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newsclips -- Newsclips for February 23, 2012
Posted: 23 Feb 2012 12:14:27
ARB News Clips for February 23, 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 Groups challenge EPA air quality permits to halt Arctic drilling. Conservation groups are challenging proposed exploratory oil drilling the Arctic Sea at every step of the way, most recently with a lawsuit challenging an EPA air pollution permit for Shell’s proposed operations in the Beaufort and Chukchi seas. The lawsuit filed in the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals last week claims the permits shouldn’t have been issued because Shell’s oil exploration ship, the Discoverer, doesn’t meet the latest Clean Air Act standards. Posted. http://summitcountyvoice.com/2012/02/23/groups-challenge-epa-air-quality-permits-to-halt-arctic-oil-drilling/ CLIMATE CHANGE EU committee makes no decision on oil sands crude. A European Union committee failed Thursday to reach a definite decision on labeling oil derived from oil sands as worse for climate change than crude oil—a proposal vigorously opposed by officials in Canada, where such oil is produced. The proposal will now ultimately be decided by the environment ministers of EU's 27 member countries, said a spokesman for EU Commissioner for Climate Action Connie Hedegaard. The spokesman, Isaac Valero-Ladron, said a decision was expected by June. Posted. http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gJmnjoBSOnN4LEoqYarNZtpB7jnA?docId=fd82ae02076b4d748a73805e1123f526 AP Newsbreak: http://www.insidebayarea.com/ci_20026894?IADID=Search-www.insidebayarea.com-www.insidebayarea.com http://www.contracostatimes.com/ci_20026894?IADID=Search-www.contracostatimes.com-www.contracostatimes.com http://www.modbee.com/2012/02/23/2082260/eu-committee-makes-no-decision.html http://www.nctimes.com/business/eu-committee-makes-no-decision-on-oil-sands-crude/article_e50da478-dbb1-51ba-92f2-d659f68ce5bb.html http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2012/02/23/financial/f042020S88.DTL Why Do Meteorologists Dismiss Climate Change Science? Meteorologists are notoriously reluctant to accept climate change. Why so? Theirs is a profession that studies the weather, which is akin to what climate scientists do by studying the weather over relatively long periods. Of course, they are not as educated as climate scientists who have PhD's in their field, while many meteorologists have college degrees unrelated to meteorology. Meteorologists know the pitfalls of being wrong when making a forecast, however, they do not seem to realize that the conclusions of climate scientists are not the same as saying there is a 50% chance of precipitation tomorrow. The International Panel on Climate Change or IPCC put a probability that it is more than 90% likely that man is causing climate change. Do meteorologists, weathermen to use a more prosaic term, just feel inferior to climate scientists or just why are they so dismissive about climate change? Posted. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/marvin-meadors/why-do-meteorologists-dis_b_1289630.html DIESEL EMISSIONS Blue Bird Bus Engines Earn EPA, CARB Certification. Blue Bird Corporation, a leading manufacturer of school buses that is based in Fort Valley, Ga., announced that the Cummins ISB6.7 engineers in its 2010-2012 school buses has received certification from EPA and the California Air Resources Board (CARB). The company also said customers are reporting outstanding results from Selective Catalytic Reduction technology that, to date, has been installed on more than 10,000 school buses by the company. "The ability to deliver these new ratings can be attributed to Cummins' total system integration with SCR technology. This system integration, coupled with the highly capable base engine, result[s] in the ability to deliver near-zero emissions without compromising fuel economy, reliability or durability," its Feb. 21 news release states. Posted. http://ohsonline.com/articles/2012/02/23/blue-bird-bus-engines-earn-certification.aspx?admgarea=news FUELS For Cleaner Burning Coal, Throw It In The Microwave. Opponents of coal argue that we must wean ourselves off one of the dirtiest fossil fuels around. They don’t, however, argue with statistics that show we’re burning mind-boggling volumes of the stuff every year. That weaning won’t be pleasant. Led by emerging economies such as China, coal consumption is up 403% in Asia over 1980, while North America burns about 1.1 billion tons each year generating about half of its electricity (see this infographic to understand just how much coal China uses). The Energy Information Administration predicts world coal consumption will rise an average rate of 1.5 percent annually through 2035. Posted. http://www.fastcoexist.com/1679321/for-cleaner-burning-coal-throw-it-in-the-microwave Map shows avalanche of cellulosic ethanol projects on the way. In the battle between food and fuel, cellulosic ethanol might not be a great idea or even a viable solution to our energy woes, but enzyme company Novozymes says it’s coming, regardless. (Cellulosic ethanol is different than the regular kind — it’s produced from “leftover” crop waste that is first digested by enzymes.) Posted. http://grist.org/list/map-shows-avalanche-of-cellulosic-ethanol-projects-on-the-way/ GREEN ENERGY In Germany, solar will be as cheap as conventional electricity by 2013. Solar probably won’t really take off until it makes more economic sense to slap some photovoltaics on your roof than to continue paying your utility company for their dirty, probably mostly