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California Air Resources Board News Clips for August 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.

AB 32

CARB Report Sets Goals for Sustainable Communities. The
California Air Resources Board released a draft report  on Monday
that proposes ambitious targets for land use and transportation
planning in 2020 and 2035 to dramatically reduce greenhouse gas
emissions associated with passenger vehicle travel. The report
divides the state into 18 “Metropolitan Planning Organizations,”
including the four largest: Southern California, San Diego, the
Bay Area, and the Sacramento region. Posted.
http://www.environmentalleader.com/2010/08/12/carb-report-sets-goals-for-sustainable-communities/

Google Comes Out Swinging for California Climate Law. Mountain
View, CA — Google threw its considerable weight behind
California's landmark climate change law this week, when it
hosted an event where it argued an upcoming measure to kill the
law would derail past and future gains made in cleantech job
growth. Posted.
http://www.greenbiz.com/news/2010/08/11/google-comes-out-swinging-california-climate-law
http://theenergycollective.com/toddwoody/41539/silicon-valley-prop-23-will-kill-googles-green-tech

As Whitman And Brown Dance Toward The Political Center, They Risk
Alienating Their Bases. When Meg Whitman went on the air last
week with two red-meat-conservative talk show hosts, they
mercilessly grilled her on what they characterized as inexcusable
shifts on illegal immigration and the state's landmark global
warming bill. Posted.
http://www.contracostatimes.com/bay-area-news/ci_15734161

CLIMATE CHANGE/GHGs

WCI Members Not Fazed By Calif.'s Climate Law Referendum. The
Canadian members of the Western Climate Initiative aren't
thinking yet about jumping ship if heavyweight California is
forced to withdraw. Robert Noël de Tilly, Quebec's climate change
adviser in the Ministry of Sustainable Development, Environment
and Parks, said in an interview that no one is considering
backing out if California turns out not to be able to
participate. Posted.
http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/print/2010/08/12/6

Climate Change Could Increase Heart-Related Deaths. Extreme
temperature fluctuations lead to more heart-related deaths, and
that could prove disastrous as the number and severity of heat
waves and cold snaps are expected to rise with climate change,
according to researchers. For every 1-degree-Celsius drop in
temperature per day, an extra 200 people had heart attacks in the
United Kingdom, according to a study in the British Medical
Journal. Heat waves have also increased heart deaths from other
causes. Posted.
http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/print/2010/08/12/9

Calif. Project Spurs Debate Over A 'Decarbonized' Energy System.
Bakersfield, Calif. -- Mayor Harvey Hall can get very excited
about efforts to "decarbonize" California's energy system. His
city is the hub of Kern County. Its two major businesses,
agriculture and oil, are in a severe slump. Unemployment is
running about 17 percent. "I've lived here all my life," explains
Hall, 69. "This economy is probably the worst that I've ever
seen." Posted.
http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/print/2010/08/12/1

 An Ancient Emission-Cutting Idea Seeks Incentives And Standards.
To shrink the world's carbon footprint up to 12 percent, look to
an ancient farming technique employed by Amazonian farmers,
suggests a new study. Burning plant waste, woody chips and manure
into a charcoal-like substance and burying it in farmers' fields
-- as was a common practice centuries ago to enrich soils --
could have the added benefit of locking carbon up for perhaps
thousands of years, wrote an international team of researchers.
Posted. http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/print/2010/08/12/5

Climate Change Skeptics Get Their Own Smart-Phone App. Months
after the launch of a smart phone application aimed at fighting
common arguments from climate change skeptics, the "Our Climate"
app seeks to balance the equation. John Cook's "Skeptical
Science" app offers pre-written responses, with links to
scientific papers, to frequently used climate change denier
arguments. It is one of many apps tied to climate change,
although nearly all fall on the believers' side (Greenwire, March
11). Posted.
http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/print/2010/08/12/11

