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California Air Resources Board News Clips for October 29, 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.

CAP AND TRADE

California Air Board To Unveil Cap-And-Trade Program For CO2.
With voters headed to the polls Tuesday to decide the fate of
California's climate change law, regulators are pressing ahead
with a key part of the statute that puts limits on how much the
state's companies can pollute. The California Air Resources Board
today will unveil new rules and regulations for a cap-and-trade
program. It will set a ceiling on the amount of carbon that
refiners, power companies and major manufacturers can emit each
year. Posted.
http://www.sacbee.com/2010/10/29/v-print/3142005/california-air-board-to-unveil.html

California Doubles Carbon-Offset Use in Cap-and-Trade Plan to
Meet Targets. California environmental regulators plan to let
power plants, oil refineries and factories use more carbon
offsets to meet pollution targets in the state’s cap-and- trade
program for greenhouse gases. Companies in the cap-and-trade
program could use the offsets, which are pollution cuts from
unregulated sources such as farms and forests, to meet up to 8
percent of their “compliance obligation,” the California Air
Resources Board said in a report on its website. Posted.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/print/2010-10-29/california-regulators-double-carbon-offset-usage-in-cap-and-trade-program.html

California Unveils Greenhouse Gas Trading Scheme. California
unveiled its final draft of a market system to curb greenhouse
gases, relaxing expected rules in the face of a weak economy in a
measure that could set the tone for the nation's climate policy.
By agreeing to give away virtually all necessary permits to
factories and power plants when the scheme starts in 2012 rather
than sell them at auction, the state with the biggest economy and
population is acknowledging the challenges of double-digit
unemployment-- and the reality that pollution decreases as the
economy slows. Posted.
http://af.reuters.com/article/energyOilNews/idAFN2929260420101029

CLIMATE CHANGE

Big Partisan Gap on Climate Change Is Widened by Tea Partiers.
The partisan divide over alternative energy grew the past two
years, according to a new poll from the Pew Research Center for
the People and the Press. Republican support for increased
federal funding for wind, solar and hydrogen technology dropped
20 points from 2008, the survey found. There was a 13-point drop
in the same time frame among GOP respondents favoring "better
fuel efficiency" for vehicles. Posted.
http://www.nytimes.com/cwire/2010/10/29/29climatewire-big-partisan-gap-on-climate-change-is-widene-54943.html?pagewanted=print

Where Does the Country Stand on Climate Change? A new Pew
Research Center poll gives us a clearer picture of where the
country stands on global warming. According to the poll, the
country’s stance on global warming has pretty much stayed the
same during the last year. About 59 percent of Americans say
there is “solid evidence” that the earth is warming, up slightly
from this time last year, when 57 percent of Americans said the
same thing. Posted.
http://washingtonindependent.com/101897/where-does-the-country-stand-on-climate-change

AIR POLLUTION

Critics: Valley Air Fee Misses Dirtiest. Motorists who create
less than a tenth of the valley's ozone problem could wind up
paying most of a $29 million dirty-air penalty, say air quality
activists. The San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District
governing board last week approved a $12 annual fee to be paid by
valley motorists. The fee is being levied to pay a penalty that
was triggered this year when the region failed to meet a federal
ozone standard. Posted.
http://www.modbee.com/2010/10/28/1403887/criticsair-fee-misses-dirtiest.html#ixzz13lPjLV5L
 http://www.bakersfield.com/news/local/x768777434/Valley-could-be-paying-bad-air-fines-for-years

Smog Cuts Are Overestimated, Caltech Research Shows. Federal,
state and local air pollution agencies might not be getting the
smog reductions they are banking on when they regulate emissions
sources ranging from nail polish and house paint to cars, trucks
and train locomotives. A study published by Caltech scientists in
the journal Science this week found that calculations used by
regulatory agencies may be overestimating the anticipated smog
reductions in Southern California by as much as 10 percent.
Posted.
http://www.pe.com/localnews/stories/PE_News_Local_D_ozone29.315dc86.html

Winter Ritual: Get Ready To Check Before You Burn. The Check
Before You Burn program is starting back up on Monday. The
program, which aims to reduce airborne particulate pollution by
regulating fireplace usage, runs each year from November to the
end of February. The program is entering its eighth season.
Posted. http://www.bakersfieldnow.com/news/health/106151898.html

Ten Tips for Safer, Cleaner Fireplace Burning. Fireplace fires
can cause emergencies, and breathing wood smoke is bad for our
lungs and our hearts. The Santa Barbara County Fire Department
and the Santa Barbara County Air Pollution Control District have
the following suggestions to keep you and our community safer and
healthier. Posted.
http://www.independent.com/news/2010/oct/28/ten-tips-safer-cleaner-fireplace-burning/


