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newsclips -- Newsclips for November 23, 2010.

Posted: 23 Nov 2010 12:28:51
California Air Resources Board News Clips for November 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.

AIR POLLUTION

Ports Agree to Updated Clean Air Action Plan. The Los Angeles and
Long Beach harbor commissions on Monday finally agreed to update
an environmental plan that will concentrate on reducing harmful
emissions spewed from cargo vessels, cruise ships and locomotives
over the next decade. The revised Clean Air Action Plan is
expected to reduce the risk of cancer from port-related pollution
by 85 percent over the next decade. Posted.
http://www.dailybreeze.com/news/ci_16682224
http://www.presstelegram.com/news/ci_16686378 
http://www.mercurynews.com/news/ci_16689091 

CLIMATE CHANGE

Climate Change Planning For California Urged. California must
work harder not just to curb damaging greenhouse gas emissions,
but to plan for the unavoidable impacts of climate change on the
state's landscape and economy in coming generations, according to
an influential group of policymakers, scientists and business
leaders. Posted.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/11/23/BAP21GG2VI.DTL&type=printable

Energy Industry Strikes Out on Its Own. A group of utility
executives who once lobbied Congress to cap greenhouse-gas
emissions say they are now pressing ahead with their own efforts
to clean up the industry. "We're making our own destiny," said
Chris Gould, vice president of corporate strategy for Exelon
Corp. in Chicago, the nation's largest owner of nuclear-power
plants and one of the biggest backers of the failed "cap and
trade" legislation. The new, take-charge attitude is motivated
not only by environmental concerns. Posted.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703559504575631010457589470.html

Climate Change Math in Treaties Flawed by Suspect Pollution
Calculations. Euan Nisbet, a University of London earth sciences
professor who has traveled the world testing the air for
greenhouse-gas pollution, makes his way to a rocky outcropping on
the eastern coast of Hong Kong Island on a sunny November
afternoon. He takes out a battery-operated pump connected to a
thin tube and a plastic bag to capture traces of the wind. “This
is a good day for collecting samples,” says Nisbet, 61, looking
out to sea. Posted.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-11-23/climate-change-math-in-treaties-flawed-by-suspect-pollution-calculations.html

Greenhouse-Gas Pledges Insufficient to Combat Warming, UN Report
Finds. National pledges to cut greenhouse gases by 2020 fall
short of reductions needed to limit the rise in global
temperatures, according to a report released by the United
Nations Environment Program. Targets in the nonbinding agreement
reached in Copenhagen last year would deliver about 60 percent of
the cuts needed to keep the world from warming by 2 degrees
Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) higher than in pre-industrial
times, according to the study released today. Posted.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/print/2010-11-23/greenhouse-gas-pledges-by-nations-insufficient-un-report-finds.html

Spectron Handles First California Brokered CO2 Trade. Spectron
Group Ltd. handled the first brokered forward-trade agreement for
California carbon allowances at $11.50 a metric ton, the
London-based broker said today in an e-mailed statement. On Nov.
17, Barclays Plc and NRG Energy Inc., the largest U.S.
independent power producer, said they completed the first deal
for carbon-dioxide permits under California’s planned cap-
and-trade program for greenhouse gases. Posted.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/print/2010-11-23/spectron-handles-first-california-brokered-co2-trade-update1-.html

The Warming of Antarctica: A Citadel of Ice Begins to Melt. The
fringes of the coldest continent are starting to feel the heat,
with the northern Antarctic Peninsula warming faster than
virtually any place on Earth. These rapidly rising temperatures
represent the first breach in the enormous frozen dome that holds
90 percent of the world's ice. In 1978, when few researchers were
paying attention to global warming, a prominent geologist at Ohio
State University was already focused on the prospect of fossil
fuel emissions trapping heat in the Earth's atmosphere. Posted.
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUS84758991620101123

