Region: California

Getting Serious About Toxicity Testing

Most of the products we use everyday contain chemicals that have never undergone meaningful health and safety testing.  That statement is hardly controversial; most folks on all sides of the continuing debate over chemical policy reform accept it as accurate.  Yet there is controversy over whether such testing should be required as a routine matter …

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HUD and DOT, sitting in a tree…

The two federal agencies that should go together like peas and carrots are finally making moves.  The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the Department of Transportation (DOT) announced a new joint task force to identify strategies to link affordable housing with transportation and to create sustainable communities. The task force will …

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Action on Nano-regulation Likely in California This Year

On March 19, the California Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) hosted its third symposium on nanotechnology.  The symposium featured speakers from industry, government, the NGO community, and academia and focused upon potential regulatory approaches for dealing with health and environmental effects of nanotechnology.  In his remarks, Assemblyperson Mike Feuer announced his intent to introduce …

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The Dodgers v. Urbanism: NoCal 1, SoCal 0?

I hate to admit this with a bunch of co-bloggers from the Bay Area, but I think that the northerners have one here. Ever since my Grandpa told me stories about dodging trolleys outside Ebbets Field, and then took me to the Dodgers’ 1972 Oldtimers’ Day, when they retired the numbers of Jackie Robinson, Roy …

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DiFi defends the Desert Tortoise

As one example of the growing conflict over use of sensitive lands for renewable energy projects (Ann recently blogged about this tension here), check out Sen. Feinstein’s letter to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar asking that the BLM suspend consideration of proposed leases on federal lands near Joshua Tree National Park being considered for solar energy fields.  “While …

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Two New EPA Nominees

The President announced two new EPA choices:  Cynthia Giles as chief of enforcement, and   Michele DePass as EPA’s assistant administrator for international affairs. Cynthia Giles is a Berkeley Law grad.    She is currently the vice president and director of the Conservation Law Foundation’s Rhode Island Advocacy Center,  focusing on state and regional programs …

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No wavering in waiver battle

No one is backing down yet in the multiple battles over California’s request for a Clean Air Act waiver to allow it to implement its rules limiting greenhouse gas emissions from cars and trucks.  EPA’s announcement that it would reconsider the Bush administration’s denial of that request was published in the Federal Register on March …

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Good news for gondoliers

The Gallup poll showing increasing public skepticism about the climate change threat, which Holly blogs about below, does not bode well for Venice, California–unless you’re a gondolier.   A report was released yesterday, sponsored by several California agencies, giving more detail than ever before about the threats to California’s coast from rising sea levels.  Margot Roosevelt of …

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National Land Use/Smart Growth Policy Coming Soon?

If local governments have maintained control over one policy area, it is land use. Despite tinkering around the edges, states have mostly stayed out, and for good political reasons: land use is the most visible policy that affects people at the local level. But if the Obama Administration moves forward to regulate greenhouse gases, that …

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Why is GM using taxpayer funds to fight clean car progress?

Just back from a weekend conference where climate litigator Matthew Pawa gave a keynote address.  He’s one of the lawyers who successfully defended California’s right to demand that automakers make cars that limit their greenhouse gas emissions, calling and cross-examining witnesses in a dramatic 2007 trial that put climate change science on the stand.  In …

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