DIESEL EMISSIONS

New Truck Registry At The Port Of Oakland Adds Layer Of Security
At Terminals. The Port of Oakland reached a milestone Thursday in
its goal to improve security and protect its valuable seaport,
the fifth busiest in the nation. Since April, more than 5,000
trucks have signed up with the Secure Truck Management Program,
or STEP, a truck registry system that identifies vehicles
authorized to pick up and unload cargo at the port's marine
terminals. Posted.
http://www.insidebayarea.com/oaklandtribune/localnews/ci_16461462

CARB Verifies Longmile Diesel Particulate Filter. The LongMile
diesel particulate filter from Cleaire Advanced Emission Controls
has been verified as a Level 3+ unit for on-road applications by
the California Air Resources Board (CARB). The Level 3+
designation means the LongMile has successfully demonstrated
diesel particulate matter (PM) emissions reductions of greater
than 85% while meeting the NO2 emission standard, noted the
company. Posted.
http://fleetowner.com/green/archive/carb-verifies-longmile-diesel-1029/

TRANSPORTATION

GE Prepares World's Largest Electric Vehicle Purchase. General
Electric Co. will order "tens of thousands" of electric vehicles
in about a week, a purchase CEO Jeffrey Immelt said will be the
largest ever. Immelt did not give a total or reveal the brand of
car to be purchased but said the order would help GE as it moves
into clean energy technology. The company plans to have half of
its 45,000 or so sales workers drive electric vehicles. Posted.
http://www.eenews.net/Greenwire/print/2010/10/29/11

Amtrak To Replace Locomotives With Greener Model. Amtrak will
replace 64 locomotives in the Northeast corridor with a tweaked
design that uses less electricity. The government-owned rail
service will purchase 70 new electric locomotives between 2013
and 2019, Amtrak will announce today. The trains will have
several new systems, including a regenerative braking feature
that converts the motor's movement back into electric current.
Posted. http://www.eenews.net/Greenwire/print/2010/10/29/12

ENERGY

California Gets Electric Cabs And Bike Sharing. It’s been a great
week for alternative transportation in California. San Francisco
Bay area transportation officials have given the green light to
seventeen pilot projects aimed at combating climate change,
according to the San Francisco Chronicle. Thirty-three million
dollars in federal funds for the projects have been allocated
including deploying electric taxis in San Francisco and San Jose.
Posted.
http://alttransport.com/2010/10/california-gets-electric-cabs-and-bike-sharing/

Governor Schwarzenegger Applauds Approval of Calico Solar Project
in Southern California. San Bernardino, California - Governor
Arnold Schwarzenegger applauded the California Energy Commission
(CEC) decision today to approve the Calico Solar Project, the
seventh solar thermal power plant licensed by the state in the
past two months, totaling 3,493 megawatts (MW) of renewable solar
power. The Calico Project will generate 664 MW of clean,
renewable energy and create nearly 900 jobs in San Bernardino
County.  Posted.
http://imperialvalleynews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=8352&Itemid=23

The World Series of Renewable Energy. As thousands gathered in
San Francisco to watch the Giants play Texas in the first game of
the World Series, a coalition of local green groups gathered
outside the stadium to remind crowds that California clean energy
economy will face its own threat from Texas big oil in next
week's election. Posted.
http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/article/2010/10/the-world-series-of-renewable-energy

OPINION

Prop 23: "The Global Warming Proposition".You can usually
determine the quality of an apple by looking at the tree from
which it came. Proposition 23 is a rotten apple from a depraved
tree. Under the crafty guise of the “California Jobs Initiative,”
Prop. 23 is nothing more than a filthy piece of legislation
aiming to protect out-of-state oil companies at the expense of
California’s environment. Pay no attention to the misleading
rhetoric of the oil companies: Prop. 23 is dirtier than the L.A.
smog circa 1980. Posted.
http://tsl.pomona.edu/new/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1477:prop-23-qthe-global-warming-propositionq&catid=56:outside-the-bubble&Itemid=98

BLOGS

Bay Area Maps Out Bike-Sharing Effort. The San Francisco Bay
area, long a center of cycling aficionados and Zipcar
enthusiasts, is about to play host to a $7 million pilot
bike-sharing program that will blend the two popular commuting
alternatives. The largest pollution-control agency in the San
Francisco Bay area is joining forces with several local
jurisdictions and transportation agencies to pay for the program,
whose aim is to reduce some of the tailpipe emissions that are
responsible for more than half of the air pollution in the
nine-county region. Posted.
http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/10/28/bay-area-maps-out-bike-sharing-effort/?partner=rss&emc=rss

How to Make Solar Power Cost Competitive in 5 Years or Less. Last
month, after a state senate bill increasing California's
renewable energy standard failed to pass, the state's Air
Resources Board (CARB) increased the goal on their own,
establishing the 33 percent by 2012 renewable electricity
standard. California now claims the country's highest renewable
energy standard, with Colorado close behind -- 30 percent
renewable by 2020. Posted. http://www.greenbiz.com/print/39987