LEED Points

Category: California

  • California Farmers Demand Fracking Moratorium

    California farmers, grappling with a record drought that’s parching their fields and livelihoods, call on Gov. Brown (D-CA) to place a moratorium on the water-intensive extreme oil and gas extraction process known as hydraulic fracturing, or fracking. Yesterday afternoon, Shafter almond farmer Tom Frantz, California State Grange President Bob McFarland and Monterey County vintner Paula…

  • Fracking Moratorium Bill Introduced in California

    Yesterday, Senators Holly Mitchell (D-Los Angeles) and Mark Leno (D-San Francisco) introduced Senate Bill 1132 to the California Legislature, which calls for a moratorium on fracking and other types of unconventional well stimulation (like acidizing). Current law (SB4) requires an Environmental Impact Report (EIR) but there are at least two problems with it: Fracking and…

  • The California Drought: Who Gets Water and Who’s Hung Out to Dry?

    The historic drought in California has dredged up old feuds over who can lay claim to water in a thirsty state. As the powerful lobby for the agricultural industry—which currently consumes 80 percent of California’s water supply—cries for more water to be pumped to their farms in the arid regions of the Central Valley, just…

  • How Smoking Pot Kills Wildlife

    Marijuana illegally grown in the backwoods of Northern California uses large amounts of rat bait to protect their plants—and these chemicals are killing several species of wild animals, including rare ones, biologists say in a new report by NPR. According to the report, growers plant their marijuana in remote locations, hoping to elude detection. They…

  • President Obama Pledges $2 Billion+ for Drought-Stricken California and U.S. Climate Resilience Fund

    By Brett Walton Acting on climate change and the growing toll it’s taking on U.S. agriculture, President Obama today will announce a $1.2 billion aid package for farmers, ranchers and communities in California and several more agricultural states pummeled by a series of devastating droughts and snowstorms in the past year. The President also will…