Weekly Green: April 6, 2015

Good afternoon, all. In recent news & opinion:

• State oil & gas regulators propose October deadline for closing illegal wells;
• Brown defends drought order that doesn't limit farmers;
• Much more local and national drought coverage, and other environmental news.

» 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 »

Above the Fold

California eyes deadline for shutting more oilfield wells
California regulators on Thursday proposed an Oct. 15 deadline for starting to close more of the 2,000-plus oil-industry wells that funnel waste and other fluids into federally protected underground water reserves.
http://www.sfgate.com/business/energy/article/California-eyes-deadline-for-shutting-more-6176057.php

CLCV Blog: Victory for Bees! EPA Halts Pesticide Approvals
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced on April 2, 2015 that it was unlikely to approve new or expanded uses of neonicotinoid pesticides while the agency evaluates their risks to honey bees. This is an important step in protecting honey bee populations from further decline and a victory for bee advocates.
http://www.ecovote.org/blog/victory-bees-epa-halts-pesticide-approvals

Our Historic Drought

Jerry Brown defends drought order that doesn't limit farmers
Brown said farmers aren't using water frivolously on their lawns or taking long showers. "They're providing most of the fruits and vegetables of America to a significant part of the world," he said.
http://www.sfgate.com/news/science/article/Gov-Jerry-Brown-defends-drought-order-that-6180212.php

California drought: Why mandatory cuts didn’t hit farms
As Californians prepare for unprecedented mandatory water reductions of 25 percent beginning next month, state officials find themselves defending a decision to exclude the biggest water user in the state in the required cutbacks — agriculture.
http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Critics-say-agriculture-unfairly-left-out-of-6178208.php

ICYMI: California drought: Brown orders 25 percent water use reduction
Standing in a browned meadow that should have been buried in deep snow, Gov. Jerry Brown ordered California’s first-ever mandatory water cutback, imposing a 25 percent reduction to force residents and businesses to significantly tighten up water use
http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/California-drought-Jerry-Brown-orders-historic-6172986.php

Lawn-watering cutbacks alone could meet governor’s demand
Noting that outdoor watering accounts for up to 80 percent of urban water use in some areas, Kostyrko said that cutbacks on lawn irrigation could, by themselves, meet the governor’s order issued last Wednesday, the state’s first mandatory water-use restrictions.
http://www.pressdemocrat.com/home/3753478-181/lawn-watering-cutbacks-alone-could-meet

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. But the way that California farmers have pulled off that feat is a case study in the unwise use of natural resources, many experts say.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/06/science/beneath-california-crops-groundwater-crisis-grows.html

Drought 2015: Brave words won’t be enough
Let everything die. Rat on your neighbor. Pay through the nose. Then wait until summer when Big Government gets really mean. Welcome, central San Joaquin Valley residents, to new rules for surviving Drought 2015. Local cities are hustling to figure out how they’ll comply with Gov. Jerry Brown’s recent executive order listing 31 drought-fighting mandates.
http://www.fresnobee.com/2015/04/04/4461906_drought-2015-brave-words-wont.html

Drought: Gov. Jerry Brown's water order ripples onto Inland Empire turf
The governor's order last week that all of California cut urban water use by 25 percent could be heard all the way to Ed Neighbors' lawn in North Fontana.
http://www.dailybulletin.com/article/20150404/NEWS/150409814

$25-billion Sacramento-San Joaquin delta tunnel project reexamined
Gov. Jerry Brown's administration is overhauling its proposal for a controversial tunnel project in the Sacramento-San Joaquin delta in the wake of doubts about whether water exporters can meet stringent federal conditions for operating the system over a 50-year period.
http://www.latimes.com/local/la-me-delta-tunnels-20150404-story.html

California Drought Tests History of Endless Growth
The state’s history as a frontier of prosperity and glamour faces an uncertain future as the fourth year of severe shortages prompts Gov. Jerry Brown to mandate a 25 percent reduction in non-agricultural water use.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/05/us/california-drought-tests-history-of-endless-growth.html

