Weekly Green: July 27, 2015

In recent headlines:

• California withholds findings on oilfield contamination;
• Brown appoints panel to review California rules for fracking;
• Sen. Fran Pavley: A quiet force in the climate storm;
• California state senators heading to Mexico on 4-day trip;
• ... and much more!

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TOP NEWS

California withholds findings on oilfield contamination
California oil-and-gas regulators have refused for nearly a year to release findings of what they termed a "highest-priority" investigation of possible oilfield contamination into the water aquifers that serve millions of people in and around Los Angeles.
http://www.sacbee.com/news/state/california/article28426393.html

Brown appoints panel to review California rules for fracking
The panel will review a state-ordered fracking study released this month that found some of the chemicals used in California's fracking boom likely pose a risk to public health. It said the state has failed to track them.
http://www.sacbee.com/news/state/california/article28352515.html

Sen. Fran Pavley: A quiet force in the climate storm
Nearly a decade after pushing Assembly Bill 32 – California’s landmark climate change law that led to the cap and trade system – Senator Fran Pavley​ is back. This time, with a proposal to even further reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Her Senate Bill 32 – the number neatly echoes the earlier bill – calls for California to look 35 years into the future to make enormous cuts to the kind of pollution responsible for global warming.
http://www.calmatters.org/articles/sen-fran-pavley-a-quiet-force-in-the-climate-storm/

California state senators heading to Mexico on 4-day trip
Senate President Pro Tem Kevin de Leon's office announced Friday he'll lead a delegation of eight Democrats while the Legislature is in summer recess. His office says the senators plan to discuss climate change and poverty on both sides of the border.
http://www.sacbee.com/news/state/california/article28665178.html

CALIFORNIA NEWS

California's powerful and influential air pollution watchdog
On the outskirts of Los Angeles, in a nondescript laboratory, a man in a yellow T-shirt and helmet sits on a stationary motorcycle, looking intently ahead. The bike's back wheel is spinning and a long orange tube connects to its exhaust pipe. A fan roars, mimicking wind.
http://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-explainer-air-20150723-story.html

Water, and hope, run dry for East Porterville woman caught in drought
The numbers alone are exhausting. Juana Garcia has five children, two chronic diseases, one waterless home and zero income. She is 49 and living in East Porterville, where she hides indoors from the summer heat by day and lies awake next to her youngest children by night.
http://www.fresnobee.com/news/state/california/water-and-drought/article28727266.html

Salt worries building in Delta waters
State officials acknowledged this week that they are “struggling” to keep portions of the Delta fresh, as saltier water from San Francisco Bay pushes inland during yet another summer of drought.
http://www.recordnet.com/article/20150724/NEWS/150729783

Environmental groups blast Delta twin-tunnels plan
The surest way to improve the health of the fragile Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta is to increase the amount of fresh water flowing through it, yet government officials insist on pushing ahead with a twin-tunnels plan that would continue to funnel water from the troubled estuary.
http://www.sacbee.com/news/state/california/water-and-drought/article28340107.html

Nearly 1 in 10 gallons of water disappears in Sacramento
Nearly 1 in 10 gallons of water vanishes as it flows through pipes and mains in Sacramento’s antiquated drinking-water utility system. That’s an estimate. No one really knows for sure how much water is lost.
http://www.sacbee.com/news/investigations/the-public-eye/article28714390.html

As California pumps out oil, Gov. Brown says world must cut back
“We are going to have to set a clear goal,” Brown told a crowd of mayors and public officials from around the world. “And that goal is almost unimaginable. One-third of the oil that we know exists as reserves can never be taken out of the ground. Fifty percent of the gas can never be used and over 90 percent of the coal. Now, that is a revolution.”
http://www.sfchronicle.com/business/article/As-CA-keeps-pumping-oil-Gov-Brown-says-world-6397560.php

