EcoNews Report

On this week's EcoNews Report, Scott and Alicia from Friends of the Eel River join Gang Green to talk about dam removal and FERC relicensing. Also, the coal train is officially dead! Let’s take a moment to celebrate that big victory.

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From skunks to songbirds, the Humboldt Wildlife Care Center is here is help the wildlife of the region. Gang Green sits down with Monte Merrick, director of the Humboldt Wildlife Care Center, to talk about the center's work, what to do if you see an injured animal and the center's upcoming big move. 

To learn more about volunteer opportunities or to help with moving costs, visit the Humboldt Wildlife Care Center's website.

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On this week's EcoNews Report, Gang Green and special guest Melodie Meyer, staff attorney with the Yurok Tribe, talks about the Land Back movement—the indigenous-led campaign to return political and economic control to indigenous people and tribes—and why rank-and-file environmentalists should support this movement.

Some local examples of Land Back:

• Yurok Tribe now operating Chah-pekw O’ Ket’-toh ‘Stone Lagoon’ Visitor Center
• Congressman Huffman introduces Yurok lands act
• Duluwat Island is Returned to the Wiyot Tribe in Historic Ceremony

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Marbled murrelets, the ocean-going bird that was once at the heart of the showdown with the Pacific Lumber Company over Headwaters Forest, are back in court in Oregon. Nick Cady of Cascadia Wildlands joins Gang Green to discuss their recent victory protecting the large, old trees that murrelets need to survive. And there is a Humboldt connection: local biologists testified on behalf of the environmental plaintiffs, establishing that the proposed logging would violate the federal Endangered Species Act. Read the decision for yourself here.

Photo Credit: Marbled Murrelet Habitat, Aaron Barna, USFWS Pacific; edited with an image of flying marbled murrelet. 

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The Supreme Court’s recent decision in West Virginia v. EPA not only throws a substantial hurdle ahead of regulating greenhouse gas emissions from coal power plants, it takes a vicious swipe at the entirety of the modern administrative state. Using a new invention—the “major questions doctrine”—the Supreme Court has set up an easy way for conservative judges across the country to invalidate any regulation that a judge finds to be of “vast significance.” 

The Supreme Court has been on a bender of recent: reproductive rights (Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization), school prayer (Kennedy v. Bremerton School District), tribal sovereignty (Oklahoma v. Castro-Huerta), separation of church and state (Carson v. Makin), gun regulation (New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen). All of these controversial decisions were decided by a majority of Republican-appointed judges. This is not a coincidence but the product of a 40+ year movement by conservative activists. 

How can environmentalists and progressives restrain the Supreme Court before we lose any more rights and still have a democracy? Listen in to hear more.

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What can we learn about the national and political landscape from the results of the 2022 primary election? Those enviro-political nerds at RCCER (the Redwood Coalition for Climate and Environmental Responsibility) and the Lost Coast Outpost’s own Hank Sims break down election results and reflect on lessons learned from this election.

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On this week’s EcoNews Report, Gang Green talks with Professor Dan Kammen of UC Berkeley and Gary Hughes of Biofuelwatch to investigate how the state of California intends to meet its climate targets and whether its plan is sufficient. (Spoiler alert: it’s not). 

The California Air Resources Board has released its draft scoping plan, a document intended to guide the state’s climate actions moving forward. The plan has been poorly received by environmental groups. Find out more on this week’s episode.

REQUIRED READING:

• “Op-Ed: California can do better than carbon neutrality by 2045,” Daniel Kammen, Los Angeles Times, May 17, 2022.
• Hoodwinked in the Hothouse: Resist False Solutions to Climate Change

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The transmission lines running into Humboldt County are fairly small. This has big implications for local efforts to decarbonize our local electricity supply. The lines are too small to supply enough of Humboldt’s current power demands, necessitating the Humboldt Bay Generating Station, run off methane gas (Gang Green refuses to call it “natural gas”). It also limits our ability to fully realize our offshore wind resource as, again, the damn lines are too small, thereby limiting our capacity constraints.

Arne Jacobson from the Schatz Energy Research Lab joins the show to talk through the lab’s new report on grid constraints.

For more info, visit Schatz's offshore wind webpage for reports and webinar recordings.

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On this week’s EcoNews Report, Warner Chabot of the San Francisco Estuary Institute joins Gang Green to talk about micro-plastic pollution, including that which comes from car tires. A chemical in tires has been found to kill coho salmon. Now the California Department of Toxic Substances Control is considering regulation to address this threat.

People can submit written comments on the rulemaking proposal until July 5.

For more info:

• CA Department of Toxic Substances Control video on 6PPD in Tires

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Two weeks ago, the federal Surface Transportation Board made some important decisions about the future of trails in our region. Tune in to hear about the latest developments including what’s in store for the Annie and Mary Trail and what comes next in determining the future for the Great Redwood Trail. Will it be a spectacular 300-mile trail connecting communities from San Francisco to Humboldt Bay, or will rail entities succeed in taking the right-of-way from the public and using it to poison our future?

Learn more at nocoalhumboldt.org

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