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California Air Resources Board News Clips for October 20, 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

Calif. poised to finalize nation’s most extensive ‘cap-and-trade’
plan.  California is poised to formally adopt the nation’s most
comprehensive so-called “cap-and-trade” system, designed to
provide a financial incentive for polluters to reduce greenhouse
gas emissions.  State officials hope other states and Washington
D.C. will follow suit with similar plans.  “When Washington
considers how to address climate change, as I think it will,
California’s climate plan will serve as a role model for the
national program,” said Stanley Young, the air board’s spokesman.
 Posted. 
http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/calif-poised-to-finalize-nations-most-extensive-cap-and-trade-plan/2011/10/20/gIQA7E6fzL_story.html
http://www.sacbee.com/2011/10/20/3990557/calif-poised-to-finalize-cap-and.html
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2011/10/20/national/a005126D43.DTL
http://www.fresnobee.com/2011/10/20/2583507/calif-poised-to-finalize-cap-and.html#storylink=misearch
http://www.modbee.com/2011/10/20/1912145/calif-poised-to-finalize-cap-and.html
http://www.vcstar.com/news/2011/oct/20/calif-poised-to-finalize-cap-and-trade-plan/
http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20111020/A_NEWS/111029997&cid=sitesearch
http://www.kpbs.org/news/2011/oct/19/state-air-resources-board-will-consider-cap-and-tr/
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/20/california-cap-and-trade_n_1022314.html
http://www.businessgreen.com/bg/news/2118470/california-finalise-carbon-trading-plan

Climate change didn’t ‘go,’ it was pushed.  On the front page of
The New York Times Sunday Review, Elisabeth Rosenthal has a nice
bit of analysis that asks, "Where Did Global Warming Go?" It is,
by the standards of mainstream U.S. media, an unusually direct
and plainspoken description of America's current isolation when
it comes to climate change.  Posted. 
http://www.grist.org/climate-change/2011-10-20-climate-change-didnt-go-it-was-pushed-rosenthal-ny-times

AIR POLLUTION

With Population Growth Comes Air Pollution Upsurge and Increased
Health Risks. Worldwide, population is seven billion. Projections
are that population in the United States will reach 400 million
by 2050 – a 33 percent increase in roughly 40 years’ time; the
U.S. registered its 300 millionth resident in 2006. With an
increase in world population has come an increase in air
pollution. The burning of fossil fuels and the amount of fossil
fuels being burned is the culprit. Posted.
http://www.californiaprogressreport.com/site/print/9484
http://www.bakersfield.com/news/local/x860821917/Valley-study-links-ER-visits-with-bad-air-days

GREEN ENERGY

Treasurer Lockyer defends clean-energy tax break. Sacramento --
The state treasurer on Wednesday called California's tax break
program for clean-energy companies a "wise and needed one"
despite the failure of its most high-profile recipient: the solar
startup Solyndra. Treasurer Bill Lockyer told a panel of state
lawmakers that the program is intended to promote the growth of
alternative energy manufacturing plants in California and
complements the state's push for renewable energy. Posted.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/10/20/BAD81LJVGR.DTL&type=printable

Solar power’s ‘nasty little secret’ isn’t nasty or secret.  The
charges leveled by a solar industry insider recently were deadly
serious.  "Solar panels do not work that well ... and few know
it," revealed Ray Burgess, president and CEO of Solar Power
Technologies. Writing in AOL Energy on Oct. 7, Burgess appeared
to be a reluctant or even heroic truth-teller, airing the solar
industry's dirty laundry with the best of intentions. (Several
times while reading the piece, Jerry McGuire's Mission Statement
came to mind.)  Posted. 
http://www.grist.org/solar-power/2011-10-20-solar-powers-nasty-little-secret-isnt-nasty-or-secret

MISCELLANEOUS

Capitol Alert: Former lawmaker Hector De La Torre named to state
air board. Former Assemblyman Hector De La Torre was appointed by
Gov. Jerry Brown today to the state air resources board, a
part-time job paying $40,699. De La Torre, a 44-year-old South
Gate Democrat, was termed out of the Assembly in 2010 and
currently was serving as vice president of the Free Conferencing
Corporation, Brown said in a press release. The Senate must
confirm De La Torre's appointment. A former South Gate
councilman, De La Torre was elected to the Assembly in 2004.
Posted.
http://www.fresnobee.com/2011/10/20/2583910/capitol-alert-former-lawmaker.html#ixzz1bLJDQbRF
http://blogs.sacbee.com/capitolalertlatest/2011/10/former-lawmaker-hector-de-la-torre-named-to-state-air-board.html#ixzz1bLHd19pi

