Enviro Updates

SuzanneAugust 1, 2025Climate Change & EnergyCONGAS, fossil fuel infrastructure, gas station ban, Santa Rosa

Stop the Wright Rd. gas station!

CONGAS

In April 2025, environmental and health advocates celebrated the rejection by Santa Rosa Planning Commission of the proposal for a new gas station at 874 North Wright Road in Santa Rosa (at Hwy 12/Fulton/Wright).

However, at the last moment the developer submitted an appeal to the Santa Rosa City Council, and the appeal will be heard by the City Council on August 19, at a meeting that begins at 4pm, at the Council Chambers, 100 Santa Rosa Avenue.

So once again, the Coalition Opposing New Gas Stations and many other organizations and individuals that are part of and support the coalition are asking for support, to urge the City Council to uphold the well-considered decision of the Planning Commission and reject the proposal.

This proposal has been in the works on and off since 2007, rejected, appealed, rejected; approved in 2013 but never built; came back in 2024 and after two postponed Planning Commission Hearings, rejected once again by the Commission on April 10.

The proposal is based on an outdated 2013 environmental report. Much new information has come to light since then about the serious health impacts of gasoline, both from toxic vapors and from leaking storage tanks, and the inevitable leaks and spills which contaminate surface water, soil and groundwater. Many local residents who are on wells are rightly concerned about impacts to the quality of their water supply.

In addition, increased traffic on an already busy and congested road is a concern. The site is in a seasonal wetland that floods in winter, is adjacent to the Joe Rodota trail, adjacent to land zoned for multi-family housing and adjacent to the Blue Star Gas facility which would place two highly flammable facilities right next to each other.

Abandoned gas station sites can become a major liability for cities, with clean up costs of hundreds of thousands of dollars.

For further information see www.con-gas.org or contact congas.contact@gmail.com, and to contact the City Council see https://www.srcity.org/1322/City-Council

SuzanneJuly 14, 2025July 15, 2025Climate Change & Energybiomass energy, electricity, geothermal, hydroelectric, nuclear power, renewable energy, solar, wind power

California reaches new record clean energy milestone

Paul Rogers, BAY AREA NEWS GROUP

California has hit a new record for clean energy.

Solar, wind, hydropower and other carbon-free sources made up 67% of the state’s retail electricity supply in 2023, the most recent year that data is available, according to new statistics released Monday by the California Energy Commission.

The total is an increase from 2022, when it was 61%. And it exceeds the prior record of 64%, set in 2019.

Under a state law signed by former Gov. Jerry Brown in 2018 aimed at reducing air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions that are contributing to climate change, California is required to reach 100% renewable and carbon-free electricity by 2045.

Solar, wind, geothermal, large hydropower, biomass and nuclear energy are allowed to count under the law.

The new milestone comes as renewable energy is facing several headwinds. Earlier this month, Republicans in Congress passed and President Trump signed a bill that removes and reduces many of the tax breaks, federal grants and other incentives that were put in place by President Biden for states, private companies and homeowners to expand renewable energy and electric vehicles.

SuzanneJuly 7, 2025July 15, 2025TransportationGolden Gate Transit, Highway 101, public transit, SMART

Marin, Sonoma propose transit overhaul along Highway 101

Adrian Rodriguez, MARIN INDEPENDENT JOURNAL

A North Bay transportation committee proposed significant changes to transit along Highway 101, aiming to improve service in Marin and Sonoma counties by reducing redundancies and enhancing connections.

A North Bay transportation committee is proposing some major changes to transit, including bus and train, along the Highway 101 corridor to improve service in Marin and Sonoma counties.

The committee representing six transit operators and three funding agencies wants to eliminate redundancies while improving connections among operators and increasing services where rider demand is highest.

“All the agencies involved in transportation in Sonoma and Marin got together and we said, if one company ran all this based on what’s going on today, what would it look like? It probably would look different,” said Denis Mulligan, general manager of the Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transportation District. The district operates Golden Gate Transit and Golden Gate Ferry.

Mulligan said the task of the committee, called the Marin Sonoma Coordinated Transit Service, is to restructure and coordinate transit to provide the best service to riders.

SuzanneJuly 5, 2025Land UseCEQA, development, development of open space, housing, infill development

Lauded by housing advocates, CEQA reform unlikely to have immediate local impact

Emma Murphy & Paulina Pineda, PRESS DEMOCRAT

The new regulations, which took effect immediately, have raised questions about whether it could pave an easier path for large developments in Sonoma County and Santa Rosa.

