By Chip Ashley As citizens interested in the Carmelita Mine Project cleared the Fresno County Board of Supervisors (BOS) meeting chamber on July 9, they were replaced by another, somewhat more [...] Continue Reading
Environment
Update on the Carmelita Mine Proposal
By Chip Ashley If Gerawan Farming gets its way, the Carmelita Mine will extract river rock—10–50 pound chunks of round loaf-shaped rocks to be crushed into aggregate—from the alluvium along the east [...] Continue Reading
Clearing the Air – August 2013: Goods Movement in the San Joaquin Valley
By Tom Frantz Members of the San Joaquin Valley Air Board are often heard blaming our pollution problems on the diesel trucks traveling Valley highways nonstop between Los Angeles and the Bay Area. [...] Continue Reading
Kettleman Hills Toxic Waste Landfill Permitted to Expand
By Vic Bedoian In a decision that’s sure to be controversial, the California Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) issued a draft permit to the Chemical Waste Management Company to expand [...] Continue Reading
The Fungus Among Us
By Maria Telesco At the time of this writing, a serious medical crisis is looming in two California prisons. Valley fever, which is caused by the sometimes-lethal aspergillus fungus, may be [...] Continue Reading
Strictest Rules in the Nation? – Clearing the Air – July 2013
By Tom Frantz The San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District Board likes to brag about having the toughest air pollution controls in the nation. Unfortunately, given that we have the worst air [...] Continue Reading
Fresnans Against Fracking Is Organized
By Gary Lasky Fifteen Fresno activists met on June 10 to share concerns about the impending “fracking” boom in the San Joaquin Valley and launched a new group, Fresnans Against Fracking. The group [...] Continue Reading
Fracking California Legislative Update
By Gary Lasky The oil and gas industry in California is essentially without adult supervision. Existing regulations are either drafted by, or approved in advance by, the oil industry. This status quo [...] Continue Reading
Expanding Natural Gas Exports Would Encourage Natural Gas Fracking in California
By Tom Cotter Increasing America’s natural gas exports to other nations may sound like benign economic policy, but it is anything but. In reality, oil and gas giants and others with a track record [...] Continue Reading
How Not To Fight Climate Change: Clearing the Air – June 2013
By Tom Frantz Our lungs are being violated by misguided climate change action in Sacramento. Simultaneously, our Valley Air Board is facilitating this environmental injustice. First, some [...] Continue Reading
Wal-Mart Distribution Center to Proceed Despite Environmental Flaws
By Tom Grave After a three-year legal battle, Walmart can now proceed with building a 1.1 million square foot distribution center on 230 acres within the city of Merced. This massive project will [...] Continue Reading
Fracking Lease Sale Halted by Federal Court
By Gary Lasky Fresno County is targeted for fracking—a form of oil and gas extraction in which fluids are pumped underground with sand and, frequently, toxic chemicals to release oil [...] Continue Reading