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ARB Newsclips for October 29, 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

DWP sues air district over Owens Valley dust rules. The
department accuses the Great Basin Unified Air Pollution Control
District and one of its officials of issuing unreasonable and
unlawful orders. As a boy, Ted Schade couldn't get enough of old
westerns with heroes standing alone in defense of towns that
wouldn't stand up for themselves. Now a 55-year-old man, Schade
believes he is experiencing his own version of "High Noon." As
air pollution control officer in the 110-mile-long Owens
Valley…Posted.
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-owens-dust-20121028,0,6699539.story


CLIMATE CHANGE

New UN "atlas" links climate change, health. Two U.N. agencies
have mapped the intersection of health and climate in an age of
global warming, showing that there are spikes in meningitis when
dust storms hit and outbreaks of dengue fever when hard rains
come. Officials said Monday that their "Atlas of Health and
Climate" is meant to be a tool for leaders to use to get early
warning of disease outbreaks. Though the data or conclusions
aren't necessarily new, the way in which they are presented may
sharpen governments' ability to respond to the threats posed by
rising temperatures and changing climate. Posted.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/E/EU_UN_HEALTH_AND_CLIMATE?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

Other Related Articles

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/new-un-atlas-links-evidence-for-climate-change-on-spread-of-disease/2012/10/29/aaa7f6a2-21be-11e2-92f8-7f9c4daf276a_story.html

http://fremonttribune.com/news/world/europe/new-un-atlas-links-climate-change-health/article_93704498-c633-5720-829d-6416c4f9413f.html


Rule Tweaks May Dissuade California Carbon Bidders, RBC Says.
Tweaks to the rules governing the California carbon market may
dissuade bidders in the state’s first auction next month, said a
trader at RBC Capital Markets. California’s air resources board
on Aug. 17 suspended a rule requiring companies to pledge
annually that they haven’t engaged in “shuffling” electricity
resources to comply with state emissions limits. The board may
propose regulatory amendments by the middle of next year to
change supply of free allowances to factories at risk of shifting
their emissions to regions outside the state, according to a
Sept. 20 statement on the board’s website. Posted.
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-10-29/rule-tweaks-may-dissuade-california-carbon-bidders-rbc-says
 

Calif. price-capping proposal doesn't raise industry's eyebrows.
California regulators have vowed to figure out how to keep prices
in their economywide greenhouse gas market from rising above
predetermined levels, but it's unclear what political or
practical implications the move will have. With the state's first
auction of carbon dioxide permits less than a month away, the Air
Resources Board on Oct. 18 directed its staff to come up with
ways to keep prices from rising above a small set-aside of
allowances that will be sold at a maximum price of $50 per ton in
2013… Posted.
http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/print/2012/10/29/6  BY
SUBSCRIPTION ONLY

Weather and climate scientists need to work more with medical
officials on environmental disasters – experts. Meteorologists
need to reach out to public health officials to address medical
issues that arise from extreme weather events and climate change,
according to experts. Droughts, floods and heat waves have
profound impacts on the health sector in many countries, but
communicating the potential of these disasters to doctors, first
responders and officials is often challenging, said Wayne
Elliott, an international relations specialist at the World
Meteorological Organization. Posted.
http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/print/2012/10/29/8  BY
SUBSCRIPTION ONLY

FUELS

California gas drops by 26.3 cents in last week, but remains
high. The average price of a gallon of gasoline in California
dropped by the biggest amount yet for a one-week period after the
recent new record, according to the AAA Fuel Gauge Report. The
state's average declined 26.3 cents, to $4.164 a gallon. That's
the good news. The bad news is that California prices remain far
above 2011 levels. The state's average has dropped 50.7 cents a
gallon since reaching a record $4.671 a gallon on Oct. 9. But
that's still 32.3 cents a gallon higher than it was on Oct. 29
last year. Posted.
http://www.latimes.com/business/money/la-california-gas-drops-20121029,0,3660909.story


Free falling: gasoline prices. San Diego gasoline prices are back
to where they were on Oct. 1, at the outset of a record breaking
spike. The average price Monday for a gallon of regular unleaded
was $4.16, down from $4.44 a week ago, according to AAA's daily
fuel gauge report. Local prices reached an all-time peak of $4.73
on Oct. 8. The arrival of Hurricane Sandy on the East Coast was
unlikely to have an immediate effect on West Coast fuel supplies
and pricing. Major refineries in New Jersey and Pennsylvania had
closed or significantly reduced capacity, the Department of
Energy reported. Posted.
http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2012/oct/29/free-falling-gasoline-prices/


