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California Air Resources Board News Clips for September 21, 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

Whitman Continues Pushing For Suspension Of State Law Requiring
Companies To Lower Greenhouse Gases. Sacramento -- Republican
gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman repeated her call to suspend
AB32, the state law that requires companies to lower greenhouse
gases, saying she wants to "figure out how to be smart and
green." Also, facing heat from both sides of the issue, Whitman
said she would take a stand later this week on the controversial
Proposition 23, the initiative financed by out-of-state-oil
companies to all but kill Assembly bill 32. Posted.
http://www.contracostatimes.com/politics-government/ci_16126900?nclick_check=1

Brown to Whitman: Voice Prop. 23 Stance. Democratic gubernatorial
hopeful Jerry Brown utilized a visit to an LA-based solar power
business Monday to blast opponent Meg Whitman for not voicing her
official stance on Proposition 23.While touring PermaCity Solar,
Brown reaffirmed his position on the November ballot measure
aimed at blocking AB 32 -- California's historic law designed to
dramatically scale back greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels
by 2020. Posted. 
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5ikQAaRqTRq-BIAF8C8os1YaXP5awD9IBS6PO1

Arnold Schwarzenegger's Green Legacy Facing Terminator. As
California's governor, Arnie's days are numbered. What kind of
legacy will he leave? Seven years after he took office,
California's financial problems are worse than ever, so no gold
stars for financial or political reform, but perhaps Arnie can
cling to his green legacy? Today the landmark climate legislation
he signed into law -- AB 32 -- is under threat by Proposition 23.
Posted.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/alison-van-diggelen/arnold-schwarzeneggers-gr_b_733241.html?view=print

California Writing New Rules On Greenhouse Gases, Sprawl. Two
years after approving a landmark anti-sprawl law to cut
greenhouse gases, California is poised to adopt long-awaited
rules targeting land-use and vehicle pollution in regions across
the state. The idea is to encourage regional planning that
reduces carbon emissions to levels set by the state over the next
three decades. One way to do that, for example, is to cut into
commute times by reconfiguring housing developments and having
peoples’ homes closer to work. Posted.
http://www.capitolweekly.net/article.php?xid=z59zaish8dxfrt&done#

CLIMATE CHANGE/GHG’S

Democrats Fighting Election Battles Ask Environmentalists, 'Where
Are You Guys?' Energy companies and businesses are ramping up
spending on candidates and issues, while environmental groups
face lagging donations and enthusiasm for campaigns key to
climate change action. Environmentalists who provided money, zeal
and manpower to Democrats in 2008 are demoralized this campaign
cycle, further fraying the coalition that sent Barack Obama to
the White House and gave the party majorities in both houses of
Congress. Posted.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-environmental-election-20100921,0,309262,print.story

Bill Clinton: Economy, Disasters Imperil Millions. New York --
Former President Bill Clinton on Tuesday warned of the growing
devastation of the global economic downturn and said the dangers
posed by natural disasters around the world had been increased by
the effects of climate change. The former president spoke in New
York on the first day of the annual Clinton Global Initiative.
The conference brings together leaders from government, business
and philanthropy, who make financial commitments aimed at
tackling poverty and disease around the world. Posted.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2010/09/21/national/a084208D58.DTL&type=printable

Big Powers Talk Climate, But No Grand Deal Sighted. A lead U.S.
negotiator says two days of talks among 17 major economic powers
in New York were "very constructive" in exploring ways to slow
and cope with climate change. But no one expects a new, binding
global pact anytime soon on reducing global warming gases.
Special climate envoy Todd Stern tells reporters that "no one is
expecting or anticipating in any way a legal treaty to be done at
Cancun this year." Posted.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2010/09/21/international/i115308D12.DTL&type=printable

