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"title": "How Do You Measure the Economic Toll of Wildfires? The Answer Could Help California Respond to Emergencies Better",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/calmatters-en-espanol/2021/10/cual-es-el-impacto-real-de-los-incendios-forestales-en-la-economia-de-california/\">\u003cem>Leer en español.\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Not a single structure burned down \u003ca href=\"https://calfire-forestry.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=366d1a3e25ce4a11a4c0846c3a337ce9&extent=-13464888.411%2C4646560.0626%2C-13348704.128%2C4707786.1223%2C102100https://calfire-forestry.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=366d1a3e25ce4a11a4c0846c3a337ce9&extent=-13464888.411%2C4646560.0626%2C-13348704.128%2C4707786.1223%2C102100\">in the city of South Lake Tahoe\u003c/a>. And yet, the threat of the fast-approaching Caldor Fire cost surrounding El Dorado County tens of millions of dollars, if not more.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In South Lake Tahoe, Domi Chavarria, co-owner of Verde Mexican Rotisserie, felt the devastation of the Caldor Fire even before the city was evacuated in August. Smoke had blanketed the city, and the tourists had mostly left.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When authorities ordered \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11886947/thousands-more-evacuated-as-caldor-fire-moves-closer-to-south-lake-tahoe\">the evacuation of South Lake Tahoe\u003c/a>, Verde was stocked with food, almost all of which went bad during the more than two weeks the restaurant ultimately remained closed. Produce wilted; proteins went bad; prepared sauces couldn’t be used.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“All that stuff, none of that’s made to last weeks — it’s all made to last days,” says Chavarria. He estimates the lost inventory was worth between $10,000 and $13,000. None of it was covered by his insurance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11892015\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1200px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11892015 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/100821-Tahoe-Fire-Economy-SW-51.jpg\" alt=\"A man in a hooded sweatshirt and a baseball hat on backward stands behind a restaurant counter looking evenly at the camera.\" width=\"1200\" height=\"800\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/100821-Tahoe-Fire-Economy-SW-51.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/100821-Tahoe-Fire-Economy-SW-51-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/100821-Tahoe-Fire-Economy-SW-51-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/100821-Tahoe-Fire-Economy-SW-51-160x107.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Domi Chavarria at his restaurant, Verde Mexican Rotisserie, in South Lake Tahoe on Oct. 6, 2021. \u003ccite>(Salgu Wissmath for CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Losses like Chavarria’s add up — to at least $50.3 million in lost economic activity for El Dorado County, according to an initial estimate shared with CalMatters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Knowing the true cost of wildfires could spur more ambitious action from both government and the private sector, experts say. For instance, tracking the costs systematically over several years could help policymakers figure out which fire prevention and mitigation strategies are most cost effective.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But right now, California has an incomplete understanding of how much wildfires cost the state each year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The costs of business disruption, the cost of damage to uninsured homes, the cost of ecosystem damage, and the cost of secondary health impacts — such as those caused by wildfire smoke — aren’t being tracked.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We don’t have a comprehensive picture of the economic harm wildfires cause each year, explains Teresa Feo, senior science officer at the California Council on Science and Technology and lead author of \u003ca href=\"https://ccst.us/reports/the-costs-of-wildfire-in-california/\">a 2020 report from the council\u003c/a> on the cost of wildfires in California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There isn’t a statewide systematic tracking effort to figure out these costs,” said Feo. She said it took only about a month of digging into the question to realize: “‘Oh no, you can’t come up with a number. This is actually impossible with the existing data.'”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state does not track or estimate the cost of wildfires in a way that accounts for public health costs or ecological damage on a regular basis, confirmed Heather Williams, communications director for the California Natural Resources Agency.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Those would always be a moving target since health impacts can occur years later,” Williams wrote in an email.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“But with more research being funded, this may be more feasible to help the state better understand the economic and ecological impacts so we can continue to make science-based informed policy decisions,” he added.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11892013\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11892013 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/100821-Tahoe-Fire-Economy-SW-24.jpg\" alt=\"A woman with her hair back and wearing gloves chops tomatoes in a restaurant kitchen.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/100821-Tahoe-Fire-Economy-SW-24.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/100821-Tahoe-Fire-Economy-SW-24-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/100821-Tahoe-Fire-Economy-SW-24-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/100821-Tahoe-Fire-Economy-SW-24-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/100821-Tahoe-Fire-Economy-SW-24-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/100821-Tahoe-Fire-Economy-SW-24-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Martha Garcia preps food in the kitchen at Verde Mexican Rotisserie in South Lake Tahoe on Oct. 6, 2021. Owner Domi Chavarria lost about $10,000 worth of inventory when they shut down for two weeks due to the Caldor Fire evacuation. \u003ccite>(Salgu Wissmath for CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch3>The different costs of wildfires\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>The initial analysis of the Caldor Fire’s economic impact was prepared by Tom Harris, an economist at the University of Nevada, Reno, for the Tahoe Prosperity Center, an economic development organization for the Lake Tahoe Basin.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11892030\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 1000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11892030 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/100821-Tahoe-Fire-Economy-SW-00.jpg\" alt='A bright green garbage dumpster painted with the words \"Food Only\" full of raw chicken.' width=\"1000\" height=\"1334\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/100821-Tahoe-Fire-Economy-SW-00.jpg 1000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/100821-Tahoe-Fire-Economy-SW-00-800x1067.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/100821-Tahoe-Fire-Economy-SW-00-160x213.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Food inventory from the Verde Mexican Rotisserie restaurant had to be discarded after a two-week evacuation order due to the Caldor Fire in South Lake Tahoe. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Domi Chavarria)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The study estimates the combined losses of El Dorado and Nevada’s Douglas County at $93 million. And, says Harris, that preliminary estimate is low: It doesn’t include the losses in sectors like rental homes or recreation businesses. Nor does it include the lost economic activity caused by residents evacuating, and it doesn’t take into account the health care costs associated with wildfire smoke exposure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some costs are more immediate — the cost of Chavarria’s rotted food, for instance, and the fact that the fire took place over Labor Day weekend.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That’s not a slow weekend in Tahoe,” said Chavarria. Tourism is about 63% of the Tahoe basin’s economy, \u003ca href=\"https://tahoeprosperity.org/wp-content/uploads/measuring-for-prosperity-community-and-economic-indicators-for-the-lake-tahoe-basin-2018.pdf\">according to a 2018 report from the Tahoe Prosperity Center\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Between the slowdown in business due to smoke and the evacuation, Verde lost several weeks of revenue. Chavarria says that a month of sales for the restaurant is more than $100,000. Verde’s employees also went without paychecks for the two weeks the restaurant was shut down.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nicole Smith, co-founder and taproom manager of South Lake Brewing Company, said her business fared better than many, partially because none of the beer went bad. But between the loss of sales in the company’s own taproom and the beer it sells to other local businesses, the brewery lost somewhere between $30,000 and $50,000 of revenue during the evacuation, estimates Smith.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In addition to lost business, some figures are easier to pin down, like the amount Cal Fire spends on fire suppression.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the state, for example, does not systematically track deaths and health conditions linked to wildfire smoke exposure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The costs associated with smoke may be the largest costs we’re missing, says Feo.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=\"news_11890211\" hero=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/Leadphoto-800x533.png\"]One study \u003ca href=\"https://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.1002601\">produced by public health department researchers and academics\u003c/a> tracked the use of Medi-Cal services during San Diego’s 2007 fall fire season. It found that during the peak fire period, emergency room visits for respiratory conditions increased by 34% and visits for asthma increased by 113%.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Especially concerning was a 136% increase in ER visits for children age 4 and younger for asthma. That finding, the authors wrote, “is cause for particular concern because of the potential for long-term harm to children’s lung development.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A systematic effort to track wildfire smoke effects would be especially profound, says Feo, because it reaches so far beyond the location of the fire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2018, for example, smoke from the Camp Fire \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1969409/no-you-didnt-wake-up-to-the-apocalypse-wildfire-smoke-turns-bay-area-sky-orange-and-dark\">clogged San Francisco\u003c/a>, a city more than 100 miles away. If you can put figures on the impact of smoke across the whole state, “who’s impacted by the fire suddenly changes very dramatically, and therefore who benefits from the prevention and mitigation changes,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11892020\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11892020 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/RS51289_065_Meyers_CaldorFire_08312021-qut.jpg\" alt=\"A red and white sign on a tall pole along a two-lane road, surrounded by tall fir trees, with smoke haze in the distance.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/RS51289_065_Meyers_CaldorFire_08312021-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/RS51289_065_Meyers_CaldorFire_08312021-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/RS51289_065_Meyers_CaldorFire_08312021-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/RS51289_065_Meyers_CaldorFire_08312021-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/RS51289_065_Meyers_CaldorFire_08312021-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A sign for the town of Kyburz says, “Welcome to Kyburz/Happy New Year 2021,” while the Caldor Fire burns nearby on Aug. 31, 2021. The residents of Kyburz were ordered to evacuate for several days during the Caldor Fire. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch3>Different approaches to wildfire data\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>The current approach to assessing the aftermath of wildfires is a hodgepodge of research looking into different aspects that is not led by any one agency.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A smattering of data collection efforts includes:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>The California Air Resources Board funding a study of the health impact of wildfire smoke statewide for 2017, 2018 and 2020, which will be ready in three or four years.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>The board also funding a study of lost work days due to wildfire smoke, which will be ready in a couple of years.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Cal Fire also increasing funding for \u003ca href=\"https://frap.fire.ca.gov/research-monitoring/forest-health-research-program-overview-grant-solicitation/\">research into forest health\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\n(the Department of Insurance tabulates \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/environment/california-wildfires/2020/12/homeowners-insurers-fire-science/\">the damage to insured homes\u003c/a> for some major wildfires, but does not track damage from all wildfires each year).\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>A variety of academic studies.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>Academic research on the cost of wildfires tends to come out several years later, and different studies focus on different fires using different methodologies. That makes it difficult to compare the findings, or track the costs over time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These studies also are conducted based on the interests of the particular researcher, says Louise Comfort, a professor at the University of Pittsburgh and a faculty affiliate at UC Berkeley’s Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society Policy Lab.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That doesn’t give us a comprehensive view,” Comfort said. She credits a UC-system-wide effort \u003ca href=\"https://uckeepresearching.org/2021-uc-resilience-symposium-series/\">to study the impacts of wildfires\u003c/a> as a step in the right direction, but says the results are still not arriving in a standardized way.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state may be in the best position to lead the effort on tracking the economic impact of wildfires. “The only thing that would give us a comprehensive view is if the state really said, ‘We want this kind of information,'” said Comfort. But the state agencies shouldn’t go it alone, she says: They should engage experts in the university system.\u003cbr>\n[pullquote size='large' align='right']In 2020, for example, a team of researchers studied the nationwide impact of California’s 2018 wildfire season, and estimated that its economic damage totaled $148.5 billion.[/pullquote]\u003cbr>\nWithout statewide, systematically published numbers, it’s more difficult to compare how different regions are suffering from wildfires, or to assess the cost effectiveness of different wildfire prevention strategies. And it may be more challenging to justify spending on expensive, but nonetheless cost-effective, mitigation or prevention programs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s a question that comes up when talking about spending taxpayer dollars, Feo said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While wildfire costs aren’t tracked, there are some academic studies that attempt to estimate those costs and produce mind-boggling figures. In 2020, for example, a team of researchers studied the nationwide impact of California’s 2018 wildfire season, and estimated that its economic damage totaled $148.5 billion.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The study, \u003ca href=\"https://www.nature.com/articles/s41893-020-00646-7\">published in Nature Sustainability\u003c/a>, captured direct capital costs, such as buildings burning down; health costs, including those related to air pollution exposure; and indirect losses such as the economic disruption of lost hours of work, as well as disruption to regional and national supply chains.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The costs identified in that study exceed that of any disaster in the U.S. between the 9/11 terrorist attacks in 2001 and the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, other than Hurricane Katrina, says Adam Rose, a research professor at the University of Southern California and an expert in energy and environmental economics.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rose said that a standardized methodology for assessing the total cost of wildfires should be established and applied on a regular basis — and it needs to be one that can be implemented relatively rapidly, as opposed to several years after a fire. That would allow a whole field of researchers to help track these costs, and would make their findings comparable. In addition to helping make the political case for government-led fire-prevention efforts, those numbers might spur private sector action on fire prevention efforts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=\"science_1976952\" hero=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/09/Grapes-2048x1536.jpg\"]But not all experts said that measuring the costs associated with each wildfire season is important. William Siembieda, a professor emeritus at Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo and senior member of a Cal Poly team that prepared several of the state’s hazard mitigation plans, says he doesn’t know how policymakers would make use of those numbers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What would be useful, Siembieda says, is for cities to model the economic impact of different levels of fire damage. What would be the cost if 5% of the city burned? What if 10% or 20% burned?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With those estimates, local officials could decide whether they’re prepared to absorb that loss, insure against the risk or pursue other strategies.\u003cbr>\n[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>What’s next for survivors?\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>For a couple weeks now, South Lake Tahoe residents and business owners have been reopening their restaurants, shops and adventure outfits, taking stock of what happened.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When Lisa Schafer, co-owner of Wildwood Makers Market, returned to the city and drove to her shop for the first time, she felt waves of different emotions. There was the fear she’d been holding on to — that her hometown, her house and her business would all burn to a crisp. There was the gratitude she felt for the fact that they had all been spared.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I cried the whole drive,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Her shop, which sells jewelry, wall decor, embroidery kits and other gifts, smelled smoky for her first few days back. It wasn’t a pleasant campfire smell. “It smelled like beef jerky,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside label ='Related Coverage' tag='wildfires']Business didn’t return to normal immediately; tourists didn’t rush back to the area. All told, Shafer lost about 60% of sales in September. Her insurance won’t cover that loss of business.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s clear, she says, that these fires are not going away. She said she wishes there were some sort of automatic aid for businesses and individuals affected by the fire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ultimately, Wildwood Makers Market will bounce back from loss of business, Schafer said. But if something happens in the winter that disrupts the holiday shopping season, that could be “catastrophic,” she says. “One more hit would not be good for us.”\u003cbr>\n[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "A preliminary estimate shows that the Caldor Fire cost tens of millions of dollars in lost economic activity. But right now, California has a mostly incomplete picture of how much fires cost the state each year.",
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"title": "How Do You Measure the Economic Toll of Wildfires? The Answer Could Help California Respond to Emergencies Better | KQED",
"description": "A preliminary estimate shows that the Caldor Fire cost tens of millions of dollars in lost economic activity. But right now, California has a mostly incomplete picture of how much fires cost the state each year.",
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"headline": "How Do You Measure the Economic Toll of Wildfires? The Answer Could Help California Respond to Emergencies Better",
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"nprByline": "\u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/author/grace-gedye/\">Grace Gedye\u003c/a>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/calmatters-en-espanol/2021/10/cual-es-el-impacto-real-de-los-incendios-forestales-en-la-economia-de-california/\">\u003cem>Leer en español.\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Not a single structure burned down \u003ca href=\"https://calfire-forestry.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=366d1a3e25ce4a11a4c0846c3a337ce9&extent=-13464888.411%2C4646560.0626%2C-13348704.128%2C4707786.1223%2C102100https://calfire-forestry.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=366d1a3e25ce4a11a4c0846c3a337ce9&extent=-13464888.411%2C4646560.0626%2C-13348704.128%2C4707786.1223%2C102100\">in the city of South Lake Tahoe\u003c/a>. And yet, the threat of the fast-approaching Caldor Fire cost surrounding El Dorado County tens of millions of dollars, if not more.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In South Lake Tahoe, Domi Chavarria, co-owner of Verde Mexican Rotisserie, felt the devastation of the Caldor Fire even before the city was evacuated in August. Smoke had blanketed the city, and the tourists had mostly left.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When authorities ordered \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11886947/thousands-more-evacuated-as-caldor-fire-moves-closer-to-south-lake-tahoe\">the evacuation of South Lake Tahoe\u003c/a>, Verde was stocked with food, almost all of which went bad during the more than two weeks the restaurant ultimately remained closed. Produce wilted; proteins went bad; prepared sauces couldn’t be used.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“All that stuff, none of that’s made to last weeks — it’s all made to last days,” says Chavarria. He estimates the lost inventory was worth between $10,000 and $13,000. None of it was covered by his insurance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11892015\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1200px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11892015 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/100821-Tahoe-Fire-Economy-SW-51.jpg\" alt=\"A man in a hooded sweatshirt and a baseball hat on backward stands behind a restaurant counter looking evenly at the camera.\" width=\"1200\" height=\"800\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/100821-Tahoe-Fire-Economy-SW-51.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/100821-Tahoe-Fire-Economy-SW-51-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/100821-Tahoe-Fire-Economy-SW-51-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/100821-Tahoe-Fire-Economy-SW-51-160x107.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Domi Chavarria at his restaurant, Verde Mexican Rotisserie, in South Lake Tahoe on Oct. 6, 2021. \u003ccite>(Salgu Wissmath for CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Losses like Chavarria’s add up — to at least $50.3 million in lost economic activity for El Dorado County, according to an initial estimate shared with CalMatters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Knowing the true cost of wildfires could spur more ambitious action from both government and the private sector, experts say. For instance, tracking the costs systematically over several years could help policymakers figure out which fire prevention and mitigation strategies are most cost effective.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But right now, California has an incomplete understanding of how much wildfires cost the state each year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The costs of business disruption, the cost of damage to uninsured homes, the cost of ecosystem damage, and the cost of secondary health impacts — such as those caused by wildfire smoke — aren’t being tracked.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We don’t have a comprehensive picture of the economic harm wildfires cause each year, explains Teresa Feo, senior science officer at the California Council on Science and Technology and lead author of \u003ca href=\"https://ccst.us/reports/the-costs-of-wildfire-in-california/\">a 2020 report from the council\u003c/a> on the cost of wildfires in California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There isn’t a statewide systematic tracking effort to figure out these costs,” said Feo. She said it took only about a month of digging into the question to realize: “‘Oh no, you can’t come up with a number. This is actually impossible with the existing data.'”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state does not track or estimate the cost of wildfires in a way that accounts for public health costs or ecological damage on a regular basis, confirmed Heather Williams, communications director for the California Natural Resources Agency.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Those would always be a moving target since health impacts can occur years later,” Williams wrote in an email.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“But with more research being funded, this may be more feasible to help the state better understand the economic and ecological impacts so we can continue to make science-based informed policy decisions,” he added.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11892013\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11892013 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/100821-Tahoe-Fire-Economy-SW-24.jpg\" alt=\"A woman with her hair back and wearing gloves chops tomatoes in a restaurant kitchen.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/100821-Tahoe-Fire-Economy-SW-24.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/100821-Tahoe-Fire-Economy-SW-24-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/100821-Tahoe-Fire-Economy-SW-24-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/100821-Tahoe-Fire-Economy-SW-24-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/100821-Tahoe-Fire-Economy-SW-24-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/100821-Tahoe-Fire-Economy-SW-24-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Martha Garcia preps food in the kitchen at Verde Mexican Rotisserie in South Lake Tahoe on Oct. 6, 2021. Owner Domi Chavarria lost about $10,000 worth of inventory when they shut down for two weeks due to the Caldor Fire evacuation. \u003ccite>(Salgu Wissmath for CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch3>The different costs of wildfires\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>The initial analysis of the Caldor Fire’s economic impact was prepared by Tom Harris, an economist at the University of Nevada, Reno, for the Tahoe Prosperity Center, an economic development organization for the Lake Tahoe Basin.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11892030\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 1000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11892030 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/100821-Tahoe-Fire-Economy-SW-00.jpg\" alt='A bright green garbage dumpster painted with the words \"Food Only\" full of raw chicken.' width=\"1000\" height=\"1334\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/100821-Tahoe-Fire-Economy-SW-00.jpg 1000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/100821-Tahoe-Fire-Economy-SW-00-800x1067.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/100821-Tahoe-Fire-Economy-SW-00-160x213.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Food inventory from the Verde Mexican Rotisserie restaurant had to be discarded after a two-week evacuation order due to the Caldor Fire in South Lake Tahoe. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Domi Chavarria)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The study estimates the combined losses of El Dorado and Nevada’s Douglas County at $93 million. And, says Harris, that preliminary estimate is low: It doesn’t include the losses in sectors like rental homes or recreation businesses. Nor does it include the lost economic activity caused by residents evacuating, and it doesn’t take into account the health care costs associated with wildfire smoke exposure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some costs are more immediate — the cost of Chavarria’s rotted food, for instance, and the fact that the fire took place over Labor Day weekend.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That’s not a slow weekend in Tahoe,” said Chavarria. Tourism is about 63% of the Tahoe basin’s economy, \u003ca href=\"https://tahoeprosperity.org/wp-content/uploads/measuring-for-prosperity-community-and-economic-indicators-for-the-lake-tahoe-basin-2018.pdf\">according to a 2018 report from the Tahoe Prosperity Center\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Between the slowdown in business due to smoke and the evacuation, Verde lost several weeks of revenue. Chavarria says that a month of sales for the restaurant is more than $100,000. Verde’s employees also went without paychecks for the two weeks the restaurant was shut down.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nicole Smith, co-founder and taproom manager of South Lake Brewing Company, said her business fared better than many, partially because none of the beer went bad. But between the loss of sales in the company’s own taproom and the beer it sells to other local businesses, the brewery lost somewhere between $30,000 and $50,000 of revenue during the evacuation, estimates Smith.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In addition to lost business, some figures are easier to pin down, like the amount Cal Fire spends on fire suppression.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the state, for example, does not systematically track deaths and health conditions linked to wildfire smoke exposure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The costs associated with smoke may be the largest costs we’re missing, says Feo.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>One study \u003ca href=\"https://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.1002601\">produced by public health department researchers and academics\u003c/a> tracked the use of Medi-Cal services during San Diego’s 2007 fall fire season. It found that during the peak fire period, emergency room visits for respiratory conditions increased by 34% and visits for asthma increased by 113%.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Especially concerning was a 136% increase in ER visits for children age 4 and younger for asthma. That finding, the authors wrote, “is cause for particular concern because of the potential for long-term harm to children’s lung development.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A systematic effort to track wildfire smoke effects would be especially profound, says Feo, because it reaches so far beyond the location of the fire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2018, for example, smoke from the Camp Fire \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1969409/no-you-didnt-wake-up-to-the-apocalypse-wildfire-smoke-turns-bay-area-sky-orange-and-dark\">clogged San Francisco\u003c/a>, a city more than 100 miles away. If you can put figures on the impact of smoke across the whole state, “who’s impacted by the fire suddenly changes very dramatically, and therefore who benefits from the prevention and mitigation changes,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11892020\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11892020 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/RS51289_065_Meyers_CaldorFire_08312021-qut.jpg\" alt=\"A red and white sign on a tall pole along a two-lane road, surrounded by tall fir trees, with smoke haze in the distance.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/RS51289_065_Meyers_CaldorFire_08312021-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/RS51289_065_Meyers_CaldorFire_08312021-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/RS51289_065_Meyers_CaldorFire_08312021-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/RS51289_065_Meyers_CaldorFire_08312021-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/RS51289_065_Meyers_CaldorFire_08312021-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A sign for the town of Kyburz says, “Welcome to Kyburz/Happy New Year 2021,” while the Caldor Fire burns nearby on Aug. 31, 2021. The residents of Kyburz were ordered to evacuate for several days during the Caldor Fire. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch3>Different approaches to wildfire data\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>The current approach to assessing the aftermath of wildfires is a hodgepodge of research looking into different aspects that is not led by any one agency.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A smattering of data collection efforts includes:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>The California Air Resources Board funding a study of the health impact of wildfire smoke statewide for 2017, 2018 and 2020, which will be ready in three or four years.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>The board also funding a study of lost work days due to wildfire smoke, which will be ready in a couple of years.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Cal Fire also increasing funding for \u003ca href=\"https://frap.fire.ca.gov/research-monitoring/forest-health-research-program-overview-grant-solicitation/\">research into forest health\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\n(the Department of Insurance tabulates \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/environment/california-wildfires/2020/12/homeowners-insurers-fire-science/\">the damage to insured homes\u003c/a> for some major wildfires, but does not track damage from all wildfires each year).\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>A variety of academic studies.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>Academic research on the cost of wildfires tends to come out several years later, and different studies focus on different fires using different methodologies. That makes it difficult to compare the findings, or track the costs over time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These studies also are conducted based on the interests of the particular researcher, says Louise Comfort, a professor at the University of Pittsburgh and a faculty affiliate at UC Berkeley’s Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society Policy Lab.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That doesn’t give us a comprehensive view,” Comfort said. She credits a UC-system-wide effort \u003ca href=\"https://uckeepresearching.org/2021-uc-resilience-symposium-series/\">to study the impacts of wildfires\u003c/a> as a step in the right direction, but says the results are still not arriving in a standardized way.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state may be in the best position to lead the effort on tracking the economic impact of wildfires. “The only thing that would give us a comprehensive view is if the state really said, ‘We want this kind of information,'” said Comfort. But the state agencies shouldn’t go it alone, she says: They should engage experts in the university system.\u003cbr>\n\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "In 2020, for example, a team of researchers studied the nationwide impact of California’s 2018 wildfire season, and estimated that its economic damage totaled $148.5 billion.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cbr>\nWithout statewide, systematically published numbers, it’s more difficult to compare how different regions are suffering from wildfires, or to assess the cost effectiveness of different wildfire prevention strategies. And it may be more challenging to justify spending on expensive, but nonetheless cost-effective, mitigation or prevention programs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s a question that comes up when talking about spending taxpayer dollars, Feo said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While wildfire costs aren’t tracked, there are some academic studies that attempt to estimate those costs and produce mind-boggling figures. In 2020, for example, a team of researchers studied the nationwide impact of California’s 2018 wildfire season, and estimated that its economic damage totaled $148.5 billion.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The study, \u003ca href=\"https://www.nature.com/articles/s41893-020-00646-7\">published in Nature Sustainability\u003c/a>, captured direct capital costs, such as buildings burning down; health costs, including those related to air pollution exposure; and indirect losses such as the economic disruption of lost hours of work, as well as disruption to regional and national supply chains.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The costs identified in that study exceed that of any disaster in the U.S. between the 9/11 terrorist attacks in 2001 and the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, other than Hurricane Katrina, says Adam Rose, a research professor at the University of Southern California and an expert in energy and environmental economics.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rose said that a standardized methodology for assessing the total cost of wildfires should be established and applied on a regular basis — and it needs to be one that can be implemented relatively rapidly, as opposed to several years after a fire. That would allow a whole field of researchers to help track these costs, and would make their findings comparable. In addition to helping make the political case for government-led fire-prevention efforts, those numbers might spur private sector action on fire prevention efforts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>But not all experts said that measuring the costs associated with each wildfire season is important. William Siembieda, a professor emeritus at Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo and senior member of a Cal Poly team that prepared several of the state’s hazard mitigation plans, says he doesn’t know how policymakers would make use of those numbers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What would be useful, Siembieda says, is for cities to model the economic impact of different levels of fire damage. What would be the cost if 5% of the city burned? What if 10% or 20% burned?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With those estimates, local officials could decide whether they’re prepared to absorb that loss, insure against the risk or pursue other strategies.\u003cbr>\n\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>What’s next for survivors?\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>For a couple weeks now, South Lake Tahoe residents and business owners have been reopening their restaurants, shops and adventure outfits, taking stock of what happened.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When Lisa Schafer, co-owner of Wildwood Makers Market, returned to the city and drove to her shop for the first time, she felt waves of different emotions. There was the fear she’d been holding on to — that her hometown, her house and her business would all burn to a crisp. There was the gratitude she felt for the fact that they had all been spared.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I cried the whole drive,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Her shop, which sells jewelry, wall decor, embroidery kits and other gifts, smelled smoky for her first few days back. It wasn’t a pleasant campfire smell. “It smelled like beef jerky,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Business didn’t return to normal immediately; tourists didn’t rush back to the area. All told, Shafer lost about 60% of sales in September. Her insurance won’t cover that loss of business.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s clear, she says, that these fires are not going away. She said she wishes there were some sort of automatic aid for businesses and individuals affected by the fire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ultimately, Wildwood Makers Market will bounce back from loss of business, Schafer said. But if something happens in the winter that disrupts the holiday shopping season, that could be “catastrophic,” she says. “One more hit would not be good for us.”\u003cbr>\n\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"disqusTitle": "California Attorney General Launches Probe into Huntington Beach Oil Spill",
