The idyllic sounds of rustling leaves and cascading snowmelt mixed with Scripture readings Saturday morning during a pre-Easter service held in a shady Angeles National Forest glen overlooking the east fork of the San Gabriel River.

About 35 worshipers from throughout Southern California had gathered by the river to break bread, pray and show support for an ongoing campaign to bolster federal protections for the San Gabriel Mountains.

The service was organized by San Gabriel Mountains Forever, a coalition of environmental and community groups including the Wilderness Society, the Sierra Club and Friends of the River. The group wants to add 30,000 acres to three existing wilderness areas -- Sheep Mountain, Cucamonga and San Gabriel -- and have 46 miles of the San Gabriel River, San Antonio Creek and Lytle Creek preserved under Wild and Scenic River System protections.

Designation in the wild rivers system is the primary method for preventing construction of environmentally harmful dam projects. And classifying land as federal wilderness helps head off such activities as mining and transmission line construction while allowing recreational uses.

In his sermon under the pines, the Rev. Peter Laarman, executive director of a group called Progressive Christians Uniting, acknowledged that the pre-Easter service was not traditional and that some people "might feel weird about messing with this most sacred day in the Christian calendar."

"But God is grand and generous enough to raise Jesus up from the dead," he told worshipers seated on blankets and folding chairs, "and bring all the natural elements that surround us into our ceremony on this bright April morning."

The service ended with hikes along the river and up serpentine trails with panoramic views of proposed wilderness areas. Worshipers also wrote letters seeking support from Rep. David Dreier (R-San Dimas), whose district includes much of the crescent-shaped 650,000-acre mountain range.

As weekend miners panned for gold in the shade of nearby alders, Friends of the River spokeswoman Carolin Atchison said the proposed protections would preserve for future generations a region she described as "a wild, gorgeous scene that takes my breath away: wildflowers, pine trees, snow-capped peaks, a river charged by tributaries and snowmelt."

In a legal battle that pits old industrial uses against urbanization, Culver City is challenging an environmental impact report approved by Los Angeles County that could allow 600 new wells to be drilled in a local oil field over the next 20 years.

A week ago, Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge James Chalfant upheld Culver City’s 6-month-old moratorium on new drilling in the northern section of the 85-year-old Inglewood Oil Field, which is within city limits. City officials said the moratorium was needed to provide time for development of new drilling regulations aimed at addressing health issues.

Chalfant had been expected on Monday to rule on a separate lawsuit filed by the city asking that he scrap the county report related to plans to drill new wells, in part because none of the 1,000-acre field’s existing 1,463 active, idle and abandoned wells has undergone such a review.

Instead, a hearing on the matter was pushed back to June 3 to give parties more time to negotiate a settlement. If the county report is invalidated, a new one will be required before new drilling can occur.

Eight years ago, Fran Pavley, an obscure California assemblywoman and former civics teacher, proposed something that no government had ever done before: a law to slash the amount of carbon dioxide spewing from auto tailpipes, a major source of climate change.

Thursday, after an epic struggle in which California and other states battled car manufacturers and the George W. Bush administration on global warming all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, the first nationwide regulations to control planet-heating greenhouse gases from vehicles took effect, modeled on Pavley’s law. “I’m very gratified,” said a beaming Pavley (D-Agoura Hills), now a state senator, who attended a news conference with environmentalists at Los Angeles’ Petersen Automotive Museum in L.A. “This will reduce air pollution, reduce consumer costs at the pump... These new technologies pay for themselves in a very short time.”

The standards, negotiated by the Obama administration with the states, auto industry, Environmental Protection Agency and Transportation Department, will raise the fleetwide average fuel economy of new cars and trucks to 34.1 miles per gallon in 2016, an increase of 7.7 mpg from today, and cut carbon dioxide emissions by 26%. The 10-mpg rise from today’s standard could drive up the average price of vehicles by $926, but federal officials say that will be offset by savings of $3,000 in overall fuel costs.

