PREVIOUS DIGEST
OF LOCAL ENVIRONMENTAL NEWS
December 15-21, 2008

      Click on a story title below and you will be linked to the original story at the newspaper's web site. Note: Occasionally a story becomes unavailable online after the original publication date.

1. Walnut preparing to fight proposed NFL stadium
   Monday, Dec 15, 2008, Whittier Daily News, By Bethania Palma Markus, Staff Writer
   WALNUT - City officials will begin interviewing attorneys as part of a plan to possibly sue neighboring Industry if it approves an environmental impact report for a proposed NFL stadium. "In the event that the city of Industry certifies the EIR as presently adopted, the council feels a challenge is required," said City Attorney Michael Montgomery.
           Billionaire developer Ed Roski Jr. has proposed an $800 million, 75,000-seat stadium inside Industry city limits. Industry is going through the entitlement process and expects it to be complete in early January. Roski  had expected to onvince an NFL team to move in time to open the stadium in 2011, but that has been pushed back to 2012, officials said.
   
2. Florida sugar deal may be going sour
   Monday, Dec 15, 2008, Los Angeles Times , By Richard Fausset
   CLEWISTON FLA. – Today locals fear the sugar industry will dissipate for good if Gov. Charlie Crist succeeds in converting the surrounding cane fields into an ambitious restoration project for the Florida Everglades. When Crist announced the plan in June, it was met with much fanfare and was widely seen as a legacy-defining gambit for the popular Republican governor. In recent months, however, critics and complications have emerged that may threaten the plan's chances of approval by a state water board, which is slated to vote on it Tuesday.
           The world financial meltdown has struck Florida particularly hard, saddling the state with a $5.8-billion budget shortfall. Last week, a number of state legislators questioned the wisdom of borrowing the money to fund a 181,000-acre land deal during such uncertain times. Yet another potential complication: A large Tennessee farming concern has expressed its intention to purchase U.S. Sugar. The company, the Lawrence Group, hopes to buy the private sugar company for $300 a share.
           Many environmentalists continue to cheer the plan. U.S. Sugar's vast land holdings lie in the flat, mineral-rich muckland between freshwater Lake Okeechobee to the north and the protected but threatened wetlands to the south. The water district hopes to store large amounts of water on the property and build artificial filtering marshes that would clean the southward-flowing water of phosphorus, a mineral in fertilizer, that has proven detrimental to the habitats of birds, alligators and other wildlife.
   
3. Fake grass considered for Pasadena parks
   Tuesday, Dec 16, 2008, Pasadena Star News, By Dan Abendschein, Staff Writer
   PASADENA - With Pasadena looking for ways to reduce both water usage and spending, putting in artificial turf in its parks seemed a logical step. "The costs savings and water savings are not as dramatic as I thought they would be," Councilman Steve Haderlein said at Monday night's meeting.
           In their report, staffers estimated the city could save $44,000 annually in maintenance and water costs with a 3-acre turf field versus a natural grass field. The report also found the fields could support up to an additional 25 hours of use each week if artificial turf were installed. Turf fields also could save on over time pay, since the city wouldn't need to replace old mowing and lawn-care equipment.
           But installing a new turf field would cost about $500,000 more than a natural grass field. The turf would wear out within 10 to 12 years. The city does plan to install an artificial turf field this spring at Robinson Park, which would give staff a chance to see if their estimates on how much the city would save are right.
   
4. U.S. tightens the tap on water from Northern California
   Tuesday, Dec 16, 2008, Los Angeles Times, By Bettina Boxall
           Federal wildlife officials on Monday released new restrictions on pumping water from Northern California, further tightening the spigot on flows to Southern California cities and San Joaquin Valley farms. The curbs, intended to keep the tiny delta smelt from extinction and stem the ecological collapse of California's water crossroads, could in some years cut state water deliveries by half. The cutbacks will vary depending on conditions in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, the smelt's only home and a major source of water for the majority of Californians..
           "We're going to keep doing this until we do a long-term fix in the delta," state water resources Director Lester Snow said, complaining that the federal action placed too much of the blame for the smelt's problems on the huge delta pumps that send water south. Chemical contamination, invasive species, power plant operations and climate are all hurting the delta, he said.
           Federal scientists say pumping has altered the hydrology and salinity of the delta and as a result, its suitability as a wildlife habitat. The pumps are so powerful that they reverse delta water flows, carrying fish to the pumps. The smelt is just one of several delta fish species in trouble. Recreational and commercial fishing for chinook salmon, which migrate through the delta to the Sacramento River, was banned this year because the fall-run population was so low.
           The new restrictions are contained in a 410-page biological opinion issued by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
           "This is a major new reduction in water deliveries that will impact families, businesses and farmers throughout California," said Laura King Moon, assistant general manager of the State Water Contractors.
   
