Weekly Green: November 12, 2012

Hello and good afternoon all. In recent headlines:

• California votes its future;
• Prop 39 passes in decisive victory;
• What's next for GMO labeling movement?
• Gov. Jerry Brown to embark on more visionary policy;
• First cap-and-trade auctions this week;
• U.S. to become world's largest oil producer before 2020;
• And much more.

Top of the Ticket

Thank you, California
Thank you for voting. Thank you for talking to your friends and family about difficult, important issues. Thank you for listening to candidates and asking tough questions, and thank you for using your resources to support environmental protection. And, most of all, thank you for taking part in another election with important victories for the environment in our great state of California.
http://www.ecovote.org/blog/thank-you-california

For Prop. 39, a quiet but decisive victory
With little fanfare this week, California voters approved a plan to close a corporate tax loophole affecting out-of-state businesses, finance $2.5 billion in clean energy and energy efficiency projects and deliver another $2.5 billion to the state's beleaguered treasury over the next five years.
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-prop39-corp-taxes-20121110,0,7051440.story

California's landmark global warming law becomes real this week with first cap-and-trade auctions
For more than 40 years, California has led the nation in environmental regulation, from passing the toughest coastal protection laws to America's first rules banning leaded gasoline. Now, this week—after Hurricane Sandy pushed the issue of climate change back into the national spotlight—California will become the first state to begin requiring a broad range of businesses to reduce their greenhouse gas pollution.
http://www.mercurynews.com/science/ci_21972739/californias-landmark-global-warming-law-becomes-real-this

Do cap-and-trade systems work?
Europe already has a carbon cap-and-trade system similar to the one California will launch on Wednesday. The northeastern United States does too, albeit in a far more limited form. Do they work?
http://www.sfgate.com/business/article/Do-cap-and-trade-systems-work-4028494.php

U.S. to become world's largest oil producer before 2020, IEA says
The U.S. will become the world's top producer of oil within five years, a net exporter of the fuel around 2030 and nearly self-sufficient in energy by 2035, according to a new report from the International Energy Agency.
http://www.latimes.com/business/money/la-fi-mo-u.s.-oil-producer-saudi-arabia-iea-20121112,0,6181922.story

CA Environmental News

Food activists look to other states after failed California measure
Even though 53 percent of California voters rejected Proposition 37, the measure gave a huge push to the national movement to label genetically modified food, said Dave Murphy, a co-chair of the Yes on 37 campaign and executive director of Food Democracy Now.
http://blogs.sacbee.com/capitolalertlatest/2012/11/food-activists-look-to-other-states-after-failed-california-measure.html

Chevron sidesteps call for cleaner tech
Chevron will make only small-scale pollution control improvements as it rebuilds the fire-damaged crude oil unit at its Richmond refinery—telling regulators it will not increase production, a decision that allows the company to avoid requirements for new emissions technology.
http://www.sfgate.com/science/article/Chevron-sidesteps-call-for-cleaner-tech-4028551.php

Hetch Hetchy fight not over, activists say
Despite an emphatic loss in Tuesday's election, backers of Proposition F will continue their long-running effort to drain San Francisco's Hetch Hetchy Reservoir and restore a once-pristine slice of Yosemite National Park.
http://www.sfgate.com/science/article/Hetch-Hetchy-fight-not-over-activists-say-4026599.php

Veterans resurrect cross at Mojave desert site
A war memorial cross that once stood on a rocky hilltop in a national park before being deemed unconstitutional and ordered removed was resurrected on Veterans Day at the stunningly stark Mojave desert site, capping a landmark case for veterans fighting similar battles on public lands.
http://www.contracostatimes.com/politics-government/ci_21980891/veterans-resurrect-cross-at-mojave-desert-site

Feds to evaluate rates charged for Delta water
The federal government is reviewing how much its clients pay for water pumped out of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, and will update the public on the process on Nov. 16 in Sacramento.
http://www.sacbee.com/2012/11/07/4966163/feds-to-evaluate-rates-charged.html

