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newsclips -- ARB Newsclips for May 25, 2012.

Posted: 25 May 2012 12:35:50
ARB Newsclips for May 25, 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.

CLIMATE CHANGE

Climate Deadlock Breaks as Slow UN Talks Frustrate U.S., EU.
Climate change envoys broke a deadlock at United Nations talks in
Germany, with European, U.S. and island nations warning the slow
pace of negotiations threatens the chance of reaching a deal at
the end of the year. After a week of wrangling about the
structure of the agenda that will guide talks leading to a new
climate deal in 2015, delegates at the discussions in Bonn today
bridged a divide that pitted about 36 nations including China and
India against the European Union, U.S. and blocs of island and
developing nations.  Posted.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-05-25/climate-deadlock-breaks-as-slow-un-talks-frustrate-u-s-eu.html

Global CO2 Price of $50 May Avert Climate Catastrophe, MIT Says.
A global carbon price of $50 a metric ton may be enough to limit
catastrophic climate change, according to the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology. China, the world’s biggest emitter, is
crucial to curbing emissions to limit temperature rises to 2
degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit), according to a study published
in the Energy Economics journal. Emissions reductions elsewhere
will be more expensive without having China’s participation in a
global climate treaty, according to the research. Posted.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-05-25/global-co2-price-of-50-may-avert-climate-catastrophe-mit-says.html

Climate change: Carbon dioxide emissions reach record high.
Emissions of heat-trapping carbon dioxide reached an all-time
high last year, further reducing the chances that the world could
avoid a dangerous rise in global average temperature by 2020,
according to the International Energy Agency, the energy analysis
group for the world’s most industrialized states. Global
emissions of carbon-dioxide, or CO2, from fossil-fuel combustion
hit a record high of 31.6 gigatonnes  in 2011, according to the
IEA’s preliminary estimates, an increase of 1 Gt, or 3.2% from
2010. Posted.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nation/nationnow/la-na-nn-carbon-dioxide-20120524,0,7337834.story

Butterfly Species Expands Range With Climate Change. A butterfly
species in England is expanding its range, thanks to climate
change. In the current issue of Science, researchers at the
University of York report that the brown argus butterfly has
spread its reach in England northward by about 50 miles over 20
years as a warmer climate allow its caterpillars to feed off wild
geranium plants, which are widespread in the countryside. “There
was something unusual about the degree to which it was spreading
its range,” said an author of the study, Jane K. Hill, a
biologist at York. “It was turning up in places that were
unexpected.” Posted.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/29/science/butterfly-species-expands-range-with-climate-change.html?ref=science
http://www.mercurynews.com/nation-world/ci_20705840/global-warming-winner-once-rare-butterfly-thrives

Climate Analytics Global Warming Report: Governments Not Meeting
Emissions Reductions Pledges. Greenhouse gas emissions in 2020
could rise to nine billion tonnes above what is needed to limit
global warming as some countries look set to miss their emissions
cut targets, a report by three climate research groups said on
Wednesday. Countries have agreed that deep emissions cuts are
needed to limit an increase in global average temperature to less
than 2 degrees Celsius this century above pre-industrial levels…
Posted.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/24/climate-change-report-global-warming_n_1541839.html?ncid=edlinkusaolp00000003

CARB Targets “Short-lived” Greenhouse Gases. Sacramento -
California's top air quality regulator is trying to reduce
so-called "short-lived" greenhouse gas emissions.T he California
Air Resources Board claims methane, black carbon soot, and
hydrofluoro carbons are more harmful to the environment than
carbon dioxide. Unlike carbon dioxide, which stays in the
atmosphere for about one hundred years, these short lived gases
have a relatively short atmospheric lifetime, ranging from a few
days to a few decades. Posted.
http://www.kcoy.com/story/18621605/carb-targets-short-lived-greenhouse-gases

State ponders how to spend cap-and-trade billions. As California
readies its first-in-the-nation economywide cap-and-trade program
for greenhouse gases, all eyes are on the billions of dollars in
revenue that the auctions are expected to generate. While the
money won't start coming in until at least November, lawmakers,
industry and environmental groups are already jockeying for a
piece of the pie. The state estimates the quarterly auction of
emissions allowances will bring in $1 billion through 2013, with
billions more through 2020 as prices and the size of the market
increase. Posted.
http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/print/2012/05/25/2 BY
SUBSCRIPTION ONLY

