Discourse for all interested in all things air-quality related
SAN LUIS OBISPO COUNTY, Calif.― The Bureau of Land Management late Wednesday ordered an oil company to permanently close and remove 11 long-dormant oil wells inside the Carrizo Plain National Monument, a unique landscape in central California famous for its vibrant springtime wildflower displays and rare wildlife. The order was part of a legal agreement … Read more
WASHINGTON – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), and DOE’s National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) released a notice of intent announcing the first in a series of funding opportunities to monitor and reduce methane emissions, one of the biggest drivers of the climate crisis, from the oil and gas sector and … Read more
DIAMOND BAR—The South Coast Air Quality Management District was awarded about $76 million by the California State Transportation Agency (CalSTA) for zero-emission projects that will help transform the goods movement sector in the San Pedro Bay Port corridor. More than 80% of air pollution in Southern California is associated with mobile sources, including trucks, trains, … Read more
Pollution: What’s it good for?! Some might think I’m just blowing smoke or I’m full of it or hot air. Me?! Well, I’ve got news! Pollution is a serious matter. Every year in the world, air pollution – just one kind – claims 7-8 million lives. That’s not nothing! The World Health Organization, meanwhile, in … Read more
An article in the Spring 2023 Cal Poly Engineering Advantage magazine issue caught my eye. It’s title: “Combating Climate Change on a Green-Sand Beach.” The “green sand,” in this instance referring to refined olivine (the mineral), meanwhile, in its natural or unaltered state, is produced during volcanic eruptions. Its natural color is, more or less, … Read more
The United States at one time had one of the grandest railroad networks on Earth. At its 1916 peak, operations of U.S. freight and passenger trains were conducted on a total of 254,000 route-miles of mainline track; today that number weighs in at around 140,000, or a reduction in said trackage of almost half (45 … Read more
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today [Jun. 27, 2023], the Biden administration decided to close several civil rights complaints and an investigation into whether the State of Louisiana failed to protect a community beset by decades of toxic air pollution. For much of the last decade, residents of St. John the Baptist Parish have had the highest … Read more
It shouldn’t come as a shock, but lately, the bulk of the discourse on climate centers around temperature rise – not temperature decline. And, it’s for reasons that are not too difficult to imagine. For the past century-and-a-half, what’s known as the Global Mean Surface Temperature, or GMST, has been tracking mostly positively, which means … Read more
To some, the reasons may be obvious. To others, maybe not so much, but I’ve been paying really close attention of late to the weather in my neck of the woods – that’d be California’s mid-San Joaquin Valley region. Why? Because it’s been a bit unusual to say the least. How? For starters, the month … Read more
SAN FRANCISCO, CA — Conservation organizations have filed a lawsuit against the Biden administration’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM) seeking to halt the unlawful drilling of multiple oil and gas wells in California’s San Joaquin Valley. The agency rushed the approval of the well permits in the Mount Poso oil field near Bakersfield without allowing … Read more