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newsclips -- ARB Newsclips for January 7, 2015.

Posted: 07 Jan 2015 14:29:03
ARB Newsclips for January 7, 2015. 

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

Drivers get global warming fee, plus tax. California’s sales tax
on gasoline has long provoked grumbling from consumers and
watchdog groups. Sales tax is calculated from the full retail
price of gas, a figure that includes state and federal excise
taxes. That makes the sales levy, at least in part, a tax on
taxes. The state’s new “cap-and-trade” fee, which is designed to
combat global warming, is no different.
http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2015/jan/06/state-also-taxes-global-warming-fee/


Low Gas Prices Smooth Path for Carbon Add-On in California. 
Historic cap-and-trade program expands to cover gasoline and
diesel but slumping prices hide the impact. California's landmark
cap-and-trade program to limit carbon emissions just got bigger.
Effective Jan. 1 it expanded to wrap in gasoline and diesel, a
move oil companies have warned would trigger higher pump prices.
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/low-gas-prices-smooth-path-for-carbon-add-on-in-california/


Cap and trade expands to cover gasoline, diesel, but slumping
pump prices hide impact. California's landmark cap-and-trade
program to limit carbon emissions just got bigger. Effective Jan.
1 it expanded to wrap in gasoline and diesel, a move oil
companies have warned would trigger higher pump prices. Fuel
distributors now must buy and submit permits covering greenhouse
gas pollution…
http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/stories/1060011157/print 
 
AIR POLLUTION

China to Boost Support for NGOs That Sue Environment Polluters.
China, the world’s biggest carbon emitter, will provide more
support to non-governmental organizations that sue polluters. The
nation will work to reduce court charges for NGOs in public
non-profit environmental litigation, according to a statement on
the website of China’s Supreme People’s Court.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2015-01-07/china-to-boost-support-for-ngos-that-sue-environment-polluters.html


Wood burning ban extended through Wednesday in Bay Area. Wood
burning will remain banned in the Bay Area on Wednesday as
officials issue a Spare the Air alert for the sixth day in a row.
The Bay Area Air Quality Management District issued the alert
after its forecasters predicted unhealthy concentrations of smoke
and other fine particles in the air.
http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-news/ci_27269464/wood-burning-ban-extended-through-wednesday-bay-area


CLIMATE CHANGE

Climatologists Balk as Brazil Picks Skeptic for Key Post. Calling
Aldo Rebelo a climate-change skeptic would be putting it mildly.
In his days as a fiery legislator in the Communist Party of
Brazil, he railed against those who say human activity is warming
the globe and called the international environmental movement
“nothing less, in its geopolitical essence, than the bridgehead
of imperialism.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/07/world/americas/climatologists-balk-as-brazil-picks-skeptic-for-key-post.html?_r=0


Alaska's record-warm year in 2014 worries observers. The biggest
state in America, home to more ocean coastline than all others
combined, has just set another record. This one, however, is
nothing to cheer. For the first time in recorded history,
temperatures in Anchorage did not drop below zero once in an
entire calendar year. In comparison, Alaska's largest city had 14
days below zero in the 2013 calendar year and 32 days in 2012.
http://www.sacbee.com/news/local/environment/article5537343.html#storylink=cpy


Scientists: Weather plays big role in Lake Erie 'dead zones'
Reducing phosphorus levels in Lake Erie is a worthy goal but not
necessarily a cure-all for one of the lake's biggest
environmental hazards: "dead zones" with oxygen levels so low
that fish can't survive, scientists said Tuesday. Researchers
with the Carnegie Institution for Science said Erie's biggest
dead zone on record formed in summer 2012.
http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/general-news/20150106/scientists-weather-plays-big-role-in-lake-erie-dead-zones


