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"content": "\u003cp>Imagine a California where springtime temperatures are 7F warmer than they are today, where snowmelt runoff comes 50 days earlier and the average snowpack is just 36 percent of the 1981–2000 average.[contextly_sidebar id=”MZIIX4X0g03kP0hWMZS4EUb3EtsJl5yh”]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That may be the reality by the end of the century if we don’t curb greenhouse gas emissions, say researchers from the University of California, Los Angeles. A recent report from the UCLA Center for Climate Science analyzes how climate change will impact the Sierra Nevada and what that will mean for water resources.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In particular the research examines changes to temperature, the amount of snowpack and the timing of runoff and which elevations and watersheds will be most affected as the climate warms. It also compares how these factors may change with “business as usual” and do little to curb greenhouse gas emissions, versus a scenario in which greenhouse gas emissions begin to level off around 2050.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Neither forecast is great, but the research does show that curbing greenhouse gas emissions can make a difference. “Business as usual is the path we’re on, but it isn’t a foregone conclusion,” the report states. “Cutting greenhouse gas emissions can mitigate end-of-century impacts.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Water Deeply spoke with one of the report’s coauthors, Neil Berg, associate director of science at the UCLA Center for Climate Science and the Institute of the Environment and Sustainability, to discuss the findings and their implication for Californians.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Water Deeply: What prompted this report?\u003cbr>\n\u003c/strong>\u003cbr>\nNeil Berg: If you look at a place like California, the global climate models really don’t capture the fine-scale topography and regional characteristics that we know shape our weather and climate around us. So we embarked on two studies, and they used a process called downscaling, which translates global models to a finer resolution.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We took about a year, maybe 18 months, to do all the modeling, and it’s run on numerous supercomputers, both at UCLA and other national laboratories. And then we got to work analyzing the huge amounts of data and thinking through the most interesting variables and questions related to climate impacts for Californians.[contextly_sidebar id=”hnlYrmvGH1mqREWIz0pg84ccVZjuw3W8″]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That included, how was snowpack changing? How was runoff changing? And how was temperature changing behind each of those?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Water Deeply: What did you find?\u003cbr>\n\u003c/strong>\u003cbr>\nIf you look at the entire Sierra Nevada, if we don’t curb our climate emissions, so if we stay on the business as usual pathway, we would expect a 7F rise in springtime temperature. But if we do take some significant action to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions, that amount of change could be nearly cut in half. So, somewhere around 3–4F of warming by the spring, and this is for the end of the century, so from roughly 2080 to 2100.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Water Deeply: Your study found that the middle elevations, around 5,000–8,000ft, are the most vulnerable as temperatures warm. Why?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Berg: Those middle elevations tend to be located where that freezing line, that 32F line, lies within the Sierra Nevada mountains. So even small changes in temperature – 1 degree, 2 degrees, 3 degrees – increase significantly the type of precipitation that falls in those mid elevations from frozen to liquid. The highest elevations, above 8,000ft, are so high that they in many cases remain sheltered from even a significant amount of warming in the future.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1806825\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1806825\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/07/img_6079_custom-8d1c76f9fb93e4b6597fddfb3439222c1490b6ba-1920x1285-800x535.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"535\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/07/img_6079_custom-8d1c76f9fb93e4b6597fddfb3439222c1490b6ba-1920x1285-800x535.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/07/img_6079_custom-8d1c76f9fb93e4b6597fddfb3439222c1490b6ba-1920x1285-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/07/img_6079_custom-8d1c76f9fb93e4b6597fddfb3439222c1490b6ba-1920x1285-768x514.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/07/img_6079_custom-8d1c76f9fb93e4b6597fddfb3439222c1490b6ba-1920x1285-1020x683.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/07/img_6079_custom-8d1c76f9fb93e4b6597fddfb3439222c1490b6ba-1920x1285.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/07/img_6079_custom-8d1c76f9fb93e4b6597fddfb3439222c1490b6ba-1920x1285-1180x790.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/07/img_6079_custom-8d1c76f9fb93e4b6597fddfb3439222c1490b6ba-1920x1285-960x643.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/07/img_6079_custom-8d1c76f9fb93e4b6597fddfb3439222c1490b6ba-1920x1285-240x161.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/07/img_6079_custom-8d1c76f9fb93e4b6597fddfb3439222c1490b6ba-1920x1285-375x251.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/07/img_6079_custom-8d1c76f9fb93e4b6597fddfb3439222c1490b6ba-1920x1285-520x348.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Kern River’s water is 10-times stronger than it was a year ago, after near-record snowmelt from California’s wet winter flows down from Mount Whitney in the Sierra Nevada. \u003ccite>(Nathan Rott/NPR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>And then there’s this really interesting thing called the snow albedo feedback, which is a cyclical process where you start out with some snow at these mid elevations and you have some future warming that melts away part of that snow, or just more rain instead of snow falls, and that exposes a darker underlying surface, either vegetation or bare soils. And they have a lower reflectivity or albedo of sunlight, so it’s absorbing more incoming sunlight which further warms the ground and the surrounding air, which further shrinks the snowpack, which further exposes more land, further shrinking snowpack, and so forth. Those mid elevations are most sensitive to changes in temperature and then it kicks off this snow albedo feedback in those elevation bands.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Water Deeply: Snowpack in those middle elevation areas is really crucial to the state’s water supply, right?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Berg: Yes, it’s a critical area for water resources across the state. In my opinion this was one of the more dramatic and alarming findings that was produced from this paper.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Water Deeply: Most of this research focused on projections of future impacts from warming, but you have also done research about what’s been happening already. What did you find there?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Berg: There was a companion study that I authored a couple of years ago, and this was during the 2011–15 drought, looking at what the snowpack in the Sierra would be in the absence of any existing or observed warming over California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And using advanced modeling tools we were able to simulate a hypothetical natural world over that drought period and we found that in the absence of observed warming, which was on the level of 1–2C [1.8–3.6F], right now, that snowpack in the Sierra would have been about 25 percent more during that drought period. It’s a pretty significant finding to say that in the last drought climate change removed a quarter of the snowpack in the Sierra.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Water Deeply: So in other words, climate change is not something that’s only happening in the future.\u003cbr>\n\u003c/strong>\u003cbr>\nBerg: Oh definitely, the projected changes are dramatic and huge and really sobering, but to me it was surprising to see there was a huge impact happening right now.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Water Deeply: What should water managers be taking away from your research?\u003cbr>\n\u003c/strong>\u003cbr>\nBerg: That the snowpack in the Sierra will not under any greenhouse gas emissions scenario be as full and healthy as it has been in the past, and to see that as an opportunity to rethink a snow-based water transport system across the state.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I think water managers need to be looking at much more local water storage and capture and recycling. The resizing of reservoirs is an option, but that has to be weighed against the huge financial cost and ecological concerns. But I see an opportunity to not be so reliant on this water conveyance system, and particularly for these major urban areas like L.A. The limited amount of rain that we do get should be used to its maximum potential.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If I was a water manager, I’d view this as a challenging opportunity, but a feasible opportunity to actually develop more local water solutions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Water Deeply: It seems like there is also a call to action in presenting these two different scenarios of what the world may hold if we work to curb greenhouse gas emissions and if we don’t.\u003cbr>\n\u003c/strong>\u003cbr>\nBerg: There is no question that the only way to avoid the worst outcomes is to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions. That has to be part of the dialogue, and if we don’t do anything on the mitigation then our adaptation becomes even harder. I don’t think there is any question that the need to reduce global emissions is an absolute necessity in order to avoid some of the most dire projections.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This article originally appeared on \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://mail.kqed.org/owa/redir.aspx?C=9e4bb0e1a7d74f24ba4684ef2533053d&URL=https%3a%2f%2fwww.newsdeeply.com%2fwater\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Water Deeply\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, and you can find it \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://www.newsdeeply.com/water/community/2018/05/09/impact-of-a-warming-climate-on-the-sierra-nevada-and-californias-water\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">here\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. For important news about the California drought, you can \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"http://waterdeeply.us5.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=8b78e9a34ff7443ec1e8c62c6&id=2947becb78\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">sign up\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> to the Water Deeply email list.\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "A new report from scientists at UCLA paints two scenarios for the Sierra Nevada. Neither is great, but cutting greenhouse gas emissions can mitigate impacts substantially.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Imagine a California where springtime temperatures are 7F warmer than they are today, where snowmelt runoff comes 50 days earlier and the average snowpack is just 36 percent of the 1981–2000 average.\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That may be the reality by the end of the century if we don’t curb greenhouse gas emissions, say researchers from the University of California, Los Angeles. A recent report from the UCLA Center for Climate Science analyzes how climate change will impact the Sierra Nevada and what that will mean for water resources.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In particular the research examines changes to temperature, the amount of snowpack and the timing of runoff and which elevations and watersheds will be most affected as the climate warms. It also compares how these factors may change with “business as usual” and do little to curb greenhouse gas emissions, versus a scenario in which greenhouse gas emissions begin to level off around 2050.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Neither forecast is great, but the research does show that curbing greenhouse gas emissions can make a difference. “Business as usual is the path we’re on, but it isn’t a foregone conclusion,” the report states. “Cutting greenhouse gas emissions can mitigate end-of-century impacts.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Water Deeply spoke with one of the report’s coauthors, Neil Berg, associate director of science at the UCLA Center for Climate Science and the Institute of the Environment and Sustainability, to discuss the findings and their implication for Californians.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Water Deeply: What prompted this report?\u003cbr>\n\u003c/strong>\u003cbr>\nNeil Berg: If you look at a place like California, the global climate models really don’t capture the fine-scale topography and regional characteristics that we know shape our weather and climate around us. So we embarked on two studies, and they used a process called downscaling, which translates global models to a finer resolution.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We took about a year, maybe 18 months, to do all the modeling, and it’s run on numerous supercomputers, both at UCLA and other national laboratories. And then we got to work analyzing the huge amounts of data and thinking through the most interesting variables and questions related to climate impacts for Californians.\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That included, how was snowpack changing? How was runoff changing? And how was temperature changing behind each of those?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Water Deeply: What did you find?\u003cbr>\n\u003c/strong>\u003cbr>\nIf you look at the entire Sierra Nevada, if we don’t curb our climate emissions, so if we stay on the business as usual pathway, we would expect a 7F rise in springtime temperature. But if we do take some significant action to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions, that amount of change could be nearly cut in half. So, somewhere around 3–4F of warming by the spring, and this is for the end of the century, so from roughly 2080 to 2100.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Water Deeply: Your study found that the middle elevations, around 5,000–8,000ft, are the most vulnerable as temperatures warm. Why?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Berg: Those middle elevations tend to be located where that freezing line, that 32F line, lies within the Sierra Nevada mountains. So even small changes in temperature – 1 degree, 2 degrees, 3 degrees – increase significantly the type of precipitation that falls in those mid elevations from frozen to liquid. The highest elevations, above 8,000ft, are so high that they in many cases remain sheltered from even a significant amount of warming in the future.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1806825\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1806825\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/07/img_6079_custom-8d1c76f9fb93e4b6597fddfb3439222c1490b6ba-1920x1285-800x535.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"535\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/07/img_6079_custom-8d1c76f9fb93e4b6597fddfb3439222c1490b6ba-1920x1285-800x535.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/07/img_6079_custom-8d1c76f9fb93e4b6597fddfb3439222c1490b6ba-1920x1285-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/07/img_6079_custom-8d1c76f9fb93e4b6597fddfb3439222c1490b6ba-1920x1285-768x514.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/07/img_6079_custom-8d1c76f9fb93e4b6597fddfb3439222c1490b6ba-1920x1285-1020x683.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/07/img_6079_custom-8d1c76f9fb93e4b6597fddfb3439222c1490b6ba-1920x1285.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/07/img_6079_custom-8d1c76f9fb93e4b6597fddfb3439222c1490b6ba-1920x1285-1180x790.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/07/img_6079_custom-8d1c76f9fb93e4b6597fddfb3439222c1490b6ba-1920x1285-960x643.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/07/img_6079_custom-8d1c76f9fb93e4b6597fddfb3439222c1490b6ba-1920x1285-240x161.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/07/img_6079_custom-8d1c76f9fb93e4b6597fddfb3439222c1490b6ba-1920x1285-375x251.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/07/img_6079_custom-8d1c76f9fb93e4b6597fddfb3439222c1490b6ba-1920x1285-520x348.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Kern River’s water is 10-times stronger than it was a year ago, after near-record snowmelt from California’s wet winter flows down from Mount Whitney in the Sierra Nevada. \u003ccite>(Nathan Rott/NPR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>And then there’s this really interesting thing called the snow albedo feedback, which is a cyclical process where you start out with some snow at these mid elevations and you have some future warming that melts away part of that snow, or just more rain instead of snow falls, and that exposes a darker underlying surface, either vegetation or bare soils. And they have a lower reflectivity or albedo of sunlight, so it’s absorbing more incoming sunlight which further warms the ground and the surrounding air, which further shrinks the snowpack, which further exposes more land, further shrinking snowpack, and so forth. Those mid elevations are most sensitive to changes in temperature and then it kicks off this snow albedo feedback in those elevation bands.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Water Deeply: Snowpack in those middle elevation areas is really crucial to the state’s water supply, right?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Berg: Yes, it’s a critical area for water resources across the state. In my opinion this was one of the more dramatic and alarming findings that was produced from this paper.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Water Deeply: Most of this research focused on projections of future impacts from warming, but you have also done research about what’s been happening already. What did you find there?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Berg: There was a companion study that I authored a couple of years ago, and this was during the 2011–15 drought, looking at what the snowpack in the Sierra would be in the absence of any existing or observed warming over California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And using advanced modeling tools we were able to simulate a hypothetical natural world over that drought period and we found that in the absence of observed warming, which was on the level of 1–2C [1.8–3.6F], right now, that snowpack in the Sierra would have been about 25 percent more during that drought period. It’s a pretty significant finding to say that in the last drought climate change removed a quarter of the snowpack in the Sierra.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Water Deeply: So in other words, climate change is not something that’s only happening in the future.\u003cbr>\n\u003c/strong>\u003cbr>\nBerg: Oh definitely, the projected changes are dramatic and huge and really sobering, but to me it was surprising to see there was a huge impact happening right now.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Water Deeply: What should water managers be taking away from your research?\u003cbr>\n\u003c/strong>\u003cbr>\nBerg: That the snowpack in the Sierra will not under any greenhouse gas emissions scenario be as full and healthy as it has been in the past, and to see that as an opportunity to rethink a snow-based water transport system across the state.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I think water managers need to be looking at much more local water storage and capture and recycling. The resizing of reservoirs is an option, but that has to be weighed against the huge financial cost and ecological concerns. But I see an opportunity to not be so reliant on this water conveyance system, and particularly for these major urban areas like L.A. The limited amount of rain that we do get should be used to its maximum potential.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If I was a water manager, I’d view this as a challenging opportunity, but a feasible opportunity to actually develop more local water solutions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Water Deeply: It seems like there is also a call to action in presenting these two different scenarios of what the world may hold if we work to curb greenhouse gas emissions and if we don’t.\u003cbr>\n\u003c/strong>\u003cbr>\nBerg: There is no question that the only way to avoid the worst outcomes is to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions. That has to be part of the dialogue, and if we don’t do anything on the mitigation then our adaptation becomes even harder. I don’t think there is any question that the need to reduce global emissions is an absolute necessity in order to avoid some of the most dire projections.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This article originally appeared on \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://mail.kqed.org/owa/redir.aspx?C=9e4bb0e1a7d74f24ba4684ef2533053d&URL=https%3a%2f%2fwww.newsdeeply.com%2fwater\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Water Deeply\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, and you can find it \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://www.newsdeeply.com/water/community/2018/05/09/impact-of-a-warming-climate-on-the-sierra-nevada-and-californias-water\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">here\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. For important news about the California drought, you can \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"http://waterdeeply.us5.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=8b78e9a34ff7443ec1e8c62c6&id=2947becb78\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">sign up\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> to the Water Deeply email list.\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>On Wednesday, the California Energy Commission unanimously voted to approve new energy standards that will require all new homes in California to have solar panels and other measures geared toward making buildings more energy-efficient.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is just a milestone. There’s a hell of a lot of work to do between now and 2020,” said chairman Robert Weisenmiller. “The bottom line is we’re going to stay focused on making this happen, and happen smoothly.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The commission held a hearing before the vote to solicit public comment from various trade groups. The majority of those present, which included environmental groups, solar companies, and utilities, voiced their strong support for the new standards.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At least one manufacturing trade group, however, urged the commission to delay the move. A spokesperson for the Air-Conditioning, Heating, and Refrigeration Institute expressed concern over late changes in the standards that would affect high efficiency air filters and water heaters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In response to the request, a representative for the commission said there’s no valid legal basis for the delay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We understand that we’re good to go,” the representative said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Original post:\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The\u003ca href=\"http://www.energy.ca.gov/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"> California Energy Commission\u003c/a> is expected to approve \u003ca href=\"http://docketpublic.energy.ca.gov/PublicDocuments/17-BSTD-02/TN222224_20180118T161546_2019_Standards_Notice_of_Proposed_Action.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">new standards\u003c/a> on Wednesday that will require solar panels for nearly all new homes starting in 2020, marking an historic leap in the state’s efforts to slash greenhouse emissions.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignright\">‘With everything happening in the country right now and President Trump’s obsession with coal and the continuing strength of the oil industry, California needs to be aggressive in moving towards a clean energy future.’\u003ccite>State Senator Scott Wiener\u003c/cite>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>The new standards will apply to homes, condos and multi-family buildings up to three stories high.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The move would be a key step in meeting the state’s ambitious zero net energy goals, says state Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco). In 2007, the energy commission called for all new residential buildings to produce as much energy as they consume by 2020. New commercial buildings have to meet the standard by 2030.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wiener, who led the successful effort to pass a solar mandate for San Francisco construction in 2016, says solar energy is a necessary component of California’s zero net energy goals.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In order to achieve zero net energy, you have to have a renewable energy source,” says Wiener. “With everything happening in the country right now and President Trump’s obsession with coal and the continuing strength of the oil industry, California needs to be aggressive in moving towards a clean energy future, and this is one step in that direction.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While the step is significant, California has been preparing for the transition to solar energy for years, according to a spokeswoman for the state energy commission.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[contextly_sidebar id=”93h9RBR6lqw8T1KvE3fdh7sWuT8MWkTU”]”We update energy codes every three years and in 2013 we required that all new homes be solar-ready,” says spokeswoman Amber Beck. “Homes had to have a certain amount of space on the roof so a homeowner could add a solar panel later on if he chooses.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Making California homes more energy-efficient is part of a broader initiative to shrink the state’s greenhouse gas emissions 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2030.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Electricity consumed by residential and commercial buildings is responsible for 14 percent of the state’s greenhouse pollutants, according to the \u003ca href=\"http://www.cpuc.ca.gov/cpucblog.aspx?id=12374&blogid=1551\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">California Public Utilities Commission.\u003c/a> \u003cspan id=\"ctl00_MainContent_BlogEntries1\">\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some critics, though, question the wisdom of the transition to solar at a time when California is struggling with a dire housing crisis and skyrocketing housing costs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In San Francisco, only 12 percent of households can afford a median-priced home, according to a \u003ca href=\"https://www.paragon-re.com/trend/bay-area-housing-affordability\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">recent report\u003c/a> by Paragon Real Estate Group. And in California overall, half as many people can afford median priced housing as in the rest of the country.