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New York could be plagued with a second wave of thick orange smoke Thursday, as hundreds of out-of-control wildfires ravage parts of Canada. Last week’s “unhealthy” air quality may make a return, according to Fox 5 Evening Meteorologist Mike Thomas, who shared a graphic of the smoke forecast through Friday on Twitter. “Smoky skies returning once again. Still not expected to be as bad as last week, but could get close to code orange later on Thursday into Friday,” Thomas wrote. “Storms on Friday could be a little extra ‘charged’ as well, as the extra particles in the atmosphere often...

The U.S. is helping China build a novel, superior nuclear reactor by  Mark Halper February 2, 2015, 2:48 PM EDT Share icons The Department of Energy is dusting off one of the old betamaxes of nuclear technology: The molten salt reactor. But with political will lacking at home, it will rise in China.In 1973, the Nixon administration made a momentous decision that altered the course of civilian nuclear power: It fired the director of the renowned Oak Ridge National Laboratory, scuppering development of a reactor widely regarded as safer and superior to the complicated, inferior behemoths that define the global...

TOKYO -- Honda Motor and three Japanese rivals plan to discontinue about 20 motorcycle models by the end of this year, Nikkei has learned, in response to tougher emissions standards to be implemented in Japan in the fall. The retired motorbikes represent 10% of the roughly 190 models available from Honda, Yamaha Motor, Suzuki Motor and Kawasaki Heavy Industries. Going forward, the companies will shift to electrics. Honda will electrify its entire lineup of vehicles by the 2040s. Yamaha will make 90% of new vehicles plug-ins by 2050. Honda, the world's largest motorcycle company, will retire approximately 10 out of...

... Though biofuels have been touted for their ability to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, assessing the environmental impact of bioethanol requires including greenhouse gas emissions related to the crops needed for its production. And "the carbon balance of ethanol relative to gasoline isn't as good as it was originally anticipated," Tyler Lark, a scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison told AFP. In 2005, Congress passed a "Renewable Fuel Standard," which required transportation fuel to include a volume of biofuel that increased over time. The law was further expanded in 2007. As a result, 2.8 million additional hectares of corn were...

With Joe Biden's waiver of E15 Ethanol, maybe citizens of NYC, Washington (DC), Los Angeles, Houston, Dallas, Kansas City - probably should expect more SMOG Alerts. There is a reason the E15 restriction during summer is part of the CLEAN AIR ACT. More SMOG is generated by alcohol evaporation in Summer than other times. CNN has the SCIENCE behind it in the following article: What are the pros and cons of E15 gas? Here’s what to know about Biden’s order

Los Angeles has suffered its worst year in decades for smog and air quality, despite coronavirus lockdowns and stay-at-home orders that kept many residents off the roads. Heat waves and wildfires, combined with other natural factors, turned the air a yellow hue that hearkened back to the bad old days of the 1990s, when the air in L.A. was practically visible.

Decades of emissions-cutting regulations under a bipartisan law — the 1970 Clean Air Act — have eased the choking pollution that once shrouded U.S. cities. Cleaner air has saved lives and strengthened the lungs of Los Angeles children. But now, air quality is slipping once again. Bad air days are ticking up across the nation, and emissions reductions are slowing. The most notable setback has been with ozone, the lung-damaging gas in smog that builds up in warm, sunny weather and triggers asthma attacks and other health problems that can be deadly. Health effects from ozone pollution have remained essentially...

As Smog Hits China, Chinese Tourists Seek Fresh Air On Pollution Free Holidays Wolfgang Georg Arlt Jan 5, 2017 The year 2017 started for China with the first ever nationwide red level fog alarm. On January 4th, the country disappeared under a thick blanket of fog with visibility reduced to below 50 meters (164 feet), grounding air transport and rendering travel by car almost impossible. Red and orange smog alarms were raised in cities from Harbin to Guangzhou and from Chengdu to Hangzhou, halting half of all private transport and forcing many polluting factories and construction sites to shut down...

Daan Roosegaarde reached into the pocket of his suit jacket, pulled out a plastic bag filled with black powder, and waved it around. “This is Beijing smog,” Roosegaarde said, before gesturing to the seven-metre tall, gently humming metal tower we are stood next to in the Chinese capital’s art district, 798. “We collected it from the tower yesterday. Incredibly disgusting.” Dutch designer Roosegaarde’s smog souvenir may be disgusting, but it’s the byproduct of an invention that he has touted as a potential alleviator of China’s pollution problems. His “smog-free tower” sucks air, filters it with ion technology, with Roosegaarde having...

Speaking at a town hall meeting in Baton Rouge, La., last week, President Barack Obama told the audience that when Ronald Reagan was governor of California the smog sometimes got so bad that "people just wouldn't go outside." "And if you had asthma or some respiratory disease, you might die," said Obama. "I remember as recently as 1979, when I first started college--I started college in Los Angeles--when I went running, the first week I was there, after about five minutes I'd start feeling a burning in my chest," said the president. "And it was just me sucking in soot...