The local impact of statewide housing reforms approved Monday, including the historic rollback of parts of California’s landmark environmental law, are still coming into full view in the North Bay, but it’s unlikely to unlock hundreds of new housing units across the region — at least immediately.

The reforms negotiated by Gov. Gavin Newsom and state lawmakers as part of the budget bills exempt infill housing and many other residential developments from review under the 55-year-old California Environmental Quality Act. The measures also streamline permitting and freeze the codes that set residential building standards, among other sweeping changes that go beyond housing construction.

The overhaul comes amid a reckoning among the state’s majority party that bureaucratic hurdles have made it increasingly difficult to build enough housing for residents, driving up costs and contributing to rising homelessness.

“There is a feeling of urgency around California’s affordability crisis,” said Assemblymember Chris Rogers, D-Santa Rosa.

The new regulations, which took effect immediately, have raised questions about whether it could pave an easier path for a large development planned on former county land in Santa Rosa as well as another on the state’s former Sonoma Developmental Center campus near Glen Ellen.

Both have faced significant neighborhood opposition.

SuzanneJune 30, 2025July 15, 2025TransportationSMART

SMART extension to Healdsburg gets $81M state boost

Cameron MacDonald, MARIN INDEPENDENT JOURNAL

Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit has secured $81 million in state funding for its planned service extension to Healdsburg.

The California Transportation Commission approved funding from two grant programs during meetings in Sacramento on Thursday and Friday. Senate Bill 1, which raised gas taxes to fund transportation infrastructure projects, created both programs.

The commission awarded SMART $62 million from the Solutions for Congested Corridors Program and $25 million from the Local Partnership Program. While $81 million is for the Healdsburg line, the other $6 million is for the purchase of a zero-emission locomotive, said Julia Gonzalez, a SMART spokesperson.

SMART opened its northernmost station in Windsor last month. The agency plans to install 9 miles of track north to Healdsburg and later expand services further north to Cloverdale, which is 17 miles from Healdsburg.

SuzanneJune 29, 2025Climate Change & Energy, Transportationemergency warning, fire danger, flooding, wildfire evacuation

Sonoma County emergency preparedness falls short, grand jury says, warning of ‘chaotic, life-threatening’ evacuations

Emma Murphy, PRESS DEMOCRAT

The report comes weeks after local fire officials warned the region is likely to experience a long peak fire season.

Despite years of work and extensive investments to bolster its disaster planning and response, Sonoma County remains ill-prepared for emergency evacuations in the event of another regional firestorm, flood or other major disaster, the county’s civil grand jury has concluded in a new report.

The stinging assessment comes even after the strides the county, local cities and grassroots groups have taken after the 2017 firestorm and subsequent disasters to improve planning for the type of large emergencies that can displace thousands of people at a time.

The tools and protocols now in place, the grand jury found, function only as a foundation for evacuation plans — and those plans, covering much of the region, lack the detailed, proactive steps to ensure they can work, especially along the county’s sprawling rural road network, the new report says.

The panel faulted the county for its lack of modern modeling technology to evaluate evacuation routes and plan around known traffic choke points. The county also depends too heavily on cellphone networks and the internet to communicate alerts — an unreliable method for rural residents, according to the 20-page report.

“Without accelerated investment in planning, communications, and road improvements — and full compliance with California’s legal standards — the risk of chaotic, life-threatening evacuations remains high,” the report states.

SuzanneJune 28, 2025July 1, 2025Water, WildlifeEel River, endangered species, Lake Pillsbury, PG&E, Russian River, salmon, Scott Dam, water diversion

A to-be-drained lake, a PG&E plan, and the promise and peril of California’s next big dam removal

Amie Windsor, PRESS DEMOCRAT

LAKE PILLSBURY — A cool May breeze lapped across the surface of this reservoir in remote Lake County, where a couple made their way out in a boat across otherwise serene waters, taking advantage of the brightest bit of afternoon sun.

This man-made retreat, four square miles of water impounded by a dam across the upper Eel River, feels durable. It’s filled with hungry trout and black bullhead, prey for the sharp-eyed bald eagles, egrets and herons that hunt these waters.

