What's New List Serve Post Display

ARB Newsclips for July 16, 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

Australian PM changes carbon tax ahead of election. Australia's
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said Tuesday a deeply unpopular carbon
tax will be replaced by a less-severe emissions trading scheme a
year ahead of schedule, in a bid to lower power bills for
households as a tight national election looms. The carbon tax on
Australia's worst industrial polluters, including its
coal-reliant power producers, went into effect in July 2012 and
was supposed to remain in place until 2015. Posted.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/A/AS_AUSTRALIA_CARBON_TAX?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT


OTHER RELATED STORIES
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/07/16/australia-carbon-idUSL4N0FM05620130716
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/17/world/asia/australian-leader-scraps-tax-on-carbon-emissions.html?_r=0
 
http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2013/jul/15/australian-pm-changes-carbon-tax-ahead-of-election/
 
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-07-16/rudd-cuts-spending-to-accommodate-early-australian-carbon-trade.html
  

Court sidesteps irony, upholds state’s greenhouse gas law. 
California’s greenhouse gas law – AB 32 – has been upheld in
principal by the California 5th District Court of Appeal but
implementation of aspects of the law needs to be fixed.  To
reduce emissions from transportation, the California Air
Resources Board adopted a number of regulations, including the
Low Carbon Fuel Standards that require the reduction of the
carbon content of transportation fuels sold, supplied or offered
for sale in California.  Posted. 
http://www.centralvalleybusinesstimes.com/stories/001/?ID=23812 

 Appeals court orders Calif. to fix low-carbon fuel standard. A
California appeals court yesterday ordered the state to fix its
first-in-the-nation program to lower the carbon content of
transportation fuels but allowed the rule to remain in force. The
5th District Court of Appeal ruled that the California Air
Resources Board (ARB) violated the California Environmental
Quality Act (CEQA) and the state Administrative Procedures Act
(APA) when it approved the program…Posted.
http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/2013/07/16/stories/1059984454
BY SUBSCRIPTION ONLY

AIR POLLUTION

Car makers shrug off new China sale restrictions. China plans to
restrict vehicle sales in eight more cities to curb traffic
congestion and pollution, but car manufacturers are not worried,
since they expect organic growth in the world's biggest auto
market to outweigh any restrictions. And, environmentalists say,
any such measures are unlikely to make much of a dent in air
pollution. Posted.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/07/16/us-china-autos-idUSBRE96F09P20130716

Planners Claim Reduction in Car Pollution, But Details Show
Overall Increase. Bay Area planning officials say efforts to
encourage dense development will reduce greenhouse gas emissions
from vehicles. But what they rarely mention publicly is that
their goal, a 15 percent per capita reduction of carbon dioxide
from cars and light trucks by 2035, actually represents an
overall emissions increase. Essentially, it’s a math
trick:…Posted.
http://sfpublicpress.org/news/2013-07/planners-claim-reduction-in-car-pollution-but-details-show-overall-increase#sthash.m8InoOh1.dpuf


Holliston Firm Clinches $3M For Clean Air Biz. Businesses often
find federal standards for clean air cumbersome, but one
Holliston company is thriving with them. Rypos, a clean air
technology company that makes self-cleaning filters for diesel
engines that provide backup power to large facilities, freight
refrigerators and cargo port cranes , is a fairly young firm with
a steep growth trajectory. Posted.
http://www.wbjournal.com/article/20130715/METROWEST01/130719949 

California assembly to consider six tire-related bills.  The
California legislature will consider a total of six tire-related
bills when it reconvenes in August, according to the July 12
issue of "CA Tire Bulletin."  The bills include: Assembly Bill
501, which would define a "tire broker" officially as "a person
that arranges for the shipment of used or waste tires to or from
a site located within the state, or through the state."  Posted. 
http://www.rubbernews.com/article/20130715/NEWS/130719969/califorinia-assembly-to-consider-six-tire-related-bills
  

