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California Air Resources Board News Clips for June 1, 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.

LOW CARBON FUEL STANDARDS

CARB Chair Says Low Carbon Fuel Standard Is Already Driving
Transformative Technologies. In California, Mary Nichols,
chairwoman of the Air Resources Board which has overseen the
implementation of the California Low Carbon Fuel Standard,has
authored a commentary on the LCFS, published at
SustainableIndustries.com. In the article, Nichols cites Governor
Schwarzenegger in crediting California’s AB32, which established
the LCFS and a requirement that fuel sold in California reduce in
carbon intensity by 10 percent as of 2020, for unleashing the
development of advanced fuels by companies such as Cobalt
Technologies. Posted.
http://biofuelsdigest.com/bdigest/2010/06/01/carb-chair-says-low-carbon-fuel-standard-is-already-driving-transformative-technologies/

GLOBAL WARMING/CLIMATE CHANGE

After Global Warming Study Is Questioned, Lawmakers Step In. A
bill that would require state-funded academic research to meet
“minimum academic standards” may not be able to quell substandard
public policy studies from entering policy debate, according to
some experts. The bill, AB 2656, which passed though the Assembly
last week, would require that California universities develop
minimum academic standards for professors or administrators doing
research that is funded by the state. Posted.
http://californiawatch.org/watchblog/lawmaker-targets-studies-public-dime

Court Tosses Landmark Global Warming Ruling After Late Recusal.
After an unusual about-face prompted by a late recusal, a federal
appeals court has scrapped a ruling that said the nation's
largest producers of greenhouse gas emissions could be sued for
the damage caused by global warming. The case, Comer v. Murphy
Oil, started with a lawsuit by Gulf Coast residents affected by
Hurricane Katrina. Claiming that global warming contributed to
the severity of the storm, the plaintiffs sued dozens of the
nation's largest polluters -- a veritable who's who of utilities,
chemical companies and the oil industry. Posted.
http://www.eenews.net/Greenwire/2010/06/01/1/

Global Warming Bill On Political Tipping Point. A global-warming
tipping point is approaching, but not the one alarmists predicted
of an irreversible, overheated climate. Instead, it’s a political
tipping point that can determine whether the economy will be
handed over to Draconian, top-down government control on the
pretense of curbing global warming, or whether the free market
will be left to function relatively unfettered. Posted.
http://www.cnjonline.com/common/printer/view.php?db=clovis&id=38575

A U.S. And Calif. Effort To Link Climate Change And Air
Pollution. Researchers are using planes and ships along the
California coast in an unprecedented attempt to learn more about
the air pollutants that contribute to climate change. The $20
million joint federal-state project, known as CalNex, is
dedicating four planes, a ship and two ground monitoring "super
sites" with 150 researchers to the month long experiment. The
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration contributed $15
million, with California footing the rest. Posted.
http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/2010/06/01/3/

US Projects 4 Percent Emissions Rise By 2012 To UN. United
Nations — The Obama administration's first major climate report
to the United Nations projects that U.S. greenhouse gases will
grow by 4 percent through 2020. That includes a 1.5 percent rise
in carbon dioxide emissions, the main gas from fossil fuel
burning blamed for global warming. The figure was disclosed in a
nearly 200-page report that summarizes U.S. action to address
climate change. Posted.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hzCCtJ0IP6GsZTHlOKnFl5i7spqgD9G2JMUG0
		
The Heat On Climate Negotiators. As delegates negotiate here in
Bonn, India is suffering through a record heat wave pushing
thermometers towards 125° and setting new temperature records - a
hallmark of climate change. Hundreds have died, a tragic reminder
that adaptation has its limits. Pakistan, too, has lost lives to
the heat wave gripping South Asia. Other countries are also
suffering this week through events that make for a grim fit with
the trend of ever more extreme weather driven by global warming.
Posted.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/hunter-cutting/the-heat-on-climate-negot_b_596229.html?view=print

