What's New List Serve Post Display

ARB Newsclips for September 18, 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.

AIR POLLUTION

EPA says VW intentionally violates clean air standards. The
Environmental Protection Agency says nearly 500,000 Volkswagen
and Audi diesel cars built in the past seven year are
intentionally violating clean air standards by using software
that evades EPA emissions standards. The EPA says the cars
include a device programmed to detect when the car is undergoing
official emissions testing.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_EPA_VOLKSWAGEN?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT


EPA Says Volkswagen Software Cheated Car Emissions Tests.
Volkswagen AG sold diesel cars with software that circumvented
U.S. emissions standards for air pollution, the Environmental
Protection Agency said. The company sold Volkswagen and Audi
brand cars from model years 2009-2015 that contained a
“sophisticated software algorithm” that detects when the car is
undergoing official emissions testing…
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-09-18/epa-says-volkswagon-software-circumvented-car-emissions-testing


Volkswagen Is Told to Recall Nearly 500,000 Vehicles Over
Emissions Software. The Obama administration on Friday directed
Volkswagen to recall nearly a half million cars from the road,
saying the German automaker used software intentionally designed
to circumvent environmental standards for reducing smog.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/19/business/volkswagen-is-ordered-to-recall-nearly-500000-vehicles-over-emissions-software.html?_r=0


EPA: 482K VW diesel vehicles violated emissions rules. The
Environmental Protection Agency and the state of California said
Volkswagen AG violated federal law by using sophisticated
software in 482,000 diesel VW and Audi cars sold since 2009 to
purposely evade emissions requirements for dangerous pollutants.
VW could face up to $18 billion -- or $37,500 per vehicle — as
well as criminal prosecution…
http://www.detroitnews.com/story/business/autos/foreign/2015/09/18/epa-vw-diesel-vehicles-violated-emissions-rules/72401296/


OTHER RELATED STORIES
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/09/18/us-usa-volkswagen-idUSKCN0RI1VK20150918

http://www.wsj.com/articles/epa-accuses-volkswagen-of-dodging-emissions-rules-1442595129

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2015/09/18/epa-volkswagen-used-defeat-device-to-circumvent-air-pollution-controls/

http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/cars/2015/09/18/epa-accuses-volkswagen-audi-evading-emission-laws/72400018/

http://www.latimes.com/business/autos/la-fi-hy-volkswagen-probe-20150918-story.html

http://www.sfgate.com/business/energy/article/EPA-says-VW-intentionally-violates-clean-air-6513932.php

http://www.sacbee.com/news/business/article35699754.html 
http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2015/09/18/441467960/volkswagen-used-defeat-device-to-skirt-emissions-rules-epa-says?utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=environment


Oil field operator settles air-quality violations, moves closer
to reopening.  An oil field linked to chronic respiratory
illnesses in South Los Angeles has moved a step closer to
resuming operations by paying $144,250 to settle air quality
violations. Announcement of the settlement with AllenCo Energy
Inc. earlier this week was unwelcome news for University Park
residents who had filed hundreds of complaints in 2010…
http://www.latimes.com/science/la-me-0918-allenco-20150918-story.html


Scientists link millions of deaths to air pollution: What can be
done?  A new study published in the journal Nature found that air
particles from traffic, agriculture, even cooking are causing
premature deaths, especially in Asia. A new study linking
millions of deaths around the world to air pollution offers some
dire predictions for global health if pollution continues to rise
at the current rate…
http://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2015/0917/Scientists-link-millions-of-deaths-to-air-pollution-What-can-be-done


CLIMATE CHANGE

Actors join campaign to draw attention to Arctic issue. Critics
of Arctic offshore petroleum drilling have used climbing gear,
kayaks and polar bear costumes to protest industrial activity in
the Arctic. They're now trying humor. Actors Alexander Skarsgard
of "True Blood" and Jack McBrayer of "30 Rock," along with Andy
Bichlbaum of "The Yes Men" activists, are on a Greenpeace ship in
the Greenland Sea with a team…
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_ARCTIC_AWARENESS?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
 

Climate-smart development crystallizes on Senegal's salt flats.
In Senegal's central Kaffrine region, stretches of the national
highway cut through vast salt ponds. Yet the salt industry -
which could help local people earn more and cope with worsening
climate pressures - is little developed, experts say.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/09/18/us-development-goals-senegal-climatechan-idUSKCN0RI00I20150918


Polish elections complicate EU quest for Paris climate stance.
Looming parliamentary elections in coal-dependent Poland will
bedevil European Union efforts on Friday to agree a strong
position for a global deal to tackle climate change. EU
environment ministers meet in Brussels on Friday to finalize the
bloc's negotiating position for a U.N. climate summit in Paris
starting at the end of November.
http://af.reuters.com/article/energyOilNews/idAFL5N11N2L920150917


