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Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a champion of cracking down on global warming emissions, is also renowned for driving Hummers and flying his private jet. In a speech Wednesday to hundreds of delegates gathered for a "Global Climate Summit" in Los Angeles, the former movie star explained why his luxurious lifestyle doesn't mean he's not personally green. A transcript: In California we have been adopting green policies as fast as we can develop them, because we know this is the only way to go and that's how we can inspire the creation of new technology, which I think will save us all.
It's all about technology, because we all know that the guilt trip that we have put on people has not worked, to tell them that they should not use the Jacuzzi, or the big, large plasma TV, or to drive with a big SUV, a Hummer or something like that. (Laughter)
Or to fly with a plane.
All of those things did not work because the fact of the matter is the people should use a big television set -- but it should be powered by solar.
They should go and sit in the Jacuzzi, in the biggest Jacuzzi in the world -- but it should be powered by solar.
They should fly their airplane whenever they want -- but it should have maybe a different kind of designed engine so we don't use fossil fuel.
Or they should go and stay in their SUVs and in their Hummers -- but maybe have that Hummer be powered by electric motors or something like that. So it's technology that really needs to be changing, not that we're driving a car or taking a Jacuzzi or any of those things.
God forbid we would stop the Jacuzzi. (Laughter)
-- Margot Roosevelt
Photo: Schwarzenegger's fondness for Hummers goes way back: In 2001, in New York, he poses to give thumbs up at the world premiere of the H2 Sport Utility Truck. Credit: Peter Morgan / Reuters
California's U.S. senators, Democrats Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer, got top grades from the League of Conservation Voters in the environmental group's annual congressional scorecard. Both earned 100, as did 14 of the state's House members, giving the California delegation more perfect scores than any other state.
But being the diverse place that California is, the delegation also racked up its share of zero scores -- 11, to be precise.
The ratings were based on 11 Senate and 13 House votes, most of which dealt with energy issues. Feinstein and Boxer consistently supported renewable energy and energy efficiency, according to the league, which has been rating Congress on environmental matters for 30 years.
The league gave a rating of A+ to Reps. Barbara Lee (D-Oakland), Ellen O. Tauscher (D-Alamo), Pete Stark (D-Fremont), Anna G. Eshoo (D-Menlo Park), Michael M. Honda (D-San Jose), Zoe Lofgren (D-San Jose), Lois Capps (D-Santa Barbara), Howard L. Berman (D-Valley Village), Adam B. Schiff (D-Burbank), Henry A. Waxman (D-Beverly Hills), Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles), Jane Harman (D-Venice), Linda T. Sanchez (D-Lakewood) and Susan A. Davis (D-San Diego).
The "F" class included Reps. Wally Herger (R-Chico), Dan Lungren (R-Gold River), Devin Nunes (R-Tulare), Kevin McCarthy (R-Bakersfield), Elton Gallegly (R-Simi Valley), David Dreier (R-San Dimas), Ed Royce (R-Fullerton), Gary G. Miller (R-Diamond Bar), Dana Rohrabacher (R-Huntington Beach), John Campbell (R-Irvine) and Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Alpine).
-- Bettina Boxall
Photos: Left: Rep. Elton Gallegly. Credit: Stephen Osman / Los Angeles Times. Right: Rep. Jane Harman. Credit: Karin Cooper / Associated Press
 As an environmental reporter for the L.A. Times, with a particular focus on global warming, I have too many newly published books crossing my desk. Do I feel guilty that I don't have the time to read them all? Of course. And do I feel ashamed not to have absorbed the thousands of pages and graphs disgorged over the past eight years by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the Nobel Prize-winning group of the world's leading climate scientists? To be sure.
But now comes a handy guide for every harried individual daunted by the complexities of greenhouse effects, carbon-cycle feedbacks, ocean conveyor belts and climate modeling. "Dire Predictions: Understanding Global Warming" bills itself as "The illustrated guide to the findings of the IPCC." If that sounds dull, think again. The 208-page volume, from DK Publishing, known for its "information architects," is chock-full of easy-to-understand graphics overlaid on stunning photographs, with simple text that even the science-challenged can grasp.
But simple doesn't mean dumbed-down. The authors are climatologist Michael E. Mann, director of Penn State's Earth System Science Center and lead author of the 2001 IPCC report's chapter on "Observed Climate Variability and Change," and Lee R. Kump, a Penn State geosciences professor with 75 peer-reviewed publications under his belt. Mann, a founder of the science-based RealClimate.org website, is also known as the father of the "hockey stick" graph of temperature trends.
The book is divided into five parts: Climate Change Basics, which answers such questions as "Why is it called the greenhouse effect?" and "What can a decade of western North American drought tell us about the future?"; Climate Change Projections, which looks at what's expected in the next century and how different regions are expected to vary; The Impacts of Climate Change, which explains the effects from coral reefs to polar permafrost; Vulnerability and Adaptation to Climate Change, which examines economic effects, water and agriculture; and Solving Global Warming, which analyzes strategies from green building to geoengineering and advises on how to cut your own carbon footprint.
Southern Californians take note: There's a section on Is it time to sell that beach house?
— Margot Roosevelt
Photo credit: DK Publishing Inc.
 Lead wheel weights, which are used to balance vehicle tires, will be phased out in California by the end of 2009 under a court settlement this week with environmentalists, according to an article today by Times staff writer Martin Zimmerman.
In the suit filed in May by the Center for Environmental Health against Chrysler and three lead wheel weight makers, the group said the car parts threatened drinking water. Environmentalists said wheel weights falling off vehicles release 500,000 pounds of lead into the environment. The wheel weights are "ground down by passing vehicles and the lead can find its way into drinking water supplies" and landfills where they can leach into groundwater, the article says.
