[Source: NBC News MACH] Unlike the uranium commonly used to power nuclear reactors, thorium salts are protected against meltdowns and can’t be weaponized. In the pursuit of renewable and cleaner energy sources, nuclear power remains one of the viable options. To make it an even safer choice, a Dutch nuclear research firm began experiments with Read More…
Month: August 2017
First-ever water tax proposed to tackle unsafe drinking water in California
[Source: The Mercury News] For the first time Californians would pay a tax on drinking water — 95 cents per month — under legislation aimed at fixing hundreds of public water systems with unsafe tap water. Senate Bill 623, backed by a strange-bedfellows coalition of the agricultural lobby and environmental groups but opposed by water districts, Read More…
Trump signs order rolling back environmental rules on infrastructure
[Source: The New York Times] President Trump announced on Tuesday that he had signed a sweeping executive order to eliminate and streamline some permitting regulations and to speed construction of roads, bridges and pipelines, declaring that the moves would fix a “badly broken” infrastructure system in America and bring manufacturing jobs back to the country. Read More…
CalChamber fighting unlimited access to employer documents
[Source: CalChamber] A California Chamber of Commerce-opposed bill that allows organizations unaffiliated with the employer to access an undefined and potentially unlimited scope of employer internal documents awaits action by the state Senate. AB 978 (Limón; D-Goleta) also circumvents the rulemaking process now underway to provide employees access to their employer’s Injury and Illness Prevention Program (IIPP). Read More…
Allowing polluters to offset carbon emissions by paying forest owners effectively reduces greenhouse gases
[Source: Stanford News] A pioneering California program to sell carbon offsets has surprising environmental benefits – including providing habitat for endangered species – and provides lessons for initiatives under development in other states and countries. You can’t grow money on trees, but you can earn money for letting trees grow. Or at least you can Read More…
Why does California have the nation’s highest poverty level?
[Source: CalChamber] With all the recent hoopla about California’s record-low unemployment rate and the heady prospect of its becoming No. 5 in global economic rankings, it is easy to lose sight of another salient fact: It is the nation’s most poverty-stricken state. So says the U.S. Census Bureau in its “supplemental measure” of poverty that Read More…
One-fifth of Americans find workplace hostile or threatening
[Source: Associated Press] The American workplace is grueling, stressful and surprisingly hostile. So concludes an in-depth study of 3,066 U.S. workers by the Rand Corp., Harvard Medical School and the University of California, Los Angeles. Among the findings: Nearly one in five workers – a share the study calls “disturbingly high” – say they face Read More…
California sues EPA over access to Pruitt records
[Source: San Francisco Chronicle] California’s attorney general went to court Friday seeking conflict-of-interest rules from President Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency, whose chief spent years suing to overturn the environmental rules he is now charged with enforcing. EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt’s “ability to serve as an impartial decision-maker merits close examination, especially now that he has Read More…
New California law gives air quality officials the power to quickly shut down polluters
[Source: Los Angeles Times] Local air quality officials are gaining new powers to quickly stop polluters when they endanger people’s health under legislation signed by Gov. Jerry Brown on Monday. The law, which goes into effect Jan. 1, follows years of frustration in communities such as Paramount, Boyle Heights and Maywood — where regulators have Read More…