"title": "California Attorney General Launches Probe into Huntington Beach Oil Spill",
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"content": "\u003cp>State Attorney General Rob Bonta's office is investigating the oil spill that fouled the waters off Orange County a little over a week ago.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bonta made the announcement Monday while standing alongside U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla at Huntington State Beach — not far from the pipeline leak that pumped tens of thousands of gallons of crude oil into the water over the past week and a half. [aside postID=\"news_11891079,news_11890998,news_11890877\" label=\"More Coverage\"]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bonta said his investigators will partner with federal authorities, whose probe is being led by the U.S. Coast Guard and local officials including Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"I'll be taking a leadership role, working with our partners ... we're committed to a collaborative, cooperative approach,\" Bonta said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The attorney general said there's an important role for state prosecutors, who could pursue civil or criminal charges, or both.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The oil spill was reported to federal authorities on the morning of Oct. 2. By that time, as much as 131,000 gallons had seeped from a pipeline that runs from an offshore platform to the Port of Long Beach. The pipeline is operated by a subsidiary of Amplify Energy Corp., based in Texas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"When we get involved and when we use our tools, we hope that we will continue to do what we've always done, which is be accurate, be complete, be thorough, be objective and, most importantly, achieve accountability where necessary and realize justice,\" Bonta said in announcing his office's investigation. [ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The attorney general’s remarks came after he and Padilla took an air tour of the affected region.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Orange County beaches reopened to the public Monday, and \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Padilla said the view from the sky was promising.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"It seemed the cleanup operations are making tremendous, tremendous progress. Trust me, we looked but did not see any big, you know, patches of oil on the surface of the water and the areas that we covered,\" he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11891937\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg class=\"wp-image-11891937 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/RS51842_GettyImages-1345730317-qut.jpg\" alt=\"On a sunny beach along the sunlit ocean, three people dressed all in white with neon yellow jackets and white hard hats carry tools beyond a group of people wearing shorts, one holding a football.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1172\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/RS51842_GettyImages-1345730317-qut.jpg 1920w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/RS51842_GettyImages-1345730317-qut-800x488.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/RS51842_GettyImages-1345730317-qut-1020x623.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/RS51842_GettyImages-1345730317-qut-160x98.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/RS51842_GettyImages-1345730317-qut-1536x938.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">People play football as cleanup workers search for contaminated sand and seaweed about one week after an oil spill from an offshore oil platform, on Oct. 9, 2021, in Huntington Beach, California. \u003ccite>(Mario Tama/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Padilla took the opportunity to \u003ca href=\"https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/senators-include-west-coast-offshore-drilling-ban-in-reconciliation-bill/\">push his colleagues in Congress to pass a ban on new offshore oil drilling in federal waters\u003c/a>. The state of California already bars new leases in the water it controls, and the House of Representatives included a federal ban in its recently passed budget bill.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote size='medium' align='right' citation='Sen. Alex Padilla']'Many of us, myself included, have been calling for a ban on offshore oil drilling in federal waters for a long time now ... This is just the most recent reminder of why it's necessary and why it's urgent.'[/pullquote]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Padilla said the Senate should do the same.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"You know many of us, myself included, have been calling for a ban on offshore oil drilling in federal waters for a long time now,\" he said. \"This is just the most recent reminder of why it's necessary and why it's urgent, and we have a prime opportunity to accomplish exactly that through this budget reconciliation bill in the next couple of weeks.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Also on Monday, Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon\u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/Rendon63rd/status/1447685510567059456?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Etweet\"> announced the creation of a legislative committee\u003c/a> charged with investigating the cause of the spill and its impacts and recommending any changes to state law that could help prevent leaks in the future.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>State Attorney General Rob Bonta's office is investigating the oil spill that fouled the waters off Orange County a little over a week ago.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bonta made the announcement Monday while standing alongside U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla at Huntington State Beach — not far from the pipeline leak that pumped tens of thousands of gallons of crude oil into the water over the past week and a half. \u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bonta said his investigators will partner with federal authorities, whose probe is being led by the U.S. Coast Guard and local officials including Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"I'll be taking a leadership role, working with our partners ... we're committed to a collaborative, cooperative approach,\" Bonta said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The attorney general said there's an important role for state prosecutors, who could pursue civil or criminal charges, or both.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The oil spill was reported to federal authorities on the morning of Oct. 2. By that time, as much as 131,000 gallons had seeped from a pipeline that runs from an offshore platform to the Port of Long Beach. The pipeline is operated by a subsidiary of Amplify Energy Corp., based in Texas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"When we get involved and when we use our tools, we hope that we will continue to do what we've always done, which is be accurate, be complete, be thorough, be objective and, most importantly, achieve accountability where necessary and realize justice,\" Bonta said in announcing his office's investigation. \u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The attorney general’s remarks came after he and Padilla took an air tour of the affected region.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Orange County beaches reopened to the public Monday, and \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Padilla said the view from the sky was promising.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"It seemed the cleanup operations are making tremendous, tremendous progress. Trust me, we looked but did not see any big, you know, patches of oil on the surface of the water and the areas that we covered,\" he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11891937\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg class=\"wp-image-11891937 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/RS51842_GettyImages-1345730317-qut.jpg\" alt=\"On a sunny beach along the sunlit ocean, three people dressed all in white with neon yellow jackets and white hard hats carry tools beyond a group of people wearing shorts, one holding a football.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1172\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/RS51842_GettyImages-1345730317-qut.jpg 1920w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/RS51842_GettyImages-1345730317-qut-800x488.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/RS51842_GettyImages-1345730317-qut-1020x623.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/RS51842_GettyImages-1345730317-qut-160x98.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/RS51842_GettyImages-1345730317-qut-1536x938.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">People play football as cleanup workers search for contaminated sand and seaweed about one week after an oil spill from an offshore oil platform, on Oct. 9, 2021, in Huntington Beach, California. \u003ccite>(Mario Tama/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Padilla took the opportunity to \u003ca href=\"https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/senators-include-west-coast-offshore-drilling-ban-in-reconciliation-bill/\">push his colleagues in Congress to pass a ban on new offshore oil drilling in federal waters\u003c/a>. The state of California already bars new leases in the water it controls, and the House of Representatives included a federal ban in its recently passed budget bill.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "'Many of us, myself included, have been calling for a ban on offshore oil drilling in federal waters for a long time now ... This is just the most recent reminder of why it's necessary and why it's urgent.'",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Padilla said the Senate should do the same.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"You know many of us, myself included, have been calling for a ban on offshore oil drilling in federal waters for a long time now,\" he said. \"This is just the most recent reminder of why it's necessary and why it's urgent, and we have a prime opportunity to accomplish exactly that through this budget reconciliation bill in the next couple of weeks.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Also on Monday, Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon\u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/Rendon63rd/status/1447685510567059456?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Etweet\"> announced the creation of a legislative committee\u003c/a> charged with investigating the cause of the spill and its impacts and recommending any changes to state law that could help prevent leaks in the future.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "hedge-funds-cash-out-billions-in-pge-stock-fire-survivors-suffer-and-wait",
"title": "Hedge Funds Cash Out Billions in PG&E Stock. Fire Survivors Suffer and Wait",
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"headTitle": "Hedge Funds Cash Out Billions in PG&E Stock. Fire Survivors Suffer and Wait | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>Pacific Gas & Electric Company has been called a “terror” to the people of California. Its \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11873113/help-us-investigate-pges-power-lines#:~:text=Note%3A%20If%20you%20smell%20natural,%2D800%2D743%2D5000.\">electric grid has sparked wildfires\u003c/a> each of the last four years and is suspected of igniting this year’s Dixie Fire, the second largest blaze in the state’s history.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The company is mired in debt. Electricity rates are skyrocketing. Tens of thousands of survivors of fires sparked by the utility’s equipment are waiting for promised compensation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Amid all this pain, there’s one group that’s simply walking away: Wall Street hedge funds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A KQED/California Newsroom analysis of documents on file with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC, found that 20 Wall Street hedge funds have collectively dumped 250 million PG&E shares — two-thirds of their collective holdings in the company — since PG&E emerged from bankruptcy protection last year. Those hedge funds grossed at least $2 billion dumping the stock, our analysis found. At least seven funds have sold off their entire PG&E stake.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What’s more: Many of these same hedge funds got an extraordinary amount of PG&E stock without paying a cent for it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That gigantic stock giveaway, which handed $1.5 billion worth of PG&E stock to the hedge funds, is widely acknowledged to be the largest of its kind in the history of corporate bankruptcy. Under the agreement, known as an equity backstop, PG&E gave the hedge funds 169 million shares in the company in exchange for a guarantee the hedge funds would buy more stock if no one else stepped forward as the company prepared to leave bankruptcy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11891639 size-full aligncenter\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/major-hedge-funds-updated.jpg\" alt=\"A graphic shows various hedge funds dumping PG&E shares, including Appaloosa Management, Anchorage Capital Group, and others.\" width=\"1240\" height=\"1576\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/major-hedge-funds-updated.jpg 1240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/major-hedge-funds-updated-800x1017.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/major-hedge-funds-updated-1020x1296.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/major-hedge-funds-updated-160x203.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/major-hedge-funds-updated-1209x1536.jpg 1209w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1240px) 100vw, 1240px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That didn’t happen, but the hedge funds nevertheless collected their payout.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In an interview, Nora Mead Brownell, PG&E’s board chair during most of its recent bankruptcy, described the deal as a cost of doing business in a high-risk, politically charged environment. Without the guarantee from the hedge funds, the company could not have left bankruptcy by the deadline mandated by Gov. Gavin Newsom, she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Everybody can hate hedge funds,” she said but “the hedge funds were the people who were there.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That they ended up not having to buy more stock was immaterial, she added: “Hedge funds get paid for taking risk, and that’s what they got paid for.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the current hedge fund sell-off of PG&E shares has direct consequences for approximately 70,000 fire survivors who lost loved ones, homes and businesses to blazes sparked by PG&E’s equipment between 2015 and 2018.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Thanks to \u003ca href=\"https://www.wsj.com/articles/as-pg-e-fire-victims-weigh-settlement-lawyers-role-attracts-scrutiny-11589198405\">a legal settlement engineered by these same hedge funds\u003c/a> during the bankruptcy, these fire survivors now hold nearly 500 million shares representing nearly a quarter of the company’s stock through a special trust.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But with the hedge fund stock dump putting downward pressure on PG&E’s share price, fire survivors — whose Fire Victim Trust has held onto its shares — face a return dramatically lower than what they were promised by \u003ca href=\"https://www.pge.com/en/about/newsroom/newsdetails/index.page?title=20200620_pge_achieves_bankruptcy_court_confirmation_of_its_plan_of_reorganization\">both PG&E\u003c/a> and their \u003ca href=\"https://firesettlementfacts.com/\">own lawyers\u003c/a>. The value of the fire survivors’ stock has never achieved the $6.75 billion figure survivors were promised and so, while hedge funds are moving on, fire survivors have been left holding the bag.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11891637 size-full aligncenter\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/hedge-funds-v-fire-victims-2.jpg\" alt=\"A graphic describes statistics for hedge funds that profited $2.1 billion in gross income while fire victims had $0 in gross income. Hedge funds sold 250 million shares of PG&E whereas fire victims kept 480 million shares. \" width=\"1433\" height=\"1071\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/hedge-funds-v-fire-victims-2.jpg 1433w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/hedge-funds-v-fire-victims-2-800x598.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/hedge-funds-v-fire-victims-2-1020x762.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/hedge-funds-v-fire-victims-2-160x120.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1433px) 100vw, 1433px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s nothing but a con, isn’t it? How can they do that?” said Terry McBride, 61, who lost her Calaveras County home in a fire that PG&E caused in 2015. Since then, she’s shared a trailer with her 25-year-old daughter. They live on the same lot where their home burned down.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“How can they look in the mirror and put together an agreement like that?” McBride said. “What part of humanity do they belong to? It’s not the humanity I belong to where I actually care about my brothers and sisters and my fellow citizens.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>KQED and The California Newsroom reached out to eight of the hedge funds dumping stock. None would comment on the record for this story.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fire survivors, UC Hastings College of the Law professor Jared Ellias noted, “are not the bankruptcy experts that the hedge funds were” and so the hedge funds “left the fire victims with the risk of the shares and the risk of the deal.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The hedge funds’ maneuverings have had dire consequences not only for fire survivors, but also for \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/california-divide/debt/2021/03/california-high-electricity-prices/\">PG&E’s 16 million ratepayers, who spend about 80% more on power than the national average\u003c/a>, according to a recent study. And \u003ca href=\"https://sjvsun.com/business/merced-joins-opposition-to-pges-proposed-rate-increases/\">PG&E wants to increase rates by an average of 19%\u003c/a> going forward. Experts say that’s in part because of all the debt the company took on while the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11755807/how-hedge-funds-are-shaping-pges-future\">hedge funds exerted control over the company\u003c/a> — having \u003ca href=\"https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/75488/000095015719000433/form8k.htm\">replaced nearly the entire board of directors\u003c/a> in early 2019 with new arrivals half of whom had investing or corporate restructuring backgrounds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Though companies usually use the bankruptcy process to get on surer financial footing, PG&E’s debt load has exploded from $22 billion before the bankruptcy to $38 billion when it ended in mid-2020. That debt has escalated further since it left Chapter 11 last year, rising to $42.5 billion.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You have to pay debt back,” said John Geesman, a former member of the California Energy Commission, who said the impacts will only become more extreme with time as the company attempts to repair its long-neglected system. PG&E’s precarious financial state coming out of bankruptcy “impacts the ability of the company to finance necessary infrastructure improvements and necessary fire mitigation.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Geesman said the company’s fragile financial state means it is more likely to spark wildfires and even enter another bankruptcy — an outcome, he said, engineered by the hedge funds but also hardly a surprise.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s a little bit like complaining when sharks bite people,” Geesman said. “You have to ask yourself, why did we agree to this?”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Hedge funds dumping stock\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>The sell-offs run counter to the hedge funds’ public pronouncements.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last April, while fire survivors were voting on their settlement, the head of one large fund rejected the notion that there would be a stock dump that would depress the value of the victims’ shares.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The idea that everybody will suddenly turn around and sell all of their stock at the same time is inconsistent with how these investors approach the situation over a long period of time and certainly inconsistent with selling something at well below fair value,” Tom Wagner, the head of Knighthead Capital Management, said in \u003ca href=\"https://www.bloomberg.com/news/videos/2020-04-09/knighthead-s-wagner-on-pg-e-restructuring-credit-markets-amid-virus-video\">an April 2020 interview with Bloomberg TV\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11891638 size-full aligncenter\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/knighthead-1-2.jpg\" alt=\"A graphic shows PG&E shares owned by Knighthead Capital Management from 2017 to 2021, with shares peaking after PG&E exits bankruptcy, particularly in August 2020.\" width=\"1508\" height=\"1141\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/knighthead-1-2.jpg 1508w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/knighthead-1-2-800x605.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/knighthead-1-2-1020x772.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/knighthead-1-2-160x121.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1508px) 100vw, 1508px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The hedge funds dumping stock run the gamut from the relatively obscure to some of the most celebrated names on Wall Street. They include one founded by nonagenarian billionaire George Soros, and another started by famed Wall Street investor David Tepper, who was once profiled in a New York Magazine article titled “\u003ca href=\"https://nymag.com/news/features/establishments/68513/\">Ready to Be Rich\u003c/a>” and whose name now graces the business school of his alma mater, Carnegie Mellon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11887723/sharks-are-circling-again-with-wildfires-come-lawyers-and-previous-survivors-have-a-warning\">Reporting by KQED\u003c/a> has shown that another fund, Centerbridge Partners, was part of a group of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11887723/sharks-are-circling-again-with-wildfires-come-lawyers-and-previous-survivors-have-a-warning\">investors that bankrolled mass tort lawyer Mikal Watts\u003c/a> with a massive line of credit. \u003ca href=\"https://pgelawsuit.com/\">Watts had bragged\u003c/a> about scoring a $13.5 billion settlement for fire survivors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Critics say \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11814494/wall-street-ties-of-lawyer-for-pge-fire-victims-have-some-survivors-querying-settlement-vote\">the line of credit represents a potential conflict of interest\u003c/a>, since Centerbridge stood to benefit if fire survivors got a smaller settlement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Indeed, the settlement has never been worth the $13.5 billion Watts claims. The December 2019 deal between PG&E and fire survivors was composed of $6.75 billion in cash and PG&E stock that was said to be worth\u003ca href=\"https://www.pge.com/en/about/newsroom/newsdetails/index.page?title=20200620_pge_achieves_bankruptcy_court_confirmation_of_its_plan_of_reorganization\"> an equal amount\u003c/a>. But when PG&E funded the stock at the market price of about $9, the stock component ended up falling more than $2 billion short.[pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Terry McBride, fire victim\"]‘The justice system thoroughly failed the survivors of these fires. They thoroughly failed us. That’s a fact.’[/pullquote]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The stock has ticked up this month, reaching $10.70 on October 8 after lagging for much of the summer. But shares would have to top $14 for the settlement to be worth $13.5 billion.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The filings reviewed by KQED and The California Newsroom reflect stock holdings by these hedge funds through June 30. Two weeks after that date, the Dixie Fire erupted, burning down the historic town of Greenville on its path to destroying nearly a million acres and becoming the second largest fire in California history. PG&E has indicated that \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11887723/sharks-are-circling-again-with-wildfires-come-lawyers-and-previous-survivors-have-a-warning\">its equipment may have played a role in sparking the catastrophic blaze\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>PG&E also now faces manslaughter charges in the 2020 Zogg Fire, which killed four people in Shasta County. It’s the second time PG&E has faced manslaughter charges in as many years. Last year, the company pleaded guilty to 84 involuntary manslaughter counts stemming from the 2018 Camp Fire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a statement to KQED and The California Newsroom, PG&E said state regulators closely monitor the utility’s “financial health” to ensure it “can continue to make important safety, reliability and clean energy improvements.” The company said that it was moving forward with a plan to improve wildfire mitigation and the resilience of the grid.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Mark Toney, executive director of The Utility Reform Network (TURN), said that while PG&E is improving when it comes to wildfire safety, the legacy of the hedge funds is clear: “The high debt makes it hard for the company to invest in infrastructure,” Toney said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11891646\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11891646\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/Terry-in-front-of-storage-shed.jpg\" alt=\"A woman in a tank top stands in front of a storage shed, with a slight smile and eyes closed in the bright sun.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1440\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/Terry-in-front-of-storage-shed.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/Terry-in-front-of-storage-shed-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/Terry-in-front-of-storage-shed-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/Terry-in-front-of-storage-shed-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/Terry-in-front-of-storage-shed-1536x1152.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Terry McBride, 61, who lost her Calaveras County home in a fire that PG&E caused in 2015. Since then, she’s shared a trailer with her 25-year-old daughter. They live in a trailer on the same lot where their home burned down. \u003ccite>(Courtesy Terry McBride)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch3>A bet gone wrong\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>In conducting our analysis, KQED and The California Newsroom reviewed hundreds of securities filings, known as \u003ca href=\"https://www.sec.gov/divisions/investment/13ffaq.htm\">13Fs\u003c/a>, which large institutional investors must submit to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission every three months. The documents offer a snapshot of a hedge fund’s portfolio, showing how much stock it holds in various companies at the end of each quarter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The filings tell the story: Hedge funds saw an opportunity to profit by buying low when PG&E’s stock price plunged after a series of fires tore through the North Bay in 2017. The firestorm killed 44 people and destroyed thousands of homes. PG&E shares fell from $70 to $45 within weeks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But PG&E’s share price had much further to fall. The following year, the 2018 Camp Fire sent shares plummeting to $25 in the days after PG&E equipment sparked the blaze before plummeting to $7 when PG&E chose to enter Chapter 11 a few weeks later. The fire killed 85 people and displaced tens of thousands in and around the town of Paradise. It remains the deadliest and most destructive fire in California history.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As shares sank, many hedge funds that had scooped up shares after the 2017 fires watched their big bet on PG&E turn sour. [pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Terry McBride, fire victim\"]“How can they look in the mirror and put together an agreement like that? … What part of humanity do they belong to? It’s not the humanity I belong to where I actually care about my brothers and sisters and my fellow citizens.”[/pullquote]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At that point, some of the funds decided to dramatically increase their purchases of PG&E shares, filings show. Knighthead joined forces with two other funds — Abrams Capital Management and Redwood Capital Management. This \u003ca href=\"https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-03-15/new-pg-e-investor-group-is-said-to-push-for-management-shakeup\">trio emerged as leaders of a group of hedge funds\u003c/a> that would go on to exert control of the bankruptcy of PG&E, using its leverage to remake PG&E’s board on the heels of the company’s decision to enter Chapter 11. Wagner would serve as the public face of the group.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By the time the bankruptcy was finalized last summer, \u003ca href=\"https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1512397/000101297520000693/0001012975-20-000693-index.htm\">Wagner’s fund held 22.3 million shares of PG&E\u003c/a>, at least a quarter of which had been received at no cost as part of the backstop, valued at almost $200 million, according to its 13F filings.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But though Wagner dismissed the idea that investors would quickly dump their stock on Bloomberg TV, Knighthead has since sold off more than half its PG&E shares, our analysis of filings shows.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Another hedge fund, Anchorage Capital Group, held as many as 45 million shares worth $425 million last year. 13F filings show Anchorage had sold off its entire stake by this past March. Anchorage also participated in the backstop and received an estimated 8 million shares, worth at least $68 million, in the giveaway\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>GoldenTree Asset Management, Stonehill Capital Management and the SteelMill Master Fund are among the slew of other hedge funds who have completely exited the stock. Before the bankruptcy ended, each of these funds held more than $100 million worth of PG&E shares.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But these sales pale in comparison to the sell-off by David Tepper’s Appaloosa Management. Tepper has long kept tabs on PG&E.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Of course California will bail out Pacific Gas & Electric Company, because it’s not going to let the state not have power,” reporter Jessica Pressler wrote of Tepper’s philosophy in her 2010 New York Magazine article “\u003ca href=\"https://nymag.com/news/features/establishments/68513/\">Ready to Be Rich.\u003c/a>” Tepper is invested in being “a regular guy,” she wrote. Appaloosa was also part of a foursome of \u003ca href=\"https://investor.pgecorp.com/news-events/press-releases/press-release-details/2020/PGE-Corporation-Announces-325-Billion-Common-Stock-Investment-from-Multiple-Investors/default.aspx\">private investors that purchased PG&E shares at a discount\u003c/a> as the company raised money in preparation to leave bankruptcy protection.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Filings show that Appaloosa owned nearly 81 million shares of PG&E worth $760 million as of last September. An estimated 10 million shares, worth at least $82 million, likely were provided by the backstop. By June, however, Appaloosa had slashed its stake in PG&E by around 80%.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Appaloosa did not respond to our inquiries about its decision to sell off while fire survivors struggled.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, Centerbridge Partners, the hedge fund that helped bankroll attorney Mikal Watts, sold 1.8 million shares — a fifth of its stake — in the year after PG&E’s left Chapter 11 bankruptcy. KQED and The California Newsroom estimate that Centerbridge was given around 3.5 million shares, worth at least $29 million, at no cost through the special backstop arrangement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Centerbridge was co-founded by Mark Gallogly, who was appointed as an adviser to President Joe Biden’s climate team earlier this year. \u003ca href=\"https://therevolvingdoorproject.org/attn-john-kerry-mark-gallogly-is-loyal-to-profit-not-climate/\">Gallogly’s appointment immediately drew rebukes from environmental advocacy groups\u003c/a>, who said he had profited from climate emergencies in both California and Puerto Rico. Gallogly departed Biden’s climate team a few months later.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Not every hedge fund with significant PG&E holdings has dumped the stock. Baupost owned about 30 million shares of PG&E as of June. The fund got most of that, around 21 million shares worth at least $174 million, at no cost in the equity backstop deal. That’s more than any other hedge fund.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a statement, a Baupost spokesperson said it participated in the backstop after being asked by several parties in the bankruptcy — including representatives of fire survivors — to “support the company’s emergence from bankruptcy.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.wsj.com/articles/klarmans-baupost-poised-to-cash-in-on-pg-e-insurance-bet-11568387840\">Baupost salvaged a badly timed investment in PG&E stock\u003c/a> by buying PG&E insurance claims for cheap. In the bankruptcy, this insurance group shared $11 billion in cash, far more than fire survivors.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>The great risk shift\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Through it all, the special trust for PG&E’s 70,000 fire survivors continues to hold onto stock in the company that sparked fires that destroyed their homes or killed their loved ones.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many fire survivors want to be rid of the emotional burden that comes with this, and receive cash that would come with the stock’s sale, but the stock has continued to lag well below the level needed to make fire victims whole. In June, John Trotter, the court-appointed trustee of the Fire Victim Trust, \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0XDLml9GEyg&t=270s\">signaled in a YouTube video\u003c/a> that he planned to hold off on selling any of the 478 million shares it owns.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The story of the stock is not a good one,” Trotter said in the video, without indicating a timeline of when he might sell the shares. Fire survivors “should want PG&E to do well,” he added.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11884610/will-pges-fire-victims-ever-be-made-whole-never-says-trustee-overseeing-compensation\">It’s such quicksand\u003c/a>,” Trotter told KQED and the California Newsroom in a subsequent interview. Trotter said he expects that there may only be enough to provide survivors 60% of what they are owed. They will “never be made whole,” Trotter said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11891642\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11891642\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/Kathleen_in_her_craft_shed.jpg\" alt=\"A woman bends over some crafting work in a shed, with a lamp hovering over her work.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1440\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/Kathleen_in_her_craft_shed.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/Kathleen_in_her_craft_shed-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/Kathleen_in_her_craft_shed-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/Kathleen_in_her_craft_shed-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/Kathleen_in_her_craft_shed-1536x1152.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Kathleen McBride, 25, in her craft shed in Calaveras County. The McBride family lost their Calaveras County home in a fire that PG&E caused in 2015. They live in a trailer on the same lot where their home burned down. \u003ccite>(Courtesy Terry McBride)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>As Terry McBride and her daughter wait for compensation from the Fire Victim Trust, they’ve had to brave a combination of extreme heat and wildfire smoke that leaves them with persistent headaches. The temperature in their trailer regularly spikes higher than 100 degrees. They’ve covered their trailer, which Terry refers to as “a tin can,” with reflective paint to try to lower the temperature inside by a few degrees on the hottest days.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They live modestly while they wait. Terry spends much of her time gardening while her daughter spends hours doing crafts each day. Terry says she has grown increasingly dependent on her daughter as her eyes start to fail her.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I have zero doubt that Wall Street was behind this. We’re not of value to them. We have no value to them,” McBride said. “The justice system thoroughly failed the survivors of these fires. They thoroughly failed us. That’s a fact.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>McBride is among the vast majority of fire survivors who have yet to receive any money from the Fire Victim Trust.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wall Street analysts have taken notice that fire survivors appear stuck with the stock, because that means a quarter of PG&E’s stock remains off the market, providing stability to the stock price.[aside tag=\"wildfire\" label=\"More wildfire coverage\"]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In June, when Trotter indicated his willingness to wait on selling the stock, analyst Julien Dumoulin-Smith of Bank of America called the announcement a “de-risking factor,” or a reassuring sign for investors in the face of the company’s other risks — such as the fact that the company continues to be linked to new wildfires.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Critically trustee Justice John Trotter indicated in recent days that no imminent sales are planned as the Trust continues to work through issues of taxable gains on any share sales,” he wrote in a research note this summer. “We see this as potentially serving as [an] offsetting de-risking factor against otherwise elevated near-term fire risks.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Another analyst, Jonathan Arnold of Vertical Research Partners, referred to the trustee’s comments as “the glass-half-full headline takeaway for the market.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>‘Who is responsible for this?’\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Some fire survivors say they are caught in the middle of a Wall Street game that they never wanted to play. Their settlement has shifted PG&E’s myriad risks onto them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Regardless of what happens to the stock now, Camp Fire survivor Tony Dunn wants to understand why PG&E was permitted to fund an amount of stock that ended up being worth $4.5 billion — not the promised $6.75 billion.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It looks like they cut themselves a 33% discount. Where’s the oversight on this to say, ‘You can’t do that’?” Dunn told KQED by phone from his home near Asheville, North Carolina, where he and his wife, Jhan, moved about a year after they were displaced from Paradise.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Did PG&E save money in this process? Was this PG&E’s lawyers? The hedge funds? This math was never right,” Dunn continued. “This is egregious and there’s absolutely no excuse for it. My biggest question now is, who is responsible for this? Who knew and let it happen anyway?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When we asked PG&E to answer Dunn’s question about why the stock funding came in at billions of dollars less than promised, the company declined to answer. It provided a statement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We continue to honor the victims of the Camp Fire and previous fires, and all that was lost, by continuing the important work to reduce wildfire and other risk across our energy systems. We funded the trust in accordance with our plan of reorganization,” PG&E spokesperson Lynsey Paulo wrote.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Lily Jamali is a correspondent for KQED in San Francisco. She produced this investigation for The California Newsroom. Aaron Glantz, senior investigations editor for the Newsroom, edited this story together with Managing Editor Adriene Hill. It was copyedited by Jenny Pritchett of KQED.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>The California Newsroom is a collaboration of NPR and 17 public radio stations across the state, from San Diego to the Oregon border.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "A California Newsroom analysis of federal filings found that 20 Wall Street hedge funds collectively dumped 250 million PG&E shares, and grossed at least $2 billion, after the utility emerged from bankruptcy protection last year.",
