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newsclips -- ARB Newsclips for April 15, 2013.
Posted: 15 Apr 2013 12:31:22
ARB Newsclips for April 15, 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 Hong Kong Pollution Hits Severe Level as Pollutants Trapped. Hong Kong’s air pollution index reached the “severe” level for the third time this year, triggering a government warning, as pollutants from China were trapped by the lack of air flow. The Air Pollution Index (HKAICEMA) reached 207 in the Central business district and 203 at the Mong Kok roadside-monitoring station as of 2 p.m. local time, according to the Environment Protection Department. The index last registered similar readings in March in the city’s Causeway Bay area. Posted. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/print/2013-04-15/hong-kong-air-pollution-reaches-severe-level-in-mong-kok-1-.html E.P.A. Will Delay Rule Limiting Carbon Emissions at New Power Plants. The Environmental Protection Agency said Friday that it would delay issuance of a new rule limiting emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases from new power plants after the electric power industry objected on legal and technical grounds. The rule, proposed a year ago and scheduled to be finalized on Saturday, would have put in place the first restrictions on climate-altering gases from the power sector in the United States. Posted. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/13/science/earth/epa-to-delay-emissions-rule-at-new-power-plants.html?ref=earth&_r=0 Residents raise a stink at air pollution hearing for plant permit. Shasta County officials came under fire Thursday over a proposal to renew an air pollution permit for a power plant in Anderson. Members of a group called Citizens for Clean Air said the county Air Pollution Control District was illegally renewing a permit that allows Sierra Pacific Industries to operate a 4 megawatt power plant in Anderson. “They’re circumventing the whole process,” Heidi Strand, a founder of Citizens for Clean Air, said, referring to county officials who held a public hearing Thursday on the permit. Posted. http://www.redding.com/news/2013/apr/11/residents-raise-a-stink-at-air-pollution-hearing/ APCD releases latest Annual Report about air quality in the San Joaquin Valley (Photos). The San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District (APCD) today announced the release of its 2012-2013 Annual Report to the Community, a summary of efforts taken to control and reduce air pollution in the eight county air basin. The announcement was made via e-mail to interested subscribers of the APCD's mailing lists. Bakersfield residents who would like to know just what the APCD does and how successful it is will find this free publication useful. Posted. http://www.examiner.com/article/apcd-releases-latest-annual-report-about-air-quality-the-san-joaquin-valley San Joaquin Valley air agency issues alert. Officials with the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District are issuing a health cautionary statement effective late today through Monday night because of gusty winds expected to move through the area. Winds may produce areas of localized blowing dust, which can result in unhealthy concentrations of particulate matter. People with heart or lung disease should follow their doctors' advice for dealing with particulate exposure. Posted. http://www.modbee.com/2013/04/13/2668461/san-joaquin-valley-air-agency.html CLIMATE CHANGE EU’s Hedegaard Urges Lawmakers to Stop Carbon-Market ‘Bleeding’ European Union Climate Commissioner Connie Hedegaard pressed the EU Parliament to endorse her proposal temporarily to curb the supply of carbon-dioxide emission permits in a bid to boost their prices. The proposal, known as backloading, would delay the issuing of some new allowances in the 2013-2020 phase of the EU’s emissions-trading system, which limits CO2 from about 12,000 power plants and factories to fight climate change. Posted. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-04-15/eu-s-hedegaard-urges-lawmakers-to-stop-carbon-market-bleeding-.html California's carbon market may succeed where others have failed. Most weekdays, a long line of rail cars delivers thick slabs of steel to a factory about 40 miles east of Los Angeles. Deep in the bowels of California Steel Industries, the slabs are toasted until they glow white-hot and then rolled into thin sheets used to make shipping containers, metal roofing and car wheels. The plant churns out more than 2 million tons of flat rolled steel each year, using enormous amounts of natural gas and electricity and releasing over 190,000 metric tons of climate-altering carbon dioxide annually. Posted. http://www.hcn.org/issues/45.6/californias-carbon-market-may-succeed-where-others-have-failed 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 Linking by Degrees: Incremental Alignment of Cap-and-Trade Markets. National and subnational economies have started implementing carbon pricing systems unilaterally, from the bottom up. Therefore, the potential linking of individual cap-and-trade programs to capture efficiency gains and other benefits is of keen interest. This paper introduces a two-tiered framework to guide policymakers, with an interest in North American policy outcomes. Posted. http://www.rff.org/Publications/Pages/PublicationDetails.aspx?PublicationID=22167 Santa Barbara conference tackles skepticism about global warming. An oceanographer and former Navy rear admiral said Friday that rising sea levels driven by global warming are now considered a serious threat to national security, but the nation is beginning to get a handle on the issue. “We may do it with duct tape. It may take a new kind of disaster, such as Atlanta running out of water, to fully get our attention, and we’ll probably