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"content": "\u003cp>Days before the final deadline, California lawmakers have settled on language for a \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202320240AB247\">$10 billion climate bond\u003c/a> that will be presented to voters for approval in November.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The primary focus of the bond is “to respond to challenges wrought by climate change by investing in natural and built infrastructure,” according to an overview of the bond. It also includes some funding for programs cut from the state’s budget. At least 40% of the bond must help vulnerable and disadvantaged communities with a median household income of less than 80% of the area average or less than 80% of the statewide median household income.[aside label=\"Related Stories\" postID=\"science_1992929,science_1991836,news_11966862\"]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our communities deserve to have access to safe and clean drinking water, must be protected during extreme heat and have the necessary resources to make their communities more wildfire safe,” Sen. Monique Limón (D-Santa Barbara) said in a statement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202320240SB867\">The path to forging a climate bond\u003c/a>, SB 867, this legislative season included enormous obstacles. First, the legislature combined two $15 billion versions of the bond into one. \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11992607/newsom-signs-california-budget-to-close-46-8-billion-deficit\">The state currently faces a $46.8 billion deficit\u003c/a>, but California leaders passed a $54 billion plan to fight climate change two years ago. However, they cut over $3 billion from the budget last year and propose around $16 billion this year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lawmakers juggled competing bond ideas even as California’s bonding capacity shrunk. The climate bond directly competed for funds with a \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202320240AB247\">$14 billion education bond\u003c/a> to construct and modernize schools, which Gov. Gavin Newsom supported. The legislature announced the education bond could fund K–12 schools with $8.5 billion for K–12 schools and community colleges with $1.5 billion.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Districts will be able to ensure schools have essential facilities like kitchens and libraries, equip students with the skills for high-demand technical careers, and provide greater access to broadband internet,” Sen. 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Although the state usually uses bond dollars for long-term benefits such as infrastructure projects, environmental groups wanted lawmakers to allot funds for climate efforts and programs — electric vehicles, community-based programs, coastal resilience, and more — some of which the governor cut from his budget.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One program, the Transformative Climate Communities Program, that Gov. Newsom previously zeroed out could receive $150 million. The program funds community-led neighborhood projects to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Environmental groups like NextGen California “are glad to see some of [their] priorities represented, like extreme heat mitigation and Transformative Climate Communities represented,” wrote David Weiskopf, senior policy advisor with the group, in an email.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The $10 billion figure is also very good, that is what the environmental community had asked for,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Safe Drinking Water, Wildfire Prevention, Drought Preparedness, and Clear Air Bond Act of 2024 has eight potential funding areas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>Safe Drinking Water, Drought, Flood and Water Resilience – $3.8 billion\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Wildfires and Forest Resilience – $1.5 billion\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Sea Level Rise and Coastal Resilience – $1.2 billion\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Protect Biodiversity and Accelerating Nature-Based Climate Solutions – $1.2 billion\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Clean Air – $850 million\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Park Creation and Outdoor Access – $700 million\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Extreme Heat Mitigation – $450 million\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Climate Smart, Sustainable & Resilient Farms, Ranches and Working Lands – $300 million\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>The bond also sets aside $475 million for offshore wind. 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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cem>Updated 10:25 a.m. Friday\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>An environmental justice nonprofit filed a lawsuit on Friday alleging “egregious” mishandling of the cleanup of radioactive contamination at the former \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1985646/radioactive-object-found-at-san-franciscos-hunters-point-naval-shipyard-raises-new-concerns\">Hunters Point Naval Shipyard\u003c/a> in San Francisco, one of the nation’s largest and most polluted Superfund sites.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the suit, \u003ca href=\"https://greenaction.org/2023/12/07/greenaction-files-legal-action-against-the-navy-and-usepa-to-demand-proper-retesting-and-full-cleanup-of-hunters-point-naval-shipyard-superfund-site/\">Greenaction for Health and Environmental Justice\u003c/a> calls for the U.S. Navy to retest the entire site and for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to strengthen its oversight role of the cleanup. It also seeks a federal court order for the agencies to comply with cleanup law.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to the suit, authorities still lack “a complete and accurate understanding” of how contaminated the site is, raising concerns because the city plans to allow developers to build thousands of homes there. When finished, the 693-acre \u003ca href=\"https://sfocii.org/projects/hunters-point-shipyard-candlestick-point-2/overview\">Candlestick Point-Hunters Point Shipyard project\u003c/a> — which the Superfund site is part of — could have more than 10,000 housing units. The development would include two new waterfront neighborhoods with housing, retail and over 340 acres of parks and open space.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Environmental advocates also worry that rising seas will stir up contamination, spreading it across the community and into the bay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to the lawsuit, the federal agencies overseeing the cleanup have routinely missed project deadlines “without legal or factual justification and failed to assure that the remedies are protective” as mandated by federal law.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Steve Castleman, a supervising attorney in the Environmental Law Clinic at UC Berkeley Law, which is representing Greenaction, said the Navy and EPA have a legal responsibility to retest the entire site because they found contamination in three parcels.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The Navy should acknowledge that and get on with it,” he said. “The agencies are in no hurry to move to 100% of the testing, and we don’t believe they will ever do 100% testing without a court order.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Navy and the EPA have 60 days to respond to the lawsuit, Castleman said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A representative for the EPA declined to comment, citing the agency’s policy on pending litigation. The Navy did not respond to a request for comment. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Located next to a historically Black neighborhood where more than 35,000 people live, the Tetris-shaped 866-acre shipyard comprises concrete docking bays and abandoned buildings that jut out of San Francisco’s southeast shoreline.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Arieann Harrison, founder and CEO of the Marie Harrison Community Foundation, an environmental justice group serving the Bayview community that is not part of the lawsuit, hopes the case will force the agencies in charge to clean up the site further.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We are tired of advocating for them to do the right thing, and we’re hoping they do the right thing,” she said. “They need to have oversight and be more transparent in documenting and presenting that information to the community.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the middle of the last century, the Navy used the site to decontaminate ships after atomic bomb tests, a process that contaminated the soil with radionuclides, heavy metals and petroleum fuels, among other toxic compounds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Officials have found radioactive material several times in recent years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In December, the Navy said it detected a radioactive chip of glass smaller than a dime during routine testing at the site. That came a few months after the Navy reported finding a radioactive deck marker, the size of a silver dollar, that once guided ships at night.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2021, the Navy found nearly two dozen samples at the site contaminated by Strontium-90, a radioactive isotope that can cause cancer. And in September 2018, the agency recovered another radioactive deck marker, more than a decade after the federal government declared the area safe and free of radioactive waste.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The EPA has alleged that Tetra Tech EC, a contractor hired by the Navy to conduct remediation activities at the site, falsified reports during the cleanup project. In 2018, two former Tetra Tech supervisors pleaded guilty to federal fraud charges for falsifying records and were sentenced to prison. The company has denied wrongdoing and said the two employees were solely responsible for the fraudulent actions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Without a thorough cleanup, environmental advocates worry that rising seas — a result of human-caused climate change — will push up groundwater levels and come in contact with the radioactive materials. They fear the contaminated groundwater could bubble up, come in contact with people and enter San Francisco Bay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The stakes are very high,” Castleman said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In January, the U.S. Navy acknowledged for the first time in its latest five-year review of the cleanup that \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1991758/u-s-navy-acknowledges-rising-toxic-groundwater-threat-at-sf-superfund-site\">potentially toxic groundwater could surface at the site in just over a decade\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>Updated 10:25 a.m. Friday\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>An environmental justice nonprofit filed a lawsuit on Friday alleging “egregious” mishandling of the cleanup of radioactive contamination at the former \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1985646/radioactive-object-found-at-san-franciscos-hunters-point-naval-shipyard-raises-new-concerns\">Hunters Point Naval Shipyard\u003c/a> in San Francisco, one of the nation’s largest and most polluted Superfund sites.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the suit, \u003ca href=\"https://greenaction.org/2023/12/07/greenaction-files-legal-action-against-the-navy-and-usepa-to-demand-proper-retesting-and-full-cleanup-of-hunters-point-naval-shipyard-superfund-site/\">Greenaction for Health and Environmental Justice\u003c/a> calls for the U.S. Navy to retest the entire site and for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to strengthen its oversight role of the cleanup. It also seeks a federal court order for the agencies to comply with cleanup law.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to the suit, authorities still lack “a complete and accurate understanding” of how contaminated the site is, raising concerns because the city plans to allow developers to build thousands of homes there. When finished, the 693-acre \u003ca href=\"https://sfocii.org/projects/hunters-point-shipyard-candlestick-point-2/overview\">Candlestick Point-Hunters Point Shipyard project\u003c/a> — which the Superfund site is part of — could have more than 10,000 housing units. The development would include two new waterfront neighborhoods with housing, retail and over 340 acres of parks and open space.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Environmental advocates also worry that rising seas will stir up contamination, spreading it across the community and into the bay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to the lawsuit, the federal agencies overseeing the cleanup have routinely missed project deadlines “without legal or factual justification and failed to assure that the remedies are protective” as mandated by federal law.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Steve Castleman, a supervising attorney in the Environmental Law Clinic at UC Berkeley Law, which is representing Greenaction, said the Navy and EPA have a legal responsibility to retest the entire site because they found contamination in three parcels.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The Navy should acknowledge that and get on with it,” he said. “The agencies are in no hurry to move to 100% of the testing, and we don’t believe they will ever do 100% testing without a court order.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Navy and the EPA have 60 days to respond to the lawsuit, Castleman said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A representative for the EPA declined to comment, citing the agency’s policy on pending litigation. The Navy did not respond to a request for comment. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Located next to a historically Black neighborhood where more than 35,000 people live, the Tetris-shaped 866-acre shipyard comprises concrete docking bays and abandoned buildings that jut out of San Francisco’s southeast shoreline.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Arieann Harrison, founder and CEO of the Marie Harrison Community Foundation, an environmental justice group serving the Bayview community that is not part of the lawsuit, hopes the case will force the agencies in charge to clean up the site further.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We are tired of advocating for them to do the right thing, and we’re hoping they do the right thing,” she said. “They need to have oversight and be more transparent in documenting and presenting that information to the community.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the middle of the last century, the Navy used the site to decontaminate ships after atomic bomb tests, a process that contaminated the soil with radionuclides, heavy metals and petroleum fuels, among other toxic compounds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Officials have found radioactive material several times in recent years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In December, the Navy said it detected a radioactive chip of glass smaller than a dime during routine testing at the site. That came a few months after the Navy reported finding a radioactive deck marker, the size of a silver dollar, that once guided ships at night.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2021, the Navy found nearly two dozen samples at the site contaminated by Strontium-90, a radioactive isotope that can cause cancer. And in September 2018, the agency recovered another radioactive deck marker, more than a decade after the federal government declared the area safe and free of radioactive waste.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The EPA has alleged that Tetra Tech EC, a contractor hired by the Navy to conduct remediation activities at the site, falsified reports during the cleanup project. In 2018, two former Tetra Tech supervisors pleaded guilty to federal fraud charges for falsifying records and were sentenced to prison. The company has denied wrongdoing and said the two employees were solely responsible for the fraudulent actions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Without a thorough cleanup, environmental advocates worry that rising seas — a result of human-caused climate change — will push up groundwater levels and come in contact with the radioactive materials. They fear the contaminated groundwater could bubble up, come in contact with people and enter San Francisco Bay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The stakes are very high,” Castleman said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In January, the U.S. Navy acknowledged for the first time in its latest five-year review of the cleanup that \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1991758/u-s-navy-acknowledges-rising-toxic-groundwater-threat-at-sf-superfund-site\">potentially toxic groundwater could surface at the site in just over a decade\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>A fire truck parked next to a floating station on San Francisco Bay sits in the path of rising seas. Floodwaters surround a police station during a massive atmospheric river. Motorcycle cops are trapped, unable to leave for hours.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These are not scenes from a Hollywood disaster flick but a stark reality laid out in the latest San Francisco Civil Grand Jury report, finding that a fractured approach to city infrastructure and a lack of fiscal transparency leave critical public safety assets vulnerable to climate change.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The report published Thursday, \u003ca href=\"https://www.sf.gov/resource/2024/civil-grand-jury-reports-2023-2024\">“Building San Francisco: Designing, Constructing, and Maintaining City Infrastructure\u003c/a>,” is the second within a month from the 19-person volunteer panel to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1993278/san-franciscos-aging-infrastructure-ill-prepared-for-future-flooding-report-warns\">address the effects of climate change\u003c/a>. The jury discovered a need for more transparency in how San Francisco agencies, primarily the Department of Public Works, prepare the city for a far wetter world.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Many different groups view climate change as somebody else’s problem to address,” said Will McCaa, the report’s lead author.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The jury found design issues with some recently built DPW buildings, as well as high costs and instances of flooding. McCaa said the panel wants clarity from DPW on whether flooding from storms or future sea level rise was taken into account when the buildings were built and how the department plans to factor in future climate effects.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On New Year’s Eve 2022, storms caused the area around the newly built Police Department Traffic Company and Forensic Services Division to flood. The flooding prevented police motorcycles from entering or leaving the facility, “effectively taking the station out of service for several hours on one of the Police Department’s busiest nights of the year,” the jurors wrote.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For DPW to build a station in a flood-prone area but not consider the access to the building “seems like poor planning,” McCaa said. The flooding also damaged gate motors and a new Dodge Charger police cruiser, making it “no longer reliable enough for use as a patrol car.” The jury questioned whether DPW built the facility in the right place and how the city plans to fix the issue.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The report also lists two buildings and one fire truck that would be threatened by sea level rise: the newly constructed Office of the Medical Examiner on Newhall Street; a Mission Bay facility housing the Police Department Headquarters, SFPD Southern Station, and Fire Station 4; and an engine that the department can’t legally house on a floating fire station in the Embarcadero that was meant to help with rising waters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside label=\"Related Stories\" postID=\"science_1993278,science_1993067,news_11985619\"]These areas are at risk of flooding from the rising bay unless the city and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers raise the sea wall, which will cost more than $7 billion. The Port of San Francisco and the Corps are working on \u003ca href=\"https://sfport.com/about/news/port-san-francisco-us-army-corps-engineers-release-draft-plan-build-citys-flood-defenses#:~:text=Today%2C%20the%20Port%20of%20San,Park%20to%20Heron's%20Head%20Park.\">a plan to adapt 7 1/2 miles of the shore to defend against future sea level rise\u003c/a>, but their latest report is still in draft form.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With the city facing financial constraints and the capital budget nearing its borrowing cap, McCaa said the city’s degraded assets are “not properly quantified or understood,” which results in a lack of understanding of how agencies spend millions of dollars.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The jury is calling for DPW to show how it has spent taxpayer dollars and how it plans to use future funds. The jury lists several recommendations, including strengthening the Public Works Commission’s “undefined” oversight responsibilities by holding DPW “accountable for the accuracy of capital project budgeting,” timeliness, and quality of construction. City officials have 60 calendar days to respond to the jury’s findings.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>DPW spokesperson Rachel Gordon said the agency is taking the jury’s report seriously and will assess them to see “where we can do better.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We stand by our strong track record at Public Works in delivering complex capital projects, from award-winning fire stations to playgrounds to utility facilities,” she said in a statement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>These areas are at risk of flooding from the rising bay unless the city and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers raise the sea wall, which will cost more than $7 billion. The Port of San Francisco and the Corps are working on \u003ca href=\"https://sfport.com/about/news/port-san-francisco-us-army-corps-engineers-release-draft-plan-build-citys-flood-defenses#:~:text=Today%2C%20the%20Port%20of%20San,Park%20to%20Heron's%20Head%20Park.\">a plan to adapt 7 1/2 miles of the shore to defend against future sea level rise\u003c/a>, but their latest report is still in draft form.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With the city facing financial constraints and the capital budget nearing its borrowing cap, McCaa said the city’s degraded assets are “not properly quantified or understood,” which results in a lack of understanding of how agencies spend millions of dollars.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The jury is calling for DPW to show how it has spent taxpayer dollars and how it plans to use future funds. The jury lists several recommendations, including strengthening the Public Works Commission’s “undefined” oversight responsibilities by holding DPW “accountable for the accuracy of capital project budgeting,” timeliness, and quality of construction. City officials have 60 calendar days to respond to the jury’s findings.