U.S. Plans to Try Again With This Year's 'Biggest Climate Deal' 
The U.S. plans to try again with a greenhouse-gas proposal
arguing that carbon trading isn't the best way to eliminate
hydrofluorocarbon-23, an industrial waste product that traps
11,700 times as much heat as carbon dioxide. The Montreal
Protocol, signed in 1987 after scientists discovered a hole in
the earth's ozone, could be the vehicle for saving hundreds of
millions of dollars now being spent via emissions trading, said
Dan Reifsnyder …Posted.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2010/09/21/bloomberg1376-L9360O07SXKX01-1IRT3UKU1JEMVMJ1BHPQMPRKMT.DTL&type=printable

International Business Reps And Government Officials Meet For
Weeklong Climate Extravaganza. New York -- With less than three
months until the next round of climate negotiations is set to
begin in Cancun, Mexico, leaders across business and government
are meeting in New York this week to insert some new momentum
into the issue. Business leaders from Siemens to Wal-Mart Stores
Inc. are using government inaction as a rallying call for private
industry to take the lead in mitigating climate change. Posted.
http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/print/2010/09/21/3

ENERGY/GREEN ENERGY

States Wrestle With Clean Coal Technology, With Varying Results.
The fate of a major low-carbon technology is playing out in the
states, where regulators are contemplating whether it's worth
paying for -- and whether federal law will change that.
Integrated gasification combined cycle, or IGCC, is held up as
one of the main ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from
coal. It essentially extracts carbon dioxide from coal and
concentrates it before the remaining gas is burned to generate
power. The CO2 can then be dispatched for storage underground.
Posted. http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/print/2010/09/21/1

Vendors Ponder How To Sell 'Smart Grid' As A Policy. Smart grid
gatherings often resemble bazaars, jammed with vendors' booths
stacked with brochures and salespeople peddling meters, controls,
batteries and more. All those will be missing by design from the
first GridWise Alliance forum, which begins today in Washington,
says alliance Chairman Guido Bartels. "What you now see is people
trying to jump on the bandwagon, pushing their technologies. They
look like sales events," said Bartels, IBM's general manager for
global energy and utilities. Posted.
http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/2010/09/21/2

U.N. Foundation Pushes Clean Technology Into Off-Grid Areas.
Lifting the curtain of darkness that surrounds world populations
that have no access to energy was never among the United Nations'
Millennium Development Goals for eradicating poverty. But
Richenda Van Leeuwen, the U.N. Foundation's new point woman on
energy poverty, said leaders widely recognize the impossibility
of achieving universal primary school education, reducing child
mortality or other development targets without access to
electricity. Posted.
http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/print/2010/09/21/4

Areas Cut Power To Save Energy. A county in China blacked out for
22 hours every three days at the end of this summer, shuttering
electricity to homes, factories, traffic lights and even two
hospitals in an attempt to reach China's five-year goal of
becoming more energy-efficient. The blackouts were rescinded in
Anping county, Hebei province, after the media and central
government criticized the program. Posted.
http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/print/2010/09/21/9

Blowing A Fuse Over Solar Panels. Council may halt a nursing
home's plans for an array the size of a football field, which
neighbors say will be an eyesore and distract drivers on the
nearby Arroyo Seco Parkway. A solar power quandary is charging up
residents of Montecito Heights and Mt. Washington as a nursing
home installs 1,441 photovoltaic panels on an Arroyo Seco
hillside. Posted.
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-montecito-solar-20100921,0,5798374,print.story

ELECTRIC VEHICLES

GM Looks To Give EV Batteries A Life After Cars. General Motors
Co. and power electronics company ABB Group will work together to
research how used electric car batteries can gain a second life
on the nation's power grid, the companies said today. As electric
vehicles creep toward general market readiness, automakers and
grid experts are looking for ways to make electrified
transportation work seamlessly with power systems. Posted.
http://www.eenews.net/Greenwire/print/2010/09/21/9

Congressional Action Needed To Put Charging Stations At Capitol –
GAO. As Obama administration officials grapple with setting up a
national infrastructure for electric vehicles, their
congressional colleagues are facing obstacles on their own turf.
The Government Accountability Office recently ruled that the
Architect of the Capitol (AOC) cannot install battery recharging
stations for staffers' vehicles without an act of Congress. AOC
officials had hoped to provide an incentive for congressional
employees to buy hybrid or electric cars, in the same vein as
agencies offering public transportation subsidies. Posted.
http://www.eenews.net/Greenwire/print/2010/09/21/7

