Environmental and Policy Focus

Supreme Court deals blow to President Obama’s efforts to regulate power plant greenhouse gas emissions

New York Times - Feb 9 In a major setback for President Obama’s climate change agenda, the Supreme Court on Tuesday issued an unprecedented order, on a 5-4 vote, to temporarily stay the implementation of the Clean Power Plan. The Plan is a major component of the administration’s effort to combat global warming by regulating greenhouse gas emissions from electric power plants, the nation’s largest source of such emissions. The brief order is not the Supreme Court’s last word on the case, which likely will return to the Court after an appeals court first considers an expedited challenge to the Plan brought by 29 states and dozens of corporations and industry groups. The challenged regulation, which was issued last summer by the Environmental Protection Agency, requires states to make major cuts to greenhouse gas emissions created by electric power plants, the nation’s largest source of such emissions. The Supreme Court’s willingness to issue a stay while the case proceeds was an early hint that, when the case returns to the Supreme Court, the Plan could face a skeptical reception from the justices who voted for the stay.

California Coastal Commission fires executive director

SFGate - Feb 10 The California Coastal Commission fired its executive director, Charles Lester, on Wednesday, despite significant opposition from environmental groups, and numerous former commissioners and state legislators. The commission’s 7-5 vote ended a contentious debate over Mr. Lester’s tenure, which his opponents said was marked by slow, inefficient work by the agency’s staff and the stonewalling of commissioners, and his supporters insisted was forward-thinking and focused on keeping destructive development away from the coast. While the debate over Mr. Lester may be over, the debate over the commission’s role will likely continue.

Feinstein water policy bill could signal a congressional compromise

Los Angeles Times - Feb 11 Senator Dianne Feinstein introduced a 184-page water policy bill Wednesday. The legislation includes short-term provisions aimed at capturing water from El Niño storms and allowing water agencies to increase pumping for more of the year, without any obligation to "pay back" the increase by reducing pumping later. For long-term water needs, the Feinstein bill proposes to authorize $1.3 billion in funding for Western states for desalination, recycling, and storage. The bill does not mandate how much water should be pumped from the Central Valley Project or the State Water Project, both of which move water from Northern California to farms and cities in the south. Those decisions would be left in the hands of state and federal officials. A competing water plan passed by the U.S. House of Representatives last year focused on allocating more water to San Joaquin Valley growers by reducing the amount used to support endangered fish populations. If quickly passed, the Feinstein bill could trigger a compromise bill that could land on President Obama's desk this year.

Lawsuit challenges historic ranching operations at iconic Point Reyes National Seashore

San Jose Mercury News - Feb 11 A year after an oyster farm was forced to shut down at Point Reyes National Seashore, sparking a bitter controversy over the role of farming in national parks, a coalition of three environmental groups on Wednesday filed a lawsuit against the National Park Service in the federal district court in San Francisco over a bigger and more explosive target: thousands of dairy and beef cattle in the Point Reyes park. Many of the cattle ranches in the iconic park have been operated by the same families since the 1860s, and park service officials say they have no plans to remove them. According to the lawsuit, the cattle are causing erosion, polluting waterways with manure, harming endangered salmon and other species, and blocking public access. The coalition claims that park service officials are violating federal law by moving forward with a plan to renew 20-year leases to the ranchers without conducting adequate environmental studies and without updating a 36-year-old management plan. If the lawsuit is successful, the coalition plans to try to reduce or remove livestock from some of the roughly 30 other national parks that allow grazing, including Death Valley, Pinnacles in San Benito County and the Mojave National Preserve.