Focus
California approves a wave of aggressive new climate measures
The New York Times – September 1
California lawmakers passed a flurry of new climate bills on Wednesday, including a record $54 billion in climate spending, a measure to prevent the state’s last nuclear power plant from closing, sharp new restrictions on oil and gas drilling, and a mandate that California stop adding carbon dioxide to the atmosphere by 2045. Under the new legislation, the state will now have to cut emissions at least 85 percent by 2045 while offsetting any remaining emissions by planting more trees or using still-unproven technologies like direct air capture, which collects gases after they’ve already been discharged into the atmosphere. One of the most contentious measures passed by the legislature is a requirement that new oil and gas wells be set back at least 3,200 feet from homes, schools, and hospitals, while imposing strict pollution controls on existing wells within that distance.
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News
Companies responsible for 2021 Southern California oil spill set to plead guilty, pay almost $13 million in fines
CNN – August 29
A Houston-based oil company, Amplify Energy Corp., and two subsidiaries, Beta Operating Co. and San Pedro Bay Pipeline Co., agreed last Friday to plead guilty to violating the federal Clean Water Act and to pay a $7.1 million criminal fine after their pipeline leaked about 25,000 gallons of crude oil across the coast of Southern California in 2021, according to a statement issued last Friday by the office of the U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California. The plea agreements include one misdemeanor count each of negligently discharging oil into San Pedro Bay. In addition to the criminal fine, the companies will pay about $5.8 million to reimburse federal cleanup efforts. The companies will be on probation for four years and then must install a new leak detection system, conduct visual inspections of the pipeline semiannually, and improve employee training, among other things.
Santa Clara County dam faces growing opposition
San Jose Spotlight – August 28
The opposition against the Pacheco Dam expansion in South Santa Clara County is growing—and so is the list of plaintiffs suing the Santa Clara Valley Water District, also known as Valley Water. This week, an environmental advocacy group and a Native American tribe joined the Stop Pacheco Dam Coalition lawsuit. The lawsuit, first filed in June by a coalition of environmentalists and landowners, challenges Valley Water’s reliance on exemptions under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) to repair and expand the size of the Pacheco reservoir and dam atop the remote Pacheco Pass in Santa Clara County from 5,500-acre feet of water to 140,000-acre feet of water, enough to supply 1.4 million residents for a year in an emergency. Opponents claim the project, which includes drilling 226 borings and digging 57 test pits up to 20 feet deep over the next eight to seventeen months on various properties, including several private ranches that would be flooded by the dam, will cause environmental consequences that need to be mitigated.
Plan to bury contaminated sediment in Newport Harbor goes to Coastal Commission
The Orange County Register – September 1
Newport Beach has spent four years and roughly $2 million on a plan to dig a hole the size of six football fields at the bottom of its harbor, a hole that U.S. Army Corps of Engineers crews can use to bury contaminated sediment dredged up from nearby channels. City officials insist the plan, which is expected to take three more years and cost the city at least another $10 million to complete, is the most practical and environmentally-friendly way to clear the harbor’s channels and get contaminated sediment — which contains elevated levels of chemicals such as mercury and DDT — out of open waters. But the proposal faces growing opposition from environmental organizations and a group of residents who worry about the long-term effects on water quality and protected wildlife. The California Coastal Commission is scheduled to vote on a key permit for the project on September 7.
Costs associated with carbon emissions three times federal estimate: study
The Hill – September 1
The social cost of carbon is significantly higher than the federal estimate according to a study published on Thursday in the journal Nature. Researchers put the financial toll associated with projected future carbon emissions at $185 per ton of carbon pollution added to the atmosphere, more than three times the federal government’s figure of $51.
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