The U.S will suggest a near-term emission decrease target at the U.N. Type of weather change summit in Copenhagen next month, a senior management official said Monday. President Obama will announce the aim "in coming days," the official said. The statement of a target will take the current legislative stalemate over a climate bill into account, the senior official said, and thus might present a range of possible reduction rather than a single figure.

The lack of agreement in Congress puts Obama in a tricky domestic and diplomatic bind. He cannot promise to the world more than Congress may finally deliver when it takes up type of weather change legislation next year. But if he does not offer some concrete pledge, the United States will bear the brunt of the blame for the lack of an international agreement.

The official also said the leader would decide shortly whether and for how long he might attend the December climate meeting. He frequent Obama's declaration that he would consider presence if his presence could be a useful impetus to a deal. The official spoke at a White House briefing under the condition that he not be recognized.

The management has so far resisted demands that it commit to a specific goal for reducing emissions, saying it could not pre-empt Congress. China, the world's largest emitter of climate-altering gases, has also refused to spell out plans for reducing emissions, although President Hu Jintao promised in September that his country would decrease the amount of emissions per unit of economic output by a "notable margin." Many observers expect China to deliver a more exact pledge before the Copenhagen meeting.

Obama has come under criticism from leaders of dozens of countries that have already set domestic greenhouse gas lessening targets. He is also under fire from numerous environmental advocates who say the United States, the world's second-largest emitter, must take a credible commitment to Copenhagen to ensure that the talks do not fall apart.

The House approved a measure in June that calls for a 17 percent decrease over 2005 levels of house emissions. A Senate committee passed a bill last month that sets a 20 percent target, but that is likely to be weakened in future discussions.

Obama and leaders of a number of other major countries have said the Copenhagen discussion will not yield a full binding treaty to address global warming. Instead, the more than 190 nations represent there are expected to produce an interim agreement that addresses the major issues without requiring approval or international enforcement.

A collection of businessmen on Monday launch a coalition to advise the federal government to make a major investment in electric transportation, pointing to electric cars as the top way to confront the nation's dependence on imported oil.


Top executive with more than a dozen companies, as well as Nissan Motor Co., FedEx Corp., electric utility PG&E Corp. and battery developers A123 Systems Inc. and Johnson Controls-Saft, announce the formation of the Electrification Coalition to lay the foundation for millions of electric cars to reach U.S. highways.

Issuing a lengthy plan to electrify the nation's fleet, the coalition urged Congress to pass a series of tax credits and loan guarantee to bring 14 million electric cars to the road by 2020 and more than 100 million by 2030. The group envisions a network of electric vehicles in 6 to 8 cities in the short term and growth across the country, making 75 percent of all vehicle miles travel powered by electricity by 2040.

"There's no pie-in-the-sky here," said Frederick Smith, FedEx's chairman, president and CEO. "It's simply a matter of group, a matter of will and a matter of execution." participant, though, recognized that the proposal would be expensive and would require a major commitment from Congress. The group's blueprint would cost more than $120 billion over eight years and encourage tax credits for the fitting of advanced batteries, loan guarantees for the retooling of plants, and tax credits for public charging station and home charging equipment.


"Ultimately the customer will make the decision about where this country goes, but from the point of view of public policy we can set the stage for it," said Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., who joined the group for its statement.

Nissan President and CEO Carlos Ghosn said the auto manufacturing was working quickly to expand zero-emissions cars in response to concerns about oil security, tighter emissions requirements in the United States and elsewhere and a public thirst for choice vehicles not tied to petroleum.

Ghosn said the world market of 600 million vehicles is likely to expand to 2.5 billion vehicles in 2050 with the growth in vehicle purchasing in rising nations such as China and India, making electric cars a must. Nissan is release the Leaf, an all-electric car, in limited statistics next year and plans to put the vehicle into mass-production globally in 2012.

Caltrans, working together with the CHP has decided to slow traffic down across the new S-curve on the Bay Bridge, by closing one to two lanes of the Bay Bridge's upper and lower decks during off-peak hours.

The lane closures are intended to warn and slow vehicles approaching the S-curve to the posted 35 MPH speed. CHP officers will also be on duty enforcing the speed limits on the bridge.


Caltrans officials say this won't cause any traffic jams because the lanes will only be closed during off-peak hours.

The lane closure on the westbound deck will start past the toll plaza and will extend through the Yerba Buena Island tunnel. The eastbound lane closure will start at the center anchorage of the West Span and will end just past the Yerba Buena Island detour.


The off-peak hours are as follow:
Weekdays
Westbound: 12 p.m. - 3 p.m. and 11 p.m. - 5 a.m.
Eastbound: 11 a.m. - 2 p.m. and 11 p.m. - 6 a.m.

