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>> All four Republican presidential candidates say they support California's bid to set tougher standards on vehicle emissions during last night's CNN Republican Debate. Here's the text of that portion of the debate.
>> The "feebate" bill got shelved. The California Assembly Bill aims to tax gas guzzlers and give rebates to fuel-efficient car buyers. Ira Ruskin (D-Redwood City) says he'll reintroduce an amended version next month. Earlier: Cali bill calls for "feebate" that would put a fee of up to $2,500 on gas guzzlers.
>> Plastic bottles are a bad idea -- especially if you boil them! Polycarbonate plastic bottles release up to 55 times more bisphenol A -- linked to breast and prostate cancer -- after they've been washed in boiling water. Earlier: Bring your own bottle.
>> A San Carlos man goes zero waste, gets sued by the city. Eddie House canceled his garbage service because he recycled and composted most everything -- to get slapped with a lawsuit. (via Groovy Green)
Being a happy apartment dweller, the many green home improvement questions I get are usually not ones I've had to deal with myself. Many short TV green home improvement shows, however, are popping up to help you out. A few of the newish fun ones:
>> Host Alex Pettitt guides you through your next green project in the Green-it-yourself videos on OnNetwork’s Mainstream Green. (via Utne)
>> The show "Inside Job" on the DIY Network features a "green element" in each episode. Check out this short clip, where carpenter Carter Oosterhouse uses recycled tires as mulch to pad the ground beneath a treehouse.
>> HGTVPro.com has put together a collection of videos on Green Building Best Practices. Watch short videos on everything from xeriscaping to "The Zero Energy House." (via Utne)
Last but not least, here's a little something for the apartment dwellers: A Santa Monica apartment recently got redone greenly, courtesy of Lori Dennis (ASID, LEED AP) of Dennis Design Group. Get the details -- and ogle the pretty pictures.
Image courtesy of Mainstream Green
 Yesterday I noted that enviros have been haranguing the candidates to talk about, and the media to cover, the bigger issue of climate change for months with little success. It appears that this haranguing -- and I use that word affectionately -- will continue today at the Kodak Theatre, before the CNN Democratic Debate begins there.
Basically, the California League of Conservation Voters wants to put the heat on the media. Their beef: The "most-watched reporters" are not asking presidential candidates about global warming issues. "Since January 2007, they have asked presidential candidates a total of 2,938 questions. Just 6 of those questions mentioned global warming."
Want to join them? Show up at 2:30 p.m. today (RSVP here) in front of the Kodak Theatre, ready to march. If you stick around until 4 p.m., you'll spot Teddy Mather -- a.k.a. a costumed bear -- from the National Parks Conservation Association, fighting to make parks a campaign issue. Or if you're not so bold as to march, you can just sign the CLVC petition here.
Image courtesy of CLVC.org
 On the heels of green clean week comes news that California officials agree that many chemicals used in consumer products are not actually safe for us or the environment. The L.A. Times reports that state officials and researchers trying to find new green chemicals to replace the old, questionable ones. Why?:
About 80,000 compounds are used commercially in the United States, and many are polluting the water and air, accumulating in human bodies, spreading globally in the environment and harming wildlife. For nearly all of them, the effects on human health are unknown....
Exposure to toxic compounds is costing Californians an estimated $2.6 billion a year in medical expenses for cancer, asthma and other diseases and lost wages, according to the report by [UC Berkeley research scientist Michael] Wilson and other UC Berkeley and UCLA researchers.
To address those findings, the state Department of Toxic Substances Control's unveiled today a "Green Chemistry Phase 1 Report" with 818 ideas to be considered for "spurring innovation that could lead to nontoxic substitutes for many of the thousands of chemicals on which industries rely." Detailed recommendations are expected to be sent to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in July.
Although it's too early to know how tough the recommendations will be, the fact that California's considering "the environmental effects and "life cycle" costs" of the chemicals we use sounds promising. According to the L.A. Times, "three of the fundamental policies involve creating a new regulatory and enforcement system, strengthening consumer protection laws and better informing consumers about toxic substances in products." So we could, in fact, get a regulatory system with some teeth out of this report.
 In the meantime, you'll have to do your own research to make sure that the products you're using don't have harmful chemicals in them. To that end, here are the posts from green clean week to help you pick out safer cleaning products. And Environmental Working Group's Skin Deep cosmetics database can help you pick out the personal care products that are safest for you and the planet.
You can read more about the California Green Chemistry Initiative here, and even sign up to receive e-mail updates.
Top image via dtsc.ca.gov; bottom image via ewg.org
The Subway to the Sea idea's looks more complicated now, with 19 alternatives -- including not having a subway at all -- on the table. After all, the first round of meetings we had were ostensibly to see "what, if anything, would be built," to quote Jody Litvak of Metro.
