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California Air Resources Board News Clips for September 23, 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.

ENERGY

State Moves Ahead With Push For Renewable Power. With the support
of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, four California state agencies and
the operator of the state's electricity grid have banded together
to call for a coordinated approach that ensures the state remains
on a cleaner-energy path in the coming decade. In 2006, Mr.
Schwarzenegger signed AB 32, one of several measures intended to
help change the way Californians generate and use energy, in
order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Posted. 
http://www.modbee.com/2010/09/21/1348707/state-releases-targets-for-clean.html

Renewable Energy Rules Likely To Advance. The California Air
Resources Board is expected to approve regulations that could
break an impasse in a battle to require utilities to obtain a
third of their power from solar and other renewable sources by
2020. A state agency is expected to approve regulations Thursday
that could break an impasse in a long-sought goal to require
utilities in California to obtain a third of their power from
solar and other renewable sources by 2020. Posted.
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-renewable-energy-20100923,0,5018836,print.story

RES Bill Stands Alone Or Dies, Sponsors Vow. A Senate bill to
implement a national renewable electricity standard should be
brought to the floor as a stand-alone measure or not at all, a
leading co-sponsor of the legislation said today. Sen. Jeff
Bingaman (D-N.M.) said the point of introducing the stand-alone
RES bill is to get enough co-sponsors to show the bill can pass
without amendments. Posted.
http://www.eenews.net/Greenwire/print/2010/09/23/1

Calif. Regulators To Vote On New Energy Standard. Sacramento,
Calif. California environmental regulators are considering a plan
that would require utilities to derive a third of the electricity
they send to consumers from renewable sources like solar and wind
by 2020. The California Air Resources Board is scheduled to vote
on a proposal Thursday that, if adopted, would create the most
aggressive clean energy standards in the nation. Posted.
http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D9IDLPFG0.htm

In California, Prop 23 Threatens State’s Renewable Energy
Standard. The Los Angeles Times reported today that a California
agency is set to approve renewable energy standard that is
significantly more stringent than the one being discussed at the
congressional level. California’s RES would require that 33
percent of the state’s electricity come from renewable sources
like wind and solar by 2020. Posted.
http://washingtonindependent.com/98406/in-california-prop-23-threatens-states-renewable-energy-standard

Calif. Clears State Permit For Brightsource Solar Station.
BrightSource Energy Inc.'s solar power project in Ivanpah,
Calif., won approval yesterday from state regulators, leaving it
one step removed from breaking ground. The 392-megawatt solar
thermal power plant received a unanimous nod from the California
Energy Commission, ending years of often-acrimonious struggle
over the project's environmental impact in the Mojave Desert. The
vote represents the fourth project cleared by the CEC in the last
month. Posted.
http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/print/2010/09/23/6
http://www.desertdispatch.com/news/project-9304-energy-construction.html
http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20100922-713910.html
http://blogs.pe.com/news/digest/2010/09/inland-big-solar-energy-projec.html
http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-news/ci_16146519?nclick_check=1

Who Will Become The Masters Of The 'Smart Grid'? If there is a
consensus within the smart grid sector, it's on the necessity of
getting consumers to use new digital meters, energy displays,
appliance controls and pricing innovation to reduce their use of
electricity. This has been the mantra of the GridWise Global
Forum in Washington this week, a convention of utilities, smart
grid vendors, consultants and regulators. Posted.
http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/print/2010/09/23/2

Analysis: Recent California Newspaper Editorials (SJ Mercury
News)The (Riverside) Press-Enterprise: "Solar Sensitivity". The
desire for clean energy does not justify the needless sacrifice
of fragile habitat. California's desert is ideal for alternative
energy projects, but the desert is also a delicate ecosystem. So,
state and federal officials who oversee green energy development
should direct new energy projects to already-disturbed desert
land, instead of pristine public acreage. A draft scientific
report says large new power plants should strive to use desert
land already touched by human activity. Posted.
http://www.mercurynews.com/news/ci_16146518 

CLIMATE CHANGE/GHG’S

California Writing New Rules On Greenhouse Gas, 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=z5gpqd0sbblhpf#

San Diegans Support Lead Role In Climate Change. San Diego County
might have a reputation for being politically conservative, but a
poll released Wednesday by The San Diego Foundation suggests the
region is progressive when it comes to climate change. High
levels of support for taking a leadership role to address global
warming cut across demographic groups and political parties,
according to the foundation, which has funded several climate
studies in recent years. Posted.
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2010/sep/23/san-diegans-support-lead-role-climate-change/