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>DPW spokesperson Rachel Gordon said the agency is taking the jury’s report seriously and will assess them to see “where we can do better.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We stand by our strong track record at Public Works in delivering complex capital projects, from award-winning fire stations to playgrounds to utility facilities,” she said in a statement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"headTitle": "Fuel From Cow Manure Is a Growing Climate Solution, but Critics Say Communities Put at Risk | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>The stench of cow feces, urine and ammonia forces residents to keep windows and doors closed in parts of California’s farming country. Some people constantly run air purifiers at home to counter the smell and, they say, fight off air-related ailments.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have a lot of health problems going around in this community and most of them are respiratory problems,” said Beverly Whitfield amid dairies in Pixley, a small town in Tulare County. She believes her allergies, her adult son’s asthma and others’ breathing issues are linked to pollution from nearby dairies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Industrial-scale dairy farms already are among the biggest polluters in the San Joaquin Valley, a premier U.S. agricultural region with poor air quality. Now residents like Whitfield worry methane digesters, which can turn manure into a biofuel that is cleaner than traditional fuels like gasoline, could exacerbate health issues. Biofuel experts say digesters can reduce air pollution.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1993376\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1993376\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/AP24164554454110-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1703\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/AP24164554454110-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/AP24164554454110-800x532.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/AP24164554454110-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/AP24164554454110-160x106.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/AP24164554454110-768x511.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/AP24164554454110-1536x1022.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/AP24164554454110-2048x1363.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/AP24164554454110-1920x1277.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A worker milks cows at Wickstrom Jersey Farms on May 9, 2024, in Hilmar, Merced County. The farm uses a diary digester to capture methane from cow manure which generates energy in an effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. \u003ccite>(Noah Berger/AP Photo)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>Dairy and digester capital\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Home to about 1.7 million cows, California is the country’s leading dairy producer and a large contributor of methane. Cow burps and manure emit the potent planet-warming gas, which over a shorter period is much more powerful than carbon dioxide.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In recent decades, digesters that convert manure and other organic waste into biogas to create electricity or to power vehicles have spread across the country.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The number’s expected to grow since \u003ca href=\"https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/sites/default/files/2023-10/NRCS-CSAF-Mitigation-Activities-List.pdf\">waste management practices\u003c/a> such as digesters became eligible for funding from the Inflation Reduction Act — President Joe Biden’s law to combat climate change.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1993377\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1993377\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/AP24164554296736-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1438\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/AP24164554296736-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/AP24164554296736-800x449.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/AP24164554296736-1020x573.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/AP24164554296736-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/AP24164554296736-768x431.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/AP24164554296736-1536x863.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/AP24164554296736-2048x1151.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/AP24164554296736-1920x1079.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Robbie Macias, Aemetis vice president of biogas, gestures while demonstrating the strength of a dairy digester with Wickstrom Jersey Farms manager Brent Wickstrom on May 9, 2024, in Hilmar, Merced County. The digester captures methane from cow manure which generates energy in an effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. \u003ccite>(Noah Berger/AP Photo)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Most digesters are in dairies that capture methane from lagoons of cow manure and turn it into biofuel. Liquified cow manure commonly is stored in a covered digester where microbes from the animals’ digestive systems produce gas. The gas then is cleaned and compressed into a liquid fuel that can be used as an energy source.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the last decade, about 120 digesters have cropped up across California and roughly 100 more are in the pipeline. But a technology hailed as a cost-effective way to help the state reach its methane reduction goals has become controversial.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Environmental justice organizations say mostly lower-income, Latino communities are dealing with pollution from nearby digesters, and they want California to stop providing financial incentives for more. Critics also say state policies favor industrial dairies, entrenching unsustainable animal agriculture.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rebecca Wolf with the environmental group Food and Water Watch said the state is incentivizing dairies to keep running large operations that already pollute. “You’re never going to stop polluting” with this system in place, she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dairies argue the state’s financial \u003ca href=\"https://afdc.energy.gov/laws/6308\">program\u003c/a> plays an important role. “There’s got to be some financial incentive there to give up some portion of your land to operate these systems,” said dairyman Brent Wickstrom, whose digester recently went online.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1993378\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1993378\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/AP24164554342122-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1703\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/AP24164554342122-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/AP24164554342122-800x532.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/AP24164554342122-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/AP24164554342122-160x106.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/AP24164554342122-768x511.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/AP24164554342122-1536x1022.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/AP24164554342122-2048x1363.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/AP24164554342122-1920x1277.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A separator removes solids from cow manure as Wickstrom Jersey Farms manager Brent Wickstrom discusses his farm’s dairy digester on May 9, 2024, in Hilmar. \u003ccite>(Noah Berger/AP Photo)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Supporters point to the technology’s effectiveness at mitigating climate change. AgSTAR, sponsored by the Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, estimates manure-based digesters reduced greenhouse gas emissions by more than 10 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent in 2022. That’s roughly the annual \u003ca href=\"https://www.epa.gov/greenvehicles/greenhouse-gas-emissions-typical-passenger-vehicle\">greenhouse gas emissions\u003c/a> from more than 2 million passenger vehicles.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Supporters note that biofuel from methane reduces pollution by replacing fossil fuels like gasoline with cleaner vehicle fuel.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This technology reduces odors and some local air pollutants,” said Sam Wade, director of public policy for the Coalition for Renewable Natural Gas. “At the same time, it reduces greenhouse gas emissions.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1993380\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1993380\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/AP24164554390730-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1707\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/AP24164554390730-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/AP24164554390730-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/AP24164554390730-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/AP24164554390730-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/AP24164554390730-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/AP24164554390730-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/AP24164554390730-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/AP24164554390730-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A man passes a building on Main St. in Pixley on May 21, 2024. Some residents say dairies located throughout the region produce air pollution that is hurting their community. \u003ccite>(Noah Berger/AP Photo)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>Dairies, digesters and pollution\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Residents near dairies complain about flies and strong odors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You don’t want the doors open because you’re afraid of all the smells,” said Whitfield, whose family left doors open when they moved to Pixley in the 1970s. “Everything’s changed now with the dairies.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some dairies say digester tarps that cover manure reduce smells. “If anything, it should be keeping some of that odor in as opposed to making more,” said Wickstrom, the Merced County dairyman.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Studies have found people living near large dairies can experience fatigue, respiratory problems, burning eyes and runny noses if odors are concentrated enough. A 2017 University of Wisconsin \u003ca href=\"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167880917300701\">study\u003c/a> found digesters can increase ammonia emissions by up to 81%. Ammonia may form fine particulate matter that can enter lungs and the bloodstream. Long-term exposure to particulates has been linked to heart and respiratory issues.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1993382\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1993382\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/AP24164554294688-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1703\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/AP24164554294688-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/AP24164554294688-800x532.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/AP24164554294688-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/AP24164554294688-160x106.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/AP24164554294688-768x511.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/AP24164554294688-1536x1022.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/AP24164554294688-2048x1363.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/AP24164554294688-1920x1278.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Andrew Zipser checks operations at an Aemetis biogas facility in Ceres, Stanislaus County, on May 9, 2024. Local dairies use digesters to capture methane from cow manure which is then piped to the facility for processing. \u003ccite>(Noah Berger/AP Photo)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“Having a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions is good, but you also want to think about the human health impact,” said lead author Michael A. Holly, an associate professor at the Green Bay campus.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California air regulators said the Midwest study doesn’t necessarily apply to this state’s different meteorological conditions and types of digesters. They added that studies are underway to understand effects of digesters on ammonia emissions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A \u003ca href=\"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1352231024002632\">recent study\u003c/a> funded by the California Air Resources Board found San Joaquin Valley dairy waste emissions contributed little to ozone and fine particulate matter concentrations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1993384\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1993384\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/AP24164554391800-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1703\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/AP24164554391800-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/AP24164554391800-800x532.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/AP24164554391800-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/AP24164554391800-160x106.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/AP24164554391800-768x511.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/AP24164554391800-1536x1022.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/AP24164554391800-2048x1363.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/AP24164554391800-1920x1277.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jersey cows stand in a stall at Wickstrom Jersey Farms on May 9, 2024, in Hilmar. The farm uses a diary digester to capture methane from cow manure which generates energy in an effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. \u003ccite>(Noah Berger/AP Photo)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“The air quality implications are basically zero, and really we can make a decision about whether or not digesters should be adopted based on greenhouse gas emissions,” said Michael Kleeman, lead study researcher and a University of California, Davis professor. “There’s already so much excess ammonia in the agriculture-rich regions that (digesters) are not going to significantly influence the air quality.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Maria Arevalo, a 74-year-old activist and former farmworker, believes her asthma and sleep apnea are linked to pollution from dairies near her home in Pixley. She sleeps with a machine to help her breathe. So do her son, 34, and grandson, 11.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Her neighborhood often smells of ammonia, she said, but many families can’t afford air conditioning and open windows to let breeze in. “These dairies shouldn’t be in areas where communities are.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1993381\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1993381\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/AP24164554260407-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1707\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/AP24164554260407-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/AP24164554260407-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/AP24164554260407-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/AP24164554260407-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/AP24164554260407-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/AP24164554260407-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/AP24164554260407-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/AP24164554260407-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Environmental activist Maria Arevalo, 74, demonstrates the air machine she uses to treat sleep apnea on May 20, 2024, in Pixley. Arevalo said she believes her asthma and sleep apnea are linked to pollution from numerous dairies near her home. \u003ccite>(Noah Berger/AP Photo)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In her town of about 4,000 there are more cows than people. According to the nonprofit Leadership Counsel for Justice and Accountability, Pixley’s 26 dairies house approximately 140,000 cows. Nine have digesters operating on farms with thousands of animals, according to AgSTAR.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Recently, 15 members of Congress \u003ca href=\"https://www.booker.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/Letter%20to%20Vilsack%20Re%20Factory%20Farm%20Practices%20Eligibility%20for%20IRA%20Conservation%20Funding.pdf\">wrote (PDF)\u003c/a> opposing USDA’s decision to make some large-scale farming practices, such as \u003ca href=\"https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/sites/default/files/2023-10/NRCS-CSAF-Mitigation-Activities-List.pdf\">roofs and covers (PDF)\u003c/a> for waste management facilities, eligible for federal funding.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The storage of hundreds of thousands of gallons of liquid manure … pollutes the air and water of surrounding communities,” they said. “This inherently unsustainable manure storage system is only further entrenched by … digesters.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1993385\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1993385\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/AP24164554298311-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1438\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/AP24164554298311-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/AP24164554298311-800x449.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/AP24164554298311-1020x573.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/AP24164554298311-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/AP24164554298311-768x431.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/AP24164554298311-1536x863.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/AP24164554298311-2048x1150.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/AP24164554298311-1920x1078.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Tanks stand at California Dairies Inc. on Monday, May 20, 2024, in Pixley. Industrial-scale dairy farms already are among the biggest polluters in the San Joaquin Valley, a premier US agricultural region with poor air quality. \u003ccite>(Noah Berger/AP Photo)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>Tradeoffs of a climate solution\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Researchers have found nearly 40% of methane emissions from human activity come from livestock and agriculture. EPA estimates each cow can produce 154 to 264 pounds of methane annually.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside label=\"Related Stories\" postID=\"news_11979516,news_11989505,science_1992348\"]In California, supporters view digesters as important in helping the state meet climate goals and as a source of renewable natural gas for vehicles.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Biomethane improves air in cities “because trucks don’t emit very much emission at all when they run on natural gas,” said Eric McAfee, CEO of the renewable fuels and biochemicals company Aemetis.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Joey Airoso, who’s had a digester on his 2,900-cow farm since 2018, found that odors declined and nitrogen-rich remnants could be used as crop fertilizer. “That’s a big deal environmentally because it alleviates extra nitrogen being put on,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Colin Murphy, from the Policy Institute for Energy, Environment and the Economy at UC Davis, said that while digesters have benefits, they don’t solve air pollution “and don’t make it any more pleasant to live near one.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1993383\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1993383\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/AP24164554340382-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1438\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/AP24164554340382-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/AP24164554340382-800x449.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/AP24164554340382-1020x573.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/AP24164554340382-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/AP24164554340382-768x431.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/AP24164554340382-1536x863.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/AP24164554340382-2048x1151.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/AP24164554340382-1920x1079.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Cows cast shadows on the ground at a Pixley, dairy farm on May 20, 2024. Some residents blame the region’s dairy farms for creating unhealthy air quality. \u003ccite>(Noah Berger/AP Photo)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Some valley residents who have complained about odors and respiratory issues say they have been told to move. But many have lived in small, rural towns long before dairies arrived — and relocating is not always financially feasible.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Where are you going to move at? You don’t have money to move,” said Whitfield, the Pixley resident with allergies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>The Associated Press receives support from the Walton Family Foundation for coverage of water and environmental policy. The AP is solely responsible for all content. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "California dairy farms are curbing methane emissions by converting cow manure and other organic waste into biomethane for electricity — but environmental groups say it's harming vulnerable communities and entrenching unsustainable animal agriculture.",
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"title": "Fuel From Cow Manure Is a Growing Climate Solution, but Critics Say Communities Put at Risk | KQED",
"description": "California dairy farms are curbing methane emissions by converting cow manure and other organic waste into biomethane for electricity — but environmental groups say it's harming vulnerable communities and entrenching unsustainable animal agriculture.",
