You are now in California and the U.S. Media Coverage category.

Outlook Grim But Not Hopeless As Climate Summit Convenes In San Francisco

/in , /by /KQED (San Francisco)by Craig Miller

This week corporate and civic leaders from around the world will gather in San Francisco for the Global Climate Action Summit. The effort was spearheaded by Gov. Jerry Brown to move the fight against global warming beyond the national commitments made in Paris nearly three years ago. “Look, it’s up to you and it’s up to me and tens of millions of other people to get it together to roll back the forces of carbonization,” says Brown in a promotional video for the summit.

Full Story

OPINION: State Water Project: Our Most Important Infrastructure

/in , /by /Capitol Weekly (Sacramento, Calif.)by Jennifer Pierre

Ask me what tops the list of California’s most critical infrastructure, and I’ll tell you it’s the State Water Project. It’s hard to argue with the fact that water is a prerequisite for all life and a healthy economy. That’s why financing the operation and maintenance of the State Water Project in a responsible, cost-effective manner should be common sense — not a political volley that puts California’s lifeline at risk and threatens ratepayers with a surge in water rates that is easily avoidable.

Full Story

California To Go 100 Percent Carbon-Neutral

/in , /by /CBS Newsby Irina Ivanova

California Gov. Jerry Brown is aiming for the state to be carbon-neutral by 2045. Brown signed an executive order Monday announcing the goal to eliminate carbon emissions in the state within 27 years. He also signed a bill, SB100, making the state’s electricity completely emissions-free by 2045. The bill represents an ambitious move by the world’s fifth-largest economy. “It’s impossible to overstate how significant it is for a state as large and influential as California to commit to 100 percent clean energy,” the Sierra Club said in a statement.

Full Story

Drought Contingency Plan To Ease Pain Of Water Shortage

/in , /by /Mohave Valley Daily Newsby DK McDonald

Current weather patterns and Colorado River water management will result in a drought by the year 2020, affecting communities and farms along the entire Lower Basin, according to officials. Arizona’s water stakeholders, led by Arizona Department of Water Resources and Central Arizona Project, have been engaged for more than two months in crafting Arizona’s approach to the Lower Basin Drought Contingency Plan in an effort to protect Lake Mead, the reservoir formed by Hoover Dam, from falling to critical levels.

Full Story

Crowd Drinks In Water Fest In Santee

/in , /by /The San Diego Union-Tribuneby Karen Pearlman

Several hundred residents poured into the East County Advanced Water Purification Demonstration Project Visitor Center on Fanita Parkway on Saturday to learn about recycled water. The Padre Dam Municipal Water District’s first East County Water Festival celebrated water and showed visitors how it recycles waste and turns it into drinkable water. The free event included a tour of the facility that cleans and purifies wastewater plus educational booths, food, snow cones and iced coffee beverages made using purified recycled water. People planted succulents in small plastic cups they could take home, kids got their faces painted and families posed with water-related props in a photo booth at the event.

Full Story

Saving Troubled Water Systems Requires Flexible Solutions, Not Mandates

/in , /by /Water Deeply (New York)by Michael Kiparsky and Nell Green Nylen

During the hot summer months of 2014, East Porterville, Calif., became a poster child for vulnerable drinking water. Hundreds of shallow wells in this unincorporated Tulare County community ran dry in the midst of statewide drought. Some families had to wait years to have running water again, when their homes were finally connected to the city of Porterville’s municipal water supply. While East Porterville’s experience made headlines around the country, the serious drinking-water problems facing other communities across California are just beginning to receive much-needed attention.

Full Story

CCA 101: How Does Community Choice Aggregation Work? What You Need To Know

/in , /by /The San Diego Union-Tribuneby Rob Nikolewski

The name may sound clunky, but Community Choice Aggregation, or CCA, is one of the hottest energy topics in California and may upend the long-time relationship between utilities and customers. But while the growth of CCAs has led to heated debates across the state within the energy and political spheres, many local utility customers are either unclear or unaware of the subject — even as the City of San Diego slowly deliberates whether to hop on the CCA bandwagon to help it meet its Climate Action Plan that calls for 100 percent of the city’s electricity coming from renewable sources by 2035.

Full Story

Water Conservation Is Only Part Of The Solution

/in , /by /Ventura County Starby Susan Mulligan

After reading the Ventura County Star’s Aug. 12 editorial, “Conserving water still our best bet,” as general manager of the Calleguas Municipal Water District, which is responsible for meeting the potable water demands for 75 percent of Ventura County’s residents, I felt compelled to set the record straight. The editorial indicated that the entire county’s water supplies are deficient and urged water users to “up their game” with respect to conservation. While we agree that water should always be used efficiently, we do not agree that conservation is the only tool needed to manage water supplies, or that the water supply condition across the county is uniform.

Full Story

Delta Caucus Urges Postponement Of Tunnel Hearings

/in , /by /East County Today

Assemblymember Jim Frazier (D-Discovery Bay), co-chairman of the California Legislative Delta Caucus, Friday sent the attached letter from the Caucus to the Joint Legislative Budget Committee, urging postponement of a hearing scheduled Tuesday morning on State Water Project contract extensions and amendments, which has implications for the proposed Delta tunnels project. “The timing of this hearing and lack of adequate notification is deeply disturbing, an example of backroom dealing that causes Californians to distrust their elected leaders. There is no good reason to hold these hearings now. These contracts don’t expire until 2023, five years from now. This is another attempt by proponents of the Delta tunnels to push this project through. I am disappointed the Joint Legislative Budget Committee couldn’t see that this hearing is unnecessary at this time.”

Full Story

OPINION: California’s WaterFix Was Always A Dangerous Deal. Now The Trump Administration Is Making It Worse

/in , /by /Los Angeles Timesby Eric Wesselman and Robert Wright

There are many reasons to oppose the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta water tunnels project, now called the California WaterFix. The Trump administration has just added a few more. The WaterFix is the most controversial and expensive water project in California history. It would install two huge tunnels, at a cost of at least $20 billion, revamping the way the state diverts water from the Sacramento River and the delta to farms and cities to the south. The earlier “peripheral canal” version of this project was voted down in a statewide referendum by a 2-to-1 margin in 1982.

Full Story