Weekly Green: December 14, 2012

In recent news:

• Henry Waxman shouts into wind on climate change;
• Will the West ever solve its water woes?
• Options issued for shrinking Colorado River;
• Rooftop Solar Just Keeps Getting Cheaper;
• And much more!

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Top of the Ticket

Henry Waxman shouts into wind on climate change
Rep. Henry Waxman, ranking Democrat on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, has sent his 21st letter requesting a hearing on climate change, this time on a report by PricewaterhouseCoopers that says we are on our way to a four degree centigrade world, and possibly six, instead of the two degree warming that governments hoped could be achieved.
http://blog.sfgate.com/nov05election/2012/12/12/henry-waxman-shouts-into-wind-on-climate-change/

Will the West ever solve its water woes?
Congress isn't planning to take action on climate change any time soon. But if the planet keeps warming, a number of states won't be able to ignore the problem quite so easily.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2012/12/13/can-we-adapt-to-climate-change-the-colorado-river-basin-may-soon-find-out/

Options issued for shrinking Colorado River
The U.S. Interior Department Wednesday unveiled sweeping strategies to cope with shrinking supplies of water out of the Colorado River, ranging from an eye-popping plan to float in icebergs from Alaska to more realistic conservation measures that include capturing rainwater and lining leaking canals.
http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2012/dec/12/interior-lays-out-options-for-a-shrinking/

Rooftop Solar Just Keeps Getting Cheaper
The cost of installing solar panels on your roof has dropped significantly, according to a report by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and not just because of the notorious crash in photovoltaic panel prices. Materials and labor costs have fallen for typical solar installations as well, according to a different report the lab released in late November.
http://www.kcet.org/news/rewire/solar/photovoltaic-pv/rooftop-solar-just-keeps-getting-cheaper.html

California Environment

Dan Morain: California oil companies may be warming up to a carbon tax
Oil companies and taxes are a little like gasoline and lit matches. The oil industry spent $93 million to blow up a 2006 initiative that sought to raise an oil severance tax. Taxes are not part of oil executives' DNA. But ever so cautiously, the industry is contemplating a California carbon tax.
http://www.sacbee.com/2012/12/09/5040005/dan-morain-california-oil-companies.html

Dan Walters: San Francisco's environmental hypocrisy exposed
San Francisco, it could be said, is the nation's capital of trendy environmentalism - as long as it affects someone else.
http://www.sacbee.com/2012/12/12/5048191/dan-walters-san-franciscos-environmental.html

Can high speed rail swerve past fiscal cliff?
The future of high speed rail in California, as it now stands, depends on the federal government. And depending on your perspective, the ambitious first-of-its-kind transportation project needs either just a little nudge from Washington in the short run... or a great big push before it's all over.
http://www.news10.net/news/california/article/220717/430/Can-California-high-speed-rail-avoid-fiscal-cliff

Walgreens' $16 million settles waste suit
The owner of more than 600 Walgreens drugstores in California will pay $16.57 million to local governments and environmental agencies to settle claims that the stores illegally dumped pesticides, paints and other hazardous wastes in local landfills, officials said Thursday.
http://www.sfgate.com/science/article/Walgreens-16-million-settles-waste-suit-4117523.php

Officials call for limits on use of super-toxic rat poison
D-CON kills rats and mice, the label reads. And, according to state and federal officials, it can kill hawks, owls, eagles, foxes, bobcats, mountain lions and other non-targeted wildlife too.
http://www.latimes.com/news/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-supertoxic-rat-poison-sales-ban-20121211,0,2819960.story

Most of California's water footprint tied to food production
These days, there's a lot of discussion of carbon footprints. A new study by the Pacific Institute focuses on another footprint, that of water. The report, released Tuesday by the Oakland-based think tank, takes a look at the amount of water required to produce the goods Californians consume, whether it's the food we eat or the things we buy; whether they are produced in state or imported from other states or foreign countries.
http://www.latimes.com/news/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-california-water-footprint20121211,0,3917096.story

Squid deaths are a many-tentacled mystery
Legions of big predatory squid have gathered along the Northern California coast, where they are stranding themselves on Santa Cruz beaches by the hundreds in a mysterious frenzy of suicide.
http://www.sfgate.com/science/article/Squid-deaths-are-a-many-tentacled-mystery-4110394.php

George Skelton: Water bond needs slimming down
Barrels of excess water have been tumbling down the Sacramento River with nowhere to go except the San Francisco Bay and out to sea.
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-cap-water-bond-20121210,0,447217.column

National News

Tougher Fracking Regulations Backed by 66%, Poll Shows
Support for regulation of hydraulic fracturing has increased in the past three months, a sign that the gas-drilling practice is facing greater public scrutiny.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-12-14/tougher-fracking-regulations-backed-by-66-poll-shows.html

Poll: 4 out of 5 call climate change a serious US problem
Four out of 5 people in the U.S. say global warming will be a big problem for the nation without action to reduce it, and a growing majority believe that temperatures are going up, a poll shows.
http://thehill.com/blogs/e2-wire/e2-wire/272969-poll-4-out-of-5-call-climate-change-a-serious-us-problem

EPA to tighten standards for soot pollution
In its first major regulation since the election, the Obama administration on Friday imposed a new air quality standard that reduces by 20 percent the maximum amount of soot released into the air from smokestacks, diesel trucks and other sources of pollution.
http://www.sfgate.com/news/science/article/EPA-to-tighten-standards-for-soot-pollution-4118581.php

Conservatives can be persuaded to care more about the environment, study finds
When it comes to climate change, deforestation and toxic waste, the assumption has been that conservative views on these topics are intractable. But new research from the University of California, Berkeley, suggests that such viewpoints can be changed after all, when the messages about the need to be better stewards of the land are couched in terms of fending off threats to the "purity" and "sanctity" of Earth and our bodies.
http://newscenter.berkeley.edu/2012/12/10/conservatives-environment/

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