Department of Water Resources
A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment
November 13, 2008
5. Agencies, Programs, People –
Schwarzenegger to convene global summit on greenhouse-gas emissions
Associated Press
Environmental rules face budget woes
Capitol Weekly
Hybrid tugboat may give local ports a green push
Pact unveiled that would remove Klamath River dams
Associated Press
Editorial:
River settlement closer
Congressional OK would be hard to swallow for ag, but it's necessary.
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Schwarzenegger to convene global summit on greenhouse-gas emissions
Associated Press – 11/12/08
By Samantha Young, The Associated Press
His conference, announced six weeks ago, itself will be a sizable source of the gases blamed for contributing to global climate change, according to an analysis by The Associated Press.
The AP obtained a list of the more than 1,400 invitees through a California Public Records Act request. If all of them made the trip, their round-trip air travel alone would discharge more than 2,554 metric tons of carbon dioxide - a so-called carbon footprint equivalent to that produced from 424 cars driven for a year.
The Schwarzenegger administration said it plans to account for those carbon emissions and that the value of the conference will outweigh those concerns. It will provide two days of workshops on how industries can reduce their emissions, how governments can encourage environmentally friendly businesses and related topics.
Lisa Page, a spokeswoman for Schwarzenegger, said the administration expects 700 invitees and staff members to attend the summit. The emissions generated from all their travel, energy used at the hotel, food and other services will be offset, she said, by money that will fund alternative energy projects in
In addition, attendees will be provided room keys, name badges, lunch boxes and coffee cups made of recycled material. Water bottles will not be provided, and all leftover food will be donated.
Linda Adams, secretary of the California Environmental Protection Agency, said the conference has been designed to show global leaders how states, local governments and businesses can begin cutting emissions before they face binding international targets.
"Until they know how they can achieve their targets, they are going to be worried about making a commitment," said Adams, a Schwarzenegger appointee. "
When he announced the two-day conference, the Republican governor said he hoped that the ideas it generated would inform U.N. negotiations next month over a new global climate treaty. #
http://www.dailynews.com/breakingnews/ci_10969738
Environmental rules face budget woes
Capitol Weekly – 11/13/08
By John Howard
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s hard-times budget proposal to balance the state’s books hinders
“He seems to be panicked. Instead of moving ahead calmly and deliberately, he is throwing possible solutions out there, giving a sense that he is spooked by the economy. There is a sense of panic, and I think it’s out of character,” said Gary Patton, general counsel of the Planning and Conservation League. “The governor’s immediate instincts are usually right, so I think he’s just spooked.”
The administration, while acknowledging that hundreds of millions of dollars worth of publicly funded construction would be exempt from some environmental rules, says it strongly favors environmental protection and supports the California Environmental Quality Act, the state’s principal environmental protection law. But it notes that the economy is a top priority.
“The governor is not proposing that CEQA be suspended. He remains 100 percent committed to protecting the environment. But during the economic crisis we have to be creative to get people back to work. This (budget proposal) will speed up construction time as much as a year, stimulate the economy and create new construction jobs – without compromising CEQA,” said Lisa Page, a spokeswoman for the governor.
Environmentalists are skeptical.
In a letter to the governor and legislative leaders, the Environmental Defense Fund said it was concerned that the governor's plan emphasized speed at the expense of project quality, reduced the ability of the public to comment on the projects and weakened CEQA.
"One of the most important values of CEQA, especially where publicly funded projects are concerned, is that it provides the public most affected by the projects time to review and comment," said EDF Regional Director Laura Harnish, who urged the administration "to take CEQA exemptions off the table during the budget and job-stimulation conversations."
The budget reflects the dilemma facing the governor, forcing him to choose between the hard realities of the economy and his desire to protect the environment.
Environmentalists note that more than a third of
Schwarzenegger, facing an immediate $11.2 billion budget hole and a potential $28 billion shortage over two years, has called the Legislature into special session to approve an array of changes in state laws to help erase red ink. The big-ticket proposals, such as a 1.5-cent increase in the sales tax and cuts in public education funding, have captured the public’s attention.
