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California Air Resources Board News Clips for August 5, 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.

AB 32

Judge Rules Proposition 23 Ballot Language Must Be Reworded. A
state judge on Tuesday ordered the ballot language of Proposition
23 -- a November measure that would suspend California's landmark
global warming law -- to be rewritten, handing a victory to
supporters of the measure who said Attorney General Jerry Brown
wrote misleading and biased wording. Posted.
http://www.insidebayarea.com/oaklandtribune/localnews/ci_15670533

Democrats Seek Federal Probe Of Prop. 23 Donor. State Senate
President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg and Assembly Speaker John
Pérez have asked U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to open an
investigation into a tiny Missouri nonprofit organization that
has pumped nearly $500,000 into a voter initiative to suspend the
state's landmark climate change law. Posted.
http://www.fresnobee.com/2010/08/05/2030402/democrats-seek-federal-probe-of.html
http://www.sacbee.com/2010/08/05/2937811/democrats-seek-federal-probe-of.html#mi_rss=State%20Politics

Whitman Leans Against Suspension Of Climate Law. Sacramento -
Republican gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman said Wednesday
that she probably will vote against a November ballot initiative
that would suspend AB32, California's landmark greenhouse gas
reduction law. Whitman, appearing on the conservative John and
Ken radio show on KFI in Southern California, said, "In all
likelihood I will vote no on Prop. 23," adding that she still
backs a one-year moratorium that she would impose if elected.
Posted.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/08/05/BANA1EP1BG.DTL&type=printable

Stop Prop. 23. We cannot let oil companies ruin our environment,
our future any longer. Green jobs are the fastest-growing sector
in the economy because we are finally realizing that we must undo
the damage done by oil companies. What Proposition 23 will do is
stop this process and allow these oil companies to continue
making millions of dollars in profit. Unemployment rates may
increase for a short period of time, but in the long term it will
decline if AB 32 is protected. Posted.
http://www.sbsun.com/ci_15679827?source=rss_commented#ixzz0vkxWG2kr

CLIMATE CHANGE/GHG’S

Dems, Enviros Won’t Abandon Legislation For Green Chemistry
Initiative. Since 2007, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has cited his
Green Chemistry initiative as a reason not to pursue
“chemical-by-chemical” bans. At a hearing on that initiative on
Tuesday, a pair of Democratic legislators sounded a defiant tone.
Assemblyman Mike Feuer, D-Los Angeles, and Jared Huffman, D-San
Rafael, are known as two of the stronger environmental voices in
the legislature. Feuer is the author of AB 1879, the 2008 bill
that authorized the Green Chemistry regulations. Posted.
http://www.capitolweekly.net/article.php?xid=z1aleqrrzwdbwe#

Diplomats Ponder Temporarily Extending The Kyoto Protocol. With
the clock ticking on the current international climate change
treaty, negotiators are considering a set of stopgap measures to
protect the European trading system and years of emission
reduction efforts from collapse. One option under serious study
is a proposal to extend the 1997 Kyoto Protocol for two years,
which presumably would keep countries bound by their existing
obligations until a new agreement can be finalized. Posted.
http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/print/2010/08/05/1

UN Panel: New Taxes Needed For A Climate Fund. Bonn, Germany --
British economist Nicholas Stern says a U.N. economic panel is
discussing carbon taxes, add-ons to international air fares and a
levy on cross-border money transfers as ways to raise $100
billion a year to fight climate change. Posted.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/08/05/AR2010080503124.html

ENERGY/GREEN ENERGY

Calif. Upholds Solar Installer's Apprenticeship Program.
California regulators have given the green light to the state's
first training program for solar installers. The California
Apprenticeship Council last week rejected 13-2 a complaint that
unions filed against a small Northern California solar company's
plan to train its own apprentices. Renewable Power Solutions, a
25-employee company based in San Jose, had received approval for
its program last year from the Division of Apprenticeship
Standards (ClimateWire, July 13). Posted.
http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/print/2010/08/05/6

Plans To Build World's Biggest Solar Plant In California's Mojave
Desert Clear Hurdle. An Oakland company's plans to build the
world's largest solar thermal power plant in California's Mojave
Desert have cleared a major hurdle by winning approval of a key
state energy commissioner. California Energy Commissioner Jeffrey
Bryon late Tuesday issued a 576-page report recommending that the
project be approved. Posted.
http://www.contracostatimes.com/business/ci_15677786

VEHICLES

GM Still Waiting On Fuel Rating For Volt. General Motors Co.
officials say U.S. EPA is not close to finalizing the label and
rating the fuel economy on the Chevrolet Volt. Larry Nitz, the GM
executive director for hybrid and electric powertrain
engineering, said the company is still talking to the federal
agency about fuel economy ratings. The figure is expected later
this year before the car goes on sale. Posted.
http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/print/2010/08/05/8

Costs Will Keep Hybrids From Eclipsing Gas Engines For Now,
Engineers Say. Even though hybrids and electric cars are
capturing the headlines, old-fashioned gasoline engines are here
for a while longer, top automotive engineers say. Barb
Samardzich, Ford Motor Co.'s vice president for powertrain
engineering, told the Center for Automotive Research's annual
Management Briefing Seminar that in a decade, 80 percent of the
world's cars will still use gasoline or diesel engines. Posted.
http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/print/2010/08/05/9