RAILROADS

High-Speed Rail Stalls. Freight Carriers Balk at Sharing Tracks
With the Faster Passenger Service. Opposition from freight
railroads is threatening the Obama administration's
multibillion-dollar push to make high-speed passenger trains an
integral part of the U.S. transportation network. The standoff
demonstrates the difficulties of introducing new passenger
service to a rail network that is at least 90% owned by freight
railroads and outfitted for slower trains. Posted.
http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB10001424052748703305004575504180006530598-lMyQjAxMTAwMDIwMDEyNDAyWj.html#printMode

AIR POLLUTION

Dust Cuts Colorado River Flow, Scientists Say. Dark particles
settle on Rocky Mountain snowfields and alter the melting rate, a
study shows. The dark dust thrown up by human activity in the
deserts of the Southwest hastens the melting of Rocky Mountain
snow and ultimately reduces the amount of water flowing into the
upper Colorado River by about 5%, scientists reported Monday. FOR
THE RECORD: Colorado River dust: An earlier version of this
article stated that dust production had decreased 17% since 1934,
when the Taylor Grazing Act limited the amount of grazing allowed
on public lands. Dust production has actually fallen about a
quarter since then.
http://www.latimes.com/news/science/la-sci-colorado-river-dust-20100921,0,7271262,print.story

SBCAG Board Votes to Maintain Status Quo on Emissions Targets.
Debate on whether to adopt stricter standards than those
recommended by the state ends in 7-6 vote. In a 7-6 vote that,
for the most part, separated North Santa Barbara County board
members from their southern neighbors, the Santa Barbara County
Association of Governments board decided Monday to keep emissions
in the county within the status quo for the next decade.  Posted.
http://www.noozhawk.com/noozhawk/print/092010_sbcag_votes_on_emissions_projections/

OPINIONS/LETTERS/EDITORIALS

Our View: Prop. 23: Save Economy From Further Chill. There are
more than a million reasons, if you count potentially lost jobs,
to vote for Proposition 23 on Nov. 2. From its petition-signing
days to qualify for the ballot, we have editorially supported the
proposition to delay implementation of the state's economically
damaging Global Warming Solutions Act until California
unemployment falls to 5.5 percent for four consecutive quarters.
Unemployment has been above 12 percent for more than a year; it
hit 12.4 percent for August. Posted.
http://www.appeal-democrat.com/common/printer/view.php?db=marysville&id=99261

The Brothers Koch and AB 32. Four years ago, bipartisan
majorities in the California Legislature approved a landmark
clean energy bill that many hoped would serve as a template for a
national effort to reduce dependence on foreign oil and mitigate
the threat of climate change. Now a well-financed coalition of
right-wing ideologues, out-of-state oil and gas companies and
climate-change skeptics is seeking to effectively kill that law
with an initiative on the November state ballot. Posted.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/21/opinion/21tue1.html?_r=1&pagewanted=print

Why Big Business Is Defending California's Climate Regulations.
Could the closely watched ballot vote to repeal AB32,
California's landmark global-warming emissions law, signal the
emergence of a historic new coalition between corporations and
advocates of emissions-control laws? The battle appears to be the
latest front in the war of the emerging clean economy against the
economic incumbents. Signed by California Governor Arnold
Schwarzenegger in 2006, the aim of the law is to reduce
greenhouse gas emissions in the state to 1990 levels by 2020.
Posted.
http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2010/09/why-big-business-is-defending-californias-climate-regulations/63213/

