L.A. plan to ‘gentrify’ skid row will oust poor residents, advocates say

LOS ANGELES TIMES - Jun 15 Activists last Friday lashed out against a city proposal to develop skid row, saying L.A.’s “gentrification” plan threatens one of the last bastions of housing for the very poor and disregards the fate of 2,100 people living in the downtown district. The skid row proposal, which could be voted on in early 2019, is part of a new central city community plan called DTLA 2040, which is aimed at supporting downtown’s growth as a major residential neighborhood and center for creative and mixed-use office space. The skid row portion of the draft plan would rezone industrial property along the east-west corridors of 5th, 6th, and 7th streets for market-rate housing, while accommodating social service agencies and permanent supportive housing on north-south streets.

Power Ledger and Silicon Valley Power to track EV low-carbon credits via blockchain

GREENTECH MEDIA - Jun 19 Santa Clara municipal utility Silicon Valley Power, Australian energy blockchain startup Power Ledger, and its North American partner Clean Energy Blockchain Network on Tuesday unveiled a pilot project to use Power Ledger’s blockchain platform across two key proof-of-concept use cases. The first is to track the production and use of energy at the solar PV and battery-equipped six-story parking garage in the heart of the city’s entertainment district, including the energy being consumed by EVs parked at its 48 Level 2 chargers and one DC fast charger. The second is to “digitize” those EV charging transactions to help the utility earn credits under the California Air Resources Board’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard. This program offers EV fleet owners or EV charging network operators a potentially lucrative way to sell credits to fossil fuel refiners and producers — as long as they can handle the administrative costs and accounting challenges of adhering to its rules.

They are building 11,000 new homes in Folsom. But will there be enough water?

THE SACRAMENTO BEE - Jun 15 As construction begins this month on the first model homes at Folsom Ranch, a 3,300-acre development in the city of Folsom, which will include 11,000 homes and apartments and seven public schools, state regulators continue to have questions about the project’s water supply. City officials plan to keep Folsom Ranch hydrated by using water gained from conservation efforts elsewhere in Folsom, and they insist the water will be sufficient. The State Water Resources Control Board, though, has told the city that those savings might not be enough over the long haul. During the drought, the state board issued moratoriums halting 21 small communities, from Kyburz in El Dorado County to Big Creek in Fresno County, from hooking up new homes with water. Board deputy director Darrin Polhemus said the orders are still in effect. In Folsom, however, the state board isn’t taking any steps to impede the development south of 50. State officials say, for now, Folsom isn’t breaking any rules.

This Utah group just proved that net-zero energy buildings don’t have to be more expensive

DESERET NEWS - Jun 13 Skeptics have dismissed net-zero energy buildings, which create the same amount of renewable energy they use, as expensive and cumbersome to build. But multiple real estate developers across the country, including a nonprofit called Giv Group in Salt Lake City, have been working the past few years to prove critics wrong by demonstrating that net-zero buildings can be constructed for close to the same cost as conventional structures, with just a little extra planning. Giv Group claims its new $16 million, 112-unit apartment building at 355 N. 500 West is the tallest net-zero apartment building in Utah, and is the first in the state to be built for less than the traditional cost, with savings of $565 per unit in mechanical and electrical systems.

Groundwater overpumping boosts arsenic in California aquifer

WATER DEEPLY - Jun 14 In California’s agricultural heartland, the San Joaquin Valley, excessive pumping of groundwater has resulted in subsidence, damaging crucial infrastructure, including roads, bridges, and water conveyance. A study last year from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena found that overpumping of groundwater since the 1920s had caused parts of the San Joaquin Valley to sink as much as 28 feet. But groundwater overpumping may have another serious side effect, according to a study published June 5 in the journal Nature Communications. Researchers found that recent groundwater pumping caused an increase in the concentrations of arsenic in the aquifer. Arsenic has been linked to many kinds of cancer and can also cause stomach pain, paralysis, and blindness. The scientists focused on the Tulare Basin, which stretches across the San Joaquin Valley and is home to about 4 million people and a large agricultural economy.