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California Air Resources Board News Clips for July 12, 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.

CLIMATE CHANGE/GHG’S

Lobbyists Heat Up Over Climate Law. The Global Warming Solutions
Act of 2006 is beginning to look like a stimulus package for the
lobbying trade. During the past year, oil companies,
manufacturers and trade groups have made a big push to shape the
rules and regulations behind California's landmark greenhouse gas
reduction law, The Bee has found in a review of lobbying
disclosure statements filed with the California secretary of
state's office. Posted.
http://www.sacbee.com/2010/07/12/v-print/2883633/lobbyists-heat-up-over-climate.html
http://www.eenews.net/Greenwire/2010/07/12/10
http://www.fresnobee.com/2010/07/12/2003150/lobbyists-heat-up-over-climate.html

California Schemin' With cap and trade stalled in DC, coal and
oil companies are targeting California's groundbreaking
climate-change law. Coal is America's cheapest and most plentiful
energy source. But in California, coal is a small, shrinking part
of the energy picture, and the industry is usually a minor player
in state politics. So why are out-of-state coal companies
suddenly trying to sink California's groundbreaking climate
change law? Posted. http://motherjones.com/print/68492

Mining the Field Poll: Climate Change, Gov, Senate. Buried in
last week’s Field Poll were some nifty data that confirm
something Calbuzz has been arguing for quite a while: that
California’s pioneering climate-change law, and now Prop. 23
which seeks to suspend it, is a key political marker in the
governor’s race and in the Senate race as well. The Field Poll
found Jerry Brown and Meg Whitman in a statistical tie – 44% for
Brown and 43% for Whitman. Posted.
http://www.calbuzz.com/2010/07/mining-the-field-poll-climate-change-gov-and-senate/

Climate Concerns Give Clean-Burning Cookstoves A Needed Push.
Two words have pushed fuel-efficient cookstoves in a way that
millions of deaths and acres of felled forest could not: climate
change. Early interest in the cookstoves, initially envisioned in
the 1970s and '80s as a means of reducing deforestation in
developing countries, waned when well-meaning projects failed to
deliver results. Even as the awareness of the health risks that
come from poor, inefficient cooking methods grew, cookstove
projects largely remained a fringe activity. Posted.
http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/print/2010/07/12/2

OPINION: The Climategate Whitewash Continues. Global warming
alarmists claim vindication after last year's data manipulation
scandal. Don't believe the 'independent' reviews. Last November
there was a world-wide outcry when a trove of emails were
released suggesting some of the world's leading climate
scientists engaged in professional misconduct, data manipulation
and jiggering of both the scientific literature and climatic data
to paint what scientist Keith Briffa called "a nice, tidy story"
of climate history. The scandal became known as Climategate.
Posted.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704075604575356611173414140.html#printMode

OPINION: A Climate Change Corrective. Perhaps now we can put the
manufactured controversy known as Climategate behind us and turn
to the task of actually doing something about global warming. On
Wednesday, a panel in Britain concluded that scientists whose
e-mail had been hacked late last year had not, as critics
alleged, distorted scientific evidence to prove that global
warming was occurring and that human beings were primarily
responsible. Posted.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/11/opinion/11sun2.html?_r=1&pagewanted=print

Change Coming Slowly On Climate Law. Congress may or may not
pass a serious climate bill this year, but one thing is certain:
It won’t be business as usual. While Republicans and polluting
industries will celebrate, most know their victory will be
fleeting and, with or without a bill, they’ll soon face a cascade
of onerous and expensive new regulations that could fundamentally
reshape the nation’s economic, environmental and legal landscape.
Posted.
http://dyn.politico.com/printstory.cfm?uuid=C379F0BB-18FE-70B2-A838AA2705F1B106

Oil Spill May Influence Climate Bill. The 40th anniversary of
Earth Day will go down in history as the start of perhaps the
country’s worst environmental disaster. But will the BP oil spill
— now on Day 84 — actually change any environmental laws or lead
to new ones? If history is any guide, the answer is probably yes.
Major catastrophes and large-scale events involving air, water
and waste pollution swayed Congress significantly in the late
1960s and throughout the 1970s to enact the bulk of the nation’s
environmental laws, including the Clean Water Act, Clean Air Act
and Superfund, which created a waste-management program during
that period. Posted.
http://dyn.politico.com/printstory.cfm?uuid=C3611072-18FE-70B2-A8B9DE8677FA1807

Political Blotter: Prop. 23 Foes Are Strange Bedfellows. In yet
another California politics instance of "the enemy of my enemy is
my friend," Pacific Gas & Electric Corp. is opposing Proposition
23, the measure put on November's ballot by the oil industry to
suspend the state's landmark greenhouse gas emissions law. That
puts PG&E on the same side as the state's environmental and
alternative energy groups, which only a month ago were
castigating PG&E on a daily basis for having put Prop. 16 on the
June primary ballot. Posted.
http://www.insidebayarea.com/oaklandtribune/localnews/ci_15482434
http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-news/ci_15482434

OPINION: Most Writers Want AB32 Delayed Or Repealed. For Prop.
23: I am writing to voice my support for the California Jobs
Initiative, Prop 23. California voters rarely have had such a
clear opportunity to vote for common sense and to save millions
of jobs. The politically correct legislation AB32 will clearly
further hurt the California economy at a time when 12 percent
unemployment is already ravaging the state. Posted.
http://www.contracostatimes.com/opinion/ci_15480472?nclick_check=1

