Weekly Green: October 24, 2014

Good afternoon, California. This past week in news and opinion:

• A first: drought tops list of Californians' worries;
• Plastics industry spends big to reverse California’s bag ban;
• Outside spending in California state elections nears $32 million;
• Fracking ban on the ballot in tiny San Benito County has big statewide implications, and much more.

Editor's note: On Tuesday, October 28, CLCV will be releasing the 2015 California Environmental Scorecard. It includes the key environmental votes, bill descriptions, and a full narrative of the 2014 legislative session, and, of course, this year's scores for members of the California State Legislature and Governor Jerry Brown.

» 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 today! Get your free subscription here: http://ecovote.org/wg

Above the Fold

A First: Drought Tops List of Californians’ Worries
Asked to name the “most important issue” facing the state, 26 percent of respondents to a statewide survey earlier this month said “water” and “drought.” That’s a statistical tie with those who said “jobs” and “the economy” (29 percent), the first time that’s happened since 1998, when the Public Policy Institute of California started asking the question.
http://blogs.kqed.org/science/2014/10/22/a-first-drought-tops-list-of-californians-worries/

Summer Power Stayed on Despite Drought, Fires, Closed Nuke
The agency that operates California's power grid is reporting that this past summer saw no major outages in the state despite frequent heat waves that boosted power consumption during peak periods. Much of the credit goes to the state's increased renewable energy capacity, which set output records this summer.
http://www.kcet.org/news/rewire/the-grid/summer-power-stayed-on-despite-drought-fires-closed-nuke.html

Plastics industry spends big to reverse California’s bag ban
Moments after Gov. Jerry Brown announced signing Senate Bill 270 in September, a plastic industry group that vociferously fought the legislation declared its intention to launch a referendum campaign. If proponents secure enough signatures by the end of December, the measure would be placed on the 2016 ballot, suspending the law’s implementation until then. A new filing shows plastics companies contributing $1.2 million toward the referendum campaign. All but $50,000 came from companies based outside of California, illustrating the fight’s national dimensions.
http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/article3314613.html

Herdt: Why turnout will matter most of all
‘DIRTY POLLUTER MONEY’ - The California League of Conservation Voters has come up with an intriguing campaign that links two subjects -- environmental issues and unlimited political spending by corporations that was authorized under the U.S. Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision. It has been airing this radio ad in selected markets around the state, and has even put up a billboard in the Central Valley that promotes its website PriceWeAllPay.org.
http://95percent.blogs.vcstar.com/2014/10/24/why-turnout-will-matter-most-of-all/

California looks to curb methane emissions
Pressure is growing on regulators in California and Washington, D.C., to crack down on methane, a greenhouse gas that’s 25 times more potent than carbon dioxide and is accelerating the warming of the planet.
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2014/10/20/244058_california-looks-to-curb-methane.html

Fracking ban on the ballot in tiny San Benito County has big statewide implications
San Benito was the first California county to decide to take the issue to the voters. Campaign ads bankrolled by the oil industry are filling TV and radio airwaves, claiming that a fracking ban would hurt the county's economy and trample property rights. Supporters of Measure J say they are frustrated that Gov. Jerry Brown and state lawmakers have not banned fracking, a process that involves pumping water and chemicals underground to release oil and gas -- so they decided to go around them.
http://www.mercurynews.com/science/ci_26758985/fracking-ban-ballot-tiny-san-benito-county-has

Geothermal power industry lost steam but may be poised for comeback
Geothermal power was once king of California's renewable energy. So many companies were clamoring to transform steam into electricity that they sucked the world's largest geyser field dry. But the industry's shortsightedness — and its slowness to innovate — left geothermal floundering for three decades in the shadows of the solar and wind energy juggernauts. Now, industry leaders say the energy harnessed from the Earth is poised for a renaissance, powered by new technology that will boost production, pare costs and expand its reach.
http://www.latimes.com/local/la-me-geothermal-20141020-story.html

Water and the Drought

Battle lines drawn over state water bond
California voters will decide this fall whether to approve a $7.5 billion water bond aimed at easing future droughts such as the one that’s gripped the state for three years in a row. A recent poll showed that 58 percent of likely California voters favor the proposition.
http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2014/oct/18/water-bond-california-drought-november-election/