Cash Call for Carbon Cuts Conference. Just as Europe tries to
inject new life in the climate change debate with an analysis of
the impact of more ambitious CO2 cuts within the 27 countries,
the United Nations is struggling to find enough money to organize
talks ahead of the next international negotiation in Mexico at
the end of the year. Posted.
http://blogs.wsj.com/brussels/2010/06/01/cash-call-for-carbon-cuts-conference/tab/print/

AIR POLLUTION

Huge Air Pollution Study Under Way In California. Los Angeles —
Instrument-laden aircraft and a research ship equipped to sniff
the atmosphere and ocean have joined land-based monitoring
stations in a huge field study of air pollution and climate
change in California. The goal of the $20 million state and
federal project is to understand the origin of pollutants and
greenhouse gases, where they go and what becomes of them as an
integrated air-quality and climate-change issue. Posted.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jlLFP-arKPyC2ro6reoCKnmdJbwwD9G04O1O0
http://www.tahoedailytribune.com/article/20100601/NEWS/100609996/1003&parentprofile=1056

MISCELLANEOUS

A Carbon Price as a Nuclear Incentive. Many members of the new
coalition government in Britain want more nuclear power – so long
as it can be done without granting new subsidies. But nuclear
reactors are hugely expensive to build by comparison with
conventional coal and gas plants. Cost overruns can stretch into
the billions of dollars. So how will new nuclear capacity ever be
built? Posted.
http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/06/01/a-carbon-price-as-a-nuclear-incentive/?pagemode=print

'Merchants Of Doubt' Delves Into Contrarian Scientists. No
matter how overwhelmingly the scientific community may back a
research study, naysayers can always find a scientist to support
the opposing view on issues ranging from tobacco smoke to global
warming. According to science historians Naomi Oreskes and Erik
Conway, the same contrarian scientists keep popping up no matter
the topic: Fred Seitz, Fred Singer and Bill Nierenberg, to name
three. All physicists, Seitz and Nierenberg worked on the atomic
bomb, while Singer, a rocket scientist, worked on observation
satellites. Posted.
http://www.usatoday.com/money/books/reviews/2010-06-01-deathmerchants01_ST_N.htm

Opinion: Our Epic Foolishness. If a bank is too big to fail,
it’s way too big to exist. If an oil well is too far beneath the
sea to be plugged when something goes wrong, it’s too deep to be
drilled in the first place. When are we going to stop behaving so
stupidly? We nearly wrecked the economy and we’re all but buried
in debt. But we can’t break up the biggest banks, and we can’t
raise taxes. Now we’re fouling the magnificent Gulf of Mexico and
ruining entire communities along the southern Louisiana Coast.
Posted. 
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/01/opinion/01herbert.html

China Will Pay Electric Car Subsidies To Makers, Rather Than
Buyers. China, one of the most aggressive promoters of electric
vehicles, is trying to defuse criticism that big EV subsidies
favor rich folks who can afford cars over poorer Chinese who help
the nation's severe air pollution problems by still getting
around on bikes or public transit. The Ministry of Finance
announced a trial plan in five cities to pay an EV and hybrid
subsidy up to 60,000 yuan ($8,784) directly to the carmakers.
Posted.
http://content.usatoday.com/communities/driveon/post/2010/06/china-will-pay-electric-car-subsidies-to-makers-rather-than-buyers-/1

More Carcinogens In American Cigarettes, The CDC Says.
Cigarette-smoking Americans receive higher doses of the most
potent carcinogens than do smokers in many foreign countries
because of variations in the way tobacco is processed for
cigarettes, researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention reported Monday. American cigarettes are typically
made from "American blend" tobacco, a specific blend that,
because of growing and curing practices, contains higher levels
of cancer-causing tobacco-specific nitrosamines. Posted.
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/booster_shots/2010/06/more-carcinogens-in-american-cigarettes-the-cdc-says.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+BoosterShots+%28Booster+Shots%29