EPA Sets New Rules for Carbon Dioxide Storage. The Obama
administration is imposing new rules to protect drinking water
and track the amount of carbon dioxide stored underground by
"clean coal" technology. The rules, announced Monday, cover an
experimental technique to store underground the carbon dioxide
emissions from coal-fired power plants and other sources. The
technique, which involves injecting carbon dioxide in stable
geologic formations, is designed to reduce greenhouse gases that
contribute to global warming. Posted.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/22/AR2010112203699.html

U.N. Researchers Find Slow Diplomacy Creates Large 'Emissions
Gap'. World governments must commit to steeper cuts in greenhouse
gas emissions to meet their target of limiting warming to 2
degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, the U.N. Environment
Programme said today. Industrialized and developing nations
participating in U.N. climate talks last year crafted a
nonbinding agreement, the Copenhagen Accord, to limit global
emissions, fund clean energy development and help protect
vulnerable countries from climate impacts. Posted.
http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/print/2010/11/23/4

Carbon-Storage Rules Aim To Protect Health, Measure Emissions.
U.S. EPA issued a pair of rules yesterday aimed at promoting
development of carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) technology
while erecting safety and reporting mechanisms ahead of that
build-out. Technology allowing greenhouse gases emitted from coal
plants' smokestacks to be captured and then injected underground
for long-term storage has long been a darling of some in the
utility industry, who see it as an opportunity to develop "clean
coal." To date such technology has never been proved at scale.
Posted. http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/print/2010/11/23/5

DIESEL EMISSIONS

Hybrid Tugboat Cuts Emissions. UC Riverside scientists study what
is believed to be the world’s only hybrid electric tugboat at
Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. A new study by University of
California, Riverside scientists of what is believed to be the
world’s only hybrid electric tugboat found that the vessel is
effective in reducing emissions at the Ports of Los Angeles and
Long Beach. Posted.
http://newsroom.ucr.edu/news_item.html?action=page&id=2498
http://www.inlandnewstoday.com/story.php?s=16951

CARB Allows Lower-Level Upgrades to '03 Reefer Units. Owners of
model-year 2003 reefer units that run in California can get more
legal use out of them for less cost, thanks to a regulations
amendment by the state's Air Resources Board. In its Nov. 18
meeting, CARB's directors approved the installation of
Low-Emission (LE) aftertreatment equipment to '03 reefer diesels,
which would put them in compliance with CARB exhaust-emissions
rules until the end of 2017. Posted.
http://www.truckinginfo.com/news/news-print.asp?news_id=72270

FUELS

EPA Biofuel Storage Rule Marks 'New Round' Of Federal
Requirements. The US Environmental Protection Agency's newly
proposed rules for underground storage tanks holding higher
levels of ethanol and biodiesel could "mark the beginning of a
new round of federal UST requirements," the Petroleum Marketers
Association of America said. "PMAA has been working closely with
the EPA on compatibility issues over the past two years," the
group said in its weekly member e-mail, sent Friday. Posted.
http://www.platts.com/RSSFeedDetailedNews/RSSFeed/Oil/6617352

Al Gore Reverses Course On Ethanol Subsidy. Former Vice President
Al Gore, who once issued the tie-breaking vote to ensure that
ethanol and other renewable fuels would continue to receive
lucrative tax credits, has reversed course on the subsidy. The
corn ethanol tax subsidy, which provides a 45-cent tax credit for
each gallon of fuel blended with ethanol, is set to expire on
Dec. 31. Posted.
http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/print/2010/11/23/6

Will Relaxed California Regulations Trigger Demand For Corn
Ethanol? Considering a proposal from the staff of the state Air
Resources Board, California regulators have announced that they
would consider changing their view on the environmental impact of
ethanol, a decision that could keep the corn-based fuel
competitive with other bio fuels. Posted.
http://www.dailymarkets.com/stock/2010/11/23/will-relaxed-california-regulations-trigger-demand-for-corn-ethanol/

