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newsclips -- Newsclips for June 6, 2014
Posted: 06 Jun 2014 13:32:02
ARB Newsclips for June 6, 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 Billionaire sets up fund for victims of climate change. Billionaire Tom Steyer, the leading financial underwriter of campaigns to combat climate change, says he is putting up $2 million to start a fund for victims of wildfires and other "extreme weather events." Steyer and his wife, Kat Taylor, are announcing the establishment of the Climate Disaster Relief Fund on Friday. Posted. http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Billionaire-sets-up-fund-for-victims-of-climate-5532918.php Hayward power plant complies with air regulations. An emission problem at the Russell City Energy Center has been fixed, and the power plant now complies with air quality rules, according to the regulating agency. The plant's cooling tower had been releasing almost 10 times the allowed amount of water droplets that could contain particulate matter, according to a complaint filed earlier this year by the Bay Area Air Quality Management District. Posted. http://www.contracostatimes.com/news/ci_25912515/hayward-power-plant-complies-air-regulations China admits to failures over air quality. A senior Chinese government official has admitted that most major Chinese cities fail national standards for good air quality. Li Ganjie, a vice minister of the Ministry of Environmental Protection, gave a positive spin to the launch of the 2013 Report on the State of China's Environment, but did not disguise all its bad news on the severe levels of air, water and soil pollution brought by years of fast-paced economic growth. Posted. http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2014/06/05/china-air-pollution/10006559/ Carbon emissions rule relies on a broad view of 'system'. The coming legal battle over President Barack Obama's far-reaching climate-change rules will probably turn on the meaning of one word in the Clean Air Act of 1970 — "system." Under the landmark anti-pollution law, the Environmental Protection Agency is empowered to require states to apply "the best system of emission reduction" to existing power plants. Posted. http://www.10news.com/nct/carbon-emissions-rule-relies-on-a-broad-view-of-system CLIMATE CHANGE Texas Cash-From-Carbon Program Lures Climate Skeptics. At an aging cement plant in San Antonio, entrepreneur Joe Jones is trying to turn fighting climate change into a money-making venture. Instead of letting carbon dioxide escape from the plant and contribute to global warming, Jones’s Skyonic Corp. is spending $128 million to convert the gas into baking soda and hydrochloric acid that can be sold to the cattle and oil industries. Posted. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/print/2014-06-06/texas-cash-from-carbon-pilot-lures-climate-skeptics.html Brazil First to Submit Forest CO2 Data for UN Assessment. Brazil today submitted data on emissions reductions achieved by forest protection to the United Nations, the first country to do so under rules on deforestation agreed in November. The country’s data will be assessed by international experts to establish a benchmark, against which future reductions in greenhouse-gas discharges will be measured. Posted. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/print/2014-06-06/brazil-first-to-submit-forest-co2-data-for-un-assessment.html Republicans Can’t Block EPA’s Greenhouse Gas Rules, Says Hoyer. Democrats in Congress will be able to keep Republicans from overturning the Obama administration’s rules to lower greenhouse-gas emissions, said second-ranking House Democrat Steny Hoyer. “The overwhelming majority of our party is going to support it and the Senate’s not going to pass a repeal,” Hoyer of Maryland said…Posted. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/print/2014-06-05/republicans-can-t-block-epa-s-greenhouse-gas-rules-hoyer.html China Studying Timeline for Carbon Cap To Include in Next Five-Year Plan. China is reportedly studying a timeline for an absolute cap on carbon dioxide emissions, as it prepares climate change policies to include in its forthcoming 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-2020), although an announcement of such a policy is premature, analysts told Bloomberg BNA June 4. The policies are expected to include measures to meet a previous carbon intensity target…Posted. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-06-05/china-studying-timeline-for-carbon-cap-to-include-in-next-five-year-plan.html World War II Skeletons Washed From Graves by Rising Seas. Skeletons of World War II soldiers are being washed from their graves by the rising Pacific Ocean as global warming leads to inundation of islands that saw some of the fiercest fighting of the conflict. On the day Europe commemorates the 70th anniversary of the storming of Normandy beaches in the D-Day landings, a minister from the Marshall Islands…Posted. http://www.businessweek.com/news/2014-06-06/world-war-ii-skeletons-washed-from-graves-by-rising-seas Best of Both Worlds? Northeast Cut Emissions and Enjoyed Growth. Some critics of the Environmental Protection Agency’s new requirements for power plants argue that forcing emissions reduction will curtail economic growth. But the recent experience of states that already cap carbon emissions reveals that emissions and economic growth are no longer tightly tied together. One of the ways that states will be able to meet the new E.P.A. standards is by joining a Northeastern cap-and-trade program known as the…Posted. