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newsclips -- Newsclips for February 22, 2012
Posted: 22 Feb 2012 11:27:59
ARB News Clips for February 22, 2012. 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 National parks conservation group urges tighter air quality measures to protect Mammoth Cave. A plan by the Environmental Protection Agency to exempt some older coal plants from tough air quality standards could hurt Mammoth Cave National Park, according to the National Parks Conservation Association. The group is urging the EPA not to allow the exemption, citing a report released this month that it would allow emissions of 243 percent more nitrogen oxides "than the best pollution controls would allow." Posted. http://www.therepublic.com/view/story/f061fb5dbd374320884b108ec44f3a0b/KY--Mammoth-Cave-Power-Plant/ CLIMATE CHANGE UN climate chief turns to CEOs for action. As governments bicker over who should do what to slow the pace of global warming, the U.N.’s climate chief is increasingly looking to business leaders to show the way forward to a low-carbon future. Christiana Figueres told The Associated Press that her efforts to reach out to high-profile executives from companies such as Coca-Cola, Unilever and Virgin Group represent “a deeper recognition of the fact that the private sector can contribute in a decisive way.” Posted. http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hGmqzwwpyR_8KNIPc9c3wyKaD62A?docId=e17ea0a8642f496a9a5b08593c08deed AP Newsbreak: http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/ap-interview-un-climate-chief-courts-ceos-in-bid-to-accelerate-efforts-to-curb-warming/2012/02/21/gIQAOp6aRR_story.html http://www.nctimes.com/business/un-climate-chief-turns-to-ceos-for-action/article_a72a30dc-9b04-5a38-a2a4-a25516f3eb79.html#ixzz1n8F8j4Mi Greenhouse gas battle could reap billions in auctions. As California’s attempt to curb climate-changing greenhouse gases ramps up, critical pieces of the landmark law remain uncertain, including the impact of the all-important auctions of hundreds of millions of so-called “emission allowances” that will serve as the spur for utilities, refiners and others to comply. Over the next eight years, the quarterly auctions by some estimates are projected to raise between $8 billion and $41 billion, with the money going to everything from helping balancing the state budget to promoting the virtues of clean energy to giving breaks to millions of residential and commercial electricity customers. Posted. http://www.capitolweekly.net/article.php?_c=10dg2dfoaglpo1s&xid=10dfn6vkwnv1z7e&done=.10dg2dfoagm1o1s# DIESEL EMISSIONS Incentives help Sacramento Valley farmers replace diesel pumps with electric to cut pollution. A wine grape vineyard in Galt is helping to clear the air in the Sacramento Valley. The ranch is one of hundreds that are replacing sooty diesel irrigation pumps with cleaner electric pumps, part of a regional program to cut diesel emissions in agriculture, construction and trucking. Carl Maggio, ranch manager at the Pacific Agri Lands vineyard in Galt, said the property has 10 pumps to draw groundwater for irrigating the grapes. Three diesel pumps have been replaced with electric ones, and he's expecting to replace two more this year. Posted. http://www.sacbee.com/2012/02/18/4273065/incentives-help-sacramento-valley.html Swift and Los Angeles reach port truck cash settlement. The Port of Los Angeles and Swift Transportation have reached a settlement over the mega-carrier’s $11.8 million grant grab from the port to purchase new trucks. In 2010, the port revealed that only 30 percent of the 2,000 trucks purchased with port money had made the required 300 trips per year. At that time, nearly 400 trucks purchased with the port money hadn’t made a single trip to the port. Swift will pay the port $4 million, confirmed Phillip Sanfield, Los Angeles port spokesman. “We’re pleased the Los Angeles Harbor Commission approved the settlement between the port and Swift,” Sanfield said. “The settlement avoids any potential for a costly and protracted legal battle.” Posted. http://www.landlinemag.com/Story.aspx?StoryID=22826 Emission regs may force Willows to upgrade equipment. Emission standards designed to control air pollution has Willows officials scrambling to find money to buy new heavy equipment. With an anticipated general fund deficit, the city hopes to use grant funding to purchase a new street sweeper that meets clean air standards, officials said last week. The California Air Resources Board, which developed a comprehensive strategy to control diesel emissions, set goals to reduce diesel particulate mater emissions in California by 85 percent by 2020. Construction equipment such as bulldozers, cranes, sweepers and forklifts account for 32 percent of all carbon dioxide and seven percent of fine particle emissions expelled in the air, according to the state. Posted. http://www.willows-journal.com/common/printer/view.php?db=wjournal&id=7999 Donaldson Gets CARB OK. Donaldson Co. said that it has received Level 3 Plus conditional verification by the California Air Resources Board (CARB) for its Non Road Low NO2 Filter (NR-LNF Muffler). The emissions retrofit device is applicable to off-road engines produced from 1996 to 2010 with power ranges from 100 to 600 Hp. The NR-LNF Muffler incorporates a DPF (diesel particulate filter) solution for vehicles with sufficient duty cycles to permit