How Shipping Affects Air Pollution

Transportation related air pollution:

- Ground freight (diesel trucks, trains) emit 40% of NOx and 30% of particulate matter.
- Moving freight uses 20% of the total amount of energy used by the transportation market.
- 66% of all freight in the U.S. is shipped by truck.
- 16% is shipped by train.
- Truck and train transport use 35 billion gallons of diesel fuel per year, producing 350 million metric tons of carbon dioxide.

See the Source:
Industry Week

Find out:
How to decrease particulate pollution using a diesel particulate filter.

diesel emissions
NOx emissions

Trees and Urban Pollution

- Leaves filter particulate pollution.

- Trees help absorb carbon dioxide.

- The crown of trees stops an abundance of rain water from reaching drainage systems, which could clog older systems and cause flooding.

- Trees shade blacktopped areas. When asphalt reflects the sun’s heat, it creates “heat islands”, causing an increase in urban temperature.

- Cities east of the Mississippi River require 40 percent tree coverage.

- Cities west of the Mississippi River require 25 percent tree coverage.

- Washington, DC has lost half of its tree cover.

- Cities in Michigan, N. Carolina and Florida have loss 27 percent of their tree cover.

- A large tree removes 60 to 70 times more particulate matter from the air than a small tree.

- 2,000 cities have launched long-term planting programs.

- Los Angeles plans to plant 1 million trees within the next 30 years.

See the Source:
Time

air pollution
particle pollution
environment

Ozone Controversy – Science vs. EPA vs. Industry

On June 21st, the EPA proposed that it was time to strengthen the nation's air quality standards for ground-level ozone, revising the standards set in 1997. According to the EPA, the new proposal is based on the most recent scientific evidence available about the health effects of ozone, which is the primary component of smog."Advances in science are leading to cleaner skies and healthier lives," said EPA Administrator Stephen L. Johnson. "America's science is progressing and our air quality is improving. By strengthening the ozone standard, EPA is keeping our clean air momentum moving into the future. I have concluded the current standard is insufficient to protect public health."

But environmentalists and scientific experts say the proposed regulations are not enough and fall short of standards recommend by the EPA’s own Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee (CASAC). According to scientific documents provided to the EPA, lowering emissions standards to 0.064 parts per million rather than EPA’s proposed 0.07-0.075 ppm, would decrease ozone-related deaths by a possible 75 percent. The current regulatory level is .08 ppm.

“The law says use the science, the science says lower the standard to safe levels,” commented Francesco Grifo, director of the Scientific Integrity Program for the Union of Concerned Scientists. “In disregarding its own scientists’ analysis, the EPA is risking the health of millions of Americans.”

Ozone is a health concern for individuals with asthma or other lung diseases, as well as those who spend a lot of time outside, such as children. Ozone exposure can aggravate asthma and increase susceptibility to respiratory infections. Environmentalists believe the new proposed standard is not enough to protect the public’s health, with the higher regulation level being the result of pressure from industrial concerns and the current White House administration.

“The science is clear,” said David H. Ingbar MD, president of the American Thoracic Society, “ozone pollution is causing unnecessary, illnesses and death in America. The proposed EPA standards fall short of providing the protection needed to keep Americans safe from ozone air pollution.” Dr. Ingbar also commented that the proposed standards are “unhealthy for America’s kids, unhealthy for America’s seniors, and unhealthy for America.”

However, the National Center for Policy Analysis’ E-Team, a group of exports who offer analysis based on the concept that science, the environment and the economy should form government policies, issued another perspective to the proposed standards. They stated that reducing smog emissions standards from the current level to the level suggested by the EPA, is virtually impossible, according to Joel Schwarz, an adjunct scholar with the NCPA E-Team. Schwarz continued that even if the proposed reduction were possible, it would do nothing to improve American’s overall health. He continued “These new proposed standards would turn most of the nation into a Clean Air Act ‘non-attainment area.”

Ground-level ozone is not emitted directly into the air, but is created through a reaction of nitrogen oxides (NOx) and volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions in the presence of sunlight. Emissions from industrial facilities, electric utilities, on- and off-road vehicles, gasoline vapors, and chemical solvents are the major man-made sources of NOx and VOCs - ozone precursors.