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/06/upshot/best-of-both-worlds-northeast-cut-emissions-and-enjoyed-growth.html?hpw&rref=&_r=0 Top Obama aide calls climate change 'existential' problem. The Environmental Protection Agency's crackdown on carbon emissions is meant to avert an "almost existential problem" from climate change, a top White House adviser asserted Friday. "If you're a climate denier trying to run nationally, I think you're going to have a very long row to hoe getting elected president" in 2016, said John Podesta…Posted. http://www.sacbee.com/2014/06/06/6463508/top-obama-aide-calls-climate-change.html#storylink=cpy DROUGHT El Niño likely to be too weak to have big impact on drought. The odds of an El Niño helping shake California out of its prolonged drought got a bit bleaker this week with a new forecast from the U.S. Climate Prediction Center. Though the agency's monthly report still projects that summer or fall will give rise to an El Niño - the warming ocean surfaces that can tip worldwide weather - federal scientists say the phenomenon is most likely to be only of moderate strength. Posted. http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/El-Ni-o-likely-to-be-too-weak-to-have-big-impact-5532447.php FUELS BP, Chevron Among Refiners Sued by Vermont Over MTBE. BP Plc (BP/), Chevron Corp. (CVX) and Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM) are among two dozen U.S. refiners sued by Vermont Attorney General William Sorrell and accused of polluting the state’s groundwater with a gasoline additive. Sorrell filed the case today in state court in Montpelier, the capital. Posted. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/print/2014-06-05/bp-chevron-among-refiners-sued-by-vermont-over-mtbe.html China Seeks to Cap Fossil Fuel Emissions for First Time. China is working on how to cap its greenhouse gas emissions for the first time, an effort that would spur the worldwide effort to hold back climate change. The world’s biggest producer of fossil fuel emissions has been studying for more than a year how and when it might be able to make its pollution levels peak and hopes to act as soon as possible…Posted. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/print/2014-06-05/china-working-to-cap-emissions-as-soon-as-possible-xie.html Suit seeks to halt plans for Richmond oil refinery expansion. Environmental advocates seeking to curb Chevron's plans to modernize and expand its Richmond oil refinery sued Bay Area air-quality regulators Thursday, claiming they approved construction based on outdated reports that understated the plant's greenhouse gas emissions and the pollutants it would spew into surrounding neighborhoods. Posted. http://www.sfgate.com/science/article/Suit-seeks-to-halt-plans-for-Richmond-oil-5532560.php Oil Industry Kills California Assembly Bill to Support Biofuel Expansion. The oil industry did some intellectual gymnastics last week over California’s low-carbon fuel standard, a 2007 mandate that gasoline refiners reduce the carbon intensity of their transportation fuels 10 percent by 2020. After arguing for years that there simply aren’t enough low-carbon fuel alternatives around to meet the rule’s requirement, the fossil fuel companies killed a bill in the state assembly May 29 aimed at—yes—bolstering the supply of low-carbon fuels. Posted. http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-06-06/oil-industry-kills-california-assembly-bill-to-support-biofuels-expansion#r=hpt-ls Chevron Retreats on Clean Energy After Renewables Hit 20% Margin. In January, employees of Chevron (CVX)’s renewable power group, whose mission was to create large, profitable clean-energy projects, dined at San Francisco’s trendy Sens restaurant. Managers applauded them for almost doubling their projected profit in 2013, the group’s first full year of operations. Posted. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-05-29/chevron-retreats-on-clean-energy-after-renewables-hit-20-margin.html VEHICLES California enters race for Tesla 'Gigafactory' California lawmakers and the Brown administration introduced legislation Thursday morning that seeks to lift regulatory and financial barriers to lure a proposed $5 billion Tesla Motors factory to the Golden State. The legislation by Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, a Sacramento Democrat, and Sen. Ted Gaines, a Roseville Republican, takes a two-pronged approach by committing the state to offer a mix of financial incentives…Posted. http://www.bizjournals.com/sacramento/news/2014/06/05/newcalifornia-bill-offers-incentives-to-lure.html?s=print DOE to award up to $4.6M for innovations in fuel cell and hydrogen fuel technologies. The US Department of Energy (DOE) Fuel Cell Technologies Office (FCTO) issued a funding opportunity announcement for up to $4.6 million for 12–24 month projects with industry and academia (DE-FOA-0000966) in support of innovations in fuel cell and hydrogen fuel technologies. (Earlier post.) Posted. http://www.greencarcongress.com/2014/06/20140606-doe.html GREEN ENERGY Students Invent Smog-Eating House — For Only $5! A team of students has calculated that for the low cost of $5.00, your home could be transformed into a smog-eating house that could eliminate pollution-causing nitrogen oxides from the air just by sitting there. The secret sauce is a coating of titanium dioxide (TiO2), and $5.00 reflects the cost of just enough TiO2 to coat the roof tiles of a typical home. Posted. http://cleantechnica.com/2014/06/05/students-invent-smog-eating-house-5/ MISCELLANEOUS State is moving to prevent spills of oil shipped by trains. Although most people think of oil spills in California as potential beachfront disasters, there is new anxiety in Sacramento about the surge of crude oil now coming through the state each day by train. Gov. Jerry Brown and lawmakers want to avoid the sort of