CRPE In The NewsThe Center on Race, Poverty & the Environment provides valuable commentary to dozens of media outlets across the United States. Some recent articles featuring our work include: Court Orders EPA To Revisit its Approval of the Valley's Ozone Plan Arvin Group Says Toxic Gas Escaping Community Recycling
California's Central Valley Slammed By Record Air Pollution ...but nowhere is the situation more serious than between Modesto and Bakersfield, where nearly every day dirty air has exceeded federal health standards.
Sea Level Suit Returns to San Francisco Courtroom ... the case lands in San Francisco's Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, where the town's lawyers will again argue that major oil and power companies are responsible for the threatening rise in sea level.
New Details Emerge About Community Recycling Violations
County supervisors revoke Community Recycling's operating permit
County staff are alleging new violations of worker safety, public health and land-use rules at the Lamont composting facility where two brothers are believed to have inhaled fatal doses of toxic fumes last month.
County supervisors hear about investigation into Community Recycling After the meeting, more than a dozen company employees declined to speak to a reporter about safety conditions at the site. But one who did, two-year employee Silvano Piedra, said he thought conditions there were "a little dangerous." He specifically cited temperatures of up to 120 degrees inside loaders where he works, as well as toxic fumes rising from compost piles.
Sen. Rubio calls for recycling facility closure after deaths "Clearly, numerous warnings and fines over the years have accomplished little to get CRRR to act responsibly. Now, with the two deaths last week, the board should have more than enough evidence to revoke the company's operating permits..."
Protesters are calling on the county board of supervisors to close Community Recycling Center - the facility has been the subject of controversy since 2008 after neighbors complained of foul odors and trash blowing off site.
Residents of Allensworth gather at the park with officials to volunteer in recreating historic gardens and promote community farming on the day of the Rededication Event.
California AB 32 Cap-And-Trade Program Developments
CA Supreme Court lets cap-and-trade planning continue
Cap and trade wins California Supreme Court ruling
EPA settles complaint over now-restricted pesticide's effect on Latino schoolchildren in California
Statwide Mobilization "Day of Action" in Sacramento Urges Policymakers to Consider Cap and Trade alternatives
Activists to Air Board: Keep the Cap, Lose the Trade
EPA sued over toxic waste dumps in California Read more: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-dumps-suit-20110707,0,7682583.story
EPA sued over state toxic waste dumpsites
California Moves Ahead With Cap and Trade California has the legal right to move ahead with preparations for cap and trade after all, according to an appellate court decision. Read more: http://blogs.kqed.org/climatewatch/2011/06/27/california-moves-ahead-with-cap-and-trade/
An Unclear Course on Emissions Policy "Environmental groups will continue to try to protect their communities if state officials "want to steamroll ahead single-mindedly in pursuit of cap and trade, as if California is some kind of pilot project," Brent Newell, lawyer for Center on Race, Poverty, and the Environment.
Most of Calif.'s Carbon Law Unaffected by Court Ruling; Trading Date Could Slip "We wanted the good parts of A.B. 32 to proceed and the court to only enjoin the cap-and-trade component, and that's exactly what the court did," said Brent Newell, an attorney for the plaintiff Center on Race, Poverty and the Environment.
Calif. cap-and-trade plan suffers legal setback Alegría De La Cruz, legal director of the Center on Race, Poverty and the Environment, said the plaintiffs have no intention of sidetracking clean-car standards and other beneficial state actions. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/03/21/BAUF1IGAAT.DTL#ixzz1HMRXEzqj (PDF)
Judge Halts California Emissions Plan "This ruling will compel A.R.B. to fully consider those of us most affected by its decisions, and not just move forward in its haste to make major polluters happy," the group's president, Tom Frantz, said in a statement. Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/22/science/earth/22emissions.html?_r=2&ref=us
Judge places California's global warming program on hold The California lawsuit was filed by six environmental groups that represent low-income communities, including the Association of Irritated Residents, based in the San Joaquin Valley, and Communities for A Better Environment, which fights pollution around the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach.
California's global warming law takes a hit In a setback that could stall the rollout of California's landmark climate change law, a court in San Francisco has ruled that the state must spend more time studying alternatives to the measure's key feature -- a cap-and-trade program on greenhouse gas emissions -- before it goes into effect Jan. 1.