Nationally, transportation accounts for 28% of the greenhouse gas emissions that scientists say have begun to disrupt Earth’s climate. Only electricity generation produces more.

The rules mark the first time the federal government has curbed global warming emissions under the Clean Air Act. Environmentalists credited California’s pioneering fight--beginning with the 2002 enactment of Pavley's law to regulate such emissions from cars.

But Congress is considering new climate and energy legislation that could curb future state efforts to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from stationary sources, as well as the EPA’s authority to do so under the Clean Air Act. “The clean car standards issued today show the extraordinary value of state leadership and EPA action under the current Clean Air Act,” said David Doniger, climate policy director of the Natural Resources Defense Council. “Current state and EPA authority should be preserved, not preempted, in any new law.”

Charles Drevna, president of the National Petroleum & Petrochemical and Refiners Assn., criticized the tailpipe rule as “harmful,” adding, that “EPA has acknowledged that regulation of vehicle greenhouse gas emissions under the Clean Air Act will lead next year to the regulation of stationary-source emissions of greenhouse gases. Such misguided and flawed policy has the potential for devastating consequences to American consumers, businesses, jobs, and the economy.”

California has adopted the nation’s most sweeping climate legislation, requiring nearly every sector of the economy to contribute to slashing the state’s carbon footprint by 15% over the next decade. Emissions from power plants, factories and other industries would be capped, and firms could trade pollution permits to lower costs. Northeastern states are already operating a regional cap-and-trade program for utilities.

--Margot Roosevelt

Photo: State Sen. Fran Pavley. Her 2004 law curbing greenhouse gas emissions from cars and trucks is a model for federal standards. Credit: Brian Vander Brug/L.A. Times

Activists in Southern California breathed a sigh of relief Wednesday at news of the Obama administration's offshore drilling plan.

While environmentalists elsewhere lamented the opening of new areas to drilling and the petroleum industry bemoaned not opening more, Santa Barbara saw a return to status quo ante.

The new federal plan rescinds a previous leasing program that had included areas off Santa Barbara, including the Santa Maria Basin and the entire Santa Barbara Channel, according to the Environmental Defense Center. By rescinding the Bush plan and enacting his own, Obama left in place a moratorium on further federal leasing enacted in 1990 and extended by the Clinton Administration.

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar also promised to keep the contentious Santa Barbara offshore areas out of a future federal program.

-- Geoff Mohan

Photo: An oil platform in a federal leasing area of the Santa Barbara channel. Credit: Al Seib/Los Angeles Times

 

The Times' Louis Sahagun looks at how four mothers in one of the state's most impoverished towns overcame their fears and became activists demanding answers in connection with a spate of birth defects.

Check out the video slide show by Liz Baylen.

-- Geoff Mohan

Photo: Lizbeth Canales speaks with media in Kettleman City. Credit: Liz Baylen / Los Angeles Times

Environmental Health News published a story today about new research that suggests farm pesticides may have a link to melanoma.

Sun exposure has long been thought to be the primary cause of melanoma and remains the leading factor. But the study found that, among agricultural workers,  repeated long-term exposure to six chemicals doubled the risk of forming the deadly skin cancer.

At least one of the chemicals is used in a popular pesticide used by consumers in gardens.

Read more: "Farm Pesticides Linked to Deadly Skin Cancer."

-- Geoff Mohan

Photo: Agricultural workers in Ventura County fields. Credit: Al Seib / Los Angeles Times

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa scored a partial political victory Tuesday when the Los Angeles City Council approved utility rate increases of 4.5% to 6%.

The mayor has said the added revenue will help the Department of Water and Power move away from polluting coal-fired power plants to renewable fuels. The Water and Power Commission will have the last say on the rate hikes, which were about 25% lower than what Villaraigosa had proposed.

Read more here.

Photo: Utah’s coal-fired Intermountain Power Project is the single biggest source of power for the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. Credit: LADWP

California officials Thursday abruptly halted a controversial effort to slash the carbon footprint of automobile air conditioning. “Cool car” rules would have required a clear reflective glaze on vehicle windows as a way to block excessive sunlight and heat. They were adopted in June by the state’s Air Resources Board and were in the process of being finalized.

