Fresno Unified will consider alternatives to the weed-killer Roundup, after hearing from concerned parents and employees about its impact on long-term health.
The district board of trustees voted unanimously Wednesday to “investigate the use of alternative weed control products and methods,” that do not contain the chemical glyphosate, commonly found in Roundup…
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Fresno Unified will consider alternatives to the weed-killer Roundup, after hearing from concerned parents and employees about its impact on long-term health.
The district board of trustees voted unanimously Wednesday to “investigate the use of alternative weed control products and methods,” that do not contain the chemical glyphosate, commonly found in Roundup.
A jury found in an August 2018 that Roundup knew its product was a health risk and failed to warn consumers, in the first case alleging a link between glyphosate and cancer to go to trial…
California is regarded as a global leader on climate-change policy, having put in place some of the world’s most ambitious carbon-reduction targets. Most recently, it extended its landmark climate law from 2020 out through 2030, drawing international praise and signaling that the state would stay on the path of decarbonization.
But now comes the hard part: implementation. California must design and implement a system of emission reductions that can meet its aggressive 2030 target. If it doesn’t, all the hype will have been for nothing. If it designs a system that fails, California will go from an inspiration to a cautionary tale…
The state of California on Thursday greenlighted a suite of energy projects to serve the San Joaquin Valley, for a total investment of over $56 million.
The California Public Utilities Commission has approved almost a dozen pilot projects to improve energy infrastructure in 11 disadvantaged communities across the Valley.
Phoebe Seaton is with of the Leadership Counsel for Justice and Accountability, one of the organizations supporting these projects. She says there is an overwhelming need for energy upgrades…
A coalition of environmental and community groups is challenging the USDA’s decision to exclude loans to medium-sized “concentrated animal feeding operations” from environmental analysis.
The eight plaintiff organizations — Dakota Rural Action, Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement, Citizens Action Coalition of Indiana, Association of Irritated Residents, White River Waterkeeper, Food & Water Watch and Animal Legal Defense Fund — claim in a lawsuit that USDA violated federal environmental and administrative laws in making the change…
In 1986, when the Detroit waste-to-energy incinerator first opened, activists scaled its enormous smokestack and hung a peace symbol on it in protest. When the same kind of incinerator opened in Commerce, California, in 1989, protesters chained themselves to the facility’s smokestack.
Thirty years later, the communities that live in their shadow are still protesting these facilities. Built to last about 30 years, many of America’s 86 waste-to-energy incinerators are reaching the end of their lifespans—and their contracts with the cities that house them—and they face costly upgrades if they are to remain operational…
At the end of November 2018, the California Natural Resources Agency (CNRA) posted final adopted text for amendments to the regulations implementing the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), known as the CEQA Guidelines. The final text is the result of over five years of development efforts by the Governor’s Office of Planning & Research (OPR) and CNRA…
With a vacuum of federal leadership on climate change, California Governor Jerry Brown convened a first-of-its-kind Global Climate Action Summit in September to forge “deeper worldwide commitments” among global leaders. But the exclusive gathering failed to include those most impacted by the crisis, instead inviting some of the institutions most responsible for it. On the second day of the summit, hundreds of people representing frontline communities, environmental justice organizations, and indigenous groups blocked the entrance, risking arrest…
In mid-November, the state whose agricultural operations used more than 900,000 pounds of chlorpyrifos in 2016 (down from two million pounds in 2005) moved to establish some temporary restrictions on its use. Regulators at the California Department of Pesticide Regulation (CDPR) issued interim restrictions on the compound while the agency works on a formal regulatory process to list chlorpyrifos as a “toxic air contaminant” and develop permanent restrictions on its use…
The Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP) joined a coalition of eight groups representing family farmers, sustainable agriculture advocates and concerned citizens across the country in filing suit against the United States Department of Agriculture today to stop a policy exempting industrial animal operations that receive federal loans from undergoing an environmental review or providing any notice of their planned operations to neighbors…