spend more money on it than we need to,” David Titley said at a conference on sea level rise at UC Santa Barbara. “But in the end, I think we’ll figure this out.” Posted. http://www.vcstar.com/news/2013/apr/12/santa-barbara-conference-tackles-skepticism/#ixzz2QYB7RK5c U.S. and China pledge 'large-scale cooperative action' to reduce emissions. Secretary of State John Kerry signed climate change agreements with China and Japan over the weekend, making the issue he championed in the U.S. Senate a centerpiece of his first Asia tour. Both declarations of cooperation stressed practical measures aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions and mostly ignored the contentious U.N. climate change negotiations. Posted. http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/print/2013/04/15/1 BY SUBSCRIPTION ONLY Better indicators needed to rank climate vulnerability, experts say. The U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change commits developed countries to financially support developing countries that are "particularly vulnerable" to climate change. But what makes a country "particularly vulnerable"? Between drought-stricken Burundi or flood-prone Bangladesh, which should be prioritized when allocating aid? Policy analysts and scientists say the question is complicated. Posted. http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/print/2013/04/15/7 BY SUBSCRIPTION ONLY FUELS California needs to bolster regulation of fracking, report says. Report by UC Berkeley Law School says that new technology could sharply increase use of the controversial method of oil and gas extraction and that state regulators aren't equipped to handle it. California needs to strengthen regulation of hydraulic fracturing, according to a UC Berkeley Law School report that identified a number of shortcomings in state oversight of the controversial practice. Posted. http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-fracking-20130413,0,5050714.story Methane, HFCs and soot reduction could cut projected sea-level rise by half – study. Restricting global warming to 2 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels and cutting projected sea-level rise for 2100 by as much as half can be done by reducing short-lived climate pollutants (SLCPs) along with carbon dioxide. A new study published yesterday in Nature Climate Change shows that cutting back on methane, tropospheric ozone, hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) and black carbon, starting as soon as in 2015, could rein in warming enough to decrease sea-level rise by 30 percent from where it would be if emissions continued as they are now. Posted. http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/print/2013/04/15/2 BY SUBSCRIPTION ONLY DIESEL EMISSIONS Mono County: expensive vehicle replacement. California Air Resources Board diesel emission requirements will ultimately cost Mono County, and many others, millions in equipment replacement. Though deadlines do not start until 2019, the Mono Supervisors want to address the problem now. When they met on Tuesday, the Board heard from Acting Public Works Director Jeff Walters. He had said that Mono County has 68 diesel-powered heavy equipment vehicles that must comply with Air Board rules by 2019 and 2025. Posted. http://www.sierrawave.net/24227/expensive-vehicle-replacement/ VEHICLES Vehicle Rebate Project Gets Funding Boost To Help Californians Buy Environmentally Friendly Cars. To continue a program that has successfully issued approximately 20,000 rebates to individuals, businesses and organizations that have purchased zero-emission vehicles (ZEVs), the California Air Resources Board (ARB) and the Clean Energy Commission (CEC) recently allocated a combined $10.5 million. That influx of cash is expected to extend the Clean Vehicle Rebate Project until next year’s funds are available. Posted. http://lbbusinessjournal.com/lof-scroller/1442-clean-vehicle-rebate-project-gets-funding-boost-to-help-californians-buy-environmentally-friendly-cars.html GM, Ford agree to jointly develop fuel-saving transmissions. General Motors Co. and Ford Motor Co., the two largest U.S. automakers, have agreed to jointly develop a new line of nine- and ten-speed automatic transmissions to boost the fuel economy and performance of their lineup, the companies said on Monday. The pact marks the third time in the last decade that the two automakers have collaborated on transmissions. The joint effort allows GM and Ford to bring the transmissions to market more quickly and at a lower cost than if they worked alone. Posted. http://www.sbsun.com/ci_23027856/gm-ford-agree-jointly-develop-fuel-saving-transmissions#ixzz2QYKs6MZm HIGH-SPEED RAIL Rail bid lower than state's estimate. A trio of American companies outbid four other teams vying to build the first segment of California's proposed high-speed train system – and for several hundred million dollars less than state engineers estimated. The consortium of Tutor Perini Corp. of Sylmar, Zachry Construction Corp. of Texas and Parsons Corp. of Pasadena offered the low bid of less than $1 billion. Five construction teams submitted bids in January to the California High-Speed Rail Authority for the first stretch of the rail line from east of Madera to the south end of Fresno. Posted. http://www.sacbee.com/2013/04/13/5338604/rail-bid-lower-than-states-estimate.html http://www.fresnobee.com/2013/04/12/3255405/bids-to-start-high-speed-rail.html GREEN ENERGY Clean Energy Investment Falls 22% as Subsidy Cuts Stall Projects. Clean energy investment slid 22 percent to its lowest level in four years as nations pared subsidies for technologies from wind turbines to solar power and financing in China and Brazil stalled. The $40.6 billion invested in the industry in the first three months of this year was lower than any quarter since 2009 and compares with $52 billion in the same period last year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg New Energy Finance. Posted. