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newsclips -- Newsclips for April 9, 2013
Posted: 09 Apr 2013 11:54:35
ARB Newsclips for April 9, 2013. 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 Pollution Exposure in Pregnancy Linked to Cancers. Children whose mothers have an increased exposure to air pollution from motor vehicles while pregnant may have a higher chance of developing certain cancers, a study found. Each increase in exposure to pollution from gasoline vehicles and diesel trucks was associated with a 4 percent higher risk of developing acute lymphoblastic leukemia, the most common childhood cancer, as well as increased chances of developing rarer cancers of the eye and of cells that form the reproductive system, according to data presented today at the annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research in Washington. Posted. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-04-09/air-pollution-exposure-in-pregnancy-linked-to-cancers.html http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/04/08/air-pollution-tied-to-birth-defects/ Air pollution scourge underestimated, green energy can help: U.N. Air pollution is an underestimated scourge that kills far more people than AIDS and malaria and a shift to cleaner energy could easily halve the toll by 2030, U.N. officials said on Tuesday. Investments in solar, wind or hydropower would benefit both human health and a drive by almost 200 nations to slow climate change, blamed mainly on a build-up of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere from use of fossil fuels, they said. Posted. http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/04/09/us-pollution-idUSBRE9380PZ20130409 Mont. asks EPA to redo sulfur dioxide designation. Montana officials said sulfur dioxide emissions are decreasing in Yellowstone County and they want it removed from a federal list of pollution violators. Sources of sulfur dioxide in Yellowstone Valley include three refineries, two power plants, a sugar beet plant and a sulfur-recovery plant. The Montana Department of Environmental Quality made the request in an April 3 letter to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. It included an analysis the state agency says shows decreasing emissions, The Billings Gazette reported (http://bit.ly/10Q1v0V ) on Monday. Posted. http://www.sfgate.com/default/article/Mont-asks-EPA-to-redo-sulfur-dioxide-designation-4420961.php Beijing's polluted air provides Jerry Brown a political opportunity. The local media have given it a name: "Beijing Ke," or the Beijing Cough, defined by the China Daily as "a bout of persistent dry cough or throat tickle because of Beijing's poor air quality." Earlier this year, the local air-quality reading was so bad that citizens were warned to stay in doors for days on end. The international media called it the "Airpocolypse." Posted. http://www.latimes.com/news/local/political/la-me-pc-california-jerry-brown-china-air-pollution-20130409,0,7386481.story CLIMATE CHANGE California Governor Clears Way for Carbon Market Link to Quebec. California Governor Jerry Brown approved a proposal to link the state’s carbon cap-and-trade system with a program in Quebec, a step that would allow companies to trade carbon permits across borders. Brown found that the request from the state Air Resources Board, which has been working with the Canadian province for more than five years to develop complementary systems, met all necessary state requirements, according to a letter posted on the governor’s website late today. Posted. http://www.businessweek.com/news/2013-04-08/california-governor-clears-way-for-carbon-market-link-to-quebec http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/2013/04/09/7 Making progress in the fight against global warming. California remains at the forefront of the nation in the fight against climate change through its government’s use of various tools to reduce energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions – primarily through the Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 known as AB 32. “California is implementing groundbreaking programs under AB 32 to reduce greenhouse gas emissions across our economy and the progress so far makes us confident the targets for 2020 and beyond will be achieved,” David Clegern, spokesperson for the California Air Resources Board (ARB), told the Business Journal in an e-mail. Posted. http://lbbusinessjournal.com/long-beach-business-journal-newswatch/1434-ab-32-update-making-progress-in-the-fight-against-global-warming-.html Climate Change Could Equal Teeth-Rattling Flights. Buckle up — climate change could make this a bumpy flight. That's according to a newly published study by two British scientists who say increased levels of CO2 in the atmosphere will make "clear air turbulence" — which can't be easily spotted by pilots or satellites — more common over the North Atlantic. That means the potential for gut-wrenching flights between the U.S., Europe and points east. Posted. http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/04/08/176598063/climate-change-could-equal-teeth-rattling-flights FUELS Moniz backs natural gas 'revolution'. Ernest Moniz, chosen by President Barack Obama to lead the Energy Department, says he will push to increase use of natural gas as a way to combat climate change even as the nation seeks to boost domestic energy production. Moniz, a physics professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said "a stunning increase" in domestic natural gas and oil production in recent years was nothing less than a "revolution" that has led to reduced emissions of carbon dioxide and other gases that cause global warming. Posted. http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_ENERGY_SECRETARY?