Weekly Green: August 25, 2015

Hello and welcome to a special edition of the Weekly Green. This week, we've dedicated our environmental news roundup to our top story: California Climate Change Legislation Under Attack. While public support remains strong, two key bills in the legislature’s Climate Leadership package – SB 32 (Pavley) and SB 350 (de León) – have been hit with a blitz of attack ads funded by the oil industry.

Here at the California League of Conservation Voters, we are pleased to bring you widespread coverage of this top story in today’s Weekly Green. However, we also urge you to go a step further and personally respond to the attacks on these important bills. Now more than ever, it’s critical that voters take action and remind lawmakers that Californians support strong climate change legislation. Click here to send a message in support of SB 350 & SB 32 to your California Assemblymember: http://ecovote.org/ActOnClimate

–California League of Conservation Voters

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TOP STORY: California Climate Change Legislation Under Attack

Fact check: Ad misleads on gas reduction law
The California Drivers Alliance, a group funded by the Western States Petroleum Association, is running a radio ad opposing Senate Bill 350, which would require the state to reduce petroleum use in motor vehicles by 50 percent by 2030, among other measures.
http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/election/ad-watch/article31851906.html

Big Oil hates a California climate bill so much that it’s telling outright lies about it
The California Drivers Alliance is up in arms. What is that? Well, it must be an alliance of California drivers, right? Wrong. The alliance is “a project of WSPA,” also known as the Western States Petroleum Association, also known as Big Oil.
http://grist.org/climate-energy/big-oil-hates-a-california-climate-bill-so-much-that-its-telling-outright-lies-about-it/

Ad blitz heats up climate change fight
Legislators targeted with online advertisements from the California Drivers Alliance – an organization sponsored by the Western States Petroleum Association – include Democratic Assembly members Jim Cooper; Cheryl Brown; Ken Cooley; and Reggie Jones-Sawyer; as well as Republican Assemblywoman Catharine Baker
http://calmatters.org/articles/ad-blitz-heats-up-climate-change-fight/

An oil fight unlike any other
In California, Chevron, Tesoro and other oil giants are acting as if the end is near. The grim reaper, as they see it, comes in the person of Tom Steyer, the billionaire environmentalist, and his buddy, Senate President Pro Tem Kevin de León. The instrument of their demise is de León’s Senate Bill 350, which would require Californians to cut gasoline consumption by up to 50 percent by 2030.
http://www.sacbee.com/opinion/opn-columns-blogs/dan-morain/article31841658.html

Union of Concerned Scientists – WSPA Lies: Oil Companies Are At It Again… And California Is The Target
All over California, people are receiving very expensive-looking full-color, multi-page mailers and being subjected to radio spots announcing something called the California Gas Restriction Act of 2015. These turn out to be part of a massive and highly dishonest oil company campaign denouncing one of the best and most exciting bills that has been considered by the California legislature in a decade.
http://blog.ucsusa.org/wspa-oil-companies-california-849

Gov. Jerry Brown takes aim at oil companies over 'highly destructive' product
Gov. Jerry Brown, who is in the middle of a political battle over climate-change legislation, took aim at oil companies Monday, saying they sell a “highly destructive” product.
http://www.latimes.com/local/political/la-me-pc-jerry-brown-oil-companies-climate-change-20150824-story.html

Jerry Brown’s Climate Campaign Meshes Well At Tahoe Summit
Perhaps the stunning blue lake waters were the inspiration for Gov. Jerry Brown to offer a crystal-clear message at Lake Tahoe’s annual environmental summit: Opponents in the political fight over climate change better be ready.
http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2015/08/24/jerry-browns-climate-campaign-meshes-well-at-tahoe-summit

After years of detente, it’s now Jerry Brown vs. Big Oil
Getting SB 350 through the Legislature will ultimately take some heavy lifting from Brown. Over the last four years, the governor has proven adept at coaxing lawmakers into action, twisting arms when it came time to pass billions of dollars in cuts to social services, eliminate redevelopment agencies, overhaul the workers comp program and prompt action on immigration issues and boosting the minimum wage.
http://www.grizzlybearproject.com/after-years-of-detente-its-now-jerry-brown-vs-big-oil/#.VdOb9-qPmjc.facebook

Revisions are on tap for climate change legislation
With climate change legislation facing a tough road in the Assembly, top state senators are planning amendments intended to alleviate concerns that California's air regulator is gaining too much power. The changes, discussed Tuesday, would increase legislative oversight of the Air Resources Board, which is responsible for implementing a wide array of policies for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
http://www.latimes.com/local/political/la-me-pc-fran-pavley-climate-change-legislation-20150825-story.html

Former California legislative leaders back contested climate legislation
On Monday, state Senate President Pro Tem Kevin de León unveiled endorsements for Senate Bill 350 and Senate Bill 32 from nine of California’s most recent legislative leaders, including former Assembly Speakers John A. Pérez, Karen Bass, Fabian Núñez, Herb Wesson, Bob Hertzberg and Antonio Villaraigosa, and former Presidents Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, John Burton and David Roberti.
http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article32124282.html