5. Las Lomas development may be 'finally dead'
   Tuesday, Dec 16, 2008, Los Angeles Times, By Jennifer Oldham
           A Los Angeles County Superior Court judge has declined to order the city to reopen its environmental review of a controversial 5,553-home development proposed for steep hillsides near where the 5 and the 14 freeways intersect. Judge David P. Yaffe ruled Friday that state law doesn't require the City Council to finish preparing environmental studies before considering the proposal by developer Dan Palmer to build a mixed-use community known as Las Lomas. The council voted in March to instruct the Planning Department to stop processing the application to build the project, which would have included more than 2 million square feet of commercial space. Palmer sued the city last summer, contending that the decision violated state law and the developer's constitutional right to due process.
           Council members feared that the development – under which Palmer proposed that Los Angeles annex the 555-acre parcel so he could access the city's water supply – would tax already overburdened services and further snarl traffic.
   
6. Study: seals and sea lions chock full of toxic chemicals
   Tuesday, Dec 16, 2008, Orange County Register, Posted by Pat Brennan, green living, environment editor
           More than 30 years after the dumping of DDT off the Palos Verdes peninsula was halted, seals and sea lions are still bearing the burden. A new study shows they carry large amounts of DDT in their blubber, as well as significant levels of another class of chemicals called PCBs. Biologists at California State University, Long Beach, analyzed tissue samples from harbor seals, sea lions and elephant seals collected over 13 years.
           Both chemicals, now banned, were dumped from a Los Angeles County sewer outfall pipe from the 1940s to 1972. They linger in sediments because they don’t dissolve in water, accumulating first in marine worms and other small animals, then working their way up the food chain as each successive predator consumes the chemicals in the bodies of their prey. The chemicals become highly concentrated in the bodies of top predators, such as seals and sea lions. Other studies have revealed significant amounts of both DDT and PCBs, once used in electrical transformers, in fish off Southern California, such as bottom-dwelling white croaker.
   
7. Wetlands Trade To Continue
   Wednesday, Dec 17, 2008, Long Beach Gazette Newspapers, By Harry Saltzgaver, Executive Editor
           Implosion of the proposed sale of 8 acres of land at the proposed sports park site has not derailed hopes to trade city land for the Los Cerritos Wetlands, but it likely has changed the shape of any deal. All parties — developer Tom Dean, city officials, Third District Councilman Gary DeLong — say negotiations are continuing. DeLong said there may be a way to take the controversial parts of the proposal out of the mix so at least a portion of the wetlands comes under public control.
           The original deal was to immediately sell the wetlands property to the Los Cerritos Wetlands Authority, a semi-government group that already has title to a small portion of the wetlands straddling the San Gabriel River. A state-sanctioned appraisal of the 180 acres controlled by Dean, although done several years ago, sets an open space value of that property at $25 million.
           “I can see where it might make sense to remove the sports park and the Wrigley Heights parts of the deal,” DeLong said. “Since the sports park land appears to be the most controversial, let’s move ahead without it. Then we wouldn’t realize enough money to purchase the Wrigley Heights land, eliminating the other controversy.” Jerry Miller, a consultant with Inco representing Dean on the wetlands transaction, said that the developer is open to negotiations. City Manager Pat West also said talks are continuing, and noted that Signal Hill Petroleum, which is operating the oil wells on the Hilltop Property, has also become involved in the conversation. DeLong said that he has asked that alternatives to the full land trade be developed within the next 30 days. However, no report back to the council has been scheduled at this time.
   
