Emissions

A battery recycling plant in Vernon is being told to reduce its emissions after recent tests showed it is posing a danger to as many as 110,000 people living in an area that extends from Boyle Heights to Maywood and Huntington Park. The South Coast Air Quality Management District announced late Friday that Exide Technologies, one of the largest battery recyclers in the world, must also hold public meetings later this spring to inform residents that they face an increased cancer risk and outline steps being taken to reduce it. Air district officials said Exide's most recent assessment showed a higher cancer risk affecting a larger number of residents than any other of the more than 450 regulated facilities in Southern California over the 25-year history of a program to monitor toxic air contaminants.

POOLESVILLE, Md.  - On a curve of the Potomac River 37 miles northwest of Washington, the Dickerson power plant has stood sentry over small villages, crop fields and horse farms for more than half a century. Burning mostly coal and some natural gas, Dickerson emitted about 1.5 million tons of greenhouse gases in 2011, akin to the pollution of about 275,000 cars. How much longer Dickerson will run depends in no small measure on the steps President Obama takes to fulfill the pledge he made in his State of the Union address to tackle climate change.

Southern California Edison has agreed to spend $210 million to reduce oxides of nitrogen emissions from Ventura County power plants that burn oil (June 6). The customers will foot the bill. Those emissions supposedly "contribute to smog," at times referred to as ozone. If massive amounts of ozone are in the downwind air coming from the 500 oil wells burning in Kuwait, I would feel a little more comfortable about the logic of Southern California Edison's expenditure. R.J. EXTER, Riverside

California ports are going green. In a speech at the 28th World Ports Conference on Tuesday, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said the city's port is at the forefront of pushing for clean energy alternatives and reducing pollution. The conference, which kicked off Tuesday in Los Angeles, attracted port officials from around the world to discuss issues such as climate change, piracy and other problems affecting ships and the ports where they dock. Greening ports was at the top of many minds.

WASHINGTON - The Environmental Protection Agency has delayed indefinitely a much-anticipated final rule limiting greenhouse gas emissions from new power plants. Proposed a year ago, the rule was the first to set limits on carbon dioxide emissions from new plants. Once a limit is set for new facilities, the EPA is legally obligated to address existing plants, which pose the true climate threat for now. The United States' power plant fleet is the single biggest source of greenhouse gas emissions in the world.

Emissions of heat-trapping carbon dioxide reached an all-time high last year, further reducing the chances that the world could avoid a dangerous rise in global average temperature by 2020, according to the International Energy Agency, the energy analysis group for the world's most industrialized states. Global emissions of carbon-dioxide, or CO2, from fossil-fuel combustion hit a record high of 31.6 gigatonnes  in 2011, according to the IEA's preliminary estimates, an increase of 1 Gt, or 3.2% from 2010.

Farewell to a Big Brother Re "Roy E. Disney, 1930-2009," Obituary, Dec. 17 As past president of Big Brothers of Greater Los Angeles and as a big brother to a fatherless kid since 1968, I can tell you that Roy E. Disney took his family's role in the agency very seriously. ( Walt Disney founded Big Brothers of Greater Los Angeles in 1955.) Roy was always involved -- in many ways beyond the financial -- in helping this great agency. We will miss him. Steve Soboroff Los Angeles Clearing the air Re "Let's not go it alone," Opinion, Dec. 17 Wrong.

Re "Deregulation deja vu," editorial, March 10 Your editorial about the California Public Utilities Commission's recommendations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions overlooks several issues. Assembly Bill 32 requires the Air Resources Board to address emissions from power plants in California and from the 20% to 25% of imported energy, which produces more than 50% of emissions. The first-deliverer approach makes sense because it places the regulatory obligation close to the source.

When Greg Nickels became Seattle's mayor in 2002, global warming was hardly at the top of the municipal agenda. New York's World Trade Center had been attacked, and officials had to figure out how to protect their own city from terrorism. Boeing was laying off 30,000 machinists, so there was the declining regional economy to deal with. Surely the federal government would worry about climate change. Then came the winter of 2004, when the Cascade Mountains snowpack was so disastrously low that ski resorts -- facing their worst year on record -- laid off most of their employees.

Re "EPA OKs fuel-cell car production," Dec. 24 I had to laugh reading that the EPA finally got around to approving the California Air Resources Board decision -- made three years ago -- to move away from battery electric technology and allow automakers to satisfy its zero-emissions requirements with fuel-cell vehicles. The irony is that in those three years, many fuel-cell advocates have concluded that the technology is fraught with challenging and expensive engineering problems. They are now once again looking at solutions that involve batteries.

