Weekly Green: December 16, 2014

Good afternoon, California. In the news:

• Senate Pro Tem De León to propose state pension funds divest from coal;
• California plastic bag ban backers launch ads;
• Low voter turnout will likely bring about "initiative avalanche" in 2016;
• California needs more big storms to beat drought, and more.

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Above the Fold

De León calls for climate divestment, seeks to pull coal investments from CALPERS, CALSTRS
At the California Climate Leadership Forum on Monday, hosted by NextGen Climate and co-sponsored by CLCV, California State Senator Kevin de León said he’ll introduce legislation next month to get the state’s public employees retirement system off of coal.
http://www.scpr.org/blogs/environment/2014/12/15/17685/de-leon-calls-for-climate-divestment-seeks-to-pull/

Top Democrat’s plan: Divest in coal to fight global warming
With Republicans threatening to shove climate change to the back seat as they take control of the U.S. Senate, state officials including Gov. Jerry Brown huddled with one of the nation’s leading Democratic donors Monday to talk up ways to keep it on California’s agenda — including legislation that could send a shiver through the coal industry.
http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Top-state-Democrat-pushes-coal-divestment-to-5959147.php

AM Alert: Tom Steyer, legislative leaders discuss California’s climate future
California’s legislative leadership joins billionaire environmental activist Tom Steyer for a forum on climate change in Oakland today, hosted by his political advocacy group NextGen Climate America. The California Climate Leadership Forum, starting at 1 p.m. at the Kaiser Center, will focus on the state’s climate policy and its impact on local communities, as well as new approaches to addressing climate change.
http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article4457312.html

California plastic bag ban backers launch ads
Hoping to fend off a referendum campaign from their better-funded rivals, advocates for California’s newly passed plastic bag ban have launched an ad assailing a plastics company seeking to overturn the law.
http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article4411381.html

Tiny water district to seize PG&E power lines, transformers
The South San Joaquin Irrigation District won permission from a key government panel Thursday to jump into the retail electricity business, selling power to 38,000 residents of Escalon, Manteca, Ripon and the surrounding countryside. To do it, the district plans to seize every power line, transformer and pole owned by Pacific Gas and Electric Co. across a swath of San Joaquin County, either through a friendly sale or via eminent domain.
http://www.sfgate.com/business/article/Tiny-water-district-to-seize-PG-E-power-lines-5953800.php

California's Water Supply

California needs more big storms to beat drought
Despite the heavy storm that hit California last week – complete with flooded creeks and mudslides, closed highways and downed trees – it will take a lot more of the same to end the drought. In fact, experts say it may take five or six more storms like it to consider the drought over.
http://www.sacbee.com/news/state/california/water-and-drought/article4472349.html

Carmel River diverted to demolish San Clemente Dam
The channeling of the Carmel last week into a carefully engineered river bed was designed to bypass the tons of sludge behind the 106-foot-tall San Clemente Dam, which has blocked both the river and San Clemente Creek for 94 years. The new river channel will allow workers to take down the dam structure next year without worrying about a catastrophic mudslide. The diversion, which includes the restoration of an entire river ecosystem, is the largest, most innovative dam removal project ever attempted in California.
http://www.sfgate.com/science/article/Carmel-River-diverted-to-demolish-San-Clemente-Dam-5956979.php

California lawmakers look to 2015 for drought legislation
California lawmakers’ failure to pass water legislation this Congress raises questions about strategy, tactics and the ability to learn from falling short. It also sets the stage for next year when – wait for it – the whole anti-drought drama returns for an encore.
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2014/12/11/249794_california-lawmakers-look-to-2015.html

Decades-old water dispute nears end
More than 45 years after five North County Indian tribes filed suit against two water agencies and the U.S. Government for having diverted 90 percent of the water flowing through the San Luis Rey, a settlement agreement has been signed by all the parties.
http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2014/dec/14/water-lawsuit-indian-settlement-luis-rey-river/

High-Speed Rail

Bullet train's eventual link to L.A. rail system far from clear-cut
As California's bullet train officials begin to lay plans for the system's Los Angeles segment, a major technical issue is coming under close scrutiny: incompatibility between the sleek, high-speed electric trains and the region's older, diesel-powered commuter rail network.
http://www.latimes.com/local/politics/la-me-adv-bullet-metrolink-20141214-story.html

State will finally break ground in Fresno on high-speed rail construction
The Jan. 6 groundbreaking ceremony, announced Friday afternoon, comes about a year and a half after the agency awarded its first construction contract, a $1 billion deal to design and build the first 29-mile section from Madera to the south end of Fresno.
http://www.fresnobee.com/2014/12/12/4283412_state-will-finally-break-ground.html