8. Industry residents to vote on infrastructure bond
   Wednesday, Dec 17, 2008, Pasadena Star News, Ben Baeder, Staff Writer
   INDUSTRY - With a developer poised to build an NFL stadium and retail project on the east side of the city, the Industry City Council is asking voters to approve a $500 million infrastructure bond. On Jan. 20, the city's 82 registered voters will decide whether to give Industry permission to borrow the money, according to documents on file in City Hall. The sheer size of the bond makes it unusual, said John Shirey, executive director of the California Redevelopment Association.
           The city needs the money to build streets, lights, sewers, bridges and other infrastructure on 600 hilly acres northwest of the 57/60 freeway intersection, said Industry City Manager Kevin Radecki. A 75,000-seat NFL stadium could be built in the same area as soon as 2012. Billionaire developer Ed Roski Jr. has proposed building the $800 million stadium and entertainment complex near the area to be improved. An NFL team would likely play in the Rose Bowl for a few years while the Industry stadium was being built, officials said.The land for the project is owned by Industry, and the city agreed to perform all infrastructure work surrounding the development, according to a city contract. Roski is being allowed to use the land for 65 years. In return, he will split half the profits from the development with Industry.
           Along with the bond, voters on Jan. 20 also will be asked to decide on five other measures. Two would create taxes on tickets and parking for entertainment venues. Another would establish Industry as a utility provider in part of the city, Radecki said. Another would give the council the power to award all public works contracts without a bidding process. Finally, another law would make it so only people living in residences could vote, which would exclude transients or people living in commercial areas or hotels.
   
9. Arroyo Seco placed on national register
   Wednesday, Dec 17, 2008, Pasadena Star News, Janette Williams, Staff Writer
   PASADENA - The Arroyo Seco, Pasadena's recreational hub and defining geographic landmark, has officially been placed on the National Register of Historic Places. The official nod from the National Trust in Washington, D.C., comes about eight months after the Pasadena Arroyo Park and Recreation District was unanimously approved by the state Historic Resources Commission.
           Sue Mossman, Pasadena Heritage's executive director, said, "It's a new way of looking at and evaluating historic sites."  "It includes both the natural environment and its significance to the human population, and also the imprint of the human population on the place." Tim Brick, executive director of the Arroyo Seco Foundation,  said in some ways it was easier to get protection for historic structures than historic streams and rivers, like those in the Arroyo Seco. "We hope to restore the natural character of the Arroyo Seco stream, and one of our concerns was to make sure the designation didn't offer any protection to the (concrete) flood channel ... and there would be no complication of our environmental restoration program," he said.
   
10. State panel urges better scrutiny of product chemicals
    Wednesday, Dec 17, 2008, Pasadena Star News, The Associated Press
    SACRAMENTO - A panel launched by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger wants California to force companies to disclose the chemicals they put in their products and consider their long-term effect on the environment, or risk having them banned from sale in California. The California Green Chemical Initiative’s six-point plan is an effort to help the state immediately start reducing the toxic chemicals in everything from dish soap to prescription drugs.
            "We will have authority over products sold in California and we will be able to require the manufacturer to tell us what's in it, and what were the other alternatives they could have used that would be safer. said Maureen Gorsen, director of the state Department of Toxic Substances Control, which led the initiative. "Instead of paying attention to the toxic substances in our everyday products only when it comes time to throw them away in the landfill, we will now pay attention to those substances every step of the way - from when the product is designed, manufactured, used and recycled," the governor said in a statement Tuesday. The plan also calls for the state to expand its pollution prevention initiatives, add "green chemistry" to public school curriculum and gather international research on toxic products in one central place so the public can access it. The state Environmental Protection Agency has not calculated the estimated costs for the state or businesses. Gorsen said the recommendations are still too broad and the chemicals that could be banned are unknown, making it impossible to measure.
    
11. Pollution-gobbling bacteria set loose in Seal Beach
    Wednesday, Dec 17, 2008, Orange County Register, posted by Pat Brennan, green living, environment editor
            The creatures released this week on the Seal Beach Naval Weapons Station were chosen for a special talent: their ability to breathe chlorine, and to make harmful chemicals harmless. In what Navy officials are calling the largest-ever use of bacteria to destroy pollution, a microbe known as KB-1will be injected into about 200 special wells dug for the purpose. The wells will channel the bacteria 180 feet down to attack a plume of TCE, a toxic chemical that has contaminated groundwater there; the plume extends over an area two-thirds of a mile long and half a mile wide.
            The groundwater is not used for drinking, and poses no threat to the public, said Pei-Fen Tamashiro, installation restoration project manager at the weapons station. “But if we don’t treat it, eventually it will go deeper, into the drinking-water aquifer,” she said.
            The bacteria are pumped into the plume along with the food they’ll rely on, vegetable oil. “They use vegetable oil as a food source, and breathe in chlorine attached to the TCE,” she said. “They start removing chlorine from the chemical, and change it into something that will not harm humans.” The wells are arranged so that the bacteria will create a kind of “bio-barrier” to the TCE; as the contaminated groundwater flows past the barrier, the bacteria will cleanse it of chlorine. It will take about 15 years of active treatment, she said, and the project cost will likely come to between $15 million and $20 million. Once the chlorine is gone, the bacteria will die off, so they won’t persist in the environment after the cleanup is done.
            Using the traditional method of pumping out the groundwater and pushing it through filters to remove the contamination would have taken a minimum of 50 years, said Gregg Smith, spokesman for the weapons station.
    
