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California Air Resources Board News Clips for April 11, 2011. 

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

European Pollution Regulations Face Challenge.  BRUSSELS — Ships
and planes that belch greenhouse gases in Asia and North America
could affect the climate in Europe as severely as in some other
parts of the world.  So does that give the European Union the
right to regulate the emissions from airlines and shippers using
its ports and airports?  Posted. 
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/11/business/energy-environment/11green.html?_r=1&scp=2&sq=air%20pollution&st=cse&gwh=22FDB0DB5A8370923A8FEB4D9C2AD785


Goldman Environmental Prize goes to Texas man who took on
refineries over pollution.  They call Port Arthur gasoline alley,
cancer alley, and the armpit of Texas. For most of his life,
Hilton Kelley has called it home.  The city has had the same
distinctive odor since he was a boy, Kelley said. Adults jokingly
called it the smell of money, because the nearby oil refineries
and petrochemical plants did most of the hiring.  Posted. 
http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/goldman-environmental-prize-goes-to-texas-man-who-took-on-refineries-over-pollution/2011/04/07/AFH9z1GD_story.html


NAS reviewers slam EPA's formaldehyde assessment.  U.S. EPA's
long-awaited study of formaldehyde's toxicity got panned today by
a National Academy of Sciences' panel that sharply disagreed with
the agency's conclusions and declared the effort in need of
"substantial revision."  Posted. 
http://www.eenews.net/Greenwire/2011/04/08/archive/4?terms=air+resources+board

CLIMATE CHANGE

World stumbles toward climate summit.  BANGKOK -- Nineteen years
after the world started to take climate change seriously,
delegates from around the globe spent five days talking about
what they will talk about at a year-end conference in South
Africa. They agreed to talk about their opposing viewpoints. 
Posted. 
http://www.modbee.com/2011/04/08/1636989/world-stumbles-toward-climate.html


Future farm: a sunless, rainless room indoors.  DEN BOSCH,
NETHERLANDS (AP) - Farming is moving indoors, where the sun never
shines, where rainfall is irrelevant and where the climate is
always right.  The perfect crop field could be inside a
windowless building with meticulously controlled light,
temperature, humidity, air quality and nutrition. It could be in
a New York high-rise, a Siberian bunker, or a sprawling complex
in the Saudi desert.  Posted. 
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/apr/11/future-farm-a-sunless-rainless-room-indoors/

http://www.modbee.com/2011/04/11/1639661/future-farm-a-sunless-rainless.html

http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D9MHFP6O1.htm 

European Commission to propose carbon tax law next week.  The
European Union next week will once again consider a carbon tax on
greenhouse gas emissions from transportation and heating.  This
would introduce a climate change component in E.U. tax rules for
the first time, after years of negotiations.  Posted. 
http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/2011/04/11/archive/9?terms=climate+change

Climate change skeptics surprised by early data.  LOS ANGELES
---- A team of physicists and statisticians that set out to
challenge the scientific consensus on global warming is finding
that its data-crunching effort is producing results nearly
identical to those underlying the prevailing view.  Posted. 
http://www.nctimes.com/news/national/article_86f312ce-d8a9-58bc-bf7a-7f7c6f31cb70.html

FUELS

Ore. city offers incentives for solar energy installation. 
PENDLETON, Ore. — A cowboy grasping the reins of a bucking bronco
has long been the image of this farm and ranch town. It’s the
emblem of the annual Pendleton Round-Up, a celebration of the
city’s colorful past, when pioneers on the Oregon Trail settled
the prairie.  Posted. 
http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/ore-city-offers-incentives-for-solar-energy-installation/2011/04/10/AFVeRtGD_story.html

Two Dinuba firms rely on fuel cells.  DINUBA -- Two major
companies in Dinuba are using fuel cells to generate power with
almost no pollution, joining a growing cadre of California
businesses with their eyes on both the environment and their
bottom line.  Posted. 
http://www.fresnobee.com/2011/04/09/2344179/two-dinuba-firms-rely-on-fuel.html#storylink=misearch

Shale gas isn't cleaner than coal, Cornell researchers say. 
Cornell University researchers say that natural gas pried from
shale formations is dirtier than coal in the short term, rather
than cleaner, and "comparable" in the long term.  Posted. 
http://www.eenews.net/Greenwire/2011/04/11/archive/2?terms=climate+change

GREEN ENERGY

Panel to probe clean energy programs' employment results. 
Lawmakers likely will debate the effects of the stimulus and
clean energy investments at a hearing this week on the
government's efforts to generate green jobs.  Posted. 
http://www.eenews.net/EEDaily/2011/04/11/archive/15?terms=climate+change