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"headline": "Fuel From Cow Manure Is a Growing Climate Solution, but Critics Say Communities Put at Risk",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>The stench of cow feces, urine and ammonia forces residents to keep windows and doors closed in parts of California’s farming country. Some people constantly run air purifiers at home to counter the smell and, they say, fight off air-related ailments.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have a lot of health problems going around in this community and most of them are respiratory problems,” said Beverly Whitfield amid dairies in Pixley, a small town in Tulare County. She believes her allergies, her adult son’s asthma and others’ breathing issues are linked to pollution from nearby dairies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Industrial-scale dairy farms already are among the biggest polluters in the San Joaquin Valley, a premier U.S. agricultural region with poor air quality. Now residents like Whitfield worry methane digesters, which can turn manure into a biofuel that is cleaner than traditional fuels like gasoline, could exacerbate health issues. Biofuel experts say digesters can reduce air pollution.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1993376\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1993376\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/AP24164554454110-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1703\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/AP24164554454110-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/AP24164554454110-800x532.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/AP24164554454110-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/AP24164554454110-160x106.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/AP24164554454110-768x511.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/AP24164554454110-1536x1022.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/AP24164554454110-2048x1363.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/AP24164554454110-1920x1277.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A worker milks cows at Wickstrom Jersey Farms on May 9, 2024, in Hilmar, Merced County. The farm uses a diary digester to capture methane from cow manure which generates energy in an effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. \u003ccite>(Noah Berger/AP Photo)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>Dairy and digester capital\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Home to about 1.7 million cows, California is the country’s leading dairy producer and a large contributor of methane. Cow burps and manure emit the potent planet-warming gas, which over a shorter period is much more powerful than carbon dioxide.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In recent decades, digesters that convert manure and other organic waste into biogas to create electricity or to power vehicles have spread across the country.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The number’s expected to grow since \u003ca href=\"https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/sites/default/files/2023-10/NRCS-CSAF-Mitigation-Activities-List.pdf\">waste management practices\u003c/a> such as digesters became eligible for funding from the Inflation Reduction Act — President Joe Biden’s law to combat climate change.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1993377\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1993377\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/AP24164554296736-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1438\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/AP24164554296736-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/AP24164554296736-800x449.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/AP24164554296736-1020x573.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/AP24164554296736-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/AP24164554296736-768x431.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/AP24164554296736-1536x863.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/AP24164554296736-2048x1151.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/AP24164554296736-1920x1079.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Robbie Macias, Aemetis vice president of biogas, gestures while demonstrating the strength of a dairy digester with Wickstrom Jersey Farms manager Brent Wickstrom on May 9, 2024, in Hilmar, Merced County. The digester captures methane from cow manure which generates energy in an effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. \u003ccite>(Noah Berger/AP Photo)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Most digesters are in dairies that capture methane from lagoons of cow manure and turn it into biofuel. Liquified cow manure commonly is stored in a covered digester where microbes from the animals’ digestive systems produce gas. The gas then is cleaned and compressed into a liquid fuel that can be used as an energy source.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the last decade, about 120 digesters have cropped up across California and roughly 100 more are in the pipeline. But a technology hailed as a cost-effective way to help the state reach its methane reduction goals has become controversial.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Environmental justice organizations say mostly lower-income, Latino communities are dealing with pollution from nearby digesters, and they want California to stop providing financial incentives for more. Critics also say state policies favor industrial dairies, entrenching unsustainable animal agriculture.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rebecca Wolf with the environmental group Food and Water Watch said the state is incentivizing dairies to keep running large operations that already pollute. “You’re never going to stop polluting” with this system in place, she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dairies argue the state’s financial \u003ca href=\"https://afdc.energy.gov/laws/6308\">program\u003c/a> plays an important role. “There’s got to be some financial incentive there to give up some portion of your land to operate these systems,” said dairyman Brent Wickstrom, whose digester recently went online.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1993378\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1993378\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/AP24164554342122-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1703\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/AP24164554342122-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/AP24164554342122-800x532.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/AP24164554342122-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/AP24164554342122-160x106.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/AP24164554342122-768x511.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/AP24164554342122-1536x1022.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/AP24164554342122-2048x1363.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/AP24164554342122-1920x1277.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A separator removes solids from cow manure as Wickstrom Jersey Farms manager Brent Wickstrom discusses his farm’s dairy digester on May 9, 2024, in Hilmar. \u003ccite>(Noah Berger/AP Photo)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Supporters point to the technology’s effectiveness at mitigating climate change. AgSTAR, sponsored by the Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, estimates manure-based digesters reduced greenhouse gas emissions by more than 10 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent in 2022. That’s roughly the annual \u003ca href=\"https://www.epa.gov/greenvehicles/greenhouse-gas-emissions-typical-passenger-vehicle\">greenhouse gas emissions\u003c/a> from more than 2 million passenger vehicles.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Supporters note that biofuel from methane reduces pollution by replacing fossil fuels like gasoline with cleaner vehicle fuel.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This technology reduces odors and some local air pollutants,” said Sam Wade, director of public policy for the Coalition for Renewable Natural Gas. “At the same time, it reduces greenhouse gas emissions.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1993380\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1993380\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/AP24164554390730-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1707\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/AP24164554390730-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/AP24164554390730-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/AP24164554390730-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/AP24164554390730-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/AP24164554390730-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/AP24164554390730-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/AP24164554390730-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/AP24164554390730-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A man passes a building on Main St. in Pixley on May 21, 2024. Some residents say dairies located throughout the region produce air pollution that is hurting their community. \u003ccite>(Noah Berger/AP Photo)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>Dairies, digesters and pollution\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Residents near dairies complain about flies and strong odors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You don’t want the doors open because you’re afraid of all the smells,” said Whitfield, whose family left doors open when they moved to Pixley in the 1970s. “Everything’s changed now with the dairies.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some dairies say digester tarps that cover manure reduce smells. “If anything, it should be keeping some of that odor in as opposed to making more,” said Wickstrom, the Merced County dairyman.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Studies have found people living near large dairies can experience fatigue, respiratory problems, burning eyes and runny noses if odors are concentrated enough. A 2017 University of Wisconsin \u003ca href=\"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167880917300701\">study\u003c/a> found digesters can increase ammonia emissions by up to 81%. Ammonia may form fine particulate matter that can enter lungs and the bloodstream. Long-term exposure to particulates has been linked to heart and respiratory issues.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1993382\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1993382\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/AP24164554294688-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1703\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/AP24164554294688-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/AP24164554294688-800x532.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/AP24164554294688-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/AP24164554294688-160x106.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/AP24164554294688-768x511.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/AP24164554294688-1536x1022.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/AP24164554294688-2048x1363.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/AP24164554294688-1920x1278.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Andrew Zipser checks operations at an Aemetis biogas facility in Ceres, Stanislaus County, on May 9, 2024. Local dairies use digesters to capture methane from cow manure which is then piped to the facility for processing. \u003ccite>(Noah Berger/AP Photo)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“Having a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions is good, but you also want to think about the human health impact,” said lead author Michael A. Holly, an associate professor at the Green Bay campus.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California air regulators said the Midwest study doesn’t necessarily apply to this state’s different meteorological conditions and types of digesters. They added that studies are underway to understand effects of digesters on ammonia emissions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A \u003ca href=\"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1352231024002632\">recent study\u003c/a> funded by the California Air Resources Board found San Joaquin Valley dairy waste emissions contributed little to ozone and fine particulate matter concentrations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1993384\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1993384\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/AP24164554391800-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1703\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/AP24164554391800-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/AP24164554391800-800x532.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/AP24164554391800-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/AP24164554391800-160x106.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/AP24164554391800-768x511.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/AP24164554391800-1536x1022.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/AP24164554391800-2048x1363.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/AP24164554391800-1920x1277.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jersey cows stand in a stall at Wickstrom Jersey Farms on May 9, 2024, in Hilmar. The farm uses a diary digester to capture methane from cow manure which generates energy in an effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. \u003ccite>(Noah Berger/AP Photo)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“The air quality implications are basically zero, and really we can make a decision about whether or not digesters should be adopted based on greenhouse gas emissions,” said Michael Kleeman, lead study researcher and a University of California, Davis professor. “There’s already so much excess ammonia in the agriculture-rich regions that (digesters) are not going to significantly influence the air quality.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Maria Arevalo, a 74-year-old activist and former farmworker, believes her asthma and sleep apnea are linked to pollution from dairies near her home in Pixley. She sleeps with a machine to help her breathe. So do her son, 34, and grandson, 11.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Her neighborhood often smells of ammonia, she said, but many families can’t afford air conditioning and open windows to let breeze in. “These dairies shouldn’t be in areas where communities are.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1993381\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1993381\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/AP24164554260407-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1707\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/AP24164554260407-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/AP24164554260407-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/AP24164554260407-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/AP24164554260407-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/AP24164554260407-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/AP24164554260407-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/AP24164554260407-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/AP24164554260407-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Environmental activist Maria Arevalo, 74, demonstrates the air machine she uses to treat sleep apnea on May 20, 2024, in Pixley. Arevalo said she believes her asthma and sleep apnea are linked to pollution from numerous dairies near her home. \u003ccite>(Noah Berger/AP Photo)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In her town of about 4,000 there are more cows than people. According to the nonprofit Leadership Counsel for Justice and Accountability, Pixley’s 26 dairies house approximately 140,000 cows. Nine have digesters operating on farms with thousands of animals, according to AgSTAR.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Recently, 15 members of Congress \u003ca href=\"https://www.booker.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/Letter%20to%20Vilsack%20Re%20Factory%20Farm%20Practices%20Eligibility%20for%20IRA%20Conservation%20Funding.pdf\">wrote (PDF)\u003c/a> opposing USDA’s decision to make some large-scale farming practices, such as \u003ca href=\"https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/sites/default/files/2023-10/NRCS-CSAF-Mitigation-Activities-List.pdf\">roofs and covers (PDF)\u003c/a> for waste management facilities, eligible for federal funding.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The storage of hundreds of thousands of gallons of liquid manure … pollutes the air and water of surrounding communities,” they said. “This inherently unsustainable manure storage system is only further entrenched by … digesters.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1993385\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1993385\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/AP24164554298311-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1438\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/AP24164554298311-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/AP24164554298311-800x449.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/AP24164554298311-1020x573.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/AP24164554298311-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/AP24164554298311-768x431.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/AP24164554298311-1536x863.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/AP24164554298311-2048x1150.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/AP24164554298311-1920x1078.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Tanks stand at California Dairies Inc. on Monday, May 20, 2024, in Pixley. Industrial-scale dairy farms already are among the biggest polluters in the San Joaquin Valley, a premier US agricultural region with poor air quality. \u003ccite>(Noah Berger/AP Photo)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>Tradeoffs of a climate solution\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Researchers have found nearly 40% of methane emissions from human activity come from livestock and agriculture. EPA estimates each cow can produce 154 to 264 pounds of methane annually.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>In California, supporters view digesters as important in helping the state meet climate goals and as a source of renewable natural gas for vehicles.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Biomethane improves air in cities “because trucks don’t emit very much emission at all when they run on natural gas,” said Eric McAfee, CEO of the renewable fuels and biochemicals company Aemetis.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Joey Airoso, who’s had a digester on his 2,900-cow farm since 2018, found that odors declined and nitrogen-rich remnants could be used as crop fertilizer. “That’s a big deal environmentally because it alleviates extra nitrogen being put on,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Colin Murphy, from the Policy Institute for Energy, Environment and the Economy at UC Davis, said that while digesters have benefits, they don’t solve air pollution “and don’t make it any more pleasant to live near one.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1993383\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1993383\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/AP24164554340382-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1438\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/AP24164554340382-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/AP24164554340382-800x449.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/AP24164554340382-1020x573.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/AP24164554340382-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/AP24164554340382-768x431.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/AP24164554340382-1536x863.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/AP24164554340382-2048x1151.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/AP24164554340382-1920x1079.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Cows cast shadows on the ground at a Pixley, dairy farm on May 20, 2024. Some residents blame the region’s dairy farms for creating unhealthy air quality. \u003ccite>(Noah Berger/AP Photo)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Some valley residents who have complained about odors and respiratory issues say they have been told to move. But many have lived in small, rural towns long before dairies arrived — and relocating is not always financially feasible.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Where are you going to move at? You don’t have money to move,” said Whitfield, the Pixley resident with allergies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>The Associated Press receives support from the Walton Family Foundation for coverage of water and environmental policy. The AP is solely responsible for all content. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"title": "California Shows Where Insurers Would Need to Boost Coverage in Fire-Prone Areas",