Environmental Justice Lawsuit May Delay California Cap and Trade On January 24, 2011, a San Francisco Superior Court judge issued a tentative ruling that could block the implementation of the AB32 Scoping Plan, the document that details how the state of California will implement the Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mike-sandler/environmental-justice-law_b_825829.html (PDF)
California Law to Curb Greenhouse Gases Faces a Legal Hurdle Read More: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/05/science/earth/05emit.html?_r=3&ref=todayspaper
Calif. cap-trade plan dealt blow by S.F. judge http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/02/04/MNOO1HIDT2.DTL&type=printable
A Legal Twist for State's Global Warming Law California's effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions could be on hold if a San Francisco judge's tentative ruling yesterday is upheld. At issue is the way regulators are implementing the state's 2006 climate change law. http://www.californiareport.org/archive/R201102040850/b
Earth: Air activists win smog suit over SoCal, Valley next Activists won a key case Wednesday in the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco over a missed ozone standard in Southern California. The San Joaquin Valley may be the next battle ground.The court decided the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency must require an ozone cleanup plan that shows the South Coast Air Basin will meet the one-hour ozone standard.Both the South Coast and the Valley missed the cleanup deadline last year. The activists have filed the same sort of lawsuit against EPA over the Valley, and it is expected to be decided sometime this year.What does all that mean?It could mean that the California Air Resources Board will revisit its decision to delay tough new diesel standards. The board last year delayed the rules because the economy has hammered the trucking business.Now, the state air board probably will be told to come up with more pollution reductions -- such as the ones it just delayed from diesel sources. Those rules would have delivered the reductions needed to achieve the ozone standard, activists say.For those who have been watching for years, this is a pretty typical unfolding of events. Faced with deadlines on tough standards, state and federal officials opt for more flexible solutions, which often involve delay.Then, activists -- led by the Association of Irritated Residents in the Valley -- file suit. Their legal representative is the Center on Race, Poverty and the Environment. And they are often successful. http://fresnobeehive.com/news/#ixzz1D1fVZDyJ
Protests Over Fresno Countys Plan to Eliminate Polling Places http://www.kmph.com/global/story.asp?s=13353916
Kettleman City residents continue their battle to stop a toxic waste landfill from expanding http://www.kmph.com/global/category.asp?c=170789&clipId=4882951&autostart=true
KC Groups file complaint over Landfill http://www.fresnobee.com/2010/06/18/1975882/kettleman-city-groups-file-complaints.html
Grieving Kettleman City Mothers Tackle A Toxic Waste Dump Reporting from Kettleman City, Calif. - On a rainy afternoon in a cramped trailer, the five homemakers listened as state officials with clipboards asked personal questions: Did they or their husbands smoke, drink or take illicit drugs? Had they been exposed to pesticides or other toxic substances in the United States or Mexico? Do their families have histories of birth defects?... Article & L.A. Times Film: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-mothers31-2010mar31,0,33307.story Small California Town Fears Birth Defects Linked to Toxic Waste By Heather O’Neill CNN Special Investigations Unit CNN March 23, 2010Story Highlights:
http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/03/22/toxic.injustice/index.html
Governor Schwarzenegger Directs State Agencies to take Aggressive Action to Investigate Possible Environmental And Health Issues in Kettleman City Gov. Schwarzenegger today directed his Department of Public Health (CDPH) and California’s Environmental Protection Agency (CalEPA) to send experts to Kettleman City to expand their investigation into what could be causing an abnormal percentage of birth defects in the small farming town in Kings County.
Courts as Battlefield in Climate Fights Tiny Kivalina, Alaska, does not have a hotel, a restaurant or a movie theater. But it has a very big lawsuit that might affect the way the nation deals with climate change. Kivalina, an Inupiat Eskimo village of 400 perched on a barrier island north of the Arctic Circle, is accusing two dozen fuel and utility companies of helping to cause the climate change that it says is accelerating the island’s erosion. Blocks of sea ice used to protect the town’s fragile coast from October on, but “we don’t have buildup right now, and it is January,” said Janet Mitchell, Kivalina’s administrator. “We live in anxiety during high-winds seasons.” http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/27/business/energy-environment/27lawsuits.html |
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