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It absolutely will increase the cost of homes,” says Lisa Vorderbrueggen, director of governmental affairs for the Bay Area Building Industry Association. “But on the other hand, increasing the energy efficiency of homes has long been a state priority, so there’s no free lunch. We certainly would like to see local jurisdictions reduce costs elsewhere.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The energy commission’s Beck says the solar mandate will add about $40 a month to the average monthly mortgage payment. But, she adds, the new standards will cut energy use by more than half, and homeowners can expect to save about $80 per month in energy costs over the course of a 30-year mortgage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wiener, who has made housing affordability \u003cspan class=\"st\">a centerpiece of his agenda\u003c/span>, says homeowners will also have the option of leasing their solar panels.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You can have a third party come in and install and maintain those solar panels,” he says, “so they end up paying for themselves over time.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Besides the solar mandate, the new standards to be voted on Wednesday include lighting upgrades for all new commercial buildings and high-rise construction above three stories, a transition that will help buildings use 30 percent less energy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In addition, new ventilation requirements will apply to new homes and healthcare facilities. The measures \u003ca href=\"http://docketpublic.energy.ca.gov/PublicDocuments/17-BSTD-02/TN222224_20180118T161546_2019_Standards_Notice_of_Proposed_Action.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">will protect\u003c/a> residents from air pollution originating from outdoor and indoor sources, according to the California Energy Commission.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>On Wednesday, the California Energy Commission unanimously voted to approve new energy standards that will require all new homes in California to have solar panels and other measures geared toward making buildings more energy-efficient.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is just a milestone. There’s a hell of a lot of work to do between now and 2020,” said chairman Robert Weisenmiller. “The bottom line is we’re going to stay focused on making this happen, and happen smoothly.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The commission held a hearing before the vote to solicit public comment from various trade groups. The majority of those present, which included environmental groups, solar companies, and utilities, voiced their strong support for the new standards.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At least one manufacturing trade group, however, urged the commission to delay the move. A spokesperson for the Air-Conditioning, Heating, and Refrigeration Institute expressed concern over late changes in the standards that would affect high efficiency air filters and water heaters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In response to the request, a representative for the commission said there’s no valid legal basis for the delay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We understand that we’re good to go,” the representative said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Original post:\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The\u003ca href=\"http://www.energy.ca.gov/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"> California Energy Commission\u003c/a> is expected to approve \u003ca href=\"http://docketpublic.energy.ca.gov/PublicDocuments/17-BSTD-02/TN222224_20180118T161546_2019_Standards_Notice_of_Proposed_Action.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">new standards\u003c/a> on Wednesday that will require solar panels for nearly all new homes starting in 2020, marking an historic leap in the state’s efforts to slash greenhouse emissions.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignright\">‘With everything happening in the country right now and President Trump’s obsession with coal and the continuing strength of the oil industry, California needs to be aggressive in moving towards a clean energy future.’\u003ccite>State Senator Scott Wiener\u003c/cite>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>The new standards will apply to homes, condos and multi-family buildings up to three stories high.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The move would be a key step in meeting the state’s ambitious zero net energy goals, says state Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco). In 2007, the energy commission called for all new residential buildings to produce as much energy as they consume by 2020. New commercial buildings have to meet the standard by 2030.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wiener, who led the successful effort to pass a solar mandate for San Francisco construction in 2016, says solar energy is a necessary component of California’s zero net energy goals.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In order to achieve zero net energy, you have to have a renewable energy source,” says Wiener. “With everything happening in the country right now and President Trump’s obsession with coal and the continuing strength of the oil industry, California needs to be aggressive in moving towards a clean energy future, and this is one step in that direction.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While the step is significant, California has been preparing for the transition to solar energy for years, according to a spokeswoman for the state energy commission.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>”We update energy codes every three years and in 2013 we required that all new homes be solar-ready,” says spokeswoman Amber Beck. “Homes had to have a certain amount of space on the roof so a homeowner could add a solar panel later on if he chooses.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Making California homes more energy-efficient is part of a broader initiative to shrink the state’s greenhouse gas emissions 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2030.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Electricity consumed by residential and commercial buildings is responsible for 14 percent of the state’s greenhouse pollutants, according to the \u003ca href=\"http://www.cpuc.ca.gov/cpucblog.aspx?id=12374&blogid=1551\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">California Public Utilities Commission.\u003c/a> \u003cspan id=\"ctl00_MainContent_BlogEntries1\">\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some critics, though, question the wisdom of the transition to solar at a time when California is struggling with a dire housing crisis and skyrocketing housing costs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In San Francisco, only 12 percent of households can afford a median-priced home, according to a \u003ca href=\"https://www.paragon-re.com/trend/bay-area-housing-affordability\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">recent report\u003c/a> by Paragon Real Estate Group. And in California overall, half as many people can afford median priced housing as in the rest of the country.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It absolutely will increase the cost of homes,” says Lisa Vorderbrueggen, director of governmental affairs for the Bay Area Building Industry Association. “But on the other hand, increasing the energy efficiency of homes has long been a state priority, so there’s no free lunch. We certainly would like to see local jurisdictions reduce costs elsewhere.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The energy commission’s Beck says the solar mandate will add about $40 a month to the average monthly mortgage payment. But, she adds, the new standards will cut energy use by more than half, and homeowners can expect to save about $80 per month in energy costs over the course of a 30-year mortgage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wiener, who has made housing affordability \u003cspan class=\"st\">a centerpiece of his agenda\u003c/span>, says homeowners will also have the option of leasing their solar panels.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You can have a third party come in and install and maintain those solar panels,” he says, “so they end up paying for themselves over time.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Besides the solar mandate, the new standards to be voted on Wednesday include lighting upgrades for all new commercial buildings and high-rise construction above three stories, a transition that will help buildings use 30 percent less energy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In addition, new ventilation requirements will apply to new homes and healthcare facilities. The measures \u003ca href=\"http://docketpublic.energy.ca.gov/PublicDocuments/17-BSTD-02/TN222224_20180118T161546_2019_Standards_Notice_of_Proposed_Action.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">will protect\u003c/a> residents from air pollution originating from outdoor and indoor sources, according to the California Energy Commission.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>Researchers warn that the surge in global tourism is outstripping the “decarbonization” of tourism-related technology.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the first study of its kind, researchers found that carbon emissions from world travel contribute about 8 percent of all carbon emissions, four times more than previously estimated. [contextly_sidebar id=”WwPRBfmtHn2sVbSTzCwHnqIYz1n4TcRl”]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That rate is expected to grow 4 percent annually, outpacing the footprints of many other economic sectors, according \u003ca href=\"https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-018-0141-x\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">to the study\u003c/a> published Monday in the journal \u003cem>Nature Climate Change.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The study takes a sweeping look at the environmental impact of global tourism by examining the entire supply chain, from flights, dining, to shopping purchases. High-income countries account for the majority of this footprint, with the U.S. topping the list followed by China, Germany and India.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our analysis is a world-first look at the true cost of tourism — including consumables such as food from eating out and souvenirs — it’s a complete life-cycle assessment of global tourism, ensuring we don’t miss any impacts,” said senior author Arunima Malik, who teaches sustainability at the University of Sydney.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The study, which did not distinguish between business travel and tourism, found that domestic travel accounts for the majority of these carbon footprints. Transportation, shopping and food were cited as significant contributors to tourism-generated emissions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The findings suggest a natural tension between efforts to slow global warming and spending that drives many local and even national economies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>San Francisco had a total of 24.6 million visitors in 2015, an increase of 2.7 percent over 2014, according to the\u003ca href=\"http://www.sftravel.com/article/san-francisco-travel-reports-record-breaking-year-tourism\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"> San Francisco Travel Association.\u003c/a>[contextly_sidebar id=”SfQTBPnRfwqRsxtdVFmfbJVBNg8kSqiz”]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Visitors spent $8.5 billion in the city while meeting planners and exhibitors for “goods and services” shelled out another $723 million.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In some smaller nations such as the Maldives, Mauritius, Cyrus and the Seychelles, international tourism accounted for 30 to 80 percent of all national emissions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Given the growing environmental impact of world travel, the study authors say that international climate talks should include tourism-generated emissions in the agenda.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Carbon taxes or carbon trading schemes — in particular for aviation — may be required to curtail unchecked future growth in tourism-related emissions.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Researchers warn that the surge in global tourism is outstripping the “decarbonization” of tourism-related technology.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the first study of its kind, researchers found that carbon emissions from world travel contribute about 8 percent of all carbon emissions, four times more than previously estimated. \u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That rate is expected to grow 4 percent annually, outpacing the footprints of many other economic sectors, according \u003ca href=\"https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-018-0141-x\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">to the study\u003c/a> published Monday in the journal \u003cem>Nature Climate Change.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The study takes a sweeping look at the environmental impact of global tourism by examining the entire supply chain, from flights, dining, to shopping purchases. High-income countries account for the majority of this footprint, with the U.S. topping the list followed by China, Germany and India.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our analysis is a world-first look at the true cost of tourism — including consumables such as food from eating out and souvenirs — it’s a complete life-cycle assessment of global tourism, ensuring we don’t miss any impacts,” said senior author Arunima Malik, who teaches sustainability at the University of Sydney.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The study, which did not distinguish between business travel and tourism, found that domestic travel accounts for the majority of these carbon footprints. Transportation, shopping and food were cited as significant contributors to tourism-generated emissions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The findings suggest a natural tension between efforts to slow global warming and spending that drives many local and even national economies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>San Francisco had a total of 24.6 million visitors in 2015, an increase of 2.7 percent over 2014, according to the\u003ca href=\"http://www.sftravel.com/article/san-francisco-travel-reports-record-breaking-year-tourism\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"> San Francisco Travel Association.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Visitors spent $8.5 billion in the city while meeting planners and exhibitors for “goods and services” shelled out another $723 million.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In some smaller nations such as the Maldives, Mauritius, Cyrus and the Seychelles, international tourism accounted for 30 to 80 percent of all national emissions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Given the growing environmental impact of world travel, the study authors say that international climate talks should include tourism-generated emissions in the agenda.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Carbon taxes or carbon trading schemes — in particular for aviation — may be required to curtail unchecked future growth in tourism-related emissions.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cul>\n\u003cli>Michael Mann, creator of ‘hockey stick’ curve for greenhouse gases, says we now have to double sea rise projections.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Sees California as ‘shining beacon’ for how to take action\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Despite harassment, says ‘You don’t back off from a worthy battle when the stakes are important.’\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>Even as negotiators wind up another round of climate talks in Germany this week, there is little evidence that leaders are reining in global greenhouse gas emissions enough to avoid warming Earth by more than 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) — that’s the threshold at which scientists say we can avoid the worst impacts of climate change.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In fact, the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere averaged \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1923455/co2-atmospheric-concentrations-just-crossed-a-scary-mark\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">more than 410 parts per million\u003c/a> in April, for the first time since scientists have been tracking it.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignright\">‘You don’t back off from a worthy battle when the stakes are important.’\u003ccite>Michael Mann, Penn State\u003c/cite>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>KQED Science Editor Craig Miller sat down recently with \u003ca href=\"http://www.michaelmann.net/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Michael Mann\u003c/a>, who directs the \u003ca href=\"http://www.essc.psu.edu/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Earth System Science Center\u003c/a> at Penn State University, to assess where things stand.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mann’s major claim to fame is the hockey stick. Not the Wayne Gretzky kind, but the data plot that came to be known as the “\u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hockey_stick_graph\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">hockey stick curve\u003c/a>.” Al Gore used it in his “Inconvenient Truth” documentary to show the sharp upward trend in temperatures since the start of the industrial age.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1923551\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1515px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/05/IPCC_2001_3rd-Assessment_Report_SPM.png\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1923551 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/05/IPCC_2001_3rd-Assessment_Report_SPM.png\" alt=\"Hockey stick graph of temperatures\" width=\"1515\" height=\"1040\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/05/IPCC_2001_3rd-Assessment_Report_SPM.png 1515w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/05/IPCC_2001_3rd-Assessment_Report_SPM-160x110.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/05/IPCC_2001_3rd-Assessment_Report_SPM-800x549.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/05/IPCC_2001_3rd-Assessment_Report_SPM-768x527.png 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/05/IPCC_2001_3rd-Assessment_Report_SPM-1020x700.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/05/IPCC_2001_3rd-Assessment_Report_SPM-1200x824.png 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/05/IPCC_2001_3rd-Assessment_Report_SPM-1180x810.png 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/05/IPCC_2001_3rd-Assessment_Report_SPM-960x659.png 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/05/IPCC_2001_3rd-Assessment_Report_SPM-240x165.png 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/05/IPCC_2001_3rd-Assessment_Report_SPM-375x257.png 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/05/IPCC_2001_3rd-Assessment_Report_SPM-520x357.png 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1515px) 100vw, 1515px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The “hockey stick:” temperatures in blue represent the “shaft,” steeply rising red part of the curve is the “blade.” \u003ccite>(Michael Mann)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Four years ago, Mann \u003ca href=\"https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/earth-will-cross-the-climate-danger-threshold-by-2036/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">wrote a piece\u003c/a> for \u003ca href=\"https://www.scientificamerican.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Scientific American\u003c/a> warning that crossing 405 parts per million would be leaping over the “danger threshold.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>The following is an edited transcript.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Miller: Given what we know now that maybe we didn’t know or weren’t as certain of even five years ago, are you more concerned or less concerned than you were then?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mann: I’m more concerned. Over the last several years, we’ve learned that there are processes that are now playing out that we didn’t have in our models in our early projections that are causing the ice sheets to lose ice faster than we expected, earlier than we expected, that’s leading to more sea level rise than we expected.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignright\">‘It’s like a minefield that we’re walking out onto, and the farther we walk out onto that minefield, the more of those mines we’re going to set off.’\u003ccite>Michael Mann, Penn State\u003c/cite>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>Just within the last year, even since the last report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, we’ve now learned that the west Antarctic ice sheet may lose twice as much ice by the end of this century as we thought previously. We now have to double the sea level rise projections. Previously, the upper end of the range that you typically heard — by the end of the century maybe three feet of sea level rise — we now think we could see more than six feet of sea level rise. And far more than that, if we don’t act, ultimately, if we lose the west Antarctic ice sheet and the Greenland ice sheet, which we’ll do if we burn all of the available fossil fuels. Then we’re talking 80, 100 feet of sea level rise. We’re not quite in “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NpKbULrB9Z8\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Waterworld\u003c/a>” but headed in that direction.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>CM: What happens in the polar regions doesn’t stay in the polar regions.\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>MM: Absolutely.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We didn’t understand, five years ago, that the melting of the Arctic sea ice and the change in the pattern of warming in the poles that that causes might change the jet stream in the way that it appears to be doing. For California, it’s a disastrous impact because it’s causing the jet stream to sort of veer north and deny California of all of that rainfall and snowfall that it depends on for water supply in the water. Hotter summers, more evaporation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1923557\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/05/jetstream_wobbly_NASA.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1923557\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/05/jetstream_wobbly_NASA.jpg\" alt=\"Illustration: globe with wavy jet stream pattern\" width=\"640\" height=\"469\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/05/jetstream_wobbly_NASA.jpg 640w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/05/jetstream_wobbly_NASA-160x117.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/05/jetstream_wobbly_NASA-240x176.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/05/jetstream_wobbly_NASA-375x275.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/05/jetstream_wobbly_NASA-520x381.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">High-altitude winds known as the jet stream have taken a wavy path, diverting winter storms up and around California. \u003ccite>(NASA)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The jet stream is steering north of California, denying the state the precipitation that it needs, and then that same jet stream comes crashing down in the east, giving us very unusual, if brief, episodes of cold. We’re just starting to understand the subtle physics of why it is that climate change may be causing the jet stream to behave in this wacky way, and it’s not a good surprise. It’s a bad surprise.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>CM: And the president’s response to that is, “Hey, it’s really cold here. We could use a little bit of global warming.” How much do you think this current administration has set back the cause of awareness of climate science?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>MM: It’s really unprecedented. What’s most worrying to me isn’t what Donald Trump tweets about climate change, but what his administration is doing to set back our efforts. It’s dismantling protections — the Clean Power Plan that the Obama administration put in place, that helps us achieve the sorts of reductions in carbon emissions that we have committed to in the Paris agreement — backing out of the Paris agreement, and taking away incentives for renewable energy. I mean pretty much doing everything that polluting interests want him to do to ensure that we double down in fossil fuels rather than join the rest of the world, and move on toward the great revolution, the economic revolution of the next century: renewable energy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>CM: At this point there is so much warming in the pipeline, so to speak, how can you be optimistic that we can make any difference with any kind of policy?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[contextly_sidebar id=”9AW9BpTzhQiGDUoHVbkIVxfH6malhOxj”]MM: Well, sometimes there’s a danger that when we hold a number up like 405 parts per million, or 2 degrees Celsius warming, it makes it sound like there’s some cliff that we fall off and there’s no going back. And the way I prefer to think of it is rather than a cliff that we go off, it’s like a minefield that we’re walking out onto, and the farther we walk out onto that minefield, the more of those mines we’re going to set off. We don’t know exactly where they are, but we know they’re out there, and we know that the only safe thing is to stop marching headlong into that minefield.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>CM: Let me just ask you about California’s efforts, bucking the trend at the federal level of doing either nothing or actually reversing progress. It’s been said that California’s about 1 percent of global emissions, that it can’t really move the needle no matter what it does. You agree with that?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>MM: I don’t. I do see California as a great shining beacon. It isn’t just the emissions reductions that it is achieving itself. It’s the message it’s sending to the world, and it is the credibility that it gives policymakers when they say that this can be done. They can point to California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>CM: You’ve paid a high personal price for all of your efforts toward communicating climate science. Can you just run down a list of some of the things that have happened to you as a result of your work?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>MM: I didn’t realize that I would be hauled into a hostile congressional hearing, be attacked on the editorial pages of The Wall Street Journal, have police come to my office to investigate a white substance that I had received in the mail, dealing with death threats against me, thinly veiled threats against my family. Certainly not what you think you’re signing up for when you, as I did, study science at UC Berkeley.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>You go into the field of science and when that science comes into conflict with certain vested interests — in this case, the science of climate change perceived by some fossil fuel interests as a threat to their bottom line — in some cases, they have decided to sort of wage this war against the science. And often it takes the form of personal attacks against the scientists themselves.