed a proposed
rule that will allow North Dakota to regulate underground wells
to store carbon dioxide, opening the door for new projects to
reduce emissions.
http://www.inforum.com/news/north-dakota/4264028-nd-could-become-1st-state-regulate-injection-wells-store-carbon-dioxide
 

New Device Cleans Air, Produces Energy, Runs On Light. Turns out,
air pollution is good for something — making energy. Belgian
researchers have developed a device that runs on light, cleans
the air and stores hydrogen extracted from the pollutants that
can later be used in fuel cells. The key is a membrane made of
nanomaterials that act as catalysts, producing hydrogen and
breaking down pollutants. "We use a small device with two rooms
separated by a membrane," Professor Sammy Verbruggen of the
University of Antwerp and KU Leuven said Tuesday in a press
release.
http://www.ibtimes.com/new-device-cleans-air-produces-energy-runs-light-2536825


CLIMATE CHANGE

White House postpones meeting to decide on participation in Paris
climate pact. U.S. President Donald Trump in Washington, DC, U.S.
April 26, 2017.  A meeting of Trump administration advisers that
had been scheduled for Tuesday to decide whether to pull the
United States out of the Paris Climate Agreement has been
postponed due to scheduling conflicts…
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-climate-idUSKBN185098

http://www.sfgate.com/news/science/article/Top-Trump-advisers-to-discuss-pulling-out-from-11130592.php

https://news.vice.com/story/trump-administration-postpones-another-meeting-on-paris-climate-agreement
http://www.ndtv.com/world-news/us-president-donald-trump-delays-decision-on-paris-climate-deal-1691594


Trump Administration Delays Decision on Leaving Climate Pact.
With top presidential aides stubbornly divided, the White House
abruptly announced on Tuesday that President Trump would make no
decision on the United States’ future in the Paris climate change
accord until June, after he returns from a meeting of the Group
of 7 Western powers. The announcement by the White House press
secretary, Sean Spicer, encouraged advocates of the landmark
climate pact…
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/09/us/politics/trump-climate-pact.html?_r=0


Arctic Nations to Meet Amid Unsettled U.S. Stance on Climate
Change. As Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson heads to Alaska on
Wednesday for talks on Arctic issues, he finds himself in climate
policy limbo, preparing for a meeting at which global warming
will be front and center yet representing an administration that
is still on the fence about fighting it.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/09/climate/arctic-nations-to-meet-amid-unsettled-us-stance-on-climate-change.html?_r=0


Earth could break through a major climate threshold in the next
15 years, scientists warn. Global temperatures could exceed 1.5
degrees Celsius above their preindustrial levels within the next
15 years, according to a new scientific study, crossing the first
threshold under the Paris climate agreement and placing the world
at a potentially dangerous level of climate change.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2017/05/09/earth-could-break-through-a-major-climate-threshold-in-the-next-15-years-scientists-warn/?utm_term=.e1482672b798

The Doomsday Glacier. In the farthest reaches of Antarctica, a
nightmare scenario of crumbling ice – and rapidly rising seas –
could spell disaster for a warming planet. Knut Christianson, a
33-year-old glaciologist at the University of Washington, has
been there twice. A few years ago, Christianson and a team of
seven scientists traveled more than …
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/features/the-doomsday-glacier-w481260


Obama: Private sector is key to tackling climate change. Former
U.S. President Barack Obama says he's "confident that the United
States will continue to move in the right direction" on climate
change despite his successor's pledges to undo many of his
policies. On his first foreign foray since leaving office, Obama
told an audience Tuesday at a Milan conference on food innovation
in Italy that businesses…
http://www.sfgate.com/news/science/article/Obama-to-deliver-keynote-speech-in-Italy-on-food-11131611.php


‘We all knew this was coming’: Alaska’s thawing soils are now
pouring carbon dioxide into the air. Even as the Trump
administration weighs withdrawing the United States from the
Paris climate agreement, a new scientific paper has documented
growing fluxes of greenhouse gases streaming into the air from
the Alaskan tundra, a long-feared occurrence that could worsen
climate change.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2017/05/08/alaskas-tundra-is-filling-the-atmosphere-with-carbon-dioxide-worsening-climate-change/?utm_term=.4a0ac9fa8d4e


Global Climate Talks Open With Tiny U.S. Delegation. Here’s What
to Watch. Climate negotiators from countries around the world are
meeting in Bonn as questions swirl about where the U.S. is headed
under Donald Trump. A much-anticipated meeting of nearly 200
nations began in Bonn, Germany, on Monday to push forward global
climate change action…
https://insideclimatenews.org/news/09052017/climate-talks-bonn-obama-trump-paris-future