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"title": "Hedge Funds Cash Out Billions in PG&E Stock. Fire Survivors Suffer and Wait | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Pacific Gas & Electric Company has been called a “terror” to the people of California. Its \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11873113/help-us-investigate-pges-power-lines#:~:text=Note%3A%20If%20you%20smell%20natural,%2D800%2D743%2D5000.\">electric grid has sparked wildfires\u003c/a> each of the last four years and is suspected of igniting this year’s Dixie Fire, the second largest blaze in the state’s history.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The company is mired in debt. Electricity rates are skyrocketing. Tens of thousands of survivors of fires sparked by the utility’s equipment are waiting for promised compensation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Amid all this pain, there’s one group that’s simply walking away: Wall Street hedge funds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A KQED/California Newsroom analysis of documents on file with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC, found that 20 Wall Street hedge funds have collectively dumped 250 million PG&E shares — two-thirds of their collective holdings in the company — since PG&E emerged from bankruptcy protection last year. Those hedge funds grossed at least $2 billion dumping the stock, our analysis found. At least seven funds have sold off their entire PG&E stake.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What’s more: Many of these same hedge funds got an extraordinary amount of PG&E stock without paying a cent for it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That gigantic stock giveaway, which handed $1.5 billion worth of PG&E stock to the hedge funds, is widely acknowledged to be the largest of its kind in the history of corporate bankruptcy. Under the agreement, known as an equity backstop, PG&E gave the hedge funds 169 million shares in the company in exchange for a guarantee the hedge funds would buy more stock if no one else stepped forward as the company prepared to leave bankruptcy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11891639 size-full aligncenter\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/major-hedge-funds-updated.jpg\" alt=\"A graphic shows various hedge funds dumping PG&E shares, including Appaloosa Management, Anchorage Capital Group, and others.\" width=\"1240\" height=\"1576\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/major-hedge-funds-updated.jpg 1240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/major-hedge-funds-updated-800x1017.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/major-hedge-funds-updated-1020x1296.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/major-hedge-funds-updated-160x203.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/major-hedge-funds-updated-1209x1536.jpg 1209w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1240px) 100vw, 1240px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That didn’t happen, but the hedge funds nevertheless collected their payout.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In an interview, Nora Mead Brownell, PG&E’s board chair during most of its recent bankruptcy, described the deal as a cost of doing business in a high-risk, politically charged environment. Without the guarantee from the hedge funds, the company could not have left bankruptcy by the deadline mandated by Gov. Gavin Newsom, she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Everybody can hate hedge funds,” she said but “the hedge funds were the people who were there.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That they ended up not having to buy more stock was immaterial, she added: “Hedge funds get paid for taking risk, and that’s what they got paid for.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the current hedge fund sell-off of PG&E shares has direct consequences for approximately 70,000 fire survivors who lost loved ones, homes and businesses to blazes sparked by PG&E’s equipment between 2015 and 2018.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Thanks to \u003ca href=\"https://www.wsj.com/articles/as-pg-e-fire-victims-weigh-settlement-lawyers-role-attracts-scrutiny-11589198405\">a legal settlement engineered by these same hedge funds\u003c/a> during the bankruptcy, these fire survivors now hold nearly 500 million shares representing nearly a quarter of the company’s stock through a special trust.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But with the hedge fund stock dump putting downward pressure on PG&E’s share price, fire survivors — whose Fire Victim Trust has held onto its shares — face a return dramatically lower than what they were promised by \u003ca href=\"https://www.pge.com/en/about/newsroom/newsdetails/index.page?title=20200620_pge_achieves_bankruptcy_court_confirmation_of_its_plan_of_reorganization\">both PG&E\u003c/a> and their \u003ca href=\"https://firesettlementfacts.com/\">own lawyers\u003c/a>. The value of the fire survivors’ stock has never achieved the $6.75 billion figure survivors were promised and so, while hedge funds are moving on, fire survivors have been left holding the bag.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11891637 size-full aligncenter\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/hedge-funds-v-fire-victims-2.jpg\" alt=\"A graphic describes statistics for hedge funds that profited $2.1 billion in gross income while fire victims had $0 in gross income. Hedge funds sold 250 million shares of PG&E whereas fire victims kept 480 million shares. \" width=\"1433\" height=\"1071\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/hedge-funds-v-fire-victims-2.jpg 1433w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/hedge-funds-v-fire-victims-2-800x598.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/hedge-funds-v-fire-victims-2-1020x762.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/hedge-funds-v-fire-victims-2-160x120.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1433px) 100vw, 1433px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s nothing but a con, isn’t it? How can they do that?” said Terry McBride, 61, who lost her Calaveras County home in a fire that PG&E caused in 2015. Since then, she’s shared a trailer with her 25-year-old daughter. They live on the same lot where their home burned down.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“How can they look in the mirror and put together an agreement like that?” McBride said. “What part of humanity do they belong to? It’s not the humanity I belong to where I actually care about my brothers and sisters and my fellow citizens.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>KQED and The California Newsroom reached out to eight of the hedge funds dumping stock. None would comment on the record for this story.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fire survivors, UC Hastings College of the Law professor Jared Ellias noted, “are not the bankruptcy experts that the hedge funds were” and so the hedge funds “left the fire victims with the risk of the shares and the risk of the deal.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The hedge funds’ maneuverings have had dire consequences not only for fire survivors, but also for \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/california-divide/debt/2021/03/california-high-electricity-prices/\">PG&E’s 16 million ratepayers, who spend about 80% more on power than the national average\u003c/a>, according to a recent study. And \u003ca href=\"https://sjvsun.com/business/merced-joins-opposition-to-pges-proposed-rate-increases/\">PG&E wants to increase rates by an average of 19%\u003c/a> going forward. Experts say that’s in part because of all the debt the company took on while the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11755807/how-hedge-funds-are-shaping-pges-future\">hedge funds exerted control over the company\u003c/a> — having \u003ca href=\"https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/75488/000095015719000433/form8k.htm\">replaced nearly the entire board of directors\u003c/a> in early 2019 with new arrivals half of whom had investing or corporate restructuring backgrounds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Though companies usually use the bankruptcy process to get on surer financial footing, PG&E’s debt load has exploded from $22 billion before the bankruptcy to $38 billion when it ended in mid-2020. That debt has escalated further since it left Chapter 11 last year, rising to $42.5 billion.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You have to pay debt back,” said John Geesman, a former member of the California Energy Commission, who said the impacts will only become more extreme with time as the company attempts to repair its long-neglected system. PG&E’s precarious financial state coming out of bankruptcy “impacts the ability of the company to finance necessary infrastructure improvements and necessary fire mitigation.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Geesman said the company’s fragile financial state means it is more likely to spark wildfires and even enter another bankruptcy — an outcome, he said, engineered by the hedge funds but also hardly a surprise.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s a little bit like complaining when sharks bite people,” Geesman said. “You have to ask yourself, why did we agree to this?”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Hedge funds dumping stock\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>The sell-offs run counter to the hedge funds’ public pronouncements.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last April, while fire survivors were voting on their settlement, the head of one large fund rejected the notion that there would be a stock dump that would depress the value of the victims’ shares.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The idea that everybody will suddenly turn around and sell all of their stock at the same time is inconsistent with how these investors approach the situation over a long period of time and certainly inconsistent with selling something at well below fair value,” Tom Wagner, the head of Knighthead Capital Management, said in \u003ca href=\"https://www.bloomberg.com/news/videos/2020-04-09/knighthead-s-wagner-on-pg-e-restructuring-credit-markets-amid-virus-video\">an April 2020 interview with Bloomberg TV\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11891638 size-full aligncenter\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/knighthead-1-2.jpg\" alt=\"A graphic shows PG&E shares owned by Knighthead Capital Management from 2017 to 2021, with shares peaking after PG&E exits bankruptcy, particularly in August 2020.\" width=\"1508\" height=\"1141\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/knighthead-1-2.jpg 1508w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/knighthead-1-2-800x605.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/knighthead-1-2-1020x772.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/knighthead-1-2-160x121.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1508px) 100vw, 1508px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The hedge funds dumping stock run the gamut from the relatively obscure to some of the most celebrated names on Wall Street. They include one founded by nonagenarian billionaire George Soros, and another started by famed Wall Street investor David Tepper, who was once profiled in a New York Magazine article titled “\u003ca href=\"https://nymag.com/news/features/establishments/68513/\">Ready to Be Rich\u003c/a>” and whose name now graces the business school of his alma mater, Carnegie Mellon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11887723/sharks-are-circling-again-with-wildfires-come-lawyers-and-previous-survivors-have-a-warning\">Reporting by KQED\u003c/a> has shown that another fund, Centerbridge Partners, was part of a group of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11887723/sharks-are-circling-again-with-wildfires-come-lawyers-and-previous-survivors-have-a-warning\">investors that bankrolled mass tort lawyer Mikal Watts\u003c/a> with a massive line of credit. \u003ca href=\"https://pgelawsuit.com/\">Watts had bragged\u003c/a> about scoring a $13.5 billion settlement for fire survivors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Critics say \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11814494/wall-street-ties-of-lawyer-for-pge-fire-victims-have-some-survivors-querying-settlement-vote\">the line of credit represents a potential conflict of interest\u003c/a>, since Centerbridge stood to benefit if fire survivors got a smaller settlement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Indeed, the settlement has never been worth the $13.5 billion Watts claims. The December 2019 deal between PG&E and fire survivors was composed of $6.75 billion in cash and PG&E stock that was said to be worth\u003ca href=\"https://www.pge.com/en/about/newsroom/newsdetails/index.page?title=20200620_pge_achieves_bankruptcy_court_confirmation_of_its_plan_of_reorganization\"> an equal amount\u003c/a>. But when PG&E funded the stock at the market price of about $9, the stock component ended up falling more than $2 billion short.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "‘The justice system thoroughly failed the survivors of these fires. They thoroughly failed us. That’s a fact.’",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The stock has ticked up this month, reaching $10.70 on October 8 after lagging for much of the summer. But shares would have to top $14 for the settlement to be worth $13.5 billion.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The filings reviewed by KQED and The California Newsroom reflect stock holdings by these hedge funds through June 30. Two weeks after that date, the Dixie Fire erupted, burning down the historic town of Greenville on its path to destroying nearly a million acres and becoming the second largest fire in California history. PG&E has indicated that \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11887723/sharks-are-circling-again-with-wildfires-come-lawyers-and-previous-survivors-have-a-warning\">its equipment may have played a role in sparking the catastrophic blaze\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>PG&E also now faces manslaughter charges in the 2020 Zogg Fire, which killed four people in Shasta County. It’s the second time PG&E has faced manslaughter charges in as many years. Last year, the company pleaded guilty to 84 involuntary manslaughter counts stemming from the 2018 Camp Fire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a statement to KQED and The California Newsroom, PG&E said state regulators closely monitor the utility’s “financial health” to ensure it “can continue to make important safety, reliability and clean energy improvements.” The company said that it was moving forward with a plan to improve wildfire mitigation and the resilience of the grid.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Mark Toney, executive director of The Utility Reform Network (TURN), said that while PG&E is improving when it comes to wildfire safety, the legacy of the hedge funds is clear: “The high debt makes it hard for the company to invest in infrastructure,” Toney said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11891646\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11891646\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/Terry-in-front-of-storage-shed.jpg\" alt=\"A woman in a tank top stands in front of a storage shed, with a slight smile and eyes closed in the bright sun.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1440\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/Terry-in-front-of-storage-shed.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/Terry-in-front-of-storage-shed-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/Terry-in-front-of-storage-shed-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/Terry-in-front-of-storage-shed-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/Terry-in-front-of-storage-shed-1536x1152.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Terry McBride, 61, who lost her Calaveras County home in a fire that PG&E caused in 2015. Since then, she’s shared a trailer with her 25-year-old daughter. They live in a trailer on the same lot where their home burned down. \u003ccite>(Courtesy Terry McBride)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch3>A bet gone wrong\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>In conducting our analysis, KQED and The California Newsroom reviewed hundreds of securities filings, known as \u003ca href=\"https://www.sec.gov/divisions/investment/13ffaq.htm\">13Fs\u003c/a>, which large institutional investors must submit to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission every three months. The documents offer a snapshot of a hedge fund’s portfolio, showing how much stock it holds in various companies at the end of each quarter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The filings tell the story: Hedge funds saw an opportunity to profit by buying low when PG&E’s stock price plunged after a series of fires tore through the North Bay in 2017. The firestorm killed 44 people and destroyed thousands of homes. PG&E shares fell from $70 to $45 within weeks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But PG&E’s share price had much further to fall. The following year, the 2018 Camp Fire sent shares plummeting to $25 in the days after PG&E equipment sparked the blaze before plummeting to $7 when PG&E chose to enter Chapter 11 a few weeks later. The fire killed 85 people and displaced tens of thousands in and around the town of Paradise. It remains the deadliest and most destructive fire in California history.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As shares sank, many hedge funds that had scooped up shares after the 2017 fires watched their big bet on PG&E turn sour. \u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "“How can they look in the mirror and put together an agreement like that? … What part of humanity do they belong to? It’s not the humanity I belong to where I actually care about my brothers and sisters and my fellow citizens.”",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At that point, some of the funds decided to dramatically increase their purchases of PG&E shares, filings show. Knighthead joined forces with two other funds — Abrams Capital Management and Redwood Capital Management. This \u003ca href=\"https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-03-15/new-pg-e-investor-group-is-said-to-push-for-management-shakeup\">trio emerged as leaders of a group of hedge funds\u003c/a> that would go on to exert control of the bankruptcy of PG&E, using its leverage to remake PG&E’s board on the heels of the company’s decision to enter Chapter 11. Wagner would serve as the public face of the group.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By the time the bankruptcy was finalized last summer, \u003ca href=\"https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1512397/000101297520000693/0001012975-20-000693-index.htm\">Wagner’s fund held 22.3 million shares of PG&E\u003c/a>, at least a quarter of which had been received at no cost as part of the backstop, valued at almost $200 million, according to its 13F filings.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But though Wagner dismissed the idea that investors would quickly dump their stock on Bloomberg TV, Knighthead has since sold off more than half its PG&E shares, our analysis of filings shows.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Another hedge fund, Anchorage Capital Group, held as many as 45 million shares worth $425 million last year. 13F filings show Anchorage had sold off its entire stake by this past March. Anchorage also participated in the backstop and received an estimated 8 million shares, worth at least $68 million, in the giveaway\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>GoldenTree Asset Management, Stonehill Capital Management and the SteelMill Master Fund are among the slew of other hedge funds who have completely exited the stock. Before the bankruptcy ended, each of these funds held more than $100 million worth of PG&E shares.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But these sales pale in comparison to the sell-off by David Tepper’s Appaloosa Management. Tepper has long kept tabs on PG&E.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Of course California will bail out Pacific Gas & Electric Company, because it’s not going to let the state not have power,” reporter Jessica Pressler wrote of Tepper’s philosophy in her 2010 New York Magazine article “\u003ca href=\"https://nymag.com/news/features/establishments/68513/\">Ready to Be Rich.\u003c/a>” Tepper is invested in being “a regular guy,” she wrote. Appaloosa was also part of a foursome of \u003ca href=\"https://investor.pgecorp.com/news-events/press-releases/press-release-details/2020/PGE-Corporation-Announces-325-Billion-Common-Stock-Investment-from-Multiple-Investors/default.aspx\">private investors that purchased PG&E shares at a discount\u003c/a> as the company raised money in preparation to leave bankruptcy protection.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Filings show that Appaloosa owned nearly 81 million shares of PG&E worth $760 million as of last September. An estimated 10 million shares, worth at least $82 million, likely were provided by the backstop. By June, however, Appaloosa had slashed its stake in PG&E by around 80%.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Appaloosa did not respond to our inquiries about its decision to sell off while fire survivors struggled.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, Centerbridge Partners, the hedge fund that helped bankroll attorney Mikal Watts, sold 1.8 million shares — a fifth of its stake — in the year after PG&E’s left Chapter 11 bankruptcy. KQED and The California Newsroom estimate that Centerbridge was given around 3.5 million shares, worth at least $29 million, at no cost through the special backstop arrangement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Centerbridge was co-founded by Mark Gallogly, who was appointed as an adviser to President Joe Biden’s climate team earlier this year. \u003ca href=\"https://therevolvingdoorproject.org/attn-john-kerry-mark-gallogly-is-loyal-to-profit-not-climate/\">Gallogly’s appointment immediately drew rebukes from environmental advocacy groups\u003c/a>, who said he had profited from climate emergencies in both California and Puerto Rico. Gallogly departed Biden’s climate team a few months later.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Not every hedge fund with significant PG&E holdings has dumped the stock. Baupost owned about 30 million shares of PG&E as of June. The fund got most of that, around 21 million shares worth at least $174 million, at no cost in the equity backstop deal. That’s more than any other hedge fund.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a statement, a Baupost spokesperson said it participated in the backstop after being asked by several parties in the bankruptcy — including representatives of fire survivors — to “support the company’s emergence from bankruptcy.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.wsj.com/articles/klarmans-baupost-poised-to-cash-in-on-pg-e-insurance-bet-11568387840\">Baupost salvaged a badly timed investment in PG&E stock\u003c/a> by buying PG&E insurance claims for cheap. In the bankruptcy, this insurance group shared $11 billion in cash, far more than fire survivors.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>The great risk shift\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Through it all, the special trust for PG&E’s 70,000 fire survivors continues to hold onto stock in the company that sparked fires that destroyed their homes or killed their loved ones.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many fire survivors want to be rid of the emotional burden that comes with this, and receive cash that would come with the stock’s sale, but the stock has continued to lag well below the level needed to make fire victims whole. In June, John Trotter, the court-appointed trustee of the Fire Victim Trust, \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0XDLml9GEyg&t=270s\">signaled in a YouTube video\u003c/a> that he planned to hold off on selling any of the 478 million shares it owns.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The story of the stock is not a good one,” Trotter said in the video, without indicating a timeline of when he might sell the shares. Fire survivors “should want PG&E to do well,” he added.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11884610/will-pges-fire-victims-ever-be-made-whole-never-says-trustee-overseeing-compensation\">It’s such quicksand\u003c/a>,” Trotter told KQED and the California Newsroom in a subsequent interview. Trotter said he expects that there may only be enough to provide survivors 60% of what they are owed. They will “never be made whole,” Trotter said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11891642\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11891642\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/Kathleen_in_her_craft_shed.jpg\" alt=\"A woman bends over some crafting work in a shed, with a lamp hovering over her work.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1440\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/Kathleen_in_her_craft_shed.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/Kathleen_in_her_craft_shed-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/Kathleen_in_her_craft_shed-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/Kathleen_in_her_craft_shed-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/Kathleen_in_her_craft_shed-1536x1152.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Kathleen McBride, 25, in her craft shed in Calaveras County. The McBride family lost their Calaveras County home in a fire that PG&E caused in 2015. They live in a trailer on the same lot where their home burned down. \u003ccite>(Courtesy Terry McBride)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>As Terry McBride and her daughter wait for compensation from the Fire Victim Trust, they’ve had to brave a combination of extreme heat and wildfire smoke that leaves them with persistent headaches. The temperature in their trailer regularly spikes higher than 100 degrees. They’ve covered their trailer, which Terry refers to as “a tin can,” with reflective paint to try to lower the temperature inside by a few degrees on the hottest days.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They live modestly while they wait. Terry spends much of her time gardening while her daughter spends hours doing crafts each day. Terry says she has grown increasingly dependent on her daughter as her eyes start to fail her.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I have zero doubt that Wall Street was behind this. We’re not of value to them. We have no value to them,” McBride said. “The justice system thoroughly failed the survivors of these fires. They thoroughly failed us. That’s a fact.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>McBride is among the vast majority of fire survivors who have yet to receive any money from the Fire Victim Trust.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wall Street analysts have taken notice that fire survivors appear stuck with the stock, because that means a quarter of PG&E’s stock remains off the market, providing stability to the stock price.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In June, when Trotter indicated his willingness to wait on selling the stock, analyst Julien Dumoulin-Smith of Bank of America called the announcement a “de-risking factor,” or a reassuring sign for investors in the face of the company’s other risks — such as the fact that the company continues to be linked to new wildfires.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Critically trustee Justice John Trotter indicated in recent days that no imminent sales are planned as the Trust continues to work through issues of taxable gains on any share sales,” he wrote in a research note this summer. “We see this as potentially serving as [an] offsetting de-risking factor against otherwise elevated near-term fire risks.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Another analyst, Jonathan Arnold of Vertical Research Partners, referred to the trustee’s comments as “the glass-half-full headline takeaway for the market.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>‘Who is responsible for this?’\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Some fire survivors say they are caught in the middle of a Wall Street game that they never wanted to play. Their settlement has shifted PG&E’s myriad risks onto them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Regardless of what happens to the stock now, Camp Fire survivor Tony Dunn wants to understand why PG&E was permitted to fund an amount of stock that ended up being worth $4.5 billion — not the promised $6.75 billion.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It looks like they cut themselves a 33% discount. Where’s the oversight on this to say, ‘You can’t do that’?” Dunn told KQED by phone from his home near Asheville, North Carolina, where he and his wife, Jhan, moved about a year after they were displaced from Paradise.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Did PG&E save money in this process? Was this PG&E’s lawyers? The hedge funds? This math was never right,” Dunn continued. “This is egregious and there’s absolutely no excuse for it. My biggest question now is, who is responsible for this? Who knew and let it happen anyway?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When we asked PG&E to answer Dunn’s question about why the stock funding came in at billions of dollars less than promised, the company declined to answer. It provided a statement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We continue to honor the victims of the Camp Fire and previous fires, and all that was lost, by continuing the important work to reduce wildfire and other risk across our energy systems. We funded the trust in accordance with our plan of reorganization,” PG&E spokesperson Lynsey Paulo wrote.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Lily Jamali is a correspondent for KQED in San Francisco. She produced this investigation for The California Newsroom. Aaron Glantz, senior investigations editor for the Newsroom, edited this story together with Managing Editor Adriene Hill. It was copyedited by Jenny Pritchett of KQED.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>The California Newsroom is a collaboration of NPR and 17 public radio stations across the state, from San Diego to the Oregon border.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "The Major Bills Newsom Just Signed and Vetoed",
