A Gold Standard for Equity in Climate Cap-and-Trade Programs
California’s Global Warming Solutions Act, known as AB 32, calls for reducing statewide greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020.1 This ambitious goal demands that California explore every opportunity to reduce emissions throughout the economy and in every community, while being sensitive to potential adverse impacts on the state’s most vulnerable citizens. While the rest of the nation debates pathways to an efficient and equitable climate policy, California’s Air Resources Board (ARB) is tasked with detailing a cap-and-trade program that will cover 85 percent of statewide emissions by 2020. Cap-and-trade and a portfolio of complementary measures are expected to yield reductions of 150 MtCO2e in 2020 compared to status quo conditions.2 In the near term, global climate policy is likely to increase the costs on businesses and consumers. The poorest communities that are already spending a greater portion of their income on basic household expenditures will be hit hardest by even small increases on utility bills and higher prices at the gas pump and grocery store. California has the opportunity to avoid those disparate impacts by deA Gold Standard for Equity in Climate Cap-and-Trade Programs
Effect of County-Level Income on Vehicle Age Distribution and Emissions
In conjunction with a statewide emissions inventory of on-road mobile sources in Tennessee, a county-by-county analysis of vehicle registration data was performed. Several interesting trends were observed in the kinds and ages of vehicles driven in Tennessee counties compared with national statistics and compared with the average personal income of county residents. In particular, median vehicle age correlated strongly with average personal income for each county. Vehicle fleets were oldest in lowestincome counties and newest in the highest-income county; median vehicle age was 10.8 years in the former and only 5.9 years in the latter. This difference in vehicle age results in average mobile-source emissions factors 63% higher for nitrogen oxides, 73% higher for carbon monoxide, and 104% higher for volatile organic compounds in the lowest-income counties than in the highest-income counties, based on the MOBILE6 emissions model run for calendar year 2000. The low-income counties also registered 76% more light-duty trucks per capita than the national average, and these trucks were 5 years older than the national median age. It is concluded that county-level personal income is a good predictor of vehicle age and can be used as a readily obtainable indication of whether local vehicle registration data should be used to improve the accuracy of emissions inventories (instead of national defaults or statewide averages). County-level personal income also can be used as a basis for determining whether more than one vehicle age distribution should be used for modeling mobile-source emissions within a state, a metropolitan area, or an airshed.
Instrumentation and Automated Photometric Titration Procedure for Total Acidity Determination in Red Wine Employing a Multicommuted Flow System
An automated procedure for photometric titration of red wine and associated instrumentation is described. The procedure was based on the flow-batch approach implemented employing multicommutation. The photometric detection was carried out using a homemade LED-based photometer. The mixing device, LED, and photodetector were attached to the titration chamber in order to form a compact and small-sized unit. The flow system comprised an automatic injector and three-way solenoid valves, which were controlled by a microcomputer through an electronic interface card. The software, written in Quick BASIC 4.5, was designed with abilities to accomplish all steps of the titration procedure including data acquisition and real-time processing to decide about the course of titration in the following step and so forth, until the titration endpoint was reached. The usefulness of the proposed titration system was demonstrated by analyzing red wine samples. When results were compared with those obtained using the AOAC reference method, no significant difference was observed at the 95% confidence level. A relative standard deviation of ca  2% (n=9 ) was obtained when processing a typical red wine sample containing 7.3 gl -1 total acidity expressed as tartaric acid.