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The manufacturers of one of the most common brands of rat and mice poison, d-Con, have sued state regulators just one week after California banned the pesticide and blamed it for killing wildlife. Reckitt Benckiser, the UK-based consumer products company that makes d-Con, filed a lawsuit Thursday against the California Department of Pesticide Control for halting the sale of the rodenticide commonly used by homeowners to kill rats and mice.

Sacramento, Calif. (AP) -- A state agency in charge of environmental regulation has flushed its six-year experiment with waterless urinals. According to California Environmental Protection Agency spokeswoman Lindsay VanLaningham, the agency has removed all 56 waterless urinals at its 25-story headquarters in downtown Sacramento. ... But VanLaningham says CalEPA has received hundreds of complaints over the years about foul odors and wet floors. Maintenance costs also grew high.

SACRAMENTO, Oct. 20 (UPI) -- California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's office announced this week the state will sue the federal government over a delayed emissions law. Schwarzenegger's press secretary, Aaron McLear, said the lawsuit would target President George Bush's administration for repeatedly delaying the state's request for a law limiting auto emissions, the San Francisco Chronicle reported Saturday. McLear said Friday that after waiting for an official decision from the Environmental Protection Agency since December 2005 on the matter, a lawsuit will be filed Wednesday by state officials. "There's really no excuse at this point why we shouldn't be granted a...

The Bush administration's new energy plan to reduce gasoline demand by 20 percent could have an unintended side effect. Linda Adams, California's Environmental Protection Agency secretary, says it could increase greenhouse gas emissions. It's the latest shot at the Bush administration by the governor and his administration over global warming. The president's outlined his plan yesterday in his state of the union address. He proposes to increase the amount of alternative fuel refiners must blend with gasoline over the next 10 years. But California officials say the federal government's definition of alternative fuel encompasses ways that burn fossil fuels or...

State Moves Forward on Implementing Landmark Global Warming Law Market Advisory Committee Members Chosen, Early Action Workshop Scheduled SACRAMENTO – Today, Linda Adams, Secretary for Environmental Protection, announced a 14-member Market Advisory Committee to support the implementation of the state’s first-in-the-nation comprehensive greenhouse gas reduction program. The Committee was formed according to the Governor’s Executive Order S-20-06. The Committee will make recommendations by June 30, 2007, to the state Air Resources Board on the design of a market-based compliance program. “California is showing tremendous leadership on climate change. In my talks with national and international climate leaders, the progress we’re...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Friday named a former aide to Democratic gubernatorial hopeful Steve Westly as head of the California Environmental Protection Agency. Linda Adams, 57, a Democrat from Sacramento with a long history in state government, will come out of retirement to lead the agency at a time when the Schwarzenegger administration is advancing its initiative to reduce greenhouse gases in the state. "This was an opportunity I could not pass up," Adams said in an interview with The Associated Press. "There is so much going on in the area of climate change and global warming." Adams worked in...

Arnold Schwarzenegger now has the former top aides to his two would-be Democratic rivals working for him. It’s all part of his strategy of “buying off the ticked off,” as an Arnold friend puts it. Yesterday the governor moved unilaterally to take another major Democratic issue off the table by raising the minimum wage. Today he appoints lifelong Democrat and environmental favorite Linda Adams as his new secretary of the California Environmental Protection Agency. With the retirement of veteran air quality warrior Alan Lloyd from CalEPA, there had been concern in environmental circles that the secretaryship would go to a...

Linda Adams will be named director of the California Environmental Protection Agency today by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, an administration source said. "With more than 30 years of service to the state … Linda Adams is eminently qualified to serve as secretary for the Cal-EPA," said Bill Maile, spokesman on environmental issues for the governor's office. Adams, 57, a Democrat who has won praise from environmentalists, worked in high-ranking jobs for both state Controller Steve Westly and Gov. Gray Davis, and ran the state Department of Water Resources, among other positions. Westly is running against Treasurer Phil Angelides in the Democratic...

Does Arnold Schwarzenegger want to be a 1970s Democrat? It’s starting to look like the the governor is trying to channel what was cool when he was in his bodybuilding heyday in ‘70s era Santa Monica. First the surprise trip to United Farm Workers headquarters last Friday to commemorate Cesar Chavez Day. Then yesterday’s press release reminder that Rolling Stone magazine dubbed him one of 25 environmental "Warriors and Heroes." Can an Eagles fundraising concert be far behind? This as his office hurriedly released the administration’s long-in-the-making Climate Action Report and announced an April 11th Climate Action Summit in San...

The California Chamber of Commerce, perhaps Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's closest political ally, may split with the governor over his commitment to drastically cut greenhouse-gas emissions. In an executive order signed last year, Schwarzenegger set firm targets for reducing carbon dioxide pollution beginning in 2010. At the same time, he asked the California Environmental Protection Agency to work with other government departments to develop strategies for meeting the goals. On Monday, the chamber denounced a draft report produced by the agency's "climate action team" as "not convincing" and a potential burden on the state's economy — especially proposals to levy a...

The San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District is scheduled Thursday to possibly approve nationally unprecedented air fees on city sprawl — new houses, shopping centers and office space. The rules would force builders of new homes, businesses and commercial buildings to make air-quality-friendly developments or ante up fees for pollution coming from the additional traffic. This time, it is not just environmentalists versus an industry, namely builders. Farmers, who are also on the hook for the new air cleanup rules, say it's time for builders to do their part. But the point is that all homeowners — not just...

It's clean and invisible, and it will take our cars farther than we ever dreamed. Hydrogen could be the fuel in our grandchildren's cars, or perhaps even our own, but only if we invest now. (snip) Generated by a variety of sources, some of them clean and renewable, hydrogen is not a pipe dream. While hybrid vehicles do reduce our dependence on foreign oil and clean our air, we also must invest in totally eliminating our dependence on fossil fuels and their related air emissions. Hydrogen is the simplest and lightest element. It can be produced from molecules called hydrocarbons...

SACRAMENTO (AP) - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger named the chair of the state's pioneering Air Resources Board as his new Environmental Protection Agency secretary Thursday, sticking with an environmentalist for the top pollution-control post. Alan C. Lloyd replaces Terry Tamminen, a former Santa Monica-based environmental activist who moved up last month to become the governor's Cabinet secretary. Lloyd, 62, has chaired the California Air Resources Board since 1999. The board has repeatedly pushed for the nation's toughest air standards, drawing challenges from the automobile industry and federal government that it is infringing on federal interstate regulations. The latest lawsuit was filed...

Gov.-elect Arnold Schwarzenegger has decided to name Terry Tamminen, the head of a Santa Monica conservation group, as his secretary of environmental protection, according to several sources involved in assembling the new administration. Tamminen led a team of advisors who helped Schwarzenegger craft a platform during the race that surprised many environmental activists because of its ambition and sympathy with their positions. The likelihood of the appointment, which could be announced later this week, is being hailed by environmental organizations as a sign that Schwarzenegger may make good on those campaign promises. But some conservative Republicans — including the governor-elect's...

CLOVIS, Calif.— Arnold Schwarzenegger suggested at a question-and-answer forum with supporters Monday that he might eliminate the state's environmental protection agency, but a spokesman later said he meant only to reduce duplication in functions among the local, state and federal governments. During an "Ask Arnold" event at a company that manufactures security cameras in this Fresno suburb, Schwarzenegger was asked by a man identifying himself as a farmer why the state needed Cal/EPA when the federal Environmental Protection Agency regulates many of the same things. "What you just talked about is the waste — overlapping agencies. They cost a fortune,"...