12. Governor's water panel urges state to build canal, dams
    Wednesday, Dec 17, 2008, Pasadena Star News, The Associated Press
    SACRAMENTO - A panel of the governor's top advisers on Monday backed a sweeping plan for water use in California, including taking a look at building a canal to pipe water around the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. The Delta Vision Committee endorsed a draft plan that asks California lawmakers to revisit the canal idea that voters rejected long ago. It also promotes building dams, which Democrats oppose, and restoring 100,000 acres of habitat in the delta, where some native fish are struggling to survive. The committee of four cabinet secretaries and the chair of the Public Utilities Commission will give Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger a final set of recommendations by the end of the year.
            The panel's meeting came a day after the Bush administration told state and federal officials that they must drastically cut the amount of water pumped from the delta in order to save a California native fish from extinction. That decision has left many farmers in the Central Valley and cities in Southern California with the prospect of water shortages next year.
            The new delta plan  envisions a new plumbing system to funnel water from rivers in Northern California to the majority of the state's population in the arid south and San Francisco Bay area. The idea is to move away from the delta - a fragile maze of levees, islands, river channels and sloughs that are susceptible to rising sea levels, earthquakes and levee breaks. But transforming the delta and California's water system will have its costs.
    
13. US proposes protecting 7 penguin species
    Wednesday, Dec 17, 2008, Orange County Register, By Dina Cappiello, Associated Press Writer
    WASHINGTON (AP) – The Bush administration is moving to protect seven penguin species. But three other types of penguin  got the cold shoulder. The penguins live far from the U.S., so the protections of U.S. endangered species law are limited, officials said. But listing the penguins under the act will raise awareness about the species and could give the U.S. leverage in international negotiations to protect them from fishing, habitat loss, development and other threats. "Penguin populations are in jeopardy, and we can't afford to further delay protections," said Brendan Cummings, the oceans program director for the Tucson-based Center for Biological Diversity, which requested in November 2006 that the administration protect a dozen penguin species. The Fish and Wildlife Service was under a court-ordered deadline to make decisions about the penguins by Thursday.
            Earlier this year the Bush administration listed the polar bear as a threatened species, the first to be protected because of the threats of global warming. But the administration has also finalized regulations to ensure that the law is not used to block projects that contribute to global warming.
    .
14. Discovery Center steps closer to building phase
    Thursday, Dec 18, 2008, Whittier Daily News, By Airan Scruby, Staff Writer
    COMMERCE - Officials are one step closer to building a center to help residents better understand the outdoors. The San Gabriel River Discovery Center Authority approved a strategic plan Thursday for the development of the educational building and outreach programs. The new building would include a museum area with exhibits, an outdoor classroom and a 150-seat conference center. The new strategic plan, which outlines long-term and mid-range goals of the center, was presented Thursday at a meeting of the authority.
            The proposed 19,000-square-foot San Gabriel River Discovery Center in the Whittier Narrows is meant to teach people about water resources, provide educational and outdoor experiences and be an educational resource to better understand the San Gabriel River. About $9.5 million has been raised for the $24 million center and its services so far through donations by environmental groups, two water districts and the Sanitation Districts of Los Angeles County.
            Some local environmentalists take issue with putting in a larger building at the site of the existing 1,200-square-foot Whittier Narrows Nature Center, saying the affected area, about 11 acres, sacrifices too much of the about 200 acres of open space located there. Anadel Miller, a member of Friends of the Whittier Narrows Natural Area, said the center would be best moved off the open space, to a location that wouldn't interfere with nature.
            An Environmental Impact Report is expected to be released in January or February.
    
