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newsclips -- ARB Newsclips for March 16, 2015
Posted: 16 Mar 2015 15:45:03
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 Chinese Premier Vows Tougher Regulation on Air Pollution. Premier Li Keqiang of China said on Sunday that the government was failing to satisfy public demands to stanch pollution and would impose heavier punishments to cut the toxic smog that was the subject of a popular documentary belatedly banned by censors. The premier’s news conference at the end of the annual full meeting of the National People’s Congress has become a fixture of the Chinese political calendar, cast as a show of political candor and accountability. http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/16/world/asia/chinese-premier-li-keqiang-vows-tougher-regulation-on-air-pollution.html China wants cleaner air — without an environmental movement. Even by China’s standards, it has been a contradictory couple of weeks on the environment. First, a powerful documentary on air pollution, produced with official support, was released online and swiftly went viral, garnering more than 200 million views within days before being blocked by government censors. http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/china-wants-cleaner-air--without-an-environmental-movement/2015/03/15/8e34c738-c8b6-11e4-bea5-b893e7ac3fb3_story.html Exide’s troubled history: years of pollution violations but few penalties. For decades, inspectors from the California Department of Toxic Substances Control dutifully recorded a long list of environmental infractions at the Vernon battery recycling facility now owned by Exide Technologies. They described fluid gushing from a wastewater treatment system 10 years ago. http://graphics.latimes.com/exide-battery-plant/ Ozone limits remain tall order. New air-quality rules being considered by the federal government could put tighter shackles on ozone, the invisible gas that chokes lungs, stops hearts and ends lives prematurely. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency proposed the tougher regulations the day before Thanksgiving last year, stating that recent health studies show that ozone is more dangerous than previously believed. It plans to make a final decision in October. Although San Diego County’s air quality has consistently improved in recent decades, the region still struggles to meet the existing federal threshold and the even tougher state rules governing ozone. http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2015/mar/13/environment-ozone-air-pollution-epa/ Is China Exporting Its Pollution? China is in the midst of a historic transformation, and the surprising progress the country has made at energy efficiency has raised hopes that the world may get a grip on global greenhouse gas emissions much sooner than expected. As a result of the progress China is making in cleaning up its industrial sector, global greenhouse gas emissions hit the pause button in 2014, the first time that has happened in four decades (absent a major economic contraction). The International Energy Agency said on March 13 that global greenhouse gas emissions hit 32.3 billion tons in 2014, the same level as the year before. http://www.nasdaq.com/article/is-china-exporting-its-pollution-cm455005 CLIMATE CHANGE Carbon reduction program setting record prices, again. Prices for a key carbon-reduction program, which forces businesses to pay to pollute, have once again set a record high, even as the Cuomo administration and State Senate look to divert some of the program's proceeds from their intended use. The Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, a carbon cap-and-trade program between nine northeastern states that auctions off air pollution credits to industry, reached a clearing price of $5.41 per short ton… http://www.capitalnewyork.com/article/albany/2015/03/8564076/carbon-reduction-program-setting-record-prices-again?news-image Chuck Chiang: China’s economy grows, but greenhouse gas emissions edge down. China may have finally started to turn the corner on its air pollution problems. Bloomberg reported Friday that China’s carbon emissions fell by two per cent last year, the first time in more than a decade that the country posted a reduction. Some experts have linked the decrease in emissions with Chinas recent slowing economic growth as Beijing shifts the economy from an export-driven model to a domestic consumer-based one. China’s GDP growth in 2014 was 7.4 per cent, the slowest pace since 1990, while energy consumption grew only 3.8 per cent last year, the lowest rate since 1998. http://www.vancouversun.com/Business/asia-pacific/Chuck+Chiang+China+economy+grows+greenhouse/10891516/story.html Stable Emissions Show Growth and Mitigation Possible, Envoy Says. A report showing that global emissions were unchanged last year shows economic growth is possible amid the fight against climate change, a World Bank official said. Carbon-dioxide emissions were stable at 32.3 billion metric tons, even as the global economy advanced 3 percent, the International Energy Agency said in a statement on Friday. