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`Until the Last Drop’ Flows Nimbly through California’s Water Wars

/in , /by /The Modesto Beeby Garth Stapley

Before COVID-19, before George Floyd, before all the demonstrations and even the presidential campaign, we had water wars.

The threat of losing a substantial amount of river water that our farmers depend on was so startling in the summer of 2018 that 1,500 people from Stanislaus, San Joaquin and Merced counties flocked to a well-orchestrated rally in Sacramento. Our elected officials, farmers and regular people vented anger at the proposed “water grab” while the Atwater High marching band brought an air of protest pomp.

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Opinion: Water Recycling Project Fits Needs on Monterey Peninsula Better than Proposed Desalination Plant

/in , /by /CalMattersby Bruce Delgado

Expansion of the Pure Water Monterey recycled water project is the best option for the Monterey region to meet its future water supply needs. Unfortunately, California American Water Co., a private water supplier, is discrediting the project in the hopes of instead getting approval for their much more costly, oversized and environmentally harmful groundwater desalination project to be built in, around and through the city of Marina.

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Cox Introduces $800 Million Water Bill

/in , /by /The Porterville Recorder

Rep. T.J. Cox-D, who represents a portion of Southwestern Tulare County, introduced the Western Water Storage Infrastructure Act, an $800 million bill addressing surface and groundwater storage and water delivery.

The bill is another in a series of bills addressing water infrastructure in the Central Valley that have been introduced in Congress. California representatives Jim Costa-D and John Garamendi-D are co-sponsors of the legislation.

The bill is designed to essentially replace funding authorized by the Water Infrastructure Improvements for the Nation, WIIN, Act, which has been exhausted. The $800 million is more than double what was previously available. The bill also extends the operational and environmental authorities of the WIIN Act to provide continued water supply without adverse impacts to listed species.

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The World’s Largest Battery Could be the Answer to California Blackouts

/in , /by /High Country News and Gristby Emily Pontecorvo

Move over, Australia — California has stolen the claim for largest battery installation in the world. In the middle of a vicious heatwave where demand for air conditioning led to rolling blackouts, an energy development company called LS Power was working hard to add more lithium-ion batteries to its Gateway Energy Storage project in San Diego.

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Its Electric Grid Under Strain, California Turns to Batteries

/in , , /by /The New York Timesby Ivan Penn

Last month as a heat wave slammed California, state regulators sent an email to a group of energy executives pleading for help. “Please consider this an urgent inquiry on behalf of the state,” the message said.

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California Legislature’s End-of-Session Scramble Leaves Environment Bills on Cutting Room Floor

/in , , /by /Palm Springs Desert Sunby Mark Olalde

Monday at midnight marked the deadline for California lawmakers to pass bills out of the Legislature. But in a session replete with the COVID-19 pandemic, racial justice and wildfires, numerous bills were left to die on the cutting room floor.

Among them was the majority of the environmental agenda in what some legislators, environmentalists and public health advocates labeled a disappointment.

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An Extraordinary Summer of Crises for California’s Farmworkers

/in , , /by /National Geographicby Alejandra Borunda

Rosa Villegas woke up at two in the morning on a late August Monday to make her way to the lettuce fields in California’s south Salinas Valley, where she was scheduled to start bagging heads of romaine at 4 a.m. The sky overhead wasn’t its usual dark, star-dotted self as she walked to her car. Instead, it glowed a sickly red, colored by the fires burning on the flanks of the Santa Lucia mountains, just a few miles west.

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Can Community Microgrids Fill the Gap in California’s Plans for 100% Renewable Energy?

/in , /by /PV Magazineby K Kaufmann

The Goleta load pocket is a 70-mile stretch of Southern California coastline that includes the cities of Santa Barbara, Carpinteria and Goleta — combined population around 220,000 — all served by one 220-kV transmission line snaking its way over 40 miles of mountainous terrain.

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Water-Related Conflicts Set to Rise Amid Demand Growth and Climate Impacts

/in , , /by /Reutersby Anastasia Moloney

From Yemen to India, and parts of Central America to the African Sahel, about a quarter of the world’s people face extreme water shortages that are fueling conflict, social unrest and migration, water experts said on Wednesday.

With the world’s population rising and climate change bringing more erratic rainfall, including severe droughts, competition for scarcer water is growing, they said, with serious consequences.

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Wary of More Blackouts, California Board Votes to Keep 4 Aging Generators Operating

/in , /by /Times of San Diegoby Chris Jennewein

California, which imposed rolling blackouts during an oppressive heat wave on two days last month, on Tuesday extended the lives of four aging natural gas-powered generating plants it has been seeking to retire for a decade.

 

 

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