What's New List Serve Post Display

California Air Resources Board News Clips for August 29, 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.

CLIMATE CHANGE

Global climate worry up slightly since 2009 – poll. London
(Reuters) - Global concern about climate change has risen only
very slightly over the past two years, as consumers have focused
on more immediate economic worries, according to an opinion poll
published on Sunday. Nielsen's latest global online environment
and sustainability survey showed that 69 percent of 25,000
Internet users in 51 countries were concerned about climate
change in 2011, slightly up from 66 percent in a similar poll in
2009, but down from 72 percent in 2007. Posted.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/08/28/us-climate-concern-survey-idUSTRE77R1WR20110828

UVa. turns over FOIA-requested climate-change papers to critics. 
A conservative group seeking documents related to former
University of Virginia professor Michael Mann has received
records from the school Thursday in the wake of a judge’s order
but remained mum as to what information they contained.  A Prince
William County judge in May had ordered the university to turn
over documents requested by the conservative-leaning,
environmentally focused American Tradition Institute (ATI) that
the group thought were not exempt from disclosure.  Posted. 
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/aug/25/uva-turns-over-foia-requested-climate-change-paper/

That CO2 warming the world: Lock it in a rock.  Sometime next
month, on the steaming fringes of an Icelandic volcano, an
international team of scientists will begin pumping “seltzer
water” into a deep hole, producing a brew that will lock away
carbon dioxide forever.  Chemically disposing of CO2, the chief
greenhouse gas blamed for global warming, is a kind of
21st-century alchemy that researchers and governments have hoped
for to slow or halt climate change.  Posted. 
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/aug/28/that-co2-warming-the-world-lock-it-in-a-rock/?page=all
http://www.sacbee.com/2011/08/27/3866874/that-co2-warming-the-world-lock.html

Seeing Irene as Harbinger of a Change in Climate. The scale of
Hurricane Irene, which could cause more extensive damage along
the Eastern Seaboard than any storm in decades, is reviving an
old question: are hurricanes getting worse because of
human-induced climate change? The short answer from scientists is
that they are still trying to figure it out. But many of them do
believe that hurricanes will get more intense as the planet
warms, and they see large hurricanes like Irene as a harbinger.
Posted. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/28/us/28climate.html?hpw

GreenX, ICE Launch Calif. Carbon Futures. Exchange firms GreenX
and IntercontinentalExchanges have today launched futures
contracts tied to the California carbon market. ICE announced
that the first trade of the California Carbon Allowance forward
contract took place this morning. The transaction was for 100
contracts between NRG Power Marketing LLC and Shell Energy North
America (US) L.P. at a price of $17.00 per allowance. ICE says
that this was the first ever exchange-cleared trade based on
California’s forthcoming cap and trade program. Posted.
http://www.environmentalleader.com/2011/08/29/greenx-ice-launch-calif-carbon-futures/

Longer, hotter heat waves in store for California.  California
can expect more frequent and more dangerous heat waves in the
coming decades, the result of global warming and the state's
aging population, according to a new climate-modeling study
commissioned by the California Air Resources Board.  Researchers
using a new, more comprehensive weather-modeling method found
that the incidence of prolonged hot spells – those lasting 10
or more days –could rise by a factor of two to ten by the
2090s, depending on the region. Posted. 
http://yubanet.com/california/Longer-hotter-heat-waves-in-store-for-California_printer.php
http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/aug2011/2011-08-28-091.html

ICE Announces First Trade of California Emissions Contract.
CHICAGO, Aug. 29, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- IntercontinentalExchange
(NYSE: ICE), a leading operator of global regulated futures
exchanges, clearing houses and over-the-counter (OTC) markets,
today announced the first trade of the California Carbon
Allowance forward contract. In addition to being the first trade
of this cleared contract on ICE, it is the first ever exchange
cleared trade based on California's new cap and trade program.
Posted.
http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/ice-announces-first-trade-of-california-emissions-contract-128580553.html

FUELS

U.S. Gasoline Unchanged at $3.61 a Gallon, Survey Shows. Updates
with highest and lowest prices in 18th paragraph.) -- The average
price for regular gasoline at U.S. filling stations was unchanged
at $3.6093 a gallon. The price covers the two-week period ended
Aug. 26 and is derived from a survey of about 2,500 filling
stations nationwide by Camarillo, California-based Trilby
Lundberg. The average price is about 30 percent above a year
earlier, when the average was $2.7722. Posted.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2011/08/28/bloomberg1376-LQNH431A74E901-0F12LJAR6R7BMO97J9QS4G8ELE.DTL