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>CM: What made you decide not to lay low? Because that had to be a tough call.\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>MM: It was. I think frankly, it was a matter just of personality and temperament. I wasn’t a big kid when I was in elementary school but I always stood up to bullies and I always fought back, even if I was likely to get beat up, because it was the right thing to do. You don’t back off from a worthy battle when the stakes are important. And in this case, what could be more important than the battle to preserve this planet for future generations?\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cul>\n\u003cli>Michael Mann, creator of ‘hockey stick’ curve for greenhouse gases, says we now have to double sea rise projections.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Sees California as ‘shining beacon’ for how to take action\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Despite harassment, says ‘You don’t back off from a worthy battle when the stakes are important.’\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>Even as negotiators wind up another round of climate talks in Germany this week, there is little evidence that leaders are reining in global greenhouse gas emissions enough to avoid warming Earth by more than 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) — that’s the threshold at which scientists say we can avoid the worst impacts of climate change.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In fact, the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere averaged \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1923455/co2-atmospheric-concentrations-just-crossed-a-scary-mark\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">more than 410 parts per million\u003c/a> in April, for the first time since scientists have been tracking it.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignright\">‘You don’t back off from a worthy battle when the stakes are important.’\u003ccite>Michael Mann, Penn State\u003c/cite>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>KQED Science Editor Craig Miller sat down recently with \u003ca href=\"http://www.michaelmann.net/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Michael Mann\u003c/a>, who directs the \u003ca href=\"http://www.essc.psu.edu/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Earth System Science Center\u003c/a> at Penn State University, to assess where things stand.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mann’s major claim to fame is the hockey stick. Not the Wayne Gretzky kind, but the data plot that came to be known as the “\u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hockey_stick_graph\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">hockey stick curve\u003c/a>.” Al Gore used it in his “Inconvenient Truth” documentary to show the sharp upward trend in temperatures since the start of the industrial age.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1923551\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1515px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/05/IPCC_2001_3rd-Assessment_Report_SPM.png\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1923551 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/05/IPCC_2001_3rd-Assessment_Report_SPM.png\" alt=\"Hockey stick graph of temperatures\" width=\"1515\" height=\"1040\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/05/IPCC_2001_3rd-Assessment_Report_SPM.png 1515w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/05/IPCC_2001_3rd-Assessment_Report_SPM-160x110.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/05/IPCC_2001_3rd-Assessment_Report_SPM-800x549.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/05/IPCC_2001_3rd-Assessment_Report_SPM-768x527.png 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/05/IPCC_2001_3rd-Assessment_Report_SPM-1020x700.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/05/IPCC_2001_3rd-Assessment_Report_SPM-1200x824.png 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/05/IPCC_2001_3rd-Assessment_Report_SPM-1180x810.png 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/05/IPCC_2001_3rd-Assessment_Report_SPM-960x659.png 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/05/IPCC_2001_3rd-Assessment_Report_SPM-240x165.png 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/05/IPCC_2001_3rd-Assessment_Report_SPM-375x257.png 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/05/IPCC_2001_3rd-Assessment_Report_SPM-520x357.png 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1515px) 100vw, 1515px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The “hockey stick:” temperatures in blue represent the “shaft,” steeply rising red part of the curve is the “blade.” \u003ccite>(Michael Mann)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Four years ago, Mann \u003ca href=\"https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/earth-will-cross-the-climate-danger-threshold-by-2036/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">wrote a piece\u003c/a> for \u003ca href=\"https://www.scientificamerican.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Scientific American\u003c/a> warning that crossing 405 parts per million would be leaping over the “danger threshold.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>The following is an edited transcript.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Miller: Given what we know now that maybe we didn’t know or weren’t as certain of even five years ago, are you more concerned or less concerned than you were then?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mann: I’m more concerned. Over the last several years, we’ve learned that there are processes that are now playing out that we didn’t have in our models in our early projections that are causing the ice sheets to lose ice faster than we expected, earlier than we expected, that’s leading to more sea level rise than we expected.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignright\">‘It’s like a minefield that we’re walking out onto, and the farther we walk out onto that minefield, the more of those mines we’re going to set off.’\u003ccite>Michael Mann, Penn State\u003c/cite>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>Just within the last year, even since the last report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, we’ve now learned that the west Antarctic ice sheet may lose twice as much ice by the end of this century as we thought previously. We now have to double the sea level rise projections. Previously, the upper end of the range that you typically heard — by the end of the century maybe three feet of sea level rise — we now think we could see more than six feet of sea level rise. And far more than that, if we don’t act, ultimately, if we lose the west Antarctic ice sheet and the Greenland ice sheet, which we’ll do if we burn all of the available fossil fuels. Then we’re talking 80, 100 feet of sea level rise. We’re not quite in “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NpKbULrB9Z8\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Waterworld\u003c/a>” but headed in that direction.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>CM: What happens in the polar regions doesn’t stay in the polar regions.\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>MM: Absolutely.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We didn’t understand, five years ago, that the melting of the Arctic sea ice and the change in the pattern of warming in the poles that that causes might change the jet stream in the way that it appears to be doing. For California, it’s a disastrous impact because it’s causing the jet stream to sort of veer north and deny California of all of that rainfall and snowfall that it depends on for water supply in the water. Hotter summers, more evaporation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1923557\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/05/jetstream_wobbly_NASA.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1923557\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/05/jetstream_wobbly_NASA.jpg\" alt=\"Illustration: globe with wavy jet stream pattern\" width=\"640\" height=\"469\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/05/jetstream_wobbly_NASA.jpg 640w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/05/jetstream_wobbly_NASA-160x117.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/05/jetstream_wobbly_NASA-240x176.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/05/jetstream_wobbly_NASA-375x275.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/05/jetstream_wobbly_NASA-520x381.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">High-altitude winds known as the jet stream have taken a wavy path, diverting winter storms up and around California. \u003ccite>(NASA)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The jet stream is steering north of California, denying the state the precipitation that it needs, and then that same jet stream comes crashing down in the east, giving us very unusual, if brief, episodes of cold. We’re just starting to understand the subtle physics of why it is that climate change may be causing the jet stream to behave in this wacky way, and it’s not a good surprise. It’s a bad surprise.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>CM: And the president’s response to that is, “Hey, it’s really cold here. We could use a little bit of global warming.” How much do you think this current administration has set back the cause of awareness of climate science?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>MM: It’s really unprecedented. What’s most worrying to me isn’t what Donald Trump tweets about climate change, but what his administration is doing to set back our efforts. It’s dismantling protections — the Clean Power Plan that the Obama administration put in place, that helps us achieve the sorts of reductions in carbon emissions that we have committed to in the Paris agreement — backing out of the Paris agreement, and taking away incentives for renewable energy. I mean pretty much doing everything that polluting interests want him to do to ensure that we double down in fossil fuels rather than join the rest of the world, and move on toward the great revolution, the economic revolution of the next century: renewable energy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>CM: At this point there is so much warming in the pipeline, so to speak, how can you be optimistic that we can make any difference with any kind of policy?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>MM: Well, sometimes there’s a danger that when we hold a number up like 405 parts per million, or 2 degrees Celsius warming, it makes it sound like there’s some cliff that we fall off and there’s no going back. And the way I prefer to think of it is rather than a cliff that we go off, it’s like a minefield that we’re walking out onto, and the farther we walk out onto that minefield, the more of those mines we’re going to set off. We don’t know exactly where they are, but we know they’re out there, and we know that the only safe thing is to stop marching headlong into that minefield.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>CM: Let me just ask you about California’s efforts, bucking the trend at the federal level of doing either nothing or actually reversing progress. It’s been said that California’s about 1 percent of global emissions, that it can’t really move the needle no matter what it does. You agree with that?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>MM: I don’t. I do see California as a great shining beacon. It isn’t just the emissions reductions that it is achieving itself. It’s the message it’s sending to the world, and it is the credibility that it gives policymakers when they say that this can be done. They can point to California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>CM: You’ve paid a high personal price for all of your efforts toward communicating climate science. Can you just run down a list of some of the things that have happened to you as a result of your work?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>MM: I didn’t realize that I would be hauled into a hostile congressional hearing, be attacked on the editorial pages of The Wall Street Journal, have police come to my office to investigate a white substance that I had received in the mail, dealing with death threats against me, thinly veiled threats against my family. Certainly not what you think you’re signing up for when you, as I did, study science at UC Berkeley.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>You go into the field of science and when that science comes into conflict with certain vested interests — in this case, the science of climate change perceived by some fossil fuel interests as a threat to their bottom line — in some cases, they have decided to sort of wage this war against the science. And often it takes the form of personal attacks against the scientists themselves.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>CM: What made you decide not to lay low? Because that had to be a tough call.\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>MM: It was. I think frankly, it was a matter just of personality and temperament. I wasn’t a big kid when I was in elementary school but I always stood up to bullies and I always fought back, even if I was likely to get beat up, because it was the right thing to do. You don’t back off from a worthy battle when the stakes are important. And in this case, what could be more important than the battle to preserve this planet for future generations?\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>For the first time in human history, the monthly average concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has surpassed the threshold of 410 parts per million.[contextly_sidebar id=”5xXRiGwtizD12R67l83DACY0biOov0fr”]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s the finding of the \u003ca href=\"https://scripps.ucsd.edu/programs/keelingcurve/category/measurement-notes/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Scripps CO\u003csub>2\u003c/sub> Program\u003c/a>, which tracks carbon dioxide measurements in the Earth’s atmosphere every 10 minutes. That data is then plotted onto the \u003ca href=\"https://scripps.ucsd.edu/programs/keelingcurve/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Keeling Curve\u003c/a>, a graph that illustrates the rise in carbon dioxide levels.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignright\">‘The curve symbolizes humanity’s waste dump. I’m hopeful in the next 10 years or so, it begins to bend over and it becomes the curve of hope, not danger. We haven’t reached that point yet.’\u003ccite>Ralph Keeling, geophysicist\u003c/cite>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>The information is based on continuous measurements taken at the \u003ca href=\"https://www.esrl.noaa.gov/gmd/obop/mlo/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Mauna Loa Observatory\u003c/a> in Hawaii. The latest threshold was registered in April.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The latest record shows that “humans are overwhelming nature” according to \u003ca href=\"http://scrippsco2.ucsd.edu/personnel_bios/ralph_keeling\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Ralph Keeling\u003c/a>, a geophysicist and the head of the Scripps CO\u003csub>2\u003c/sub> Program.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s important to realize that we are headed towards pretty dangerous territory if we aren’t already in it,” says Keeling. “So something like 450-500 parts per billion places us in the danger zone. Things are changing already, so it’s become a question of how hard will it be to cope with all these changes.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-1923491 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/05/mlo_full_record-1-800x480.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"480\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/05/mlo_full_record-1-800x480.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/05/mlo_full_record-1-160x96.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/05/mlo_full_record-1-768x461.png 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/05/mlo_full_record-1-960x576.png 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/05/mlo_full_record-1-240x144.png 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/05/mlo_full_record-1-375x225.png 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/05/mlo_full_record-1-520x312.png 520w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/05/mlo_full_record-1.png 1000w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Moreover, the rate has accelerated decade by decade, he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s going up at about 2.5 parts per million per year. At that rate we will hit 450 in just 15 years. We’re already in very unnatural territory with respect to carbon dioxide.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The unabated rise will have major consequences for people and organisms, says Keeling. Sea level rise, heat waves and rainfall patterns will all be impacted.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Species will go extinct and areas will be flooded. A lot will happen,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The reason for the rapid rise in CO\u003csub>2\u003c/sub> is almost entirely based on the burning of fossil fuels, according to Keeling.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One Keeling graph that tracks the rise of CO\u003csub>2\u003c/sub> going back 10,000 years shows a sudden uptick around the 18th century, when global industrialization was underway.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-1923470\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/05/co2_10k-800x480.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"480\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/05/co2_10k-800x480.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/05/co2_10k-160x96.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/05/co2_10k-768x461.png 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/05/co2_10k-960x576.png 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/05/co2_10k-240x144.png 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/05/co2_10k-375x225.png 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/05/co2_10k-520x312.png 520w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/05/co2_10k.png 1000w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“From 1700 to the present , you see the curve start to rise. Around that period, people relied on coal and the world was industrializing.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Keeling says the fight to save the planet will rest mainly on the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1915384/can-california-really-go-100-percent-renewable-energy\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">growth of renewables.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The curve symbolizes humanity’s waste dump,” says Keeling. “I’m hopeful in the next 10 years or so, it begins to bend over and it becomes the curve of hope, not danger. We haven’t reached that point yet.”\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>For the first time in human history, the monthly average concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has surpassed the threshold of 410 parts per million.\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s the finding of the \u003ca href=\"https://scripps.ucsd.edu/programs/keelingcurve/category/measurement-notes/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Scripps CO\u003csub>2\u003c/sub> Program\u003c/a>, which tracks carbon dioxide measurements in the Earth’s atmosphere every 10 minutes. That data is then plotted onto the \u003ca href=\"https://scripps.ucsd.edu/programs/keelingcurve/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Keeling Curve\u003c/a>, a graph that illustrates the rise in carbon dioxide levels.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignright\">‘The curve symbolizes humanity’s waste dump. I’m hopeful in the next 10 years or so, it begins to bend over and it becomes the curve of hope, not danger. We haven’t reached that point yet.’\u003ccite>Ralph Keeling, geophysicist\u003c/cite>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>The information is based on continuous measurements taken at the \u003ca href=\"https://www.esrl.noaa.gov/gmd/obop/mlo/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Mauna Loa Observatory\u003c/a> in Hawaii. The latest threshold was registered in April.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The latest record shows that “humans are overwhelming nature” according to \u003ca href=\"http://scrippsco2.ucsd.edu/personnel_bios/ralph_keeling\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Ralph Keeling\u003c/a>, a geophysicist and the head of the Scripps CO\u003csub>2\u003c/sub> Program.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s important to realize that we are headed towards pretty dangerous territory if we aren’t already in it,” says Keeling. “So something like 450-500 parts per billion places us in the danger zone. Things are changing already, so it’s become a question of how hard will it be to cope with all these changes.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-1923491 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/05/mlo_full_record-1-800x480.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"480\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/05/mlo_full_record-1-800x480.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/05/mlo_full_record-1-160x96.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/05/mlo_full_record-1-768x461.png 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/05/mlo_full_record-1-960x576.png 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/05/mlo_full_record-1-240x144.png 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/05/mlo_full_record-1-375x225.png 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/05/mlo_full_record-1-520x312.png 520w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/05/mlo_full_record-1.png 1000w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Moreover, the rate has accelerated decade by decade, he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s going up at about 2.5 parts per million per year. At that rate we will hit 450 in just 15 years. We’re already in very unnatural territory with respect to carbon dioxide.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The unabated rise will have major consequences for people and organisms, says Keeling. Sea level rise, heat waves and rainfall patterns will all be impacted.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Species will go extinct and areas will be flooded. A lot will happen,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The reason for the rapid rise in CO\u003csub>2\u003c/sub> is almost entirely based on the burning of fossil fuels, according to Keeling.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One Keeling graph that tracks the rise of CO\u003csub>2\u003c/sub> going back 10,000 years shows a sudden uptick around the 18th century, when global industrialization was underway.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-1923470\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/05/co2_10k-800x480.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"480\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/05/co2_10k-800x480.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/05/co2_10k-160x96.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/05/co2_10k-768x461.png 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/05/co2_10k-960x576.png 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/05/co2_10k-240x144.png 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/05/co2_10k-375x225.png 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/05/co2_10k-520x312.png 520w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/05/co2_10k.png 1000w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“From 1700 to the present , you see the curve start to rise. Around that period, people relied on coal and the world was industrializing.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Keeling says the fight to save the planet will rest mainly on the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1915384/can-california-really-go-100-percent-renewable-energy\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">growth of renewables.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The curve symbolizes humanity’s waste dump,” says Keeling. “I’m hopeful in the next 10 years or so, it begins to bend over and it becomes the curve of hope, not danger. We haven’t reached that point yet.”\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Pressure Mounts to Solve California’s Toxic Farmland Drainage Problem",