REFINERY

California panel urges stringent refinery safety oversight after
Richmond Chevron fire. Firefighters douse a flame at the Chevron
oil refinery in in Richmond, California in this file photo taken
August 6, 2012. (Reuters / Josh Edelson)RICHMOND - A state panel
convened in the wake of last year's Chevron refinery fire has
recommended the creation of a refinery safety task force, with
broad powers to impose stiffer penalties and improve air-quality
monitoring standards. Posted.
http://www.mercurynews.com/news/ci_23664107/california-panel-urges-stringent-refinery-safety-oversight-after
http://www.contracostatimes.com/news/ci_23664107/california-panel-urges-stringent-refinery-safety-oversight-after

http://www.thereporter.com/news/ci_23668197/state-panel-urges-more-refinery-safety-oversight

http://www.ktvu.com/news/news/state-regional-govt-politics/state-panel-urges-more-oversight-oil-refineries/nYrRc/
 

CLIMATE CHANGE

Seas may rise 2.3 meters per degree of global warming: report.
Sea levels could rise by 2.3 meters for each degree Celsius that
global temperatures increase and they will remain high for
centuries to come, according to a new study by the leading
climate research institute, released on Monday. Anders Levermann
said his study for the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact
Research was the first to examine evidence from climate history
and combine it with computer simulations of contributing factors
to long-term sea-level increases: …Posted.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/07/15/us-climate-ice-study-idUSBRE96E0GQ20130715


News Summary: Tough task for Obama on climate plan.  President
Barack Obama has vowed to take climate change into his own hands.
Now he has to deliver on a plan that is a complicated mix of
rule-making and federal permitting. Posted.
http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2013/jul/15/news-summary-tough-task-for-obama-on-climate-plan/


DIESEL EMISSIONS

CARB explains how to legally use electric, hybrid reefer.  Truck
drivers using electric or hybrid reefers in California will want
to be sure their refrigeration units meet specific standards set
up by the California Air Resources Board.  If they don’t, a
series of checks has been set up to nab potential emissions
offenders.  CARB Board is warning reefer owners that they will be
auditing companies that claim to use electric standby or hybrid
electric reefer units to comply with the state’s Transportation
Refrigeration Unit regulation.  Posted. 
http://www.landlinemag.com/Story.aspx?StoryID=25455 

FUELS

Oil exec wants U.S. biofuel mandate reviewed as gas prices rise.
As U.S. gasoline prices spike for the second time this year, oil
industry officials will tell Congress on Tuesday that easing a
mandate for the use of renewable fuels and other measures could
help stabilize gas prices. Despite rising domestic oil
production, the average U.S. regular gasoline price jumped nearly
15 cents from a week ago to $3.64 a gallon on Monday, according
to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Posted.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/07/16/congress-gasoline-hearing-idUSL1N0FL1BD20130716


Gasoline lifts U.S. consumer inflation in June. U.S. consumer
prices rose more than expected in June as gasoline prices jumped,
but underlying inflation pressure remain benign against the
backdrop of lukewarm domestic demand. The Labor Department said
on Tuesday its Consumer Price Index increased 0.5 percent, the
largest increase since February, after nudging up 0.1 percent in
May. Gasoline prices accounted for about two thirds of the
increase in the CPI. Posted.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/07/16/usa-economy-prices-idUSL1N0FL1CQ20130716

http://www.latimes.com/business/money/la-fi-mo-consumer-price-index-cpi-inflation-gasoline-economy-20130716,0,2298597.story


Keystone pipeline may add 40 cents to Midwest gas prices, report
says. The fiercely debated Keystone XL pipeline could raise
gasoline prices in the Midwest by as much as 40 cents a gallon,
according to a new report by Consumer Watchdog. That’s because
the pipeline would allow oil companies in Canada to export crude
oil to a range of markets in the U.S. and abroad, leading to
possible increases in the prices paid in areas that are already
heavily dependent on that oil, according to the Santa Monica
consumer group’s report released Tuesday. Posted.
http://www.latimes.com/business/money/la-fi-mo-keystone-pipeline-20130716,0,6339875.story


Dominion converts 1st of 3 coal plants to biomass.  Dominion
Virginia Power's Altavista power station is now running on
renewable biomass as part of a previously announced plan to
convert three of its coal-fired power plants in the state to burn
mostly waste wood left from regional timbering operations as
fuel, the energy provider said Monday.  Posted.
http://www.vcstar.com/news/2013/jul/15/dominion-converts-1st-of-3-coal-plants-02/#ixzz2ZDw9q6fY


