California’s clean-air agency voted on Friday to push ahead with stricter emissions standards for cars and trucks, setting up a potential legal battle with the Trump administration over the state’s plan to reduce planet-warming gases.
Beijing and the surrounding province of Hebei will plant trees, establish green belts and make use of rivers and wetlands to create a “green necklace” to protect China’s smog-hit capital from pollution, the Hebei government said on Thursday.
California air quality officials have approved what are widely considered to be the most rigorous and comprehensive regulations in the country for controlling methane emissions, a move that helps cement the state’s status as a standard-bearer for environmental protection.
A new partnership among scientists, environmentalists and technology experts is helping to reveal leaks in urban natural gas pipelines. And they’re hoping their efforts could help cities cut down on accidental emissions of methane, one of the world’s most potent greenhouse gases.
A common refrain among critics of current and future fuel-economy standards is that the need to comply with them produces job cuts in the auto industry.
As industry leaders gathered in Detroit last week for a conference on vehicle fuel economy, the Trump administration has said it is poised to roll back the standards that make cars go farther on less gas and save consumers money.
Despite support from Senate leadership and the oil and gas industry, the methane legislation has not come up for a vote in the Senate, and its future there is uncertain.
The invention, the Flame Refluxer, is “very simple,” says Ali Rangwala, a professor of fire protection engineering: Imagine a giant Brillo pad of copper wool sandwiched between layers of copper screen, with springy copper coils attached to the top.
When smog gets bad, the air becomes more than a coolness on your skin or a haze on the horizon. When smog gets bad, you can taste it.
For much of the past century, the rate at which humans pumped carbon dioxide into the atmosphere increased inexorably year after year, and it seemed like we’d never make any progress on this big honking climate change problem.
