Focus
Bondi scraps Biden-era environmental justice enforcement policy
The Hill – February 6
Newly-appointed U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi wrote in a memo this Wednesday that the Justice Department will reverse a Biden-era directive to prioritize enforcement of environmental laws in disadvantaged and low-income communities. Bondi’s predecessor, Merrick Garland, issued guidance in 2022 directing the department to enforce environmental laws with an emphasis on communities that have historically been underserved by such enforcement, including those that are low-income and majority racial minority. Garland’s original directive was accompanied by the creation of the Justice Department’s Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights (OEJ), which is now being dismantled by the Trump administration with employees put on administrative leave.
News
U.S. Supreme Court will not pause California emissions case amid Trump policy shifts
Reuters – February 7
The U.S. Supreme Court declined on Thursday to place on hold a dispute over California’s standards for vehicle emissions and electric cars even as President Donald Trump’s administration considers policy shifts that touch upon pending litigation at the nation’s highest judicial body. The justices denied the administration’s request to pause further action in the case, as well as two cases concerning which courts may hear challenges to U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rules. The justices on December 13 agreed to hear the dispute over California’s vehicle standards, which involves a 2022 exception given to that state by EPA during Biden’s presidency to national vehicle emission standards set by the agency under the Clean Air Act.
Trump’s emergency water order responsible for water dump from Tulare County lakes
SJV Water – January 31
The sudden announcement last Thursday by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers that Kaweah and Success lakes would immediately begin dumping water was in response to President Trump’s January 24 executive order mandating that federal officials exert all efforts to get more water to fight Southern California wildfires, the Army Corps confirmed last Friday. Tulare County water managers were perplexed and frustrated, noting both physical and legal barriers that make it virtually impossible for Tulare County river water to be used for Southern California fires. “A decision to take summer water from local farmers and dump it out of these reservoirs shows a complete lack of understanding of how the system works and sets a very dangerous precedent,” said Dan Vink, a longtime Tulare County water manager and principal partner at Six-33 Solutions, a water and natural resource firm in Visalia.
House members from LA want pollutants from Southern California wildfires tracked
Orange County Register – February 4
Nearly a dozen members of Congress from in or near Los Angeles County are asking the federal government to launch a joint task force to monitor harmful pollutants that have resulted from the recent wildfires to track the potential impact on Southern California residents. The representatives — who represent areas most impacted by the wildfires — raised concerns that routine smog and air quality monitoring systems don’t measure harmful pollutants like lead, chlorine, asbestos, larger ash particles, and other heavy metals. Researchers at Caltech recently detected increased levels of lead, chlorine and black carbon in the air from Jan. 7-11. They reported that lead levels on Jan. 9 were, on average, 100 times greater than the typical range.
Trump administration pulls funding for endangered California fish at heart of water wars
San Francisco Chronicle - February 6
The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation is planning to cut funding for a captive breeding program intended to ensure survival of the endangered delta smelt. UC Davis scientists who run the little-known Fish Conservation and Culture Laboratory in Contra Costa County were told last month that their financing from the federal agency to maintain a refuge population of smelt for research and reintroduction will not be renewed, university officials told the Chronicle. Environmental and fishing groups have long fought for protection of the 3-inch smelt, seeing it as foundational to the natural landscape and a bellwether of the health of the ecologically and commercially important Bay-Delta estuary.
Santa Clara County sues more than a dozen companies over PFAS chemicals found in water
NBC – February 4
Santa Clara County this week sued 22 manufacturers, including 3M and DuPont, for exposing its residents to PFAS compounds. The lawsuit alleges the companies have sparked an environmental and health crisis after the chemicals were detected in local drinking water supplies. The county claims the companies profited from selling those chemicals while concealing associated environmental and health dangers from the public. Now, the county wants them to “pay for the costly remediation necessary to protect county residents and restore the county’s property.” 3M has previously said it will end the manufacturing of all PFAS by the end of this year.
Bureau of Land Management, oil companies sued by environmental groups over drilling permits in San Joaquin Valley
KCRA Sacramento – February 5
A lawsuit filed by several environmental groups claims the expansion of oil drilling in California's San Joaquin Valley violates the federal Clean Air Act and other federal environmental protections. The groups claim that while the court was already hearing a challenge to the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) environmental review of drilling permits, BLM approved an additional 25 permits for drilling of new oil wells in the valley and subsequently approved five more. The groups are seeking an injunction to prevent pre-construction of the areas before drilling.
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