Zimmerman says some observers see the settlement as a first step toward a broader ban on the wheel weights. Lead is a highly toxic metal that can cause brain damage and other nervous-system disorders, especially in young children. It has been used to make wheel weights for decades because it is cheap and heavy, allowing mechanics to use relatively small weights when balancing tires. (Unbalanced tires can wear unevenly and pose a safety hazard.)
The lead wheel weights were banned in the European Union in 2005 and are being phased out in Japan and South Korea, according to the article. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is sponsoring a voluntary initiative to reduce the use of lead wheel weights but has not banned them, the article says.
-- Tami Abdollah
Environmental secretaries from all 10 U.S.-Mexico border states met today for the Border Governors Conference in Hollywood. They signed the Tire Initiative Letter of Understanding, which includes "tire pile prevention measures" and tries to eliminate the public health risks.
Often disease-carrying pests such as rodents inhabit these tire
piles. After a rainfall, mosquitoes may breed in the stagnant water
collected inside tires and carry deadly diseases such as encephalitis,
West Nile virus, dengue fever and malaria.
Scrap-tire fires are difficult to extinguish and can burn for weeks
or months releasing thick black smoke that can contaminate the soil
with oily residue, generate significant liquid waste and contaminate
ground and surface water.
So far 4 million scrap tires have been removed from the U.S.-Mexico border to decrease the risk of fires and disease that they pose to border residents, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
The Tire Initiative is a joint partnership by the EPA and the Mexican Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources. Representatives at the conference were from California, Baja California, Sonora, Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo Leon, Tamaulipas, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas.
State and local governments on both sides of the border as well as private industry such as the U.S. Rubber Manufactures Assn., have joined in implementing Tire Initiative's measures, according to the EPA.
Last month, the California Integrated Waste Management Board awarded $325,000 to El Cerrito in Contra Costa County and Baldwin Park to divert 21,000 waste tires from California landfills and use them to create rubberized asphalt concrete.
The EPA's Border 2012 U.S.-Mexico Environmental Program works to protect the environment and public health for 10 states on both sides of the 2,000-mile border.
-- Tami Abdollah
Photo: Dump truck and tractor tires. Credit: Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times
California declared a victory today in the battle against the annoying Mediterranean fruit fly, according to a story by Times staff writer Jerry Hirsch. The 103-square-mile Los Angeles County quarantine is no longer being enforced and will be formally lifted after paperwork is completed in a few days, the story says.
The state's Department of Food and Agriculture said there are no remaining Mediterranean fruit fly infestations in the state, after determining them to have cleared out of Los Angeles, Santa Clara and Solano counties.
State officials used sterile male Medflies to dwindle the population and ultimately kill it off in order to end the infestation, the story says. The tactic has been used "almost exclusively" since 1996. The Mediterranean fruit fly is one of many pests that threaten agriculture and residential gardens in California. As travel and commerce increase worldwide, the variety of pests breaching the U.S. border is on the rise.
State and farm officials, for example, are now concerned about the Asian citrus psyllid, a tiny insect that can carry a disease that kills citrus trees. It has been discovered just blocks south of the border in Tijuana, sending shock waves through the California citrus industry.
Over the last four decades, the state has spent more than $500 million and "tons of insecticides" in the effort to eradicate the exotic fruit fly, the story says. Medflies can infest more than 260 types of fruits and vegetables, laying eggs in produce and therefore making it inedible, state officials told Hirsch.
-- Tami Abdollah
Photo: Up close and personal with a Medfly. Credit: Stephen Osman / Los Angeles Times
The death of frogs, salamanders and other amphibians could be a sign of a larger biodiversity disaster, according to an article published online this week by researchers from the University of California, Berkeley and San Francisco State University.
"Are we in the midst of the sixth mass extinction? A view from the world of amphibians" was co-authored by David B. Wake and Vance T. Vredenburg, and published online in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Wake and Vredenburg concluded the "substantial die-offs of amphibians and other plant and animal species add up to a new mass extinction facing the planet." A 2004 study by the researchers found that nearly one-third or more of roughly 6,300 amphibian species are threatened with extinction: Amphibians have received much attention during the last two decades because of a now-general understanding that a larger proportion of amphibian species are at risk of extinction than those of any other taxon. Why this should be has perplexed amphibian specialists. A large number of factors have been implicated, including most prominently habitat destruction and epidemics of infectious disease; global warming also has been invoked as a contributing factor. What makes the amphibian case so compelling is the fact that amphibians are long-term survivors that have persisted through the last four mass extinctions.
The scientists study of frogs in California's Sierra Nevada Mountains showed that a disease caused by a fungal pathogen has had a "devastating" impact on the species -- in addition to the effects of pollution and new predators. The new disease, chytridiomycosis, may be spreading across the globe, including key tropic areas, and its effects may be worsened by global warming. The researchers believe the fungus may be linked to the serious declines and extinctions of more than 200 species of amphibians and "poses the greatest threat to biodiversity of any known disease," according to the article.
Of the Sierra Nevada's seven amphibian species, five are threatened. Two of these species, the Sierra Nevada yellow-legged frog and the Southern yellow-legged frog, had their populations decline by up to 98% over the last few years, even in highly-protected areas such as Yosemite National Park.
The National Science Foundation and National Institutes of Health helped fund the study.
-- Tami Abdollah
Photo: A mountain yellow-legged frog tadpole. Credit: Zoological Society of San Diego
Check out Times staff writer Richard Simon's story today on Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's softening stance on offshore drilling.
