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"content": "\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_21989\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/09/unhelpfulgas.png\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-21989\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/09/unhelpfulgas.png\" alt=\"Gas is unhelpful in weaning us from carbon\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The red and green lines in graph A show that gas supply, whether high (red) or low (green), does not appreciably affect carbon emissions under any given policy. “RPS” is “renewable portfolio standard,” a policy like the state of California’s that requires a percentage of renewable energy. An RPS forces gas to compete directly with coal. 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"content": "\u003cp>Crude oil by rail continues to be a growing trend nationwide. The amount of oil and other “\u003ca href=\"http://www.afpm.org/other-products/\">refined petroleum products\u003c/a>” carried by trains climbed nine percent in the first seven months of this year, compared to the first seven months last year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The U.S. Energy Information Administration lays it all out in an \u003ca href=\"http://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.cfm?id=17751&src=email&utm_content=bufferbfa53&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer\">article published\u003c/a> this morning, which includes this chart.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_21097\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 575px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-21097\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/08/EIAcrudebyrail.png\" alt=\"(EIA)\" width=\"575\" height=\"284\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">(EIA)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Here in California, the increase in crude-by-rail shipments puts the national numbers — proportionally speaking — to shame. Sixty-six percent more oil came into California by rail in the first half of this year, compared to the first half of last year, according to numbers from the \u003ca href=\"http://energyalmanac.ca.gov/petroleum/statistics/2014_crude_by_rail.html\">California Energy Commission\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>(Though keep in mind, the national chart is tracking barrels per day, while the state numbers are barrels per month.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_21100\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 600px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-21100\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/08/chart_2.png\" alt=\"Data from the California Energy Commission. \" width=\"600\" height=\"371\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Data from the \u003ca href=\"http://energyalmanac.ca.gov/petroleum/statistics/2014_crude_by_rail.html\">California Energy Commission\u003c/a>.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Fiery derailments and explosions in other parts of the country have drawn attention to \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/audio/california-has-little-say-over-oil-train-safety/\">safety problems\u003c/a> with the rail cars used to transport oil. Last summer in Quebec, a train carrying crude from North Dakota’s Bakken formation exploded in the town of Lac-Mégantic and killed 47 people.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The federal government is \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/2014/07/23/feds-propose-new-safety-rules-for-oil-trains/\">proposing safety improvements\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The increase in carrying crude oil by train is happening because there’s an oil boom in North America. To get all that oil from Alberta, North Dakota and \u003ca href=\"http://energyalmanac.ca.gov/petroleum/statistics/2014_crude_by_rail.html\">other places\u003c/a> to refineries here in California, oil companies must use trains. There are no pipelines coming into California from other states. Most of California’s oil is either drilled here in the state, or arrives by ship from Alaska or overseas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Oil traveling by rail into California still accounts for a small percentage of all the crude California processes. If oil-by-rail terminals that are proposed in Benicia, Pittsburg, Santa Maria and Bakersfield go through, then that proportion could rise from one percent to more than 20 percent. Of the two Bay Area projects, the one in \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/2014/07/11/benicia-extends-public-comment-period-on-bay-area-crude-by-rail/\">Benicia is currently under review\u003c/a>, and the one in \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/audio/bay-area-residents-resist-crude-by-rail-as-accidents-rise/\">Pittsburg\u003c/a> is on hold.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Also in the Bay Area, Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railways is currently delivering oil to a \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/2014/06/25/revealed-volatile-oil-train-routes-in-california/\">rail yard in Richmond\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Crude oil by rail continues to be a growing trend nationwide. The amount of oil and other “\u003ca href=\"http://www.afpm.org/other-products/\">refined petroleum products\u003c/a>” carried by trains climbed nine percent in the first seven months of this year, compared to the first seven months last year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The U.S. Energy Information Administration lays it all out in an \u003ca href=\"http://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.cfm?id=17751&src=email&utm_content=bufferbfa53&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer\">article published\u003c/a> this morning, which includes this chart.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_21097\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 575px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-21097\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/08/EIAcrudebyrail.png\" alt=\"(EIA)\" width=\"575\" height=\"284\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">(EIA)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Here in California, the increase in crude-by-rail shipments puts the national numbers — proportionally speaking — to shame. Sixty-six percent more oil came into California by rail in the first half of this year, compared to the first half of last year, according to numbers from the \u003ca href=\"http://energyalmanac.ca.gov/petroleum/statistics/2014_crude_by_rail.html\">California Energy Commission\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>(Though keep in mind, the national chart is tracking barrels per day, while the state numbers are barrels per month.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_21100\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 600px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-21100\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/08/chart_2.png\" alt=\"Data from the California Energy Commission. \" width=\"600\" height=\"371\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Data from the \u003ca href=\"http://energyalmanac.ca.gov/petroleum/statistics/2014_crude_by_rail.html\">California Energy Commission\u003c/a>.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Fiery derailments and explosions in other parts of the country have drawn attention to \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/audio/california-has-little-say-over-oil-train-safety/\">safety problems\u003c/a> with the rail cars used to transport oil. Last summer in Quebec, a train carrying crude from North Dakota’s Bakken formation exploded in the town of Lac-Mégantic and killed 47 people.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The federal government is \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/2014/07/23/feds-propose-new-safety-rules-for-oil-trains/\">proposing safety improvements\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The increase in carrying crude oil by train is happening because there’s an oil boom in North America. To get all that oil from Alberta, North Dakota and \u003ca href=\"http://energyalmanac.ca.gov/petroleum/statistics/2014_crude_by_rail.html\">other places\u003c/a> to refineries here in California, oil companies must use trains. There are no pipelines coming into California from other states. Most of California’s oil is either drilled here in the state, or arrives by ship from Alaska or overseas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Oil traveling by rail into California still accounts for a small percentage of all the crude California processes. If oil-by-rail terminals that are proposed in Benicia, Pittsburg, Santa Maria and Bakersfield go through, then that proportion could rise from one percent to more than 20 percent. Of the two Bay Area projects, the one in \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/2014/07/11/benicia-extends-public-comment-period-on-bay-area-crude-by-rail/\">Benicia is currently under review\u003c/a>, and the one in \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/audio/bay-area-residents-resist-crude-by-rail-as-accidents-rise/\">Pittsburg\u003c/a> is on hold.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Also in the Bay Area, Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railways is currently delivering oil to a \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/2014/06/25/revealed-volatile-oil-train-routes-in-california/\">rail yard in Richmond\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Richmond Approves Contentious Chevron Project",
"headTitle": "Richmond Approves Contentious Chevron Project | KQED",
"content": "\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_16478\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/04/RS9520_Chevron032714-JoshC-5195-scr-e1397259831604.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/04/RS9520_Chevron032714-JoshC-5195-scr-e1397259831604.jpg\" alt=\"The partially-built hydrogen plant. (Josh Cassidy/KQED)\" width=\"640\" height=\"427\" class=\"size-full wp-image-16478\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The partially-built hydrogen plant, on hold since a 2009 court ruling. (Josh Cassidy/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Richmond’s city council approved the $1 billion project after a six-hour hearing marked by sharp divisions of opinion. The upgrade at Chevron’s Richmond refinery will allow the company to refine higher-sulfur crude oil. It’s a smaller version of a project the company first proposed in 2005, and which was stopped by a lawsuit in 2009. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The modernization project, as Chevron calls it, centers around the construction of a new hydrogen plant. Hydrogen is used to clean sulfur out of crude oil. Chevron is looking to refine higher-sulfur crude, also known as sour crude or dirty crude, because, the company says, that’s what they’re getting from declining oil fields.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The project that passed the council late Tuesday night is a revised version of Chevron’s proposal. Known as Alternative 11, the project caps greenhouse gas emissions; instead of no \u003cem>net\u003c/em> increase, there will be no increase in greenhouse gas emissions, period. With the upgrade, Chevron will be able to process more sulfur, but Alternative 11 permits Chevron to process less than the company originally wanted. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Alternative 11 could actually reduce the amount of crude oil moving through the refinery. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s going to have to do more to refine higher-sulfur crude, which means it’s going to have to use more energy to refine that higher-sulfur crude, which means it won’t have enough energy left over to refine as much crude,” explained Jennifer Hernandez, an attorney with Holland & Knight, and the city’s lead consultant on the project. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Alternative 11 got the endorsement of Attorney General Kamala Harris. It’s what the Richmond \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2014/07/11/round-2-of-richmond-hearing-on-chevron-refinery-plan/\">planning commission approved\u003c/a>, too, and last week Chevron got on board with it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The planning commission had recommended additional pollution control conditions be placed on the project. The city council didn’t approve those, but did pass two other last-minute conditions. One requires Chevron to replace all pipes that are at risk of corroding. (A ruptured pipe was the cause of a refinery fire in August 2012 that sent thousands of people to local hospitals.) The other requires Chevron to install more equipment to improve particulate matter testing. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hundreds of people attended Tuesday night’s city council meeting, and dozens commented on the project. People turned out in blue-and-white baseball tees for Chevron, neon green t-shirts for the Asian Pacific Environmental Network and red t-shirts for the struggling Doctors Medical Center, whose supporters wanted funding from the project. There was applause, foot-stomping and an occasional hoot from the crowd. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The public comments centered on jobs, money, air pollution and Chevron’s role in Richmond. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I don’t know any community that wouldn’t want a billion-dollar project,” said Tom Waller, a resident of Hercules. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Francis Adams said, as a teacher, she found Chevron to be a good partner to the community. “Whenever I asked them for anything at the school,” she said, “they always had me come down, and they gave me a check.” \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Don’t give our kids backpacks and ice cream, and then give them asthma and cancer,” thundered Richmond resident Rebecca Auerbach. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As part of the agreement, Chevron is also giving $90 million in money and land for community investments. The money would go to scholarships, job training and greenhouse gas reduction programs in the city. The land is a 60-acre in-kind donation of Chevron’s property, to be set aside for a solar farm. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Instead of glass half-empty or half-full we got about 70 percent of what we wanted,” said Andrés Soto of Communities for a Better Environment. He said he thinks the project as it stands now is better than the 2008 version, which CBE sued over, and better than what it was a month ago.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nonetheless, he said CBE is considering its options. Representatives of the group hinted at a possible lawsuit at Tuesday’s hearing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Either way, this project is headed to court. The Contra Costa Superior Court must lift its order prohibiting Chevron from moving ahead with the project; the order is still in place from the earlier lawsuit. Chevron officials say they hope they’ll be cleared to move ahead in early 2015.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "Richmond's city council has given the green light to a controversial refinery project. Chevron's $1 billion upgrade at its Richmond refinery will allow it to refine higher-sulfur crude oil. ",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_16478\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/04/RS9520_Chevron032714-JoshC-5195-scr-e1397259831604.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/04/RS9520_Chevron032714-JoshC-5195-scr-e1397259831604.jpg\" alt=\"The partially-built hydrogen plant. (Josh Cassidy/KQED)\" width=\"640\" height=\"427\" class=\"size-full wp-image-16478\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The partially-built hydrogen plant, on hold since a 2009 court ruling. (Josh Cassidy/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Richmond’s city council approved the $1 billion project after a six-hour hearing marked by sharp divisions of opinion. The upgrade at Chevron’s Richmond refinery will allow the company to refine higher-sulfur crude oil. It’s a smaller version of a project the company first proposed in 2005, and which was stopped by a lawsuit in 2009. