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newsclips -- Newsclips for November 30, 2010.

Posted: 30 Nov 2010 12:30:04
California Air Resources Board News Clips for November 30, 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 

Waste Management Receives Air-Quality Honor. Waste Management
officials in San Diego operate the country's largest fleet of
liquid natural gas trucks, a distinction that recently won the
company recognition from the county's air-quality agency. The Air
Pollution Control District honored Waste Management with a Blue
Sky Leadership Award, an honor given to businesses that show
commitment to bettering air quality. Posted.
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2010/nov/29/waste-management-receives-air-quality-honor/

EPA's Success Presents New Challenges, Agency's Chief Says. With
U.S. EPA taking intense criticism from Republicans and
businesses, Administrator Lisa Jackson said today her 40-year-old
agency is battling a new problem: Americans are taking a healthy
environment for granted. When EPA was created in 1970,
Cleveland's Cuyahoga River was so polluted that it caught fire.
Pittsburgh and Los Angeles were choking on smog on a daily basis.
And the widespread use of DDT and other toxic chemicals was
killing off bald eagles -- the very symbol of the United States.
Posted.
http://www.nytimes.com/gwire/2010/11/29/29greenwire-epas-success-presents-new-challenges-agencys-c-73961.html?pagewanted=print

Road Construction Company Faces Millions Of Dollars In Air
Quality Fines. Lake County, Calif. – A company that completed a
disputed road project in the south county is facing millions of
dollars in fines due to its alleged failure to get the proper air
quality permits. International Surfacing Systems, which has
offices around California and Arizona, was cited earlier this
fall by Lake County Air Quality Management District for several
violations, according to Air Pollution Control Officer Doug
Gearhart. Posted. http://lakeconews.com/content/view/17208/919/

Water District, Cement Companies Struggle with Emissions Rules.
The Tehachapi-Cummings County Water District continues to line up
support in opposition to proposed emission control Rule 4702 that
the district says will increase green house gases, reduce fuel
efficiency, result in higher water prices, harm agriculture and
place a severe financial hardship on the water district. “It's
going to affect every single person in our district,” said water
district Operations Manager Steve Minton. “And not in a good
way.” Posted.
http://www.tehachapinews.com/content/water-district-cement-companies-struggle-emissions-rules/32683

CLIMATE CHANGE

Cap-and-Trade Market Spanning North America Weighed by States.
California, New Mexico and 10 U.S. Northeastern states may try to
create a North American carbon market on their own now that
President Barack Obama has given up on cap-and-trade legislation
that stalled in Congress. The emissions-trading system would be
based on a planned carbon market in California, the most populous
state, and an existing regional cap-and-trade program for power
plants in the Northeast, according to state environmental
officials. Posted.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2010/11/29/bloomberg1376-LCNWTQ0UQVI801-2DVHRLU62ULOEUHU3LQE07QSCU.DTL#ixzz16mmapQfP
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/print/2010-11-30/cap-and-trade-market-for-north-america-weighed-by-states-after-obama-fails.html

Even When Frozen, Soils Get Busy Emitting CO2. Microbes have long
done the world's dirty work. They gobble up oil spills. They
defend our guts against disease. And even in rugged northern
latitudes, hosts of bacteria filter through the soil, feeding on
falling leaves and decay, freeing carbon and nutrients for each
spring's renewal. For a long time, scientists thought the
essential role played by soil bacteria in the northern carbon
cycle was purely seasonal: During summer, heat-loving bugs would
tear through leaf litter and waste with a frenzy, multiplying
rapidly. Posted.
http://www.nytimes.com/gwire/2010/11/29/29greenwire-even-when-frozen-soils-get-busy-emitting-co2-77544.html

As Diplomats Debate, the Climate Doesn't Wait. Once more, as
they've done each year for two decades, parties to the 193-nation
U.N. climate treaty assembled Monday to debate what to do about
global warming, after a year in which its impact came into
sharper focus in many realms and regions. The United States' top
scientists have attested to shifts in the planet's environment
already under way. Posted.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/29/AR2010112904661.html

New Front Opens In War Against Global Warming. Many policymakers
and business leaders have come to see the most basic method of
slowing global warming - cutting carbon dioxide emissions through
a binding treaty - as elusive for now. They are turning their
attention instead toward a more achievable goal: curbing other
greenhouse gases that are warming the planet. Posted.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/29/AR2010112905479_pf.html

