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newsclips -- Newclips for December 23, 2010.
Posted: 23 Dec 2010 12:01:59
California Air Resources Board News Clips for December 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 Air District: Think Twice About Fireplace Use During Holidays. Valley air district officials may be willing to look a bit Scrooge-like as Christmas approaches -- if it results in more breathable air in the valley. Officials with the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District are urging residents to think twice about burning that traditional Yule log in their fireplace this holiday season. Consider first, they ask, the health and well-being of your neighbors. “Share the good cheer of the holidays, not wood smoke," Seyed Sadredin, the air district's executive director, said in a statement Wednesday. "The fires that seem so cozy and inviting," he added, "can actually cause your neighbors distress."Posted. http://www.bakersfield.com/news/local/x2146356981/Air-district-Think-twice-about-fireplace-use-during-holidays Tehama County Tractor Program Provides Benefit To Brentwood Farms. As part of a state air pollution control grant, the Tehama County Board of Supervisors approved an agreement Tuesday that would help a sixth local farmer replace an older, less efficient tractor. Brentwood Farms, of Orland, is the latest county farm to benefit from the program. The grant will reimburse $27,640 to the dairy farm for a portion of the cost of a John Deere Model 5095M diesel engine tractor that will replace an older model already in use. The Tehama County Air Pollution Control District has been soliciting applications from county farmers to replace tractors through the Carl Moyer Air Quality Attainment Standards. Posted. http://www.redbluffdailynews.com/news/ci_16928794 A Cell Phone That Detects Air Pollution? Berkeley high-tech company is developing a tiny sensor that could boost air quality in West Oakland. Circled by three freeways, scattered with industrial factories and a stone’s throw from one of the largest ports in the United States, West Oakland has a high pollution rate. According to a report released in 2009 by the Alameda County Public Health Department, because of their proximity to diesel emissions, the cancer risk rate for West Oakland residents is twice as high as for other people in the Bay Area, and the area has one of the highest rates of asthma hospitalization in the county. Posted. http://www.baycitizen.org/environment/story/cell-phone-detects-air-pollution/print/ CLIMATE CHANGE San Diego Blood Bank Launches Fundraising Campaign. The San Diego Blood Bank launched a $1 million fundraising campaign Wednesday to replace its fleet of 38-foot-long blood mobiles, which together collect half of the organization's donated blood. A plea from board president R. Elaine Hanson began, "The state of California recently adopted stricter anti-pollution regulations which obligate the blood bank to progressively decommission seven out of eight of its existing bloodmobiles. As a consequence, we need an extra $1 million for our bloodmobile fleet." Posted. http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2010/dec/22/san-diego-blood-bank-launches-fundraising-campaign/ Can a 'Global Thermostat' Turn Climate Change Around? Global Thermostat sounds too good to be true: It's a startup company that aims to address the threat of climate change by capturing carbon dioxide from the air, and then making productive use of it. The CO2 could be used to help plants grow faster in greenhouses, as a feedstock for algae, for enhanced oil production, as an ingredient in bottling plants, as a natural refrigerant, or as a circulating fluid in a geothermal energy installation. Posted. http://www.reuters.com/article/idUS307584726120101223 EPA Announces Plans To Regulate Power Plant, Oil Refinery Emissions. The Environmental Protection Agency announced Thursday that it would regulate greenhouse gas emissions from power plants and oil refineries next year, targeting the nation's two biggest sources of carbon dioxide. The move, which comes as part of a legal settlement with several states, local governments and environmental groups which have sued EPA under the Bush administration for failing to act, highlights the Obama administration's intent to press ahead with curbs on carbon despite congressional resistance. Posted. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-12-23/epa-plans-modest-pace-for-setting-new-standards-on-greenhouse-gases.html http://voices.washingtonpost.com/post-carbon/2010/12/epa_announces_plans_to_regulat.html Clean Air Standards Coming for America's Biggest Carbon Polluters. In a big step forward to protect Americans’ health and well-being, EPA is announcing today a two-year plan to set clean air standards for power plants and oil refineries, the two largest industrial sources of the dangerous pollution that drives global warming. Following on the heels of the Obama administration’s breakthrough clean car standards, EPA is now taking the next logical steps under the Clean Air Act and the Supreme Court’s landmark global warming decision in 2007. Posted. http://theenergycollective.com/nrdcswitchboard/48944/clean-air-standards-coming-americas-biggest-carbon-polluters DIESEL EMISSIONS Groups File Petition To Stop Drayage-Truck Registries. The Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association (OOIDA), the New Jersey Motor Truck Association and the Port Drivers Federation 18 have jointly filed a petition with the Department of Transportation (DOT) to prohibit the formation of mandatory drayage truck registries being compiled by various ports as well as one currently used by California Air Resources Board (CARB) since 2007. Posted. http://fleetowner.com/management/news/groups-file-petition-drayage-truck-1223/ FMCSA Posts Proposed HOS Revisions. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has posted long-awaited proposed revisions to the hours of service rule. Key provisions: * Keep the 34-hour restart but require two consecutive off-duty periods from midnight to 6 a.m. in that period. * Keep the 14-hour workday but require completion of all on-duty work-related activities within 13 hours to allow for at least a one-hour break. * The agency favors cutting the daily driving limit to 10 hours but is looking for comments on whether or not to keep the 11-hour limit. Posted. http://www.truckinginfo.com/news/news-print.asp?news_id=72526 FUELS Strong Ethanol Industry An Important Step. When Mark Twain said truth is more of a stranger than fiction, he might as well have been talking about ethanol. The public discourse, which recently celebrated ethanol as a good way to create jobs and combat foreign oil dependence, now has turned negative on ethanol. Separating fact from fiction in the ethanol debate is not easy. "Food versus fuel" is a nice catch phrase, but worldwide, biofuel production accounts for less than 1 percent of total agricultural acreage. Corn ethanol refineries use only cornstarch, preserving the high quality protein for animal feed markets. Posted. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/12/23/EDJV1GTUN8.DTL&type=printable New Interest in Turning Gas to Diesel. Washington — Diesel and jet fuel are usually made from crude oil. But with oil prices rising even as a glut of natural gas keeps prices for that fuel extraordinarily cheap, a bit of expensive alchemy is suddenly starting to look financially appealing: turning natural gas into liquid fuels. A South African firm, Sasol, announced Monday that it would spend just over 1 billion Canadian dollars to buy a half-interest in a Canadian shale gas field, so it can explore turning natural gas into diesel and other liquids. Posted. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/24/business/energy-environment/24fuel.html?src=busln&pagewanted=print NASCAR Gives Ethanol Green Flag; Who Will Follow? When it comes to ethanol, price, fuel economy and engine performance matter to lots of American drivers. The ethanol industry fights hard to shape public opinion of the fuel, and it has now found a new way to get its message across in a partnership with NASCAR. Our series on ethanol concludes with a report from Harvest Public Media's Jessica Naudziunas on the ethanol industry's attempt to answer longtime critics of the alternative fuel. Posted. http://www.npr.org/2010/12/23/132082997/nascar-gives-ethanol-green-flag-who-will-follow Fuel Vs. Food: Ethanol Helps Boost Meat Prices. The U.S. corn crop is enormous. But about a third of it doesn't go to cereal or cows — instead, it helps run your car. To boost our use of renewable fuels, the federal government subsidizes corn-based ethanol. This has the meat and dairy industries up in arms over the high cost of their main feed. The rise of ethanol has pitted livestock producers against the oil industry.In part 2 of our ethanol series, Harvest Public Media's Kathleen Masterson reports on what supporting ethanol means for the food we eat. Posted. http://www.npr.org/2010/12/22/132082743/if-your-meat-prices-rise-you-can-blame-ethanol Milpitas Schools Receive Two Of Three Green Awards From State Architect. Milpitas Unified School District was recognized by the California Department General Services' Division of the State Architect with two statewide awards this month for boasting a nationwide achievement. Milpitas Unified won awards in two of the three categories for the first ever Grid Neutral awards for kindergarten through 12th-grade schools that have shown leadership in energy efficiency, on-site alternative energy generation and environmental responsibility. Posted. http://www.mercurynews.com/milpitas/ci_16922075?nclick_check=1 OPINION Robert Lawrence: CARB Diet Bad For California Economy. The California Air Resources Board adopted last week a "cap-and-trade" program, beginning in 2012, to limit greenhouse gas emissions. The regulations are based on Assembly Bill 32, the Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006, and are intended to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020. However, California's cap-and-trade program is little more than a complex tax that does not induce green energy investment and runs a serious risk of harm to California's economy. Posted. http://www.ocregister.com/common/printer/view.php?db=ocregister&id=281411 Trapper Keepers. By Storing Carbon, Timber Companies Stand To Profit Under Cap-And-Trade. But At What Cost? When the California Air Resources Board last week approved a landmark cap-and-trade plan, it marked a monumental step in the effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. But some unlikely critics worry that the new policy was something of a misstep. The new regulations — which fulfill the keystone aspect of A.B. 32, the 2006 Global Warming Solutions Act — aim to reduce the state’s carbon dioxide emissions to 1990 levels by 2020. Posted. http://www.northcoastjournal.com/news/2010/12/23/trapper-keepers/ BLOGS Climate Change and ‘Balanced’ Coverage. Jonathan Kingston for The New York Times Steve Ryan, a physical scientist at the Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii, checks an infrared analyzer that measures the concentration of carbon dioxide in the air in parts per million. In an article this week on the relentless rise of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, I outlined one of the canonical projections of climate science: if the amount of carbon dioxide doubles, the average surface temperature of the earth is likely to increase by 5 or 6 degrees Fahrenheit, a whopping change. Posted. http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/12/23/climate-change-and-balanced-coverage/?pagemode=print California Leads the US in Comprehensive Climate Protection. California has long been leading the US towards environmentally sound policies, starting with air quality standards in the early 1970s. The California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 (AB32) established a comprehensive program of regulatory and market mechanisms to achieve quantifiable, cost-effective reductions in greenhouse gases. 2010 was an exciting year for AB32. Oil companies tried to defeat AB32 on the ballot, but then were themselves defeated - the ballot didn’t pass. Posted. http://environmentalresearchweb.org/blog/2010/12/california-leads-the-us-in-com.html