"headTitle": "Pressure Mounts to Solve California’s Toxic Farmland Drainage Problem | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>Many Americans know the name Kesterson as the California site where thousands of birds and fish were discovered with gruesome deformities in 1983, a result of exposure to selenium-poisoned farm runoff. Thirty-five years later, it is one of the oldest unresolved water problems in the state.[contextly_sidebar id=”sn0yIbuz07uRax3wH5rwT3iPgZrqq3Wm”]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">Selenium, a naturally occurring element, is essential to people and animals alike in small doses. But selenium continues pouring off many San Joaquin Valley farms in \u003c/span>larger quantities, which can be toxic. The United States Bureau of Reclamation, which is legally obligated to solve the drainage problem as owner of the Central Valley Project irrigation system, has failed to find a fix.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">“It’s not an easy problem to solve,” said Rachel Zwillinger, a water policy adviser at Defenders of Wildlife. “The scope of the problem is large and the consequences of not doing it well – as we learned at Kesterson – are profound.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">The Bureau of Reclamation and Congress created the drainage problem in 1960 when they agreed to add Westlands Water District to the Central Valley Project, providing it with irrigation water diverted from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta to the north. Westlands’ soils were known to be salty and perched atop an impermeable clay layer, so the bureau also agreed to build a drainage system to ensure the land would remain fertile.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Their solution, in 1971, was to build Kesterson National Wildlife Refuge and fill its ponds with farm drainage. The selenium problem was not recognized at the time, but the project went ahead even though the California Department of Water Resources and biologists at the \u003cspan class=\"caps\">U.S.\u003c/span> Fish and Wildlife Service warned the runoff might be harmful.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">In 1983, bird embryos at Kesterson were found with missing and deformed limbs, exposed brains and other horrors. Selenium that leached from the soil into farm runoff was to blame. The Bureau of Reclamation then began a decades-long search for another solution. None has been found so far.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1923447\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 768px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1923447\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/05/SanLuisDrainBee1.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"768\" height=\"371\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/05/SanLuisDrainBee1.jpeg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/05/SanLuisDrainBee1-160x77.jpeg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/05/SanLuisDrainBee1-240x116.jpeg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/05/SanLuisDrainBee1-375x181.jpeg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/05/SanLuisDrainBee1-520x251.jpeg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 768px) 100vw, 768px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A crew pumps selenium-laden water out of the concrete-lined San Luis Drain into a field near Tranquility, California, in the 1980s as part of a previous cleanup project for selenium-contaminated farm runoff that poisoned birds at the Kesterson National Wildlife Refuge. \u003ccite>(The Fresno Bee)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">As a result, Westlands Water District is pressing Congress to let it take charge of the drainage problem. A \u003ca href=\"https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/house-bill/1769?q=%7B%22search%22:%5B%22hr1769%22%5D%7D&r=1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cspan class=\"s2\">bill introduced\u003c/span>\u003c/a> in the House of Representatives earlier this year by Representative David Valadao (R-Hanford), would turn the drainage problem over to Westlands while also absolving the district of its $350 million debt for its share of construction costs for the Central Valley Project.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">One solution Westlands proposes is to grow salt-tolerant grasses using the tainted irrigation water, thereby sequestering the selenium in plant tissues. But a 17-year-long experiment using that method has produced mixed results.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">A half-dozen smaller water districts clustered just south of Westlands have been running the experiment, known as the San Joaquin River Water Quality Improvement Project. Selenium levels, measured in bird eggs collected at the 5,400-acre site, have varied considerably over the life of the project.[contextly_sidebar id=”0VimOuHUBQAUPc8QkxmHnqHZRR82VRyl”]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">Results from a 2016 monitoring report show that selenium concentrations in killdeer and redwing blackbird eggs are enough to cause deformities or prevent hatching.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">Joe McGahan, drainage coordinator for the water agencies sponsoring the project, provided preliminary results from 2017. These show selenium levels declined significantly for both species, but remain at levels that may be harmful.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">“Generally, I think the verdict is that it has stabilized, for the most part, over time,” McGahan said. “Certainly we’re watching it, and we’re going to continue to monitor.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">McGahan said the partners have plans to expand the project, and are applying to the state for funds to help cover the cost.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">Zwillinger is skeptical.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">“Selenium is bioaccumulating and showing up in bird eggs on the project site in concentrations that are really concerning,” she said. “This approach, which is touted as a new, better start, is still having really substantial consequences for birds.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1923446\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 710px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1923446\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/05/Kesterson-deformed-grebe11.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"710\" height=\"855\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/05/Kesterson-deformed-grebe11.jpeg 710w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/05/Kesterson-deformed-grebe11-160x193.jpeg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/05/Kesterson-deformed-grebe11-240x289.jpeg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/05/Kesterson-deformed-grebe11-375x452.jpeg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/05/Kesterson-deformed-grebe11-520x626.jpeg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 710px) 100vw, 710px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">An eared Grebe, photographed in 1984, was born without eyes and with badly deformed feet at Kesterson National Wildlife Refuge as a result of selenium contamination. \u003ccite>(The Fresno Bee)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">The effort is being watched closely by officials at \u003ca class=\"preview-link\" href=\"http://gwdwater.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cspan class=\"s2\">Grassland Water District\u003c/span>\u003c/a>. The district delivers water to dozens of state, federal and private wildlife refuge areas, some located downstream from the project area and the adjacent Westlands Water District. Collectively known as the Grasslands Ecological Area, the 240,000-acre complex is the largest contiguous body of wetlands in the western \u003cspan class=\"caps\">U.S.\u003c/span> The selenium drainage problem is an ongoing threat to millions of migratory waterfowl and other wildlife that rely on the wetlands.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">Ric Ortega, general manager of Grassland Water District, said he wants to see much more rigorous testing and monitoring of the selenium treatment project.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">“They only pull a few samples a year,” he said. “It’s not comprehensive enough to really ascertain anything. So that’s a concern. We have a hypersaline perched water table out here that’s very tough to manage. I would hope it’s more expansive and more statistically robust moving forward.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">Zwillinger also wants more rigorous monitoring, both at the existing project site and any project undertaken by Westlands, if it successfully wrests control of the drainage problem away from the Bureau of Reclamation. There is no such requirement in Valadao’s proposed legislation.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">Westlands officials could not be reached for comment.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">The Bureau of Reclamation has its own incentive to unload the selenium cleanup burden this year. Under a previous legal settlement with Westlands, Reclamation committed to proceed with a drainage cleanup plan estimated to cost as much as $\u003cspan class=\"caps\">3.5\u003c/span>billion, including a mix of farmland retirement and water treatment systems akin to desalination.[contextly_sidebar id=”J9bUCoX4dL0BhmPjFA4bl5dPyt2632Xc”]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">In a \u003ca class=\"preview-link\" href=\"https://drive.google.com/open?id=1egBR42iO3ifvnD0xYuJqEZCffxYaD2-s\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cspan class=\"s2\">November letter\u003c/span>\u003c/a> to the federal agency, California senators Kamala Harris and Dianne Feinstein urged the agency to update its decade-old environmental impact study on that cleanup proposal. They think the bureau can find a simpler, cheaper solution, and they specifically highlighted the option of growing salt-tolerant grasses – the same approach that shows mixed results in recent monitoring of bird eggs.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">Zwillinger expects heavy pressure to pass the Valadao bill before the November election, when Republicans could lose their control of Congress. She is optimistic that language could be added requiring, at a minimum, rigorous monitoring and performance standards for any new selenium-control project.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"fin\">\u003cspan class=\"s1\">“I think all sides are unhappy with the status quo and motivated to find a solution,” Zwillinger said. “Of all the complex California water issues, it strikes me that [in this case] there could actually be an agreement in the near term that’s protective of both the environment and agricultural interests.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This article originally appeared on \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://mail.kqed.org/owa/redir.aspx?C=9e4bb0e1a7d74f24ba4684ef2533053d&URL=https%3a%2f%2fwww.newsdeeply.com%2fwater\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Water Deeply\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, and you can find it \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://www.newsdeeply.com/water/articles/2018/05/02/pressure-mounts-to-solve-californias-toxic-farmland-drainage-problem\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">here\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. For important news about the California drought, you can \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"http://waterdeeply.us5.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=8b78e9a34ff7443ec1e8c62c6&id=2947becb78\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">sign up\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> to the Water Deeply email list.\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "Three decades ago, selenium-tainted farm runoff in the San Joaquin Valley deformed wildlife in horrific ways. Amid political maneuvering in Congress to find a solution, the toxin is still showing up in bird eggs.",
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"description": "Three decades ago, selenium-tainted farm runoff in the San Joaquin Valley deformed wildlife in horrific ways. Amid political maneuvering in Congress to find a solution, the toxin is still showing up in bird eggs.",
"title": "Pressure Mounts to Solve California’s Toxic Farmland Drainage Problem | KQED",
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"headline": "Pressure Mounts to Solve California’s Toxic Farmland Drainage Problem",
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"slug": "pressure-mounts-to-solve-californias-toxic-farmland-drainage-problem",
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"nprByline": "Matt Weiser\u003cbr />Water Deeply",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Many Americans know the name Kesterson as the California site where thousands of birds and fish were discovered with gruesome deformities in 1983, a result of exposure to selenium-poisoned farm runoff. Thirty-five years later, it is one of the oldest unresolved water problems in the state.\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">Selenium, a naturally occurring element, is essential to people and animals alike in small doses. But selenium continues pouring off many San Joaquin Valley farms in \u003c/span>larger quantities, which can be toxic. The United States Bureau of Reclamation, which is legally obligated to solve the drainage problem as owner of the Central Valley Project irrigation system, has failed to find a fix.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">“It’s not an easy problem to solve,” said Rachel Zwillinger, a water policy adviser at Defenders of Wildlife. “The scope of the problem is large and the consequences of not doing it well – as we learned at Kesterson – are profound.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">The Bureau of Reclamation and Congress created the drainage problem in 1960 when they agreed to add Westlands Water District to the Central Valley Project, providing it with irrigation water diverted from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta to the north. Westlands’ soils were known to be salty and perched atop an impermeable clay layer, so the bureau also agreed to build a drainage system to ensure the land would remain fertile.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Their solution, in 1971, was to build Kesterson National Wildlife Refuge and fill its ponds with farm drainage. The selenium problem was not recognized at the time, but the project went ahead even though the California Department of Water Resources and biologists at the \u003cspan class=\"caps\">U.S.\u003c/span> Fish and Wildlife Service warned the runoff might be harmful.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">In 1983, bird embryos at Kesterson were found with missing and deformed limbs, exposed brains and other horrors. Selenium that leached from the soil into farm runoff was to blame. The Bureau of Reclamation then began a decades-long search for another solution. None has been found so far.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1923447\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 768px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1923447\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/05/SanLuisDrainBee1.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"768\" height=\"371\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/05/SanLuisDrainBee1.jpeg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/05/SanLuisDrainBee1-160x77.jpeg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/05/SanLuisDrainBee1-240x116.jpeg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/05/SanLuisDrainBee1-375x181.jpeg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/05/SanLuisDrainBee1-520x251.jpeg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 768px) 100vw, 768px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A crew pumps selenium-laden water out of the concrete-lined San Luis Drain into a field near Tranquility, California, in the 1980s as part of a previous cleanup project for selenium-contaminated farm runoff that poisoned birds at the Kesterson National Wildlife Refuge. \u003ccite>(The Fresno Bee)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">As a result, Westlands Water District is pressing Congress to let it take charge of the drainage problem. A \u003ca href=\"https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/house-bill/1769?q=%7B%22search%22:%5B%22hr1769%22%5D%7D&r=1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cspan class=\"s2\">bill introduced\u003c/span>\u003c/a> in the House of Representatives earlier this year by Representative David Valadao (R-Hanford), would turn the drainage problem over to Westlands while also absolving the district of its $350 million debt for its share of construction costs for the Central Valley Project.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">One solution Westlands proposes is to grow salt-tolerant grasses using the tainted irrigation water, thereby sequestering the selenium in plant tissues. But a 17-year-long experiment using that method has produced mixed results.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">A half-dozen smaller water districts clustered just south of Westlands have been running the experiment, known as the San Joaquin River Water Quality Improvement Project. Selenium levels, measured in bird eggs collected at the 5,400-acre site, have varied considerably over the life of the project.\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">Results from a 2016 monitoring report show that selenium concentrations in killdeer and redwing blackbird eggs are enough to cause deformities or prevent hatching.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">Joe McGahan, drainage coordinator for the water agencies sponsoring the project, provided preliminary results from 2017. These show selenium levels declined significantly for both species, but remain at levels that may be harmful.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">“Generally, I think the verdict is that it has stabilized, for the most part, over time,” McGahan said. “Certainly we’re watching it, and we’re going to continue to monitor.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">McGahan said the partners have plans to expand the project, and are applying to the state for funds to help cover the cost.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">Zwillinger is skeptical.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">“Selenium is bioaccumulating and showing up in bird eggs on the project site in concentrations that are really concerning,” she said. “This approach, which is touted as a new, better start, is still having really substantial consequences for birds.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1923446\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 710px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1923446\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/05/Kesterson-deformed-grebe11.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"710\" height=\"855\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/05/Kesterson-deformed-grebe11.jpeg 710w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/05/Kesterson-deformed-grebe11-160x193.jpeg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/05/Kesterson-deformed-grebe11-240x289.jpeg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/05/Kesterson-deformed-grebe11-375x452.jpeg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/05/Kesterson-deformed-grebe11-520x626.jpeg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 710px) 100vw, 710px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">An eared Grebe, photographed in 1984, was born without eyes and with badly deformed feet at Kesterson National Wildlife Refuge as a result of selenium contamination. \u003ccite>(The Fresno Bee)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">The effort is being watched closely by officials at \u003ca class=\"preview-link\" href=\"http://gwdwater.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cspan class=\"s2\">Grassland Water District\u003c/span>\u003c/a>. The district delivers water to dozens of state, federal and private wildlife refuge areas, some located downstream from the project area and the adjacent Westlands Water District. Collectively known as the Grasslands Ecological Area, the 240,000-acre complex is the largest contiguous body of wetlands in the western \u003cspan class=\"caps\">U.S.\u003c/span> The selenium drainage problem is an ongoing threat to millions of migratory waterfowl and other wildlife that rely on the wetlands.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">Ric Ortega, general manager of Grassland Water District, said he wants to see much more rigorous testing and monitoring of the selenium treatment project.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">“They only pull a few samples a year,” he said. “It’s not comprehensive enough to really ascertain anything. So that’s a concern. We have a hypersaline perched water table out here that’s very tough to manage. I would hope it’s more expansive and more statistically robust moving forward.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">Zwillinger also wants more rigorous monitoring, both at the existing project site and any project undertaken by Westlands, if it successfully wrests control of the drainage problem away from the Bureau of Reclamation. There is no such requirement in Valadao’s proposed legislation.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">Westlands officials could not be reached for comment.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">The Bureau of Reclamation has its own incentive to unload the selenium cleanup burden this year. Under a previous legal settlement with Westlands, Reclamation committed to proceed with a drainage cleanup plan estimated to cost as much as $\u003cspan class=\"caps\">3.5\u003c/span>billion, including a mix of farmland retirement and water treatment systems akin to desalination.\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">In a \u003ca class=\"preview-link\" href=\"https://drive.google.com/open?id=1egBR42iO3ifvnD0xYuJqEZCffxYaD2-s\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cspan class=\"s2\">November letter\u003c/span>\u003c/a> to the federal agency, California senators Kamala Harris and Dianne Feinstein urged the agency to update its decade-old environmental impact study on that cleanup proposal. They think the bureau can find a simpler, cheaper solution, and they specifically highlighted the option of growing salt-tolerant grasses – the same approach that shows mixed results in recent monitoring of bird eggs.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">Zwillinger expects heavy pressure to pass the Valadao bill before the November election, when Republicans could lose their control of Congress. She is optimistic that language could be added requiring, at a minimum, rigorous monitoring and performance standards for any new selenium-control project.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"fin\">\u003cspan class=\"s1\">“I think all sides are unhappy with the status quo and motivated to find a solution,” Zwillinger said. “Of all the complex California water issues, it strikes me that [in this case] there could actually be an agreement in the near term that’s protective of both the environment and agricultural interests.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This article originally appeared on \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://mail.kqed.org/owa/redir.aspx?C=9e4bb0e1a7d74f24ba4684ef2533053d&URL=https%3a%2f%2fwww.newsdeeply.com%2fwater\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Water Deeply\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, and you can find it \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://www.newsdeeply.com/water/articles/2018/05/02/pressure-mounts-to-solve-californias-toxic-farmland-drainage-problem\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">here\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. For important news about the California drought, you can \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"http://waterdeeply.us5.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=8b78e9a34ff7443ec1e8c62c6&id=2947becb78\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">sign up\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> to the Water Deeply email list.\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "California's Big Energy Utilities Face Local Rebellion",
"headTitle": "California’s Big Energy Utilities Face Local Rebellion | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>Disruption in the electricity market is afoot as more California neighborhoods move away from big companies to locally owned power providers. This model, known as Community Choice Aggregation, appeals to customers interested in cleaner, more affordable power, and the break up of utility monopolies.[contextly_sidebar id=”XAyuBuZ6v0uUS1C2BKO5IniYyxoQVnQ6″]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">A CCA trade group estimates that by 2020 more than half of California’s residents will be served by a CCA. Currently, \u003ca href=\"https://cal-cca.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">there are 13 active CCAs\u003c/a> in the state. More than 80 California cities are in the process of considering, or forming, a CCA.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Local, green electricity-on-the-cheap faces its own battles, however. Skeptics worry CCAs do little to nothing to reduce overall green-house gas emissions. Some caution CCAs may be stifling investment in clean power infrastructure by taking customers away from traditional utilities.\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">A state law passed in 2002 allowed the formation of these locally-owned agencies. In the North Bay, \u003ca href=\"https://www.mcecleanenergy.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Marin Clean Energy \u003c/a>was the first CCA to purchase electricity on behalf of its residents.\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\nSome traditional investor-owned utilities, \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">such as Pacific Gas and Electric Co., have put a positive spin on the movement, painting a rosy picture of a collaborative synergy with CCAs, rather than a threat to their business model.\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“We respect the energy choices that are available to customers and we will continue to cooperate with local governments as they develop these CCA programs,” says Paul Doherty, spokesperson at PG&E, which serves central and northern California.[contextly_sidebar id=”IKllBgL1cc4hgXuqKuyfXW7uLglVnZew”]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Under the setup, PG&E \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">provides billing, transmission, and distribution services for CCA customers. The only thing a CCA does is select its energy portfolio and then sell energy to customers. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“We view [PG&E]\u003cem>\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>\u003c/em>as a partner,” says Annie Henderson, the spokesperson at \u003ca href=\"https://ebce.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">East Bay Community Energy\u003c/a>, which is rolling out services in June for Alameda County and eleven of its cities.\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But California energy analysts say those talking points belie a more complicated, if not delicate, relationship. \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003cb>The Cost of Escape\u003c/b>\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Utilities are not willing to let their customers go without a fight. \u003c/span>PG&E and other traditional utilities are engaged in a contentious dispute with CCAs over “exit fees.” These fees are the cost utilities want to recoup each month from CCA customers for power projects they invested on behalf of those customers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1923409\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1923409\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/05/iStock-518012227-800x531.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"531\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/05/iStock-518012227-800x531.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/05/iStock-518012227-160x106.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/05/iStock-518012227-768x510.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/05/iStock-518012227-1020x678.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/05/iStock-518012227-1200x797.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/05/iStock-518012227-1920x1275.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/05/iStock-518012227-1180x784.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/05/iStock-518012227-960x638.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/05/iStock-518012227-240x159.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/05/iStock-518012227-375x249.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/05/iStock-518012227-520x345.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Wind Turbines line the hillsides outside Bakersfield, California. \u003ccite>(iStock)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“The assumption was that those customers would stay in our service territory, and that we would need to serve them,” PG&E Senior Vice President Steven Malnight\u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.rtoinsider.com/community-choice-aggregator-cca-48422/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> told state senators last year\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> during a hearing on the matter. “Today, we know that reality is significantly different.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In April, PG&E and two other energy companies \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.pge.com/en/about/newsroom/newsdetails/index.page?title=20170425_pge_and_other_california_energy_companies_propose_reforms_to_support_the_states_clean_energy_goals_protect_customer_choice_and_ensure_customer_equality_\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">submitted a joint filing\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> to the California Public Utilities Commission proposing a new mechanism for calculating the fee, known as the Power Charge Indifference Adjustment, that would serve to raise the cost.