Environmentalists vowed to sue the Environmental Protection Agency on Monday after the agency found that air quality in the San Joaquin Valley met federal standards for airborne dust, smoke and soot. On Friday, the agency ruled the region's air was no longer plagued with excessive levels of PM-10 pollution, tiny airborne particles that are linked to asthma, bronchitis and heart problems. But environmental groups -- including three chapters of the Sierra Club and a group of physicians in the San Joaquin Valley -- say the EPA's data show that federal pollution standards were surpassed nine times from 2003 to 2006. CC Times 3/11/08
Riding a bicycle in the Bay Area is an increasingly deadly pastime. The number of bicyclists killed in collisions with motor vehicles has increased 28 percent over the past decade - from 18 to 23 deaths per year, according to a Chronicle analysis of data collected by the California Highway Patrol. That increase is despite a 22 percent drop in the number of regional bicycle accidents between 1997 and 2006, the last year for which complete statistics are available for the nine Bay Area counties. SF Chronicle 3/11/08
Transportation engineers say global warming will have a dire impact on the nation's roads, rails, bridges, subways and waterways. The National Research Council, in a report released today, sees heat-damaged expansion bridge joints and buckled rail tracks. The engineers also predict rising sea levels will flood coastal roadways and tunnels. AP 3/11/08
The agency charged with guiding the creation of a massive new transit center and tower in downtown San Francisco will hold another community meeting Monday to discuss the plans as they currently stand. The Transbay Joint Powers Authority (TJPA) will present plans currently under way for the hub, which many have compared to New York's Grand Central Station. The meeting is one in a series of community meetings being held in order to keep San Francisco residents informed about and involved with the new development. NBC11 3/11/08
California announced $394 million in funding for transit projects around the state, including cash for fuel cell and hybrid buses, as well as compressed natural gas buses and infrastructure. These are the first transit projects to be funded by Proposition 1B, a 2006 voter-approved $19.9 billion transportation bond pushed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. Cleantech 3/11/08
It took soaring prices and the fear of global warming to accomplish, but society may finally have started the long process of weaning itself off of oil. Within three years, the amount of ethanol blended into the gas Californians buy will rise by 66 percent. And Americans are buying less gasoline. The drop is small at the national level - just 0.9 percent in the past month - but any decline is considered rare. SF Chronicle 3/09/08
"On top of the shorter life expectancies are high rates of asthma, chronic lung disease and heart disease related to diesel particulate pollution. Nobody is laying all the pollution and the adverse environmental impacts at the feet of the port, but it generates an enormous amount of life-shortening pollution," said Dr. Anthony Iton, director of the Alameda County Public Health Department. During the last year, the port has been working with representatives of various community and environmental groups, and with regulatory agencies, to develop comprehensive plans on truck management and air pollution reduction. SF Chronicle 3/03/08
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