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California Passes 100% Clean Energy Bill, But Punts On Several Plans For Getting There

/in , /by /The Desert Sun (Palm Springs)by Sammy Roth

California lawmakers passed a bill last week requiring the state to get 100 percent of its electricity from climate-friendly sources like solar and wind. But they didn’t vote on several proposals designed to help California achieve that goal, including a plan backed by Gov. Jerry Brown to connect the power grids of as many as 14 western states, as well as a bill that would have promoted geothermal energy development at the Salton Sea.

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Deeply Talks: Fire & Drought – The Extremes Become Routine

/in , /by /Water Deeply (New York)by Lindsay Abrams

In this month’s episode of Deeply Talks, Water Deeply managing editor Matt Weiser discussed the American West’s dual challenges of water scarcity and wildfires with Crystal Kolden, associate professor of forest, rangeland and fire sciences in the College of Natural Resources at the University of Idaho, and Van Butsic, assistant cooperative extension specialist at the University of California, Berkeley.

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Bills To Create Drinking Water Fund Die In State Legislature

/in , /by /Valley Public Radioby Kerry Klein

California’s legislative session ended last week, and with it, the hopes for a statewide pool of money that would have supported drinking water projects. It was called the Safe and Affordable Drinking Water Fund, and it would have been available for disadvantaged communities in need of water cleanup projects. The fund would have been sourced by fees on residential water bills and on some agricultural producers. But the two bills that set the framework for the fund died in the state assembly last week as California’s legislative deadline passed by.

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OPINION: Proposition 3: An $8.87 Billion Water And Habitat Bond

/in , /by /CALmatters (Sacramento)by Jerry Meral

California needs a clean, safe and reliable water supply to meet its needs as the population grows and the climate changes. Proposition 3 will provide that water supply for people, agriculture, and our native fish and wildlife. Proposition 3 is a general obligation bond, and will not raise taxes. Some of its most important features include

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Report: Oroville Dam Has Unsatisfactory Rating For 2nd Year In A Row

/in , /by /KCRA 3 (Sacramento, Calif.)by Mike Luery

A new report on the safety of more than 1,200 California dams reveals only one dam is listed as unsatisfactory — and that dam is Oroville. In this Butte County town of some 19,000 people, some are getting wary. “Businesses are concerned with getting on with business,” said Eric Smith, CEO of the Oroville Chamber of Commerce. “And folks are wanting to get on and feel they can live safely in their homes.” The new report by the Division of Safety of Dams in the Department of Water Resources shows an old problem is still active at Oroville Dam, which has the “unsatisfactory” rating due to safety deficiencies.

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US Southwest Set For Water Crisis As Levels Continue To Drop At Lake Mead And Lake Powell

/in , /by /Daily Mailby Cheyenne MacDonald

Two major lakes in the Colorado River Basin that operate as one huge reservoir to supply millions of people with water are drying up, scientists have warned. Water levels at Lake Mead and Lake Powell have been steadily declining over the course of a two-decade drought affecting the region. In addition to the extended dry spell hitting the Colorado River Basin, the water supply is suffering a severe ‘structural deficit,’ in which more water is being consumed each year than can be replenished. More than 40 million people and 7,800 square miles of farmland rely on the Colorado River and its tributaries.

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Global Warming, El Nino Could Cause Wetter Winters, Drier Conditions In Other Months

/in , /by /PHYS.org

So here’s the good news: Despite fears to the contrary, California isn’t facing a year-round drought in our warming new world. However, UC Riverside Earth Sciences Professor Robert Allen’s research indicates that what precipitation the state does get will be pretty much limited to the winter months—think deluge-type rainfall rather than snow—and non-winter months will be even dryer than usual, with little or no rain at all. “It is good news,” Allen said. “But only relative to the alternative of no rain at all.”

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Water From The Mojave Desert – One Company’s Plan

/in , /by /Fox Newsby Douglas Kennedy and Rebecca Kesten

They say you can’t get water from a stone, but one man says he can solve California’s water crisis with water from the desert. Scott Slater is the CEO of Cadiz, a California company that owns 45,000 acres in the Mojave, one of the driest places on earth. He says that a few hundred feet beneath the ground surface lies an enormous watershed the size of Rhode Island, about 1300 square miles. He is proposing taking hundreds of trillions of gallons of desert ground water a year and piping it over a hundred miles to the populated suburbs around Los Angeles.

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OPINION: Next California Governor Must Focus On Climate Adaptation

/in , /by /The Mercury News (San Jose)by Jim Wunderman and Jonathan Parfrey

California’s efforts to curb greenhouse gas emissions have made the state an icon in the fight against climate change, a status validated by Gov. Jerry Brown hosting the Global Climate Action Summit in San Francisco next month. Yet despite its success, California is only slowly beginning to take action to help communities adapt to the brutal changes in our climate already well underway. California’s next governor should focus on climate adaptation as an urgent priority to protect California’s businesses and residents — particularly the elderly and the poor — from the ravages of climate change.

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El Niño Fears Grow As Starving Baby Birds Wash Up On California Beaches

/in , /by /San Francisco Chronicleby Peter Fimrite

Scores of starving baby seabirds have been washing up on Northern California beaches this summer, raising fears among scientists that a climatic cycle like the one that wreaked havoc on sea creatures a few years ago may be moving in. More than 100 undernourished common murre babies have been plucked from beaches from Monterey to Marin County by biologists and volunteers with International Bird Rescue and are being rehabilitated at the organization’s Fairfield center.

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