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">CPUC is currently overseeing the issue in a series of hearings and is expected \u003ca href=\"http://docs.cpuc.ca.gov/PublishedDocs/Efile/G000/M211/K795/211795024.PDF\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">to submit\u003c/a> a ruling in July.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>PG&E has already\u003ca href=\"http://www.sandiegoenergydistrict.org/fair-exit-fees.html\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> raised this fee\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> at least twice, including in 2015, when the fees jumped between 44 – 127\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cb>\u003ci> \u003c/i>\u003c/b>percent, depending on the locale. (In 2015 the fee for an average CCA customer \u003ca href=\"https://www.almanacnews.com/news/2015/12/22/pge-nearly-doubles-fee-for-those-who-leave-for-clean-energy-programs\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">jumped to about $13 from $6.70\u003c/a>.) \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">CCAs and other community advocates \u003ca href=\"http://www.cpuc.ca.gov/PCIA/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">have strongly come out\u003c/a> against the proposal arguing that it threatens to make CCAs less affordable.[contextly_sidebar id=”JpRa9fEWPmAEEPOZLUPPjSOF8pxK0MVk”]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>So, What is Fair?\u003cbr>\n\u003c/strong>However, allowing CCA customers to walk away from investments made on their behalf risks disproportionately punishing remaining utility customers, says Severin Borenstein, energy policy expert at UC Berkeley.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“PG&E has argued, and I think there is something to this and so does the PUC, that this [exit] fee was set too low,” says Borenstein. When customers depart the CCA should pay for their share of contracts, he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“And CCAs have completely rejected that.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1923407\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1923407 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/05/iStock-692318646-800x450.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/05/iStock-692318646-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/05/iStock-692318646-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/05/iStock-692318646-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/05/iStock-692318646-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/05/iStock-692318646-1200x675.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/05/iStock-692318646-1920x1080.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/05/iStock-692318646-1180x664.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/05/iStock-692318646-960x540.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/05/iStock-692318646-240x135.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/05/iStock-692318646-375x211.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/05/iStock-692318646-520x293.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">San Diego harbor glows under the night sky. \u003ccite>(iStock)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>But community advocates say customers shouldn’t be on the hook for risky business choices made by shareholder-owned companies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They may be called public utilities but it’s a misnomer because they operate for profit and not for the benefit of the public,” says April Rose Maurath Sommer, whose nonprofit Protect Our Communities Foundation, provided testimony at a recent PUC hearing.[contextly_sidebar id=”iPTDjaiBleBB5dv7W9dvhA6QQHuWDN44″]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">She says that shareholders should bare the burden of poor management decisions. Those decisions include over-procuring electricity which has led to a costly power glut in the state.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Too Much Power\u003cbr>\n\u003c/strong>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">A 2017\u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"http://www.latimes.com/projects/la-fi-electricity-capacity/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> report by the Los Angeles Times\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> found that state regulators continued approving the opening of new power plants even as electricity consumption in the state decreased. As a result, these power plants will produce at least 21 percent more electricity than California needs by 2020, according to the LA Times.\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But that hasn’t translated to lower costs for residents, who pay among the highest rates in the nation. While electricity consumption in California has decreased by 2.6 percent since 2008, the LA Times says that customers are still paying $6.8 billion more for power than they did then.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Customers are paying nearly double the amount of what the rest of the country pays in order to cover the costs of these power plants. And that’s likely to continue for the near future. Customers will contribute “many billions of dollars” because regulators approved higher rates to compensate utilities for reckless investments, according to the LA Times.[contextly_sidebar id=”CkKsUGfXgGt6jkypUYwJ4xgTfS9NYzY4″]\u003c/span>\u003cb>\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">PG&E in particular fought hard in 2010 to secure approval for the Colusa power plant, an investment that will cost its customers more than $700 million over the plant’s lifespan. The plant has operated “far below capacity” since launching, reports the LA Times.\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">At the same 2017 hearing in Sacramento, comments made by regulators suggest that the California Public Utilities Commission is not equipped to deal with these challenges.\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“We are being deregulated from the bottom up, and there is no real plan as to how it fits together,” CPUC president Michael Picker told lawmakers. “I am looking to you for direction.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A CPUC report issued on Thursday explored the recent developments in the energy market and attempts to outline the main challenges. The aim of the report is to “jumpstart a conversation” and to provide guidance for policymakers, according to the accompanying press release.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Now, we are deregulating electric markets through dozens of different decisions and legislative actions, but we do not have a plan,” a statement issued by CPUC President Michael Picker warns. “If California policy makers are not careful, we could drift slowly back into another predicament like the energy crisis of 2001.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>CCAs, however, take issue with the report’s characterizations of the changing energy landscape.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Highly regulated locally controlled CCAs were designed to help correct the problems from the energy crisis and they are performing as intended – delivering reliable, affordable and clean energy to local customers, while exceeding the state’s GHG goals,” said Beth Vaughan, the executive director of CalCCA, a trade association that represents the interests of CCAs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Green Comparisons\u003cbr>\n\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Along with affordability, many customers enrolling in community choice programs are expecting a different, greener type of energy than what the incumbent utilities have offered.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But experts say so far the actual numbers don’t reflect a significant difference.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1923410\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1923410\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/05/iStock-944869306-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/05/iStock-944869306-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/05/iStock-944869306-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/05/iStock-944869306-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/05/iStock-944869306-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/05/iStock-944869306-1200x900.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/05/iStock-944869306-1920x1440.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/05/iStock-944869306-1180x885.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/05/iStock-944869306-960x720.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/05/iStock-944869306-240x180.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/05/iStock-944869306-375x281.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/05/iStock-944869306-520x390.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Pacific Gas & Electric repair truck parked on a San Francisco street. \u003ccite>(iStock)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">PG&E\u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.pge.com/en/about/newsroom/newsdetails/index.page?title=20180220_pge_clean_energy_deliveries_already_meet_future_goals\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> obtains nearly\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> 80 percent of its electricity from carbon free resources while 33 percent comes from renewable sources. By comparison, homes covered by EBCE will be powered by 85 percent carbon-free power and at least 38 percent renewable energy.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Commercial customers in Albany and Hayward will be powered by 100 percent carbon-free power at the same rate as PG&E.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“I think in general the difference isn’t all that huge,” says Borenstein. “PG&E is offering an extremely green portfolio.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Musical Chairs\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Additionally, questions remain over where CCAs are procuring their energy from and whether their entry into the market will help reduce overall greenhouse emissions.[contextly_sidebar id=”EA3qE4w9ywR6M9xJMceykln1EFSta4r4″]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If CCAs are simply obtaining electricity from the existing grid rather than generating new energy, then that purchase has not actually increased the total amount of green power. According to Borenstein, it’s simply “reshuffling” what’s already out there.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>CCAs have been under a lot of pressure to ensure that the electricity they provide is actually creating cleaner power, he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Merely buying renewable energy doesn’t necessarily mean that the purchase is increasing the total amount of renewable energy on the grid, or decreasing greenhouse gases,” says Borenstein.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>CCAs would need to invest in the requisite infrastructure allowing them to produce renewable energy. But critics say that CCAs don’t have the financial standing needed to invest in such projects.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Right now, none of the CCAs have a credit rating and the first rule of business is ‘credit is fundamental to doing business,’” Jan Smutny-Jones, CEO of the Independent Energy Producers Association, told industry publication Utility Dive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Borenstein says that CCAs have increasingly become more sensitive to this. “At first they were doing things that customers would have found disappointing.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It remains unclear where EBCE will be purchasing its electricity from. According to their website, “The power portfolio is currently under development, but the intent is to purchase as much electricity as possible from sources located in California at prices that remain competitive with PG&E. ”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For some however, the challenges CCAs may stumble on as they get off the ground are worth the trade-off if it means breaking a monopoly.[contextly_sidebar id=”FrYrE5SsTJYjYdBcAVi1K5ULnTKkffCH”]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“With community choice aggregation, now people can choose between locally controlled retail energy or Pacific Gas and Electric,” says James Sweeney, management science and engineering professor at Stanford University. “So the first step is about local control.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Despite the challenges CCAs may face as they get off the ground, Borenstein says that opening up California’s electricity market to retail competition is likely to benefit the average Californians in the long-term.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "Giant utilities like PG&E jockey to recoup costs as customers slide away. ",
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"title": "California's Big Energy Utilities Face Local Rebellion | KQED",
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"headline": "California's Big Energy Utilities Face Local Rebellion",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Disruption in the electricity market is afoot as more California neighborhoods move away from big companies to locally owned power providers. This model, known as Community Choice Aggregation, appeals to customers interested in cleaner, more affordable power, and the break up of utility monopolies.\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">A CCA trade group estimates that by 2020 more than half of California’s residents will be served by a CCA. Currently, \u003ca href=\"https://cal-cca.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">there are 13 active CCAs\u003c/a> in the state. More than 80 California cities are in the process of considering, or forming, a CCA.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Local, green electricity-on-the-cheap faces its own battles, however. Skeptics worry CCAs do little to nothing to reduce overall green-house gas emissions. Some caution CCAs may be stifling investment in clean power infrastructure by taking customers away from traditional utilities.\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">A state law passed in 2002 allowed the formation of these locally-owned agencies. In the North Bay, \u003ca href=\"https://www.mcecleanenergy.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Marin Clean Energy \u003c/a>was the first CCA to purchase electricity on behalf of its residents.\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\nSome traditional investor-owned utilities, \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">such as Pacific Gas and Electric Co., have put a positive spin on the movement, painting a rosy picture of a collaborative synergy with CCAs, rather than a threat to their business model.\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“We respect the energy choices that are available to customers and we will continue to cooperate with local governments as they develop these CCA programs,” says Paul Doherty, spokesperson at PG&E, which serves central and northern California.\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Under the setup, PG&E \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">provides billing, transmission, and distribution services for CCA customers. The only thing a CCA does is select its energy portfolio and then sell energy to customers. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“We view [PG&E]\u003cem>\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>\u003c/em>as a partner,” says Annie Henderson, the spokesperson at \u003ca href=\"https://ebce.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">East Bay Community Energy\u003c/a>, which is rolling out services in June for Alameda County and eleven of its cities.\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But California energy analysts say those talking points belie a more complicated, if not delicate, relationship. \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003cb>The Cost of Escape\u003c/b>\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Utilities are not willing to let their customers go without a fight. \u003c/span>PG&E and other traditional utilities are engaged in a contentious dispute with CCAs over “exit fees.” These fees are the cost utilities want to recoup each month from CCA customers for power projects they invested on behalf of those customers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1923409\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1923409\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/05/iStock-518012227-800x531.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"531\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/05/iStock-518012227-800x531.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/05/iStock-518012227-160x106.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/05/iStock-518012227-768x510.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/05/iStock-518012227-1020x678.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/05/iStock-518012227-1200x797.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/05/iStock-518012227-1920x1275.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/05/iStock-518012227-1180x784.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/05/iStock-518012227-960x638.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/05/iStock-518012227-240x159.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/05/iStock-518012227-375x249.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/05/iStock-518012227-520x345.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Wind Turbines line the hillsides outside Bakersfield, California. \u003ccite>(iStock)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“The assumption was that those customers would stay in our service territory, and that we would need to serve them,” PG&E Senior Vice President Steven Malnight\u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.rtoinsider.com/community-choice-aggregator-cca-48422/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> told state senators last year\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> during a hearing on the matter. “Today, we know that reality is significantly different.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In April, PG&E and two other energy companies \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.pge.com/en/about/newsroom/newsdetails/index.page?title=20170425_pge_and_other_california_energy_companies_propose_reforms_to_support_the_states_clean_energy_goals_protect_customer_choice_and_ensure_customer_equality_\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">submitted a joint filing\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> to the California Public Utilities Commission proposing a new mechanism for calculating the fee, known as the Power Charge Indifference Adjustment, that would serve to raise the cost.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">CPUC is currently overseeing the issue in a series of hearings and is expected \u003ca href=\"http://docs.cpuc.ca.gov/PublishedDocs/Efile/G000/M211/K795/211795024.PDF\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">to submit\u003c/a> a ruling in July.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>PG&E has already\u003ca href=\"http://www.sandiegoenergydistrict.org/fair-exit-fees.html\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> raised this fee\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> at least twice, including in 2015, when the fees jumped between 44 – 127\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cb>\u003ci> \u003c/i>\u003c/b>percent, depending on the locale. (In 2015 the fee for an average CCA customer \u003ca href=\"https://www.almanacnews.com/news/2015/12/22/pge-nearly-doubles-fee-for-those-who-leave-for-clean-energy-programs\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">jumped to about $13 from $6.70\u003c/a>.) \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">CCAs and other community advocates \u003ca href=\"http://www.cpuc.ca.gov/PCIA/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">have strongly come out\u003c/a> against the proposal arguing that it threatens to make CCAs less affordable.\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>So, What is Fair?\u003cbr>\n\u003c/strong>However, allowing CCA customers to walk away from investments made on their behalf risks disproportionately punishing remaining utility customers, says Severin Borenstein, energy policy expert at UC Berkeley.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“PG&E has argued, and I think there is something to this and so does the PUC, that this [exit] fee was set too low,” says Borenstein. When customers depart the CCA should pay for their share of contracts, he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“And CCAs have completely rejected that.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1923407\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1923407 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/05/iStock-692318646-800x450.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/05/iStock-692318646-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/05/iStock-692318646-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/05/iStock-692318646-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/05/iStock-692318646-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/05/iStock-692318646-1200x675.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/05/iStock-692318646-1920x1080.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/05/iStock-692318646-1180x664.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/05/iStock-692318646-960x540.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/05/iStock-692318646-240x135.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/05/iStock-692318646-375x211.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/05/iStock-692318646-520x293.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">San Diego harbor glows under the night sky. \u003ccite>(iStock)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>But community advocates say customers shouldn’t be on the hook for risky business choices made by shareholder-owned companies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They may be called public utilities but it’s a misnomer because they operate for profit and not for the benefit of the public,” says April Rose Maurath Sommer, whose nonprofit Protect Our Communities Foundation, provided testimony at a recent PUC hearing.\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">She says that shareholders should bare the burden of poor management decisions. Those decisions include over-procuring electricity which has led to a costly power glut in the state.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Too Much Power\u003cbr>\n\u003c/strong>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">A 2017\u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"http://www.latimes.com/projects/la-fi-electricity-capacity/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> report by the Los Angeles Times\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> found that state regulators continued approving the opening of new power plants even as electricity consumption in the state decreased. As a result, these power plants will produce at least 21 percent more electricity than California needs by 2020, according to the LA Times.\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But that hasn’t translated to lower costs for residents, who pay among the highest rates in the nation. While electricity consumption in California has decreased by 2.6 percent since 2008, the LA Times says that customers are still paying $6.8 billion more for power than they did then.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Customers are paying nearly double the amount of what the rest of the country pays in order to cover the costs of these power plants. And that’s likely to continue for the near future. Customers will contribute “many billions of dollars” because regulators approved higher rates to compensate utilities for reckless investments, according to the LA Times.\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/span>\u003cb>\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">PG&E in particular fought hard in 2010 to secure approval for the Colusa power plant, an investment that will cost its customers more than $700 million over the plant’s lifespan. The plant has operated “far below capacity” since launching, reports the LA Times.\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">At the same 2017 hearing in Sacramento, comments made by regulators suggest that the California Public Utilities Commission is not equipped to deal with these challenges.\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“We are being deregulated from the bottom up, and there is no real plan as to how it fits together,” CPUC president Michael Picker told lawmakers. “I am looking to you for direction.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A CPUC report issued on Thursday explored the recent developments in the energy market and attempts to outline the main challenges. The aim of the report is to “jumpstart a conversation” and to provide guidance for policymakers, according to the accompanying press release.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Now, we are deregulating electric markets through dozens of different decisions and legislative actions, but we do not have a plan,” a statement issued by CPUC President Michael Picker warns. “If California policy makers are not careful, we could drift slowly back into another predicament like the energy crisis of 2001.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>CCAs, however, take issue with the report’s characterizations of the changing energy landscape.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Highly regulated locally controlled CCAs were designed to help correct the problems from the energy crisis and they are performing as intended – delivering reliable, affordable and clean energy to local customers, while exceeding the state’s GHG goals,” said Beth Vaughan, the executive director of CalCCA, a trade association that represents the interests of CCAs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Green Comparisons\u003cbr>\n\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Along with affordability, many customers enrolling in community choice programs are expecting a different, greener type of energy than what the incumbent utilities have offered.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But experts say so far the actual numbers don’t reflect a significant difference.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1923410\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1923410\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/05/iStock-944869306-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/05/iStock-944869306-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/05/iStock-944869306-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/05/iStock-944869306-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/05/iStock-944869306-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/05/iStock-944869306-1200x900.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/05/iStock-944869306-1920x1440.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/05/iStock-944869306-1180x885.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/05/iStock-944869306-960x720.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/05/iStock-944869306-240x180.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/05/iStock-944869306-375x281.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/05/iStock-944869306-520x390.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Pacific Gas & Electric repair truck parked on a San Francisco street. \u003ccite>(iStock)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">PG&E\u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.pge.com/en/about/newsroom/newsdetails/index.page?title=20180220_pge_clean_energy_deliveries_already_meet_future_goals\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> obtains nearly\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> 80 percent of its electricity from carbon free resources while 33 percent comes from renewable sources. By comparison, homes covered by EBCE will be powered by 85 percent carbon-free power and at least 38 percent renewable energy.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Commercial customers in Albany and Hayward will be powered by 100 percent carbon-free power at the same rate as PG&E.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“I think in general the difference isn’t all that huge,” says Borenstein. “PG&E is offering an extremely green portfolio.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Musical Chairs\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Additionally, questions remain over where CCAs are procuring their energy from and whether their entry into the market will help reduce overall greenhouse emissions.\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If CCAs are simply obtaining electricity from the existing grid rather than generating new energy, then that purchase has not actually increased the total amount of green power. According to Borenstein, it’s simply “reshuffling” what’s already out there.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>CCAs have been under a lot of pressure to ensure that the electricity they provide is actually creating cleaner power, he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Merely buying renewable energy doesn’t necessarily mean that the purchase is increasing the total amount of renewable energy on the grid, or decreasing greenhouse gases,” says Borenstein.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>CCAs would need to invest in the requisite infrastructure allowing them to produce renewable energy. But critics say that CCAs don’t have the financial standing needed to invest in such projects.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Right now, none of the CCAs have a credit rating and the first rule of business is ‘credit is fundamental to doing business,’” Jan Smutny-Jones, CEO of the Independent Energy Producers Association, told industry publication Utility Dive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Borenstein says that CCAs have increasingly become more sensitive to this. “At first they were doing things that customers would have found disappointing.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It remains unclear where EBCE will be purchasing its electricity from. According to their website, “The power portfolio is currently under development, but the intent is to purchase as much electricity as possible from sources located in California at prices that remain competitive with PG&E. ”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For some however, the challenges CCAs may stumble on as they get off the ground are worth the trade-off if it means breaking a monopoly.\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“With community choice aggregation, now people can choose between locally controlled retail energy or Pacific Gas and Electric,” says James Sweeney, management science and engineering professor at Stanford University. “So the first step is about local control.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Despite the challenges CCAs may face as they get off the ground, Borenstein says that opening up California’s electricity market to retail competition is likely to benefit the average Californians in the long-term.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "The Science Behind the Brown-Trump Feud: What's Really at Stake in the Emissions Debate?",