What’s gooey, smelly and very, very valuable? It’s after midnight
in a gritty urban alleyway, empty except for clusters of 10-foot
by 4-foot green dumpsters and a smaller, locked 250-gallon metal
green container. A pickup with headlights off comes to a quiet
stop. Men approach the green container, break the lock, toss a
hose inside and swiftly pump the contents into a large tank on
the pickup’s bed. Within moments, the truck whisks away. Another
four containers are emptied within the next hour. Posted.
http://www.capitolweekly.net/article.php?_c=zyg6y54j7h985z&xid=zy1w5awkgid5tq&done=.zyg6y54j7hv85z#

VEHICLES

Ford, Toyota will work jointly on hybrid plan. Toyota Motor Corp.
and Ford Motor Co. have agreed to develop hybrid technology for
large pickups and SUVs as U.S. regulators work out details of
tougher fuel economy requirements for pickups starting in 2020.
They also agreed to work together on telematics and other
in-vehicle Internet-based services. Posted. 
http://www.autonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20110829/OEM01/308299996/1186

GREEN ENERGY

Altamont Pass wind farm gets major upgrade. For years,
environmentalists have raised alarms about the slaughter of
red-tailed hawks, golden eagles and other raptors that have
fallen victim to the whirling blades of thousands of wind
turbines along the Altamont Pass in eastern Alameda and Contra
Costa counties. Now the most iconic wind farm in California is
getting a major upgrade that promises to drastically reduce the
number of bird deaths. Posted.
http://www.mercurynews.com/business/ci_18778324

MISCELLANEOUS

Loudoun inventor’s green car strikes chord with Leesburg.  Nick
Turner drove past a group of 16 construction workers sitting on a
curb, and 32 eyeballs locked onto the car he’d built. A guy
walking into Office Depot laughed with delight and said, “I knew
the economy was bad, but this is ridiculous!” Outside a bar the
other night, drunk people were lining up for rides, hanging off
the back of the car and asking how they could get one, too. 
Posted. 
http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/loudoun-inventors-green-car-strikes-chord-with-leesburg/2011/08/26/gIQAdvjilJ_story.html

OPINIONS

Betting the farm against climate change. Global warming is
extracting real costs, even in states where the governors are in
denial. Leon Trotsky is reputed to have quipped, "You may not be
interested in war, but war is interested in you." Substitute the
words "climate change" for "war" and the quote is perfectly
suited for the governors of Texas, Oklahoma and New Mexico, all
of whom have ridiculed or dismissed the threat of climate change
even as their states suffer record-breaking heat and drought.
Posted.
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-linden-climate-20110828,0,5003857,print.story

Regs Run Amok: SMUD's 'solar highways' face many regulatory speed
bumps. Should “green” projects get fast-tracked through
regulations designed to protect the environment? To the
Sacramento Municipal Utility District, "solar highways" are a
really bright idea. Like all utilities in California, it's under
an edict to ramp up solar and other renewable energy. Putting
solar panels along mostly unused roadsides is much better than
taking up productive farmland. Placing the arrays close to homes
and businesses also reduces the need for expensive transmission
lines. Posted.
http://www.sacbee.com/2011/08/28/v-print/3864651/green-plan-in-slow-lanesmuds-solar.html

BLOGS

Hurricanes and Climate Change. I have a short piece going into
Sunday’s paper on the question of whether hurricanes are getting
stronger because of climate change. In it, I outline the views of
Kerry Emanuel of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who
takes the position that they are, and Thomas R. Knutson of the
Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory, who believes it would be
premature to conclude they are getting stronger over a long
stretch of time. Posted. 
http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/08/27/hurricanes-and-climate-change/?ref=earth

