Environmental and Policy Focus
Reuters - Jan 26 A group of states led by West Virginia and Texas asked the U.S. Supreme Court to stay implementation of the Administration's Clean Power Plan (Plan), a set of regulations intended to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from power plants to combat climate change. The 26 states filed a stay application with U.S. Chief Justice John Roberts after an appeals court in Washington declined last week to block the regulations while the judicial challenge to the Plan proceeds through the courts. There is no immediate deadline by which the Supreme Court must act on the request.
KPCC - Jan 24 The South Coast Air Quality Management District has decided that Southern California Gas Company will have to shut down the leaking well at its Aliso Canyon natural gas storage facility on a permanent basis after the company seals the well, which has been leaking since October. In the meantime, the company will have to minimize air pollution from the ongoing leak and fund an independent study on potential health impacts on the surrounding community. The massive leak, which is expected to continue for another month before it is sealed off, contains methane, a potent greenhouse gas, along with quantities of benzene and other chemicals.
Sacramento Bee - Jan 26 The farmers and cities that rely on the California State Water Project got some slightly encouraging news in light of the stormy weather California has seen so far this winter. The Department of Water Resources said it was increasing their water allocation to 15 percent of their requests, up from the previously announced 10 percent, but lower than the 20 percent the State Water Project delivered last year. Deliveries could further increase if El Niño conditions continue to produce rain and snow, the state said.
Courthouse News Service - Jan 26 The Center for Biological Diversity, the Sierra Club, and two local conservation groups sued the Federal Highway Administration on January 22 in federal court, challenging the Mid County Parkway project, a six-lane, 16-mile freeway in western Riverside County. The plaintiffs allege that project will increase air pollution, generate greenhouse gas emissions, threaten wildlife preserves, and displace workers and residents.
San Bernardino County Sun - Jan 25 Earlier this month, the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors approved a memorandum of understanding with the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) for expedited environmental review and permitting of mining activities on federal lands that the BLM administers. A key provision of the agreement allows for the hiring of qualified consultants by the BLM, and paid for by the county or project proponent, to analyze the project and its impacts. The measure will provide additional assistance in the permitting process to a section within the BLM that has been hard hit by budget cuts, said Dana Wilson, a BLM spokeswoman.
Los Angeles Times - Jan 22 Environmentalists were up in arms last month when the California Coastal Commission approved a plan by U2 guitarist David Howell Evans (whose stage name is "The Edge") to build five mansions with swimming pools on an undeveloped Malibu ridge. On Thursday, the Sierra Club, which has fought the project in the Sweetwater Mesa area for years, filed a petition in Los Angeles County Superior Court seeking to set aside the Commission's approval of the project, alleging that the approval violates requirements of the California Environmental Quality Act.
