Discourse for all interested in all things air-quality related
The below Aug. 27, 2020 press release is from the California Environmental Protection Agency Air Resources Board. The California Air Resources Board today approved a new regulation designed to further reduce pollution from ocean-going vessels while docked at California’s busiest ports. The rule builds on progress achieved by the groundbreaking At-Berth Regulation adopted in 2007. … Read more
The XpressWest high-speed rail project, to connect Nevada’s Las Vegas to California’s Victorville and beyond, has an anticipated winter 2020-’21 construction start date, with a ’23-’24 projected begin operations/service date. The line, some 180 miles long – 135 miles of which will be in the Golden State – has a $5 billion building-cost estimate. XpressWest … Read more
The past four or five years are unquestionably among the hottest in history ever recorded: An oft-repeated message and a condition personally witnessed and attested to by myriad people. If world warming of late seems unprecedented that’s because it is. So, too, it would appear is air-pollution-contributed premature death: 7 million worldwide annually according to … Read more
The below Jul. 16, 2020 press release is from the Center for Biological Diversity. A federal judge late yesterday reinstated the Bureau of Land Management’s 2016 methane waste rule, aimed at protecting people and the climate from methane waste and pollution from oil and gas extraction on public lands. The ruling is the third defeat … Read more
The below Jul. 22, 2020 press release is from OptiFuel Systems OptiFuel Systems (“OptiFuel”), a system integrator of Cummins and BAE Systems hybrid power products for decarbonizing the rail, marine, and microgrid power market, is in the process of finalizing a $2.6 million U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) grant to demonstrate a pre-production Renewable Natural … Read more
The Fresno Bee on Dec. 16, 2007 introduced its groundbreaking Special Report Fighting For Air. This source was referenced here before. Its mention is important from the standpoint that at that time air quality in California’s Central Valley was a big deal. And just how big a deal was it? Between 2004 and 2007, according … Read more
There are those who rail against California’s bullet-train project asserting that the system will require subsidization. They argue that there isn’t enough available capital even to fund construction of 119 miles of line between Shafter and Madera, much less build 520 miles from San Francisco to Los Angeles and Anaheim (the complete Phase 1 portion). … Read more
In 2014 on American roadways, a total 3.0257 trillion vehicle miles of travel were recorded. Of that amount, 169.83 billion miles that year were tallied in heavy-duty trucks.1 Assuming the calculation is correct, that’s 5.612 percent. In California in 2014, meanwhile, driving miles totaled 332.8572 billion or 11 percent of the 3.0257 trillion total miles … Read more
The below Jun. 15, 2020 press release is from the Sierra Club. Late last week, the Sierra Club and six other environmental groups won an important case involving the County of San Diego’s Climate Action Plan. The opinion explained in detail why the greenhouse gas mitigation measure was unenforceable. In addition to agreeing with the … Read more
“Dedicated high-speed rail dollars kept in the Valley will simply go farther,” the Air Quality Matters blog post of Jun. 14th, showed how $4.2 billion in state rail bonds, in being applied to construction work in California’s San Joaquin Valley, could be a tremendous asset where hiring, stimulating local economies and improving area and state … Read more