VEHICLES

Tesla stores challenge auto dealerships. Inspired by Apple
electronics stores, Tesla Motors is taking the pitch for its new
luxury plug-in electric car to high foot-traffic malls and
shopping areas, expanding a small network of sleek stores and
"galleries" across the country. Opening its all-glass doors on
Friday, a Tesla store at an upscale shopping mall in San Diego
extolled the aesthetic, engineering and environmental prowess of
the back-ordered Model S hatchback sedan. Posted.
http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2012/oct/26/tesla-auto-stores-galleries-challenge-auto-dealers/


Ford Sells Climate-Control Unit. The Ford Motor Company said on
Monday that it was selling a climate-control unit to a joint
venture between Valeo of France and V. Johnson Enterprises,
completing Ford’s plan to sell off a collection of auto parts
manufacturing businesses. The climate-control unit, which was
sold for an undisclosed price, was one of 17 facilities Ford took
over in 2005 from Visteon, its struggling former car parts arm.
The idea was to ensure that Ford would have access to crucial
components even if Visteon failed. Ford organized those
businesses into Automotive Component Holdings, or A.C.H., with
the aim of selling off the divisions over time. Posted.
http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2012/10/29/ford-to-sell-climate-control-unit/


GREEN ENERGY

S.Africa okays $5.4 bln in clean energy projects. South Africa
has given the green light to an initial $5.4 billion worth of
clean energy projects that will allow it to procure 1,400 MW of
electricity and help reduce reliance on coal-fired plants, the
energy minister said on Monday. The government has selected 28
wind and solar projects in the first stage of the programme, with
the contracts expected to be signed on Nov. 5, Energy Minister
Dipuo Peters said. "These bidders will be investing about 47
billion rand ($5.4 billion) in power generation and will create a
number of jobs during construction and operation of these power
plants," Peters said in a statement. Posted.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/10/29/safrica-power-idUSL5E8LTD8K20121029


Homeowners make green upgrades that pay for themselves. Jan
Shomaker doesn't have to look far to find the benefits of going
green. She remodeled her three-bedroom, two-bathroom Mission
Viejo house to add energy-efficient lighting and appliances and
natural ventilation to reduce summer cooling costs. Solar panels
partially cover her roof, and solar tubes shoot light into dark
rooms. Homebuyers are more likely to pay extra for "green"
upgrades that save money. Green-designated Realtors and others
said these components provide the most bang for your buck. Her
average electric bill? Just 91 cents. A month. Posted.
http://www.ocregister.com/articles/green-375982-homes-home.html 

Green not a panacea for sellers. Not all sales of "green" homes
have happy endings. At least two green-certified homes in Orange
County have yet to sell during the past 21/2 years, even after
steep price cuts. The 5,000-square-foot home at 1811 Gisler Ave.
in Costa Mesa came on the market in April 2010 for nearly $3
million with the highest LEED rating for an Orange County home.
(The U.S. Green Building Council requires that properties meet
special eco-friendly criteria to get an LEED rating.) Posted.
http://www.ocregister.com/articles/green-376030-home-million.html


MISCELLANEOUS

Obama and Romney on environmental issues: A Grand Canyon of
difference. Two months after taking office, President Barack
Obama signed a historic wilderness bill that banned logging,
mining and oil drilling across 2 million acres of scenic federal
lands, including the Sierra Nevada, wildflower meadows on
Oregon's Mount Hood and vast vistas of California desert. But
today, with less than two weeks until Election Day, the
environment as a campaign issue is as quiet as some of those
remote landscapes. Posted.
http://www.mercurynews.com/presidentelect/ci_21858644/obama-and-romney-environmental-issues-grand-canyon-difference


New environmental curriculum corrects plastic bag information.
The state’s Environmental Protection Agency finalized a revision
of a controversial K-12 environmental curriculum on plastic bags
Friday. California Watch, sister site of The Bay Citizen,
reported last year that whole sections of an 11th-grade teachers'
edition guide for a new curriculum had been lifted almost
verbatim from comments and suggestions submitted by the American
Chemistry Council, the chemical and plastics industry trade
group. Posted.
http://www.baycitizen.org/environment/story/new-environmental-curriculum-corrects/

