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newsclips -- Newsclips for April 11, 2013
Posted: 11 Apr 2013 11:23:21
ARB Newsclips for April 11, 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. CAP AND TRADE International cap-and-trade markets expanding – but still contentious. Nascent carbon emissions-trading exchanges in several countries are increasingly looking at options to interlink with one another, which advocates say would offer investors long-term stability, increase revenues for the development of renewable energy and strengthen corporate support for climate policy. Yet critics warn that so-called cap-and-trade systems are inefficient and create incentives for polluting industries to continue with business as usual. Posted. http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2013/apr/11/international-carbon-markets-expanding Jerry Brown makes cosmic case for carbon reduction. Gov. Jerry Brown used a stage at one of China’s most prestigious universities Thursday to make his pitch for environmental policies that he said could help reverse the global impacts of climate change and boost the economies of China and California. Speaking at Tsinghua University, Brown boasted about the state’s record as an innovator on clean technology and government crackdowns on carbon emissions and said a deeper partnership between the state and Chinese government would be mutually beneficial. Posted. http://www.latimes.com/news/local/political/la-me-pc-jerry-brown-makes-cosmic-case-for-carbon-reduction-20130410,0,6364989.story AIR POLLUTION China pollution may hold silver lining for California. As Gov. Jerry Brown tours some of China's economic hubs this week, he is breathing the kind of heavy, soiled air that blanketed Los Angeles decades ago. The soot and smog that are byproducts of this country's industrial progress are choking its people and threatening its economy. Chinese leaders are talking openly about the need to clean up the air, and to learn how from California. Posted. http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-brown-china-environment-20130411,0,159929.story CLIMATE CHANGE Towns, ecologists seek climate-friendly culverts. The humble highway culvert—cheaper than a bridge and unseen by drivers tooling through stream-laced mountains—has become a focal point in efforts to help communities and wildlife adapt to climate change. The critical role of these structures—essentially big pipes or concrete boxes carrying streams beneath roads—was demonstrated dramatically in a series of extreme weather events hitting the Northeast in recent years. Posted. http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_23003024/towns-ecologists-seek-climate-friendly-culverts DIESEL EMISSIONS Bethel Island meeting to focus on diesel engine emissions laws. Bay Area Air Quality Management District will give a presentation this month on emissions requirements for commercial diesel engines. The public meeting will be 6 to 9:30 p.m. April 18 at Scout Hall, 3090 Ranch Lane, Bethel Island. Representatives from the air pollution control agency will talk from 6 to 7:30 p.m., followed by a time for the audience to ask questions. Posted. http://www.mercurynews.com/top-stories/ci_22998613/bethel-island-meeting-focus-diesel-engine-emissions-laws http://www.contracostatimes.com/east-county-times/ci_22998615/bethel-island-meeting-focus-diesel-engine-emissions-laws Grants available to clean up diesel emissions. The Butte County Air Quality Management District has about $180,000 available for grants to help clean up emissions from older diesel engines. Projects allowed under the Carl Moyer Clean Engine Incentive Program involve replacing old diesel engines, purchasing new vehicles or equipment, or retrofitting older engines with emission control devices. Projects must be voluntary rather than be required by any legal mandate to qualify. Grants awarded according to cost effectiveness. Posted. http://www.orovillemr.com/ci_23003227/grants-available-clean-up-diesel-emissions FUELS Environmentalists' raging war on coal. Exports from the Pacific Northwest are an ongoing battleground in the environmental war on coal. Last week, the Sierra Club and three other groups announced that they would file suit against Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway and six coal companies over shipments of coal in open-topped train cars. The announcement is an escalation in the three-year battle to stop new export terminals proposed for ports in Washington and Oregon. Underlying all the rhetoric is a concern that mankind is causing dangerous global warming. Posted. http://www.sbsun.com/ci_22996541/environmentalists-raging-war-coal-column#ixzz2QAjYh5zx Alberta premier: US pipeline rejection would hurt. If the Obama administration rejects the Keystone XL pipeline, it would be a significant thorn in Canadian-U.S. relations, Alberta's premier said Wednesday. Premier Alison Redford was in Washington for her fourth trip to lobby on behalf of a pipeline that Canada sees as critical to its economic well-being. The Obama administration is considering whether to approve the pipeline, which would carry 800,000 barrels of oil a day from Alberta across six U.S. states to the Texas Gulf Coast, which has numerous refineries. Posted. http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/C/CN_CANADA_US_OIL_PIPELINE?