Spectrum of interest groups comment on EPA carbon proposal. More
than 200 speakers representing environmentalists, ethnic
organizations, religious groups, public health advocates,
electric utilities, coal mining companies and ordinary citizens
met in Washington, D.C., and Chicago yesterday to offer comments
and suggestions on U.S. EPA's first-ever proposal to limit carbon
dioxide emissions from newly built power plants. Posted.
http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/print/2012/05/25/5  BY
SUBSCRIPTION ONLY

GREEN ENERGY

Obama urges Congress to extend clean-energy tax credits. The
president says continuing the production tax credit and an
investment tax credit would save 37,000 jobs that otherwise would
be at risk. From a wind-power factory in this battleground state,
President Obama urged Congress to extend tax credits he said
would save jobs in the field of clean-energy production. Obama
said continuing the production tax credit would save 37,000 jobs
that would otherwise be at risk, an estimate his aides based on
reports from industry officials. Posted.
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-obama-tax-credits-20120525,0,5703974.story

California PUC ruling boosts solar industry. The solar industry
scored a major win Thursday when California regulators more than
doubled the number of homeowners and businesses who will get full
financial credit for the surplus electricity that their rooftop
panels produce. The California Public Utilities Commission
unanimously approved changes to a policy known as "net energy
metering," which allows solar system owners to cut their utility
bills by receiving credit for any excess electricity they send to
the state's power grid. Posted.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/05/25/BUAF1ON5RC.DTL
http://www.mydesert.com/article/20120525/BUSINESS06/205250312/Rooftop-solar-given-boost?odyssey=nav%7Chead
http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/print/2012/05/25/3  BY
SUBSCRIPTION ONLY

BLM nearing approval of Calif. project that would be world's
largest. The Bureau of Land Management is advancing what could
become the world's largest solar power project in a region of the
Southern California desert where environmental groups and
American Indian tribes have filed multiple federal lawsuits to
stop already approved, large-scale renewables projects. BLM
announced today in a Federal Register notice that it has
completed a draft environmental impact statement (EIS) for the
McCoy Solar Energy Project, which would sit on 7,700 acres of
public land in the Colorado Desert, about 13 miles northwest of
Blythe, Calif. Posted.
http://www.eenews.net/Greenwire/print/2012/05/25/1  BY
SUBSCRIPTION ONLY

MISCELLANEOUS

California sport fish survey: mercury, PCBs higher. A sweeping
state survey of contaminants in sport fish that were hooked,
netted or speared in 68 spots on the California coast underscores
a lesson for seafood lovers: Choose well your next fillet.
In general, mercury levels in the fish - caught during 2009 and
2010 - were of "high concern," particularly along the North and
Central coasts, said a report released Thursday by the State
Water Resources Control Board. But while San Francisco Bay and
other urban spots showed higher mercury pollution, the key driver
of the contamination wasn't location but type of fish. Posted.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/05/25/MNG81ON96B.DTL&tsp=1

OPINIONS

Another View: My agenda for a new term is to move Sacramento
forward. Kevin Johnson, the mayor of Sacramento, is responding to
the Monday editorial "Mayor Johnson needs to offer a clear
agenda," which stated, "If he wants the June 5 election to be
more than a popularity contest – if he wants to claim a mandate
for action – he needs to tell voters specifically what his to-do
list is. A campaign is about more than just winning; it's about
laying the groundwork for governing." Earlier this week, I
visited a cavernous warehouse at McClellan Park and met with the
owners of a small business that has developed a new generation of
energy-efficient air conditioners. Posted.
http://www.sacbee.com/2012/05/24/4512607/my-agenda-for-a-new-term-is-to.html

A green future starts at home for Californians. To its great
credit, the California Energy Commission has enlisted the support
of major stakeholders who are often at odds - builders,
utilities, environmental groups - for its proposed building
efficiency standards. Now, if the commission could only persuade
our teenagers to take shorter showers, unplug their chargers and
turn off the lights when they leave the house ... then this state
would truly redefine the cutting edge of resource conservation.
On May 31, the commission is expected to approve the nation's
most stringent energy efficiency standards for residential and
commercial buildings. Posted.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/05/24/EDSR1OMF8R.DTL

