After attending Monday's Cabinet meeting in a flannel work shirt and tattered jeans, Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman was gently reminded by President Bush about the executive-branch dress code. Bush also encouraged Veneman to consider dress shoes instead of her usual steel-toe work boots. The Onion
The U.S. Agriculture Department sent shudders through much of the food industry Monday when it released estimates that showed farmers would plant 8% less corn this year. With corn prices already pushing up food prices, a spokesman for the Grocery Manufacturers Assn. called the projection "alarming" and warned that the estimate bodes ill for consumers at the supermarket. Competing demands for farmland from high-priced wheat and soy crops play into reduced corn plantings, officials said. LA Times 4/1/08
A well-drilling boom not seen since California's last big drought in the early 1990s is under way in the San Joaquin Valley, as farmers chasing high crop prices tap the region's vast, largely unregulated groundwater reserves in the face of an increasingly bleak outlook for water from the state's rivers and reservoirs. The economics of the situation are keeping well-drillers busy. Fresno County permitted 204 new farm wells last year, the most since 1992. In Madera and Tulare counties, the number of new farm wells tripled between 2006 and 2007. The three counties are on pace in 2008 to sink even more wells than last year. Drillers from coastal areas and even other states are flocking to meet the demand. Sacramento Bee 3/30/08
Campuses participating in the National School Lunch Program must be inspected twice during the school year or risk losing federal funding. But of the 253 Contra Costa schools in the program, only 16 percent were inspected twice by Contra Costa Health Services in 2005, the Contra Costa grand jury reported this month. CC Times 3/29/08
The Bush administration announced requirements Monday that would encourage developers to compensate for the destruction of wetlands or streams by paying for the restoration or creation of wetlands elsewhere, sometimes many miles away. The Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announced final approval of the regulations Monday, saying it will help replace wetlands and streams that are unavoidably destroyed or severely damaged in construction or other activities. But environmentalists worried that the new mitigation policy could encourage wetlands destruction and overall wetlands loss. CC Times 4/1/08
In an aggressive move to finish building 670 miles of border fence by the end of this year, the Department of Homeland Security announced today that it will waive federal environmental laws to meet that goal. The two waivers, which will allow the department to slash through a thicket of environmental and cultural laws, would be the most expansive to date, encompassing land in California, New Mexico, Arizona and Texas that stretches about 470 miles. LA Times 4/1/08
California moved a step closer to permanently protecting its shores from offshore oil drilling Monday when the House approved legislation to ban development in federal waters along all 76 miles of Sonoma County's coastline and off the southern tip of Mendocino County's coast. SF Chronicle 4/1/08
Pacific Ethanol Inc., a California biofuels darling that boasts political connections and an investment from Bill Gates, is short on cash and suffering from higher corn and plant construction costs, which threaten to derail the once-promising biofuels maker. The Sacramento company on Monday posted record-high sales but a larger-than-expected $14.7-million loss in the fourth quarter, reflecting a financial squeeze that has clouded prospects for ethanol producers nationwide. LA Times 4/1/08
The Justice Department on Monday asked the Supreme Court to review a federal appeals court decision limiting the Navy's use of sonar off the Southern California coast because of potential harm to dolphins and whales. Freno Bee 3/31/08
Scientists breed smelt in case species becomes extinct in Delta Sacramento Bee 3/31/08
Sometime this year, a San Francisco entrepreneur’ company, Climos, expects to seek permits to drizzle an iron slurry over roughly 4,000 square miles of ocean. In its wake, a green film of phytoplankton would bloom, absorb carbon dioxide, and fade, either naturally or as some other creature's meal. As waste and decomposing fragments from this eruption of life drift downward, carrying their internal carbon with them, some could sink deeply enough to be sequestered for 100 years or more, potentially slowing down global warming. The process could create saleable carbon credits. Sacramento Bee 3/30/08
No comments:
Post a Comment