Focus

Governor Newsom’s 2023 budget proposal includes climate cuts to tackle fiscal shortfalls

The Hill – January 10

Governor Gavin Newsom on Tuesday unveiled a 2023 state budget proposal that includes significant cuts to climate investments due to an estimated budget gap of $22.5 billion for the 2023-2024 fiscal year. While the proposal includes a variety of new climate investments, several key initiatives would see significant cuts if the state legislature finalizes the budget. Chief among the new investments added to the proposal is $201.1 million toward protecting California from the impacts of floods. In addition to flood-related funds, other new investments include a $125 million drought contingency fund and $31.5 million for modernizing water rights. Additional cuts include a 35% reduction in the funding for the cleanup of PFAS chemicals.

News

EPA eyes cumulative pollution to boost environmental justice

E&E News – January 11

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on Wednesday released a new playbook for reducing pollutants in low-income and minority communities across the country. The “cumulative impacts addendum” builds on a policy from May of last year that helps guide how the federal government considers pollution and climate change in communities of color when enforcing environmental statutes. The policy does not itself have the force of law, but it discusses various regulatory mechanisms under the Clean Air Act as well as water and waste management programs.

In extraordinary move, California mulls crackdown on Los Angeles’ water draws at Mono Lake

San Francisco Chronicle – January 12

State water regulators announced this week that they are revisiting their effort to protect Mono Lake from the ravages of drought, agreeing to review how much water the city of Los Angeles is taking from the basin. The announcement comes as the giant salt lake on the eastern edge of the Sierra Nevada is becoming increasingly dry. The freshly exposed lakebed has been emitting toxic dust and creating a land bridge to islands where coyotes threaten to prey on nesting birds. Stakeholders say the review could lead in the short term to efforts to temporarily halt water draws by Los Angeles in order to protect California gulls and other birds from coyotes and, in the long term, to efforts to permanently raise lake water levels.

San Francisco citizens’ group sues city over diesel generators

CBS News – January 11

A citizen group sued the City and County of San Francisco last Friday in federal court, alleging that the operation of diesel generators at a city-run “vehicle triage center” in the Candlestick Point State Recreational Area violates the Clean Air Act. The complaint alleges that the Act required a permit for operation of the generators, and that the City failed to obtain one. The suit asks the court to enjoin the City from violating the Act, and requests an award of civil penalties of up to $109,000 per day for each violation.

Feds inch toward listing California, Oregon Chinook salmon as threatened

Courthouse News Service – January 10

The Biden administration said Tuesday it will consider adding Chinook salmon in Oregon and Northern California to the endangered or threatened species lists. The announcement comes in the wake of a 90-day review conducted in response to an August 2022 petition from three nonprofit organizations. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) will now conduct a longer review, expected to be concluded in August of this year, before deciding whether or not the species — the largest of the salmonids — is eligible for protected status.

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