According to the story, Pelosi and other House colleagues are considering legislation that would allow new offshore drilling as part of a broad energy bill out of worries that Democrats aren't doing enough to address high gas prices during an election year. The issue has presented Pelosi with a sticky political problem. On one hand, with gas prices on voters' minds, public support for offshore drilling has increased, even in California, where a 1969 oil spill devastated the coast off Santa Barbara. Republicans have spotlighted Pelosi's opposition to new coastal drilling in attacks on Democrats throughout the country.
But the drilling ban has long been a priority for environmentalists, an important Democratic constituency, and party leaders prefer to shield their members from politically tough votes close to an election.
Last month President George W. Bush lifted an 18-year-old ban on new oil and gas drilling along U.S. coastlines and called on Congress to do the same because of high gas prices.
Meanwhile in California and across the country this week, crude oil prices continued to slide downward bringing motorists slight relief at the pumps.
-- Tami Abdollah
Photo: Offshore oil rigs near the Rincon Beach area in Ventura County. Public support for new offshore drilling has increased, even in California. Credit: Spencer Weiner / Los Angeles Times
A coalition of environmental, fishing and community organizations spoke out against Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sen. Diane Feinstein's push for a $9.3-million water bond in November, arguing it would worsen California's water crisis while increasing its debt.
Earlier this summer, Schwarzenegger declared California was in a drought and facing a severe water "crisis." He and Feinstein have pushed for the passage of the Safe, Clean, Reliable Drinking Water Supply Act of 2008*, a bond that aims to ensure a reliable annual water supply by increasing storage, improve the process through which water is conveyed throughout the state and increase conservation and efficiency.
The coalition argues that officials should create "new management solutions" rather than fund the "same kinds of projects that have pushed California's water system to the brink." It suggests enforcing land use regulations based on true water availability, creating a statewide conservation program, protecting watershed and aquatic ecosystems and creating water policy that focuses on sustainability and equity.
Coalition groups include Environment Now, Planning and Conservation League, Environmental Justice Coalition for Water, Clean Water Action, and the Community Water Center.
--Tami Abdollah
*Was previously written as "Safe Drinking Water Act" as referred to by a member of the coalition.
Photo: Water flows in an irrigation canal in a cornfield on Andrus Island near Isleton, California, July 16, 2008 in the Delta region of Central California. The Delta region is the heart of the California water system where the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers converge before flowing to San Francisco Bay. Credit: Robert Durell / Los Angeles Times
Though Lake Tahoe continues to warm, the clarity of its waters were little affected by smoke and ash from last summer's Angora fire and the lake has continued to turn bluer, according to a report released today by the UC Davis Tahoe Environmental Research Center.
Deposits of nitrogen and phosphorus from smoke and ash were estimated to be 2.5 to 7 times their normal summer rate, but was still only 1% to 2% of all deposit sources annually.
Because 2007 was the 14th driest year on record, the impact of pollutants such as those phosphorus and nitrogen particles being carried into the lake by streams and urban runoff has thus far been negligible, the report said. Scientists warned that the long-term effects, especially in the 3,100-acre burn area of the Angora fire, may not be known for several years.
The 60-page "Tahoe: State of the Lake Report 2008 " was the second such report completed by scientists from the university who have monitored Lake Tahoe for nearly 40 years. Writes Geoffrey Schladow, the center's director, in the introduction: This report is not intended to be a scorecard for Lake Tahoe. Rather, it sets the context for understanding what changes are occurring from year to year: How much did the Angora Fire affect Lake Tahoe? Was Lake Tahoe warmer or cooler than the historical record last year? Are algae increasing? And, of course, how do all these changes affect the lake’s famous clarity?
All those answers, and more (including some nifty graphs), in that report.
-- Tami Abdollah
Photo: A 1997 photo shows a greenish algae caused by sediment flowing into Lake Tahoe that discolors portions of the deep blue water. Some worried the entire lake could eventually become gray-green. Credit: Bob Chamberlin / Los Angeles Times
 The California Department of Parks and Recreation will begin removing a berm next week — built up over 20 years to be 30 feet high and wide and 1,000 feet long — that blocks the waters of Topanga Creek and keeps endangered steelhead trout from reaching the ocean year-round.
Local residents in the 1960s through the 1980s piled material, including asphalt, concrete, soil and possibly cars, onto the area off Rodeo Grounds Road and Topanga Canyon Boulevard, to ensure their homes weren't flooded during heavy rains.
The $3-million project, paid for by various state and local agencies, will remove 26,000 tons of material and test it for lead contamination before trucking it to landfills. It also will remove non-native plants and restore the riparian area with native plants such as cottonwoods and sycamores.
The berm removal should be done by early October, and restoration of the 12-acre area by late fall, according to state officials.
Officials hope the restoration will give the federally endangered Southern California steelhead trout, a silvery gray-speckled fish about 2 to 3 feet long, a chance to make a comeback.
About 60 years ago, roughly 1,500 steelhead swam from the ocean and up the creek to spawn in the winter. Now, only about 10 swim Topanga Creek each year, and “those that show up are faced with barriers and bad habitat,” said Nica Knite, a Southern California manager with California Trout, a conservation group.
As recently at the 1950s, about 50,000 steelhead swam in southern waterways, from the Santa Maria River to Baja California’s Domingo Creek. Today, fewer than 500 swim that area, Knite said.
These Southern California steelhead hold a special place in the evolutionary chain, with DNA that makes them descendants of the original species that appeared after the Ice Age melt, Knite said.
“They’re actually the first ones that evolved, and they are able to tolerate the warmer waters that we have in Southern California,” said Suzanne Goode, a senior environmental scientist with the parks department. “This is really significant because of climate change. The fish up north cannot tolerate the warm waters, so as northern streams become warmer, we may hold the key to having steelhead trout.”
