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California Air Resources Board News Clips for December 22, 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

EPA Sends Updated Carbon Monoxide Standard To White House. U.S.
EPA has sent the White House Office of Management and Budget a
proposed update to the national air quality standards for carbon
monoxide, signaling that the agency is just about ready to come
out with a draft rule. EPA is under a court-ordered deadline to
decide whether to change the limits on ambient levels of carbon
monoxide (CO), a chemical that is best known for its deadly
effects indoors but is also linked to public health impacts in
the outdoor environment. Posted.
http://www.eenews.net/Greenwire/print/2010/12/21/3

CLIMATE CHANGE

Cap-and-Trade Rules: Hold the Applause. There has been a lot of
cheering over the Dec. 16 decision by the California Air
Resources Board to adopt rules setting up the nation’s first
cap-and-trade system for reducing carbon emissions. While the
regulations represent an important first step and contain several
positive elements, their flaws are serious and shouldn’t be
ignored. As the regulations now stand, their ultimate result
could be a massive giveaway to the state’s biggest polluters. 
Posted.
http://www.californiaprogressreport.com/site/?q=print/8502

EPA To Double Down On Climate. The Obama administration is
expected to roll out a major greenhouse gas policy for power
plants and refineries as soon as Wednesday, signaling it won’t
back off its push to fight climate change in the face of mounting
opposition on Capitol Hill. The Environmental Protection Agency
has agreed to a schedule for setting greenhouse gas emission
limits, known as “performance standards,” for the nation’s two
biggest carbon-emitting industries, POLITICO has learned. Posted.
http://dyn.politico.com/printstory.cfm?uuid=0B6F4294-B06E-28EB-6F698FE46275EDF2

EPA Girds For Texas Permitting Takeover. U.S. EPA is a day away
from seizing control of a Texas program that issues air pollution
permits to power plants, refineries and other large sources of
greenhouse gases, the agency said yesterday in a final warning to
state officials. If the Obama administration proceeds with the
takeover -- a rare occurrence in the 40-year history of the Clean
Air Act -- it would be the most dramatic step in EPA's feud with
Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) and his appointees, who have fought
federal climate rules in court and have refused to limit the
amount of planet-warming emissions released by Texas businesses.
Posted. http://www.eenews.net/Greenwire/print/2010/12/22/1

GREEN ENERGY

Nordic Windpower Leaving California. Nordic Windpower, a
Berkeley-based wind turbine manufacturer that is currently spread
among three locations, announced Tuesday that it is leaving
California and moving to Kansas City. The small company, which
makes large two-bladed wind turbines, has 50 employees. Ten work
in Berkeley; the others work at an assembly facility in Idaho and
a technology office in the United Kingdom. Posted.
http://www.mercurynews.com/business/ci_16913416?source=rss

Audit: Calif. Agencies Overstate Stimulus Jobs. Sacramento,
Calif.—A state audit on Tuesday found that some California
agencies inflated the number of jobs created by the federal
stimulus program. In a sampling of five state agencies, the
California State Auditor found that two overstated the number of
jobs by 617 positions. For example, the Water Resources Control
Board did not follow guidelines and triple-counted the number of
jobs created with the money. It ended up overstating the number
of jobs by 71. Posted.
http://www.mercurynews.com/news/ci_16914453?nclick_check=1

'Energy Independence' Bill Alt-Fuel, Vehicles Measures. Two House
members have introduced legislation that aims to reduce domestic
oil imports by supporting a range of alternatives including
biofuels, electric vehicles, rail transport, and heating oil and
propane conservation measures. The bill, presented by Reps. Jay
Inslee (D-Wash.) and Mike Castle (R-Del.) and called the "Oil
Independence for a Stronger America Act of 2010," corresponds to
a Senate-proposed measure of the same name that was introduced in
July by Democratic Sens. Jeff Merkley of Oregon, Tom Carper of
Delaware and Tom Udall of New Mexico (E&E Daily, July 16).
Posted. http://www.eenews.net/Greenwire/print/2010/12/22/6

VEHICLES

UC Davis Professor Is Charged Up Over His New Chevy Volt. For
Andrew Frank, his new Chevrolet Volt is literally the car of his
dreams. The University of California, Davis, engineering
professor is often considered "the father of plug-in hybrid
vehicles," a field that is entering into the mass marketing stage
with this month's rollout of the new Volt. "I've been working on
this idea for 30 years," said Frank, as he handled his new car's
plug-in cords like a proud father. "This is kind of like a
culmination of all my work." Posted.
http://www.sacbee.com/2010/12/22/v-print/3274808/uc-davis-professor-is-charged.html

BYD To Expand Electric Bus Production. Chinese carmaker BYD Co.
Ltd. will expand into green buses next year. Spokesman Paul Lin
said the company already has two electric buses running in China
and is in talks to send more to Hong Kong, Europe and the United
States. The buses are made at a plant in Changsha that can
produce about 1,000 buses a year. The company has already
promised 500 buses each to Shenzhen and Changsha, though Lin said
the company hopes to secure more contracts. Posted.
http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/print/2010/12/22/9

