Environment

STOCKTON – California Attorney General Edmund G. Brown Jr. today announced a landmark agreement with the City of Stockton requiring the City to identify and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by encouraging downtown growth, constructing thousands of new residential units within its current city limits, developing a rapid transit bus system and requiring all new buildings to be energy efficient.

In the next 2 years, Stockton will develop a Climate Action Plan to inventory current greenhouse gas emissions. The City is also required to estimate its 1990 level of greenhouse gas emissions and project the increase in its emissions in 2020. As part of the plan, the City must reduce its current level of greenhouse gas emissions using set target dates for reduction.

“We cannot reach our statewide greenhouse gas reduction targets without the cooperation of our largest and fastest growing cities,” said Attorney General Brown. “Stockton has shown leadership on this issue, enabling us to work together to meet our targets for significantly reducing greenhouse gas emissions. This agreement is a critical part of California’s effort to address climate change.”

Under a California law passed in 2006, the state is committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020. In 2005, the Governor issued an Executive Order requiring an additional reduction of emissions to 80% below 1990 levels by 2050. Currently, California generates approximately 500 million metric tons of CO2 equivalent, a number significantly above 1990 levels. To achieve the 2020 target, California must reduce current emissions by at least 10%.

The City of Stockton has agreed to reduce sprawl and plans to construct nearly 18,000 new home units within the current city limits, including 4,400 units to be built in downtown Stockton. To encourage infill growth, the City will consider measures such as less restrictive building height requirements and reduced permit fees to spur the development of downtown commercial and residential units. The City will initiate a subsidy program to spark infill growth.

In addition, the City will adopt several green building ordinances to ensure that new residential housing and commercial buildings are energy-efficient, conserve water and are built with green materials.

Any new development in the city will have to be transit-friendly. New commercial and residential development will be located near mass-transit stops and be accessible to vehicular, pedestrian and bicycle traffic and established neighborhoods.

Though new development will continue at city outskirts, the City agreed to phase it in gradually to ensure that it can provide adequate resources to these new areas, such as fire and police protection. Before approving new development projects, the City will demonstrate that the new development will not undermine downtown Stockton and will complement existing commercial and residential zones.

"We appreciate the collaboration with the Attorney General's Office; this is a win-win situation in which we can address environmentally sensitive issues,” said Stockton Mayor Edward J. Chavez. “Certainly, the Attorney General and his staff have been tremendous in getting this agreement put together; it will be a model that can be replicated in other communities.'

This agreement comes after the City of Stockton issued a Draft Environmental Impact Report for its General Plan that outlined how the City would manage its growth through 2035. The report, issued in December 2007, estimated that by 2035, Stockton’s population would reach 580,000, an increase of almost 50%. In January 2008, the Sierra Club filed a lawsuit to block Stockton’s General Plan, claiming that it failed to address the amount of greenhouse gases the plan would emit into an already heavily polluted San Joaquin Valley.

"We are grateful that the Attorney General came to Stockton and became involved in the city's growth plan. The settlement represents a huge step forward for good planning that should slow down sprawl at the fringe of the city and reduce the increase in greenhouse gases due to new growth,” said Dale Stocking, Member of the Mother Lode Chapter Executive Committee. “The city's commitment to adopt comprehensive green building standards and provide developer funding for a transit system should reduce vehicle trips and make Stockton a leader in the Central Valley and the state.'

The Attorney General’s Office entered into negotiations with Stockton earlier this year, citing concerns about the General Plan and the need to evaluate greenhouse gas reduction impacts under the California Environmental Quality Act. To date, the Attorney General has questioned the proposed draft environmental impact reports of several general plans, including San Bernardino County, Solano County, Tulare County, the City of San Diego, as well as regional transportation plans, refineries, cement plants, dairy expansions, and other large projects.

On their own, many communities throughout California have already begun to initiate measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, including Fresno, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Sonoma County, Santa Monica, Berkeley, Marin County, Palo Alto, Chula Vista and Modesto.

