Weekly Green: January 11, 2013

Hello and good afternoon all. In recent headlines:

• 2012 was the hottest year on record in the contiguous U.S.;
• Jerry Brown's deficit-free budget proposal wouldn't close parks;
• Pinnacle becomes a National Park, while Yosemite renovation plan is revealed;
• State of the State is Jan. 24, and much more.

The Lead

2012: Hottest Year on Record for Continental U.S.
Temperatures across the continental United States soared in 2012 to an all-time high, making last year the warmest year on record for the country by a wide margin, scientists say.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/01/130109-warmest-year-record-2012-global-warming-science-environment-united-states/

Jerry Brown: California's deficit is gone
Gov. Jerry Brown took office two years ago promising that he had the know-how and the fiscal prudence to guide the state out of its financial crisis, and on Thursday he delivered a budget without a deficit.
http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Jerry-Brown-California-s-deficit-is-gone-4183371.php

Environment and the California budget: Seeking more money and staff for fire prevention and logging oversight
When it comes to the environment, the state budget released Thursday was the first time in four years that a governor has not proposed closing state parks to save money. Gov. Jerry Brown was banned from doing that last year by the Legislature for at least two years.
http://www.mercurynews.com/science/ci_22349299/environment-brown-administrations-budget-calls-more-money-and

California's Environment

Senate appointments set up battle over revamping environmental law
State Senate leader Darrell Steinberg (D-Sacramento) has said reform of the state’s environmental protection laws is a priority this year, but his appointments to the Senate Environmental Quality Committee on Monday had some people doubting dramatic changes are in the offing.
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/california-politics/2013/01/senate-appointments-set-up-battle-over-revamping-environmental-law.html

Pinnacles becomes a national park -- the closest to Bay Area
In a move that increases the profile -- and most likely the tourist draw -- to Pinnacles National Monument near Hollister, President Barack Obama on Thursday signed legislation upgrading the area to full national park status.
http://www.mercurynews.com/science/ci_22348158/obama-elevates-pinnacles-national-monument-south-bay-area

$235 million Yosemite Valley renovation plan unveiled
The National Park Service is calling for a $235 million renovation of world-renowned Yosemite Valley -- featuring a pedestrian underpass near Yosemite Falls and a limit on visitors during crowded times. The changes are part of the embattled Merced River Plan, a draft of which was released Tuesday.
http://www.fresnobee.com/2013/01/08/3125818/235-million-renovation-plan-for.html

Yosemite overhaul may hit troubles
National Park Service officials released blueprints for the future of Yosemite on Tuesday, after more than a decade of courtroom brawling over river and infrastructure improvements that opponents dismissed as attempts to build a theme park in what should be a wilderness.
http://www.sfgate.com/science/article/Yosemite-overhaul-may-hit-troubles-4177984.php

Low rates of extinction made California a hot spot of plant diversity
California plant life is unusually rich and diverse. The state has more than 5,500 native plant species, more than any other state. Roughly 40% of them are found nowhere else.
http://www.latimes.com/news/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-california-plant-diversity-20130110,0,5166805.story

After tanker crash, officials reconsider allowing large ships to sail in fog near the Bay Bridge
Three days after a 752-foot oil tanker sideswiped a tower of the Bay Bridge under foggy conditions, the top Coast Guard official in the Bay Area on Thursday called for a reconsideration of rules that allow large ships to sail in fog near the Bay Bridge.
http://www.mercurynews.com/science/ci_22351558/coast-guard-marine-officials-reconsidering-rule-allowing-large

Hinkley's pollution plume being questioned by water agency again
The water regulatory agency charged with the clean up of contaminated groundwater here has ordered San Francisco-based Pacific Gas & Electric Co. to better define its plume of chromium 6.
http://www.sbsun.com/news/ci_22351446

Army Corps' Eco-Disaster in Valley
Absurd, unnecessary social engineering and possibly illegal environmental tactics — that's what some activists and politicians are calling the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' surprise destruction before Christmas of more than 40 acres of prime wildlife and vegetative habitat five miles north of the Getty Center in the Sepulveda Dam Basin.
http://www.laweekly.com/2013-01-10/news/sepulveda-wildlife-clearcut-homophobia-army-corps-recriminations/

U.S. Supreme Court hands L.A. County a victory in water lawsuit
Los Angeles County got a reprieve in an ongoing dispute over who is responsible for pollution from storm water when the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a ruling won by environmentalists.
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-scotus-stormwater-20130109,0,3862181.story

White sharks headed for California endangered species list
The California Department of Fish and Game will recommend that the Northeast Pacific population of white sharks be listed as a threatened or endangered species under the state’s Endangered Species Act.
http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2013/jan/08/Great-white-sharks-endangered/

Environmentalists, federal agencies, at loggerheads over sea turtles
Three environmental groups sued the National Marine Fisheries Service and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Tuesday for failing to protect critical habitat for loggerhead sea turtles, an endangered species found off the coast of San Diego and elsewhere in California.
http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2013/jan/08/loggerhead-turtle-lawsuit/

Key source of Bay Area traffic headaches revealed by top researchers
A groundbreaking study by UC Berkeley and MIT researchers has pinpointed a small group of drivers making Bay Area freeways miserable for the rest of us, though the reason may surprise you.
http://www.mercurynews.com/traffic/ci_22328900/key-source-bay-area-traffic-headaches-revealed-by

Looking to sky to fight climate change
One afternoon last fall, Armand Neukermans, a tall engineer with a sweep of silver bangs, flipped on a noisy pump in the back corner of a Sunnyvale lab.
http://www.sfgate.com/science/article/Looking-to-sky-to-fight-climate-change-4170475.php

California Politics & Government

Brown's State of the State speech set for Jan. 24
Gov. Jerry Brown, who has limited his public appearances since the November election, will deliver his State of the State address on Jan. 24, after releasing his annual budget proposal at a news conference Thursday, his office said this afternoon.
http://blogs.sacbee.com/capitolalertlatest/2013/01/jerry-browns-state-of-the-state-speech-set-for-jan-24.html

New report: Hidden state parks money started as accounting error in mid-1990s, then snowballed
The scandal surrounding the decision by California's top parks officials to conceal millions of dollars in public funds -- even as they were asking the public to donate money to keep parks open -- had its roots in accounting errors made in the mid-1990s, according to a long-awaited investigative report released Friday. State parks officials then covered up the mistakes for at least 15 years because they worried that they would be publicly embarrassed and the money would be taken away from their department to balance the wider state budget if word of the hidden funds got out, the investigation by the state Attorney General's Office found.
http://www.mercurynews.com/california/ci_22312262/new-report-hidden-state-parks-money-started-accounting

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