15. El Monte Park renovation moves forward
    Thursday, Dec 18, 2008, Whittier Daily News, from Staff Reports
    SOUTH EL MONTE - A $1.9 million project to completely renovate Mary Van Dyke Park took one step forward last week when the city council voted to request construction bids. The project consists of demolishing the current facilities and building a new community building, playground area, picnic area, lighted basketball courts, fencing and landscaping at the park, located at North Central Avenue and Alpaca Street. The project will be funded largely through grants from the Rivers and Mountains Conservancy, Roberti-Z'berg-Harris, and Quimby Funds, as well as state proposition and non-taxable bond funds.
    
16. Feds uphold state decision: toll road near Trestles appears dead
    Thursday, Dec 18, 2008, Orange County Register, posted by Pat Brennan, green living, environment editor
            The U.S. Commerce secretary agreed Thursday with the state Coastal Commission’s rejection of the proposed Foothill South toll road that would have passed through south Orange County as well as a state park. The decision means the $1.3 billion proposal to extend the 241 toll road is effectively dead for now, although the possibility of a legal challenge remains open.
            The chairman of the Foothill/Eastern Transportation Corridor Agency, Jerry Amante, said the agency had not yet decided whether to challenge Commerce secretary Carlos M. Gutierrez’s decision in court. “I’m stunned, frankly, that any right-thinking secretary of Commerce could make this disastrous a decision for this country, and for this region,” he said.
            A major issue in the toll road fight has been whether any reasonable alternative — such as widening the I-5 freeway — exists. The Commerce department found that at least one viable alternative existed — an 8.7 mile extension of 241 south from Oso Parkway to Avenida la Pata in San Clemente. The agency also found that the toll road “is not necessarily  in the interest of national security.” The agency can return to the Coastal Commission with another proposed toll road route, the Commerce department saide.
            Environmental activists said the road would cut through San Onofre State Beach park, as well as through habitat for a variety of sensitive species, including the endangered Pacific pocket mouse. The state Coastal Commission staff strongly opposed the proposal, saying it would violate the state Coastal Act and be too destructive of natural resources in a report recommending that the commission reject the project.
    
17. Clean-trucks fee is delayed again
    Thursday, Dec 18, 2008, Long Beach Press Telegram, By Kristopher Hanson, Staff Writer
            Citing the slumping economy, federal officials Wednesday said they would continue blocking collection of a $35 container fee designed to fund replacement of polluting diesel trucks serving the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles. The Federal Maritime Commission argued that more time was needed to review the proposal, which port authorities first laid out 18 months ago. As proposed, the fee would be attached to most of the 16 million or so 20-foot equivalent containers handled here annually. Owners of that cargo would pay the fee, and port authorities would use the monies to subsidize new, low-emission trucks. Port authorities estimate they're losing up to $1 million in fee-generated revenues each day because of FMC delays - enough money to help buy 85 low-emission trucks weekly.
            The FMC has also sued the ports in federal court in an attempt to upend their "Clean Trucks Program," which harbor officials say is needed to slash toxic diesel pollution from big rigs by 80 percent within five years. The agency claims the ports overstepped their authority in adopting the clean-trucks plan, which is vehemently opposed by many in the shipping, retail and trucking industries.
    
18. AeroVironment technology to be used at Port of Los Angeles
    Thursday, Dec 18, 2008, Pasadena Star News, By Ryan Carter, Staff Writer
            Monrovia-based AeroVironment Inc. announced Thursday that Balqon Corp., a developer of heavy-duty trucks and tractors, has purchased technology that will help it run more efficient and cleaner-running vehicles in the Port of Los Angeles. Balqon purchased AV's new high-voltage PosiCharge fast-charge system as part of the port's program to replace internal combustion yard tractors with electric propulsion vehicles. The system can charge up to four heavy-duty electric dock yard tractors at a time, quickly pumping enough energy into them during short breaks. The powering system eliminates the need for battery swapping among vehicles, since the battery is always charged. It also makes the vehicles and the flow of port containers more efficient while helping to reduce emissions, they said. The fast-charge system now operating at the port powers thousands of material handling vehicles in airports, factories and distribution centers in North America.
    