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The modernization project, as Chevron calls it, centers around the construction of a new hydrogen plant. Hydrogen is used to clean sulfur out of crude oil. Chevron is looking to refine higher-sulfur crude, also known as sour crude or dirty crude, because, the company says, that’s what they’re getting from declining oil fields.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The project that passed the council late Tuesday night is a revised version of Chevron’s proposal. Known as Alternative 11, the project caps greenhouse gas emissions; instead of no \u003cem>net\u003c/em> increase, there will be no increase in greenhouse gas emissions, period. With the upgrade, Chevron will be able to process more sulfur, but Alternative 11 permits Chevron to process less than the company originally wanted. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Alternative 11 could actually reduce the amount of crude oil moving through the refinery. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s going to have to do more to refine higher-sulfur crude, which means it’s going to have to use more energy to refine that higher-sulfur crude, which means it won’t have enough energy left over to refine as much crude,” explained Jennifer Hernandez, an attorney with Holland & Knight, and the city’s lead consultant on the project. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Alternative 11 got the endorsement of Attorney General Kamala Harris. It’s what the Richmond \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2014/07/11/round-2-of-richmond-hearing-on-chevron-refinery-plan/\">planning commission approved\u003c/a>, too, and last week Chevron got on board with it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The planning commission had recommended additional pollution control conditions be placed on the project. The city council didn’t approve those, but did pass two other last-minute conditions. One requires Chevron to replace all pipes that are at risk of corroding. (A ruptured pipe was the cause of a refinery fire in August 2012 that sent thousands of people to local hospitals.) The other requires Chevron to install more equipment to improve particulate matter testing. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hundreds of people attended Tuesday night’s city council meeting, and dozens commented on the project. People turned out in blue-and-white baseball tees for Chevron, neon green t-shirts for the Asian Pacific Environmental Network and red t-shirts for the struggling Doctors Medical Center, whose supporters wanted funding from the project. There was applause, foot-stomping and an occasional hoot from the crowd. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The public comments centered on jobs, money, air pollution and Chevron’s role in Richmond. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I don’t know any community that wouldn’t want a billion-dollar project,” said Tom Waller, a resident of Hercules. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Francis Adams said, as a teacher, she found Chevron to be a good partner to the community. “Whenever I asked them for anything at the school,” she said, “they always had me come down, and they gave me a check.” \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Don’t give our kids backpacks and ice cream, and then give them asthma and cancer,” thundered Richmond resident Rebecca Auerbach. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As part of the agreement, Chevron is also giving $90 million in money and land for community investments. The money would go to scholarships, job training and greenhouse gas reduction programs in the city. The land is a 60-acre in-kind donation of Chevron’s property, to be set aside for a solar farm. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Instead of glass half-empty or half-full we got about 70 percent of what we wanted,” said Andrés Soto of Communities for a Better Environment. He said he thinks the project as it stands now is better than the 2008 version, which CBE sued over, and better than what it was a month ago.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nonetheless, he said CBE is considering its options. Representatives of the group hinted at a possible lawsuit at Tuesday’s hearing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Either way, this project is headed to court. The Contra Costa Superior Court must lift its order prohibiting Chevron from moving ahead with the project; the order is still in place from the earlier lawsuit. Chevron officials say they hope they’ll be cleared to move ahead in early 2015.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"headTitle": "Feds Propose New Safety Rules for Oil Trains | KQED",
"content": "\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_19737\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/07/10880scr_fab34f3151f07aa-e1406166428720.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-19737\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/07/10880scr_fab34f3151f07aa-e1406166428720.jpg\" alt=\"Tank cars lined up in a rail yard in Richmond. (Craig Miller/KQED)\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Tank cars lined up in a rail yard in Richmond. (Craig Miller/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The U.S. Department of Transportation is \u003ca href=\"http://www.phmsa.dot.gov/pv_obj_cache/pv_obj_id_75F600DC57D81471F96C328EB5DF9177527E1000/filename/Proposed_Rulemaking_Enhanced_Tank_Car_Standards_and_Operational_Controls_for_High_Hazard_Flammable_Trains_PHMSA_2012_0082_%28HM_251%29_RIN_2137_AE91.pdf\">proposing regulations\u003c/a> that would make trains carrying oil safer. There have been several fiery oil train derailments in other parts of the country in the past year, and last July, a train carrying crude oil from North Dakota’s Bakken formation exploded in the town of \u003cspan class=\"st\">Lac-Mégantic, Quebec, killing 47 people\u003c/span>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The new rules include lower speed limits, better brakes and safer rail cars.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re pleased to see that these recommendations were made,” said Kelly Huston, a deputy director at California’s Office of Emergency Services. State regulators have been \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/audio/california-has-little-say-over-oil-train-safety/\">pushing for tighter federal regulations\u003c/a> on oil trains.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Currently, one train a week carries a minimum of one million gallons of Bakken from North Dakota to a rail yard in Richmond.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Along with the proposed rules, the D.O.T. also \u003ca href=\"http://www.phmsa.dot.gov/pv_obj_cache/pv_obj_id_10B6171B1F17B07B32E437ADB3AC37F61DD70400/filename/07_21_14_Operation_Safe_Delivery_Report.pdf\">issued a report\u003c/a> finding that crude from the Bakken is more volatile than crude from other parts of the U.S., and that “there is an increased risk of a significant incident involving this material due to the significant volume that is transported, the routes and the extremely long distances it is moving by rail.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s no doubt we’re going to have better tank cars,” said Patti Goldman, an attorney with Earthjustice. She welcomes the rules, but says she doesn’t like the timeline, which doesn’t require the unsafe rail cars to be phased out until October, 2017. “It’s just going to happen too slowly and for too small a part of the hazardous shipments that we have on the rails.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last week, Earthjustice \u003ca href=\"http://earthjustice.org/sites/default/files/files/PetitionforEmergencyOrderReBakkenCrudeRailCars.pdf\">filed a petition\u003c/a> asking for older rail cars to be phased out immediately. \u003ca href=\"http://www.caloes.ca.gov/HazardousMaterials/Pages/Oil-By-Rail.aspx\">According to California officials\u003c/a>, as much as 82 percent of crude oil shipped in the U.S. — including the Bakken crude — is carried in old tank cars that cannot protect against explosions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Trains delivered more than six million barrels of oil to California \u003ca href=\"http://energyalmanac.ca.gov/petroleum/statistics/2013_crude_by_rail.html\">last year\u003c/a>, from North Dakota, Alberta, Wyoming and other western states. State officials project that by 2016, the amount of crude traveling into California by train could surpass 100 million barrels.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Huston said the regulations are just one piece of improving crude-by-rail safety.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We also have to provide better training for our first responders,” he said. “We should expand our hazardous materials response capability in the state, and we should look at regulating and inspecting the railroads more closely.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California recently hired more rail safety inspectors. Huston said the OES is now evaluating what training the hazardous materials response teams need, and whether the teams are located in the best places to respond if there were an oil train accident.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Association of American Railroads, an industry group, said in a \u003ca href=\"https://www.aar.org/newsandevents/Press-Releases/Pages/AAR-Responds-to-US-DOT-Proposed-Rule-on-Safety-of-Moving-Flammable-Liquids-by-Rail.aspx#.U8_7C7GU58E\">statement\u003c/a> it’s reviewing the D.O.T.’s proposals. A spokesman for the Western States Petroleum Association, which represents oil refiners, said they needed more time to review the regulations before commenting.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The D.O.T. is now \u003ca href=\"http://www.dot.gov/briefing-room/us-dot-announces-comprehensive-proposed-rulemaking-safe-transportation-crude-oil\">accepting public comment\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "There have been several fiery oil train derailments in other parts of the country in the past year. The new rules include lower speed limits, better brakes and safer rail cars. ",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_19737\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/07/10880scr_fab34f3151f07aa-e1406166428720.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-19737\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/07/10880scr_fab34f3151f07aa-e1406166428720.jpg\" alt=\"Tank cars lined up in a rail yard in Richmond. (Craig Miller/KQED)\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Tank cars lined up in a rail yard in Richmond. (Craig Miller/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The U.S. Department of Transportation is \u003ca href=\"http://www.phmsa.dot.gov/pv_obj_cache/pv_obj_id_75F600DC57D81471F96C328EB5DF9177527E1000/filename/Proposed_Rulemaking_Enhanced_Tank_Car_Standards_and_Operational_Controls_for_High_Hazard_Flammable_Trains_PHMSA_2012_0082_%28HM_251%29_RIN_2137_AE91.pdf\">proposing regulations\u003c/a> that would make trains carrying oil safer. There have been several fiery oil train derailments in other parts of the country in the past year, and last July, a train carrying crude oil from North Dakota’s Bakken formation exploded in the town of \u003cspan class=\"st\">Lac-Mégantic, Quebec, killing 47 people\u003c/span>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The new rules include lower speed limits, better brakes and safer rail cars.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re pleased to see that these recommendations were made,” said Kelly Huston, a deputy director at California’s Office of Emergency Services. State regulators have been \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/audio/california-has-little-say-over-oil-train-safety/\">pushing for tighter federal regulations\u003c/a> on oil trains.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Currently, one train a week carries a minimum of one million gallons of Bakken from North Dakota to a rail yard in Richmond.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Along with the proposed rules, the D.O.T. also \u003ca href=\"http://www.phmsa.dot.gov/pv_obj_cache/pv_obj_id_10B6171B1F17B07B32E437ADB3AC37F61DD70400/filename/07_21_14_Operation_Safe_Delivery_Report.pdf\">issued a report\u003c/a> finding that crude from the Bakken is more volatile than crude from other parts of the U.S., and that “there is an increased risk of a significant incident involving this material due to the significant volume that is transported, the routes and the extremely long distances it is moving by rail.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s no doubt we’re going to have better tank cars,” said Patti Goldman, an attorney with Earthjustice. She welcomes the rules, but says she doesn’t like the timeline, which doesn’t require the unsafe rail cars to be phased out until October, 2017. “It’s just going to happen too slowly and for too small a part of the hazardous shipments that we have on the rails.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last week, Earthjustice \u003ca href=\"http://earthjustice.org/sites/default/files/files/PetitionforEmergencyOrderReBakkenCrudeRailCars.pdf\">filed a petition\u003c/a> asking for older rail cars to be phased out immediately. \u003ca href=\"http://www.caloes.ca.gov/HazardousMaterials/Pages/Oil-By-Rail.aspx\">According to California officials\u003c/a>, as much as 82 percent of crude oil shipped in the U.S. — including the Bakken crude — is carried in old tank cars that cannot protect against explosions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Trains delivered more than six million barrels of oil to California \u003ca href=\"http://energyalmanac.ca.gov/petroleum/statistics/2013_crude_by_rail.html\">last year\u003c/a>, from North Dakota, Alberta, Wyoming and other western states. State officials project that by 2016, the amount of crude traveling into California by train could surpass 100 million barrels.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Huston said the regulations are just one piece of improving crude-by-rail safety.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We also have to provide better training for our first responders,” he said. “We should expand our hazardous materials response capability in the state, and we should look at regulating and inspecting the railroads more closely.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California recently hired more rail safety inspectors. Huston said the OES is now evaluating what training the hazardous materials response teams need, and whether the teams are located in the best places to respond if there were an oil train accident.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Association of American Railroads, an industry group, said in a \u003ca href=\"https://www.aar.org/newsandevents/Press-Releases/Pages/AAR-Responds-to-US-DOT-Proposed-Rule-on-Safety-of-Moving-Flammable-Liquids-by-Rail.aspx#.U8_7C7GU58E\">statement\u003c/a> it’s reviewing the D.O.T.’s proposals. A spokesman for the Western States Petroleum Association, which represents oil refiners, said they needed more time to review the regulations before commenting.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The D.O.T. is now \u003ca href=\"http://www.dot.gov/briefing-room/us-dot-announces-comprehensive-proposed-rulemaking-safe-transportation-crude-oil\">accepting public comment\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Richmond Nearly Ready to Approve Chevron Refinery Project",
"headTitle": "Richmond Nearly Ready to Approve Chevron Refinery Project | KQED",
