What's New List Serve Post Display

ARB Newsclips for November 12, 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

New York Looks to Cut Emissions by Private Trash Haulers. As
aging garbage trucks rumble down the streets of New York, their
fumes draw protests from residents and environmental advocates
and raise concerns about asthma and other health effects. The
administration of Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, which has made
cleaner air a priority, has taken steps to modernize the city’s
fleet of diesel-powered vehicles —Posted.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/12/nyregion/new-york-looks-to-cut-emissions-by-private-trash-haulers.html?_r=0&pagewanted=print


EPA officers sickened by fumes at South L.A. oil field. The
inspectors suffered sore throats and headaches during a visit to
Allenco Energy Co. Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) urges a
temporary shutdown pending an investigation. Federal
environmental officers were sickened by toxic vapors as they
toured a south Los Angeles urban oil field whose emissions are
blamed by neighbors for a variety of ailments, an EPA official
said Friday. Posted.
http://www.latimes.com/local/la-me-1109-fumes-20131109,0,3711063.story#axzz2kSjSjncy

http://www.mercurynews.com/california/ci_24483626/sen-boxer-asks-halt-oil-operations-la


Redwood City fire: Dirty air expected to linger, metal yard
re-opens after huge blaze. Authorities said it was safe to be
outside after firefighters finished putting out a billowing
metal-yard fire that spread an acrid metal-plastic smell over the
Bay Area, renewing attention on an auto-recycling plant with a
history of reprimands for polluting. Posted.
http://www.mercurynews.com/crime-courts/ci_24498551/redwood-city-seaport-blvd-open-fire-crews-continue


Global deaths from vehicle emissions will grow without new rules
– report. With vehicle use on the rise worldwide, the number of
premature deaths linked to air pollution from cars and buses
could rise without policies to control emissions, according to a
new report from an international transportation think tank. While
several countries and regions -- including the United States and
European Union -- have adopted stricter tailpipe emission and
fuel economy standards…Posted.
http://www.eenews.net/greenwire/stories/1059990269/print BY
SUBSCRIPTION ONLY

CLIMATE CHANGE

Report on climate change depicts a planet in peril.  Climate
change will disrupt not only the natural world but society,
posing risks to resources and fomenting conflict, panel says.
Climate change will disrupt not only the natural world but also
society, posing risks to the world's economy and the food and
water supply and contributing to violent conflict, an
international panel of scientists says. The warnings came in a
report drafted by the United Nations-backed Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate Change. Posted.
http://www.latimes.com/local/la-me-climate-change-20131112,0,6958165.story#axzz2kSjSjncy


California on course for driest year on record. Thirsty
California may get a smidgen of rain this coming week, but it is
not likely to change what, so far, has been the driest calendar
year in recorded history. No rain at all fell in San Francisco in
October and only 3.95 inches has fallen since Jan. 1, the
smallest amount of precipitation to date since record keeping
began 164 years ago, according to the National Weather Service.
Posted.
http://www.sfgate.com/science/article/California-on-course-for-driest-year-on-record-4971192.php


Cloud seeding, no longer magical thinking, is poised for use this
winter. As California concludes a second drought year and water
managers hope eagerly to avoid a third, utilities across the
state are poised for that first mass of pillowy gray clouds to
drift ashore from the Pacific Ocean. When it arrives, if
conditions are right, they’ll be ready with cloud-seeding tools
to squeeze out every extra snowflake, with the goal of boosting
the snowpack that ultimately feeds the state’s water-storage
reservoirs. Posted.
http://www.sacbee.com/2013/11/11/5898983/cloud-seeding-no-longer-magical.html#storylink=cpy


Worlds apart: Indigenous leaders abandon faith in UN to find
climate solution. As United Nations delegates gather in Warsaw in
the 19th annual effort to craft a global climate treaty,
indigenous leaders from across North America met half a world
away and offered a prophecy: The solution to climate change will
never come via the UN talks. Tribal elders from the United
States, Greenland and Mexico spoke of the need for individual
action rather than government edicts, and of the difficulty – and
urgency – of replacing economic questions with moral ones.
Posted.
http://wwwp.dailyclimate.org/tdc-newsroom/2013/11/ancient-voices-climate-change