But the governor’s other proposals, contained in a 41-page draft of legislation reviewed by Capitol Weekly, target a series of additional issues, including public-private infrastructure plans, workplace rules and overtime laws, hospital construction, speeded-up sales of surplus state property and the expedited construction of transportation projects.
Generally, the goal of the construction proposals is to streamline government regulation and, in the case of the transportation projects, expedite massive public works projects as a shot in the arm to the ailing economy. Some $821.5 milllion worth of projects are targeted for exemptions under the governor’s proposal, including $384 million worth of projects funded by the voter-approved Proposition 1B. The projects are part of the administration’s plan to speed up some $2.3 billion in construction and procurement projects, including $800 million for transit systems to pay for construction and buy equipment.
But the downside is the potential weakening of CEQA and the injection of a new group of political appointees do decide which projects get approved.
One bill, which the governor and even the media described as “historic” and a “landmark,” could be weakened by governor’s own proposal, critics contend.
Among other things, that bill, SB 375 by Senate Leader Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, seeks to cut pollution by curbing suburban sprawl. The bill, which won’t be in full effect for years, sets targets for regional planning organizations, cuts sprawl through “infill” developments to limit commutes and carbon emissions, and requires the state Air Resources Board to oversee the process. Developers, originally opposed, supported the final version of the bill after it included a number of exemptions to CEQA. Environmentalists, too, supported the measure.
The governor’s special-session proposal includes the creation of a top-level panel -- composed of his appointees heading the state Environmental Protection Agency, the Resources Agency and the Business, Transportation and Housing Agency-- who could override decisions by local, regional or state agencies in connection with SB 375, or other laws, according to critics, if the decisions involved some bond-funded projects.
“The administration has quietly proposed waiving all GHG (greenhouse gas) pollution reduction requirements, and other environmental requirements, for large transportation and flood projects as part of its “economic stimulus” proposals in the budget,” one Capitol expert’s private analysis said.
In addition, agencies must act on permit applications for transportation or flood control projects within 15 days, or the project is automatically approved. If the agency rejects the permit, the tribunal can override the decision.
The result is that projects will get a green light, regardless of their environmental impact, according to environmentalists.
For example, the disputed widening of U.S. Highway 50, a busy east-west highway that runs from
“They (the administration) is going through the back door,” Magavern said. “It really is making policy. In the Highway 50 case, local environmentalists won a decision in court preventing the project from going ahead, without a CEQA review. This proposal would overturn that decision.”
The proposals were disclosed in the Capitol even as an international conference called by the governor on global warming was scheduled to convene in
Any weakening of CEQA carries an additional problem.
The ARB is scheduled to adopt the state’s blueprint to fight carbon emissions by the end of the year. The board’s approval means work will begin on writing the pivotal carbon emissions regulations that will actually put the program into effect, with the goal of reducing greenhouse gases to 1990 levels by 2020. But those regulations will not take effect until 2012. For the three-year period until the new regulations take effect, the state’s main environmental safeguard will be CEQA. Some of the AB 32-related provisions already are in effect, but a big piece of the law -- the creation of a cap-and-trade system to control pollution credits -- won't be in place until 2012.
But if CEQA is weakened now, the state’s environmental protections will be weakened during the next three years, critics contend. What happens then?
“That’s the problem,” Patton said. “Currently, CEQA is the main environmental tool. For three years, until we get the protections of AB 32, the only mechanism that can be used is CEQA.”
Another problem, fiscal as well as environmental, is the governor’s special-session proposal to suspend the Williamson Act, a state-backed plan that compensates farmers for hanging on to their land instead of turning it over to developers. Suspending the law saves the state an estimated $34.7 million in reimbursements. But the agreements with the farmers include 10-year and 20-year agreements. Suspending the state’s promise of reimbursements leaves the counties on the hook for the money.
