What's New List Serve Post Display

ARB Newsclips for February 28, 2014. 

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

Activists urge L.A. City Council to ban fracking and acidizing. 
In the morning while walking to her car, Michelle Kennedy
sometimes detects a smell like cat urine. The asthma her
6-year-old suffers seems to have worsened.  Kennedy blames the
oil and gas wells pumping in and near her South Los Angeles
neighborhood. She was especially troubled to hear that acid was
being injected in some shafts roughly a mile from her home. 
Posted. 
http://www.latimes.com/local/la-me-fracking-ban-20140228,0,7982528.story#axzz2uak7hzpn


Report:Rural area older cars make most pollution.  California may
be cutting edge in improving air quality and putting more
electric cars on the road, but one San Francisco group says that
many state residents -- and their vehicles -- have been left out.
 The "No Californian Left Behind" report set forth by the Next
Generation "think tank" concludes low-income residents in rural
areas, including Solano County, still drive older, high-polluting
cars and can't afford electric vehicles.  Posted. 
http://www.timesheraldonline.com/news/ci_25246036/report-rural-area-older-cars-make-most-pollution


Record number of winter no-burn days.  Wood burning was banned a
record 45 times in San Joaquin County this winter, another
consequence of our dismally dry winter.  On average, burning was
illegal roughly one out of every three days this season. That's
never happened before.  BY SUBSCRIPTION.  Posted. 
http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20140228/A_NEWS/402280320/0/SEARCH


CLIMATE CHANGE

EU summit to focus on industry rather than climate-draft.  A
European Union summit in March billed as a step in the bloc's
efforts to combat climate change will focus on strengthening
Europe's industrial base, a draft document seen by Reuters shows.
 Posted. 
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/02/28/eu-climate-industry-idUSL6N0LX3QS20140228


Isle Royale wolves at risk from climate change, isolation.  On an
icy island wilderness near the tip of Minnesota, a female gray
wolf's demise has added to the debate about whether authorities
should try to save the wolves of Isle Royale National Park. 
Once, wolves could regularly move on and off the island along ice
bridges to find fresh mates.  Posted. 
http://www.latimes.com/nation/nationnow/la-na-nn-isle-royale-wolves-climate-change-20140228,0,3350160.story#axzz2udtXcxnt


HIGH-SPEED RAIL

Polluter fees could be annual source of bullet train money. 
California’s bullet train project would receive additional
funding every year from the state greenhouse gas reduction
program under proposed legislation from Gov. Jerry Brown.  The
measure would annually direct one-third of cap-and-trade revenue
to the massive construction effort starting in 2015. The money is
generated by polluters who pay for the right to release
greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.  Posted. 
http://www.latimes.com/local/political/la-me-pc-jerry-brown-bullet-train-20140227,0,424270.story?track=rss#axzz2uZCXixRt


Caltrain releases draft report on rail electrification project. 
A draft report Caltrain expects to release today acknowledges
that its long-planned rail electrification project will require
installation of 30-foot-high poles with overhead wires and
possible removal of more than 2,000 trees.  But the benefits of a
modernized train system will outweigh any negatives, said Jayme
Ackemann, a spokeswoman for the San Mateo County Transit
District, which oversees and manages Caltrain.  Posted. 
http://www.mercurynews.com/my-town/ci_25244905/caltrain-releases-draft-report-rail-electrification-project


GREEN ENERGY

For Storing Electricity, Utilities Push New Technologies.  From
backyard tinkerers to big corporations, inventors have been
struggling to find a way to store solar, wind and other renewable
energy so it can furnish electricity when the sun doesn't shine
or the wind doesn't blow.  Now California is offering businesses
a big incentive for success—contracts that the utility industry
estimates could total as much as $3 billion for successful,
large-scale electricity-storage systems.  Posted. 
http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304851104579363140309318288?KEYWORDS=air+pollution&mg=reno64-wsj
 

VEHICLES

Researchers at Berkeley and Argonne labs discover highly active
new class of nanocatalysts for fuel cells; more efficient, lower
cost.  A team led by researchers at Berkeley and Argonne National
Labs have discovered a new class of bimetallic nanocatalysts for
fuel cells and water-alkali electrolyzers that are an order of
magnitude higher in activity than the target set by the US
Department of Energy (DOE) for 2017.  Posted. 
http://www.greencarcongress.com/2014/02/20140228-pt3ni.html 

BLOGS

Global Warming Basics from the U.S. and British Science
Academies.  The National Academy of Sciences and its British
counterpart, the Royal Society, have published “Climate Change:
Evidence and Causes,” a fresh primer on greenhouse-driven global
warming that is a useful update on past reports from both
organizations. You can find helpful summaries of the findings on
the National Academy of Sciences website.  Posted. 
http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/02/27/global-warming-basics-from-the-u-s-and-british-science-academies/?_php=true&_type=blogs&module=BlogPost-Title&version=Blog%20Main&contentCollection=Climate%20Change&action=Click&pgtype=Blogs®ion=Body&_r=0
 

Will Natural Gas Fuel America’s Big Trucks? Shell Treads
Carefully.  ShellRDSA.LN -0.18% is tapping the brakes on plans to
push natural gas as a fuel for the trucking industry.  The
company confirmed it will not build a previously announced plant
20 miles west of Calgary that would turn natural gas into liquid
form, known as LNG, for use in heavy duty trucks.  Posted. 
http://blogs.wsj.com/corporate-intelligence/2014/02/27/will-natural-gas-fuel-americas-big-trucks-shell-treads-carefully/?KEYWORDS=fuels


Charging millions of EVs at once? It's a math problem.  Preparing
for the brave new world where the number of plug-in vehicles
looking for a charge grows high enough to match to the current
electricity supply, one study from China's Sichuan University is
suggesting a novel concept. It's called the honor system, and it
might one day be needed to prevent the plug-in vehicle version of
a brown-out.  Posted. 
http://green.autoblog.com/2014/02/27/charging-millions-of-evs-at-once-its-a-math-problem/


America’s first carbon-trading program can boast some impressive
numbers.  How do you turn $1 billion into $2 billion, all the
while helping to slow down global warming? By capping carbon
dioxide pollution and charging for emissions permits, then
plowing the revenues into clean energy and energy-efficiency
programs.  Posted. 
http://grist.org/news/americas-first-carbon-trading-program-can-boast-some-impressive-numbers/
 





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