So it makes sense that, at this early stage, many options are still on the table for consideration. Thus, we have 19 alternatives -- and the resulting map (above, via Bottleneck Blog) looks quite different from the simpler map we were looking at during the first round of meetings (below).
Weigh in on what you think is best at the upcoming meetings (details on where and when are here). The first one happens tonight at LACMA!
In other traffic news: L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's 2008 Traffic Relief Initiatives (PDF) -- covered more briefly in a press conference yesterday -- lays out the 10 short-term measures for the next 12-16 weeks. Zach Behrens of LAist has a quick rundown of the initiatives.
Edwards may have dropped out of the race, but one Teddy Mather -- a.k.a. a costumed bear -- is joining it a bit belatedly. Before the CNN Democratic Debate at the Kodak Theatre tomorrow, Teddy will show up toting an oversized-petition encouraging the presidential candidates to address national park issues.
This publicity stunt's planned by National Parks Conservation Association, a nonprofit, non-partisan group, in an effort to make parks a campaign issue:
Our national parks, including 24 in California, protect some of America’s most significant landmarks and landscapes. Yet they suffer from air pollution, development threats, a chronic lack of funding, and other threats. So far, few of the presidential candidates are talking about national parks, so Teddy is traveling across the country to help gain attention for park issues during the campaign season.
I'm not sure how successful Teddy will be; enviro's have been haranguing the candidates to talk about, and the media to cover, the bigger issue of climate change for months with little success. Still, Teddy should make for a cute photo opp if you plan to be in the area; he'll be hanging around Hollywood and Vine between 4 - 8 pm tomorrow.
Election-related events will be going on all day in front of the Kodak Theater. Among them: The CNN Election Express Yourself tour stop (11 am - 5 pm), The Barack Obama "Debate Visibility Rally" (2 pm), and the A.N.S.W.E.R. LA anti-war rally (5 pm - 7 pm; via blogging.la) -- and many others. My mention of these other events aren't an endorsement of them, BTW (I'm voting for Clinton).
All the action's almost enough to make one miss the Metro Westside Extension meeting for the Subway to the Sea! The first of that round of meetings also happens tomorrow, starting at 6 pm at LACMA West.
Photo courtesy of NPCA
 >> L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and the L.A. City Council discussed a plan to reduce traffic in some of the city's most congested areas yesterday. Villaraigosa said we'll see more traffic light synchronization, diagonal crosswalks, and smart parking meters. There will also be tougher penalties for people who are caught blocking intersections and tougher enforcement of parking laws by a "Gridlock Tiger Team."
>> Most of all, Villaraigosa urged Angelenos to go Metro; for his own part, Villaraigosa pledged to ride a bus, subway or light-rail line at least once a week. He also publicly announced that he is considering backing the proposal to raise the sales tax by a half-cent to raise money for public transportation.
>> The L.A. blogosphere is abuzz with that traffic news; MetroRiderLA provides a handy roundup of the commentary.
>> O.C. tollway must be built following California environmental laws, since it lost its bid for an exemption. The original plan would have cut across the popular San Onofre State Beach.
>> Will Anaheim get a monorail? The city's mayor, Curt Pringle, "proposed a way to fund such a monorail to connect the tourist area with a planned transportation hub." (via Bottleneck Blog)
>> A U.S. Coast Guard study reports on the aftermath of the San Francisco Bay oil spill last November. The verdict: Poor initial response, but an aggressive mop-up of a fast-spreading spill was conducted. The ship apparently spilled 53,569 gallons of fuel oil, nearly 5,000 gallons less than first estimated. Earlier: The Bay Area gets tainted with thick oil.
>> We may see steep fishing restrictions to save California's Central Valley chinook salmon population, which has been down. Possible reasons: ocean conditions linked to global warming, and/or water exports from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta. Decisions about restrictions is expected to be made in April.
>> A "clean coal" plant in Missouri loses funding. Although "clean coal" is often touted by the coal industry as a cheap energy source, the Department of Energy found that building this plant was anything but cheap.
Photo by andropolis via Flickr
I really should've mentioned this "Marketplace" series earlier, but luckily we live in the age of TiVO and endless Web archiving -- which is to say that “Plan B: Adapting to a Warmer World,” a six-part special series on "Marketplace" from American Public Media, started airing yesterday, but you can catch up by reading and listening to the segments you've missed so far.
"Plan B" begins with the premise that we've already changed the world irrevocably, and thus works to answer the question: "what should we do to prepare ourselves to live in a warmed world?" These aren't the doom-and-gloom stories of what could happen due to climate change; these are post-climate change stories of adaptation and innovation.
