Author Archive

California needs to bolster regulation of fracking, report says

LA Times: California needs to strengthen regulation of hydraulic fracturing, according to a UC Berkeley Law School report that identified a number of shortcomings in state oversight of the controversial practice. Although not new to California, fracking has come under increasing scrutiny recently as states such as Pennsylvania and New York experience a boom in the technique, which involves the high-pressure injection of chemical-laced fluids into the ground to crack rock formations and extract oil and gas....

California should tighten fracking regulations, report says

LA Times: California needs to strengthen regulation of hydraulic fracturing, according to a UC Berkeley report that identified a number of shortcomings in state oversight of the controversial practice. Known as fracking, the technique involves the high-pressure injection of chemical-laced fluids into the ground to crack rock formations and extract oil and gas. Although not new to California, the practice has come under increasing scrutiny recently as states such as Pennsylvania and New York experience a...

Support for California water bond falls, poll finds

LA Times: Judging by a new statewide poll, California lawmakers were smart to pull an $11.1-billion water bond off last fall's ballot. The Legislature has twice postponed the bond measure's day at the polls, worried that it would go down to defeat at a time of high unemployment and budget woes. Though the economy and budget problems have eased a bit, support for the bond has continued to decline. A poll released Wednesday by the Public Policy Institute of California found that 42% of likely voters favored...

Climate change could cut Western water runoff by 10%

LA Times: Another climate change study is projecting declines in runoff in many parts of the West, a scenario that would put more pressure on the region's water supplies. Using new model simulations, scientists at Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory expanded on 2007 research that predicted a drier future for the Southwest. The reasons involve more than a drop in precipitation -- which is actually expected to increase in some areas that are critical to Western water supplies. Rather,...

United States: Mountain plant communities moving down despite climate change, study finds

LA Times: Predictions that climate change will drive trees and plants uphill, potentially slashing their range to perilous levels, may be wrong, suggests a new study that found vegetation in California actually crept downhill during the 20th century. The research, published in the Jan. 21 issue of the journal Science, challenges widely held assumptions about the effect of rising temperatures on shrubs and trees that play a critical role in mountain environments. Various studies in recent years have predicted...