What's New List Serve Post Display

ARB Newsclips for July 11, 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

Spare the Air alert called for Wednesday in the Bay Area. Bay
Area air quality officials have invoked another Spare the Air Day
for Wednesday as more sizzling temperatures are expected to raise
unhealthy smog levels in ground-level air. The Bay Area Air
Quality Management District asks the public to minimize driving
and other pollution making activities, and advises people to
limit outdoor exercise to early morning hours. Smog can irritate
lungs, throats and eyes. Posted. 
http://www.insidebayarea.com/ci_21047529/spare-air-alert-called-wednesday-bay-area?IADID=Search-www.insidebayarea.com-www.insidebayarea.com

http://www.contracostatimes.com/ci_21047529/spare-air-alert-called-wednesday-bay-area?IADID=Search-www.contracostatimes.com-www.contracostatimes.com


Texas judge rules that the atmosphere is protected under the
public trust doctrine. Last May, a group of teenagers filed a
series of lawsuits seeking to force the federal and state
governments to take action on climate change. A key argument made
in the lawsuits is that the atmosphere is a public trust – or, as
described in one brief, that it is a”fundamental natural resource
necessarily entrusted to the care of our federal government … for
its preservation and protection as a common property interest.”
Yesterday, a state district court judge in Texas agreed. Posted. 
http://grist.org/news/texas-judge-rules-that-the-atmosphere-is-protected-under-the-public-trust-doctrine/


SAN BERNARDINO: Wildfire nearly contained, cause still
undisclosed.  The flames and smoke are gone, but questions linger
about the cause of a 75-acre blaze in the mountains between San
Bernardino and Crestline. “They have not ruled out arson,” U.S.
Forest Service spokesman John Miller said of the preliminary
investigation, though he declined to elaborate. The blaze erupted
about 1:54 p.m. Monday, July 9, beside Highway 18 in the
high-gear turnout, a wide spot in the road below Panorama Point
and just west of a bridge over Old Waterman Canyon Road, Miller
said. Posted. 
http://www.pe.com/local-news/san-bernardino-county/san-bernardino-county-headlines-index/20120710-san-bernardino-wildfire-nearly-contained-cause-still-undisclosed.ece


CLIMATE CHANGE

EU's Hedegaard still plans ETS review before summer. EU Climate
Commissioner Connie Hedegaard said her team was working "very,
very hard" to publish a review on the emissions trading scheme
before the Brussels August break, a step towards bolstering
carbon prices impatiently awaited by the market. Analysts have
estimated carbon emission allowances need to be priced between 20
and 50 euros to support low-carbon investment. They were trading
around 8 euros on Tuesday, after hitting a low of 5.99 euros in
April, because of a surplus following a slump in demand, along
with the economy of the euro zone. Posted.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/07/10/us-eu-ets-idUSBRE8680KW20120710


Ex-Rep. Inglis working on climate change. Former U.S. Rep. Bob
Inglis has been chosen as head of a conservative campaign to draw
more attention to clean energy and climate change. George Mason
University said Tuesday that the Republican would lead its Energy
and Enterprise Initiative at the school's Center for Climate
Change Communication near Washington. The program plans to hold
forums around the country that bring together economists,
national security experts and climate scientists to explore ways
to use free enterprise to solve the nation's energy and climate
challenges. Posted.
http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Ex-Rep-Inglis-working-on-climate-change-3698866.php

 
Global warming tied to risk of weather extremes. Last year
brought a record heat wave to Texas, massive floods in Bangkok
and an unusually warm November in England. How much has global
warming boosted the chances of events like that? Quite a lot in
Texas and England, but apparently not at all in Bangkok, say new
analyses released Tuesday. Scientists can't blame any single
weather event on global warming, but they can assess how climate
change has altered the odds of such events happening, Tom
Peterson of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
told reporters in a briefing. Posted. 
http://www.sacbee.com/2012/07/10/4621303/study-links-global-warming-to.html

http://www.vcstar.com/news/2012/jul/10/study-links-global-warming-to-texas-heat-waves/
 
http://www.modbee.com/2012/07/10/2276611/study-links-global-warming-to.html#storylink=misearch
 
http://www.nctimes.com/news/national/global-warming-tied-to-risk-of-weather-extremes/image_079d335a-a5d3-5446-a1e6-8fd4cffacefe.html
 
http://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/20120710/WIRE/120719978  
http://www.dailynews.com/ci_21043395/study-links-global-warming-texas-heat-waves?IADID=Search-www.dailynews.com-www.dailynews.com
 
http://www.insidebayarea.com/ci_21043395/study-links-global-warming-texas-heat-waves?IADID=Search-www.insidebayarea.com-www.insidebayarea.com
 
http://www.fresnobee.com/2012/07/10/2904468/study-links-global-warming-to.html#storylink=misearch
 