Lawmakers want to fix bureaucratic funding maze for clean water
Small, impoverished towns are sometimes left for years with tainted drinking water while they wade through a cryptic state process for public funding to fix the problem. Two frustrated lawmakers this week will start a streamlining effort that probably will result in several new bills next year. The lawmakers are Assemlymembers Henry T. Perea, D-Fresno, and Luis Alejo, D-Watsonville.
http://news.fresnobeehive.com/archives/460

Keeping Score on Environment

Hill's Bills: 100 Percent Green
Democratic Assemblyman Jerry Hill has earned a 100 percent score on the California League of Conservation Voters' 2012 Environmental Scorecard for his votes on important environmental and public health legislation that the organization tracked during the most recent legislative year.
http://www.mercurynews.com/pacifica/ci_21942323/wandering-wondering

Shannon Grove, Jean Fuller, others, rank near bottom of environmental scorecard
The California League of Conservation Voters (CLCV) released its 2012 Environmental Scorecard this Wednesday, Oct. 31, and three of the Bakersfield area's elected politicians ranked near the bottom of the list.
http://www.examiner.com/article/shannon-grove-jean-fuller-others-rank-near-bottom-of-environmental-scorecard

More Election News

California Gov. Jerry Brown clear to embark on more visionary policy
"I'm very optimistic," Brown said. "We have quite a big agenda facing us." It includes getting high-speed rail construction off the ground and building a massive water tunnel project in the Central Valley, while pushing for regulatory and education reform.
http://www.mercurynews.com/california-budget/ci_21969396/california-gov-jerry-brown-clear-embark-more-visionary

Labor defeats anti-union initiative Prop. 32 in California
California voters have reaffirmed their support for unions in defeating a provision that would have banned the way labor traditionally raises money to fund political activity. The defeat of Proposition 32 became clear early Wednesday.
http://www.dailynews.com/news/ci_21946348/labor-defeats-anti-union-initiative-prop-32-california

GOP's state losses hint at national fate
Conservatives have long dismissed California, the nation's most-populous state and the world's ninth-largest economy, as the Left Coast, Wackyville and La-La Land. But after Tuesday's election, there is one thing that Republicans across the nation can no longer do—ignore it.
http://www.sfgate.com/politics/article/GOP-s-state-losses-hint-at-national-fate-4027026.php

California Votes its Future
The tectonic shifts taking place in the American electorate are nowhere more vivid than in California. Latinos now account for nearly forty per cent of the state's population and will soon be the largest ethnic group in the country's most populous (by far) state. California's Latinos are still voting below their strength—an estimated sixteen per cent of this week's turnout—but those numbers will only rise, and the effect of the Latino vote is already profound.
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/newsdesk/2012/11/california-proposition-30.html

California political reforms create more competition
California's changes to its political systems, through independent redistricting and a new primary system, created more competition and may have helped fuel the strong gains by Democrats on Election Day.
http://www.news10.net/capitol/article/216527/525/California-political-reforms-create-more-competition

Latino influence grows in Inland area
This week's election of Democrats to Congress and the state Legislature in several Inland swing districts is the latest sign of an increasingly powerful Latino electorate whose influence will continue to grow with the Hispanic population.
http://www.pe.com/local-news/politics/politics-headlines-index/20121108-politics-latino-influence-grows-in-inland-area.ece

Redistricting, SuperPacs had large influence on election in California
As Californians entered the voting booths, many likely believed they were in charge, pulling the levers of power with their ballots. But Tuesday's election results were heavily influenced by a trifecta of decisions made years earlier—two ballot initiatives that dramatically overhauled California's political and electoral process, and a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that allowed unlimited money to prop up campaigns.
http://www.dailynews.com/news/ci_21973257/redistricting-superpacs-had-large-influence-election-california

The Tax Revolt is Over
Yesterday's vote to pass Prop 30—by a larger margin than most observers expected—does more than just provide $6 billion of badly needed funding to the state's public schools. It brings to a close a 34-year long tax revolt that came very close to destroying California's middle class, locking its low income families into permanent poverty, and left the state on the edge of financial ruin.
http://www.calitics.com/diary/14684/the-tax-revolt-is-over

• Next Weekly Green
•  
• Previous Weekly Green