Weekly Green: April 13, 2015

In recent headlines:

• California faces 'Dust Bowl'-like conditions, says climate tracker;
• Gov. Brown confirms change in water tunnels plan;
• Paso Robles sends letter to U.S. officials urging better rail safety;
• Voters want next president to favor climate policies, poll finds;
• ... and much more!

» Welcome to another edition of the Weekly Green, your no-frills news roundup provided free of charge by the California League of Conservation Voters. If you're not a regular subscriber, sign up for your free subscription today: http://ecovote.org/wg »

TOP NEWS

California faces 'Dust Bowl'-like conditions, says climate tracker
With a slew of statistics projected on the slideshow behind him, California's state climatologist had a stark warning during a Thursday presentation on the severity of the drought.
http://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-pc-california-dust-bowl-drought-20150409-story.html

Gov. Brown confirms change in water tunnels plan
Brown said he is no longer seeking a difficult, 50-year permit for the controversial project, instead pursuing approvals covering a shorter period of time.
http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/gov-jerry-brown/article18304880.html

Paso Robles sends letter to U.S. officials urging better rail safety
Paso Robles officials are urging federal authorities to improve rail car safety, reduce train speeds and provide more information and training to first responders in the event of an emergency.
http://www.sanluisobispo.com/2015/04/10/3580912_paso-robles-rail-safety-letter.html

Voters want next president to favor climate policies, poll finds
Most voters want the next president to favor policies to fight climate change, outnumbering those who want a president who opposes such policies by nearly 2-to-1. The Washington Post-ABC News poll released Friday said that 59 percent want a president who “favors government action to address climate change."
http://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/237847-voters-want-next-president-to-favor-climate-policies-poll-finds

CALIFORNIA DROUGHT

US Forest Service investigates expired permit Nestle uses to draw water out of California for bottled water
An investigation by the Desert Sun found that Nestle Waters North America's permit to transport water across the San Bernardino National Forest expired in 1988. The water is piped across the national forest and loaded on trucks to a plant where it is bottled as Arrowhead 100 percent Mountain Spring Water.
http://www.contracostatimes.com/breaking-news/ci_27898571/us-forest-service-investigates-expired-permit-nestle-uses

Every day is fire season in drought-era California, experts say
Traditionally, the scorching, parched autumn was the period of greatest concern about wildfires, but experts say that after four desiccated years almost every day in the Golden State can be considered fire season.
http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-california-drought-fires-20150411-story.html

California delta's water mysteriously missing amid drought
As California struggles with a devastating drought, huge amounts of water are mysteriously vanishing from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta — and the prime suspects are farmers whose families have tilled fertile soil there for generations.
http://www.sfgate.com/news/science/article/California-delta-s-water-mysteriously-missing-6193429.php

Farmers to city dwellers: We're all in the drought together
As the months have worn on, drier and drier but for the very occasional gift from above, it has been hard to avoid a looming civil war in California over a common enemy, the drought.
http://www.latimes.com/local/la-me-pol-calif-politics-20150412-story.html

For Drinking Water in Drought, California Looks Warily to Sea
Every time drought strikes California, the people of this state cannot help noticing the substantial reservoir of untapped water lapping at their shores — 187 quintillion gallons of it, more or less, shimmering so invitingly in the sun.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/12/science/drinking-seawater-looks-ever-more-palatable-to-californians.html

Interactive: How Water Cuts Could Affect Every Community in California
In this interactive map of California, the size of the circles shows daily residential water use, in gallons per capita. The colors show how much each district may be required to reduce its usage.
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/04/01/us/water-use-in-california.html

The Real Reason Californians Can't Water Their Lawns
It's obscene that California farmers using inefficient irrigation techniques are being subsidized to use up scarce water resources. But at least it isn’t at the cost of extending access to clean drinking water to children who die in the thousands from diarrhea-related dehydration. Los Angeles householders reduced to spray-painting their lawns green should be immensely grateful that is the biggest price they pay for their state’s incompetence in managing water.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-04-13/the-real-reason-californians-can-t-water-their-lawns