Climate Change Conference Begins in Mexico. Mexico's President
Felipe Calderon speaks at the opening of the United Nations
climate change conference in Cancun, 29 Nov 2010. The United
Nations Climate Change Conference got underway in the Mexican
beach resort of Cancun on Monday with calls for decisive action
to curb greenhouse gas emissions worldwide as part of an effort
to curb global warmingPosted.
http://www.voanews.com/english/news/Climate-Change-Conference-Begins-in-Mexico-110980424.html

Negotiators Eye Ozone Treaty As Shortcut To CO2 Deal. A proposal
to curb some of the world's most potent heat-trapping gases by
expanding a decades-old treaty appears to be turning heads. With
international attempts to broker major climate deals falling
short, expanding the Montreal Protocol may represent the best
shot at fighting rising temperatures, some analysts say. And
overcoming one of the most formidable hurdles to this approach
may be on the menu at the global warming summit in Cancun,
Mexico. Posted.
http://www.eenews.net/Greenwire/print/2010/11/30/1

Can Faith Slow Climate Change? The prayer was recited regularly
by a young Sally Bingham growing up in San Francisco. Only years
later, as an ordained Episcopal Church priest, did Bingham
realize something was amiss with the childhood supplication.”
There was this terrible hypocrisy," she said. "This disconnect
between what we said we believed in and how we behaved." Posted.
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=can-faith-slow-climate-change

FUELS

Al Gore's Billion-Dollar Mistake. In Greece earlier this month,
Al Gore made a startling admission: "First-generation ethanol, I
think, was a mistake." Unfortunately, Americans have Gore to
thank for ethanol subsidies. In 1994, then-Vice President Al Gore
ended a 50-50 tie in the Senate by voting in favor of an ethanol
tax credit that added almost $5 billion to the federal deficit
last year. And that number doesn't factor the many ways in which
corn-based ethanol mandates drive up the price of food and
livestock feed. Posted.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/11/30/ED8F1GIVH6.DTL&type=printable

Breaking Away From Coal. Progress Energy Carolinas, one of the
South’s larger utilities, faced a dilemma last winter. Several of
its coal-fired power plants were aging and needed scrubbers to
reduce emissions and meet North Carolina pollution laws.
Executives figured that even tougher regulations were coming from
Washington, and overhauling 11 generators at four plants would
have cost nearly $2 billion, which would have been passed on to
the company’s 1.5 million electric customers. Posted.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/30/business/energy-environment/30utilities.html?src=busln

Ethanol Group Asks EPA To Rethink Life-Cycle GHG Analysis. An
ethanol trade group wants U.S. EPA to follow California's lead
and re-examine the lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions associated
with corn ethanol production. In a letter to EPA Administrator
Lisa Jackson last week, the Renewable Fuels Association called on
the Obama administration to consider following the lead of the
California Air Resources Board, which recently resolved to
incorporate new research into its low carbon fuel standard (LCFS)
that is expected to lower the emissions penalty for corn ethanol
(Greenwire, Nov. 19). Posted.
http://www.eenews.net/Greenwire/print/2010/11/30/8

Conservative, Liberal Groups Unite To Oppose Ethanol Supports. A
coalition of strange bedfellows including the conservative
Competitive Enterprise Institute, liberal network MoveOn and even
a Catholic missionary group came together yesterday on a letter
urging Congress to let $6 billion in ethanol tax credits lapse at
the end of the year. Posted.
http://www.eenews.net/Greenwire/print/2010/11/30/5

Low Carbon Fuel Could Raise California Fuel Prices Sharply. The
Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS), which will be implemented in
California starting in January after the defeat of Prop 23, may
be an instructive example of the Law of Unintended Consequences.
It mandates that carbon levels in fuel be lowered 10% by 2020, by
using biofuel or purchasing emission credits.  This is certainly
a laudable goal. But Houston, we have a problem. California
already has steep gas prices compared to other states. LCFS will
almost certainly mean even higher prices. Posted.
http://caivn.org/article/2010/11/30/low-carbon-fuel-could-raise-california-fuel-prices-sharply

GREEN ENERGY

UC Davis Turns to Smart Lighting Systems to Save Energy. UC Davis
turned on its new Smart Lighting Initiative recently to slash the
amount of electricity it uses to illuminate its buildings and
grounds. UCD is the first large institution in California to act
on a September state mandate to reduce lighting energy use by 60
percent or more by 2020. What's more, the university intends to
reach that goal in half the time -- by 2015. It has a good start:
Since 2007, it has already reduced lighting energy consumption by
about 10 percent. Posted.
http://www.dailydemocrat.com/news/ci_16740960

