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CAP AND TRADE

U.S., Canada and Mexico create new climate change partnership. 
North American energy ministers said on Monday they had set up a
working group on climate change and energy, a partnership
designed to help Canada, the United States and Mexico harmonize
policies. The partnership does not include binding targets, but
will enhance cooperation and integrate more climate
change-related policies into energy discussions between the
countries, Canadian Natural Resources Minister Greg Rickford said
during a conference call.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/05/25/us-energy-americas-idUSKBN0OA1HX20150525


Greenhouse gas emissions: How can Canada cut 30% by 2030?  When
the federal government announced its plan to cut its greenhouse
gas emissions by 30 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030, it gave
little indication how it planned to do it, exactly. Canada
produced 749 megatonnes of greenhouse gas emissions in 2005,
according to Environment Canada data. By cutting 30 per cent, the
Conservative government is hoping to eliminate more than 200 MT a
year.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/greenhouse-gas-emissions-how-can-canada-cut-30-by-2030-1.3080447


Two-thirds of Ontarians support cap-and-trade plan, poll
suggests.  Ontario’s plan for a “cap-and-trade” system to help
cut greenhouse gas emissions has strong public backing, a new
poll suggests. About two-thirds of people in the province support
the government’s move, according to the survey conducted for the
Canadian Solar Industries Association (CanSIA) by research firm
Gandalf Group.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/two-thirds-of-ontarians-support-cap-and-trade-plan-poll-suggests/article24602595/


Low-income homeowners get free solar panels thanks to cap &
trade.  The spread of residential solar power has been largely a
middle-class affair. Despite plunging prices in the last seven
years, rooftop solar arrays remain an expensive home improvement,
costing $15,000 or more. A 2013 study by the liberal research and
advocacy group Center for American Progress found that 67 percent
of solar arrays installed in California went to ZIP codes with a
median household income between $40,000 and $90,000. Wealthier
areas accounted for almost all of the rest.
http://www.sfchronicle.com/business/article/Low-income-homeowners-get-free-solar-panels-6281762.php



UN CLIMATE TALKS

World's least-polluting nations aim to set Paris climate bar
high.  If your country were responsible for only 0.05 percent of
the world's climate-changing emissions, you might not think it
worth making a plan to curb that pollution - especially when you
still need to get electricity to much of your population. But the
Gambian government thinks otherwise. It is already working on its
contribution to a new global deal to tackle climate change, due
to be hammered out in Paris at the end of this year.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/05/26/us-climate-change-carbon-idUSKBN0OB0VV20150526


Investment fund CEOs call for long-term greenhouse gas cuts. 
Some of the world's biggest investment funds urged the Group of
Seven industrialized nations on Tuesday to commit to a long-term
goal to cut world greenhouse gas emissions as part of a U.N.
climate deal due to be agreed in December. Cuts in emissions
would give investors more certainty, promote research and
development and new technologies, and help create jobs, fund
chiefs said.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/05/26/us-climatechange-funds-idUSKBN0OB15G20150526


Poorest nations, not just richest, must act to end extreme
poverty – campaigners.  The world's rich donor nations must
increase their overseas aid budgets and reverse the trend of
declining funding for the poorest countries in order to meet a
global goal of ending poverty by 2030, an advocacy group said on
Tuesday. Yet governments of the least-developed countries must
also contribute by committing to a minimum level of spending to
provide basic services, including health and education, for
everyone within five years, the ONE Campaign said in a report.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/05/26/aid-finance-idUSKBN0OB03W20150526


French bill seeks to boost renewable energy, cut nuclear use. 
France's lower house of parliament has approved a bill aimed at
boosting renewable energy and reducing the country's reliance on
nuclear power, among other environment-friendly measures. The
French government wants to be exemplary this year in
environmental matters, since Paris is hosting a U.N.-backed
conference in December where 196 countries aim to limit
greenhouse gas emissions to fight global warming.
http://www.sacbee.com/news/business/article22334454.html

AIR POLLUTION

Unsafe levels of toxic pollutants in heavily fracked Ohio county.
 Emissions from fracking operations may be exposing people to
some toxic pollutants at levels higher than the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency considers safe for long-term
exposure, according to scientists from Oregon State University
and the University of Cincinnati. The researchers took air
samples in Carroll County, Ohio, where there are 480 permitted
wells the most in any of the state's 88 counties. The team found
chemicals released during oil and gas extraction that can raise
the risk of cancer and respiratory ailments.
http://www.latimes.com/nation/sns-tns-bc-env-fracking-pollutants-20150524-story.html#page=1


