TAKING ACTION
Please call or message Governor Gavin Newsom today or over the weekend to ask that he sign the following bills (which the 350 Humboldt Legislative Committee has advocated for): AB 1866 (capping gas leaks), SB59 (bidirectional EV charging), AB 3233 (gives counties legal authority to regulate oil and gas in the county), SB 960 (support for walking and biking), SB 1374 (solar for schools and renters), and SB 1221 (30 gas to electric projects). Also ask him not to sign SB 1420, a bad hydrogen bill.
State your name and where you live and then ask that Governor Newsom sign: AB 1866, AB 3233, SB 59, SB 960, SB 1221, SB 1374 and not sign SB 1420.
CLIMATE NEWS
California is currently drafting regulations, called Zone Zero, that could transform the landscape of some of the state’s most iconic and privileged communities, as we report in our story today. Existing regulations require homeowners in high-risk areas to create “defensible space” from five to 100 feet around their dwellings by thinning out vegetation and removing dead or dying plants and trees. Zone Zero ups the ante, prohibiting vegetation, wood fences and decks and other combustible matter within five feet of homes in areas classified as “very high fire hazard severity zones.” That includes the densely populated East Bay hills in Northern California and large swathes of urbanized Southern California — Malibu, Bel Air, the Hollywood hills. [See Board of Forestry description of Zone Zero here.]
UTILITIES:
- Ford and Southern California Edison partner to compensate electric vehicle owners for exporting battery power to the grid during peak demand. It is a first step toward bidirectional charging as a grid resource.
- Pacific Gas & Electric officials say increased battery energy storage capacity has avoided the need to ask customers to conserve during this year’s extreme heat events. (Bloomberg Law, subscription)
- California’s electric vehicle industry pushes back against new state regulations giving utilities nearly nine years to connect new EV chargers to the grid, saying it would hamper adoption efforts.(E&E News, subscription)
- Documents show an Oregon utility continues to sell increasing volumes of natural gas even though it promised to phase out fossil fuels and encourage home electrification years ago.
- A Montana court rejects advocates’ bid to force state regulators to act quickly on a petition calling on them to consider their decisions’ effects on climate change.
Today, the California Energy Commission (CEC) and the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) took a major step in rapidly deploying electric vehicle (EV) infrastructure by awarding over $32 million in federal funds to install, operate and maintain 458 direct-current fast chargers (DCFC) along interstates and highways across the state. The funds come from the $5 billion National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) Formula Program, which is part of the $1.2 trillion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act that President Biden signed into law in November 2021. California expects to receive a total of $384 million for the program over the next several years.
“The Arctic is likely to become a hotbed for zoonotic diseases that spill over into humans from other animals,” argues Arctic ecoscientist Christian Sonne. The natural balance is being upset by pollutants, invasive pathogens and melting ice, and ancient microorganisms are also being released as the landscape thaws. He calls for a ‘One Health’ approach that integrates an understanding of the effects on wildlife, humans and ecosystems. For example, food-safety efforts and better disease surveillance could help reduce the risk of spillover events in places where meat is processed by subsistence-hunting communities.
California’s emissions-reduction policies over the last two decades have — on a statewide level — decreased residents’ contact with particulate matter known to exacerbate conditions like heart disease and asthma, but exposure disparities for people of color and disadvantaged communities have increased. That was the conclusion of a new report by researchers from UC Berkeley, the University of Washington and the California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment released in Science today. The research found that while particulate matter exposure decreased by 65 percent across the state from 2000 to 2019, white Californians are far more likely to benefit from cleaner air than Hispanic, Black and Asian residents. The disparity is widest among Hispanic Californians, who are now 35 percent more likely to be exposed to particulate matter than white residents — a 5 percent increase from 2000. The numbers are even worse for neighborhoods identified as having the poorest air quality under California’s Community Air Protection Program. Those communities are 45 percent more likely to be exposed to particulate matter. The researchers said their findings point to a need for lawmakers to rethink transportation policy, including creating low emissions zones, promoting a shift away from private cars and promoting vehicle electrification in overburdened areas.
One in four people on the planet experienced at least 30 days of health-threatening temperatures strongly influenced by climate change between June and August, according to a new report by Climate Central. “Risky heat” days reach temperature thresholds at which heat-related risks to human health increase statistically. Climate change increased the likelihood of these days for billions worldwide. With the influence of climate change, U.S. residents were exposed to 40 days, on average, of summer temperatures above the minimum mortality threshold, the level at which heat-related health risks climb statistically. In Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, Nevada, Florida, and Louisiana, residents experienced more than 50 days, on average, of dangerous heat between June and August. At the peak of the global heat, on August 13, more than 4 billion people faced unusually high temperatures made at least three times more likely by climate change. 180 cities in the Northern Hemisphere experienced at least one extreme heat wave of five days or longer. Extreme heatwaves of five or more days are now about 21 times more likely because of human-caused climate change.
The Hague has banned oil and air travel ads. It’s now the first city in the world to ban advertisements promoting fossil fuel products and carbon-intensive services including cruise ships and air travel.
Tens of thousands of protesters gathered in the South Korean capital of Seoul to call for urgent action “from both the government and individuals” to tackle climate change, the Korea Times reported.
YOUTH AND ANXIETY: The Los Angeles Times has published a “youth and climate anxiety special section” made up of a series of articles that “reminds us there’s still time to seize control of our collective destiny”.