Undersea Cable Ends San Fran's Grid Isolation, Provides Cleaner
Power. San Francisco -- Construction of a 53-mile, $500 million
power line that snakes under the San Francisco Bay into the city
here was completed yesterday, providing electricity for the first
time from cleaner sources of energy to the north. The Trans Bay
Cable, which extends from Pittsburg, Calif., on the east side of
the bay under the Bay Bridge, is capable of meeting as much as 40
percent of this city's peak power demand. The line provides
access for the first time to wind power projects that until now
have been inaccessible. Posted.
http://www.eenews.net/Greenwire/print/2010/11/30/4

VEHICLES

Honda Insight: America's First Mass Produced Hybrid Adds To 2011
Lineup. On sale today, the 2011 Honda Insight hybrid with its new
standard features and the addition of a value-oriented entry
model that offers enhanced value, exclusive content and a
Manufacturer's Suggested Retail Price (MSRP) starting at $18,200,
plus a $750 destination and handling charge. The range of Insight
models for 2011 now starts with a new value-oriented base model,
simply designated as "Insight. Posted.
http://www.examiner.com/autos-in-atlanta/honda-insight-america-s-first-mass-produced-hybrid-adds-to-2011-lineup-review

OPINION

What Cancun Climate Talks Could Achieve. Last winter, President
Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton rescued
high-profile international climate negotiations in Copenhagen
from total failure. Buoyed by House passage of a comprehensive
climate bill, Mr. Obama promised that the United States would cut
its greenhouse emissions 17 percent below 2005 levels by 2020,
and he committed the United States to assist developing countries
in adapting to global warming and greening their economies.
Posted.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/29/AR2010112905828_pf.html

Time for New Blood at State Air Resources Board. “Caesar’s wife
must be above suspicion.”— Julius Caesar, 62 B.C. Julius Caesar,
the Roman general and ruler, made that statement while divorcing
his wife Pompeia when she was accused of having an affair with
his colleague, Clodius Pulcher, a charge that was never proved.
Posted.
http://www.vcstar.com/news/2010/nov/29/time-for-new-blood-at-state-air-resources-board/#ixzz16miMlAsA


No Pie for 'Air Nazi' Snitch. I read in Richard Beene's Nov. 26
"Bakersfield Observed" column that some moron snitched off the
plans of the Bakersfield Track Club for the usual bonfire
following its annual Pie Run on Thanksgiving morning. This rat
has no conscience or scruples because, due to his political
correctness, the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control
District disallowed the bonfire unless actual food was being
prepared on a grill. Posted.
http://www.bakersfield.com/opinion/letters/x1263267105/No-pie-for-air-Nazi-snitch

Opinion: It Takes a Nation to Save a Planet. The United Nations
named 2010 the International Year of Biodiversity, but the past
year has proved to be a tough one for planet Earth. Last winter,
negotiators returned from Copenhagen having failed to reach a
meaningful agreement to reduce greenhouse gases. In the spring
and summer, the Gulf of Mexico was hit with the largest oil spill
in history, due in part to lax oversight by regulatory agencies.
Posted.
http://www.aolnews.com/opinion/article/opinion-it-takes-a-nation-to-save-a-planet/19737099

MISCELLANEOUS

Cleaner Cleaners? A new law in California aimed at cleaning up
cleaning products may help reduce air pollution nationwide. The
new regulation—passed unanimously on November 18 by the
California Air Resources Board (ARB)—will require that makers of
household cleaning products, including glass sprays, bug sprays,
degreasers, furniture sprays and metal polishes, reduce the
amount of toxic solvents known as volatile organic compounds
(VOCs) in these products. Posted.
http://www.emagazine.com/view/?5425&printview&imagesoff

Deceptive Agency To Punish Deception. On Wednesday a California
state agency with a well-earned reputation for deception will
hold a public workshop that may well set a new standard for
governmental hypocrisy in California – and that’s really saying
something. The hearing is the spawn of the California Air
Resources Board (CARB), which has proposed a regulation [1]
prohibiting false statements.  Under the new regulation, no one
submitting information to CARB could knowingly and willingly
“falsify, conceal or cover up by any trick, scheme, or devise a
material fact.”  Posted.
http://watchdog.org/7423/deceptive-agency-to-punish-deception/print/

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