Yesterday's segments, for example, covered water issues. In Australia -- where people have seen such drastic climate changes already that a new term, Solastalgia, was coined to name their despair -- rainfall is so scarce that desalination is all the rage. And Aussies are willing to pay up to make that desalination process green -- even if the average family will have to pay an additional $150 a year. "The Australian public is obsessed with its climate footprint," says "Marketplace's" Nate DiMeo. "It's been forced to be."
The stories so far are all quite amazing -- and rather hopeful. There's an atmospheric scientist who wants to use wastewater from shrimp farms in Mexico that currently pollute the environment to instead irrigate and create green pastures -- and make money while doing it. There's a town in the Netherlands where houses are built to float; most of the Dutch already live below sea level, and climate change could raise water levels an additional 25%, after all.
Tomorrow's reports will look at some new, big ideas -- like projects to save animals facing extinction or strange, scientific “geo-engineering” initiatives. Hear them on "Marketplace" and "Marketplace Morning Report," locally broadcast on KCRW 89.9 and KPCC 89.3. Or if you end up missing those, catch up later on the Web.
Photo of a drying Murray River, the longest river in Australia, by Mundoo via Flickr
L.A.-area schools have a new green fundraising tool. Kids raising money can get the first green coupon book for Southern California -- dubbed myGreenSpark redemption book -- and help support green companies while fundraising for their school.
There's a coupon for everyone in myGreenSpark, which covers everything from healthful activities and gear to apparel and gifts to eco-tourism. Businesses got free listings -- so all sorts of companies, big and small, decided to throw in a coupon. As a result, the companies and products represented really run the gamut, from coupons for 10% off an Eco-Me home kit to $500 off solar pool heating from All Valley Solar.
MyGreenSpark is a whopping 570 pages long, listing 150 businesses and 270 coupons. No, not all those green businesses are local; while many green businesses are based in L.A. or Orange County, the majority of the listings are Web-based. Why? "There aren't "Green" stores in every neighborhood," says Don Caronna, one-half of the husband and wife team that created myGreenSpark, "so we ended up with half the coupons in the book being Web-based. We found that most green entrepreneurs can't afford storefronts."
Cost for the book: $30, half of which goes to the the fundraising organization. Schools can register here to get their own fundraisers going. So far, Green Ambassadors, an environmental education program of Environmental Charter High School, is using myGreenSpark to raise funds for its programs. Support it by buying the coupon book via this link.
Enviro-coupon clippers can also buy the coupon book outside of a fundraiser. At least $10 of that purchase will go to the ecoScholarship Fund, which will go toward scholarships for students pursuing environmental careers.
Not all the companies listed in myGreenSpark are all that green. Arbonne, many of whose products have parabens in them, has several coupons in the book, for example. Still, most coupons are for very green products -- and a couple are appropriate for Valentine's Day! A coupon for 15% off Organic Bouquet is in the book (note: Not all Organic Bouquet's flowers are organic, although all are VeriFlora certified), as well as a coupon for a free, $25-worth of flowers if you sign up for organic produce delivery from L.O.V.E.
In fact, myGreenSpark can serve as a green directory of sorts for green businesses. And if you want an actual green directory, you can use the coupon for $4 off the new L.A. version of Greenopia.
Image courtesy of myGreenSpark
 President Bush's last State of the Union Address is met with derision from environmentalists:
>> Think Progress debunks Bush's statements on energy line-by-line in these posts: "Bush Has Repeatedly Blocked Global Climate Efforts" and "Bush’s Policies Have Catered to Energy Interests"
>> David Roberts of Grist live-blogged SOTU: "Next steps -- funding clean coal! Fund renewables and nukes. Fund batteries and auto technologies. Create a fund to fund the fund overseas. Funding! Funding! Never, ever regulation!"
>> The Daily Green emphasizes that Bush's pledge of $2 billion to "an international fund designed to speed the development and deployment of clean energy technologies" comes with strings attached: the U.S. would only contribute if "every major economy" contributes too. DG concludes that this "continues the Bush climate doctrine of shirking bold leadership."
In greener news:
>> Basic tips to help you avoid greenwashed products. First tip: Beware vague claims like natural, and opt for organic certification instead.
>> No more URL-only pages on your printer. GreenPrint World Edition's free software that gets rid of unnecessary pages or space from your print jobs -- while keeping track of the paper, money and greenhouse gases you've saved. I always use print preview and select specific pages before printing, so I won't be downloading it, but the app could help trigger-happy people who print lots of documents. Windows only. (via Lifehacker)
>> Two million new gardens planted this year! That's the goal for the FoodShed Planet Victory Garden Drive, which encourages everyone to take back the "ability to sustain our own lives in nature" and plant a garden already. A poster competition is also a part of the drive. (via Ethicurean)
Photo by Jim Watson / AFP/Getty Images
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