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Los Angeles Times – November 16
The California Air Resources Board (CARB) on Wednesday released a scoping plan outlining how the state intends to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions by the end of the decade and eventually eliminate its carbon footprint. The plan, which will be submitted to CARB for formal review in December, relies on the widespread adoption of zero-emission vehicles, as the transportation sector remains the largest source of carbon emissions in California. State officials predict that the transition to clean vehicles will lead to lower oil demand and lower emissions from refineries, the industrial sector’s largest source of emissions. The plan also relies on refineries and cement plants to deploy a technology called carbon capture and storage, which involves capturing emissions from smokestacks and channeling them underground.
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Los Angeles Daily News – November 15
The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday created a new county department aimed at helping local communities affected by climate change and industrial pollution. The Office of Environmental Justice and Climate Health, which will be separate from the County Public Health Department, will develop a strategy to address environmental pollution, which disproportionately affects low-income communities and people of color, supervisors said. Areas of Concern include communities exposed to highway traffic and air pollutants. The agency will collect data and hold industries accountable for environmental degradation or potential public health hotspots, according to Fourth District Supervisor Janice Hahn.
San Francisco Chronicle – November 18
The California Coastal Commission on Thursday approved a proposed desalination plant for the drought-weary Monterey Peninsula amid growing controversy over the role desalination should play in solving water shortages across the country. State. The project, which would take seawater off the coast of the town of Marina, Monterey County, highlighted both the wonder of creating fresh water from the ocean as well as the many issues associated with the technology, including environmental impacts, energy consumption and cost. Ultimately, the Coastal Commission’s board of directors decided that the benefits of a new water supply outweighed the disadvantages of the proposal.
The Orange County Register – November 9
A federal appeals court has confirmed that three oil companies are required to reimburse the US Environmental Protection Agency nearly $50 million for cleanup costs at the McColl Superfund site in Fullerton. The Nov. 7 ruling by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals upholds a 2021 lower court ruling ordering Union Oil Co. of California, Atlantic Richfield Co., and Texaco Inc. to reimburse disposal costs of 97 100 cubic meters of toxic waste on the 22 acre place. The three oil companies argued in the appeal that the federal government is financially responsible for some of the cleanup costs.
Associated Press – November 17
U.S. regulators on Thursday approved a plan to demolish four dams on a California river in what will be the world’s largest dam removal and river restoration project when it continues. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s unanimous vote on the lower Klamath River dams is the latest major regulatory hurdle and biggest milestone for a $500 million demolition proposal championed by Native American tribes and environmentalists for years. The project would return the lower half of California’s second-largest river to a free-flowing state for the first time in more than a century and open up hundreds of miles of salmon habitat. The energy produced by the dams provided only 2% of the electricity generated by PacifiCorp, which the company says will be replaced by other renewable energy projects.
San Francisco Chronicle – November 10
Three of California’s largest water providers, including the city of San Francisco, announced on Thursday that they had reached a compromise with state regulators in the latest breakthrough in a years-long effort to protect flows of California’s once large but increasingly uncovered rivers. The toll on the waterways, where up to 90% of water is pumped to towns and farms, has been exacerbated by the drought, endangering the legendary migrations of salmon and other plants and animals. As part of the new voluntary agreements, the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission is joining two Central Valley water agencies, the Turlock and Modesto Irrigation Districts, in committing to reducing drawdowns and restoring the wildlife habitat of the Tuolumne River, one of the most depleted rivers in the state.
Courthouse News Service – November 16
U.S. District Judge Jon Tigar granted Wednesday requests from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service to allow the Biden administration to reconsider changes to the federal Endangered Species Act (ESA) by the Trump administration without at the same time fighting off a trio of lawsuits brought by environmentalists and state and local governments that challenged the law’s overhaul in 2019. The court left the ESA changes untouched for the moment, judging that they could not be canceled before he decides for the first time on the merits of the claims of environmentalists. Challengers argue that the 2019 changes have significantly weakened the ESA because they allow agencies to consider economic factors when deciding whether to list species for protection under the ESA, and they make it more difficult protection of areas where endangered wildlife are not found.
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