"content": "\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_19710\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 639px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/07/chevron-e1406149837331.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-19710\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/07/chevron-e1406149837331.jpg\" alt=\"The Chevron Refinery in Richmond is looking to increase its capacity to process crude oil with higher sulfur content.\" width=\"639\" height=\"361\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Chevron Refinery in Richmond is looking to increase its capacity to process crude oil with higher sulfur content. (Deborah Svoboda/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>By Sara Hossaini and Molly Samuel\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Richmond City Council is slated to decide in one week whether to give final approval to \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/audio/chevron-tries-again-with-richmond-refinery-revamp/\">Chevron’s plans for a $1 billion project\u003c/a> at its refinery there. The council is now considering what conditions to place on the project, if it’s approved.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A hearing Tuesday night drew about 500 people; nearly 200 signed up to speak during the public comment period, both for and against the project.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They come to us with plans to modernize only a part of their operation that will allow much dirtier sources of crude oil to be processed,” said Richmond resident Robert Bishop, “and to make millions and millions of dollars more profit each year by doing so.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One of the goals of the project is to allow Chevron to refine crude with a higher sulfur content. The industry calls this “sour” crude; environmental groups call it “dirty” crude. Bishop said the project shouldn’t get the green light unless the council imposes the stricter conditions recommended by the city’s Planning Commission.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Environmental groups suggested those conditions and Chevron is appealing them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The oil company has, however, agreed to a plan submitted by Attorney General Kamala Harris, and included in the EIR as Alternative 11. That alternative, unlike Chevron’s original proposal, would reduce how much sulfur the refinery could process, and would not increase greenhouse gas emissions. Chevron’s preferred plan would have allowed an increase in greenhouse gas emissions to be offset by carbon credits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The company has also agreed to double community investment dollars over the next decade, to $60 million.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That would benefit all Richmond residents, said Chevron employee Suzanne Jackson. “A cleaner, newer, safer refinery will continue to support the bridge of the gap between social and economic change here in Richmond,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Planning Commission Approval\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Earlier this month, Richmond’s planning commission \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2014/07/11/round-2-of-richmond-hearing-on-chevron-refinery-plan/\">approved the environmental impact report\u003c/a> for the project, recommending the city council approve Alternative 11.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This was a good project before, it’s a really great project now, so we’re very hopeful,” said Chevron spokeswoman Melissa Ritchie. “Greenhouse gas emissions will not increase as result of project, they will actually decrease.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The planning commission also set forth a series of conditions proposed by environmental groups, and Chevron has appealed all of them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One condition would require stricter pollution emission standards, the second would require a more thorough upgrade of parts of the refinery that handle highly corrosive high-sulfur crude oil, and the third would require the company to participate in “climate justice mitigation,” reportedly including a clean-energy jobs program.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Staff for the city council \u003ca href=\"http://chevronmodernization.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/0.ARF-and-FINAL-REPORT-CVRN-CC-7-22-2014.pdf\">oppose those conditions\u003c/a>, saying they are outside the scope of the EIR, or outside the jurisdiction of the city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Another Lawsuit?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Without those additional conditions, Andrés Soto from CBE says he’s concerned Chevron’s lower emissions goals would be unenforceable.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It just doesn’t have any teeth in it,” Soto said, of the possibility of adopting the lower-emissions scheme without the additional conditions. “We think not only would it be the wrong decision, we think it would be legally challengeable.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If so, this would not be the first time Chevron’s refinery project went to the courts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The project, called a modernization by the company and an expansion by its detractors, is a scaled-down version of an earlier proposal. That one was approved both by the Richmond planning commission and the city council in 2008, before environmental groups including Communities for a Better Environment successfully sued to stop it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The city council plans to decide on the fate of the project at a meeting next week.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "The Richmond City Council is considering Chevron's plans for a $1 billion project at its refinery there. If it's approved, this is one of the last steps before construction on the project would actually begin.",
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"description": "The Richmond City Council is considering Chevron's plans for a $1 billion project at its refinery there. If it's approved, this is one of the last steps before construction on the project would actually begin.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_19710\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 639px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/07/chevron-e1406149837331.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-19710\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/07/chevron-e1406149837331.jpg\" alt=\"The Chevron Refinery in Richmond is looking to increase its capacity to process crude oil with higher sulfur content.\" width=\"639\" height=\"361\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Chevron Refinery in Richmond is looking to increase its capacity to process crude oil with higher sulfur content. (Deborah Svoboda/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>By Sara Hossaini and Molly Samuel\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Richmond City Council is slated to decide in one week whether to give final approval to \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/audio/chevron-tries-again-with-richmond-refinery-revamp/\">Chevron’s plans for a $1 billion project\u003c/a> at its refinery there. The council is now considering what conditions to place on the project, if it’s approved.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A hearing Tuesday night drew about 500 people; nearly 200 signed up to speak during the public comment period, both for and against the project.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They come to us with plans to modernize only a part of their operation that will allow much dirtier sources of crude oil to be processed,” said Richmond resident Robert Bishop, “and to make millions and millions of dollars more profit each year by doing so.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One of the goals of the project is to allow Chevron to refine crude with a higher sulfur content. The industry calls this “sour” crude; environmental groups call it “dirty” crude. Bishop said the project shouldn’t get the green light unless the council imposes the stricter conditions recommended by the city’s Planning Commission.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Environmental groups suggested those conditions and Chevron is appealing them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The oil company has, however, agreed to a plan submitted by Attorney General Kamala Harris, and included in the EIR as Alternative 11. That alternative, unlike Chevron’s original proposal, would reduce how much sulfur the refinery could process, and would not increase greenhouse gas emissions. Chevron’s preferred plan would have allowed an increase in greenhouse gas emissions to be offset by carbon credits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The company has also agreed to double community investment dollars over the next decade, to $60 million.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That would benefit all Richmond residents, said Chevron employee Suzanne Jackson. “A cleaner, newer, safer refinery will continue to support the bridge of the gap between social and economic change here in Richmond,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Planning Commission Approval\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Earlier this month, Richmond’s planning commission \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2014/07/11/round-2-of-richmond-hearing-on-chevron-refinery-plan/\">approved the environmental impact report\u003c/a> for the project, recommending the city council approve Alternative 11.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This was a good project before, it’s a really great project now, so we’re very hopeful,” said Chevron spokeswoman Melissa Ritchie. “Greenhouse gas emissions will not increase as result of project, they will actually decrease.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The planning commission also set forth a series of conditions proposed by environmental groups, and Chevron has appealed all of them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One condition would require stricter pollution emission standards, the second would require a more thorough upgrade of parts of the refinery that handle highly corrosive high-sulfur crude oil, and the third would require the company to participate in “climate justice mitigation,” reportedly including a clean-energy jobs program.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Staff for the city council \u003ca href=\"http://chevronmodernization.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/0.ARF-and-FINAL-REPORT-CVRN-CC-7-22-2014.pdf\">oppose those conditions\u003c/a>, saying they are outside the scope of the EIR, or outside the jurisdiction of the city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Another Lawsuit?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Without those additional conditions, Andrés Soto from CBE says he’s concerned Chevron’s lower emissions goals would be unenforceable.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It just doesn’t have any teeth in it,” Soto said, of the possibility of adopting the lower-emissions scheme without the additional conditions. “We think not only would it be the wrong decision, we think it would be legally challengeable.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If so, this would not be the first time Chevron’s refinery project went to the courts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The project, called a modernization by the company and an expansion by its detractors, is a scaled-down version of an earlier proposal. That one was approved both by the Richmond planning commission and the city council in 2008, before environmental groups including Communities for a Better Environment successfully sued to stop it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The city council plans to decide on the fate of the project at a meeting next week.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"headTitle": "California Has Little Say Over Oil Train Safety | KQED",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"audio-wrap\">\n\u003ch2>Listen:\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>http://www.kqed.org/.stream/anon/radio/science/2014/07/20140721science.mp3\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_19557\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/07/Miille_Bakken1.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-19557\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/07/Miille_Bakken1.jpg\" alt=\"A BNSF train with tank cars crosses a trestle in the Feather River Canyon in Northern California. (Courtesy of Jake Miille)\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A BNSF train with tank cars crosses a trestle in the Feather River Canyon in Northern California. (\u003ca href=\"http://jakemiillephotography.com/\">Jake Miille/Jake Miille Photography\u003c/a>)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Update, Friday, July 25:\u003c/strong> On Wednesday, the federal Department of Transportation \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/2014/07/23/feds-propose-new-safety-rules-for-oil-trains/\">proposed new regulations\u003c/a> aimed at improving the safety of trains carrying oil. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Original story (Monday, July 21):\u003c/strong>\u003cbr>\nThe number of trains carrying crude oil across California is increasing rapidly, and two official reports say the state is not ready. Regulators are preparing, with funds for disaster response and more track inspectors, but they’re limited in how much they can do to make rail transport safer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“My view is it’s pretty undeniably bringing in extra risks to the state,” said Paul King, deputy director for rail safety at the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“These trains explode,” King said. “If that were to happen in a town, there’s no telling the damage. And of course we know what happened in little Lac-Mégantic.” That’s the town in Quebec where a train carrying crude from North Dakota’s Bakken formation derailed last July. The explosion killed 47 people.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">‘These trains explode.’\u003ccite>— Paul King, California Public Utilities Commission\u003c/cite>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>Bakken crude is volatile. In the past year, trains transporting crude from the Bakken have also exploded in North Dakota, Virginia and Alabama.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Trains carrying Bakken crude traverse California, too, bringing the oil to refineries here. And while the CPUC regulates rail in California, the state can’t actually do much when it comes telling the railroads how they can operate. Almost all of those rules are up to the federal government.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>‘Our Hands in California Are Tied’\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state can’t set speed limits on crude oil trains. It can’t tell railroads to choose less hazardous routes. It can’t tell oil companies not to bring trains carrying the volatile crude through cities. It can’t tell oil companies to ship that crude in stronger tank cars. It can’t require upgraded braking systems.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Neither can local governments, though the cities of Davis, Richmond and Berkeley have all passed resolutions expressing their opposition to the transport of crude oil by rail.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I almost feel like our hands in California are tied, yet all these trains are going through our communities,” State Senator Hannah-Beth Jackson, a democrat from Santa Barbara, said at a hearing last month.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Trains carried nearly 6.3 million barrels of oil into California in 2013. That’s more than five times more than in 2012. According to the California Energy Commission, by 2016 that number could balloon to more than 100 million barrels.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s because there’s an oil boom in the middle part of the continent, and to get that crude from Alberta and North Dakota to California, oil companies have to use trains.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_19558\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/07/lacmegantic.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-19558\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/07/lacmegantic.jpg\" alt=\"Firefighters douse blazes after in Lac-Megantic on July 6, 2013. (François Laplante-Delagrave/AFP/Getty Images)\" width=\"640\" height=\"428\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Firefighters douse blazes in Lac-Megantic on July 6, 2013. (François Laplante-Delagrave/AFP/Getty Images)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Steps Towards Safer Shipping\u003cbr>\n\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There are ways to make the trains safer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Most of the tank cars used to transport crude oil, including the volatile Bakken crude, are old, and can’t protect against explosions. After the disaster in Lac-Mégantic, \u003ca href=\"https://www.tc.gc.ca/eng/railsafety/tsb-2014-962.html\">Canada required\u003c/a> that the most dangerous of the cars — the same tank cars that carry as much as 82 percent of crude oil in the U.S. — be removed from service, and that the rest be retrofitted.