An Electric Vehicle For The Frugal. A company based in Salinas,
Calif., is working on a gasless electric vehicle that's more
wallet-friendly than its rivals in the market. The Triac car is
the product of Green Vehicles, a company started in 2007 by Mike
Ryan, who had just earned computer science and electrical
engineering degrees from the University of California, Berkeley,
and Ehab Youssef, an intellectual property lawyer. The $25,000
auto is "centered around what we call the Green Core," Ryan said.
Posted. http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/print/2010/12/21/8

Oil-Absorbing Boom To Be Remade Into Volt Parts. Plastic boom
materials used in the cleanup of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill
will be recycled for parts in the Chevrolet Volt extended-range
electric car. General Motors Co. announced it will use 100,000
pounds of plastic resin from the booms for vehicle components.
The parts, which are used to deflect air around the vehicle's
radiator, also contain 25 percent recycled tires from another GM
plant. Posted.
http://www.eenews.net/Greenwire/print/2010/12/21/21

OPINION

Rodents Foretell A Brutal Winter, Climate Change. In the waning
days of summer, I noticed some shredded newspaper on the floor of
the shed where I keep gardening tools. It was impossible to miss
the tiny tears when I opened the door and daylight flooded the
dark space. The rodent-like vandalism hadn't happened last year
when I moved into the bungalow. The roof of the shed was leaking
in 2009, and until I made the badly needed repairs the shed
smelled of cold, rotting, damp wood. But it has stayed clean and
dry since, making it more inviting for critters seeking shelter.
Posted.
http://www.sacbee.com/2010/12/22/v-print/3275355/rodents-foretell-a-brutal-winter.html

A Clean New Year As Potrero Hill Power Plant Shuts. San Francisco
will be ringing in the New Year with a new and far cleaner
chapter in the city's environmental history. State officials have
given notice to the city's last fossil-fuel power plant,
currently operating in Potrero Hill. The plant, one of the
dirtiest in California, will be terminated on Jan. 1. It's hard
to overstate either the importance of this event, or the torture
of the journey it took for San Francisco to get to this place.
During its decades of operation, it burned both diesel and
natural gas, right in spitting distance of a densely packed
residential neighborhood. Posted.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/12/21/EDEK1GTQBJ.DTL#ixzz18s0i0Yvk

BLOGS

Alternative mobility tops list of 2011 green trends. Luxury green
vehicles and alternative mobility, such as peer-to-peer
car-sharing, top the list of "Green Things to Watch in 2011," a
new report from the global market research firm JWT. "A lot of
people have been wondering if the recession hurt the momentum of
the green movement, but it is still very much alive," said Ann
Mack, director of trend spotting for JWT, a New York firm that
counts Ford Motor Co. and Microsoft among its clients. More
luxury green vehicles will enter the marketplace, following a
trail blazed by San Francisco electric sports-car maker Tesla,
the report said. Posted.
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/greenspace/2010/12/2011-green-trends.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+GreenspaceEnvironmentBlog+%28Greenspace%29

Seeking a Meaningful Price on Carbon. One month ago, Wesleyan
University hosted a weekend conference called “Pricing Carbon.”
It was a revival meeting of sorts, bringing together about 500
economists, campaigners, scientists, students and lawmakers
seeking, despite recent setbacks, to apply the age-old “polluter
pays” principle to carbon. A prime goal of many attendees, from
carbon campaigners Charles Komanoff and Peter Barnes to James
Hansen of NASA, was to explore various strategies for creating a
carbon tax that American consumers could accept. Posted.
http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/12/22/seeking-a-meaningful-price-on-carbon/?pagemode=print

Congress Waddles Ahead on Cleaning Up Diesel Fuel. From our
colleagues at Green: On Tuesday, presumably one of the last days
of the 111th Congress, the House gave final passage to a
five-year extension of the Diesel Emissions Reduction Act, which
aims to clean up old diesel engines. The bill authorizes the $500
million in spending over the next five years, but does not
actually appropriate any money; that is a battle for the next
Congress. Diesels need a clean-up strategy that is different from
the one used for cars. Posted.
http://wheels.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/12/22/congress-waddles-ahead-on-cleaning-up-diesel-fuel/?scp=6&sq=environment&st=cse

So Much for La Nina. Pacific Ocean conditions that often portend
a dry winter sure haven't so far.  Scientists like to joke that
“climate is what you expect, weather is what you get.” The
relatively soggy winter so far is a classic example of that. A
closely-watched oscillation in the Pacific is in the La Nina
phase this winter, creating colder-than-normal surface
temperatures and distorting weather patterns. Usually a La Nina
means drier-than-normal conditions for Southern California in
particular and often for northern parts of the state as well. Not
this year--at least not so far. Posted.
http://blogs.kqed.org/climatewatch/2010/12/21/so-much-for-la-nina/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+kqed%2FClimateWatchBlog+%28KQED%27s+Climate+Watch+Blog%29&utm_content=Google+Reader