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"content": "\u003cp>Gov. Gavin Newsom approved a slew of new legislation in recent weeks, ahead of Sunday’s deadline. That hefty stack of bills — among the hundreds that crossed his desk — touches nearly every policy area, including housing, health, education and wildfire mitigation. The measures stand to affect millions of California residents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The many noteworthy ones in the pile include \u003ca href=\"https://www.gov.ca.gov/2021/10/05/governor-newsom-signs-legislation-to-strengthen-state-unemployment-insurance-delivery-system/\">legislation to boost identity theft protection\u003c/a> at the state Employment Development Department, which may have paid out \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/explainers/california-edd-unemployment-crisis-explained/\">up to $31 billion in fraudulent unemployment claims\u003c/a> since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic. The governor also recently inked a bill adopting a universal \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11890023/california-adopts-vote-by-mail-system-for-all-future-elections\">vote-by-mail\u003c/a> ballot system for all future elections, as well as a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11888891/bill-regulating-computer-driven-productivity-quotas-at-california-warehouses-lands-on-gov-newsoms-desk\">first-in-the-nation law aimed at protecting California workers in retail warehouses\u003c/a> like those run by Amazon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: left\">Newsom also has vetoed a number of bills, including one that would have, among other things, \u003ca href=\"https://www.gov.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/AB-990-PDF.pdf\">established visitation as a civil right\u003c/a> to people who are incarcerated. Perhaps the biggest veto shocker so far this year has been \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/politics/2021/07/california-paid-family-leave/\">his recent rejection of a bill that sought to increase pay rates during paid family leave\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside label=\"related coverage\" tag=\"california-legislature\"]Below is a rundown of just some of the headline-grabbing legislation Newsom has recently signed.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Education\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Universal pre-K, dual-immersion language programs, college savings accounts, ethnic studies\u003cbr>\n\u003c/strong>\u003cbr>\nOn Tuesday, Newsom \u003ca href=\"https://www.fresnobee.com/news/local/education-lab/article254772347.html\">signed a trio of bills\u003c/a>, part of a record-setting $124 billion investment in public schools. It includes about $2.7 billion to help create a universal pre-K program for 4-year-olds by 2025 and directs roughly $10 million to expand dual-immersion language programs. The package, a key part of Newsom’s long-touted California Comeback Plan, also includes $1.9 billion to help create college savings accounts of up to $1,500 for some students, as well as $170 million in ongoing funding.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Transferring to state universities and affordable student housing\u003cbr>\n\u003c/strong>\u003cbr>\nThe following day, the governor also signed a \u003ca href=\"https://edsource.org/2021/newsom-signs-bills-to-ease-college-transfer-and-improve-student-housing/662048\">$47.1 billion higher education package of bills\u003c/a>, including one making it easier for community college students to transfer to the California State University and University of California systems. The legislation also includes $2 billion in funds to increase affordable housing for students.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ethnic studies curriculum\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Newsom on Friday signed the aptly numbered \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB101\">Assembly Bill 101\u003c/a>, making a one-semester ethnic studies class a graduation requirement for all California public high school students, beginning with the class of 2030. Newsom \u003ca href=\"https://edsource.org/2020/gov-newsom-vetoes-requirement-for-ethnic-studies-course-in-high-school/640877\">unexpectedly vetoed an initial version\u003c/a> of the bill last year, saying the model curriculum needed to be more inclusive. The bill was reintroduced in December after the curriculum had been thoroughly — and painstakingly — revised.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Health\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Reducing wait times for mental health appointments\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Friday, Newsom signed \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220SB221\">SB 221\u003c/a>, a bill to require health insurers across the state to reduce wait times for mental health appointments to no more than 10 business days. While current state law requires insurers to provide initial mental health appointments in 10 days, there is no clear regulation around follow-up appointments, resulting in what state Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, the bill’s author, called “obscene delays.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Half of Californians say they have to wait too long to see a mental health provider when they need one, \u003ca href=\"https://www.chcf.org/blog/californians-want-action-health-care-costs-mental-health-treatment/\">according to a survey by the California Health Care Foundation\u003c/a>. At Kaiser Permanente specifically, 87% of therapists said weekly appointments were not available to patients who needed them, according to a survey by the \u003ca href=\"https://nuhw.org/\">National Union of Healthcare Workers\u003c/a>, which represents Kaiser’s therapists and was the main sponsor of the bill. The bill passed both houses of the Legislature in a near-unanimous vote.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11891049/california-bill-would-reduce-wait-times-for-mental-health-appointments\">Read KQED’s coverage of SB 221.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>VETOED: Incentives for people to not use drugs\u003cbr>\n\u003c/strong>\u003cbr>\nNewsom on Friday vetoed \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220SB110\">SB 110\u003c/a>, a controversial bill which would have allowed Medi-Cal, the state’s Medicaid program, to provide money or gift cards as incentives for people struggling with drug addiction to stay off drugs — with the goal of encouraging more treatment centers to offer them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We need to embrace this proven, effective approach to meth addiction, make it clearly legal and start reimbursing for it, so we can address this health epidemic,” said state Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, who sponsored the bill.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: left\">While suggesting he was open to the bill’s novel drug treatment approach, \u003ca href=\"https://www.gov.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/SB-110-1082021.pdf\">Newsom in his veto message said it was “premature,”\u003c/a> and called for further study.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: left\">\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11854373/state-lawmakers-move-to-expand-effective-but-controversial-treatment-for-meth-addiction\">Read KQED’s coverage of SB 110.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Housing\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Streamlining housing approvals\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Newsom approved three major housing bills in September, including \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220SB8\">SB 8\u003c/a>, introduced by state Sen. Nancy Skinner, D-Berkeley, which extends through 2030 an existing law that expedites the approval process for housing projects and reduces fee increases on local housing applications.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The governor also signed \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220SB9\">SB 9\u003c/a>, introduced by state Senate President Pro Tempore Toni Atkins, D-San Diego, which allows the development of up to two duplexes without local reviews or hearings, in neighborhoods in most cities that are currently zoned for single-family homes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lastly, Newsom signed \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220SB10\">SB 10\u003c/a>, introduced by state Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, which offers cities the option to rezone certain land for the construction of as many as 10 units while bypassing an initial review under the California Environmental Quality Act.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Read more about these three laws from \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11889113/in-one-week-newsom-signed-three-major-housing-bills-heres-what-they-mean\">CalMatters\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Police reform\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Newsom signed a slate of new police reform bills into law on Sept. 30, including creating higher education standards for officers, requiring officers to intervene if they see a colleague using excessive force, banning certain physical holds that cause asphyxiation and laying out a process that will decertify officers who are found guilty of serious policy or criminal violations. The bills include:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220SB2\">SB 2\u003c/a>, authored by state Sen. Steven Bradford, D-Gardena, which lays out a process that will decertify officers who are found guilty of serious policy or criminal violations, including using excessive force, committing sexual assault, intimidating witnesses, making a false arrest or report or participating in a law enforcement gang. Other grounds include “demonstrating bias” based on race, religion, gender identity, sexual orientation or mental disability, among other criteria.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220SB16\">SB 16\u003c/a>, which expands state Sen. Nancy Skinner’s 2018 landmark police transparency law, SB 1421, or “The Right to Know Act,” which opened up three narrow categories of police records: investigations into deadly or serious use of force by police, investigations that found officers committed sexual assault on duty or told official lies. SB 16 opens up three more categories of records: investigations into officers who were found to have engaged in bias or discrimination, made unlawful arrests or searches, or used excessive or unreasonable force.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB89\">AB 89\u003c/a>, authored by Assemblymember Reggie Jones-Sawyer, D-Los Angeles, which raises the minimum age of eligibility to become a cop from 18 to 21 and expands education requirements for officers.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB26\">AB 26\u003c/a>, authored by Assemblymember Chris Holden, D-Pasadena, requires officers to intervene if they see a fellow officer using excessive force and protects them from retaliation if they report another officer for violating policy.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11890615/newsom-signs-law-to-strip-badges-from-bad-officers\">Read KQED’s coverage of this slate of police reforms.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Climate change, drought, wildfires\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Climate change\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Newsom on Sept. 23 signed a major \u003ca href=\"https://www.gov.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/NATION-LEADING-15B-CLIMATE-PACKAGE.pdf\">$15 billion climate change package\u003c/a>, as part of the state’s record-high budget. It directs $3.9 billion over the next three years to expand use of electric vehicles in the state, in accordance with \u003ca href=\"https://www.cnn.com/2020/10/03/cars/california-2035-zev-mandate/index.html\">Newsom’s mandate that only zero-emission new passenger cars and trucks be sold in California by 2035\u003c/a>. \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1976869/heres-whats-inside-newsoms-whopping-15-billion-climate-spending-plan\">That pot\u003c/a> includes funding for new consumer rebates, the production of thousands of buses and heavy-duty trucks, and incentives for Californians with lower incomes to trade in their gas cars.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California also will spend $3.7 billion to: prepare communities to deal with sea-level rise, fund energy-efficient homes, and invest in lower-income communities and communities of color, with the goal of improving air quality and reducing heat disparities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Drought\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The same package allots about $5.2 billion to immediate drought relief and water measures, including money for projects to boost water recycling, reduce flooding risks and clean up contaminated groundwater.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Wildfires\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The package also \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/article/climate-change-science-business-california-gavin-newsom-f867c179fa49f32c0ed7098e98e33aeb\">earmarks about $1 billion\u003c/a> in new spending for fire breaks, tree thinning and other measures meant to prevent fires from burning out of control.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And it includes $19 million for the state to work with tribes on prescribed burns — up from just $1 million last year — as well as training for firefighters. The state also plans to invest in micro-lumber mills and other businesses that reuse old wood from overgrown forests.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Less than a week later, Newsom signed \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB642\">AB 642\u003c/a>, which requires the state to increase the workforce that can perform prescribed burns in an effort to eliminate fuels that have contributed to extremely destructive fires in the state. The bill, introduced by Assemblymember Laura Friedman, D-Glendale, also requires that Cal Fire create a cultural burning liaison position within the agency who will work with tribes and cultural practitioners to ensure the agency is respecting tribal sovereignty and enabling cultural fire traditions and practices to carry on.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This speaks to the importance of communities, private landowners and private citizens in being part of the fire solutions,” said Lenya Quinn-Davidson, a fire adviser with the University of California Cooperative Extension who helped draft the legislation. “And you know that the agencies can’t do it on their own anymore. We have to work together.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1973196/the-karuk-used-fire-to-manage-the-forest-for-centuries-now-they-want-to-do-that-again\">Read KQED’s coverage of Native American fire techniques to manage forests.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Reporting from KQED’s April Dembosky, Emily Hung, Sukey Lewis, Guy Marzorati and Danielle Venton was used in this post. Additional reporting from The Associated Press, CalMatters and NPR also was included.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"title": "The Major Bills Newsom Just Signed and Vetoed | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Gov. Gavin Newsom approved a slew of new legislation in recent weeks, ahead of Sunday’s deadline. That hefty stack of bills — among the hundreds that crossed his desk — touches nearly every policy area, including housing, health, education and wildfire mitigation. The measures stand to affect millions of California residents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The many noteworthy ones in the pile include \u003ca href=\"https://www.gov.ca.gov/2021/10/05/governor-newsom-signs-legislation-to-strengthen-state-unemployment-insurance-delivery-system/\">legislation to boost identity theft protection\u003c/a> at the state Employment Development Department, which may have paid out \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/explainers/california-edd-unemployment-crisis-explained/\">up to $31 billion in fraudulent unemployment claims\u003c/a> since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic. The governor also recently inked a bill adopting a universal \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11890023/california-adopts-vote-by-mail-system-for-all-future-elections\">vote-by-mail\u003c/a> ballot system for all future elections, as well as a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11888891/bill-regulating-computer-driven-productivity-quotas-at-california-warehouses-lands-on-gov-newsoms-desk\">first-in-the-nation law aimed at protecting California workers in retail warehouses\u003c/a> like those run by Amazon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: left\">Newsom also has vetoed a number of bills, including one that would have, among other things, \u003ca href=\"https://www.gov.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/AB-990-PDF.pdf\">established visitation as a civil right\u003c/a> to people who are incarcerated. Perhaps the biggest veto shocker so far this year has been \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/politics/2021/07/california-paid-family-leave/\">his recent rejection of a bill that sought to increase pay rates during paid family leave\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Below is a rundown of just some of the headline-grabbing legislation Newsom has recently signed.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Education\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Universal pre-K, dual-immersion language programs, college savings accounts, ethnic studies\u003cbr>\n\u003c/strong>\u003cbr>\nOn Tuesday, Newsom \u003ca href=\"https://www.fresnobee.com/news/local/education-lab/article254772347.html\">signed a trio of bills\u003c/a>, part of a record-setting $124 billion investment in public schools. It includes about $2.7 billion to help create a universal pre-K program for 4-year-olds by 2025 and directs roughly $10 million to expand dual-immersion language programs. The package, a key part of Newsom’s long-touted California Comeback Plan, also includes $1.9 billion to help create college savings accounts of up to $1,500 for some students, as well as $170 million in ongoing funding.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Transferring to state universities and affordable student housing\u003cbr>\n\u003c/strong>\u003cbr>\nThe following day, the governor also signed a \u003ca href=\"https://edsource.org/2021/newsom-signs-bills-to-ease-college-transfer-and-improve-student-housing/662048\">$47.1 billion higher education package of bills\u003c/a>, including one making it easier for community college students to transfer to the California State University and University of California systems. The legislation also includes $2 billion in funds to increase affordable housing for students.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ethnic studies curriculum\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Newsom on Friday signed the aptly numbered \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB101\">Assembly Bill 101\u003c/a>, making a one-semester ethnic studies class a graduation requirement for all California public high school students, beginning with the class of 2030. Newsom \u003ca href=\"https://edsource.org/2020/gov-newsom-vetoes-requirement-for-ethnic-studies-course-in-high-school/640877\">unexpectedly vetoed an initial version\u003c/a> of the bill last year, saying the model curriculum needed to be more inclusive. The bill was reintroduced in December after the curriculum had been thoroughly — and painstakingly — revised.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Health\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Reducing wait times for mental health appointments\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Friday, Newsom signed \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220SB221\">SB 221\u003c/a>, a bill to require health insurers across the state to reduce wait times for mental health appointments to no more than 10 business days. While current state law requires insurers to provide initial mental health appointments in 10 days, there is no clear regulation around follow-up appointments, resulting in what state Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, the bill’s author, called “obscene delays.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Half of Californians say they have to wait too long to see a mental health provider when they need one, \u003ca href=\"https://www.chcf.org/blog/californians-want-action-health-care-costs-mental-health-treatment/\">according to a survey by the California Health Care Foundation\u003c/a>. At Kaiser Permanente specifically, 87% of therapists said weekly appointments were not available to patients who needed them, according to a survey by the \u003ca href=\"https://nuhw.org/\">National Union of Healthcare Workers\u003c/a>, which represents Kaiser’s therapists and was the main sponsor of the bill. The bill passed both houses of the Legislature in a near-unanimous vote.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11891049/california-bill-would-reduce-wait-times-for-mental-health-appointments\">Read KQED’s coverage of SB 221.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>VETOED: Incentives for people to not use drugs\u003cbr>\n\u003c/strong>\u003cbr>\nNewsom on Friday vetoed \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220SB110\">SB 110\u003c/a>, a controversial bill which would have allowed Medi-Cal, the state’s Medicaid program, to provide money or gift cards as incentives for people struggling with drug addiction to stay off drugs — with the goal of encouraging more treatment centers to offer them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We need to embrace this proven, effective approach to meth addiction, make it clearly legal and start reimbursing for it, so we can address this health epidemic,” said state Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, who sponsored the bill.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: left\">While suggesting he was open to the bill’s novel drug treatment approach, \u003ca href=\"https://www.gov.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/SB-110-1082021.pdf\">Newsom in his veto message said it was “premature,”\u003c/a> and called for further study.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: left\">\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11854373/state-lawmakers-move-to-expand-effective-but-controversial-treatment-for-meth-addiction\">Read KQED’s coverage of SB 110.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Housing\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Streamlining housing approvals\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Newsom approved three major housing bills in September, including \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220SB8\">SB 8\u003c/a>, introduced by state Sen. Nancy Skinner, D-Berkeley, which extends through 2030 an existing law that expedites the approval process for housing projects and reduces fee increases on local housing applications.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The governor also signed \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220SB9\">SB 9\u003c/a>, introduced by state Senate President Pro Tempore Toni Atkins, D-San Diego, which allows the development of up to two duplexes without local reviews or hearings, in neighborhoods in most cities that are currently zoned for single-family homes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lastly, Newsom signed \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220SB10\">SB 10\u003c/a>, introduced by state Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, which offers cities the option to rezone certain land for the construction of as many as 10 units while bypassing an initial review under the California Environmental Quality Act.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Read more about these three laws from \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11889113/in-one-week-newsom-signed-three-major-housing-bills-heres-what-they-mean\">CalMatters\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Police reform\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Newsom signed a slate of new police reform bills into law on Sept. 30, including creating higher education standards for officers, requiring officers to intervene if they see a colleague using excessive force, banning certain physical holds that cause asphyxiation and laying out a process that will decertify officers who are found guilty of serious policy or criminal violations. The bills include:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220SB2\">SB 2\u003c/a>, authored by state Sen. Steven Bradford, D-Gardena, which lays out a process that will decertify officers who are found guilty of serious policy or criminal violations, including using excessive force, committing sexual assault, intimidating witnesses, making a false arrest or report or participating in a law enforcement gang. Other grounds include “demonstrating bias” based on race, religion, gender identity, sexual orientation or mental disability, among other criteria.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220SB16\">SB 16\u003c/a>, which expands state Sen. Nancy Skinner’s 2018 landmark police transparency law, SB 1421, or “The Right to Know Act,” which opened up three narrow categories of police records: investigations into deadly or serious use of force by police, investigations that found officers committed sexual assault on duty or told official lies. SB 16 opens up three more categories of records: investigations into officers who were found to have engaged in bias or discrimination, made unlawful arrests or searches, or used excessive or unreasonable force.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB89\">AB 89\u003c/a>, authored by Assemblymember Reggie Jones-Sawyer, D-Los Angeles, which raises the minimum age of eligibility to become a cop from 18 to 21 and expands education requirements for officers.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB26\">AB 26\u003c/a>, authored by Assemblymember Chris Holden, D-Pasadena, requires officers to intervene if they see a fellow officer using excessive force and protects them from retaliation if they report another officer for violating policy.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11890615/newsom-signs-law-to-strip-badges-from-bad-officers\">Read KQED’s coverage of this slate of police reforms.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Climate change, drought, wildfires\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Climate change\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Newsom on Sept. 23 signed a major \u003ca href=\"https://www.gov.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/NATION-LEADING-15B-CLIMATE-PACKAGE.pdf\">$15 billion climate change package\u003c/a>, as part of the state’s record-high budget. It directs $3.9 billion over the next three years to expand use of electric vehicles in the state, in accordance with \u003ca href=\"https://www.cnn.com/2020/10/03/cars/california-2035-zev-mandate/index.html\">Newsom’s mandate that only zero-emission new passenger cars and trucks be sold in California by 2035\u003c/a>. \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1976869/heres-whats-inside-newsoms-whopping-15-billion-climate-spending-plan\">That pot\u003c/a> includes funding for new consumer rebates, the production of thousands of buses and heavy-duty trucks, and incentives for Californians with lower incomes to trade in their gas cars.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California also will spend $3.7 billion to: prepare communities to deal with sea-level rise, fund energy-efficient homes, and invest in lower-income communities and communities of color, with the goal of improving air quality and reducing heat disparities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Drought\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The same package allots about $5.2 billion to immediate drought relief and water measures, including money for projects to boost water recycling, reduce flooding risks and clean up contaminated groundwater.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Wildfires\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The package also \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/article/climate-change-science-business-california-gavin-newsom-f867c179fa49f32c0ed7098e98e33aeb\">earmarks about $1 billion\u003c/a> in new spending for fire breaks, tree thinning and other measures meant to prevent fires from burning out of control.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And it includes $19 million for the state to work with tribes on prescribed burns — up from just $1 million last year — as well as training for firefighters. The state also plans to invest in micro-lumber mills and other businesses that reuse old wood from overgrown forests.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Less than a week later, Newsom signed \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB642\">AB 642\u003c/a>, which requires the state to increase the workforce that can perform prescribed burns in an effort to eliminate fuels that have contributed to extremely destructive fires in the state. The bill, introduced by Assemblymember Laura Friedman, D-Glendale, also requires that Cal Fire create a cultural burning liaison position within the agency who will work with tribes and cultural practitioners to ensure the agency is respecting tribal sovereignty and enabling cultural fire traditions and practices to carry on.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This speaks to the importance of communities, private landowners and private citizens in being part of the fire solutions,” said Lenya Quinn-Davidson, a fire adviser with the University of California Cooperative Extension who helped draft the legislation. “And you know that the agencies can’t do it on their own anymore. We have to work together.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1973196/the-karuk-used-fire-to-manage-the-forest-for-centuries-now-they-want-to-do-that-again\">Read KQED’s coverage of Native American fire techniques to manage forests.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Reporting from KQED’s April Dembosky, Emily Hung, Sukey Lewis, Guy Marzorati and Danielle Venton was used in this post. Additional reporting from The Associated Press, CalMatters and NPR also was included.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>California’s agricultural empire is facing a shakeup, as the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA) comes into effect that will limit many farmers’ access to water.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The seven-year-old law is supposed to stop the over-pumping from depleted aquifers, and some farmers — the largest users of that water — concede the limits are overdue.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=\"news_11891246\" hero=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/farmer1-1020x681.jpg\"]The state grows roughly 40% of the country’s vegetables, fruit and nuts. But it’s also famously prone to drought, and in those dry years, when farms run short of water from rivers and reservoirs, they turn on powerful pumps and draw well water from aquifers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The limits on that water use will force many farmers to scrap practices that relied on unfettered access to that shrinking underground reservoir.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s unsustainable to continue over-drafting the aquifer the way we are,” said Rick Cosyns, a farmer near the town of Madera, just north of Fresno. “It’s just a race to the bottom.” Cosyns, who was interviewed in August, died unexpectedly on September 7.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This year’s drought hit hard and fast. With rivers running low, there’s little “surface water” available for agriculture. As a result, farmers’ pumps ran hard this summer. Big pipes that emerge from the ground alongside fields and orchards delivered powerful gushers of water.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11891503\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1448px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11891503\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/aquifer3.jpg\" alt=\"Rick Cosyns stands next to his farm's well, a large metal container with water flowing inside.\" width=\"1448\" height=\"971\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/aquifer3.jpg 1448w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/aquifer3-800x536.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/aquifer3-1020x684.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/aquifer3-160x107.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1448px) 100vw, 1448px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Rick Cosyns, a farmer in Madera, relied on water from the aquifer in years of drought. In other years he could replenish the aquifer with water from the San Joaquin River. “It’s unsustainable to continue over-drafting the aquifer the way we are,” he said in August before he passed away the following month. \u003ccite>(Dan Charles)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>State-wide, farmers to pumped an estimated six to seven million additional acre-feet of water this year, above what they normally use. (An acre-foot of water is 325,851 gallons.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It kept fields and orchards green and productive, but there’s collateral damage. Those deep agricultural wells suck the water out from underneath smaller domestic wells, like the one at Esther Espinoza’s house outside the small town of Riverdale.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I see how the big pumps are pumping water, and we don’t have water. It’s something so sad for me,” Espinoza said. “We have water for nothing. For the bathroom, or the kitchen. It’s something which is so necessary, [that] we don’t have.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote align=\"right\" size=\"medium\" citation=\"Esther Espinoza, Resident of Fresno County\"]‘I see how the big pumps are pumping water, and we don’t have water.’[/pullquote]She and her family now depend on water from a big black tank in their front yard, which a local non-profit fills up each week. Hundreds, and probably thousands, of households are in this situation, most of them in the southern part of the Central Valley, where aquifers are most depleted.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For 100 years in California, anyone could dig a well on their land and pump as much as they wanted. Farmers got most of it. They pumped so much water that the underground water table fell by more than 100 feet in some places. The ground itself subsided as water was pumped out from underneath it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>All that’s supposed to end.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>SGMA passed in 2014 but is just now going into effect and it treats the aquifer like a bank account that has to stay in balance. There can be withdrawals of water, but they cannot exceed the rate at which the aquifer is replenished.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote size='large' align='right']For 100 years in California, anyone could dig a well on their land and pump as much as they wanted. Farmers got most of it.[/pullquote]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The new restrictions are creating winners and losers among farmers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cosyns’s farm, near Madera, is among the fortunate ones. It has another source of water. It’s part of an irrigation district set up a century ago to distribute water from nearby rivers to farmers. Most of that water, today, is captured by a dam on the San Joaquin River.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A deep irrigation ditch runs alongside the almond orchard. It’s empty this year because of the drought. “I’d sure feel better if this was full of water, and most years it is,” Cosysns said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11891508\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1297px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11891508\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/aquifer2.jpg\" alt=\"Dozens of cows are gathered inside a closed space. Nearby is a metal well with many tubes sticking out.\" width=\"1297\" height=\"968\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/aquifer2.jpg 1297w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/aquifer2-800x597.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/aquifer2-1020x761.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/aquifer2-160x119.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1297px) 100vw, 1297px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">In a farming area east of Tulare County, fields of corn and dairy herds depend on water from wells like this one. The state is now limiting the use of this groundwater. \u003ccite>(Dan Charles/NPR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Most years, when there’s enough rain and snow, he could use that water to irrigate orchards and let some of the water just sink back into the ground. Eventually that water can filter all the way back down to the aquifer, hundreds of feet below.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s a way to keep that aquifer bank account roughly in balance, making water deposits when there’s plenty of water from the river, and pumping water out again when there’s a drought.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yet even here, the water table in the aquifer has been falling. The reason, Cosyns said, lay elsewhere. “The surrounding areas are pumping the water out from under us,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those farmers own land that’s outside the irrigation district, and they don’t get water from the dam on the San Joaquin River. They pump from the aquifer every year, making withdrawals but no deposits. Under the new law, that will have to end.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cosyns had only limited sympathy. “We’ve made the investments” in securing additional water supplies, he said, “and others are getting into our bank accounts that we saved for.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Farmers who rely solely on groundwater may think it’s their right to do that indefinitely, “but we’ve come to that day of reckoning, when that’s no longer going to be the case.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote align=\"right\" size=\"medium\" citation=\"David Roberts, Farmer in Tulare County\"]‘We’re going to turn the water crisis into a food crisis, because we cannot replicate the San Joaquin Valley anywhere else in the United States.’[/pullquote]This is the main division in California agriculture as the groundwater law comes into force. On the one side are farmers in irrigation districts with secure access to water from California’s rivers and reservoirs; on the other, farmers who’ve relied almost completely on their wells.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many of the aquifer-dependent farmers will have to cut their pumping drastically, and that likely means they’ll have to idle some of their land. According to some estimates, anywhere from half a million to a million acres will cease growing agricultural crops in the San Joaquin Valley, from Sacramento and Bakersfield.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This does not sit well with some farmers, such as David Roberts, who grows citrus crops in Tulare County. “We’re going to turn the water crisis into a food crisis, because we cannot replicate the San Joaquin Valley anywhere else in the United States,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>No other place, he says, has the climate to grow more than 400 different crops. And when consumers realize what they’re missing, he expects a backlash. “This ground will come back into production one way or another,” he explained. “The United States cannot be without the San Joaquin Valley producing fruit.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11891504\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1452px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11891504\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/aquifer4.jpg\" alt=\"Dan Charles stands in front of a field and points at it, with a concerned look on his face.\" width=\"1452\" height=\"967\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/aquifer4.jpg 1452w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/aquifer4-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/aquifer4-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/aquifer4-160x107.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1452px) 100vw, 1452px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">David Roberts grows citrus crops on the eastern side of the Central Valley, near Woodlake, in Tulare County. Some of his orchards depend entirely on water that he pumps from the aquifer and he’s worried that the SGMA will hinder his farm’s capacity to grow. “We’re going to turn the water crisis into a food crisis,” he said. \u003ccite>(Dan Charles/NPR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Roberts agrees that overuse of the aquifer has to end. But he wants the government to step in to deliver more water from rivers and dams to make up for the lost groundwater, to keep more land in production and also replenish the aquifer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=\"science_1976952 hero=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/09/Grapes-1920x1440.jpg\"]Other water experts say that’s a pipe dream, and unnecessary. Some crops currently grown in the Central Valley, including almost half a million acres of corn used to feed dairy cattle, can easily be grown elsewhere. California’s dairy industry is likely to contract because cattle feed will become increasingly scarce, they say, but consumers will barely notice.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In fact, some farmers think the future looks bright. “I actually think it’s going to be a better future than the past has been,” said Jon Reiter, a rancher and adviser to large-scale farming operations in the valley.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>People already are working on creative ways to adapt and prosper, he says. Farmers and water managers are building the infrastructure to capture more water in years when it rains, flood their fields, and replenish the aquifer. That will allow them to pump more groundwater in the future.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some land still will have to stop growing crops, Reiter says, “but we’re going to take that land and put it to other uses.” There are profits to be made leasing land for solar production, for instance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11891505\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1453px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11891505\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/aquifer5.jpg\" alt=\"A field of dozens of solar panels stand in the middle of a barren, dry landscape.\" width=\"1453\" height=\"973\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/aquifer5.jpg 1453w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/aquifer5-800x536.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/aquifer5-1020x683.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/aquifer5-160x107.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1453px) 100vw, 1453px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Solar farms, like this one in Tulare County, have replaced some vegetable fields and orchards in the Central Valley. “I see the San Joaquin Valley being really a solar hub, renewable energy hub for the whole of California,” said Jon Reiter, a rancher and adviser to large-scale farming operations in the valley. \u003ccite>(Dan Charles/NPR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“I see the San Joaquin Valley being really a solar hub, renewable energy hub for the whole of California,” he said. “It could be a big part of our state achieving its renewable energy objectives.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There’s also a new state program that will pay farmers to turn fallowed fields into habitat for birds, lizards, and native shrubs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside label ='More Drought Coverage' tag='drought']No one knows exactly what that Central Valley will look like when this all shakes out. Dozens of local committees are in charge of enforcing the new groundwater law.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Soapy Mulholland, a conservationist who’s on half a dozen of these committees, says they include a much larger range of viewpoints than previously had influence over groundwater.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You’re considering disadvantaged communities, the farmers, you’re considering the environment, and all those players are at the table,” she said. “And that’s a good thing.”