LOS ANGELES--California Attorney General Edmund G. Brown Jr. today announced California's plan to sue the U.S. EPA for continuing to “wantonly ignore its duty” to regulate greenhouse gas pollution from ships, aircraft, and construction and agricultural equipment.

“Ships, aircraft and industrial equipment burn huge quantities of fossil fuel and cause massive greenhouse gas pollution yet President Bush stalls with one bureaucratic dodge after another,” Attorney General Brown said. “Because Bush’s Environmental Protection Agency continues to wantonly ignore its duty to regulate pollution, California is forced to seek judicial action.”

Under federal law and the landmark Supreme Court decision Massachusetts v. EPA, the Environmental Protection Agency is authorized to regulate greenhouse gases from a wide range of vehicles including ocean-going vessels, aircraft and agricultural, construction and industrial equipment. Invoking such authority, Attorney General Brown formally petitioned the EPA--in October 2007, December 2007 and January 2008--to initiate appropriate regulatory action.

In the face of Brown’s petitions, the EPA has done nothing but issue a pathetically weak “Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking” on July 11, 2008. The EPA’s proposal contains hundreds of pages of discussion and facts but never once states that greenhouse gases endanger public health or welfare--the legal foundation for fashioning regulations. Brown said that ignoring California’s petitions violates the Clean Air Act which requires the agency to adopt standards for greenhouse gases.

Under the Clean Air Act, EPA is given 180 days to respond with appropriate regulation action. If the agency does not issue timely regulations for aircraft, ocean-going vessels and nonroad engines, California can and will sue the federal government for unreasonable delay. The lawsuit will be based on the following:

* EPA’s failure to make explicit findings that industrial equipment, ships and aircraft emit greenhouse gas pollution that endangers public health or welfare
* EPA’s failure to adopt timely regulations to control such emissions

President Bush blocked EPA’s original plan to make a formal finding that greenhouse gases endanger public health or welfare. Recently, congressional investigations have found that White House staff signed off on EPA’s “endangerment finding” in November 2007. Subsequently, White House officials told EPA to cancel the finding.

“If President Bush was serious about America’s dangerous and growing foreign oil dependency, he would forthwith direct EPA to do its job and regulate greenhouse gases,” Attorney General Brown said.

Nonroad engines, ships and aircrafts emit as much greenhouse gases as 270 million cars, more than the entire number of registered vehicles in the United States. The following background information details the massive energy consumption and negative environmental effects of ocean-going vessels, aircraft and nonroad engines.

SHIPS

The world’s relatively small fleet of large ocean-going vessels, about 90,000, emits approximately three percent of the world’s total greenhouse gas emissions. Ocean-going vessels in total emit more CO2 emissions than any nation in the world except the U.S., Russia, China, Japan, India and Germany. These emissions are projected to increase nearly 75 percent during the next 20 years.

EPA’s own recent proposal states that marine vessels that purchased fuel in the U.S. emitted 84.2 million metric tons of CO2 in 2006, or 3.9 percent of the total U.S. mobile source CO2 emissions.

The United Nations International Maritime Organization has authority under international treaties to establish pollution standards for vessels but has to date failed to adopt controls on greenhouse gas emissions. The IMO Marine Environment Protection Committee recently planned to inventory greenhouse gases by 2009 but made no commitment to regulate such emissions. Attorney General Brown says that ocean-going vessels have a right to innocent passage under international law but that right does not include polluting the air or water near in California.

AIRCRAFT

According EPA data, aircraft contributed three percent of the United States’ total carbon dioxide emissions and 12 percent of the transportation sector emissions in 2005. The Federal Aviation Administration expects domestic aircraft emissions to increase 60 percent by 2025.

Aviation’s contribution to global warming is greater than other major greenhouse gas emission sources because aircraft release emissions at high altitudes. For example, when nitrous oxide is emitted at high altitudes it generates greater concentrations of ozone than when it is released at ground-level. Brown says that because aviation injects greenhouse gas pollution at high altitudes—right where these emissions have a heightened negative impact—the EPA must take action to curb these emissions.