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"content": "\u003cp>California insurance regulators on Wednesday released maps of the state’s most wildfire-distressed areas, where they aim to require insurance companies to write more policies, the next phase of their plan to address the ongoing \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1992803/newsom-seeks-faster-track-for-home-insurance-rate-hikes-as-market-shrinks\">crisis in the state’s home insurance market\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The new draft state regulations are a cornerstone of the California Department of Insurance’s strategy to make more insurance available for consumers, who have found it hard to find new property insurance as companies pull out of the market amid \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1993253/what-to-know-about-landmark-wildfire-bills-led-by-california-congressman\">worsening wildfire risk\u003c/a>. Homeowners have been increasingly pushed toward the FAIR Plan, the state’s insurer of last resort, which offers expensive, low-quality coverage and is severely \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1992401/homeowners-insurance-market-stretched-even-thinner-as-2-more-companies-leave-california\">financially overextended\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To do this, the department floated draft regulations requiring companies to offer more coverage in wildfire-distressed areas of the state. As a concession, California will allow insurance providers to set rates using forward-looking catastrophe models that consider the effects of climate change on future disasters and also incorporate mitigation done to increase safety.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wednesday’s maps are the second part of that regulatory focus, outlining the deal insurance companies must accept if they are going to use catastrophe models that, along with other proposed changes, are likely to lead to rate increases.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Wildfire 'distressed' residential ZIP codes in California\" aria-label=\"Map\" id=\"datawrapper-chart-Fp8Ko\" src=\"https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/Fp8Ko/2/\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" style=\"border: none;\" width=\"1000\" height=\"898\" data-external=\"1\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The maps show that about half of the state is in distressed areas: all of far northern California, nearly all of the Sierra Nevada, Napa and Marin counties in the Bay Area, along with most of the Central Coast and pockets in Southern California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Insurance commission officials identified these areas by their fire hazard, considered either “high” or “very high” in the most recent \u003ca href=\"https://osfm.fire.ca.gov/what-we-do/community-wildfire-preparedness-and-mitigation/fire-hazard-severity-zones/fire-hazard-severity-zones-maps-2022\">Cal Fire hazard maps\u003c/a>. They also included counties where 20% or more of homes are considered high-risk. ZIP codes where the FAIR Plan covers 15% or more of insurance policies are additionally included, as are areas where insurance is extremely expensive relative to incomes in the area, as defined by a new department metric called the “affordability index.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The regulations will require larger companies to cover 85% of their market share in wildfire-distressed areas (so, theoretically, if a single company held half of all homeowners policies in the state, that company would be required to offer coverage to 42.5% of properties in those areas). Smaller and regional insurance companies are not required to meet this standard, as the insurance department considers it may be an undue business burden on them. However, the state is asking these smaller companies to increase their existing market share of policies in wildfire-prone areas by 5% over the next two years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re creating targets that are achievable and will help consumers not in decades but absolutely now,” Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara said in a briefing. “As soon as our regulations are complete later this year, insurance companies that use catastrophic models will have to publicly detail their commitments in writing.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Technology is harming consumers, not helping them when it comes to making insurance more available and affordable. I commend the department for insisting that there be a tangible benefit for consumers,” said Amy Bach, executive director of United Policyholders, in a release.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Draft regulations and maps are available on the \u003ca href=\"https://www.insurance.ca.gov/0400-news/0100-press-releases/2024/release023-2024.cfm\">insurance department’s website\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A public workshop to discuss the draft regulations is scheduled for June 26 at 2:30 p.m. Register \u003ca href=\"https://www.insurance.ca.gov/0250-insurers/0500-legal-info/0300-workshop-insurers/upload/Invitation-to-Workshop-Regarding-Catastrophe-Modeling-and-Ratemaking-Insurer-Commitments-to-Increase-Writing-of-Policies-in-High-Risk-Wildfire-Areas.pdf\">here\u003c/a> [PDF]. The public is invited to submit written comments by June 27 to \u003ca href=\"mailto:CDIRegulations@insurance.ca.gov\">CDIRegulations@insurance.ca.gov\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>California insurance regulators on Wednesday released maps of the state’s most wildfire-distressed areas, where they aim to require insurance companies to write more policies, the next phase of their plan to address the ongoing \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1992803/newsom-seeks-faster-track-for-home-insurance-rate-hikes-as-market-shrinks\">crisis in the state’s home insurance market\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The new draft state regulations are a cornerstone of the California Department of Insurance’s strategy to make more insurance available for consumers, who have found it hard to find new property insurance as companies pull out of the market amid \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1993253/what-to-know-about-landmark-wildfire-bills-led-by-california-congressman\">worsening wildfire risk\u003c/a>. Homeowners have been increasingly pushed toward the FAIR Plan, the state’s insurer of last resort, which offers expensive, low-quality coverage and is severely \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1992401/homeowners-insurance-market-stretched-even-thinner-as-2-more-companies-leave-california\">financially overextended\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To do this, the department floated draft regulations requiring companies to offer more coverage in wildfire-distressed areas of the state. As a concession, California will allow insurance providers to set rates using forward-looking catastrophe models that consider the effects of climate change on future disasters and also incorporate mitigation done to increase safety.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wednesday’s maps are the second part of that regulatory focus, outlining the deal insurance companies must accept if they are going to use catastrophe models that, along with other proposed changes, are likely to lead to rate increases.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Wildfire 'distressed' residential ZIP codes in California\" aria-label=\"Map\" id=\"datawrapper-chart-Fp8Ko\" src=\"https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/Fp8Ko/2/\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" style=\"border: none;\" width=\"1000\" height=\"898\" data-external=\"1\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The maps show that about half of the state is in distressed areas: all of far northern California, nearly all of the Sierra Nevada, Napa and Marin counties in the Bay Area, along with most of the Central Coast and pockets in Southern California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Insurance commission officials identified these areas by their fire hazard, considered either “high” or “very high” in the most recent \u003ca href=\"https://osfm.fire.ca.gov/what-we-do/community-wildfire-preparedness-and-mitigation/fire-hazard-severity-zones/fire-hazard-severity-zones-maps-2022\">Cal Fire hazard maps\u003c/a>. They also included counties where 20% or more of homes are considered high-risk. ZIP codes where the FAIR Plan covers 15% or more of insurance policies are additionally included, as are areas where insurance is extremely expensive relative to incomes in the area, as defined by a new department metric called the “affordability index.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The regulations will require larger companies to cover 85% of their market share in wildfire-distressed areas (so, theoretically, if a single company held half of all homeowners policies in the state, that company would be required to offer coverage to 42.5% of properties in those areas). Smaller and regional insurance companies are not required to meet this standard, as the insurance department considers it may be an undue business burden on them. However, the state is asking these smaller companies to increase their existing market share of policies in wildfire-prone areas by 5% over the next two years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re creating targets that are achievable and will help consumers not in decades but absolutely now,” Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara said in a briefing. “As soon as our regulations are complete later this year, insurance companies that use catastrophic models will have to publicly detail their commitments in writing.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Technology is harming consumers, not helping them when it comes to making insurance more available and affordable. I commend the department for insisting that there be a tangible benefit for consumers,” said Amy Bach, executive director of United Policyholders, in a release.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Draft regulations and maps are available on the \u003ca href=\"https://www.insurance.ca.gov/0400-news/0100-press-releases/2024/release023-2024.cfm\">insurance department’s website\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A public workshop to discuss the draft regulations is scheduled for June 26 at 2:30 p.m. Register \u003ca href=\"https://www.insurance.ca.gov/0250-insurers/0500-legal-info/0300-workshop-insurers/upload/Invitation-to-Workshop-Regarding-Catastrophe-Modeling-and-Ratemaking-Insurer-Commitments-to-Increase-Writing-of-Policies-in-High-Risk-Wildfire-Areas.pdf\">here\u003c/a> [PDF]. The public is invited to submit written comments by June 27 to \u003ca href=\"mailto:CDIRegulations@insurance.ca.gov\">CDIRegulations@insurance.ca.gov\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "california-has-a-new-state-park-and-it-opens-today",
"title": "California Has a New State Park, and It Is Now Open",
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"content": "\u003cp>Located between the Tuolumne and San Joaquin rivers in the heart of Central Valley and about 90 minutes east of San Francisco, Dos Rios is the first state park to open in over a decade.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What makes the 1600-acre park unique is that it’s the largest floodplain restoration project in California, and that work is meant to help prevent destructive flooding in the San Joaquin Valley, according to Dos Rios park manager, Paige Haller.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1993305\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1993305\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/2Y2A5193-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1707\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/2Y2A5193-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/2Y2A5193-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/2Y2A5193-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/2Y2A5193-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/2Y2A5193-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/2Y2A5193-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/2Y2A5193-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/2Y2A5193-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Matt McDonnal, a California State Parks employee, leads a walking tour at Dos Rios, California’s newest state park, on the park’s opening day in Modesto on June 12. Dos Rios is California’s 281st state park and the first park to open in over a decade. \u003ccite>(Gina Castro/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The preserve was once owned by farmers who grew tomatoes and almonds. However, after over a decade of restoration work, it’s home to riparian brush rabbit, Chinook salmon, the greater Sandhill crane, and many other endangered animals and migratory wildlife.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The park itself is located on the Pacific Flyway, and we’re also adjacent to the San Joaquin River National Wildlife Refuge. So there are a lot of interesting birds and wildlife to see,” Haller said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1993308\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1993308\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/20240612_DosRios_GC-6-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1706\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/20240612_DosRios_GC-6-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/20240612_DosRios_GC-6-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/20240612_DosRios_GC-6-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/20240612_DosRios_GC-6-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/20240612_DosRios_GC-6-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/20240612_DosRios_GC-6-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/20240612_DosRios_GC-6-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/20240612_DosRios_GC-6-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Paige Haller, park manager, speaks at the grand opening of Dos Rios, California’s newest state park, in Modesto on June 12. The 1,600-acre Dos Rios is California’s 281st state park and the first to open in over a decade. \u003ccite>(Gina Castro/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The park is dog-friendly, and visitors can enjoy hikes, guided walks with an interpreter, picnics at one of the ramadas near the riverbanks, and wildlife and bird-watching.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Not only will the new park provide critical habitat for plants and animals, it’s also creating opportunities for people to improve their mental and physical well-being by having more access to the outdoors,” Haller said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1993299\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1993299\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/2Y2A5274-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1707\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/2Y2A5274-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/2Y2A5274-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/2Y2A5274-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/2Y2A5274-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/2Y2A5274-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/2Y2A5274-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/2Y2A5274-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/2Y2A5274-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Clara Yates, 3, reaches for a sticker at a booth in Dos Rios, California’s newest state park, on the park’s opening day in Modesto on June 12. \u003ccite>(Gina Castro/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Officials hope to continue improving the park in the future. They plan to create better river access for swimming, fishing, boating and other water sports, along with trails for bicycling and other outdoor recreation activities. The vision is also to provide outdoor classroom space for kids.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There are also plans for several “park after dark” programs, including things like campfire nights, guided evening walks, and stargazing. For updates on these upcoming activities, \u003ca href=\"https://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=31363\">visit the park’s website\u003c/a> or follow \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/dosriossp/?hl=en\">its social media channels\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1993306\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1993306\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/2Y2A5248-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1707\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/2Y2A5248-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/2Y2A5248-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/2Y2A5248-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/2Y2A5248-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/2Y2A5248-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/2Y2A5248-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/2Y2A5248-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/2Y2A5248-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ali Manzo, a California State Parks interpreter, center, poses for a photo with students who just completed the California State Parks Junior Ranger program at Dos Rios, California’s newest state park, on the park’s opening day in Modesto on June 12. \u003ccite>(Gina Castro/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>To help build out the new park, the public is invited to participate in the \u003ca href=\"https://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=30626\">planning process\u003c/a> at Dos Rios. “We’re in a very unique position to be able to build this from the ground up and really build it with the community, for the community,” said Danielle Gerhart, Central Valley District superintendent.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The park will open in time for the third annual \u003ca href=\"https://castateparksweek.org/\">California State Parks Week, which will be held June 12–16\u003c/a>, during which it will be open to the public from 7 a.m. until 5 p.m.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1993302\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1993302\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/2Y2A5261-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1707\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/2Y2A5261-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/2Y2A5261-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/2Y2A5261-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/2Y2A5261-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/2Y2A5261-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/2Y2A5261-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/2Y2A5261-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/2Y2A5261-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Caitlin Jackson, right, interacts with the public at a booth in Dos Rios, California’s newest state park, at the park’s opening day in Modesto on June 12. \u003ccite>(Gina Castro/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>For the rest of the summer, Dos Rios is open to the public Fridays through Sundays from 7 a.m. until 5 p.m. Entrance is free during this initial opening phase.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Residents with a California Public Library pass can enjoy \u003ca href=\"https://www.library.ca.gov/grants/parks-pass/faq/\">free access\u003c/a> to select state parks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "Dos Rios, located in the heart of Central Valley, is the largest floodplain restoration project in California. Here's what to know about California's newest state park.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Located between the Tuolumne and San Joaquin rivers in the heart of Central Valley and about 90 minutes east of San Francisco, Dos Rios is the first state park to open in over a decade.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What makes the 1600-acre park unique is that it’s the largest floodplain restoration project in California, and that work is meant to help prevent destructive flooding in the San Joaquin Valley, according to Dos Rios park manager, Paige Haller.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1993305\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1993305\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/2Y2A5193-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1707\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/2Y2A5193-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/2Y2A5193-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/2Y2A5193-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/2Y2A5193-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/2Y2A5193-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/2Y2A5193-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/2Y2A5193-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/2Y2A5193-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Matt McDonnal, a California State Parks employee, leads a walking tour at Dos Rios, California’s newest state park, on the park’s opening day in Modesto on June 12. Dos Rios is California’s 281st state park and the first park to open in over a decade. \u003ccite>(Gina Castro/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The preserve was once owned by farmers who grew tomatoes and almonds. However, after over a decade of restoration work, it’s home to riparian brush rabbit, Chinook salmon, the greater Sandhill crane, and many other endangered animals and migratory wildlife.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The park itself is located on the Pacific Flyway, and we’re also adjacent to the San Joaquin River National Wildlife Refuge. So there are a lot of interesting birds and wildlife to see,” Haller said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1993308\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1993308\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/20240612_DosRios_GC-6-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1706\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/20240612_DosRios_GC-6-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/20240612_DosRios_GC-6-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/20240612_DosRios_GC-6-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/20240612_DosRios_GC-6-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/20240612_DosRios_GC-6-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/20240612_DosRios_GC-6-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/20240612_DosRios_GC-6-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/20240612_DosRios_GC-6-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Paige Haller, park manager, speaks at the grand opening of Dos Rios, California’s newest state park, in Modesto on June 12. The 1,600-acre Dos Rios is California’s 281st state park and the first to open in over a decade. \u003ccite>(Gina Castro/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The park is dog-friendly, and visitors can enjoy hikes, guided walks with an interpreter, picnics at one of the ramadas near the riverbanks, and wildlife and bird-watching.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Not only will the new park provide critical habitat for plants and animals, it’s also creating opportunities for people to improve their mental and physical well-being by having more access to the outdoors,” Haller said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1993299\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1993299\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/2Y2A5274-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1707\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/2Y2A5274-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/2Y2A5274-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/2Y2A5274-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/2Y2A5274-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/2Y2A5274-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/2Y2A5274-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/2Y2A5274-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/2Y2A5274-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Clara Yates, 3, reaches for a sticker at a booth in Dos Rios, California’s newest state park, on the park’s opening day in Modesto on June 12. \u003ccite>(Gina Castro/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Officials hope to continue improving the park in the future. They plan to create better river access for swimming, fishing, boating and other water sports, along with trails for bicycling and other outdoor recreation activities. The vision is also to provide outdoor classroom space for kids.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There are also plans for several “park after dark” programs, including things like campfire nights, guided evening walks, and stargazing. For updates on these upcoming activities, \u003ca href=\"https://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=31363\">visit the park’s website\u003c/a> or follow \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/dosriossp/?hl=en\">its social media channels\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1993306\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1993306\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/2Y2A5248-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1707\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/2Y2A5248-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/2Y2A5248-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/2Y2A5248-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/2Y2A5248-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/2Y2A5248-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/2Y2A5248-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/2Y2A5248-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/2Y2A5248-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ali Manzo, a California State Parks interpreter, center, poses for a photo with students who just completed the California State Parks Junior Ranger program at Dos Rios, California’s newest state park, on the park’s opening day in Modesto on June 12. \u003ccite>(Gina Castro/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>To help build out the new park, the public is invited to participate in the \u003ca href=\"https://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=30626\">planning process\u003c/a> at Dos Rios. “We’re in a very unique position to be able to build this from the ground up and really build it with the community, for the community,” said Danielle Gerhart, Central Valley District superintendent.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The park will open in time for the third annual \u003ca href=\"https://castateparksweek.org/\">California State Parks Week, which will be held June 12–16\u003c/a>, during which it will be open to the public from 7 a.m. until 5 p.m.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1993302\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1993302\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/2Y2A5261-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1707\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/2Y2A5261-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/2Y2A5261-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/2Y2A5261-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/2Y2A5261-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/2Y2A5261-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/2Y2A5261-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/2Y2A5261-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/06/2Y2A5261-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Caitlin Jackson, right, interacts with the public at a booth in Dos Rios, California’s newest state park, at the park’s opening day in Modesto on June 12. \u003ccite>(Gina Castro/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>For the rest of the summer, Dos Rios is open to the public Fridays through Sundays from 7 a.m. until 5 p.m. Entrance is free during this initial opening phase.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Residents with a California Public Library pass can enjoy \u003ca href=\"https://www.library.ca.gov/grants/parks-pass/faq/\">free access\u003c/a> to select state parks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"title": "What to Know About Landmark Wildfire Bills Led by California Congressman",
