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ARB Newsclips for July 18, 2013. 

This is a service of the California Air Resources Board’s Office
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individual websites to view some of the following news articles.

CAP AND TRADE

PG&E, Wildlife Group Unite to Back Foreign Offsets in California.
Pacific Gas & Electric Co., Southern California Edison and the
Wildlife Conservation Society joined forces today to endorse a
plan that would allow California companies to use credits from
forestry projects overseas to comply with state emissions limits.
An advisory panel is issuing recommendations today on how to
implement the plan. Posted.
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2013-07-18/pg-and-e-wildlife-group-unite-to-back-foreign-offsets-in-california


Northeast cuts power plant polluting allowances. Less carbon
dioxide is polluting the air in the Northeast, prompting state
environmental officials to cut allowances for emissions in one of
only two cap-and-trade programs in the United States. Officials
in all six New England states and Delaware, Maryland and New York
are putting in place new rules, adjusting the limit on emissions
for 2014 to 91 million tons of carbon dioxide from 165 million
tons. Posted.
http://online.wsj.com/article/AP1c80104f3fb9431ebdb29eac3ac2dae4.html#printMode


Cap-and-trade officials float the possibility of more free
allowances for industry. California officials are planning to
give more emissions permits away for free to refineries, metal
manufacturers and other industries that are vulnerable to
competition from outside the state, according to proposed changes
to the nation's largest trading program for greenhouse gases.
Posted.
http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/stories/1059984616/print BY
SUBSCRIPTION ONLY

Conservatives attack each other over carbon tax plans.
Conservative critics of taxing carbon launched a campaign
yesterday to discredit Republican voices that describe the
climate policy as a winning solution for the party and the
economy. In related maneuvering, Republican energy lobbyists are
urging House leaders to vote on a resolution that denounces a
carbon tax before the August recess. Posted.
http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/stories/1059984618/print BY
SUBSCRIPTION ONLY

AIR POLLUTION

INTERVIEW-China asks EU for aid in curbing pollution - EU
environment chief. China has asked the European Union to help it
tackle some of its most severe pollution problems, the EU's
environment commissioner said on Thursday, underscoring Beijing's
concerns about addressing a key source of social discontent. The
European Union and China, the world's biggest carbon dioxide
emitter, have frequently clashed over climate policy. Posted.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/07/18/china-eu-environment-idUSL4N0FL0VB20130718


More EU states could block Daimler sales in coolant row. More
European Union countries could join France in blocking
registrations of new Daimler AG vehicles using a banned coolant,
after EU governments agreed on Wednesday to take action against
the German carmaker. France has halted registrations of Mercedes
A-Class, B-Class and SL cars assembled after June because of
Daimler's refusal to stop using the refrigerant R134a, which was
banned throughout the bloc from the start of this year. Posted.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/07/17/eu-daimler-coolant-idUSL6N0FN3PP20130717


CLIMATE CHANGE

State receives a menu of climate change options. Washington now
has a list of programs worldwide from which to steal, or borrow,
as a legislative panel tackles climate change in this state. The
panel's consultant — Science Application International Corp. of
Virginia — has done some initial sifting through worldwide
climate change fix-it ventures to study, and SAIC presented that
list to a panel of two Republican and two Democratic legislators
led by Gov. Jay Inslee on Wednesday. Posted.
http://crosscut.com/2013/07/18/environment/115604/state-has-menu-climate-change-options/
 

As ice melts, U.S. remains unprepared to police open sea. Last
year, 46 vessels traversed Arctic waters, 10 times the number in
2010. Sea ice extent in the Arctic has declined by roughly 3
percent a decade since the 1970s. By 2060, open-water vessels may
regularly travel the Northwest Passage, according to a study this
year. With those numbers in mind, federal and military officials
said yesterday that there is a massive need for additional
research and mapping of Arctic areas to improve safety for
drillers and commercial and military boats…Posted.
http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/stories/1059984615/print BY
SUBSCRIPTION ONLY

Scientists see runoff accelerating the surprising melt in
Greenland's interior ice. In an Arctic battle between
water-as-liquid and water-as-ice, liquid seems to be winning. At
least that's what researcher Thomas Phillips, a glaciologist from
the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences
(CIRES) at the University of Colorado, Boulder, has found.
Phillips studies melting on the Greenland ice sheet. Posted.
http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/stories/1059984617/print BY
SUBSCRIPTION ONLY

As CO2 concentrations increase, so does wetlands' ability to
absorb it. A study carried out over nearly two decades in a
Maryland marsh shows that wetland ecosystems might be able to
absorb more carbon dioxide in the future if greenhouse gas levels
continue their relentless rise. Beginning in 1987, when the
atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide was only at 340 parts
per million (it surpassed 400 ppm in May)…Posted.
http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/stories/1059984592/print BY
SUBSCRIPTION ONLY