Climate change is shifting global rainfall trends – study. Global
precipitation patterns are being moved in new directions by
climate change, a new study has found. The research, published
yesterday in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of
Sciences, is the first study to find the signal of climate change
in global precipitation shifts across land and ocean. "It's worth
saying that this is another grain of sand on that vast pile of
evidence that climate change is real and is occurring…Posted.
http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/stories/1059990242/print BY
SUBSCRIPTION ONLY

CFC ban linked to global warming 'pause' – study. A new study
suggests that a ban on ozone-depleting gases may have also
affected the rise in global temperatures. Chlorofluorocarbons
(CFCs) were responsible for a massive hole in the ozone layer,
but they also had a powerful greenhouse effect. The authors link
a ban on their use to a "pause" or slowdown in temperature
increases since the mid-1990s. Posted.
http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/stories/1059990293/print BY
SUBSCRIPTION ONLY

DIESEL EMISSIONS

CARB examines change that could help out-of-state truckers.  The
California Air Resources Board is considering a move that would
help out-of-state truck drivers be able to make limited trips
through California even if their trucks don’t meet the state’s
most expensive emissions regulation.  In its original form,
CARB’s On-Road Truck and Bus Regulation was predicted to cost the
trucking industry billions of dollars in truck replacement or
retrofit work. Posted. 
http://www.landlinemag.com/Story.aspx?StoryID=26174#.UoJXSBDsDzA 
 

Port of Oakland goes electric to reduce diesel pollution.  The
Port of Oakland celebrated a clean air milestone Friday with the
completion of a power system that will allow vessels docked at
berths to power up on electricity instead of diesel fuel.  The
$70 million project is expected to eliminate 11 tons of diesel
particulate and further improve air quality in West Oakland where
prior studies have shown higher-than-average levels of asthma and
cancer. Posted. 
http://www.contracostatimes.com/news/ci_24486230/port-oakland-goes-electric-reduce-diesel-pollution


Container Ships to "Plug-In" at Oakland Port to Reduce Pollution.
 The massive container ships pulling in and out of the busy Port
of Oakland will now be plugging-in, in an effort to curb
pollution.  On Friday, port officials celebrated the completion
of its new electrical grid, which will provide electrical power
to docking ships, allowing them to plug-in and switch off idling
engines while loading and unloading cargo.  Posted. 
http://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/Container-Ships-to-Plug-In-at-Oakland-Port-to-Reduce-Pollution-231229541.html
 

Propane proves promising for aging school bus fleet.  Down in the
cities, riding to school isn't nearly as stinky as it used to be.
California air pollution rules and concerns over the toxic
compounds in diesel exhaust have already prompted school
districts from Los Angeles to Lodi to switch to either
alternative fuels or highly filtered diesel systems.  Out in
rural areas, such as Calaveras County, however, there are still
some decades-old diesels that offer a whiff of old times. 
Posted. 
http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20131110/A_NEWS/311100314


Shore power project complete at the Port of Oakland. The
completed four-year, 60 million dollar shore power project was
celebrated at a press conference Friday by the Port of Oakland,
the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, California Air
Resources Board, Bay Area Air Quality Management District, City
of Oakland, Pacific Merchant Shipping Association and West
Oakland Neighbors at Middle Harbor Shoreline Park in Oakland. The
project includes installation of infrastructure that provides
shore power to maritime tenants at 11 berths on six terminals to
replace the vessel’s diesel-fueled auxiliary engines…Posted.
(PHOTOS)
http://photos.mercurynews.com/2013/11/08/shore-power-project-complete-at-the-port-of-oakland/


FUELS

7 things to know about ethanol. President Barack Obama has called
corn-based ethanol "the most successful alternative fuel we have
ever developed." Billed as a green replacement for billions of
gallons of gasoline, ethanol has enjoyed widespread political
support. But the results of America's ethanol policy have not
been as green as advertised. Here's what you need to know:
Posted.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_ETHANOL_7_THINGS?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT