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/jul/10/global-warming-tied-risk-weather-extremes/


Climate Change Will Unleash Buried Toxics. San Francisco Bay is
surrounded by hazardous waste that will leach into groundwater
and the bay itself when sea levels rise. Toxic sites ringing the
San Francisco Bay tell the story of its recent past. Smelting
plants, hazardous waste dumps, landfills, shipyards, fuel depots,
and military bases recall an era when the bay was prized more for
its tactical and commercial values than for its ecology. Posted.
http://www.eastbayexpress.com/ebx/climate-change-will-unleash-buried-toxics/Content?oid=3283672


On state's climate change policy, regulators courting disaster.
It’s time to separate fact from myth about AB 32.  If we don’t,
we could be facing a future of $6.50 gas prices AND a return to
fuel lines and rationing.  This bleak future could be with us a
lot sooner than anyone thought. Now that the California Air
Resources Board has finished writing the main regulations that
make up the bulk of the state’s climate change policies, we’re
beginning to see a number of studies take a hard look at the
likely impacts from those policies. Posted.
http://www.capitolweekly.net/article.php?_c=10pbo7gonxex8p8&xid=10pbj0fcslgxphm&done=.10pbo7gonxf78p8


Climate change loads the dice for more extreme weather – study.
Climate change is changing the odds of some extreme weather
events, according to new research by government scientists in the
United States and Britain. Back-to-back La Niña cycles helped
create the scorching heat wave that drove Texas' record-breaking
drought last year, but climate change also played a role, the
researchers report in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological
Society. Posted.
http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/print/2012/07/11/3 BY
SUBSCRIPTION ONLY

Polish 'ghost' coal plants ignite emissions trading outrage.
Poland is claiming €7 billion worth of carbon trading allowances
for coal power plants that do not exist. At least one of the coal
plants for which Poland is requesting €7 billion of free carbon
allowances under the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS)'s
little-known '10c derogation' does not exist, a EurActiv
investigation has found. Poland has applied for €33-million worth
of free allowances for the Łęczna coal plant, near the
Ukrainian border, but there is no visible evidence that any
construction work has begun at the sleepy greenfield site.
Posted.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/jul/11/coal-energy?newsfeed=true

FUELS

Kan. gas station becomes first in U.S. to sell E15. A Lawrence,
Kan., service station yesterday became the nation's first to sell
gasoline containing 15 percent ethanol. Scott Zaremba, owner of
the Zarco 66 "Oasis" station, said he plans to soon expand sales
of the fuel, E15, at another of his stations in Ottawa, Kan.
Until now, cars had the option of filling up with gasoline
blended with up to only 10 percent ethanol. "Alternatives to
gasoline are critically important to our nation's energy future,
and Americans deserve to have a choice of cost-competitive fuel
at the pump," Zaremba said. Posted.
http://www.eenews.net/Greenwire/print/2012/07/11/16  BY
SUBSCRIPTION ONLY

VEHICLES

China's car sales rise 9 percent in June. China's auto sales rose
9 percent in June despite a slowing economy as buyers rushed to
beat possible limits on car registrations aimed at curbing
traffic. Automakers sold 1.58 million cars, trucks and buses
during the month, the China Automobile Manufacturers Association,
a government-sanctioned industry group, said Wednesday. The
figures are a bright spot in a Chinese economy that has seen
industrial activity and retail sales growth slow in recent
months. Automakers are looking to China, the biggest market by
number of vehicles sold, to help drive weak global demand.
Posted. 
http://www.vcstar.com/news/2012/jul/11/chinas-car-sales-rise-9-percent-in-june/#ixzz20KVFVlmu


Electric vehicle sales expected to hit higher gear before 2015 –
report. Electric vehicle sales and the benefits that come with
them are expected to accelerate in the next three years,
according to a report released yesterday by Environment America.
With a record number of cars on the market and infrastructure
constantly expanding, Americans will have an easier time driving
a vehicle with no tailpipe emissions than ever before, said John
Cross, federal transportation advocate and author of the report.
"We can plug in, power up and protect our planet, because plug-in
vehicles have now arrived," Cross said. Posted.
http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/print/2012/07/11/6  BY
SUBSCRIPTION

