Environmental and Policy Focus
OC Register - Jan 4 The future of Banning Ranch, a 401-acre parcel near the coast in Newport Beach that includes both coastal sage scrub and working oil wells, is again in flux. The California Supreme Court heard arguments on Monday over whether the City of Newport Beach improperly approved a housing development on Ranch property five years ago after a majority of residents voted to maintain it as open space. The hearing comes three months after the California Coastal Commission denied a development plan to build 895 homes, a boutique hotel, and shops on the Ranch parcel, which is the biggest undeveloped private stretch of coastal property in Southern California. The court’s ruling could delay an effort to revive that development, or some modified version of it, whose fate is playing out in separate litigation. A decision could be issued by early April.
San Jose Mercury News - Jan 4 In its last weeks in power, the Obama administration is helping speed up environmental review of California’s plan to build twin tunnels through the Delta in an effort to overhaul the state’s water delivery system. U.S. Interior Secretary Sally Jewell on Wednesday issued an executive order directing federal wildlife regulators to issue an initial opinion by January 17 on whether the $15.7 billion tunnels would harm endangered fish species — a key ruling in the future of the project. A final biological opinion is to be issued in April. By that time, the White House will be occupied by President-elect Donald Trump, who has said he favors more water shipments to California farmers but has not taken a stand on the tunnel plan. Critics noted that the project still faces several barriers, including winning approval from wildlife regulators and the State Water Resources Control Board, and finding irrigation districts willing to pay the steep prices for water from the project.
Sacramento Bee - Jan 3 In spite of recent storms, the year’s first manual snowpack reading, conducted at Phillips Station in the Sierra, showed that the snowpack remains at just 53 percent of average. Nonetheless, state water officials called it a good start as California enters its sixth year of drought. The measurement at Phillips is largely ceremonial, since it provides just a small snapshot of the state’s snow-water conditions. Electronic sensors in the Sierra that monitor snow-water content throughout the Sierra show that as of Tuesday, the state’s snow-water content is at 70 percent of normal. About two-thirds of California, largely in the southern half of the state, remains under drought conditions, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor. Last year at this time, about 98 percent of the state was in drought.
Ventura County-Star - Dec 28 A new power plant proposed for coastal Oxnard is entering the final chapter of a lengthy approval process that began in 2015. The California Energy Commission, which has the ultimate authority in approving or denying the controversial Puente Power Project, could come to a final decision as early as May, two years after NRG Energy Inc. submitted its application to the Commission. Released in December 2016, the Commission’s 1,400-page final report on the proposed power plant concluded that it will have no significant environmental impacts provided that mitigation measures are enforced. However, the report states that such a project conflicts with a portion of the City of Oxnard’s General Plan, which prohibits power plants of the size contemplated by the project to be constructed in coastal or hazardous zones such as the proposed site. Although the Commission can override local laws, it must determine that the power plant is "required for public convenience and necessity," according to state law, and that there are no other means of meeting the need. The plan has stiff opposition from the City of Oxnard and from environmental and social justice groups.