How the GOP and a Slumping Economy Killed a 'Republican
Instrument'. As the air leaked out of climate legislation in the
Senate last month, Elizabeth "Betsy" Moler was still on the case,
working on a cap-and-trade plan for utilities that might salvage
something useful from the disintegrating debate over carbon
policy. Posted.
http://www.nytimes.com/cwire/2010/08/11/11climatewire-how-the-gop-and-a-slumping-economy-killed-a-52437.html?sq=cap%20and%20trade&st=cse&scp=4&pagewanted=print

Solar Taxi Driver Plans Global Zero Emissions Race. Geneva—A
Swiss inventor who last year circumnavigated the globe in a solar
taxi says four teams will follow in his tire tracks next week.
Louis Palmer says the teams from Australia, Germany, South Korea
and Switzerland will fire up their electric vehicles Aug. 16 in
Geneva in an effort to race around the world in 80 days without
producing any carbon emissions. Posted.
http://www.contracostatimes.com/nation-world/ci_15742907?nclick_check=1

Valley Officials Ask Parents To Help Cut Ozone. Hoping to head
off a spike in lung-corroding ozone, air officials are asking
parents to have their children walk, bicycle, take the bus or
ride in a car pool next week when many schools open. Posted.
http://www.fresnobee.com/2010/08/11/2038540/valley-officials-ask-parents-to.html

DOE Awards $21.3M To Study CO2 Underground Storage. Lubbock,
Texas -- U.S. Department of Energy officials on Wednesday
announced $21.3 million in funding for facilities to create safe
and economical technologies nationwide for storing carbon dioxide
in geologic formations. Posted.
http://www.fresnobee.com/2010/08/11/2038105/doe-awards-213m-to-study-co2-underground.html

Long, Hot Summer Of Fire, Floods Fits Predictions. New York --
Floods, fires, melting ice and feverish heat: From smoke-choked
Moscow to water-soaked Pakistan and the High Arctic, the planet
seems to be having a midsummer breakdown. It's not just a portent
of things to come, scientists say, but a sign of troubling
climate change already under way. Posted.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/08/12/AR2010081201162.html

Carbon Pricing Called Key To Coal Pollution Plan. Washington --
The key to developing technology to store coal plants' pollution
underground is charging them for the carbon dioxide they release
into the air, an administration task force says. Posted.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/08/12/AR2010081203164.html

AIR QUALITY

Smoke From Russian Fires Could Endanger Arctic Ice. Russia's
wildfires are adding to the "brown cloud" problem that has been
blamed for dimming sunlight, reduced crop growth and causing
health hazards. Brown clouds contain pollution from cars, power
plants, fires and burning of other materials and have been
reported across Asia, Africa and the Amazon. The fires in Russia
have only compounded the problem, leading to concern that
citizens may be at risk for disease. Posted.
http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/print/2010/08/12/8

Russia Breathes Easier as Moscow Skies Clear. Moscow -The skies
cleared and air quality significantly improved for a second
straight day in Moscow on Thursday, bringing the skyline of
gothic, Stalin-era skyscrapers back into focus after a trying
week when the city was choked with wildfire smoke. The wind
shifted direction to blow the smoke out of the city beginning
Wednesday, and firefighters have succeeded in extinguishing a
number of the forest fires burning near the capital. Posted.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/13/world/europe/13moscow.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss&pagewanted=print

BUSES

How Schools Can Save Teachers And Cut Emissions At The Same Time.
A trade group says it's found a way to help school districts get
around the "sticker shock" of switching their buses to
alternative fuels. The National Association for Pupil
Transportation, which represents the school transport industry,
has a $5 million grant from U.S. EPA to reduce diesel emissions
from school buses. Thanks to ever-shrinking budgets, school
districts rarely have the luxury of thinking about climate -- or
even the soot that belches out of old diesel buses and harms
student health. Posted.
http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/print/2010/08/12/7