Industry takes aim at AP ethanol investigation.  A new Associated
Press investigation, which found that ethanol hasn't lived up to
some of the government's clean-energy promises, is drawing a
fierce response from the ethanol industry. In an unusual
campaign, ethanol producers, corn growers and its lobbying and
public relations firms have criticized and sought to alter the
story, which was released to some outlets earlier and is being
published online and in newspapers Tuesday. Posted.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_ETHANOLS_ENVIRONMENTAL_DAMAGE_PUSHBACK?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT


Q&A: Ethanol, oil and what it means to be green Q: What is the
ethanol mandate?  A: In 2007, Congress passed a law requiring oil
companies to blend corn ethanol into the gasoline supply. That
requirement started at 9 billion gallons and has risen each year
since. This year, it's about 13 billion gallons. Barack Obama,
who was running for president against a crowded field of
Democrats in the Iowa caucuses, was a champion for this law.
Posted.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_ETHANOL_QA?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT


A timeline of recent ethanol events. President George W. Bush
signs the Energy Policy Act of 2005, requiring oil companies to
add ethanol to their gasoline. Called the Renewable Fuels
Standard, this mandate begins with a 4-billion-gallon requirement
in 2006 and doubles by 2012. Corn is selling for $1.95 a bushel.
January 2007 - In his State of the Union speech, President Bush
calls on Congress to require production of 35 billion gallons of
renewable and alternative fuels in 2017. Posted.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_ETHANOL_TIMELINE?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT


Oil industry calls for weaker regulations in Alberta. Alberta's
proposed oil and gas regulations are too ambitious and will
hobble the Canadian industry's ability to compete, an industry
association says in Alberta government documents obtained through
provincial freedom of information laws. The Canadian Association
of Petroleum Producers (CAPP) says the proposed regulations won't
buy any goodwill and that the government should delay their
introduction. Posted.
http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/stories/1059990295/print BY
SUBSCRIPTION ONLY

VEHICLES

Diesel, Fuel Cells Get Spotlight as Plug-Ins Lose Favor. With
U.S. sales of plug-in electric vehicles on pace to reach half of
President Barack Obama’s goal, regulators are following customers
and automakers to vehicles powered by other fuels, from hydrogen
to diesel. California, which leads 10 states that require
automakers to sell zero-emission vehicles, may alter its system
of tradable credits to stop favoring plug-ins over
hydrogen-powered cars. Posted.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-11-11/diesels-to-fuel-cells-join-spotlight-dimming-on-plug-ins-cars.html


Fire victim backs Tesla as Feds deepen probe. A Tennessee
physician whose Tesla became the third to catch on fire after an
accident says he stands by the car even as federal investigators
say they are working with the electric car maker over the
incidents. Tesla posted an account of the accident on its website
from the driver, which the automaker identifies as Juris
Shibayama, whose car caught on fire near Smyrna, Tenn. Posted.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/cars/2013/11/10/tesla-accident-fire/3488405/


HIGH-SPEED RAIL

Low-speed land buys for high-speed rail. The body overseeing
plans to build California's bullet train has started the daunting
and expensive process of acquiring thousands of acres in the
Central Valley, where the rail line's proposed path would slice
through farms, stores and motels. But months after shovels were
supposed to be in the ground, the California High-Speed Rail
Authority is in escrow on just one parcel of the 370 it needs to
buy or seize through eminent domain for the first 30 miles of
construction. Posted.
http://www.sfgate.com/default/article/Low-speed-land-buys-for-high-speed-rail-4975624.php


GREEN ENERGY

The secret, dirty cost of Obama's green power push. The hills of
southern Iowa bear the scars of America's push for green energy:
The brown gashes where rain has washed away the soil. The
polluted streams that dump fertilizer into the water supply. Even
the cemetery that disappeared like an apparition into a
cornfield. It wasn't supposed to be this way. With the Iowa
political caucuses on the horizon in 2007, presidential candidate
Barack Obama made homegrown corn a centerpiece of his plan to
slow global warming. Posted.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_ETHANOLS_ENVIRONMENTAL_DAMAGE?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2013-11-12-09-35-22


