By Kevin Hall Twenty years ago, local business and political leaders learned an important lesson at the ballot box: People really want clean air. That’s why in 2002 voters rejected the first [...] Continue Reading
Environment
Power of Fire Destroys
By Janet CapellaPhotos by Peter Maiden The Creek Fire started on Sept. 4, 2020, the first day of Labor Day weekend, in the isolated woodland between Big Creek and Huntington Lake. The final embers [...] Continue Reading
Our “Right to Know” When Pesticides Are Applied
By Nayamin Martinez and Sarah Aird The San Joaquin Valley is often called “the food basket of the world” because it is one of the major agricultural producers in the United States. Two of the [...] Continue Reading
Central Valley on Fire, Hearts Inflamed
By I. smiley G. Calderon As the coronavirus pandemic continues to rage among us, dangerous wildfires are raging around us here in Fresno County. There have been at least 26 major wildfires in the [...] Continue Reading
Giant Sequoia Groves, Wilderness Areas, Communities Burning
By Vic Bedoian Like other California wildfires this year, the SQF Complex was sparked by lightning and is actively ablaze inside two groves of giant sequoias and through the mixed conifer forest [...] 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
Bureau of Land Management Approves Oil Drilling in Carrizo Plain
By Vic Bedoian The Bureau of Land Management recently approved a new oil well and pipeline in Carrizo Plain National Monument. The oil well hasn’t operated for nearly 20 years and was slated to be [...] 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
Oil Industry in Kern County Resists Limitations on Fracking
By Ronald Martin The Kern County Board of Supervisors (BOS) meeting on Jan. 14 with the staff of a new agency, the California Geologic Energy Management Division (CalGEM, which replaces DOGGR, the [...] Continue Reading
Carbon Capture and Sequestration Coming to Town
By Tom Frantz Oil and gas companies are facing an existential threat in California. The governor and legislators have agreed that the use of fossil fuel must be phased out over the next 20 years if [...] Continue Reading
Is the Air Force Contaminating Fresno’s Water?
By Pat Elder Fresno’s Southeast Surface Water Treatment Plant is located 7,500 feet from the former Fire Training Areas (FTAs) used by the Fresno Air National Guard for 50 years—the same period the [...] Continue Reading
Fresno Mayor’s Race Pits Progressive Vision versus the Establishment
By Vic Bedoian Although the election for mayor of Fresno is in theory nonpartisan, in reality it’s a choice between a progressive vision for the city’s future pursued by Andrew Janz and Fresno’s [...] Continue Reading