A Green Retreat. Why The Environment Is No Longer A Surefire
Political Winner. Just three years ago the politics of global
warming was enjoying its golden moment. The release in 2006 of Al
Gore’s Oscar-winning film, An Inconvenient Truth, had riveted
global audiences with its predictions of New York and Miami under
20 feet of water. Within 12 months, leading politicians with real
power were on board. Germany’s Angela Merkel, dubbed the “climate
chancellor” by her country’s press, arranged a Greenland photo op
with a melting iceberg and promised to cut Europe’s emissions by
20 percent by 2020. Posted.
http://www.newsweek.com/2010/07/12/a-green-retreat.print.html

Los Angeles Exhibit Traces 65 Million Years Of Evolution. Los
Angeles — Part of the oldest museum in Los Angeles County has
been turned into a home for the aged — and the ages. With
specimens that date back 4 billion years, the Age of Mammals
exhibit opens Sunday in the north wing of the Natural History
Museum of Los Angeles County. It's the first permanent museum
exhibition in the world to trace 65 million years of evolution
based on geology and climate, said curator John Harris. Posted.
http://www.usatoday.com/travel/destinations/2010-07-12-los-angeles-age-of-mammals_N.htm

What Do Bedbugs Have to Do with Global Warming? So far I have
avoided any interaction with bedbugs, but I know a few people who
have experienced infestations, and it's starting to become a
worrisome trend. Then, the other week I saw a home remedy for
catching bed bugs that involved dry ice. Dry ice? It turns out
that dry ice is solidified CO2--otherwise known as carbon
dioxide. It occurred to me that maybe there is a connection to
the excessive amounts of CO2 in our atmosphere (a major
contributor to global warming) and a surge in bedbugs. Posted.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/maria-rodale/what-do-bedbugs-have-to-d_b_642784.html?view=print

AIR POLLUTION

Uneasy Emission Traders Seek Help From Congress On CAIR
Replacement. Experts say the proposed replacement for the Clean
Air Interstate Rule unveiled by U.S. EPA last week would do
little to relieve the uncertainty that has gripped emission
markets since a federal appeals court tossed out the rule two
years ago. Congressional action, emissions traders say, is needed
to bolster the program. Constraints of the court decision have
forced EPA to make choices that could hamper the new program's
effectiveness for curbing emissions of sulfur dioxide (SO2) and
nitrogen oxides (NOx) in the eastern United States, said Paul
Tesoriero, director of emissions markets at brokerage Evolution
Markets Inc. Posted.
http://www.eenews.net/Greenwire/print/2010/07/12/2 

ENERGY

Calif. Regulators OK Solar Contract Between Edison, Solar
Millennium. California regulators last week approved a 20-year
power purchase contract between Southern California Edison Co.
and Solar Millennium LLC. Edison, based in Los Angeles, agreed to
buy electricity generated by a 484-megawatt solar thermal trough
plant to be built by Solar Millennium in Blythe, Calif. The
California Public Utilities Commission approved the deal.
Assuming the project is fast-tracked by the Bureau of Land
Management, Solar Millennium intends to break ground this year to
begin delivering power in 2014. Posted.
http://www.eenews.net/Greenwire/print/2010/07/12/13

Manure Helps Power New British Army Barracks. London - Bio-fuel
pellets made from horse manure will help power the new barracks
of the Royal Horse Artillery, Britain's Ministry of Defense
announced. Recycled waste and bedding from the regiment's 111
horses will provide enough low-carbon energy to cover the heating
and lighting requirements of the ceremonial unit's new base in
Woolwich, southeast London. Posted.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/12/AR2010071202245.html

In The Heat Wave, The Case Against Air Conditioning. Washington
didn't grind to a sweaty halt last week under triple-digit
temperatures. People didn't even slow down. Instead, the
three-day, 100-plus-degree, record-shattering heat wave prompted
Washingtonians to crank up their favorite humidity-reducing,
electricity-bill-busting, fluorocarbon-filled appliance: the air
conditioner. Posted.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/09/AR2010070902341.html?hpid=moreheadlines
OIL SPILL

Scientists Propose Big Experiment To Study Gulf Oil Spill.
Washington -- Frustrated with limited data on the BP oil gusher,
a group of independent scientists has proposed a large experiment
that would give a clearer understanding of where the oil and gas
are going and where they'll do the most damage. Posted.
http://www.fresnobee.com/2010/07/11/2002465/scientists-propose-big-experiment.html

Historic Oil Spill Fails To Produce Gains For U.S.
Environmentalists. For environmentalists, the BP oil spill may be
disproving the maxim that great tragedies produce great change.
Posted.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/11/AR2010071103523.html

BLOGS

Mark Landsbaum's Blog: Air Conditioning A Threat, Says Warmist.
It's hard to mock global warmists' obsessive fear-mongering more
than their own self-parodies do. This item just in: "Washington -
As the eastern seaboard continues to endure a record-breaking
heat wave, the thought of giving up air conditioning seems about
as enticing as switching off the furnace during a bitter cold
snap. But a Kansas environmentalist is suggesting just that.
Posted.
http://www.ocregister.com/opinion/conditioning-257264-air-heat.html