'Re-wilding' a Santa Monica beach to protect against sea level
rise. At the north end of Santa Monica Beach, there’s a fenced
off 2-acre section that looks a bit unkempt. It’s an experiment
in "re-wilding," or restoring the beach to what it looked like
before humans altered it. The pilot project, a partnership of The
Bay Foundation and Santa Monica, could also help protect the city
from sea level rise.
http://www.scpr.org/news/2017/05/09/71625/re-wilding-a-santa-monica-beach-to-protect-against/


France's Macron will fight global warming, and wants US experts
to help. As the world continues to take in Emmanuel Macron's
resounding victory in the French election, attention is already
turning to his plans for the next five years, with the
environment likely to be a key part of the independent centrist's
presidency. In a wide-ranging victory speech on Sunday night
Macron said his country would be "active and mindful of… 
http://www.cnbc.com/2017/05/09/frances-macron-will-fight-global-warming-and-wants-us-experts-to-help.html


Change in a Major Pacific Weather Pattern Will Likely Intensify
Warming. The Interdecadal Pacific Oscillation (IPO), a major
atmospheric and meteorological pattern in the mid-Pacific Ocean,
is now switching into a positive phase that will likely boost
Pacific Ocean temperatures and accelerate global warming,
according to new research. 
http://e360.yale.edu/digest/change-in-a-major-pacific-weather-pattern-will-likely-intensify-warming

Climate change legislation rides populist wave in Calif.  As
California lawmakers debate the future of their climate policies,
anti-establishment resentment is proving a force to be reckoned
with. The marquee program dealing with climate change — and the
target of reforms — is the state's quasi-economywide
cap-and-trade system for large emitters.
https://www.eenews.net/climatewire/2017/05/10/stories/1060054324


Surprise! Senate fails to kill Obama methane rule. An effort to
repeal an Obama-era rule to regulate methane waste on public
lands barely failed in the Senate today, with three Republicans
joining Democrats to defeat the controversial measure that GOP
leaders had struggled to pass under the Congressional Review Act.
Sens. Susan Collins of Maine…
https://www.eenews.net/greenwire/2017/05/10/stories/1060054362 

VEHICLES

Daimler drops bid to win approval to sell U.S. 2017 Mercedes
diesels. German automaker Daimler AG said on Tuesday it had
dropped plans to seek U.S. approval to sell 2017 Mercedes-Benz
U.S. diesel models, but had not decided whether to exit the
American passenger diesel market. "We constantly review our
portfolio offerings and make adjustments to meet immediate
customer need,"…
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-daimler-emissions-idUSKBN1852I4


GREEN ENERGY

BART Speeds Toward Zero-Carbon Future. San Francisco’s Bay Area
Rapid Transit system, called BART for short, is moving rapidly –
even “aggressively,” the transit agency said in a May 1 statement
– toward a zero-carbon, 100 percent renewable energy future. Not
only will commuters in the City on the Bay save fossil fuels just
by taking public transportation, but the system they are
traveling on soon will be adopting greener guidelines than ever
before.
https://www.energymanagertoday.com/bart-speeds-toward-zero-carbon-0169944/


BPA: Study demonstrates emissions benefits of forest residue use.
The Biomass Power Association has released the results of a study
demonstrating dramatic carbon benefits can be achieved by using
forest residue-based biomass instead of natural gas in power
generation facilities. The research determined that emissions
from a biomass power facility using forest residue-based fuel
are…
http://biomassmagazine.com/articles/14358/bpa-study-demonstrates-emissions-benefits-of-forest-residue-use


Who stands behind Suniva's trade case? Suniva Inc. is an American
solar manufacturer that has rocked the solar industry by asking
the Trump administration to raise trade barriers against key
imports. Cheap products originating from China, it said, are
killing a "Buy America" company. The reality is not so
straightforward. A bankruptcy filing that set the trade case in
motion is signed by…
https://www.eenews.net/energywire/2017/05/10/stories/1060054304 

Tesla starts selling solar roofs. Tesla Inc. is ramping up its
entry into the solar power market with an announcement today it
is taking orders for a new "solar roof" product.
The company unveiled the solar roof concept in October as part of
its broader vision to fight climate change and acquire SolarCity
Corp.
https://www.eenews.net/greenwire/2017/05/10/stories/1060054353 

MISCELLANEOUS

EPA science advisers axed; execs from regulated industries to
replace them (updated). While much of the nation's capital is
preoccupied with the unpredictable Trump administration and its
possible ties to Russia, the fate of the Environmental Protection
Agency generates less news coverage. That's not to say there
hasn't been news. Administrator Scott Pruitt is proceeding
swiftly with a radical plan to restructure.
http://www.greencarreports.com/news/1110351_epa-science-advisers-axed-execs-from-regulated-industries-to-replace-them


S&P Dow Jones Indices Publishes Barometer of Financial Markets'
Carbon Efficiency. The S&P Dow Jones Indices Carbon Scorecard
assesses the carbon efficiency and energy mix alignment with 2°C
climate scenarios for major S&P DJI equity benchmarks around the
world. S&P Dow Jones Indices (S&P DJI) one of the world's leading
providers of financial market indices and Trucost, part S&P DJI…
http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/sp-dow-jones-indices-publishes-barometer-of-financial-markets-carbon-efficiency-300454368.html


ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE

Out of environmental injustice, art. A new film, "In the Air,"
tells the story of environmental justice on the Gulf Coast
entirely through spoken word poetry, dance, music and visual art.
Ebony Stewart transformed my understanding of environmental
justice — the idea that people of color and poor people are
disproportionately impacted by industrial pollution and other
environmental problems.
http://www.houstonchronicle.com/local/gray-matters/article/Out-of-environmental-injustice-art-11133230.php


 OPINIONS

How California’s greenhouse gas laws can better serve
disadvantaged communities. Environmental justice advocates are
working to ensure the state’s efforts to combat climate change
benefit everyone — and the lessons can be applied nationwide. It
was a time of year that should have been perfect. Warming
temperatures marked Southern California’s gentle return to
spring. https://ensia.com/features/ca-environmental-justice/ 

The Business Case for the Paris Climate Accord. President Trump
faces a choice that will echo across his presidency and beyond:
whether to remain in the Paris climate agreement. Although most
Americans, his own secretaries of state and energy, and heads of
state from around the globe are urging the president to stay, he
remains undecided.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/09/opinion/the-business-case-for-the-paris-climate-accord.html?_r=0


How state’s air rules went too far. On May 18, at the United
States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in San Francisco, a
three-judge panel will hear oral arguments in an epic
confrontation between 10 small California businesses and the
federal Environmental Protection Agency. In 2013, the EPA
approved a stringent and unnecessary California air emissions
regulation…
http://www.sfchronicle.com/opinion/editorials/article/How-state-s-air-rules-went-too-far-11133958.php


BLOGS

“California Alone” Should Not Govern State Climate Policy. SB 775
Turns California Inward and Diminishes Its Role As Global Leader.
Last week, Senator Bob Wieckowski (D-Fremont) introduced a new
bill, SB 775, that would replace California’s cap-and-trade
system with a new approach to regulating California’s greenhouse
gas emissions beginning in 2021. 
http://legal-planet.org/2017/05/09/california-alone-should-not-govern-state-climate-policy/


As US falters, Canada must lead movement on carbon tax. Against
the backdrop of a Trump administration insisting that the United
States’ economy is heading back to the coal age, Canada’s clean
growth strategy is a breath of fresh air. Now more than ever,
Canada needs to continue to innovate on decarbonizing its
economy, and a central plank of that strategy is putting a price
on carbon pollution.
http://thehill.com/blogs/pundits-blog/energy-environment/332500-as-us-falters-canada-must-lead-carbon-tax-movement


Why California Can’t Go Back to ‘Normal’ After Drought. Lester
Snow, a longtime water leader in California, cautions that there
will be no “back to normal” for the state. Instead, we’ll be
wrestling with challenging weather extremes for a long time to
come. California’s five-year drought  was officially declared to
be over in April.
https://www.newsdeeply.com/water/community/2017/05/10/why-california-cant-go-back-to-normal-after-drought


By talking to Al Gore, Trump looks for range of advice on Paris
Climate Agreement. President Donald Trump can't seem to make up
his mind about whether to keep the U.S. in the landmark Paris
Climate Agreement or pull out of the pact altogether, but there
are signs he is getting advice from across the ideological
spectrum.
http://mashable.com/2017/05/10/trump-gore-phone-call-paris-agreement/#KSdjdgLJ4mqu


Low Carbon Cities: From Pipe Dreams to Reality. A few decades
ago, zero to low carbon cities that are sustainable and energy
efficient were something of a pipe dream, but now they are
becoming reality. And they need to be because as the world
population expands, so do our cities and their carbon emissions.
The United Nations estimates that the World’s city living
populations will increase by 66 per cent by 2050…
https://sourceable.net/low-carbon-cities-from-pipe-dreams-to-reality/


No Mercedes-Benz Diesels for 2017, or Maybe Ever. Fans of German
compression-ignition engines had best dig out those old, glossy
posters of an olive green 300D, as they’re going to need it.
Daimler announced it will not sell 2017 diesel Mercedes-Benz
models in the U.S. as rumors swirl that the automaker might give
up on the segment altogether.
http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/2017/05/no-mercedes-benz-diesels-2017-maybe-ever/


Some methane emissions could actually slow climate change. Yes,
methane is still a super powerful greenhouse gas, roughly 30
times more potent than carbon dioxide over the course of a
century. But a recent study suggests that melting methane in the
Arctic is absorbing 230 times more greenhouse gas than it
releases. That’s surprising because so-called “methane seeps”
have been considered a harbinger of climate catastrophe.
http://grist.org/briefly/some-methane-emissions-could-actually-slow-climate-change/


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