It might be the only reference to Star Wars you’ll ever hear at Climate One. Reaching for an analogy to drive home the impact of a shrinking cap on carbon emissions in California,Kristin Eberhard, Legal Director, Western Energy and Climate Projects, Natural Resources Defense Council, asked the audience to remember the trash compactor scene from the original Star Wars.“This is the cap for Chevron. That cap is coming down on them year after year after year. And they have to figure out what they’re going to do,” she said. “In the trash compactor, there’s no out. They’re in it. And that’s what we’re finding. These regulated facilities are realizing that the cap is not changing.”“The problem with Kristin’s analogy,” interjected Brent Newell, General Counsel, Center on Race, Poverty and the Environment, to big laughs, “is that R2-D2 actually stopped the trash compactor. And they got out.” Replace R2-D2 in the analogy with political meddling and market manipulation and the two poles of a spirited exchange on the future of California’s cap-and-trade program held at Climate One on September 14 come into focus.
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.
Mr. John C. Maritz, United States of America (Concerned Country),
Item: 3 (continued) – Interactive Dialogue with Special Rapporteur on the human right to safe drinking water and sanitation, 9th Plenary Meeting at 18th Session of the Human Rights Council Agenda and Draft programme of work
UN independent expert on water and sanitation Catarina de Albuquerque says she was shocked that in the richest economy in the world there are still people lacking safe affordable water and sanitation.
The UN independent expert has presented a report to the Human Rights Council following a visit to the United States of America.
The San Joaquin Valley Air District wishes to celebrate in a big way a relatively minor accomplishment for the month of August but air quality has actually been worse than in recent years for the same month. Deceit then leads to a cover-up.
It’s been three years since I began covering the Kettleman City community’s ongoing struggle for environmental justice.
During that time, I’ve watched as numerous things have changed in Kettleman City. The community has gained lots of media and political attention, which helped amplify concerned residents’ voices, and Kettleman City is on the verge of getting clean drinking water.
Other things, though, have remained the same. Public meetings and hearings regarding Waste Management’s Kettleman Hills Facility are still controversial, and still filled with fireworks, as you will from the raw video clip below.
In the face of vehement opposition by activists, the Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board on Tuesday approved a permit extension for a bioreactor at an area toxic waste landfill.
The vote was 4-1, with board member Sandra Meraz abstaining. She gave no reason for her abstention.
The approval comes just two days before the expiration of Chemical Waste Management’s initial permit approved in 2008. Without the permit extension, the bioreactor would have shut down this Thursday.
Tuesday’s community meeting held in Kettleman City was marked by a heavy police presence, as a handful of activists came to protest the 4 p.m. hearing.
In March, a United Nations independent expert visited the tiny Tulare County community of Seville, where she learned about San Joaquín Valley residents’ prolonged fight for affordable and clean drinking water.
The visit was part of a 10-day tour through the United States that included stops in communities that have limited or unequal access to safe drinking water and sanitation services.
About six months later, Catarina de Albuquerque, the U.N. Special Rapporteur on the Human Right to Safe Drinking Water and Sanitation, has released her findings and recommendations regarding the country’s compliance with the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation services.
Twelve years passed. And without prior notice, federal and state pesticide regulators announced a surprise settlement last month, acknowledging that, compared to their white peers, Latino schoolchildren had been disproportionately impacted by use of pesticide fumigants. While the case marks a step towards recognizing environmental injustice, it fell short of providing compensation for children, many of whom have since graduated from high school, or of protecting future generations from pesticidedrift.
“The settlement for this violation of their civil rights doesn’t provide any substantive relief for parents and for the children named in the complaint or for the generation of Latino school children still bearing the burden of the violation,” said Brent Newell, an attorney with the Center on Race, Poverty and the Environment who filed the original suit.
On August 24, 2011, the California Air Resources Board (CARB) once again unanimously approved its alternatives and environmental analysis supporting its greenhouse gas cap-and-trade program. This second round of approval, this time after a more thorough environmental review, and after providing its response to comments, was made to address the outstanding lawsuit against its past approval of the program, which has been followed on this blog. The question remains, however, whether CARB still plans to address the environmental justice issues that have been raised with real mitigation.