Focus
THE SACRAMENTO BEE - Aug 28 The California Legislature sent a bill to the governor that would require all retail electricity to be generated from solar, wind, and other renewable energy sources by 2045. Despite objections from utilities and oil companies, the Assembly voted 43-32 to eliminate fossil fuels in the state’s energy sector on Tuesday. Senate Bill 100, introduced by Sen. Kevin de León, cleared the Senate Wednesday with a 25-13 vote and awaits Governor Jerry Brown’s consideration. In addition to setting the zero carbon standard, the bill would revise interim goals along the way. The bill bumps up an existing target by four years to hit 50 percent renewable energy in 2027 and sets the state on track to meet the 60 percent threshold by the end of 2030, which was previously set at 50 percent.
THE HILL - Aug 29 The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced Wednesday that it is reconsidering the 2011 Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS) air pollution rule, which set new limits for emissions of mercury, lead, arsenic, and cadmium from power plants and which the coal industry said was central to former President Obama’s “War on Coal.” EPA officials are also considering changes to the agency's 2016 retroactive declaration that the 2011 rule was “appropriate and necessary.” The EPA made the 2016 "appropriate and necessary" finding to comply with the Supreme Court’s 2015 Michigan v. EPA ruling, which held that the agency should have made such a determination before the rule was written, even though the cost-benefit analysis prepared for the rule found benefits of up to $90 billion and costs of up to $9.6 billion.
THE MERCURY NEWS - Aug 28 Aiming to block the Trump administration’s plans to allow new offshore oil drilling off the California coast, the state Assembly on Monday approved a bill that would ban construction of new pipelines to get the oil to shore. SB 834 prohibits the State Lands Commission from allowing any new wharfs, piers, pipelines, and other facilities in state waters from the shoreline out to three miles offshore that could be used to expand oil production. The bill goes next to the state Senate for a vote. If it is approved there, as expected, it will head to the desk of Governor Jerry Brown, who has opposed the construction of new oil platforms in the ocean off California’s coast.
THE TRIBUNE - Aug 28 A last-minute effort to require more state oversight of Cadiz’s plan to pump water from underneath the Mojave Desert passed a key committee Tuesday, advancing in the final days of the legislative session. U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, Gov. Jerry Brown, and Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, who is running for governor, all urged lawmakers to pass the bill. The legislation would subject the project to two additional layers of state approval from the State Lands Commission and the Department of Fish and Wildlife. The bill's language applies specifically to the desert lands where the project is proposed. The project has already gone through environmental review under the California Environmental Quality Act and has withstood several lawsuits. The Assembly approved the bill on Wednesday, and the Senate is expected to consider the bill on Friday.
THE SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE - Aug 24 The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) announced Friday that it will conduct a special investigation at the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station to review an incident at the plant earlier this month when a canister filled with spent nuclear fuel was suspended in the air for at least 20 minutes and in a “credible drop condition” for about 45 minutes to an hour. The NRC said it will send a team to evaluate the cause of the incident and the “adequacy of corrective actions” that the plant operator, Southern California Edison (SCE), has imposed. SCE management said the incident posed no harm to workers or the public but suspended all future transfers at the site in the wake of the incident.