VEHICLES

Altering vehicle's exhaust pipes might be illegal.  "Without
actually seeing an example of (what's) being described, the Air
Resources Board cannot state that it is a clear safety issue,"
replied Karen Caesar, information officer with the California Air
Resources Board, which is charged with reducing air pollution.
The board is part of the state's Environmental Protection Agency.
 Posted. 
http://www.pe.com/columns/on_the_road/stories/PE_News_Local_D_traffic11.19c0d70.html


Manufacturers highlight their electric vehicle projects at the
Seoul Motor Show.  As apparent in its theme, this year’s show was
all about “green mobility” with an abundance of electric and
hybrid vehicles on display. Marking its eighth year, the event,
held at the Korea International Exhibition Center in Goyang,
brought together 139 automakers and auto parts manufacturers and
featured almost 300 vehicles, including 5 world premiers and 22
models unveiled for the first time in Asia.  Posted. 
http://www.cars21.com/content/articles/55520110411.php 

MISCELLANEOUS

Science Group Launches Web Feature that Estimates Clean Air Act
Benefits.  The Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) today launched
a new web feature that tracks the estimated net benefits of the
Clean Air Act from when it became law in 1970. The “ticker” is
based on Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates of the
law’s net health and economic benefits.  Posted. 
http://www.ucsusa.org/news/media_alerts/clean-air-act-ticker-0529.html

OPINION

A Forecasting Expert Testifies About Climate Change.  In “The
Truth, Still Inconvenient” (column, April 4), Paul Krugman begins
with a “joke” about “an economist, a lawyer and a professor of
marketing” walking into a room, in this case to testify at a
Congressional hearing on climate science.  I am the marketing
professor, and I was invited to testify because I am a
forecasting expert.  Posted. 
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/11/opinion/l11krugman.html?scp=2&sq=climate%20change&st=cse&gwh=B27EC132D20AB056F955158CA3688667


Cap and Trade is Not Right for Canada.  A market for trading
emissions caps only makes sense for Canada if it happens in the
U.S. as well.  Today's media are fixated on getting election
coverage out in record time. The consequence: issues get left
behind. During Peter Kent's previous career as a journalist,
reporters had more resources to dig into the issues.  Posted. 
http://www.themarknews.com/articles/4669-cap-and-trade-is-not-right-for-canada

BLOGS

On Quake History and Climate Warnings.  After reading about
Japan’s aging, and largely forgotten, stone tablets warning of
tsunami risk, a Dot Earth reader, “Mesa” from Telluride, Colo.,
posed an important question about the human capacity to act
sensibly when facing future risks (some abbreviation expanded):
So, if people don’t adjust behaviors for events that actually
happened 100 years ago and may repeat, what’s the argument for
them adjusting behaviors for things that might happen 100 years
in the future?  Posted. 
http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/04/09/on-quake-history-and-climate-warnings/?scp=5&sq=diesel%20emissions&st=cse&gwh=89FDED1F919B0AD09E5C47793A2E84A2


Energy of Innovation (The TV Show).  It’s not  American Idol, by
any means, but I was invited to sit on a panel helping a
Washington, D.C., audience weigh the attributes and faults of
seven finalists in a nationwide search for talented innovators
pursuing energy breakthroughs.  Posted. 
http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/04/08/energy-of-innovation-the-tv-show/?gwh=781CB86E5575228D36714D1EE2087EB7

EPA is safe, for now.  Well, the government isn’t being shut
down, and the castrate-the-EPA riders have been stripped from the
budget bill. For now, at least, the world is safe for those
brutes at the EPA to keep oppressing helpless rich, powerful
industry giants who only want to kill the planet a little. 
Posted.  http://www.grist.org/list/2011-04-11-epa-is-safe-for-now


Natural Gas From Fracking Emissions Can Double Those From Coal. 
Here's the second study of the year showing that the greenhouse
gas emissions caused by burning natural gas obtained by hydraulic
fracturing are much higher than acknowledged. In fact, according
to a soon to be published study seen by The Hill, using fracked
natural gas results in emissions up to double those of using
coal.  Posted. 
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2011/04/natural-gas-fracking-emissions-double-coal.php

http://www.grist.org/list/2011-04-11-natural-gas-from-fracking-is-worse-for-climate-than-coal-says-ne


New Lithium-Air Batteries Could Go 500 Miles on a Single Charge. 
Researchers at the materials research division of Risø DTU in
Denmark are developing a new lithium-air (Li-air) vehicle battery
that is lightweight, holds a lot of energy, and could enable
car-makers to fully electrify larger vehicles.  Posted. 
http://inhabitat.com/new-lithium-air-batteries-could-go-500-miles-on-a-single-charge/


Aerodynamic Trucks Save Fuel and Money.  As gas prices rise, more
attention is again being paid to making transport trucks more
fuel efficient. New trucks with hybrid or electric drive may be
an option. For existing fleets, however, the quickest payback
probably comes from making the vehicles more aerodynamic. 
Posted.  http://www.ecogeek.org/component/content/article/3475