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The U.S. is considering stricter tank car standards. Last week, the advocacy group Earthjustice sent a \u003ca href=\"http://earthjustice.org/sites/default/files/files/PetitionforEmergencyOrderReBakkenCrudeRailCars.pdf\">letter to the U.S. Department of Transportation\u003c/a>, urging the agency to move faster by issuing an emergency order immediately banning the use of the unsafe cars.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But California can’t require any of this. The CPUC intends to urge the DOT to “move expeditiously” to update its tank car regulations. That, and other recommendations, are laid out in a \u003ca href=\"http://www.caloes.ca.gov/HazardousMaterials/Pages/Oil-By-Rail.aspx\">recent report on crude-by-rail\u003c/a> safety in the state. The state wants the feds to require that there be newer braking technology on oil trains and a GPS-based system that prevents accidents on oil train routes. According to King, the CPUC will submit those recommendations to the Federal Railroad Administration soon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The railroads have already adopted some \u003ca href=\"https://www.aar.org/newsandevents/Press-Releases/Pages/Freight-Railroads-Join-U-S-Transportation-Secretary-Foxx-in-Announcing-Industry-Crude-By-Rail-Safety-Initiative.aspx#.U8huG7GU58E\">voluntary safety measures\u003c/a>, including lower speed limits and increased track inspections. And Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway, the company that is currently transporting large amounts of Bakken crude in California, is asking railcar manufacturers to submit bids to build 5,000 safer cars. (The railroads typically don’t own the cars used to ship material; the oil companies themselves either own or lease them.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The CPUC has done one of the main things it can: hire more railroad safety inspectors. The CPUC keeps a list of the most hazardous sections of track, and according to \u003ca href=\"http://www.cpuc.ca.gov/NR/rdonlyres/06621650-B00C-42F5-ABA2-AE617FF39392/0/RailroadLocalSafetyHazardAnnualReportfor2013Final7114.pdf\">a recent report\u003c/a>, the most frequent cause of derailments at those sites are track problems. The new state budget adds seven positions, bringing the CPUC’s inspection staff to 38. CPUC staff checks all the tracks in California once a year and, going forward, will check the tracks on Bakken oil train routes twice a year.[contextly_sidebar id=”sRuVMXrfcyA2EbJyn8ugfGCUznnKPsll”]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>A Past Disaster\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California once tried to introduce stricter railroad regulations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In July, 1991, a train derailed in Northern California at a bend in the track where it crosses the Upper Sacramento River, near the town of Dunsmuir. It spilled 19,000 gallons of a pesticide called metam sodium into the river.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It killed everything down to the bacteria,” said Mark Stopher, who was hired by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife to assess the damage to the river.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The poison killed more than a million fish, and every insect and plant in the river for 40 miles. “Nobody’s ever seen anything like that before,” he said. In \u003ca href=\"http://youtu.be/k4UucmnSXSo\">video\u003c/a> from the time, you can see fish struggling to escape the river and get into tributaries. Stopher said they all died.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was kind of a blow to the heart to lose the river,” said Phil Dietrich, executive director of a conservation group called River Exchange.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Upper Sacramento had been a popular fishing destination. So when the fish were gone, the tourists, and their money, disappeared too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But it was a pulse of poison; metam sodium doesn’t linger. A few years later, the fish were back. The tourists are back, too. It could have been worse, if what spilled had been a substance that lasts in the environment for a longer time. Oil, for instance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After the accident, the CPUC tried to require stronger track at Cantara Loop, to keep it from happening again.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We were trying to adopt regulations where there were none,” said King. But they couldn’t. The railroad sued the CPUC, and eventually the court sided with the railroad, reinforcing the Federal Railroad Administration’s jurisdiction. There is a large rail in place on the bridge now, to help keep trains from derailing into the river. According to the CPUC, there have been four derailments in the area since 2009.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our role is limited,” King said. “Our role is to ensure that the regulations that the federal government has in place are followed.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Beefing Up Clean-Up \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even if the the state can’t do all it wants to keep an accident from happening, it can prepare to respond to one.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In June, dozens of fire fighters, public health experts and Red Cross volunteers gathered near Cantara Loop to run a drill. The scenario was that an oil train had collided with an illegal marijuana grower’s truck at the site of the ’91 spill. The truck wrecked, and the train derailed and spilled oil into the river. \u003cstrong>\u003cbr>\n\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Firefighters pulled the casualties (volunteers marked with paint) away from the scene, a helicopter brought tools to treat people who’d been doused in dangerous chemicals and a team deployed a drone to get a view of the (largely imaginary) disaster scene from above.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We want to make sure California’s prepared to respond,” said Alexia Rettalack of California’s Office of Spill Prevention and Response (OSPR). “Spills happen. When product moves, things happen.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>OSPR got more money in this year’s budget, so that it can prepare for inland oil spills. Until now, the agency focused only on marine accidents. The state Office of Emergency Services is also looking for ways to better prepare emergency responders, many of whom are volunteers, for an oil train explosion. And state lawmakers are considering a couple of crude-by-rail bills that would improve emergency responses.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dietrich emphasizes that what happened in Dunsmuir in 1991 was a rare event, and yet, the memory lingers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It comes down to we care about our river and about our towns,” he said. “And we hope that the agencies and the railroad are on top of it.”\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "The state can't set speed limits on trains. It can't tell railroads to choose less hazardous routes. It can't tell oil companies not to bring trains carrying volatile crude through cities. ",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/div>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_19557\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/07/Miille_Bakken1.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-19557\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/07/Miille_Bakken1.jpg\" alt=\"A BNSF train with tank cars crosses a trestle in the Feather River Canyon in Northern California. (Courtesy of Jake Miille)\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A BNSF train with tank cars crosses a trestle in the Feather River Canyon in Northern California. (\u003ca href=\"http://jakemiillephotography.com/\">Jake Miille/Jake Miille Photography\u003c/a>)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Update, Friday, July 25:\u003c/strong> On Wednesday, the federal Department of Transportation \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/2014/07/23/feds-propose-new-safety-rules-for-oil-trains/\">proposed new regulations\u003c/a> aimed at improving the safety of trains carrying oil. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Original story (Monday, July 21):\u003c/strong>\u003cbr>\nThe number of trains carrying crude oil across California is increasing rapidly, and two official reports say the state is not ready. Regulators are preparing, with funds for disaster response and more track inspectors, but they’re limited in how much they can do to make rail transport safer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“My view is it’s pretty undeniably bringing in extra risks to the state,” said Paul King, deputy director for rail safety at the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“These trains explode,” King said. “If that were to happen in a town, there’s no telling the damage. And of course we know what happened in little Lac-Mégantic.” That’s the town in Quebec where a train carrying crude from North Dakota’s Bakken formation derailed last July. The explosion killed 47 people.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">‘These trains explode.’\u003ccite>— Paul King, California Public Utilities Commission\u003c/cite>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>Bakken crude is volatile. In the past year, trains transporting crude from the Bakken have also exploded in North Dakota, Virginia and Alabama.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Trains carrying Bakken crude traverse California, too, bringing the oil to refineries here. And while the CPUC regulates rail in California, the state can’t actually do much when it comes telling the railroads how they can operate. Almost all of those rules are up to the federal government.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>‘Our Hands in California Are Tied’\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state can’t set speed limits on crude oil trains. It can’t tell railroads to choose less hazardous routes. It can’t tell oil companies not to bring trains carrying the volatile crude through cities. It can’t tell oil companies to ship that crude in stronger tank cars. It can’t require upgraded braking systems.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Neither can local governments, though the cities of Davis, Richmond and Berkeley have all passed resolutions expressing their opposition to the transport of crude oil by rail.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I almost feel like our hands in California are tied, yet all these trains are going through our communities,” State Senator Hannah-Beth Jackson, a democrat from Santa Barbara, said at a hearing last month.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Trains carried nearly 6.3 million barrels of oil into California in 2013. That’s more than five times more than in 2012. According to the California Energy Commission, by 2016 that number could balloon to more than 100 million barrels.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s because there’s an oil boom in the middle part of the continent, and to get that crude from Alberta and North Dakota to California, oil companies have to use trains.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_19558\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/07/lacmegantic.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-19558\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/07/lacmegantic.jpg\" alt=\"Firefighters douse blazes after in Lac-Megantic on July 6, 2013. (François Laplante-Delagrave/AFP/Getty Images)\" width=\"640\" height=\"428\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Firefighters douse blazes in Lac-Megantic on July 6, 2013. (François Laplante-Delagrave/AFP/Getty Images)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Steps Towards Safer Shipping\u003cbr>\n\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There are ways to make the trains safer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Most of the tank cars used to transport crude oil, including the volatile Bakken crude, are old, and can’t protect against explosions. After the disaster in Lac-Mégantic, \u003ca href=\"https://www.tc.gc.ca/eng/railsafety/tsb-2014-962.html\">Canada required\u003c/a> that the most dangerous of the cars — the same tank cars that carry as much as 82 percent of crude oil in the U.S. — be removed from service, and that the rest be retrofitted.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The U.S. is considering stricter tank car standards. Last week, the advocacy group Earthjustice sent a \u003ca href=\"http://earthjustice.org/sites/default/files/files/PetitionforEmergencyOrderReBakkenCrudeRailCars.pdf\">letter to the U.S. Department of Transportation\u003c/a>, urging the agency to move faster by issuing an emergency order immediately banning the use of the unsafe cars.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But California can’t require any of this. The CPUC intends to urge the DOT to “move expeditiously” to update its tank car regulations. That, and other recommendations, are laid out in a \u003ca href=\"http://www.caloes.ca.gov/HazardousMaterials/Pages/Oil-By-Rail.aspx\">recent report on crude-by-rail\u003c/a> safety in the state. The state wants the feds to require that there be newer braking technology on oil trains and a GPS-based system that prevents accidents on oil train routes. According to King, the CPUC will submit those recommendations to the Federal Railroad Administration soon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The railroads have already adopted some \u003ca href=\"https://www.aar.org/newsandevents/Press-Releases/Pages/Freight-Railroads-Join-U-S-Transportation-Secretary-Foxx-in-Announcing-Industry-Crude-By-Rail-Safety-Initiative.aspx#.U8huG7GU58E\">voluntary safety measures\u003c/a>, including lower speed limits and increased track inspections. And Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway, the company that is currently transporting large amounts of Bakken crude in California, is asking railcar manufacturers to submit bids to build 5,000 safer cars. (The railroads typically don’t own the cars used to ship material; the oil companies themselves either own or lease them.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The CPUC has done one of the main things it can: hire more railroad safety inspectors. The CPUC keeps a list of the most hazardous sections of track, and according to \u003ca href=\"http://www.cpuc.ca.gov/NR/rdonlyres/06621650-B00C-42F5-ABA2-AE617FF39392/0/RailroadLocalSafetyHazardAnnualReportfor2013Final7114.pdf\">a recent report\u003c/a>, the most frequent cause of derailments at those sites are track problems. The new state budget adds seven positions, bringing the CPUC’s inspection staff to 38. CPUC staff checks all the tracks in California once a year and, going forward, will check the tracks on Bakken oil train routes twice a year.\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>A Past Disaster\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California once tried to introduce stricter railroad regulations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In July, 1991, a train derailed in Northern California at a bend in the track where it crosses the Upper Sacramento River, near the town of Dunsmuir. It spilled 19,000 gallons of a pesticide called metam sodium into the river.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It killed everything down to the bacteria,” said Mark Stopher, who was hired by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife to assess the damage to the river.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The poison killed more than a million fish, and every insect and plant in the river for 40 miles. “Nobody’s ever seen anything like that before,” he said. In \u003ca href=\"http://youtu.be/k4UucmnSXSo\">video\u003c/a> from the time, you can see fish struggling to escape the river and get into tributaries. Stopher said they all died.