World’s Largest Biodiesel Plant Starts Production in Singapore.
Neste Oil has started production at its biodiesel plant in
Singapore, the world’s largest with an annual capacity of 800,000
tons. The plant will produce the NExBTL diesel which, according
to the company reduces the carbon emissions by 40 to 80 percent
depending on the percentage blending with the conventional
diesel. The biodiesel from the plant can be either blended with
the conventional diesel or used directly. The company claims that
the biodiesel is compatible with the all the diesel engines
currently in use. Posted.
http://cleantechnica.com/2010/11/22/worlds-largest-biodiesel-plant-starts-production-in-singapore/

GREEN ENERGY

Northrop Opposes Solar Energy Project. Defense contractor says
high desert facility might interfere with testing of stealth
technology on aircraft. A delay could affect millions of dollars
in potential federal stimulus funds. Approval for the first of
what could be at least a dozen large solar energy projects
planned for the high desert near the Los Angeles-Kern County line
is under threat from an unlikely source: the military industry.
Posted.
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-solar-radar-20101123,0,5208504,print.story

VEHICLES

Wary Of Surges, Utilities Brace For Electric Car Launch. Electric
utilities are watching the launch of mass-market electric cars
next month with a wary eye, knowing that a cluster of plugged-in
cars could potentially overwhelm the grid. The cars also present
a potential windfall for the utilities not seen since the spread
of air conditioning in the 1950s and 1960s. But executives are
worried that high demand in concentrated areas could create
difficulties for the utilities and could ruin the opportunity.
Posted. http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/2010/11/23/8/

MISCELLANEOUS

Toxic Waste Dump Ruled Out As Cause Of Kettleman City Birth
Defects. State Department of Public Health has found no reason
for heart and facial deformities in the impoverished community.
State health investigators have ruled out a toxic waste dump as
the cause of severe birth defects including heart problems and
facial deformities in the impoverished Central California farming
community of Kettleman City, according to a draft report released
Monday. Posted.
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-kettleman-defects-20101123,0,1615574,print.story
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/23/us/23town.html

BLOGS

‘Take a Lesson,’ Schwarznegger Says on Climate Change. California
is just one of 50 states, but its economy, measured individually,
is the eighth-biggest in the world, larger than that of Spain,
Canada, Brazil, Russia, India or South Korea. Such economic clout
makes California ideally positioned to take the lead on energy
policy and environmental issues like climate change, even as the
United States as a whole has failed to make much progress on
either front. Posted.
http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/11/23/take-a-lesson-schwarznegger-on-the-environment/?pagemode=print

Degrees of Separation From Climate Goals. In the weeks after the
chaotic United Nations climate change summit meeting last
December in Copenhagen, 140 nations endorsed the meeting’s goal
of limiting the rise in global temperature from pre-industrial
levels to 2 degrees Celsius or less in this century. Of those
countries signing onto the so-called Copenhagen Accord, 85 made
pledges to reduce their own greenhouse gas emissions and
participate in international programs to help developing
countries slow the rate of growth of their emissions. Are the two
pledges compatible? Posted.
http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/11/23/degrees-of-separation-from-climate-goals/?pagemode=print

Gore Annoys Corn Ethanol Lobby. Bloomberg News Fermentation tanks
at the Mid-Missouri Energy corn ethanol plant in Malta Bend, Mo.
Al Gore has apparently irked the biofuels lobby by suggesting
during a panel discussion at a green business conference on
Monday that his earlier support for corn-based ethanol subsidies
was “a mistake.” Posted.
http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/11/23/gore-annoys-corn-ethanol-lobby/?pagemode=print

Gone To Satan's Side On Climate Change. Talk about your ironies.
The deniers love to talk about the overwhelming mainstream
science behind anthropogenic climate change as a "climate
religion." Be sure to tell recently defeated Republican Rep. Bob
Inglis that. I am sure he will find that ironic. The South
Carolina Congressman blames his loss on "his assertions that
atmospheric warming is a scientific certainty." Apparently he did
not get the memo that Republicans no longer believe in science. 
Posted.
http://blogs.redding.com/dcraig/archives/2010/11/gone-to-satans.html

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