Weekly Green: June 10, 2013

Good afternoon, all. In the news:

• Californians uneasy about fracking;
• Same tired excuses delay bag ban;
• California is #1 in water infrastructure needs;
• California's air is cleaner, despite more people and cars;
• And much more!

» Welcome to another edition of the Weekly Green, a no-frills news roundup provided free of charge by the California League of Conservation Voters. If you're not a regular subscriber, sign up today! Get your free subscription here: http://ecovote.org/wg

Fracking California

Californians uneasy about fracking's safety, lack of oversight
More than 70% of voters favor banning or heavily regulating chemical injections into the ground to tap oil and natural gas, a USC Dornsife/L.A. Times poll finds.
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-poll-fracking-20130607,0,7466494.story

California: Fracked!
Last week, the California Senate passed SB 4, a comprehenvise fracking regulation bill authored by environmental champion Senator Fran Pavley. It passed on a party-line vote, with all 28 Democrats voting for it and all 11 Republicans voting against it.
http://www.ecovote.org/blog/california-fracked

Banning the bag

Suja Lowenthal: Same tired excuses delay statewide plastic bag ban
It was disappointing to hear the same tired arguments and excuses used by legislators and lobbyists to defeat Senate Bill 405, a statewide ban on plastic bags proposed by state Sen. Alex Padilla. Opponents of a comprehensive statewide ban continue to perpetuate the idea that Californians must choose between bolstering the economy and promoting environmental progress. However, it is a false choice that does not protect the environment, nor does it account for the full economic picture of phasing out plastic bags.
http://www.presstelegram.com/opinions/ci_23409092/same-tired-excuses-delay-statewide-plastic-bag-ban

L.A.'s Latino senators divided on banning plastic bags
Other lawmakers, saying their priority is keeping jobs in their communities, vote it down on the Senate floor.
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-0610-capitol-business-beat-20130610,0,2279953.story

Bag ban bill is dead, but the movement is alive (and growing)
We're not giving up on this important effort to curb wasteful plastic pollution, and we need you to do one small thing to keep up the fight: watch and share this inspiring video of Sen. Padilla speaking about banning plastic bags on the Senate floor.
http://www.ecovote.org/blog/bag-ban-bill-dead-movement-alive-and-growing

Deep-Sea Dump: ROVs Expose Trashed Ocean Floor
Instead of washing ashore, much of what we throw in the ocean stays there, slowly sinking to the bottom, releasing pollutants into the water, wrapping around corals, or, in some cases, becoming part of a critter-covered landscape.
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2013/06/deep-sea-debris/

Water

California tops list of states with water infrastructure needs
California could use $44.5 billion to fix aging water systems over the next two decades, according to an EPA assessment. Texas and New York are next in line.
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-0610-epa-survey-20130610,0,1032365.story

Delta could get saltier if tunnels are built
The two giant water diversion tunnels Gov. Jerry Brown proposes building in the Delta would be large enough to meet annual water needs for a city such as Newport Beach in a single day's gulp from the Sacramento River.
http://www.sacbee.com/2013/06/09/5482530/delta-could-get-saltier-if-tunnels.html

Hundreds of Communities Rely on Contaminated Water
More than 600 communities in California rely on contaminated groundwater. Nowhere is the problem more acute than in the Tulare River Basin and the Salinas Valley.
http://capradio.org/4290

Transportation

Despite a lot more people and cars, California's air is cleaner
The state's strict vehicle emissions standards have made a significant difference, a study finds. The amount of organic nitrates in Southern California's air chemistry has also changed for the better.
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-0610-smog-decreases-20130610,0,2037334.story

L.A. Air Pollution on the Decline, Less Hurtful to Eyes
If you've been living in Southern California for more than a couple of years, the memory of how bad the air used to be might bring a tear to your eye. Nowadays? Not so much.
http://www.kcet.org/news/rewire/transportation/tailpipe-emissions-changes-make-las-air-better.html

Bullet train officials award first construction contract
In what's arguably the real kickoff to the construction of California's largest ever infrastructure project, members of the state's high speed rail authority on Thursday signed off on the initial $985 million contract for breaking ground this summer.
http://www.news10.net/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=247570

Big detour urged for rail funds
Rep. Jeff Denham, the chairman of the railroads subcommittee in the House of Representatives and, like many fellow House Republicans, a critic of California's high-speed rail project, says the money should go instead to Amtrak's busy but aging Northeast Corridor, which serves the nation's most densely populated region.
http://www.sacbee.com/2013/06/10/5484181/big-detour-urged-for-rail-funds.html

Energy

Edison will shut down the San Onofre nuclear plant for good
Southern California Edison announced Friday it would shut down the troubled San Onofre nuclear power plant. The move comes 17 months after the San Onofre plant was closed because of problems in steam generator systems. The plant powered about 1.4 million households in Southern California before the outage.
http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-edison-closing-san-onofre-nuclear-plant-20130607,0,7920425.story

It Looks Like California Broke a Major Solar Power Record Today
California seems to have beaten another record for solar power flowing into the grid Friday, and if so it's a big one. According to preliminary data provided by the California Independent System Operator (CaISO) in graph form, shown above, the state passed the 2,000 megawatts of solar mark for the first time on June 7, 2013, with the day's peak at or a hair below 2,100 megawatts.
http://www.kcet.org/news/rewire/solar/california-blows-past-two-gigawatts-of-grid-connected-solar.html

State regulators going easy on PG&E for San Bruno blast, complains reassigned regulatory attorney
A state regulatory attorney said Thursday he relinquished his duties in the penalty case against PG&E in the deadly San Bruno blast because he believes the staff proposals of the Public Utilities Commission didn't sufficiently punish the utility over a deadly natural gas explosion in San Bruno.
http://www.mercurynews.com/pge/ci_23406161/state-regulators-going-easy-pg-e-san-bruno

California politicians still wrangling over Proposition 39 funds
California voters last year passed Proposition 39, which changed the way multistate corporations are taxed, creating a big pot of money - about a billion dollars a year - with half required to be spent on energy-saving projects in schools, colleges and other public buildings.
http://blogs.sacbee.com/capitolalertlatest/2013/06/california-politicians-still-wrangling-over-proposition-39-funds.html

Biology

Extinct species revival raises hopes, fears
The promise and peril of "resurrection biology" -- which could bring back other long-gone species such as the woolly mammoth and Tasmanian tiger but runs the risk of undermining conservation efforts -- was the topic for experts who gathered Friday at Stanford University's Center for Law and the Biosciences.
http://www.mercurynews.com/science/ci_23365591/reviving-extinct-species-raises-hopes-and-fears

Politics and Government

FBI Raids State Senator's Office
[audio: includes CLCV Political Director David Allgood at 2:55]
Sacramento lawmakers and lobbyists have been on edge ever since Tuesday, when FBI agents raided State Senator Ron Calderon's offices and carted away boxes of documents through the hallways.
http://www.californiareport.org/archive/R201306060850/a

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