Air conditioning lowers vehicle efficiency, increasing emissions from gasoline that contribute to global warming.  But law enforcement officials had expressed concerns that the coating, a spray of microscopic metal particles which block infrared rays, would interfere with the electronic monitoring of ankle bracelets on paroled felons. Wireless phone companies said the new standard could degrade cellphone signals including 911 calls. And toll road operators said the glaze could make it difficult to use the "EZ Pass" systems enabling traffic to move quickly through toll booths.

 "Stakeholders raised several new issues involving performance of electronic devices as they may affect public safety," James N. Goldstene, the board’s executive officer, announced. "After listening to this input and accounting for the legal deadline to finalize the rule, today we are announcing that the AB 32 ’cool cars’ rule-making will cease."

AB 32, California’s sweeping 2006 climate law, requires the state to cut its greenhouse gas emissions by 15% over the next decade. The cool cars rule, to be phased in between 2012 and 2016, was designed to block of 60% of the sun's energy entering the interior of a car. Once finalized, the rule would have slashed 700,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions by 2020, the equivalent of taking 140,000 cars off the road.Scientists say that carbon dioxide emissions are trapping heat in earth's atmosphere, which will lead to dangerous climate change.

Spokesman Stanley Young said the board would now pursue “a performance-based approach,” meaning that auto manufacturers would have to meet a standard for a specific drop in the interior temperature of vehicles, “but they are free to draw on any technology to achieve it. This could be through advanced windows that keep the sun’s heat out, but also heat-reflecting paints, different upholstery, or even fans that circulate air and keep the car cool while it is standing in the sun.”

--Margot Roosevelt

Photo: Cars and trucks choke California freeways and, especially in summer months, use air conditioning that cuts the efficiency of cars, increasing emissions of carbon dioxide from the burning of gasoline.  Credit: Al Seib/LA Times

Scientists studying global warming have shifted attention to northwestern Greenland, where new evidence is showing that the melting of ice sheets has spread.

Melting attributed to the buildup of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere has been well documented in the southern portion of Greenland's ice sheet, which contains about 20% of the planet's ice -- enough to cause an ocean rise of 21 feet if it all melts.

A team led by the Denmark Technical Institute's National Space Institute in Copenhagen used data from NASA and GPS measurements to document crustal uplift caused by the loss of ice mass pressing down on bedrock. 

"This is a phenomenon that was undocumented before this study," said University of Colorado Boulder physics professor and study co-author John Wahr. "Our speculation is that some of the big glaciers in this region are sliding downhill faster and dumping more ice in the ocean."

The scientists believe accelerated ice loss began moving up the northwestern coast in late 2005.

Los Angeles is once again king of the hill when it comes to the number of energy-efficient buildings, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s second ranking of cities nationwide.

The scorecard calculates how many commercial structures in 2009 earned the agency’s Energy Star rating, which is given to buildings that perform in the top 25% of similar buildings nationwide. Eligibility extends to 13 types of structures such as schools, hospitals, office buildings, retail stores and supermarkets.

Los Angeles had 293 buildings with the label in 2009, covering 76 million square feet and saving an estimated $93.9 million in costs.

Washington, D.C., came in second in the rankings, which also included major cities such as San Francisco, Chicago, Houston, Atlanta and New York.

Nearly 3,900 buildings earned the rating last year, more than a 40% boost over the year before. The energy-efficient qualities of the buildings represent more than $900 million in utility bill savings and more than 4.7 million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions averted, according to the agency.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has designated 1.6 million acres in California as critical habitat for the endangered red-legged frog.

The habitat area is in 27 California counties, including six counties that previously did not have designated critical habitat: Mendocino, Sonoma, Placer, Calaveras, Stanislaus and Kings.

