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Author |
Published |
Section |
PAYD in Full
California to offer pay-as-you-drive insurance plan |
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28 Aug 2008 |
News |
| Posted at 10:37 AM on 28 Aug 2008 Californians who minimize their driving could shell out less for insurance under a pay-as-you-go plan proposed Wednesday by Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner. Under the voluntary plan, annual insurance rates would be based on miles driven, incentivizing Golden Staters to stay out of their cars. "As a strong advocate of healthy market competition and a healthy environment, I am especially pl ... |
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| Topics: California, cars, news, placemaking (all these topics) |
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Oil Me Once
Santa Barbara County officials give thumbs-up to offshore drilling |
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27 Aug 2008 |
News |
| Posted at 4:18 PM on 27 Aug 2008 Santa Barbara County supervisors on Tuesday voted 3 to 2 in favor of allowing offshore drilling along their coastline -- a move that has no practical impacts, but is rich with symbolism. The southern California county was hit with a devastating 3-million-gallon crude oil spill from an offshore platform in 1969; it coated beaches, killed wildlife, and helped to kick-start the modern en ... |
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| Topics: California, energy, gas prices, news, oil, oil and gas drilling, politics (all these topics) |
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A TV diet
California Energy Commission considers PG&E proposal to require energy-efficient televisions |
Joseph Romm |
25 Aug 2008 |
Gristmill |
| The following post is by Earl Killian, guest blogger at Climate Progress. ----- The California Energy Commission is considering a proposal by PG&E to require televisions sold in the state to meet a minimum efficiency standard. Why is a utility proposing its customers by more efficient appliances? Because California allows utilities to earn a return on investment from negawatts. PG&E's proposal begins by plotting the power consumption (in Watts) of e ... |
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| Topics: California, energy, energy at home, energy efficiency, TV (all these topics) |
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He Ain't Heavy, He's My Rubber
California to phase out lead weights on tires by end of 2009 |
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21 Aug 2008 |
News |
| Posted at 4:07 PM on 21 Aug 2008 Lead weights used to balance vehicle wheels will be phased out in California by the end of 2009, in accordance with a court settlement approved Wednesday. The settlement resolves a lawsuit filed by the Center for Environmental Health in May against Chrysler and the three biggest U.S. makers of lead wheel weights. The group says 500,000 pounds of lead is released annually ... |
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| Topics: Big Auto, California, cars, health, news (all these topics) |
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The Golden-State Touch
California bill aims to curb sprawl |
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21 Aug 2008 |
News |
| Posted at 12:10 PM on 21 Aug 2008 Hopes are high that a bill aimed at curbing California sprawl will pass the state legislature and be signed into law by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. The bill, SB 375, would channel transportation funding toward projects that encourage smart growth. Each of California's 17 metropolitan regions would create a "sustainable community strategy" to encourage compact development; projects included in t ... |
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| Topics: California, legislation, news, placemaking, politics, progress, sprawl, state politics, urban planning (all these topics) |
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Pickled Pikas
Climate change endangers American pika, say groups |
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20 Aug 2008 |
News |
| Posted at 12:50 PM on 20 Aug 2008 The American pika should be listed as an endangered species because climate change could cause its extinction, say Earthjustice and the Center for Biological Diversity in a lawsuit filed Tuesday against California and the federal government. The pika, a rabbit cousin characterized by inordinate cuteness and a squeaky call, is "the polar bear of the Lower 48," says Greg Loarie of Earthjust ... |
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| Topics: California, climate, climate change impacts, endangered species, litigation, news, wildlife (all these topics) |
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Sip 'n' Skip
California won't ban BPA in baby bottles, sippy cups |
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19 Aug 2008 |
News |
| Posted at 12:58 PM on 19 Aug 2008 With 22 legislators abstaining, the California Assembly voted 31-27 Monday not to ban chemical bisphenol A in baby products. BPA is one of those things you'd like to keep out of your kid; the bill would have banned it from bottles, sippy cups, and other containers for tots. Legislators also voted 36-33 (with 11 abstentions) against a bill that would have banned equally icky chemical PFOA from food ... |
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| Topics: California, food, green living, health, legislation, news, parenting, politics, state politics, toxics (all these topics) |
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To achieve maximum technologically feasible GHG reductions, or not to, that is the question
EarthJustice challenges the legality of the draft plan for California's A.B. 32 |
David Roberts |
17 Aug 2008 |
Gristmill |
| EarthJustice is challenging the legality of the draft release of California's climate change program, A.B. 32. They say it fails to follow all of the statutory requirements. Specifically: This letter focuses on three primary deficiencies in the Draft Scoping Plan: first, the Draft Scoping Plan uses the 2020 greenhouse gas emission limit as a ceiling on the amount of greenhouse gas emission reductions required, when in reality the emissions limit is the minimu ... |
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| Topics: California, carbon trading, climate, greenhouse-gas emissions, legislation, state politics (all these topics) |