fiery disaster that killed 47 people in July in southern Quebec when tank cars exploded as they carried oil from the booming Bakken oil fields of North Dakota through Canada. Posted. http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-oil-train-safety-bills-20140605-story.html?track=rss OPINIONS Best state in America: New York, for its shrinking carbon footprint. The Environmental Protection Agency announced plans Monday to require big reductions in carbon output from coal-fired power plants. It may sound drastic, but advances in technology mean that some states are well on their way to meeting the administration’s goals. No state has made more progress than New York. The proposed EPA rules would require states to cut emissions 30 percent below 2005 levels by 2030.Posted. http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/best-state-in-america-new-york-for-its-shrinking-carbon-footprint/2014/06/06/5137b2b4-eb6c-11e3-9f5c-9075d5508f0a_story.html The Climate Domino. Maybe it’s me, but the predictable right-wing cries of outrage over the Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed rules on carbon seem oddly muted and unfocused. I mean, these are the people who managed to create national outrage over nonexistent death panels. Now the Obama administration is doing something that really will impose at least some pain on some people. Where are the eye-catching fake horror stories? Posted. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/06/opinion/krugman-the-climate-domino.html China’s Search for Energy. Re “Beijing casts a wide net in its search for energy” (Business, May 23): It is true that China’s search for oil, gas and coal is taking it to all points of the globe. But is this the best path to energy security for China? The authors are silent on the question. The article makes not a single mention of China’s buildup of renewable energy industries, taking it to world leadership in production in wind turbines, photovoltaic cells…Posted. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/07/opinion/chinas-search-for-energy.html?hpw&rref=opinion Our Voice: Air quality monitor a useful addition. The Desert Sun applauds the South Coast Air Quality Management District for installing an air quality monitor downwind from the Sentinel power plant. It has been a year since the 800-megawatt natural gas plant began feeding electricity to the grid during times of peak demand, and seven months since AQMD officials told The Desert Sun editorial board the district would install the monitor. Posted. http://www.desertsun.com/story/opinion/editorials/2014/06/06/aqmd-sentinel-power-plant-air-quality-monitor/10051263/ Adaptation key to dealing with climate change: Column. In his weekly radio address, President Obama continued his war on climate change and prepared for the battle in Congress for regulations aimed at reducing greenhouse gases by as much as 25% over 15 years. "As president, and as a parent, I refuse to condemn our children to a planet that's beyond fixing." Posted. http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2014/06/04/climate-change-obama-entrepreneurs-column/9041285/ Froma Harrop: Not much to lose in move from coal. Barack Obama need not ask how well he's doing in coal country, because the answer is always the same: Not well. A cerebral black man never had much of a chance in poor, rural white Appalachia; let's be honest (though we don't have to like it). In 2012, Obama lost to Mitt Romney in West Virginia by a 27-point margin. So Obama had little to lose politically in proposing new rules to cut carbon emissions from coal-fired power plants. Posted. http://www.cdispatch.com/opinions/article.asp?aid=33975#ixzz33t0Kg0Sn BLOGS Technology, not regulation, is the best way to tackle climate change. By all accounts, President Obama is deeply interested in his legacy. And though relatively few American voters see dealing with climate change as a top priority for the federal government, the president famously sees it as the most important issue he can address in his second term. Posted. http://blogs.reuters.com/reihan-salam/2014/06/06/technology-not-regulation-is-the-best-way-to-tackle-climate-change/ Air Pollution and Cardiovascular Disease: It's Complicated. Epidemiology studies have provided powerful evidence linking air pollution to cardiovascular disease, especially heart attacks (MI) and stroke. By some estimates, air pollution may be responsible for 3.2 million deaths each year, most from cardiovascular causes. At first glance…Posted. http://www.forbes.com/sites/larryhusten/2014/06/05/air-pollution-and-cardiovascular-disease-its-complicated/ Taking Climate Change Seriously. Climate change is about people, not just science and politics -- it is an inter-generational ethics issue. The earth is the Lord's, and in Genesis, God entrusts us with caring for Creation. The earth that we leave to future generations is already being changed by climate change, and so far, our nation has done little to stop climate pollution. Posted. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jim-wallis/taking-climate-change-ser_b_5454507.html China Is Tearing Down Mountains to Build Cities. Land creation projects are proceeding apace without scientific research to back them up. China is moving mountains. Literally. As their populations boom, several cities in mountainous regions are busy leveling their mountaintops in order to make more room for development. Scientists from Chang'an University wrote about the process in Nature this week. Posted. http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/china-tearing-down-mountains-build-cities-180951678/#6JstVZ1zd8DhgTTm.99 California is in a drought emergency. Visit www.SaveOurH2O.org for water conservation tips.