Canada has world's top reserves when risk is a factor. Canada,
Australia and the United States lead the other nations of the
world in the quantity of shale oil and gas that can be extracted
with minimal risk, according to an analysis by PFC Energy. The
analysis is a spin on the Energy Information Administration's
earlier ranking of 42 nations in the world according to their
shale oil and gas potential. The EIA ranked Russia first, since
it has 75 billion barrels of technically recoverable shale oil.
The United States was ranked second, with 58 billion barrels.
Posted. http://www.eenews.net/energywire/stories/1059984423/print
BY SUBSCRIPTION ONLY

Sapphire Energy and Linde Group Expand Partnership. Companies
Partner to Commercialize Hydrothermal Treatment Technology Used
to Upgrade Algae into Crude Oil. Sapphire Energy, Inc., one of
the world leaders in algae-based Green Crude oil production, and
the technology company The Linde Group today announced they will
expand their partnership to commercialize a new industrial scale
conversion technology needed to upgrade algae biomass into crude
oil. Posted.
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/sapphire-energy-and-linde-group-expand-partnership-2013-07-16


VEHICLES

With i3 Electric Car, BMW Tries to Ease Range Anxiety. Since BMW
began the slow debut of its battery-powered car more than two
years ago, the engineers from Bavaria promised that the i3 would
be as fun to drive as a conventional BMW. What if it was even
more fun to drive? Posted.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/16/business/with-i3-electric-car-bmw-tries-to-ease-range-anxiety.html


GREEN ENERGY

China pushes Europe to lower hurdles to solar deal – document.
China is pushing hard for only limited restrictions on its solar
panel exports to the European Union, complicating talks aimed at
avoiding hefty tariffs on Chinese firms and a possible trade war,
a document obtained by Reuters showed on Tuesday. The European
Commission, the EU's executive, accuses China of flooding Europe
with billions of euros of cheap solar panels sold at below the
cost of production…Posted.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/07/16/eu-china-solar-idUSL6N0FM1KD20130716


Sonoma council votes unanimously to join clean power authority.
The Sonoma City Council overcame its previous division Monday and
voted unanimously to join the Sonoma County Clean Power
Authority.The vote is the latest in a series of 11th-hour
decisions by cities on whether to join the county's fledgling
public power program. Sonoma became the fifth city to join.
Posted. 
http://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/20130715/ARTICLES/130719684?title=City-of-Sonoma-joins-county-power-agency


CA Wins for Recycling, Renewable Energy. If you’re looking for
real estate investments in states with high sustainability
practices, you might consider California. The Golden State is the
#1 state in the country for recycling and earned high ratings for
both renewable energy and an overall “best” rating for “green”
practices, according to mphonline.org, a website devoted to
information about Master’s in Public Health degree programs.
Posted.
http://www.globest.com/news/12_648/orangecounty/asset_management/CA-Wins-for-Recycling-Renewable-Energy-335505.html


MISCELLANEOUS

Hazardous lead paint: Legal battle comes to trial in California.
SETTING THE RECORD STRAIGHT (publ. 7/16/2013, page A2) A story on
a legal battle against the lead paint industry incorrectly
reported that California's attorney general is part of the
challenge. The case is being brought by 10 cities and counties,
not the attorney general. 
From old cottages in Berkeley and Palo Alto to ranch-style homes
in Silicon Valley, the remnants of a hazardous past can lurk in
the walls…Posted.
http://www.mercurynews.com/health/ci_23660237/hazardous-lead-paint-legal-battle-comes-trial-california?source=rss


OPINIONS

COLUMN-How much back up does wind power need?: Wynn. Winds are
notoriously footloose and hard to predict, but for grid operators
keen to keep their customers' lights on and hold down costs,
agreeing on a method to measure the reliability of the
fast-growing electricity source is vital. Policymakers and
operators around the world have come up with a range of ways to
estimate wind power and a bunch of terms to measure wind power
reliability, including capacity credit, capacity value and
availability factor. Posted.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/07/16/column-wynn-wind-reliability-idUSL6N0FL11720130716
 

Time has come to ban plastic bags. “Paper or plastic?” It’s a
question we hear from clerks just about anytime we go shopping.
But before long, that question should change to “Did you bring a
reusable bag?” Based on indisputable evidence showing that the
proliferation of single-use plastic bags is doing substantial
harm to the environment, city and county officials are finally
poised to approve a countywide ban on carryout plastic bags at
grocers and retailers. Posted.
http://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/20130715/COMMUNITY/130719986?Title=Time-has-come-to-ban-plastic-bags