Weekly Green: September 21, 2015

Hello, all. In recent headlines:

• Volkswagen admits cheating on California smog tests;
• Rising seas threaten California, other climate news;
• Hundreds of millions in drought relief failing to reach many Californians;
• Valley Fire 70% contained; 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 for your free subscription today: http://ecovote.org/wg »

Top News

Volkswagen Denied Deception to E.P.A. for Nearly a Year
For more than a year, Volkswagen executives told the Environmental Protection Agency that discrepancies between the formal air-quality tests on its diesel cars and the much higher pollution levels out on the road were the result of technical issues, not a deliberate attempt to deceive Washington officials. But early this month, Volkswagen executives finally made a startling admission: The diesels it sold in the United States used software deliberately designed to cheat on the tests.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/22/business/international/volkswagen-shares-recall.html

Climate

Despite setbacks, California climate push accelerates
The Legislature may have scuttled the centerpiece of Gov. Jerry Brown’s climate change plans, but it still approved ambitious new environmental policies that will impact the economy and life of Californians.
http://calmatters.org/articles/despite-setbacks-california-climate-push-accelerates/

Roberts: Is the pope changing minds on climate change? Survey says: meh.
Pope Francis's entry into the contentious debate over climate change was welcomed by many climate hawks as a "gamechanger." For months, people whose own minds were not changed by the pope's encyclical, Laudato Si, have been confidently claiming that many other people's will be. I've yet to actually hear from, or even hear about, an actual human being whose mind was thus changed.
http://www.vox.com/2015/9/18/9353423/pope-climate-game

How inefficient climate policies can build support for efficient ones
Debates over policy often proceed in a kind of vacuum, ignoring the political forces that shape the trajectory and character of policymaking. A new analysis in Science tries to counter this tendency in the area of climate policy, urging analysts to strategically consider the political effects of various policy alternatives. More to the point: it asks them to get over their obsession with carbon pricing.
http://www.vox.com/2015/9/17/9343125/climate-policy-sequencing

Morain: Imagine electric utilities as disrupters
Without a doubt, oil industry lobbyists and consultants won when Senate President Pro Tem Kevin de León cut the oil sections from his SB 350. But the final version of SB 350 that awaits Gov. Jerry Brown’s signature still is significant, especially for the future of the utilities.
http://www.sacbee.com/opinion/opn-columns-blogs/dan-morain/article35769372.html

Lawmakers never agreed on cap-and-trade funding. Now what?
Back in June, the Brown administration announced that it would carve out more than $1 billion in expected cap-and-trade revenue from the budget discussion because lawmakers couldn’t agree on how to spend the money.
http://www.bizjournals.com/sacramento/news/2015/09/17/lawmakers-never-agreed-on-cap-and-trade-funding.html

Maviglio: Big Oil should read the fine print
It was widely reported last week that the public relations and lobbying blitz funded by the major oil companies succeeded in toppling one of Jerry Brown’s three key climate goals of his second term—a 50 percent reduction in petroleum use in cars and trucks in the state.
http://capitolweekly.net/big-oil-read-fine-print-lobbyists-sb350/

King: Vision for future needs to account for the rising waters all around us
A powerful state agency on Wednesday will kick off what is described as a multiyear effort to convince us that it’s high time the Bay Area begins to focus on how we’ll cope with rising sea levels in the decades ahead. Good luck with that.
http://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/Sink-or-swim-Rising-tides-largely-ignored-in-6507274.php?t=835b7f5e3e0a4808f6&cmpid=twitter-premium

Rising seas threaten San Francisco Bay and Delta wetlands and land
Rising sea levels threaten not only structures around San Francisco Bay and the Delta but the shoreline marshes critical to the environmental health of the estuary, and the results could be "catastrophic" if action is not taken, scientists warned Thursday.
http://www.contracostatimes.com/breaking-news/ci_28825546/rising-seas-threaten-san-francisco-bay-and-delta

Drought

Hundreds of Millions in Drought Relief Failing to Reach Many Californians
The next time you bring home a case of those little 16-ounce bottles of water, imagine living out of them: pouring a little out every time you wash a dish and dumping them into buckets to shower or flush the toilet.
http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2015/09/19/hundreds-of-millions-in-drought-relief-failing-to-reach-many-californians

