What's New List Serve Post Display

ARB Newsclips for May 13, 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

Carbon-cutting plan offers something to agriculture. Democrats
new carbon-reduction proposal includes tax rebates and credits
for agribusiness.  Democrats on Monday unveiled a new
carbon-reduction bill designed to be more palatable to food
manufacturers, but the processors aren’t swallowing it. Gov. Jay
Inslee’s cap-and-trade proposal — the centerpiece of his
climate-change agenda…
http://www.capitalpress.com/Washington/20150513/carbon-cutting-plan-offers-something-to-agriculture


AIR POLLUTION

US settles with New York coke plant for $12M over pollution.  A
coal-burning industrial plant that a federal official called an
"environmental outlaw" has agreed to pay $12 million to settle
claims that it polluted the air and water with harmful chemicals,
authorities said Monday. The agreement entered in U.S. District
Court requires Tonawanda Coke Corp. to spend $7.9 million on
pollution-reducing upgrades…
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_COKE_PLANT_POLLUTION?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT


Richmond is the worst U.S. city for pollen and air pollution:
study. Pollen- and pollution-ravaged Richmond, Memphis and
Oklahoma City are the three "sneeziest and wheeziest" cities in
the U.S., a new government study says. New York City didn't even
make the Natural Resources Defense Council's list of the 35 worst
cities for allergy and asthma sufferers. And smoggy Los Angeles
was way down at No. 32.
http://www.nydailynews.com/life-style/health/richmond-worst-u-s-city-pollen-pollution-st-article-1.2220564


Tuolumne County trasportation projects on hold. Tuolumne County
and the City of Sonora are putting several transportation
projects on the back burner after the loss of critical federal
funding. Due to a recent change in federal air quality standards,
the county is no longer eligible to receive up to $450,000 per
year through the Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality
Improvement program.
http://www.uniondemocrat.com/News/Local-News/Tuolumne-County-trasportation-projects-on-hold#


CLIMATE CHANGE

Indonesia Comes Up Short in $1 Billion Bid to Save Forests. A
moratorium is renewed, but progress in saving trees and slowing
carbon emissions has been slow. Indonesian President Joko Widodo
agreed to renew a ban that prevents the issuing of new licenses
to log primary forest and peat land, a move seen as helping
combat deforestation and fight climate change.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/indonesia-comes-up-short-in-1-billion-bid-to-save-forests-1431536197


Alaska’s Tricky Intersection of Obama’s Energy and Climate
Legacies. President Obama’s move to open up vast, untouched
Arctic waters to oil and gas drilling as he pursues an ambitious
plan to fight climate change illustrates the inherent tensions in
his environmental and energy agenda. As the first president to
seriously tackle climate
change…http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/13/us/politics/alaskas-tricky-intersection-of-obamas-energy-and-climate-legacies.html?ref=energy-environment&_r=1
 

Walmart, General Mills, Anheuser-Busch Improve Freight
Efficiency, Cut Emissions. Improving efficiency and environmental
management in freight operations is becoming increasingly
important to global brands including Kellogg’s, Walmart,
Anheuser-Busch, Apple, Adidas, General Mills, H&M, Lowes, CVS and
Hershey’s, according to an Environmental Defense Fund blog.
http://www.environmentalleader.com/2015/05/13/walmart-general-mills-anheuser-busch-improve-freight-efficiency-cut-emissions/#ixzz3a2djZudA


Forestry Groups Seek Rehearing in Lawsuit Overturning Biomass
Permitting Exemption. Forestry groups asked federal appellate
judges to rehear a lawsuit that struck down a temporary
greenhouse gas permitting exemption for facilities burning
biomass. Rehearing is warranted after a recent U.S. Supreme Court
decision limited the scope of the EPA's prevention of significant
deterioration permitting program for greenhouse gases…
http://www.bna.com/forestry-groups-seek-n17179926446/ 

Climate change is partially to blame for wildfires in California.
Higher temperatures in the sate increase California’s chances of
devastating forest fires. According to a forest ecology professor
at Northern Arizona University, Wally Covington, although not
entirely to blame for the wildfires in California, in recent
decades, climate change has contributed to the increased
frequency and severity of wildfires, as higher temperatures have
left forests across California dry and easy to catch fire…
http://www.hydrogenfuelnews.com/climate-change-is-partially-to-blame-for-wildfires-in-california/8522087/