Bicyclists had free rein of Milan's streets Monday during a six-hour ban on private cars in a bid to alleviate persistent smog. Pollution levels in Italy's business capital have exceeded levels considered healthy for more than 30 days straight, prompting officials to ban private cars from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m. Monday through Wednesday this week. Officials said private motorists, who risked steep fines, widely respected the ban on its first day. ...

Smog cloud bigger than 40 Beijings suffocates northern China 21 December 2015 12:00 • Ryan Kilpatrick •1 min read A 660,000 square kilometer smog cloud has smothered much of northern China, engulfing the national capital as well as 70 other cities in neighbouring Hebei, Henan and Shandong provinces. Chinese media have said the expanse of air pollution is more than 40 times the size of Beijing itself, which has issued its second-ever red alert over air pollution levels. Air Quality Index readings for north China on Monday morning. Photo: HKFP. The red alert, the highest tier in a four-colour warning...

AOL (12/2) reports that as the Paris climate talks take place, a satellite image released by NASA, illustrates the view of Chinese smog from space. In reference to the image, NASA said, “The brightest areas are clouds or fog, which have tinges of gray or yellow because of the air pollution,” adding, “Other cloud-free areas have a pall of gray haze that mostly blots out the cities below.”

Facing a court-ordered deadline, the Obama administration is preparing to finalize stricter emissions limits on smog-forming pollution linked to asthma and respiratory illness. The move fulfills a long-delayed campaign promise by President Barack Obama, but sets up a fresh confrontation with Republicans already angry about the administration’s plans to curb carbon pollution from coal-fired power plants and to regulate small streams and wetlands. Business groups panned the Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed ozone rules as unnecessary when they were announced last fall, calling them the costliest regulation in history and warning they could jeopardize a resurgence in American manufacturing. But EPA...

A bill proposed in California would allow classic car owners to cut a check to the DMV for $200 to get out of the state’s notoriously strict smog test. But naturally, it’s a bit more complicated than just paying off the Golden State. Any car in California built on or after 1976 has to undergo a smog test every two years (not so for pre-76 cars, which is one of the reasons my 1976 BMW 2002 is now living in Florida). AB550 seeks to amend that law to allow vehicles 30 years or older to bypass the test, but only...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)Ted Cruz today? No, try Bobby Kennedy in 1968. That’s how old the left’s doomsday rhetoric is; the actual causes come and go — pollution, acid rain, global cooling, global warming, generic climate change, whatever. The end result is that the world will soon come to end — unless we elect socialist politicians who pretend to be a cross between scientists, mystical clerics and slide rule technocrats. Or as I wrote a couple of years ago, linking to Bobby’s speech in ’68, Carter’s malaise speech a decade later, and Obama’s Dr. Strangelove-esque “science” “czar” John Holdren, “Welcome Back My Friends...

Does Missaukee County, Michigan, really have a dangerous air pollution problem? The 574-square-mile region, nestled in the northwestern part of the state's lower peninsula, is home to all of 15,000 people. Its economy consists mainly of Christmas tree, dairy and livestock farms, and summer vacationers. The nearest "cities" are Cadillac to the west (population 10,281), and Grayling to the northeast (population 1,863). Yet new smog rules proposed by the Environmental Protection Agency on Wednesday would treat this little county like Los Angeles...

The Obama administration took steps Wednesday to cut levels of smog-forming pollution linked to asthma, lung damage and other health problems, making good on one of President Barack Obama’s original campaign promises while setting up a fresh confrontation with Republicans and the energy industry. In a long-awaited announcement, the Environmental Protection Agency said it prefers a new, lower threshold for ozone pollution of 65 to 70 parts per billion, but left open the possibility it could enact an even lower standard of 60 parts per billion sought by environmental groups. The current standard is 75 parts per billion, put in...

Unable to clean air completely for APEC, China resorts to blocking data By Simon Denyer and Xu Yangjingjing November 10 BEIJING – China has made a gargantuan effort to clear Beijing’s smoggy air for an important regional summit this week, closing hundreds of factories and forcing cars off the road, but its efforts have only been partially successful. On Monday afternoon, the U.S. Embassy air quality monitor reported a reading of 157, a measurement classified as “unhealthy”. Red-faced, the Chinese government has come up with an innovative solution – block the data from being displayed on local smart phone apps...

The Environmental Protection Agency’s staff has concluded that the government needs to tighten smog rules by somewhere between 7 and 20 percent. In its final recommendation in a 597-page report, the agency staff agrees with EPA’s outside scientific advisers that the 6-year-old standard for how much smog is allowed needs to be stricter, saying it will save a significant number of lives and cut hospital visits. An earlier version of the report came to a similar conclusion. Industry representatives criticized the recommendation as way too costly, while environmental activists hailed it as a public health measure. …