The Supreme Court Dealt a Terrible Blow to Children’s Health, NYTimes, July 9, 2022

Climate change and air pollution — both largely driven by fossil fuel emissions — inflict a huge toll on the health of children. This is especially true within low-income communities and communities of color. The recent Supreme Court decision, West Virginia v. Environmental Protection Agency, that curtails the E.P.A.’s power to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from power plants will greatly exacerbate this harm.

Read the article at: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/09/opinion/environment/climate-change-supreme-court-epa-children-health.html

CLIMATE COMMITTEE: Focus on Transportation

July 14, 2022 6:00 – 7:45 pm

Featuring: Dan Leavitt of San Joaquin Regional Rail Commission on the Valley Rail Program

Also, Jim Allison of Capitol Corridor will discuss the addition of a third track between Sacramento and Roseville. Finally, ECOS will provide updates on and invite discussion of the City of Sacramento Climate Action Plan and the proposed transportation ballot initiative.

LINK to join: ECOS ZOOM 6656164155
Call: 1 669 900 6833, Mtg ID: 665 616 4155

6:00 Welcome and Introductions

6:10 Dan Leavitt, Manager of Regional Initiatives, San Joaquin Regional Rail Commission, and David Lipari also of SJRRC
• Dan will give a general update on the Valley Rail Program, and Altamont Commuter Express (ACE) and San Joaquins services. Valley Rail will provide new rail service to Sacramento on existing tracks from San Jose, Merced, and Bakersfield.
• David will present Valley Rail station design guidelines and process.
• Q&A.

Valley Rail is a joint program that includes improvements and expansions of both ACE and Amtrak San Joaquins that is focused on improvements between Sacramento and the San Joaquin Valley.

7:00 Jim Allison, Manager of Planning, Capitol Corridor JPA
• Jim will discuss the Capitol Corridor, including the addition of a third track between Sacramento and Roseville to enable increased rail service east of Sacramento.

7:20 Ralph Propper, John Deeter, and others
• City of Sacramento Climate Action Plan
• Transportation ballot initiative

7:45 Adjourn

Climate Update

On June 30, 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court said that without “clear congressional authorization,” the Environmental Protection Agency was powerless to aggressively address climate change, to regulate greenhouse gas emissions. Congress is gridlocked now, but one day Congress will act. Meanwhile the Biden administration is working with many other federal agencies and the private sector to implement clean energy projects and operations.

A few weeks earlier, at the Citizens’ Climate Lobby June 2022 conference, Executive Director Madeleine Para referred to CCL’s extended efforts on carbon fees and dividends with the U.S. Congress, and the sad reality that there isn’t yet enough political will to “pass the biggest, most critical climate policies into law.” So, in addition to carbon fees and dividends, CCL has decided to throw its weight behind Clean Energy and Natural/Land-based Solutions, particularly forests and reforestation to store and remove carbon and help insects, birds and animals adapt to an already-changing climate.

CCL is focused on national and regional issues while ECOS focuses on the Sacramento region. It is important that California and Sacramento lead because “when the people lead, the leaders will follow” – Mahatma Gandhi. We need to get local elected officials to be more aggressive in climate action.

The CARB Scoping Plan states “Many jurisdictions are already asserting bold climate leadership, yet meeting the challenge of climate change requires more widespread action at the local level – roughly 35 percent of California’s GHG reduction potential is from activities that local governments have authority or important influence over.” Here’s a good article, As Federal Climate-Fighting Tools Are Taken Away, Cities and States Step Up, about action by localities on climate change.

Stop the diversion of 147,000 acre-feet of American River Water to San Joaquin County

On July 6, 2022, the Environmental Council of Sacramento submitted a letter to the State Water Resources Control Board Administrative Hearings Office (AHO) supporting the AHO’s recommendation to cancel San Joaquin County’s application #29657 from 1990.

Below is an excerpt from the letter.

While not the subject of the AHO’s recommendation, the diversion of 147,000 acre-feet of American River Water to San Joaquin County, as envisioned in application #29657, would have substantial adverse impacts to the American River and would disrupt the Water Forum’s 29 years of work to meet water needs, protect river flows, manage river temperatures for salmon and steelhead, and restore aquatic habitats in the Lower American River. The up-stream diversion would likely impact river flows and summer temperatures. With climate change and the projected demand in this region, the river cannot absorb an additional 140,000+ acre feet of diversion and still maintain the fishery and full recreational potential of the lower American river.

Click here to read the letter in full.

Release of Preliminary Public Review Draft of the Sacramento Climate Action Plan

From the City of Sacramento:

The Community Development Department is pleased to announce the release of the preliminary public review draft of the Climate Action Plan (CAP) on July 1, 2022.

This document will be circulated for a 30-day period, several months ahead of the release of the full Draft Climate Action and Adaptation Plan, Draft 2040 General Plan and Draft Master Environmental Impact Report this fall, which will be circulated for 45 days. This approach will allow the community to have advanced review and provide comments on the draft measures to reduce the City’s greenhouse gas emissions. The document is posted on the project webpage and can be found directly here.

Following release of the preliminary public review draft Climate Action Plan, the Sacramento City Council will hold a workshop to discuss additional potential actions that can be taken to achieve carbon neutrality in advance of the CAP’s target date of 2045. This City Council workshop is scheduled for August 16, 2022.

Submit comments on the preliminary draft Climate Action Plan (from July 1 to July 30).

Contact staff
Email: cap[at]cityofsacramento[dot]org
Sign up to receive updates from the Office of Climate Action and Sustainability
Sign up to receive updates on the Sacramento 2040 General Plan and Climate Action Plan