[Source: Orange County Register Editorial Board] Balancing the need for clean air and the need for industry is no small task. It requires a careful, judicious weighing of the costs and benefits of regulatory action and voluntary cooperation. Command-and-control regulations may seem expedient, but they can become burdensome and harmful to economic development. Thus, the Read More…
Tag: SCAQMD
Air quality board set to adopt smog plan with voluntary measures for ports, tougher rules on refineries
[Source: The Los Angeles Times] Southern California air quality regulators are poised to adopt a pollution-reduction plan Friday that relies on voluntary measures from ports, warehouses and rail yards responsible for much of the region’s harmful emissions. The South Coast Air Quality Management District board also appears likely to adopt a tougher regulatory stance toward Read More…
Can the AQMD raise $1 billion a year to clean up the air?
[Source: 89.3KPCC] Just a month before the South Coast Air Quality Management District Board is set to vote on a controversial air quality plan, environmentalists remain fiercely skeptical of where the agency plans to get billions of dollars for pollution control incentives. A new smog-reduction plan revealed last year calls for $15 billion in financial Read More…
Sheila Kuehl wants SCAQMD to flex its regulatory muscle
[Source: The Press Enterprise] The South Coast Air Quality Management District’s newest incoming leader says she wants the air district to use the full extent of its regulatory might to protect neighborhoods and communities from harmful air pollution. The Los Angeles County Supervisor Sheila Kuehl will be sworn in today and will get the chance Read More…
Riverside County Supervisor John Benoit dies at 64
[Source: The Press Enterprise] Riverside County Supervisor John Benoit died Monday night, Dec. 26 at age 64, his office announced. Benoit, who had been battling pancreatic cancer, “passed away peacefully this evening at his home in Bermuda Dunes,” according to a county news release. His death came one day shy of his 65th birthday, said Read More…
Regulators reach tentative deal to cut toxic emissions at Paramount company
[Source: Long Beach Press Telegram] One of two metal-processing facilities agreed Wednesday to sharply reduce toxic emissions or shut down parts of its operation. The South Coast Air Quality Management District and Aerocraft Heat Treating came to an agreement ahead of an administrative hearing held Wednesday to consider regulators’ request that the businesses sharply reduce Read More…
L.A. Supervisor Kuehl appointed to air quality board, ending GOP control of smog rules
[Source: Los Angeles Times] The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors appointed liberal Democrat Sheila Kuehl to replace conservative Republican Michael D. Antonovich on Southern California’s air quality board Tuesday, ending GOP control over the panel and potentially shifting it back toward stricter regulation of polluters. Kuehl’s appointment comes 10 months after Republicans gained a seven-member majority on Read More…
Southern California air board appoints executive, declines to reconsider beach bonfire rules
[Source: Los Angeles Times] Southern California’s air quality board formally appointed former industry consultant Wayne Nastri as executive officer Friday in a vote of confidence in the powerful agency’s new leadership. Nastri was hired as interim head of the South Coast Air Quality Management District eight months ago after Republicans seeking a more business-friendly approach Read More…
Air quality agency aims to stop metal plants accused of polluting Paramount
[Source: The San Diego Union] Air quality officials are taking enforcement action against two metal-processing plants they believe are contributing to alarming levels of cancer-causing hexavalent chromium discovered recently in Paramount. The South Coast Air Quality Management District filed for an administrative order Tuesday against Aerocraft Heat Treating Co. and Anaplex Corp. to force them Read More…