California allows some with historic water rights to pump again
Dozens of California farmers and water agencies that were told to stop drawing river water in June, even though they had what are known as senior water rights, have been allowed to resume pumping. The State Water Resources Control Board on Friday lifted the unprecedented drought restrictions targeting those with water rights staked between 1903 and 1914 in the Sacramento River watershed and the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta.
http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/California-allows-some-with-historic-water-rights-6514259.php

East Bay water agency eyes rate increase to offset losses from customers using less because of drought
The provider -- the Alameda County Zone 7 Water Agency -- intends to hike rates to its customers, the big water retailers that serve Livermore, Pleasanton, Dublin and part of San Ramon. But how those rates will show up on household bills remains to be determined.
http://www.contracostatimes.com/my-town/ci_28817501/water-agency-eyes-rate-increase-offset-losses-from

Record L.A. storm won't help much with water shortage
Southern California awoke to a deluge of rain -- a welcome relief in drought country. But how much will the record rain help the water shortage? The short answer is not that much.
http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-record-l-a-storm-20150915-story.html

Vegas water managers OK water deal with Los Angeles agency
Las Vegas water officials have approved a $45 million "water banking" deal to send enough water for about 300,000 homes annually from Lake Mead to drought-parched Southern California.
http://customwire.ap.org/dynamic/stories/N/NV_WATER_DEAL_VEGAS_LOS_ANGELES_CAOL-?SITE=CASON&SECTION=STATE&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2015-09-18-15-56-49

Federal government settles long dispute over Central Valley water
Under a deal approved Tuesday by the federal government, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation would shed its costly obligation to provide drainage to the Westlands Water District and in exchange, forgive the district’s $350 million debt to federal taxpayers.
http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-westlands-water-settlement-20150915-story.html

More California Environmental News

Valley fire containment inches up
The blaze is now rated the third most damaging fire in California history, having destroyed at least 1,783 structures -- more than 1,200 of them believed to be homes. The inferno, now 70 percent contained, has claimed three lives, blackened almost 76,000 acres and forced more than 19,000 people from their homes. http://www.pressdemocrat.com/home/4510599-181/valley-fire-containment-inches-up

Skelton: The time is ripe for a tax on oil extraction to pay for California road repairs
California still is the only major oil-producing state that doesn't tax the goo as it's pumped from the earth. Yes, high-tax California.
http://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-cap-20150917-column.html

A high-speed rail from L.A. to Las Vegas? China says it's partnering with U.S. to build
long-discussed high-speed rail project linking Southern California and Las Vegas will be built by a U.S.-China joint venture, Chinese officials said Thursday, though many details about the agreement remained hazy.
http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-vegas-la-chinese-high-speed-rail-20150917-story.html

All but three CalChamber ‘job killers’ died
All but three of the 19 bills that had been labeled “job killers” by the California Chamber of Commerce during the 2015 legislative session either stalled or were amended to remove the epithet, the business organization says in a new tally.
http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article35714718.html

Voting and Elections

State panel outlaws 'dark money' in California political campaigns
The state's campaign finance watchdog agency on Thursday adopted new requirements that nonprofit groups that contribute through a political action committee to support or oppose ballot measures or candidates in California must disclose their donors.
http://www.latimes.com/local/political/la-me-pc-state-panel-outlaws-dark-money-in-california-political-campaigns-20150917-story.html

Quinn: Why voters don't vote: and why Alex Padilla's reforms won't increase voters turnout
Secretary of State Alex Padilla is promoting expanded voter registration through his legislation, AB 1461, that would register every eligible citizen who goes to a DMV office to get a driver's license or to renew one. Leaving aside whether this is a good idea or not, Padilla is promoting it as a remedy for low voter turnout, as we saw in 2014.
http://www.capitolmr.com/article/?voter-reforms

California initiative would require more campaign finance disclosure
A coalition of campaign-finance transparency advocates said Wednesday they are pursuing an initiative for next year’s statewide ballot that will shed more light on political spending and eliminate some of the perks of elected office in California.
http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article35463390.html

Will California guarantee the right to know the names of political donors?
Dubbed the Voter’s Right to Know Act, the proposed amendment would enshrine in the state Constitution the right to campaign finance disclosure — making California the first state to put it on par with the rights to speech and privacy, among other fundamental guarantees.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/will-california-guarantee-the-right-to-know-the-names-of-political-donors/2015/09/16/2b232f62-5c78-11e5-b38e-06883aacba64_story.html

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