'Comprehensive' Label Unlikely For Future Senate Energy Bills.
Several key lawmakers did a postmortem today on the Senate's
failure to pass comprehensive climate and energy legislation,
concluding that bigger energy legislation is not better. The path
to success, most agreed, may be taking it one small step at a
time. "We don't need a thousand-page complex bill with special
deals in it in order to make progress on energy," said Sen. Susan
Collins (R-Maine) at a forum sponsored by The Washington Post.
Posted. http://www.eenews.net/Greenwire/print/2010/09/23/2
 
Editorial: Greenhouse Gas Mandates Boil Over. The state Air
Resources Board today is likely to plunge ahead with unwise,
unnecessary mandates that greenhouse gas emissions be reduced as
much as 8 percent by 2020 and 16 percent by 2035. The reductions
are about twice what's recommended by government planning
agencies in the San Francisco and Southern California regions.
But as usual, the unaccountable, single-minded state agency is
blind to economic ramifications, even in the face of vocal
opposition from the private sector that will be adversely
affected. Posted.
http://www.ocregister.com/common/printer/view.php?db=ocregister&id=267712

Pegasus Helping Design `Green Bank' To Fund Carbon Projects,
Tamminen Says. Pegasus Capital Advisors LP, the U.S. private
equity firm that manages almost $2 billion in assets, is helping
set up a bank to fund carbon reduction, a former adviser to
California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger says. Pegasus is
“volunteering some time to help with the design and structuring
of the green bank,” Terry Tamminen, 58, said in a telephone
interview in Melbourne. He is an adviser to the firm, founded in
1995, according to its website. Posted.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/print/2010-09-23/pegasus-helping-design-green-bank-to-fund-carbon-projects-tamminen-says.html

Signs Of Climate Change Fail To Shift Political Landscape. The
evidence for climate change grows: The first eight months of 2010
put this year on track to tie 1998 as the hottest year on record,
global bleaching is devastating coral reefs and Arctic summer sea
ice is reaching new lows. But for all the visible signs of global
warming, weakened political support for curbing the emissions
that drive it means that the United States is unlikely to impose
national limits on greenhouse gases before 2013, at the earliest.
Posted.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/23/AR2010092302599_pf.html

Scientists Aren't Spin Doctors on Climate. Your editorial
"Hedging on global warming" (Comment & Analysis, Monday) on
science adviser John Holdren's suggestion that "climate
disruption" more accurately reflects the consequences of
overloading the atmosphere with carbon dioxide, ignored science
and history. You claimed that scientists and environmentalists
embraced the term "climate change" because global temperatures
were going down. In reality, the past 10 years have constituted
the hottest decade in the modern temperature record. Posted.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/sep/22/scientists-arent-spin-doctors-on-climate/

Global Warming May Have Slowed in the 1970s Due to Suddenly
Cooler Oceans. A rapid surface cooling of the northern oceans may
have caused a temporary slowdown in global warming that occurred
during the early 1970s, according to an article in the September
22 issue of the science journal Nature. Moreover, the article
also suggests that the cooling coincided with an unexpected
influx of freshwater, most likely from melting ice that flowed
from the Arctic Ocean into the North Atlantic. Posted.
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUS253216740320100923

China's 'Green Economy' Will Have To Wait. China is neither green
nor clean. It's a major polluter that promises to clean up its
act — someday. Last week, I was stuck in a traffic jam in
Zhongguancun, the high-technology zone in northwest Beijing
that's supposed to be China's Silicon Valley. But right then, it
looked more like the 405 on a very bad day. The air was hot,
thick and dark gray with smog. Posted.
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-mcmanus-china-green-20100923,0,5583263,print.column

EPA Releases States' Plans To Comply With Federal GHG Regs. U.S.
EPA has released states' plans to comply with federal climate
rules after a Republican lawmaker pressed the agency to unveil
the documents. The agency has publicly posted letters from state
and local permitting authorities about how they plan to comply
with the Obama administration's climate rules by next year.
Posted. http://www.eenews.net/Greenwire/print/2010/09/23/4

House GOP Vows To Fight Cap And Trade In New Policy Statement.
House Republican leaders today rolled out their new conservative
governing agenda, which focuses on reining in spending, national
defense, repealing the new health care reform law and permanently
extending the Bush tax cuts. The Republicans did not say much
about energy or environment policy during their public appearance
at a lumberyard in Sterling, Va., but a document outlining their
priorities says, "We will fight to increase access to domestic
energy sources and oppose attempts to impose a national 'cap and
trade' energy tax." Posted.
http://www.eenews.net/Greenwire/print/2010/09/23/3

Smoggy Status Quo. While Santa Barbara County is one of only two
state counties expecting to increase its greenhouse gas emissions
in the next 20 years, the majority of the board of the Santa
Barbara County Association of Governments
(SBCAG) —comprised of the county’s five supervisors along
with one representative from each of the county’s eight cities
and in charge of transportation issues within the
county —decided the status quo was adequate for now. The
county is looking at a 6-percent increase by 2020 and 4 percent
by 2035. Posted.
http://www.independent.com/news/2010/sep/23/smoggy-status-quo/