FUELS

Biotech Offers Promise For Producing Fuel. The announcement of an
altered bacterium with fuel-production abilities is the latest
breakthrough in the fast-expanding field of 'synthetic biology.'
Fuel may be a messy business now, as the oil spill fouling the
gulf reminds us. But it might not always have to be. Scientists
envision facilities that churn out black gold by enlisting
engineered bacteria, yeast and algae to do all the dirty work.
Recently, scientists reported a significant step toward that
futuristic goal: an engineered strain of the gut bacterium
Escherichia coli that can make a diesel-like mixture of
hydrocarbons. Posted.
http://www.latimes.com/news/science/la-sci-biofuels-20100805,0,5064847,print.story

Enviros Call For Probe Into Fracking With Diesel. Dozens of
environmental and community groups are urging Congress and U.S.
EPA to investigate energy companies' injections of diesel fuel
into the ground during a controversial oil and natural gas
production technique. The groups today fired off letters to EPA
and the House Energy and Commerce Committee urging them to
determine whether the companies violated the Safe Drinking Water
Act by using diesel fuel during hydraulic fracturing. Posted.
http://www.eenews.net/Greenwire/print/2010/08/05/13

Ethanol Promotes Clean Attributes While Lobbying EPA. With the
Gulf of Mexico oil spill fresh in the minds of Americans, the
ethanol industry is touting its clean, renewable attributes while
lobbying U.S. EPA to increase the proportion of ethanol mixed
with gasoline from 10 percent to 15 percent. "The choice between
the dangers of our addiction to oil and the promise of American
renewable fuels is as clear today as the contrast between the
blackened estuaries of the Gulf Coast and the sparkling green
fields of rural America," said Robert Dinneen, president of the
Washington-based Renewable Fuels Association. Posted.
http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/print/2010/08/05/10

Fremont To Get First Commercial Alternative Fuel Station. Fremont
-- In a city with no shortage of places to fill up with regular
unleaded, one gas station is now offering something different.
Starting today, the Chevron at the corner of Paseo Padre Parkway
and Stevenson Boulevard is leasing four pumps to a company that
provides cleaner burning alternative fuels. Posted.
http://www.insidebayarea.com/oaklandtribune/localnews/ci_15670514

Emmer, Dems Skirmish Over Biofuels At Farmfest. Redwood Falls,
Minn. -- The sharp differences on ethanol and biofuels between
Republican gubernatorial candidate Tom Emmer and the three
Democrats vying to challenge him in the fall became clear
Wednesday during a farm-focused debate. Posted.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/08/04/AR2010080406010.html

LOW CARBON FUELS

Nationwide LCFS Would Raise Ghgs In US, Study Finds.
Implementation of a nationwide low-carbon fuel standard (LCFS)
would increase greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by as much as 19
million tonnes/year, a new study commissioned by the National
Petrochemical & Refiners Association concluded. The findings
contradict claims by LCFS advocates that such a requirement would
reduce GHG emissions, NPRA said. Posted.
http://www.ogj.com/index/article-tools-template/_printArticle/articles/oil-gas-journal/processing-2/2010/08/nationwide-lcfs_would.html

BLOGS

Research Desk counts: How Much Does The U.S. Subsidize Clean And
Dirty Energy? jeirvine asks: I'd love to see some graphics on
where all US Gov't subsidies (tax breaks, incentives, direct
funding) for energy go -- dirty vs. clean. The Environmental Law
Institute did a study (PDF) on this last year, tallying up how
much the U.S. spent, either in grants and direct spending or tax
subsidies and foregone revenue, to support fossil fuels and
renewable energy from fiscal years 2002 to 2008. Posted.
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra-klein/2010/08/research_desk_counts_how_much.html

Even Without Legislation, Obama Is Leading On Energy. Q: Now that
even China has put a price on carbon emissions, the U.S. is the
only major economy yet to take action on global warming. Why does
this issue seem to defy political leadership? Who, in your
opinion, is MOST responsible for the leadership
failure--President Obama and Senate leaders for not forcing a
deal? Posted.
http://views.washingtonpost.com/leadership/panelists/2010/08/even-without-legislation-obama-is-leading-on-energy.html

Wind Picks Up Nationally, California Lags. Wind power generators
added nearly 40% to their total capacity in the US last year, as
several states blew past California, according to a new report
from the Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Lab.
According to the tally, four states now generate more than 10% of
their total electricity (excluding exports) from wind. Posted.
http://blogs.kqed.org/climatewatch/2010/08/04/wind-picks-up-nationally-california-lags/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+kqed%2FClimateWatchBlog+%28KQED%27s+Climate+Watch+Blog%29&utm_content=Google+Reader

California College Is First To Go 'Grid Positive'. Dozens of
colleges in the Mid-Atlantic and beyond have become community
leaders in sustainability, producing alternative energy en masse
and scaling back energy consumption dramatically. American
University, for one, says it will be carbon neutral by 2020.
Posted.
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/college-inc/2010/08/california_college_is_first_to.html