Spike in allergy symptoms may be linked to global warming.
Researchers at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, are
studying the links between global warming and a recent spike in
people suffering from allergies. Rising temperatures are causing
plants to flower earlier, lengthening the allergy season by two
to three weeks, and increased levels of carbon dioxide are
leading to greater pollen creation. Posted.
http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/stories/1059984588/print BY
SUBSCRIPTION ONLY

FUELS

California officials wrestle with handling trade secrets on
fracking.   State officials have been flooded with more than
20,000 comments and suggestions regarding proposed regulations of
a controversial oil and gas drilling technique known as fracking,
officials said Wednesday. Members of the California Water
Commission voiced concerns of their own Wednesday about whether
the state should treat the recipes for some fracking liquids as
trade secrets, not to be disclosed to the public. Posted.
http://www.latimes.com/local/political/la-me-pc-fracking-rules-developing-20130717,0,2605370.story?track=rss


Air Force Considers More Drilling Off California Coast. The U.S.
Military has taken the lead in getting the nation off fossil
fuels and onto renewable energy in a series of well-thought-out
programs over the past few years. This isn't one of them. In an
announcement Wednesday, the Air Force announced it would be
studying the possibility of drilling slantwise from Vandenberg
Air Force Base near Lompoc into oil reserves off the California
coast. Posted.
http://www.kcet.org/news/rewire/petroleum/air-force-considers-more-drilling-off-california-coast.html


Is Arctic oil exploration dead in the U.S.? A year ago this
September, Royal Dutch Shell PLC began the first new oil drilling
in U.S. Arctic waters in more than two decades. The company spent
$5 billion and dispatched an armada of ships and equipment to
offshore Alaska to evaluate the energy resources on its federal
leases. From the beginning, however, Shell's operation faced a
multitude of problems -- everything from lingering sea ice to a
damaged oil spill containment dome. Posted.
http://www.eenews.net/energywire/stories/1059984582/print BY
SUBSCRIPTION ONLY

AAA chapter says oil group's ad misrepresents ethanol position. A
state chapter of North America's largest motor club is accusing
the oil and gas industry's largest trade group of misrepresenting
its position on ethanol in a new ad campaign seeking repeal of
the renewable fuel standard. The television ad by the American
Petroleum Institute began airing in several states and
Washington, D.C., early this week and features a mechanic
discussing the alleged pitfalls of increasing the amount of
ethanol in gasoline. Posted.
http://www.eenews.net/greenwire/stories/1059984650/print BY
SUBSCRIPTION ONL

VEHICLES

Exclusive: GM delays Chevy Cruze debut by a year – sources.
General Motors Co has delayed the launch of the next-generation
Chevrolet Cruze by a year due to engineering changes and a desire
to squeeze more sales from the small car before it is redesigned,
people familiar with the U.S. automaker's plans said. The next
version of the Cruze, which had originally been scheduled to
debut in late 2014, will now begin production in December 2015,
said the sources, most of whom asked not to be identified in
discussing GM's plans. Posted.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/07/17/us-autos-gm-cruze-idUSBRE96G1F720130717
http://www.freep.com/article/20130718/BUSINESS0103/307180029/chrysler-fiat-500E-hybrids-electric-vehicles


L.A. Expands Electric Car Charger Program. An effort by the Los
Angeles Department of Water and Power to promote customer
installations of chargers for electric cars was so successful
that the utility is expanding it. LADWP will be offering rebates
up to $750 for residents and businesses in its service area who
install fast charging stations. Posted.
http://www.kcet.org/news/rewire/transportation/dwp-boosts-subsidies-for-personal-car-chargers.html


GREEN ENERGY

SoftBank Forms a Fuel Cell Venture With a Silicon Valley
Start-Up. When Masayoshi Son, SoftBank’s chief executive, first
visited the Silicon Valley fuel cell start-up Bloom Energy late
last year, one word came to his mind: crazy. But the fuel cell
technology — which promised efficient, cleaner and increasingly
inexpensive “energy in a box” — intrigued him. Posted.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/18/business/global/softbank-forms-fuel-cell-venture-with-silicon-valley-start-up.html?_r=0&pagewanted=print


Seattle's cost-saving pilot program may help commercialize energy
efficiency. The first commercial application of metered energy
efficiency, a pilot program at an early stage in Seattle, was
highlighted as a prime case study during a forum at the World
Bank this week. The meeting between the Energy Efficiency
Community of Practice and the International Finance Corp.
explored upcoming models in energy efficiency …Posted.
http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/stories/1059984614/print BY
SUBSCRIPTION ONLY

Sierra Club victory halts plans for trash-burning plant. The
Superior Court of Arizona has ruled in favor of the Sierra Club
in a move that blocks plans for a trash-burning power plant west
of Phoenix. The Arizona Corporation Commission requires utilities
to get 15 percent of their electricity from renewable sources.
Originally, the rules did not count trash burning as a form of
renewable energy. Posted.
http://www.eenews.net/greenwire/stories/1059984640/print BY
SUBSCRIPTION ONLY