AB 32

Brown To Continue To Press Whitman On Climate Change. Sacramento
-- Meg Whitman is soon expected to announce her opposition to
Proposition 23, the ballot measure that would all but kill
California's landmark climate control law, AB 32. The move is
intended to cast Whitman, the Republican candidate for governor,
as a moderate on the environment, willing to thumb her nose at
the out-of-state oil companies financing Proposition 23, at the
risk of snubbing her conservative base. Posted.
http://www.contracostatimes.com/top-stories/ci_16146290?nclick_check=1

Editorial: Board Must Stay True To Smart-Growth Law. California
enacted a landmark law in 2008 that uses a mix of carrots and
sticks to encourage smarter land-use planning – an attempt to
encourage communities statewide to "grow up, instead of out." The
goal of Senate Bill 375, authored by Sen. Darrell Steinberg of
Sacramento, isn't just to cut down on sprawl and build
communities conducive to transit. Posted.
http://www.sacbee.com/2010/09/23/v-print/3049787/editorial-board-must-stay-true.html

New Statewide Coalition to Fight Proposition 23. With polling
indicating that minority voters may be the key element in the
fate of Proposition 23, a historic Coalition has come together to
challenge the Texas oil companies´ assault on California’s
clean-energy law. Communities United Against the Dirty Energy
Prop, a coalition of many of the state’s most prominent social
justice and community-based organizations, will focus on the
communities that are at greatest risk should Prop. 23 pass.
Posted. http://www.californiachronicle.com/articles/view/187305 

The Eclectic and Prominent Opposition To California Ballot
Measure Prop 23. A measure on California’s November ballot,
Proposition 23, would suspend AB 32, also known as the Global
Warming Solutions Act of 2005. AB 32 set targets for reducing the
state’s greenhouse gas emissions. The list of people, companies
and organizations against Proposition 23, reads like a who’s who
of California. Posted.
http://www.triplepundit.com/2010/09/the-electic-and-prominent-opposition-to-california-ballot-measure-prop-23/

Campaigns Clash over Suspension of Calif. Global Warming Law.
November elections are just over a month away and the debate over
Prop 23 -- the measure to suspend AB 32, California’s global
warming law -- has enough drama for a reality show. Earlier this
month, George Shultz, co-chair of the No on 23 campaign and
secretary of state during the Reagan Administration, told the
media in a conference call that Prop 23 is a threat to national
security. He noted that the global warming laws promote a shift
toward clean energy. Posted.
http://sandiegonewsroom.com/news/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=42668:campaigns-clash-over-suspension-of-calif-global-warming-law&catid=38:energy&Itemid=17

Will Prop. 23 Hurt California’s Economy or Help It? Proposition
23 on the November ballot would suspend California's greenhouse
gas emissions law. Opponents say that could hurt the creation of
jobs in San Diego and throughout the state, but the Yes on 23
campaign says the measure would save existing jobs. Posted.
http://www.kpbs.org/news/2010/sep/23/will-prop-23-hurt-californias-economy-or-help-it/

In These Hard Economic Times, Prop. 23 Makes Sense. In these
challenging economic times, our No. 1 priority should be
protecting jobs and avoiding putting additional financial burdens
on California's families. That's why the Modesto Chapter of the
American GI Forum supports Proposition 23, which would
temporarily suspend California's ineffective global warming law,
Assembly Bill 32. Posted.
http://www.modbee.com/2010/09/22/1351028/in-these-hard-economic-times-prop.html#ixzz10NGzYtWt

Save State 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.desertdispatch.com/opinion/california-9298-state-jobs.html

Trio in Modesto Argue For Delay Of Emissions Law. A big bus yard
west of Modesto provided the setting Wednesday for people who
want to suspend the state's main law on climate change. They
urged voters to pass Proposition 23, a November ballot measure
that would delay emission reductions and related efforts until
the economy greatly improves. The speakers included Donald
Storer, president and chief executive officer of Storer
Transportation Service of Modesto, which has about 600 employees
in the Central Valley. Posted.
http://www.modbee.com/2010/09/22/1351102/trio-argue-for-delay-of-emissions.html#ixzz10N6F8RbV

ARRA / GREEN JOBS

Lake County To Receive Funding For Energy Efficiency Projects On
Public Facilities. As the recipient of stimulus funds under the
American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA), the county
of Lake will soon realize significant energy savings through
cost-effective projects that will be completed on publicly-owned
facilities, while at the same helping to stimulate the local
economy; create and retain jobs; reduce fossil fuel emissions;
reduce total energy usage, and improve energy efficiency. Posted.
http://lakeconews.com/content/view/16076/919/ 