— Tami Abdollah
Photo: A steelhead trout. Credit: Dugald Stermer / For The Times
In case you missed it (and online, unfortunately, it wasn't hard to miss), Los Angeles Times staff writers Bettina Boxall and Julie Cart finished off their "Big Burn" investigative series this past week on the growing "big business" of fighting fires. Part One: Big Fires, Big Business
"A century after the government declared war on wildfire, fire is gaining the upper hand. Wildland blazes are growing bigger, fiercer and harder to put out. Firefighting costs are rising, too, and much of the money is going to private contractors."
Part Two: Political Meddling and Costly "Air Shows"
"Fire commanders are often pressured to order firefighting planes and helicopters into action even when they won't do any good. The reason: Aerial drops of water and retardant make good television. They're a visible way for political leaders to show they're acting decisively to quell a fire. Firefighters call them "CNN drops."
Part Three: Living in Fire's Embrace
"More and more Americans are moving into fire-prone canyons and woodlands. The settings are picturesque but road networks are often inadequate. In a wildfire, everyone may not be able to get out safely."
Part Four: Lost Landscapes
"From Frederic Remington paintings to Gene Autry songs and John Wayne movies, the cultural imagery of the West is steeped in sagebrush. Now, a devastating cycle of fire, fueled by non-native plants, is wiping sagebrush from vast stretches of the Great Basin."
Part Five: Stay and Fight
"Wildfire is a pervasive danger in Australia, just as in much of the Western U.S. But Australians cope with the threat very differently than Americans do. Rather than rely on professional firefighters to protect their lives and property, many Australians do it themselves."
The pair worked on the series for more than a year, traveling across the country and to far-flung locations like Australia. The series included fiery photos, graphics, video and multiple sidebars -- way too many to post here. But you can link to those on The Times' environment page. Or joint he conversation with hundreds of other readers on the graffiti board.
--Tami Abdollah
Photo: U.S. Forest Service firefighters spray water along a ride line to control a backfire on the Butler 2 fire near Big Bear Lake in September. Credit: Brian Vander Brug / Los Angeles Times
Angelenos will have to pay roughly $7 to $10 more to get their trash hauled away, starting in September, according to staff writer Phil Willon's story today.
The Los Angeles City Council approved Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's fee increase 13 to 1, with Councilman Dennis Zine voting against it. Apparently, Zine had said previously that he was "troubled" by the timing of the increase, which "comes as many Los Angeles residents are being squeezed financially," the story said. Los Angeles Police Department Chief William J. Bratton said today that "every dime" of the money raised by the trash fee increase has been spent on fighting crime, and he credited the increased funding to drops in the city's crime rate, including homicides and other violent crime. He said the hike in trash fees is "resulting in fewer victims of crime in this city."
Trash fees have more than tripled in the last two years, according to the story.
-- Tami Abdollah
Photo: A garbage truck piles on the trash. Credit: Bob Grieser / Los Angeles Times
California's Senate today approved the Ports Investment Bill (SB 974), which would tack on a $30 fee per shipping container processed through the ports of Los Angeles, Long Beach and Oakland.
The measure, which will go before Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, is expected to generate more than $300 million a year to improve the freight rail system and fund projects to reduce air pollution from port operations and freight transport.
Research by the California Air Resources Board released in May concluded that 3,700 Californians die prematurely each year from the movement of goods. The shipment of cargo containers -- which rely on diesel-fueled ships, trucks and trains -- is expected to triple in the next couple of decades, according to the Coalition for Clean Air.
Last week the Public Policy Institute of California released a statewide survey that showed 61% of Californians support such a fee.
-- Tami Abdollah
Photo: Shipping containers fill a section of the Port of Los Angeles. State Sen. Alan Lowenthal's bill is a reworking of earlier versions that he says addresses concerns of business, environmentalists, the governor and L.A.'s mayor. Credit: Bob Chamberlin / Los Angeles Times
Check out the enviro team's own Bettina Boxall and Julie Cart's Big Burn investigative series on the growing "big business" of firefighting. The first story debuted Sunday, and tomorrow we get Part 2 --"Political Meddling and Wasteful 'Air Shows' " -- of the five-part series.
The pair have worked for more than a year, traveling around the country and as far as Australia, to report on these stories, which include multiple sidebars, graphics, video and fiery photos as part of the package. A century after the government declared war on wildfire, fire is gaining the upper hand. From the canyons of California to the forests of the Rocky Mountains and the grasslands of Texas, fires are growing bigger, fiercer and costlier to put out. And there is no end in sight.
Sunday's story looked at the increasingly expensive and now highly-machinated efforts to battle these ever-growing blazes. It gives a snapshot of this big-business growth via last year's Zaca fire in Santa Barbara's backcountry, which was one of the most expensive wildfires ever fought by the U.S. Forest Service. LIVE OAK COMMAND POST -- It was Day 42 of the Zaca Fire. A tower of white smoke reached miles into the blue sky above the undulating ridges of Santa Barbara's backcountry.
Helicopters ferried firefighters across the saw-toothed terrain and bombed fiery ridges with water. Long plumes of red retardant trailed from the belly of a DC-10 air tanker. Bulldozers cut defensive lines through pygmy forests of chaparral.
A few miles south, in a camp city of tents and air-conditioned office trailers, commanders pored over computer projections of the fire's likely spread, trying to keep the Zaca bottled up in the wilderness and out of the neighborhoods of Santa Barbara and Montecito.
Platoons of private contractors serviced the bustling encampment, dishing out hundreds of hot meals at a time from a mobile kitchen, scrubbing 500 loads of laundry a day, even changing the linens in sleeping trailers...
Tomorrow's story takes us even more behind the scenes: Fire commanders are often pressured to order firefighting planes and helicopters into action even when they won't do any good. The reason: Aerial drops of water and retardant make good television. They're a visible way for political leaders to show they're acting decisively to quell a fire. Firefighters call them "CNN drops."