There are currently no greenhouse gas emissions controls on aircraft and only limited controls for some conventional pollutants such as carbon monoxide. Last year, the International Civil Aviation Organization, a United Nations agency, passed a resolution to set international emissions reduction agreements but the organization has taken no additional action to further this goal.

AGRICULTURAL AND INDUSTRIAL EQUIPMENT

Millions of industrial machines in mines, on farms, and at construction emitted 220 million tons of carbon dioxide in 2007—an amount equivalent to the emissions from 40 million cars. Mining and construction equipment accounted for 32 percent of these emissions, followed by agricultural and industrial equipment. According to the California Air Resources Board, there are approximately 17.8 million of these machines and engines in California.

The EPA has refused to regulate emissions from nonroad engines, aircraft and ocean-going vessels despite unassailable evidence of global warming and dangerous foreign oil dependency. Last week the U.S. Climate Change Science Program's issued a report on global warming’s devastating effects which include more frequent and intense hurricanes, heat waves, and flooding. In California, where hydropower comprises approximately 15 percent of in-state energy production, diminishing snowmelt flowing through dams will decrease the potential for hydropower production by up to 30 percent by the end of the century.

Other states, local governments and agencies which joined California today in warning the EPA of an impending lawsuit include Connecticut, Oregon, New York City, the California Air Resources Board and the South Coast Air Quality Management District. National environmental groups filing similar petitions include Earthjustice and the Western Environmental Law Center.

California’s notice of intent to sue the EPA is attached.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

From The Wall Street Journal
July 30, 2008
Letters To The Editor

"Just Good Sense, Not Suburban War'

With gasoline at $4 a gallon, the dollar plunging, and foreign oil producers taking trillions from hard pressed Americans, one would think that cutting dangerous oil dependency was a no-brainer. Apparently not for Joel Kotkin, whose 'Jerry Brown's War on California Suburbs' (op-ed, July 19) complains about my efforts to ensure that California cities and counties comply with our first-in-the-nation energy and greenhouse gas laws. Mr. Kotkin mischaracterizes my efforts as a war on suburbs and paints an oddly cheerful picture of freeway living, including an assertion that our highways are not clogged by long commutes. Mr. Kotkin's vision of unending sprawl is better suited to the 1950s, when gasoline was 20 cents per gallon and California had 11 million, not 37 million residents.

We need a new energy policy. And, unlike the Bush administration, Californians are taking action and boldly pioneering low-carbon fuels, tight vehicle-emission standards, intelligent conservation and wise use of our precious natural resources.

No thoughtful person can really question the fact that we must grow smarter, with more efficient and less polluting transportation. Nor, in a time of escalating food prices, can we afford to wantonly plow over irreplaceable farmland. That is why I make no apologies for promoting efficient building standards, renewable energy, and communities that work for people and businesses, not just oil companies.

Edmund G. Brown Jr.
California Attorney General Sacramento, Calif.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121738189085995477.html

SISKIYOU--Attorney General Edmund G. Brown Jr. today warned Nestle that California will challenge the environmental plan for a bottled water plant in Siskiyou county if the company does not revise its contract to pump water from the McCloud River.

“It takes massive quantities of oil to produce plastic water bottles and to ship them in diesel trucks across the United States,” Attorney General Brown said. “Nestle will face swift legal challenge if it does not fully evaluate the environmental impact of diverting millions of gallons of spring water from the McCloud River into billions of plastic water bottles,” Brown added.

Although Nestle publicly offered to reduce its annual water take to 195 million gallons of spring water per year--enough to fill 3.1 billion 8-ounce plastic bottles--the company has not yet agreed to change the terms of its contract with the McCloud Community Service District. The current fifty-year contract permits the company to draw 520 million gallons of spring water each year and also to pump unlimited amounts groundwater.