CleanPowerSF remains mired in politics. In September 2012, San
Francisco's Board of Supervisors approved a new program to
deliver renewable power to city residents, potentially breaking
Pacific Gas and Electric Co.'s long-standing monopoly. The
program, a decade in the making, would be up and running by
October 2013, supervisors said. But it still hasn't launched. And
it won't anytime soon. Posted.
http://www.sfgate.com/science/article/CleanPowerSF-remains-mired-in-politics-4975691.php


San Jose biogas facility will turn food waste into energy.  The
nation's largest facility for turning food scraps into biogas is
about to go online in north San Jose.  The project is a unique
partnership between GreenWaste, which collects garbage, recycled
materials and compostable, and Zanker Road Resource Management,
which operates recycling facilities. The two firms formed the
Zero Waste Energy Development Company in 2011 to take organic
recycling to the next level: extracting energy.  Posted. 
http://www.mercurynews.com/business/ci_24500983/greenwaste-biogas-san-jose-food-scraps-energy-zero-waste-green
  
http://www.modbee.com/2013/11/12/3026119/large-waste-to-biogas-plant-to.html


Calif. Energy Commission Chairman Weisenmiller discusses impact
of EPA power plant regs on his state. How could U.S. EPA's
proposed new source regulations and anticipated existing source
standards affect the climate and energy policies already in place
in California? During today's OnPoint, Robert Weisenmiller,
chairman of the California Energy Commission, explains how EPA
has engaged California on the agency's air regulations. Posted.
http://www.eenews.net/tv/2013/11/12 BY SUBSCRIPTION 

Green groups urge extension of clean energy credits. With just
over six weeks remaining in the year -- and, hence, in the
current life cycle of some key clean energy tax credits -- a
coalition of environmental groups is calling on Congress to not
let those incentives lapse. It seems a long shot to expect
congressional tax writers to turn their attention from the
intensifying discussion of an overhaul of the tax code to deliver
an extension of the expiring provisions before the end of this
year. Posted.
http://www.eenews.net/greenwire/stories/1059990261/print BY
SUBSCRIPTION ONLY

To bridge gaps in wind and solar generation, aging grid learns
flexibility. At 2 p.m. on a sunny afternoon in June of this year,
solar power in California surged to a new milestone. Over the
course of an hour, photovoltaic panels and other arrays generated
more than 2,000 megawatts of electricity -- a record for the
Golden State and for California ISO, its systems operator.
Posted.
http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/stories/1059990270/print BY
SUBSCRIPTION ONLY

IEA sees world headed for 3.6 C rise in average temperatures. A
dramatic expansion of renewable energy production worldwide,
combined with government and private-sector incentives to move
away from carbon-intensive fossil fuels, will be the key driver
of the world's energy economy over the next two decades, a report
issued today by the International Energy Agency says. Yet even
with a substantial expansion of wind, solar, geothermal and other
clean energy sources…Posted.
http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/stories/1059990298/print BY
SUBSCRIPTION ONLY

Denmark will help Md. develop offshore wind. Maryland has asked
for Denmark's help in developing offshore wind farms, officials
said. Denmark is the home of the world's biggest offshore wind
farm developer, DONG Energy, and of the top two offshore wind
turbine manufacturers, Siemens Wind Power and Vestas Wind
Systems, both of which also have factories in the United States.
Posted.
http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/stories/1059990268/print BY
SUBSCRIPTION ONLY

GE partners with industry on environmental technology initiative.
General Electric Co. is partnering with a Canadian energy
innovation group to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and water
consumption from oil sands development. GE Power & Water will
hire 15 process and solution engineers to work on technology to
improve the environmental performance of the Alberta energy
industry. Posted.
http://www.eenews.net/energywire/stories/1059990236/print BY
SUSCRIPTON ONLY

