The County Board of Supervisors are set to vote tomorrow on three progressive green ordinances tomorrow that would affect unincorporated areas of Los Angeles County, some of which that are the most undeveloped (look northward to the Santa Clarita and Antelope Valley areas). The ordinances--green building, drought tolerant landscaping and low-impact development (LID)--would "be the singularly most progressive environmental action ever taken by the county and will set an impressive precedent for the entire region,"......

The No on Prop 7 ads have been airing for awhile now (you know, the ones that say "stop another costly flawed energy scheme"?) and this week, the Yes on Prop 7 side launched their own (one of them is above). It's a confusing proposition and as the LA Times said in their dissenting editorial, "it's rare to see an initiative attract the diversity of opposition that Proposition 7 has." They're referring to both......

Photo by tomsaint11 via Flickr With around 84% of all cancer risk from air pollution due to diesel exhaust, the Port of Los Angeles Clean Truck Program began today immediately banning 2,000 trucks made before 1989. And By 2012, the new law will ban any truck that doesn’t meet the cleanest 2007 emission standards, ultimately taking 16,000 dirty-diesel trucks off the road. The trucking industry fought the plan saying it would "place an unconstitutional......

Photo by gas station sushi via Flickr A bill signed by Governor Schwarzenegger last night will encourage smarter growth for a California that's expected to largely increase in population in upcoming decades. The bill requires the California Air Resources Board to set regional targets on reducing greenhouse gas emissions dovetailed into regional transportation planes resulting in a Sustainable Communities Strategy. It also hopes to give developers incentive to build high-density projects near transit hubs.......

Just as Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger eliminated all the funding--$1 million--for beach water quality monitoring in the state budget, Heal the Bay comes out with their annual Beach Report Card showing a near-record water quality statewide. With over 500 beaches listed, 92% of them earned an A or B, something the group claims is a success of the water quality monitoring program that was just cut. Locally, beaches with failing grades or at least a D......

Photo by Jimmy_Joe via Flickr At today's City Council meeting, the members unanimously voted to oppose Proposition 7, an environmental initiative on this November's ballot that would require "all utilities, including government-owned utilities, to generate 20% of their power from renewable energy by 2010, a standard currently applicable only to private electrical corporations. Raises requirement for all utilities to 40% by 2020 and 50% by 2025." Seems like a good thing, right? The problem......

Photo by GarySev7en via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr Eight California cities made it onto the 2008 US City Sustainability Rankings from SustainLane, a media network company based in San Francisco. Of the eight, four made it into the top 25 leaving the other four in the bottom 25. And it's no surprise that the bottom 25 list includes Central and Southern California cities with Northern California cities ranking at the top......

Park[ing] Day, which is taking place all over the city in nearly 70 parking spaces, is an important day for addressing park space in Los Angeles, something we are on the low side of per capita. It is recommended that there are 8-10 acres of parks and open space for every 1000 residents. Los Angeles reportedly has about 10% of that. If you see a park (here's a map), check it out, visit, take......

Most of the locations for this Saturday's Coastal Cleanup Day (view complete map) This Saturday morning, some 11,000 volunteers at more than 70 beaches and inland sites throughout the LA area will be participating in Heal the Bay's Coastal Cleanup. They estimate that this year's cleanup will mark their one millionth pound of picked-up trash since the event began in 1990. And with so many sites, there's always room for more people to join......

There's only 120 taxis operating in Burbank, but twenty of them have been hybrids since May. Cities across that nation have already started programs (NYC plans to have all 13,000 taxis to be hybrid in 5 years) but Los Angeles is a little behind with its 2,303 fleet. "We're researching the issue very carefully. We want to do it right," said Tom Drischler, taxicab administrator for Los Angeles, to the LA Times in the Burbank......

Taken at Sequoia National Park, which has parts included in the bill | Photo by Allie_Caulfield via Flickr A federal bill seeking to protect hundreds of thousands acres of California wildland will possibly be voted on in a House of Representatives committee tomorrow. The Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests and Public Lands will hear about the Eastern Sierra and Northern San Gabriel Wild Heritage Act, which will protect 800,000 acres of California land, including......

The Mt. Hollywood Trail in Griffith Park | Photo by Steve Zaslavsky via Flickr Environmental and neighborhood groups are organizing to save Griffith Park from the possibility of development. Last month, Col. Griffith J. Griffith's grandson and the Griffith J. Griffith Charitable Trust put in an application to formally preserve the park by getting it designated as a historic landmark. "We're doing it to stop commercialization," the grandson told the Daily News last month.......

The US Seasonal Drought Outlook for Sep.-Nov. The brown indicates drought will persist or intensify | Image by U.S. Climate Prediction Center A report released last week by the U.S. Climate Prediction Center said that Southern California's drought will continue or intensify through at least November. That could mean more water restrictions down the road. Earlier this summer, Gov. Schwarzenegger declared a statewide water drought paving the road towards water rationing (this is the......

The 2nd annual Park[ing] Day LA is coming up on Friday, September 19. The event where designers, artists, activists and others come together to make a park in a metered parking space, seeks to promote a dialogue in how our streets and urban space are used, especially for a city that has little park space per resident. Anyone can make a park (there's still time to sign up) and about 25 people or groups......

Yes, lazily hosing down your sidewalk instead of using a broom is now illegal, thanks to a recent water conservation passed by the city last month. Since then the DWP has been sending out weekly tips and today was about the hosing. "As much as 150 gallons of water are used every time someone washes down a driveway, sidewalk, walkway or parking area, leading to gross amounts of wasted drinking water each time," wrote the......