Campaigns and Elections

Where campaign spending was highest, disdain for it is bipartisan
Nearly $24 million was spent in the fiercely contested race between Republican Doug Ose and Democratic Rep. Ami Bera, who won a second term by a mere 1,455 votes out of 184,000 cast, or a margin of less than 1%. That works out to roughly $129 a vote, and a lot of people around here would have been much happier if they'd shredded those millions of dollars, mixed them with asphalt concrete and used the slurry to patch the region's many potholes.
http://www.latimes.com/local/politics/la-me-pol-california-politics-20141214-story.html

It’s official: Voter participation hits record low
The state’s official snapshot of the Nov. 4 general election depicts a politically disengaged populace with marginal interest in deciding who will govern. Less than a third of California’s eligible voters cast ballots on Nov. 4.
http://capitolweekly.net/voter-participation-hits-record-low/

2016 election poised for initiative avalanche
Since the 42 percent turnout on Nov. 4 meant only about 7.3 million people bothered to take a side in Gov. Jerry Brown’s landslide win over Republican Neel Kashkari, the bar for qualifying ballot measures in 2016 will be at the lowest level in at least 25 years. Since the last governor’s election in 2010, it has taken 504,760 valid signatures to put a standard initiative on the ballot and 807,615 signatures for a constitutional amendment. Once the November election is certified Friday, those numbers will drop to about 366,000 and 586,000, respectively.
http://www.sfgate.com/politics/article/2016-election-s-ballot-measure-bar-lowest-in-25-5951638.php

The Retro Election? Fewest Votes for California Governor Since 1978
State elections data show last month’s gubernatorial election saw fewer votes cast than in the previous eight quadrennial contests. Only 1978’s race between Brown and Republican Evelle Younger saw fewer total votes cast (6,922,378) than did 2014.
http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2014/12/11/fewest-votes-cast-for-governor-since-1978

More California Environmental News

'Capping' freeways may be a way to provide more open space in L.A.
Advocates for freeway caps describe the roadways as "scars" that have divided communities and created eyesores. The 10 Freeway, for example, isolates Santa Monica's Pico neighborhood from the central part of the city.
http://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-freeway-capping-20141213-story.html

Tribes Sue Over Large Solar Project In Riverside County
In the complaint, filed last Thursday in the U.S District Court in Riverside, the Colorado River Indian Tribes, or CRIT, claim that the Modified Blythe Solar Power Project "will cause CRIT, its government, and its members irreparable harm" by destroying or threatening ancient trails, petroglyphs, artifacts, and other cultural resources. The 485-megawatt photovoltaic power plant was approved in its present form by the Bureau of Land Management in August. In its complaint, CRIT says the agency did not adequately consult with Native tribes over the effect on cultural resources of the 4,000-acre project.
http://www.kcet.org/news/redefine/rewire/solar/photovoltaic-pv/tribes-sue-over-large-solar-project-in-riverside-county.html

Port of Oakland truck pollution drops 76 percent in black carbon
Lung-damaging diesel air pollution at the Port of Oakland is down dramatically since a state law forced truckers to use cleaner burning engines starting in 2010, according to new data from a team of UC Berkeley researchers. And the gains in clean air likely are even greater because the law's emission limits became more stringent at the beginning of the year, after the study had ended, researchers said.
http://www.contracostatimes.com/contra-costa-times/ci_27120295/port-oakland-truck-pollution-drops-76-percent-black

Berkeley, environmentalists cite concerns over two-city refinery project
Oil trains that could roll through some Bay Area cities on their way to a Central Coast refinery will not carry volatile Bakken crude, but another type that comes with equally dire threats to the environment and public safety, environmentalists warn.
http://www.contracostatimes.com/contra-costa-times/ci_27113789/berkeley-environmentalists-cite-concerns-over-two-city-refinery

New crude oil trains from Canada arrive in California
In a sign that crude oil train shipments to California refineries are on the rise, Union Pacific railroad officials confirmed last week they are now transporting full trains of Canadian oil through Northern California on a route that likely cuts through central Sacramento.
http://www.sacbee.com/news/local/transportation/article4331978.html

Watchdog: San Onofre nuclear rods to stay in 'concrete monolith' for decades
All of the highly radioactive nuclear waste now cooling in spent fuel pools at the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station will be moved into less risky dry cask storage by 2019, Southern California Edison announced Thursday.
http://www.ocregister.com/articles/nuclear-645040-fuel-edison.html

Real or fake? Drought intensifies debate over Christmas trees' eco-friendliness
Before they picked out an eight-foot Christmas tree, Tara White and Ed Dilks wondered whether an artificial tree might be a more eco-friendly choice.
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-christmas-tree-debate-20141211-story.html

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