How Much Water Do Californians Use and What Does 25 Percent Less Look Like?
It’s a hard figure to quantify, and estimates vary widely. For one, while indoor residential water use is relatively steady throughout the state, outdoor use — primarily for landscape irrigation — varies dramatically, with homes in arid inland regions consuming significantly more water than those in coastal areas.
http://blogs.kqed.org/lowdown/2015/04/03/how-much-water-do-californians-use-and-what-would-a-25-percent-reduction-look-like/

Beyond Almonds: A Rogue's Gallery of Guzzlers In California's Drought
California is parched. Wells are running dry. Vegetable fields have been left fallow and lawns are dying. There must be some villain behind all this, right?
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2015/04/12/398757250/beyond-almonds-a-rogues-gallery-of-guzzlers-in-californias-drought

Hiltzik: The wrong way to think about California water
Water is complicated. Nowhere is that more true than in California, and never more than during a major drought.
http://www.latimes.com/business/hiltzik/la-fi-hiltzik-20150412-column.html#page=1

California Drought Leads to Historic Toilet Policy
California officials working to combat the state’s four-year drought are taking aim at everyday practices that use billions of gallons of water each year: flushing toilets and running faucets.
http://time.com/3814354/california-drought-low-flush-toilets/

Carly Fiorina blames environmentalists for California drought
Carly Fiorina is blaming liberal environmentalists for what she calls a “man-made” drought in California. “It is a man-made disaster,” Fiorina, who is “seriously considering” a run for president in 2016, told the Blaze Radio last Monday.
http://www.politico.com/story/2015/04/carly-fiorina-california-drought-116711.html

Beneath California Crops, Groundwater Crisis Grows
Even as the worst drought in decades ravages California, and its cities face mandatory cuts in water use, millions of pounds of thirsty crops like oranges, tomatoes and almonds continue to stream out of the state and onto the nation’s grocery shelves.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/06/science/beneath-california-crops-groundwater-crisis-grows.html

L.A. County still has long way to go in water conservation, study finds
Los Angeles residents and city leaders express pride in the significant cuts in water use they have made. Per capita water demand dropped countywide about 16% between 2000 and 2013.
http://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-adv-water-use-compared-20150413-story.html

San Diego County farmers warn water reduction rules will be 'devastating'
A water district serving farmers in northern San Diego County has asked state water officials who are devising cutback regulations for the same exemption given to farmers in the Central Valley.
http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-farmers-san-diego-county-20150412-story.html

Water consumption boils down to simple formula: More land = more water
People in some parts of Orange County use more than 10 times as much water as other parts, according to state data. And it’s mostly about how we use our land.
http://www.ocregister.com/articles/water-657705-use-county.html

Escalating Water Wars: California Politics Podcast
Discussion of the ongoing state response to California’s drought (are almonds really the state’s enemy No. 1?). We also discuss the biggest fine ever levied against a state utility and a package of immigration bills touted by Democratic lawmakers.
http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2015/04/10/water-wars-kqed-california-politics-podcast/

State Targets Illegal Water Diversions By Marijuana Growers
The drought legislation signed by Gov. Jerry Brown last month gives the California Dept. of Fish and Wildlife new authority to crack down on illegal diversions of water by marijuana growers. A state study shows those diversions are hurting the environment.
http://www.capradio.org/45580

In California, the Grass Is Greener at Coachella
Gov. Jerry Brown’s water rationing order came too late, say festival organizers, for them to make adjustments for hundreds of thousands of festivalgoers.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/12/business/media/in-california-the-grass-is-greener-at-coachella.html

MORE CALIFORNIA NEWS

California Considers Stricter Carbon Standards
California is already working to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions. But a bill approved by a state Senate committee today would set some new goals to be met by 2030. The measure would cut in half the amount of petroleum used in cars. It would double the energy efficiency of existing buildings. And it would require 50 percent of electricity to come from renewable sources.
http://www.capradio.org/45762

