Free Republic

Don't plan on seeing the opening of any new public facilities or for that matter new small businesses which have generators or other polluting devices. Local government and others can't get the necessary permits from the South Coast Air Quality Management District due to a November court decision that many are just learning about. If this issue is not resolved, it could mean that the Whittier police station or a Los Angeles County fire station on the border of La Mirada and Habra - both under construction - can't open. Both have small emergency generators and need permits from AQMD....

About six weeks ago, I published a column ["Arnold can't give us 'green' cement," also at FR] in a number of newspapers warning that the governor’s dueling promises to radically reduce carbon dioxide emissions while delivering a new era of public works comprised a public policy charade of breathtaking mendacity. Highways, dams and aqueducts require heavy construction equipment and prodigious amounts of concrete that in turn produce enormous amounts of carbon dioxide. I wrote: “The governor is now on the horns of a dilemma of his own making. He must either confront the fact that AB 32 was an intellectually...

DIAMOND BAR Southern California would have to cut smog emissions in half by 2020 to meet federal clean air standards, according to a proposed plan released Tuesday. Regulators with the South Coast Air Quality Management District unveiled the draft blueprint for cleaning up what it called the worst overall air quality in the nation. It called for tightening pollution standards on everything from cars to lawn mowers, providing incentives for businesses to replace aging diesel equipment, and reducing pollution from ships at the sprawling Los Angeles-Long Beach port complex. "We need a no-holds-barred campaign to meet the formidable challenge of...

SAN FRANCISCO – Oil refineries will have to cut the air pollution they generate while burning gases under a groundbreaking rule approved by smog regulators. The rule, which the Bay Area Air Quality Management District adopted Wednesday, is the first of its kind in the nation. Air quality officials throughout the country are closely monitoring it, and regulators in Southern California aim to impose similar restrictions later this year. Community groups in Richmond had long complained about flares, which occur when refineries burn excess gases. Air quality officials found that flaring spewed out eight tons of pollution a day, including...

LOS ANGELES (AP) - A federal judge has ruled that a Southern California clean-air agency may impose its anti-smog rules on state and local public fleet vehicles. Last year, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the South Coast Air Quality Management District could not enforce rules requiring private fleets to use engines that burn cleaner fuels. The high court sent the case to a lower court to determine whether the regulations could be applied to public fleets. "The court has concluded that the fleet rules are constitutional as applied to state and local governments," U.S. District Court Judge Florence-Marie Cooper...

On the heels of new research showing Southern California children can suffer permanent lung damage from breathing pollution, the head of the region's smog-fighting agency vowed on Friday to "take off the gloves" to help speed up clean-air improvements. In his State of the Air report, William A. Burke said he would push critical air-pollution efforts, such as reducing emissions from railroads and ports and converting diesel-fueled school buses to cleaner-burning models. "The time for political correctness has passed," Burke said in his speech given in Diamond Bar. "The time has come to take off the gloves and tell the...

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Southern California clean air regulators adopted a plan Friday to reduce emissions at about 300 power plants, factories and refineries by 20 percent over five years. The plan, which takes effect beginning 2007, amends a program started 10 years ago by the South Coast Air Quality Management District and seeks to reduce smog-causing emissions by a total of 7.7 tons per day over the five-year period. "We believe the changes meet state law requirements and maintain the integrity of the program, while continuing to move closer to the region's air quality goals," Barry Wallerstein, executive officer...

<p>WASHINGTON - Lawyers for a Southern California clean air agency told the Supreme Court on Wednesday it was within its bounds when it created rules stricter than national standards to reduce the number of vehicles polluting the region's air.</p> <p>Justices seemed skeptical of the idea that the South Coast Air Quality Management District can go beyond the federal Clean Air Act to impose tougher antismog restrictions for city buses, airport shuttles and other vehicles. An attorney for oil companies and diesel engine manufacturers argued that local pollution rules conflict with the federal Clean Air Act.</p>

<p>Severe growth-restricting sanctions could be placed on the Coachella Valley if, over the next month, it cannot come up with a plan for cutting the amount of dust blowing across the desert.</p> <p>Builders and farmers were among those who questioned South Coast Air Quality Management District’s draft plan for reducing local dust emissions at a public hearing Thursday.</p>