San Diego embracing renewable energy. San Diego is emerging as
one of the nation’s leading clean-tech hubs by embracing
renewable energy and clean vehicles as drivers of economic
growth. At the Union of Concerned Scientists, where we have a
plan to cut America’s projected oil use in half in 20 years, we
are looking to San Diego as a model for what communities across
the country can do to employ advanced technologies that clean our
air, reduce global warming emissions and drive economic growth.
Posted.
http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2012/may/24/embracing-renewable-energy/

BLOGS

Getting Serious About the “Other” Greenhouse Gases. Are we too
focused on CO2? While carbon dioxide reductions are at the heart
of efforts in California to curb greenhouse gas emissions, state
air regulators were reminded in a hearing on Thursday not to
overlook a number of other “short-lived” greenhouse pollutants in
meeting targets outlined under AB 32, the state’s Global Warming
Solution’s Act. A panel of noted scientists was on hand, several
from California universities and research labs, to discuss the
effects of black carbon, methane and hydrofluourocarbons on
regional and global climate. Posted.
http://blogs.kqed.org/climatewatch/2012/05/25/getting-serious-about-the-other-greenhouse-gases/

NASCAR working with EPA to conserve energy while burning lots of
fuel. Think of it as a "do as we say, not as we do" scenario.
Stock-car racing organization NASCAR and the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) are going to work together to help the
environment by using NASCAR's marketing punch to push more
environmentally sustainable behavior. Not addressed? Running a
bunch of cars at full speed around an oval for a few hundred
miles. Posted.
http://green.autoblog.com/2012/05/25/nascar-working-with-epa-to-conserve-energy-while-burning-lots-of/

Driving an EV is like paying a buck a gallon, eternally. For
those nostalgic for mullets, the Cosby Show and Oakland A's
dominance, the Nissan Leaf may be for you. Those late 1980s
hallmarks harken back to the days of $1-a-gallon gas, and that's
what you're in for – forever – if you drive a battery electric
vehicle, says Green Car Reports, citing a study from Natural
Resources Defense Council staff member Max Baumhefner.
Baumhefner found that, while oil and gas prices fluctuate because
of various supply shocks and political shenanigans, electricity
prices stay relatively constant, meaning that the cost of juicing
up an EV isn't going to change much. Posted.
http://green.autoblog.com/2012/05/25/driving-an-ev-is-like-paying-a-buck-a-gallon-eternally/

Alt-fuel cars unsustainable without government assistance.
According to the 2012 U.S. Automotive Industry Survey and
Confidence Index by Booz & Co., alternative vehicle powertrains
may take up as much as 10 percent of the total market by 2020,
but only if the federal government continues to support
development. Without a helping hand from Uncle Sam, only 30
percent of the researchers, executives and consumers who
participated in the survey believe alternative-fuel machines will
be able to carve out that small slice of the market. Posted.
http://green.autoblog.com/2012/05/25/alt-fuel-cars-unsustainable-without-government-assistance/

Who's ready now? Nissan deploys first of 400 planned DC fast
chargers in Europe. Nissan has installed the first of 400
quick-charging electric-vehicle chargers in Europe that it's
planning to deploy during the next few years, the Detroit News
reports. The Japanese automaker, which along with alliance
partner Renault is said to be investing more than $5 billion
(U.S.) in electric-vehicle and infrastructure development, will
install 40 quick chargers each in France and the Netherlands.
Once the Dutch chargers are deployed, all of the country's
drivers will be within 20 miles of a Nissan quick charger.
Posted.
http://green.autoblog.com/2012/05/25/nissan-deploys-first-400-planned-dc-fast-chargers/

The lure of the plug: two-thirds of Chevy Volt buyers trade in
non-GM vehicle. Whaddya think, that Volt buyers were trading in a
Cadillac for their new plug-ins? Nope. Most buyers of Chevrolet
Volt extended-range plug-in vehicles are coming in from outside
of the General Motors family, the automaker says. About
two-thirds of Volt buyers are trading in non-GM cars, and more
than 90 percent of recently surveyed Volt drivers said they'd buy
another one. Posted.
http://green.autoblog.com/2012/05/24/chevy-volt-buyers-trade-in-non-gm-vehicles/


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