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California Air Resources Board News Clips for July 21, 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

APnewsbreak: Railroads Threatened With Lawsuit. An environmental
group threatened to sue two of the nation's biggest rail owners
Tuesday under a novel legal theory that would classify diesel
exhaust as hazardous waste. The Natural Resources Defense Council
sent letters to Union Pacific Corp. and Burlington Northern Santa
Fe Railway, saying it will file a lawsuit within 90 days under
the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, which regulates
hazardous solid waste disposal. Posted. 
http://www.vcstar.com/news/2011/jun/21/nrdc-threatens-us-railroads-with-pollution/

Ruling Held Up On Power Plant Near Grand Canyon. A decision on
further pollution controls for a coal-fired power plant near Page
won't come this summer as expected. The U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency says it will begin consulting with tribes next
month on the potential impacts of reducing nitrogen oxide
emissions from Navajo Generating Station.  EPA officials say the
consultations and a study from the Interior Department will
better help them reach a decision after December. Posted. 
http://www.insidebayarea.com/ci_18522181?IADID=Search-www.insidebayarea.com-www.insidebayarea.com
http://www.contracostatimes.com/ci_18522181?IADID=Search-www.contracostatimes.com-www.contracostatimes.com

Mayor Bloomberg Gives $50 Million To Fight Coal-Fired Power
Plants. New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg will donate $50
million to the Sierra Club to support its nationwide campaign to
eliminate coal-fired power plants. Sierra Club executive director
Michael Brune described the gift from Bloomberg Philanthropies,
which will be spread out over four years, as “a game-changer,
from our perspective.” Posted. 
http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/mayor-bloomberg-gives-50-million-to-fight-coal-fired-power-plants/2011/07/20/gIQAEKKURI_story.html
http://www.grist.org/article/2011-07-21-blockbuster-news-for-the-anti-coal-movement-bloomberg-is-all-in

CLIMATE CHANGE

U.N. Deadlock on Addressing Climate Shift. The persistent
inability of the United Nations to forge international consensus
on climate change issues was on display Wednesday, as Security
Council members disagreed over whether they should address
possible instability provoked by problems like rising sea levels
or competition over water resources. Posted. 
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/21/world/21nations.html?_r=1&scp=2&sq=climate%20change&st=cse

Nauru's Plea for UN Action on Climate Threat Goes Unheeded.
(Updates with council statement in fourth paragraph.) Nauru's
president, speaking for small island nations threatened with
extinction by rising sea levels caused by climate change, asked
the United Nations Security Council today for help. A divided
council couldn't agree on the linkage between climate change and
threats to peace and security and took no action. Posted.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2011/07/20/bloomberg1376-LON7Z00YHQ0W01-35NU9EF6H2MOOIRMM5J8C1813G.DTL&type=printable

VEHICLES

Lowe's to Sell G.E.'s Electric Vehicle Charger. Finding charging
stations for electric vehicles is getting easier and cheaper. GE
Energy Industrial Solutions and Lowe's have announced they will
partner to offer consumers the fast-charging GE WattStation Wall
Mount Electric Vehicle Charging Station. The announcement was
made today at the Plug-In 2011 Conference and Exposition. Posted.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/07/21/idUS322195417920110721

The Cloud: Now For Connecting Electric Cars. The car, in
particular the electric car, is the latest device to get plugged
in to the cloud. Coulomb Technologies, which makes networked
electric-vehicle charging stations, plans to start selling
cloud-based services to allow charge-station owners to manage
charging and billing. The service also uses the cloud to connect
an EV driver to the nearest charging station and deliver
on-demand support and billing services. Posted.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/07/20/idUS263535182920110720

Walgreen To Expand Electric-Vehicle Charging Stations To 800
Stores. Walgreen Co. (WAG) said its electric-vehicle charging
station program will expand to include about 800 of its 7,733
stores by the end of the year. The drugstore chain operator began
its charging station program late last year, as electricity
producer NRG Energy Inc. (NRG) began creating a network of them
in Houston. Posted. BY SUBSCRIPTION ONLY
http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20110721-710979.html