The EPA says that the United States has made significant progress reducing ground-level ozone in the past quarter century. Since 1980, ozone levels have dropped 21 percent nationwide. Currently 104 US counties are not in compliance with today’s ozone levels. Based on the EPA’s new data and questionable proposed standard, 533 US counties would not be in compliance. Depending on the seriousness of a county’s ozone problems, they would need to comply with the new measures as soon as 2013, with possibly extensions to 2030.

The estimated health benefits of meeting a range of alternative ozone standards based on published scientific studies and the opinion of outside experts will be detailed in a Regulatory Impact Analysis issued by the EPA to be released this summer. Final adoption of the proposed regulations would go into effect by March 12, 2008, after public comment has been heard for 90 days prior to this date.

See the Source:
EPA's proposal to strengthen standards for ground-level ozone
Union of Concerned Scientists
NewsWise
NCPA E-Team

Find out:
How to lower NOx emissions for lean burn engines and gas turbines using selective catalytic reduction.

clean air
NOx emissions

CLEAN Energy Act of 2007 Passes Senate

On Thursday, the US Senate voted 65-27 to pass the new energy bill, CLEAN Energy Act of 2007 (H.R. 6), which would help reduce foreign oil dependency, increase production of alternative fuels, and boost fuel economy be requiring vehicles to average 35 miles per gallon by 2020, a 40 percent increase over today’s standards. Although it was a bi-partisan win for the bill, neither Democrats nor Republicans got exactly what they wanted. H.R. 6 is expected to also pass the House, possibly as soon as next week.

See the Source:
The Library of Congress

current issues
energy

Dangerous Increase in Hot Days for the Mediterranean

Researchers at Purdue University researcher projects a 200 percent to 500 percent increase in the number of dangerously hot days in the Mediterranean by the end of the 21st century if the current rate of greenhouse gas emissions continues, with France projected to have the most increase in high-temp extremes.

The study also showed a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions could reduce projected dangerous hot days by up to 50 percent.

"Rare events today, like the 2003 heat wave in Europe, will become much more common as greenhouse gas concentrations increase," said Noah Diffenbaugh, the Purdue assistant professor of earth and atmospheric sciences who led the study. "The frequency at which that scale of event occurs at high greenhouse gas concentrations is staggering. Rare events become the norm, and the extreme events of the future are unprecedented in their severity."

A 2003 heat wave led to 15,000 deaths in France and almost 3,000 in Italy. The researchers found that global warming causes summer temperatures to dramatically exceed the range that was correlated with the increased number of deaths.

"The thresholds of the 2003 event are substantially exceeded in the future in both of our research scenarios," said Diffenbaugh. "This research is about understanding the response to different emissions levels. We find that decreases in greenhouse gas emissions greatly reduce the impact, but we see negative effects even with reduced emissions. Technological and behavioral changes that are made now will have a big influence on what actually happens in the future."

Extremely high temperatures could also affect the region’s economy, including metropolitan areas such as Rome, Paris and Barcelona. The study covered the entire Mediterranean area, which includes 21 countries in Europe, Africa and Asia. Major cities covered in the study include: Prague, Zurich, Bucharest, Athens, Istanbul, Tel Aviv, Cairo, Algiers and Casablanca.

The researchers found that this warming and reduced precipitation contribute to a preferential warming of the hottest days of the year. "We found that the hottest days of the year, or the 'hot tail,' warm more than the typical summer days warm," Diffenbaugh said.

"One might expect that an average warming of four degrees would equate to each day warming by four degrees, but in fact the hottest days warm quite a bit more."

This is due, in large part, to a surface moisture feedback. The surface gets dryer as it gets hotter and the dry soil leads to less moisture in the area and less evaporative cooling. The locations of intensified warming on hottest days of the year matched the locations where surface drying occurred, Diffenbaugh said.
"The hottest temperatures we are used to experiencing will become the normal temperatures of the summer, and the hot periods will be magnified," Diffenbaugh said. "Take Paris: If we look at the temperatures that occurred there during the heat wave in 2003, when 15,000 people died, those temperatures are exceeded a couple dozen times every year in the future projection. That means that severe heat waves, such as those rare events that have occurred in the past couple of years, are likely to become far more common."

