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California Air Resources Board News Clips for October 28, 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

Exelon backs controversial EPA clean air rules. Chicago-based
Exelon Corp on Thursday said the Environmental Protection Agency
should move quickly to finalize its Cross-State Air Pollution
Rule and other delayed measures, adding it would be cheaper than
subsidizing some renewable power technologies. Exelon's statement
comes as U.S. power producers take sides in the federal push to
reduce dangerous emissions from coal-fired power plants and makes
the biggest U.S. nuclear reactor operator the most vocal industry
supporter of stringent EPA rules. Posted.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/10/27/us-utilities-exelon-epa-idUSTRE79Q7NM20111027

Flags work with flying colors. More S.J. schools urged to join
air-quality alert program. Lathrop - This wasn't a day to worry
about pollution. The air was crisp, the sky was (mostly) blue,
and a slight breeze came from the west. But not every day feels
so fresh, as 12-year-old Taylor Gapuz - and her inhaler - can
attest. Not every day is for running or playing. "When I can't
breathe, it gets scary," Taylor said. "It hurts. Once I had to go
to the hospital in an ambulance." Taylor, who has asthma, helped
Mossdale School raise its first air-quality flag Thursday.
Posted.
http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20111028/A_NEWS/110280316

CLIMATE CHANGE

Earth-observing satellite boosted into orbit to start dual
weather, climate change mission. Vandenberg Air Force Base,
Calif. — After a years-long delay, an Earth-observing satellite
blasted into space early Friday on a dual mission to improve
weather forecasts and monitor climate change. A Delta 2 rocket
carrying the NASA satellite lifted off shortly before 3 a.m. from
the central California coast. The satellite was boosted into an
orbit 500 miles above Earth about an hour after launch. Posted.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/earth-observing-satellite-blasts-off-on-weather-climate-change-mission/2011/10/28/gIQApKOiOM_story.html

FUELS

Chinese, US companies hold China’s first test flight for
biofuel-powered jumbo jet.  A jumbo jet powered by fuel made from
oily nuts made a two-hour test flight Friday as part of a
U.S.-Chinese renewable energy partnership.  The fuel, based on
the oily nuts of the jatropha tree, is one of a series of
research projects launched last year by the United States and
China, the world’s two biggest oil consumers. The two governments
say they want the research to reduce pollution and spur the
growth of new industries.  Posted. 
http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/industries/chinese-us-companies-hold-chinas-first-test-flight-for-biofuel-powered-jumbo-jet/2011/10/28/gIQA7BQmOM_story.html
http://www.vcstar.com/news/2011/oct/28/china-us-companies-test-fly-biofuel-powered/
http://www.modbee.com/2011/10/28/1923492/earth-observing-satellite-blasts.html
SUBSCRIPTION ONLY

Calif launches crackdown on kitchen grease thieves. One man's
trash is another man's biofuel, which is why state agriculture
officials are launching a program to crack down on restaurant
grease thieves. The California Department of Food and Agriculture
said Thursday it's contracting with police to target areas where
restaurants leave out used kitchen grease to be picked up by
rendering facilities. It can be converted into fuel for diesel
cars and trucks. The high cost of diesel fuel has made something
that was once without value a sought-after commodity. Posted. 
http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20111027/A_NEWS/111029892&cid=sitesearch
 SUBSCRIPTION ONLY

UN: Leaded fuel to be gone by 2013. Leaded gasoline, once so
widespread it was sold at U.S. pumps as "regular" fuel, is
expected to be eradicated globally within two years, the United
Nations Environment Program announced Thursday. With the end of
leaded gasoline in sight, public health and environmental
advocates are claiming victory in a fight that stretches all the
way back to when it was first added to gasoline in the 1920s.
Leaded gasoline is still used in six nations. Afghanistan,
Algeria, Iraq, North Korea, Myanmar and Yemen are expected to
complete the phase-out by 2013, said the U.N., which is assisting
those nations. Posted. 
http://www.modbee.com/2011/10/27/1922649/un-leaded-fuel-to-be-gone-by-2014.html
 SUBSCRIPTION ONLY

EPA chief encourages college activists in campaign against coal.
College environmental activists met Thursday with Environmental
Protection Agency chief Lisa Jackson to tell her what they're
doing at their schools to try to shut down campus coal-fired
heating plants. "It's so important that your voices are heard,
that campuses that are supposed to be teaching people aren't
meanwhile polluting the surrounding community with mercury and
costing the children a few IQ points because of the need to
generate power. It's simply not fair," Jackson said. Posted. 
http://www.modbee.com/2011/10/27/1922718/epa-chief-encourages-college-activists.html
 SUBSCRIPTION ONLY

VEHICLES

Smithsonian’s American History Museum in Washington shows 100
years of electric car history. Washington — The history of
electric cars is going on display at the Smithsonian’s National
Museum of American History with two “electrifying cars” from the
early 20th century. A 1904 Columbia electric runabout went on
display Thursday with a 1913 Ford Model T touring car. The cars
and other objects, including a battery charger for General
Motors’ EV1 electric car from the 1990s, are on view through
January. Posted.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/smithsonians-american-history-museum-in-washington-shows-100-years-of-electric-car-history/2011/10/28/gIQAWCQPOM_story.html