Electric Cars About To Cost More In California. The state has run
out of the $5,000 rebates it was giving drivers who bought
all-electric vehicles such as the Nissan Leaf and Tesla Roadster.
Also, prices for the Nissan Leaf are going up. It's going to cost
more to buy electric cars in California. The state has run out of
the $5,000 rebates it was giving people who purchased
all-electric vehicles such as the Nissan Leaf and Tesla Roadster.
Posted.
http://www.latimes.com/business/autos/la-fi-autos-electric-prices-20110721,0,7088456,print.story

Electric Cars' Battery Challenge. If electric cars are ever to
become popular enough to replace gas-burning vehicles, far more
efficient and inexpensive batteries will have to be produced. The
good news is that progress is being made to reduce the cost of
batteries and increase the driving range of electric cars. Palo
Alto-based Tesla Motors will build its Model S at its Fremont
factory. Posted.
http://www.presstelegram.com/opinions/ci_18517806

Green Vehicles Screeches To Halt; City Points Finger At
California Energy Commission. A s electric vehicle charging
stations go up around Monterey County, a would-be manufacturer of
cars that could use them closed the doors of its Salinas-area
headquarters—before ever getting its assembly line running.
Eco-conscious redevelopment darling Green Vehicles Inc. had grand
plans to make 2,000 electric cars next year and more than 11,000
by 2015 …Posted.
http://www.montereycountyweekly.com/news/2011/jul/21/stalled-cash/

Tesla Wins $100 Million Supply Deal With Toyota For RAV4 EV.
Tesla Motors Inc., the maker of electric Roadster sports cars,
said it reached an agreement with Toyota Motor Corp. to supply
powertrain equipment worth about $100 million. Toyota, which
previously agreed to pay Tesla $60 million for development work
on battery packs and motors for use in an all-electric RAV4
sport-utility vehicle …Posted. 
http://www.autonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20110720/OEM05/307209865/1290

Will CA Still Have Electric Car Rebates? Today Is Judgement Day.
As we reported back in December last year and again last month,
California’s $4.1 million Clean Vehicle Rebate Project has now
run out of money. If you’re one of the early adopters who has
been lucky enough to buy a 2011 Nissan Leaf, or 2011 Tesla
Roadster in the state since 2010 you should already have had a
$5,000 rebate check through the mail to go with your $7,500
federal tax credit. Posted.
http://www.allcarselectric.com/news/1063542_will-ca-still-have-electric-car-rebates-today-is-judgement-day

GREEN ENERGY

Legislators Introduce Bill To Resuscitate PACE Program For Green
Upgrades To Homes. The PACE program, which made installations of
energy-efficient solar panels, insulation and water conservation
systems more affordable for homeowners, has been stalled by a
technical roadblock. A government program that helped homeowners
finance and install green upgrades before a technical roadblock
stalled it last year may be resuscitated by Congress. Posted.
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-green-homes-20110721,0,1669566,print.story

OPINIONS

Blame Congress. American Electric Power’s decision to shut down
an ambitious experiment aimed at capturing greenhouse gases from
a coal-fired power plant was a disappointing setback to efforts
to control harmful global warming emissions from coal, among the
world’s most abundant fuels. Posted. 
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/20/opinion/20wed2.html?scp=3&sq=climate%20change&st=cse

Demise Of Carbon Capture Project Is Bad News. The following
editorial appeared in the Los Angeles Times on Wednesday, July
20, 2011: Among the more speculative of the proposed solutions to
global warming is the notion of capturing the carbon dioxide
emissions from coal-fired power plants and pumping them
underground. Posted.
http://www.sacbee.com/2011/07/21/v-print/3784328/demise-of-carbon-capture-project.html

Opinion: Going Green Is Creating Good Jobs In Silicon Valley.
Those who question whether a clean-energy revolution can help put
Americans back to work should look to the South Bay today. Our
country's energy future will be on display as I visit the Santa
Clara Valley Transportation Authority on Thursday to see how
labor and management are coming together to prepare workers for
the jobs of tomorrow. Posted.
http://www.mercurynews.com/opinion/ci_18517728