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"headTitle": "What to Know About Landmark Wildfire Bills Led by California Congressman | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>On Monday, Central Valley Rep. Josh Harder announced a package of wildfire bills, promising a “once-in-a-generation,” “first-of-its-kind,” “all-the-above” approach to addressing the nation’s wildfire issue.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The package focuses on four main areas:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>1) Hiring and training more firefighters,\u003cbr>\n2) Retaining more firefighters with better benefits and working conditions,\u003cbr>\n3) Updating technology to improve fire response time,\u003cbr>\n4) Establishing a nationwide monitoring and alert system for wildfire smoke.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While there’s a lot the legislation promises, its true effect — if passed — will be how it’s applied.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Why it matters:\u003c/strong> In an era of human-caused climate change following a century of fire suppression, wildfire season in California is growing longer and more destructive, threatening our quality of life, health and housing affordability. Wildfire destruction has \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1985175/insurance-in-california-is-changing-heres-how-it-may-affect-you\">prompted a home insurance crisis\u003c/a> that is affecting the ability of residents to live here.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And it’s not just the fires themselves that are dangerous; the smoke they produce travels far and wide and causes unseen deaths — a hazard for which there is currently no national-level alert program. Firefighter recruitment and retention have become a major problem, particularly for \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2022/06/02/1102575243/federal-agencies-are-struggling-to-hire-and-retain-firefighters\">federal agencies like the U.S. Forest Service\u003c/a> because the base pay can be extremely low, working conditions are brutal, and the cost of living is exorbitant.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>The catch:\u003c/strong> For years, experts have cautioned that we’ll never be able to one-more-crew-of-firefighters our way out of this problem. What’s needed is to proactively prepare the landscape and communities for fire instead of focusing on quick suppression. A commission of 50 wildfire experts convened by Congress emphasized this need for proactivity and less reactivity in \u003ca href=\"https://www.usda.gov/sites/default/files/documents/wfmmc-final-report-09-2023.pdf\">its final report\u003c/a> released last September.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Harder, who introduced this package of bills explicitly to respond to the commission’s recommendations, seems aware of this.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The biggest impediment to us being more proactive is our staffing shortages,” Harder said. “And if you talk to most of our fire departments [and] to the U.S. Forest Service, they’ll tell you that they want to be more proactive in addressing the vegetation and the overgrowth that’s happening. And they don’t have the people to do it. They also don’t always have the technology, and there’s often far too much red tape.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>All three of those bottlenecks are addressed in the package of bills, he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=science_1993130,news_11988682,science_1992803,news_11970558 label='related coverage']\u003cstrong>The bottom line:\u003c/strong> If wildfire managers use increased staffing to focus only on putting out fires, then the boost in funding for firefighters will be a repeat of already failed policies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wildfire experts are, however, sure to welcome the increased attention on wildfire smoke, which is almost shockingly dangerous. In 2018, for example, wildfires officially killed 106 people in California, but UC Irvine researchers later estimated the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1971666/california-wildfires-killed-106-people-two-years-ago-researchers-say-the-smoke-killed-3652\">true toll of wildfire smoke\u003c/a> that year: 3,652 additional deaths and $150 billion in economic losses. From 2008 to 2018, more than 50,000 Californians died prematurely due to wildfire smoke, according to \u003ca href=\"https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adl1252\">a study published Friday in the journal \u003cem>Science\u003c/em>\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>What’s next:\u003c/strong> The package of bills has been endorsed by a bipartisan group of representatives from around the country. Reps. Scott Franklin (R-Fla.) and Joe Neguse (D-Colo.) are also primary authors. Reps. Greg Stanton (D-Ariz.), Mike Thompson (D-St. Helena), John Garamendi (D-Walnut Grove), and Val Hoyle (D-Ore.) are co-sponsoring the legislation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Harder (D-Tracy), for his part, is optimistic about its chances:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We took the recommendations that we thought could make it into law in a Republican House, a Democratic Senate with a Democratic president,” he said. “There were some things that some folks like that ended up on the cutting room floor because they weren’t supported by both parties.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The full bill text is available \u003ca href=\"https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Zsx8K1RD6p2mw0GI4nSdGAYsQM77byfL/view\">here\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>On Monday, Central Valley Rep. Josh Harder announced a package of wildfire bills, promising a “once-in-a-generation,” “first-of-its-kind,” “all-the-above” approach to addressing the nation’s wildfire issue.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The package focuses on four main areas:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>1) Hiring and training more firefighters,\u003cbr>\n2) Retaining more firefighters with better benefits and working conditions,\u003cbr>\n3) Updating technology to improve fire response time,\u003cbr>\n4) Establishing a nationwide monitoring and alert system for wildfire smoke.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While there’s a lot the legislation promises, its true effect — if passed — will be how it’s applied.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Why it matters:\u003c/strong> In an era of human-caused climate change following a century of fire suppression, wildfire season in California is growing longer and more destructive, threatening our quality of life, health and housing affordability. Wildfire destruction has \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1985175/insurance-in-california-is-changing-heres-how-it-may-affect-you\">prompted a home insurance crisis\u003c/a> that is affecting the ability of residents to live here.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And it’s not just the fires themselves that are dangerous; the smoke they produce travels far and wide and causes unseen deaths — a hazard for which there is currently no national-level alert program. Firefighter recruitment and retention have become a major problem, particularly for \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2022/06/02/1102575243/federal-agencies-are-struggling-to-hire-and-retain-firefighters\">federal agencies like the U.S. Forest Service\u003c/a> because the base pay can be extremely low, working conditions are brutal, and the cost of living is exorbitant.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>The catch:\u003c/strong> For years, experts have cautioned that we’ll never be able to one-more-crew-of-firefighters our way out of this problem. What’s needed is to proactively prepare the landscape and communities for fire instead of focusing on quick suppression. A commission of 50 wildfire experts convened by Congress emphasized this need for proactivity and less reactivity in \u003ca href=\"https://www.usda.gov/sites/default/files/documents/wfmmc-final-report-09-2023.pdf\">its final report\u003c/a> released last September.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Harder, who introduced this package of bills explicitly to respond to the commission’s recommendations, seems aware of this.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The biggest impediment to us being more proactive is our staffing shortages,” Harder said. “And if you talk to most of our fire departments [and] to the U.S. Forest Service, they’ll tell you that they want to be more proactive in addressing the vegetation and the overgrowth that’s happening. And they don’t have the people to do it. They also don’t always have the technology, and there’s often far too much red tape.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>All three of those bottlenecks are addressed in the package of bills, he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cstrong>The bottom line:\u003c/strong> If wildfire managers use increased staffing to focus only on putting out fires, then the boost in funding for firefighters will be a repeat of already failed policies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wildfire experts are, however, sure to welcome the increased attention on wildfire smoke, which is almost shockingly dangerous. In 2018, for example, wildfires officially killed 106 people in California, but UC Irvine researchers later estimated the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1971666/california-wildfires-killed-106-people-two-years-ago-researchers-say-the-smoke-killed-3652\">true toll of wildfire smoke\u003c/a> that year: 3,652 additional deaths and $150 billion in economic losses. From 2008 to 2018, more than 50,000 Californians died prematurely due to wildfire smoke, according to \u003ca href=\"https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adl1252\">a study published Friday in the journal \u003cem>Science\u003c/em>\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>What’s next:\u003c/strong> The package of bills has been endorsed by a bipartisan group of representatives from around the country. Reps. Scott Franklin (R-Fla.) and Joe Neguse (D-Colo.) are also primary authors. Reps. Greg Stanton (D-Ariz.), Mike Thompson (D-St. Helena), John Garamendi (D-Walnut Grove), and Val Hoyle (D-Ore.) are co-sponsoring the legislation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Harder (D-Tracy), for his part, is optimistic about its chances:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We took the recommendations that we thought could make it into law in a Republican House, a Democratic Senate with a Democratic president,” he said. “There were some things that some folks like that ended up on the cutting room floor because they weren’t supported by both parties.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The full bill text is available \u003ca href=\"https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Zsx8K1RD6p2mw0GI4nSdGAYsQM77byfL/view\">here\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>Heading into the first serious heat wave of the season, with triple-digit temperatures expected across Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday for interior parts of the Bay Area, fire experts are urging vigilance and caution as burnable grasses and brush continue to dry.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’ve had two wet winters, which helps our bigger fuels, our brush and our timber, soak up that rain, which makes them less susceptible to burning,” said Josh Silveira, battalion chief of CalFire’s San Benito-Monterey Unit. “But the double-edged sword is that with a wet winter, two years in a row, we have a tremendous grass crop, very thick, very tall.”[aside postID=\"news_11988621,news_11988682\" label=\"Related Stories\"]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Silveira said the grasses in the area of the Corral Fire, which sparked over the weekend, were about 4 feet tall and matted with the growth of two years. The fire, currently about 75% contained, scorched nearly 15,000 acres, making it by far the largest of California’s 1,253 wildfires so far this year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We are in the prime of our grass fire season here in Northern California,” said fire expert Craig Clements, director of the Wildfire Interdisciplinary Research Center at San Jose State University. “I think [the Corral Fire] was surprising for how many acres burned. But, you know, that does happen.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Strong, gusty winds primarily drove the Corral Fire. It broke out near Altamont Pass – an area known for high winds – on Saturday and spread quickly, including overnight into Sunday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Grass fires, Clements said, start more easily and burn more quickly than other types of fires. They can be intensely hazardous even though they are generally not associated with as much destruction as forest fires or wildland-urban interface conflagrations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Grass fires are actually quite dangerous for firefighters because they can spread so quickly,” Clements said. “And if the wind shift changes erratically through turbulence and such, the fire spread can change on the firefighters quickly as well. So, there are cases of firefighter fatalities on grass fires. It’s not common, but it does occur.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Two firefighters were injured in responding to the Corral Fire, both of which are expected to recover, according to news reports.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“And because of the rate the spread [of grass fires] is so high,” Clements said, “they are quite dangerous in terms of igniting homes.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They do have embers that “spot,” the term fire officials use for burning material thrown by the wind to an unburned area, starting a new fire. But those spots don’t travel as far as spots from a fast-burning forest fire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s usually not as easy for grass fires to ignite homes, but they do all the time,” Clements said. “What happens is that fire can actually get into landscaping materials or vegetation around the home, and then that can ignite the house.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Corral Fire burned four structures. On Sunday, another fire broke out in a residential area in the San Jose foothills. It burned three homes and was spread, in part, by strong wind.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>The days ahead\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The heat wave forecast for this week will accelerate the drying of fuels, increasing fire risk. However, meteorologists are not expecting the same breezy conditions we had over the weekend.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The lack of wind will be better for firefighters if fires are started,” Clements said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Roger Gass, weather forecaster at the National Weather Service in Monterey, said, “There may be some gusts up to about 20 miles per hour in the interior, but we are not going to see any offshore flow.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Offshore flow occurs when air moves from land to sea. It’s usually associated with very dry weather, which can lead to higher fire danger.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Risk for fire is pretty low on the large scale. If we had offshore flow, it would increase,” Gass said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It wouldn’t be surprising if some fires break out during the heat wave, Gass said. However, the weather service does not expect extreme red flag conditions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In fact, overall, fire scientists are forecasting a normal to less-active-than-normal fire season this summer, thanks to all the water we got over the winter. What fall will look like, when the Bay Area typically has its most destructive fires, is still an open question. Much will depend upon this summer’s weather.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Heading into the first serious heat wave of the season, with triple-digit temperatures expected across Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday for interior parts of the Bay Area, fire experts are urging vigilance and caution as burnable grasses and brush continue to dry.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’ve had two wet winters, which helps our bigger fuels, our brush and our timber, soak up that rain, which makes them less susceptible to burning,” said Josh Silveira, battalion chief of CalFire’s San Benito-Monterey Unit. “But the double-edged sword is that with a wet winter, two years in a row, we have a tremendous grass crop, very thick, very tall.”\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Silveira said the grasses in the area of the Corral Fire, which sparked over the weekend, were about 4 feet tall and matted with the growth of two years. The fire, currently about 75% contained, scorched nearly 15,000 acres, making it by far the largest of California’s 1,253 wildfires so far this year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We are in the prime of our grass fire season here in Northern California,” said fire expert Craig Clements, director of the Wildfire Interdisciplinary Research Center at San Jose State University. “I think [the Corral Fire] was surprising for how many acres burned. But, you know, that does happen.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Strong, gusty winds primarily drove the Corral Fire. It broke out near Altamont Pass – an area known for high winds – on Saturday and spread quickly, including overnight into Sunday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Grass fires, Clements said, start more easily and burn more quickly than other types of fires. They can be intensely hazardous even though they are generally not associated with as much destruction as forest fires or wildland-urban interface conflagrations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Grass fires are actually quite dangerous for firefighters because they can spread so quickly,” Clements said. “And if the wind shift changes erratically through turbulence and such, the fire spread can change on the firefighters quickly as well. So, there are cases of firefighter fatalities on grass fires. It’s not common, but it does occur.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Two firefighters were injured in responding to the Corral Fire, both of which are expected to recover, according to news reports.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“And because of the rate the spread [of grass fires] is so high,” Clements said, “they are quite dangerous in terms of igniting homes.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They do have embers that “spot,” the term fire officials use for burning material thrown by the wind to an unburned area, starting a new fire. But those spots don’t travel as far as spots from a fast-burning forest fire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s usually not as easy for grass fires to ignite homes, but they do all the time,” Clements said. “What happens is that fire can actually get into landscaping materials or vegetation around the home, and then that can ignite the house.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Corral Fire burned four structures. On Sunday, another fire broke out in a residential area in the San Jose foothills. It burned three homes and was spread, in part, by strong wind.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>The days ahead\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The heat wave forecast for this week will accelerate the drying of fuels, increasing fire risk. However, meteorologists are not expecting the same breezy conditions we had over the weekend.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The lack of wind will be better for firefighters if fires are started,” Clements said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Roger Gass, weather forecaster at the National Weather Service in Monterey, said, “There may be some gusts up to about 20 miles per hour in the interior, but we are not going to see any offshore flow.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Offshore flow occurs when air moves from land to sea. It’s usually associated with very dry weather, which can lead to higher fire danger.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Risk for fire is pretty low on the large scale. If we had offshore flow, it would increase,” Gass said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It wouldn’t be surprising if some fires break out during the heat wave, Gass said. However, the weather service does not expect extreme red flag conditions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In fact, overall, fire scientists are forecasting a normal to less-active-than-normal fire season this summer, thanks to all the water we got over the winter. What fall will look like, when the Bay Area typically has its most destructive fires, is still an open question. Much will depend upon this summer’s weather.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>[dl_subscribe]\u003cbr>\n\u003cem> The honeybee that sweetened your tea isn’t the only kind of bee that makes the sweet stuff. More than 600 bee species across Mexico, Central and South America and tropical regions worldwide do too. But they don’t have stingers to defend their precious product. So, how do they keep thieves away? And what does their honey taste like?