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newsclips -- ARB Newsclips for February 2, 2016.
Posted: 02 Feb 2016 15:15:03
ARB Newsclips for February 2, 2016. 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 Port of L.A. terminal fails to comply with pollution-reduction mandates, officials say. The Port of Los Angeles has failed to meet pollution-reduction requirements at another shipping terminal, city officials said Monday, their second such admission in recent months. The TraPac terminal near Wilmington did not comply with air quality… http://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-0202-port-pollution-20160202-story.html ALISO CANYON Expanded air monitoring in Porter Ranch finds no health risks so far, but residents skeptical. Results from expanded air monitoring in Porter Ranch, where natural gas continues to leak from a breached well show evidence of high methane levels and some benzene, but pose no increased risk for longterm health effects, health officials said Monday. http://www.dailynews.com/environment-and-nature/20160201/expanded-air-monitoring-in-porter-ranch-finds-no-health-risks-so-far-but-residents-skeptical Private company offers real-time community air monitoring in Porter Ranch. Amid a 3-month-old gas leak, a Washington state-based company is now providing real-time community air monitoring of the greenhouse gas methane and will soon be measuring carcinogens such as benzene in Porter Ranch. The company, Argos Scientific, is using state-of-the art monitoring systems that sample the air continuously while reporting the results online. http://www.dailynews.com/environment-and-nature/20160201/private-company-offers-real-time-community-air-monitoring-in-porter-ranch CLIMATE CHANGE Climate change could alter New England soil – study. New England's forests are bracing for a transformation above ground and in the soil below as the climate changes. New research finds that as warmer temperatures shift where tree species' ideal habitat is -- deciduous species such as oak and maple are expected to move into higher elevations, replacing coniferous evergreen pines, cedars and firs… http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/2016/02/02/stories/1060031627 2014 U.K. floods made more likely by climate change. Man-made climate change contributed to recent floods in the south of England, an Oxford University-led study finds. The study, published in the journal Nature Climate Change, found that the downpours that caused the 2013 and 2014 flooding resulted from two factors associated with global warming: an increase in the atmosphere's water-holding capacity… http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/2016/02/02/stories/1060031628 DROUGHT Studying the Heart of El Niño, Where Its Weather Begins. A thousand miles south of Hawaii, the air at 45,000 feet above the equatorial Pacific was a shimmering gumbo of thick storm clouds and icy cirrus haze, all cooked up by the overheated waters below. In a Gulfstream jet more accustomed to hunting hurricanes in the Atlantic, researchers with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration were cruising this desolate… http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/02/science/where-el-nino-weather-begins-pacific-ocean-noaa.html Study: Drought could worsen fires, feed insects, spur plant die-offs. Worsening drought conditions may be doing more damage to forests in California and throughout the West than their ecosystems can handle, causing a spiral of death that could have a devastating impact on land managers, a U.S. Forest Service study concludes. The 300-page report issued Monday -- "Effects of Drought on Forests… http://www.ocregister.com/articles/forest-702373-drought-forests.html California weighs extending drought conservation orders. Following a welcomed parade of El Nino storms drenching drought-stricken California, state officials on Tuesday will decide whether to extend emergency conservation orders, and reveal how much water Californians saved in December. The figures are expected to show that for a third straight month, Californians missed a mandate to use 25 percent less water. http://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/nation/2016/02/02/california-drought/79684428/ Feds should step up coordination amid drought – report. The federal government should take a handful of "modest and programmatic" steps that would greatly aid the West's ability to cope with drought, a leading California-based think tank said today. Public Policy Institute of California researchers laid out five areas of reform that would improve federal coordination of programs that manage the West's limited water resources. http://www.eenews.net/greenwire/2016/02/02/stories/1060031654 Drought could devastate Calif. ecosystems – USFS. Worsening drought conditions in California could be causing more damage to the state's forests than the ecosystems can handle, according to a U.S. Forest Service study released yesterday. Drier, hotter and more extreme weather fluctuation could cause insect outbreaks, tree and plant die-offs, devastating wildfires, and timber habitat damage, the study found. http://www.eenews.net/greenwire/2016/02/02/stories/1060031648 FUELS Think Crude's Cheap? Biodiesel's Going for Free in Some Places. Biodiesel’s become so cheap in the U.S. that some refiners are being paid to use it. Midwest refiners are paying as little as 64.5 cents a gallon for the fuel after factoring in a $1-a-gallon tax subsidy and other credits. Add further incentives offered by California into the mix and some customers are effectively getting biodiesel for free in the Golden State. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-02-01/think-crude-s-cheap-biodiesel-s-going-for-free-in-some-places Cheap Oil Won't Juice the U.S. Economy This Time: Reuters Poll. U.S. consumers are cautious about spending their windfall from cheap gasoline and are saving more, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll and official data, suggesting low oil prices are less of a boon for the U.S. economy than in the past. Commerce Department data shows that the crude's 70 percent drop since mid-2014 cut households' annual spending on gasoline… http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2016/02/01/business/01reuters-usa-economy-oil.html?_r=0 VEHICLES German transport min says not opposed to electric car incentives. German Transport Minister Alexander Dobrindt said on Tuesday he was not opposed to incentives to promote sales of electric cars but said expanding charging infrastructure should be a priority. "I don't have any ideological reservations against any consideration or model to promote the ramp-up of electric cars," Dobrindt told reporters at a Volkswagen dealership in Berlin. http://www.reuters.com/article/autos-electric-germany-incentives-idUSB4N14400H?feedType=RSS&feedName=marketsNews EU Automakers’ Political Muscle May Sway Pollution-Test Vote. A loophole-filled European plan to test cars’ smog-causing pollution under real driving conditions may survive a veto threat this week, signaling that the Volkswagen AGcheating scandal has done little to diminish the auto industry’s political clout. http://washpost.bloomberg.com/Story?docId=1376-O1WOTJ6VDKHT01-109P5G28640FA3O72USI7EI86Q Top Six Trends In Plug-In Electric Cars Through 2020. Five years after the first mass-market electric car hit the market, cars with plugs haven't lived up to the most optimistic projections for their adoption. They are at least pacing the rate of hybrid cars over their first five years, but numerous factors have challenged what advocates see as an obvious evolution. Many of those challenges reside in the automakers themselves, many of which still largely view plug-in electric cars… http://www.greencarreports.com/news/1102160_top-six-trends-in-plug-in-electric-cars-through-2020 Plug-In Electric Car Trends, VW Diesel Report, Electric-Car Sales: Today's Car News. Today, we have the top six trends in plug-in electric cars through 2020, Volkswagen's confirmation that it will release a report on its diesel cheating in April, and our monthly plug-in electric car sales report, which will be updated frequently over the next day or so. http://www.greencarreports.com/news/1102175_plug-in-electric-car-trends-vw-diesel-report-electric-car-sales-todays-car-news Fuel-cell vehicles hindered by charging station challenge. A trip with a hydrogen-powered car from Detroit to New Orleans would require three refueling stops -- similar to a combustion-engine vehicle -- and emit around 40 percent less greenhouse gases. That's one of the scenarios laid out in a University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute (UMTRI) paper released yesterday. http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/2016/02/02/stories/1060031630 VW RECALL Volkswagen Brand's U.S. Sales Drop 15%, Missing Estimate. Volkswagen AG’s namesake brand reported a decline in U.S. sales for the third straight month as the automaker continues to face fallout from cheating on government emissions tests. The brand’s deliveries slid 15 percent in January, Volkswagen said in a statement Tuesday, after dropping 9.1 percent in December… http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-02-02/volkswagen-brand-s-u-s-sales-drop-15-missing-estimate http://www.wsj.com/articles/volkswagen-car-sales-in-germany-fall-8-8-in-january-1454440256 http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/cars/2016/02/02/volkswagen-january-sales-emissions-scandal/79693908/ Fiat Chrysler to Improve Diesel Emissions Performance. Car maker acts as EU considers improving emissions testing after VW’s cheating. Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV on Tuesday said it would reduce the emissions of its vehicles as the Italian-American car maker moves to get ahead of the debate on European regulations following the Volkswagen AG cheating scandal. http://www.wsj.com/articles/fiat-chrysler-to-improve-diesel-emissions-performance-1454414998 Volkswagen Bank Profits May Be Endangered by Diesel Scandal. Volkswagen is more than just a scandal-plagued automaker. It is also one of Europe’s largest banks, and its loan portfolio appears vulnerable to the emissions-cheating crisis that has engulfed the company. Volkswagen Financial Services, the company’s in-house bank, has been an important element in Volkswagen’s rise to… http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/02/business/international/diesel-scandal-also-raises-concerns-for-volkswagens-bank.html?