\u003cbr>\n[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>The state grows roughly 40% of the country’s vegetables, fruit and nuts. But it’s also famously prone to drought, and in those dry years, when farms run short of water from rivers and reservoirs, they turn on powerful pumps and draw well water from aquifers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The limits on that water use will force many farmers to scrap practices that relied on unfettered access to that shrinking underground reservoir.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s unsustainable to continue over-drafting the aquifer the way we are,” said Rick Cosyns, a farmer near the town of Madera, just north of Fresno. “It’s just a race to the bottom.” Cosyns, who was interviewed in August, died unexpectedly on September 7.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This year’s drought hit hard and fast. With rivers running low, there’s little “surface water” available for agriculture. As a result, farmers’ pumps ran hard this summer. Big pipes that emerge from the ground alongside fields and orchards delivered powerful gushers of water.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11891503\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1448px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11891503\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/aquifer3.jpg\" alt=\"Rick Cosyns stands next to his farm's well, a large metal container with water flowing inside.\" width=\"1448\" height=\"971\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/aquifer3.jpg 1448w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/aquifer3-800x536.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/aquifer3-1020x684.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/aquifer3-160x107.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1448px) 100vw, 1448px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Rick Cosyns, a farmer in Madera, relied on water from the aquifer in years of drought. In other years he could replenish the aquifer with water from the San Joaquin River. “It’s unsustainable to continue over-drafting the aquifer the way we are,” he said in August before he passed away the following month. \u003ccite>(Dan Charles)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>State-wide, farmers to pumped an estimated six to seven million additional acre-feet of water this year, above what they normally use. (An acre-foot of water is 325,851 gallons.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It kept fields and orchards green and productive, but there’s collateral damage. Those deep agricultural wells suck the water out from underneath smaller domestic wells, like the one at Esther Espinoza’s house outside the small town of Riverdale.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I see how the big pumps are pumping water, and we don’t have water. It’s something so sad for me,” Espinoza said. “We have water for nothing. For the bathroom, or the kitchen. It’s something which is so necessary, [that] we don’t have.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "‘I see how the big pumps are pumping water, and we don’t have water.’",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>She and her family now depend on water from a big black tank in their front yard, which a local non-profit fills up each week. Hundreds, and probably thousands, of households are in this situation, most of them in the southern part of the Central Valley, where aquifers are most depleted.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For 100 years in California, anyone could dig a well on their land and pump as much as they wanted. Farmers got most of it. They pumped so much water that the underground water table fell by more than 100 feet in some places. The ground itself subsided as water was pumped out from underneath it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>All that’s supposed to end.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>SGMA passed in 2014 but is just now going into effect and it treats the aquifer like a bank account that has to stay in balance. There can be withdrawals of water, but they cannot exceed the rate at which the aquifer is replenished.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "For 100 years in California, anyone could dig a well on their land and pump as much as they wanted. Farmers got most of it.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The new restrictions are creating winners and losers among farmers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cosyns’s farm, near Madera, is among the fortunate ones. It has another source of water. It’s part of an irrigation district set up a century ago to distribute water from nearby rivers to farmers. Most of that water, today, is captured by a dam on the San Joaquin River.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A deep irrigation ditch runs alongside the almond orchard. It’s empty this year because of the drought. “I’d sure feel better if this was full of water, and most years it is,” Cosysns said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11891508\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1297px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11891508\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/aquifer2.jpg\" alt=\"Dozens of cows are gathered inside a closed space. Nearby is a metal well with many tubes sticking out.\" width=\"1297\" height=\"968\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/aquifer2.jpg 1297w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/aquifer2-800x597.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/aquifer2-1020x761.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/aquifer2-160x119.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1297px) 100vw, 1297px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">In a farming area east of Tulare County, fields of corn and dairy herds depend on water from wells like this one. The state is now limiting the use of this groundwater. \u003ccite>(Dan Charles/NPR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Most years, when there’s enough rain and snow, he could use that water to irrigate orchards and let some of the water just sink back into the ground. Eventually that water can filter all the way back down to the aquifer, hundreds of feet below.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s a way to keep that aquifer bank account roughly in balance, making water deposits when there’s plenty of water from the river, and pumping water out again when there’s a drought.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yet even here, the water table in the aquifer has been falling. The reason, Cosyns said, lay elsewhere. “The surrounding areas are pumping the water out from under us,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those farmers own land that’s outside the irrigation district, and they don’t get water from the dam on the San Joaquin River. They pump from the aquifer every year, making withdrawals but no deposits. Under the new law, that will have to end.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cosyns had only limited sympathy. “We’ve made the investments” in securing additional water supplies, he said, “and others are getting into our bank accounts that we saved for.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Farmers who rely solely on groundwater may think it’s their right to do that indefinitely, “but we’ve come to that day of reckoning, when that’s no longer going to be the case.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "‘We’re going to turn the water crisis into a food crisis, because we cannot replicate the San Joaquin Valley anywhere else in the United States.’",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>This is the main division in California agriculture as the groundwater law comes into force. On the one side are farmers in irrigation districts with secure access to water from California’s rivers and reservoirs; on the other, farmers who’ve relied almost completely on their wells.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many of the aquifer-dependent farmers will have to cut their pumping drastically, and that likely means they’ll have to idle some of their land. According to some estimates, anywhere from half a million to a million acres will cease growing agricultural crops in the San Joaquin Valley, from Sacramento and Bakersfield.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This does not sit well with some farmers, such as David Roberts, who grows citrus crops in Tulare County. “We’re going to turn the water crisis into a food crisis, because we cannot replicate the San Joaquin Valley anywhere else in the United States,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>No other place, he says, has the climate to grow more than 400 different crops. And when consumers realize what they’re missing, he expects a backlash. “This ground will come back into production one way or another,” he explained. “The United States cannot be without the San Joaquin Valley producing fruit.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11891504\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1452px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11891504\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/aquifer4.jpg\" alt=\"Dan Charles stands in front of a field and points at it, with a concerned look on his face.\" width=\"1452\" height=\"967\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/aquifer4.jpg 1452w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/aquifer4-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/aquifer4-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/aquifer4-160x107.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1452px) 100vw, 1452px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">David Roberts grows citrus crops on the eastern side of the Central Valley, near Woodlake, in Tulare County. Some of his orchards depend entirely on water that he pumps from the aquifer and he’s worried that the SGMA will hinder his farm’s capacity to grow. “We’re going to turn the water crisis into a food crisis,” he said. \u003ccite>(Dan Charles/NPR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Roberts agrees that overuse of the aquifer has to end. But he wants the government to step in to deliver more water from rivers and dams to make up for the lost groundwater, to keep more land in production and also replenish the aquifer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Other water experts say that’s a pipe dream, and unnecessary. Some crops currently grown in the Central Valley, including almost half a million acres of corn used to feed dairy cattle, can easily be grown elsewhere. California’s dairy industry is likely to contract because cattle feed will become increasingly scarce, they say, but consumers will barely notice.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In fact, some farmers think the future looks bright. “I actually think it’s going to be a better future than the past has been,” said Jon Reiter, a rancher and adviser to large-scale farming operations in the valley.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>People already are working on creative ways to adapt and prosper, he says. Farmers and water managers are building the infrastructure to capture more water in years when it rains, flood their fields, and replenish the aquifer. That will allow them to pump more groundwater in the future.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some land still will have to stop growing crops, Reiter says, “but we’re going to take that land and put it to other uses.” There are profits to be made leasing land for solar production, for instance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11891505\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1453px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11891505\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/aquifer5.jpg\" alt=\"A field of dozens of solar panels stand in the middle of a barren, dry landscape.\" width=\"1453\" height=\"973\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/aquifer5.jpg 1453w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/aquifer5-800x536.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/aquifer5-1020x683.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/aquifer5-160x107.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1453px) 100vw, 1453px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Solar farms, like this one in Tulare County, have replaced some vegetable fields and orchards in the Central Valley. “I see the San Joaquin Valley being really a solar hub, renewable energy hub for the whole of California,” said Jon Reiter, a rancher and adviser to large-scale farming operations in the valley. \u003ccite>(Dan Charles/NPR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“I see the San Joaquin Valley being really a solar hub, renewable energy hub for the whole of California,” he said. “It could be a big part of our state achieving its renewable energy objectives.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There’s also a new state program that will pay farmers to turn fallowed fields into habitat for birds, lizards, and native shrubs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>No one knows exactly what that Central Valley will look like when this all shakes out. Dozens of local committees are in charge of enforcing the new groundwater law.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Soapy Mulholland, a conservationist who’s on half a dozen of these committees, says they include a much larger range of viewpoints than previously had influence over groundwater.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You’re considering disadvantaged communities, the farmers, you’re considering the environment, and all those players are at the table,” she said. “And that’s a good thing.”\u003cbr>\n\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"slug": "california-farmers-are-storing-water-in-underground-aquifers-that-function-like-savings-accounts",
"title": "California Farmers Are Storing Water in Underground Aquifers That Function Like Savings Accounts",
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"content": "\u003cp>Aaron Fukuda admits that the 15-acre sunken field behind his office doesn’t look like much.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s basically a big, wide hole in the ground behind the headquarters of the Tulare Irrigation District in the \u003ca href=\"https://www.ppic.org/publication/groundwater-in-california/\">southern part of the Central Valley\u003c/a>. But “for a water resources nerd like myself, it’s a sexy, sexy piece of infrastructure,” says Fukuda, the district’s general manager.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This earthen basin could be the key to survival for an agricultural community that delivers huge quantities of vegetables, fruit and nuts to the rest of the country — but is \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2021/07/22/1019483661/without-enough-water-to-go-around-farmers-in-california-are-exhausting-aquifers\">running short of water\u003c/a>. The basin just needs California’s rivers to rise and flood it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When rains come in the winter and swell the rivers, Fukuda and his colleagues open some gates and send water through irrigation canals to fill this basin and lots of others they’ve set up. That captured water will seep into the ground, eventually finding its way to a natural aquifer system hundreds of feet below.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11891271\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1294px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11891271 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/farmer2.jpg\" alt=\"Aaron Fukuda stands in a dry and empty field, wearing reflective sunglasses and looking at the camera.\" width=\"1294\" height=\"863\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/farmer2.jpg 1294w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/farmer2-800x534.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/farmer2-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/farmer2-160x107.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1294px) 100vw, 1294px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Fukuda believes that replenishing underground aquifers is key for the future of agriculture in this part of the Central Valley. “It really is the difference between our community surviving and not,” he says. \u003ccite>(Dan Charles/NPR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.ppic.org/publication/groundwater-in-california/\">Water underground has become a scarce and regulated asset\u003c/a> in the state. Farmers have pumped so much water from aquifers in this part of California that they’ve become depleted, threatening water supplies for agriculture and communities that depend on wells for their household water. The Sustainable Groundwater Management Act, or SGMA, passed in 2014 is just now taking effect and it strictly limits the amount that farmers can pump from those aquifers, and those limits could put some farmers out of business.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Water-capturing basins like this one, however, offer farmers a way to survive. That’s because the \u003ca href=\"https://water.ca.gov/programs/groundwater-management/sgma-groundwater-management\">new law treats the underground aquifer like a bank account\u003c/a>. If farmers deposit water into that account when water is plentiful, they can draw more water out when they need it, in years of drought. “It really is the difference between our community surviving and not,” Fukuda says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11891272\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1455px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11891272 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/farmer3.jpg\" alt=\"A man wearing a dress shirt, jeans, and a baseball cap bends over to look at a row of grapes growing in an agricultural field.\" width=\"1455\" height=\"964\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/farmer3.jpg 1455w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/farmer3-800x530.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/farmer3-1020x676.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/farmer3-160x106.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1455px) 100vw, 1455px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jon Reiter, an adviser to several agricultural companies, checks out a vineyard that the owner could convert into a site to capture and store water. \u003ccite>(Dan Charles/NPR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch3>Floods are going from nuisance to lifeline\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>In the past, many Californians considered the winter floods a nuisance, Fukuda says. Now, that has now changed completely. “It’s liquid gold,” he says. “Cold, crisp floodwater is gold these days.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Farmers and water managers in the southern part of the Central Valley, \u003ca href=\"https://water.ca.gov/programs/groundwater-management/bulletin-118/critically-overdrafted-basins\">where the water problem is most severe\u003c/a>, are grasping at the water banking idea like a lifeline. Jon Reiter, a rancher and water consultant, works with some of them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote align=\"right\" size=\"medium\" citation=\"Don Cameron, owner of Terranova Ranch\"]‘A lot of people were skeptical … they thought we were crazy. That we were going to kill our vineyard.’[/pullquote]He shows me a field of grapes, destined to become raisins. The soil is sandy and looks as if it could absorb any water that landed here. There’s an embankment around three sides of the field already. “You could imagine how much water you could store in the ground in a location like this,” Reiter says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The owner of this field, he says, “has made the determination that he would be willing to actually remove the raisins” and use the land instead to capture water. The water he would “sink” might be more valuable to him than his raisin crop because it could earn him the right to pump more water from the aquifer during a future drought to irrigate other fields.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Don Cameron, the owner of Terranova Ranch near the town of Helm in Fresno County, has even bigger ambitions. Cameron’s farm relies almost entirely on groundwater. He’s been watching the underground water level fall for years and worrying about the future.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ten years ago, during a winter with lots of rain, he decided to flood some vineyards and orchards, to see if he could replenish the aquifer without even clearing land for a dedicated “recharge basin.” “A lot of people were skeptical, our neighbors especially,” Cameron says. “I mean, they thought we were crazy. That we were going to kill our vineyard.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=\"science_1976952\" hero=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/09/WINE-DROUGHT-ROMERO-3-1020x765.jpg\"]In fact, the grapevines and trees survived just fine, and the experiment boosted groundwater levels below his field. Further experiments, some carried out in collaboration with researchers at UC Davis, confirmed the feasibility of this “on-farm recharge.” Now Cameron is persuading his neighbors to do the same thing. Together, they could potentially flood tens of thousands of acres.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This is only possible, though, because Cameron happens to be in a fortunate location, right next to a branch of the Kings River, which in turn is connected to a big canal that’s a major artery in California’s vast water distribution system. That channel is bone-dry at the moment, but in years of heavy rains, it can fill with water.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many other farmers who are dependent on groundwater, and who will be hit hardest by the new law limiting its use, can’t make “deposits” in their underground bank account because they have no access to floodwater. They’re not connected to the network of ditches and canals that would be needed to carry floodwaters to their fields.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11891276\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1451px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11891276\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/farmer4.jpg\" alt=\"The canal resembles a ditch, in a very dry and somewhat barren terrain. There is some green shrubbery present.\" width=\"1451\" height=\"972\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/farmer4.jpg 1451w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/farmer4-800x536.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/farmer4-1020x683.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/farmer4-160x107.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1451px) 100vw, 1451px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">This newly constructed canal near Helm, in Fresno County, is waiting for the next flood. Don Cameron built it, with help from the state, to carry excess water from the Kings River to nearby fields. \u003ccite>(Dan Charles/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch3>Will this solution fall short?\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>This won’t solve all of the Central Valley’s water problems, though. For one thing, there still won’t be enough water available to fully recharge the aquifers. Aggressively capturing and storing floodwaters could make up for 40% to 50% of the current groundwater deficit at best, according to Reiter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In addition, recharging the aquifer could have mixed effects on the Central Valley’s other big groundwater problem: contamination of wells with agricultural chemicals. These include nitrates from fertilizer and cattle waste. The problem is most severe for lower-income communities that rely on shallow wells for household water use.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Flooding more land probably will flush those agricultural pollutants into aquifers, says Helen Dahlke, a hydrologist at UC Davis. “We often see a spike in nitrate, for example, at the groundwater table below a recharge site,” she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=\"science_1977037\" hero=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/10/RS51246_006_Meyers_CaldorFire_08312021-qut-1020x679.jpg\"]In the long run, though, she thinks it will be good for water quality. “Most of the water that we use for recharge is very clean, because it comes from rainfall or snowmelt from the Sierra Nevada mountains,” she says. “Eventually there will be a pulse of clean water also coming into the aquifer, which can dilute many of the pollutants that have moved into the groundwater over the last couple of decades.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She points to the experience of Okieville, a small community in Tulare County. There are parts of the community where wells show high levels of contamination. But along its southern edge, there’s a groundwater recharge basin that the Tulare Irrigation District regularly fills with floodwater. People who live near that basin have enjoyed reliable supplies of clean water from their wells.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The irrigation district now is planning to build a new recharge basin on the other side of Okieville. “The idea is we can begin to shove water underneath their community. Good, clean water,” says Aaron Fukuda, general manager of the irrigation district. “The water quality, we hope, gets better.”\u003cbr>\n[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "A 7-year-old California water law, just now taking effect, treats underground aquifers like a bank account. If farmers deposit water when there is plenty, they can draw more water out when they need it.",
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"title": "California Farmers Are Storing Water in Underground Aquifers That Function Like Savings Accounts | KQED",
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"nprByline": "\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/people/143160021/daniel-charles\">Dan Charles\u003c/a>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Aaron Fukuda admits that the 15-acre sunken field behind his office doesn’t look like much.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s basically a big, wide hole in the ground behind the headquarters of the Tulare Irrigation District in the \u003ca href=\"https://www.ppic.org/publication/groundwater-in-california/\">southern part of the Central Valley\u003c/a>. But “for a water resources nerd like myself, it’s a sexy, sexy piece of infrastructure,” says Fukuda, the district’s general manager.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This earthen basin could be the key to survival for an agricultural community that delivers huge quantities of vegetables, fruit and nuts to the rest of the country — but is \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2021/07/22/1019483661/without-enough-water-to-go-around-farmers-in-california-are-exhausting-aquifers\">running short of water\u003c/a>. The basin just needs California’s rivers to rise and flood it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When rains come in the winter and swell the rivers, Fukuda and his colleagues open some gates and send water through irrigation canals to fill this basin and lots of others they’ve set up. That captured water will seep into the ground, eventually finding its way to a natural aquifer system hundreds of feet below.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11891271\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1294px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11891271 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/farmer2.jpg\" alt=\"Aaron Fukuda stands in a dry and empty field, wearing reflective sunglasses and looking at the camera.\" width=\"1294\" height=\"863\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/farmer2.jpg 1294w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/farmer2-800x534.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/farmer2-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/farmer2-160x107.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1294px) 100vw, 1294px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Fukuda believes that replenishing underground aquifers is key for the future of agriculture in this part of the Central Valley. “It really is the difference between our community surviving and not,” he says. \u003ccite>(Dan Charles/NPR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.ppic.org/publication/groundwater-in-california/\">Water underground has become a scarce and regulated asset\u003c/a> in the state. Farmers have pumped so much water from aquifers in this part of California that they’ve become depleted, threatening water supplies for agriculture and communities that depend on wells for their household water. The Sustainable Groundwater Management Act, or SGMA, passed in 2014 is just now taking effect and it strictly limits the amount that farmers can pump from those aquifers, and those limits could put some farmers out of business.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Water-capturing basins like this one, however, offer farmers a way to survive. That’s because the \u003ca href=\"https://water.ca.gov/programs/groundwater-management/sgma-groundwater-management\">new law treats the underground aquifer like a bank account\u003c/a>. If farmers deposit water into that account when water is plentiful, they can draw more water out when they need it, in years of drought. “It really is the difference between our community surviving and not,” Fukuda says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11891272\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1455px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11891272 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/farmer3.jpg\" alt=\"A man wearing a dress shirt, jeans, and a baseball cap bends over to look at a row of grapes growing in an agricultural field.\" width=\"1455\" height=\"964\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/farmer3.jpg 1455w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/farmer3-800x530.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/farmer3-1020x676.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/farmer3-160x106.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1455px) 100vw, 1455px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jon Reiter, an adviser to several agricultural companies, checks out a vineyard that the owner could convert into a site to capture and store water. \u003ccite>(Dan Charles/NPR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch3>Floods are going from nuisance to lifeline\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>In the past, many Californians considered the winter floods a nuisance, Fukuda says. Now, that has now changed completely. “It’s liquid gold,” he says. “Cold, crisp floodwater is gold these days.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Farmers and water managers in the southern part of the Central Valley, \u003ca href=\"https://water.ca.gov/programs/groundwater-management/bulletin-118/critically-overdrafted-basins\">where the water problem is most severe\u003c/a>, are grasping at the water banking idea like a lifeline. Jon Reiter, a rancher and water consultant, works with some of them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "‘A lot of people were skeptical … they thought we were crazy. That we were going to kill our vineyard.’",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>He shows me a field of grapes, destined to become raisins. The soil is sandy and looks as if it could absorb any water that landed here. There’s an embankment around three sides of the field already. “You could imagine how much water you could store in the ground in a location like this,” Reiter says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The owner of this field, he says, “has made the determination that he would be willing to actually remove the raisins” and use the land instead to capture water. The water he would “sink” might be more valuable to him than his raisin crop because it could earn him the right to pump more water from the aquifer during a future drought to irrigate other fields.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Don Cameron, the owner of Terranova Ranch near the town of Helm in Fresno County, has even bigger ambitions. Cameron’s farm relies almost entirely on groundwater. He’s been watching the underground water level fall for years and worrying about the future.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ten years ago, during a winter with lots of rain, he decided to flood some vineyards and orchards, to see if he could replenish the aquifer without even clearing land for a dedicated “recharge basin.” “A lot of people were skeptical, our neighbors especially,” Cameron says. “I mean, they thought we were crazy. That we were going to kill our vineyard.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>In fact, the grapevines and trees survived just fine, and the experiment boosted groundwater levels below his field. Further experiments, some carried out in collaboration with researchers at UC Davis, confirmed the feasibility of this “on-farm recharge.” Now Cameron is persuading his neighbors to do the same thing. Together, they could potentially flood tens of thousands of acres.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This is only possible, though, because Cameron happens to be in a fortunate location, right next to a branch of the Kings River, which in turn is connected to a big canal that’s a major artery in California’s vast water distribution system. That channel is bone-dry at the moment, but in years of heavy rains, it can fill with water.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many other farmers who are dependent on groundwater, and who will be hit hardest by the new law limiting its use, can’t make “deposits” in their underground bank account because they have no access to floodwater. They’re not connected to the network of ditches and canals that would be needed to carry floodwaters to their fields.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11891276\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1451px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11891276\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/farmer4.jpg\" alt=\"The canal resembles a ditch, in a very dry and somewhat barren terrain. There is some green shrubbery present.\" width=\"1451\" height=\"972\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/farmer4.jpg 1451w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/farmer4-800x536.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/farmer4-1020x683.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/farmer4-160x107.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1451px) 100vw, 1451px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">This newly constructed canal near Helm, in Fresno County, is waiting for the next flood. Don Cameron built it, with help from the state, to carry excess water from the Kings River to nearby fields. \u003ccite>(Dan Charles/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch3>Will this solution fall short?\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>This won’t solve all of the Central Valley’s water problems, though. For one thing, there still won’t be enough water available to fully recharge the aquifers. Aggressively capturing and storing floodwaters could make up for 40% to 50% of the current groundwater deficit at best, according to Reiter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In addition, recharging the aquifer could have mixed effects on the Central Valley’s other big groundwater problem: contamination of wells with agricultural chemicals. These include nitrates from fertilizer and cattle waste. The problem is most severe for lower-income communities that rely on shallow wells for household water use.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Flooding more land probably will flush those agricultural pollutants into aquifers, says Helen Dahlke, a hydrologist at UC Davis. “We often see a spike in nitrate, for example, at the groundwater table below a recharge site,” she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>In the long run, though, she thinks it will be good for water quality. “Most of the water that we use for recharge is very clean, because it comes from rainfall or snowmelt from the Sierra Nevada mountains,” she says. “Eventually there will be a pulse of clean water also coming into the aquifer, which can dilute many of the pollutants that have moved into the groundwater over the last couple of decades.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She points to the experience of Okieville, a small community in Tulare County. There are parts of the community where wells show high levels of contamination. But along its southern edge, there’s a groundwater recharge basin that the Tulare Irrigation District regularly fills with floodwater. People who live near that basin have enjoyed reliable supplies of clean water from their wells.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The irrigation district now is planning to build a new recharge basin on the other side of Okieville. “The idea is we can begin to shove water underneath their community. Good, clean water,” says Aaron Fukuda, general manager of the irrigation district. “The water quality, we hope, gets better.”\u003cbr>\n\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"disqusTitle": "The Latest Massive California Oil Spill: What You Need to Know",
"title": "The Latest Massive California Oil Spill: What You Need to Know",
"headTitle": "KQED News",
