What's New List Serve Post Display

ARB Newsclips for December 18, 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

Air officials do slow burn deciphering pollution rules.  On
Thursday, San Joaquin Valley air quality officials will vote on a
plan to clean up one of our most dangerous forms of pollution. 
Then they'll turn around and write the plan all over again. 
That's because the Environmental Protection Agency on Friday
tightened the standard on which this week's plan is based. 
Posted. 
http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20121218/A_NEWS/212180318&cid=sitesearch

CAP AND TRADE

California Carbon Rises to Eight-Week High After Quebec Votes.
California carbon futures rose to the highest price in almost two
months after Quebec approved changes to allow links between their
cap-and-trade systems. Carbon markets in Quebec and California
will be connected next spring, and their governments will hold
the first joint auction of carbon allowances in August,
Yves-François Blanchet, Quebec’s minister of sustainable
development, environment, wildlife and parks, said in a statement
on his agency’s website.  Posted.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-12-14/california-carbon-rises-to-eight-week-high-after-quebec-votes.html


CLIMATE CHANGE

EU competition finds no carbon storage winner. The first round of
a European Commission contest to fund carbon capture and storage
(CCS) projects failed to find a winner, the EU's executive said
on Tuesday, deepening doubts the technology can emerge soon to
help cut emissions. CCS developers will be able to re-submit bids
for a second round, which Environment Commissioner Connie
Hedegaard said should be concluded within a year." Posted.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/12/18/us-europe-energy-ccs-idUSBRE8BH0G120121218


Air Resources Board approves carbon offset registries.  Two
nonprofit organizations were approved Friday as offset registries
by the California Air Resources Board. American Carbon Registry
of Sacramento and Climate Action Reserve of Los Angeles are
carbon offset programs that have stringent standards for project
validation.  They will help evaluate the validity of carbon
offsets under California’s cap-and-trade regulation. 
http://www.bizjournals.com/sacramento/news/2012/12/17/air-resources-board-carbon-offset-regist.html


FUELS

Oil extends rise on US budget deal optimism.  The price of oil
pushed towards $88 a barrel on Tuesday amid hopes that U.S.
leaders can reach a budget deal and avoid automatic tax and
spending cuts that might dampen growth and crimp demand for
crude.  By early afternoon in Europe, benchmark oil for January
delivery was up 56 cents at $87.76 a barrel in electronic trading
on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Posted. 
http://www.vcstar.com/news/2012/dec/18/oil-extends-rise-on-us-budget-deal-optimism/#ixzz2FQaVN5IK

http://modbee.com/2012/12/18/2500190/oil-extends-rise-on-us-budget.html#storylink=misearch


VEHICLES

AP IMPACT: China surpasses US as top global trader.  Shin
Cheol-soo no longer sees his future in the United States.  The
South Korean businessman supplied components to American
automakers for a decade. But this year, he uprooted his family
from Detroit and moved home to focus on selling to the new
economic superpower: China.  In just five years, China has
surpassed the United States as a trading partner for much of the
world, including U.S. allies such as South Korea and Australia,
according to an Associated Press analysis of trade data.  Posted.
 
http://www.vcstar.com/news/2012/dec/18/ap-impact-china-surpasses-us-as-top-global/#ixzz2FQWbmkkv

Anderman: Li-ion capacity far outstripping demand as automakers
focus more on hybrids, less on full EVs.  Global automotive
Li-Ion battery production capacity is outstripping demand
five-to-one as automakers refocus on hybrids and away from full
electric vehicles, according to Dr. Menahem Anderman’s recently
released xEV Industry Insider Report. Anderman is founder and
chairman of the Advanced Automotive Battery Conference (AABC);
the 13th annual conference is scheduled for February 2013 in
Pasadena, California.  Posted. 
http://www.greencarcongress.com/2012/12/anderman-20121218.html  


Highly efficient non-precious metal electrocatalyst for ORR in
fuel cells and metal-air batteries.  A team of S. Korean and
American scientists led by Dr. Jaephil Cho at Ulsan National
Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST) reports on a newly
developed, highly efficient non-precious metal electrocatalyst
for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) in the journal Angewandte
Chemie.  Inspired by the tetrapod structures of a breakwater, the
novel material for electrodes is created from affordable melamine
foam and carbon black. Posted. 
http://www.greencarcongress.com/2012/12/cho-20121218.html 

