Enviro funding could be dropped from omnibus spending package, E&E Daily, Dec. 8, 2011
As talks on a massive government funding bill enter their last lap today, GOP-backed restrictions on White House environmental policy remain an obstacle large enough to potentially push U.S. EPA and Interior Department spending out of a final deal. That the dozens of policy riders that were attached to the House's 2012 spending bill for U.S. EPA and the Interior Department remain a thorn in lawmakers' sides is not surprising, given the intensity of the partisan clash they have driven all year long......
House Dems pitch companion bill to extend county payments, E&E Daily, Dec. 8, 2011
A handful of House Democrats yesterday introduced a bill to extend payments to rural counties with large tracts of federal lands to help fund roads, schools, emergency services and forest restoration. The bill, which is a companion to a bipartisan Senate proposal introduced by Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.), contrasts sharply with a House Republican proposal that would ramp up production of timber, minerals and other forest activities to create jobs and revive county payments.......
Air board's new rules aim to boost electric cars in California, By Rick Daysog, Sacramento Bee, DEC. 08, 2011
The state unveiled a new set of clean car regulations Wednesday that aim to sharply increase the number of electric cars on California's roads, boost fuel efficiency and reduce air pollution. The proposed rules largely parallel President Barack Obama's goal of doubling the nation's auto fuel economy standards for new cars from the current 27.3 mph to 54.5 mph by the year 2025.......
S.F. judge OKs cap and trade for emissions law, Bob Egelko, San Francisco Chronicle, December 8, 2011
A San Francisco judge has given the go-ahead to California's plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to global warming, ruling that state regulators adequately considered alternatives to a market-based cap-and-trade system. Superior Court Judge Ernest Goldsmith had ruled in March that the Air Resources Board had not looked hard enough at other options, like numerical limits on emissions or a tax on carbon-based fuels. His ruling, on an issue that has divided environmental groups, could have upset the state's plans to implement the nation's first comprehensive climate-change law.......
Huge property in Santa Cruz Mountains to be preserved, By Paul Rogers, San Jose Mercury News, 12/08/2011
For 105 years, the towering Davenport cement plant on Santa Cruz County's rural north coast produced the cement that built Northern California, including such varied and prodigious projects as the Golden Gate Bridge, BART, Oakland City Hall, Folsom Dam, Candlestick Park and the Stanford University Medical Center. But now the plant, shuttered last year, is leaving a different kind of landmark. In one of the largest land preservation deals in the Bay Area in a generation, five conservation groups have signed an agreement to buy 8,532 acres around the plant for $30 million......
Obama admin issues guidance on expediting reviews under NEPA, Greenwire, Dec. 7, 2011
In an ongoing effort to make environmental assessments of government actions more efficient, the Obama administration today released draft guidance designed to improve the timeliness of reviews that federal agencies are required to conduct under the National Environmental Policy Act.The White House Council on Environmental Quality noted in announcing the draft guidance today that NEPA regulations currently list several efficiencies that can be used by agencies when preparing environmental impact statements, the most rigorous form of review under NEPA. Today's guidance emphasizes that those efficiencies should be incorporated into all reviews including less intensive environmental assessments.......
Green energy deserves fair shot in game, By Arnold Schwarzenegger, THE WASHINGTON POST, Sacramento Bee, Dec. 06, 2011
More energy from the sun hits Earth in one hour than all the energy consumed on our planet in an entire year. In those terms, it is absurd that our federal government spends tens of billions of dollars annually subsidizing the oil industry, which pulls diminishing resources from underground, while the industry focused above ground on wind, solar and other renewable energies is derided in Washington........
Washington doesn’t need to regulate rain, Supreme Court has a chance to stop judicial folly, By Jim Petersen, The Washington Times, Tuesday, December 6, 2011
If the Supreme Court declines to review it, a recent ruling from the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco will put federal courts into the business of managing every acre of privately owned timberland in America. Farmers beware. You could be next. In May, the 9th Circuit determined that rainwater draining from forest roads into local streams, rivers and lakes is “point source pollution.” As such, it must be regulated in the same way effluent from sewage-treatment plants is regulated. To make a long story short, rainwater that accumulates alongside logging roads has become a new target of environmental litigators. Several lawsuits were filed within days of the 9th Circuit’s decision......
Boiler rules mean more EPA support for bioenergy -- industry group, Tiffany Stecker, E&E reporter, ClimateWire, Monday, December 5, 2011
U.S. EPA's revised standards for toxic emissions from boilers and incinerators announced Friday were given a cautious welcome from the head of an industry group for biomass power, a sector that had opposed the previous version of the regulation. "Our general take of what EPA has done is positive," said Bob Cleaves, president and CEO of the Biomass Power Association, of the agency's reassessment of regulations to control pollution from energy boilers and incinerators.......
Casitas suit against feds over fish-ladder water dismissed, By Zeke Barlow, Ventura County Star, December 5, 2011
A judge Monday dismissed a lawsuit the Casitas Municipal Water District filed against the federal government seeking reimbursement for water it had to provide for endangered species. The suit was "not ripe" because there was no proof Casitas lost anything by sending water down a fish ladder used by endangered steelhead trout, U.S. Court of Federal Claims Judge John Wiese wrote in his opinion. The case was being monitored across the West for its potential to set a precedent in the area of water rights and endangered species. In the coming weeks, Casitas board members will discuss whether to drop the case, which has cost the district more than $600,000, or appeal Monday's ruling......