coal-fired power. That day has arrived in parts of sunny California and Hawaii, and it’s coming to (not-so-sunny) Germany by 2013, reports Michael Coren at Fast Company. Global PV solar installation grew from 0.26 GW to 16.1 GW between 2000 to 2010, while manufacturing costs fell 100 times. Of course, “grid parity,” as it’s called, doesn’t mean you can just painlessly switch from the old power source to a new one. There’s still the up-front cost of installing solar panels, which is a lot to spend, even on something that is going to save you money in the long run. Posted. http://grist.org/list/in-germany-solar-will-be-as-cheap-as-conventional-electricity-by-2013/ VEHICLES Who killed the electric car? You, perhaps, if you didn't charge it. DON'T leave your electric car parked for too long - by the time you get back it could have turned into a $200,000 brick. Electric car maker Tesla is defending claims its cars become immobilised if the battery ever becomes completely discharged. This results in a battery replacement cost of about one-fifth the car's $206,000 sticker price. Tesla owners in the US who have parked their vehicles with low battery power remaining - for as little as a week - have found their cars had become "bricks" that could not be re-charged. Posted. http://www.heraldsun.com.au/technology/who-killed-the-electric-car-you-perhaps-if-you-didnt-charge-it/story-fn5izo02-1226279836483 BLOGS A Chat With RealClimate Blogger Gavin Schmidt. I’m in the second year of co-teaching a Pace University course helping environmental science graduate students develop the ability to communicate their work and avoid the pitfalls that come in a field that is often at the center of policy disputes. (You might have seen scientists at the center of a few such disputes of late.) The students write letters to the editor and op-ed-style articles. They learn to use Twitter (the course hashtag is #PaceEnv) and blogs both for outreach and as learning and network-building tools. They become comfortable giving public presentations. And they hear from an array of guests, often via Skype, who recount what they’ve learned as public scientists. Posted. http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/02/23/a-chat-with-realclimate-blogger-gavin-schmidt/ From Unlikely Source, Car-Sharing Start-Up Gets $13.7 Million Vote of Confidence. Zipcar, the international car-sharing service, has led a $13.7 million investment in Wheelz, a start-up company that has helped students at Stanford University rent their personal vehicles to other students on campus since September. Hundreds of Stanford students are signed up and using 25 vehicles registered with Wheelz, according to Jeff Miller, a co-founder and the company’s chief executive. Wheelz plans to start a network next week at the University of California, Berkeley. Additional programs at the University of Southern California and the University of California, Los Angeles, are expected to follow. Posted. http://wheels.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/02/22/from-an-unlikely-source-a-car-sharing-start-up-gets-a-13-7-million-vote-of-confidence/ Will your kid be taught that climate change is a hoax? One revelation from the recent Heartland Institute document leak is that the group is crafting a K-12 curriculum to teach kids that global warming is “controversial.” Heartland officials have confirmed this. So is climate change set to join evolution as the next big classroom controversy? Things do seem to be trending that way. Joshua Rosenau spends most of his time defending the teaching of evolution in schools for the National Center for Science Education. But a few years ago, he noticed that the teachers he was doing workshops with were far more interested in learning how to talk about global warming. Posted. http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/post/will-your-kid-be-taught-that-climate-change-is-a-hoax/2012/02/22/gIQAp6fFVR_blog.html Hong Kong’s Killer Pollution. With its iconic skyline, world-class infrastructure and China’s giant economy at its doorstep, Hong Kong has long been an attractive choice to those looking for a perch in Asia. But there’s a not-so-hidden catch: Its toxic air pollution is killing people at a rate worse than in mainland China. Air pollution can be blamed for 43 out of every 100,000 deaths in Hong Kong, the 8th highest mortality rate in the world, according to a new report by local lobby group Clean Air Network (CAN). Based on those numbers, Hong Kong’s air is more than 20% deadlier than the air in mainland China. Posted. SUBSCRIPTION ONLY. http://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2012/02/23/hong-kong%E2%80%99s-killer-pollution/?KEYWORDS=air+pollution Satellite study finds NO2 and SO2 pollution over Canadian oil sands region comparable to that of a large power plant. Atmospheric nitrogen dioxide and sulfur dioxide pollution over Canada’s oil sands region is comparable to that seen over a large power plant, according to satellite remote sensing observations of the two pollutants reported in a paper in Geophysical Research Letters, a publication of the American Geophysical Union. The international team of researchers created high-resolution maps that revealed distinct enhancements in both pollutant species over an area (roughly 30 km x 50 km, or 19 miles x 31 miles) of intensive oil sands surface mining at scales of a few kilometers. The magnitude of these enhancements, quantified in terms of total mass, are comparable to the largest seen in Canada from individual sources, the team said. Posted. http://www.greencarcongress.com/2012/02/mclinden-20120223.html