In a letter sent to the Siskiyou County Planning Department, Attorney General Brown said that “the environmental review for the previously proposed project had serious deficiencies,” yet “the proposed changes have not been memorialized in a formal document.” Brown also said “the suggested changes would require significant revision of the contract between Nestle and the McCloud Community Services District, a new, formal project proposal, and circulation of a new Draft Environmental Impact Report.”

Brown also said the environmental analysis fails to consider the global warming impacts of producing and transporting millions of gallons of water including:

* Greenhouse gases from producing the plastic bottles
* Electrical demand for the project
* The diesel soot and greenhouse gas emissions from truck trips.

Ninety-six percent of bottled water in the United States is sold in plastic bottles produced from fossil fuels, typically natural gas and petroleum. It took 17 million barrels of oil, not including transportation energy, to produce all the plastic bottles for American consumption in 2006. It took 900,000 tons of the chemical polyetheylene terephathalate and produced 2.5 million tons of carbon dioxide to produce all this plastic.

According to data from the Pacific Institute, it would take 1.768 million barrels of oil annually to manufacture 3.1 billion 8-ounce plastic bottles, caps and packaging to hold 195 million gallons of water.

The McCloud River is unique among California’s larger rivers in that most of its water derives from springs and underground lava aquifers rather than from rainfall or snowfall. The river and its associated riparian area provide habitat for over 200 wildlife specifies. The Lower McCloud has been designated a Wild Trout Stream by the state Department of Fish and Game.

Attorney General Brown has asked the County of Siskiyou to revise its environmental impact report and circulate a new draft of the environmental impact report.

The bottling plant is proposed for construction at 909 Mill Street in McCloud California. For a copy of the state's letter please contact the Attorney General's Press Office at 916-324-5500.

LOS ANGELES--California Attorney General Edmund G. Brown Jr. and the California Department of Food and Agriculture today announced that Bombino Express Worldwide has been sued for importing unmarked packages of mangos and yams from India that had not been treated to prevent the spread of the destructive Oriental Fruit Fly.

"Bombino Express Worldwide is charged with smuggling untreated and unlabeled fruit that can carry invasive insects like the Oriental Fruit Fly into the United States,' Attorney General Brown said. 'When foreign shipping companies disobey California’s quarantine laws they put the state’s growers at risk. County, state and federal inspectors should be commended for catching this illegal shipment and isolating its contents.'

Attorney General Brown alleges that Bombino Express Worldwide violated the Food and Agriculture Code and engaged in unfair business practices by failing to label and treat packaged mangos to kill any fruit fly larvae before exporting the products to the United States. Female Oriental Fruit Flies lay eggs in groups of 3 to 30 under the skin of host fruits and vegetables like those imported by Bombino Express Worldwide.

A single fruit fly lives approximately 90 days and can travel up to 30 miles in search of food and sites to lay eggs. The threat of agricultural destruction from invasive species like the Oriental Fruit Fly is so great that there was a complete ban on importing Indian mangos and yams until May 2006 when federal law was amended to allow limited importation of Indian mangos. Under the new rules, shipping companies must attach documentation affirming that mangos are treated to kill any fruit fly larvae.

The Department of Food and Agriculture launched an investigation into Bombino Express Worldwide after an inspector at a facility near Ontario International Airport found several unmarked packages of produce being imported to California from India. A parcel inspection dog named C.C., working for the San Bernardino County Agricultural Commissioner’s office, sniffed out the mislabeled box of mangos. Contra Costa County is also using dogs for parcel inspections in the Bay Area and there are plans to assign dogs in San Diego, Sacramento and Fresno counties.

The Attorney General’s Office seeks $10,000 per violation of the Food and Agricultural Code and California’s unfair competition statute. The company could face up to $1.67 million in penalties for its 167 violations of California law.

Oriental fruit flies have wreaked havoc on Hawaiian agriculture since the species was introduced to the island in 1946. According to the California Department of Food and Agriculture, failure to eradicate Oriental Fruit Flies in California could cost the state up to $176 million in crop losses, pesticide use and quarantine requirements.