Hot, Unfriendly Skies Could Alter Flights. You know those tube
socks your grandmother air mails you on your birthday every year?
Well, they could become another casualty of global warming. Or at
least arrive a few days late. Hot weather is likely to increase
the number of days with weight restrictions on cargo planes and
even airliners, delaying gifts, air travel and slicing into
airlines’ bottom lines…
http://www.climatecentral.org/news/hot-unfriendly-skies-alter-flights-18458


EPA delays power plant rules, will write model reg for states.
U.S. EPA will put off finalizing its greenhouse gas rules for
new, modified and existing power plants until midsummer, acting
EPA air chief Janet McCabe said today. The new schedule means
deadlines will slip for all three regulations. McCabe also
announced EPA will begin writing a federal model rule for the
Clean Power Plan for existing power generators.
http://www.eenews.net/greenwire/stories/1060011280/print 

DROUGHT

Drought: California water use down 10%, still short of target.
Wet weather at the end of last year helped Californians tame
their insatiable demand for water, but consumption — particularly
in Southern California — remains well above Gov. Jerry Brown’s
target for the drought-stricken state.
http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/California-water-use-down-10-but-still-short-of-5997673.php

http://www.mercurynews.com/science/ci_27269399/california-drought-state-residents-increase-conservation-but-still?source=rss

http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2015/jan/06/environment-water-use-november/

http://fox40.com/2015/01/06/sacramento-leads-state-in-reducing-water-use/
http://www.fresnobee.com/2015/01/06/4317173_capitol-hill-californians-will.html?rh=1


Southern California trails in saving water. Newly released state
figures show that much of Southern California is lagging far
behind Northern California in reducing water use during the
drought. The latest monthly water conservation statistics, which
were presented Tuesday by the State Water Resources Control
Board, show that residential water use declined 9.8 percent on
average across California…
http://www.desertsun.com/story/news/environment/2015/01/06/california-water-conservation/21366155/


FUELS

White House says it will veto bill to approve oil pipeline. The
White House on Tuesday threatened to veto the first piece of
legislation introduced in the Republican-controlled Senate, a
bill approving the much-delayed Keystone XL oil pipeline, in what
was expected to be the first of many confrontations over energy
and environmental policy.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_CONGRESS_KEYSTONE?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT


Cutting oil use by 50 percent difficult but doable, experts say.
Gov. Jerry Brown’s goal of cutting California’s oil use in half
may sound like an impossible task in a state famous for freeways
and sprawl. But by one measure, we may be halfway there.
Similarly, Brown’s call for California to get half of its
electricity from the sun, the wind and other renewable sources by
the year 2030 seems daunting…
http://www.sfgate.com/business/article/Cutting-oil-use-by-50-percent-difficult-but-5997877.php


Fracking's Methane Leakage To Be Focus of Many Studies This Year.
Series of studies under way to help clarify natural gas's overall
impact on climate change.  The early years of the shale boom came
with a widely held assumption that the vast quantities of natural
gas liberated through high-volume hydraulic fracturing, or
fracking, would help slow climate change by displacing coal-fired
power plants and speeding the transition to a clean-energy
future.
http://insideclimatenews.org/news/20150107/frackings-methane-leakage-be-focus-many-studies-year


Peer reviewers question EPA emission estimates for palm oil. A
U.S. EPA-commissioned panel of independent peer reviewers is
questioning the agency's calculations of greenhouse gas emissions
tied to palm oil biofuels. Two reviewers on the five-member panel
say EPA may have significantly overestimated greenhouse gas
emissions from palm oil biodiesel and renewable diesel
production…
http://www.eenews.net/greenwire/stories/1060011188/print 

State methane regs seen offering maps for EPA action. States that
already regulate the oil and gas industry's methane emissions
directly or indirectly may offer guides for U.S. EPA's own
proposal for curbing the powerful greenhouse gas.
Environmentalists are pointing to several recent state efforts as
worthy models for a federal policy whose release is expected this
month. http://www.eenews.net/greenwire/stories/1060011161/print 

