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California Air Resources Board News Clips for May 11, 2010. 

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.


Calif. Bill Would Block Out-Of-State Power Deals. The California
Assembly advanced a bill Monday that would prohibit public
utilities from contracting with out-of-state power plants that do
not meet California's air pollution standards. The bill by
Assemblyman V. Manuel Perez, D-Coachella, is intended to deter
the construction of power plants in Mexico that could pollute
California's air. Perez said some power plants in Mexico are in
the same air basin as California, but follow pollution guidelines
that are not as strict as California's. That pollution drifts
across the border into neighborhoods in his district, Perez said.
Posted.
http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D9FKN13O1.htm

Pep Boys to Pay $5 million for Air Pollution Violations. The Pep
Boys, a national automotive aftermarket and service chain, has
agreed to pay $5 million in civil penalties for violating the
Clean Air Act by importing and selling motorcycles, recreational
vehicles and generators manufactured in China that don’t meet
environmental requirements, according to the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Justice Department. As part
of the agreement, Pep Boys is required to export or destroy over
1,300 non-compliant vehicles and engines, and to mitigate the
adverse environmental effects of equipment already sold to
consumers. Posted.
http://www.environmentalleader.com/2010/05/11/pep-boys-to-pay-5-million-for-air-pollution-violations/

Congress Debates Action On Clean Trucks Program. Federal
lawmakers this week praised two Los Angeles-based clean truck
programs that have reduced the amount of dangerous diesel
pollution that infiltrates communities across the county. But
they also debated whether their intervention is necessary to
ensure the programs survive and can be replicated in ports across
the country. A House Transportation and Infrastructure
subcommittee held a hearing Wednesday on the clean truck programs
at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. Posted. 
http://www.sgvtribune.com/ci_15034572?source=email

Business Community Spars Over Effort To Delay State Climate
Bill. Business leaders in California are split over a November
ballot initiative that would postpone implementation of A.B. 32,
the state's watershed climate change law, until the economy
recovers. One coalition, which includes California's
manufacturing lobby, is backing the initiative, which seeks to
delay enforcement of A.B. 32's mandates until the state's
employment numbers drop to 5.5 percent or less for one year. The
state's jobless rate currently stands at 12.6 percent. Posted.
http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/print/2010/05/11/8

Our View: Voters Could Chill Global Warming Law. It looks likely
California voters will have a chance to restrain out-of-control
government attempts to regulate and tax the state into economic
oblivion. More than 800,000 petition signatures have been
submitted to qualify for the November ballot a measure to freeze
California's Draconian global warming law. Almost twice the
number required signatures were collected, so it looks as if
voters will have the opportunity to at least postpone the
economy-damaging effects of Assembly Bill 32, the Global Warming
Solutions Act of 2006. Posted.
http://www.appeal-democrat.com/articles/california-94755-costs-businesses.html

Report: Climate Change Could Render Much Of World Uninhabitable.
A worst-case scenario of global warming, in which temperatures
would soar some 21 degrees, is that much of the world may simply
become too hot for humans to live in, according to new research
published last week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of
Sciences. "We found that … a 21-degree warming would put half of
the world's population in an uninhabitable environment,"says
study co-author Matthew Huber of Purdue University. Posted.
http://content.usatoday.com/communities/sciencefair/post/2010/05/report-climate-change-could-render-much-of-world-uninhabitable/1

Opinion: Tom Tanton: Shelving Of Climate Law Closer.
Californians have passed another major milestone in the drive to
protect the state's economy from the disastrous effects of state
global-warming legislation. Last week, more than 800,000
signatures, far beyond the required 435,000, were filed to place
on the November ballot the California Jobs Initiative, requiring
a delay in implementing the Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006,
until unemployment in the state falls to a reasonable level and
remains there for four consecutive quarters. Posted.
http://www.ocregister.com/opinion/state-248116-jobs-unemployment.html