World Health Assembly closes, passing resolutions on air
pollution and epilepsy.  The World Health Assembly closed today,
with Director-General Dr Margaret Chan noting that it had passed
several “landmark resolutions and decisions”. Three new
resolutions were passed today: one on air pollution, one on
epilepsy and one laying out the next steps in finalizing a
framework of engagement with non-State actors.
http://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/releases/2015/wha-26-may-2015/en/


CLIMATE CHANGE

Japan Pledges Climate Change Aid to Pacific Island Nations.  
Japan pledged Saturday 55 billion yen ($450 million) in aid to
Pacific island nations that are battling rising sea levels and
natural calamities as a result of global warming. Prime Minister
Shinzo Abe made the pledge at a two-day meeting with the island
nations' leaders in Iwaki in northern Japan.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/A/AS_JAPAN_CLIMATE_CHANGE?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
 

Carbon Pricing Is Expanding: Initiatives Now Valued at Nearly $50
Billion.  In the past year and a half, Portugal and Mexico
implemented new carbon taxes, South Korea started one of the
world’s largest emissions trading systems, and California and
Quebec linked their cap-and-trade systems, which Ontario plans to
join. China, meanwhile, has been learning from its seven local
carbon markets (the oldest, in Shenzen, is about to wrap up its
second year), and the entire country, a leading emitter of
greenhouse gases, plans to launch a national emissions trading
system as early as 2016. Chile also advanced carbon pricing,
approving a carbon tax to start in 2018.
http://www.worldbank.org/en/news/feature/2015/05/26/carbon-pricing-initiatives-nearly-50-billion


Catholics worldwide vow to get the word out on Pope Francis'
message on climate change. Pope Francis will release his
anticipated teaching document on the environment and climate
change in the coming weeks. Over the past several years, more
faith traditions have rallied behind environmental protection.
Churches have begun to press ecological issues as moral ones, as
the poor struggle for clean water and farmable land. Pope
Francis, who has attracted worldwide attention far beyond the
Catholic world, is believed to be the one individual able to
bring attention the human toll wrought from climate change that
few other leaders could.
http://www.catholic.org/news/hf/faith/story.php?id=60713 

DIESEL ACTIVITIES

Truckers' secret to fuel efficiency: take it easy.  Mario
Enriquez says there’s no real trick to getting great fuel mileage
in a big truck. "Just take it easy," says the 61-year-old native
of El Paso, who’s driven an 18-wheeler for 11 years. "I don't gun
the engine, I just gradually give it the gas." Enriquez averaged
9.74 miles per gallon from February to April in an International
ProStar made by Navistar International Corp. For that, his
employer, Mesilla Valley Transportation (MVT), awarded him a
Nissan Versa compact car. Enriquez wasn’t even the best of the
company’s drivers in the latest quarter, but no driver is allowed
to win more than once and all those ahead of him were previous
winners.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/05/26/us-trucks-future-idUSKBN0OB0Y120150526


DROUGHT

California Farmers Agree to Drastically Cut Water Use. California
farmers who hold some of the state's strongest water rights
avoided the threat of deep mandatory cuts when the state accepted
their proposal to voluntarily reduce consumption by 25 percent
amid one of the worst droughts on record. Officials hope the deal
agreed upon on Friday will serve as a model for more such
agreements with growers in the nation's top-producing farm state,
where agriculture accounts for 80 percent of all water drawn from
rivers, streams and the ground.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_CALIFORNIA_DROUGHT_WATER_CUTS?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT


California looks to Australia for tips on surviving drought.  Ca
lifornia has turned to the world's driest inhabited continent for
solutions to its longest and sharpest drought on record.
Australia, the land poet Dorothea Mackellar dubbed "a sunburnt
country," suffered a torturous drought from the late 1990s
through 2012. Now Californians are facing their own "Big Dry,"
and looking Down Under to see how they coped.
http://www.latimes.com/nation/sns-bc-as--california-drought-lessons-from-down-under-abridged-20150525-story.html#page=1


SANTA BARBARA OIL SPILL

Protesters warn against using chemicals in Santa Barbara County
oil spill clean-up.  Dozens of protesters chanted "End Oil Now!"
and hoisted signs alongside an inflatable mock pipeline on a
Santa Barbara beach on Sunday, demanding an end to fracking and
other forms of "extreme oil extraction" days after a spill sent
thousands of gallons of oil into the ocean and onto beaches. 
http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-santa-barbara-county-oil-spill-20150524-story.html