"headTitle": "The Science Behind the Brown-Trump Feud: What’s Really at Stake in the Emissions Debate? | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>The punch-counterpunch \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/articles/becerra-v-trump-california-using-courts-fight-administration/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">sparring\u003c/a> between the Trump administration and the state of California over rollbacks of federal environmental regulations is often described as a war of words, with neither the president nor Gov. Jerry Brown giving an inch.[contextly_sidebar id=”Fx6pAtHUYGpzaeeW5Vq0p7i6HRbpL4QG”]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some of the disputes are largely symbolic—foot-stamping gestures from Washington designed to resonate with the president’s core supporters rather than to hold up in court.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the latest skirmish is serious. The federal Environmental Protection Agency’s decision to unravel \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/articles/trump_california/epa-poised-roll-back-fuel-efficiency-standards-undermining-californias-climate-goals/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">fuel-efficiency standards \u003c/a>for cars and light trucks not only threatens California’s autonomy in setting its own emissions limits but also could derail the state’s ability to reach its future greenhouse-gas-reduction goals.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is a politically motivated effort to weaken clean-vehicle standards with no documentation, evidence or law to back up that decision,” Mary Nichols, chairwoman of the state Air Resources Board, said in a statement. “This is not a technical assessment; it is a move to demolish the nation’s clean-car program. EPA’s action, if implemented, will worsen people’s health with degraded air quality and undermine regulatory certainty for automakers.”[contextly_sidebar id=”qxgeRQHWeDX75lIpvcEYY5nHN3QiZceO”]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The gauntlet was thrown down by EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt, a darling of the Trump administration for his zeal in dismantling Obama-era environmental regulations. Even though Pruitt is the target of multiple investigations for alleged ethical transgressions and has found his job security in question, the effect of his current decisions can resonate far beyond his or his boss’ terms in office.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There have been some troubling developments,” said Deborah Sivas, director of the Environmental Law Clinic at Stanford Law School. “But I think a lot of this is ultimately not going to happen.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Putting the brakes on fuel efficiency\u003cbr>\n\u003c/strong>Sivas said an attack on the fuel-efficiency standard is one of the critical fights for California, which must drastically reduce emissions from the state’s enormous \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/articles/californias-climate-fight-gets-harder-soon-big-culprit-cars/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">transportation\u003c/a> sector to stay on track in cutting carbon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At issue are miles-per-gallon standards set near the end of the Obama administration. They \u003ca href=\"https://www.epa.gov/regulations-emissions-vehicles-and-engines/final-rule-model-year-2017-and-later-light-duty-vehicle#rule-summary\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">require\u003c/a> an average 45.4 miles per gallon by 2022 and more than 50 miles per gallon by 2025. Standards differ by vehicle type and are stricter for cars than for SUVs and light trucks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chester France, the former EPA senior executive who directed the office that crafted the regulations, termed the fuel-standard rule solid. France, who retired in 2012, said the benchmarks were the product of rigorous technical research and vetting with federal agencies, the California air board and car manufacturers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The rule was reviewed again during the last days of the Obama administration and determined to be reasonable.[contextly_sidebar id=”K0jcbCHMRn9RaZtNvYXML6rLcO1c5rxK”]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The mid-term review was thorough and found that advances in auto-industry technology meant that meeting the standards was easier and cheaper than EPA had predicted,” France said. “It concluded that the standards were attainable, and, if anything, they could have gone further.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Pruitt called the current regulations inappropriate, saying they “set the standards too high.” He said his agency and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration would revisit them, but he has not yet announced any proposed changes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some insiders say a draft document has been submitted that calls for scrapping the next adjustment, scheduled to take effect after 2022.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In explaining its rationale, the EPA has dusted off a decades-old analysis that suggests lighter, more fuel-efficient cars are not substantial enough to withstand crashes and thus pose a danger to drivers. Federal and \u003ca href=\"https://www.arb.ca.gov/msprog/levprog/leviii/carb_version_lotus_project_peer_review.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">state crash tests\u003c/a> disprove that, but Sivas said she anticipates similar arguments.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state is pushing back hard. Brown, during a recent visit to Washington, told reporters that the rollback is “not going to happen, and the attempts to do this are going to be bogged down in litigation long after we have a new president.”[contextly_sidebar id=”c6g563xKfnne7I2DAWs4mt6xfhDJCyoq”]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Tuesday, California filed its 32\u003csup>nd\u003c/sup> lawsuit against the Trump administration, asserting that in preparing to change the emission standards, the EPA is violating the Clean Air Act and failing to follow its own regulations. In announcing the suit, which 17 other states have joined, Brown conjured images of floods and wildfires ravaging the state as greenhouse gases warm the planet.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is real stuff,” he said. “I intend to fight this as hard as I can.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In addition to rolling back mileage requirements, Pruitt has signaled that he may revoke California’s legal authority to establish its own emissions standards, independent of federal benchmarks. A dozen other states have adopted California’s standards; together, that coalition represents more than a third of the national auto market.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“California is not the arbiter of these issues,” Pruitt said in television interview in March. While the state may set its own limits on greenhouse-gas emissions, he said, it “shouldn’t and can’t dictate to the rest of the country.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California’s right to request a waiver from federal clean-air laws is well established and, legal experts say, the burden would be high for the administration to convince a court that there is a compelling reason to change the longstanding policy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Pruitt told lawmakers in Washington last week that his agency was engaged in talks with California officials regarding proposed changes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California air board spokesman Stanley Young said the state has had three meetings with the EPA since December, adding: “Nothing substantive was discussed, so I wouldn’t characterize them as negotiations.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He said the board had not seen a final proposal, and no future meetings were scheduled.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Friday, Nichols tweeted to Pruitt: “Call me.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Opening the coast to drilling\u003cbr>\n\u003c/strong>Perhaps the most consequential of the administration’s many moves to expand domestic energy production is the Interior Department’s five-year plan to offer lease sales in federal waters off the outer continental shelf, including parcels where drilling has been banned for decades. That includes the California coast.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/articles/trump_california/trump-administration-unveils-plan-open-california-coast-drilling/\">plan\u003c/a>, announced by Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, envisions drilling in the Arctic, off the Hawaiian coast and in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, as well as expanding existing exploration into the eastern Gulf of Mexico. The leasing is scheduled to begin in 2019 off the north coast of Alaska, then move to the lower 48 states, the agency said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Zinke said the leasing plans would expand the country’s energy independence. “This is the beginning of an opening up,” he said, promising that the months-long public comment period before enactment would include all stakeholders. “The states will have a voice.”[contextly_sidebar id=”ickvNB3qFdiXRKbYilhBxw5nXV6n34dj”]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Whose voice will be heeded may be another matter. Florida’s governor has already negotiated directly with President Donald Trump to exempt his state from leasing. Even though Brown had a \u003ca href=\"http://www.latimes.com/politics/essential/la-pol-ca-essential-politics-updates-gov-jerry-brown-asks-trump-1515793472-htmlstory.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">conversation \u003c/a>with administration officials relaying California’s wish to be included in a similar exemption, no announcement has been made that would prevent drilling in federal waters off the coast.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But this is one issue where the state may get its way, thanks to current market forces and a stubborn regulatory blockade.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The oil and gas industries have shown little interest in exploring off the California coast, and the State Lands Commission has \u003ca href=\"http://ltg.ca.gov/news.2017.6.22_OCSResolution.html\">resolved\u003c/a> to make it much more difficult and expensive for companies to get crude oil to land and into pipelines.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The commission’s policy to prevent construction of onshore infrastructure does nothing to stop drilling but could limit the volume of oil shipped at a time when the low price per barrel is already discouraging new exploration.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Given those financial and logistical headaches, companies may take a pass.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“A state like California is going to put its full force and resources on the line,” said Timothy O’Connor, a California-based attorney for the Environmental Defense Fund. “There’s still an element of local and state control, and we are going to defend our values to their very core. That’s certainly one of them.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rolling back air rules\u003cbr>\n\u003c/strong>California has notched two victories over the Trump administration’s effort to undo a methane regulation instituted during Obama’s term.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Waste Prevention Rule was to have gone into effect in January 2017, regulating emissions of natural gas leaking from more than 100,000 oil and gas wells on public lands across the country.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The federal Interior Department delayed enactment of the rule and was \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/articles/trump_california/california-wins-court-says-trump-administration-must-enforce-methane-rules/\">sued \u003c/a>by California and New Mexico. The states prevailed. The agency then suspended part of the new rule and the two states sued again, winning in court once more.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The victory has significant impact in California, home to vast, aging oil fields and energy infrastructure. Methane’s potent heat-trapping capacity makes it many times more damaging to the atmosphere than carbon dioxide. The state Air Resources Board recently limited methane coming from both new and existing oil and gas sources.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Another win came in a suit the state joined after the EPA postponed \u003cstrong>implementation\u003c/strong> of yet another Obama-era rule aimed at combating smog. The “Ozone Rule” reduced allowable concentrations of ozone, a main component of smog.[contextly_sidebar id=”Za1gZ5W754Kb9JRcX40Dt0xkvZ6ZWl6T”]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Pruitt ordered the EPA to extend the deadline to comply with the new standards by at least a year. Two days after California and 15 other states filed suit, Pruitt reversed his decision.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state also won a suit calling for federal transportation officials to monitor greenhouse-gas emissions along national highways, but the government is considering repealing the regulations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In another pending case, California and other states are suing the EPA to identify areas of the country with the most polluted air. In April, Trump weighed in, directing the EPA to relax restrictions on state governments and businesses that have been key to cutting smog.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In \u003ca href=\"https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/presidential-memorandum-administrator-environmental-protection-agency/\">a memo\u003c/a>, the president instructed Pruitt to expedite review of state smog-reduction plans and streamline the process for businesses to get air-quality-related permits. In addition, Trump ordered a review of other air-quality regulations related to public health to determine whether they “should be revised or rescinded.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The agency said the directive was aimed at trimming costs and maximizing efficiency.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dropping protection for water\u003cbr>\n\u003c/strong>In an effort to more precisely define which bodies of water are covered under federal law, the Obama administration adopted a rule in 2015 that effectively expanded the number of protected waterways, including springs and floodplains that appear for only part of the year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The idea was to safeguard both water quality and water quantity, and to put an end to the time-consuming practice of determining status on a case-by-case basis. The U.S. Supreme Court had already weighed in, but the high court’s definitions of the “waters of the United States” failed to provide adequate clarification.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Obama definition-stretching rules were strenuously opposed by developers, who said they swept up much of the undeveloped land in California, including wetlands.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Soon after Trump came into office, the EPA launched a review of the rule, and then got rid of it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In February, California \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/articles/trump_california/california-sues-trump-administration-water-protection/\">sued \u003c/a>the EPA and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which signs off on development permits in protected wetlands.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The legal case is still pending, but Sivas said the Trump administration is doing an end-run by requiring the Army Corps to run all permit requests through Washington, rather than making those determinations in regional offices.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By centralizing the decision making, Sivas said, political appointees can circumvent scientific and legal analysis performed by field offices and determine the outcome based on other factors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“My guess is they are going to say [to developers] ‘You don’t need a permit,’ ” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>CALmatters.org is a nonprofit, nonpartisan media venture explaining California policies and politics.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "Amid the heated sparring between Sacramento and the Washington D.C., the science is getting lost. Here’s what’s important for land, sea and air in California’s fight with Trump.",
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"description": "Amid the heated sparring between Sacramento and the Washington D.C., the science is getting lost. Here’s what’s important for land, sea and air in California’s fight with Trump.",
"title": "The Science Behind the Brown-Trump Feud: What's Really at Stake in the Emissions Debate? | KQED",
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"headline": "The Science Behind the Brown-Trump Feud: What's Really at Stake in the Emissions Debate?",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>The punch-counterpunch \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/articles/becerra-v-trump-california-using-courts-fight-administration/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">sparring\u003c/a> between the Trump administration and the state of California over rollbacks of federal environmental regulations is often described as a war of words, with neither the president nor Gov. Jerry Brown giving an inch.\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some of the disputes are largely symbolic—foot-stamping gestures from Washington designed to resonate with the president’s core supporters rather than to hold up in court.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the latest skirmish is serious. The federal Environmental Protection Agency’s decision to unravel \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/articles/trump_california/epa-poised-roll-back-fuel-efficiency-standards-undermining-californias-climate-goals/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">fuel-efficiency standards \u003c/a>for cars and light trucks not only threatens California’s autonomy in setting its own emissions limits but also could derail the state’s ability to reach its future greenhouse-gas-reduction goals.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is a politically motivated effort to weaken clean-vehicle standards with no documentation, evidence or law to back up that decision,” Mary Nichols, chairwoman of the state Air Resources Board, said in a statement. “This is not a technical assessment; it is a move to demolish the nation’s clean-car program. EPA’s action, if implemented, will worsen people’s health with degraded air quality and undermine regulatory certainty for automakers.”\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The gauntlet was thrown down by EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt, a darling of the Trump administration for his zeal in dismantling Obama-era environmental regulations. Even though Pruitt is the target of multiple investigations for alleged ethical transgressions and has found his job security in question, the effect of his current decisions can resonate far beyond his or his boss’ terms in office.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There have been some troubling developments,” said Deborah Sivas, director of the Environmental Law Clinic at Stanford Law School. “But I think a lot of this is ultimately not going to happen.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Putting the brakes on fuel efficiency\u003cbr>\n\u003c/strong>Sivas said an attack on the fuel-efficiency standard is one of the critical fights for California, which must drastically reduce emissions from the state’s enormous \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/articles/californias-climate-fight-gets-harder-soon-big-culprit-cars/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">transportation\u003c/a> sector to stay on track in cutting carbon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At issue are miles-per-gallon standards set near the end of the Obama administration. They \u003ca href=\"https://www.epa.gov/regulations-emissions-vehicles-and-engines/final-rule-model-year-2017-and-later-light-duty-vehicle#rule-summary\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">require\u003c/a> an average 45.4 miles per gallon by 2022 and more than 50 miles per gallon by 2025. Standards differ by vehicle type and are stricter for cars than for SUVs and light trucks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chester France, the former EPA senior executive who directed the office that crafted the regulations, termed the fuel-standard rule solid. France, who retired in 2012, said the benchmarks were the product of rigorous technical research and vetting with federal agencies, the California air board and car manufacturers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The rule was reviewed again during the last days of the Obama administration and determined to be reasonable.\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The mid-term review was thorough and found that advances in auto-industry technology meant that meeting the standards was easier and cheaper than EPA had predicted,” France said. “It concluded that the standards were attainable, and, if anything, they could have gone further.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Pruitt called the current regulations inappropriate, saying they “set the standards too high.” He said his agency and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration would revisit them, but he has not yet announced any proposed changes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some insiders say a draft document has been submitted that calls for scrapping the next adjustment, scheduled to take effect after 2022.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In explaining its rationale, the EPA has dusted off a decades-old analysis that suggests lighter, more fuel-efficient cars are not substantial enough to withstand crashes and thus pose a danger to drivers. Federal and \u003ca href=\"https://www.arb.ca.gov/msprog/levprog/leviii/carb_version_lotus_project_peer_review.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">state crash tests\u003c/a> disprove that, but Sivas said she anticipates similar arguments.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state is pushing back hard. Brown, during a recent visit to Washington, told reporters that the rollback is “not going to happen, and the attempts to do this are going to be bogged down in litigation long after we have a new president.”\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Tuesday, California filed its 32\u003csup>nd\u003c/sup> lawsuit against the Trump administration, asserting that in preparing to change the emission standards, the EPA is violating the Clean Air Act and failing to follow its own regulations. In announcing the suit, which 17 other states have joined, Brown conjured images of floods and wildfires ravaging the state as greenhouse gases warm the planet.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is real stuff,” he said. “I intend to fight this as hard as I can.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In addition to rolling back mileage requirements, Pruitt has signaled that he may revoke California’s legal authority to establish its own emissions standards, independent of federal benchmarks. A dozen other states have adopted California’s standards; together, that coalition represents more than a third of the national auto market.