Environmental and Policy Focus
Scientific American - Jul 13 The California Air Resources Board (“ARB”) this Tuesday released a plan to extend to 2050 the state’s landmark cap-and-trade program for reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The program as originally conceived is set to expire in 2020. The plan would establish decreasing emissions caps for covered entities through 2031, with an objective of reducing GHG emissions by 40 percent below 1990 levels, and would also include preliminary caps through 2050 “to signal the long-term trajectory of the program to inform investment decisions.” The plan comes at a perilous time for the cap-and-trade program, as ARB’s authority to extend the program beyond 2020 has been called into question based on possibly limiting language in AB 32 (the 2006 climate change law on which the program is based), and the legality of the existing cap-and-trade program has been challenged in court as an unauthorized tax. Also, the state experienced a sharp decline in demand for GHG emission “allowances” in its most recent cap-and-trade auction, where only 10% of the available allowances were sold. ARB plans to consider the amendments at its meeting in September before formally adopting them sometime in the spring of 2017.
Los Angeles Times - Jul 12 Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti this Tuesday announced the formation of a 10-member Sustainable Freight Advisory Board tasked with reducing air pollution from the Port of Los Angeles by expanding the use of zero-emissions technology. The board, to be comprised of representatives from industry, environmental groups, labor, and air quality agencies, will advise the city-owned Port of Los Angeles on how to work with manufacturers to develop and deploy cleaner trucks, trains, ships, and cargo-handling equipment. The South Coast Air Quality Management District, meanwhile, signaled in apollution-reduction plan released last month that it would use voluntary measures, such as incentive programs that pay businesses to switch to cleaner equipment, to improve air quality at the ports, with a rule or agreement as a backstop in case those reductions are not achieved. Despite dramatic emissions cuts over the last decade, the port complex remains the single largest source of air pollution in Southern California.
Sacramento Bee - Jul 12 State officials this Tuesday released a list of more than a dozen projects they are hoping to undertake in the next few years to protect the Delta smelt, a fish threatened with extinction. One of those plans is sure to be contentious. The “Delta Smelt Resiliency Strategy” released by the California Natural Resources Agency calls for allowing between 85,000 and 200,000 acre-feet of extra water to wash out to sea this summer to bolster smelt habitat. The document calls for a variety of methods to achieve such large outflows, including buying water from willing sellers, changing how water is exported from the Delta, or releasing water stored behind Central Valley dams. The plan also calls for 250,000 acre-feet to be released to the Pacific Ocean next summer. Last month, 15 members of Congress from California sent a letter urging the Obama administration to reject such a plan out of concern it would lead to Delta pumping restrictions that would “significantly reduce the water supply available to Californians.”
KQED - Jul 11 Within less than a year, as many as 50,000 marijuana growers in California could be required to obtain state permits for the irrigation water they consume. SB 837, a budget trailer bill signed by Governor Jerry Brown on June 27, establishes a comprehensive system to regulate cannabis growing in California, for the first time. It is an unprecedented step aimed at preventing harm to the environment and other water users resulting from the rapid growth of marijuana cultivation in the state. Under the new program, the State Water Resources Control Board and Department of Fish and Wildlife (“DFW”) will establish a task force to assess environmental damages from marijuana growing and to collect fees and penalties from growers to pay for programs to correct the damage. DFW also will assess streamflow needs to sustain the environment in watersheds where marijuana is cultivated.
Los Angeles Times - Jul 14 Los Angeles County is considering a controversial plan to spur housing development in rural unincorporated areas by allowing property owners to haul in drinking water if no other source is available. If adopted, the initiative would make 42,677 parcels in the northern one-third of the county potentially eligible to construct as many as 3,680 single-family homes over the next two decades, officials said. The proposal aims to allow hauling water for construction of new homes despite a 2003 California Department of Public Health determination that hauled water does not provide the same level of health protection and reliability as a permitted public water system or certified private well. Critics point out that the draft environmental impact report for the Single-Family Residential Hauled Water Initiative is based on data gathered in 2010, a year before the start of the ongoing five-year drought, which included the driest four-year stretch recorded in California. In an interview, Dale Sakamoto, a spokesman for the initiative and a civil engineer with the county Department of Public Works, said, “The plans supporting this initiative are admittedly outdated.” The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors is expected to make a final decision in November.