MILLOY: Show Us The Bodies, EPA. The House will soon vote to
(slightly) rein in the Obama Environmental Protection Agency. But
this much-needed baby step by Congress will only happen if
Republicans have the knowledge and muster the courage to
withstand a final bare-knuckles assault by EPA’s enviro allies.
Posted. 
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/jul/20/show-us-the-bodies-epa/

OP ED: Auto Industry is Taking a Detour on Higher MPG Standard.
While it’s certainly not surprising to hear automakers and their
lobbyists cry wolf when it comes to strong fuel efficiency and
emissions standards, the fact that they continue to do so after
being called out on the facts time and time again is worth
noting. Posted.
http://cranston.patch.com/articles/op-ed-auto-industry-is-taking-a-detour-on-higher-mpg-standard

BLOGS

As a River Warms, Hope Beckons. In my article in Thursday’s Times
about the future of the Nisqually watershed in Washington State,
I mention efforts by conservation groups and land trusts across
the country to buy up land parcels that are expected to turn into
valuable ecological assets someday — marshes or swamplands, for
example — as the sea rolls further inland because of global
warming. Posted. 
http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/07/21/as-a-river-warms-hope-beckons/?scp=4&sq=climate%20change&st=cse

Bloomberg and Sierra Club Join Forces to Slow Coal. Mayor Michael
R. Bloomberg of New York announced on Thursday that his main
charitable organization would donate $50 million over four years
to the Sierra Club’s campaign to shut down coal plants and move
the United States toward cleaner sources of energy. Appearing
with the Sierra Club’s executive director, Michael Brune, near a
coal plant in Alexandria, Va. …Posted. 
http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/07/21/bloomberg-and-sierra-club-join-forces-to-slow-coal/?scp=8&sq=air%20pollution&st=cse

Study Ranks Air Pollution From Coal And Oil-Fired Power Plants.
The most toxic air pollution from coal- and oil-fired power
plants can be found in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Florida, according
to a new study released Wednesday by the nonprofit Natural
Resources Defense Council and Physicians for Social
Responsibility. Posted.
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/greenspace/2011/07/the-most-toxic-air-pollution-from-coal-and-oil-fired-power-plants-can-be-found-in-ohio-pennsylvania-and-florida-according.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+GreenspaceEnvironmentBlog+%28Greenspace%29

Toyota Develops Breakthrough Material That Removes 95% Of Ozone
From Air. Researchers at Toyota Central Research and Development
Labs in Japan claim to have developed a mesoporous two-line
ferrihydrite (M2LFh) that, if used in an ozone (O3) filter, could
remove up to 95 percent of unreacted O3. Ferrihydrite is a
substance composed of iron, oxygen and water, as you most
assuredly already knew, right? Posted.
http://green.autoblog.com/

Finnair To Attempt Longest Commercial Biofuel Flight In Aviation
History. Those boarding Finnair flights from Amsterdam to
Helsinki sometime this week will likely fly into aviation history
as the passengers aboard the longest (estimated 933 miles)
commercial flight powered by biofuel. Posted.
http://green.autoblog.com/

UN Shipping Group Moves on Vessel Emission Reductions. An
International Maritime Organization panel adopted what it calls
mandatory design and operational measures to reduce greenhouse
gases from international shipping. According to the IMO’s Marine
Environment Protection Committee, which has met 62 times on this
issue, this month’s action is the “first ever mandatory
greenhouse gas reduction regime for an international industry
sector.” Posted. 
http://www.triplepundit.com/2011/07/shipping-group-moves-vessel-emission-reductions/

Electric Vehicle Industry in Infancy- But Growing Up Fast. For
the fifth year in a row, Ernst and Young hosted a global series
of cleantech ignition sessions consisting of executive
roundtables that convene key stakeholders to discuss important
cleantech issues. This year’s sessions focused on electric
vehicles (EVs) because the transformational change under way in
this industry cuts across many sectors and has profound
implications for: automakers, utility, companies, battery
developers, smart grid operators, and renewable energy suppliers.
Posted. 
http://www.celsias.com/article/electric-vehicle-industry-infancy-growing-fast/