Bombino Express Worldwide appears to be part of a large network of companies that import various products including fruit, spices and other products from India and Southeast Asia.

California’s First Amended Complaint was filed on July 9, 2008 and was served on Mohmed Yasin Latiwala July 15, 2008 in New Jersey. Latiwala was served with the lawsuit in his individual capacity as CEO and on behalf of Bombino Express, Inc., Bombino Express (Worldwide) Inc. The lawsuit was also served on the California office of Bombino Express in Hawthorne.

A copy of the state’s lawsuit is available from the attorney general's press office at: 916-324-5500. For more information from the California Department of Food and Agriculture visit: http://www.cdfa.ca.gov/exec/Public_Affairs/Index.html

RIVERSIDE--California Attorney General Edmund G. Brown Jr. and District Attorney Rod Pacheco today sued TXI International, a Riverside cement plant, for exposing people to the potent carcinogen hexavalent chromium without providing warnings to the community as required by law.

“Dust, which contained elevated levels of cancer-causing hexavalent chromium, escaped into the air in violation of state law,” Attorney General Brown said. “California is suing the company to get them to stop their practices which cause chromium exposure.”

In late 2007, the South Coast Air Quality Management District discovered that ambient quantities of hexavalent chromium, a potent carcinogen, were up to 50 times the level that would trigger a mandatory public warning under Proposition 65, the state’s Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act. Investigators traced the source of the chromium to dust piles on a four acre plot at a cement factory operated by TXI International.

Since 2006 the company knew that there were four acres of uncovered and unwetted dust piles that contained chromium at a cement plant it operated. The company knew that fugitive emissions from the dust piles were spreading into the surrounding areas, including the nearby Fleetwood Motor Homes facility, where the emissions caused exposure to hexavalent chromium to persons living, working, or otherwise present in the area.

Proposition 65 was enacted to protect California citizens from chemicals known to cause cancer, birth defects or other reproductive harm, and to inform citizens about exposures to such chemicals. Businesses that expose people to those chemicals must give clear and reasonable warning to the people being exposed. The law requires a warning for chromium if exposure would create a 1 in 100,000 risk of contracting cancer. The Air Quality Management District estimated the chromium levels near the cement plant were up to 50 times that amount.

In today’s lawsuit Brown asserts that the exposures occurred because defendants allowed uncovered piles of dust to remain on a property owned by the cement manufacturer. The company’s deliberate and intentional acts have resulted in the hexavalent chromium emissions getting into the air where it has been inhaled by people near the area.

“The lawsuit filed in collaboration with the California Attorney General’s Office will help protect the environment for the people who live in this community now as well as future generations,” said Riverside County District Attorney Rod Pacheco.

The piles of chromium-containing dust are a by-product of grinding and heating raw materials, such as limestone, clay, silica, in a kiln during preparation to create concrete. After heating these materials, the resulting pebble-like particles, called clinker, are stored for long periods before other materials are added to create the final cement product. Investigators found that the company maintained approximately 80 tons of unwetted dust on four acres at a cement plant.

When wind or atmospheric conditions raise dust from the piles into the surrounding air, this results in emissions of the material contained in the dust. These emissions are called “fugitive emissions.” Defendants have known since at least 2006 that the dust at the cement plant contained hexavalent chromium.

Brown and Pacheco are suing on Thursday in Riverside County Superior Court in Riverside for violations of the state’s Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act. Violators are liable for civil penalties of up to $2500 per day for each violation. Under the act, also known as Proposition 65, businesses must provide a clear and reasonable warning before exposing individuals to dangerous chemicals.

Brown is also suing the company for violating the state’s unfair competition laws, a statue which allows up to $2500 per violation. The state is seeking an undisclosed amount of penalties and restitution.

Hexavalent chromium is a known carcinogen that was identified as a chemical known to the State to cause cancer on February 27, 1987.

