What's New List Serve Post Display

ARB Newsclips for October 21, 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.

CAP AND TRADE

California Air Resources Board: CARB approves $363 million plan
that includes putting more clean vehicles in disadvantaged
communities. Today the California Air Resources Board adopted a
revised funding plan for proceeds from the cap-and-trade program
that includes putting more clean vehicles in disadvantaged
communities. The investments range from supporting increased
numbers of zero-emission heavy-duty trucks and buses to rebates
for low- and zero-emission passenger vehicles.
http://www.4-traders.com/news/California-Air-Resources-Board-CARB-approves-363-million-plan-that-includes-putting-more-clean-ve--23250407/


The carbon tax that Clinton decided not to use: $42. Hillary
Clinton was examining an aggressive carbon tax as a central
pillar of her campaign's climate agenda, according to internal
emails leaked yesterday that show closely held details about her
thinking at the outset of the presidential race. Clinton asked
several advisers to specify how a $42 "GHG pollution fee" applied
to every ton of carbon dioxide would affect Americans financially
and how the tax would work.
http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/2016/10/21/stories/1060044632 

AIR POLLUTION

Air pollution more deadly in Africa than malnutrition or dirty
water, study warns. Annual human and economic cost of tainted air
runs to 712,000 lost lives and £364bn, finds Organisation for
Economic Co-operation and Development. Africa’s air pollution is
causing more premature deaths than unsafe water or childhood
malnutrition, and could develop into a health and climate crisis
reminiscent of those seen in China and India…
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2016/oct/20/air-pollution-deadlier-africa-than-dirty-water-or-malnutrition-oecd


CLIMATE CHANGE

UN approves plans for new IPCC global warming report. Top climate
scientists have just under two years to deliver assessment of
dangers and avoiding strategies for warming of 1.5C. Governments
have approved plans for a new UN report to explore the impacts of
warming of 1.5C above pre-industrial levels at a meeting in
Bangkok, Thailand.
http://www.climatechangenews.com/2016/10/20/un-approves-plans-for-new-global-warming-report/


DIESEL ACTIVITIES

Maritime Nations Near Big Cut to Pollution-Causing Sulfur in
Ships’ Fuel. Reducing sulfur in 2020 would improve human health,
officials say, but cost shipping companies billions of dollars.
The world’s leading maritime nations are leaning toward setting
rules next week to cut the sulfur in oceangoing vessels’ fuel by
more than 85% in 2020, people familiar with the matter say.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/maritime-nations-near-big-cut-to-pollution-causing-sulfur-in-ships-fuel-1477058581


FUELS

Tereos starts talks with Petrobras to buy rest of Brazil sugar
business. France's Tereos [TEREO.UL] has started talks to acquire
Petroleo Brasileiro SA's 45.9 percent minority stake in their
joint venture Guarani, as Brazil's state-owned oil firm proceeds
with plans to quit its biofuel activities. Petrobras last month
announced a 25 percent cut in planned investments to reduce its
debts and revive investor confidence…
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-petrobras-m-a-tereos-sa-idUSKCN12L1UB

http://www.wsj.com/articles/brazils-petrobras-in-talks-to-sell-stake-in-sugar-ethanol-producer-1477052288


Oil company pays $26 million for half-billion-dollar ethanol
plant. The failure of cellulosic ethanol may prove beneficial to
oil giant Royal Dutch Shell. Cellulosic ethanol was seen as an
important component of mass ethanol adoption because it is made
from non-edible plants. But despite the hopes of ethanol
advocates and policymakers, cellulosic sources never materialized
in significant quantities.
http://www.greencarreports.com/news/1106799_oil-company-pays-26-million-for-half-billion-dollar-ethanol-plant


Shell’s Latest Biofuels Strategy Includes $26M Bid on Cellulosic
Ethanol Plant. Shell has offered more than $26 million to buy
Abengoa’s cellulosic ethanol plant in Kansas, Reuters reports.
“This move is in line with Shell’s strategy to develop biofuels”
that use sustainable feedstocks, Shell spokeswoman Natalie Mazey
told Reuters.
http://www.environmentalleader.com/2016/10/21/shells-latest-biofuels-strategy-includes-26m-bid-on-cellulosic-ethanol-plant/