To many of its visitors, and the several hundred people who live along its 31-mile shoreline deep within the sprawling Mendocino National Forest, Lake Pillsbury is the region’s heartbeat.

But Scott Dam, at the foot of Lake Pillsbury, and another, smaller dam on the river 12 miles downstream, have also become a headache for Pacific Gas & Electric Co., which owns both dams.

And that’s creating a controversy that’s drawn interest from everyone from those who live on Lake Pillsbury, to North Bay communities whose water supplies are linked to both dams, to federal agencies now under control of President Donald Trump.

SuzanneJune 26, 2025July 1, 2025Agriculture/Food SystemMEHKO, small restaurants

Sonoma County’s home kitchen community grows

Susan Wood, NORTH BAY BUSINESS JOURNAL

The Microenterprise Home Kitchen Operation started in 2018 and now includes approximately 600 operations throughout the state.

Criminal Baking Co. owner Dawn Zaft is turning her cozy living space into a microkitchen.

She’s part of the Microenterprise Home Kitchen Operations program for home cooks, many of them chefs in their own right.

The program, adopted by Sonoma County in October, allows individuals to apply for a permit to legally operate small restaurants, whether it involves dining in or takeout, from their private residences.

Solano County led the North Bay in 2020 in deploying the program after California passed the MEHKO law in 2018.

Zaft’s concept of a bakery-pie pantry and cooking class paired with meals marks the first to earn approval to operate in her Luther Burbank neighborhood near downtown Santa Rosa. For her classes starting next month, she’ll host dinners and brunches of up to a dozen people in her dining room and living space.

SuzanneJune 24, 2025July 1, 2025Land UseBLM, Forest Service, national forests

Huge public land sale stripped from senate bill—for now

Wyatt Myskow, INSIDE CLIMATE NEWS

Utah Sen. Mike Lee’s proposed amendment to the budget reconciliation megabill that would mandate the sell-off of two to three million acres of U.S. public lands has been ruled out by the Senate parliamentarian.

Elizabeth MacDonough, the Senate parliamentarian whose staff provides advice on rules, precedents and statutes in the Senate, said the proposal, as well as a host of others suggested by the Energy and Natural Resources committee, will require 60 votes—more than the Republican majority in the Senate can provide—to stay in the bill, according to a press release from Senate Budget Committee Democrats. The decision stems from the Byrd Rule, which prevents extraneous matter from being added to budget reconciliation bills.

Environmental groups heralded the news, but the threat of public land sell-offs remain, and the Trump administration already this week has rolled back other rules protecting remote areas of the country. The Senate parliamentarian plays an advisory role, and their recommendations can be overruled by Senate leadership, though Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) said Monday they wouldn’t move to do so. Already, Lee (R-Utah), who chairs the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, said in a post on X that he would submit new language in the bill completely removing the selling off of land managed by the Forest Service and reducing the number of Bureau of Land Management acres that would be put up for sale.

SuzanneJune 23, 2025June 23, 2025WaterEel River, PG&E, Potter Valley diversion, Round Valley Indian Tribe, Russian River, salmon, salmon habitat

Op-Ed: A two-basin deal is the only solution

Joe Parker, PRESS DEMOCRAT

The Two-Basin Solution shares water resources and restores fisheries, benefiting the Eel and Russian rivers.

Our ancestors have hunted, gathered and fished in the upper Eel River watershed for millennia. They lived in harmony with the river and its surrounding ecosystem, intuitively understanding the intertwined nature of the cycles of the river and the cycles of life itself. Their knowledge of the river has been handed down over time, each successive generation adding to that knowledge and passing on to the next the sacred obligation to protect and preserve the river.

No other sovereign has this connection to the upper Eel watershed. This has been, and will always be, our river. We are the Round Valley Indian Tribes.

In the early 20th century, without our consent, the Potter Valley Project dammed our river and started diverting significant portions to generate electricity, after which the water was made available, at no cost, to users in the Russian River watershed. All the while, our community endured the loss of a critical part of our economy and culture: the decimated Eel River salmon fishery.

These impacts are not limited to a degraded fishery and economic hardship, but also significantly severed our spiritual and cultural connection to the river, leading to a diminished quality of life for members of the Round Valley Indian Tribes, while Eel River water flowed free of charge to benefit Russian River users. Quite simply, the Potter Valley Project dams and the water supply they generated have benefited others while we have paid the costs. This can no longer stand.