Kevin de León: Déjà Vu All Over Again
Like echoes from a debate lost long ago, opponents of my legislation to combat climate change are raising the specter of economic ruin. The Los Angeles Business Journal recently provided a forum for their disproven theories in the article headlined “Petroleum Plan Fuels Pushback” in the July 20 issue.
http://labusinessjournal.com/news/2015/aug/24/deja-vu-all-over-again/

Major California Businesses Announced Support for SB 32 (Pavley) and SB 350 (De León/Leno)
Our businesses represent many different sectors of the economy and have taken steps to reduce our own impacts. But we recognize that we cannot fully realize the economic opportunity without legislation that sets clear, achievable climate pollution reduction targets and identifies priorities to guide implementation. SB32 will provide critical accountability, as well as certainty to businesses investing for the long term in California.
http://www.ceres.org/files/sb32-company-sign-on-letter

In Other Environmental & Political News…

How California’s pesticide regulator spun a concerned community
Ventura County politician Steve Bennett wanted answers. He and his colleagues on the Board of Supervisors looked to Henry Gonzales to explain why the California Department of Pesticide Regulation had allowed strawberry farmers surrounding a local high school to use a potentially cancer-causing pesticide at unusually high levels.
https://www.revealnews.org/article/how-californias-pesticide-regulator-spun-a-concerned-community/

California Senate battlegrounds begin to emerge
These are the final days of the 2015 legislative session at the state Capitol, but 2016 legislative contests already are taking shape
http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article32321298.html

Jerry Brown says California’s groundwater management ‘not aggressive enough’
Gov. Jerry Brown said in an interview aired Sunday that California is not aggressive enough policing use of the state’s groundwater, promising stepped-up oversight in future years.
http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article31965159.html

Global warming worsened the California drought, scientists say
Global warming caused by human emissions has most likely intensified the drought in California by 15 to 20 percent, scientists said on Thursday, warning that future dry spells in the state are almost certain to be worse than this one as the world continues to heat up.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/21/science/climate-change-intensifies-california-drought-scientists-say.html

These researchers want California to be a global advocate about climate change
Researchers from California’s top universities agree with scientists across the globe that climate change is not some future threat but is already happening, causing extreme weather, record-breaking heat, mega wildfires and shifting migration patterns.
http://www.dailynews.com/article/20150824/NEWS/150829712

California drought may exacerbate wildlife-human encounters
The scarcity of food in the wild has been blamed for unusual animal activity during California's drought including a recent bear attack, mountain lion sightings and an uptick in orphaned animals.
http://customwire.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_CALIFORNIA_DROUGHT_WILDLIFE_CAOL-?SITE=CASON&SECTION=STATE&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2015-08-22-20-35-14

City folk ask: Don’t farmers and environment use more water?
Here’s how California’s water use breaks down: It’s 50.2% for environment, 40.9% for agriculture and 8.9% for urban residents and businesses, according to the state Department of Water Resources. The next question readers ask is important, since many cities are struggling with state-ordered water cutbacks of up to 36 percent. The answer from the state has not satisfied many readers.
http://www.fresnobee.com/news/local/news-columns-blogs/earth-log/article32314215.html

Obama touts solar, wind power at energy summit
President Barack Obama brought presidential star power to tout the benefits of solar electricity in Western states during an annual green power conference Monday in Las Vegas hosted by U.S. Sen. Harry Reid.
http://www.contracostatimes.com/business/ci_28699411/obama-touts-solar-wind-power-at-energy-summit

Feinstein asks Obama to bypass Congress to create three desert monuments
U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein said she has asked President Obama to bypass Congress and create three new national monuments in California, giving federal protection to more than 1 million acres of mountain ranges, sandy expanses and forests lying roughly between Palm Springs and the Nevada border.
http://www.latimes.com/science/la-me-0822-desert-monuments-20150822-story.html

Why black churches are embracing the clean energy revolution
Low-income and communities of color are on the front lines of climate change. They have, for that matter, been disproportionately shouldering the burden of our reliance on dirty energy since the beginning: nearly 40 percent of the people living and breathing in the vicinity of coal-fired power plants are people of color; not unrelatedly, asthma rates for African Americans are 35 percent higher than they are for Caucasians.
http://www.salon.com/2015/08/23/for_far_too_long_people_of_color_have_been_at_the_bottom_of_the_pile_why_black_churches_are_embracing_the_clean_energy_revolution/

Garbage ‘patch’ is much worse than believed, entrepreneur says
It is known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch — a mass of plastic floating debris estimated to be twice the size of Texas and concentrated between California and Hawaii. But to Boyan Slat, the 21-year-old Dutch entrepreneur who is orchestrating what he envisions as the largest ocean cleanup effort in history, “patch” is far too gentle a term. He prefers “ticking time bomb.”
http://www.sfchronicle.com/science/article/Entrepreneur-thinks-garbage-patch-is-far-6460890.php

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