Automakers Lobby to Ease MPG Standards Despite Success in
Improving Fuel. Since embracing tough new fuel economy standards
in 2012, automakers have spent billions to develop more
fuel-efficient vehicles and have been so successful at meeting
tougher regulations they’ve become victims of their own success.
Over the past four years, automakers deployed new cars and trucks
with gasoline…
http://www.tnj.com/lifestyle/auto/automakers-lobby-to-ease-mpg-standards-despite-success-improving-fuel-economy


Scientists turn CO2 into Ethanol. Scientists at the US Department
of Energy Oak Ridge, were trying to a conduct an experiment of
turning carbon dioxide – a gas we absolutely do not need – into a
cleaner fuel ethanol, but in the process stumbled upon something
new altogether all while trying to essentially reverse the
combustion process. The process was supposed to be long and
complicated often accomplished by the use of expensive catalyst…
http://www.brecorder.com/arts-a-leisure/arts/324116-scientists-turn-co2-into-ethanol.html


VEHICLES

We just got a first look at what could be Volkswagen's electric
sports car. New renderings of a Volkswagen sports car are giving
us a glimpse at what could be an addition to the automaker's
electric car line. The design patent, found on the World
Intellectual Property Organization website, was first posted on a
Volkswagen forum called VWvortex.
http://www.businessinsider.com/volkswagen-electric-sports-car-photos-2016-10

OPINIONS

California's Dire Drought Message Wanes, Conservation Levels
Drop. Remember the California drought? It was all over the news a
year ago, when the state took the unprecedented step of mandating
statewide water cutbacks. The Sierra Nevada snowpack was at its
lowest recorded level. Rivers and reservoirs were getting
shallower and shallower. Wells in rural towns were literally
running dry.
http://www.npr.org/2016/10/20/498592329/california-s-dire-drought-message-wanes-conservation-levels-drop


Global warming continues; 2016 will be the hottest year ever
recorded. We will soon see a three-peat of record hot annual
global temperatures. We know the world is warming – no factor can
explain it aside from human emissions of greenhouse gases.
Despite this, people who deny the basic facts of climate change
have tried to argue that the Earth is either not warming or is
only slowly heating.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/climate-consensus-97-per-cent/2016/oct/21/global-warming-continues-2016-will-be-the-hottest-year-ever-recorded

BLOGS

California Clean Vehicle Rebate Project Initiates New Eligibility
Requirements. In order to make clean vehicles more accessible to
a greater number of California drivers, especially in communities
that are highly impacted by air pollution, the Clean Vehicle
Rebate Project (CVRP) is implementing increased incentive levels
for lower-income consumers and new high-income eligibility caps.
http://electriccarsreport.com/2016/10/california-clean-vehicle-rebate-project-initiates-new-eligibility-requirements/


VW's $10-billion settlement could eliminate any need for a TDI
fix. VW's settlement with dealers could add more than $1 billion
to the tab. When it comes to addressing Volkswagen's
diesel-emissions scandal that broke last September, some would
say Europe's largest automaker has proposed to merely throw money
at the problem.
http://www.autoblog.com/2016/10/20/vw-10-billion-settlement-eliminate-tdi-fix/


EPFL Chemists Use Formaldehyde to Convert Biofuel Waste into
Wealth. Lignin is a bulky chain of molecules present in wood and
is usually discarded in the biofuel production process. However,
in a recent technique developed by EPFL chemists, by just adding
formaldehyde to the process, lignin can be changed into the main
area of focus. Using more of plant-derived chemicals and biofuels
implies the reduced dependence on fossil fuels.
http://www.azocleantech.com/news.aspx?newsID=23781 

Aliso Canyon Disaster One Year Later: Some Progress, But More
Action Needed. When the gusher of methane pouring out of the
Aliso Canyon natural gas storage field was discovered last
October 23, it almost instantly transformed the sleepy Los
Angeles suburb of Porter Ranch into the site of one of the
biggest environmental disasters in recent history. It would
ultimately take four months to stop the massive underground leak.
http://blogs.edf.org/energyexchange/2016/10/21/aliso-canyon-disaster-one-year-later-some-progress-but-more-action-needed/




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