\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>TRANSCRIPT\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>At the break of dawn, in Oaxaca, Mexico, bees are tearing down the barrier they built last night to cover their nest entrance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Another successful night protecting their honey and babies from thieving ants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They make this lattice out of a blend of wax and a potent ant repellent. More on that later.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They’re not eating the waxy material – they’re stashing it to reuse tonight.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Just like the honeybees that sweeten your tea, these honeymakers live in a colony.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But they’re smaller and don’t have stingers to protect the sweet stuff.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s why they’re known as stingless bees.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There are more than 600 species of them in the tropics around the world, mostly in the Americas. And they’ve been around twice as long as honeybees.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>No bee stingers? No bee suits needed!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Emilio Pérez is a stingless beekeeper in the highlands of Oaxaca, land inhabited by the Chinantec people.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This is \u003cem>Melipona beecheii\u003c/em>, one of the four bee species he keeps. He only raises native bees. Scientists say moving species around can spread diseases that harm them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So, how do these teensy bees without stingers protect their honey?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By annoying you. Some tangle in your hair … or eyebrow … and give you a bite.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It only feels like a pinprick. But they could summon a whole swarm of their sisters by releasing pheromones.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In any case, for these bees, the best offense is a good defense.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Guard bees stand watch at the nest entrance. \u003cem>Melipona beecheii\u003c/em> has just one imposing guard, stationed on this ledge shaped like a flower.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Other species employ as many as 15 guards. They cover the perimeter of trumpet-shaped entrances.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If an outsider tries to come in – like this bee from another colony – the guards sniff it out and kill it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These peculiar structures also make great runways, as bees go off to work in the flowers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They’re not picky. They collect nectar and pollen from dozens of plants, which they pollinate in the process.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Stingless bees also collect resin.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s the sticky stuff that plants like this cedar make to keep out burrowing insects. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>See how she stows the drops on her back legs?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Different plants have different hues of resin: yellow, white, red.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They mix the resin with wax to make a pliable building material called cerumen. Your average honeybee just uses wax.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Stingless bees shape cerumen into little capsules for their offspring, and stack them like a tiered cake.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They also use the material to make their honey pots … these orbs. Yum!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s a freewheeling architectural style, compared to honeybees’ hexagonal cells.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now, remember this protective barrier? It’s made of cerumen. The resin mixed in with the wax is what keeps the ants away. They hate the resin’s smell and stickiness.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Once a year, Emilio and his daughter Salustia collect honey from their nests.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Stingless bee colonies are smaller and usually make less honey than honeybees.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Each of their \u003cem>Melipona beecheii\u003c/em> colonies makes about 9 pounds a year, just one seventh of what a honeybee hive produces.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Salustia: We’re having a honey tasting.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Deep Look team got to sample it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gabriela: A strong fermented flavor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Josh: It tastes like SweeTarts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Stingless bee honey is sold as a health product to treat things like sore throats.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>All honeys contain hydrogen peroxide, which is antimicrobial.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Stingless bees visit a variety of plants, many in the rainforest. So, scientists are studying their honey and resins for chemicals that might have medicinal properties.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As the sun goes down, bees head in for the night and cover their nest entrance once again.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>No effort is too great to protect the riches everyone is after.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Just like the honeybees that sweeten your tea, these honeymakers live in a colony.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But they’re smaller and don’t have stingers to protect the sweet stuff.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s why they’re known as stingless bees.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There are more than 600 species of them in the tropics around the world, mostly in the Americas. And they’ve been around twice as long as honeybees.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>No bee stingers? No bee suits needed!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Emilio Pérez is a stingless beekeeper in the highlands of Oaxaca, land inhabited by the Chinantec people.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This is \u003cem>Melipona beecheii\u003c/em>, one of the four bee species he keeps. He only raises native bees. Scientists say moving species around can spread diseases that harm them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So, how do these teensy bees without stingers protect their honey?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By annoying you. Some tangle in your hair … or eyebrow … and give you a bite.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It only feels like a pinprick. But they could summon a whole swarm of their sisters by releasing pheromones.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In any case, for these bees, the best offense is a good defense.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Guard bees stand watch at the nest entrance. \u003cem>Melipona beecheii\u003c/em> has just one imposing guard, stationed on this ledge shaped like a flower.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Other species employ as many as 15 guards. They cover the perimeter of trumpet-shaped entrances.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If an outsider tries to come in – like this bee from another colony – the guards sniff it out and kill it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These peculiar structures also make great runways, as bees go off to work in the flowers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They’re not picky. They collect nectar and pollen from dozens of plants, which they pollinate in the process.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Stingless bees also collect resin.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s the sticky stuff that plants like this cedar make to keep out burrowing insects. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>See how she stows the drops on her back legs?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Different plants have different hues of resin: yellow, white, red.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They mix the resin with wax to make a pliable building material called cerumen. Your average honeybee just uses wax.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Stingless bees shape cerumen into little capsules for their offspring, and stack them like a tiered cake.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They also use the material to make their honey pots … these orbs. Yum!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s a freewheeling architectural style, compared to honeybees’ hexagonal cells.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now, remember this protective barrier? It’s made of cerumen. The resin mixed in with the wax is what keeps the ants away. They hate the resin’s smell and stickiness.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Once a year, Emilio and his daughter Salustia collect honey from their nests.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Stingless bee colonies are smaller and usually make less honey than honeybees.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Each of their \u003cem>Melipona beecheii\u003c/em> colonies makes about 9 pounds a year, just one seventh of what a honeybee hive produces.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Salustia: We’re having a honey tasting.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Deep Look team got to sample it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gabriela: A strong fermented flavor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Josh: It tastes like SweeTarts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Stingless bee honey is sold as a health product to treat things like sore throats.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>All honeys contain hydrogen peroxide, which is antimicrobial.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Stingless bees visit a variety of plants, many in the rainforest. So, scientists are studying their honey and resins for chemicals that might have medicinal properties.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As the sun goes down, bees head in for the night and cover their nest entrance once again.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>No effort is too great to protect the riches everyone is after.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "california-has-a-theory-on-why-brown-pelicans-are-starving-and-dying",
"title": "California Has a Theory on Why Brown Pelicans Are Starving and Dying",
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"headTitle": "California Has a Theory on Why Brown Pelicans Are Starving and Dying | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>Emaciated brown pelicans are washing up on California shores in the hundreds. State officials and researchers aren’t sure why, but they think it could be weather-related.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state’s working hypothesis is that this situation, similar to what happened in 2022 when nearly 800 starving pelicans were rescued, was likely caused by late spring storms hitting the coast.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The waters were incredibly choppy, it was very windy, visibility was poor,” said Tim Daly, spokesperson for the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. “Our strongest belief at this point is that the pelicans were simply having trouble reaching the fish that were below the surface.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He said there are plenty of fish and noted that anchovies are particularly abundant this year. The pelicans just can’t find them in the murky water.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Monterey Bay is a particular hotspot in the state’s rescue effort. The \u003ca href=\"https://www.spcamc.org/programs-resources/wildlife-rescue-rehabilitation/wildlife-rescue.html\">Wildlife Rescue and Rehabilitation Center\u003c/a> at the SPCA of Monterey County has taken in more than 100 famished birds over the past month. Staff there have dedicated two outdoor enclosures to the pelicans and converted a staff bathroom into a heated recovery room for birds that can’t regulate their body temperature. Rescue calls started coming in on April 19 and have not yet stopped.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ciera Duits-Cavanaugh, manager of the wildlife center, said the birds are arriving at half the weight they should be and that most rescues are happening on piers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1992901\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1992901\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/05/240513-BrownPelicans-AlixSoliman-06_qut.jpg\" alt=\"A person wearing blue gloves takes a blood sample from a leathery foot of a bird.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1281\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/05/240513-BrownPelicans-AlixSoliman-06_qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/05/240513-BrownPelicans-AlixSoliman-06_qut-800x534.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/05/240513-BrownPelicans-AlixSoliman-06_qut-1020x681.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/05/240513-BrownPelicans-AlixSoliman-06_qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/05/240513-BrownPelicans-AlixSoliman-06_qut-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/05/240513-BrownPelicans-AlixSoliman-06_qut-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Wildlife technicians at SPCA of Monterey County take a blood sample from the foot of a pelican. Like most of the rescued birds, the sample revealed the bird was anemic. \u003ccite>(Alix Soliman/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“[The birds are] targeting places where there’s easy food, so boats that are off-loading fish onto docks, restaurants — anywhere that they can get a hand-out,” Duits-Cavanaugh said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cory Utter, the senior wildlife technician at the wildlife center, said they likely are not saving all the pelicans because most people can’t tell if a bird is struggling. There is one sure sign, though.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If you can walk right up to it, and it doesn’t seem bothered by you, then there’s probably something wrong,” Utter said. Officials recommend people call local wildlife centers if that happens.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last week, a mom and her young son reported a weak-looking pelican drooping its beak into a tide pool at Asilomar State Beach in Monterey County. Two SPCA volunteers crouched down on the rocks, scooped up the bird, and placed it in a dog crate. The pelican didn’t resist. After a short drive back to the wildlife center, the volunteers pulled out the crate. The bird’s eyes were open, but its head was cocked to one side, and it was motionless. It had died in transit.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Storms may be to blame\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Rebecca Duerr, director of Research and veterinary science at International Bird Rescue, said the explanation that early spring storms limit the bird’s ability to find food makes sense, especially since they’ve tested dead pelicans and ruled out avian flu as a possible cause.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Certainly, the visibility and catchability of fish can be an issue for them because they don’t dive very deep — even the biggest brown pelican can only grab fish about 6 feet deep,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1992900\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1992900\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/05/240513-BrownPelicans-AlixSoliman-02_qut.jpg\" alt=\"White and blue birds with long beaks stand on colorful rugs.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1281\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/05/240513-BrownPelicans-AlixSoliman-02_qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/05/240513-BrownPelicans-AlixSoliman-02_qut-800x534.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/05/240513-BrownPelicans-AlixSoliman-02_qut-1020x681.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/05/240513-BrownPelicans-AlixSoliman-02_qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/05/240513-BrownPelicans-AlixSoliman-02_qut-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/05/240513-BrownPelicans-AlixSoliman-02_qut-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Pelicans struggling to regulate their body temperature rest in a warming room at the SPCA Monterey County, between 75–80 degrees Fahrenheit. \u003ccite>(Alix Soliman/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>About one-third to a half of the starving pelicans arriving at rescue centers were injured, she added.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think that brown pelicans take more risks in their feeding — more likely to go after fishing gear and that sort of stuff — when they’re nutritionally stressed,” Duerr said. “A desperate, hungry pelican can get into trouble.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After an odd weather event in 2010, she said, they were found landing in people’s yards and snatching food off of hot barbecue grills.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Pelicans back from the brink\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>California brown pelicans \u003ca href=\"https://www.nps.gov/places/000/california-brown-pelican.htm#:~:text=In%20the%201960s%20and%201970s,the%20sea%20as%20the%20cause.\">almost went extinct\u003c/a> in the 1970s. Researchers found that the toxic chemical DDT entered coastal waters, where it was absorbed by the fish pelicans eat. The chemical changed the calcium metabolism in the birds’ bodies, which made them lay eggs with shells too fragile to withstand the weight of incubation. After DDT was banned, the pelicans recovered and were removed from the endangered species list in 2009.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=science_1992713 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/05/240510-SICK-PELICANS-MD-10-KQED-1-1020x680.jpg']Brown pelicans’ largest breeding colonies are in the Channel Islands and Baja California, Mexico. Nesting season peaks in March and April, and newborns typically arrive in the Bay Area around May. But Duerr said most of the starving pelicans she’s seeing are older.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The Channel Islands colony, we know, has done a lot of chick abandonment, so there probably won’t be any fledglings arriving,” Duerr said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Daniel Anderson is a retired professor from UC Davis who has studied brown pelicans for over 50 years and helped prevent their extinction. He’s planning to check on the Baja colony this month, but he said he’s not optimistic after seeing how they fared earlier this year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The breeding birds in the Gulf of California are failing miserably,” Anderson said. “Where there would be 20-30,000 nests, this year there were way less than 1000.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1992902\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1992902\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/05/240513-BrownPelicans-AlixSoliman-07_qut.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1281\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/05/240513-BrownPelicans-AlixSoliman-07_qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/05/240513-BrownPelicans-AlixSoliman-07_qut-800x534.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/05/240513-BrownPelicans-AlixSoliman-07_qut-1020x681.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/05/240513-BrownPelicans-AlixSoliman-07_qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/05/240513-BrownPelicans-AlixSoliman-07_qut-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/05/240513-BrownPelicans-AlixSoliman-07_qut-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Nia Newcombe (left) with SPCA volunteers Nancy Cunningham and Philip Johnson after scooping up a starving pelican at Asilomar State Beach. The pelican did not survive. \u003ccite>(Alix Soliman/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Anderson said the Baja population declined in 2014 during the marine heat wave scientists called “the blob” and has not really recovered since. He also said the pelican population tends to follow the El Niño and La Niña sea surface temperature cycles — doing worse with warm El Niño conditions and better with cold La Niña conditions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California experienced a rare three-year run of La Niña from 2020 to 2023 before El Niño in 2024.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration \u003ca href=\"https://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/analysis_monitoring/enso_advisory/ensodisc.shtml\">predicts\u003c/a> we’ll enter neutral conditions soon and may see La Niña emerge this summer. “The surface fish like anchovies, sardines seem to be more available to surface-feeding seabirds during La Niña conditions,” Anderson said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1992898\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1992898\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/05/240513-BrownPelicans-AlixSoliman-04_qut.jpg\" alt=\"Six brown and white birds stand inside a fence.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1281\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/05/240513-BrownPelicans-AlixSoliman-04_qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/05/240513-BrownPelicans-AlixSoliman-04_qut-800x534.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/05/240513-BrownPelicans-AlixSoliman-04_qut-1020x681.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/05/240513-BrownPelicans-AlixSoliman-04_qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/05/240513-BrownPelicans-AlixSoliman-04_qut-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/05/240513-BrownPelicans-AlixSoliman-04_qut-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Scraggly birds flap their wings in the breeze and preen their feathers in an enclosure at the SPCA of Monterey County. \u003ccite>(Alix Soliman/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>As climate change is expected to make El Niño cycles \u003ca href=\"https://www.climate.gov/news-features/blogs/enso/has-climate-change-already-affected-enso\">more intense and frequent\u003c/a>, Anderson said pelicans may gradually move north to breed. “It’s a complex situation, and it’s dynamic and moving really fast.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "The state’s working hypothesis is that this situation was caused by late spring storms hitting the coast.",
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"title": "California Has a Theory on Why Brown Pelicans Are Starving and Dying | KQED",