19. New ban imposed on regulating global warming gases
    Thursday, Dec 18, 2008, Orange County Register, by Dina Cappiello, Associated Press Writer
    WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Bush administration is trying to make sure in its final days that federal air pollution regulations will not be used to control the gases blamed for global warming. In a memorandum sent Thursday, outgoing Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Stephen Johnson sets an agency-wide policy prohibiting controls on carbon dioxide emissions from being included in air pollution permits for coal-fired power plants and other facilities. The decision could give the agency a legal basis for issuing permits that increase global warming pollution until the incoming Obama administration can change it, a process that would require a lengthy rulemaking process.
            The White House has repeatedly said that the Clean Air Act should not be used to regulate carbon dioxide or other greenhouse gases, even though an April 2007 Supreme Court decision determined that the EPA could do so under the law. But that hasn't stopped environmentalists from trying. The Thursday memo from Johnson was an attempt to clarify the agency's position after an appeals board in November rejected a federal permit for a Utah power plant putting the fate of scores of coal-burning power plants and other industrial facilities in limbo.
            Environmentalists on Thursday said the EPA's memo would allow power plants to be approved that increase greenhouse gas emissions. But EPA spokesman Jonathan Shradar said the opinion simply codifies existing agency policy. "All it does is put into policy what the agency has done for 30 years."
    
20. Environmentalists file 11th-hour lawsuit to block proposed lease sales in Utah
    Thursday, Dec 18, 2008, Los Angeles Times, By Nicholas Riccardi
    DENVER – Environmental groups filed a lawsuit Wednesday as a last-ditch effort to block the sale of leases for 110,000 acres of federal land in Utah that the Bush administration plans to auction off on Friday. Critics say the proposed lease sales are an 11th-hour attempt by the administration to leave its mark on the striking, energy-rich red-rock landscape of southern and eastern Utah.
            The auction was announced late on election day. The National Park Service objected to dozens of the sales, but the Bureau of Land Management moved ahead to sell the majority of them. The BLM has withdrawn some proposed leases that were next to Arches National Park, on a golf course in the town of Moab and beneath the rim of Nine-Mile Canyon, which is lined with ancient Native American rock art. But environmentalists argue that the remaining leases are adjacent to these sensitive areas, other national parks or in other regions that the federal government has declared "wilderness quality."
    
21. Mont., fed gov't loosen rules on Yellowstone bison
    Thursday, Dec 18, 2008, Orange County Register, by Matthew Brown, Associated Press Writer
    BOZEMAN, Mont. (AP) – State and federal officials have agreed to allow bison to migrate into parts of Montana from Yellowstone National Park - a move expected to slow but not stop an annual slaughter of the animals. That means at least some bison leaving the park could avoid a widely criticized slaughter program meant to guard against transmissions of a disease, brucellosis, to cattle.
            More than 3,000 migrating bison have been slaughtered or shot by hunters in recent years, including 1,601 last winter. That practice will continue for bison that migrate beyond the two newly designated areas. Wednesday's action was spurred by a recent Government Accountability Office investigation that sharply criticized the federal government's role in the bison slaughter.
            About half the park's bison carry brucellosis, which can cause pregnant animals to prematurely abort their young. Federal officials earlier this year mandated that cattle ranchers statewide participate in a costly testing and vaccination program. No wild bison-to-cattle brucellosis transmissions have been recorded, however. State and federal animal-health officials have said elk were the most likely source of the disease in seven infected cattle herds in the last several years.
    
22. State cash delay brings area projects to halt
    Friday, Dec 19, 2008, San Gabriel Valley Tribune, By Daniel Tedford, Staff Writer
    AZUSA - The decision by the state legislature to delay the delivery of $4 billion in funds has brought area road, habitat restoration and water conservation projects to a grinding halt. The area's biggest habitat restoration agency has asked all of its partner cities to halt all new construction. "These projects literally had shovels in the ground, or at least they used to be in the ground until we told them to stop today," said Belinda Faustinos, executive director of the San Gabriel & Lower Los Angeles Rivers and Mountains Conservancy (RMC).
            A project to beautify and clean up 26 acres of land near the Canyon Inn in the San Gabriel Mountains was put on hold after a planning agency lost $20,000, said Jane Beesley, also of the RMC. "Whatever projects we have moving forward, they're delayed," Beesley said. " It's going to be a tough few months for anybody depending on state funds, officials said. "We are not happy that this freeze is taking place," Faustinos said.
    