[update: 10:52 a.m. This was the third time the agency has tried to designate critical habitat for the species. One decision in 2001 was struck down in the courts. The Bush Administration scaled back critical habitat in 2006. That decision proved controversial when it was discovered that an Interior Department official, Julie MacDonald, pressured scientists to alter conclusions, and provided internal documents to lobbyists. MacDonald later resigned her post.]

-- Geoff Mohan

Photo credit: Brian Vander Brug/Los Angeles Times

It's a bit different than chugging tequila at Cancun. Sixty college students will descend on Grand Canyon National Park next week to help replace a parking lot with native vegetation.

As part of the National Park's attempt to cut down on asphalt around the South Rim, the students from the Student Conservation Assn. will be planting native plants and removing invasive ones around Mather Point. The park is replacing the large parking lot and traffic-choked road that led to the popular viewpoint with pedestrian walkways and park shuttle stops.

Kevin Hamilton of the SCA said the program drew five times as many applicants as there were available slots when it was posted online. And, really, Cancun vs. the Canyon? No contest.

-- Nicholas Riccardi

Photo: Last year's SCA volunteers working outside the Grand Canyon Visitor's Center. Credit: NPS

A bitter split among backers of the controversial November ballot initiative to suspend California's 2006 first-in-the-nation global warming law broke into the open Wednesday. Ted Costa, chief executive of People's Advocate, a Sacramento-based anti-tax group that was an original sponsor of the measure, told the Los Angeles Times that "big money interests have come in and shut out the people."

Costa, whose populist group has sponsored conservative ballot propositions for more than two decades, had drafted the initiative along with Assemblyman Dan Logue (R-Marysville), Rep. Tom McClintock (R-Granite Bay) and Sacramento attorney Thomas Hiltachk, but said he was shut out of the process after the group, calling itself the "California Jobs Initiative Committee," raised some $600,000 from two Texas-based oil companies.

"I wanted to do a grassroots operation and involve a lot of people," Costa said. "But they believe they can run this thing out of the country club and to hell with the little people of California. If they have half a million dollars, how come they haven't reported it?" he asked.

Under state law, financial disclosure forms are required to be filed with the California Secretary of State within 10 days of raising $50,000. However, although paid signature gatherers were deployed more than a week ago, financial forms for the initiative committee have yet to be filed. Costa charged that "you have to put up $250,000 to do that"  (launch signature gathering) and added that the group "spent $160,000 on research more than 60 days ago." He said he would consider filing a counter-initiative "to point out the integrity abuses."

Two conservationists who focus on ecosystem function and restoration were granted the prestigious Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement from the University of Southern California.

The $200,000 award will go to Laurie Marker, the co-founder and executive director of the Cheetah Conservation Fund in Otjiwarongo, Namibia, and professor Stuart Pimm, the Doris Duke Professor of Conservation Ecology at Duke University in Durham, N.C.

Both were recognized “for their scientific contributions, their understanding of ecosystem functions and for their applications of this knowledge to the management and restoration of ecosystems to the benefit of their inhabitants.”

Marker founded an organization in Namibia to study and protect the cheetah, an animal she has worked with for more than 30 years. The organization approaches habitat preservation in a way that also focuses on the residents in the habitat, offering them economic opportunities that build a constituency for conservation.

Pimm won the prize "in recognition of his work to delineate the structures of ecological food webs, to understand the expected lifetimes of plant and animal populations and to determine the populations that are most vulnerable to risks of extinction and those that have the capacity to recover most rapidly from disturbances."

A professor for 36 years, Pimm has contributed to more than 200 journal articles, many of them as lead author or sole author, and managed research projects around the world. He also has served as a policy advisor and source for media interviews.

The prize was established by the late John and Alice Tyler in 1973 and has been awarded annually to 61 individuals and four organizations associated with world-class environmental accomplishments.

-- Geoff Mohan

Photo: An African cheetah in the San Diego Zoo's Wild Animal Park. Credit: Ken Bohn / San Diego Zoo

The National Marine Fisheries Service and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on Wednesday issued a proposed decision to lend additional federal protection to loggerhead turtle populations in areas of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.