California oil refineries' gross profits nearly double in 2015
California refineries reaped an average of 49.3 cents on a gallon of gasoline from 1999 to 2014, according to the California Energy Commission. But this year, the average ballooned to 88.8 cents, triggered when refinery troubles in February disabled 7% of the state's capacity at a time of low inventories.
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-gas-profits-20150722-story.html#page=1

Cap and trade: Is California a leader or a loner?
It was mid-morning one day in May and somewhere deep inside a 25-story tower in Sacramento, an auction, cloaked in secrecy, was about to begin. There was no gavel pounding. No shouting. No frenzy of traders running around.
http://www.calmatters.org/articles/cap-and-trade-is-california-a-leader-or-a-loner/

OPINION: More Logging Won’t Stop Wildfires
Large dead trees, called snags, which proponents of the logging legislation want to remove, are especially important to forest renewal in anchoring soils, shading young conifers from intense sunlight and providing habitat for scores of insect-eating bats, birds and small mammals.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/23/opinion/more-logging-wont-stop-wildfires.html

Arnold Schwarzenegger: climate change is not science fiction
Arnold Schwarzenegger has been chosen by the French government to join Nobel prizewinners, philosophers, UN secretary generals, spiritual leaders and theologians to make the moral case for the world to act urgently on climate change.
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/jul/21/arnold-schwarzenegger-climate-change-is-not-science-fiction

Scientists Discover What Makes Lake Tahoe Blue
Scientists have long thought that the blueness of Lake Tahoe was due to the lake’s clarity. But a new study shows that algae plays an important role.
http://www.capradio.org/articles/2015/07/23/scientists-discover-what-makes-lake-tahoe-blue/

Little-known committees cost California taxpayers millions
Across the U.S., state governments have had to rein in spending, and California is no exception. But America Tonight discovered that hundreds of obscure committees, commissions and councils in California haven’t felt much of a squeeze.
http://america.aljazeera.com/watch/shows/america-tonight/2015/7/little-known-committees-cost-california-taxpayers-millions.html

PG&E files claim against Fresno County in pipeline blast
Faulting Fresno County for causing the April 17 gas pipeline explosion at the Fresno Sheriff’s Foundation shooting range, Pacific Gas & Electric has filed a claim seeking more than $3 million.
http://www.fresnobee.com/news/local/article28375741.html

California Supreme Court won’t budge on water rates
In a setback to California water regulators’ conservation efforts, the state Supreme Court has kept intact a ruling that makes it harder for municipalities to impose tiered pricing to discourage heavy water use.
http://www.sacbee.com/news/state/california/water-and-drought/article28414762.html

California Drought: Recent Above-Average Rain No Help
The U.S. Drought Monitor released July 23 reflects improvements in drought conditions for the Southwest U.S. But the recent above-average rain in California has "had little impact on the overall drought situation in the state."
http://www.capradio.org/53905

Hope grows that El Niño will reach Northern California — and key reservoirs
The El Niño hitting the mountains of the north is critical because California's vast waterworks rely on rain and snow from the Sierra to supply farms and cities. By contrast, much of the rain that falls in Southern California ends up in the ocean. Experts are becoming more optimistic about El Niño's northern reach.
http://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-el-nino-north-20150723-story.html

NATIONAL & GLOBAL NEWS

Earth’s Most Famous Climate Scientist Issues Bombshell Sea Level Warning
In what may prove to be a turning point for political action on climate change, a breathtaking new study casts extreme doubt about the near-term stability of global sea levels.
http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2015/07/20/sea_level_study_james_hansen_issues_dire_climate_warning.html

Hottest June Puts 2015 On Track For Hottest Year On Record By Far
NASA reported Wednesday that this was the hottest June on record (tied with 1998). And it’s now all but certain 2015 will be the hottest year on record, probably by a wide margin — as what increasingly appears to be one of the strongest El Niños in 50 years boosts the underlying global warming trend.
http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2015/07/17/3681260/june-2015-hottest-year-record/

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