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was kind of a blow to the heart to lose the river,” said Phil Dietrich, executive director of a conservation group called River Exchange.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Upper Sacramento had been a popular fishing destination. So when the fish were gone, the tourists, and their money, disappeared too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But it was a pulse of poison; metam sodium doesn’t linger. A few years later, the fish were back. The tourists are back, too. It could have been worse, if what spilled had been a substance that lasts in the environment for a longer time. Oil, for instance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After the accident, the CPUC tried to require stronger track at Cantara Loop, to keep it from happening again.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We were trying to adopt regulations where there were none,” said King. But they couldn’t. The railroad sued the CPUC, and eventually the court sided with the railroad, reinforcing the Federal Railroad Administration’s jurisdiction. There is a large rail in place on the bridge now, to help keep trains from derailing into the river. According to the CPUC, there have been four derailments in the area since 2009.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our role is limited,” King said. “Our role is to ensure that the regulations that the federal government has in place are followed.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Beefing Up Clean-Up \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even if the the state can’t do all it wants to keep an accident from happening, it can prepare to respond to one.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In June, dozens of fire fighters, public health experts and Red Cross volunteers gathered near Cantara Loop to run a drill. The scenario was that an oil train had collided with an illegal marijuana grower’s truck at the site of the ’91 spill. The truck wrecked, and the train derailed and spilled oil into the river. \u003cstrong>\u003cbr>\n\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Firefighters pulled the casualties (volunteers marked with paint) away from the scene, a helicopter brought tools to treat people who’d been doused in dangerous chemicals and a team deployed a drone to get a view of the (largely imaginary) disaster scene from above.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We want to make sure California’s prepared to respond,” said Alexia Rettalack of California’s Office of Spill Prevention and Response (OSPR). “Spills happen. When product moves, things happen.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>OSPR got more money in this year’s budget, so that it can prepare for inland oil spills. Until now, the agency focused only on marine accidents. The state Office of Emergency Services is also looking for ways to better prepare emergency responders, many of whom are volunteers, for an oil train explosion. And state lawmakers are considering a couple of crude-by-rail bills that would improve emergency responses.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dietrich emphasizes that what happened in Dunsmuir in 1991 was a rare event, and yet, the memory lingers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It comes down to we care about our river and about our towns,” he said. “And we hope that the agencies and the railroad are on top of it.”\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "California's New Fracking Regulations Delayed Half a Year",
"headTitle": "California’s New Fracking Regulations Delayed Half a Year | KQED",
"content": "\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_19306\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 1024px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/07/DSC01202-1024x576.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-19306\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/07/DSC01202-1024x576.jpg\" alt=\"An oil well next to orchards in Shafter, California, where oil companies have been fracking. (Lauren Sommer/KQED)\" width=\"1024\" height=\"576\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">An oil well next to orchards in Shafter, California. Oil companies have been fracking in this area. (Lauren Sommer/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>California’s new regulations for hydraulic fracturing will be delayed by six months, after state legislators approved \u003ca href=\"http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201320140SB861\">a bill\u003c/a> in late June authorizing the change.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"blogs.kqed.org/science/2013/11/15/what-californias-new-fracking-rules-would-do-and-not-do/\">wide-reaching regulations\u003c/a> were scheduled to take effect on January 1, 2015. Now, the regulations will begin on July 1, 2015, though the Department of Conservation must still finalize them by the end of this year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>State regulators say the change will help align the efforts of two agencies that are writing the new fracking regulations. The deadlines for the agencies were spelled out in \u003ca href=\"http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/pub/13-14/bill/sen/sb_0001-0050/sb_4_bill_20130920_chaptered.pdf\">SB 4\u003c/a>, a bill the \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2013/09/11/110875/fracking-bill-caifornia-senate-vote\">State Legislature passed\u003c/a> in 2013.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In addition to getting a permit for fracking from the Department of Conservation, oil operators will be required to write a groundwater monitoring plan that specifies how they’ll test water quality if they drill in an area with usable groundwater. The requirement was prompted by concerns that fracking could contaminate groundwater supplies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The groundwater monitoring plans must be approved by water regulators with the State Water Quality Control Board. That agency is currently developing the criteria to judge the plans with, but it has until July 1, 2015 to create them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“To me, it’s a logical matching up of a couple deadlines,” says Jason Marshall of the Department of Conservation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If this hadn’t been pushed back, my department would have been getting applications for well stimulation,” he says. “And the operator would have gone to water board to get the plan approved and the water board would have said ‘You need to wait six months, because we don’t have criteria developed yet.’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[contextly_sidebar id=”5697ba67ae0e6ed4824285bcba7ff081″]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Under temporary fracking regulations now in place, oil operators must submit groundwater monitoring plans, but currently they’re approved by oil and gas regulators under a set of more minimal requirements.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There is groundwater monitoring going on right now, but is it to the full degree that it will be in July (2015)? Probably not,” Marshall says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Environmental groups have mixed feelings about the timeline change.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There was 50 years of non-regulation, and it’s an extra six months,” says Bill Allayaud of the Environmental Working Group. “It’s not the most desirable thing, but we are getting relatively good public disclosure about fracking for the first time.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hollin Kretzmann, an attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity, says no regulation can ensure fracking is safe and he’d prefer to see it halted altogether in California. Nonetheless, he says the final regulations do include important rules that will now, unfortunately, also be delayed. Those include a requirement that oil operators monitor seismic activity during fracking and must stop operations if there’s an earthquake registering 2.0 or greater.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kretzmann says it’s unusual for temporary regulations to be in place for so long. “It’s confounding that their so-called emergency regulations will now be in effect for 18 months,” he says. “Under California law, the limit for emergency regulations is 12 months, so they had to make a statutory exemption.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Getting Rid of the “Magic Wand”\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The bill that approved the delay—what lawmakers call a trailer bill—made another change that some environmentalists are cheering.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Under SB 4, the fracking regulation bill, oil and gas regulators had so-called “magic wand” power to decide on the level of environmental review a fracking operation must undergo. Several environmental groups pulled their support for the bill when that provision was added.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The (oil and gas) supervisor would have been able to waive environmental review based on prior environmental reviews,” Allayaud says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California oil and gas regulators are currently reviewing the potential impacts of fracking statewide in an environmental impact report. Environmental groups expressed concerned that regulators would cite this broad statewide review as an adequate basis for granting fracking permits, as opposed to requiring a more site-specific review.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now, under the new provision approved in late June, the level of environmental review will be decided on a case-by-case basis as permit requests come in, says the Department of Conservation’s Jason Marshall. “It’s going to depend on where in the state you’re talking about,” he says. “We have wildly differing amounts of information about the impacts.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Other agencies will also be able to weigh in on environmental impacts, under the new language. “The change makes clear that there is still opportunity for other agencies or local governments to conduct their own environmental review or impose mitigation measures,” says Kretzmann.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Environmental groups say they’ll be watching closely. “There are still going to be some questions down the road,” Allayaud says.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_19306\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 1024px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/07/DSC01202-1024x576.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-19306\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/07/DSC01202-1024x576.jpg\" alt=\"An oil well next to orchards in Shafter, California, where oil companies have been fracking. (Lauren Sommer/KQED)\" width=\"1024\" height=\"576\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">An oil well next to orchards in Shafter, California. Oil companies have been fracking in this area. (Lauren Sommer/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>California’s new regulations for hydraulic fracturing will be delayed by six months, after state legislators approved \u003ca href=\"http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201320140SB861\">a bill\u003c/a> in late June authorizing the change.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"blogs.kqed.org/science/2013/11/15/what-californias-new-fracking-rules-would-do-and-not-do/\">wide-reaching regulations\u003c/a> were scheduled to take effect on January 1, 2015. Now, the regulations will begin on July 1, 2015, though the Department of Conservation must still finalize them by the end of this year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>State regulators say the change will help align the efforts of two agencies that are writing the new fracking regulations. The deadlines for the agencies were spelled out in \u003ca href=\"http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/pub/13-14/bill/sen/sb_0001-0050/sb_4_bill_20130920_chaptered.pdf\">SB 4\u003c/a>, a bill the \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2013/09/11/110875/fracking-bill-caifornia-senate-vote\">State Legislature passed\u003c/a> in 2013.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In addition to getting a permit for fracking from the Department of Conservation, oil operators will be required to write a groundwater monitoring plan that specifies how they’ll test water quality if they drill in an area with usable groundwater. The requirement was prompted by concerns that fracking could contaminate groundwater supplies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The groundwater monitoring plans must be approved by water regulators with the State Water Quality Control Board. That agency is currently developing the criteria to judge the plans with, but it has until July 1, 2015 to create them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“To me, it’s a logical matching up of a couple deadlines,” says Jason Marshall of the Department of Conservation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If this hadn’t been pushed back, my department would have been getting applications for well stimulation,” he says. “And the operator would have gone to water board to get the plan approved and the water board would have said ‘You need to wait six months, because we don’t have criteria developed yet.’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Under temporary fracking regulations now in place, oil operators must submit groundwater monitoring plans, but currently they’re approved by oil and gas regulators under a set of more minimal requirements.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There is groundwater monitoring going on right now, but is it to the full degree that it will be in July (2015)? Probably not,” Marshall says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Environmental groups have mixed feelings about the timeline change.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There was 50 years of non-regulation, and it’s an extra six months,” says Bill Allayaud of the Environmental Working Group. “It’s not the most desirable thing, but we are getting relatively good public disclosure about fracking for the first time.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hollin Kretzmann, an attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity, says no regulation can ensure fracking is safe and he’d prefer to see it halted altogether in California. Nonetheless, he says the final regulations do include important rules that will now, unfortunately, also be delayed. Those include a requirement that oil operators monitor seismic activity during fracking and must stop operations if there’s an earthquake registering 2.0 or greater.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kretzmann says it’s unusual for temporary regulations to be in place for so long. “It’s confounding that their so-called emergency regulations will now be in effect for 18 months,” he says. “Under California law, the limit for emergency regulations is 12 months, so they had to make a statutory exemption.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Getting Rid of the “Magic Wand”\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The bill that approved the delay—what lawmakers call a trailer bill—made another change that some environmentalists are cheering.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Under SB 4, the fracking regulation bill, oil and gas regulators had so-called “magic wand” power to decide on the level of environmental review a fracking operation must undergo. Several environmental groups pulled their support for the bill when that provision was added.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The (oil and gas) supervisor would have been able to waive environmental review based on prior environmental reviews,” Allayaud says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California oil and gas regulators are currently reviewing the potential impacts of fracking statewide in an environmental impact report. Environmental groups expressed concerned that regulators would cite this broad statewide review as an adequate basis for granting fracking permits, as opposed to requiring a more site-specific review.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now, under the new provision approved in late June, the level of environmental review will be decided on a case-by-case basis as permit requests come in, says the Department of Conservation’s Jason Marshall. “It’s going to depend on where in the state you’re talking about,” he says. “We have wildly differing amounts of information about the impacts.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Other agencies will also be able to weigh in on environmental impacts, under the new language. “The change makes clear that there is still opportunity for other agencies or local governments to conduct their own environmental review or impose mitigation measures,” says Kretzmann.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Environmental groups say they’ll be watching closely. “There are still going to be some questions down the road,” Allayaud says.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Benicia Extends Public Comment Period on Bay Area Crude-by-Rail",