`West Polluted World' for 150 Years, and India Says It Won't Pay.
 “You made the mess -- you clean it up” may well be India’s
attitude at the coming international climate-change talks in
Paris. “It’s the West which has polluted the world for the last
150 years with cheap energy,” Indian Power Minister Piyush Goyal
said in an interview. “I can’t tell the people of India that
we’ll burden you with high costs because the West has polluted
the world, now India will pay for it.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-09-17/-west-polluted-world-for-150-years-and-india-says-it-won-t-pay


11 Republicans vow to fight climate change. Eleven House
Republicans signed on to a resolution Thursday that recognizes
humans have a role in causing climate change. The resolution also
endorses steps to combat global warming, though it stops well
short of calling for specific solutions. Led by Rep. Chris Gibson
(R-N.Y.), the lawmakers want the House to go on record to
generally agree…
http://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/254021-11-republicans-seek-to-fight-climate-change


Earth's record streak of record heat keeps on sizzling.  Earth's
record-breaking heat is sounding an awful lot like a broken
record. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
announced Thursday that August, this past summer and the first
eight months of 2015 all smashed global records for heat. That's
the fifth straight record-hot season and the fourth consecutive
record-hot month.
http://www.latimes.com/nation/ct-earth-record-heat-20150917-story.html


DROUGHT

Drought is taming wild horses in Southern Nevada. The beige
mare's skin stretched tightly over her ribs as she grazed at
Oliver Ranch. It's the temporary holding area for the wild horses
the Bureau of Land Management rounded up at the end of August to
save from the drought that's parching the American West.
http://www.sfgate.com/news/science/article/Drought-is-taming-wild-horses-in-Southern-Nevada-6513211.php


‘Lake West Covina’ is drying up but not completely due to
drought. Here’s why. For 13 years, whenever David Miyahira gazed
over the edge of his backyard he’d see a blue-green pond full of
fish and encircling waterbirds. “My wife, Vivian, who is Chinese,
believes in feng shui. She says if that pond goes away we will
have to leave. It brings balance and a sense of energy,” he said.
The 1.3-acre pond, sometimes referred to as Lake West Covina, is
indeed going away. One might call it a victim of the state’s
four-year drought.
http://www.sgvtribune.com/environment-and-nature/20150918/lake-west-covina-is-drying-up-but-not-completely-due-to-drought-heres-why
 

From Oregon to Johannesburg, micro-hydro offers solution to
drought hit cities. Cities worldwide are harnessing the power of
gravity to generate electricity from public drinking water pipes.
To see how closely water and energy are linked, you only have to
look at the west coast of the US, where four years of severe
drought have led to historically low levels in water reservoirs…
http://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2015/sep/18/portland-oregon-drought-microhydro-electricity-from-water-pipes-lucid-energy-california


Nevada ranch uses waste water to survive the drought. At Douglas
County’s Bently Ranch, these days the backup is squarely up
front. Reclaimed wastewater is used to water crops late every
irrigation season, but this year, during a protracted drought,
it’s largely what’s keeping the place in the business of
agriculture. 
http://www.capitalpress.com/Water/20150918/nevada-ranch-uses-waste-water-to-survive-the-drought


DIESEL ACTIVITIES

Judge will consider CARB DPF lawsuit Friday. A legal action
seeking to halt California’s enforcement of its diesel
particulate filter regulation could come to a head as soon as
Friday, Sept. 18. Glenn County, Calif., Superior Court Judge
Peter Twede is scheduled to hear a motion by the California Air
Resources Board to dismiss a legal action brought by a trucking
industry veteran and his organization.
http://www.landlinemag.com/Story.aspx?StoryID=29801#.Vfw5-E2IOUk

http://www.chicoer.com/general-news/20150917/carb-back-in-glenn-county-court-friday-over-diesel-filters


VEHICLES

DOE awards nearly $55M to advance fuel efficient vehicle
technologies in support of EV Everywhere and SuperTruck. The US
Department of Energy (DOE) is awarding nearly $55 million for 24
projects to develop and deploy advanced vehicle technologies,
supporting the Energy Department’s EV Everywhere Grand Challenge
to make plug-in electric vehicles as affordable to own and
operate as today’s gasoline-powered vehicles by 2022.
http://www.greencarcongress.com/2015/09/20150918-doevto.html 