GREEN ENERGY

Economic Slowdown Challenges Renewable Energy. Top executives
from the renewable energy industry said Wednesday that their
industry faced huge challenges from the economic crisis and the
rise of abundant natural gas, but they insisted that technologies
like wind power still made some of the best sense for financiers
and governments. Sharpening the battle lines between the
renewable sector and the oil and gas industry amid a worsening
economy, …Posted. 
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/27/business/global/economic-slowdown-challenges-renewable-energy.html?_r=1&scp=4&sq=green%20energy&st=cse

Biogas Offers Poor Countries a Cleaner, Safer Fuel. Here’s an
unlikely starting point for clean energy: No toilets, and plenty
of dung. In developing countries where domestic animals are
ubiquitous and sewage systems rare, biogas technology — in this
case methane derived from feces — can provide both valuable fuel
and improved sanitation. Unlike directly burning animal dung, the
methane is clean-burning and odorless. And the technology has
benign byproducts: reductions in deforestation and disease.
Posted. 
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/26/business/energy-environment/biogas-offers-poor-countrys-a-cleaner-safer-fuel.html?scp=2&sq=methane&st=cse

Obama administration announces desert 'solar energy zones'.  The
Obama administration on Thursday unveiled its road map for solar
energy development, directing large-scale industrial projects to
285,000 acres of desert land in the western U.S. while opening 20
million acres of the Mojave for new development.  The Bureau of
Land Management's long-awaited "solar energy zones" are intended
to make some of the desert's most sensitive landscapes less
desirable for solar prospecting …Posted. 
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-solar-desert-20111028,0,7889585.story

BLOGS

How we know we’re warming the planet. Plenty of media outlets
picked up the news last week that a team of skeptical Berkeley
scientists tore through the 20th century temperature data and
found… well, they found that the Earth has been warming
significantly in the past century, just like NASA and the Climate
Research Unit have been telling us all along. My colleague Eugene
Robinson called it “the scientific finding that settles the
climate-change debate.” Posted.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/post/how-we-know-were-warming-the-planet/2011/10/27/gIQAlX8nMM_print.html

Long-Awaited Climate Satellite Lifts Off. Five years after its
original launch date, a new observation satellite lifted off on
Friday in California with a new generation of observation tools
critical to weather forecasters and climate scientists alike. At
5:48 a.m., scattered clapping and cheers rippled through the
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Satellite
Operations Facility in Suitland, Md., as agency officials and
staff watched the launch of NASA’s first N.P.O.E.S.S. Preparatory
Program satellite at Vandenberg Air Force Base on a bank of
screens. Posted.
http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/10/28/long-awaited-climate-satellite-lifts-off/
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/technology/2011/10/nasa-weather-satellite-vandenberg.html

Interior Dept. Anoints Solar Energy Sites. The Interior
Department is pressing on with its efforts to channel solar
energy development into the areas with the best sunshine, the
fewest potential environmental disturbances and the least
political resistance. On Thursday, the department released a
provisional plan with a map highlighting 285,000 acres judged to
be best suited to such development in California, Nevada, New
Mexico, Utah, Arizona and Colorado. Posted.
http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/10/28/interior-dept-anoints-solar-energy-sites/

Nissan Leaf to begin New York City taxi pilot progam. New York
City streets are about to get a bit more... electric. Nissan and
the New York City Taxi & Limousine Commission plan to put six
Leaf EVs in the hands of owner-operators for one year (a lease,
free of charge) as part of a pilot program. The goal is to gain
"valuable information" about how the electric machines function
as taxis on the busy streets of New York and to show people that
EVs are viable options. We'd imagine the machines would work
quite well for the short jaunts typical of taxi rides. Posted. 
http://green.autoblog.com/2011/10/28/nissan-leaf-to-begin-new-york-city-taxi-pilot-progam/

Winter Spare the Air Season Begins Tuesday. Come Tuesday, you'll
have to think twice before burning logs in your fireplace or any
other solid fuel because Nov. 1 marks the start of the winter
Spare the Air season. Unlike the summer season, which calls for
Bay Area residents and businesses to reduce vehicle emissions to
protect air quality, during the winter, wood burning is the most
harmful air pollution. Posted.
http://www.baycitizen.org/blogs/quality-of-life/winter-spare-air-season-begins-tuesday/

Global Phase-out of Lead in Gasoline Succeeds: Major Victory for
Kids' Health.  Today marks a major victory for the world’s
children, and the people of developing nations around the globe. 
The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), working with
NRDC in the Partnership for Clean Fuels and Vehicles, today
announced toxic lead has been removed from gasoline in more than
175 countries worldwide – representing near-global eradication. 
Posted. 
http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/plehner/global_phase-out_of_lead_in_ga.html

California Finalized Details of Its Cap-and-Trade Program. The
California Air Resources Board (CARB) finalized the rules for the
golden state’s cap-and-trade program last week. The cap-and-trade
program is part of California’s climate change law (AB 32) which
mandates greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) be reduced to 1990 levels
by 2020. The program covers 360 businesses representing 600
facilities, and will be implemented in two phases. The first
phase will start in 2013 and will include all major industrial
sources plus electricity utilities. Posted.
http://www.triplepundit.com/2011/10/california-finalized-details-cap-trade-program/