Politics
Greener on the Other Side?: An Occasional Series Regarding California’s Green Chemistry Regulations
This is the first in a series of postings about Assembly Bill 1879 (AB1879), California’s “Green Chemistry” program. This summer California Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) issued draft regulations, the comment period for which is currently open. Let’s start with the mega-view of the nascent program. In the organic statute, AB1879, DTSC was charged …
CONTINUE READINGAnother Senator paddling backwards on climate (are we up a creek yet?)
News reports yesterday have the moderate Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.), at a meeting in his home state, expressing firm opposition to EPA’s regulation of greenhouse gases. Here’s a link to the short video clip on YouTube. Up in the air is whether this means he will support any of the formal measures being considered by the Senate to strip …
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CONTINUE READINGUpdate on Mountaintop Removal: Gov. Manchin Sues EPA
West Virginia Governor Joe Manchin announced Tuesday that West Virginia is filing suit to, as the Governor put it, stop EPA’s “attempts to destroy the coal-mining industry and our way of life.” The Charleston Gazette has a good summary of the suit. The suit seeks to invalidate EPA’s recent review of Clean Water Act permits …
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CONTINUE READINGJonathan’s Crazy: Prop. 23 Is the Most Important Environmental Initiative
Jonathan claims in this post that Prop. 23 — the California ballot initiative that would prohibit the state from implementing its climate change legislation — is NOT the most important environmental initiative on the California ballot this fall. That honor, he says, goes to Prop. 25. Prop. 25 reforms California’s rules for passing a state …
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CONTINUE READINGYes on Proposition 21
Proposition 21 on next month’s California ballot seems like a pretty easy call: it would raise the state’s Vehicle License Fee by $18, with the money being dedicated to the state’s park system (it would also end parking and user fees to enjoy those parks). That system remains one of the nation’s best but is …
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CONTINUE READINGThe Most Important Ballot Measure for the California Environment
…might not be Proposition 23, although I’m cheating somewhat because climate change is more about the global environment than the state’s. So maybe you’re thinking of Proposition 21, which raises the Vehicle License Fee by $18 in order to fund state parks? Important, yes, but not the most important. Proposition 19, which supports the growing …
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CONTINUE READINGThe New Yorker on Climate Legislation
Read the whole thing. Really. Because if you don’t, and all you do is read the subtitle — How the Senate and the White House missed their best chance to deal with climate change — or just read the tag line — “Everybody is going to be thinking about whether Barack Obama was the James …
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CONTINUE READINGMountaintop Removal: Incompatible with Climate Solutions and Incompatible with the Environment
Monday thousands of people converged on Washington, D.C. for the Appalachia Rising Rally to protest mountaintop removal (MTR) coal mining. Activists dumped 1,000 pounds of Appalachia dirt on EPA’s front lawn before marching on the White House. At a sit-in at PNC bank, four people were arrested while protesting that bank’s financing of MTR coal mining. …
CONTINUE READINGProp 23: Spinning the Poll Numbers
A new email blast from the California Jobs Initiative trumpets: “Brand new Los Angeles Times poll puts Yes on 23 in the LEAD!” That’s true, sort of. Or at least it has what Stephen Colbert calls “truthiness.” The LA Times story is headlined: “Proposition 23 poll shows a dead heat among California voters.” As shown …
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CONTINUE READINGMeg Whitman, Prop 23, and AB 32
Meg Whitman takes the position that Prop 23 is wrong, but she says that she’ll suspend California’s keystone climate legislation,AB 32, for a year if she’s elected. The Berkeley White Paper on Prop 23 takes a different view than she does of the economic impact of Prop 23. Her proposal, which takes advantage of an …
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