Weekly Green: September 2, 2014

Happy September, all. This week in news and opinion:

• CLCV: Great legislative session for the environment (press release);
• Plastic bag ban, historic groundwater legislation sent to governor's desk;
• CLCV Board President Rick Zbur in the Sacramento Bee on high-speed rail;
• Leaked UN report: risk of irreversible damage from climate change;
• The latest on the drought and much, 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 today! Get your free subscription here: http://ecovote.org/wg

Above the Fold

CLCV: Great Legislative Session for California’s Environment
Cleaner air, healthier communities, reduced carbon pollution, less plastic waste, and more sustainable water management are some of the highlights of a nail-biter of a legislative session—the best year for the state’s environment in recent memory.
http://www.ecovote.org/news/clcv-end-session-2014

Legislature OKs big changes: plastic bags ban, groundwater rules
Historic and controversial groundwater management rules and a statewide ban on single-use plastic bags were among the bills the California Legislature approved during a marathon session Friday that ended early Saturday morning.
http://www.sfgate.com/politics/article/Legislature-OKs-big-changes-plastic-bags-ban-5723746.php

California lawmakers send governor a ban on single-use plastic bags
The state Senate on Friday gave final legislative approval to a measure that would phase out single-use plastic bags in supermarkets, pharmacies and convenience stores as part of an effort to rid beaches and streets of litter.
http://www.latimes.com/local/political/la-me-pc-lawmakers-governor-ban-plastic-bags-20140828-story.html

Landmark Groundwater Reform Headed to Governor’s Desk
In a move that some believed may never happen in California, state legislators approved three bills that would — for the first time — regulate the state’s vast underground water resources.
http://blogs.kqed.org/science/2014/08/29/landmark-groundwater-reform-headed-to-governors-desk/

Controversial bills test Jerry Brown in election year
As the Legislature closed down in the predawn hours Saturday, it left on Gov. Jerry Brown’s desk a thicket of bills – including a sweeping ban on plastic bags and measures concerning gun control and bilingual education – with potential election-year effects for the governor and fellow Democrats.
http://www.sacbee.com/2014/08/30/6667353/controversial-bills-test-jerry.html

CLCV Board President Rick Zbur: An environmentalist’s case for high-speed rail
High-speed rail, by shifting travel away from dirtier transportation modes such as planes and cars, would do wonders in reducing the transportation sector’s impact on our carbon footprint.
http://www.sacbee.com/2014/08/31/6664909/viewpoints-an-environmentalists.html

California High-Speed Rail No. 10: Palate Cleanser
As a reminder, this is No. 10 in a series on the proposed north-south California High-Speed Rail system, which deserves national attention as the highest-stakes infrastructure project underway anywhere in America now.
http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2014/08/california-high-speed-rail-no-10-palate-cleanser/379422/

CLCV Blog: A Mountain of Reasons to Protect the San Gabriels
Some places seem much smaller to you as an adult than how you remembered them as a child. The San Gabriel Mountains is not one of these places.
http://www.ecovote.org/blog/mountain-reasons-protect-san-gabriels

Hundreds jam meeting on San Gabriel Mountains national monument proposal
More than 600 supporters and opponents of President Barack Obama establishing a San Gabriel Mountains national monument jammed a town hall meeting in Baldwin Park on Tuesday that included high-ranking cabinet members who spoke on the proposal for the first time.
http://www.sgvtribune.com/environment-and-nature/20140826/hundreds-jam-meeting-on-san-gabriel-mountains-national-monument-proposal

Feds to resume leasing for fracking in California
The U.S. Bureau of Land Management will resume issuing oil and gas leases next year for federal lands in California after a new study found limited environmental impacts from fracking and other enhanced drilling techniques, the agency said Thursday.
http://www.sacbee.com/2014/08/28/6662140/feds-to-resume-leasing-for-fracking.html