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-03-16/stable-emissions-show-growth-and-mitigation-possible-envoy-says Getting to Net-Zero Emissions. It is looking increasingly likely, but not a given, that a reference to global net-zero emissions or even a specific goal to achieve net-zero emissions by a certain date (e.g. end of the century) will appear in the climate deal that is expected to emerge from the Paris COP at the end of this year. But like many such goals, it is both open to interpretation and raises questions as to how it might actually be achieved. http://theenergycollective.com/davidhone/2204016/getting-net-zero-emissions EPA listens as states, utilities brainstorm interstate trading for carbon rule. A platoon of U.S. EPA officials and three dozen stakeholders with skin in the game got together last week to figure out how an interstate trading market might aid compliance with the proposed Clean Power Plan to slash greenhouse gas emissions. http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/stories/1060015059/print IEA says energy emissions held steady last year as the global economy grew -- a first in 40 years. The world's energy-related carbon dioxide emissions stopped rising in 2014, even as the economy grew, according to early data released by the International Energy Agency (IEA). Researchers said the early numbers showing that CO2 emissions remained steady at 32.3 billion metric tons in 2014 -- marking the first time in 40 years… http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/stories/1060015093/print Officials blame climate change as Vanuatu picks up the pieces after ‘monster’ storm. Two days after the vicious Cyclone Pam lashed the tiny island country of Vanuatu, residents are beginning the brutal business of accounting for its causes and costs. In Port Vila, the capital, homes were flattened like so many cardboard boxes. Bridges collapsed and power lines are down, possibly for days or even weeks. “It looks like the town center has been hit by a bomb,” one aid worker told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/03/16/officials-blame-climate-change-as-vanuatu-picks-up-the-pieces-after-monster-storm/?tid=hpModule_9d3add6c-8a79-11e2-98d9-3012c1cd8d1e Case could set climate change precedent. Two major lawsuits over how to address climate change while managing San Diego County’s growth and development are poised to pave statewide precedents because of the California Supreme Court’s decision this week to review one case and dismiss the other. The state’s high court declined to review the Fourth District Court of Appeal’s decision in a Sierra Club lawsuit, which means the county government must now set tangible targets for dealing with the effects of climate change. http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2015/mar/13/climate-change-sandag-san-diego-county-sierra-club/ Marin Clean Energy signs new contract that cuts carbon emissions. Marin Clean Energy has signed a new $20 million contract with Calpine Corp. that will further reduce the carbon emissions produced by the electricity it sells to its customers. Under the 33-month agreement, Marin Clean Energy has the option of buying between 10 megawatts and 15 megawatts of electricity from Houston-based Calpine. http://www.marinij.com/business/20150314/marin-clean-energy-signs-new-contract-that-cuts-carbon-emissions Clean air agency proposes new rules to cut and track oil-refinery emissions. The Bay Area's clean air agency has proposed two new rules to measure, track and reduce oil refinery air pollution as part of a new approach toward curbing oil-industry emissions. The Bay Area Air Quality Management District will hold four public workshops this week on the rules. Political pressure for the tougher rules mounted after a 2012 fire at Chevron's Richmond oil refinery sent thousands to hospitals with eye, throat and lung irritation. http://www.contracostatimes.com/breaking-news/ci_27709531/clean-air-agency-proposes-new-rules-cut-and Gallagher talks CEQA, CARB in Chico. From CEQA to CARB, new 3rd District Assemblyman James Gallagher broached issues on water, air quality and crime before an audience Thursday assembled through a Chico Chamber of Commerce program. Open to the public, the meeting was a chance for Gallagher, R-Nicolaus, to introduce himself, talk about his “almost 100 days” in office, plus allowed a free-form question-and-answer period. http://www.chicoer.com/general-news/20150313/gallagher-talks-ceqa-carb-in-chico Ruling on SANDAG Transportation Plan to Get State Supreme Court Review. The California Supreme Court has agreed to review an appellate court’s decision calling on the San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG) to make long-term transportation plans better comply with revised state pollution-reduction goals. At issue is whether the environmental impact report