    
23. State PUC approves $1.9-billion Sunrise Powerlink
    Friday, Dec 19, 2008, Los Angeles Times, By Marc Lifsher
    SACRAMENTO – The California Public Utilities Commission gave San Diego Gas & Electric Co.the go-ahead Thursday to build a $1.9-billion transmission line that it says is needed to move nonpolluting geothermal, wind and solar power from inland deserts to energy-hungry coastal cities. Massive steel towers would carry the electricity 123 miles from Imperial County through environmentally sensitive areas of the San Diego County backcountry and the Cleveland National Forest.
            Once operational, the line will play "a critical role in California's efforts to achieve energy independence" and help the state meet its goal to generate a third of its power from non-fossil-fuel sources by 2020, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said. Developers, who want to invest millions of dollars in power plants to generate alternative energy, say they won't be able to secure financing without a commitment from the state that the line will be available to carry their electricity to market..
            Opponents, who denounce Sunrise as too costly and unneeded, vow to file lawsuits challenging the Public Utility Commission's decision. Other Sunrise foes said the commission's decision could have been worse for the environment if SDG&E's initial power line route had been approved. The utility originally wanted to run the line through Anza-Borrego Desert State Park.
    
24. Ruling may sharply reduce California refinery pollution
    Saturday, Dec 20, 2008, Los Angeles Times, By Margot Roosevelt
            Toxic air pollution spikes from California's 21 refineries may be sharply curtailed in the wake of a U.S. Court of Appeals decision Friday in Washington. In a suit brought by the Sierra Club and other groups, the court struck down a 14-year-old federal regulation thatallowed refineries, chemical plants and other industrial plants to exceed pollution limits during start-ups, shutdowns and equipment outages. Public health advocates in Southern California's oil refinery hub hailed the decision, saying that facilities routinely operate in malfunction mode to evade pollution caps.
            The Environmental Protection Agency regulation amounted to a "gaping loophole," according to the plaintiffs. The court agreed, saying the agency had exceeded its authority under the Clean Air Act. The Earthjustice lawsuit described clouds of toxic pollutants from Wilmington refineries during power outages in 2005 and 2007. The refineries could not be prosecuted because of the EPA regulation, the suit states.
            William Tanner, a spokesman for ConocoPhillips, said, "Our preference is never to flare, However, flares are federally approved safety devices that allow refining operations to shut down in an environmentally sound manner."
    
25. Utah oil drilling leases go fast -- fishily fast in some cases, authorities say
    Saturday, Dec 20, 2008, Los Angeles Times, By DeeDee Correll
    DENVER – Bidders at a federal auction Friday snapped up oil and gas leases in Utah's red-rock country, despite a legal challenge that ultimately could prevent them from drilling there. Critics of the auction have branded the sale as a last-ditch effort by the Bush administration to allow energy development on public lands before the president leaves office. Conservationists contend that some of the parcels are too close to national parks and that federal officials have not considered the effects drilling would have on air quality and other environmental factors.
            BLM officials have defended the sales as part of their obligation to open federal lands to energy development in an attempt to reduce dependence on foreign oil. The bureau originally planned to lease 360,000 acres in southern and eastern Utah, but it reduced that number to 132,000 acres after weeks of criticism from environmental groups and the National Park Service. It withdrew some proposed leases next to Arches National Park, on a golf course in the town of Moab and beneath the rim of Nine-Mile Canyon, which is lined with ancient Native American rock art.
            But environmentalists argue that the remaining leases are adjacent to sensitive areas and other national parks or in other regions that the federal government has declared "wilderness quality."
    
26. Obama chooses global warming activists for science posts
    Sunday, Dec 21, 2008, Los Angeles Times,, Associated Press
    WASHINGTON – President-elect Barack Obama's selections Saturday of a Harvard physicist and a marine biologist for science posts signal that he plans a more aggressive response to global warming than the Bush administration's was. John Holdren and Jane Lubchenco are leading experts on climate change who have advocated forceful government action. Holdren will become Obama's science advisor as director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. Lubchenco will lead the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which does much of the government's research on global warming. Holdren also will direct the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology. Joining him as co-chairmen will be Nobel Prize-winning scientist Harold E. Varmus, a former director of the National Institutes of Health and a former medical professor at UC San Francisco; and MIT professor Eric Lander, a specialist in human genome research.
            Since 1993, summer Arctic sea ice has lost the equivalent of Alaska, California and Texas, and global warming is accelerating. The amount of carbon dioxide in Earth's atmosphere has already pushed past the level some scientists say is safe. Holdren, 64, is a former president of the American Assn. for the Advancement of Science who has pushed for more urgent action on global warming. "Global warming is a misnomer. It implies something gradual, something uniform, something quite possibly benign, and what we're experiencing is none of those," Holdren said a year ago in a speech at Harvard. "There is already widespread harm . . . occurring from climate change. This is not just a problem for our children and our grandchildren."