[Source: Bloomberg New] If Joe Biden wins the presidency, his EPA chief could be a clean air champion from California who has fought President Donald Trump on automobile pollution or an environmental justice activist from Mississippi. Biden’s campaign has heard recommendations for both California air regulator Mary Nichols and Mississippi’s Heather McTeer Toney to lead Read More…
Newsroom
The dark side of Governor Newsom’s gas-powered vehicle ban
[Source: Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow] California Governor Newsom has convinced himself that green EV’s made from “fairy dust” must replace those dirty gas-powered vehicles. Sharing a few realities of the darker side of his fairy dust beliefs may burst his bubble. Let us get some of the bad news out of the way first. Read More…
Court allows Exide to abandon a toxic site in Vernon. Taxpayers will fund the cleanup
[Source: Los Angeles Times] A bankruptcy court ruled Friday that Exide Technologies may abandon its shuttered battery recycling plant in Vernon, leaving a massive cleanup of lead and other toxic pollutants at the site and in surrounding neighborhoods to California taxpayers. The decision by Chief Judge Christopher Sontchi of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court District of Read More…
More than 200 million Americans could have toxic PFAS in their drinking water
[Source: Phys.Org] A peer-reviewed study by scientists at the Environmental Working Group estimates that more than 200 million Americans could have the toxic fluorinated chemicals known as PFAS in their drinking water at a concentration of 1 part per trillion, or ppt, or higher. Independent scientific studies have recommended a safe level for PFAS in Read More…
Prop. 15 would threaten small businesses and hinder economic recovery
[Source: CalMatters] I’m not going to write about the “new normal” resulting from COVID-19. While the topic is ever-present, what dominates my time and energy is creating a predictable and positive business environment to help small businesses get back on their feet. Small businesses, particularly minority-owned small businesses, are the lifeblood of California’s economy. A Read More…
Prop 15 would be catastrophic for an already devastated economy
[Source: Lisa A. Bartlett, O.C. Board of Supervisors] Amid an unprecedented global pandemic that has had a devastating effect on our economy, and caused great financial hardship to millions of Californians, proponents of Prop 15 now want to impose even greater hardship on families and local businesses. How? By enacting the largest annual property tax Read More…
Calamities challenge California’s economic foundation
[Source: The New York Times] Businesses shuttered by the pandemic are slowly reopening, but technology complexes are quiet, their workers carrying on from home indefinitely. The smoke-filled skies had started to clear, but new fires have arrived in a fierce wildfire season that shows the intensifying effects of climate change. Now California and its $3 Read More…
Employment attorneys brace for major California law changes
[Source: Bloomberg Law] California enacted a slate of new laws on worker classification, Covid-19, family leave, and court issues that will affect how employment lawyers advise their clients on workplace compliance and litigate disputes. The measures come as the state grapples with a global pandemic, devastating wildfires, and a swelling racial justice movement, and employers Read More…
Governor Newsom announces California will phase out gasoline-powered cars
[Source: Office of the Governor] Governor Gavin Newsom today announced that he will aggressively move the state further away from its reliance on climate change-causing fossil fuels while retaining and creating jobs and spurring economic growth – he issued an executive order requiring sales of all new passenger vehicles to be zero-emission by 2035 and Read More…