CURRENT EVENTS

Whitman To Vote Against Proposition 23. Republican gubernatorial
candidate Meg Whitman said today that she will vote against
Proposition 23, the measure to suspend implementation of the
state's greenhouse gas reduction law until the statewide
unemployment rate hits 5.5 percent for four consecutive years.
Whitman has said she would suspend the law, AB 32, for at least
one year, and in a written statement this morning she called the
law a "job killer" and said it needs to be revised. Posted.
http://blogs.sacbee.com/capitolalertlatest/2010/09/whitman-to-vote-against-propos.html

Whitman Still Wants To Suspend Greenhouse-Gas Law But Opposes
Prop. 23.  Republican Meg Whitman said Thursday she opposed a
measure on the November ballot that would suspend the state's
greenhouse-gas law. Ending weeks of speculation, Whitman said in
a statement that she was opposed to Proposition 23, even though
she had called for her own one-year suspension of AB 32, the law
Proposition 23 seeks to roll back. For the last week, Whitman's
Democratic opponent, Jerry Brown, has called on Whitman to take a
stand on the November ballot measure. Posted.
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/california-politics/2010/09/whitman-says-she-opposes-greenhouse-gas-rollback.html

Prop. 23 backers to host fundraiser for Fiorina in Washington.
Republican Senate nominee Carly Fiorina will be in Washington
Thursday for a big-bucks fundraiser whose hosts include David and
Charles Koch, the oil muguls who have kicked in $1 million in an
attempt to win passage of Proposition 23.The fundraiser, set for
5:30 p.m. at the offices of the National Republican Senatorial
Committee, will be attended by Senate Minority Leader Mitch
McConnell of Kentucky and other members of the GOP Senate
delegation. Attendees must pay a minimum of $500, while
sponsoring PACS are paying $5,000. Posted.
http://blogs.sacbee.com/capitolalertlatest/2010/09/prop-23-backers-to-host-fundra.html

AIR POLLUTION

California Quantifies Premature Deaths Caused by Fine Particulate
Pollution. The view of Greater Los Angeles from high in the
Angeles National Forest on a sunny day ranges from downtown
skyscrapers in the west to the Santa Ana Mountains in the south
and the granite bulk of Mount San Gorgonio in the east. Suspended
like the fringe of a curtain from the bottom of the blue sky is a
yellow-brown belt of polluted air, enveloping the millions of
people who live and work in the region. Posted.
http://sunpluggers.com/news/california-quantifies-premature-deaths-caused-by-fine-particulate-pollution-0967

BLOGS

California: The "Solar Saudi Arabia". Prepare for a solar
building boom in the deserts of Southern California. After
spending years in the environmental review process and clearing
other bureaucratic hurdles, approvals for clean energy producers
are picking up steam. State regulators have now given the green
light to four major solar power projects in as many weeks.
Posted.
http://blogs.kqed.org/climatewatch/2010/09/22/california-the-solar-saudi-arabia/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+kqed%2FClimateWatchBlog+%28KQED%27s+Climate+Watch+Blog%29&utm_content=Google+Reader

Proposition 23: Environmentalists Power Up. California
environmental groups are launching a massive grassroots
organizing effort to defeat Proposition 23, the November ballot
initiative to suspend the state's 2006 global warming law. On
Monday, a conference call to rally opposition drew 23,077
participants. Posted.
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/greenspace/2010/09/prop-23-opponents-global-warming.html

Feinstein, Boxer Propose Tougher Gas Pipeline Regulation In Wake
Of San Bruno Blast.  California’s two U.S. senators introduced a
bill Wednesday that would impose strict new pipeline safety
standards and add federal inspectors in the wake of the Sept. 9
natural gas explosion in San Bruno that killed seven people and
burned 37 houses to the ground. Posted.
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2010/09/feinstein-and-boxer-propose-tougher-gas-pipeline-regulation-in-wake-of-deadly-san-bruno-blast.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+lanowblog+%28L.A.+Now%29&utm_content=Google+Reader

It Takes An Island: Hawaii Builds Hydrogen Infrastructures With
GM. Islands are often targeted for experiments, many of them
social and/or scientific. Take Hawaii, which will soon be the
site of an ambitious plan for the first viable hydrogen fuel cell
network in the United States. Over the summer, the Honolulu-based
utility, the Gas Co., announced it had partnered with General
Motors, in Detroit, to tap into Oahu’s 1,000-mile utility
pipeline and supply hydrogen gas to fuel stations that could
power thousands of fuel-cell vehicles. Posted.
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/greenspace/2010/09/hydrogen-fuel-cell-hawaii-gas.html