Carbon Pollution’s Harm To Sea Life Coming Faster Than Expected.
The oceans are now acidifying faster than they have been over the
last 300 million years, a time period in which there were four
major extinctions driven by natural bursts of carbon. In fact,
humans are acidifying the oceans 10 times faster today than 55
million years ago when a mass extinction of marine species
occurred.
http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2015/05/12/3657571/carbon-pollution-sea-life/


Researchers Discover How Abrupt Global Warming Event Triggered
Highly Corrosive. Around 55 million years ago, an abrupt global
warming event triggered a highly corrosive deep-water current
through the North Atlantic Ocean. The current's origin puzzled
scientists for a decade, but an international team of researchers
has now discovered how it formed and the findings may have
implications for the carbon dioxide emission sensitivity of
today's climate.
http://www.azocleantech.com/news.aspx?newsID=21862 

How Brazilian beef industry became latest ally in fight against
deforestation. Once criticized for mowing down tropical
rainforests to make way for pasture, the worlds largest
meatpacking company now shuns cattle raised on deforested land.
Once seen as one of the biggest threats to the Amazon rainforest,
large meatpacking companies can become important players in
slowing the rate of deforestation. Preserving tropical forests,
which store enormous amounts of carbon…
http://www.csmonitor.com/Environment/2015/0512/How-Brazilian-beef-industry-became-latest-ally-in-fight-against-deforestation


DROUGHT

Drought update: Dry wells, debate over water cutbacks. With
Californians increasing efforts to deal with the drought,
lawmakers got an update Tuesday on exactly how bad things are and
heard little to cheer them.Among other areas of concern, about
1,900 wells have gone dry, Mark Cowin, director of the California
Department of Water Resources, told a Senate joint oversight
hearing on the drought.
http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-drought-hearing-20150512-story.html?track=rss


California golf courses tee up water-saving measures. At first
glance, nothing seems amiss at this lush, members-only golf club
in one of the priciest communities in Orange County. A bubbling
fountain gurgles out of an artificial lake. Emerald-green
fairways stretch into the distance. Golf carts zoom across the
grass like white ants.
http://www.sacbee.com/news/business/article20804574.html#storylink=cpy
http://www.sfgate.com/living/article/California-golf-courses-tee-up-water-saving-6259840.php
 
http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Society/2015/0513/Brown-is-the-new-green-How-California-golf-courses-respond-to-drought


California drought: Few seem to mourn street medians’ slow death.
The street median isn’t just a patch of grass in the middle of
the road. Or is it? The leafy islands that have long brought calm
to neighborhoods, and sometimes carry a sense of prestige —
turning a mere street into a stately boulevard — are one of the
targets of the state’s water conservation crackdown.
http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/California-drought-Few-seem-to-mourn-street-6256765.php


California drought: How San Jose's mandatory water rationing will
work. Think of it like a diet. Or a household budget. Only for
water. But instead of counting calories or pennies, hundreds of
thousands of Silicon Valley residents are soon going to have to
learn how to read their water meters and keep weekly records of
their water use if they want to avoid fines under the region's
strict new water-rationing rules.
http://www.mercurynews.com/drought/ci_28102311/california-drought-new-details-emerge-about-san-joses


LAUSD replacing toilets to save water during drought. The Los
Angeles Unified school board approved $5 million Tuesday to
replace 8,500 water closets and urinals as part of a growing
initiative to conserve water during the California drought.
Swapping out inefficient, dated or broken toilets will save 100
million gallons of water annually, LAUSD facilities officials
estimate.
http://www.scpr.org/news/2015/05/13/51658/lausd-replacing-toilets-to-save-water-during-droug/


Nestlé pitches $7 million in projects to save water in
California. Nestlé USA announced Tuesday it has invested $7
million in water savings projects in five water bottling plants
and four other facilities in drought-plagued California. The
investment is designed to save 63 million gallons of water each
year when completed by the end of 2016, said Tim Brown…
http://www.dailynews.com/general-news/20150512/nestlxe9-pitches-7-million-in-projects-to-save-water-in-california