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Takin' a Shine to You
Ginormous solar plants to be built in California |
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15 Aug 2008 |
News |
| Posted at 8:34 AM on 15 Aug 2008 Two gigantic solar plants will be built in California under deals announced Thursday between utility Pacific Gas & Electric and companies OptiSolar and Sun Power. Together, the plants could generate 800 megawatts of electricity at peak capacity, enough to power 239,000 homes. (Perspective: The total peak capacity of every photovoltaic panel in the U.S. as of last year was 750 MW.) The lar ... |
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| Topics: business, California, energy, news, progress, renewable energy, solar voltaic power (all these topics) |
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Loan payday
California's innovative energy efficiency loan program is a model worth copying |
Clark Williams-Derry |
06 Aug 2008 |
Gristmill |
| A request: If you a) have anything to do with city or county government, and b) have any interest in, or authority over, property taxes, finance, or energy efficiency, please drop whatever you're doing for two minutes, and skim this article. Oh, all right, I bet you didn't actually hit the link. So to make your job easier, I'll pull a quote or two. California [just] enacted a law that allows cities and counties to make low-interest loans to home ... |
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| Topics: California, energy, energy at home, energy efficiency (all these topics) |
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California climate skirmish
Los Angeles utility starts to squawk as it stares down a $700 million carbon bill |
Adam Stein |
04 Aug 2008 |
Gristmill |
| Regulators have won praise for speed and thoughtfulness with which they have laid the groundwork for implementation of A.B. 32, the landmark bill that aims to bring California's greenhouse gas emissions down to 1990 levels by 2020. But even within a single state, climate change legislation creates winners and losers, and regional tensions are starting to show. California's climate plan consists of a slew of new efficiency standards, regulations, and reduction measures ... |
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| Topics: California, carbon trading, climate, energy efficiency, greenhouse-gas emissions, legislation (all these topics) |
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I wish they all could be California's plans
Energy efficiency, part 4 |
Joseph Romm |
30 Jul 2008 |
Gristmill |
| California and its utilities have achieved remarkably consistent energy efficiency gains for three decades. How did they do it? In part, a smart California Energy Commission has promoted strong building standards and the aggressive deployment of energy-efficient technologies and strategies -- and has done so with support of both Democratic and Republican leadership over three decades. I talked to California energy commissioner Art Rosenfeld -- a former DOE colleagu ... |
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| Topics: California, electricity, energy, energy efficiency, utilities (all these topics) |
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Dig Yourself Out of That Hole
Feds lambasted for neglecting cleanup of abandoned mines |
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28 Jul 2008 |
News |
| Posted at 4:00 PM on 28 Jul 2008 Thousands of abandoned mines across the U.S. West pose hazards to the public, according to a strongly worded audit from the Interior Department inspector general. The Bureau of Land Management's mine program "has been undermined, neglected, and marginalized," says the report, and many easily accessible mines have "dangerously dilapidated structures, serious envi ... |
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| Topics: Arizona, Bureau of Land Management, California, Department of Interior, mining, Nevada, news, toxics (all these topics) |
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Energy-smart Debbie
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David Roberts |
28 Jul 2008 |
Gristmill |
| One of the more impressive speakers I saw at Netroots Nation was Huntington Beach Mayor Debbie Cook, who spoke on the Energize America panel with an amazing depth of knowledge and blunt honesty. She's running this year against the far-right Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.). TPM caught up with her for a brief interview: |
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| Topics: California, elections, energy, politics, video (all these topics) |
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California dreamin'
Energy efficiency, part 3 |
Joseph Romm |
28 Jul 2008 |
Gristmill |
| This series is based in part on this Salon article: 'Why we never need to build another polluting power plant.' Energy efficiency is by far the biggest low-carbon resource available, and it is as limitless as wind, PV, and solar baseload. It is also the cheapest power you can buy, by far. California has cut annual peak demand by 12 GW -- and total demand by about 40,000 GWh -- over the past three decades. The cost of efficiency programs has averaged 2-3 cents per ... |
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| Topics: California, electricity, energy, energy efficiency, renewable energy (all these topics) |
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Bush's puppets
EPA administrator Stephen Johnson neglects his federal oath |
Joseph Romm |
26 Jul 2008 |
Gristmill |
| This post is by ClimateProgress guest blogger Bill Becker, executive director of the Presidential Climate Action Project. ----- Some of us had high hopes for Stephen Johnson when President Bush appointed him in March 2005 as administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Johnson was not a former oil-industry lobbyist or Halliburton executive. He was a career civil servant who had been with the federal government for 24 years. He was a scientist, not a ... |
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| Topics: California, Department of Interior, George Bush, politics, US EPA (all these topics) |
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West Foot Forward
Western states unveil draft cap-and-trade scheme |
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24 Jul 2008 |
News |