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT Poor fuel quality major cause of air pollution: Experts. Experts at a workshop on Tuesday underlined the need for cleaner fuel usage in vehicles to control air pollution and lessen the burden from national kitty in terms of pollution related diseases. Speaking on “A Roadmap for Upgradation of Vehicular Fuel Quality in Pakistan,” the experts underlined the need for improving fuel efficiency in road transport and improve the fuel quality for controlling air pollution. Posted. http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/asianet/130411/poor-fuel-quality-major-cause-air-pollution-experts GREEN ENERGY New Solar Process Gets More Out of Natural Gas. The Energy Department is preparing to test a new way for solar power to make electricity: using the sun’s heat to increase the energy content of natural gas. Researchers at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland, Wash., hope by this summer to carry out the test, which entails a process that could cut the amount of natural gas used — and the greenhouse gasses emitted — by 20 percent. Posted. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/11/business/energy-environment/new-solar-process-gets-more-out-of-natural-gas.html Goodbye fluorescent bulb? Philips says yes. If you've worked in an office, you're probably familiar with the soft glow of fluorescent tubes drifting from the ceiling. If Europe's Philips brand is right, those lamps could soon be history. Royal Philips NV, the Dutch consumer appliances giant, said Thursday that it has developed an LED light that will soon be far more efficient than the best fluorescents on the market. That should make it cheaper and greener, as well. Posted. http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/E/EU_NETHERLANDS_PHILIPS_LED_TUBE?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT OPINION A little wind is a good thing. Sure, the stiff north wind that filled the Valley with dust, knocked out power and knocked down trees was nasty. But there is an upside. Statewide, wind-generated electrical power spiked in recent days. The California Independent System Operator, which runs the state's wholesale electricity transmission grid, said that wind-powered turbines - if you've been over the Altamont Pass on Interstate 205/580, you've seen them - generated a record 4,196 megawatts on Sunday. Posted. http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130411/A_OPINION01/304110312&cid=sitesearch Learn about chemicals in fracking. Several articles have been printed in The Bee opinion section dealing with the topic of fracking. Neither of the articles by Kristin Olsen or Dave Quast said a word about some of the dangerous, cancer-causing chemicals such as benzene, toluene or xylene that are used in the fracking process and are being injected into the ground. They only painted a naive, quick- fix solution for jobs. And the great commentary on fracking by Anita Young of the Sierra Club was misleading. Posted. http://www.modbee.com/2013/04/10/2663730/learn-about-chemicals-in-fracking.html#storylink=misearch Corporations Can't Ignore Climate Change. Late last October, the New York Stock Exchange stood quiet as Superstorm Sandy battered the East Coast. It was the first time since 1888 that weather had caused the exchange to close for two consecutive days. In the wake of a disaster like Sandy, it’s easy to point fingers—at industry, regulators, government officials—but several years ago, I came to the conclusion that society is not going to solve our most vexing environmental problems by simply deciding who’s to blame. Instead, we must shift the levers of power by involving the major players in our capital markets. Posted. http://www.forbes.com/sites/skollworldforum/2013/04/11/corporations-cant-ignore-climate-change/ How can we boost distributed solar and save utilities at the same time? Yesterday I wrote that solar PV and other distributed-energy technologies pose a radical threat to U.S. power utilities and the centralized business model they’ve operated under for the last century. This is, I hasten to add, according to the utilities themselves. So what should be done about it? It’s complicated. On one hand, more distributed renewable energy is a good thing. It reduces carbon emissions, increases resilience, stimulates the growth of new industries with new jobs, and gives Americans a taste of energy democracy. Posted. http://grist.org/climate-energy/how-can-we-boost-distributed-solar-and-save-utilities-at-the-same-time/ BLOGS In Gina McCarthy Hearing, Possible Conversation Over Cap-and-Trade. On the eve of Gina McCarthy's first Senate committee hearing towards her confirmation, we find our work a potential topic of conversation between certain senators and the candidate for EPA Administrator. Four senators on the Environment and Public Works Committee, including James Inhofe and David Vitter, sent a letter to Ms. McCarthy asking for her take on a petition the Institute for Policy Integrity, which we direct, submitted to the EPA in 2009. There are now reports that they plan to raise the question during tomorrow's hearing. Posted. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/richard-l-revesz-and-michael-a-livermore/in-gina-mccarthy-hearing-_b_3055075.html Lawmakers look to move biofuel bill through House Energy Committee. A bipartisan group of lawmakers is having discussions with the chairman of the House Energy Committee about bringing forward legislation to gut a federal biofuel law. Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.), a bill co-sponsor, said his talks with House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-Mich.) have left him “hopeful” about securing a hearing. Posted. http://thehill.com/blogs/e2-wire/e2-wire/293073-lawmakers-look-to-move-biofuel-bill-through-house-energy-committee