-- Tami Abdollah
Photo: A Sikorsky S-61 Fire King owned by Carson Helicopters drops water on the Zaca fire. About 60% of the Forest Service's wildfire expenditures last year went to the private sector. Credit: Brian Vander Brug / Los Angeles Times
The Natural Resources Defense Council released its second annual "Fighting Oil Addiction" report today in which they ranked states by their "oil vulnerability" -- those most affected by spikes in oil prices -- and listed the states that are doing the most to "wean themselves from oil."
California topped the list of states trying to reduce their oil dependency, according to the report. It was followed by New York, Connecticut, Washington, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Rhode Island, New Mexico, Colorado and Maryland.
The states in which drivers were most vulnerable to increased gas prices were led by Mississippi, followed by South Carolina, Georgia, Louisiana, Kentucky, New Mexico, Indiana, Arkansas, Oklahoma and Iowa. "Our oil vulnerability ranking is based on the average percentage of income that states’ drivers spend on gasoline. Generally, the most vulnerable states are in the South and the least vulnerable are in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic region. And the differences are significant. Average drivers in the most vulnerable state, Mississippi, spend almost 8 percent of their income on gasoline, while average drivers in the least vulnerable state, Connecticut, spend about 3 percent of theirs. As oil prices go up, drivers in the vulnerable states are feeling the pinch more."
According to the report, California drivers on average spent 5.38% (or $2,234.33), of their annual income on gasoline. Mississippi drivers, on the other hand, spent 7.87% (2,268.82) on gas in 2007.
The study also listed the states doing the least to reduce oil dependency. That list was led by Alaska, followed by Mississippi, Alabama, South Dakota, Wyoming, Montana, West Virginia, Arkansas, Missouri and Delaware.
California was singled out in the report for leading the nation in its strict emissions standards as part of "clean cars" standards as well as its low-carbon fuel standard. The study said such programs in addition to "smart growth," such as improved land use policies to reduce urban sprawl and investment in public transit, were successful state policies to that have led to reduced oil dependence.
The report urges federal policies that "complement and support" state actions.
--Tami Abdollah
We've received a lot of responses on the temporary reinstatement of endangered-species protections to gray wolves in the northern Rockies. Meanwhile, the case challenging the delisting, and determining whether this will become permanent, continues.
U.S. District Judge Donald W. Molloy of Missoula, Mont., is presiding over the case and will ultimately make that decision. His 40-page injunction order released late Friday was strongly worded in favor of the environmentalists' case argued by Earthjustice attorney Doug Honnold.
Carl Tobias, a law professor at the University of Richmond, has known Molloy since the judge was a third-year law student at the University of Montana and has closely watched his career. Tobias contacted us to fill us in on a little background about Molloy.
The judge has served as one of Montana's three federal judges since 1996. He was in the Navy from 1968 through 1973 and clerked for two years in Billings after law school.
Tobias characterized Molloy as a "firm but fair ... no-nonsense" judge who "puts parties to their proof."
"This is just a preliminary injunction," Tobias said. "He could ultimately change the ruling himself, when he hears testimony, or it could be reversed on appeal."
The case would be appealed to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. Tobias said some of Molloy's rulings, especially in criminal cases, have been reversed in that court, but "he has a strong reputation among the 9th Circuit judges" and is "highly regarded."
According to Tobias, Molloy's legal specialties before he became a judge were torts and product liability for the plaintiff's side.
They were "the most high profile and difficult cases to win," Tobias said. "Like an automobile that goes off the road and injures somebody. I think he had a big case involving a whirlpool that seriously hurt or electrically injured somebody. He took these really hard cases and often won them for people hurt in accidents on the plaintiff side. I always had a lot of respect for him taking on those cases, they were tough, they were hard to win, the defendants always had more resources, but he was very good at winning the tough cases."
Apparently, Molloy also has a "reputation of being tough on the government to prove its case."
"I think that's maybe what you see here ... 'OK Interior Department let's see your evidence, let's see the data, and let's see if you've met the statutory requirements.' The ESA [Endangered Species Act] is very strict, I think, in the way it's written. I think that's probably what you see there reflected [in the order]. He doesn't mince words. He's tough, he's tough-minded ... he puts the lawyers [and scientists] through their paces, and that's fine."
-- Tami Abdollah
Photo: The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service "provides no new evidence or research to support its change of course" on gray wolves, wrote U.S. District Judge Donald W. Molloy of Montana. "Congress does not intend agency decision-making to be fickle." Credit: Joel Sartore / National Geographic / Getty Images
 Animals have adapted over thousands of years to natural disasters like fires by fleeing or seeking shelter. But this year's earlier start to the fire season has put younger animals at risk, wildlife experts say.
The result? Li'l Smokey, a black bear cub, was found badly burned and was rescued this week by Adam Deem, 32, of Anderson, Calif., a forester with the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. Deem was working the burned area from the Moon fire in Northern California, one of 158 fires started by lightning nearly a month ago. In the last month alone, the state at one point had more than 1,700 fires burning. Li'l Smokey, weighing 8 1/2 pounds and estimated to be 6 months old, is now at Lake Tahoe Wildlife Care in South Lake Tahoe, one of the only centers in the state where cubs can be treated and taught survival skills until ready to return to the wild.
Check out Li'l Smokey's story in today's paper.
--Tami Abdollah
Photo: Adam Deem holds the cub he found amid burned brush in Shasta-Trinity National Forest. Li'l Smokey's paws were badly burned and his left eye was singed.