Refinery inspection bill would blunt records access
It would also expand the definition of what constitutes a trade secret and tighten access to information about the refineries through the state’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health. Media organizations have registered their opposition, contending the ability to access records would be hamstrung.
http://www.sacbee.com/2014/08/28/6661942/refinery-inspection-bill-would.html

Oil Transport by Train Continues to Climb
Crude oil by rail continues to be a growing trend nationwide. The amount of oil and other “refined petroleum products” carried by trains climbed nine percent in the first seven months of this year, compared to the first seven months last year.
http://blogs.kqed.org/science/2014/08/28/oil-transport-by-train-continues-to-climb/

Water and the Drought

Conservation conundrum: Water use varies greatly across California
Drive across city limits in virtually any part of California, and you will also cross another kind of frontier, one gaining more attention during the worst drought in a generation: The borders between cities also define different ideas about water.
http://www.sacbee.com/2014/08/31/6667166/conservation-conundrum-water-use.html

West loses 63 trillion gallons of groundwater to drought
Researchers reported the Western United States has lost 63 trillion gallons of groundwater since the beginning of 2013 due to the ongoing drought, causing the surface of the Earth to rise slightly. The study from the U.S. Geological Survey and the Scripps Instituion of Oceanography was published in the journal Science.
http://www.scpr.org/news/2014/08/21/46163/west-loses-63-trillion-gallons-of-groundwater-to-d/

California’s drought: What losing 63 trillion gallons of water looks like
A new study says that California’s drought is so severe it’s causing the ground to rise. Angela Fritz of The Washington Post reported scientists estimate 63 trillion gallons of water have been lost in the past 18 months.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2014/08/28/californias-drought-what-losing-63-million-gallons-of-water-looks-like/

California Senate approves bill requiring oil industry to detail water use
The California state Senate on Thursday unanimously approved a bill requiring oil companies to report how much water they use in their drilling operations and the water's source, a move that comes amid a severe statewide drought.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/08/29/us-usa-california-water-idUSKBN0GT04V20140829

California's Underground Water War
California has been the only western state without groundwater regulation—but now that looks set to change.
http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2014/08/californias-epic-water-wars/379294/

Why doesn't California build big dams any more?
How much money drought-stricken California should spend to build new dams was a big part of the debate over the bill that Gov. Jerry Brown signed last month to put a $7.5 billion water bond on the November ballot.
http://www.mercurynews.com/science/ci_26444134/california-drought-why-doesnt-california-build-big-dams

EPA says California’s Delta water tunnel project could violate federal law
The pair of giant water diversion tunnels proposed in the Delta could violate the federal Clean Water Act and increase harm to endangered fish species, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which released its formal comment on the project Thursday
http://www.sacbee.com/2014/08/28/6662668/epa-says-californias-delta-water.html

California officials delay massive Delta water tunnel project
Plans for two huge water diversion tunnels in the Delta are being delayed, state officials announced Wednesday, because the plans need more work.
http://www.sacbee.com/2014/08/27/6658505/delta-water-tunnel-studies-delayed.html

Salton Sea could benefit from CA water bond
Talk with leaders from Imperial County and you’ll hear a clear message: Time is running out to save the Salton Sea, the accidental desert lake whose receding shores pose a growing hazard for the wildlife and people who live nearby.
http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2014/aug/31/salton-sea-could-benefit-from-ca-water-bond/

Drought Myth-Busting: Why El Niño Is Never A Good Bet
If, like many Californians, you’ve been on El Niño Watch, you’re no doubt confused by now. It’s happening. It’s not happening. But whether it is or isn’t might matter less than you think.
http://blogs.kqed.org/science/audio/drought-myth-busting-why-el-nino-wont-save-california/

More Environmental News

Debate over plastic bag ban takes a weird but familiar turn
Several days before this weekend's deadline to complete their work, legislators received a letter from what appeared to be a grassroots Latino advocacy group urging them to vote against one of the year's most contentious bills.
http://www.mercurynews.com/california/ci_26420064/sacramento-debate-over-plastic-bag-ban-takes-weird

