Weekly Green: January 12, 2012

Gov. Jerry Brown has found a new pot of money to help him fill a $9-billion hole in his proposed budget: $1 billion from auctioning credits to allow California companies to emit greenhouse gases. But business groups are already denouncing Brown's plan as a back-door tax increase that they intend to challenge in court if the proposal is approved as part of the state budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1.

The U.S. should declare a moratorium on hydraulic fracturing for natural gas in populated areas until the health effects are better understood, doctors said at a conference on the drilling process.

Without a serious primary challenger and with the incumbent ducking out, Assemblymember Bill Monning is in a great position to essentially walk into the Senate seat. This will be a big pick-up for the environment. Monning (100% CLCV score) will be a much needed breath of fresh air from Blakeslee (21% CLCV score), especially in the Senate where environmental priorities have had a much more difficult time passing.

 

Join the Planning and Conservation League and the PCL Foundation for their annual Environmental Legislative Symposium on Saturday, January 28th at the Sacramento Convention Center. The theme of this’s year’s event is THINK SMALL, focusing on how local solutions  are crucial to our protecting and restoring our environment, communities and economy. Register today.

The federal Environmental Protection Agency has just made tracking greenhouse gases a lot easier. The agency has produced its own map of major GHG producers, with fresh data and customizable features.

The assessment is especially relevant to Southern California, which has been a pioneer in recharging local aquifers with treated wastewater but still sends most of its runoff and treated water to the Pacific Ocean. A decade ago, public outcry and electoral politics thwarted a Los Angeles plan to partially replenish San Fernando Valley groundwater with recycled supplies.

The California Public Utility Commission today released a proposal by Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) that, if adopted, would create the nation’s first statewide on-bill repayment (OBR) program for energy efficiency and renewable energy upgrades to be financed entirely by third parties.

The dreaded D-word – "drought" – is back on the tongues of many Californians now that a dry December has crawled into a dry January.

A measure introduced last week by Assemblyman Mike Feuer, D-West Hollywood, to provide expedited environmental review for “public rail transit projects” caused concern among groups worried about the financial and environmental effects of the massive high-speed rail project.

The EPA said Monday that it has issued a notice of violation to Sims Metal Management, located at the Port of Redwood City, for polluting San Francisco Bay with lead, mercury, PCBs, copper and zinc. Under the Clean Water Act, Sims could face fines up to $37,500 a day unless it cleans up.

It's the worst air quality recorded in a dozen years, and it's the unhealthiest kind— microscopic, chemical-laden particles that can get into lungs and absorbed into the bloodstream to create health risks in everyone, not just the young and infirm.

As surely as the physical laws of nature force it always to flow downhill, water is subject to the laws of economics. When price goes up, demand goes down. So it is with the water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta that nourishes most of Southern California.

As atmospheric carbon dioxide levels continue to climb, a team of California scientists has created a new material that will help reduce the amount escaping from smokestacks and power plants. The material, called polyethylenimine, or PEI, acts like a carbon dioxide fly-tape trap, attracting the greenhouse gas molecules and sticking to them so they can’t escape.

Millions of dollars in renewable energy projects intended to provide power to facilities in California's national parks and forests are sitting idle because of a years-long squabble with Southern California Edison. A new $800,000 solar project at Death Valley National Park, photovoltaic panels at the state-of-the art visitors center at Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area and a solar power system at the U.S. Forest Service's new facility at Mono Lake are among dozens of taxpayer-funded projects in Southern California on hold as the federal agencies try to hash out an agreement with SCE to tie the projects to the state's electrical grid.