As water runs dry, Californians brace for a new way of life
When Gov. Jerry Brown (D) told Californians last week that watering grass every day is “going to be a thing of the past” and announced the first mandatory water restrictions in the state’s history, people in a region full of swimming pools, pretty lawns and flowers bursting in technicolor began to worry that the place would start to look a lot more like Arizona.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/as-water-runs-dry-californians-brace-for-a-new-way-of-life/2015/04/04/f1ebb4ba-daba-11e4-b3f2-607bd612aeac_story.html

Walters: Jerry Brown now owns California’s big drought
Responses to crises often define political executives – presidents, governors and big-city mayors – for posterity.
http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/dan-walters/article17352962.html

Morain: Swimming upstream to save a victim of state’s water crisis
At the southern edge of the Delta, past a newly planted almond orchard, a vineyard and another young almond grove, 24 tanks are filled with roughly 400 tiny fish each, among the last of the Delta smelt.
http://www.sacbee.com/opinion/opn-columns-blogs/dan-morain/article17351492.html

Californians with century-old water rights face restrictions
Farms and other Californians that have been shielded from water reductions because of century-old claims could face new restrictions, the State Water Resources Control Board said Friday.
http://www.sacbee.com/news/state/california/article17351900.html

Drought expands across large section of nation's crop region
Drought conditions are expanding across a large section of the U.S., from California to the Great Plains. The National Drought Mitigation Center at the University of Nebraska says the area covered by moderate drought or worse expanded by nearly five percentage points to 36.8 percent during March.
http://www.sfgate.com/news/us/article/Drought-expands-across-large-section-of-nation-s-6181591.php

Water Agencies Preparing For Mandatory Restrictions
David Bolland is with the Association of California Water Agencies. He says many agencies already have restrictions in place. But he says customers may see changes in the coming months. For instance, water pricing may be adjusted.
http://www.capradio.org/articles/2015/04/02/water-agencies-preparing-for-mandatory-restrictions/

Valley leaders urge Brown to release more Delta water for local livelihoods
Their top demand is for the state to allow more Northern California water to be pumped through the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and into San Joaquin Valley canal systems.
http://www.fresnobee.com/2015/04/02/4459683_valley-leaders-urge-brown-to-releases.html

First California Governor To Deal With Two Droughts Over Four Terms
Longtime California journalist Leo McElroy watched Brown grapple with drought in the 1970s. He says this time is different.
http://www.capradio.org/45474

Here’s How Much Water California Needs to Save This Year
California's new rules will save the state almost 500 billion gallons in the next nine months. What does that amount of water look like?
http://www.wired.com/2015/04/heres-much-water-california-needs-save-year/

More California Farmland Likely Fallowed In 2015
The agriculture industry uses 80 percent of the state’s water supply but is not facing any restrictions, while other water users face a mandatory 25 percent cut. But state farmers say they've sustained cutbacks in state and federal water allotments the past two years, and will again this year.
http://www.capradio.org/45537

How Jerry Brown made up his mind on drought order
One week before Gov. Jerry Brown strode into a bone dry meadow in the Sierra Nevada to issue the first statewide water reduction order in California history, he discussed the order at length with his advisers at the Capitol.
http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article17261903.html

Californians Who Conserved Wonder if State Can Overcome Those Who Didn’t
In a state accustomed to cycles of drought and perennial water fights, the need for such drastic cuts has highlighted discord between cities and agricultural water users (who use about 80 percent of the developed water supply), between California’s wetter north that pumps water to its drier south, and between water’s frugal and spendthrift users.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/03/us/californians-concerned-that-efforts-to-conserve-water-will-not-help-much.html

California moves to kill the lawn, save the water
What's it going to take to get people to use a lot less water in drought-stricken California, the Technicolor landscape of lush yards, emerald golf courses and aquamarine swimming pools?
http://www.mercurynews.com/california/ci_27837527/california-moves-kill-lawn-save-water