Weekends
Westbound: 11 p.m. (Fri) - 7 a.m. (Sat) and 11 p.m. (Sat) - 9 a.m. (Sun)
Eastbound: 11 p.m. (Fri) - 8 a.m. (Sat) and 11 p.m. (Sat) - 9 a.m. (Sun)

Other safety actions include install additional 35 MPH signs, reflective striping on the barrier rails and radar signs that tell motorists how fast they are driving.

The S-curve is a temporary detour on the Bay Bridge put in place during Labor Day weekend 2009 to reroute traffic around building of the new East Span near Yerba Buena Island.

The spot has been plagued by more than 40 accidents since then, including a fatal crash this week in which the truck driver plummeted over the side of the span. CHP investigators say speed appears to be a factor in the crash.

The speed limit on the Bay Bridge is 50 MPH, but that is reduced to 40 MPH on the S-curve; drivers of large trucks are urged to drive 35 MPH or less on the S-curve.

At this time, Caltrans has not determined for how long the lane closures will occur.

Caltrans must go decisively to get better traffic safety on the Bay Bridge, where half events weren't enough to prevent a fatal accident on tricky stretch of road. The skid marks at the start of the new westbound S-curve tell the story: This danger zone is catching drivers off guard.

Drivers need to slow down on a slalom course of temporary roadway, where a motor vehicle driver died when his rig shot over the side and plummeted 200 feet to Treasure Island in the predawn hours Monday. Since Sept. 8 when the S-curve section was put in use, 40-plus accidents have occurred on the football-field length of pavement.

Caltrans has posted illuminated warning signs and a summary speed limit from 50 to 35 mph in the area. But before Monday's fatal incident, the string of accidents should have motivated Caltrans to try additional safety steps. Drivers, who ignored the go-slow advisories, need more clear warnings. The signs are too late and too subtle.

Bridge planners must reorganize how to handle the bridge's heavy weight of 260,000 drivers per day. It's a challenge made extra difficult by the need to finish building of an adjacent replacement span and merge it at the juncture where the dangerous S-curve is in use. Drivers will have to navigate this precarious stretch until the new span is connected in 2013.

Caltrans announced some minor adjustments Monday, including its plan to add reflective tape to the barriers along the S-curve and additional advisories on the westbound direction. The curve is not as much of a problem in the eastbound direction coming out of Yerba Buena Island, where most drivers tend to slow down for the tunnel. Those fixes may not be enough.

Our immediate concern is for the daily hazard created by the S-turn. Drivers need to be better warned, and speeders need to be cited. As we saw Monday, it can mean the difference between life and death.

The Bay Bridge is once again open to traffic - following six long days of urgent situation structural maintenance and hellish commutes - but it will most likely be shut down again in a few months for a permanent fix.

Richard Land, Caltrans chief engineer, said Monday afternoon that even as the repairs finished early that morning made the bridge safe for drivers, engineers were looking for "a better solution something more robust, better performing."

Until Monday, Caltrans (California Department of Transportation) official had steadfastly protected the design of their fix, which involved taking the force off a cracked eyebar that was establish during Labor Day weekend. That repair concerned install saddles above and below the cracked piece with four high-strength steel rods connecting them, and then worried to pull the weight away from the eyebar.


Caltrans engineers suspect that metal rubbing against metal, caused by high winds, cause two rods and a saddle to come crashing to the roadway last Tuesday. Their design to fix the problem was like to what they had fashioned over Labor Day weekend, but they added elements to prevent the metal-on-metal contact.

"This is a provisional fix," Land said, "but a long-term answer might be desired. Right now the plan is not to keep the present strategy in place for the long term."Caltrans engineers will study suggested repairs over the next couple of months in search of a plan that will be as strong as the current fix but need less monitoring and maintenance as the repair just install.

Instead of designing the long-term repair under time pressure, with the bridge closed and commuters fuming, Caltrans would plan the work and schedule a closure, perhaps in four to five months, Land said. The length of the conclusion would depend on the repair chosen. The options include replace the eyebar, a huge responsibility that could involve replace several eyebars, which join like a chain.

For the time being, Caltrans official said they added a number of "enhancements" to stop metal-on-metal contact, to prevent wind and bridge feelings from causing the rods to move, and to prevent the piece of the repair from falling to the bridge deck if they should fail again.

They spent much of the time adjusting the position and configuration of the metal piece to assure they were not rubbing. Plans that monitor stress and movement have been added, and Caltrans crews will check on the repairs daily for at least two weeks.