"content": "\u003cp>The massive oil spill off Huntington Beach could become the kind of environmental disaster, played out along California’s beloved seashore, that coalesces opposition to offshore oil production.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It can be a messy industry, and previous oil spills have sparked outrage and driven policy and reforms. California, in its protest against leasing in federal waters, has over the decades enacted laws to make that \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/environment/2018/04/news-analysis-heres-whats-important-for-land-sea-and-air-in-californias-fight-with-trump/\">offshore crude more difficult and expensive to transport to the coast\u003c/a>, and also imposed tougher penalties for spills.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yet California remains, in its essence, an oil state, \u003ca href=\"https://www.statista.com/statistics/714376/crude-oil-production-by-us-state/\">ranking seventh in the nation for production\u003c/a>. Huntington Beach is a prime example of California’s complicated relationship with oil. It dubs itself Surf City USA, and has built an economy utterly dependent on clean beaches and water. Yet offshore oil platforms are visible from the city’s famous seashore, and Huntington Beach High School’s sports teams are called The Oilers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Huntington Beach is especially vulnerable to spills because of its cluster of six large oil platforms offshore. In all, \u003ca href=\"https://www.slc.ca.gov/oil-gas/\">California has 19 offshore oil leases in state waters\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.boem.gov/newsroom/pacific-ocs-platforms\">23 facilities in federal waters\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California introduced a bill in January known as the \u003ca href=\"https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/senate-bill/58\">West Coast Ocean Protection Act\u003c/a>, which would ban oil and gas drilling off the West Coast, and she reiterated the importance of that ban on Monday following the latest spill.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"Californians have made it clear: We don’t want oil drilling off our coast. It’s time to stop dangerous offshore drilling and invest in safer, cleaner energy solutions,” Feinstein said in a Monday press release.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla of California, a co-sponsor of the bill, echoed Feinstein on Monday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"We have the power to prevent future spills. That’s why I’m committed to ending offshore oil drilling,\" Padilla said. \"As Congress prepares sweeping new infrastructure and climate legislation to address our nation’s needs, the message is clear: We must act urgently to end our use of dangerous fossil fuels.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The last major spill off Huntington Beach was nearly 32 years ago — in almost the same spot. That spill occurred when an oil tanker, the American Trader, ran aground on its anchor nearshore, spilling about 400,000 gallons of British Petroleum crude oil into the ocean.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>What happened, when and where?\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>The spill began about \u003ca href=\"https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2021-10-03/what-caused-the-massive-oil-spill-off-huntington-beach-here-is-what-we-know\">5 miles off the coast of Huntington Beach\u003c/a>, where \u003ca href=\"https://business.lbchamber.com/list/member/beta-offshore-a-division-of-amplify-energy-corp-23835\">Amplify Energy\u003c/a>, one of the largest producers of oil in Southern California, owns three platforms in an oil field known as the Beta Field.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The oil leaked from the San Pedro Pipeline, which stretches 17 miles to connect one of the offshore platforms, known as Elly, to a pumping station at the port of Long Beach.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Constructed in 1980, the rig is 9 miles offshore in waters that are 265 feet deep. It processes crude oil collected from two other nearby platforms in the Beta Field. Those two platforms produce up to 8,000 barrels of crude — 336,000 gallons — per day, according to \u003ca href=\"https://www.bsee.gov/sites/bsee.gov/files/oil-spill-response-plan-osrp/inspection-and-enforcement/beta-operating-company-osrp-april-2012.pdf\">Amplify Energy's spill response plan\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The cause and the exact timing of the spill is unknown. The \u003ca href=\"https://socalspillresponse.com/\">Coast Guard was first notified at 9:10 a.m. Saturday\u003c/a>. By Sunday, oil- and petroleum-coated birds began to appear on Huntington Beach’s shoreline, which local officials closed to the public.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As much as 3,111 barrels of oil — roughly 130,000 gallons — may have spilled from the pipeline, according to Martyn Willsher, president and CEO of Amplify Energy, which operates the pipeline.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Evidence emerged Tuesday that a ship’s anchor may have snagged and dragged the underwater pipeline. The pipe was split open and a huge section was apparently dragged more than 100 feet along the ocean floor, possibly by \"an anchor that hooked the pipeline, causing a partial tear,” federal transportation investigators said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"The pipeline has essentially been pulled like a bow string,\" Willsher said. \"At its widest point, it is 105 feet away from where it was.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There was no indication whether investigators suspect that a particular ship was involved.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Coast Guard is investigating. The area is a busy corridor for ships serving the nearby ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles, but they are allowed specific spots for dropping anchors that are supposed to avoid pipelines.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote]Beta Operating was fined by federal regulators in 2013 and 2014 for violations that led to the injury of workers. The company also was issued 125 violations found by federal inspectors.[/pullquote]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Elly platform is in federal waters, which are defined as more than 3 miles offshore, and the leases are managed by the Department of the Interior. The platform, which is an offshore processing plant that removes seawater from crude oil, takes in oil from as many as 70 wells.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>What do we know about this company?\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Houston-based Amplify Energy owns the platform, which is operated by a subsidiary, Beta Operating Company.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://casedocs.omniagentsolutions.com/cmsvol2/pub_47157/671607_455.pdf\">Amplify Energy Corp. reorganized in 2018 after bankruptcy\u003c/a> and had been attempting to repair and upgrade its infrastructure, which can be easily corroded in an ocean environment. Much of the offshore field’s pipelines are decades old.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Beta Operating was fined by federal regulators in 2013 and 2014 for violations that led to the injury of workers. The \u003ca href=\"https://www.bsee.gov/what-we-do/safety-enforcement/enforcement-tools/incidents-of-non-compliance\">company also was issued 125 violations\u003c/a> found by federal inspectors.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>What's at stake?\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>On Sunday, an estimated 13 square miles of ocean surface were slicked with oil. And the oil is still moving south with the currents, reaching as far south as Dana Point today. Sticky balls and patties of oil are tainting the sand of local beaches, mostly in Huntington Beach and Newport Beach, officials said Monday afternoon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It is an area from Huntington Beach down to just south of Dana Point that extends a couple of miles offshore and within that there are ribbons or pools of oil,” said Rebecca Ore, U.S. Coast Guard captain of the port.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Birds are at high risk, as are marine mammals and bottom-dwelling creatures. \u003ca href=\"https://owcn.sf.ucdavis.edu/effects-oil-wildlife\">Crude oil can break down the natural waterproofing of birds’ feathers\u003c/a> and damage their internal organs. Four birds coated in oil already have been found, including one brown pelican that was euthanized on-site after sustaining wing injuries.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=\"news_11890998,news_11890877\" label=\"Previous Coverage\"]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California’s Department of Fish and Wildlife has deployed booms to try to stem the flow of oil into sensitive stretches of the coast, including one of Southern California’s biggest ecological treasures, the Bolsa Chica wetlands, according to Christian Corbo, a lieutenant with the department. Pushed by currents, the slick is likely to continue moving south, away from Bolsa Chica and Long Beach.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Oil already has penetrated the smaller Talbert Marsh, which is south of Bolsa Chica and managed by the Huntington Beach Wetlands Conservancy, said Executive Director John Villa. So far, no birds or fish have died in the marsh, he said, although two birds have been coated in oil, and clams, oysters and crabs living among the oil-covered rocks could be at risk.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’ll have to see what’s going to happen,” Villa said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Sunday, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife closed fisheries within 6 miles of shore from Sunset Beach to Dana Point. California’s environmental health experts warn that fishing in the vicinity of the spill and \u003ca href=\"https://socalspillresponse-com-jtti.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/03185106/Declaration-of-Fisheries-Closure-10.2.2021.pdf\">eating potentially tainted fish and shellfish could threaten public health\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Newport Harbor, home to several thousand recreational boats, also was closed down.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://twitter.com/CalSpillWatch/status/1444873774701035523?s=20\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>What's being done to clean it up?\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>The Coast Guard has launched a fleet of boats using booms to isolate the oil and then collect it using skimmers. All told, as of Sunday, more than 5,300 feet of boom had been deployed and \u003ca href=\"https://socalspillresponse.com/\">3,150 gallons of oil had been recovered from the water\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Officials at a press briefing Monday said little about efforts along the shorelines, where \u003ca href=\"https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/spills-cleanup.html\">cleaning up oil can mean a number of different strategies\u003c/a> — including industrial-sized vacuum trucks, absorbent materials to sponge up the oil, soap-like cleaners to disperse the grease and shoveling it up and carting it away.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sensitive environments like coastal wetlands can be especially difficult to clean, said \u003ca href=\"https://msi.ucsb.edu/people/faculty/david-valentine\">David Valentine\u003c/a>, a professor of earth science and biology at UC Santa Barbara.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s often as much or more damage to send a whole bunch of people in there walking all over this habitat,” Valentine said. “So you’re in a tough predicament, because the cleanup can be almost as bad as the spill.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>So who's at fault and why?\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>State and federal officials have launched investigations of the cause and timing of the spill. Under numerous state and federal laws, companies can be fined and held responsible for cleanup costs and damages to natural resources as well as the local economy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is a criminal case,” said Eric Laughlin, a public information officer with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. “There is a federal and a state investigation separate from this response.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Whatever needs to be done, we will take care of it,” Amplify's Willsher said at a press briefing Tuesday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Authorities will want to review Amplify Energy’s operations records, the status of their equipment and whether workers were negligent in any way.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Additionally, officials will want to determine how quickly the company reported the spill. For safety reasons, oil and gas production pipelines usually have shutoff valves that allow operators to quickly staunch the flow. When a breach is detected, time is of the essence to cut off the flow and begin efforts to contain the spill and prevent it from reaching shore.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Martyn Willsher, president and CEO of Amplify Energy Corp.\"]'Whatever needs to be done, we will take care of it.'[/pullquote]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The company has sent a remotely operated vehicle to inspect 8,000 feet of the pipeline, and identified an area of “significant interest” that divers were set to inspect this afternoon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There is no active leak that we are aware of and especially in that specific area that we’ve identified,” Willsher said\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Orange County District Attorney \u003ca href=\"http://orangecountyda.org/office/spitzer.asp\">Todd Spitzer\u003c/a> urged investigators to oversee Amplify’s divers as they inspect the line.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They shouldn’t be able to go anywhere near that pipeline,” Spitzer said. “They are biased, they’re self-interested, and they’re going to do everything they can to try to reduce their damages.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Who's in charge?\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://socalspillresponse.com/\">The accident is under unified command\u003c/a>: The United States Coast Guard and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife’s Office of Spill Prevention and Response are directing the emergency response.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Todd Spitzer, Orange County district attorney\"]'They shouldn’t be able to go anywhere near that pipeline. They are biased, they’re self interested, and they’re going to do everything they can to try to reduce their damages.'[/pullquote]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The platform’s owner, Amplify Energy, also is involved. The city of Huntington Beach is participating, too, and state agencies such as the California Coastal Commission, the State Lands Commission and the State Parks Department, which has property in the path of the oil, are also monitoring the situation.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Who pays?\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Once the investigation identifies a responsible party, state and federal officials will undertake a \u003ca href=\"https://wildlife.ca.gov/OSPR/NRDA/About\">Natural Resource Damage Assessment\u003c/a>, conducted through the fish and wildlife agency.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The complex and painstaking analysis quantifies death and injuries to wildlife — assigning a dollar value to a shore bird, for example — and estimates the cost of restoring the oiled landscape and waters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Recent legislation has beefed up the state’s ability to penalize companies for oil spills: A \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB3214\">2020 law doubled the minimum and maximum fines for an array of oil spill violations\u003c/a> and added a provision that a person who knowingly discharged or spilled oil into state waters, or failed to clean up the spill, could be fined up to $1,000 per gallon in spills of more than 1,000 gallons.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Another \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=201720180AB2864\">law, from 2018, required the state to consult with agencies\u003c/a> such as the California Coastal Commission when evaluating damage to public resources such as beaches.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Coastal Commission already has the authority to fine entities for activities that deny coastal access. A bill that would expand the commission’s ability to \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220SB433\">levy fines for environmental damage\u003c/a> passed the legislature in September and is on the governor’s desk.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state needs to send a message to companies that they will be required to pay to clean up after themselves, said state Sen. Ben Allen, a Democrat from Redondo Beach and the bill’s author. “The state bears so much of the damage and cost associated with these spills,” he said. “This will give the state the tool it needs to hold companies accountable.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>How expensive is it?\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>The price tag for environmental cleanup and fines can be high, although certainly affordable for mega companies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After extensive litigation over the 1990 spill in Huntington Beach, several companies, including British Petroleum, Brandenburger Marine and tanker owner Attransco, \u003ca href=\"https://oag.ca.gov/news/press-releases/attorney-general-lockyer-announces-16-million-settlement-american-trader-oil\">paid about $27 million\u003c/a> in cleanup costs and damages.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2019, a judge issued fines and penalties of $3.35 million against Plains All American Pipeline for \u003ca href=\"https://darrp.noaa.gov/oil-spills/refugio-beach-oil-spill\">the Refugio spill near Santa Barbara\u003c/a>, far less than the $1 billion that prosecutors had sought. In addition, the company pegged its cleanup costs at $335 million.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On the other end of that spectrum is the 2010 Deepwater Horizon blowout, which killed 11 workers on a drilling rig that spewed 3 million barrels of crude oil across 40,000 square miles of the Gulf of Mexico.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://theconversation.com/bp-paid-a-steep-price-for-the-gulf-oil-spill-but-for-the-us-a-decade-later-its-business-as-usual-136905#:~:text=BP%20paid%20dearly%20for%20the,economic%20claims%20and%20cleanup%20costs.\">British Petroleum finally paid $60 billion\u003c/a> in criminal and civil penalties, environmental damages and cleanup costs. British Petroleum also was fined for violating the Migratory Bird Treaty Act and the federal Clean Water Act.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>What has the state done to avoid and prepare for oil spills?\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>The 1990 oil spill off Huntington Beach led to the passage of the Lempert-Keene-Seastrand Oil Spill Prevention and Response Act, \u003ca href=\"https://crrc.unh.edu/sites/crrc.unh.edu/files/media/docs/Workshops/human_dimensions/reading_materials/ospr_information.pdf\">which established the state Oil Spill Prevention and Response agency\u003c/a> under the Department of Fish and Wildlife.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Three years later, the oil spill agency created the state’s first comprehensive plan to respond to oil spills, and established a government-wide network of some 22 agencies that share information and responsibility responding to spills.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Legislature provided money for a $50 million trust fund, whose interest payments support the Oiled Wildlife Care Network. The agency also supports wildlife care centers and rescue centers. The first one opened in 1997 at Humboldt State University in Arcata. There are now 12 such centers around the state.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>How does this compare to other spills in California?\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>The largest oil spill in California history was a catalyst for the launch of the American environmental movement and the establishment of the federal Environmental Protection Agency.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"https://aoghs.org/offshore-history/santabarbara-oil-spill/\">1969 blowout at a Union Oil drilling platform\u003c/a> 6 miles off the coast of Santa Barbara spilled 4.2 millions of crude into the water and onto nearby beaches before it was brought under control 11 days later.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Two years later, after the Santa Barbara incident, two oil tankers collided in the mouth of San Francisco Bay, releasing 840,000 gallons of oil into the water. Tides and winds carried the spill north and south along a coastline that served as a critical wintering habitat for aquatic birds. A \u003ca href=\"https://archive.westernfieldornithologists.org/archive/V03/3(2)%20p0025-p0032.pdf\">1972 report by Western Field Ornithologists\u003c/a> estimated 20,000 birds died as a result of exposure to the oil.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the 1990 Huntington Beach spill, shoreline from Seal Beach south to Newport Beach was coated with oil from the 400,000 gallon spill from the American Trader.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2007, the Hong Kong-owned oil tanker Cosco Busan sideswiped a supporting pier of the Bay Bridge in heavy fog. The resulting 100-foot gash released 53,000 gallons of oil into San Francisco Bay, killing an estimated 6,800 birds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Refugio State Beach spill, which occurred 24 miles west of Santa Barbara in 2015, was distinctive in that the pipeline rupture occurred onshore, about a mile inland from the beach. The spill sent an estimated 120,000 gallons into a culvert that drained into the Pacific, damaging a rich marine ecosystem of kelp forests.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In an earnings report later that year, Plains All American Pipeline, the Houston-based owner of the pipeline, estimated 142,800 gallons had leaked from the 29-year-old pipe. Emergency response and cleanup costs were estimated at $257 million.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>KQED's Don Clyde contributed to this post. Reporting from The Associated Press also was used in this post.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>The massive oil spill off Huntington Beach could become the kind of environmental disaster, played out along California’s beloved seashore, that coalesces opposition to offshore oil production.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It can be a messy industry, and previous oil spills have sparked outrage and driven policy and reforms. California, in its protest against leasing in federal waters, has over the decades enacted laws to make that \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/environment/2018/04/news-analysis-heres-whats-important-for-land-sea-and-air-in-californias-fight-with-trump/\">offshore crude more difficult and expensive to transport to the coast\u003c/a>, and also imposed tougher penalties for spills.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yet California remains, in its essence, an oil state, \u003ca href=\"https://www.statista.com/statistics/714376/crude-oil-production-by-us-state/\">ranking seventh in the nation for production\u003c/a>. Huntington Beach is a prime example of California’s complicated relationship with oil. It dubs itself Surf City USA, and has built an economy utterly dependent on clean beaches and water. Yet offshore oil platforms are visible from the city’s famous seashore, and Huntington Beach High School’s sports teams are called The Oilers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Huntington Beach is especially vulnerable to spills because of its cluster of six large oil platforms offshore. In all, \u003ca href=\"https://www.slc.ca.gov/oil-gas/\">California has 19 offshore oil leases in state waters\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.boem.gov/newsroom/pacific-ocs-platforms\">23 facilities in federal waters\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California introduced a bill in January known as the \u003ca href=\"https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/senate-bill/58\">West Coast Ocean Protection Act\u003c/a>, which would ban oil and gas drilling off the West Coast, and she reiterated the importance of that ban on Monday following the latest spill.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"Californians have made it clear: We don’t want oil drilling off our coast. It’s time to stop dangerous offshore drilling and invest in safer, cleaner energy solutions,” Feinstein said in a Monday press release.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla of California, a co-sponsor of the bill, echoed Feinstein on Monday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"We have the power to prevent future spills. That’s why I’m committed to ending offshore oil drilling,\" Padilla said. \"As Congress prepares sweeping new infrastructure and climate legislation to address our nation’s needs, the message is clear: We must act urgently to end our use of dangerous fossil fuels.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The last major spill off Huntington Beach was nearly 32 years ago — in almost the same spot. That spill occurred when an oil tanker, the American Trader, ran aground on its anchor nearshore, spilling about 400,000 gallons of British Petroleum crude oil into the ocean.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>What happened, when and where?\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>The spill began about \u003ca href=\"https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2021-10-03/what-caused-the-massive-oil-spill-off-huntington-beach-here-is-what-we-know\">5 miles off the coast of Huntington Beach\u003c/a>, where \u003ca href=\"https://business.lbchamber.com/list/member/beta-offshore-a-division-of-amplify-energy-corp-23835\">Amplify Energy\u003c/a>, one of the largest producers of oil in Southern California, owns three platforms in an oil field known as the Beta Field.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The oil leaked from the San Pedro Pipeline, which stretches 17 miles to connect one of the offshore platforms, known as Elly, to a pumping station at the port of Long Beach.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Constructed in 1980, the rig is 9 miles offshore in waters that are 265 feet deep. It processes crude oil collected from two other nearby platforms in the Beta Field. Those two platforms produce up to 8,000 barrels of crude — 336,000 gallons — per day, according to \u003ca href=\"https://www.bsee.gov/sites/bsee.gov/files/oil-spill-response-plan-osrp/inspection-and-enforcement/beta-operating-company-osrp-april-2012.pdf\">Amplify Energy's spill response plan\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The cause and the exact timing of the spill is unknown. The \u003ca href=\"https://socalspillresponse.com/\">Coast Guard was first notified at 9:10 a.m. Saturday\u003c/a>. By Sunday, oil- and petroleum-coated birds began to appear on Huntington Beach’s shoreline, which local officials closed to the public.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As much as 3,111 barrels of oil — roughly 130,000 gallons — may have spilled from the pipeline, according to Martyn Willsher, president and CEO of Amplify Energy, which operates the pipeline.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Evidence emerged Tuesday that a ship’s anchor may have snagged and dragged the underwater pipeline. The pipe was split open and a huge section was apparently dragged more than 100 feet along the ocean floor, possibly by \"an anchor that hooked the pipeline, causing a partial tear,” federal transportation investigators said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"The pipeline has essentially been pulled like a bow string,\" Willsher said. \"At its widest point, it is 105 feet away from where it was.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There was no indication whether investigators suspect that a particular ship was involved.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Coast Guard is investigating. The area is a busy corridor for ships serving the nearby ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles, but they are allowed specific spots for dropping anchors that are supposed to avoid pipelines.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "Beta Operating was fined by federal regulators in 2013 and 2014 for violations that led to the injury of workers. The company also was issued 125 violations found by federal inspectors.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Elly platform is in federal waters, which are defined as more than 3 miles offshore, and the leases are managed by the Department of the Interior. The platform, which is an offshore processing plant that removes seawater from crude oil, takes in oil from as many as 70 wells.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>What do we know about this company?\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Houston-based Amplify Energy owns the platform, which is operated by a subsidiary, Beta Operating Company.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://casedocs.omniagentsolutions.com/cmsvol2/pub_47157/671607_455.pdf\">Amplify Energy Corp. reorganized in 2018 after bankruptcy\u003c/a> and had been attempting to repair and upgrade its infrastructure, which can be easily corroded in an ocean environment. Much of the offshore field’s pipelines are decades old.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Beta Operating was fined by federal regulators in 2013 and 2014 for violations that led to the injury of workers. The \u003ca href=\"https://www.bsee.gov/what-we-do/safety-enforcement/enforcement-tools/incidents-of-non-compliance\">company also was issued 125 violations\u003c/a> found by federal inspectors.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>What's at stake?\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>On Sunday, an estimated 13 square miles of ocean surface were slicked with oil. And the oil is still moving south with the currents, reaching as far south as Dana Point today. Sticky balls and patties of oil are tainting the sand of local beaches, mostly in Huntington Beach and Newport Beach, officials said Monday afternoon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It is an area from Huntington Beach down to just south of Dana Point that extends a couple of miles offshore and within that there are ribbons or pools of oil,” said Rebecca Ore, U.S. Coast Guard captain of the port.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Birds are at high risk, as are marine mammals and bottom-dwelling creatures. \u003ca href=\"https://owcn.sf.ucdavis.edu/effects-oil-wildlife\">Crude oil can break down the natural waterproofing of birds’ feathers\u003c/a> and damage their internal organs. Four birds coated in oil already have been found, including one brown pelican that was euthanized on-site after sustaining wing injuries.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California’s Department of Fish and Wildlife has deployed booms to try to stem the flow of oil into sensitive stretches of the coast, including one of Southern California’s biggest ecological treasures, the Bolsa Chica wetlands, according to Christian Corbo, a lieutenant with the department. Pushed by currents, the slick is likely to continue moving south, away from Bolsa Chica and Long Beach.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Oil already has penetrated the smaller Talbert Marsh, which is south of Bolsa Chica and managed by the Huntington Beach Wetlands Conservancy, said Executive Director John Villa. So far, no birds or fish have died in the marsh, he said, although two birds have been coated in oil, and clams, oysters and crabs living among the oil-covered rocks could be at risk.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’ll have to see what’s going to happen,” Villa said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Sunday, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife closed fisheries within 6 miles of shore from Sunset Beach to Dana Point. California’s environmental health experts warn that fishing in the vicinity of the spill and \u003ca href=\"https://socalspillresponse-com-jtti.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/03185106/Declaration-of-Fisheries-Closure-10.2.2021.pdf\">eating potentially tainted fish and shellfish could threaten public health\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Newport Harbor, home to several thousand recreational boats, also was closed down.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\n\u003ch3>What's being done to clean it up?\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>The Coast Guard has launched a fleet of boats using booms to isolate the oil and then collect it using skimmers. All told, as of Sunday, more than 5,300 feet of boom had been deployed and \u003ca href=\"https://socalspillresponse.com/\">3,150 gallons of oil had been recovered from the water\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Officials at a press briefing Monday said little about efforts along the shorelines, where \u003ca href=\"https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/spills-cleanup.html\">cleaning up oil can mean a number of different strategies\u003c/a> — including industrial-sized vacuum trucks, absorbent materials to sponge up the oil, soap-like cleaners to disperse the grease and shoveling it up and carting it away.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sensitive environments like coastal wetlands can be especially difficult to clean, said \u003ca href=\"https://msi.ucsb.edu/people/faculty/david-valentine\">David Valentine\u003c/a>, a professor of earth science and biology at UC Santa Barbara.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s often as much or more damage to send a whole bunch of people in there walking all over this habitat,” Valentine said. “So you’re in a tough predicament, because the cleanup can be almost as bad as the spill.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>So who's at fault and why?\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>State and federal officials have launched investigations of the cause and timing of the spill. Under numerous state and federal laws, companies can be fined and held responsible for cleanup costs and damages to natural resources as well as the local economy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is a criminal case,” said Eric Laughlin, a public information officer with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. “There is a federal and a state investigation separate from this response.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Whatever needs to be done, we will take care of it,” Amplify's Willsher said at a press briefing Tuesday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Authorities will want to review Amplify Energy’s operations records, the status of their equipment and whether workers were negligent in any way.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Additionally, officials will want to determine how quickly the company reported the spill. For safety reasons, oil and gas production pipelines usually have shutoff valves that allow operators to quickly staunch the flow. When a breach is detected, time is of the essence to cut off the flow and begin efforts to contain the spill and prevent it from reaching shore.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The company has sent a remotely operated vehicle to inspect 8,000 feet of the pipeline, and identified an area of “significant interest” that divers were set to inspect this afternoon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There is no active leak that we are aware of and especially in that specific area that we’ve identified,” Willsher said\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Orange County District Attorney \u003ca href=\"http://orangecountyda.org/office/spitzer.asp\">Todd Spitzer\u003c/a> urged investigators to oversee Amplify’s divers as they inspect the line.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They shouldn’t be able to go anywhere near that pipeline,” Spitzer said. “They are biased, they’re self-interested, and they’re going to do everything they can to try to reduce their damages.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Who's in charge?\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://socalspillresponse.com/\">The accident is under unified command\u003c/a>: The United States Coast Guard and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife’s Office of Spill Prevention and Response are directing the emergency response.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "'They shouldn’t be able to go anywhere near that pipeline. They are biased, they’re self interested, and they’re going to do everything they can to try to reduce their damages.'",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The platform’s owner, Amplify Energy, also is involved. The city of Huntington Beach is participating, too, and state agencies such as the California Coastal Commission, the State Lands Commission and the State Parks Department, which has property in the path of the oil, are also monitoring the situation.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Who pays?\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Once the investigation identifies a responsible party, state and federal officials will undertake a \u003ca href=\"https://wildlife.ca.gov/OSPR/NRDA/About\">Natural Resource Damage Assessment\u003c/a>, conducted through the fish and wildlife agency.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The complex and painstaking analysis quantifies death and injuries to wildlife — assigning a dollar value to a shore bird, for example — and estimates the cost of restoring the oiled landscape and waters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Recent legislation has beefed up the state’s ability to penalize companies for oil spills: A \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB3214\">2020 law doubled the minimum and maximum fines for an array of oil spill violations\u003c/a> and added a provision that a person who knowingly discharged or spilled oil into state waters, or failed to clean up the spill, could be fined up to $1,000 per gallon in spills of more than 1,000 gallons.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Another \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=201720180AB2864\">law, from 2018, required the state to consult with agencies\u003c/a> such as the California Coastal Commission when evaluating damage to public resources such as beaches.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Coastal Commission already has the authority to fine entities for activities that deny coastal access. A bill that would expand the commission’s ability to \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220SB433\">levy fines for environmental damage\u003c/a> passed the legislature in September and is on the governor’s desk.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state needs to send a message to companies that they will be required to pay to clean up after themselves, said state Sen. Ben Allen, a Democrat from Redondo Beach and the bill’s author. “The state bears so much of the damage and cost associated with these spills,” he said. “This will give the state the tool it needs to hold companies accountable.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>How expensive is it?\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>The price tag for environmental cleanup and fines can be high, although certainly affordable for mega companies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After extensive litigation over the 1990 spill in Huntington Beach, several companies, including British Petroleum, Brandenburger Marine and tanker owner Attransco, \u003ca href=\"https://oag.ca.gov/news/press-releases/attorney-general-lockyer-announces-16-million-settlement-american-trader-oil\">paid about $27 million\u003c/a> in cleanup costs and damages.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2019, a judge issued fines and penalties of $3.35 million against Plains All American Pipeline for \u003ca href=\"https://darrp.noaa.gov/oil-spills/refugio-beach-oil-spill\">the Refugio spill near Santa Barbara\u003c/a>, far less than the $1 billion that prosecutors had sought. In addition, the company pegged its cleanup costs at $335 million.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On the other end of that spectrum is the 2010 Deepwater Horizon blowout, which killed 11 workers on a drilling rig that spewed 3 million barrels of crude oil across 40,000 square miles of the Gulf of Mexico.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://theconversation.com/bp-paid-a-steep-price-for-the-gulf-oil-spill-but-for-the-us-a-decade-later-its-business-as-usual-136905#:~:text=BP%20paid%20dearly%20for%20the,economic%20claims%20and%20cleanup%20costs.\">British Petroleum finally paid $60 billion\u003c/a> in criminal and civil penalties, environmental damages and cleanup costs. British Petroleum also was fined for violating the Migratory Bird Treaty Act and the federal Clean Water Act.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>What has the state done to avoid and prepare for oil spills?\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>The 1990 oil spill off Huntington Beach led to the passage of the Lempert-Keene-Seastrand Oil Spill Prevention and Response Act, \u003ca href=\"https://crrc.unh.edu/sites/crrc.unh.edu/files/media/docs/Workshops/human_dimensions/reading_materials/ospr_information.pdf\">which established the state Oil Spill Prevention and Response agency\u003c/a> under the Department of Fish and Wildlife.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Three years later, the oil spill agency created the state’s first comprehensive plan to respond to oil spills, and established a government-wide network of some 22 agencies that share information and responsibility responding to spills.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Legislature provided money for a $50 million trust fund, whose interest payments support the Oiled Wildlife Care Network. The agency also supports wildlife care centers and rescue centers. The first one opened in 1997 at Humboldt State University in Arcata. There are now 12 such centers around the state.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>How does this compare to other spills in California?\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>The largest oil spill in California history was a catalyst for the launch of the American environmental movement and the establishment of the federal Environmental Protection Agency.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"https://aoghs.org/offshore-history/santabarbara-oil-spill/\">1969 blowout at a Union Oil drilling platform\u003c/a> 6 miles off the coast of Santa Barbara spilled 4.2 millions of crude into the water and onto nearby beaches before it was brought under control 11 days later.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Two years later, after the Santa Barbara incident, two oil tankers collided in the mouth of San Francisco Bay, releasing 840,000 gallons of oil into the water. Tides and winds carried the spill north and south along a coastline that served as a critical wintering habitat for aquatic birds. A \u003ca href=\"https://archive.westernfieldornithologists.org/archive/V03/3(2)%20p0025-p0032.pdf\">1972 report by Western Field Ornithologists\u003c/a> estimated 20,000 birds died as a result of exposure to the oil.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the 1990 Huntington Beach spill, shoreline from Seal Beach south to Newport Beach was coated with oil from the 400,000 gallon spill from the American Trader.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2007, the Hong Kong-owned oil tanker Cosco Busan sideswiped a supporting pier of the Bay Bridge in heavy fog. The resulting 100-foot gash released 53,000 gallons of oil into San Francisco Bay, killing an estimated 6,800 birds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Refugio State Beach spill, which occurred 24 miles west of Santa Barbara in 2015, was distinctive in that the pipeline rupture occurred onshore, about a mile inland from the beach. The spill sent an estimated 120,000 gallons into a culvert that drained into the Pacific, damaging a rich marine ecosystem of kelp forests.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In an earnings report later that year, Plains All American Pipeline, the Houston-based owner of the pipeline, estimated 142,800 gallons had leaked from the 29-year-old pipe. Emergency response and cleanup costs were estimated at $257 million.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>KQED's Don Clyde contributed to this post. Reporting from The Associated Press also was used in this post.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"disqusTitle": "Investigators Looking Into Ship's Anchor as Possible Cause of Southern California Oil Spill",