Letter: Renters Need Protection From Smoke. As a renter, I
definitely would prefer if my home were in a building that was
smoke-free. I frequently find myself shutting windows due to
neighbors that smoke in the front entryway of my apartment. The
smell of smoke comes into my bedroom and sometimes the front
stoop and yard are littered with cigarette butts. There is
nothing worse than going outside in the morning to discover piles
of discarded cigarette butts and ash that most of the time will
never be picked up by the tenants who left them there. Posted.
http://www.orovillemr.com/opinion/ci_16130043

DIESELS

Calif. Sessions To Focus On Trucks. California is having a final
series of workshops to gather feedback for amendments to two key
truck regulations. The state’s Air Resources Board will solicit
input on modifying the truck and bus and drayage truck
regulations and provide presentations at the workshops. The
recession resulted in significantly reduced emissions, so the
board is revisiting these rules and will consider amendments at
its December meeting. “The amendments do not exist in hard copy
form yet,” said Karen Caesar, a CARB spokeswoman. Posted.
http://www.etrucker.com/apps/news/article.asp?id=85819

BLOGS

Schwarzenegger Will Miss Clinton Summit Of World Leaders. Stuck
at home with an illness and a budget stalemate, Gov. Arnold
Schwarzenegger will miss his scheduled appearance today at the
Clinton Global Initiative in New York. Schwarzenegger had planned
to speak about California's 2006 climate change law, Assembly
Bill 32, in the midst of an intense campaign over the law's
future. Oil companies and business groups are backing Proposition
23 to suspend the law until California's unemployment rate drops
significantly. They say AB 32 would hurt the state's economy by
forcing increased costs on businesses. Posted.
http://blogs.sacbee.com/capitolalertlatest/#ixzz10BwazEhD

American Lung Association Study Shows That Smart Growth Could
Save Lives. The human cost of air pollution sometimes gets lost
in the rhetoric surrounding political battles like the one over
California's Proposition 23, which would suspend the state's
landmark climate law, AB 32.AB 32 is the underpinning for other
California legislation that aims to reduce that pollution -- in
part by encouraging denser development and more walkable
communities. Posted.
http://www.grist.org/article/2010-09-21-american-lung-association-study-shows-how-smart-growth-could-sav/

Boeing Wins Pentagon Contract To Build A Solar-Powered Drone That
Can Stay Aloft For Five Years. With four scrawny fuselages and
wings stretching more than the length of a football field, Boeing
Co.’s solar-powered drone looks a bit like a flying antenna.  But
the government is hoping that the aircraft, dubbed the
SolarEagle, will one day be capable of flying for five straight
years at 60,000 feet.  Last week, Boeing announced it had won an
$89-million contract with the U.S. Posted.
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/technology/2010/09/drone-solar-power-boeing-phantom-works.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheTechnologyBlog+%28Los+Angeles+Times+Technology+Blog%29

Would Curbing Desert Dust Help The Colorado River?  The dark dust
thrown up by human activity in the deserts of the southwestern
United States hastens the melting of Rocky Mountain snow and
ultimately reduces the amount of water flowing into the upper
Colorado River by around 5%, scientists reported Monday. The lost
water amounts to more than 250 billion gallons — enough to supply
the Los Angeles region for 18 months, said study leader Thomas H.
Painter, a snow hydrologist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in
Pasadena. Posted.
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/greenspace/2010/09/colorado-river-water-california-dust-grazing.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+GreenspaceEnvironmentBlog+%28Greenspace%29

Wal-Mart Pairs With Solarcity To Put Panels On Stores In
California, Arizona. Shopping for discounts at Wal-Mart Stores
Inc. is about to become even more of a sunny activity. The
world’s largest retailer is pairing with SolarCity Corp., the
country’s market leader in solar installations, to add panels to
20 to 30 stores in California and Arizona. That’s in addition to
the 31 Wal-Mart locations, all in California or Hawaii, that
already have solar rigged up. That leaves, according to some
estimates, more than 8,000 Wal-Mart facilities to go. Posted.
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/technology/2010/09/wal-mart-pairs-with-solarcity-to-solarize-stores-in-california-and-arizona.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheTechnologyBlog+%28Los+Angeles+Times+Technology+Blog%29