MISCELLANEOUS

L.A. Now Live: Ask questions about the new climate change report.
Join Times staff writer Tony Barboza for a L.A. Now Live chat
Tuesday morning at 9 a.m. about the newest findings on climate
change. In his latest piece, Barboza reported that an
international panel of scientists says climate change will
disrupt not only the natural world but also society, posing risks
to the world's economy and the food and water supply and
contributing to violent conflict. Posted.
http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-la-now-live-20131112-dto,0,2334059.story#axzz2kSjSjncy


Home Depot will trade in your energy-wasting Christmas lights for
LEDs.  Alright guys, we’re on board, as much as anyone else, with
the idea that Christmas comes after Thanksgiving and that maybe
we don’t need to think about shopping and decorating for another
few weeks. But American retailers are not — they want you to
start thinking about Christmas now. Which means we have to go
against our better instincts and tell you to start thinking
ahead. Posted. 
http://grist.org/list/home-depot-will-trade-in-your-energy-wasting-christmas-lights-for-leds/


OPINIONS

California's Green Reality Check.  Governor Jerry Brown ought to
be canonized as the patron saint of hopeless environmental
causes. Consider a new U.S. Department of Energy study that finds
that California will fall far short of its 2050 emissions goal
even under the most ambitious (i.e., unrealistic) policies.  The
California Air Resources Board asked the Energy Department's
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory to analyze how various
environmental policies help achieve the state's goal of reducing
statewide emissions to 80% below 1990 levels by 2050. Posted.
http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304448204579182154135387652?mod=WSJ_Opinion_AboveLEFTTop
BY SUBSCRIPTION

'Green' paving helps the bay, human health. Every time it rains,
San Francisco Bay gets a little sicker. But it doesn't have to be
that way. Asphalt streets collect pollutants from motor oil to
metals from brake pads to nutrients from garden fertilizers.
Rains quickly wash it all into storm drains, local streams and
the bay. When combined with decades of industrial pollution,
storm-water runoff damages marine life and kills fish, leaving
those that survive too toxic to eat. Posted.
http://www.sfgate.com/opinion/openforum/article/Green-paving-helps-the-bay-human-health-4975717.php


BLOGS

The Inequality of Climate Change. Typhoon Haiyan has left at
least 10,000 dead and hundreds of thousands homeless in the
Philippines. And it has once again underscored for many
development experts a cruel truth about climate change: It will
hit the world’s poorest the hardest. “No nation will be immune to
the impacts of climate change,” said a major World Bank report on
the issue last year. “However, the distribution of impacts is
likely to be inherently unequal and tilted against many of the
world’s poorest regions, which have the least economic …Posted.
http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/11/12/the-inequality-of-climate-change/


Eight States With Big ZEV Plans Meet With Automakers, Feds. 
Recently, the governors of eight states pledged to cooperate
toward putting 3.3 million zero-emission vehicles on their roads
by 2025.  Now, representatives of those eight states are meeting
with car companies and policy makers to hash out exactly how they
will do that.  The two-day meeting was this past Thursday and
Friday, including representatives from those states, the
California Air Resources Board, the Environmental Protection
Agency, and car makers, the Detroit News reports.  Posted. 
http://www.greencarreports.com/news/1088239_eight-states-with-big-zev-plans-meet-with-automakers-feds
 

Look what’s slowing down global warming.  Climate deniers like to
point to the so-called global warming “hiatus” as evidence that
humans aren’t changing the climate. But according to a new study,
exactly the opposite is true: The recent slowdown in global
temperature increases is partially the result of one of the few
successful international crackdowns on greenhouse gases.  Posted.
 http://grist.org/climate-energy/look-whats-slowing-down-global-warming/
  

Town Council adopts updated air plan.  Twenty-some years ago,
Mammoth Lakes used to choke through major air pollution in winter
months. Wood-burning stoves and road cinders clouded the air and
violated national and state air quality standards. The Town
adopted an Air Quality Management Plan in 1990 and stayed within
national standards four years later. With some state standard
violations on occasion, the Town Council voted to approve an
updated plan with an eye on complete compliance.  Posted. 
http://www.sierrawave.net/27316/updated-air-plan/