Jerry Brown takes the long view on water
Brown said that water would be a “major issue” over the next four years and argued that overarching water issues “don’t get solved with a glib TV ad. This is really the work of a four-term governor. You need your first couple of terms to set the table, make the proposal, and then your last couple of terms 30 years later to really carry the ball across the finish line.”
http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article3105318.html

California water agencies lose millions of gallons underground
California’s water distribution systems lose up to 228 billion gallons annually, the state estimates — more than enough to supply the entire city of Los Angeles for a year.
http://www.dailynews.com/article/20141021/NEWS/141029763

Amid California's drought, a bruising battle for cheap water
Westlands has persevered for decades by battling other farmers for supplies, repeatedly suing the U.S. government and spending millions of dollars trying to roll back environmental restrictions on water deliveries — all while planting lucrative nut crops that can't survive a season without water. Now it is a driving force behind the most ambitious water project proposed in California in decades. The water would help Westlands for a time. But the expensive tunnels would merely delay the inevitable: The more Westlands is irrigated, the more its land will be ruined.
http://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-westlands-20141021-story.html

Could desalination solve California’s water problem?
The Carlsbad Desalination Project will convert as much as 56 million gallons of seawater each day into drinking water for San Diego County residents. The project, with a price tag of $1 billion, took nearly 15 years to move from concept to construction.
http://www.sacbee.com/news/state/california/water-and-drought/article3017597.html

Drought, drawdowns and death of the Salton Sea
The Salton Sea, California’s largest lake at 370 square miles, is now in danger of shrinking by half. Mandated water transfers to metropolitan areas along the coast and other factors will expose large swaths of lake bed and drastically increase salt levels in the lake - changes that will kill fish, interrupt bird migration, cause dust clouds and affect local tourism.
http://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-g-drought-drawdowns-and-death-of-the-salton-sea-20141021-htmlstory.html

Drought-Stressed Crops May Be Better For You
The trees under the most stress come out fighting, releasing more protective chemical compounds. The big challenge? Convincing consumers that fruit that’s smaller or cracked might be better for you, and for the environment.
http://blogs.kqed.org/science/audio/drought-stressed-crops-may-be-better-for-you/

Oil

More than 5 million in state live near oil or gas well, report says
More than 5 million Californians — most of them in Los Angeles and Kern counties — live near an oil or gas well, and expanding drilling in the state could increase their exposure to health risks, according to a report released Wednesday by a national environmental group.
http://www.latimes.com/science/la-me-1022-drilling-study-20141022-story.html

New crude oil report concludes risks of train spills are real
Mile-long oil trains that are expected to crisscross California daily in the coming years pose significant risks to residents of urban areas, including Sacramento, a new San Luis Obispo County draft EIR concludes, contradicting earlier studies that found no major safety concerns.
http://www.sacbee.com/news/local/transportation/article3337650.html

Benicia sees cash in crude oil; neighbors see catastrophe
A plan to bring tank-car trains filled with crude oil from Canada and North Dakota to a Benicia refinery is pitting the Solano County town against Northern California neighbors who say they will be burdened with the risk of environmental catastrophe.
http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Benicia-sees-cash-in-crude-oil-neighbors-see-5843785.php

As More Crude Oil Rolls In, a Push for Better Track Inspection
BNSF Railways is already transporting crude oil into Richmond, including the kind of oil that exploded from a derailment and killed 47 people in a Quebec town last year. In response to concerns about the risks of crude by rail, the state’s other large rail company, Union Pacific, began to boost its rail inspection program by dispatching vehicles with lasers that can find tiny track imperfections.
http://blogs.kqed.org/science/2014/10/22/as-more-crude-oil-rolls-in-a-push-for-better-track-inspection/

California Politics and Government

Outside spending in California state elections nears $32 million
Oil companies, unions, hospitals and other political special interests have pumped more than $31.4 million into California statewide and legislative contests on the Nov. 4 ballot, state independent expenditure filings through Wednesday show.
http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article3326701.html

Online fundraising is boosting candidate war chests in California
Take two Democratic challengers for House seats in the state’s San Joaquin Valley, Michael Eggman and Amanda Renteria. In their uphill bids to unseat GOP incumbents, both have relied on ActBlue, a Cambridge, Mass.-based outfit that describes itself as an “online toolset” connecting donors to candidates and causes.
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2014/10/21/244190_online-fundraising-is-boosting.html

