Environmental and Policy Focus
KPCC
- Nov 30 The California Supreme Court on Monday rejected the environmental impact report (EIR) for the proposed Newhall Ranch development, declaring that it understates the impact of the project’s greenhouse gas emissions and doesn’t properly protect an endangered species of fish. With respect to greenhouse gases, the Court held that the EIR applied a legally permissible threshold of "significance" – whether the project was consistent with statewide emission reduction goals – but found that the EIR's determination that the project‘s emissions would not be significant under that criterion was not supported by a reasoned explanation based on substantial evidence. With respect to the species issue, the Court held that the mitigation measure proposed to protect the fish in question (the unarmored threespine stickleback) would itself entail prohibited takings, and was therefore insufficient. The ruling is a blow to the project, a proposed development on almost 12,000 acres west of the city of Santa Clarita, which planned for construction of more than 20,000 new homes, a commercial district, and several schools to accommodate about 58,000 new residents.
New York Times
- Dec 1 Hours after President Obama pledged Tuesday in Paris that the U.S. would be in the vanguard of nations seeking a global response to climate change, Congress approved two measures aimed at undercutting his pledge. In a provocative message to more than 100 leaders that the American president does not have the full support of his government on climate policy, the House passed resolutions, already approved by the Senate, to scuttle Environmental Protection Agency rules that would significantly cut heat-trapping carbon emissions from existing and future coal-fired power plants. President Obama has vowed to veto these measures.
OC Register
- Dec 1 Californians posted a 22 percent savings in water use in October, marking the first month residents have missed the state’s mandatory 25 percent conservation target since enforcement of the cutbacks began in June, officials said Tuesday. Felicia Marcus, chairwoman of the State Water Resources Control Board, said she had anticipated the dip in savings because October temperatures were exceptionally warm, driving up the watering of yards. Still, Marcus said California is meeting its long-term water conservation target. For the five months combined, residents have saved 27 percent.
Contra Costa Times
- Nov 27 The Bay Area Air Quality Management District is nearing a vote next month on what officials called the strictest controls in the nation to curb oil refinery emissions. The proposed rules target the Bay Area's five biggest refineries, all in the East Bay, and, if adopted and upheld, would force the refineries to cut overall emissions at a rate of 16 percent per year. The push for these stricter rules is a response to the backlash after a fire at the Chevron refinery in Richmond in 2012 sent more than 10,000 people to hospitals with complaints of sore throats and noses and irritated eyes. Refineries have criticized the proposed new rules as excessively stringent and improperly adopted, while environmental advocates have argued that the rules are not stringent enough.
San Diego Union-Tribune
- Nov 30 The San Diego city council’s environmental committee has unanimously approved the city’s Climate Action Plan, a blueprint for cutting greenhouse-gas emissions and powering the city using 100 percent renewable energy by 2035. That goal surpasses the State mandate, which calls for renewable energy sources to account for 50 percent of all power usage in California by 2030. The Plan is now scheduled for review by the full city council on December 15, where it is expected to garner strong support. San Diego’s climate plan comes on the heels of two cases where local or regional agencies were sued after drafting documents that failed to address explicitly state mandates for lowering levels of greenhouse gases. One was the County of San Diego's climate action plan, which the County was forced to rewrite following a ruling by the Fourth District Court of Appeal. The other is the San Diego Association of Governments' hotly debated Regional Transportation Plan, which awaits a ruling from the state Supreme Court.
San Bernardino Sun
- Nov 30 Three environmental and social services agencies on Monday asked a federal court judge to rule quickly on a case filed against the U.S. Forest Service for allowing bottled water giant Nestlé to continue drawing millions of gallons of water from the San Bernardino National Forest. The motion asks the court to rule in favor of the group’s petition challenging the Service's authorization on the ground that Nestle's permit to operate a four-mile pipeline across forest land expired in 1988. Petitioners are the Story of Stuff Project, the Los Angeles-based Courage Campaign Institute, and the Center for Biological Diversity. Their lawsuit, filed in mid-October, alleges that Nestle's operations are sapping public land of already scarce water resources.
Los Angeles Times
- Nov 25 Moreno Valley city leaders have voted to adopt measures that would help insulate the World Logistics Center, a 40-million-square-foot warehouse project, from environmental legal challenges. The city approved plans for the project, proposed by developer Iddo Benzeevi, in August. On Tuesday, the council replaced its previous approval with a set of ballot initiatives, which it adopted outright rather than send to voters. The city had faced a barrage of legal challenges from local government and environmental groups saying it failed under state law to properly address the environmental and traffic effects of the project. Tuesday's move follows a decision last year by the California Supreme Court, which ruled that the Sonora City Council could bypass the usual analysis required under CEQA by adopting a ballot initiative, even without a public vote. City councils in Carson and Inglewood earlier this year also approved similar initiatives for football stadium projects in those cities.
