[Source: Los Angeles Business Journal] A local environmental group on Wednesday filed a lawsuit seeking to overturn the South Coast Air Quality Management District’s recent approval of environmental reports for Tesoro Corp.’s plan to merge operations of its two refineries in Carson and Wilmington. The expected lawsuit was filed in Los Angeles Superior Court by Read More…
Category: Local News
Air officials to investigate toxins in Compton
[Source: Long Beach Press Telegram] Air officials will begin investigating several metal processing facilities near homes in Compton for a cancer-causing toxic recently found in the nearby city of Paramount. The effort, announced Friday, comes after the South Coast Air Quality Management District discovered high levels of hexavalent chromium a substance linked to lung cancer, Read More…
New air-board chief says he’s been tough on air pollution, polluters
[Source: The Press-Enterprise] Wayne Nastri’s arrival a year ago as the chief of South California’s air quality agency was seen by many as a coup for the business community. The former Bush administration official and environmental consultant took the helm of the South Coast Air Quality Management District just after a takeover of the district’s Read More…
State air board OKs Southern California smog plan at Riverside meeting
[Source: The Press Enterprise] The California Air Resources Board voted to approve Southern California’s smog clean-up plan during their meeting in Riverside on Thursday, March 23. Board officials said that low- and zero-polluting trucks are essential if the plan is to succeed. The Environmental Protection Agency needs to work expeditiously to develop standards for much Read More…
Economist says job creation ‘miserable’ as Orange County market slows
[Source: The Orange County Register] Orange County’s job growth has slowed dramatically as the county has neared what economists consider full employment and the cost of housing continues to rise. Payrolls grew by 1.1 percent to 1,572,300 from January 2016 to January this year, state employment officials said Friday. Last March the year-over-year job growth Read More…
How new Southern California air cleanup plan could affect warehouses, ports
[Source: The Press Enterprise] Southern California air quality officials approved a 15-year pollution clean-up plan Friday, March 3, after adding provisions that would eventually eliminate a pollution-credits marketplace that regulates emissions from oil refineries and other major smokestack polluters. But the 11-2 vote by the South Coast Air Quality Management District board left intact controversial Read More…
Rift divides top air quality regulators
[Source: 89.3 KPCC] A rift has developed between two of the Los Angeles region’s most important overseers of air pollution laws, one that might take an act of the state legislature to resolve. In a recent meeting, the head of the board that oversees air quality in the LA basin has accused the majority of Read More…
AQMD postpones vote on how to cut smog by nearly 50 percent in 7 years
[Source: 89.3KPCC] A vote on a controversial plan intended to cut smog-forming emissions in Southern California nearly in half by 2023 was postponed on Friday by the governing board of the South Coast Air Quality Management District. The board voted 9-3 to delay acting on the plan until its March 3 meeting after board members Read More…
Air board hears proposals to toughen smog-reduction plan but delays action
[Source: The Los Angeles Time] Southern California air quality regulators delayed action on a major smog-reduction plan Friday after hours of public testimony and debate about what steps should be taken to curb the nation’s worst air pollution over the next 15 years. The South Coast Air Quality Management District board voted 9-3 to postpone Read More…