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-04-14/clean-energy-investment-falls-22-as-subsidy-cuts-stall-projects.html Vestas Wind Loses Second CFO as Turbine Maker Seeks Turnaround. Vestas Wind Systems A/S (VWS), the Danish turbine maker seeking a turnaround, said Dag Gunnar Andresen resigned, the second chief financial officer to quit in less than 18 months. Andresen will leave for personal reasons by the end of the month, the Aarhus-based company said today in a statement. He will be replaced by Marika Fredriksson from May 1. Posted. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-04-15/vestas-wind-loses-second-cfo-as-turbine-maker-seeks-turnaround.html NW Pa. wind farm plan has backers, opponents. Some northwestern Pennsylvania residents want limits placed on the size of wind turbines that can be built in their area and a ban on commercial windmills within a mile of any neighborhood. Neighbors For A Responsible North East also wants developers required to set aside money to cover any depreciation in private property after a wind farm is built and the cost to remove nonfunctional turbines, The Erie Times-News said. Posted. http://www.sbsun.com/ci_23023917/nw-pa-wind-farm-plan-has-backers-opponents#ixzz2QYLeS93a MISCELLANEOUS Though Brown touts progress, China's environmental issues persist. It’s easy to feel good traveling through China with Gov. Jerry Brown this week. Multimillion-dollar business deals between Chinese and California companies have been announced, and cooperation on environmental policy is pledged at every turn from top Communist Party and California officials. At night, the state is celebrated at lavish dinners where the California wine flows freely. Posted. http://www.latimes.com/news/local/political/la-me-pc-brown-environment-china-20130414,0,7066377.story Chicago activist wins Goldman Environmental Prize. As a young community organizer, Kimberly Wasserman went door to door in her working-class neighborhood to learn about residents' concerns. What she found set her on a decade-long mission to close Chicago's last two coal-fired power plants, a task that required taking on a major corporation and, ultimately, City Hall. Now, seven months after Midwest Generation closed its power plants in Chicago's two largest Hispanic enclaves, Wasserman will be honored Monday in San Francisco as the 2013 North American winner of the Goldman Environmental Prize. Posted. http://www.vcstar.com/news/2013/apr/15/chicago-activist-wins-goldman-environmental/#ixzz2QYF5wMty OPINIONS Toward a brighter future. First we all lit our homes with incandescent bulbs. Then we started shifting to compact florescent bulbs. And now there are LEDs. Each shift meant higher initial costs but long-term savings, because each represented a significant reduction in energy use (and that's before we consider cutting powerplant pollution to generate the electricity to light up the bulbs). Posted. http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130415/A_OPINION01/304150306&cid=sitesearch BLOGS Climate Change Didn’t Cause the Big Drought. The Hague — During his most recent State of the Union Address, President Obama cited the Great Plains drought last year as an example of extreme weather caused by climate change. According to a U.S. government report, things are not so simple. A new report by the Drought Task Force found that the central Great Plains drought, the worst drought in Wyoming, Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota and North Dakota since record keeping began in 1895, was mostly not the result of climate change. Posted. http://rendezvous.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/04/15/climate-change-didnt-cause-the-big-drought/ California seeks to export clean and green technology. California certainly likes to think of itself as an environmental trailblazer, and our state’s record in cleaning dirty air, tackling carbon pollution and enacting laws to require at least a third of our electric energy come from renewable resources, certainly puts us ahead of many states (and nations). Now the state is moving to capitalize on those efforts. Gov. Jerry Brown is visiting China this week to, among other things, peddle California green and clean technology exports. Posted. http://blog.sfgate.com/opinionshop/2013/04/12/california-seeks-to-export-clean-and-green-technology/ New Study Says CA High-Speed Rail Will Lose Up To 373 Million Annually. I voted NO on Proposition 1A, because I didn't believe they could deliver on their promises. According to a new study, done by the libertarian Reason Foundation, the California High-Speed Rail System will result in annual losses between $124 - $373 million. The study says that exaggerated rider estimates and slower-than-promised trip speeds make the California bullet train project a big financial loser for taxpayers. Posted. http://blogs.redding.com/gandresen/archives/2013/04/new-study-says.html 8 Ways that California and China Can Work Together to Reduce Pollution and Protect the Climate. I was delighted to see that California Governor Jerry Brown has made climate change and environmental protection a key focus of his visit to China this week. In addition to discussing with China's Premier Li Keqiang the importance of collaboration between California and China on renewable energy and climate change, Governor Brown: Signed a landmark agreement with China's Ministry of Commerce and six Chinese provinces and regions to expand trade and investment, particularly in the sectors of new energy, environmental protection and infrastructure…Posted. http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/bfinamore/8_ways_that_california_and_chi.html