MISCELLANEOUS

Curiosity rover confirms Martian air is mostly CO2. The Curiosity
rover has tasted Mars' air: It's made mostly of carbon dioxide
with hints of other gases. The measurements by the most advanced
spacecraft to land on the red planet closely match what the twin
Viking landers detected in the late 1970s and what scientists
have gleaned from Martian meteorites — rock fragments that fell
to Earth. Mars' atmosphere is overwhelmingly dominated by carbon
dioxide, unlike Earth's air, which is a mix of nitrogen and
oxygen. Posted.
http://www.sfgate.com/news/science/article/Curiosity-rover-confirms-Martian-air-is-mostly-CO2-4672716.php


Water Birds Turning Up Dead at Solar Projects in the Desert. Big
desert solar installations have a problem: They seem to be
imperiling water birds. A ReWire investigation has revealed that
since mid-March, two large industrial solar power plants in
California's remote, arid desert may have killed or injured more
than 20 birds commonly associated with lakes or wetlands rather
than the open desert surrounding the projects. Posted.
http://www.kcet.org/news/rewire/solar/water-birds-turning-up-dead-at-solar-projects-in-desert.html


OPINIONS

UN joins global warming craze, blames 'humanity's emissions'. The
United Nations agency that charts worldwide weather has charged
that "human-caused climate change" helped make the last decade
the hottest on record, due to "humanity's emissions" of carbons
and other chemicals into the atmosphere. The World Meteorological
Organization, the U.N.'s Swiss-based weather outfit, said in a
new report of climate extremes from 2001-2010 that nature played
a role, but that man and worldwide development are responsible
for the trend up in temperatures. Posted.
http://washingtonexaminer.com/article/2533200 

Oil Industry Should Blame Itself For Federal Fracking Rules. When
it comes to regulation, the oil and gas industry needs rules that
encourage best practices. Too often, it settles for guidelines
that support the lowest common denominator. That seems to be what
U.S. Interior Secretary Sally Jewell was getting at in defending
federal rules on hydraulic fracturing before the House Natural
Resources Committee. Posted.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/lorensteffy/2013/07/18/oil-industry-should-blame-itself-for-federal-fracking-rules/


The Real Keystone 'Atrocity:' Environmental Hyperbole. Regardless
of how much oil the Keystone XL pipeline actually moves someday,
it has already tapped into an unlimited reservoir of rhetoric
from the environmental community. The latest comes from former
Vice President Al Gore, who declared that the pipeline is “an
atrocity” and called on President Obama to veto it.Gore’s
hyperbole follows that of Robert Redford, who last year called
Keystone “one of the most nightmarish fossil fuel projects of our
time.” Posted.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/lorensteffy/2013/06/17/the-real-keystone-atrocity-environmental-hyperbole/

BLOGS

A U.S. Battery Recycler Says We Should Keep the Lead In. Building
on a recent guest post describing how exports of old car
batteries from the United States are creating a toxic trail in
poorer nations, here’s a “Your Dot” contribution from Robert E.
Finn, the president of RSR Corporation, a company that smelts
recycled lead here at home. Finn focuses on the need to improve
the environmental performance of his industry. Posted.
http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/07/18/a-u-s-battery-recycler-says-we-should-keep-the-lead-in/?partner=rss&emc=rss


Unpacking ARB's Proposed Cap-and-Trade Amendments. The California
Air Resources Board just released a sweeping set of proposed
amendments to the cap-and-trade program, a key element of the
state’s comprehensive effort to cut greenhouse gas emissions
under AB 32, the Global Warming Solutions Act. The amendments
offered earlier this week cover a wide range of issues that are
the subject of a workshop today (July 18). Posted.
http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/ajackson/unpacking_arbs_proposed_cap-an.html

 
Climate change forces US Forest Service to shift its strategy on
larger fires. Climate change is forcing the US Forest Service to
rethink how it fights large wildfires. Global warming has
increased the intensity of fires, forcing the USFS to spend more
and more of its money fighting them. Now the agency has decided
that it should be less aggressive in attacking big blazes, so
long as they are not threatening property. In 1991, the US Forest
Service’s spent 13 percent of its budget on fire management.
Posted.
http://www.scpr.org/blogs/environment/2013/07/17/14287/climate-change-forces-us-forest-service-to-shift-i/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+893KpccSouthernCaliforniaNews+%28KPCC%3A+News%29


How Fracking Affects Your Farmer's Market. As we become more
careful about what we put into our bodies, options and
opportunities to be more health conscious abound: organic,
non-GMO, gluten free...the list goes on. Will we soon be adding
frack-free to this growing list? And even if we wanted to, would
we have enough information to be able to? As a quick reminder,
fracking is a drilling technique that involves the fracturing of
rock through the use of high-pressure…Posted.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/maria-rodale/how-fracking-affects-your_b_3613373.html