CalRecycle launches ‘Check Your Number’ campaign. Would you like
to help reduce the rate of pollution of our waterways by almost
half and, in the process, save a lot of money in car maintenance
at the same time? According to the Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA), nearly 40% of the pollution in America’s waterways
is from used motor oil and that just a gallon of used motor oil
can pollute up to a million–a million–gallons of natural water.
Posted.
http://globalnation.inquirer.net/54316/calrecycle-launches-check-your-number-campaign


OPINIONS

Election Campaigns Prove Global Warming Crisis Skeptics Won The
Climate Debate. Evidenced by public cooling towards global
warming peril as a hot campaign issue, it is apparent that the
Democrat party has been encountering a political climate change.
The subject obviously hasn’t been viewed as a winning issue, nor
has the anti-carbon “alternative energy” rationale supported by
that contrived hysteria. Nope, you’d hardly know from the
presidential and V.P. debates that, as the 2012 Democrat party
platform warns: “We know that climate change is one of the
biggest threats of this generation…an economic, environmental,
and national security catastrophe in the making.” Posted.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/larrybell/2012/10/28/election-campaigns-prove-global-warming-crisis-skeptics-won-the-climate-debate/


SILVA: Sacramento politicians to blame for closure of Builders
Supply. On Tuesday, the Town of Paradise is hosting an event for
local contractors who do business with Builders Supply, which is
closing at the end of the month. The idea is to introduce those
contractors to both ACE Thomas Hardware and Foothill Lumber –
obviously in an effort to keep those sales tax dollars in
Paradise instead of losing them to valley lumber companies. But
it's an event that need not be happening if politicians in
Sacramento – namely, legislative Democrats who have run this
state nearly unchecked since 1959 – had listened to the GOP to
simply delay AB32. Posted.
http://www.paradisepost.com/opinion/ci_21863840 

BLOGS

Talk of a Wind Subsidy ‘Phaseout’. The wind industry, fighting to
hold onto a generous tax credit set to expire in December, has
been arguing that it does not need the support forever - just a
little while longer, until it can compete with fossil fuels on
its own. The tax break subsidizes wind power by 2.2 cents a
kilowatt hour to bring its cost closer to that of conventional
fuels, and it has periodically been renewed by Congress with
support from both parties. But like other subsidies for
alternative energy…Posted.
http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/10/28/talk-of-a-wind-subsidy-phaseout/?pagewanted=print


For New York, the Issue of Steps Not Taken. With the last
hurricane to hit New York dating back to the 1800's, residents
have so far lacked the impetus to demand concrete strategies for
dealing with the potential devastation to housing, the subway
system and the electrical infrastructure from a major modern-day
storm. Now Hurricane Sandy threatens major flooding from a storm
surge that could reach up to 14 feet above the average sea level
here. Some scientists suggested Monday that once New Yorkers have
moved to higher ground and weathered the hurricane, they should
begin to take more decisive steps to adapt to more of the same.
Posted.
http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/10/29/for-new-york-the-issue-of-steps-not-taken/?pagewanted=print


The #Frankenstorm in Climate Context. As communities from the
Carolinas to Maine brace for high storm surges, winds and
downpours, there’s a growing climate discussion building around
#Frankenstorm, which is the favored Twitter handle for the
extraordinarily vast and potent nor’easter that is evolving as
Hurricane Sandy, already a killer, collides with an Arctic cold
front. You can track specific developments in and around New York
here and follow the details of the storm’s track and impacts via
Jeff Masters, the Capital Weather Gang and Weather.gov. But what
is the role, if any, of greenhouse-drive global warming in this
kind of rare system? Posted.
http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/10/28/the-frankenstorm-in-climate-context/


Frankenstorm: Has Climate Change Created A Monster? t was not a
good year for people, weather and climate. The winter was
strangely warm in many places and the summer ridiculously hot. As
a large fraction of the country suffered through extreme or even
extraordinary drought many folks naturally wondered, "Is this
climate change?" Then along came a presidential election in which
the words "climate change" disappeared from the dialogue. Posted.
http://www.npr.org/blogs/13.7/2012/10/28/163812770/hurricane-csi-frankenstorm-sandy-and-climate-change