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"content": "\u003cp>Benicia city officials are giving people more time to comment on a \u003ca href=\"http://www.ci.benicia.ca.us/index.asp?Type=B_BASIC&SEC=%7BFDE9A332-542E-44C1-BBD0-A94C288675FD%7D\">proposal to bring crude oil by rail\u003c/a> to Valero’s refinery there. The Benicia Planning Commission made the decision on Thursday night after hearing two hours of testimony. All but three speakers were in favor of extending the comment period, citing summer vacations and the complexity of the project’s draft environmental impact report. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Valero is looking to take advantage of the North American oil boom by bringing the crude in by rail, instead of overseas by ship.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_19283\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1024px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/07/RS2397_IMG_1928-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"The Valero refinery in Benicia is one of five refineries in the Bay Area. (Craig Miller/KQED)\" width=\"1024\" height=\"768\" class=\"size-large wp-image-19283\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Valero refinery in Benicia is one of five refineries in the Bay Area. (Craig Miller/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The project has raised safety concerns in the community. There have been several fiery oil train derailments in other parts of the country in the past year, and last summer a train carrying crude oil exploded in the town of Lac-Mégantic, Quebec, killing 47 people. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That is not going to happen here,” said Dan Broadwater, business manager for the Napa and Solano County electrical workers union. He pointed out that Valero’s Benicia refinery is one of only two refineries in the state that are recognized by the \u003ca href=\"https://www.dir.ca.gov/dosh/cal_vpp/cal_vpp_index.html\">California Voluntary Protection Program\u003c/a> for its safety record. (The other is Valero’s refinery in Wilmington, a neighborhood near Long Beach.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Other speakers said that it’s not just about safety at the Valero plant. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We believe this is actually a regional issue,” Lynne Nittler, of Davis, told the commission. “Your decision here has a profound impact on those of us who live up-rail.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If the project is given the go-ahead, two 50-car trains a day would travel on Union Pacific tracks through the Roseville rail yard near Sacramento. Combined, they would deliver up to 70,000 barrels of crude oil a day to the Valero refinery, offsetting crude delivered by ship. The refinery also receives crude from the San Joaquin Valley via pipeline. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Valero representatives have said the trains will be scheduled so that they don’t interfere with traffic in Benicia during rush hour. Union Pacific is responsible for dispatching trains on its tracks, including Amtrak’s Capital Corridor trains, which travel the same route. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Valero has also said it will use upgraded tank cars, rather than older cars that have been involved in the explosive derailments. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The public comment period on the project now ends on September 15, a 45-day extension. Comments can be submitted to Amy Million, principal planner: amillion@ci.benicia.ca.us. Fax and snail mail address are available \u003ca href=\"http://www.ci.benicia.ca.us/vertical/Sites/%7B3436CBED-6A58-4FEF-BFDF-5F9331215932%7D/uploads/Notice_of_Availability_-_Large_Format_061314.pdf\">here\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Benicia city officials are giving people more time to comment on a \u003ca href=\"http://www.ci.benicia.ca.us/index.asp?Type=B_BASIC&SEC=%7BFDE9A332-542E-44C1-BBD0-A94C288675FD%7D\">proposal to bring crude oil by rail\u003c/a> to Valero’s refinery there. The Benicia Planning Commission made the decision on Thursday night after hearing two hours of testimony. All but three speakers were in favor of extending the comment period, citing summer vacations and the complexity of the project’s draft environmental impact report. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Valero is looking to take advantage of the North American oil boom by bringing the crude in by rail, instead of overseas by ship.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_19283\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1024px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/07/RS2397_IMG_1928-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"The Valero refinery in Benicia is one of five refineries in the Bay Area. (Craig Miller/KQED)\" width=\"1024\" height=\"768\" class=\"size-large wp-image-19283\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Valero refinery in Benicia is one of five refineries in the Bay Area. (Craig Miller/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The project has raised safety concerns in the community. There have been several fiery oil train derailments in other parts of the country in the past year, and last summer a train carrying crude oil exploded in the town of Lac-Mégantic, Quebec, killing 47 people. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That is not going to happen here,” said Dan Broadwater, business manager for the Napa and Solano County electrical workers union. He pointed out that Valero’s Benicia refinery is one of only two refineries in the state that are recognized by the \u003ca href=\"https://www.dir.ca.gov/dosh/cal_vpp/cal_vpp_index.html\">California Voluntary Protection Program\u003c/a> for its safety record. (The other is Valero’s refinery in Wilmington, a neighborhood near Long Beach.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Other speakers said that it’s not just about safety at the Valero plant. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We believe this is actually a regional issue,” Lynne Nittler, of Davis, told the commission. “Your decision here has a profound impact on those of us who live up-rail.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If the project is given the go-ahead, two 50-car trains a day would travel on Union Pacific tracks through the Roseville rail yard near Sacramento. Combined, they would deliver up to 70,000 barrels of crude oil a day to the Valero refinery, offsetting crude delivered by ship. The refinery also receives crude from the San Joaquin Valley via pipeline. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Valero representatives have said the trains will be scheduled so that they don’t interfere with traffic in Benicia during rush hour. Union Pacific is responsible for dispatching trains on its tracks, including Amtrak’s Capital Corridor trains, which travel the same route. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Valero has also said it will use upgraded tank cars, rather than older cars that have been involved in the explosive derailments. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The public comment period on the project now ends on September 15, a 45-day extension. Comments can be submitted to Amy Million, principal planner: amillion@ci.benicia.ca.us. Fax and snail mail address are available \u003ca href=\"http://www.ci.benicia.ca.us/vertical/Sites/%7B3436CBED-6A58-4FEF-BFDF-5F9331215932%7D/uploads/Notice_of_Availability_-_Large_Format_061314.pdf\">here\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Oklahoma Study Offers Better Insight into Industrial Earthquakes",
"headTitle": "Oklahoma Study Offers Better Insight into Industrial Earthquakes | KQED",
"content": "\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_19005\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/07/OKEQmap.png\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/07/OKEQmap.png\" alt=\"Oklahoma earthquakes and injection wells\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" class=\"size-full wp-image-19005\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">This busy figure lays out the case linking deep-injection wells (squares) and earthquakes (gray/colored dots) in north-central Oklahoma. Groups of high-volume wells south and east of Oklahoma City (OKC) flank the long-running earthquake swarm centered on the town of Jones. Prague was the site of a magnitude-5.7 quake in 2011. Modified from Figure 1 of Keranen et al., “\u003ca href=\"http://www.sciencemag.org/content/early/2014/07/02/science.1255802\">Sharp Increase in Central Oklahoma Seismicity Since 2008 Induced by Massive Wastewater Injection\u003c/a>,” \u003ci>Science\u003c/i>, July 3, 2014. (AAAS/Science)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In today’s issue of \u003cem>Science\u003c/em>, a research team explains how wells that inject wastewater deep underground near Oklahoma City have caused earthquakes much farther away than we thought before — up to 35 kilometers. Their model may make it feasible for regulators to try controlling these quakes—if the industry provides them enough data.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Oklahoma is not prone to earthquakes the way California is. It doesn’t sit where tectonic plates are grinding against each other. But since 2008, Oklahoma has had a 40-fold rise in earthquakes large enough to feel—and the state has become by far the largest seismicity source east of the Rockies. In fact, acre for acre, Oklahoma matches California these days in earthquakes larger than magnitude 3 (a size that people notice). The largest of these seismic events is a swarm of quakes near the town of Jones that has been going on for five years and counting.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A number of especially large deep-injection wells began operating in Oklahoma around 2004. When the earthquakes began, suspicion was quick to focus on those wells. Could they be pushing the Earth’s crust near Jones to the breaking point?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://water.epa.gov/type/groundwater/uic/basicinformation.cfm\">Deep injection wells\u003c/a> have a history going back to the 1930s, when Texas oil producers began using them to take the salty, toxic water pumped up along with the oil and put it back where it came from. Other producers of nasty stuff began using deep injection too—chemical manufacturers and refiners, military suppliers, paper mills and so on. The Environmental Protection Agency has been regulating them, with a growing web of rules and oversight, since the 1970s, and today tens of thousands of deep injection wells, more than 9000 of them in Oklahoma alone, serve the nation without incident.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Scientists have been arguing for a link between deep injection wells and Midwest earthquakes for several years, with growing confidence as the evidence improves. So far most of the studies have relied on statistical tests, but the new study makes a more direct case using the earthquakes of the Jones swarm and the injection records from the 89 nearest wells. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://www.sciencemag.org/content/early/2014/07/02/science.1255802\">The \u003ci>Science\u003c/i> paper\u003c/a>, by Cornell University researcher \u003ca href=\"http://www.eas.cornell.edu/eas/people/profile.cfm?netid=kmk299\">Katie Keranen\u003c/a> and four colleagues, relies on computer modeling using well-known physics to predict how the rocks in north-central Oklahoma would react to being pumped full of wastewater at high pressure. The model shows that as the water is forced into the pores in the rocks, a wave of rising pore pressure moves outward from the wells at 100 to 150 meters per day. The resulting change in the state of stress is enough, as we know from elsewhere, to ease susceptible areas over the edge and trigger earthquakes. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Not only does the pattern of the Jones swarm match the model, but also the model strongly suggests that injection wells can affect pore pressures much farther away than previously thought. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A study in the \u003ci>Journal of Geophysical Research\u003c/i> published in April found that the Prague earthquake of 2011, at magnitude 5.7 the largest in recent years, was triggered by a foreshock that in turn was induced by deep injection wells. Keranen was part of that study, too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state is responding to the wave of new scientific studies by installing more seismometers and requiring operators to keep records of their deep-injection volumes every day rather than monthly. The Oklahoma agency that governs well operations has begun ordering operators to cut back in specific cases. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Oil and gas production was a huge industry in Oklahoma long before the widespread use of hydraulic fracturing (fracking) techniques. The practices that led to the Jones earthquake swarm are not connected to fracking. Instead, the wastewater comes from “dewatering plays,” another unconventional oil production method that enables oil to be produced from deposits dominated by water. In this method, huge amounts of formation brine are pumped out before oil production begins to kick in. The wells in question are operated by the \u003ca href=\"http://www.newdominion.net/\">New Dominion\u003c/a> company, which is reportedly in discussions with the state.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "A new study adds strong evidence that deep-injection wells can occasionally nudge a fault into activity. The key is figuring out how it happens, then learning to avoid whatever is making it happen.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_19005\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/07/OKEQmap.png\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/07/OKEQmap.png\" alt=\"Oklahoma earthquakes and injection wells\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" class=\"size-full wp-image-19005\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">This busy figure lays out the case linking deep-injection wells (squares) and earthquakes (gray/colored dots) in north-central Oklahoma. Groups of high-volume wells south and east of Oklahoma City (OKC) flank the long-running earthquake swarm centered on the town of Jones. Prague was the site of a magnitude-5.7 quake in 2011. Modified from Figure 1 of Keranen et al., “\u003ca href=\"http://www.sciencemag.org/content/early/2014/07/02/science.1255802\">Sharp Increase in Central Oklahoma Seismicity Since 2008 Induced by Massive Wastewater Injection\u003c/a>,” \u003ci>Science\u003c/i>, July 3, 2014. (AAAS/Science)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In today’s issue of \u003cem>Science\u003c/em>, a research team explains how wells that inject wastewater deep underground near Oklahoma City have caused earthquakes much farther away than we thought before — up to 35 kilometers. Their model may make it feasible for regulators to try controlling these quakes—if the industry provides them enough data.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Oklahoma is not prone to earthquakes the way California is. It doesn’t sit where tectonic plates are grinding against each other. But since 2008, Oklahoma has had a 40-fold rise in earthquakes large enough to feel—and the state has become by far the largest seismicity source east of the Rockies. In fact, acre for acre, Oklahoma matches California these days in earthquakes larger than magnitude 3 (a size that people notice). The largest of these seismic events is a swarm of quakes near the town of Jones that has been going on for five years and counting.