Related Web sites:
Purdue Climate Change Research Center: http://www.purdue.edu/climate
Diffenbaugh Research Group: http://www.purdue.edu/eas/earthsystem/

See the Source:
Newswise

climate change
global-warming

Entrepreneurs Invited to Submit Energy Ideas

Presidential hopeful and New Mexico governor, Bill Richardson today solicited applications for the newly created Energy Innovation Fund as part of the Governor’s commitment to make New Mexico “The Clean Energy State.”

“The fund will accelerate the innovation and adoption of clean energy technologies in our state and ask New Mexico entrepreneurs to put forward their ideas,” said Governor Bill Richardson.

Under Governor Richardson’s leadership, New Mexico has already taken great strides in clean energy – requiring that at least 20% of electric utility power supply come from renewable sources by 2020, creating the Renewable Energy Transmission Authority (RETA), and providing tax credits for the use of alternative fuels.

The Energy Innovation Fund (EIF) created during New Mexico’s 2007 Legislative session, will help to accelerate the development of innovation to enable faster commercial adaptation of clean energy technologies in the state. This year, the focus of the EIF is biofuels and concentrating solar power.

Applications for funding must:
• Relate to achieving New Mexico goals in clean energy
• Be an innovative project
• Have the potential for a significant impact on New Mexico
• Include partnerships between private and public sectors, with at least one of the principals in the project being a New Mexico entity.

Applications for the New Mexico Energy Innovation Fund are now being accepted, through June 19, 2007. Project funding will be considered in the amount of $200,000 and above.

To download an application or for more information:
http://governor.state.nm.us/priorities-energy.php?mm=4

See the Source:
Office of New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson

environment

GreenXchange Xpo – The World’s Green Marketplace

Environmental leaders and visionaries will join together in shaping a new global event focusing attention on critical issues of sustainability and energy. The new event, GreenXchange Xpo will be launched October 1-3, 2008 at the Los Angeles Convention Center with the intention of becoming the world’s leading marketplace for green innovation and technology.

“Los Angeles is setting the green standard for its use of renewable energy,” says LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. “GreenXchange is a critical step in establishing a marketplace for the ideas, products and services that take sustainability from theory to practice. Bringing the private and public sectors together under one roof for a global exchange on green innovation, will dramatically impact our opportunity to achieve lasting worldwide sustainability.”

The goal of GreenXchange is to bring together the largest exchange of green ideas and commerce in the world. Those participating in the invent include: green entrepreneurs and professionals; climate change policy-makers and regulators; environmental stewards, planners, consultants, and academic scientists; media, venture investors and market-makers; organized labor and management; builders, conservationists and recyclers; and futurists.

See the Source:
GreenXchange

environment
energy

Dirty Trucks Must Clean Up Their Act in B.C.

British Columbia will become the first province in Canada to make diesel oxidation catalysts (DOCs) mandatory on older heavy-duty trucks. This means that nearly 8,000 trucks built between 1989 and 1993 must be retrofitted with special diesel filters by 2009. Newer EPA-mandated trucks built in 2002 as well as this year, virtually eliminate smog-inducing emissions like particulate matter and NOx.

The diesel trucks, says Canada's Environment Minister Barry Penner, are among the worst culprits on the road for emitting a disproportionate amount of particulate matter (PM), which is said to cause respiratory diseases.

“It will have an immediate and tangible benefit,” said Penner. “This will take up to 60 tons per year of particulate matter out of the air we breathe.”

The Canadian government estimates that one older diesel truck emits as much PM as 60 new trucks.

Catalysts to retrofit the vehicles will cost between $1,200 and $2,500 per truck, and are expected to reduce total emissions of PM by up to 3.4 percent and total emissions by nearly half, especially if the rigs use ultra low-sulfur diesel or bio-diesel blends.