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“California is not the arbiter of these issues,” Pruitt said in television interview in March. While the state may set its own limits on greenhouse-gas emissions, he said, it “shouldn’t and can’t dictate to the rest of the country.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California’s right to request a waiver from federal clean-air laws is well established and, legal experts say, the burden would be high for the administration to convince a court that there is a compelling reason to change the longstanding policy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Pruitt told lawmakers in Washington last week that his agency was engaged in talks with California officials regarding proposed changes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California air board spokesman Stanley Young said the state has had three meetings with the EPA since December, adding: “Nothing substantive was discussed, so I wouldn’t characterize them as negotiations.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He said the board had not seen a final proposal, and no future meetings were scheduled.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Friday, Nichols tweeted to Pruitt: “Call me.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Opening the coast to drilling\u003cbr>\n\u003c/strong>Perhaps the most consequential of the administration’s many moves to expand domestic energy production is the Interior Department’s five-year plan to offer lease sales in federal waters off the outer continental shelf, including parcels where drilling has been banned for decades. That includes the California coast.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/articles/trump_california/trump-administration-unveils-plan-open-california-coast-drilling/\">plan\u003c/a>, announced by Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, envisions drilling in the Arctic, off the Hawaiian coast and in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, as well as expanding existing exploration into the eastern Gulf of Mexico. The leasing is scheduled to begin in 2019 off the north coast of Alaska, then move to the lower 48 states, the agency said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Zinke said the leasing plans would expand the country’s energy independence. “This is the beginning of an opening up,” he said, promising that the months-long public comment period before enactment would include all stakeholders. “The states will have a voice.”\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Whose voice will be heeded may be another matter. Florida’s governor has already negotiated directly with President Donald Trump to exempt his state from leasing. Even though Brown had a \u003ca href=\"http://www.latimes.com/politics/essential/la-pol-ca-essential-politics-updates-gov-jerry-brown-asks-trump-1515793472-htmlstory.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">conversation \u003c/a>with administration officials relaying California’s wish to be included in a similar exemption, no announcement has been made that would prevent drilling in federal waters off the coast.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But this is one issue where the state may get its way, thanks to current market forces and a stubborn regulatory blockade.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The oil and gas industries have shown little interest in exploring off the California coast, and the State Lands Commission has \u003ca href=\"http://ltg.ca.gov/news.2017.6.22_OCSResolution.html\">resolved\u003c/a> to make it much more difficult and expensive for companies to get crude oil to land and into pipelines.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The commission’s policy to prevent construction of onshore infrastructure does nothing to stop drilling but could limit the volume of oil shipped at a time when the low price per barrel is already discouraging new exploration.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Given those financial and logistical headaches, companies may take a pass.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“A state like California is going to put its full force and resources on the line,” said Timothy O’Connor, a California-based attorney for the Environmental Defense Fund. “There’s still an element of local and state control, and we are going to defend our values to their very core. That’s certainly one of them.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rolling back air rules\u003cbr>\n\u003c/strong>California has notched two victories over the Trump administration’s effort to undo a methane regulation instituted during Obama’s term.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Waste Prevention Rule was to have gone into effect in January 2017, regulating emissions of natural gas leaking from more than 100,000 oil and gas wells on public lands across the country.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The federal Interior Department delayed enactment of the rule and was \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/articles/trump_california/california-wins-court-says-trump-administration-must-enforce-methane-rules/\">sued \u003c/a>by California and New Mexico. The states prevailed. The agency then suspended part of the new rule and the two states sued again, winning in court once more.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The victory has significant impact in California, home to vast, aging oil fields and energy infrastructure. Methane’s potent heat-trapping capacity makes it many times more damaging to the atmosphere than carbon dioxide. The state Air Resources Board recently limited methane coming from both new and existing oil and gas sources.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Another win came in a suit the state joined after the EPA postponed \u003cstrong>implementation\u003c/strong> of yet another Obama-era rule aimed at combating smog. The “Ozone Rule” reduced allowable concentrations of ozone, a main component of smog.\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Pruitt ordered the EPA to extend the deadline to comply with the new standards by at least a year. Two days after California and 15 other states filed suit, Pruitt reversed his decision.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state also won a suit calling for federal transportation officials to monitor greenhouse-gas emissions along national highways, but the government is considering repealing the regulations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In another pending case, California and other states are suing the EPA to identify areas of the country with the most polluted air. In April, Trump weighed in, directing the EPA to relax restrictions on state governments and businesses that have been key to cutting smog.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In \u003ca href=\"https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/presidential-memorandum-administrator-environmental-protection-agency/\">a memo\u003c/a>, the president instructed Pruitt to expedite review of state smog-reduction plans and streamline the process for businesses to get air-quality-related permits. In addition, Trump ordered a review of other air-quality regulations related to public health to determine whether they “should be revised or rescinded.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The agency said the directive was aimed at trimming costs and maximizing efficiency.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dropping protection for water\u003cbr>\n\u003c/strong>In an effort to more precisely define which bodies of water are covered under federal law, the Obama administration adopted a rule in 2015 that effectively expanded the number of protected waterways, including springs and floodplains that appear for only part of the year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The idea was to safeguard both water quality and water quantity, and to put an end to the time-consuming practice of determining status on a case-by-case basis. The U.S. Supreme Court had already weighed in, but the high court’s definitions of the “waters of the United States” failed to provide adequate clarification.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Obama definition-stretching rules were strenuously opposed by developers, who said they swept up much of the undeveloped land in California, including wetlands.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Soon after Trump came into office, the EPA launched a review of the rule, and then got rid of it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In February, California \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/articles/trump_california/california-sues-trump-administration-water-protection/\">sued \u003c/a>the EPA and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which signs off on development permits in protected wetlands.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The legal case is still pending, but Sivas said the Trump administration is doing an end-run by requiring the Army Corps to run all permit requests through Washington, rather than making those determinations in regional offices.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By centralizing the decision making, Sivas said, political appointees can circumvent scientific and legal analysis performed by field offices and determine the outcome based on other factors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“My guess is they are going to say [to developers] ‘You don’t need a permit,’ ” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>CALmatters.org is a nonprofit, nonpartisan media venture explaining California policies and politics.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "To Manage California’s Groundwater, Think Surface Water",
"headTitle": "To Manage California’s Groundwater, Think Surface Water | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>California’s 2014 legislation, the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA) was significant in that it was the state’s first major groundwater regulation. But Michael Kiparsky the founding director of the Wheeler Water Institute at the University of California Berkeley School of Law, says that it was also significant in another way.[contextly_sidebar id=”p6n5eoIk8uEc0rukiUfqPezrbQBLTJvQ”]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It breaks with what had been decades of a legal fiction that groundwater and surface water were not part of a single hydrologic system,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While rivers, lakes and other surface waters are often thought of – and regulated – separately from the groundwater below, the two are connected. Depleted or polluted groundwater makes for depleted or polluted rivers, and vice versa. SGMA acknowledges this by placing some responsibility for surface water conditions in the hands of local Groundwater Sustainability Agencies which need to adopt a plan by 2020 that will keep their local aquifers sustainable and prevent “significant and unreasonable” impacts on both the groundwater and surface water in the area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This, says Kiparsky, is a very exciting change, but one that is poorly understood. Many Groundwater Sustainability Agencies are not yet thinking about their own responsibility towards surface water, and not addressing these groundwater-surface water interactions could have significant consequences for how they manage their basin. To help bring these issues to the surface, Kiparsky and his colleagues produced a report on several important questions about how surface water-groundwater interactions affect groundwater management.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Water Deeply spoke with Kiparsky about his report, and about the importance and complexity of groundwater and surface water.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Water Deeply: When it comes to understanding how Groundwater Sustainability Agencies should be managing groundwater-surface water interactions, what are the biggest questions?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Michael Kiparsky: The first key question for Groundwater Sustainability Agencies to answer is, how does groundwater management in their basin affect surface water and its beneficial uses? That implies that Groundwater Sustainability Agencies need to understand something about the hydrology of the basin and about those beneficial uses.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This leads to another really crucial [point], which is that Groundwater Sustainability Agencies need to make a decision about what “significant and unreasonable” intersections between groundwater and surface water systems will be, and what a “significant and unreasonable” impact on the beneficial uses of the surface water would be. This is where the SGMA statute builds in some legal uncertainty – what does “significant and unreasonable” actually mean in the context of groundwater management in California?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ultimately, there is a two-part answer. The first is is that Groundwater Sustainability Agencies need to explicitly or implicitly, through the shape of their groundwater sustainability plans, determine what “significant and unreasonable” impacts actually are in their basin, and how they will take action to avoid those impacts.[contextly_sidebar id=”JhhMM9thk2VBolGqyMJwi6CXqBeKV9qR”]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The second part of that question may come through the courts. If, and when, the groundwater sustainability plans in some basins face legal challenges, then it will be up to the courts to determine whether the Groundwater Sustainability Agencies’ plans are sufficient, ultimately, and to help define that notion of “significant and unreasonable.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Water Deeply: Do you foresee a time when the questions that you bring up in this report will be answered definitively?\u003cbr>\n\u003c/strong>\u003cbr>\nKiparsky: Definitive answers to everything about [groundwater sustainability] in the state of California seems to me a lot to ask. I would love to see that clarity, but I don’t expect that to happen anytime soon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Groundwater Sustainability Agencies need to make their decisions around how to manage groundwater, and how that groundwater interacts with surface water in spite of the significant uncertainty that currently exists in the legal system and in the scientific understanding.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By making decisions in the face of uncertainty, Groundwater Sustainability Agencies are going to overcome a range of hurdles. Those hurdles could include challenges to plans that they put forth – either legally or politically – or they could include determinations by state agencies to either influence or control a basin’s groundwater.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>My hope is that our work and the work of others can highlight this particular issue and spur more of the kind of integrative thinking that is required to develop solutions to this and a range of other SGMA issues.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Water Deeply: One of the things that your report goes into is this overlap of responsibilities for regulating surface water and groundwater. Can you talk a bit about that?\u003cbr>\n\u003c/strong>\u003cbr>\nKiparsky: The overarching message here is that collaboration is going to be very important for Groundwater Sustainability Agencies that are facing groundwater-surface water issues. There are multiple entities who have some sort of responsibility for these groundwater-surface water systems, or different parts of them, and there are multiple overlapping areas of law and regulation that have – at least in concept – some interplay between them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So, as we argue in our report, in order to manage the risk of failing to consider the multiple different interests that will come to play around groundwater-surface water interactions, it will be important for Groundwater Sustainability Agencies to talk with the other various parties, including the other state and federal agencies that have explicit interests in the groundwater-surface water interactions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But, there is also another important reason for Groundwater Sustainability Agencies to consider this collaboration, which is that these other entities already may have some expertise in the area. Groundwater Sustainability Agencies don’t need to necessarily reinvent the wheel here. There is potential for Groundwater Sustainability Agencies to expand their capacity by working with others.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Water Deeply: What would be the implication of not thoroughly and thoughtfully addressing these points?\u003cbr>\n\u003c/strong>\u003cbr>\nKiparsky: One of the implications is that a plan could develop that does not put a groundwater sustainability agency on the path to achieving sustainability by the time the law requires it to. Were that to happen, then the state, namely the State Water Resources Control Board, would have the responsibility and the authority to step in.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Were that to happen, then the Groundwater Sustainability Agencies would lose its opportunity to craft creative solutions. A Groundwater Sustainability Agency has the advantage of local knowledge, and to think in novel and nuanced ways. The State Water Board simply does not, and probably will not. Therefore, if the State Water Board were to come in and rely on curtailments of groundwater extraction in a blanket way, then that removes some of what is really promising about SGMA.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This article originally appeared on \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://mail.kqed.org/owa/redir.aspx?C=9e4bb0e1a7d74f24ba4684ef2533053d&URL=https%3a%2f%2fwww.newsdeeply.com%2fwater\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Water Deeply\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, and you can find it \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://www.newsdeeply.com/water/community/2018/05/01/to-manage-californias-groundwater-think-more-about-surface-water\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">here\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. For important news about the California drought, you can \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"http://waterdeeply.us5.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=8b78e9a34ff7443ec1e8c62c6&id=2947becb78\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">sign up\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> to the Water Deeply email list.\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>California’s 2014 legislation, the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA) was significant in that it was the state’s first major groundwater regulation. But Michael Kiparsky the founding director of the Wheeler Water Institute at the University of California Berkeley School of Law, says that it was also significant in another way.\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It breaks with what had been decades of a legal fiction that groundwater and surface water were not part of a single hydrologic system,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While rivers, lakes and other surface waters are often thought of – and regulated – separately from the groundwater below, the two are connected. Depleted or polluted groundwater makes for depleted or polluted rivers, and vice versa. SGMA acknowledges this by placing some responsibility for surface water conditions in the hands of local Groundwater Sustainability Agencies which need to adopt a plan by 2020 that will keep their local aquifers sustainable and prevent “significant and unreasonable” impacts on both the groundwater and surface water in the area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This, says Kiparsky, is a very exciting change, but one that is poorly understood. Many Groundwater Sustainability Agencies are not yet thinking about their own responsibility towards surface water, and not addressing these groundwater-surface water interactions could have significant consequences for how they manage their basin. To help bring these issues to the surface, Kiparsky and his colleagues produced a report on several important questions about how surface water-groundwater interactions affect groundwater management.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Water Deeply spoke with Kiparsky about his report, and about the importance and complexity of groundwater and surface water.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Water Deeply: When it comes to understanding how Groundwater Sustainability Agencies should be managing groundwater-surface water interactions, what are the biggest questions?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Michael Kiparsky: The first key question for Groundwater Sustainability Agencies to answer is, how does groundwater management in their basin affect surface water and its beneficial uses? That implies that Groundwater Sustainability Agencies need to understand something about the hydrology of the basin and about those beneficial uses.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This leads to another really crucial [point], which is that Groundwater Sustainability Agencies need to make a decision about what “significant and unreasonable” intersections between groundwater and surface water systems will be, and what a “significant and unreasonable” impact on the beneficial uses of the surface water would be. This is where the SGMA statute builds in some legal uncertainty – what does “significant and unreasonable” actually mean in the context of groundwater management in California?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ultimately, there is a two-part answer. The first is is that Groundwater Sustainability Agencies need to explicitly or implicitly, through the shape of their groundwater sustainability plans, determine what “significant and unreasonable” impacts actually are in their basin, and how they will take action to avoid those impacts.\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The second part of that question may come through the courts. If, and when, the groundwater sustainability plans in some basins face legal challenges, then it will be up to the courts to determine whether the Groundwater Sustainability Agencies’ plans are sufficient, ultimately, and to help define that notion of “significant and unreasonable.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Water Deeply: Do you foresee a time when the questions that you bring up in this report will be answered definitively?\u003cbr>\n\u003c/strong>\u003cbr>\nKiparsky: Definitive answers to everything about [groundwater sustainability] in the state of California seems to me a lot to ask. I would love to see that clarity, but I don’t expect that to happen anytime soon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Groundwater Sustainability Agencies need to make their decisions around how to manage groundwater, and how that groundwater interacts with surface water in spite of the significant uncertainty that currently exists in the legal system and in the scientific understanding.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By making decisions in the face of uncertainty, Groundwater Sustainability Agencies are going to overcome a range of hurdles. Those hurdles could include challenges to plans that they put forth – either legally or politically – or they could include determinations by state agencies to either influence or control a basin’s groundwater.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>My hope is that our work and the work of others can highlight this particular issue and spur more of the kind of integrative thinking that is required to develop solutions to this and a range of other SGMA issues.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Water Deeply: One of the things that your report goes into is this overlap of responsibilities for regulating surface water and groundwater. Can you talk a bit about that?\u003cbr>\n\u003c/strong>\u003cbr>\nKiparsky: The overarching message here is that collaboration is going to be very important for Groundwater Sustainability Agencies that are facing groundwater-surface water issues. There are multiple entities who have some sort of responsibility for these groundwater-surface water systems, or different parts of them, and there are multiple overlapping areas of law and regulation that have – at least in concept – some interplay between them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So, as we argue in our report, in order to manage the risk of failing to consider the multiple different interests that will come to play around groundwater-surface water interactions, it will be important for Groundwater Sustainability Agencies to talk with the other various parties, including the other state and federal agencies that have explicit interests in the groundwater-surface water interactions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But, there is also another important reason for Groundwater Sustainability Agencies to consider this collaboration, which is that these other entities already may have some expertise in the area. Groundwater Sustainability Agencies don’t need to necessarily reinvent the wheel here. There is potential for Groundwater Sustainability Agencies to expand their capacity by working with others.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Water Deeply: What would be the implication of not thoroughly and thoughtfully addressing these points?\u003cbr>\n\u003c/strong>\u003cbr>\nKiparsky: One of the implications is that a plan could develop that does not put a groundwater sustainability agency on the path to achieving sustainability by the time the law requires it to. Were that to happen, then the state, namely the State Water Resources Control Board, would have the responsibility and the authority to step in.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Were that to happen, then the Groundwater Sustainability Agencies would lose its opportunity to craft creative solutions. A Groundwater Sustainability Agency has the advantage of local knowledge, and to think in novel and nuanced ways. The State Water Board simply does not, and probably will not. Therefore, if the State Water Board were to come in and rely on curtailments of groundwater extraction in a blanket way, then that removes some of what is really promising about SGMA.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This article originally appeared on \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://mail.kqed.org/owa/redir.aspx?C=9e4bb0e1a7d74f24ba4684ef2533053d&URL=https%3a%2f%2fwww.newsdeeply.com%2fwater\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Water Deeply\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, and you can find it \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://www.newsdeeply.com/water/community/2018/05/01/to-manage-californias-groundwater-think-more-about-surface-water\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">here\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. For important news about the California drought, you can \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"http://waterdeeply.us5.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=8b78e9a34ff7443ec1e8c62c6&id=2947becb78\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">sign up\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> to the Water Deeply email list.\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Straw Wars! Bay Area Push to Ban Plastic Straws Picks Up Steam",