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A number of especially large deep-injection wells began operating in Oklahoma around 2004. When the earthquakes began, suspicion was quick to focus on those wells. Could they be pushing the Earth’s crust near Jones to the breaking point?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://water.epa.gov/type/groundwater/uic/basicinformation.cfm\">Deep injection wells\u003c/a> have a history going back to the 1930s, when Texas oil producers began using them to take the salty, toxic water pumped up along with the oil and put it back where it came from. Other producers of nasty stuff began using deep injection too—chemical manufacturers and refiners, military suppliers, paper mills and so on. The Environmental Protection Agency has been regulating them, with a growing web of rules and oversight, since the 1970s, and today tens of thousands of deep injection wells, more than 9000 of them in Oklahoma alone, serve the nation without incident.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Scientists have been arguing for a link between deep injection wells and Midwest earthquakes for several years, with growing confidence as the evidence improves. So far most of the studies have relied on statistical tests, but the new study makes a more direct case using the earthquakes of the Jones swarm and the injection records from the 89 nearest wells. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://www.sciencemag.org/content/early/2014/07/02/science.1255802\">The \u003ci>Science\u003c/i> paper\u003c/a>, by Cornell University researcher \u003ca href=\"http://www.eas.cornell.edu/eas/people/profile.cfm?netid=kmk299\">Katie Keranen\u003c/a> and four colleagues, relies on computer modeling using well-known physics to predict how the rocks in north-central Oklahoma would react to being pumped full of wastewater at high pressure. The model shows that as the water is forced into the pores in the rocks, a wave of rising pore pressure moves outward from the wells at 100 to 150 meters per day. The resulting change in the state of stress is enough, as we know from elsewhere, to ease susceptible areas over the edge and trigger earthquakes. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Not only does the pattern of the Jones swarm match the model, but also the model strongly suggests that injection wells can affect pore pressures much farther away than previously thought. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A study in the \u003ci>Journal of Geophysical Research\u003c/i> published in April found that the Prague earthquake of 2011, at magnitude 5.7 the largest in recent years, was triggered by a foreshock that in turn was induced by deep injection wells. Keranen was part of that study, too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state is responding to the wave of new scientific studies by installing more seismometers and requiring operators to keep records of their deep-injection volumes every day rather than monthly. The Oklahoma agency that governs well operations has begun ordering operators to cut back in specific cases. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Oil and gas production was a huge industry in Oklahoma long before the widespread use of hydraulic fracturing (fracking) techniques. The practices that led to the Jones earthquake swarm are not connected to fracking. Instead, the wastewater comes from “dewatering plays,” another unconventional oil production method that enables oil to be produced from deposits dominated by water. In this method, huge amounts of formation brine are pumped out before oil production begins to kick in. The wells in question are operated by the \u003ca href=\"http://www.newdominion.net/\">New Dominion\u003c/a> company, which is reportedly in discussions with the state.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Supreme Court Won't Hear Dispute Over California Fuel Standard",
"headTitle": "Supreme Court Won’t Hear Dispute Over California Fuel Standard | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>\u003cstrong>By Associated Press\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Supreme Court won’t hear a challenge to California’s first-in-the-nation mandate requiring fuel producers to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The justices on Monday turned away appeals from fuel makers that say the law discriminates against out-of-state producers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[contextly_sidebar id=”2751d5643381670982378cacad5cd1e7″]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The mandate requires petroleum refiners and fuel distributors to make cleaner-burning fuels for the California market.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Out-of-state oil refiners and ethanol companies say the law provides an unfair advantage to in-state producers by giving a higher “carbon-intensity score” to fuels transported from other states.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state says the law simply offers incentives for companies that make cleaner-burning fuels.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A U.S. district judge agreed with the challengers. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed, saying the law gives all fuel makers options to get their product to market.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cstrong>By Associated Press\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Supreme Court won’t hear a challenge to California’s first-in-the-nation mandate requiring fuel producers to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The justices on Monday turned away appeals from fuel makers that say the law discriminates against out-of-state producers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The mandate requires petroleum refiners and fuel distributors to make cleaner-burning fuels for the California market.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Out-of-state oil refiners and ethanol companies say the law provides an unfair advantage to in-state producers by giving a higher “carbon-intensity score” to fuels transported from other states.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state says the law simply offers incentives for companies that make cleaner-burning fuels.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A U.S. district judge agreed with the challengers. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed, saying the law gives all fuel makers options to get their product to market.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Revealed: Routes for Trains Hauling Volatile Crude Oil in California",
"headTitle": "Revealed: Routes for Trains Hauling Volatile Crude Oil in California | KQED",
"content": "\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_18669\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1024px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/06/Miille_Bakken28-1024x700.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-18669\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/06/Miille_Bakken28-1024x700.jpg\" alt=\"A BNSF train carrying crude oil passes through downtown Sacramento. (Jake Miille/Jake Miille Photography)\" width=\"1024\" height=\"700\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A BNSF train carrying crude oil passes through downtown Sacramento. (\u003ca href=\"http://jakemiillephotography.com/\">Jake Miille/Jake Miille Photography\u003c/a>)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>State officials have released routing information for trains carrying a volatile grade of crude oil through California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The newly released information reveals that tank cars loaded with oil from the Bakken formation, a volatile crude that has a history of exploding, rumble through downtown Sacramento and through Stockton about once a week. Before they get there, they travel along the Feather River, a major tributary of the Sacramento and a key source of drinking water. They pass through rural Northern California counties — Modoc, Lassen, Placer, Plumas, Yuba and Butte — before reaching their destination in Contra Costa County.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This is the first time that information about the trains’ routing in California and their frequency has been made public. About once a week, a \u003ca href=\"http://www.bnsf.com/\">Burlington Northern Santa Fe\u003c/a> (BNSF) train enters the state from Oregon, headed for the Kinder Morgan rail yard in Richmond. Each train is carrying a million gallons or more of Bakken crude.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The purpose of the information is really to give first responders better awareness of what’s coming through their counties,” says Kelly Huston, a deputy director at the \u003ca href=\"http://www.calema.ca.gov/Pages/default.aspx\">Governor’s Office of Emergency Services\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The notifications (shown below) provided by BNSF to the state list the counties through which the trains pass, and the average number of trains per week. They’re retrospective, reporting what’s already happened, rather than looking ahead to what trains could be coming.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Right now the information, because it’s not very specific, is being used as an awareness tool,” said Huston.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>An \u003ca href=\"http://www.dot.gov/briefing-room/emergency-order\">emergency order\u003c/a> issued by the federal Department of Transportation requires railroads to notify emergency responders about large shipments of Bakken crude. BNSF had asked the OES to sign a non-disclosure agreement, which state officials refused to do. After keeping the notifications secret from the public for a few weeks, the state decided to release them on Wednesday, following the lead of \u003ca href=\"http://m.apnews.com/ap/db_268743/contentdetail.htm?contentguid=fh2TcnV0\">other states\u003c/a> that had already done so.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We think it is very important that those responsible for security and emergency planning have such information to ensure that proper planning and training are in place for public safety,” Roxanne Butler, a spokeswoman for BNSF, wrote in an email. “But we also continue to urge discretion in the wider distribution of specific details.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The DOT issued the order after a series of fiery derailments involving Bakken crude in Alabama, North Dakota and Virginia, among other states. Last July, a train carrying oil from the Bakken exploded in a town in Quebec, killing 47 people.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>MAP: State officials have confirmed that crude is traveling by rail in the counties shaded gray on the map, below. Also shown are rail lines owned by California’s two major railroads, BNSF and UP, which share some of the lines. Click on the rail lines or counties to see identifying information. Not all lines shown in the shaded areas carry Bakken crude. (Map produced by Lisa Pickoff-White)\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http://projects1.kqed.org/crudebyrail/crudebyrail.html\" width=\"640\" height=\"800\" scrolling=\"yes\" class=\"iframe-class\" frameborder=\"0\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"margin: 12px auto 6px auto;font-family: Helvetica,Arial,Sans-serif;font-style: normal;font-variant: normal;font-weight: normal;font-size: 14px;line-height: normal\">\u003ca style=\"text-decoration: underline\" title=\"View California Crude-by-Rail Shipments on Scribd\" href=\"http://www.scribd.com/doc/231307617/California-Crude-by-Rail-Shipments\">California Crude-by-Rail Shipments\u003c/a> by \u003ca style=\"text-decoration: underline\" title=\"View KQED News's profile on Scribd\" href=\"http://www.scribd.com/KQED_News\">KQED News\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We want the rail companies to do everything they can to ensure public safety,” said Diane Bailey of the Natural Resources Defense Council. She says there are three things that would help assuage her concerns: safer rail cars, slower speed limits, and making sure the trains are always staffed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Butler said the railroads themselves have also pushed to phase out the DOT-111 railcars that have been involved in the accidents. “The rail industry also implemented a number of additional safety operating practices several months ago to reduce the risk of moving crude by rail,” she wrote, “including lower speed limits and had addressed the train securement issue in August of 2013 as part of the Federal Railroad Administration’s emergency order.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California lawmakers have introduced bills that would provide more money for oil spill response, and require more information from railroads about hazardous materials. The recently-passed California budget includes a fee on oil entering California by rail, which would help fund the state’s Office of Oil Spill Prevention and Response. It also provides more money to the California Public Utilities Commission for rail safety inspectors. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Transporting crude oil by rail is a burgeoning business, thanks to an oil boom in North Dakota. In 2013, more than \u003ca href=\"http://energyalmanac.ca.gov/petroleum/statistics/2013_crude_by_rail.html\">6 million barrels of crude oil\u003c/a> came into California by rail. In 2008, there were none.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" id=\"doc_44377\" class=\"scribd_iframe_embed\" src=\"//www.scribd.com/embeds/231307617/content?start_page=1&view_mode=scroll&access_key=key-p9uOwxCWVdsVftFjCJ5m&show_recommendations=true\" width=\"100%\" height=\"600\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"margin: 12px auto 6px auto;font-family: Helvetica,Arial,Sans-serif;font-style: normal;font-variant: normal;font-weight: normal;font-size: 14px;line-height: normal\">\u003ca style=\"text-decoration: underline\" title=\"View California Crude-by-Rail Weekly Tracking on Scribd\" href=\"http://www.scribd.com/doc/231308092/California-Crude-by-Rail-Weekly-Tracking\">California Crude-by-Rail Weekly Tracking\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" id=\"doc_1951\" class=\"scribd_iframe_embed\" src=\"//www.scribd.com/embeds/231308092/content?start_page=1&view_mode=scroll&show_recommendations=true\" width=\"100%\" height=\"600\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Correction: An earlier version of this article incorrectly included Davis in the list of cities the trains pass through.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "Trains loaded with volatile Bakken crude pass through or near cities and sensitive environmental areas on a regular basis.",
