Weekly Green: November 5, 2012

Hello and good afternoon all.  In recent election and environmental news:

• Clean-tech's future hinges on election;
• Prop 37 and Corporate Lies in the Post-Truth Era
• California agency names secret $11 million campaign contributors;
• West Coast at risk for hybrid storms, too;
• Is Sandy a galvanizing moment for climate change?;
• And much more.

Top of the Ticket

Tomorrow, VOTE! Today, check out CLCV's endorsements: www.ecovote.org/page/endorsements

CLCV's 2012 Environmental Scorecard is here! Know the score; take action: www.ecovote.org/scorecard

Clean-tech's future hinges on election
For clean tech, the stakes in Tuesday's election could hardly be higher. No other industry outside Detroit has been as closely aligned with President Obama's policies. Obama touted green jobs as the key to America's economic revival and showered $90 billion in stimulus funding on makers of solar panels, wind turbines, biofuels and electric cars. His Republican opponent, Mitt Romney, doesn't share that enthusiasm.
http://www.sfgate.com/business/article/Clean-tech-s-future-hinges-on-election-4006446.php

Sarah Rose: YES on Prop 39
Would you like to see a billion dollars of revenue restored to the state of California while 70,000 clean energy jobs are created? Vote YES on Proposition 39.
http://www.ecovote.org/blog/yes-39-close-loophole-invest-clean-energy

Prop 37 and Corporate Lies in the Post-Truth Era
As a historic vote with profound implications for the future of our food system nears, the question becomes whether a campaign with limitless resources and a disdain for the truth can defeat an overwhelmingly popular idea supported by a grassroots army, and over 3000 public interest organizations: the right to know what's in the food we eat and feed our families.
http://www.californiaprogressreport.com/site/prop-37-and-corporate-lies-post-truth-era

California agency names secret $11 million campaign contributors, claims they were 'money laundering'
Ending a mystery that captivated the run-up to Election Day, the Arizona group behind an anonymous $11 million donation revealed under court order today that the shadowy donation was laundered through two groups, including one tied to David and Charles Koch, the billionaire brothers who have played a huge role in spreading anonymous political cash around the country.
http://www.mercurynews.com/elections/ci_21932215/fppc-releases-names-donors-who-made-secret-11

Voters can gain insight by examining Strickland, Brownley's Sacramento records
The California League of Conservation Voters... gives Brownley a lifetime score of 99 percent, while Strickland registers at 7 percent. "Julia Brownley has openly supported environmental protection," said David Allgood, the group's Southern California director. "She's been a real, real champion." As for Strickland, Allgood says he only talks a good game.
http://www.vcstar.com/news/2012/oct/28/voters-can-gain-insight-by-examining-candidates/

CA Environment & Politics

San Francisco faces environmental identity crisis
Next week, voters in San Francisco, one of the nation's most progressive and environmentally aware cities, will be asked to decide just how green they want to be. For nearly 80 years, the city has been getting pristine Sierra Nevada water piped from behind a dam it erected in a majestic glacial valley in Yosemite National Park.
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-hetch-hetchy-20121101,0,3905662.story

Food companies fight 'genetically modified' label measure
The companies that make those candy bars leftover from Halloween don't want Californians to be spooked by scary tales of "Frankenfoods."
http://californiawatch.org/dailyreport/food-companies-fight-genetically-modified-label-measure-18621

West Coast at risk for hybrid storms, too
The California coast probably will never see a storm as violent as the one that pounded the East Coast, but the future for Westerners will be rife with environmental problems caused by global warming, including torrential rain, flooding, fire and drought, climate experts say.
http://www.sfgate.com/science/article/West-Coast-at-risk-for-hybrid-storms-too-4005146.php

Off-road state park near Livermore debated
State park officials plan to turn a swath of hills southeast of Livermore - regarded by conservationists as historic and ecologically sensitive - into a motorcycle park, even as off-road vehicle use has declined and the state struggles to keep traditional parks open.
http://www.sfgate.com/outdoors/article/Off-road-state-park-near-Livermore-debated-4008139.php