Read on »
In a story today, Times staff writer Susannah Rosenblatt chronicles the speedy recovery of sea life after a much-fought-over project to reconnect Huntington Beach's Bolsa Chica wetlands with the ocean succeeded. The $147-million rebirth has triggered population explosions, with scallops multiplying, followed by topsmelt, halibut, rays and small sharks.
Newly built nesting sites offer refuge for a number of endangered birds, such as the California least tern and the threatened western snowy plover. Endangered California brown pelicans are arriving in record numbers, sunning themselves on freshly added mud flats in a marine habitat that has nearly doubled in size.
The swath of undeveloped beachfront property has been fought over for nearly 40 years as developers, nearby residents and the state and federal governments all vied for their varied interests, the story says. The battle pitted "environmental hopes against real estate ambitions" and "the protracted legal scrum ultimately scuttled plans for a marina and large waterfront neighborhood," according to the story.
Along the property's edge sit rows of homes and active oil derricks. According to the story, "about 95% of California's coastal wetlands have been destroyed by development." The Bolsa Chica project, which involved three-quarters of the total 1,300 acres, is the "largest restoration of its kind west of the Mississippi," the story says.
-- Tami Abdollah
Photo: A flock takes flight over a portion of the Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve. Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times
Check out Times staff writer Eric Bailey's story today on another late-Friday decision by a federal judge.
U.S. District Judge Oliver W. Wanger of Fresno said in a 118-page opinion that the "Central Valley's winter- and spring-run salmon, as well as the remnants of its once-thriving steelhead population, are being threatened by the dams and aqueducts that store and move water around California," according to the story. But the judge denied several remedies suggested by environmental attorneys ... such as storing more water behind Shasta Dam to be released for migrating salmon and opening a pivotal diversion dam's gates to allow the fish to reach spawning grounds.
Environmentalists sued last April over threats to salmon and steelhead. According to the story, federal officials are working on a biological study "spelling out operational changes needed to keep the state's water system functioning without endangering the fish."
During a series of hearings this summer, state and federal water agencies "voluntarily agreed to some operational changes to better protect the fish, such as earlier opening of a diversion dam and increased water flows down a key tributary," the story says. "But environmentalists and fishermen wanted more." The judge said a "scientific and evidentiary dispute" undercut the merits of environmentalists' proposed changes. He set a hearing Wednesday to hear further arguments.
Wanger's latest decision comes nearly a year after he ordered a pivotal shift in water operations because of concerns about Delta smelt, a tiny endangered fish that lives only in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta. That ruling has resulted in a 30% cutback in Delta water exports this year.
On Thursday, the Public Policy Institute of California released a report concluding that a peripheral canal to carry water around the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta was the best potential strategy for reviving a threatened ecosystem and maintaining quality water for Californians.
-- Tami Abdollah
Photo: The 2002 Klamath salmon die-off, which officials said was the worst in decades, claimed more than 30,000 fish. Klamath, Calif. Credit: Bruce Ely, AP Photo / The Oregonian
Gray wolves regained endangered-species protections Friday when a federal judge in Montana granted a preliminary injunction to environmentalists, who had challenged the wolves' delisting.
The decision came just months before planned fall hunts in Montana, Wyoming and Idaho, which will now be canceled.
U.S. District Court Judge Donald W. Molloy issued a strongly worded 40-page critique of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's decision to delist the gray wolves, calling it arbitrary and capricious. He said the action "demonstrated a possibility of irreparable harm" to the species. The injunction "ensures the species is not imperiled" while the case continues to be litigated, the judge wrote.
The wildlife service "provides no new evidence or research to support
its change of course," Molloy wrote. "Congress does not intend agency
decision-making to be fickle. When it is, the line separating
rationality from arbitrariness and capriciousness is crossed."
Molloy pointed to the recovery criteria
cited by the wildlife service in 1994. Those criteria include "genetic
exchange between subpopulations" -- crossbreeding among scattered
groups of wolves -- so the species would be genetically viable in the
long term.
"Genetic exchange has not taken place," the judge wrote. He cited a 2007 study commissioned by the
wildlife service itself.
Gray wolves once ranged from central Mexico to the Arctic. But by the
1930s, rampant hunting had virtually wiped them out across the American
West. In 1974, gray wolves were listed as endangered.
Since then, the federal government has spent about $27 million to revive the wolves' population.
In
1995 and 1996, officials introduced 66 wolves to central Idaho and
Yellowstone National Park, aiming to establish a stable population of
at least 300 animals. When delisted earlier this year, wolves in the
northern Rockies numbered 1,513, the judge wrote. Wildlife service
officials say the population is increasing by about 24% a year.
U.S. Fish and Wildlife officials announced in February that gray wolves
would be removed from the endangered species list after what they
termed a successful 20-year effort to reestablish the wolves in Idaho,
Montana and Wyoming. Environmentalists sued.
--Tami Abdollah
Photo: A gray wolf pup. Credit:
Kent Kauden / Associated Press
Check out Times staff writer Maura Dolan's story today about new protections issued by the California Supreme Court to endangered species.
According to the story, the court ruled unanimously that "developers, loggers and other commercial interests may be required to compensate for unforeseen wildlife losses." The ruling threw out the long-term logging plan for 200,000 acres in Humboldt County that was approved by the state; the plan was put on hold by lower courts several years ago, according to the story.
Justice Carlos R. Moreno, writing for the court, said the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection had "failed to proceed according to law" because it had approved an "unidentifiable" plan that was delegated to the logging company for completion. The battle between loggers and environmentalists centered on land that had been in timber production for 120 years and was home to the marbled murrelet, an endangered bird. After Pacific Lumber was acquired by Maxxam Inc. in 1996, Pacific began cutting down old-growth redwoods at a faster rate to offset Maxxam's debt. The deforestation led to litigation and huge protests.