Bob Hertzberg ran for Mayor of Los Angeles in 2005. The former California Assembly Speaker and adviser to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger lost and moved on away from politics to working on solar power in Wales where the Guardian newspaper named him one of the "50 people who could save the planet." In a way, Hertzberg is like Los Angeles' version of Al Gore. The guy who almost made it but is now well known......

Last month, the city of Manhattan Beach banned the plastic bag as plastic advocates promised to sue. And sue they did yesterday. "The Save the Plastic Bag Coalition has asked a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge to toss out the prohibition on grounds that the city violated the California Environmental Quality Act by not fully analyzing the environmental effects of such a ban, according to papers filed recently," says the Daily Breeze. When plastic......

Taken at Sequoia National Park, which has parts included in the bill | Photo by Allie_Caulfield via Flickr There are two identical bills floating around the U.S Senate and House this month that would protect federally owned land from any development, vehicles, permanent structures, mining or basically anything else that would alter the environment. The land would go under The Wilderness Act, signed into law by President Johnson and says defines land as "an......

Photo by halighalie via Flickr A ribbon cutting ceremony will take place today at the newly greened Exposition Park Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune Regional Branch Library on Western Avenue near USC. The green library is a first for the South Los Angeles region, also receiving the highest second highest rating from the U.S Green Building Council's LEED standards. Here's what made it certify at "gold," according to the city (.pdf): Landscape & Exterior Design......

Human waste is a part of life; we all generate it, we all need to dispose of it. Some of us abide by the clever rhyming adage "if it's yellow, mellow, if it's brown, flush it down" but with the state's increasingly perilous water levels on most minds, it's increasingly harder to even just take a seat on the old porcelain throne without worrying about the environment. Enter the EcoJohn line of toilets, all of......

Not only are there Props 7 and 10, which are environmentally intentioned with heavy opposition from businesses and eco-groups alike, there is also a possible prop being pushed around by Governor Schwarzenegger and Senator Dianne Feinstein. It would be a $9.3 billion water bond, mainly for water surface storage. And before we even know if the state legislature will approve its placement on November's ballot, nearly 40 environmental groups have already launched a large campaign......

Photo by 416style via Flickr Green initiatives and measures are going to dot ballots across the state this November and while "it's the thing to do" these days, they may not be the best choices. At the very least, as LAist commenter jrb said, "this election season some the initiatives are not exactly a quick study. There will be some city initiatives like the San Francisco Clean Energy Act or the Residents’ Initiative to......

Photo by citroenazu via Flickr The basic premise for voting against "Big Solar" Prop 7 on November's ballot is that it has good environmental intentions for the state's renewable energy goals but was written so poorly, it would jack up consumer energy bills and have other unintended consequences. Hundreds of thousands of dollars been put into the No on Prop 7 side from energy companies including Southern California Edison and PG&E in Northern California.......

Pastor Robert Jones of a Sacramento-area church visited a state environmental hearing last Wednesday about California's plan to cut global warming emissions. He asked the politicians to keep poorer communities in mind when drafting laws. Two-minutes into it, State Senator Pat Wiggins (D-Santa Rosa) interrupted Jones. "Excuse me, but I think your arguments are bullshit." It's nothing too dramatic, but a revealing moment in state politics. Wiggins later issues a stock statement saying that......

Southern California Edison (SCE) announced that they've now recycled 700,000 refrigerators in the last 15 years since the beginning of their Refrigerator and Freezer Recycling Program. The program has two parts: (1) you get $50 to recycle the fridge, and (2), you get another $50 if you buy a new Energy Star qualified fridge. According to SCE's director of energy efficiency per the Power Plug blog, people spend about an extra $300 a year with......

The city's Energy and the Environment Committee met this morning and passed a water waste crackdown plan, making way for a full city council approval, which will likely occur in September. "The 'drought busters' plan crafted by the Department of Water and Power seeks to punish residents who water their lawns between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m., car owners who wash their cars without 'shut-off devices' on their hoses and restaurants that serve water without......

Following the lead of many other utilities, the Pasadena City Council on Friday took an official stance against Proposition 7, aka "Big Solar," which will appear on November's ballot asking voters to make utilities supply 20% of their power with renewable sources by 2010, 40% by 2020 and 50% by 2025. Pasadena Water and Power is a municipal owned utility and officials say that if passed, rates could jump 30 to 45%. While most people......

Yesterday afternoon was day one of George Wolfe's LA River expedition where he and a group of twelve kayakers intended to prove that the LA River is a river that is navigable, something that is contrary to what the Army Corps of Engineers concluded last month. The three-day mission started yesterday at the headwaters of the river in Canoga Park. It was more ceremonial with champagne because the river at this part of the year--height......

A father and son kayak in the LA River in August, 2007, in Sherman Oaks (story and photos here) | Photo by Zach Behrens/LAist This afternoon in Canoga Park, 12 kayakers are going to begin a 51-mile, three-day journey down the LA River to Long Beach. They have no permit to enter the river, but that's part of the point. The Army Corps of Engineers caused a stir in the community last month when......

Usually, building codes are not at the forefront of state politics, but recently, as Los Angeles and other cities are setting their own building standards, a statewide standard was passed. It's a good step, but Schwarzenegger and environmentalists have differing views on if it is strong enough or not, even though it is the strictest in the U.S. "Nationwide, buildings consume 39% of energy, 12% of potable water, and 40% of raw materials, according to......