At polluted Santa Susana lab site, sacred cave attracts tribe's bid
The Chumash are seeking a parcel that includes Burro Flats Painted Cave, which has some of the best preserved pictographs in the state.
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-chumash-rocketdyne-20121030,0,6013343.story

New environmental curriculum corrects plastic bag information
The state's Environmental Protection Agency finalized a revision of a controversial K-12 environmental curriculum on plastic bags Friday.
http://californiawatch.org/dailyreport/new-environmental-curriculum-corrects-plastic-bag-information-18567

Looming Trade War Shakes Up U.S. Solar Industry
Talk to anyone in the solar industry and they'll tell you: it's the best of times, it's the worst of times. Solar installations are booming, but there's also a looming trade war with China. Citing illegal subsidies, U.S. officials have placed trade tariffs on Chinese solar panels. American solar companies are split on whether it will be good or bad for the industry.
http://science.kqed.org/quest/audio/looming-trade-war-shakes-up-u-s-solar-industry/

Chevron's Richmond refinery should be back online in early 2013, firm tells analysts
Chevron's Richmond refinery, hobbled since early August by a disastrous fire, is expected to resume full production sometime during the first three months of next year, Chevron executives said Friday, which could spell relief from high gasoline prices for California drivers.
http://www.contracostatimes.com/business/ci_21913254/chevron-profits-slump-because-falling-oil-and-gasoline

Drilling for Delta tunnel studies blocked in court
Test drilling for Gov. Jerry Brown's proposed twin tunnels must wait until next spring, despite state officials' warning in court documents that any delay could drive up the cost of the now $14 billion project, or even render it infeasible.
http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20121030/A_NEWS/210300322

Costs for San Onofre outage: $317 million
Costs connected with problems at the shuttered San Onofre nuclear plant so far have topped $317 million, mostly for the purchase of replacement power, according to a quarterly report from Edison International released Thursday.
http://www.ocregister.com/news/steam-376479-edison-power.html

California Election News

California ballot filled with competitive races
Tuesday's general election will be a super-charged affair compared to California's sleepy primary in June, when less than a third of registered voters bothered to cast a ballot.
http://www.dailybulletin.com/news/ci_21929179/california-ballot-filled-competitive-races

Registered GOP voters shrink to 29% in state, report says
While other states loom as hotly contested battlegrounds for President Obama and Mitt Romney, new voter registration numbers for Los Angeles County are a prime example of why California has become predictably Democratic when it comes to national races.
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2012/11/california-republican-registration.html

Surge in mail-in voting could delay California results
With as many as half of California voters expected to cast their ballots by mail and several statewide contests narrowing to dead heats, Election Day has the potential to morph into election week. The number of California voters casting mail-in ballots this year is expected to surpass 2008, when about 42 percent of the 13.7 million ballots cast in the presidential election were sent by mail. By comparison, 25 percent voted by mail in 2000.
http://www.mercurynews.com/elections/ci_21901176/surge-mail-voting-could-delay-california-results

Climate and the Presidential Race

Sandy a galvanizing moment for climate change?
Hurricane Sandy images and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg's endorsement of Obama based on his climate change policies could bring attention to the issue of global warming, political observers say.
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-climate-politics-20121105,0,234626.story

The Only Presidential Candidate Who Calls Climate Change a Threat
In a year of sweltering heat, withering drought, some of the worst wildfires on record and catastrophic hurricanes that have ravaged our Gulf coast and Mid-Atlantic states, we have one presidential candidate who thinks climate change is a political punch line. The other rightly calls it a threat to our planet.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/frances-beinecke/the-only-presidential-can_b_2077604.html?ref=topbar

Obama and Romney on environmental issues: A Grand Canyon of difference
Two months after taking office, President Barack Obama signed a historic wilderness bill that banned logging, mining and oil drilling across 2 million acres of scenic federal lands, including the Sierra Nevada, wildflower meadows on Oregon's Mount Hood and vast vistas of California desert. But today, with less than two weeks until Election Day, the environment as a campaign issue is as quiet as some of those remote landscapes.
http://www.mercurynews.com/presidentelect/ci_21858644/obama-and-romney-environmental-issues-grand-canyon-difference

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