Environmental and Policy Focus
Washington Post - Mar 28 President Trump on Tuesday took the most significant step yet in obliterating his predecessor’s environmental record, instructing federal regulators to rewrite key rules curbing U.S. carbon emissions. The sweeping executive order also seeks to lift a moratorium on federal coal leasing and remove the requirement that federal officials consider the impact of climate change when making decisions. The centerpiece of the new presidential directive—instructing the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to begin rewriting the 2015 regulation that limits greenhouse-gas emissions from existing power plants—will trigger a laborious rulemaking process and a possible legal fight. The agency must first get permission from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, where the rule is tied up in litigation, to revisit the matter. On Tuesday, Trump asked the court to halt its review of these carbon-emission rules. Next, agency officials will have to justify reaching the opposite conclusion of the Obama EPA, which argued it was technically feasible and legally warranted to reduce carbon pollution by about one-third by 2030, compared with 2005 levels. The order is silent on whether the U.S. should withdraw from the 2015 Paris climate agreement, under which it has pledged to cut its greenhouse gas emissions between 26 and 28 percent by 2025 compared to 2005 levels, because the administration remains divided on that question.
Reuters - Mar 27 California last Friday approved vehicle pollution targets for 2022-2025 that the Trump administration had put on hold, setting up a potential face-off between federal and state regulators that could be expensive for automakers and a headache for consumers. In a unanimous vote, the California Air Resources Board finalized the vehicle pollution rules for the state, set a mandate for zero-emission sales over the same time period, and ordered its staff to start work on targets for after 2025. California currently is permitted to set its own air quality rules, with federal approval. A two-track emissions regulatory system would leave consumers with potentially higher prices and could complicate their ability to move cars between states. California regulators said they would cooperate with federal regulators who are reviewing the federal tailpipe emissions standards, and the Global Automakers industry alliance says it is committed to a national program.
OC Register - Mar 30 Following a ruling Thursday by the California Supreme Court, the proposed development at the Banning Ranch property in Newport Beach must be re-approved by the city if it goes forward at all. The proposed project had already been stalled following the California Coastal Commission's denial of a scaled-down version of the development – including 895 homes, retail, a luxury hotel and hostel, and a 329-acre nature park – in part because of impacts to burrowing owls that migrate through the historic oilfield. The parallel case before the California Supreme Court hinged on the issue of whether the city of Newport Beach violated its own municipal ordinance in 2012 in approving the development even though city residents previously voted to keep the land as open space, although the court did not reach that issue. Instead, the court ruled that the city’s environmental impact report for the project failed to comply with the California Environmental Quality Act because it did not consider the project’s impact on environmentally-sensitive habitat areas under the California Coastal Act of 1976. The developer's representative said the court’s ruling was an unprecedented action that represented “a dramatic change in how coastal projects will have to be analyzed in the future” and “will significantly complicate future coastal land use processing.”
San Jose Mercury News - Mar 30 The Trump Administration on Wednesday denied a petition by environmental groups that sought to ban use of a common pesticide applied to citrus fruits, apples, cherries, and other crops, reversing a push by the Obama administration to revoke all uses of the pesticide on food after a government review concluded it could harm children’s brains. In announcing the decision, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Scott Pruitt said that by not banning chlorpyrifos he is providing “regulatory certainty” to thousands of American farms that rely on the pesticide. The pesticide, in use since 1965, was banned for home use by EPA in 2000, and “no-spray” buffer zones around sensitive sites, such as schools, were imposed by EPA in 2012. U.S. farms use more than 6 million pounds of the chemical each year — about 25 percent of it in California.
Sacramento Bee - Mar 27 The operators of Oroville Dam acknowledged Monday they might not be able to permanently repair the dam’s battered main spillway in time for the next rainy season, but said they are confident the fractured structure will be usable by November 1. Engineers expect to have this summer’s repair plans largely in place by early next week for the concrete spillway, said Bill Croyle, the acting director of the State Department of Water Resources (DWR). The spillway developed a massive crater on February 7, triggering a crisis that prompted the temporary evacuation of 188,000 downstream residents. In a report to DWR that became public last week, a team of independent consultants cast doubt on the agency’s ability to permanently repair or replace the 3,000-foot-long concrete chute by fall.