Most cities, water districts have a long way to go to hit Gov. Jerry Brown's target
When Brown asked for a voluntary 20 percent reduction last year, most cities, private water companies and water districts responded with mostly voluntary measures, delivering only a 9.7 percent statewide reduction. Fines for wasting water were almost nonexistent. Those days will soon be over, state officials say, now that the drought is heading into a fourth year with virtually no Sierra snowpack and no end in sight.
http://www.contracostatimes.com/breaking-news/ci_27840386/california-drought-most-cities-water-districts-have-long

California Drought Is Worsened by Global Warming, Scientists Say
Scientists say that the warming trend makes it highly likely that California and other parts of the Western United States will see more severe droughts in the future.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/02/science/california-drought-is-worsened-by-global-warming-scientists-say.html

More Environmental News & Opinions

Oceans might take 1,000 years to recover from climate change, study suggests
Naturally occurring climate change lowered oxygen levels in the deep ocean, decimating a broad spectrum of seafloor life that took some 1,000 years to recover, according to a study that offers a potential window into the effects of modern warming.
http://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-oceans-climate-change-20150331-story.html

Feds likely to shut down sardine fishing on West Coast
West Coast fisheries managers will likely shut down sardine fishing this year as numbers decline, echoing a previous collapse that decimated a thriving industry and increasing worries that other species might be withheld from the commercial market.
http://www.dailybulletin.com/article/20150404/NEWS/150409818

PG&E’s pollution from decades ago causing harm today, suit says
A century ago, Pacific Gas and Electric Co. generated gas for San Francisco customers from coal and oil plants in the Marina and Fisherman’s Wharf neighborhoods that deposited their waste into the ground and in waters that flowed to the bay.
http://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/PG-E-s-pollution-from-decades-ago-causing-harm-6180525.php?t=84cee62d0600af33be&cmpid=twitter-premium

California could rein in Tesla rebates that mostly go to wealthy
California's incentives to purchase electric vehicles are under attack, as data shows most of the money goes to consumers who earn twice the national average yet collect cash rebates on Tesla Motors luxury models.
http://www.mercurynews.com/business/ci_27837137/california-could-rein-tesla-rebates-that-mostly-go

Study Proves How Little We Know About Wind Power and Eagle Mortality
A new study of eagle mortality at a wind facility near Palm Springs may well prove frustrating to both supporters of wind energy and those concerned about the technology's effect on wildlife.
http://www.kcet.org/news/redefine/rewire/commentary/study-proves-how-little-we-know-about-wind-and-eagles.html

Warm Winter Wrought Havoc for Coastal Wildlife
Warm ocean waters and the recent lack of cool weather coalesced into a rough winter for wildlife on the islands known as “California’s Galapagos.” About thirty miles out from the Golden Gate, the federally protected Farallones are breeding grounds visited by hundreds of thousands of seabirds – many of which use the islands as a winter way station — but not this year.
http://blogs.kqed.org/science/2015/04/05/warm-winter-wrought-havoc-for-coastal-wildlife/

PG&E minimizes quake risks at nuclear plant, critics say
Since the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant opened on a rocky stretch of California coast in 1985, researchers have discovered three nearby fault lines capable of stronger quakes than the one that struck Napa last year.
http://www.sfchronicle.com/business/article/PG-E-minimizes-quake-risks-at-nuclear-plant-6179531.php?t=785d3736861210a92f&cmpid=twitter-premium

Saunders: Ethanol: corn, scorn and policy porn
Imagine a government energy program that is such a disaster that the Environmental Working Group and the American Petroleum Institute both oppose it. The anti-poverty group ActionAid USA wants to get rid of it, as does the pro-business Competitive Enterprise Institute.
http://www.sfgate.com/opinion/saunders/article/Ethanol-corn-scorn-and-policy-porn-6178032.php

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