Videos offer help in sorting through state ballot measures
The Rose Institute of State and Local Government at Claremont McKenna College released its Video Voter Series last week. Student researchers take turns explaining how much a ballot measure would cost, list its supporters and opponents and summarize what each measure would do if approved. A nonprofit voter education organization called SeePolitical, working with the League of Women Voters of California, has created four animated videos.
http://www.latimes.com/local/political/la-me-pc-video-props-20141022-story.html

Steinberg's Senate reign marked by fiscal triumphs, peers' scandals
Darrell Steinberg took the helm of the state Senate six years ago with the global economy in a meltdown that choked off tax revenue, causing the state budget deficit to balloon to $42 billion. It took Steinberg and other state leaders four years that included deep service cuts, worker furloughs, tax increases and the improving economy to right the ship of state, only to have a different set of troubles land in his lap.
http://www.latimes.com/local/politics/la-me-pol-steinberg-exit-20141019-story.html

Once-quirky Jerry Brown pursues a lasting policy legacy as governor of California
After sidelining opponents and steadying the state’s finances, the quirky 76-year-old Democrat is looking to put his stamp on the state’s water and transportation infrastructure and playing statesman on global climate change, recently addressing a U.N. climate change conference.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/once-quirky-jerry-brown-pursues-a-lasting-policy-legacy-as-governor-of-california/2014/10/18/8b752114-570f-11e4-809b-8cc0a295c773_story.html

More environmental news

Photographing Bakersfield, "A Thick Brown Film Hanging Over Town"
Last month, the editors of Time Magazine featured an online piece about the community which they say has the worst air in the nation - Bakersfield.
http://kvpr.org/post/photographing-bakersfield-thick-brown-film-hanging-over-town

A sprinkle of compost helps rangeland lock up carbon
Experiments on grazing lands in Marin County and the Sierra foothills of Yuba County by UC Berkeley bio-geochemist Whendee Silver showed that a one-time dusting of compost substantially boosted the soil’s carbon storage. The research showed that if compost from green waste — everything from household food scraps to dairy manure — were applied over just 5 percent of the state’s grazing lands, the soil could capture a year’s worth of greenhouse gas emissions from California’s farm and forestry industries.
http://www.sfgate.com/science/article/A-sprinkle-of-compost-helps-rangeland-lock-up-5832244.php

Anglers angered over possible ban on lead weights, lures
The Department of Toxic Substances Control, which is part of the state Environmental Protection Agency, is conducting a three-year investigation into toxic substances used in a variety of common items, including lures, weights and other fishing gear that contain lead, zinc or copper. The sportfishing industry, conscious of previous efforts to ban the lead weights commonly used by anglers, submitted more than 1,300 comments opposing the proposed investigation during the four-week public comment period, which ended Tuesday.
http://www.sfgate.com/science/article/Anglers-angered-over-possible-ban-on-lead-5843775.php

McCarthy lays out agenda for next Congress
McCarthy, the No. 2 House Republican, said he expects a Republican Senate to take up energy-related legislation like improvements to “the permitting process for pipelines." He said, "The same is true for reforms we passed for federal mining permits and FDA reforms that the Energy and Commerce Committee has already begun working on."
http://www.politico.com/story/2014/10/kevin-mccarthy-agenda-congress-112109.html

Climate Change Linked to Rising Violence: Report
A working paper released Thursday by the National Bureau of Economic Research, which conducted a meta-analysis of 55 separate reports on global warming and conflict in a variety of settings, found that "deviations from moderate temperatures and precipitation patterns systematically increase the risk of conflict, often substantially, with average effects that are highly statistically significant."
http://commondreams.org/news/2014/10/24/climate-change-linked-rising-violence-report

The view from... somewhere else

Joe Mathews: Big, ruthless and ours: Chevron
Dear Chevron, I will not compare thee to a summer's day. But make no mistake: I love you. You and other oil companies are considered villains in today's California. I forgive you none of your sins. Still, I can't help loving you.
http://www.fresnobee.com/2014/10/23/4195677/joe-mathews-big-ruthless-and-ours.html

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