VEHICLES

Are Electric Vehicle Incentives Much Too Low in 2015?  Critics of
renewable energy and electric vehicles often call foul on
government subsidies designed to help these budding industries
along. According to new data, it’s a drop in the bucket compared
to the trillions spent on oil and coal subsidies, with a sizable
chunk of that support going to pay for health care and related
costs. In light of the staggering statistics on the real costs of
burning fossil fuels in America, EV incentives appear far too low
in 2015.
http://www.cheatsheet.com/automobiles/are-electric-vehicle-incentives-much-too-low-in-2015.html/?a=viewall


GREEN ENERGY

Kentucky May Accidentally Comply with EPA's Clean Power Plan. 
Kentucky has consistently opposed federal efforts to impose
environmental rules on the state's power plants.  First,
lawmakers passed a bill to exempt the state from submitting a
plan to meet the proposed air regulations that work against coal.
Then it sued the Environmental Protection Agency over the rule.
http://insideclimatenews.org/news/26052015/kentucky-may-accidentally-comply-epa-clean-power-plan-coal


MISCELLANEOUS

230-acre prescribed burn scheduled at Camp San Luis Obispo. 
There will be a 230-acre prescribed burn at Camp San Luis Obispo
between May 26 and May 30, starting at approximately 10 a.m.,
weather and burn conditions permitting, Cal Fire reports. The
burn will be on grasslands on and near the base’s firing ranges.
http://pasoroblesdailynews.com/230-acre-prescribed-burn-scheduled-at-camp-san-luis-obispo/36214/


Tree Project Aims to Put the Oak Back in Oakland.   In the
beginning, before stylized images of oak trees started appearing
on T-shirts, bumper stickers and even Mayor Libby Schaaf’s
election-night earrings in November, there were actually oak
woodlands in Oakland. And while this may be the largest city in
America named after a tree, these days there are very few of the
oaks left.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/24/us/tree-project-aims-to-put-the-oak-back-in-oakland.html


A Home Air Quality Monitor That Can Be Checked Out From The
Library.  Air pollution comes from many sources — power plants,
industrial production and fires, to name a few. In Pittsburgh,
the most polluted city east of California, according the American
Lung Association, avoiding dirty air while outdoors can be
difficult, if not impossible. But a new device, available through
the public library system, helps people identify and reduce bad
air quality inside their homes.
http://www.npr.org/2015/05/24/408786881/a-home-air-quality-monitor-that-can-be-checked-out-from-the-library


OPINIONS

Paris Can't Be Another Copenhagen.  As a former prime minister of
Australia, I understand something of the political costs leaders
must bear in aiming to reconcile the long-term interests of the
planet with short-term national interests. After attending the
2009 Copenhagen summit on climate change, I was attacked back
home for either doing too much or too little in trying to bring
about a binding global agreement.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/26/opinion/kevin-rudd-paris-cant-be-another-copenhagen.html?_r=0


Congress’ century-long history of ignoring science: The dangerous
climate delusions our lawmakers just can’t shed.  There may be
nothing we humans are more at ease with, or more practiced at,
than talking about the weather. Not, of course, that we’re
particularly apt to understand exactly what it is we’re
discussing. As author and journalist Cynthia Barnett establishes
early on in “Rain: A Natural and Cultural History,” for all our
dependence on rain, we misunderstand it “at the most basic level
— what it looks like.”
http://www.salon.com/2015/05/26/congress_century_long_history_of_ignoring_science_the_dangerous_climate_delusions_our_lawmakers_just_cant_shed/


Opinion: California’s carbon fees generate big money.  While Gov.
Jerry Brown is being fairly tight about spending the state’s
multibillion-dollar windfall of sales and income taxes, he’s not
shy about spending rapidly increasing proceeds from
“cap-and-trade” fees on carbon emissions. The revised 2015-16
budget that he unveiled this month more than doubles, from $992
million to $2.2 billion, projected revenues from selling carbon
emission credits, and the Legislature’s budget staff believes
even that is too conservative.
http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/dan-walters/article22143216.html


Using windfalls and paper to fight climate change.  Amid much
pomp, Gov. Jerry Brown and dignitaries from Germany, Spain,
Mexico, Brazil, the United Kingdom, Canada and the United States
gathered at the meticulously restored Stanford Mansion last week.
There, they signed a piece of paper. With international flags
providing an impressive backdrop, the leaders agreed to abide by
the paper, a memorandum of understanding, that says they intend
to limit global temperature rise to less than 3.6 degrees, or,
because this was a cosmopolitan event, 2 degrees Celsius. Hence
the name, “Under 2 MOU.”
http://www.sacbee.com/opinion/opn-columns-blogs/dan-morain/article22028994.html




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