Industry grows despite challenges – report. The advanced biofuels
industry is slated to grow over the next few years but faces
challenges due to the uncertainty over the direction of federal
biofuel policies, according to a new report out today. Advanced
biofuel capacity will grow from about 800 million gallons of
gasoline equivalent in 2014 to more than 1.7 billion gallons in
2017 at the high end of estimates…
http://www.eenews.net/greenwire/stories/1060011185/print 

New vehicle efficiency declined last month. The overall fuel
efficiency of new cars, trucks and other light-duty vehicles sold
in December dipped slightly from the preceding month in what
could be a gauge of buyers' response to the fall in gasoline
prices, the University of Michigan's Transportation Research
Institute reported today. For December, the average fuel economy
of new vehicles sold in the United States was 25.1 miles per
gallons… http://www.eenews.net/eenewspm/stories/1060011200/print


American Petroleum Institute shares spotlight with renewables in
its annual report. The most noteworthy message from the American
Petroleum Institute's 2015 annual report isn't its finding that
the U.S. oil industry is experiencing a "petroleum renaissance"
born of a drilling boom in domestic fields such as the North
Dakota's Bakken and Texas' Eagle Ford shale formations.
http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/stories/1060011225/print 

Groups divide over divestment from fossil fuels. Universities,
churches and other institutions are divided over the best
strategy to send a message about climate change to the world's
biggest energy companies: Divest their holdings in fossil fuels,
or use them as leverage. Groups responsible for at least $50
billion of investment have said they will sell some or all of
their oil, coal and gas holdings.
http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/stories/1060011213/print 

VEHICLES

Toyota Fuel Cells, Pabst, Google, Dotcom: Intellectual Property.
Toyota Motor Corp. (7203), maker of the Prius hybrid car, said it
will make about 5,680 patents related to fuel cell technology
available royalty-free through 2020. In a speech yesterday at the
2015 Consumer Electronics Show, Senior Vice President Bob Carter
of Toyota Motor Sales said the company is making the patents
available to “speed the development of new technologies…
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2015-01-06/toyota-fuel-cells-pabst-google-dotcom-intellectual-property

http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/stories/1060011214/print 

HIGH-SPEED RAIL

To Gov. Jerry Brown, a Legacy Project; to Critics, a Runaway
Train. One day after being sworn in to a final term as governor,
Jerry Brown, a chief executive who tends to disdain the trappings
of political ceremony, came to this Central Valley city on
Tuesday for a decidedly ceremonial groundbreaking for his Los
Angeles-to-San Francisco high-speed
train…http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/07/us/to-brown-a-legacy-to-others-a-runaway-train.html?partner=rss&emc=rss&_r=2


Construction Begins On California's $68 Billion High-Speed Rail
Line. One of the biggest transportation projects the country has
ever seen broke ground Monday in Fresno, Calif. In theory,
building the much-delayed high speed rail line would allow a trip
from Los Angeles to San Francisco in less than three hours, with
speeds of over 200 miles an hour. The milestone comes six years
after voters first approved an almost $10 billion bond act to
fund the project.
http://www.capradio.org/news/npr/story?storyid=375500902 

GREEN ENERGY

Californians on way to state’s new energy goals. Clean-energy
programs initiated by Gov. Jerry Brown and governors before him
have California already well on its way to meeting his new goals
for reducing the use of climate-changing fossil fuels, industry
experts and state officials said Tuesday. Pushing programs such
as high-speed rail…
http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/energy-environment/californians-on-way-to-states-new-energy-goals/2015/01/06/bf88e56a-9604-11e4-8385-866293322c2f_story.html


Feds want ‘zero-energy’ building standards. The Department of
Energy (DOE) wants regulators and the private sector to agree on
standards for zero-energy buildings. In a notice due to be
published Tuesday in the Federal Register, DOE asks the public
for input on a variety of questions about standards.
Specifically, DOE wants to know how the public feels about how to
define zero-energy buildings …
http://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/228480-feds-want-zero-energy-building-standards


