Clearing the Air

By Month

By Category

Final Thoughts

By Tom Frantz This winter will mark the end of one of the worst air quality episodes in the San Joaquin Valley for more than a dozen years. The past summer, fall and now the beginning of winter [...] Continue Reading

Smoke!

By Tom Frantz We have suffered the effect of smoke on public health due to the wildfires this summer. It couldn’t be more obvious that serious health impairment comes as a result of breathing the [...] Continue Reading

Protecting Indoor Air Quality

By Tom Frantz How many residents of the San Joaquin Valley live in homes with swamp coolers that suck in outside air through a water-soaked mat of loose fibers and that require at least one window [...] Continue Reading

California Defers to the Oil Industry

By Tom Frantz For several years, environmental justice advocates in California have lobbied the legislature for a buffer zone between oil production activity and schools, hospitals and residents. [...] Continue Reading

Dereliction of Duty

By Tom Frantz This column has detailed the lack of integrity at the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District (air district) for a long time. Kevin Hall wrote about illegal and insufficient [...] Continue Reading

Air District Fails Audit

By Tom Frantz For years, San Joaquin Valley clean air activists have railed against the local air district program of emission reduction credits (ERCs). This program allows new polluting projects [...] Continue Reading

Meat Packing and the Coronavirus

Meat packing plants (sometimes described as “disease-ridden flesh factories”) seem to be especially vulnerable to the coronavirus spreading among their workers. It likely has something to do with the [...] Continue Reading

Electric Car Sharing

By Tom Frantz I walk up to four compact SUVs parked in front of the Community Center building at the Sunset Villa Apartments in Wasco. I need a car to drive around the north side of town for about [...] Continue Reading

Two Dirty Secrets

By Tom Frantz Governor Gavin Newsom has made it clear that his administration intends “to manage the decline in fossil fuel production and consumption in California in a way that is economically [...] Continue Reading