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"content": "\u003cp>Officials investigating one of California’s largest oil spills are looking into whether a ship's anchor may have struck a pipeline on the ocean floor, causing a major leak of crude into coastal waters and fouling beaches, authorities said Monday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The head of the company that operates the pipeline said company divers were inspecting the area of the suspected leak, and he expected to have a much better idea of what caused the damage within a day.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=\"news_11890877\" label=\"Related Coverage\"]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>An anchor striking the pipeline is “one of the distinct possibilities” behind the leak, Amplify Energy CEO Martyn Willsher said during a news conference. He said divers have examined more than 8,000 feet of pipe and were focusing on “one area of significant interest.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cargo ships entering the twin ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach routinely pass through the area, Coast Guard officials said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re looking into if it could have been an anchor from a ship, but that’s in the assessment phase right now,” Coast Guard Lt. Cmdr. Jeannie Shaye said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The spill sent up to 126,000 gallons of heavy crude into the ocean, contaminating the sands of famed Huntington Beach and other coastal communities. The spill could keep beaches closed for weeks or longer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer said he has investigators looking into whether he can bring state charges for the spill. Spitzer said his jurisdiction ends 3 miles offshore.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Spitzer also said Amplify’s divers should not be allowed near the pipeline without an independent authority alongside them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Other potential criminal investigations were being pursued by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California, the Coast Guard and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, officials said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Safety advocates have pushed for years for federal rules that would strengthen oil spill detection requirements and force companies to install valves that can automatically shut down the flow of crude in case of a leak. The oil and pipeline industries have resisted such requirements because of the high cost.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If the operator had more valves installed on this line, they’d have a much better chance at having the point of failure isolated by now,” said Bill Caram, executive director of the Pipeline Safety Trust, an organization based in Bellingham, Washington.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The pipeline was built using a process known as electric resistance weld, according to a regulatory filing from the company. That welding process has been linked to past oil pipeline failures because corrosion can occur along seams, according to Caram and government safety advisories.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Environmentalists had feared the oil might devastate birds and marine life in the area. But Michael Ziccardi, a veterinarian and director of the Oiled Wildlife Care Network, said only four oiled birds had been found so far. One suffered chronic injuries and had to be euthanized, he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s much better than we had feared,” he said at a news conference Monday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ziccardi said he’s “cautiously optimistic,” but it’s too soon to know the extent of the spill’s effect on wildlife. In other offshore oil spills, the largest number of oiled birds have been collected two to five days after the incident, he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>International Bird Rescue, a Fairfield-based group, sent crews to Huntington Beach to help rescue birds affected by the spill. IBR spokesperson Russ Curtis said a small amount of oil on a bird’s feathers can make it hard for them to regulate their body temperature.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"Depending on the water temperature, we often say that there's like a three- or four-day window when they can be rescued safely,\" Curtis said. \"But it just depends on the water temperature and how much oil they have on their body.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Curtis said if you see an animal on the beach that needs help, don't try to pick it up or save it yourself. Instead, call the bird rescue center or other wildlife rescue groups.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11891009\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg class=\"wp-image-11891009 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/oil-spill2-20211004-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"Most of the frame is completely black, oily water with a rocky shore at the top left and a rowboat with two people dressed in white inside.\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">This aerial picture taken on Oct. 4, 2021, shows environmental response crews cleaning up oil that flowed near the Talbert Marsh and Santa Ana River mouth, creating a sheen on the water after an oil spill in the Pacific Ocean in Huntington Beach, California. \u003ccite>(Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Amplify operates three oil platforms about 9 miles off the coast of California, all installed between 1980 and 1984. The company also operates a 16-inch pipeline that carries oil from a processing platform to an onshore storage facility in Long Beach. The company has said the oil appears to have come from a rupture in that pipeline about 4 miles from the platform.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a 2016 spill-response plan submitted to federal regulators, the company said its worst-case spill scenario was based on the assumption of a “full guillotine cut” of the pipeline occurring 3 miles inland from one of its platforms. But an outside consultant concluded that a spill of that size was “very unlikely” at that location because the line is 120 feet deep and beneath a shipping lane where ships do not normally anchor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Beta oil field has been owned by at least seven different corporations since it was discovered by Royal Dutch Shell in 1976, records show. A corporate predecessor of Amplify bought the operation in 2012.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Amplify subsidiary known as Beta Operating Co. has been cited 125 times for safety and environmental violations since 1980, according to a database from the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, the federal agency that regulates the offshore oil and gas industry. The online database provides only the total number of violations, not the details for each incident.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The company was fined a total of $85,000 for three incidents. Two were from 2014, when a worker who was not wearing proper protective equipment was shocked with 98,000 volts of electricity. The worker survived. In a separate incident, crude oil was released through a boom where a safety device had been improperly bypassed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 1999, a 1.8-mile undersea pipeline running between two platforms sprang two leaks totaling at least 3,800 gallons of oil, causing tar balls to wash up on beaches in Orange County.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The cause of of the leaks was determined to be corrosion that caused pin-sized holes in the steel walls of the pipeline. The owner of the oil field at the time, a partnership between the former Mobil Oil Corp., now ExxonMobil, and Shell Oil Co. called Aera Energy LLC, was fined $48,000 by federal regulators — a penalty environmental groups criticized as a slap on the wrist.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Before the spill, Amplify had high hopes for the Beta oil field and was pouring millions of dollars into upgrades and new “side track” projects that would tap into oil by drilling laterally.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have the opportunity to keep going for as long as we want,” Willsher said in an August conference call with investors. He added there was capacity “up to 20,000 barrels a day.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Investors shared Willsher’s optimism, sending the company's stock up more than sevenfold since the beginning of the year to $5.75 at the close of trading on Friday. The stock plunged more than 40% in morning trading Monday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The company filed for bankruptcy in 2017 and emerged a few months later. It had been using cash generated by the Beta Field and other fields in Oklahoma and Texas to pay down $235 million in debt.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Associated Press writers Michael Biesecker in Washington, Bernard Condon in New York, Felicia Fonseca in Phoenix, Julie Walker in New York, Matthew Brown in Billings, Montana, and Stefanie Dazio in Huntington Beach, California, contributed to this report. KQED's Shehreen Karim contributed reporting to this post.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>An anchor striking the pipeline is “one of the distinct possibilities” behind the leak, Amplify Energy CEO Martyn Willsher said during a news conference. He said divers have examined more than 8,000 feet of pipe and were focusing on “one area of significant interest.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cargo ships entering the twin ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach routinely pass through the area, Coast Guard officials said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re looking into if it could have been an anchor from a ship, but that’s in the assessment phase right now,” Coast Guard Lt. Cmdr. Jeannie Shaye said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The spill sent up to 126,000 gallons of heavy crude into the ocean, contaminating the sands of famed Huntington Beach and other coastal communities. The spill could keep beaches closed for weeks or longer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer said he has investigators looking into whether he can bring state charges for the spill. Spitzer said his jurisdiction ends 3 miles offshore.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Spitzer also said Amplify’s divers should not be allowed near the pipeline without an independent authority alongside them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Other potential criminal investigations were being pursued by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California, the Coast Guard and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, officials said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Safety advocates have pushed for years for federal rules that would strengthen oil spill detection requirements and force companies to install valves that can automatically shut down the flow of crude in case of a leak. The oil and pipeline industries have resisted such requirements because of the high cost.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If the operator had more valves installed on this line, they’d have a much better chance at having the point of failure isolated by now,” said Bill Caram, executive director of the Pipeline Safety Trust, an organization based in Bellingham, Washington.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The pipeline was built using a process known as electric resistance weld, according to a regulatory filing from the company. That welding process has been linked to past oil pipeline failures because corrosion can occur along seams, according to Caram and government safety advisories.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Environmentalists had feared the oil might devastate birds and marine life in the area. But Michael Ziccardi, a veterinarian and director of the Oiled Wildlife Care Network, said only four oiled birds had been found so far. One suffered chronic injuries and had to be euthanized, he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s much better than we had feared,” he said at a news conference Monday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ziccardi said he’s “cautiously optimistic,” but it’s too soon to know the extent of the spill’s effect on wildlife. In other offshore oil spills, the largest number of oiled birds have been collected two to five days after the incident, he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>International Bird Rescue, a Fairfield-based group, sent crews to Huntington Beach to help rescue birds affected by the spill. IBR spokesperson Russ Curtis said a small amount of oil on a bird’s feathers can make it hard for them to regulate their body temperature.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"Depending on the water temperature, we often say that there's like a three- or four-day window when they can be rescued safely,\" Curtis said. \"But it just depends on the water temperature and how much oil they have on their body.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Curtis said if you see an animal on the beach that needs help, don't try to pick it up or save it yourself. Instead, call the bird rescue center or other wildlife rescue groups.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11891009\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg class=\"wp-image-11891009 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/oil-spill2-20211004-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"Most of the frame is completely black, oily water with a rocky shore at the top left and a rowboat with two people dressed in white inside.\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">This aerial picture taken on Oct. 4, 2021, shows environmental response crews cleaning up oil that flowed near the Talbert Marsh and Santa Ana River mouth, creating a sheen on the water after an oil spill in the Pacific Ocean in Huntington Beach, California. \u003ccite>(Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Amplify operates three oil platforms about 9 miles off the coast of California, all installed between 1980 and 1984. The company also operates a 16-inch pipeline that carries oil from a processing platform to an onshore storage facility in Long Beach. The company has said the oil appears to have come from a rupture in that pipeline about 4 miles from the platform.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a 2016 spill-response plan submitted to federal regulators, the company said its worst-case spill scenario was based on the assumption of a “full guillotine cut” of the pipeline occurring 3 miles inland from one of its platforms. But an outside consultant concluded that a spill of that size was “very unlikely” at that location because the line is 120 feet deep and beneath a shipping lane where ships do not normally anchor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Beta oil field has been owned by at least seven different corporations since it was discovered by Royal Dutch Shell in 1976, records show. A corporate predecessor of Amplify bought the operation in 2012.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Amplify subsidiary known as Beta Operating Co. has been cited 125 times for safety and environmental violations since 1980, according to a database from the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, the federal agency that regulates the offshore oil and gas industry. The online database provides only the total number of violations, not the details for each incident.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The company was fined a total of $85,000 for three incidents. Two were from 2014, when a worker who was not wearing proper protective equipment was shocked with 98,000 volts of electricity. The worker survived. In a separate incident, crude oil was released through a boom where a safety device had been improperly bypassed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 1999, a 1.8-mile undersea pipeline running between two platforms sprang two leaks totaling at least 3,800 gallons of oil, causing tar balls to wash up on beaches in Orange County.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The cause of of the leaks was determined to be corrosion that caused pin-sized holes in the steel walls of the pipeline. The owner of the oil field at the time, a partnership between the former Mobil Oil Corp., now ExxonMobil, and Shell Oil Co. called Aera Energy LLC, was fined $48,000 by federal regulators — a penalty environmental groups criticized as a slap on the wrist.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Before the spill, Amplify had high hopes for the Beta oil field and was pouring millions of dollars into upgrades and new “side track” projects that would tap into oil by drilling laterally.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have the opportunity to keep going for as long as we want,” Willsher said in an August conference call with investors. He added there was capacity “up to 20,000 barrels a day.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Investors shared Willsher’s optimism, sending the company's stock up more than sevenfold since the beginning of the year to $5.75 at the close of trading on Friday. The stock plunged more than 40% in morning trading Monday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The company filed for bankruptcy in 2017 and emerged a few months later. It had been using cash generated by the Beta Field and other fields in Oklahoma and Texas to pay down $235 million in debt.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Associated Press writers Michael Biesecker in Washington, Bernard Condon in New York, Felicia Fonseca in Phoenix, Julie Walker in New York, Matthew Brown in Billings, Montana, and Stefanie Dazio in Huntington Beach, California, contributed to this report. KQED's Shehreen Karim contributed reporting to this post.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"disqusTitle": "Can We at Least Keep It in the Pipeline?",
"title": "Can We at Least Keep It in the Pipeline?",
"headTitle": "Mark Fiore: Drawn to the Bay | KQED News",
"content": "\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/fossils_100421_final.png\">\u003cimg class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-11890968\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/fossils_100421_final.png\" alt='Cartoon: two aging offshore oil drilling rigs, one with a sign that reads, \"built circa 1980\" as an oil slick spreads across the water. Caption reads, \"fossil fuel fossils.\"' width=\"1920\" height=\"1354\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/fossils_100421_final.png 1920w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/fossils_100421_final-800x564.png 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/fossils_100421_final-1020x719.png 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/fossils_100421_final-160x113.png 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/fossils_100421_final-1536x1083.png 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The massive \u003ca href=\"https://bit.ly/fioreoilrigsspill\">oil spill in Southern California that's expected to keep beaches closed for months\u003c/a> is connected to a company that owns \u003ca href=\"https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2021-10-04/orange-county-oil-spill-amplify-energy-past-problems\">offshore oil rigs and a pipeline built more than 40 years ago\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While California has banned new offshore oil drilling, oil rigs connected to the pipeline that leaked are in federal waters over 3 miles offshore.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Before we even factor in the myriad reasons to stop offshore oil exploration, the \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/series/126475680/gulf-oil-spill-complete-coverage\">industry's track record\u003c/a> with \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2019/01/28/688219307/how-californias-worst-oil-spill-turned-beaches-black-and-the-nation-green\">offshore oil production\u003c/a> makes a \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2013/01/01/168404684/oil-drilling-rig-runs-aground-in-gulf-of-alaska\">pretty clear case\u003c/a> for putting an end to this dirty and dangerous way of getting fossil fuels out of the ground.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/fossils_100421_final.png\">\u003cimg class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-11890968\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/fossils_100421_final.png\" alt='Cartoon: two aging offshore oil drilling rigs, one with a sign that reads, \"built circa 1980\" as an oil slick spreads across the water. Caption reads, \"fossil fuel fossils.\"' width=\"1920\" height=\"1354\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/fossils_100421_final.png 1920w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/fossils_100421_final-800x564.png 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/fossils_100421_final-1020x719.png 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/fossils_100421_final-160x113.png 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/fossils_100421_final-1536x1083.png 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The massive \u003ca href=\"https://bit.ly/fioreoilrigsspill\">oil spill in Southern California that's expected to keep beaches closed for months\u003c/a> is connected to a company that owns \u003ca href=\"https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2021-10-04/orange-county-oil-spill-amplify-energy-past-problems\">offshore oil rigs and a pipeline built more than 40 years ago\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While California has banned new offshore oil drilling, oil rigs connected to the pipeline that leaked are in federal waters over 3 miles offshore.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Before we even factor in the myriad reasons to stop offshore oil exploration, the \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/series/126475680/gulf-oil-spill-complete-coverage\">industry's track record\u003c/a> with \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2019/01/28/688219307/how-californias-worst-oil-spill-turned-beaches-black-and-the-nation-green\">offshore oil production\u003c/a> makes a \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2013/01/01/168404684/oil-drilling-rig-runs-aground-in-gulf-of-alaska\">pretty clear case\u003c/a> for putting an end to this dirty and dangerous way of getting fossil fuels out of the ground.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"slug": "northern-california-environmentalists-respond-to-massive-huntington-beach-oil-spill",
"title": "Northern California Environmentalists Respond to Massive Huntington Beach Oil Spill",
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"content": "\u003cp>One of the largest oil spills in recent Southern California history fouled popular beaches that could end up closed for months as crews scrambled Sunday to contain the crude before it spread further into protected wetlands.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Divers are trying to determine where and why the leak occurred, but the flow of oil was stopped late Saturday from the pipeline that runs under the ocean off Huntington Beach, according to the head of the company that operates the line.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At least 126,000 gallons of crude spilled into the waters off Orange County starting late Friday or early Saturday when boaters began reporting a sheen in the water, officials said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some in the wider Bay Area, \u003ca href=\"https://owcn.vetmed.ucdavis.edu/\">like the UC Davis Oiled Wildlife Care Network\u003c/a>, are already responding. They sent field teams down to Huntington Beach to help wildlife that have been coated in the crude oil. They are also assessing how many volunteers they need to send for support.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“All of our teams have ‘go bags’ where items are packed and ready to go,” said Eunah Preston, a spokesperson for the network. “There’s no hesitation, really.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While the amount of crude that’s spilled has raised the eyebrows of experts, Amplify Energy CEO Martyn Willsher said that’ll be the last of it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I don’t expect it to be more. That’s the capacity of the entire pipeline,” Willsher said. He said the pipeline was suctioned out and dozens of nearby oil platforms operated by Amplify were shut down.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11890881\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11890881 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/GettyImages-1344627569.jpg\" alt=\"Two people dressed in white hazmat suits and life vests sit in a boat, one wielding a long tool and picking up oil-covered seaweed from the water.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1177\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/GettyImages-1344627569.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/GettyImages-1344627569-800x490.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/GettyImages-1344627569-1020x625.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/GettyImages-1344627569-160x98.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/GettyImages-1344627569-1536x942.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Cleanup workers attempt to contain oil that seeped into Talbert Marsh, which is home to around 90 bird species, after a 126,000-gallon oil spill from an offshore oil platform on Oct. 3, 2021, in Huntington Beach, California. The spill forced the closure of the popular Great Pacific Airshow with authorities urging people to avoid beaches in the vicinity. \u003ccite>(Mario Tama/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>It was one of the largest oil spills in recent Southern California history, shoring up black oil on the strand in Huntington Beach, the town known as Surf City U.S.A. Crews scrambled to contain the crude before it spread further into protected wetlands.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Huntington Beach Mayor Kim Carr said the city’s famous beaches could remain closed for weeks or even months.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In a year that has been filled with incredibly challenging issues, this oil spill constitutes one of the most devastating situations that our community has dealt with in decades,” Carr said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The oil created a miles-wide sheen in the ocean and washed ashore in sticky, black globules. [pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Sejal Choksi-Chugh, executive director of San Francisco Baykeeper\"]“I believe we are seeing a much better oil spill response due to the time we took after the Cosco Busan spill to really understand what went wrong.”[/pullquote]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some birds and fish were caught in the muck and killed, said Orange County Supervisor Katrina Foley. But the U.S. Coast Guard said there was a report of just one duck that was covered in oil and receiving veterinary care. “Other reports of oiled wildlife are being investigated,” the Coast Guard said in a statement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Coordination among various branches of government that deal with oil spills has improved over the past decade, according to Sejal Choksi-Chugh, executive director of San Francisco Baykeeper, an environmental advocacy group.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Oil spill-oriented reforms sprang from the sluggish response to San Francisco’s Cosco Busan spill of 2007, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/forum/811071000/the-cosco-busan-oil-spill-one-year-later\">when the Cosco Busan container ship struck the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge\u003c/a>, ripping a hole in the boat’s hull.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11890887\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11890887 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/GettyImages-77902941.jpg\" alt=\"A large oil cargo ship sits in water with obvious damage to its hull.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1294\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/GettyImages-77902941.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/GettyImages-77902941-800x539.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/GettyImages-77902941-1020x687.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/GettyImages-77902941-160x108.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/GettyImages-77902941-1536x1035.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A 90-foot gash is visible on the side of the freighter ship Cosco Busan as it sits anchored in the San Francisco Bay Nov. 13, 2007. \u003ccite>(Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>More than 53,000 gallons of oil spilled into San Francisco Bay and sat there — for hours — with little initial effort to contain it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Choksi-Chugh \u003ca href=\"https://baykeeper.org/articles/improving-oil-spill-response-bay\">was in a boat herself with an SF Baykeeper crew\u003c/a>, measuring the distance of the spill. Their crew ended up urging the government to revise its estimation of the spill’s size to be larger than was initially reported.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At first, reports said Cosco Busan spilled 400 gallons, but “we found out about eight hours later it was a 53,000-gallon oil spill,” Choksi-Chugh said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The lackadaisical response in San Francisco’s waters led to an overhaul of state oil-spill responses, though some of the changes didn’t go as far as advocates had hoped, \u003ca href=\"https://baykeeper.org/articles/improving-oil-spill-response-bay\">according to SF Baykeeper\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the aftermath, oil-spill response plans were developed for the Bay Area and other localities, and communication was streamlined among some agencies. Activists also called for increased investment in quickly training and onboarding volunteers to help clean beaches and save wildlife.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I believe we are seeing a much better oil spill response due to the time we took after the Cosco Busan spill to really understand what went wrong,” Choksi-Chugh said. “When you come up with 200 different ways that oil spill response went wrong back in 2007, you better believe there’s going to be improvements.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11890886\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11890886 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/GettyImages-77856759.jpg\" alt=\"Long yellow inflatables, called booms, are coiled in the water and beach inside the Golden Gate Bridge.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1252\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/GettyImages-77856759.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/GettyImages-77856759-800x522.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/GettyImages-77856759-1020x665.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/GettyImages-77856759-160x104.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/GettyImages-77856759-1536x1002.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Oil booms lay on the beach at Crissy Field on Nov. 12, 2007, in San Francisco. \u003ccite>(Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Much of that cleanup was underway nearly immediately in Huntingon Beach over the weekend.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Crews led by the Coast Guard deployed skimmers and some 3,700 feet of floating barriers known as booms to try to stop further incursion into areas including Talbert Marsh, a 25-acre wetland in Huntington Beach, officials said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A petroleum stench permeated the air.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You get the taste in the mouth just from the vapors in the air,” Supervisor Foley said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The oil likely will continue to approach the Orange County coast, including Newport Beach to the south, over the next few days, officials said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The oil slick originated from a pipeline connected to an offshore oil platform known as Elly, Foley said on Twitter. Elly is connected by walkway to another platform, Ellen, located just over 8.5 miles off Long Beach, according to the federal Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>U.S. Rep. Jared Huffman, D-San Rafael, said people in Northern California should be concerned about Southern California spills because “we are all one coast.” Wildlife experts have noted that migratory animals people spot even from the Bay Area, like whales, often swim up from Southern California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m horrified, of course,” Huffman said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cosco Busan was somewhat different because the oil came from a ship, versus a pipeline, but “whether it’s a ship, whether it’s a pipeline, whether it’s inland, or coastal, the bottom line is these accidents happen all the time,” Huffman said, and the United States’ dependence on oil is “no way to power an economy, and we don’t have to do it anymore.” He said this should be “a wake-up call” for a transition to clean and safer energy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11890882\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11890882 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/GettyImages-1344628763.jpg\" alt='A close-up of a sign saying \"Huntington Beach, Surf City USA\" with water in the background, and a small boat on the water with two people inside.' width=\"1920\" height=\"1281\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/GettyImages-1344628763.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/GettyImages-1344628763-800x534.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/GettyImages-1344628763-1020x681.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/GettyImages-1344628763-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/GettyImages-1344628763-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Cleanup workers (R) attempt to contain oil that seeped into Talbert Marsh, which is home to around 90 bird species, after a 126,000-gallon oil spill from an offshore oil platform on Oct. 3, 2021, in Huntington Beach, California. The spill forced the closure of the popular Great Pacific Airshow with authorities urging people to avoid beaches in the vicinity. \u003ccite>(Mario Tama/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The Huntington Beach spill comes three decades after a massive oil leak hit the same stretch of Orange County coast. On Feb. 7, 1990, the oil tanker American Trader ran over its anchor off Huntington Beach, spilling nearly 417,000 gallons of crude. Fish and about 3,400 birds were killed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2015, a ruptured pipeline north of Santa Barbara sent 143,000 gallons of crude oil gushing onto Refugio State Beach.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At a news conference Saturday night, Orange County officials expressed concern about the environmental impacts of the spill and hoped crews could stop the oil before it flowed into sensitive wetlands.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’ve been working with our federal, state and county partners to mitigate the impact that could be a potential ecological disaster,” Huntington Beach Mayor Carr said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The area is home to threatened and endangered species — including a plump shorebird called the snowy plover, the California least tern and humpback whales — as well as a fishing industry and migratory birds on the Pacific Flyway.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The coastal areas off of Southern California are just really rich for wildlife, a key biodiversity hot spot,” said Miyoko Sakashita, director of the Center for Biological Diversity’s oceans program.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The effects of an oil spill are wide-ranging, environmentalists said. Birds that get oil on their feathers can’t fly, can’t clean themselves and can’t monitor their own temperatures, Sakashita said. Whales, dolphins and other sea creatures can have trouble breathing or die after swimming through oil or breathing in toxic fumes, she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11890889\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11890889 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/GettyImages-78111174-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1346\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/GettyImages-78111174-1.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/GettyImages-78111174-1-800x561.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/GettyImages-78111174-1-1020x715.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/GettyImages-78111174-1-160x112.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/GettyImages-78111174-1-1536x1077.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A cormorant spreads its wings as it stands in the water at the Berkeley Marina on Nov. 27, 2007, in Berkeley, California, almost three weeks after the freighter ship Cosco Busan struck the San Francisco Bay Bridge and spilled 58,000 gallons of bunker fuel into the bay. \u003ccite>(Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Sakashita keenly remembers the Cosco Busan oil spill near the Bay Bridge, and the havoc it wreaked from beaches and shallow pools to the deepest reaches of San Francisco Bay. She was among the staff that advocated for improving oversight of oil in California after that spill.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This new spill down in southern California is “about twice that size” of the Cosco Busan spill, Sakashita noted.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“A lot of us remember going out and seeing the oil washing up on the shores and just feeling so helpless about what can be done to clean up a spill like that in the Bay, and that same thing is really devastating off of Huntington Beach right now,” she said. “It’s definitely a horrific reminder that oil and gas and all of the fossil fuels that are being so heavily used right now are just dirty and dangerous, and we need to shift off of that.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>KQED’s Joe Fitzgerald Rodriguez and Annelise Finney in the Bay Area contributed to this report, as did Associated Press reporters Amy Taxin, Christopher Weber, Felicia Fonseca and Julie Walker.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "While Southern California officials mobilize to contain the oil spill off Huntington Beach, Bay Area environmentalists laud the overhaul of oil spill-response after San Francisco's Cosco Busan spill in 2007.",