California water districts scramble to deal with ruling on rate
tiers. During the last major drought in the early 1990s, Irvine
pioneered a different approach for calculating water bills for
customers. The city’s water agency allocated each customer a
certain amount of water and then charged higher rates to those
who exceeded it.
http://www.redding.com/news/wire-news/california-water-districts-scramble-to-deal-with-ruling-on-rate-tiers


Drought May Mean The End For Some Native Fish. The Delta smelt,
the small fish that is often at the center of California's water
wars, is likely headed toward extinction. On the back of a
California Department of Fish and Wildlife boat, a hydraulic
winch pulls in a giant net. Since 2002, the department has
surveyed the number of spawning Delta smelt.
http://www.capradio.org/47929 

Water Flows Freely in Drought-Resistant Farm Towns of Southern
California — For Now. In a wide field along a narrow two-lane
road in the town of El Centro, the grass is tall and rusty brown.
It’s not a water-starved golf course or parched public park. It’s
a lush wheat field, in tiptop health, today getting harvested by
a guy riding one of those big green combines.
http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2015/05/12/water-flows-freely-in-drought-resistant-farm-towns-of-southern-california-for-now


Drought plunges state into more regulatory action. As California
sinks deeper into drought, officials are taking an increased
number of actions to protect dwindling water supplies. In
addition to requiring a 25 percent overall cutback in municipal
water use, the state began building an emergency salinity barrier
on the San Joaquin River in Contra Costa County last week…
http://www.agalert.com/story/?id=8224 

8 Cost-Cutting Lessons from California’s Drought Crisis. Are you
ready to drink recycled water from your faucet? You may find that
idea hard to swallow, but it is being floated anew as
water-saving lessons from California’s drought catch on around
the country. Even the tornado-ravaged Midlands and rain-soaked
Southeast will feel the effects of a four-year dry spell
spreading across the West…
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/8-cost-cutting-lessons-california-160313115.html


DIESEL ACTIVITIES

Taft trucking company agrees to record fine under 2012 diesel
rule.  Air quality violations have cost a Taft trucking company a
half-million dollars -- the largest settlement amount under a
landmark diesel rule the industry says has hammered all but the
largest operators since the regulation took effect in 2012. The
California Air Resources Board fined Randy's Trucking Inc.
$524,675 because the company failed…
http://www.bakersfieldcalifornian.com/business/kern-gusher/x506927495/Taft-trucking-company-agrees-to-record-fine-under-2012-diesel-rule

Penske Awarded $400,000 Grant from DOE. The U.S. Department of
Energy (DOE) has awarded Penske Truck Leasing a $400,000 grant
for the company’s Alternative Fuel Vehicle (AFV) Demonstration
and Enhanced Driver Experience Project, to be administered by the
DOE's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy. Penske
will utilize the funds to further introduce alternative-fuel
vehicles to its customer base, the company said.
http://www.truckinginfo.com/channel/fuel-smarts/news/story/2015/05/penske-awarded-400-000-grant-from-doe.aspx


FUELS

Gas prices still look low for summer even after spring surge.
Drivers who have seen a steady rise in the price of gasoline can
relax: They will almost certainly be paying far less for gas this
summer than they have in at least six years. "It's a cheap,
cheap, cheap year," says Tom Kloza, chief oil analyst at the Oil
Price Information Service.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_GASOLINE_PRICES_CHEAP_SUMMER?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT


Shell: Drill rigs coming to Seattle despite pleas for delay.
Royal Dutch Shell says it has a valid lease for Seattle terminal
space and a tight timeline to prepare its fleet for exploratory
oil drilling in Arctic waters, so the company plans to move in
its rigs despite protests from activists and a request from the
port that it wait. About a dozen protesters in kayaks met one of
two drill rigs Shell plans to use, the 514-foot-long Noble
Discoverer…
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_ARCTIC_OFFSHORE_DRILLING_RIGS?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT


Shell: Company will bring drill rigs to Seattle terminal. Despite
a Seattle port commission request that Royal Dutch Shell delay
any moorage of oil exploration vessels in the city pending
further legal review, a Shell spokesman said Tuesday his company
will bring its rigs to a terminal as planned to prepare for
exploratory drilling in Arctic waters.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_ARCTIC_DRILL_SHIPS?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT


China becomes world's top crude buyer despite economy stuttering.
 China overtook the United States as the world's top importer of
crude oil for the first time in April, and its purchases are
expected to remain strong despite a slowing economy, with
far-reaching consequences for global oil and commodities markets.
The soaring imports came as a surprise as growth in the world's
second-largest economy was sputtering and its oil demand was
expected to ease.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/05/11/china-crude-imports-idUSL4N0XW1TO20150511


What happens if we scrap the US oil exports ban? The push to end
the decades-old oil export ban is heating up in the Senate, but
there's opposition from green groups who oppose drilling, and
from legislators worried lifting the ban could be blamed for
higher gasoline prices. he longstanding ban on most US crude oil
exports could be on the way out.
http://www.csmonitor.com/Environment/Energy/2015/0513/What-happens-if-we-scrap-the-US-oil-exports-ban


Gas closes in on coal in power plant generation. For the first
time in three years, natural gas is about to catch up with coal
as a fuel for the nation's power plants, foreshadowing the
crucial role of gas supplies in meeting U.S. EPA's proposed Clean
Power Plan. Natural gas prices below $3 per million British
thermal units (MMBtu) have created the closest convergence of the
two power plant fuels since April 2012…
http://www.eenews.net/energywire/2015/05/13/stories/1060018475 

Report calls low oil prices an expensive distraction from future
energy needs. Lower oil prices provide temporary relief for
consumers, but rising volatility around oil prices will be a much
bigger challenge to long-term energy market stability and could
undermine a transition to clean energy, according to a new
analysis prepared by the Global Commission on the Economy and
Climate.
http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/2015/05/13/stories/1060018442 

Biofuels: Don't Assume They're All Carbon-Neutral, New Study
Warns. To many, biofuels seem like the ultimate compromise
between lower carbon emissions and practicality. It's easy to see
the appeal of fuels billed as cleaner replacements for gasoline
that also require few changes to established consumer routines.
http://www.greencarreports.com/news/1098269_biofuels-dont-assume-theyre-all-carbon-neutral-new-study-warns


VEHICLES

Tesla Pledges to Meet China Charging Standards. Luxury
electric-car maker would adapt its vehicles to meet future
requirements. Tesla Motors Inc.  said it would modify its
battery-powered electric cars to meet China’s charging standards
to allay concerns over its technology’s incompatibility in the
country, where the company’s sales have fallen short of its
expectations.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/tesla-to-modify-cars-to-meet-china-charging-standards-1431412891


OPINIONS

Blumenfeld: Bold but simple plan to reduce greenhouse gas
emissions.  Surely you've heard this famous wisecrack, often
attributed to Mark Twain: "Everybody talks about the weather, but
nobody does anything about it." It endures because it cleverly
states the plain truth -- nobody "does anything" about the
weather simply because we can't. But how does Twain's one-liner
hold up with a twenty-first-century rephrasing? "Everybody talks
about climate change, but nobody does anything about it."
http://www.sfgate.com/opinion/article/Blumenfeld-Bold-but-simple-plan-to-reduce-6259432.php


CASSIE MACDUFF: How to help your lawn limp through the drought. 
An emerald-green lawn used to be a matter of neighborhood pride.
Now the lawn is the bad guy in California’s drought crisis.
Having lush, green grass is a badge of shame. You’ve probably
already started watering your landscaping less often. Cities and
water districts are limiting irrigation to three or four days a
week, or every other day.
http://www.pe.com/articles/water-767060-lawn-less.html 

Op-Ed: How GWP is dealing with the drought? California is in the
fourth year of one of the most severe droughts ever recorded. In
the last few months, records have been set for the highest
temperatures and driest conditions for this time of year. This
has prompted Gov. Jerry Brown to issue several Executive Orders
including mandatory conservation provisions.
http://www.glendalenewspress.com/opinion/tn-gnp-op-ed-how-gwp-is-dealing-with-the-drought-20150512,0,3406492.story


Column: Don’t weaken clean car standards. At the Detroit Auto
Show in January, Chevy unveiled the all-electric Bolt and the
new, improved Volt 2.0. Both represent major accomplishments.
Equally notable is Toyota’s recent unveiling of the fuel cell
electric Mirai. And the announcement by Ford CEO Mark Fields that
his company’s fleet is on track to meet the national clean car
standards adopted in 2011…
http://www.detroitnews.com/story/opinion/2015/05/13/column-clean-car-standards/27196711/
 