“Virtually every environmental organization that lobbies in
But the administration, defending the governor’s role as an environmental advocate, believes the governor is striking a proper balance between environmental safeguards and environmental necessity.
“We have drastic problems that require drastic and immediate action,” Schwarzenegger said when he announced his budget plan. A key piece of that is “pushing out and expediting infrastructure bond monies to create jobs and help unemployed residential construction workers in the hardest hit areas of the state get trained in a new type of construction.” #
Hybrid tugboat may give local ports a green push
By Ronald D. White
For all of its 21st-century advancements, the shipping industry drags a lot of old technology around.
Giant vessels are so sophisticated these days that they require only a handful of crew members. But the ships still burn a thick, dirty sludge called bunker fuel while at sea and slurp diesel to keep the lights and air conditioning running while in port.
Inefficient yard tractors and cranes guzzle fuel and spew exhaust as they stack containers. And tugboats, pound for pound the most powerful vessels on the water, waste most of that muscle idling or cruising.
Now, as seaports try to raise their environmental standards, some companies are finding business opportunities.
Foss Maritime Co. of
The stakes are high, said William Lyte, co-founder of Technoplex Group in
"The ports have about $5 billion in expansion projects they want to do, and they can't do it without mitigating the impact of pollution. Green systems will have to be in place to get these projects approved," Lyte said. "Companies from all over the world will be trying to sell that kind of technology here, so
Those companies will discover what Foss learned. The ports of
"We asked for help to offset the increased capital costs of doing this," said Susan Hayman, vice president of environmental and corporate development for Foss. "Partnerships are supposed to help jump-start new ideas, and this one is working exactly the way it was supposed to."
Geraldine Knatz, executive director of the
"The concept of a hybrid tug really gets to the heart of our technology advancement program, where both ports have set aside a funding pool for the development of clean-technology applications in a maritime environment," she said of the $15-million, five-year program. "So it's very exciting for us to see this concept that Foss brought to us come to fruition."
The Foss tugboat, which is being built in a factory in
Outwardly, it looks much like other tugboats. Inside, the tug is so different that it will be able to operate like a regular work boat while using less fuel and expelling less exhaust.
The idea had been kicking around Foss' offices since 2006, based on the knowledge that tugboats tend to run on full power only 7% of the time and waste their 5,000-plus horsepower by idling 50% of the time. Knowing that railroads were moving to electric propulsion, Foss initially looked at switching locomotives, which are used to move trains inside rail yards.
There was one big problem.
"The batteries were too heavy. They would have sunk the boat," Foss Chief Engineer Rick McKenna said.
The solution came from the oil industry.
Aspin Kemp & Associates of
The engineering firm designed a way to run the diesel engine and the electrical motor generator through the same drive shaft, McKenna said, enabling Foss to switch to smaller batteries and smaller diesel engines.
"It drives like a normal tug," McKenna said. The system's design would enable most existing tugboats to switch to the diesel-battery setup through a retrofit. Foss is hoping that will be a key selling point.#
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-tugboat13-2008nov13,0,2191379.story
Pact unveiled that would remove Klamath River dams
Associated Press – 11/13/08
GRANTS PASS, Ore. (AP) — The Bush administration has announced a nonbinding agreement for removing four dams along the Klamath River, a key to resolving the basin's long-standing trouble balancing the water needs of farms and fish.
While not a final answer, the deal represents a milestone toward what would become the biggest dam removal project in
It also would help resolve issues at the root of the 2001 shut-off of irrigation to thousands of acres of farmland under enforcement by U.S. marshals and the 2002 deaths of 70,000 adult salmon in the river after irrigation water was restored.
The agreement in principle reached in
According to a copy obtained by The Associated Press on Wednesday, the agreement is a roadmap for turning the dams over to a nonfederal entity and starting to remove them by 2020.