| Posted at 12:53 PM on 24 Jul 2008 The Western Climate Initiative has unveiled a draft proposal for a regional cap-and-trade program that would kick off in 2012. The 11 states and provinces involved -- Arizona, British Columbia, California, Manitoba, Montana, New Mexico, Ontario, Oregon, Quebec, Utah, and Washington -- would impose an as-yet-determined greenhouse-gas emissions limit on industries and utilities, then allow laggards ... |
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| Topics: Arizona, business, California, Canada, carbon trading, climate, climate change mitigation, Montana, New Mexico, news, Oregon, Utah, Washington (all these topics) |
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Target practice
On the art of setting (and hitting) emission targets |
Ken Johnson |
24 Jul 2008 |
Gristmill |
| Gore's call for 100 percent renewable electricity generation within 10 years may seem, at first blush, to be so far out in left field as to lack any seriousness -- but it has some commonality with established regulatory policy. For example, California's global warming law (AB 32) is rooted in Governor Schwarzenegger's Executive Order S-03-05, issued on June 1, 2005, ordering that 'the following greenhouse gas emission reduction targets are hereby established for Californ ... |
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| Topics: Al Gore, California, carbon tax, climate, greenhouse-gas emissions (all these topics) |
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Invade in the Shade
Trees win in California solar panels vs. redwoods dispute |
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23 Jul 2008 |
News |
| Posted at 10:40 AM on 23 Jul 2008 Trees have emerged victorious in a California dispute that pitted redwoods against solar panels. Six months ago, Silicon Valley residents Richard Treanor and Carolynn Bissett were criminally convicted because their redwoods shaded the 10-kilowatt solar system on neighbor Mark Vargas' roof. Ultimately, Treanor and Bissett were forced to trim their trees and paid $37,000 in legal fees. T ... |
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| Topics: Arnold Schwarzenegger, California, energy, energy at home, green living, insanity, litigation, news, renewable energy, solar voltaic power (all these topics) |
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Rough to the Gills
Judge says Calif. salmon in trouble but offers no short-term solution |
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21 Jul 2008 |
News |
| Posted at 11:04 AM on 21 Jul 2008 The dams and aqueducts that shuttle water from California's Sacramento River Delta to the rest of the state will "appreciably increase jeopardy" to salmon and steelhead in the coming months, U.S. District Judge Oliver Wanger said Friday. But while Wanger agreed with environmentalists that "the three salmonid species are not viable and are all in jeopardy of ex ... |
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| Topics: agriculture, California, litigation, National Marine Fisheries Service, news, water conflicts (all these topics) |
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I Wish They All Could Build California
First statewide green-building standards adopted by California, natch |
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17 Jul 2008 |
News |
| Posted at 5:19 PM on 17 Jul 2008 Photo: Patrick Dirden California has adopted the nation's first statewide green-building standards in what is, according to ever-punny Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, "literally a groundbreaking move." The new California Green Buildings Standards Code requires builders to reduce energy use by 15 percent beyond current standards, target a 50 percent ... |
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| Topics: Arnold Schwarzenegger, California, green building, news, placemaking (all these topics) |
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High-speed rail coming to California
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David Roberts |
06 Jul 2008 |
Gristmill |
| Looking good. |
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| Topics: California, placemaking, public transportation (all these topics) |
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Driver down
How to reduce California auto emissions faster than Pavley |
Ken Johnson |
03 Jul 2008 |
Gristmill |
| Last update: 7/22/2008 In my last post I touted the benefits of a fully refunded emissions tax. Let's take a look at how it could work in California. When it comes to a refunded tax, more money for industry doesn't mean less money for consumers. Case in point: Today's gasoline prices in California are averaging $4.58/gal, which equates1 to $536/MT-CO2e. That's how much California drivers are currently paying to emit CO2 -- and how much they could save from fue ... |
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| Topics: California, carbon tax, cars, climate, fuel efficiency, greenhouse-gas emissions (all these topics) |
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A Matter of Life and Breath
California wildfires mucking up state's air quality |
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02 Jul 2008 |
News |
| Posted at 7:56 AM on 02 Jul 2008 California's raging wildfires, which have burned some 660 square miles in the last few weeks, are also significantly worsening air quality, causing high levels of soot, and aggravating asthma patients. "Our waiting rooms are full of people with sore throats, itchy eyes, and sniffles," said a respiratory therapist with Fresno's Sequoia Community Health Center. Already poor ... |
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| Topics: air pollution, California, news (all these topics) |
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Californication
California plans to cut 169 million metric tons of CO2 equivalent by 2020 |
Joseph Romm |
26 Jun 2008 |
Gristmill |
| How do you return greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020 while promoting jobs, competitiveness, and public health? Conservatives in the U.S. Senate think it can't be done. California knows it can. The Air Resources Board has just published their 'Scoping Plan.' How do they cut 169 million metric tons of CO2 equivalent by 2020? Efficiency, efficiency, renewables, renewables, and even some conservation: Given that the single biggest source of Califo ... |
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| Topics: California, energy, energy efficiency, greenhouse-gas emissions, renewable energy (all these topics) |
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