Pollution & Health

Why Maureen Gorsen is wrong: Prop 26 will undermine environmental regulation

Followers of this blog know that, yesterday, UCLA Law released an analysis of Proposition 26’s impacts on state funding for environmental and public health programs.  Today, the Yes on 26 campaign struck back with a press release in which Maureen Gorsen suggested that we failed to understand Prop 26 and ignored facts. (The Yes on …

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Did EPA Just Get Snookered on Trucking Emissions Rules?

Like Holly, I suppose it’s a good thing that EPA has — finally — proposed new rules for fuel efficient and greenhouse gas emissions from medium and large trucks.  But I remain highly skeptical that even these rules — as weak and tardy as they are — will ever see the light of day.  Once again, …

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UCLA releases new analysis of Proposition 26’s impacts to state environmental programs

As Sean has written, Proposition 26 hasn’t been getting as much attention in the media as other anti-environmental measures on next Tuesday’s California ballot, but it has the potential to be a real sleeper threat.  UCLA Law just released a careful analysis of Proposition 26’s impacts to state funding for environmental and public health programs, concluding …

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Thumbs up and thumbs down

Brief takes on good and bad news from around the web. First the good news: EPA and NHTSA have proposed joint fuel efficiency and greenhouse gas reduction standards for medium and large trucks, the ones that move freight around the country. “The agencies estimate that the combined proposed standards have the potential to reduce GHG …

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Proposition 26: The most important ballot initiative affecting California’s environment?

*UPDATES:  UCLA Law released a report analyzing Proposition 26’s impacts on the State’s environmental protection laws.  And co-blogger Rhead Enion has responded point by point to some of Maureen Gorsen’s arguments criticizing our analysis of the initative.* My co-bloggers have argued whether Proposition 25 or Proposition 23 is more important to California’s environmental future.  I …

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Update 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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Mountaintop 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. …

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Air Resources Board Does Some Punting On SB 375 Targets

As I blogged, the California Air Resources Board yesterday set greenhouse gas targets for the eighteen metropolitan regions in the state, which these regions must try to meet through a land use and transportation planning process. The Board basically split the difference of what the staff recommended. For the four largest regions, staff wanted 5-10% …

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And Caldron Bubble

Double, double toil and trouble; Fire burn, and caldron bubble. Or in this case, vast quantities of natural gas bubbled into the Gulf of Mexico: A vast majority of the natural gas that billowed out of BP PLC’s failed well in the Gulf this summer did not escape to the surface and atmosphere. Instead, the …

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WWWD (What Will Whitman Do) on Proposition 23 and AB 32? Whitman’s Seeing Green for the General Election

There’s renewed attention today on both AB 32 — California’s sweeping climate change legislation — and Proposition 23, the initiative that would derail it (see Rick’s post here about several state AGs considering suing to overturn AB 32 as unconstitutional and his post here about Berkelely’s study concluding, basically, that Prop 23 is a bad …

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