Focus
THE WASHINGTON POST - Jul 24 Trump administration officials are preparing to issue a proposal within days to freeze fuel-efficiency standards for cars and light trucks for six years and challenge the right of California and other states to set their own tailpipe standards, according to four current and former federal officials. The Transportation Department’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), in the waning days of the Obama administration, concluded that stricter fuel-efficiency targets would save consumers money without compromising safety. Now, the government is poised to project that more stringent efficiency standards would increase vehicle prices and could endanger Americans by discouraging them from buying newer, safer vehicles. The joint proposal will lay out several options for setting fuel efficiency standards for cars and light trucks over the next several years. It will recommend freezing the standards at Model Year 2020 levels (a fleetwide average of 35 mpg) through 2026, instead of increasing them to 50 mpg, as the existing rule would have required.
SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE - Jul 24 The California Water Commission on Tuesday approved $2.7 billion in voter-approved Prop 1 bond money for various water storage projects. The funds are earmarked to elevate two Bay Area dams at Los Vaqueros Reservoir near Livermore and Pacheco Reservoir east of Gilroy and to construct two large dams in the Central Valley to create two new reservoirs – Sites Reservoir on the Sacramento River and Temperance Flat Reservoir on the San Joaquin River. Funds also will go to four projects for underground water storage. Collectively, the projects would add about 4.3 million acre feet of water storage across the state. The new supply is intended to help California manage drought conditions as longer dry spells are expected to occur in the future.
THE HILL - Jul 27 Acting EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler has rescinded a memorandum issued by former head Scott Pruitt, which stated that the agency would not enforce strict limits the Obama administration had put on “glider trucks,” i.e., trucks with new bodies but old chassis and engines that do not meet new, stricter pollution standards. In 2016, the Obama administration instituted a limit of 300 glider truck sales per company. In support of his rescission of the Pruitt memo, Wheeler cited a lawsuit against the policy filed by environmental groups and a coalition of states (including California) which triggered a ruling by the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals staying the effectiveness of the policy, and a 1995 internal EPA policy that sought to restrict how often the agency decides not to enforce regulations on the books. The trucks at issue emit as much as 43 times the nitrogen oxides as new trucks and 55 times the particulate matter, but they are about 25 times less expensive than new trucks.
BLOOMBERG - Jul 24 The U.S. Department of the Interior will no longer require off-site “compensatory mitigation,” a policy expanded in the last days of the Obama administration that requires developers to offset the impacts of their activities on public lands through programs such as funding the restoration and protection of wetlands and other habitats elsewhere. Environmentalists, who view compensatory mitigation as a way to minimize the impacts of development on public land, endangered species, and recreational resources, are expected to oppose the move. The policy, rolled out publicly on Tuesday, comes at the same time that the Department has started to roll back parts of the Endangered Species Act. Department officials stated that the change will not affect “compensatory mitigation” programs at the state level, and that, the Department will continue to consider environmental impacts during permit application review.
LOS ANGELES TIMES - Jul 23 A coalition of activists on Monday intervened in a superior court’s pending decision to consider approving an agreement reached by the California Coastal Commission, the California Coastal Conservancy, and the Hollister Ranch Owners Association, granting access to Hollister Ranch, a section of shoreline in Santa Barbara County, only to those who can boat or paddle in, or who are visiting as part of select guided tours. Coastal officials in return agreed to give up their claim of any public route by land. The agreement, if approved by the Santa Barbara County Superior Court, would cap a legal battle with powerful landowners, who for decades have fought to avoid public access to Hollister Ranch’s 8.5 miles of coastline. The deal received preliminary approval in May, but Judge Colleen Sterne authorized additional public notice and comment on the settlement and intervener participation in the litigation. More than 1,500 people emailed the Coastal Commission lambasting the deal. The judge has agreed to reconvene September 10 for a final hearing on whether to approve the settlement.
