In the latest example of how California’s reputation as a “green leader” and “the Resistance” to President Trump is greatly overrated, the State Senate Energy, Utilities and Communications Committee on June 19 passed a bill that would dismantle the California Independent System Operator and replace it with a western regional electricity market under the control of the Trump administration’s Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC)…
News
This page features excerpts from news about environmental justice advocacy in the San Joaquin Valley and links to their original sources. Use the features on the right to sort by topic, news source, date, key word or author. You may also subscribe to receive the news by e-mail or through an rss reader. Please note that links to original sources may expire over time.
A new study found that groundwater overpumping can result in potentially dangerous water quality problems. The study, published in June in the journal Nature Communications, linked overpumping to the overconcentration of arsenic in aquifers. The study focused on the San Joaquin Valley in California, a region with many poor, farmworker towns where clean drinking water is often inaccessible.
Solar industry, renewable energy and environmental justice organizations and advocates applauded a decision today by the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) that will increase opportunities for low-income households to go solar, lower their utility bills and participate in the state’s growing clean energy economy. Following a multi-year process prompted by Assembly Bill (AB) 327, the Commission approved a 12-year solar rebate program for low-income homeowners living in disadvantaged communities that expands on California’s long-standing Single-Family Affordable Solar Homes (SASH) program. The decision was proposed by Commissioner Martha Guzman Aceves…
Solar industry, renewable energy and environmental justice organizations and advocates applauded a decision by the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) that will increase opportunities for low-income households to go solar, lower their utility bills, and participate in the state’s growing clean energy economy. Following a multi-year process prompted by Assembly Bill (AB) 327, the Commission approved a 12-year solar rebate program for low-income homeowners living in disadvantaged communities that expands on California’s long-standing Single-Family Affordable Solar Homes (SASH) program. The decision was proposed by Commissioner Martha Guzman Aceves…
When more than 300,000 residents of tiny farm towns in the San Joaquin Valley open the faucet, they don’t get the same pure water as Bay Area residents. What flows out is cloudy, brown and laced with unsafe levels of arsenic and nitrates…
Turlock resident Dorene D’Adamo was confirmed by the California Senate as a member of the State Water Resources Control Board following her reappointment in February by Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr. She was first appointed by Gov. Brown in March 2013 and confirmed by the Senate in January 2014. D’Adamo’s term expires in January 2022…
State Attorney General Xavier Becerra is intervening in a lawsuit between residents of the South-Central Neighbors United community group vs. The City of Fresno. Earlier this year Caglia Environmental, a trash and recycling company, got the green light from the city to build a facility on the 110 acre lot near Amazon and Ulta on Central and Cedar Avenues. It would be a 24/7 operation, with an average of more than 6,000 trucks and cars commuting daily…
California’s Attorney General’s Office is intervening in a lawsuit filed by southwest Fresno residents against the city of Fresno for an industrial park that residents say could pose a hazard from increased traffic and pollution. Deputy attorney generals for Xavier Becerra’s office filed a motion to intervene last week seeking relief for the residents…
When my family first came to the San Joaquin Valley shortly after World War II and started to farm in Hanford, the water table was so high that as a boy I remember digging post holes into which water would sometimes leak . Now wells have to go hundreds of feet to reach water and some wells are over a 1,000 feet deep. Wells are going dry all over the Valley…
The Western States Petroleum Association (WSPA) is not a household name in California, but it should be. It’s the trade association for the oil industry and the largest and most powerful corporate lobbying organization in the state. if you want to know the industries, organizations and people that control California, WSPA and Big Oil are right at the top of the list…