Recently, the company agreed to pay the local air district $600,000 in penalties and spend $400,000 toward site improvements as part of an agreement to reduce the amount of toxic cement dust escaping from a factory north of Riverside. That settlement requires the company to eliminate outdoor storage of unprocessed cement, which was found to be a source of dust carrying hexavalent chromium into neighborhoods near the plant in the Rubidoux area.

Defendant TXI Riverside, Inc. is a Delaware Corporation that operates a cement plant at 1500 Rubidoux Blvd. in the City of Riverside.

SACRAMENTO - California Attorney General Edmund G. Brown Jr. today joined ten states in announcing that Anheuser-Busch will discontinue its popular alcoholic energy drinks, including Tilt and Bud Extra, and will not produce any caffeinated alcohol beverages in the future.

“Anheuser-Busch, the largest brewing company in the United States, has taken an important action to protect young people from attractive alcohol advertising and marketing,” Attorney General Brown said. “Other major alcohol manufacturers should follow Anheuser-Busch’s lead and eliminate dangerous combinations of caffeine and alcohol from the marketplace.”

Alcoholic energy drinks are prepackaged beverages that combine alcohol and caffeine, guarana, taurine, ginseng and other ingredients associated with non-alcoholic energy drinks. Brown asserts that Anheuser-Busch marketed Bud Extra and Tilt in violation of state consumer protection statues by:

• Making misleading health-related statements about allegedly energizing effects of Bud Extra including increased strength and increased ability to stay up all night after drinking the products
• Failing to disclose its effects on consumers, and ignoring potential consequences of drinking alcoholic beverages that are combined with caffeine or other stimulants
• Directing advertisements of Tilt and Bud Extra to consumers under the age of 21

In November 2007, researchers at Wake Forest University of Medicine found that the combination of caffeine and alcohol sends mixed signals to the nervous system, causing the effect of a “wide awake drunk.” Students who consumed these energy drink cocktails were twice as likely to be involved in alcohol-related accidents and injuries than when drinking alcohol alone. The combination of alcohol and caffeine can be dangerous because individuals may not feel impaired even when blood alcohol levels are very high.

California, along with ten other states, asserted that Anheuser-Busch made misleading health-related statements about the energizing effects of its caffeinated alcohol beverages. Marketing that promoted the alleged energy component of the drinks made the drinks appealing to teens. The company advertised Bud Extra with taglines such as “You can sleep when you’re 30” and “Say hello to a night of fun” and utilized MySpace, YouTube, and other Internet sites popular with underage youth.

In addition, the packaging for many of the alcoholic energy drinks was similar to that for non-alcoholic energy drinks, leading to retailer and parent confusion.

Anheuser-Busch cooperated during the investigation and agreed to reformulate its products to exclude caffeine. As part of the agreement, Anheuser-Busch will discontinue two of its popular alcoholic energy drinks, Tilt and Bud Extra, and will not produce any caffeinated alcohol beverages in the future. Under the agreement the company will:

• Stop manufacturing and marketing all caffeinated alcoholic beverages, including Bud Extra and Tilt as currently formulated
• Reformulate its alcoholic energy drinks so that they do not contain caffeine or other stimulants that are metabolized as caffeine, such as Guarana
• Eliminate all references in advertising to caffeinated formulations and remove any reference to using Bud Extra and Tilt as mixers for other drinks.

Anheuser-Busch also agrees to immediately discontinue the current Tilt website www.tiltthenight.com without hyper linking or directing visitors to a new site. Any new Website may only to promote the reformulated Tilt without caffeine.

Other states which joined California in reaching an agreement with Anheuser-Busch include: Arizona, Connecticut, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, New Mexico, New York and Ohio. A copy of the multi-state agreement is attached.

For more information designed to help educate parents and the general public about alcoholic energy drinks please visit the Attorney General's Crime and Violence Prevention Center at: http://www.safestate.org/index.cfm?navId=1375

Today at 1:00 p.m., California Attorney General Edmund G. Brown Jr. will accept an award in Los Angeles from the Coalition for Clean Air for “Leadership in Environmental Advocacy” and significant contributions to reducing California’s air pollution.