The species, named for the size of its head, is listed under the Endangered Species Act as "threatened" throughout its range, in temperate and tropical zones around the globe. The proposed decision would elevate seven distinct population segments to "endangered."

“The proposed rule marks a turning point in our ability to protect loggerhead sea turtles,” said Andrea Treece, an attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity, one of the environmental groups that petitioned for the elevated protection status. “By recognizing and preventing impacts to regional populations and their habitats, we’ll have a much better chance of putting these magnificent, prehistoric animals on a path to recovery instead of extinction.”

Loggerhead populations have faced steep declines from threats on beaches, where they lay eggs, and at sea, where they are caught in commercial fishing nets.

Among other things, designating these population segments starts the process of naming crucial habitat that would merit greater regulation and oversight.

The decision stems from petitions filed by environmental groups Oceana, Turtle Island Restoration Network (part of Earthjustice) and the Center for Biological Diversity.

-- Geoff Mohan

Photo: Since the gains in the 1990s, the loggerhead sea turtle population has declined steadily. Credit: Wilfredo Lee / Associated Press

 
Los Angeles officials are trying to encourage more recycling of beer bottles, old newspapers, cardboard, plastic and other recyclables. RecycleBank, a city program, gives points to residents who recycle, worth as much as $400 per year per blue bin.

Angelenos already reduce, reuse or recycle about 65% of their waste, the highest rate among the country’s 10 largest cities. But Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who announced the L.A. RecycleBank program, wants to push the city toward a goal of zero waste.

About 15,000 single-family homes in the West Valley and North Central sections of L.A. are eligible for the program, which is to begin April 5. Participating residents’ bins will be equipped with identification tags that allow their waste to be weighed and assigned points that can be redeemed at various retailers. CVS, Bed Bath & Beyond and Ruby Tuesday are among the national chains participating in the program. Local businesses include El Pollo Loco, Tritsch True Value Hardware and Jollibee.

Throughout the nation, more than 1,000 stores accept RecycleBank points.“For too long, people viewed doing things for the environment as the right thing to do but costly,” said Ron Gonen, RecycleBank's chief executive, who co-founded the company in 2005. “I wanted to start a movement that said smart environmental decisions were also smart economic decisions. Recycling could have the biggest impact in terms of changing that view and behavior because it touches every house.”

Headquartered in New York, RecycleBank has contracts with more than 50 cities in the U.S., including Philadelphia, Chicago, Houston, Phoenix, Atlanta and now L.A.

President Obama convened a meeting of more than a dozen Democratic and Republican senators this afternoon to discuss energy and climate legislation.

Unlike some other recent White House bipartisan policy summits you may recall recently, there were no cameras, no bickering congressional party leaders and nowhere near six hours of made-for-TV talking points – just an 80-minute exchange that left participants with some optimism on an issue that many analysts and reporters left for dead a long time ago.

Still, there’s a long way to go toward consensus on a comprehensive energy bill that could clear the Senate’s 60-vote threshold this year, which is why the more intriguing climate meeting today may have been the one directly preceding Obama’s: a Capitol Hill confab between the architects of the Senate climate bill and representatives from nearly every major industry group that the legislation figures to affect.

That meeting included officials from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the American Petroleum Institute, major electric utility groups, the National Assn. of Manufacturers, the cement industry and mining interests, among others, along with Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.), who are piecing together a large-scale energy and climate bill with Obama’s blessing.

The senators’ message to the industry groups: Tell us what you need to support this bill. Be specific. After talking for more than an hour, the officials and the lawmakers agreed to reconvene next week. Then Kerry, Graham and Lieberman were off to the White House, where the president was searching for common ground among potential swing votes.

There’s a lot of talk about green jobs being the savior for the country’s disturbingly high unemployment and underemployment rates. The city of Los Angeles says it is actively working to create some.