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"title": "Northern California Environmentalists Respond to Massive Huntington Beach Oil Spill | KQED",
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"headline": "Northern California Environmentalists Respond to Massive Huntington Beach Oil Spill",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>One of the largest oil spills in recent Southern California history fouled popular beaches that could end up closed for months as crews scrambled Sunday to contain the crude before it spread further into protected wetlands.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Divers are trying to determine where and why the leak occurred, but the flow of oil was stopped late Saturday from the pipeline that runs under the ocean off Huntington Beach, according to the head of the company that operates the line.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At least 126,000 gallons of crude spilled into the waters off Orange County starting late Friday or early Saturday when boaters began reporting a sheen in the water, officials said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some in the wider Bay Area, \u003ca href=\"https://owcn.vetmed.ucdavis.edu/\">like the UC Davis Oiled Wildlife Care Network\u003c/a>, are already responding. They sent field teams down to Huntington Beach to help wildlife that have been coated in the crude oil. They are also assessing how many volunteers they need to send for support.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“All of our teams have ‘go bags’ where items are packed and ready to go,” said Eunah Preston, a spokesperson for the network. “There’s no hesitation, really.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While the amount of crude that’s spilled has raised the eyebrows of experts, Amplify Energy CEO Martyn Willsher said that’ll be the last of it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I don’t expect it to be more. That’s the capacity of the entire pipeline,” Willsher said. He said the pipeline was suctioned out and dozens of nearby oil platforms operated by Amplify were shut down.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11890881\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11890881 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/GettyImages-1344627569.jpg\" alt=\"Two people dressed in white hazmat suits and life vests sit in a boat, one wielding a long tool and picking up oil-covered seaweed from the water.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1177\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/GettyImages-1344627569.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/GettyImages-1344627569-800x490.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/GettyImages-1344627569-1020x625.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/GettyImages-1344627569-160x98.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/GettyImages-1344627569-1536x942.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Cleanup workers attempt to contain oil that seeped into Talbert Marsh, which is home to around 90 bird species, after a 126,000-gallon oil spill from an offshore oil platform on Oct. 3, 2021, in Huntington Beach, California. The spill forced the closure of the popular Great Pacific Airshow with authorities urging people to avoid beaches in the vicinity. \u003ccite>(Mario Tama/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>It was one of the largest oil spills in recent Southern California history, shoring up black oil on the strand in Huntington Beach, the town known as Surf City U.S.A. Crews scrambled to contain the crude before it spread further into protected wetlands.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Huntington Beach Mayor Kim Carr said the city’s famous beaches could remain closed for weeks or even months.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In a year that has been filled with incredibly challenging issues, this oil spill constitutes one of the most devastating situations that our community has dealt with in decades,” Carr said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The oil created a miles-wide sheen in the ocean and washed ashore in sticky, black globules. \u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "“I believe we are seeing a much better oil spill response due to the time we took after the Cosco Busan spill to really understand what went wrong.”",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some birds and fish were caught in the muck and killed, said Orange County Supervisor Katrina Foley. But the U.S. Coast Guard said there was a report of just one duck that was covered in oil and receiving veterinary care. “Other reports of oiled wildlife are being investigated,” the Coast Guard said in a statement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Coordination among various branches of government that deal with oil spills has improved over the past decade, according to Sejal Choksi-Chugh, executive director of San Francisco Baykeeper, an environmental advocacy group.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Oil spill-oriented reforms sprang from the sluggish response to San Francisco’s Cosco Busan spill of 2007, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/forum/811071000/the-cosco-busan-oil-spill-one-year-later\">when the Cosco Busan container ship struck the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge\u003c/a>, ripping a hole in the boat’s hull.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11890887\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11890887 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/GettyImages-77902941.jpg\" alt=\"A large oil cargo ship sits in water with obvious damage to its hull.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1294\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/GettyImages-77902941.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/GettyImages-77902941-800x539.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/GettyImages-77902941-1020x687.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/GettyImages-77902941-160x108.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/GettyImages-77902941-1536x1035.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A 90-foot gash is visible on the side of the freighter ship Cosco Busan as it sits anchored in the San Francisco Bay Nov. 13, 2007. \u003ccite>(Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>More than 53,000 gallons of oil spilled into San Francisco Bay and sat there — for hours — with little initial effort to contain it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Choksi-Chugh \u003ca href=\"https://baykeeper.org/articles/improving-oil-spill-response-bay\">was in a boat herself with an SF Baykeeper crew\u003c/a>, measuring the distance of the spill. Their crew ended up urging the government to revise its estimation of the spill’s size to be larger than was initially reported.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At first, reports said Cosco Busan spilled 400 gallons, but “we found out about eight hours later it was a 53,000-gallon oil spill,” Choksi-Chugh said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The lackadaisical response in San Francisco’s waters led to an overhaul of state oil-spill responses, though some of the changes didn’t go as far as advocates had hoped, \u003ca href=\"https://baykeeper.org/articles/improving-oil-spill-response-bay\">according to SF Baykeeper\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the aftermath, oil-spill response plans were developed for the Bay Area and other localities, and communication was streamlined among some agencies. Activists also called for increased investment in quickly training and onboarding volunteers to help clean beaches and save wildlife.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I believe we are seeing a much better oil spill response due to the time we took after the Cosco Busan spill to really understand what went wrong,” Choksi-Chugh said. “When you come up with 200 different ways that oil spill response went wrong back in 2007, you better believe there’s going to be improvements.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11890886\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11890886 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/GettyImages-77856759.jpg\" alt=\"Long yellow inflatables, called booms, are coiled in the water and beach inside the Golden Gate Bridge.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1252\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/GettyImages-77856759.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/GettyImages-77856759-800x522.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/GettyImages-77856759-1020x665.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/GettyImages-77856759-160x104.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/GettyImages-77856759-1536x1002.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Oil booms lay on the beach at Crissy Field on Nov. 12, 2007, in San Francisco. \u003ccite>(Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Much of that cleanup was underway nearly immediately in Huntingon Beach over the weekend.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Crews led by the Coast Guard deployed skimmers and some 3,700 feet of floating barriers known as booms to try to stop further incursion into areas including Talbert Marsh, a 25-acre wetland in Huntington Beach, officials said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A petroleum stench permeated the air.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You get the taste in the mouth just from the vapors in the air,” Supervisor Foley said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The oil likely will continue to approach the Orange County coast, including Newport Beach to the south, over the next few days, officials said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The oil slick originated from a pipeline connected to an offshore oil platform known as Elly, Foley said on Twitter. Elly is connected by walkway to another platform, Ellen, located just over 8.5 miles off Long Beach, according to the federal Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>U.S. Rep. Jared Huffman, D-San Rafael, said people in Northern California should be concerned about Southern California spills because “we are all one coast.” Wildlife experts have noted that migratory animals people spot even from the Bay Area, like whales, often swim up from Southern California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m horrified, of course,” Huffman said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cosco Busan was somewhat different because the oil came from a ship, versus a pipeline, but “whether it’s a ship, whether it’s a pipeline, whether it’s inland, or coastal, the bottom line is these accidents happen all the time,” Huffman said, and the United States’ dependence on oil is “no way to power an economy, and we don’t have to do it anymore.” He said this should be “a wake-up call” for a transition to clean and safer energy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11890882\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11890882 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/GettyImages-1344628763.jpg\" alt='A close-up of a sign saying \"Huntington Beach, Surf City USA\" with water in the background, and a small boat on the water with two people inside.' width=\"1920\" height=\"1281\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/GettyImages-1344628763.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/GettyImages-1344628763-800x534.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/GettyImages-1344628763-1020x681.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/GettyImages-1344628763-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/GettyImages-1344628763-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Cleanup workers (R) attempt to contain oil that seeped into Talbert Marsh, which is home to around 90 bird species, after a 126,000-gallon oil spill from an offshore oil platform on Oct. 3, 2021, in Huntington Beach, California. The spill forced the closure of the popular Great Pacific Airshow with authorities urging people to avoid beaches in the vicinity. \u003ccite>(Mario Tama/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The Huntington Beach spill comes three decades after a massive oil leak hit the same stretch of Orange County coast. On Feb. 7, 1990, the oil tanker American Trader ran over its anchor off Huntington Beach, spilling nearly 417,000 gallons of crude. Fish and about 3,400 birds were killed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2015, a ruptured pipeline north of Santa Barbara sent 143,000 gallons of crude oil gushing onto Refugio State Beach.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At a news conference Saturday night, Orange County officials expressed concern about the environmental impacts of the spill and hoped crews could stop the oil before it flowed into sensitive wetlands.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’ve been working with our federal, state and county partners to mitigate the impact that could be a potential ecological disaster,” Huntington Beach Mayor Carr said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The area is home to threatened and endangered species — including a plump shorebird called the snowy plover, the California least tern and humpback whales — as well as a fishing industry and migratory birds on the Pacific Flyway.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The coastal areas off of Southern California are just really rich for wildlife, a key biodiversity hot spot,” said Miyoko Sakashita, director of the Center for Biological Diversity’s oceans program.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The effects of an oil spill are wide-ranging, environmentalists said. Birds that get oil on their feathers can’t fly, can’t clean themselves and can’t monitor their own temperatures, Sakashita said. Whales, dolphins and other sea creatures can have trouble breathing or die after swimming through oil or breathing in toxic fumes, she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11890889\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11890889 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/GettyImages-78111174-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1346\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/GettyImages-78111174-1.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/GettyImages-78111174-1-800x561.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/GettyImages-78111174-1-1020x715.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/GettyImages-78111174-1-160x112.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/GettyImages-78111174-1-1536x1077.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A cormorant spreads its wings as it stands in the water at the Berkeley Marina on Nov. 27, 2007, in Berkeley, California, almost three weeks after the freighter ship Cosco Busan struck the San Francisco Bay Bridge and spilled 58,000 gallons of bunker fuel into the bay. \u003ccite>(Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Sakashita keenly remembers the Cosco Busan oil spill near the Bay Bridge, and the havoc it wreaked from beaches and shallow pools to the deepest reaches of San Francisco Bay. She was among the staff that advocated for improving oversight of oil in California after that spill.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This new spill down in southern California is “about twice that size” of the Cosco Busan spill, Sakashita noted.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“A lot of us remember going out and seeing the oil washing up on the shores and just feeling so helpless about what can be done to clean up a spill like that in the Bay, and that same thing is really devastating off of Huntington Beach right now,” she said. “It’s definitely a horrific reminder that oil and gas and all of the fossil fuels that are being so heavily used right now are just dirty and dangerous, and we need to shift off of that.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cb>Sea Level Rise in East Palo Alto\u003cbr>\n\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">As the impact of climate change is being felt in the form of bigger wildfires, deeper droughts and longer heatwaves, the community of East Palo Alto is preparing for another kind of climate impact: rising sea levels. Built on the edge of rolling wetlands, this town is figuring out how to adapt to potential flooding and storms. KQED climate reporter Ezra David Romero has this story. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Tackling Climate Change in California\u003cbr>\n\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">California has 3,000 miles of coastline to consider when it comes to sea level rise. U.S. Rep. Jared Huffman’s district covers the entire northern coastline, from Marin County to the state’s border with Oregon. Huffman, D-San Rafael, serves as chair of the House Water, Oceans and Wildlife Subcommittee, where he has focused on combating climate change.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Guest:\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">U.S. Rep. Jared Huffman, D-San Rafael\u003c/span>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>This Week in California Politics\u003cbr>\n\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Friday that California will be the first state in the nation to require a COVID-19 vaccination for all eligible children in public and private schools, pending full FDA approval. Meanwhile, a statewide ban on evictions during the pandemic ended Friday. And a game of political musical chairs is underway, as Assemblymember David Chiu leaves Sacramento to become San Francisco’s next city attorney.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Guests:\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Scott Shafer, KQED senior editor of politics and government\u003c/span>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Marisa Lagos, KQED politics and government correspondent \u003c/span>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Something Beautiful: Palace of Fine Arts\u003cbr>\n\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco was originally built for the 1915 Panama-Pacific Exposition to showcase works of art. It includes a 162 foot high rotunda that is ringed by colonnades and enclosed by a lagoon. If you go there, you might catch a glimpse of the palace’s swan, Blanche.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"id": "californiareportmagazine",
"title": "The California Report Magazine",
"tagline": "Your state, your stories",
"info": "Every week, The California Report Magazine takes you on a road trip for the ears: to visit the places and meet the people who make California unique. The in-depth storytelling podcast from the California Report.",
"airtime": "FRI 4:30pm-5pm, 6:30pm-7pm, 11pm-11:30pm",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "/californiareportmagazine",
"meta": {
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"order": 10
},
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM3NjkwNjk1OTAz",
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"rss": "https://ww2.kqed.org/news/tag/tcrmag/feed/podcast"
}
},
"city-arts": {
"id": "city-arts",
"title": "City Arts & Lectures",
"info": "A one-hour radio program to hear celebrated writers, artists and thinkers address contemporary ideas and values, often discussing the creative process. Please note: tapes or transcripts are not available",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/05/cityartsandlecture-300x300.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.cityarts.net/",
"airtime": "SUN 1pm-2pm, TUE 10pm, WED 1am",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "City Arts & Lectures"
},
"link": "https://www.cityarts.net",
"subscribe": {
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/City-Arts-and-Lectures-p692/",
"rss": "https://www.cityarts.net/feed/"
}
},
"closealltabs": {
"id": "closealltabs",
"title": "Close All Tabs",
"tagline": "Your irreverent guide to the trends redefining our world",
"info": "Close All Tabs breaks down how digital culture shapes our world through thoughtful insights and irreverent humor.",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/CAT_2_Tile-scaled.jpg",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/closealltabs",
"meta": {
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 1
},
"link": "/podcasts/closealltabs",
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"rss": "https://feeds.megaphone.fm/KQINC6993880386",
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"id": "code-switch-life-kit",
"title": "Code Switch / Life Kit",
"info": "\u003cem>Code Switch\u003c/em>, which listeners will hear in the first part of the hour, has fearless and much-needed conversations about race. Hosted by journalists of color, the show tackles the subject of race head-on, exploring how it impacts every part of society — from politics and pop culture to history, sports and more.\u003cbr />\u003cbr />\u003cem>Life Kit\u003c/em>, which will be in the second part of the hour, guides you through spaces and feelings no one prepares you for — from finances to mental health, from workplace microaggressions to imposter syndrome, from relationships to parenting. The show features experts with real world experience and shares their knowledge. Because everyone needs a little help being human.\u003cbr />\u003cbr />\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510312/codeswitch\">\u003cem>Code Switch\u003c/em> offical site and podcast\u003c/a>\u003cbr />\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/lifekit\">\u003cem>Life Kit\u003c/em> offical site and podcast\u003c/a>\u003cbr />",
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"meta": {
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},
"link": "/radio/program/code-switch-life-kit",
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cubnByLm9yZy9yc3MvcG9kY2FzdC5waHA_aWQ9NTEwMzEy",
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"id": "commonwealth-club",
"title": "Commonwealth Club of California Podcast",
"info": "The Commonwealth Club of California is the nation's oldest and largest public affairs forum. As a non-partisan forum, The Club brings to the public airwaves diverse viewpoints on important topics. The Club's weekly radio broadcast - the oldest in the U.S., dating back to 1924 - is carried across the nation on public radio stations and is now podcasting. Our website archive features audio of our recent programs, as well as selected speeches from our long and distinguished history. This podcast feed is usually updated twice a week and is always un-edited.",
"airtime": "THU 10pm, FRI 1am",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Commonwealth-Club-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.commonwealthclub.org/podcasts",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "Commonwealth Club of California"
},
"link": "/radio/program/commonwealth-club",
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/commonwealth-club-of-california-podcast/id976334034?mt=2",
"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cDovL3d3dy5jb21tb253ZWFsdGhjbHViLm9yZy9hdWRpby9wb2RjYXN0L3dlZWtseS54bWw",
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}
},
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"id": "forum",
"title": "Forum",
"tagline": "The conversation starts here",
"info": "KQED’s live call-in program discussing local, state, national and international issues, as well as in-depth interviews.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 9am-11am, 10pm-11pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Forum-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED Forum with Mina Kim and Alexis Madrigal",
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"meta": {
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 9
},
"link": "/forum",
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM5NTU3MzgxNjMz",
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},
"freakonomics-radio": {
"id": "freakonomics-radio",
"title": "Freakonomics Radio",
"info": "Freakonomics Radio is a one-hour award-winning podcast and public-radio project hosted by Stephen Dubner, with co-author Steve Levitt as a regular guest. It is produced in partnership with WNYC.",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/05/freakonomicsRadio.png",
"officialWebsiteLink": "http://freakonomics.com/",
"airtime": "SUN 1am-2am, SAT 3pm-4pm",
"meta": {
"site": "radio",
"source": "WNYC"
},
"link": "/radio/program/freakonomics-radio",
"subscribe": {
"npr": "https://rpb3r.app.goo.gl/4s8b",
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/freakonomics-radio/id354668519",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/podcasts/WNYC-Podcasts/Freakonomics-Radio-p272293/",
"rss": "https://feeds.feedburner.com/freakonomicsradio"
}
},
"fresh-air": {
"id": "fresh-air",
"title": "Fresh Air",
"info": "Hosted by Terry Gross, \u003cem>Fresh Air from WHYY\u003c/em> is the Peabody Award-winning weekday magazine of contemporary arts and issues. One of public radio's most popular programs, Fresh Air features intimate conversations with today's biggest luminaries.",
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"link": "/radio/program/fresh-air",
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?s=143441&mt=2&id=214089682&at=11l79Y&ct=nprdirectory",
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"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/381444908/podcast.xml"
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"here-and-now": {
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"info": "A live production of NPR and WBUR Boston, in collaboration with stations across the country, Here & Now reflects the fluid world of news as it's happening in the middle of the day, with timely, in-depth news, interviews and conversation. Hosted by Robin Young, Jeremy Hobson and Tonya Mosley.",
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"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510051/podcast.xml"
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},
"hidden-brain": {
"id": "hidden-brain",
"title": "Hidden Brain",
"info": "Shankar Vedantam uses science and storytelling to reveal the unconscious patterns that drive human behavior, shape our choices and direct our relationships.",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/series/423302056/hidden-brain",
"airtime": "SUN 7pm-8pm",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "NPR"
},
"link": "/radio/program/hidden-brain",
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"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510308/podcast.xml"
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},
"how-i-built-this": {
"id": "how-i-built-this",
"title": "How I Built This with Guy Raz",
"info": "Guy Raz dives into the stories behind some of the world's best known companies. How I Built This weaves a narrative journey about innovators, entrepreneurs and idealists—and the movements they built.",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/05/howIBuiltThis.png",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510313/how-i-built-this",
"airtime": "SUN 7:30pm-8pm",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/how-i-built-this",
"subscribe": {
"npr": "https://rpb3r.app.goo.gl/3zxy",
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/how-i-built-this-with-guy-raz/id1150510297?mt=2",
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"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510313/podcast.xml"
}
},
"hyphenacion": {
"id": "hyphenacion",
"title": "Hyphenación",
"tagline": "Where conversation and cultura meet",
"info": "What kind of no sabo word is Hyphenación? For us, it’s about living within a hyphenation. Like being a third-gen Mexican-American from the Texas border now living that Bay Area Chicano life. Like Xorje! Each week we bring together a couple of hyphenated Latinos to talk all about personal life choices: family, careers, relationships, belonging … everything is on the table. ",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Hyphenacion_FinalAssets_PodcastTile.png",
"imageAlt": "KQED Hyphenación",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/hyphenacion",
"meta": {
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 15
},
"link": "/podcasts/hyphenacion",
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"spotify": "https://open.spotify.com/show/2p3Fifq96nw9BPcmFdIq0o?si=39209f7b25774f38",
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"amazon": "https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/6c3dd23c-93fb-4aab-97ba-1725fa6315f1/hyphenaci%C3%B3n",
"rss": "https://feeds.megaphone.fm/KQINC2275451163"
}
},
"jerrybrown": {
"id": "jerrybrown",
"title": "The Political Mind of Jerry Brown",
"tagline": "Lessons from a lifetime in politics",
"info": "The Political Mind of Jerry Brown brings listeners the wisdom of the former Governor, Mayor, and presidential candidate. Scott Shafer interviewed Brown for more than 40 hours, covering the former governor's life and half-century in the political game – and Brown has some lessons he'd like to share. ",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/The-Political-Mind-of-Jerry-Brown-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED The Political Mind of Jerry Brown",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/jerrybrown",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "kqed",
"order": 18
},
"link": "/podcasts/jerrybrown",
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/id1492194549",
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}
},
"latino-usa": {
"id": "latino-usa",
"title": "Latino USA",
"airtime": "MON 1am-2am, SUN 6pm-7pm",
"info": "Latino USA, the radio journal of news and culture, is the only national, English-language radio program produced from a Latino perspective.",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/latinoUsa.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "http://latinousa.org/",
"meta": {
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"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/latino-usa",
"subscribe": {
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?s=143441&mt=2&id=79681317&at=11l79Y&ct=nprdirectory",
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"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510016/podcast.xml"
}
},
"marketplace": {
"id": "marketplace",
"title": "Marketplace",
"info": "Our flagship program, helmed by Kai Ryssdal, examines what the day in money delivered, through stories, conversations, newsworthy numbers and more. Updated Monday through Friday at about 3:30 p.m. PT.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 4pm-4:30pm, MON-WED 6:30pm-7pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Marketplace-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.marketplace.org/",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "American Public Media"
},
"link": "/radio/program/marketplace",
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"rss": "https://feeds.publicradio.org/public_feeds/marketplace-pm/rss/rss"
}
},
"masters-of-scale": {
"id": "masters-of-scale",
"title": "Masters of Scale",
"info": "Masters of Scale is an original podcast in which LinkedIn co-founder and Greylock Partner Reid Hoffman sets out to describe and prove theories that explain how great entrepreneurs take their companies from zero to a gazillion in ingenious fashion.",
"airtime": "Every other Wednesday June 12 through October 16 at 8pm (repeats Thursdays at 2am)",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Masters-of-Scale-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://mastersofscale.com/",
"meta": {
"site": "radio",
"source": "WaitWhat"
},
"link": "/radio/program/masters-of-scale",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "http://mastersofscale.app.link/",
"rss": "https://rss.art19.com/masters-of-scale"
}
},
"mindshift": {
"id": "mindshift",
"title": "MindShift",
"tagline": "A podcast about the future of learning and how we raise our kids",
"info": "The MindShift podcast explores the innovations in education that are shaping how kids learn. Hosts Ki Sung and Katrina Schwartz introduce listeners to educators, researchers, parents and students who are developing effective ways to improve how kids learn. We cover topics like how fed-up administrators are developing surprising tactics to deal with classroom disruptions; how listening to podcasts are helping kids develop reading skills; the consequences of overparenting; and why interdisciplinary learning can engage students on all ends of the traditional achievement spectrum. This podcast is part of the MindShift education site, a division of KQED News. KQED is an NPR/PBS member station based in San Francisco. You can also visit the MindShift website for episodes and supplemental blog posts or tweet us \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/MindShiftKQED\">@MindShiftKQED\u003c/a> or visit us at \u003ca href=\"/mindshift\">MindShift.KQED.org\u003c/a>",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Mindshift-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED MindShift: How We Will Learn",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/mindshift/",
"meta": {
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 12
},
"link": "/podcasts/mindshift",
"subscribe": {
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM1NzY0NjAwNDI5",
"npr": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/464615685/mind-shift-podcast",
"stitcher": "https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/kqed/stories-teachers-share",
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}
},
"morning-edition": {
"id": "morning-edition",
"title": "Morning Edition",
"info": "\u003cem>Morning Edition\u003c/em> takes listeners around the country and the world with multi-faceted stories and commentaries every weekday. Hosts Steve Inskeep, David Greene and Rachel Martin bring you the latest breaking news and features to prepare you for the day.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 3am-9am",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Morning-Edition-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/programs/morning-edition/",
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"link": "/radio/program/morning-edition"
},
"onourwatch": {
"id": "onourwatch",
"title": "On Our Watch",
"tagline": "Deeply-reported investigative journalism",
"info": "For decades, the process for how police police themselves has been inconsistent – if not opaque. In some states, like California, these proceedings were completely hidden. After a new police transparency law unsealed scores of internal affairs files, our reporters set out to examine these cases and the shadow world of police discipline. On Our Watch brings listeners into the rooms where officers are questioned and witnesses are interrogated to find out who this system is really protecting. Is it the officers, or the public they've sworn to serve?",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/On-Our-Watch-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "On Our Watch from NPR and KQED",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/onourwatch",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "kqed",
"order": 11
},
"link": "/podcasts/onourwatch",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/id1567098962",
"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5ucHIub3JnLzUxMDM2MC9wb2RjYXN0LnhtbD9zYz1nb29nbGVwb2RjYXN0cw",
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"stitcher": "https://www.stitcher.com/show/on-our-watch",
"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510360/podcast.xml"
}
},
"on-the-media": {
"id": "on-the-media",
"title": "On The Media",
"info": "Our weekly podcast explores how the media 'sausage' is made, casts an incisive eye on fluctuations in the marketplace of ideas, and examines threats to the freedom of information and expression in America and abroad. For one hour a week, the show tries to lift the veil from the process of \"making media,\" especially news media, because it's through that lens that we see the world and the world sees us",
"airtime": "SUN 2pm-3pm, MON 12am-1am",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/onTheMedia.png",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.wnycstudios.org/shows/otm",
"meta": {
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"source": "wnyc"
},
"link": "/radio/program/on-the-media",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/on-the-media/id73330715?mt=2",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/On-the-Media-p69/",
"rss": "http://feeds.wnyc.org/onthemedia"
}
},
"pbs-newshour": {
"id": "pbs-newshour",
"title": "PBS NewsHour",
"info": "Analysis, background reports and updates from the PBS NewsHour putting today's news in context.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 3pm-4pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/PBS-News-Hour-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.pbs.org/newshour/",
"meta": {
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"source": "pbs"
},
"link": "/radio/program/pbs-newshour",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/pbs-newshour-full-show/id394432287?mt=2",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/PBS-NewsHour---Full-Show-p425698/",
"rss": "https://www.pbs.org/newshour/feeds/rss/podcasts/show"
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