a passive DPF. “We’re very pleased to have received the CARB conditional verification for the NR-LNF Muffler,” said Ted Angelo, Exhaust & Emissions general manager at Donaldson. “This expands the successful LNF product into the off-road market, where performance and compact size are critical. Posted. http://www.dieselprogress.com/emissionstechnologyforum/index_news_detail.asp?pick=472&fm=N FUELS Canadian oil: Could some of it be headed for California? Much of the focus behind Canada’s push to build a new oil pipeline to the West Coast has been to diversify its markets, to reduce its reliance on the U.S. as a customer. The Canadian government says it wants to start selling oil to China and South Korea. But there are strong indications that California could be the ultimate destination for much of the oil shipped on the proposed Northern Gateway pipeline. Analysts say California could see as much as half of the oil transported out of the tar sands of northern Alberta to a port on the coast of British Columbia, where it would be loaded onto tankers for destinations as yet unknown. Posted. http://www.latimes.com/news/nation/nationnow/la-na-nn-canadian-oil-20110221,0,1702847.story Money Minute: Can we drill our way to lower gas prices? [Video] Gas prices are climbing -- again. And as they go up, calls are growing in some quarters for more domestic oil drilling. But can we drill our way to energy independence? The answer, experts say, is no. And it's a simple math problem. The United States consumes more than 20% of the world's oil every year and a similar percentage of natural gas. But we have only about 1.6% of proven oil reserves and only about 3.8% of proven gas reserves. That means we could drill like fiends, planting oil rigs everywhere there's oil to be tapped, and we'd still be importing fuel. Posted. http://www.latimes.com/business/money/la-fi-mo-money-minute-20120221,0,2140886.story VEHICLES Fisker: My company is 'viable, self-funded'. Just to be clear, Henrik Fisker says his fledging auto company is not circling the drain. Fisker Automotive recently missed vehicle development and sales milestones needed to obtain another round of Department of Energy funding -- resulting in layoffs and speculation that the luxury-hybrid startup is failing. Posted. http://www.autonews.com/article/20120220/OEM02/302209970#ixzz1n8IU5UIu OPINION Heartland Institute: Not a think tank, just in the tank. The purported Heartland Institute internal documents leaked to media outlets last week were not exactly revelatory. Collectively, the 100 or so pages describe an advocacy group going about the business of pushing its agenda and raising money to help it do so. Chicago-based Heartland has been doing that since it was created in 1984 "to discover, develop and promote free-market solutions to social and economic problems," according to its current mission statement. Posted. http://www.modbee.com/2012/02/22/2080639/heartland-institute-not-a-think.html SUBSCRIPTION ONLY BLOGS New Enzyme Could Cut Cost of Ethanol Made From Waste. It is one of the holy grails of clean energy production: finding a way to make ethanol from the cellulose in biowaste like corn husks and household trash. Although several pilot projects are up and running — with many more in the pipeline — commercial production has remained elusive, with the costs remaining much higher than for producing ethanol from corn, or gasoline. Posted. http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/02/22/new-enzyme-could-cut-cost-of-ethanol-made-from-waste/ Battery cost dropping below $200 per kWh soon, says Tesla's Elon Musk. During its recent fourth quarter 2011 financial results Q&A conference call, CEO Elon Musk had, of course, lots to say about Tesla Motors and its various products. One statement though, concerning the falling cost of batteries, spoke to the broader electric vehicle (EV) market and bears repeating. The high price of energy storage is, after all, one of the major barriers to lower EV prices and, consequently, faster consumer adoption. Posted. http://green.autoblog.com/2012/02/21/battery-cost-dropping-below-200-per-kwh-soon-says-teslas-elon/ ‘Sticky smog’ might help solve smoggy mystery. The hazardous gases that make up Southern California’s smoggy haze might stick together like tar, not dissolve inside droplets, a new study by UC Irvine scientists shows. And while that might sound like splitting hairs, it could have profound implications for how we understand smog and forecast its effects. The finding, by UCI chemistry professor Barbara Finlayson-Pitts and a team of researchers, might help solve the mystery of “missing” smog particles — the huge discrepancy known to pollution regulators between the amount of some kinds of smog particles forecast by computer models, and the far larger amount seen in reality. Posted. http://sciencedude.ocregister.com/2012/02/21/sticky-smog-might-solve-pollution-mystery/168278/ E15 may be cleared for commercial sales by summer, advocates say. E15, which is gasoline with a blend of 15 percent ethanol, may be cleared by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to be sold as commercial gasoline in time for the busy summer driving season, website DomesticFuel.com reports, citing statements by ethanol advocates Renewable Fuels Association (RFA) and Growth Energy. Posted. http://green.autoblog.com/2012/02/22/e15-may-be-cleared-for-commercial-sales-by-summer-advocates-say/