In a Feb. 24 ceremony on the third floor of L.A.’s City Hall, 23 people were awarded certificates for completing a green gardener training course that is seen as a template for creating jobs that will protect the environment.

“Since last spring, we’ve been working on this program to train gardeners in managing and maintaining the designs of the 21st century garden in Southern California, which is a garden that uses drought-tolerant plants and that retains and reuses rainwater,” said Paula Daniels, the L.A. Board of Public Works commissioner who helped pioneer the program.

Thirty-one gardeners participated in the pilot training program that began late last year, and 89 are expected to be trained soon through the program, which was funded with $250,000 in federal stimulus money, through the city’s Community Development Department, and conducted in partnership with the Institute of Popular Education of Southern California, an immigrant education group.

The training, which takes 48 hours over six days, educates gardeners in sustainable strategies for making better use of water, such as incorporating drought-tolerant plants, drip irrigation with more advanced controllers, and mulch. The curriculum, developed by the Los Angeles and San Gabriel Rivers Watershed Council, also focuses on soil types, sun patterns, microclimates and how to work with clients to educate them in water-saving gardening practices.

High gasoline prices, a slow economy and – ironically enough – a cool summer caused U.S. greenhouse gas emissions to fall nearly 3% in 2008 from 2007 levels, the Environmental Protection Agency reported today.

It’s the largest year-over-year drop that the EPA has recorded since it began tracking greenhouse gas emissions in 1990.

The 2009 decline will likely be even steeper: The federal Energy Information Administration reported this month that carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels, the major driver of American greenhouse gas emissions, fell more than 6% from 2008 to 2009.

In many ways, the decline is intuitive. Gas prices soared in 2008. Americans drove less. Summer was cooler than in 2007, reducing air-conditioning demand and more than making up for increased heating costs that came from a cold winter. The economy slowed, reducing demand for electricity (read: coal) to power factories and businesses.

Even when gas prices fell a bit last year, cash-strapped Americans stuck largely to their reduced driving habits. Meanwhile, the economy – and the demand for electricity – fell even more.

Still, annual U.S. emissions remain 14% higher than they were in 1990, the EPA reports. When economic growth picks up again, the Energy Information Administration forecasts, emissions will grow again too. (With the major caveat that President Obama is pushing Congress to limit emissions and that the EPA has signaled it will regulate emissions under the Clean Air Act if Congress doesn’t act.)

The EPA analysis suggests emissions growth will slow in the future even without new climate policy. For starters, low-emissions energy sources such as wind and solar power grew as a share of the national electric mix in 2008. Overall, U.S. emissions are continuing a steady decline as a percentage of both population and gross domestic product – which is to say, we’re less dependent on fossil fuels to make the economy hum.

The EPA’s draft report, “Inventory of U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Sinks: 1990-2008,” now heads for 30 days of public comment.

-- Jim Tankersley

Photo: California 2 in Los Angeles on February 10, 2010. When gas prices soared in 2008, Americans drove less, then largely stuck with their reduced driving habits.  Credit: Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times

What with budget cuts, teacher layoffs and increasing class sizes, the situation at L.A. Unified School District is grim. But there’s yet another issue. With 14,000 buildings housing 700,000 students spread over 710 square miles serviced by 1,300 school buses, the district is one of the largest users of water and energy in the state of California.

Now an ambitious sustainability program has been implemented to reduce the district’s environmental impact and, in the process, save money, improve student performance and serve as a hands-on teaching tool.

In March, hundreds of decades-old buses will be upgraded to less-polluting, more-energy-efficient propane models. Eight schools, out of a planned 250, will have solar power installed. Still others will be outfitted with "smart" irrigation systems to reduce the millions of gallons of imported water the district guzzles each day, more than half of which is used for outdoor watering.

"One of our goals is to be the No. 1 greenest school district in the country," said Yoli Flores Aguilar, an L.A. Board of Education member who co-sponsored the Green LAUSD resolution in 2007. "We want to find ways to save money and to be more efficient and effective in how we use our resources, so we can put more dollars in to the classroom."