Which electric car is the most green? The Times business section
is taking a look at a new crop of electric cars. The Times' Jerry
Hirsch found there are significant difference in how these cars
fare when it comes to carbon emissions: Is it worth the added
expense to reduce your dependence on oil? What are you willing to
pay to reduce carbon emissions in your neighborhood? The Nissan
Leaf creates about 1.8 tons of carbon emissions in a year's
driving, or about 13,500 miles, according to federal estimates.
Posted.
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/greenspace/2011/08/which-electric-car-is-the-most-green.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+GreenspaceEnvironmentBlog+%28Greenspace%29

State: Death toll to rise from warming.  A warming climate and an
aging population will bring a rise in heat-related deaths over
coming decades in California, a new, state-sponsored study says,
with heat waves rising in dangerousness as well as frequency. 
Heat spells lasting 10 days or more could rise two to 10 times by
2090, the study’s estimates show, while the number of
heat-related deaths among people 65 and older could rise by nine
times — between 3,526 and 8,800 for the nine urban areas studied,
up from an average of 500 today.  Posted. 
http://sciencedude.ocregister.com/2011/08/26/state-death-toll-to-rise-from-warming/136605/

Researchers demonstrate integrated process for the production of
high-octane renewable gasoline from biomass sugars.  A team lead
by George Huber from U. Mass, Amherst and Charles Wyman from the
University of California, Riverside (and a co-founder of Mascoma)
earlier his year reported in the RSC journal Green Chemistry on
an integrated, two-stage aqueous phase hydrodeoxygenation (APHDO)
process for the production of high-octane renewable gasoline from
maple wood (as a representative of lignocellulosic biomass). 
Posted. 
http://www.greencarcongress.com/2011/08/ningli-20110827.html

Scientists Find a Bacterial Strain That Recycles Newspapers Into
Biofuel!  With more and more people getting their news from the
internet and the rising popularity of e-readers, some people
think that newspapers may soon be obsolete. But scientists at
Tulane University have found a new use for the morning news:
converting it to biofuel! The Tulane scientists have found that a
newly discovered bacterial strain, which they are calling TU-103,
can actually turn newspapers into butanol to power cars.  Posted.
 http://inhabitat.com/scientists-find-a-bacterial-strain-that-recycles-newspapers-into-biofuel/

USDA Announces 900 Federal Energy Projects for Farms and Small
Businesses. President Obama made a group of announcements related
to biofuel policy on his bus tour through the Midwest this
summer, with the aim of boosting the nation’s biofuel production
while helping rural communities create new jobs and build a
sustainable economy.  Now another piece of the rural
sustainability puzzle is falling into place, with the
announcement of a new round of renewable energy and energy
efficiency grants for more than 900 farms and small businesses.
Posted.
http://www.triplepundit.com/2011/08/usda-renewable-energy-and-energy-efficiency-grants/

Jailed over Big Oil's Attempts to Wreck the Planet. I didn’t
think it was possible, but my admiration for Martin Luther King,
Jr., grew even stronger these past days.As I headed to jail as
part of the first wave of what is turning into the biggest civil
disobedience action   in the environmental movement for many
years, I had the vague idea that I would write something. Not an
epic like King's “Letter from a Birmingham Jail, ” but at least,
you know, a blog post. Or a tweet. Posted. 
http://www.celsias.com/article/jailed-over-big-oils-attempts-wreck-planet/

2012 Ford Explorer EcoBoost. Ford is no stranger to convincing
buyers to embrace smaller displacement, forced-induction engines
over their larger, naturally-aspirated counterparts. A little
less than a year ago, skeptics wondered whether typically
change-averse full-size truck consumers would be willing to swap
their tried-and-true V8 for the turbocharged V6 EcoBoost engine
now available in the F-150. According to Ford, that question has
been answered – fully 41 percent of its half-ton pickups are
rolling out the door with a forced-induction six-cylinder under
the hood. Posted. 
http://www.autoblog.com/2011/08/29/2012-ford-explorer-ecoboost-first-drive-review/

The top 10 electric cars most likely to succeed.  It's still
early as electric and plug-in hybrid cars roll out, but it's time
to call likely winners and also-rans.  The crystal ball is still
cloudy on electric and plug-in hybrid cars. They’re still being
made in limited numbers, and delivered to very specific test
markets. And half the really exciting ones aren’t even here yet.
Still, it’s time to make some predictions about what will succeed
and what will fail in the marketplace.  Posted. 
http://www.mnn.com/green-tech/transportation/blogs/the-top-10-electric-cars-most-likely-to-succeed