"headTitle": "Straw Wars! Bay Area Push to Ban Plastic Straws Picks Up Steam | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>Oakland is now the latest Bay Area city to consider a proposal to bar food vendors from serving plastic straws unless requested.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Councilmember Abel Guillen, who introduced the proposal in March, says the legislation is part of broader effort in the city to reduce environmental waste. In 2006, Oakland adopted a policy called the \u003ca href=\"http://www2.oaklandnet.com/Government/o/PWA/o/FE/s/IDR/o/ZW/index.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Zero Waste Strategic Plan,\u003c/a> which aims to dramatically reduce the city’s waste disposal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“To make further progress on our waste-reduction goals and shift our culture away from single-use products, my ordinance will focus on ‘by request only’ use and better enforcement of existing legislation,” said Guillen in a \u003ca href=\"http://www.abelforoakland.com/abel_s_enews_reducing_waste_and_dumping_standing_up_for_immigrants_updates_on_housing_park_blvd_and_ballpark\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">statement.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Berkeley is considering similar legislation that would go one step further by banning single-use plastic straws altogether. Meanwhile straw-upon-request ordinances are already in place in Alameda, Davis, Manhattan Beach and Santa Cruz.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>‘Big Culprits’\u003cbr>\n\u003c/strong>Local environmental advocates say that anti-plastic straw ordinances would eliminate a key source of pollution in San Francisco Bay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Plastic straws and stirrers are big culprits in trashing San Francisco Bay and our oceans,” David Lewis, the executive director of Save the Bay, told the \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/Plastic-straws-stir-up-environmental-debate-in-11192651.php\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">San Francisco Chronicle\u003c/a> last year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv>\n\u003cp>In a statement issued\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/forum/2010101864939/the-last-straw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"> to KQED’s Forum\u003c/a> radio program, the Plastics Industry Association says that straws are not the problem:\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>Straws have come under fire in some circles. But the issue with straws isn’t that they exist, it’s that they aren’t always being disposed of properly. No matter what straw is made of, it should not end up as litter. The real challenge is making it easier for everyone to better dispose of straws and single use products by enhancing our recycling technologies.\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>Environmental advocate Nicole Kozlowski told Forum that the industry has been pointing the finger at consumers for a long time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have surpassed the tipping point of how much plastic can be in the system and we can’t recycle our way out of this issue,” said Kozlowski, who is the co-leader of \u003ca href=\"https://www.surfrider.org/programs/rise-above-plastics\">Rise Above Plastics\u003c/a>, an initiative of the Surfrider Foundation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Straws are one of the top 10 items routinely found on beaches around the world, according to the nonprofit group \u003ca href=\"https://oceanconservancy.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/International-Coastal-Cleanup_2017-Report.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Ocean Conservancy. \u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Because plastic litter is not biodegradable, it ends up breaking into small parts that release toxins into the oceans, threatening the habitat of 500 wildlife species,\u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/Plastic-straws-stir-up-environmental-debate-in-11192651.php\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"> including 23 endange\u003c/a>red species in San Francisco Bay, the Chronicle reported.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Seabirds for example can ingest as much as 8 percent of their body weight in plastic, which for humans “is equivalent to the average woman having the weight of two babies in her stomach,” said Denise Hardesty, senior research scientist at Australia’s Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>University of Georgia environmental engineering professor Jenna Jambeck calculated that nearly 9 million tons end up in the world’s oceans and coastlines each year, as of 2010, according to her 2015 study in the journal \u003ca href=\"http://science.sciencemag.org/content/347/6223/768\">Science\u003c/a> .\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“For every pound of tuna we’re taking out of the ocean, we’re putting two pounds of plastic in the ocean,” said ocean scientist Sherry Lippiatt, California regional coordinator for National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s marine debris \u003ca href=\"https://marinedebris.noaa.gov/\">program.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some Bay Area cities are looking into reinterpreting current laws on the books to go after plastic rather than crafting new legislation from scratch.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Santa Cruz, for instance\u003ca href=\"http://www.cityofsantacruz.com/home/showdocument?id=64417\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">, expanded a 2007 ordinance\u003c/a> on food packaging to include straws, among other items. That went into effect in November of last year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Difficult to Recycle\u003cbr>\n\u003c/strong>Because plastic is potentially recyclable, straws have traditionally been left out of the scope of these ordinances even though many waste-disposal sites don’t accept single-use plastic due to the high costs associated with processing it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Straws are especially difficult to recycle because their small size makes them difficult to sort, and they can clog up machines.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Oakland, Emeryville and Albany have existing ordinances on waste reduction with similar wording to Santa Cruz, according to the \u003ca href=\"https://www.eastbayexpress.com/oakland/the-last-straws-several-east-bay-governments-aim-to-ban-the-plastic-foodware/Content?oid=7855804\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">East Bay Express.\u003c/a> On the other hand, \u003ca href=\"http://www.ci.richmond.ca.us/DocumentCenter/Home/View/4859\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Richmond\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.hayward-ca.gov/sites/default/files/Ch-5_A-11_PolystyreneFoamBan.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Hayward’s\u003c/a> ordinances explicitly exclude straws from their definition of “disposable foodware” and are therefore exempt from the ban.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bay Area legislation targeting single-use plastic straws is part of a growing effort in the state to curtail their use. An Assembly bill introduced in January would enact a straw-upon-request policy at restaurants statewide.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Associated Press contributed to this report.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Oakland is now the latest Bay Area city to consider a proposal to bar food vendors from serving plastic straws unless requested.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Councilmember Abel Guillen, who introduced the proposal in March, says the legislation is part of broader effort in the city to reduce environmental waste. In 2006, Oakland adopted a policy called the \u003ca href=\"http://www2.oaklandnet.com/Government/o/PWA/o/FE/s/IDR/o/ZW/index.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Zero Waste Strategic Plan,\u003c/a> which aims to dramatically reduce the city’s waste disposal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“To make further progress on our waste-reduction goals and shift our culture away from single-use products, my ordinance will focus on ‘by request only’ use and better enforcement of existing legislation,” said Guillen in a \u003ca href=\"http://www.abelforoakland.com/abel_s_enews_reducing_waste_and_dumping_standing_up_for_immigrants_updates_on_housing_park_blvd_and_ballpark\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">statement.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Berkeley is considering similar legislation that would go one step further by banning single-use plastic straws altogether. Meanwhile straw-upon-request ordinances are already in place in Alameda, Davis, Manhattan Beach and Santa Cruz.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>‘Big Culprits’\u003cbr>\n\u003c/strong>Local environmental advocates say that anti-plastic straw ordinances would eliminate a key source of pollution in San Francisco Bay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Plastic straws and stirrers are big culprits in trashing San Francisco Bay and our oceans,” David Lewis, the executive director of Save the Bay, told the \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/Plastic-straws-stir-up-environmental-debate-in-11192651.php\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">San Francisco Chronicle\u003c/a> last year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv>\n\u003cp>In a statement issued\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/forum/2010101864939/the-last-straw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"> to KQED’s Forum\u003c/a> radio program, the Plastics Industry Association says that straws are not the problem:\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>Straws have come under fire in some circles. But the issue with straws isn’t that they exist, it’s that they aren’t always being disposed of properly. No matter what straw is made of, it should not end up as litter. The real challenge is making it easier for everyone to better dispose of straws and single use products by enhancing our recycling technologies.\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>Environmental advocate Nicole Kozlowski told Forum that the industry has been pointing the finger at consumers for a long time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have surpassed the tipping point of how much plastic can be in the system and we can’t recycle our way out of this issue,” said Kozlowski, who is the co-leader of \u003ca href=\"https://www.surfrider.org/programs/rise-above-plastics\">Rise Above Plastics\u003c/a>, an initiative of the Surfrider Foundation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Straws are one of the top 10 items routinely found on beaches around the world, according to the nonprofit group \u003ca href=\"https://oceanconservancy.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/International-Coastal-Cleanup_2017-Report.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Ocean Conservancy. \u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Because plastic litter is not biodegradable, it ends up breaking into small parts that release toxins into the oceans, threatening the habitat of 500 wildlife species,\u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/Plastic-straws-stir-up-environmental-debate-in-11192651.php\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"> including 23 endange\u003c/a>red species in San Francisco Bay, the Chronicle reported.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Seabirds for example can ingest as much as 8 percent of their body weight in plastic, which for humans “is equivalent to the average woman having the weight of two babies in her stomach,” said Denise Hardesty, senior research scientist at Australia’s Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>University of Georgia environmental engineering professor Jenna Jambeck calculated that nearly 9 million tons end up in the world’s oceans and coastlines each year, as of 2010, according to her 2015 study in the journal \u003ca href=\"http://science.sciencemag.org/content/347/6223/768\">Science\u003c/a> .\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“For every pound of tuna we’re taking out of the ocean, we’re putting two pounds of plastic in the ocean,” said ocean scientist Sherry Lippiatt, California regional coordinator for National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s marine debris \u003ca href=\"https://marinedebris.noaa.gov/\">program.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some Bay Area cities are looking into reinterpreting current laws on the books to go after plastic rather than crafting new legislation from scratch.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Santa Cruz, for instance\u003ca href=\"http://www.cityofsantacruz.com/home/showdocument?id=64417\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">, expanded a 2007 ordinance\u003c/a> on food packaging to include straws, among other items. That went into effect in November of last year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Difficult to Recycle\u003cbr>\n\u003c/strong>Because plastic is potentially recyclable, straws have traditionally been left out of the scope of these ordinances even though many waste-disposal sites don’t accept single-use plastic due to the high costs associated with processing it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Straws are especially difficult to recycle because their small size makes them difficult to sort, and they can clog up machines.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Oakland, Emeryville and Albany have existing ordinances on waste reduction with similar wording to Santa Cruz, according to the \u003ca href=\"https://www.eastbayexpress.com/oakland/the-last-straws-several-east-bay-governments-aim-to-ban-the-plastic-foodware/Content?oid=7855804\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">East Bay Express.\u003c/a> On the other hand, \u003ca href=\"http://www.ci.richmond.ca.us/DocumentCenter/Home/View/4859\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Richmond\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.hayward-ca.gov/sites/default/files/Ch-5_A-11_PolystyreneFoamBan.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Hayward’s\u003c/a> ordinances explicitly exclude straws from their definition of “disposable foodware” and are therefore exempt from the ban.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bay Area legislation targeting single-use plastic straws is part of a growing effort in the state to curtail their use. An Assembly bill introduced in January would enact a straw-upon-request policy at restaurants statewide.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Associated Press contributed to this report.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>California and 16 other states have filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration over its plans to scrap gas mileage standards and how much greenhouse gases vehicles can emit, Gov. Jerry Brown and Attorney General Xavier Becerra announced Tuesday.[contextly_sidebar id=”6w2qZi8Le3xkRQPh3FjIHs1Acvm5Y9qE”]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is a science-based attack that we make on these characters in Washington,” said Brown during a news conference on Tuesday. “That in the name of making America great, are making us weak and making the world more dangerous and unsafe, because climate change is not a joke.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The suit takes aim at a plan \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1921958/trump-administration-rejects-fuel-efficiency-standards\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">by the Environmental Protection Agency\u003c/a> to eliminate standards for vehicles manufactured between 2022 and 2025. The standards would have required vehicles to get 36 miles per gallon by 2025, about 10 miles over the existing standard.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Pruitt says the standards are not appropriate and need revision. They were set in 2012 when California and the Obama administration agreed to single nationwide fuel economy standard.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California officials say the standards are achievable and the EPA’s effort to roll them back is not based on any new research. They argue the plan violates the Clean Air Act and didn’t follow the agency’s own regulations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At Tuesday’s news conference, Brown blasted Pruitt as an “outlaw.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is about health, it’s about life and death, and this character in Washington with his expensive travel tastes and his funny little redecorating plans that cost the American people all sorts of money, is riding roughshod over the laws of this country and the health of our people,” said Brown.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California has a unique waiver that allows it to set its own tailpipe emissions standards for vehicles, which it has used to combat smog and more recently global warming. Twelve other states have adopted the California standards as their own.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Automakers have argued that the current requirements would have cost the industry billions of dollars and raised vehicle prices due to the cost of developing the necessary technology.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But environmental advocates say the move is crucial to protecting the current standards.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Scott Pruitt is recklessly disregarding the vast technical and economic bases for America’s Clean Car Standards,” says Vickie Patton, an attorney at the Environmental Defense Fund, “and instead launching an all-out attack that risks Americans’ health and their pocketbooks. We fully support the states’ legal challenge to Pruitt’s unsupported and unacceptable action.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. Joining California are Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Virginia and the District of Columbia.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>California and 16 other states have filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration over its plans to scrap gas mileage standards and how much greenhouse gases vehicles can emit, Gov. Jerry Brown and Attorney General Xavier Becerra announced Tuesday.\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is a science-based attack that we make on these characters in Washington,” said Brown during a news conference on Tuesday. “That in the name of making America great, are making us weak and making the world more dangerous and unsafe, because climate change is not a joke.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The suit takes aim at a plan \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1921958/trump-administration-rejects-fuel-efficiency-standards\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">by the Environmental Protection Agency\u003c/a> to eliminate standards for vehicles manufactured between 2022 and 2025. The standards would have required vehicles to get 36 miles per gallon by 2025, about 10 miles over the existing standard.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Pruitt says the standards are not appropriate and need revision. They were set in 2012 when California and the Obama administration agreed to single nationwide fuel economy standard.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California officials say the standards are achievable and the EPA’s effort to roll them back is not based on any new research. They argue the plan violates the Clean Air Act and didn’t follow the agency’s own regulations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At Tuesday’s news conference, Brown blasted Pruitt as an “outlaw.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is about health, it’s about life and death, and this character in Washington with his expensive travel tastes and his funny little redecorating plans that cost the American people all sorts of money, is riding roughshod over the laws of this country and the health of our people,” said Brown.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California has a unique waiver that allows it to set its own tailpipe emissions standards for vehicles, which it has used to combat smog and more recently global warming. Twelve other states have adopted the California standards as their own.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Automakers have argued that the current requirements would have cost the industry billions of dollars and raised vehicle prices due to the cost of developing the necessary technology.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But environmental advocates say the move is crucial to protecting the current standards.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Scott Pruitt is recklessly disregarding the vast technical and economic bases for America’s Clean Car Standards,” says Vickie Patton, an attorney at the Environmental Defense Fund, “and instead launching an all-out attack that risks Americans’ health and their pocketbooks. We fully support the states’ legal challenge to Pruitt’s unsupported and unacceptable action.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. Joining California are Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Virginia and the District of Columbia.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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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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"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.",
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"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Commonwealth-Club-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
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"meta": {
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"source": "Commonwealth Club of California"
},
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cDovL3d3dy5jb21tb253ZWFsdGhjbHViLm9yZy9hdWRpby9wb2RjYXN0L3dlZWtseS54bWw",
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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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"order": 9
},
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"id": "freakonomics-radio",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "http://freakonomics.com/",
"airtime": "SUN 1am-2am, SAT 3pm-4pm",
"meta": {
"site": "radio",
"source": "WNYC"
},
"link": "/radio/program/freakonomics-radio",
"subscribe": {
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/freakonomics-radio/id354668519",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/podcasts/WNYC-Podcasts/Freakonomics-Radio-p272293/",
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},
"fresh-air": {
"id": "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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"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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"hidden-brain": {
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"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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"airtime": "SUN 7pm-8pm",
"meta": {
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"source": "NPR"
},
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"how-i-built-this": {
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"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.",
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"airtime": "SUN 7:30pm-8pm",
"meta": {
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"link": "/radio/program/how-i-built-this",
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/how-i-built-this-with-guy-raz/id1150510297?mt=2",
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"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",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/hyphenacion",
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"order": 15
},
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},
"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",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/jerrybrown",
"meta": {
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"order": 18
},
"link": "/podcasts/jerrybrown",
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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/",
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},
"link": "/radio/program/latino-usa",
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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": {
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"source": "American Public Media"
},
"link": "/radio/program/marketplace",
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},
"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)",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "https://mastersofscale.com/",
"meta": {
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"source": "WaitWhat"
},
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"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",
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM1NzY0NjAwNDI5",
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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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"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510360/podcast.xml"
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},
"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/",
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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"
}
},
"perspectives": {
"id": "perspectives",
"title": "Perspectives",
"tagline": "KQED's series of daily listener commentaries since 1991",
"info": "KQED's series of daily listener commentaries since 1991.",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Perspectives_Tile_Final.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED Perspectives",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/perspectives/",
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 14
},
"link": "/perspectives",
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"npr": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/432309616/perspectives",
"rss": "https://ww2.kqed.org/perspectives/category/perspectives/feed/",
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},
"planet-money": {
"id": "planet-money",
"title": "Planet Money",
"info": "The economy explained. Imagine you could call up a friend and say, Meet me at the bar and tell me what's going on with the economy. Now imagine that's actually a fun evening.",
"airtime": "SUN 3pm-4pm",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/planetmoney.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/sections/money/",
"meta": {
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"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/planet-money",
"subscribe": {
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/planet-money/id290783428?mt=2",
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"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510289/podcast.xml"
}
},
"politicalbreakdown": {
"id": "politicalbreakdown",
"title": "Political Breakdown",
"tagline": "Politics from a personal perspective",
"info": "Political Breakdown is a new series that explores the political intersection of California and the nation. Each week hosts Scott Shafer and Marisa Lagos are joined with a new special guest to unpack politics -- with personality — and offer an insider’s glimpse at how politics happens.",
"airtime": "THU 6:30pm-7pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Political-Breakdown-2024-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/politicalbreakdown",
"meta": {
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 5
},
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