Focus
Former PG&E lawyer named new regional EPA chief in California
Los Angeles Times – February 11
Days after U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) removed its top official in California, Mike Stoker, the agency announced Tuesday that it would replace him with John W. Busterud, a former lawyer for Pacific Gas & Electric Co., the state’s largest electric power provider. Busterud will oversee EPA’s Region 9, and will be charged with leading federal health and environmental regulation in California, Arizona, Nevada, Hawaii, the Pacific Islands, and much of the West’s American Indian tribal lands. Busterud has spent more than 30 years as an attorney specializing in environmental and energy issues, most recently as PG&E’s senior director and managing counsel for environment and real estate, according to the EPA news release. He retired in 2016. Busterud also served for five years on the EPA’s Clean Air Act Advisory Committee as an industry representative.
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News
DOJ drops antitrust probe against automakers that sided with California on emissions
The New York Times – February 7
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has dropped its antitrust inquiry into four automakers that had sided with California in its dispute with the Trump administration over reducing climate-warming vehicle pollution, deciding that the companies had violated no laws, according to people familiar with the matter. The investigation, launched last September, had escalated a dispute over one of President Trump’s most significant rollbacks of global warming regulations. DOJ’s move was one of many seemingly retributive actions by the White House against California, as the state worked with the four automakers — Ford Motor Company, Volkswagen of America, Honda and BMW — to defy Mr. Trump’s planned rollback of national fuel economy standards. DOJ’s decision could boost the efforts of the auto companies and California to move ahead with tighter vehicle pollution standards than those being finalized by the federal government.
Raw sewage in creeks prompts lawsuits against Sunnyvale and Mountain View
The Mercury News – February 11
A Bay Area environmental group, San Francisco Baykeeper, last Tuesday sued the cities of Sunnyvale and Mountain View in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, alleging the cities are in violation of the federal Clean Water Act by discharging raw sewage and polluted storm water into creeks, resulting in bacteria levels more than 50 times legal limits. The lawsuit alleges that samples Baykeeper collected revealed dangerous levels of E. coli, fecal coliform, and other pollutants in Stevens Creek, Calabazas Creek, Sunnyvale East Channel and Guadalupe Slough, all of which empty into San Francisco Bay. Like other cities in the Bay Area, both Sunnyvale and Mountain View treat their sewage at wastewater treatment plants before discharging it to the bay. The suits claim, however, that aging clay sewer pipes throughout the two cities are leaking untreated sewage into storm drain systems, which then empty into the creeks. The cities are currently evaluating the claims.
State officials see merit in extra protections for Southern California mountain lions
Los Angeles Times – February 12
State officials on Wednesday concluded that several cougar clans in Central and Southern California may warrant listing as a threatened species under the state Endangered Species Act (ESA). Mountain lions are not a threatened species in California generally, but the determination submitted to the state Fish and Game Commission points out that six isolated and genetically distinct mountain lion populations from Santa Cruz to the U.S.-Mexico border make up a subpopulation that is threatened with extinction. The California Department of Fish and Wildlife is expected to vote April 15 on whether to formally list these sub-groups as threatened. If the commission agrees, the California Department of Transportation would not be allowed to build or expand highways in core mountain lion habitat without implementing adequate measures to ensure habitat linkages and safe passage under or over them. In addition, large-scale commercial and residential development could be limited in mountain lion habitats within a region covering roughly a third of the state.
Federal government to spend nearly $400 million to fix Whittier Narrows Dam
Press-Telegram – February 11
Under pressure to refurbish the Whittier Narrows Dam, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) has released plans to spend $393.2 million on the facility as part of its Dam Safety and Seepage program, U.S. Rep. Grace Napolitano announced Monday afternoon. Nearly four years ago, the Corps elevated the risk of dam failure from “high urgency” to “very high urgency” after a re-inspection revealed a greater threat of erosion and breach that would cause massive downstream flooding to 1 million Southern California residents in the event of a severe storm event. Inspectors also were alerted to the increased likelihood of spillway gates opening without prompting.
Wildlands bill passed by House would preserve more than 416,000 acres in Southern California
San Gabriel Valley Tribune – February 12
A massive public lands bill approved this Wednesday by the U.S. House of Representatives would preserve more than 416,000 acres of wildlands in three Southern California counties, adding protection for such species like Nelson’s Bighorn Sheep, the California Condor, and the Santa Ana Sucker fish. The Protecting America’s Wilderness Act would protect more than 1.3 million acres of wilderness, including large portions of the Los Padres National Forest, Santa Monica Mountains, and San Gabriel Mountains, and 1,000 miles of wild and scenic rivers in California, Washington, and Colorado. To become law, the bill needs Senate approval and must be signed by President Donald Trump.
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