The pact required Pacific Lumber to sell part of its land to the government for conservation and to obtain environmental permits.
Thursday's ruling ends a long-running battle over those permits but is not expected to unravel the pact. The decision established rules that the state must follow in approving large-scale logging plans or any major development that might endanger wildlife facing extinction.
The court said that companies must mitigate for wildlife losses to which they directly contribute, or losses incurred when a natural disaster makes commercial activity more threatening to endangered wildlife, according to the story. The ruling applies to public works and private development.
-- Tami Abdollah
Photo: A view of a portion of ancient redwood forest in Humboldt County. Credit: Kent Porter / Associated Press/Santa Rosa Press Democrat
Climate change poses "substantial" health threats in the coming decades, including heat waves, hurricanes and pathogens, according to an Environmental Protection Agency report released Thursday.
A story in today's paper from the Washington Post discusses such a prospect, which comes on the heels of an EPA decision last week not to regulate greenhouse gas emissions.
"It is very likely" that more people will die during extremely hot periods in future years, with the elderly, the poor and those in inner cities at the highest risk, an EPA report found. Other possible dangers include more powerful hurricanes, shrinking supplies of fresh water in the West, and the increased spread of diseases contracted through food and water.
In Washington and other Eastern cities, the report said, a warmer climate is likely to produce more bad-air days, because heat speeds up the process by which exhaust byproducts are cooked into smog. The report also found that warming temperatures are likely to mean more periods of sustained summer heat.
-- Tami Abdollah
A peripheral canal to carry water around the Sacramento-San Jaoquin Delta is the best potential strategy to revive a threatened ecosystem and maintain quality water for Californians, according to a report released today by the Public Policy Institute of California.
Currently, water is drawn from the Sacramento River and funneled south through the Delta to pumps that deliver water to people throughout the state. This method disrupts natural water flow, threatens native fish (five of which are listed as threatened or endangered), among other problems, according to the report.
Recently, court rulings have restricted water exports from the Delta because of this. And earlier this month officials said the Delta smelt could join the endangered species list.
The report concluded that because of sea level rise, land subsidence, changing runoff patterns and earthquakes, "change is inevitable for the Delta" and that the current policy was "risky and unsustainable." Delta water levels are expected to increase by one to three feet, perhaps more, over the coming century. Without large investments to raise Delta levees, this rise in sea level will cause many levees to fail, pushing seawater into the Delta. Even if levees could be sustained, sea level rise will increase the salinity of Delta waters.
Researchers examined nine strategies for managing the Delta and considered their environmental, economic and water supply performance. The methods considered included continuing to pump exports through the Delta, diverting water upstream and conveying it around the Delta through a peripheral canal, combining the current pump-through-Delta policy with the peripheral canal (dual conveyance), or ending exports altogether. The present strategy of responding to emergencies only as they happen puts California in the position of making Delta policy by default rather than by deliberate consideration of the best long-term alternatives.
Read on...
Read on »
Stay tuned for a story in Thursday's paper about the Malibu City Council's lawsuit against the California Coastal Commission and its executive director, Peter Douglas, because he supported allowing review of an application by the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy that allows camping and other activities.
To take advantage of the spaciousness of a blog, a more contextual explanation of the story is included below. But never fear, small tidbits will still be saved for the paper, so check the link at the bottom when it goes live.
Filing of the suit, approved in a unanimous council vote this week, stems from the conservancy's effort to amend the city's local coastal program to continue allowing overnight camping, the creation of trail heads, trail linkage and other uses on certain public parkland areas in Malibu. The local coastal program is essentially a planning guide with rules to protect an area's resources and govern its development.
But Malibu officials say the conservancy's plan does not take into account concerns about fire safety and is an attempt to leapfrog the city's interests. Last year's Corral Canyon fire was believed to have been sparked by an illegal late-night campfire.
The amendment provides for cold camping without a fire but does allow the use of a burner "so at least you can cook your soup," said conservancy chief staff council Laurie Collins. The conservancy and its sister agency, the Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority, were named as parties in the suit.
Read on ...
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Check out today's story by Times staff writer Nancy Vogel on legislators' approval of a $60 fee on every container passing through the ports of Los Angeles, Long Beach and Oakland. According to her story, the measure would generate about $400 million a year and be used to "ease the traffic congestion and air pollution generated by the ports, which handle more than 40% of the nation's goods." Similar bills were vetoed or failed in the last two years, but this measure's author, Sen. Alan Lowenthal (D-Long Beach), said he was optimistic that his legislation would be signed into law.
...The money would be used across Southern California and in the Bay Area for such projects as installing cleaner-burning truck and train engines and building roadways under or over railroad tracks to avoid long lines of idling vehicles.
-- Tami Abdollah
Photo: Shipping containers fill a section of the Port of Los Angeles. State Sen. Alan Lowenthal's bill is a reworking of earlier versions that he says addresses concerns of business, environmentalists, the governor and L.A.'s mayor. Credit: Bob Chamberlin / Los Angeles Times
Remember that story we wrote about a month ago about the "new shower curtain smell"? Vinyl shower curtains sold at major retailers across the country emit toxic chemicals that have been linked to serious health problems, according to a report released Thursday by a national environmental organization...
The study found that PVC shower curtains contained high concentrations of phthalates, which have been linked to reproductive effects, and varying concentrations of organotins, which are compounds based on tin and hydrocarbons. One of the curtains tested released measurable quantities of as many as 108 volatile organic compounds into the air, some of which persisted for nearly a month.
Well, back then the American Chemistry Council, a trade organization representing the chemical industry, issued a statement assuring the public that there was "no reliable evidence" that phthalates were harmful, linked to serious health problems, or even tied to the new smell.