Buses and construction equipment are exempt from the requirement for now. DOC retrofits are also planned for government vehicles such as ambulances and school buses.

The order won’t affect RVs, pickup trucks, construction equipment and unlicensed off-road vehicles.

See the Source:
Today’s Trucking Online

Find out:
More on diesel oxidation catalysts to reduce emissions on diesel heavy-duty trucks.

diesel retrofit
diesel retrofit

Court Shoots Down EPA: Weak Agency Smog Rule Violates Clean Air Act

A panel of federal judges denied appeals by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and industry to overturn the same court's December, 2006 ruling that struck down the agency's rule attempting to weaken protections against harmful smog-forming pollution.

Ozone is associated with asthma attacks, coughing, wheezing, and other respiratory illness. Higher smog levels in a region are frequently accompanied by increased hospitalization and emergency room visits for respiratory disorders. Hundreds of counties across the country currently have unhealthful levels of smog, which limits outdoor activities, increases hospitalizations, and puts millions of Americans at risk for respiratory problems.

Today's decision reaffirms that EPA violated the Clean Air Act by relaxing limits on ozone, or smog pollution, from large power plants, factories and other industrial sources.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia denied the EPA and industry petitions for rehearing, and actually clarified in even stronger terms that weakening air protections is illegal under federal law. The court characterized the industry's desired readings of the law as a "glaring loophole" that nothing suggests Congress intended.

Significantly, recognizing the harm from EPA's delay, laxity and lawlessness, the court also "urged" EPA to "act promptly in promulgating a revised rule that effectuates the statutory mandate by implementing the eight-hour [ozone] standard, which was deemed necessary to protect the public health a decade ago."

"Today's decision reaffirms that EPA must follow the Clean Air Act and limit this harmful pollution," said Earthjustice attorney David Baron. "Health experts agree that we need stronger protections, not weaker limits on smog pollution."

EPA and industry groups had tried to overturn the decision by seeking rehearing in March. The environmental and public health groups, along with the states, argued that EPA's original rule and requested appeal made no sense, because the agency's unlawfully weak ozone rule came after EPA had found that the previous ozone standard was too weak to protect public health.

"Hundreds of counties across the country currently have dangerous levels of ozone smog. We've already seen high levels this spring," said Janice Nolen, Assistant Vice President of the American Lung Association. "Ozone triggers asthma attacks, sends children to hospitals and emergency rooms, and even increases the risk of early death. Today's court decision puts us closer to having air that does not make people sick."

"EPA should heed the court's pointed warning to act promptly to adopt protective rules that will deliver long overdue clean air to the American people," said NRDC attorney John Walke. "EPA foot-dragging and law-breaking have a daily toll on people forced to breathe smog levels that doctors and scientists tell us is widely unhealthy."

The 1990 Clean Air Act required stronger anti-smog measures in cities violating ozone standards, including limits on pollution from new and expanded factories, requirements for annual cuts in smog-forming emissions, and caps on truck and car exhaust. In 1997, EPA found that the then-existing "1-hour" ozone health standard wasn't strong enough to protect health, and adopted a new "8-hour" standard to provide greater protection. Paradoxically, the agency in 2004 adopted rules that weakened pollution control requirements for areas violating both the old and the new standard. That decision triggered the court challenge leading to that rule being struck down in December, 2006, and the EPA-industry appeals being rebuffed today.

"EPA has a responsibility to protect our health and our environment from unhealthy, polluted air," said Marti Sinclair, chairperson for Sierra Club's Air Quality Committee. "Millions of Americans breathe air with unsafe ozone levels, and they deserve stronger, not weaker protection under the law."

See the Source:
Earthjustice

Find out:
How to reduce NOx, a major contributor to smog, from power plants and lean burn engines using selective catalytic reduction.

Clean Air Act
current issues

Is Global Warming Real? NASA Chief Questions Validity

A top NASA administrator, Michael Griffin, commented on a recent NPR broadcast that global warming is “a problem we must wrestle with,” yet it is arrogant to believe that the climate we are experiencing today is the best we could have and that “we need to take steps to make sure that it doesn’t change.”

