California motorists to begin shouldering costs of carbon auction [Sacramento Bee]
…Starting
Jan. 1, gas and diesel fuel will be subject to California’s cap-and-trade
market, a 2-year-old regulatory mechanism that puts a price on carbon spewed
into the atmosphere. The result will be higher gasoline and diesel prices, and
probably more controversy for a state program that’s already been attacked in
the courts by the business community….The increase is likely to be less than 10
cents a gallon, said Mary Nichols, chairwoman of the California Air Resources
Board, which runs the carbon program….The Western States Petroleum Association,
or WSPA, the leading industry trade group in California, has posted on its
website a prediction that prices could rise 16 to 76 cents a gallon….A group
organized by WSPA, the California Drivers Alliance, delivered petitions with
115,000 signatures to an Air Resources Board meeting in Southern California
last month. The petitions demanded a halt to “the hidden gas tax,” as critics have
labeled it.
Drought
aftermath in Terra Bella: ‘We survived ... we’re hurting’ [Fresno Bee]
Citrus
growers Brent Doyel and Geoffrey Galloway strolled between two vastly different
orchards of mandarins — one vibrant, the other dead. “This is a pretty good
view of what happened around Terra Bella this year in the drought,” said Doyel,
50, a second-generation farmer here. “We survived, but there’s no money being
made. We’re hurting.” In the wake of the state’s third-worst drought on record,
Doyel, Galloway and nearly 600 other growers in this Tulare County region
sweated out an ugly, expensive summer, somehow dodging the worst of a bad
situation….Loss of valuable tree acreage is ranging from 20% to 30%, which is
far lower than initial estimates thanks to the last-minute purchases of some
pricey water. Growers are praying for rain and hoping for federal lawmakers to
make Northern California water easier to get.
Salinas
Valley growers cut water use [Salinas Californian]
Farmers
in the Salinas Valley have claimed for years that they take water conservation
seriously by investing in new technologies that make irrigation more efficient
and by working closely with universities to develop best water-saving
irrigation practices. Their claims are now documented in a new report released
this week by the U.S. Geologic Survey that shows irrigation water use has been
cut from 746 million gallons per day in 2000 to 477 million gallons per day in
2010, representing a savings of 269 million gallon a day….Norm Groot, the
executive director of the Monterey County Farm Bureau, has said even before the
USGS report came out that Monterey county growers have made big strides during
the past couple of decades in reducing the amount of water they use on
crops….While farmers have been adopting new irrigation technologies to conserve
water, they have also managed to increase yields two or three times over, Groot
said.
Editorial: No room for waste in
the California’s water bond [Sacramento Bee]
More
than two-thirds of California voters authorized the state to borrow more than
$7 billion to improve a water system strained by more than three years of
drought. Now the difficult job of smartly targeting problems and effectively
implementing projects is beginning….One of the challenges will be to direct
funds to projects that are coordinated to have the greatest impact on some of
the state’s most pressing needs. Yes, the list of needs is long and many
problems won’t be completely addressed, but significant progress can be made on
how California approaches its demand for water through treatment facilities,
recycling, habitat restoration and storage….The most controversial and costly
aspect of the bond is water storage. There are two distinct camps on how best
to invest the $2.7 billion earmarked for storage….The California Water
Commission, made up of nine members appointed by the governor, will decide
which projects are the most cost-effective and provide the biggest improvement
for the state’s water system….The commission should establish a thorough and
transparent public process to evaluate proposed storage projects.
Opinion: Sen. Dianne
Feinstein's drought relief bill needs closer scrutiny [Los Angeles Times]
No
one is more adept at turning crises into opportunities than representatives of
special interests in Washington. And there are few better opportunities-in-disguise
than the California drought….That's why it's probably a good thing that Sen.
Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) last week abandoned her effort to craft a drought
relief bill in haste and through private conversations with Central Valley
Republican members of Congress and lobbyists for well-heeled water users. Many
of those parties live to overturn the federal Endangered Species Act and Clean
Water Act, which they say deprive Central Valley growers of desperately needed
water….The problem with trying to craft water solutions for California in
Washington is that it can't be done without trampling court rulings and state
laws and policies that apportion an increasingly scarce resource among
increasingly demanding users.
Editorial: Setting the table for
better food policy [Sacramento Bee]
…Bit
by bit, California is already laying the groundwork to bring more choice to
more tables….The California Food Policy Council, a new statewide coalition of
chefs, farmers, community organizers, health policy people and
environmentalists, is now tracking votes and state legislation….It’s an
ambitious grab bag of an agenda, and not all of it sounds appetizing….But in
this, the season of prime leftovers, we salute them. Given California’s
abundance of both farms and foodies, this seems a good a place as any to start
considering food at a policy level. Small changes, properly cultivated, have a
way of growing into big ones. Dig in.
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