Fracking: Oil company drops lawsuit attempting to overturn San Benito County ban
One month after mounting a legal challenge to San Benito County's ban on the controversial oil exploration practice of fracking, a Southern California oil company has withdrawn its lawsuit.
http://www.mercurynews.com/drought/ci_27861090/fracking-oil-company-drops-lawsuit-attempting-overturn-san

State regulator says PG&E may be too big to operate safely
On a day when the California Public Utilities Commission levied a record $1.6 billion penalty against Pacific Gas and Electric Co. for the deadly San Bruno pipeline explosion, the regulatory agency’s president said the utility continues to have gas-system problems, is able to shrug off even the harshest sanctions the state can muster and may be too big to operate safely.
http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/State-regulator-says-PG-E-may-be-too-big-to-6189467.php

Judge invalidates 'take' permits for California logging plan
Wildlife officials were wrong to grant a company permission to harm threatened species in California while logging private land, a federal judge ruled.
http://www.sacbee.com/news/state/california/article17574620.html

15 years after 'Erin Brockovich,' town still fearful of polluted water
Maneuvering his pickup through this Mojave Desert town, resident Daron Banks pointed at empty lot after empty lot.
http://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-hinkley-20150413-story.html

The ExxonMobil Explosion That Nobody Is Talking About
Just before 9 a.m. on February 18, the ExxonMobil refinery in Torrance, California exploded, shaking the surrounding community with the force of a 1.7 magnitude earthquake, and sending a quarter ton of sulfur oxide gas into the atmosphere.
http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2015/04/13/3644173/inside-exxonmobil-explosion-blanketed-town-chemical-ash/

Little known Concord fault poses big threat
A mysterious earthquake fault slices under central Concord, its jagged, quarter-mile-wide seam running beneath a critical fuel-pumping facility, traversing the edge of a refinery processing 166,000 barrels of crude oil daily, and undercutting strip malls and homes.
http://www.insidebayarea.com/breaking-news/ci_27895052/little-known-concord-fault-poses-big-threat

River Otter Populations Are Expanding in the Bay Area
After decades of absence in the San Francisco Bay Area’s coastal habitats, river otters appear to be back, according to a census published in Northwestern Naturalist, the journal of the Society for Northwestern Vertebrate Biology.
http://blogs.kqed.org/science/2015/04/10/river-otter-populations-are-expanding-in-the-bay-area/

Bay Area residents slam plan to phase out high-polluting fireplaces
At a Livermore workshop Thursday evening, an audience of more than 100 people blasted a plan that would require fireplace retrofits when homes are sold.
http://www.contracostatimes.com/breaking-news/ci_27885102/bay-area-residents-slam-plan-phase-out-high

Bad-air days decline in Southern California
Southern California’s decades-long war on air pollution is far from over, but a report released Thursday gives everyone a reason to take a deep breath and maybe even lace up some running shoes.
http://www.ocregister.com/articles/air-657447-pollution-quality.html

UCLA gives L.A. County a 'C+' on the environment
UCLA in its first comprehensive environmental report card for Los Angeles County gives the region an unimpressive “C-plus” grade, saying that the area still faces problems of dirty air and polluted water.
http://www.bizjournals.com/losangeles/news/2015/04/07/ucla-gives-l-a-county-a-c-on-the-environment.html

Billionaire activist Tom Steyer testifies for sweeping climate bill
A far-ranging climate change measure cleared its first legislative hurdle Tuesday, as billionaire environmental benefactor Tom Steyer appeared at the Capitol to trumpet the bill's economic benefits.
http://www.bizjournals.com/sacramento/news/2015/04/07/billionaire-environmentalist-comes-to-sacramento.html