for SANDAG’s 2050 Regional Transportation Plan must include an analysis of the plan’s consistency with greenhouse gas emission reduction goals of a 2005 executive order signed by then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, as part of the California Environmental Quality Act. http://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/local/Ruling-on-SANDAG-Transportation-Plan-to-Get-State-Supreme-Court-Review-296436231.html This documentary went viral in China. Then it was censored. It won’t be forgotten. Every so often a seminal book or powerful movie alters the way we see the world around us. In the past three weeks, an online documentary about air pollution in China called “Under the Dome” has done exactly that for the peoples’ republic. Made by a well-known China Central Television newscaster Chai Jing, the film drew more than 150 million viewers in the first days after Chai posted it online. In the film, Chai, dressed casually in jeans and a white blouse, paces back and forth on a stage in what is essentially a 143-minute TED talk – with devastating effect. http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2015/03/16/this-documentary-went-viral-in-china-then-it-was-censored-it-wont-be-forgotten/ LUMBER LIQUIDATORS/FORMALDEHYDE Lumber Liquidators Defends Its Products After '60 Minutes' Report. Earlier this month, the flooring retailer Lumber Liquidators got the kind of attention companies dread. CBS' 60 Minutes did a story saying the company's products have unsafe levels of formaldehyde, a known carcinogen. The news sent Lumber Liquidators' stock price into a free fall, down more than 50 percent, though it has since rebounded a bit. Now the company is attempting to salvage its reputation by attacking the testing method used by the program. http://www.npr.org/2015/03/13/392765887/lumber-liquidators-defends-its-products-after-60-minutes-report DROUGHT California has one year of water left; No contingency plan in place. The wet season is coming to a close in California but the rain and snowfall totals were far from enough to help alleviate the state's water crisis. In an Op-Ed in the LA Times (http://lat.ms/1wC1Lqs), Jay Famiglietti, a senior water scientist at NASA says California's water supply in its reservoirs will only last about one more year and the strategic backup supply and ground water are disappearing rapidly. http://www.khq.com/story/28524766/california-has-one-year-of-water-left-no-contingency-plan-in-place DIESEL ACTIVITIES CARB now to allow retrofits for reefer rule compliance. It isn’t every day that a California Air Resources Board staff member can tell truck owners they may be able to spend less money than expected to comply with a state emissions regulation. The good news explains the excitement coming through the phone line from CARB Staff Air Pollution Specialist Rod Hill concerning Transportation Refrigeration Units, or reefers. http://www.landlinemag.com/Story.aspx?StoryID=28667#.VQcJYhYpmdw FUELS What Happens to the Average American if Cheap Gas is Here to Stay? Who doesn't love cheap gas? In early 2012, the average American was shelling out almost $4 per gallon. For someone with a 14-gallon tank, that meant paying nearly $56 for every trip to fill up at the pump. But in January of this year, the price of gas had fallen by nearly 50% to an average of $2.03. http://www.sfgate.com/business/fool/article/What-Happens-to-the-Average-American-if-Cheap-Gas-6135272.php Norway's sovereign wealth fund drops over 50 coal companies. The world’s richest sovereign wealth fund divested from over 50 coal companies in 2014, new analysis has revealed. Norway’s Government Pension Fund Global (GPFG), founded on the nation’s oil and gas resources and worth now £580bn in total, is being targeted by fossil fuel divestment campaigners. http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/mar/16/norways-sovereign-wealth-fund-drops-over-50-coal-companies First-Ever Climate Oil Index Reveals Worst Fuels for the Planet. Most people think about oil very generally—it’s the fuel that heats homes and powers cars, and most of the changes seen are the yo-yoing prices at the pump. But with ever dwindling supplies and the hunt for crude reaching further corners and deeper pockets of the Earth, oil is changing. What gets pulled out can look anything from a gassy oil to a thick sludge, and can devastate the environment in completely different ways, driving climate change. https://ecowatch.com/2015/03/16/climate-oil-index-carnegie-endowment/ Industry fears growing pains as producers begin to scale up. As the United States seeks to reduce its carbon footprint, one of the most visible targets for increased efficiency is transportation fuel. Today, most U.S. drivers fill their tanks with gasoline blended with 10 percent ethanol that is primarily derived from corn and other grains. However, critics of corn ethanol say its large-scale production is taking over land that could be better used for food