The Coalition for Clean Air is a statewide organization advocating for clean air in California. Since 1971, the coalition has worked to restore California’s air quality through outreach and education. The coalition spearheaded California’s original smog check program, won the first statewide ban on a toxic dry cleaning chemical and helped pass landmark global warming legislation in California.

Brown has a strong record as a pioneer on environmental issues. As governor, Brown expanded the use of wind, solar and geothermal power. And as Mayor of Oakland, Brown fought for sustainability, green construction and a commitment to renewable energy. As attorney general, Brown has fought vigorously to protect California’s air and natural resources from environmental degradation.

Last year, Brown reached a landmark settlement with San Bernardino County which established a greenhouse gas reduction plan that identifies sources of emissions and sets reduction targets. Brown also reached an agreement with ConocoPhillips which offsets greenhouse gases attributable to an oil refinery expansion in Contra Costa County. The Port of Los Angeles also reached an agreement with the attorney general which identifies and reduces greenhouse gas emissions generated from port operations. In May, Brown announced that the San Diego Airport is taking “a key leadership role” in the fight against global warming by agreeing to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from its major airport expansion.

Brown has also recently hosted climate change workshops in Sacramento, Los Angeles, Oakland, Monterey, and Visalia, challenging hundreds of local officials to take the lead in the fight against global warming. Brown has stressed the urgent need to combat climate disruption by setting greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets. During Brown’s climate workshops, local government has learned how to model greenhouse gas emissions and to design emissions inventories that can improve local planning decisions.

The Global Warming Solutions Act, AB 32, requires California to cut greenhouse gas emission to 1990 levels by 2020, but the rules and market mechanisms will not take effect until 2012. Meanwhile, local government will make hundreds, if not thousands, of planning decisions that will have decades-long implications.

To date, Attorney General Brown has submitted nearly thirty comment letters, under the California Environmental Quality Act, on local projects that have the potential to emit large quantities of greenhouse gas emissions. The Act, signed into law by Governor Reagan in 1970, requires state and local agencies to evaluate significant environmental impacts of proposed projects and adopt all feasible measures to mitigate those impacts.

Attorney General Brown frequently updates the California Department of Justice Website to provide information on how to join the fight against global warming: http://ag.ca.gov/globalwarming/ceqa.php

SACRAMENTO--California Attorney General Edmund G. Brown Jr. today announced a $6 million settlement with MCM Construction, resolving allegations that the company was operating diesel cranes, pile drivers, and other portable engines without the required air district pollution permits.

“The company was operating construction equipment, without the necessary permits, which is potentially very damaging to the environment,” Attorney General Brown said. “Under today’s settlement the company will obtain the necessary permits and submit the equipment to careful inspection.”

Under California laws designed to protect air quality, construction companies must obtain a permit from local air pollution control districts before operating certain diesel engines over fifty horsepower. The California Attorney General’s Office alleged that MCM Construction operated dozens of engines at multiple locations without required permits on hundreds of days. Diesel exhaust contains carcinogens, particulate matter, and oxides of nitrogen.

The parties settled for $6 million in advance of trial, agreeing that MCM Construction will obtain necessary permits prior to operating any of its portable, diesel-burning equipment and will train its personnel to take precautions to protect rivers at bridge construction sites. The settlement, which is the largest ever environmental settlement involving portable engines, requires the company to pay $4 million in penalties and costs and an additional $2 million to replace some of its older engines with newer, cleaner-burning engines. The company will also adopt an internal environmental auditing process.

The Attorney General’s Office brought its legal action along with Mendocino County District Attorney Meredith Lintott, and Ventura County District Attorney Gregory D. Totten.

Mendocino District Attorney Meredith Lintott noted that her office was “extremely proud of the air district’s extraordinary proactive efforts to discover defendant MCM’s polluting conduct.”