GREEN ENERGY

Germany must do more to hit green energy goals-report. Germany's
government must do more to achieve its energy efficiency targets
and keep up the momentum in its shift to renewable power, a group
of independent experts said in a report seen by Reuters.
Commenting on a separate report on progress towards renewable
energy targets to be considered by the cabinet on Wednesday, the
experts from a group of German research institutes said policy
had to be given more urgency if the government was to achieve its
aims. Posted.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/12/18/germany-energy-policy-idUSL5E8NI9GO20121218


Solar boosts German renewable energy in 2012.  German utilities
say this year's share of renewable energies in the country's
electricity production is forecast to rise some 15 percent on the
year, largely on the back of a continuing solar-power boom. 
Utilities' industry association BDEW said Tuesday the share of
wind, solar and biomass power is expected to rise from 20 percent
in 2011 to 23 percent this year.  Posted. 
http://www.nctimes.com/business/solar-boosts-german-renewable-energy-in/article_03d1f98c-2782-5203-b0ec-5c53d5296abc.html

http://modbee.com/2012/12/18/2500342/solar-boosts-german-renewable.html#storylink=misearch


OPINIONS

Thomas Mulcair on cap-and-trade. As part of last week’s
conversation with the NDP leader, I asked a few questions about
cap-and-trade and putting a price on carbon. Are you ready, are
you prepared, to fully engage a debate on carbon pricing? It has
to be part of the equation. When I talk about including the price
and polluter pay, that’s part of the equation, of course. And
that’s a basic principle of sustainable development. Do you worry
at all that you’ve lost that debate already by the fact that they
can throw the phrase “carbon tax” at you? Posted.
http://www2.macleans.ca/2012/12/17/thomas-mulcair-on-cap-and-trade/

 
BLOGS

Energy Agency Sees Global Coal Boom Unabated, Europe’s Binge
Temporary.  The International Energy Agency’s Medium-Term Coal
Market Report, issued today in Paris, is essential reading for
anyone wishing to maintain a reality-based view of global trends
in fuel use. While many energy forecasts end up wrong, on short
time scales like this, that’s less true.  Some bullet points: The
proportion of global energy supplied by coal is approaching that
for oil.  Posted. 
http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/12/18/energy-agency-sees-global-coal-boom-unabated-europes-binge-temporary/


On Our Radar: A Global Coal Boom.  Coal will come close to
surpassing oil as the world’s top energy source by 2017, the
International Energy Agency predicts. Demand for coal will
increase in every region of the world except the United States,
where the fuel is being pushed out by natural gas, the agency
says. [International Energy Agency]  The Environmental Protection
Agency’s inspector general says it will investigate whether the
agency uses separate internal e-mail accounts to conduct
government affairs and if so, whether its actions comply with
federal laws. [The Hill]  Posted.
http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/12/18/on-our-radar-a-global-coal-boom/

Nuclear watchdog faults Mitsubishi over San Onofre equipment
tests. Federal regulators found flaws in the process followed by
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries in building and testing mock-up
replacement parts for the troubled San Onofre nuclear plant. The
plant has been out of service for more than 10 months because of
excessive wear on tubes carrying radioactive water, one of which
leaked a small amount of radioactive steam in January, prompting
the plant's shutdown. Posted.
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2012/12/nrc-mitsubishi-san-onofre.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+lanowblog+%28L.A.+Now%29


Soot pollution may cause as many as 3.2 million premature deaths
a year.  There are several factors that probably contribute to
what the Atlantic Cities refers to as St. Louis’ “asthma
epidemic.” High rates of smoking, for example. And: air
pollution.  The number of children suffering from asthma in the
St. Louis metropolitan area is nearly three times the national
average, according to Asthma Friendly St. Louis, a community
program designed to help school-age kids and teens manage
respiratory illness.  Posted. 
http://grist.org/news/soot-pollution-may-cause-as-many-as-3-2-million-premature-deaths-a-year/