HIGH-SPEED RAIL

New bullet train plan ‘mangled,’ perhaps illegal, ex-rail booster
says. Even as the state Senate voted last week to approve
California's $68 billion high-speed rail plan, opponents pressed
forward on a Kings County lawsuit to stop the controversial
construction project. Former California High-Speed Rail Authority
Chairman Quentin Kopp, who led a 20-year fight for the bullet
train, said he believes this latest lawsuit poses a real threat.
Posted.
http://www.fresnobee.com/2012/07/11/v-print/2905096/new-bullet-train-plan-mangled.html


U.S. high-speed rail to produce $26.4B in benefits in coming
decades. The benefits of a high-speed rail program in the United
States will override the costs and put the country on track for a
competitive future, leaders of the American and international
rail community said yesterday at a gathering on Capitol Hill.
High-speed rail "is about creating jobs, expanding mobility,
reducing congestion, reducing our dependence on foreign oil,
providing more environmentally sustainable transit options," said
Michael Melaniphy, president and CEO of the American Public
Transportation Association (APTA), at a lunch briefing yesterday.
Posted. http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/print/2012/07/11/5 BY
SUBSCRIPTION ONLY

MISCELLANEOUS

Harry Owen Walker. Harry Owen Walker passed away peacefully,
after a long illness, at home surrounded by family on July 1,
2012. Harry was a professor at UC Davis in the department of
land, air and water resources in the College of Agricultural and
Environmental Sciences for more than 40 years. Harry was born
Feb. 23, 1920, in Monterey and attended high school in
Watsonville where he was a member of the Future Farmers of
America.  He graduated from UC Davis and served in the Army Air
Corps for four years during World War II, spending most of the
time as a flight engineer instructor. Posted.
http://www.davisenterprise.com/obits/harry-owen-walker/ 

OPINIONS

Talking to Dad about climate change. Last week, my parents had to
pack their belongings and flee as the Waldo Canyon fire barreled
toward their house in Colorado Springs. They were among 32,000
people forced from their houses by the fire, which has destroyed
nearly 350 homes. My parents were lucky. Despite the trauma and
fear of having to evacuate, they didn’t lose their home. But the
fire emphasized something of a long-running debate between my
father and me: the reality and politics of climate change.
Posted. 
http://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/20120711/WIRE/120719972

COURSEY: How to build a big fire. Like California's, the
tinder-dry woodlands of Colorado erupt in wildfires on a regular
basis. Sometimes the fire is caused by nature, such as a
lightning strike. Often, it's caused by humans. Either way, like
California's, most of Colorado's summer fires don't make national
headlines. Unless they cause the evacuation of 30,000 people,
burn 350 homes and kill two people who couldn't get out of their
house ahead of the flames. The Waldo Canyon Fire on the edge of
Colorado Springs is history now, but it dominated the national
news for a good part of the time I was away on vacation. Posted. 
http://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/20120710/NEWS/120719983 

BLOGS

So Much Data, but Who Can Analyze It? The rollout of smart
meters, devices that can record and send reams of information on
real-time electricity usage, has been anything but smooth.
Customers have complained about inaccurate readings, being
promised savings that never materialize, possible health hazards
and threats to their privacy. But utilities have soldiered on.
They continue to install millions of the meters, saying that the
data they provide helps them manage electrical load, pinpoint or
avoid power losses, stabilize the grid and ease the integration
of renewable forms of energy into the grid — all of which in
theory will save customers money in the long run. Posted. 
http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/07/11/so-much-data-from-smart-meters-but-who-can-analyze-it/


Hyundai Elantra subject of class-action lawsuit for 'misleading
40 MPG' ads. 'Your mileage may vary.' We're all used to seeing
those words at the end of any advertisement that mentions fuel
mileage, and we all know what it means: Not all drivers will get
exactly the same mileage, and oftentimes what you get will be
lower than what it says on the car's window sticker. That
explanation may not hold water with Louis Bird of Sacramento,
California, owner of a 2011 Hyundai Elantra. Posted. 
http://green.autoblog.com/2012/07/10/hyundai-elantra-subject-of-class-action-lawsuit-for-misleading/


After two years of La Niña, El Niño May Be on the Way. If you
thought the first six months of the year were chock full of weird
weather events, just wait — according to climate scientists there
is an increasing likelihood that El Niño conditions will soon
develop in the tropical Pacific Ocean. El Niño events, which are
characterized by an area of unusually warm sea surface
temperatures in the tropical Pacific Ocean, can have a huge
influence on global weather patterns. Its effects on the U.S.
tend to peak during the winter. Posted.
http://blogs.kqed.org/climatewatch/2012/07/10/after-two-years-of-la-nina-el-nino-may-be-on-the-way/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+kqed%2FClimateWatchBlog+%28KQED%27s+Climate+Watch+Blog%29