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"headline": "Revealed: Routes for Trains Hauling Volatile Crude Oil in California",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_18669\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1024px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/06/Miille_Bakken28-1024x700.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-18669\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/06/Miille_Bakken28-1024x700.jpg\" alt=\"A BNSF train carrying crude oil passes through downtown Sacramento. (Jake Miille/Jake Miille Photography)\" width=\"1024\" height=\"700\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A BNSF train carrying crude oil passes through downtown Sacramento. (\u003ca href=\"http://jakemiillephotography.com/\">Jake Miille/Jake Miille Photography\u003c/a>)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>State officials have released routing information for trains carrying a volatile grade of crude oil through California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The newly released information reveals that tank cars loaded with oil from the Bakken formation, a volatile crude that has a history of exploding, rumble through downtown Sacramento and through Stockton about once a week. Before they get there, they travel along the Feather River, a major tributary of the Sacramento and a key source of drinking water. They pass through rural Northern California counties — Modoc, Lassen, Placer, Plumas, Yuba and Butte — before reaching their destination in Contra Costa County.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This is the first time that information about the trains’ routing in California and their frequency has been made public. About once a week, a \u003ca href=\"http://www.bnsf.com/\">Burlington Northern Santa Fe\u003c/a> (BNSF) train enters the state from Oregon, headed for the Kinder Morgan rail yard in Richmond. Each train is carrying a million gallons or more of Bakken crude.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The purpose of the information is really to give first responders better awareness of what’s coming through their counties,” says Kelly Huston, a deputy director at the \u003ca href=\"http://www.calema.ca.gov/Pages/default.aspx\">Governor’s Office of Emergency Services\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The notifications (shown below) provided by BNSF to the state list the counties through which the trains pass, and the average number of trains per week. They’re retrospective, reporting what’s already happened, rather than looking ahead to what trains could be coming.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Right now the information, because it’s not very specific, is being used as an awareness tool,” said Huston.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>An \u003ca href=\"http://www.dot.gov/briefing-room/emergency-order\">emergency order\u003c/a> issued by the federal Department of Transportation requires railroads to notify emergency responders about large shipments of Bakken crude. BNSF had asked the OES to sign a non-disclosure agreement, which state officials refused to do. After keeping the notifications secret from the public for a few weeks, the state decided to release them on Wednesday, following the lead of \u003ca href=\"http://m.apnews.com/ap/db_268743/contentdetail.htm?contentguid=fh2TcnV0\">other states\u003c/a> that had already done so.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We think it is very important that those responsible for security and emergency planning have such information to ensure that proper planning and training are in place for public safety,” Roxanne Butler, a spokeswoman for BNSF, wrote in an email. “But we also continue to urge discretion in the wider distribution of specific details.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The DOT issued the order after a series of fiery derailments involving Bakken crude in Alabama, North Dakota and Virginia, among other states. Last July, a train carrying oil from the Bakken exploded in a town in Quebec, killing 47 people.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>MAP: State officials have confirmed that crude is traveling by rail in the counties shaded gray on the map, below. Also shown are rail lines owned by California’s two major railroads, BNSF and UP, which share some of the lines. Click on the rail lines or counties to see identifying information. Not all lines shown in the shaded areas carry Bakken crude. (Map produced by Lisa Pickoff-White)\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http://projects1.kqed.org/crudebyrail/crudebyrail.html\" width=\"640\" height=\"800\" scrolling=\"yes\" class=\"iframe-class\" frameborder=\"0\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"margin: 12px auto 6px auto;font-family: Helvetica,Arial,Sans-serif;font-style: normal;font-variant: normal;font-weight: normal;font-size: 14px;line-height: normal\">\u003ca style=\"text-decoration: underline\" title=\"View California Crude-by-Rail Shipments on Scribd\" href=\"http://www.scribd.com/doc/231307617/California-Crude-by-Rail-Shipments\">California Crude-by-Rail Shipments\u003c/a> by \u003ca style=\"text-decoration: underline\" title=\"View KQED News's profile on Scribd\" href=\"http://www.scribd.com/KQED_News\">KQED News\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We want the rail companies to do everything they can to ensure public safety,” said Diane Bailey of the Natural Resources Defense Council. She says there are three things that would help assuage her concerns: safer rail cars, slower speed limits, and making sure the trains are always staffed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Butler said the railroads themselves have also pushed to phase out the DOT-111 railcars that have been involved in the accidents. “The rail industry also implemented a number of additional safety operating practices several months ago to reduce the risk of moving crude by rail,” she wrote, “including lower speed limits and had addressed the train securement issue in August of 2013 as part of the Federal Railroad Administration’s emergency order.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California lawmakers have introduced bills that would provide more money for oil spill response, and require more information from railroads about hazardous materials. The recently-passed California budget includes a fee on oil entering California by rail, which would help fund the state’s Office of Oil Spill Prevention and Response. It also provides more money to the California Public Utilities Commission for rail safety inspectors. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Transporting crude oil by rail is a burgeoning business, thanks to an oil boom in North Dakota. In 2013, more than \u003ca href=\"http://energyalmanac.ca.gov/petroleum/statistics/2013_crude_by_rail.html\">6 million barrels of crude oil\u003c/a> came into California by rail. In 2008, there were none.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" id=\"doc_44377\" class=\"scribd_iframe_embed\" src=\"//www.scribd.com/embeds/231307617/content?start_page=1&view_mode=scroll&access_key=key-p9uOwxCWVdsVftFjCJ5m&show_recommendations=true\" width=\"100%\" height=\"600\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"margin: 12px auto 6px auto;font-family: Helvetica,Arial,Sans-serif;font-style: normal;font-variant: normal;font-weight: normal;font-size: 14px;line-height: normal\">\u003ca style=\"text-decoration: underline\" title=\"View California Crude-by-Rail Weekly Tracking on Scribd\" href=\"http://www.scribd.com/doc/231308092/California-Crude-by-Rail-Weekly-Tracking\">California Crude-by-Rail Weekly Tracking\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" id=\"doc_1951\" class=\"scribd_iframe_embed\" src=\"//www.scribd.com/embeds/231308092/content?start_page=1&view_mode=scroll&show_recommendations=true\" width=\"100%\" height=\"600\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Correction: An earlier version of this article incorrectly included Davis in the list of cities the trains pass through.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"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. ",
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"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. ",
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"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.",
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"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>",
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"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?",
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"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",
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"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.",
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"possible": {
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"title": "Possible",
"info": "Possible is hosted by entrepreneur Reid Hoffman and writer Aria Finger. Together in Possible, Hoffman and Finger lead enlightening discussions about building a brighter collective future. The show features interviews with visionary guests like Trevor Noah, Sam Altman and Janette Sadik-Khan. Possible paints an optimistic portrait of the world we can create through science, policy, business, art and our shared humanity. It asks: What if everything goes right for once? How can we get there? Each episode also includes a short fiction story generated by advanced AI GPT-4, serving as a thought-provoking springboard to speculate how humanity could leverage technology for good.",
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"pri-the-world": {
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"title": "PRI's The World: Latest Edition",
"info": "Each weekday, host Marco Werman and his team of producers bring you the world's most interesting stories in an hour of radio that reminds us just how small our planet really is.",
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"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/The-World-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
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},
"radiolab": {
"id": "radiolab",
"title": "Radiolab",
"info": "A two-time Peabody Award-winner, Radiolab is an investigation told through sounds and stories, and centered around one big idea. In the Radiolab world, information sounds like music and science and culture collide. Hosted by Jad Abumrad and Robert Krulwich, the show is designed for listeners who demand skepticism, but appreciate wonder. WNYC Studios is the producer of other leading podcasts including Freakonomics Radio, Death, Sex & Money, On the Media and many more.",
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},
"reveal": {
"id": "reveal",
"title": "Reveal",
"info": "Created by The Center for Investigative Reporting and PRX, Reveal is public radios first one-hour weekly radio show and podcast dedicated to investigative reporting. Credible, fact based and without a partisan agenda, Reveal combines the power and artistry of driveway moment storytelling with data-rich reporting on critically important issues. The result is stories that inform and inspire, arming our listeners with information to right injustices, hold the powerful accountable and improve lives.Reveal is hosted by Al Letson and showcases the award-winning work of CIR and newsrooms large and small across the nation. In a radio and podcast market crowded with choices, Reveal focuses on important and often surprising stories that illuminate the world for our listeners.",
"airtime": "SAT 4pm-5pm",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.revealnews.org/episodes/",
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},
"rightnowish": {
"id": "rightnowish",
"title": "Rightnowish",
"tagline": "Art is where you find it",
"info": "Rightnowish digs into life in the Bay Area right now… ish. Journalist Pendarvis Harshaw takes us to galleries painted on the sides of liquor stores in West Oakland. We'll dance in warehouses in the Bayview, make smoothies with kids in South Berkeley, and listen to classical music in a 1984 Cutlass Supreme in Richmond. Every week, Pen talks to movers and shakers about how the Bay Area shapes what they create, and how they shape the place we call home.",
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"order": 16
},
"link": "/podcasts/rightnowish",
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"description": "[caption id=\"attachment_13657\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"351\"]\u003ca href=\"http://blogs.kqed.org/science/files/2014/01/Fracking-main.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"size-full wp-image-13657\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/files/2014/01/Fracking-main.jpg\" alt=\"Just over 2,000 wells have been fracked in California, according to industry data. (Craig Miller/KQED)\" width=\"351\" height=\"263\" />\u003c/a> Just over 2,000 wells have been fracked in California, according to industry data. (Craig Miller/KQED)[/caption]\r\n\r\nHydraulic fracturing, or fracking, has been used for more than 30 years in California, but it’s attracting attention and scrutiny because of renewed interest in the state’s large oil reserve, known as the \u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/2014/05/21/californias-monterey-shale-bonanza-or-bust-nobody-really-knows/\">Monterey Shale\u003c/a>.\r\n\r\nIn California, fracking is done mainly for oil, while in other states with recent fracking booms, like Pennsylvania and Texas, it’s used largely for natural gas.\r\n\r\n\u003cstrong>What is it?\u003c/strong>\r\n\r\nFracking is just one phase of the process used to bring an oil or gas well into production. The technique is used to release oil from rocks deep underground. Water, mixed with sand and chemicals, is injected down the well bore at high pressure to create tiny fractures in the rock. \u003ca href=\"http://fracfocus.org/\">According to the oil industry\u003c/a>, more than 2,000 wells have been fracked in the state.\r\n\r\n\u003cstrong>Concerns\u003c/strong>\r\n\r\nEnvironmental groups have called for a moratorium on fracking until the state does a comprehensive review of potential impacts on both water and air quality. A chief concern is the chemicals used, some of which are carcinogens, and potential contamination of groundwater. Fracking also \u003ca href=\"http://blogs.kqed.org/science/audio/with-drought-new-scrutiny-over-frackings-water-use/\">uses large volumes of freshwater\u003c/a>. Industry sources say it uses less freshwater in California than is used in other states and no cases of groundwater contamination have been found.\r\n\r\n\u003cstrong>Where it Stands\r\n\u003c/strong>\r\n\r\nIn November 2013, state regulators \u003ca href=\"http://blogs.kqed.org/science/2013/11/15/what-californias-new-fracking-rules-would-do-and-not-do/\">released draft rules for fracking\u003c/a> that are now \u003ca href=\"http://blogs.kqed.org/science/2014/07/11/californias-new-fracking-regulations-delayed-half-a-year/\">expected to go into effect in July 2015\u003c/a>. They followed passage of \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2013/09/11/110875/fracking-bill-caifornia-senate-vote\">SB 4\u003c/a>, a bill signed by Governor Jerry Brown, that spelled out what the regulations should cover.\r\n\r\nUnder the rules, oil and gas operators would be required to apply for a permit prior to fracking a well, and to provide written notice to nearby landowners. Operators would have to disclose what chemicals they use, but not the specific concentrations if they consider those a trade secret. State water regulators are also developing a groundwater monitoring program. The regulations are expected to be finalized by the end of 2014.",
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"description": "[caption id=\"attachment_13657\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"351\"] Just over 2,000 wells have been fracked in California, according to industry data. (Craig Miller/KQED)[/caption] Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, has been used for more than 30 years in California, but it’s attracting attention and scrutiny because of renewed interest in the state’s large oil reserve, known as the Monterey Shale. In California, fracking is done mainly for oil, while in other states with recent fracking booms, like Pennsylvania and Texas, it’s used largely for natural gas. What is it? Fracking is just one phase of the process used to bring an oil or gas well into production. The technique is used to release oil from rocks deep underground. Water, mixed with sand and chemicals, is injected down the well bore at high pressure to create tiny fractures in the rock. According to the oil industry, more than 2,000 wells have been fracked in the state. Concerns Environmental groups have called for a moratorium on fracking until the state does a comprehensive review of potential impacts on both water and air quality. A chief concern is the chemicals used, some of which are carcinogens, and potential contamination of groundwater. Fracking also uses large volumes of freshwater. Industry sources say it uses less freshwater in California than is used in other states and no cases of groundwater contamination have been found. Where it Stands In November 2013, state regulators released draft rules for fracking that are now expected to go into effect in July 2015. They followed passage of SB 4, a bill signed by Governor Jerry Brown, that spelled out what the regulations should cover. Under the rules, oil and gas operators would be required to apply for a permit prior to fracking a well, and to provide written notice to nearby landowners. Operators would have to disclose what chemicals they use, but not the specific concentrations if they consider those a trade secret. State water regulators are also developing a groundwater monitoring program. The regulations are expected to be finalized by the end of 2014.",
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