production… http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/stories/1060015092/print GREEN ENERGY SolarCity, a Vocal Critic of the Utility Industry, Joins It. As SolarCity, the rooftop solar system provider, has rapidly expanded its reach over the last few years, its executives have pushed hard against the utility industry, criticizing it as a hidebound monopoly standing in the way of change. Now, SolarCity officials are trying a different tactic: moving into that business themselves. http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/17/business/solarcity-a-vocal-critic-of-the-utility-industry-joins-it.html?ref=energy-environment&_r=1 As developing world struggles to meet energy demand, prospects brighten for low-cost solar lamps. Breakthroughs in solar technology are making solar lamps more accessible than ever for the world's poorest people, say experts from the International Financial Corp. (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group. More than 1.3 billion people worldwide -- 18 percent of the global population -- live without electricity, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA). http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/stories/1060015094/print OPINIONS Invisible threat to maternal and child health. It's hardly news to state that air pollution is bad for people's health. What might be more surprising to learn, though, is that air pollution is bad for the health of an unborn child, long before his or her lungs ever take their first breath. A growing body of research indicates that various forms of air pollution have a measurable impact on the health of babies, both in utero and after birth. http://www.cnn.com/2015/03/16/opinions/mccabe-edelman-ozone-threat-to-child-health/ In our opinion: Could Utah's air quality benefit by learning from results of USC's Children Health Study? Air pollution in the state of Utah is a serious problem, especially along the Wasatch Front, when inversions generate some of the worst air quality in the nation. The good news, however, is that improving air quality can produce substantive, positive results in public health. http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865624324/Could-Utahs-air-quality-benefit-by-learning-from-results-of-USCs-Children-Health-Study.html Understanding science of climate change and recognizing misinformation. A man walks into a room carrying a snowball. Although it sounds like the start to a joke, no one should be laughing when that man is Sen. James Inhofe and he is exhibiting the snowball on the floor of the U.S. Senate as “evidence” that global climate change is not occurring. The Republican senator from Oklahoma is infamous for denying well-established climate change science, a frightening reality considering he is chairman of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, and charged with the responsibility of dealing with matters related to the environment. http://www.sacbee.com/opinion/the-conversation/article13626452.html#storylink=cpy Yes, The US EPA Can – And Should – Allow Offsets Under The Clean Power Plan. The US Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) proposed Clean Power Plan, the agency's attempt to regulate existing sources of greenhouse gases (GHGs) in the electricity-generating sector under its Clean Air Act authority, may be the most controversial rule proposed by the agency. Weighing in at around 670 pages (with a 750-page technical support document,) it is certainly one of the most complex regulations ever attempted by the agency. http://www.ecosystemmarketplace.com/pages/dynamic/article.page.php?page_id=10855§ion=news_articles&eod=1 Stronger ozone standards are more than a moral and legal imperative. Decades after scientists described the ways in which air pollution scars and shrivels young lungs, groundbreaking research out of USC has delivered the good news that clean-air regulations are making a difference. In a longitudinal study that measured reductions in pollution in various neighborhoods around Los Angeles and then measured the lungs of children in those areas, researchers found that as air quality improved, the lungs of school-age children were bigger and healthier. http://www.latimes.com/opinion/editorials/la-ed-ozone-20150316-story.html Globe? Warm? Who, Me? This is the time of year when we start to think about global warming. Because the weather is about to get warmer. Please God. A new angle comes up almost every day. A Harvard professor recently reported that 7,000-year-old mummies in Chile are turning into “black ooze” because the air around them is getting more humid. In California, baby sea lions are in trouble because the ocean is heating up. Meanwhile, in Florida, there’s a report that state employees have been barred from using the term “climate change. http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/14/opinion/gail-collins-globe-warm-who-me.html We don’t need utilities, cars monitoring our behavior: Susan Shelley. In 1933, humorist James Thurber wrote that his grandmother