Environmental and Policy Focus
The Hill - Aug 27
A federal judge in North Dakota acted late Thursday to block a controversial rule adopted by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers that would redefine the term “waters of the United States” that are subject to federal jurisdiction under the Clean Water Act. The order was issued just hours before the rule was due to take effect. Judge Ralph Erickson of the federal district court in North Dakota found that the 13 states suing to block the rule met the conditions necessary for a preliminary injunction, including the conditions that they would likely be harmed if courts didn't act and that they are likely to succeed when their underlying lawsuit against the rule is decided. The decision is potentially a major roadblock for the EPA and the Army Corps, who were planning Friday to begin enforcing the new rule, which would apply federal jurisdiction to small waterbodies that, according to the rule’s detractors, had previously been outside federal purview. “Once the rule takes effect, the states will lose their sovereignty over intrastate waters that will then be subject to the scope of the Clean Water Act,” Erickson wrote. “While the exact amount of land that would be subject to the increase is hotly disputed, the agencies admit to an increase in control over those traditional state-regulated waters of between 2.84 to 4.65 percent. Immediately upon the rule taking effect, the rule will irreparably diminish the states’ power over their waters,” he continued.
Sacramento Bee - Aug 25
In a bid to blunt opposition from oil interests to a major climate bill pending in the state Assembly, Senate President Pro Tem Kevin de León said Tuesday that he plans to amend the measure to increase legislative oversight of its implementation. Senate Bill 350 would require California to reduce petroleum use in motor vehicles by 50 percent by 2030, but oil companies have criticized the mandate it would give the California Air Resources Board (CARB). De León, while dismissing as misleading claims that CARB will ration gas or impose surcharges on trucks and minivans, agreed that CARB should have more regulatory oversight. He suggested that amendments to SB 350 will also include “exit strategies and offramps” in the event of an economic downturn. He did not detail other changes, but they are expected to include adding legislative appointees to the board, and language prohibiting CARB from taking certain measures such as gas rationing.
Press-Enterprise - Aug 24
Senator Dianne Feinstein is pushing to bypass Congress and have President Barack Obama designate three national monuments in the desert of Riverside and San Bernardino counties. Supporters of the Sand to Snow, Mojave Trails, and Castle Mountains national monuments say having the president use his power under the Antiquities Act of 1906 is the only hope of establishing these land protections because efforts to move a bill through Congress have stalled. National monuments founded under the Antiquities Act do not require public comment, environmental review, or congressional approval. The Senator’s efforts are part of a larger campaign to establish national monuments and wilderness areas, create permanent off-road recreation areas, and limit renewable energy development.
KPBS - Aug 26
Following a developer’s collection of enough signatures for a citizen’s initiative to build a shopping center on the shores of the Agua Hedionda lagoon, the Carlsbad City Council voted unanimously on Tuesday to approve the project rather than sending it to a public vote. The project proposes an upscale outdoor mall on 27 acres of a 203-acre property overlooking the lagoon, while preserving the remainder as open space for farming and recreation. More than 130 people testified for and against the project. Following a recent California Supreme Court ruling, citizens' initiatives are not required to go through rigorous environmental review under the California Environmental Quality Act.
Los Angeles Times - Aug 25
Neighbors and activists in Mount Shasta filed a lawsuit on Monday in Napa County Superior Court against Crystal Geyser Water Co. and Siskiyou County, challenging the adequacy of environmental review for a proposed water bottling plant. Residents whose homes and wells border the plant worry that Crystal Geyser’s facility could leave them with an inadequate water supply, and contend that some wells ran low when Coca-Cola previously operated a pumping facility there. City and county officials have said they have no legal authority to require an environmental impact report because the site was zoned for heavy industry when it was a lumber mill, and that water bottling is a prior and permitted use. However, the lawsuit asserts that because the plant will produce flavored beverages and blow-molded plastic bottles, it requires the kinds of discretionary permits that would trigger environmental review under California law.
Daily Breeze - Aug 25
A warming atmosphere has already worsened California's drought and harmed coastal ecosystems, but the worst is yet to come, according to the latest scientific research presented this week at the California Climate Change Symposium in Sacramento. Without action, researchers said, Californians will see greater droughts, floods, more intense storms, increasingly severe wildfires and permanent forest loss, and continually depleted groundwater reserves necessary for future drinking water supplies, among other major environmental shifts. Scientists at the conference presented new evidence that there is a 95 percent chance that global warming greatly increased the likelihood of the high-pressure ridge that stubbornly blocked precipitation from reaching landfall in California, largely causing the drought conditions that have persisted for four years. Global warming has at least tripled the probability of the atmospheric condition that brought the resilient high pressure ridge, said a senior fellow at Stanford University's Woods Institute for the Environment.