OPINIONS

Editorial: Air board faces decision day on carbon trading. The
California Air Resources Board today is expected to approve the
most disputed and litigated element of California's climate
crusade – a cap-and-trade system for reducing greenhouse gases.
With this action, California will be the first state in the
nation to limit emissions linked to global warming that spring
from electric utilities, the transportation sector, major
manufacturers and other industries. It also will be the first to
establish a trading system so businesses can consider what
options are most cost-effective in reducing emissions. Posted.
http://www.sacbee.com/2011/10/20/3990078/air-board-faces-decision-day-on.html

Clean air and the price of water. A vote in Sacramento today will
say a lot about whether state regulators will take a common-sense
approach to implementation of California’s landmark legislation
to combat global warming. The issue before the Air Resources
Board involves a complex “cap-and-trade” plan designed to help
the state reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020.
Under the proposal, energy utilities would receive substantial
pollution “allowances” for free at the beginning of the program,
but giant water suppliers such as the State Water Project and the
Metropolitan Water District would receive none. Posted.
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2011/oct/20/clean-air-and-the-price-of-water/

BLOGS

The Clean Air Is Included in the Rent. A chain of serviced
apartments in Hong Kong has developed a new marketing pitch in
this smoggy city: Stay with us and breathe cleaner air. Chi
Residences, whose luxury residences are aimed at expats seeking
short-term homes, has teamed up a maker of pricey air purifiers
and installed them in each of its apartments. “Hong Kong is a
fantastic city, but we all pay a price for it — pollution,” said
Ilse Massenbauer-Strafe, founder and executive director of
Oxyvital, the maker of the purifiers. Posted.
http://blogs.wsj.com/scene/2011/10/20/the-clean-air-is-included-in-the-rent/

From the Washer to the Sea: Plastic Pollution. Environmental
Science and Technology Some areas where researchers found
significant concentrations of microplastic. When most people
think of plastic pollution in the sea, they tend to picture
bottles washing up on beaches, say, or the vast garbage patch in
the Pacific. What few may realize is that waste water from
washing machines is an important source of plastic pollution in
oceans, according to a recent article in Environmental Science
and Technology. Posted.
http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/10/19/from-the-washer-to-the-sea-plastic-pollution/?pagemode=print

California falls behind Massachusetts in energy efficiency.
California has fallen behind Massachusetts as the country's most
energy-efficient state, according to the 2011 Energy Scorecard
released by the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy
on Thursday. California had ranked first for each of the previous
four years' scorecards. While California and Massachusetts have
both effectively implemented demand-side management plans,
"Massachusetts regulators have sent a very consistent message
that they want to ramp up their energy-efficiency programs.
Posted.
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/greenspace/2011/10/california-energy-efficiency.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+GreenspaceEnvironmentBlog+%28Greenspace%29

Fisker Karma gets EPA certified: 52 mpge, 32-mile electric range
then 20 mpg. Yikes. The EPA has finally released its official
fuel economy rating for the Fisker Karma, and it's not high: just
52 MPGe, an all-electric range of 32 miles and 20 miles per
gallon on gasoline when the battery runs dry. This is well below
the numbers that Fisker reps were bandying about in past years:
67.2 mpge and an all-electric range of 50 miles. American
conservatives – who really have it out for plug-in hybrids that
the federal government helped fund with loan guarantees – are
already calling the Karma's numbers a "flop." Posted.
http://green.autoblog.com/2011/10/19/fisker-karma-epa-certified-52-mpge-32-mile-electric-range/

International Rectifier showcasing advanced energy management
system to extend battery life in EVs.  Power management
technology company International Rectifier is showcasing an
advanced energy management system, Evaira, designed to extend
battery life in electric vehicles at SEMA 2011 in Las Vegas, 1-4
November 2011.  The performance of a multi-cell battery pack is
limited by the differences between the weakest and strongest
cells in the pack.  Posted. 
http://www.greencarcongress.com/2011/10/international-rectifier-showcasing-advanced-energy-management-system-to-extend-battery-life-in-evs.html