Environmental and Policy Focus
New York Times - Sep 9
Gov. Jerry Brown and Senate Democrats abandoned a proposal for a 50 percent cut in petroleum use by 2030 that was a centerpiece of emissions legislation. Senate Bill 350, the latest and most ambitious part of a series of legislation and regulations by the state to significantly curb greenhouse gas emissions over the next 35 years, passed the Democratic-controlled Senate but faced almost certain defeat in the Assembly, where Democrats are also in control but tend to be more moderate and represent economically struggling parts of the state.
Sacramento Bee - Sep 10
One day after resistance from moderate Democrats in the Assembly forced Senate leaders to abandon a measure to reduce petroleum use in vehicles in California – the subject of the first article in today’s Update - another major climate bill fell in California on Thursday. Senate Bill 32 sought to increase California’s emission reduction target to 80 percent below 1990 levels by 2050, thereby expanding upon Assembly Bill 32, the landmark 2006 law requiring California to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020. The bill passed the Senate but stalled earlier this week in the lower house, with many Democrats withholding their votes or opposing the bill. The bill’s author, Sen. Fran Pavley, D-Agoura Hills, said in a prepared statement that the Assembly and the Brown administration “were not supportive, for now, and we could not pass this important proposal.” She said she would try again to pass the bill next year. A spokesman for the Governor explained that the administration supported Senate Bill 32 as it was originally proposed, but objected to amendments to curtail authority of the California Air Resources Board. Those amendments, he said, “could have weakened the state’s existing ability to fight climate change. We can’t trade what is already being done to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to get a new bill.”
Huffington Post - Sep 8
The California State Assembly on Tuesday passed a bill restricting the sale of personal care products that contain environmentally hazardous plastic microbeads. The legislation will now head to the desk of Gov. Jerry Brown. Microbeads, commonly found in facial scrubs and toothpastes, don't biodegrade quickly when washed down drains, thus polluting water sources and harming the marine animals that ingest them. If signed into law, the bill will prohibit "selling or offering for promotional purposes in this state a personal care product containing plastic microbeads that are used to exfoliate or cleanse in a rinse-off product." The legislation would go into effect on Jan. 1, 2020.
New York Times - Sep 7
The focus on a toxic mine spill in Colorado that polluted rivers in three Western states shifts to Congress this week as lawmakers kick off a series of hearings into the role of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in the spill. Republican committee leaders in the House and Senate said EPA officials were frustrating their attempts to investigate the spill by withholding documents that could explain what went wrong when a cleanup team doing excavation work triggered the release of 3 million gallons of rust-colored sludge from the inactive Gold King Mine near Silverton, Colorado. Other stakeholders hope to use the August 5 accident as leverage to advance proposals that would expand the liability of private companies to clean up abandoned mines.
OC Register - Sep 11
Federal scientists are conducting a low-flow stream study in six western states in an attempt to gain insights that could help resource managers better allocate scarce water supplies during future droughts. U.S. Geological Survey workers are measuring flows and temperatures through September in nearly 500 streams, mostly in upper tributaries in Idaho, California, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, and Washington. The report could ultimately be used to decide a variety of issues, including how much water to release from dams, how many cattle to allow on grazing allotments, and how much water will be available for farmers in irrigation districts and for protection of endangered species. Geological Survey officials say the report will be published in 2016.
Recordnet - Sep 10
State officials applied this week for the latest in a series of permits needed to build the twin tunnels beneath the Delta, another indication of the state's intent to move forward with the $15 billion plan. Two weeks ago, operators of the massive state and federal water projects asked regulators for a change in their water rights permit to allow diversion of water into the tunnels from the Sacramento River. Now, the state Department of Water Resources is asking the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for a Section 404 dredge and fill permit to build the project within Delta waterways and wetlands, some of which may be environmentally sensitive.