When Tesla Motors reports its first-ever profit Wednesday, much of the money will come courtesy of the state of California. In its zeal to push electric cars into the market, the state has created a system in which Tesla can make as much as $35,000 extra on each sale of its luxury Model S electric sports sedans. That's because the Palo Alto company qualifies for coveted state environmental credits that it can turn into cash. These Zero Emission Vehicle credits could put as much as $250 million in Tesla's coffers this year, according to one Wall Street analyst, and they are a key reason the 10-year-old automaker has survived this long.

SACRAMENTO - California's air quality officials soon may be adding a new phrase to their bureaucratic vocabulary: " le rechauffement climatique . " That's French for global warming. The California Air Resources Board on Friday linked its program for cutting greenhouse gas emissions and curbing climate change with one in the French-speaking, Canadian province of Quebec. The merger starts Jan. 1. On April 8, Gov. Jerry Brown certified the two cap-and-trade systems as compatible.

WASHINGTON -- A dozen states and cities and three major environmental groups have notified the Environmental Protection Agency that they plan to sue the regulator unless it issues final rules limiting greenhouse gas emissions from new power plants. On Monday, the EPA confirmed that it had missed an April 13 deadline to issue final rules curtailing emissions of carbon dioxide from power plants, the country's single biggest source of heat-trapping gases that drive climate change. The jurisdictions and the environmental groups sent separate letters to the EPA. But each letter notified the regulator of the groups' plan to sue after 60 days, if the EPA did not expedite the rules.

WASHINGTON -- The Environmental Protection Agency says greenhouse gas emissions in the United States showed a 1.6% decline from 2010 to 2011. The decrease continued an overall decline in U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, down 6.9% since 2005. The EPA said the drop from 2010 to 2011 is driven mostly by power plants switching from coal to natural gas, which emits less carbon dioxide when burned. Additionally, a mild winter in the south Atlantic region of the U.S., where much of the heating is electric, resulted in lower electricity demand.

WASHINGTON - The Environmental Protection Agency has delayed indefinitely a much-anticipated final rule limiting greenhouse gas emissions from new power plants. Proposed a year ago, the rule was the first to set limits on carbon dioxide emissions from new plants. Once a limit is set for new facilities, the EPA is legally obligated to address existing plants, which pose the true climate threat for now. The United States' power plant fleet is the single biggest source of greenhouse gas emissions in the world.

WASHINGTON - President Obama's pick to lead the Environmental Protection Agency, Gina McCarthy, faced tough questioning from Senate Republicans at her confirmation hearing Thursday, in a clear signal to the White House that they will continue fighting environmental regulations as vigorously as they did in the first term. Obama's reelection, the gradual revival of the economy and the effects of climate change have not altered the viewpoint of some Republicans that climate change is suspect and environmental rules kill jobs.

Re "Wise Line on Curbing Emissions," editorial, Dec. 2: Although compromise between two ends of the spectrum often seems to be the best resolution in most situations, in the case of environment and pollution that is not so. I was delighted to find out that the European Union was taking such a bold stand in the fight for lower fossil fuel emissions. Unfortunately, I was soon disappointed to discover that the U.S. was not. The world's nations need to pursue a goal that may seem harder to achieve, but will have a better payoff.

The inconsistancy of Mayor Forest Tennant's concerns about emissions from the proposed Irwindale trash incinerator project and lack of concern about emissions from the BKK toxic gas incineratior project is perplexing. When the West Covina City Council a few months ago had a chance to request an exhaust scrubber. Now mayor Tennant is upset that the emissions won't be scrubbed out properly in Irwindale. Well, they won't be scrubbed in West Covina Mr. Mayor Also on the BKK project, the manufacturer's word is accepted as a guaranteee that the air standards will be complied with, but Tennant challenges the manufacturer's word in Irwindale.

Los Angeles City Council members Wednesday expressed fury at recent revelations that arsenic emissions from a battery-recycling plant in nearby Vernon pose a danger to as many as 110,000 people, and called upon the city attorney to look into possible legal action. "I'm outraged. I'm appalled," said Councilman Jose Huizar, who represents Boyle Heights and chairs the council's committee on the environment. The committee had summoned officials from the South Coast Air Quality Management District to a hearing on the risks posed by Exide Technologies.

SACRAMENTO -- Gov. Jerry Brown on Friday hailed the federal Environmental Protection Agency's embrace of proposed clean-fuel standards to be implemented across the country. "For decades, California has carefully crafted emissions standards to protect the health of people and other living things," Brown said in a statement. "Now the Federal government is joining with us to apply the same standards to the rest of the nation. The result will be improved health for millions of people.