“There is nothing more vital to the health and safety of Ventura County residents than having clean air to breathe,” said Ventura’s District Attorney, Gregory D. Totten. “This settlement helps rid our community of un-permitted high-polluting diesel engines, and is a step forward in preserving air quality for all Ventura County residents.”

In the past, MCM had been cited by local air district officials for not having necessary permits at dozens of prominent construction projects including the Noyo River Bridge in Fort Bragg, the Highway 101 Bridge over the Santa Clara River in Ventura County, and the Watt Avenue Bridge in Sacramento.

The state also alleged that MCM Construction damaged critical salmon spawning habitat while working at the Van Duzen River in Humboldt County. The company deposited debris, silt, and pollutants into the river, violations of the Clean Water Act.

The state’s complaint and the settlement document are attached.

SAN DIEGO--California Attorney General Edmund G. Brown Jr. today announced that the San Diego Airport is taking “a key leadership role” in the fight against global warming by agreeing to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from its major airport expansion.

“Under this agreement, the San Diego airport will play a key leadership role in helping California meet its aggressive greenhouse gas reduction targets,” said Attorney General Brown who entered into the agreement today. “This agreement is another example of how, in the absence of federal action, local government is leading the fight against global warming,” Brown added.

“This agreement underscores the Airport Authority’s commitment to sustainability in overseeing airport operations and capital developments at Lindbergh Field,” said Alan D. Bersin, Chairman of the Airport Authority Board. “And we’re proud to be one of the first major airports in the country to have adopted a comprehensive Sustainability Policy – in February of this year – which also reinforces our commitment to becoming a more sustainable organization.”

The San Diego Airport is the busiest single-runway airport in the nation. Passenger travel at the airport is expected to grow approximately 2.8% per year for the next 25 years. To accommodate this growth, the airport is planning to construct ten additional gates, new overnight jet parking, expanded taxiways and a proposed 5,000 space parking structure.

In an effort to reduce some of the emissions from this expansion, the airport has agreed to incorporate measures, such as green building certification and alternative energy airport shuttles, into its thirty-year master plan. Some of the measures that the airport will adopt include:

• Groundside power at new and refurbished gates, hangars and cargo facilities to allow airplanes on the ground to use electricity without having to run on-board engines which emit diesel particulate, NOx and greenhouse gases.
• Replacement of aircraft pushback tractors, upon the end of their useful life, with electric or alternative-fuel vehicles.
• Transition of airport shuttles to electric or alternative-fuel vehicles.
• Use of cool roofs, solar panels and cool pavement for new buildings and paved areas.
• Assurance that new terminal facilities will obtain a green building certification from a third party appraiser.

The airport will also inventory all greenhouse gas emissions attributable to aircraft ground movements and commit to recommending ways to reduce those emissions 20% by 2015.

Under federal law, only the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Federal Aviation Administration have authority to regulate the emissions from aircraft. In December, Brown filed a petition asking the EPA to regulate aircraft greenhouse gases but the agency has refused to take any action.

The Global Warming Solutions Act, AB 32, requires California to cut greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020, but the rules and market mechanisms will not take effect until 2012. Attorney General Brown has worked with local governments and businesses across California to help these entities reduce their greenhouse gas emissions thereby making it easier for the state to reach its reduction target.

Last year, Brown reached a landmark settlement with San Bernardino County which established a greenhouse gas reduction plan that identifies sources of emissions and sets reduction targets. Brown also reached an agreement with ConocoPhillips which offsets greenhouse gases attributable to an oil refinery expansion in Contra Costa County. The Port of Los Angeles also reached an agreement with the attorney general which identifies and reduces greenhouse gas emissions generated from port operations.

Attorney General Brown frequently updates the California Department of Justice Website to provide information that helps local agencies join the fight against global warming: http://ag.ca.gov/globalwarming/ceqa.php

Brown’s Memorandum of Understanding with the San Diego Airport Authority is attached.