_r=0 VW To Release Diesel Cheating Report At April Annual Meeting. As it continues to fight a losing public-relations battle over the ongoing diesel-emissions scandal, Volkswagen is preparing to release the results of an internal investigation of the matter. The report on the use of "defeat device" software to cheat on emissions tests will be released at the company's annual shareholder meeting on April 21. http://www.greencarreports.com/news/1102159_vw-to-release-diesel-cheating-report-at-april-annual-meeting Calif. deadline looms for Volkswagen emissions fix. Volkswagen continued today to play a game of brinksmanship as it has yet to file a repair plan for 80,000 diesel SUVs and cars, equipped with 3.0-liter V-6 powerplants. With the deadline swiftly approaching, the automaker yesterday had still not responded publicly to a California Air Resources Board (CARB) ruling. http://www.examiner.com/article/calif-deadline-looms-for-volkswagen-emissions-fix GREEN ENERGY Brexit May Lose U.K. Billions in Funding for Climate, Renewables. The U.K. risks losing out on billions of pounds of investment in renewable energy projects such as wind farms and grid upgrades if it quits the European Union and ditches its stake in the European Investment Bank. Britain is the biggest recipient of the EIB’s Climate Awareness Bond Project, taking 24 percent of the 7.2 billion euros ($7.9 billion) invested… http://washpost.bloomberg.com/Story?docId=1376-O1VPHX6TTDSF01-4VPILUFCRMLLUAN1AOSLMB3VAV CORRECTED-France's Total buys stakes in solar power start-ups. (Corrects in paragraph 1 to say TEV has $150 million under management, not $100 million). Feb 2 French oil and gas company Total said on Tuesday that it had taken stakes in two solar power start-ups via its $150 million Total Energy Ventures venture capital fund as it expands in renewable energy. http://www.reuters.com/article/total-renewables-startups-idUSL8N15H3KF California saves $45 million in power costs in new energy market. California’s participation in a growing network of power utilities and operators in the western U.S. called the Energy Imbalance Market has yielded savings of $12 million in the fourth quarter of 2015, state power officials said Monday. http://www.sacbee.com/news/local/article57812653.html#storylink=cpy Amendment to energy bill would broaden popular cleanup program. Lawmakers on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee today lauded the addition of an amendment reauthorizing U.S. EPA's brownfields program to an energy policy bill under consideration. The amendment by EPW Chairman James Inhofe (R-Okla.) to S. 2012, or the "Energy Policy Modernization Act of 2015,"… http://www.eenews.net/greenwire/2016/02/02/stories/1060031658 MISCELLANEOUS High Court's FERC Ruling Good for EPA, Analysts Say. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's recent victory before the U.S. Supreme Court bodes well for the Environmental Protection Agency when the justices eventually consider substantive challenges to the Clean Power Plan, legal analysts told Bloomberg BNA. http://www.bna.com/high-courts-ferc-n57982066829/ Mayors Get Creative as Competition for 'Coolest City in California' Heats Up. A competition that began in October, the CoolCalifornia Challenge, is motivating Californians in 22 participating cities to reduce their water and energy consumption. The cities are competing for a share of $150,000 to put towards local sustainability projects and the coveted title of “Coolest City in California,” … http://www.sustainablebrands.com/news_and_views/behavior_change/sustainable_brands/mayors_get_creative_competition_coolest_city_calif OPINIONS COLUMN-China tackles smog with help from the World Bank: Kemp. China's capital has become notorious for its smog but the biggest contributors to local air pollution are industrial furnaces, district heating systems, residential fires and trucks rather than power plants. Industrial firms, heating plants and residential fires in the capital and neighbouring provinces consume 240 million tonnes of coal per year… http://af.reuters.com/article/commoditiesNews/idAFL8N15H3PP?pageNumber=2&virtualBrandChannel=0&sp=true Dan Walters: Gas prices drop, gas taxes also. California gasoline prices have been dropping sharply of late – below $2 a gallon in some areas. That’s still somewhat higher than those in many other states, and some self-described consumer groups are still trying to portray California motorists as victims of oil industry greed. http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/dan-walters/article57802198.html#storylink=cpy BLOGS Here's How Enormous The Methane Blowout Is In California. The gas is invisible, so we visualized it for you. The “invisible tsunami” of natural gas that has been spewing from a broken well in the backyard of an affluent Los Angeles suburb has caused illness and losses to businesses, and driven thousands from their homes. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/california-gas-leak-infographic_us_56aff98ce4b09214b14f54b9 California is in a drought emergency. Visit www.SaveOurH2O.org for water conservation tips.