Growth Energy Petitions CARB. In a petition filed May 10 with
the California Air Resources Board, Growth Energy asked that the
agency either delay its scheme to penalize Midwest farmers who
produce renewable, low-carbon ethanol, or update the outdated
formula with new information that would cut the controversial
penalty in half. At issue is a new study from Purdue University
which shows that CARB significantly overstated the theoretical
impact of “indirect land use change” penalties in its state-wide
Low Carbon Fuel Statement (LCFS) by as much as two-fold. Posted.
http://www.ethanolproducer.com/article.jsp?article_id=6590

Pacific May Be Gearing Up For Return Of La Niña. Forecaster
calls it ‘diva of drought’. Goodbye, El Niño. Hello, La Niña?
It’s by no means guaranteed, but conditions in the Pacific Ocean
seem to be shifting toward the periodic phenomenon that almost
always robs rain from Southern California and the Southwest.
“Right now, I’d say the dice seem loaded for an imminent La
Niña,” said Bill Patzert, a long-range forecaster at the Jet
Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena. “It’s not a good sign. La Niña
is what I call the diva of drought for the Southwest.” Posted.
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2010/may/11/pacific-may-be-gearing-up-for-return-of-la-nina/

Power Plants Face Closures. Sea-Cooling Ban To Cause Retrofits
Or Retirement For Energy Stations. Dynegy Inc. says it would not
be worth it to install cooling towers at its Chula Vista
facility. Three power plants on the San Diego County coastline
face major changes — from shuttering operations to building new
cooling towers — in the wake of a landmark ruling by California’s
water-quality officials to protect sea life. The State Water
Resources Control Board last week decided to phase out
once-through cooling for seaside power plants because the process
kills more than 2.6 million fish and 19 billion fish larvae
annually, according to the agency. Posted.
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2010/may/11/power-plants-face-closures/

BLOGS

Cleantech Braces For Assault Against California Greenhouse Law.
Now that the initiative to put the brakes on California’s
expansive greenhouse gas law has made it onto the November
ballot, the clean-technology venture capital community is gearing
up for a fight. Last week the California Jobs Initiative, the
group led by Valero Energy Corp. trying to overturn the
greenhouse gas law known as AB 32, obtained the minimum number of
433,971 signatures needed to get the measure on the November
ballot. Posted.
http://blogs.wsj.com/venturecapital/2010/05/10/cleantech-braces-for-assault-against-california-greenhouse-law/?mod=rss_WSJBlog

New, ‘Relentlessly Pragmatic’ Approach To Climate Change Needed?
The collapse of UN-led international efforts to combat climate
change means a new approach that is “politically attractive and
relentlessly pragmatic” is required, according to a new report.
The 14 authors of a new report on climate policy describe
themselves as “an eclectic group of academics, analysts and
energy policy advocates”. They say the Kyoto Protocol style
approach “crashed” last year with the perceived failure of the
Copenhagen meeting. Posted.
http://blogs.nature.com/news/thegratbeyond/2010/05/new_relentless_pragmatic_appro.html

Is a Climate Bill Dead? I think climate change legislation is
dead. There's not enough time for a bill to go through the
committee process, get passed by the Senate, sent to conference,
amended, and then passed by the full Congress before the
midterms, and after the midterms Democrats will probably be
reduced to 53 or 54 members in the Senate. Some of them won't
vote for a climate bill, which means you'd need to find ten or a
dozen Republicans to break a filibuster, and that's just not
gonna happen. Posted.
http://motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2010/05/climate-bill-dead

Particulate Air Pollution Is A Modifiable Risk Factor For Heart
Disease, Heart Association Says. The evidence linking particulate
air pollution to cardiovascular disease and deaths has
strengthened in recent years and high levels of the pollutant
should be considered a modifiable risk factor for cardiovascular
disease along with such well-known factors as high blood
pressure, high cholesterol, obesity and diabetes, the American
Heart Assn. said Monday. Posted.
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/booster_shots/2010/05/particulate-air-pollution-is-a-modifiable-risk-factor-for-heart-disease-heart-association-says.html