BLOGS

EIA: U.S. shale production set to fall again in June. U.S. shale
production growth will fall 86,000 barrels per day next month,
the U.S. Energy Information Administration estimated in its
monthly report, more evidence the nation’s oil boom is in
decline. The EIA’s monthly forecast is the second in a row to
project an overall decline in domestic production growth, as
diminishing output from older shale wells outpaces new gushers in
the oil fields.
http://fuelfix.com/blog/2015/05/12/eia-u-s-shale-set-to-fall-again-in-june/#30727101=0

Climate Change to Increase Respiratory Health Threats in St.
Louis. While spring is always a welcome sight after a long dreary
winter, it can be a rude awakening if you suffer from allergies
and asthma. The itchy eyes, sneezing and wheezing are not only
inconvenient, for some it can be dangerous. A new report by the
Natural Resources Defense Council found that one-in-three
Americans lives in the "sneeziest and wheeziest" cities and
distinguishes…
http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/rstanfield/climate_change_to_increase_res.html


ALA Report: air quality mixed in Texas, throughout USA. The
American Lung Association (ALA) recently released the 2015 State
of the Air report. Unfortunately, they found the quality of air
remains mixed throughout Texas and the United States. Created
using data reported as part of the Environmental Protection
Agency’s (EPA) national monitoring network, the report analyzes
particle and ozone pollution…
http://blogs.edf.org/texascleanairmatters/2015/05/12/ala-report-air-quality-mixed-in-texas-throughout-usa/


Air Pollution Is Making Me Anxious.  A new study has come to my
attention. It proposes that air pollution may impact mental
health. The BMJ published a paper that examined whether "higher
past exposure to particulate air pollution is associated with
prevalent high symptoms of anxiety." Melinda C. Power, based at
John Hopkins University, was the lead author on the report.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/marcia-g-yerman/air-pollution-is-making-me-anxious_b_7123288.html


Beyond California: The Worst Droughts In American History. A
senior hydrologist for California says the state’s ongoing
drought will become more severe—at least in the San Joaquin River
Valley—than any similar-length drought of the past century. “With
the forecast just made, this year is going to be the worst
four-year sequence on the San Joaquin River group…
http://www.forbes.com/sites/erincarlyle/2015/05/13/forget-california-north-america-has-faced-far-worst-droughts/

Study suggests 25% of cars cause 90% of pollution. There are
growing concerns that the move towards lowering emissions isn't
doing enough to actually protect people, and the result is
premature deaths from breathing the harmful substances. A study
by researchers at the University of Toronto in Canada suggests
the vast majority of these automotive pollutants come from a very
small number of vehicles.
http://www.autoblog.com/2015/05/12/25-percent-cars-cause-90-percent-pollution-study/


Cap-and-trade "best solution we can agree on" for climate change.
The experts were broadly supportive of cap-and-trade with 19%
saying it is an ideal abatement instrument, 66% saying it is the
best we can agree on, and just 8% saying it does more harm than
good. The experts were broadly supportive of cap-and-trade with
19% saying it is an ideal abatement instrument, 66% saying it is
the best we can agree on…
http://www.edie.net/news/6/Cap-and-trade-quotbest-solution-we-can-agree-onquot-for-climate-change/28242/
 

Global warming and the "Green Rush."  Climate change and
cannabis: Experts warn potency and potential for habitat
disruption may increase along with CO2 and temperatures. Global
warming may give a minor twist to that classic hippie bumper
sticker that quips "Acid rain: Too bad it's not as much fun as it
sounds." Turns out a warming climate could boost the medicinal
and psychoactive properties of plants including cannabis.
http://www.dailyclimate.org/tdc-newsroom/2015/05/climate-change-marijuana-pot-global-warming-potent


Toyota, Mazda announce 'long-term partnership' in technology.
Toyota Motor Corp. and Japanese rival Mazda are expanding their
partnership to a long-term one focusing on technologies in the
areas of safety and fuel efficiency. Toyota President Akio Toyoda
and Mazda Motor Corp. President Masamichi Kogai shook hands at a
Tokyo hotel on Wednesday, both smiling and decked out in dark
suits and red ties.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/huff-wires/20150513/as-japan-toyota-mazda/




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