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"headline": "California Has a Theory on Why Brown Pelicans Are Starving and Dying",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Emaciated brown pelicans are washing up on California shores in the hundreds. State officials and researchers aren’t sure why, but they think it could be weather-related.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state’s working hypothesis is that this situation, similar to what happened in 2022 when nearly 800 starving pelicans were rescued, was likely caused by late spring storms hitting the coast.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The waters were incredibly choppy, it was very windy, visibility was poor,” said Tim Daly, spokesperson for the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. “Our strongest belief at this point is that the pelicans were simply having trouble reaching the fish that were below the surface.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He said there are plenty of fish and noted that anchovies are particularly abundant this year. The pelicans just can’t find them in the murky water.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Monterey Bay is a particular hotspot in the state’s rescue effort. The \u003ca href=\"https://www.spcamc.org/programs-resources/wildlife-rescue-rehabilitation/wildlife-rescue.html\">Wildlife Rescue and Rehabilitation Center\u003c/a> at the SPCA of Monterey County has taken in more than 100 famished birds over the past month. Staff there have dedicated two outdoor enclosures to the pelicans and converted a staff bathroom into a heated recovery room for birds that can’t regulate their body temperature. Rescue calls started coming in on April 19 and have not yet stopped.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ciera Duits-Cavanaugh, manager of the wildlife center, said the birds are arriving at half the weight they should be and that most rescues are happening on piers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1992901\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1992901\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/05/240513-BrownPelicans-AlixSoliman-06_qut.jpg\" alt=\"A person wearing blue gloves takes a blood sample from a leathery foot of a bird.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1281\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/05/240513-BrownPelicans-AlixSoliman-06_qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/05/240513-BrownPelicans-AlixSoliman-06_qut-800x534.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/05/240513-BrownPelicans-AlixSoliman-06_qut-1020x681.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/05/240513-BrownPelicans-AlixSoliman-06_qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/05/240513-BrownPelicans-AlixSoliman-06_qut-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/05/240513-BrownPelicans-AlixSoliman-06_qut-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Wildlife technicians at SPCA of Monterey County take a blood sample from the foot of a pelican. Like most of the rescued birds, the sample revealed the bird was anemic. \u003ccite>(Alix Soliman/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“[The birds are] targeting places where there’s easy food, so boats that are off-loading fish onto docks, restaurants — anywhere that they can get a hand-out,” Duits-Cavanaugh said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cory Utter, the senior wildlife technician at the wildlife center, said they likely are not saving all the pelicans because most people can’t tell if a bird is struggling. There is one sure sign, though.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If you can walk right up to it, and it doesn’t seem bothered by you, then there’s probably something wrong,” Utter said. Officials recommend people call local wildlife centers if that happens.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last week, a mom and her young son reported a weak-looking pelican drooping its beak into a tide pool at Asilomar State Beach in Monterey County. Two SPCA volunteers crouched down on the rocks, scooped up the bird, and placed it in a dog crate. The pelican didn’t resist. After a short drive back to the wildlife center, the volunteers pulled out the crate. The bird’s eyes were open, but its head was cocked to one side, and it was motionless. It had died in transit.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Storms may be to blame\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Rebecca Duerr, director of Research and veterinary science at International Bird Rescue, said the explanation that early spring storms limit the bird’s ability to find food makes sense, especially since they’ve tested dead pelicans and ruled out avian flu as a possible cause.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Certainly, the visibility and catchability of fish can be an issue for them because they don’t dive very deep — even the biggest brown pelican can only grab fish about 6 feet deep,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1992900\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1992900\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/05/240513-BrownPelicans-AlixSoliman-02_qut.jpg\" alt=\"White and blue birds with long beaks stand on colorful rugs.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1281\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/05/240513-BrownPelicans-AlixSoliman-02_qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/05/240513-BrownPelicans-AlixSoliman-02_qut-800x534.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/05/240513-BrownPelicans-AlixSoliman-02_qut-1020x681.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/05/240513-BrownPelicans-AlixSoliman-02_qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/05/240513-BrownPelicans-AlixSoliman-02_qut-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/05/240513-BrownPelicans-AlixSoliman-02_qut-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Pelicans struggling to regulate their body temperature rest in a warming room at the SPCA Monterey County, between 75–80 degrees Fahrenheit. \u003ccite>(Alix Soliman/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>About one-third to a half of the starving pelicans arriving at rescue centers were injured, she added.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think that brown pelicans take more risks in their feeding — more likely to go after fishing gear and that sort of stuff — when they’re nutritionally stressed,” Duerr said. “A desperate, hungry pelican can get into trouble.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After an odd weather event in 2010, she said, they were found landing in people’s yards and snatching food off of hot barbecue grills.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Pelicans back from the brink\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>California brown pelicans \u003ca href=\"https://www.nps.gov/places/000/california-brown-pelican.htm#:~:text=In%20the%201960s%20and%201970s,the%20sea%20as%20the%20cause.\">almost went extinct\u003c/a> in the 1970s. Researchers found that the toxic chemical DDT entered coastal waters, where it was absorbed by the fish pelicans eat. The chemical changed the calcium metabolism in the birds’ bodies, which made them lay eggs with shells too fragile to withstand the weight of incubation. After DDT was banned, the pelicans recovered and were removed from the endangered species list in 2009.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Brown pelicans’ largest breeding colonies are in the Channel Islands and Baja California, Mexico. Nesting season peaks in March and April, and newborns typically arrive in the Bay Area around May. But Duerr said most of the starving pelicans she’s seeing are older.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The Channel Islands colony, we know, has done a lot of chick abandonment, so there probably won’t be any fledglings arriving,” Duerr said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Daniel Anderson is a retired professor from UC Davis who has studied brown pelicans for over 50 years and helped prevent their extinction. He’s planning to check on the Baja colony this month, but he said he’s not optimistic after seeing how they fared earlier this year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The breeding birds in the Gulf of California are failing miserably,” Anderson said. “Where there would be 20-30,000 nests, this year there were way less than 1000.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1992902\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1992902\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/05/240513-BrownPelicans-AlixSoliman-07_qut.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1281\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/05/240513-BrownPelicans-AlixSoliman-07_qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/05/240513-BrownPelicans-AlixSoliman-07_qut-800x534.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/05/240513-BrownPelicans-AlixSoliman-07_qut-1020x681.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/05/240513-BrownPelicans-AlixSoliman-07_qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/05/240513-BrownPelicans-AlixSoliman-07_qut-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/05/240513-BrownPelicans-AlixSoliman-07_qut-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Nia Newcombe (left) with SPCA volunteers Nancy Cunningham and Philip Johnson after scooping up a starving pelican at Asilomar State Beach. The pelican did not survive. \u003ccite>(Alix Soliman/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Anderson said the Baja population declined in 2014 during the marine heat wave scientists called “the blob” and has not really recovered since. He also said the pelican population tends to follow the El Niño and La Niña sea surface temperature cycles — doing worse with warm El Niño conditions and better with cold La Niña conditions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California experienced a rare three-year run of La Niña from 2020 to 2023 before El Niño in 2024.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration \u003ca href=\"https://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/analysis_monitoring/enso_advisory/ensodisc.shtml\">predicts\u003c/a> we’ll enter neutral conditions soon and may see La Niña emerge this summer. “The surface fish like anchovies, sardines seem to be more available to surface-feeding seabirds during La Niña conditions,” Anderson said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1992898\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1992898\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/05/240513-BrownPelicans-AlixSoliman-04_qut.jpg\" alt=\"Six brown and white birds stand inside a fence.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1281\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/05/240513-BrownPelicans-AlixSoliman-04_qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/05/240513-BrownPelicans-AlixSoliman-04_qut-800x534.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/05/240513-BrownPelicans-AlixSoliman-04_qut-1020x681.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/05/240513-BrownPelicans-AlixSoliman-04_qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/05/240513-BrownPelicans-AlixSoliman-04_qut-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/05/240513-BrownPelicans-AlixSoliman-04_qut-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Scraggly birds flap their wings in the breeze and preen their feathers in an enclosure at the SPCA of Monterey County. \u003ccite>(Alix Soliman/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>As climate change is expected to make El Niño cycles \u003ca href=\"https://www.climate.gov/news-features/blogs/enso/has-climate-change-already-affected-enso\">more intense and frequent\u003c/a>, Anderson said pelicans may gradually move north to breed. “It’s a complex situation, and it’s dynamic and moving really fast.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"slug": "richmond-oil-refining-tax-on-chevron-a-major-polluter-moves-closer-to-ballot",
"title": "Richmond Oil Refining Tax on Chevron, a Major Polluter, Moves Closer to Ballot",
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"headTitle": "Richmond Oil Refining Tax on Chevron, a Major Polluter, Moves Closer to Ballot | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>The Richmond City Council voted unanimously Tuesday night to direct the city attorney to prepare a ballot measure that would tax oil refining, putting the city one step closer to a tax on the Chevron Refinery sought by environmental justice groups.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The tax would help address an anticipated $34 million budget shortfall for the 2024–25 fiscal year, according to Mayor Eduardo Martinez and Vice Mayor Claudia Jimenez, who cited the harm done by oil refining to the environment and public health in introducing the measure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chevron, Richmond’s largest employer and taxpayer, \u003ca href=\"https://www.chevron.com/-/media/chevron/PDF-Reports/Investors/2023-4Q-earnings-pressrelease-.pdf\">netted $21.3 billion in profits\u003c/a> last year and paid $45.9 million in taxes to Richmond in the 2022–23 fiscal year, representing more than 15% of the city’s revenues. Annual revenue from a refining tax could approach $100 million, according to Kerry Guerin, an attorney for Communities for a Better Environment Action, which initially proposed the idea along with the Asian Pacific Environmental Network Action.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We support policies that encourage business investment and seek to create a better quality of life for Richmond residents,” Chevron wrote in a statement sent by company spokesperson Caitlin Powell. “That said, we believe the proposed refining tax is the wrong approach to do that.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chevron called the tax “a hasty proposal, brought forward by one-sided interests” and said it would hinder the company’s ability to improve its facility to better provide clean energy, among other things.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kevin Slagle, a spokesperson for California’s main oil industry group, the Western States Petroleum Association, said oil refining is already more expensive in California than anywhere else in the U.S.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Any additional local taxes or regulatory programs could make operations more challenging and expensive, which could lead to higher costs at the pump for all,” Slagle said in an email.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During Tuesday night’s meeting, Jimenez pushed back on the oil industry assertions and said the new tax revenue would not only fund city operations but also help build green businesses to replace fossil fuel production.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What we are proposing is not going to break things or just to make them leave,” she said. “What we are proposing is to make sure that we continue to advocate for such a big business with billions of dollars to pay their fair share to Richmond.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Oil refining is \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11981095/chevron-owns-this-citys-news-site-many-stories-arent-told\">the largest single source of pollution in Richmond\u003c/a>, with harmful health effects. Emissions of particulate matter from the Chevron Refinery are responsible for \u003ca href=\"https://www.baaqmd.gov/~/media/dotgov/files/rules/reg-6-rule-5-particulate-emissions-from-refinery-fluidized-catalytic-cracking-units/2020-amendment/documents/20210525_10_fsr_0605_app_a2-pdf.pdf?la=en\">5 to 11 premature deaths in Richmond\u003c/a> each year, according to estimations by the Bay Area Air Quality Management District. The air district also cites those emissions as contributing to cardiovascular disease, respiratory illnesses and asthma.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Asthma rates for Richmond residents are higher than 90% of other Californians, \u003ca href=\"https://experience.arcgis.com/experience/6b863505f9454cea802f4be0b4b49d62/\">according to state data\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I myself suffer from asthma. My son, who’s 9 years old, is a two-time cancer survivor,” said Sandy Saeteurn, a political director with the Asian Pacific Environmental Network Action and a longtime Richmond resident.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She said the Chevron Refinery is “continuing to pollute our air, our environment, our health. And yet, we are not seeing them as good neighbors. We want to make sure that they’re investing in our city, investing in our residents and the future of our community.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=news_11981762,news_11981095,news_11975650 label='Related Coverage']Dr. Amanda Millstein, a primary care pediatrician who saw patients for years in Richmond after working in other Bay Area cities, said many parents in the city expect that their children will develop asthma – and added that “they are not wrong.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I have lost track of the number of families who have asked me at the initial visit with their 2- or 3-day-old baby, ‘Doctor, does my baby have asthma?’ Or ‘How will I know when my baby has asthma?’” Millstein said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Most of the dozens of people who spoke during public comment in Tuesday’s city council meeting favored the tax.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Longtime Richmond resident Raphael Castro recalled witnessing the 2012 Chevron Refinery fire and sealing his windows with wet towels to protect his younger sister from breathing the air “because, in North Richmond, we have a higher risk of our children getting asthma,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Timothy Jefferies, a representative of the International Brotherhood of Boilermakers, many of whom work in refineries, was more wary.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We are not against clean air,” Jefferies said. But he cautioned the council to take stock of the good-paying jobs provided by the refinery and “all the indirect jobs, all the indirect economics that this city enjoys because of those jobs.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Richmond voters passed a tax on refineries in 2008, but the measure was challenged in court and struck down in 2009.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Community groups backing this renewed effort said the city can resolve those legal issues this time around. The ballot measure sought by the City Council would go before voters in November.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>The Richmond City Council voted unanimously Tuesday night to direct the city attorney to prepare a ballot measure that would tax oil refining, putting the city one step closer to a tax on the Chevron Refinery sought by environmental justice groups.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The tax would help address an anticipated $34 million budget shortfall for the 2024–25 fiscal year, according to Mayor Eduardo Martinez and Vice Mayor Claudia Jimenez, who cited the harm done by oil refining to the environment and public health in introducing the measure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chevron, Richmond’s largest employer and taxpayer, \u003ca href=\"https://www.chevron.com/-/media/chevron/PDF-Reports/Investors/2023-4Q-earnings-pressrelease-.pdf\">netted $21.3 billion in profits\u003c/a> last year and paid $45.9 million in taxes to Richmond in the 2022–23 fiscal year, representing more than 15% of the city’s revenues. Annual revenue from a refining tax could approach $100 million, according to Kerry Guerin, an attorney for Communities for a Better Environment Action, which initially proposed the idea along with the Asian Pacific Environmental Network Action.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We support policies that encourage business investment and seek to create a better quality of life for Richmond residents,” Chevron wrote in a statement sent by company spokesperson Caitlin Powell. “That said, we believe the proposed refining tax is the wrong approach to do that.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chevron called the tax “a hasty proposal, brought forward by one-sided interests” and said it would hinder the company’s ability to improve its facility to better provide clean energy, among other things.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kevin Slagle, a spokesperson for California’s main oil industry group, the Western States Petroleum Association, said oil refining is already more expensive in California than anywhere else in the U.S.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Any additional local taxes or regulatory programs could make operations more challenging and expensive, which could lead to higher costs at the pump for all,” Slagle said in an email.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During Tuesday night’s meeting, Jimenez pushed back on the oil industry assertions and said the new tax revenue would not only fund city operations but also help build green businesses to replace fossil fuel production.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What we are proposing is not going to break things or just to make them leave,” she said. “What we are proposing is to make sure that we continue to advocate for such a big business with billions of dollars to pay their fair share to Richmond.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Oil refining is \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11981095/chevron-owns-this-citys-news-site-many-stories-arent-told\">the largest single source of pollution in Richmond\u003c/a>, with harmful health effects. Emissions of particulate matter from the Chevron Refinery are responsible for \u003ca href=\"https://www.baaqmd.gov/~/media/dotgov/files/rules/reg-6-rule-5-particulate-emissions-from-refinery-fluidized-catalytic-cracking-units/2020-amendment/documents/20210525_10_fsr_0605_app_a2-pdf.pdf?la=en\">5 to 11 premature deaths in Richmond\u003c/a> each year, according to estimations by the Bay Area Air Quality Management District. The air district also cites those emissions as contributing to cardiovascular disease, respiratory illnesses and asthma.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Asthma rates for Richmond residents are higher than 90% of other Californians, \u003ca href=\"https://experience.arcgis.com/experience/6b863505f9454cea802f4be0b4b49d62/\">according to state data\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I myself suffer from asthma. My son, who’s 9 years old, is a two-time cancer survivor,” said Sandy Saeteurn, a political director with the Asian Pacific Environmental Network Action and a longtime Richmond resident.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She said the Chevron Refinery is “continuing to pollute our air, our environment, our health. And yet, we are not seeing them as good neighbors. We want to make sure that they’re investing in our city, investing in our residents and the future of our community.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Dr. Amanda Millstein, a primary care pediatrician who saw patients for years in Richmond after working in other Bay Area cities, said many parents in the city expect that their children will develop asthma – and added that “they are not wrong.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I have lost track of the number of families who have asked me at the initial visit with their 2- or 3-day-old baby, ‘Doctor, does my baby have asthma?’ Or ‘How will I know when my baby has asthma?’” Millstein said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Most of the dozens of people who spoke during public comment in Tuesday’s city council meeting favored the tax.