Though the Bush administration has opposed removing hydroelectric dams elsewhere, Interior Department Counselor Michael Bogert said it recognized that removing the four dams could help create "a comprehensive approach to deal with the issues and images we saw in the
Pressure has been building for years on the dam's owner, PacifiCorp, to make a deal.
Federal biologists mandated that fish ladders and other improvements costing $300 million be added to the dams before a federal operating license could be renewed.
The deal embraces a $1 billion environmental restoration blueprint for the
Dean Brockbank, vice president and general council for PacifiCorp, said though the agreement was nonbinding, the utility was committed to seeing it through to removal of the dams.
He added the company's four key concerns were all met: PacifiCorp is protected from liability, there is a $200 million cap on removal costs to be born by ratepayers, dam removal is far enough in the future to avoid a scramble for replacement power, and PacifiCorp's capital expenditures were held to a minimum.
Deadline for a binding agreement is June 30, 2009, and farmers, Indian tribes and other parties that endorse the agreement in principle get a place at the table. Then the federal government undertakes studies to be sure dam removal is feasible and cost-effective.
Besides the $200 million in removal costs to be born by ratepayers, the state of
PacifiCorp also committed to paying
"The health of the Klamath River is critical to the livelihood of numerous
The Karuk Tribe had led demonstrations at PacifiCorp stockholder meetings demanding dam removal, but spokesman Craig Tucker said the agreement represented a new working relationship with the utility, "and we are looking forward to working with them as partners in the future."
Glen Spain of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations, which represents
"It is a break out of gridlock into a dam removal pathway that shows great promise."
But Oregon Wild, a Portland-based conservation group kicked out of basin restoration talks, blasted the deal, saying the Bush administration was imposing a lot of conditions favorable to PacifiCorp and punting a problem it had failed to resolve in eight years.
Built between 1908 and 1962, the four dams block salmon from 300 miles of spawning habitat while producing enough electricity to power about 70,000 homes. #
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5i4HAakwXZYosUwUCFDwwUj6Fp_fQD94DV2S80
Editorial:
River settlement closer
Congressional OK would be hard to swallow for ag, but it's necessary.
The 20-year struggle to resolve the question of
It's not a solution that pleases everyone, but it is in everyone's best interests to settle this issue and move on.
The legislation grew out of a settlement of a case brought by environmentalists in 1988. The suit charged that construction of Friant Dam illegally diverted water needed to maintain historic salmon runs in the river.
Farmers and water agencies in the Valley reached a settlement in the case that will reduce water for farming as it restores the flow of the river in an effort to bring the salmon back. But they feared they might lose even more if the case ended up being decided by a judge.
The settlement requires federal approval and funding. The money was the hang-up over the past two years, as many in Congress balked over the $250 million price tag.
Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who sponsored the Senate version of the legislation and worked to sort out the knotty details, rewrote the bill to provide $88 million in guaranteed river restoration funding. That helped break the logjam, but it means the balance of restoration funds must be sought in future years.
This has been a difficult two-decade passage. It might have saved everyone a great deal of costly litigation if Friant Dam hadn't been built and water diverted from the river.
But then a multibillion-dollar agricultural economy wouldn't have grown up and down the east side of the Valley. Dozens of small communities rely on the farms that are supplied by water from behind Friant Dam, and there are plenty of anxieties about what will happen if that water is restored to the river.
In this case the law was clearly on the side of the environmentalists, and there was every indication that the courts would have ordered even more water restored to the river if the case had proceeded. It is galling to many in agriculture, but the settlement is almost certainly the best deal they could get.
The restoration bill has bipartisan support in Congress, in addition to Feinstein, from Reps. George Radanovich, R-Mariposa, Jim Costa, D-Fresno, and Dennis Cardoza, D-Merced, although Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Visalia, who represents much of the Valley's east side, has been a persistent foe.
It may not feel that good, but it's better than the alternative. #
http://www.fresnobee.com/opinion/story/1005551.html
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