1917 Detroit Electric Vs 2014 BMW i3: A Century Of Electric Cars.
What a difference a century makes, more or less. The 1917 Detroit
Electric Model 68 in these photos was painstakingly restored over
a period of years by owner Donald Davidson, who is only the car's
third owner in 98 years.
http://www.greencarreports.com/news/1100087_1917-detroit-electric-vs-2014-bmw-i3-a-century-of-electric-cars


Electric cars will be the quickest way to decarbonize the U.S.,
says industry-enviro group report. California Gov. Jerry Brown
(D) issued an executive order in April that set a goal to cut the
state's greenhouse gas emissions by 40 percent by 2030 and
eventually 80 percent by 2050 compared with 1990 levels. "I don't
know how you're getting anywhere close to that without
electrification," Ted Craver, CEO of Edison International, the
parent company…
http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/2015/09/18/stories/1060024917 


HIGH-SPEED RAIL

A high-speed rail from L.A. to Las Vegas? China says it's
partnering with U.S. to build. or decades private developers and
entrepreneurs have periodically announced bold plans to run
high-speed trains between Las Vegas and Los Angeles. None have
gotten anywhere because they lacked money or suffered other
setbacks.
http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-vegas-la-chinese-high-speed-rail-20150917-story.html


GREEN ENERGY

Renewable energy to power Sacramento state buildings. Gov. Jerry
Brown’s administration and Sacramento’s not-for-profit electric
utility have reached an agreement that will power nearly two
dozen state office buildings with electricity from renewable
sources within the next month. The three-year pact between SMUD
and the Department of General Services will kick in with the
state’s next billing cycle…
http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/the-state-worker/article35643843.html#storylink=cpy


State’s renewable energy bill is costly for Covanta
waste-to-energy plant.  The Covanta energy plant, which serves as
the municipal waste burner for Stanislaus County and Modesto, can
continue for another year selling higher-cost electricity to
buyers that want renewable energy credits. But a major state
Senate bill to increase renewable energy sources in California
will remove its special status in 2017.
http://www.modbee.com/news/article35653536.html#storylink=cpy 

California entering uncharted territory on clean energy. The
Coachella Valley’s state Senator, Republican Jeff Stone, wrote a
bill this year urging Congress to extend a 30 percent tax credit
for solar energy. The bill sailed unanimously through the Senate,
then passed the Assembly with just one dissenting vote. Stone’s
resolution was largely symbolic.
http://www.desertsun.com/story/news/environment/water-energy-summit/2015/09/17/california-entering-uncharted-territory-clean-energy/72361426/


Mt. SAC approves mega solar power plant after adding concessions.
After agreeing to move solar panels farther away from homes, the
Mount San Antonio College board approved the construction of a
massive solar-power project on a residential hillside across the
street from the community college.
http://www.pasadenastarnews.com/environment-and-nature/20150917/mt-sac-approves-mega-solar-power-plant-after-adding-concessions


Latin American, European cities lead world on renewables. Tokyo
gets more than 80 percent of its energy from coal and gas.
Hydroelectricity alone powers more than a dozen Brazilian cities.
Geothermal power provides nearly a third of Reykjavik's energy in
Iceland. A new data set released yesterday by the Carbon
Disclosure Project, a U.K.-based greenhouse gas emissions
tracking and disclosure organization…
http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/2015/09/18/stories/1060024909

MISCELLANEOUS

Which bills will Jerry Brown sign? Governor has more than 600
measures to act on in the coming weeks. Among the major issues in
California are assisted death, medical marijuana, alternative
energy. After a flurry of action by California lawmakers in the
final weeks of the legislative session, the attention now shifts
to Gov. Jerry Brown, who will act on an estimated 640 bills over
the next month.
http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article35665722.html#storylink=cpy


David Letterman to appear in climate change series in first TV
gig post-'Late Show'. David Letterman has lined up his first
television gig since retiring from "Late Show" in May. The
comedian will appear as a correspondent in the second season of
the climate change documentary series, "Years of Living
Dangerously," which will premiere on National Geographic in
October 2016…
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/tv/showtracker/la-et-st-david-letterman-climate-change-series-first-post-late-show-20150917-story.html

http://www.motherjones.com/blue-marble/2015/09/david-letterman-just-got-new-gig


OPINIONS

There's no need for Californians' trees and lawns to dry up amid
the drought.  Have you watered your yard lately? You probably
should. Such a recommendation might seem irresponsible in the
face of the California drought, but the recent rush to slash
urban landscape water use, and in the process let trees, shrubs
and lawns decline or die, is shortsighted, foolish, expensive
and, most tragic of all, unnecessary.
http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-hodel-pittenger-water-lawn-20150917-story.html