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Longtime Richmond resident Raphael Castro recalled witnessing the 2012 Chevron Refinery fire and sealing his windows with wet towels to protect his younger sister from breathing the air “because, in North Richmond, we have a higher risk of our children getting asthma,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Timothy Jefferies, a representative of the International Brotherhood of Boilermakers, many of whom work in refineries, was more wary.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We are not against clean air,” Jefferies said. But he cautioned the council to take stock of the good-paying jobs provided by the refinery and “all the indirect jobs, all the indirect economics that this city enjoys because of those jobs.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Richmond voters passed a tax on refineries in 2008, but the measure was challenged in court and struck down in 2009.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Community groups backing this renewed effort said the city can resolve those legal issues this time around. The ballot measure sought by the City Council would go before voters in November.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>A coalition of asset managers and state treasurers, including California’s Fiona Ma, called for a vote against Exxon’s top directors, pushing back on the oil giant for suing a group of its climate-oriented investors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Back in January, Exxon filed a complaint in a Texas court, pressing a judge to block a climate proposal from activist investors Arjuna Capital and Follow This from receiving a vote at its annual board meeting on May 29.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The typical process for Exxon to adjudicate a dispute over a shareholder proposal lies with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, but the company skipped that step and moved to litigate instead, which Ma’s group called an “unprecedented attack on its own investors.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In response, the group called Tuesday for big banks and global asset managers, including JPMorgan Chase and BlackRock, to vote against Exxon CEO Darren Wood and Lead Independent Director Joseph Hooley next week. A day earlier, CalPERS, the state’s pension fund for its employees, \u003ca href=\"https://www.calpers.ca.gov/page/newsroom/for-the-record/2024/why-calpers-is-voting-against-exxonmobil-board-of-directors\">said it would vote against Exxon’s entire board of directors\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The coalition said it takes “no position on the merits” of the proposal from Arjuna Capital and Follow This, which asked Exxon to reduce emissions from users of its products and set supply chain climate targets, but its members “are deeply concerned that ExxonMobil’s actions are aimed at curtailing an important shareholder right.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a statement, Ma said that Exxon’s actions “continue to display disregard for shareowners and their right to have a say in the direction of the company.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=science_1992686,science_1985321,news_11961542 label='Related Coverage']Exxon did not immediately respond to a KQED request to comment, but \u003ca href=\"https://www.reuters.com/legal/exxon-files-lawsuit-against-investors-climate-proposal-2024-01-21/\">the company told \u003cem>Reuters\u003c/em>\u003c/a> that Arjuna Capital and Follow This are “driven by an extreme agenda” and that their proposals do not serve investors’ interests or promote long-term shareholder value.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In theory, the shareholders could push to remove the leaders of Exxon’s board at the meeting next week, but there is no alternative slate of candidates, so pressure on the vote is largely meant to send a message.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If Exxon’s lawsuit against its activist investors is successful, the repercussions could be “devastating,” CalPERS said in a statement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Shareholder rights are a cornerstone of CalPERS’ approach to corporate governance and an essential component of our investing principles,” the statement said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>A coalition of asset managers and state treasurers, including California’s Fiona Ma, called for a vote against Exxon’s top directors, pushing back on the oil giant for suing a group of its climate-oriented investors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Back in January, Exxon filed a complaint in a Texas court, pressing a judge to block a climate proposal from activist investors Arjuna Capital and Follow This from receiving a vote at its annual board meeting on May 29.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The typical process for Exxon to adjudicate a dispute over a shareholder proposal lies with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, but the company skipped that step and moved to litigate instead, which Ma’s group called an “unprecedented attack on its own investors.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In response, the group called Tuesday for big banks and global asset managers, including JPMorgan Chase and BlackRock, to vote against Exxon CEO Darren Wood and Lead Independent Director Joseph Hooley next week. A day earlier, CalPERS, the state’s pension fund for its employees, \u003ca href=\"https://www.calpers.ca.gov/page/newsroom/for-the-record/2024/why-calpers-is-voting-against-exxonmobil-board-of-directors\">said it would vote against Exxon’s entire board of directors\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Exxon did not immediately respond to a KQED request to comment, but \u003ca href=\"https://www.reuters.com/legal/exxon-files-lawsuit-against-investors-climate-proposal-2024-01-21/\">the company told \u003cem>Reuters\u003c/em>\u003c/a> that Arjuna Capital and Follow This are “driven by an extreme agenda” and that their proposals do not serve investors’ interests or promote long-term shareholder value.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In theory, the shareholders could push to remove the leaders of Exxon’s board at the meeting next week, but there is no alternative slate of candidates, so pressure on the vote is largely meant to send a message.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If Exxon’s lawsuit against its activist investors is successful, the repercussions could be “devastating,” CalPERS said in a statement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Shareholder rights are a cornerstone of CalPERS’ approach to corporate governance and an essential component of our investing principles,” the statement said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"link": "/californiareport",
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"amazon": "https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/26099305-72af-4542-9dde-ac1807fe36d5/kqed-s-the-california-report",
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},
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"id": "californiareportmagazine",
"title": "The California Report Magazine",
"tagline": "Your state, your stories",
"info": "Every week, The California Report Magazine takes you on a road trip for the ears: to visit the places and meet the people who make California unique. The in-depth storytelling podcast from the California Report.",
"airtime": "FRI 4:30pm-5pm, 6:30pm-7pm, 11pm-11:30pm",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "/californiareportmagazine",
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"order": 10
},
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM3NjkwNjk1OTAz",
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},
"city-arts": {
"id": "city-arts",
"title": "City Arts & Lectures",
"info": "A one-hour radio program to hear celebrated writers, artists and thinkers address contemporary ideas and values, often discussing the creative process. Please note: tapes or transcripts are not available",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/05/cityartsandlecture-300x300.jpg",
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"airtime": "SUN 1pm-2pm, TUE 10pm, WED 1am",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "City Arts & Lectures"
},
"link": "https://www.cityarts.net",
"subscribe": {
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/City-Arts-and-Lectures-p692/",
"rss": "https://www.cityarts.net/feed/"
}
},
"closealltabs": {
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"info": "Close All Tabs breaks down how digital culture shapes our world through thoughtful insights and irreverent humor.",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/closealltabs",
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"order": 1
},
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"title": "Code Switch / Life Kit",
"info": "\u003cem>Code Switch\u003c/em>, which listeners will hear in the first part of the hour, has fearless and much-needed conversations about race. Hosted by journalists of color, the show tackles the subject of race head-on, exploring how it impacts every part of society — from politics and pop culture to history, sports and more.\u003cbr />\u003cbr />\u003cem>Life Kit\u003c/em>, which will be in the second part of the hour, guides you through spaces and feelings no one prepares you for — from finances to mental health, from workplace microaggressions to imposter syndrome, from relationships to parenting. The show features experts with real world experience and shares their knowledge. Because everyone needs a little help being human.\u003cbr />\u003cbr />\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510312/codeswitch\">\u003cem>Code Switch\u003c/em> offical site and podcast\u003c/a>\u003cbr />\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/lifekit\">\u003cem>Life Kit\u003c/em> offical site and podcast\u003c/a>\u003cbr />",
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"meta": {
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"id": "commonwealth-club",
"title": "Commonwealth Club of California Podcast",
"info": "The Commonwealth Club of California is the nation's oldest and largest public affairs forum. As a non-partisan forum, The Club brings to the public airwaves diverse viewpoints on important topics. The Club's weekly radio broadcast - the oldest in the U.S., dating back to 1924 - is carried across the nation on public radio stations and is now podcasting. Our website archive features audio of our recent programs, as well as selected speeches from our long and distinguished history. This podcast feed is usually updated twice a week and is always un-edited.",
"airtime": "THU 10pm, FRI 1am",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Commonwealth-Club-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
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"meta": {
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"source": "Commonwealth Club of California"
},
"link": "/radio/program/commonwealth-club",
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cDovL3d3dy5jb21tb253ZWFsdGhjbHViLm9yZy9hdWRpby9wb2RjYXN0L3dlZWtseS54bWw",
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},
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"id": "forum",
"title": "Forum",
"tagline": "The conversation starts here",
"info": "KQED’s live call-in program discussing local, state, national and international issues, as well as in-depth interviews.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 9am-11am, 10pm-11pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Forum-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED Forum with Mina Kim and Alexis Madrigal",
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 9
},
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM5NTU3MzgxNjMz",
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"id": "freakonomics-radio",
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"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/05/freakonomicsRadio.png",
"officialWebsiteLink": "http://freakonomics.com/",
"airtime": "SUN 1am-2am, SAT 3pm-4pm",
"meta": {
"site": "radio",
"source": "WNYC"
},
"link": "/radio/program/freakonomics-radio",
"subscribe": {
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/freakonomics-radio/id354668519",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/podcasts/WNYC-Podcasts/Freakonomics-Radio-p272293/",
"rss": "https://feeds.feedburner.com/freakonomicsradio"
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},
"fresh-air": {
"id": "fresh-air",
"title": "Fresh Air",
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"link": "/radio/program/fresh-air",
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?s=143441&mt=2&id=214089682&at=11l79Y&ct=nprdirectory",
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"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/381444908/podcast.xml"
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"here-and-now": {
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"info": "A live production of NPR and WBUR Boston, in collaboration with stations across the country, Here & Now reflects the fluid world of news as it's happening in the middle of the day, with timely, in-depth news, interviews and conversation. Hosted by Robin Young, Jeremy Hobson and Tonya Mosley.",
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"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510051/podcast.xml"
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},
"hidden-brain": {
"id": "hidden-brain",
"title": "Hidden Brain",
"info": "Shankar Vedantam uses science and storytelling to reveal the unconscious patterns that drive human behavior, shape our choices and direct our relationships.",
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"airtime": "SUN 7pm-8pm",
"meta": {
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"source": "NPR"
},
"link": "/radio/program/hidden-brain",
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},
"how-i-built-this": {
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"title": "How I Built This with Guy Raz",
"info": "Guy Raz dives into the stories behind some of the world's best known companies. How I Built This weaves a narrative journey about innovators, entrepreneurs and idealists—and the movements they built.",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/05/howIBuiltThis.png",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510313/how-i-built-this",
"airtime": "SUN 7:30pm-8pm",
"meta": {
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"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/how-i-built-this",
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"npr": "https://rpb3r.app.goo.gl/3zxy",
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/how-i-built-this-with-guy-raz/id1150510297?mt=2",
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"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510313/podcast.xml"
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},
"hyphenacion": {
"id": "hyphenacion",
"title": "Hyphenación",
"tagline": "Where conversation and cultura meet",
"info": "What kind of no sabo word is Hyphenación? For us, it’s about living within a hyphenation. Like being a third-gen Mexican-American from the Texas border now living that Bay Area Chicano life. Like Xorje! Each week we bring together a couple of hyphenated Latinos to talk all about personal life choices: family, careers, relationships, belonging … everything is on the table. ",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Hyphenacion_FinalAssets_PodcastTile.png",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/hyphenacion",
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"order": 15
},
"link": "/podcasts/hyphenacion",
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"spotify": "https://open.spotify.com/show/2p3Fifq96nw9BPcmFdIq0o?si=39209f7b25774f38",
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"rss": "https://feeds.megaphone.fm/KQINC2275451163"
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},
"jerrybrown": {
"id": "jerrybrown",
"title": "The Political Mind of Jerry Brown",
"tagline": "Lessons from a lifetime in politics",
"info": "The Political Mind of Jerry Brown brings listeners the wisdom of the former Governor, Mayor, and presidential candidate. Scott Shafer interviewed Brown for more than 40 hours, covering the former governor's life and half-century in the political game – and Brown has some lessons he'd like to share. ",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/The-Political-Mind-of-Jerry-Brown-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/jerrybrown",
"meta": {
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 18
},
"link": "/podcasts/jerrybrown",
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/id1492194549",
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}
},
"latino-usa": {
"id": "latino-usa",
"title": "Latino USA",
"airtime": "MON 1am-2am, SUN 6pm-7pm",
"info": "Latino USA, the radio journal of news and culture, is the only national, English-language radio program produced from a Latino perspective.",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/latinoUsa.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "http://latinousa.org/",
"meta": {
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"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/latino-usa",
"subscribe": {
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?s=143441&mt=2&id=79681317&at=11l79Y&ct=nprdirectory",
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"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510016/podcast.xml"
}
},
"marketplace": {
"id": "marketplace",
"title": "Marketplace",
"info": "Our flagship program, helmed by Kai Ryssdal, examines what the day in money delivered, through stories, conversations, newsworthy numbers and more. Updated Monday through Friday at about 3:30 p.m. PT.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 4pm-4:30pm, MON-WED 6:30pm-7pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Marketplace-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.marketplace.org/",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "American Public Media"
},
"link": "/radio/program/marketplace",
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"rss": "https://feeds.publicradio.org/public_feeds/marketplace-pm/rss/rss"
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},
"masters-of-scale": {
"id": "masters-of-scale",
"title": "Masters of Scale",
"info": "Masters of Scale is an original podcast in which LinkedIn co-founder and Greylock Partner Reid Hoffman sets out to describe and prove theories that explain how great entrepreneurs take their companies from zero to a gazillion in ingenious fashion.",
"airtime": "Every other Wednesday June 12 through October 16 at 8pm (repeats Thursdays at 2am)",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "https://mastersofscale.com/",
"meta": {
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"source": "WaitWhat"
},
"link": "/radio/program/masters-of-scale",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "http://mastersofscale.app.link/",
"rss": "https://rss.art19.com/masters-of-scale"
}
},
"mindshift": {
"id": "mindshift",
"title": "MindShift",
"tagline": "A podcast about the future of learning and how we raise our kids",
"info": "The MindShift podcast explores the innovations in education that are shaping how kids learn. Hosts Ki Sung and Katrina Schwartz introduce listeners to educators, researchers, parents and students who are developing effective ways to improve how kids learn. We cover topics like how fed-up administrators are developing surprising tactics to deal with classroom disruptions; how listening to podcasts are helping kids develop reading skills; the consequences of overparenting; and why interdisciplinary learning can engage students on all ends of the traditional achievement spectrum. This podcast is part of the MindShift education site, a division of KQED News. KQED is an NPR/PBS member station based in San Francisco. You can also visit the MindShift website for episodes and supplemental blog posts or tweet us \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/MindShiftKQED\">@MindShiftKQED\u003c/a> or visit us at \u003ca href=\"/mindshift\">MindShift.KQED.org\u003c/a>",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Mindshift-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED MindShift: How We Will Learn",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/mindshift/",
"meta": {
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 12
},
"link": "/podcasts/mindshift",
"subscribe": {
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM1NzY0NjAwNDI5",
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}
},
"morning-edition": {
"id": "morning-edition",
"title": "Morning Edition",
"info": "\u003cem>Morning Edition\u003c/em> takes listeners around the country and the world with multi-faceted stories and commentaries every weekday. Hosts Steve Inskeep, David Greene and Rachel Martin bring you the latest breaking news and features to prepare you for the day.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 3am-9am",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Morning-Edition-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/programs/morning-edition/",
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"link": "/radio/program/morning-edition"
},
"onourwatch": {
"id": "onourwatch",
"title": "On Our Watch",
"tagline": "Deeply-reported investigative journalism",
"info": "For decades, the process for how police police themselves has been inconsistent – if not opaque. In some states, like California, these proceedings were completely hidden. After a new police transparency law unsealed scores of internal affairs files, our reporters set out to examine these cases and the shadow world of police discipline. On Our Watch brings listeners into the rooms where officers are questioned and witnesses are interrogated to find out who this system is really protecting. Is it the officers, or the public they've sworn to serve?",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/On-Our-Watch-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "On Our Watch from NPR and KQED",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/onourwatch",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "kqed",
"order": 11
},
"link": "/podcasts/onourwatch",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/id1567098962",
"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5ucHIub3JnLzUxMDM2MC9wb2RjYXN0LnhtbD9zYz1nb29nbGVwb2RjYXN0cw",
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}
},
"on-the-media": {
"id": "on-the-media",
"title": "On The Media",
"info": "Our weekly podcast explores how the media 'sausage' is made, casts an incisive eye on fluctuations in the marketplace of ideas, and examines threats to the freedom of information and expression in America and abroad. For one hour a week, the show tries to lift the veil from the process of \"making media,\" especially news media, because it's through that lens that we see the world and the world sees us",
"airtime": "SUN 2pm-3pm, MON 12am-1am",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/onTheMedia.png",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.wnycstudios.org/shows/otm",
"meta": {
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"source": "wnyc"
},
"link": "/radio/program/on-the-media",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/on-the-media/id73330715?mt=2",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/On-the-Media-p69/",
"rss": "http://feeds.wnyc.org/onthemedia"
}
},
"pbs-newshour": {
"id": "pbs-newshour",
"title": "PBS NewsHour",
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