Next for Steyer: Put GOP candidates on climate change hot seat
San Francisco activist Tom Steyer’s NextGen Climate Super PAC said Monday that the billionaire Democrat will wage a campaign to put Republicans on the “hot seat” about climate change and spend “what it takes” for an aggressive new high-tech war room to track — and attack — GOP candidates in 2016.
http://www.sfchronicle.com/nation/article/Next-for-Steyer-put-GOP-candidates-on-climate-6182051.php

NATIONAL & GLOBAL NEWS

Cap and Trade System to Limit Greenhouse Gas Pollution in Ontario
Ontario is joining other jurisdictions, including Québec and California, by imposing a hard ceiling on the pollution allowed in each sector of the economy.
http://news.ontario.ca/opo/en/2015/04/cap-and-trade-system-to-limit-greenhouse-gas-pollution-in-ontario.html

President Obama, others link climate change to public health
It's easy to brush aside debates involving major international corporations, but who wouldn't stop to think -- and perhaps do something -- about their own health, or the health of their children?
http://www.cnn.com/2015/04/08/health/obama-climate-change-public-health/index.html

Study suggests fracking could release radon from ground
Levels of cancer-causing radon gas in Pennsylvania homes have increased as the fracking industry has expanded, a new study shows.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2015/04/09/radon-fracking-study/25466893/

In the future, doctors may tell you take two ‘doses of nature’ and call in the morning
Numerous studies have confirmed the link between exposure to nature and improved physical, psychological and social well-being. They have shown that greenery has been associated with reduced levels of asthma, improved healing times and even with making people more likely to exercise.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/to-your-health/wp/2015/04/08/doctors-orders-take-two-nature-doses-and-call-me-in-the-morning/

Interactive: Streams & Drinking Water in the United States
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency published a new report and interactive map illustrating surface drinking water sources in the United States. Approximately 117 million people – one-third of the U.S. population – get some or all of their drinking water from public drinking water systems that rely in part on headwater, seasonal, or rain-dependent streams.
http://water.epa.gov/type/rsl/drinkingwatermap.cfm

Mighty Rio Grande Now a Trickle Under Siege
Drought’s grip on California grabs all the headlines. But from Texas to Arizona to Colorado, the entire West is under siege by changing weather patterns that have shrunk snowpacks, raised temperatures, spurred evaporation and reduced reservoirs to record lows.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/13/us/mighty-rio-grande-now-a-trickle-under-siege.html

Wisconsin: ‘Climate Change’ Isn’t Something You Can Talk About
Discussing climate change is out of bounds for workers at a state agency in Wisconsin. So is any work related to climate change — even responding to e-mails about the topic.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-04-08/for-some-wisconsin-state-workers-climate-change-isn-t-something-you-can-talk-about

Bob Inglis to Receive the 2015 Profile in Courage Award
Former U.S. Congressman Bob Inglis was named the 2015 recipient of the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award™ for the political courage he demonstrated when he reversed his previous position on climate change, knowing that by acknowledging the scientific reality of atmospheric warming and calling on the United States to meaningfully address the issue, he was jeopardizing his political career.
http://profileincourageaward.org/bob-inglis-receives-2015-profile-in-courage-award/

Op-Ed: "Right-Wing Groups Get Overheated on Climate Questions" by U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI)
In late February, Sen. Barbara Boxer, Sen. Ed Markey, and I sent a letter to 100 companies, trade groups, and other organizations affiliated with the fossil fuel industry asking whether they spent money to support climate research. That letter provoked a torrent of criticism from conservative groups and publications mischaracterizing our motives and muddling our message. I'd like to set the record straight.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sen-sheldon-whitehouse/right-wing-groups-get-ove_b_7054956.html

Ocean acidification triggered devastating extinction, study finds
Ocean acidification triggered by massive volcanic eruptions helped cause the worst mass extinction in the history of life on Earth, according to a new study.
http://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-ocean-acidification-mass-extinction-20150409-story.html

Thanks for reading the Weekly Green from the California League of Conservation Voters. If you're not a regular subscriber, don't forget to sign up today! Get your free subscription here: http://ecovote.org/wg

• Next Weekly Green
•  
• Previous Weekly Green