Global Small & Medium Wind To Reach 3.2 GW. The market for small
and medium wind energy installations through the next decade is
expected to total more than 3.2 GW, according to new analysis
from Navigant Research, but only if the market can reduce costs
and survive post-government incentives. Small and medium wind
energy is defined as turbines less than 500 kW in capacity…
http://cleantechnica.com/2015/01/07/global-small-and-medium-wind/


MISCELLANEOUS

Automakers on the road to self-driving cars at Consumer
Electronics Show.  Forget 80-inch televisions or Wi-Fi-connected
blenders. At the 2015 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas,
it's the automakers who are dominating the conversation. Brands
like Mercedes-Benz, Audi, BMW and Toyota used the annual show —
expected to draw around 160,000 people this week — to highlight
the rapidly approaching self-driving car…
http://www.latimes.com/business/autos/la-fi-ces-self-driving-cars-20150107-story.html


99 Cents Only Stores to pay $2.36 million for dumping retail
waste. Discount retailer 99 Cents Only Stores became the latest
company to agree to pay millions of dollars to counties and
cities across the state to settle claims that its California
locations illegally dumped toxic retail waste. The $2.36-million
San Joaquin Superior Court judgment was announced Tuesday. 
http://www.sacbee.com/news/business/article5522292.html#storylink=cpy


Valley’s poor towns need public help to drink healthy water,
breathe clean air, EPA leader says. The U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency sees a connection between cleaning up the air
and water and helping the economy grow, says Gina McCarthy, who
leads the federal government’s environmental guardian. As
technology makes engines and water systems more efficient…
http://www.fresnobee.com/2015/01/06/4317308_valleys-poor-towns-need-public.html?rh=1#storylink=cpy


OPINIONS

A sharp contrast in visions for America’s transportation future.
High-speed rail or Keystone XL? In Washington on Tuesday,
President Barack Obama promised to veto legislation by the
Republican-controlled Congress approving the long-delayed
Keystone XL pipeline that would pipe tar sands oil from Canada to
Gulf state refineries.
http://www.sacbee.com/opinion/editorials/article5526696.html#storylink=cpy


Opinion: Bullet train pep rally and reality. It was billed as a
“groundbreaking,” but no ground was broken, even metaphorically.
Rather, what happened on a dusty lot in downtown Fresno on
Tuesday was more of a pep rally during which Gov. Jerry Brown and
other advocates of building a north-south bullet train system
extolled its supposed virtues to a handpicked audience.
http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/dan-walters/article5525373.html#storylink=cpy

http://www.mercurynews.com/opinion/ci_27271918/dan-walters-bullet-train-pep-rally-and-reality?source=rss


Green policies cost plenty. Adrienne Alvord’s Jan. 4 article
regarding gas prices is misleading, to put it politely. Ms.
Alvord is not a scientist. The Union of Concerned Scientists
counts some scientists as members, but most are activists, like
Ms. Alvord. This very wealthy organization touts a four-star
Charity Navigator rating as proof of its good work, but all that
means is their accountants know how to please the IRS.
http://www.fresnobee.com/2015/01/06/4317038/green-policies-cost-plenty.html?sp=%2f99%2f274%2f277%2f#storylink=cpy


EDITORIAL: Gov. Brown has our back on high-speed rail. Fresno and
other San Joaquin Valley communities are lucky to have Gov. Jerry
Brown on their side and batting cleanup in the effort to build
California’s first-in-the-nation high-speed rail system. Absent
Brown’s leadership and mastery of political jiu-jitsu, high-speed
rail opponents might have derailed
http://www.fresnobee.com/2015/01/06/4317360/editorial-gov-brown-has-our-back.html#storylink=cpy


