Focus
California unveils plan to reach carbon neutrality by 2045
Los Angeles Times – November 16
The California Air Resources Board (CARB) on Wednesday released a scoping plan outlining in broad strokes how the state intends to drastically reduce greenhouse gas emissions by the end of the decade and eventually eliminate its carbon footprint. The plan, which will go before CARB for formal consideration in December, hinges on the widespread adoption of zero-emission vehicles, as the transportation sector remains the largest single source of carbon emissions in California. State officials anticipate the transition to clean vehicles will lead to less oil demand and fewer emissions from refineries, the largest source of emissions within the industrial sector. The plan also relies upon refineries and cement plants to deploy a technology called carbon capture and storage, which involves capturing smokestack emissions and piping them underground.
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News
L.A. County creates new Office of Environmental Justice and Climate Health
Los Angeles Daily News – November 15
The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday created a new county department aimed at helping local communities impacted by climate change and industrial pollution. The Office of Environmental Justice and Climate Health, which will be carved out of the county’s Department of Public Health, will develop a strategy for addressing environmental pollution, which disproportionately affects low-income communities and people of color, the supervisors said. Areas of concern include communities exposed to freeway traffic and air pollutants. The agency will collect data and hold industries accountable for environmental degradation or potential public health hot spots, according to Fourth District Supervisor Janice Hahn.
California approves large, controversial desalination plant for Monterey Peninsula
San Francisco Chronicle – November 18
The California Coastal Commission on Thursday approved a desalination plant proposed for the drought-fatigued Monterey Peninsula, amid increasing controversy over the role that desalination should play in addressing water shortages statewide. The project, which would draw seawater off the coast of the city of Marina (Monterey County), put a spotlight both on the marvel of creating freshwater from the ocean as well as the many problems associated with the technology, which include environmental impacts, energy consumption, and cost. In the end, the Coastal Commission’s governing board decided that the benefit of a new water supply outweighed the proposal’s downsides.
Appeals court upholds $50 million judgment for Fullerton Superfund site
The Orange County Register – November 9
A federal appeals court has affirmed that three oil companies are required to reimburse the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency nearly $50 million for cleanup costs at the McColl Superfund Site in Fullerton. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals’ November 7 ruling upholds a 2021 lower court decision ordering Union Oil Co. of California, Atlantic Richfield Co., and Texaco Inc. to repay the costs of removing 97,100 cubic yards of toxic waste at the 22-acre site. The three oil companies argued in the appeal that the federal government is financially liable for a portion of the cleanup costs.
FERC advances largest dam demolition in history
Associated Press – November 17
U.S. regulators on Thursday approved a plan to demolish four dams on a California river in what will be the largest dam removal and river restoration project in the world when it goes forward. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s unanimous vote on the lower Klamath River dams is the last major regulatory hurdle and the biggest milestone for a $500 million demolition proposal championed by Native American tribes and environmentalists for years. The project would return the lower half of California’s second-largest river to a free-flowing state for the first time in more than a century and open up hundreds of miles of salmon habitat. The energy produced by the dams supplied only 2% of the power generated by PacifiCorp, which the company says will be replaced by other renewable energy projects.
San Francisco reaches agreement with California water regulators to avoid severe restrictions
San Francisco Chronicle – November 10
Three of California’s biggest water suppliers, including the city of San Francisco, announced Thursday that they have reached a compromise with state regulators in the latest breakthrough in a yearslong effort to protect flows in California’s once grand but increasingly overdrawn rivers. The toll on the waterways, where as much as 90% of the water is pumped to cities and farms, has been exacerbated by drought, leaving fabled runs of salmon and other plants and animals at risk. Under the new voluntary agreements, the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission joins two Central Valley water agencies, the Turlock and Modesto Irrigation Districts, in committing to scale back draws and restore wildlife habitat in the Tuolumne River, one of the state’s most depleted rivers.
Biden administration wins reprieve in fixing Endangered Species Act flaws
Courthouse News Service – November 16
U.S. District Judge Jon Tigar on Wednesday granted requests by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and National Marine Fisheries Service to permit the Biden administration to reconsider changes made to the federal Endangered Species Act (ESA) by the Trump administration without at the same time fighting a trio of lawsuits by environmentalists and state and local governments that challenged the 2019 overhaul of the law. The court left the changes to the ESA intact for now, ruling that they could not be vacated before it first rules on the merits of the environmentalists’ claims. The challengers argue that the 2019 changes significantly weakened the ESA, because they allow the agencies to consider economic factors in deciding whether to list species for protection under the ESA, and they make it more difficult to protect areas where endangered wildlife is not found.
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