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT http://www.sfgate.com/default/article/Moniz-backs-natural-gas-revolution-4420915.php http://www.modbee.com/2013/04/09/2660853/moniz-backs-natural-gas-revolution.html#storylink=misearch Fracking foes in California win in court. racking opponents in California have won what may be their first victory in court, with a federal magistrate's ruling that federal authorities broke the law when they leased land in Monterey and Fresno counties to oil drillers without studying the possible risks of hydraulic fracturing. The decision, made public Sunday, will probably delay fracking on four sites leased by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management in 2011. Posted. http://www.sfgate.com/green/article/Fracking-foes-in-California-win-in-court-4419423.php VEHICLES Giving a charge to grocery shoppers: More places to plug in. San Francisco-based Ecotality Inc., which operates the nation's second-largest network of public electric charging stations for vehicles, announced today that it plans to install 225 new chargers at Kroger Co. stores in California and Arizona. Kroger is the country's largest grocery chain, and includes Ralphs and Food 4 Less. It will invest about $1.5 million to install Ecotality's Blink charging stations and DC Fast Chargers. Posted. http://www.latimes.com/business/autos/la-fi-hy-more-ev-charging-stations-coming-to-california-grocery-stores-20130408,0,5313784.story HIGH-SPEED RAIL Jerry Brown seeks Chinese funding for California high-speed rail. California Gov. Jerry Brown heads to China this week to seek investments in his state’s “green” projects, including an astronomically expensive high-speed rail project that is floundering despite receiving tens of billions in federal stimulus money. Brown begins a week of meetings on Tuesday with a focus on bilateral trade and investment opportunities, as well as opening a new California foreign trade and investment office. Posted. http://washingtonexaminer.com/jerry-brown-seeks-chinese-funding-for-california-high-speed-rail/article/2526588 GREEN ENERGY With Help From Nature, a Town Aims to Be a Solar Capital. There are at least two things to know about this high desert city. One, the sun just keeps on shining. Two, the city’s mayor, a class-action lawyer named R. Rex Parris, just keeps on competing. Two years ago, the mayor, a Republican, decided to leverage the incessant Antelope Valley sun so that Lancaster could become the solar capital “of the world,” he said. Then he reconsidered. “Of the universe,” he said, the brio in his tone indicating that it would be parsimonious to confine his ambition to any one planet. Posted. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/09/us/lancaster-calif-focuses-on-becoming-solar-capital-of-universe.html?partner=rss&emc=rss&_r=1& MISCELLANEOUS Green school in Washington has its own farm with vegetables and bees. ‘Going green” isn’t just talk at Walker-Jones Education Campus. The D.C. school, which opened in 2009, was designed to save energy and provide a healthful environment for preschoolers through eighth-graders. But in the past three years, students, teachers and lots of volunteers have taken the school’s green commitment much further. They transformed a weedy lot across the street into a thriving farm. “It’s a farm and not a garden,” said David Hilmy, Walker-Jones’s P.E. teacher and a trained biologist, who oversees the farm. “Our aim is to produce food.” Posted. http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/kidspost/dc-school-creates-its-own-farm/2013/04/08/09bced74-9c84-11e2-a941-a19bce7af755_story.html OPINION Dividends of cleaner air. Whenever the federal government enacts new standards to reduce pollution, we can count on affected industries to complain loudly about the cost to them and ultimately to their customers of implementing the changes. What sometimes gets lost in the clamor are the health benefits of the new standards. That appears to be the case with the decision last month by the environmental Protection Agency to move forward with a rule requiring cleaner gasoline and lower-pollution vehicles nationwide. The change amounts to one of the most significant air pollution initiatives of President Barack Obama’s administration. Posted. http://www.heraldonline.com/2013/04/08/4755581/dividends-of-cleaner-air.html ANOTHER VIEW: Port Leads Way In Shore Power. Effective Jan. 1, half of all container, refrigerated cargo and cruise ships calling at the ports of Long Beach, Los Angeles, Oakland, San Francisco, San Diego and Hueneme will be required to shut down auxiliary engines and use onshore electricity to power their onboard systems at berth. The new state rules come with emissions reduction requirements and phase in higher standards for pollution reduction through 2020. This revolutionary program, known as shore power or cold ironing, represents a major leap forward in the greening of our seaports, and we are proud to say that the clean air initiatives we have pioneered here at the Port of Long Beach, along with our neighbor, the Port of Los Angeles, preceded these new statewide regulations. Posted. http://www.gazettes.com/opinion/another_view/another-view-port-leads-way-in-shore-power/article_353e7fea-9c97-11e2-b537-0019bb2963f4.html Foes should get on track with rail plan. The Government Accountability Office injected a sense of realism into the high-speed rail debate, detailing in its March 28 report just how large infrastructure projects of this kind work. But the naysayers led by House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy, R-Bakersfield, and Rep. Jeff Denham, R-Turlock, don't seem to be listening. Posted. http://www.mercedsunstar.com/2013/04/09/2931730/our-view-foes-should-get-on-track.html BLOGS U.S. Moves Toward Teaching Climate Change; Britain Does the Opposite. New science teaching standards in the United States will include extensive lessons on human-made climate change. Expected to be unveiled this week, the guidelines will bring the subject to classrooms in up to 40 states, in many cases for the first time. Eighth-grade pupils should understand that “human activities, such as the release of greenhouse gases from burning fossil fuels, are major factors in the current rise in Earth’s mean surface temperature (global warming),” according to the Next Generation Science Standards. Posted. http://rendezvous.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/04/08/u-s-moves-toward-teaching-climate-change-britain-does-the-opposite/