This week, the council came out with a media alert about the phthalates, which they said are "commonly used in a wide variety of vinyl products to make them flexible and durable." The alert was "in response to inaccurate statements about phthalates that have been perpetuated in the news cycle in recent months." It also provided a list of plastic products in the U.S. that are "typically not made of vinyl (and thus are not made with phthalates)."
These include food packaging, baby bottles and baby bottle nipples, plastic water bottles, plastic food containers, and polyethylene terephthalate or PET (despite the name), according to the release. Plastic food wrap is apparently usually softened with plasticizers that are not phthalate esters, according to the group. The American Chemistry Council is happy to answer your questions about phthalates and to provide more information about where phthalates are used. Please contact us or visit www.phthalates.org for more information.
-- Tami Abdollah
Photo: A smattering of shower curtains -- some contain vinyl, others may not. Credit: Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times
The Environmental Protection Agency issued new rules today governing fumigant pesticides, which are used to sterilize soil before the planting of strawberries, tomatoes and other crops throughout the country.
Many of these new rules are not groundbreaking to Californians -- the state already has some of the country's strictest regulations governing fumigant use under the Department of Pesticide Regulation. But nationwide the proposals are significant and include creating buffer zones, monitoring air quality around fields, creating fumigant management plans and training emergency responders and applicators.
"This stuff is pretty much what we've been doing in California for years," said Rob Roy, president and general counsel for the Ventura County Agricultural Assn., which represents more than 150 major farming organizations.
"If anything, what it's going to do is level the playing field. California farmers are not going to be the only ones stuck with these rules. All farmers that utilize fumigants will be affected by this rule making ... that just adds to the cost per acre for production."
The new rules cover chloropicrin, dazomet, metam sodium/potassium, methyl isothiocyanate and methyl bromide and are the result of a nearly four-year reassessment of soil fumigants. (Apparently the EPA is at the tail end of its 15-year process of reviewing all pesticides registered before 1984. Officials said last year that they started the new 15-year cycle to review all pesticides registered as now in use.)
Almost everyone -- farmers, manufacturers, environmentalists and government officials -- seemed at least OK with the changes. In fact, most seemed pleased. Activists were happily surprised that the EPA placed much of the burden for these changes on the manufacturers of the fumigants.
"This is putting responsibility where it belongs," said Susan Kegley, a senior scientist with Pesticide Action Network North America.
Western Plant Health Assn., a trade organization representing manufacturers in California, Arizona and Hawaii, said its members had worked with the EPA and others on developing the guidelines.
"We believe these guidelines are reflective of standards already in place in California," said the group's chief executive and president, Renee Pinel, in a statement. "WPHA supports product use standards that provide for the safe use of crop protection tools, while allowing growers the flexibility to use these tools in an agronomically sound manner."
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Times Staff Writer Steve Chawkins, who has been covering the fires near Goleta in Santa Barbara County and in Big Sur, today writes that the endangered California condors in the Big Sur area may be displaced by the fire, their nests possibly burned. ... wildlife experts are worried about the 43 condors living in the wild in the Big Sur area -- particularly three chicks in nests within the fire zone.
"We can't presume anything, but those chicks have a major uphill battle to survive," said biologist Kelly Sorenson, executive director of the Ventana Wildlife Society.
For more information on California's continuing fires, check the regularly updated story. The Basin Complex fire in Big Sur has burned 86,726 acres and was 27% contained as of this morning.
-- Tami Abdollah
Photo: A California condor in flight. In 1979 there was a population of 10 in the wild. Credit: Ana Fuentes / U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Robert Garcia, executive director and counsel for The City Project, sent in a posting early this morning to our blog about the ongoing Chabad saga we mentioned last week and what happened at last night's emergency meeting. The Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy Board voted 8-1, and the Advisory Board voted unanimously, to keep Tesmescal [sic] Gateway Park open for all. The Conservancy upheld the decision by the Executive Director and Staff not to renew a non-renewable lease for a private day-care center at the Park, denying the appeal by a private Palisades group. Several hundred people attended the hearing at the Park July 7, which went from 7:30 to 10:30 p.m.
Sandy Cooney, the state resources agency's representative on the board, was the sole dissenting vote in favor of renewing the lease, according to those at the meeting. We haven't been able to reach him today to ask about his vote, but we'll update this post when we do. *(Update: We were able to reach him Wednesday. His comments are at the end of the post.) His boss, Secretary for Resources Mike Chrisman, wrote that letter to Chabad at the behest of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. It includes guidelines on how to deal with the conservancy and suggestions (that Chabad took into account) on how to formulate an appeal for an extended lease.
Addressing the board last night, Chabad attorney Benjamin Reznik asked its members to be flexible with Chabad and allow the group five months to get its paperwork in order, noting that the conservancy for years has used Chabad's money to help pay for park upkeep. Today, Reznik was pretty matter-of-fact on the phone about the final vote.
"This is a lot of to do about nothing quite frankly," Reznik said. "I guess they’ll be looking for an alternative site in the interim."
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California's Assembly members have a chance to show just how worried they are about the state's looming water shortages when the Water Efficiency and Security Act comes up for a vote this week, perhaps as early as Wednesday. AB 2135, sponsored by Assembly members Loni Hancock and Paul Krekorian, is backed by a coalition of cities, fishing groups and environmental organizations. Citing the closing of the salmon season along the California coast, the decline in water quality of the Sacramento Delta, groundwater contamination and rationing in several communities in the East Bay and Southern California, the Planning and Conservation League is leading a last-minute lobbying effort. The Department of Water Resources has estimated that California could lose up to 4.5 million acre feet of snowpack by 2050 because of global warming.
-- Margot Roosevelt
Photo: Hadi Farahani, for Los Angeles Times Op-Ed commentary on global drought cycles
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