[Source: Orange County Register] Have we reached the point where air pollution regulations are harming people more than air pollution itself? That’s the question at the heart of the dispute between the Trump administration and California about the Environmental Protection Agency’s air pollution program known as NAAQS, the National Ambient Air Quality Standards. President Trump Read More…
Newsroom
Trump targets smog standards, ordering EPA to make it easier for companies to comply
[Source: Los Angeles Times] President Trump took aim at federal air quality standards Thursday, directing the Environmental Protection Agency to relax restrictions on state governments and businesses that have been key to cutting smog. In a memo, the president instructed EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt to more quickly review states’ smog-reduction plans, make it easier for businesses Read More…
Cancer-causing coffee? Proposition 65 warnings becoming too common
[Source: The San Diego Union-Tribune] A preliminary decision by Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Elihu M. Berle — that coffee should carry a warning that it is potentially carcinogenic because it has trace amounts of acrylamide — should be maddening to those who care about public health. That’s not just because it’s a decision that Read More…
California lacks a job-friendly economic policy
[Source: Orange County Register] Amazon’s second headquarters, a shiny object dangled in front of revenue-hungry government officials across the country, appears to be headed for someplace other than California. The project known as “HQ2” is likely to land in northern Virginia, some observers believe, where Amazon recently located the headquarters of its cloud business a Read More…
Trump wants to reshape the courts – a liberal judge unwittingly helped him
[Source: The New York Times] In the spring of 2014, a friend tried to nudge Judge Stephen Reinhardt, then an 83-year-old liberal stalwart on the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, into stepping aside from full-time duties so President Barack Obama could nominate a successor. The friend, Erwin Chemerinsky, now the dean Read More…
Port of Long Beach launches zero-emissions project
[Source: PORT Technology] The project, funded mostly by the California Energy Commission with a $9.7 million grant, will introduce 25 vehicles that are zero- or near zero-emissions to Port of Long Beach marine terminals to test their performance in a real-world setting for a year. In 2017, the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles Read More…
Southern California regulators have a chance to rein in freight pollution. Will they take it?
[Source: Los Angeles Times] Over and over in their decades-long war on smog, Southern California regulators have failed to use a powerful tool against ports, warehouses and other freight and logistics hubs that are magnets for air pollution. Now, the South Coast Air Quality Management District is considering a proposal to regulate warehouses, rail yards Read More…
Captured CO2 could store energy from solar panels and wind turbines
[Source: How Stuff Works/Patrick J. Kiger] Since 70 percent of the global demand for energy is met by burning fossil fuels such as coal and natural gas, it’s not surprising that we’re pumping enormous amounts of climate-warming carbon dioxide into the atmosphere — an astonishing 35.8 billion tons (32.5 billion metric tons) in 2017, according Read More…
Trump administration moves on two fronts to challenge California environmental protections
[Source: Los Angeles Times] The Trump administration openly threatened one of the cornerstones of California’s environmental protections Monday, saying that it may revoke the state’s ability under the Clean Air Act to impose stricter standards than the federal government sets for vehicle emissions. The announcement came as the administration confirmed it is tearing up landmark Read More…