California’s carbon emissions fight shows there’s another path.
Say this for California’s landmark bill to reduce carbon
emissions: It doesn’t lack for ambition. At the same time, it
shows the pitfalls of relying too much on regulators instead of
the market. The original bill would have set in law three
extraordinary targets for 2030: Get half the state’s power from
renewable sources…
http://www.kearneyhub.com/opinions/hubopinion/california-s-carbon-emissions-fight-shows-there-s-another-path/article_f51007c0-6a39-57b7-86b8-90e2f6e82bd3.html


BLOGS

Let’s Bring Competition to the Fuel Pump. Why are we asking the
question “What do we do when oil prices once again crush the
global economy?” The answer is simple: It is as inevitable as the
sun rise. The capital-spending reductions now in place around the
world because of low oil prices, especially the draconian cuts in
North America, coupled with inevitable natural reservoir declines
everywhere…
http://blogs.wsj.com/experts/2015/09/18/lets-bring-competition-to-the-fuel-pump/


Lawmakers never agreed on cap-and-trade funding. Now what? Back
in June, the Brown administration announced that it would carve
out more than $1 billion in expected cap-and-trade revenue from
the budget discussion because lawmakers couldn’t agree on how to
spend the money. As lawmakers quarreled and attempted to direct
funds into their individual districts…
http://www.bizjournals.com/sacramento/blog/morning-roundup/2015/09/lawmakers-never-agreed-on-cap-and-trade-funding.html?ana=e_sac_rdup&s=newsletter&ed=2015-09-17&u=48zidwXI73mCj+vn7gp6vA0acf0b37&t=1442532365


"Water" flows through KPCC. OK we did get some grief — the
biggest rain in recent memory, just as KPCC launched our Future
of Water series on radio, digital and social media, telling us
how much hotter, drier and more water-challenged California will
be by 2040. That’s ok — the “Future” series isn’t about the
current drought, but instead aims to go deeper and explore more
profound changes. 
http://www.scpr.org/blogs/inside-kpcc/2015/09/17/18072/water-flows-through-kpcc/


Acting faster on climate. “We’re not acting fast enough.”
President Obama said four times in a 24-minute speech recently in
Alaska urging the world do more to combat climate change.
Scientists agree. While the president has done everything he can
using the limited executive branch tools at his disposal, we will
fall far short of achieving his goal of reducing U.S. greenhouse
gas emissions 26 to 28 percent by 2025.
http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/energy-environment/253902-acting-faster-on-climate


GOP Congressman Boycotting Pope's Speech Over Climate Change.
"When the Pope chooses to act and talk like a leftist politician,
then he can expect to be treated like one." Rep. Paul Gosar
(R-Ariz.) is boycotting Pope Francis' address to Congress next
week because of reports that His Holiness plans to focus on the
"fool’s errand of climate change."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/paul-gosar-pope-climate-change_55fc04f6e4b0fde8b0cdcffe


Black Carbon and Methane and HFCs -- Oh My! Even if you don't
track news from the "apocalypse beat" closely, the lexicon of
climate science and policy is probably familiar: carbon
footprint, carbon budget, two-degree scenario, CO2 equivalent,
ocean acidification, sea-level rise.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rachel-muncrief/black-carbon-and-methane-and-hfcs-oh-my_b_8149206.html


The Global Imperative of the 'Clean Trillion' Climate change is
the most significant threat to sustainable development. Left
unchecked, it threatens to undermine progress on nearly all of
the other Sustainable Development Goals -- from ending poverty
and hunger to ensuring access to clean water and decent work.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mindy-lubber/the-global-imperative-of-the-clean-trillion_b_8152660.html


The Green Thread. On September 25, at the UN General Assembly in
New York, government leaders will agree to "take urgent action to
combat climate change and its impacts" as they sign on to the new
Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) -- setting the
global-development agenda for the next 15 years. It is good to
see that climate action and renewable energy…
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-saleemul-huq/the-green-thread_b_8149614.html


Climate Action Does Not Require Economic Sacrifice. More than two
decades ago, the world agreed on the need to confront climate
change. The U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)
emerged in 1992, spawning a variety of negotiating forums with
the goal of preventing catastrophic impacts from planetary
warming caused mostly by polluting societies.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rachel-kyte/climate-action-does-not-require-economic-sacrifice_b_8155246.html


Critical Year for Climate Change. The sustainable development
goals (SDGs) will help government leaders develop policies that
address a series of major global economic challenges, as well as
promote growth. Whilst all these goals are equally important in
their own right, Goal 13, combating climate change, is arguably
the only one that…
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mark-kenber/critical-year-for-climate-change_b_8152682.html
   




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