BLOGS

California’s experience proves Governor Inslee is right to pursue
cap and trade. Governor Jay Inslee’s bold yet sensible step to
bring Washington State into the growing North American cap and
trade system is predictably generating opposition from
Republicans. State Senator Curtis King, the Republican chair of
the Senate Transportation Committee, took to the pages of the
Seattle Times to denounce Governor Inslee’s plan.
http://www.nwprogressive.org/weblog/2015/01/californias-experience-proves-governor-inslee-is-right-to-pursue-cap-and-trade.html


'97% Of Climate Scientists Agree' Is 100% Wrong. If you’ve ever
expressed the least bit of skepticism about environmentalist
calls for making the vast majority of fossil fuel use illegal,
you’ve probably heard the smug response: “97% of climate
scientists agree with climate change” — which always carries the
implication: Who are you to challenge them?
http://www.forbes.com/sites/alexepstein/2015/01/06/97-of-climate-scientists-agree-is-100-wrong/


$2.4 Billion Subsidy Might Wake Up Germany's Feeble Electric Car
Sales. Governments in Europe all want more electric cars on their
roads in 2015 as part of the drive to cut fuel consumption and
tame climate change. The trouble is, nobody wants to buy them,
despite generous subsidies in some countries. Germany, Europe’s
biggest economy and car
market…http://www.forbes.com/sites/neilwinton/2015/01/06/2-4-billion-subsidy-might-wake-up-germanys-feeble-electric-car-sales/


Maybe your grandkids will live to ride California’s high-speed
rail. In Fresno, Calif., there was a ceremonial groundbreaking
Tuesday for California’s high-speed rail project. If everything
goes according to plan, the new line will connect San Francisco
to Los Angeles — in 2029. I voted to fund this rail project in
2008. I got married in 2009. I became a father in 2011. If there
are no hitches, my daughter won’t be able to make this trip until
she’s 18.
http://grist.org/politics/maybe-your-grandkids-will-live-to-ride-californias-high-speed-rail/


The Top-Secret Food That Will Change the Way You Eat. More
protein than beef. More omegas than salmon. Tons of calcium,
antioxidants, and vitamin B. In their secret R&D lab, the
scientists at Beyond Meat concocted a plant-protein-based
performance burger that delivers the juicy flavor and texture of
the real thing with none of the dietary and environmental
downsides.
http://www.outsideonline.com/outdoor-adventure/culinary/Replacing-Meat-Plant-Based-Meats-Vegetarian.html

 
California Goal: Cut Petroleum Use For Cars In Half By 2030.
California already leads the nation in policies advocating
zero-emission vehicles. It's home to more electric cars than any
other state, and its environmental regulations are among the
toughest. But California's re-elected governor doesn't want to
lose the momentum. Sworn in Monday for his fourth and final term,
Governor Jerry Brown set some ambitious goals for his state to
strive for in the years ahead.
http://www.greencarreports.com/news/1096159_california-goal-cut-petroleum-use-for-cars-in-half-by-2030


BMW presents research application for inductive charging at CES. 
At CES, BMW is demonstrating a research application for
inductive—i.e. wireless—battery charging using a BMW i8. Earlier
this year, BMW and Daimler agreed jointly to develop and to
implement one common technology for wireless recharging
high-voltage batteries of electric drive and plug-in hybrid
vehicles.
http://www.greencarcongress.com/2015/01/20150107-bmw-inductive.html


Conventional Gasoline Engines A Minority In 2 Years? Not So
Fast... Progress must be coming at a much faster pace than we
thought: Conventional gasoline engines will power only a minority
of the new cars sold just two years hence, according to a new
report. That means more than half the vehicles sold will have
hybrid, diesel, natural gas, or plug-in electric powertrains,
right?
http://www.greencarreports.com/news/1096167_conventional-gasoline-engines-a-minority-in-2-years-not-so-fast



California is in a drought emergency.
Visit www.SaveOurH2O.org for water conservation tips.

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