The Director of the Science and Public Policy Institute added “many rationalist scientists agree with him, clearly demonstrating there is no scientific consensus on man-made, catastrophic global warming.”

Other scientists from around the world also came to Griffin’s defense. Dr. Walter Starck, an Australian marine scientist commented, “Griffin makes an important distinction between the scientific findings of climate change and dramatic predictions of catastrophic consequences accompanied by policy demands. The former can be evaluated by its evidence, but; the latter rest only on assertions and claims to authority. Alternate predictions of benefits from projected changes have been proposed with comparable authority and plausibility. For example, unless one chooses to define the Little Ice Age as ‘normal’ and ‘optimal’ the net effect of any warming has only been beneficial and any anthropogenic contribution very small indeed. Dramatic predictions of imminent disaster have a near perfect record of failure. Griffin’s note of caution in the escalating concern over climate change deserves sober consideration.”

However NASA scientist, James Hansen, was sharply critical of Griffin’s statements.

See the Source:
E-Wire

climate change
global-warming

Google Goes Green

Search engine behemoth Google and El Solutions, a California provider of solar power systems have joined forces to complete the largest solar installation on any corporate campus in the United States. Recently completed at Google’s Mountain View, CA headquarters, the system has a total capacity of 1.6 megawatts or the equivalent to supply 1,000 average California homes with electricity. The two companies will present a behind-the-scenes explanation of the solar project at the West Coast Energy Management Congress to be held June 6th at the Long Beach Convention Center.

See the Source:
Business Wire

Google Blog

energy
environment

ARB Hears Progress Report on Zero Emission Vehicles

The California Air Resources Board (ARB) heard the results of a year-long analysis on the state of Zero Emission Vehicle (ZEV) technology. This ZEV Technology Review is part of ARB's ongoing strategy to eliminate passenger vehicle emissions that threaten the health and welfare of California's public.

"The Zero Emission Vehicle requirements are technology forcing regulations and are producing the development of zero and very low emission vehicles," said Dr. Robert Sawyer, ARB's Chairperson. "The Board asked for this assessment to stay current with advances in the technology and to assure that progress is matching our ZEV implementation schedule. The rollout is progressing very well and manufacturers are providing their required vehicle quotas according to the program's timeline."

The ZEV Technology Review describes the results of the Independent Expert Panel's (IEP) investigation. The IEP, made up of five experts, looked at three key ZEV areas: battery energy storage, hydrogen storage, and fuel cells. In the course of its work members of the panel visited sites worldwide and were given wide support and access to confidential manufacturer information.

The IEP also focused on the ability of car manufacturers to commercialize these advances into production vehicles.

The IEP was able to project the short and long term prospects for a number of advanced technologies ranging from hybrid and plug in hybrids to fuel cell and battery electric vehicles.

Overall the study found that while progress is continuing and consumer acceptance of "bridge" technologies such as hybrid vehicles is encouraging, significant research and investment is still needed to fully realize the mass commercialization of ZEVs. The ARB did not change the ZEV regulations today but directed staff to integrate the information into adaptive changes that would reinforce the success of the ZEV effort. Such proposals would be considered later this year.

In 1990 the ARB adopted regulations that required auto manufacturers to offer California vehicles with zero evaporative and tailpipe emissions as part of the state's low-emission vehicle program. The regulation stipulated that in 1998, two percent of the vehicles that large manufacturers produced for sale in California must be ZEVs; increasing to five percent in 2001 and ten percent in 2003. Since its inception, the program has been modified on several occasions to better reflect the pace of technological development and the costs and realities of the marketplace. These revisions maintained the integrity of the program while adapting to technological and economic realities that hampered ZEVs from being offered for sale in California.

The ZEV mandate is a technology forcing regulation and has stimulated developments that have given consumers more options.

Now a variety of vehicles are available that match the needs of drivers while being extremely low or non-emitting. Fuel Cell Vehicles are being made and demonstrated in California. And many vehicles are using hybrid systems to improve performance, and advanced battery technologies are being used in applications far beyond motor vehicles.

See the Source:
CARB – ZEV Technology Review

emissions control

emission standards