lived the latter years of her life in the horrible suspicion that electricity was leaking all over the house. The woman was ahead of her time. Utility companies are installing new meters on our homes that leak the juicy details of our lives. Did you get a notice from the Southern California Gas Co. about the installation of Advanced Meters? The devices provide daily monitoring to help teach customers to have “better control” over their energy usage. http://www.dailynews.com/opinion/20150313/we-dont-need-utilities-cars-monitoring-our-behavior-susan-shelley BLOGS GOP states’ choice on carbon emissions: negligence or logic. The Environmental Protection Agency will soon demand that states cut their greenhouse-gas emissions. You would think that state leaders, particularly Republicans warning of an EPA regulatory apocalypse, would be frantically reaching for the least onerous strategies to comply. But so far many have shown more interest in lambasting the EPA than in accepting the sorts of policies that would make new carbon regulations easiest on people. Their citizens will pay if they don’t change course. http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-partisan/wp/2015/03/15/gop-states-choice-on-carbon-emissions-negligence-or-logic/ The True Link Between Carbon-Based Fuels and Quality of Life. Quick…what’s the most critical problem in the world? No, not that…it’s something far more tangible, present day, and life-shortening but has no lobbying group: poverty enabled by a lack of energy. Perhaps for some in the rich West, where all the energy we need is at our fingertips, “too much energy” is a very convenient problem to claim. http://www.forbes.com/sites/judeclemente/2015/03/15/the-true-link-between-carbon-based-fuels-and-quality-of-life/ The Divestment Distraction and a Positive Vision of Sustainability. The environmental community has long needed to stop bad things from happening and over time has developed the mindset that the job of environmental protection is to avert damage and destruction. Emerging naturally from that mindset is the tactic that to prevent damage we must scare people about the potential impact of ecological destruction. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/steven-cohen/the-divestment-distractio_b_6877070.html Get Carbon Offsets for Using New Biodegradable Credit Card. Many people find global warming an overwhelming issue, and have no idea how to contribute to a solution. But now, combating climate change can be as easy as a credit card purchase. Every time a Sustain:Green biodegradable card is used, a tangible contribution to the fight against global warming is made through carbon offsets, and applied to reforestation projects in Brazil’s Mata no Peito rainforest initiative. http://planetsave.com/2015/03/16/carbon-offsets-biodegradable-credit-card/ Sick and Tired of Pollution, Latino Kids Fight Back Armed With Courage and Wit. Just like Lupita, Selene, Elijah and 100 other students at Desert Mirage HS said enough is enough, and in February, they all traveled for nine hours to Sacramento to testify at the EPA hearings about the improvement of the federal smog standards. Smog, a toxic gas generated by the burning of fossil fuels, can have the same effects on lung tissue as sunburn on the skin. "I demanded for them to bring the ppb down to 60 because it is a human right to have fresh air to breathe," says Lupita. "It got very emotional when we all shared our stories about how the air pollution is affecting us. And some representatives of the EPA were getting teary-eyed just by listening to us," remembers Selene. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/javier-sierra/sick-tired-of-pollution_b_6864000.html Here Comes the Sun: How California is Bringing More Renewables to the Grid. Ask most people what the Beatles and California have in common and they might very well be at a loss. However, the answer is pretty simple: they are both unabashed trendsetters in the face of resistance – the former in their musical style and the latter in its clean energy policies. Not content with setting a Renewable Portfolio Standard that ends at 2020, Governor Jerry Brown and state legislators are pushing for the Golden State to get 50 percent of its energy from renewable resources by 2030. http://theenergycollective.com/edfenergyex/2203436/here-comes-sun-how-california-bringing-more-renewables-grid Conscious Decoupling: Divorcing Economy and Emissions. As Gwyneth Paltrow tried to express last year, divorce doesn't have to be a bad thing. And although she's sort of backtracked on the widely mocked concept of "conscious uncoupling," it serves as a useful introduction for a topic that's not near as likely to invade the public sphere as easily as her divorce from Coldplay frontman Chris Martin. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/climate-nexus/conscious-decoupling-divorcing-economy-and-emissions_b_6866556.html California is in a drought emergency. Visit www.SaveOurH2O.org for water conservation tips.