Environmental and Policy Focus
Los Angeles Times - Jun 21 Pacific Gas & Electric Co. (PG&E) announced on Tuesday that it plans to close its last operating nuclear plant, Diablo Canyon Power Plant, within the next decade and replace the power produced by the plant's two nuclear reactors with investment in a greenhouse-gas-free portfolio of energy efficiency measures, renewables, and energy storage. Under the proposal, the plant in San Luis Obispo County would be retired by PG&E after its current U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission operating licenses expire in November 2024 and August 2025. The proposal is contingent upon a number of regulatory actions, including approvals from the California Public Utilities Commission. The plant, built against a seaside cliff near Avila Beach, provides 2,160 megawatts of electricity for Central and Northern California, enough to power more than 1.7 million homes. The announcement comes after a long debate over the fate of the plant, which sits near several earthquake fault lines.
ABC News - Jun 23 An underground pipeline in Ventura spilled an estimated 29,000 gallons of crude oil this Thursday, but the goo was quickly contained in a dry creek bed and did not reach the Pacific Ocean, fire officials said. The line operator, Crimson Pipeline, estimated that the amount spilled was lower – at most 25,200 gallons – and stated the cause was still under investigation. The leak occurred near a valve on an underground line that runs from Ventura to Los Angeles. The line was closed for maintenance and crews had replaced that valve the day before, company spokeswoman Kendall Klingler said. According to a spokeswoman for the U.S. Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, the pipeline does not cross state lines so there is no federal jurisdiction over the spill. The spill was the 11th for Crimson since 2006, with prior releases totaling 313,000 gallons of crude and causing $5.9 million in property damage, according to accident reports reviewed by The Associated Press. Klingler defended the company's safety record and said that most of the past spills were caused by third parties.
Bloomberg - Jun 22 A federal judge in Wyoming struck down the Obama administration’s signature effort to regulate hydraulic fracturing on public lands, putting another of the administration's environmental initiatives in legal limbo months before Mr. Obama leaves office. The ruling, issued by District Judge Scott W. Skavdahl on Tuesday, blocks the Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM) from enforcing a 2015 rule that set detailed standards for the construction of oil and gas wells drilled into some 700 million acres of federal land. The decision also presages a tough path ahead for another regulation still on the horizon: a BLM proposal to block energy companies from venting or burning natural gas from wells installed on federal lands. The Obama administration intends to appeal the ruling.
The Hill - Jun 21 California-based specialty grocery store chain Trader Joe’s has agreed to spend $2 million to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and will pay a $500,000 penalty to settle allegations that it violated federal air pollution regulations. The company was accused by federal agencies of failing to promptly repair leaks of the coolant R-22, a potent greenhouse gas and ozone depleting chemical used in its refrigeration equipment at 453 retail stores, and failing to keep adequate servicing records of its equipment. As part of its settlement with the Department of Justice and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Trader Joe’s will take steps over a three-year period to reduce coolant leaks from refrigerators and improve company-wide compliance.
San Gabriel Valley Tribune - Jun 16 The Water Replenishment District of Southern California last Thursday signed a deal with J.F. Shea Construction to build its $110 million water recycling plant in Pico Rivera. Construction of the project, known as the Groundwater Reliability Improvement Project, will begin this fall and be completed in 2018. The last-stage water treatment plant will treat wastewater from toilets, showers, and sinks already treated by the Los Angeles County Sanitation District’s San Jose Creek Water Reclamation Plant near Whittier and piped along the river’s edge. Once the plant is built, about 21,000 acre-feet of treated water that is normally discharged to the ocean will instead be tapped, treated, and put into the ground to percolate into the water table and later be withdrawn by retail water companies’ wells. The move means managers of two of the largest ground water basins in the region will no longer need water pumped from Northern California or the Colorado River in order to serve 4 million customers from 43 cities in south Los Angeles County.