Irreversible Damage Seen From Climate Change in UN Leak
Humans risk causing irreversible and widespread damage to the planet unless there’s faster action to limit the fossil fuel emissions blamed for climate change, according to a leaked draft United Nations report.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-08-26/irreversible-damage-seen-from-climate-change-in-un-leak.html

Dispute erupts over Coastal Commission seat
An attempt to rewrite state law to allow the newly elected Long Beach mayor to hold a seat on the California Coastal Commission has emerged in the final days of the legislative session.
http://capitolweekly.net/garcia-mayor-coastal-commission-long-beach/

Walters: Highway 101 improvements should bypass unique redwood grove
Over the last six decades – mile by expensive mile – California’s transportation department has upgraded Highway 101 on the scenic North Coast from a narrow, twisting, two-lane road into a modern four-lane expressway.
http://www.sacbee.com/2014/09/02/6669506/dan-walters-highway-101-improvements.html

San Vicente Redwoods 1 of the biggest unprotected forests around
For more than a century, the coastal town of Davenport, just up Highway 1 from Santa Cruz, stood in the shadow of a giant cement plant.
http://www.sfgate.com/science/article/San-Vicente-Redwoods-1-of-the-biggest-unprotected-5727123.php

Salvage logging plan unveiled for trees burned in Rim fire
The U.S. Forest Service on Wednesday unveiled a salvage logging operation for more than 15,000 acres of trees burned in last summer's Rim Fire.
http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-salvage-logging-plan-for-trees-burned-in-rim-fire-20140827-story.html

Communities going into power business to cut cost, carbon footprint
Sonoma County, which enticed Americans to forsake factory-made food for artisan wines and farmers market produce, now wants consumers to reconsider another everyday commodity.
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-sonoma-power-20140902-story.html

Tom Steyer's $1 million offer to pro-environment candidates
When San Francisco billionaire Tom Steyer speaks, Sacramento listens.
http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/matier-ross/article/Tom-Steyer-s-1-million-offer-to-pro-environment-5724361.php

Oil train regulation passes in California
California lawmakers on Friday passed legislation requiring railroad companies to tell emergency officials when crude oil trains will chug through the state.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/08/30/us-usa-california-oil-train-idUSKBN0GU03I20140830

Does Antarctic sea ice growth negate climate change? Scientists say no
In the blue half-light of the Antarctic autumn, a thin film spreads across the continent's coastal waters. It's an embryonic form of sea ice: a mush of microscopic crystals that floats on the dense, salty water of the Southern Ocean.
http://www.latimes.com/science/la-sci-antarctic-sea-ice-20140830-story.html

Politics and Elections

Push for more disclosure on state political ads dies in Legislature
Democratic legislative leaders on Friday pulled a bill that would have required greater disclosure of the major financial supports of political advertising for ballot measures, saying the measure did not have the votes to pass this session.
http://www.latimes.com/local/political/la-me-ln-push-for-disclosure-dies-in-legislature-20140829-story.html

Skelton: Productive lawmakers can thank a retooled system
It was a moderately productive two-year session that the Legislature wrapped up at the witching hour Saturday. Credit mainly voter-approved reforms. This is a new era in Sacramento.
http://www.latimes.com/local/politics/la-me-cap-legislature-20140901-column.html

Hoffenblum: Low Voter Turnouts: Voter Apathy or Voter Disgust?
The California Target Book, which I publish, just mailed out to subscribers its updated analyses of the key congressional and state legislative races in California this year. What stands out is that even in the most competitive races, the overwhelming majority of voters decided to not vote.
http://www.foxandhoundsdaily.com/2014/08/low-voter-turnouts-voter-apathy-voter-disgust/

Nine things to focus on for November's election
With Labor Day behind us, Californians need to brace themselves for the tidal wave of ads, mailers, robo calls and door knocks between now and the Nov. 4 election.
http://www.mercurynews.com/california/ci_26449992/nine-things-focus-novembers-election

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