Source: Mountain Lion Foundation

Photo: Mountain lion at Lions, Tigers and Bears

October 26, 2020 (Temecula) --  Conservation groups approved a legal agreement today that will protect a critical wildlife corridor for local mountain lions and other wildlife, fund restoration efforts and ensure implementation of a regional conservation plan. The agreement comes after a judge issued a ruling this spring against the proposed 270-acre Altair development in Western Riverside County in California.

The agreement permanently protects the 55-acre “South Parcel” — a key part of one of the only passages left for endangered Santa Ana mountain lions to move between coastal and inland mountains. This lion population suffers from extremely low levels of genetic diversity due to limited wildlife connectivity.

By Miriam Raftery

November 15, 2018 (San Diego) -- On Tuesday, San Diego County announced that several proposed General Plan Amendments to allow construction of massive development projects will not be heard by the Board of Supervisors in 2018 due to litigation over the County’s climate action plan and a court injunction.  Projects with hearings postponed include Lilac Hills Ranch, Otay Village 14, Planning Areas 16 and 19, Warner Ranch, and Property Specific Requests.

September 23, 2015 (San Diego's East County) -- East County Roundup highlights top stories of interest to East County and San Diego’s inland regions, published in other media. This week’s top “Roundup” headlines include:

LOCAL/REGIONAL

• Documents detail how nuclear material was handled at San Onofre (KNSD-7)
• Incomes rise, but poverty remains a problem (U-T San Diego)
• Sculptor's eviction means end of jumping mustangs (U-T San Diego)
• Lieutenant sues over reassignment (U-T San Diego)
• Regents reject intolerance statement  (U-T San Diego)
•  Ranch to the rescue for pot-bellied pigs (Ramona Sentinel)
• Local health insurance coverage rises to 88% under Obamacare (Times of San Diego)
• Local Water Agencies Are Making Moves to Take Control of Costs, Supply (Voice of San Diego)
• County pays $1M Sierra Club legal fees (U-T San Diego)
• Anderson Could Run for Three Different Seats in Six Years (Voice of San Diego)
• Sempra wins one showdown with Mexican rancher (U-T San Diego)
• Pension boss gets unemployment on top of $250,000 severance (U-T San Diego)
• Weber: Schools Need New Thinking — Not New Buildings (Voice of San Diego)
• La Mesan Claudia Sandoval Named Masterchef  (La Mesa Today)
• Poway Unified Might Re-Hire Controversial Bond Consultants  (Voice of SD)

STATE

• State panel outlaws ‘dark money’ in political campaigns (Los Angeles Times)
• Where have all the cops gone? (Desert Sun)
• Crowdfunding for wildfire victims: A new solution to an old problem? (CS Monitor)
• Deal would let Southern California buy surplus water from Nevada (Reuters)
•  As wildfires spread, the contractors are called in (APM Marketplace)

For excerpts and links to full stories, click “read more” and scroll down.

Photo: High-voltage Sunrise Powerlink tower by Lake Jennings

November 7, 2014 (San Diego’s East County) – San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E) has applied for a master permit to construct power line replacement projects in Cleveland National Forest. Now the Cleveland National Forest Foundation  has submitted formal comments objecting to the plan.

According to the Foundation, SDG&E’s project fails to assure that the state’s renewable energy mandate of 33% renewable by 2020 will be met; the project aims to increase energy project four-fold without proposing any reductions in dirty energy sources.

By Kathleen Connell

March 8, 2014 (San Diego's East County) - The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) will soon make a decision on how to replace the power from San Onofre.  This is a decision with consequences for generations to come.  The choice is local clean energy such as rooftop solar, energy efficiency, and conservation or natural gas power plants, i.e., fossil fuel generation.  Local clean energy fights climate change, doesn’t pollute our air, already supports hundreds of well-paying local jobs, and lowers electricity bills.  Natural gas power plants ramp up greenhouse gases, worsen air quality, average only 10-20 permanent employees, and raise electricity bills for all of us because they are funded by ratepayers and cost anywhere from $1 billion to $5 billion each.  And we are shackled to these monuments of the past for decades.

By Paul Kruze

“The way everything has turned out, the energy hogs are being rewarded…Now, no matter how much you conserve energy, no matter how much you generate, the residential ratepayers are stuck with this.” – Pete Hasapopoulos, San Diego Sierra Club

October 11, 2013 (San Diego’s East County) -- Amid a chorus of cheers and jeers, Governor Jerry Brown signed Assembly Bill 327 reflecting the first change to electric rates and how  major power utilities account for residential rooftop solar systems.

Introduced by Fresno Democrat Party Assemblyman Henry T. Perea, the legislation directs the California Public Utilities Commission to design a new net metering program that would take effect within four years. The bill also gives the CPUC authority to require utilities to source more than 33 percent of their power from renewable sources like wind and solar. In addition, the new law will replace the electric rate restrictions adopted by  California during the state’s energy deregulation crisis in 2000.

September 19, 2013 (San Diego) – Dear EarthTalk: What is the new documentary film A Fierce Green Fire about and what does the title refer to?                                                                           

-- Gloria Howard, Washington, DC

A Fierce Green Fire is a new film documenting the rise of the modern environmental movement from the 1960s through the present day. It premiered at last year’s Sundance Film Festival and will be playing at select theaters across the country beginning in September 2013. Educators, environmental groups and grassroots activists also will be showing the film at small and large events from coast to coast over the course of the fall. Written and directed by Mark Kitchell, Academy Award-nominated director of Berkeley in the Sixties, A Fierce Green Fire (the film) is based on the 1993 book of the same name by environmental journalist Philip Shabecoff.

ECM reporters allowed inside evacuation area to assess damage

By Nadin Abbott; photos by Nadin and Tom Abbott

July 9, 2013 (Mt. Laguna)— For owners of property on Mount Laguna, the past 24-hours have been heart-wrenching.  The Chariot Fire has reportedly destroyed 108 structures along Sunrise Highway, including the Al Bahr Shrine Camp and one lost at the Sierra Club Guymon Lodge. The blaze has scorched over 7,055 acres and is now 40 percent contained. Highway 79 is open but Sunrise Highway remains closed from 79 to I-8.

Peering through thick smoke late yesterday at the Shrine Camp site (photo, left), we saw a husk of burnt metal and the charred remains of other structures.  We later learned that losses included the 87-year-old lodge and a dozen or more cabins.

Commission allows repowering of Escondido plant

“Today’s rejection of Quail Brush is not only a victory for the environment. It’s a victory for our community. It sends a message that San Diego County shouldn’t rely on old-school, power plant technology and that we can accelerate our efforts to develop renewable, cleaner forms of energy, like rooftop solar and fuel cells.”—Supervisor Dianne Jacob

March 21, 2013 (San Diego) – Before a packed audience in San Diego today, the California Public Utilities Commission unanimously denied SDG&E’s requests to build Quail Brush and Pio Pico, gas-powered peaker plants near Mission Trails Regional Park and in Otay Mesa.  The Commission did, however, authorize repowering of an existing but idle gas plant in Escondido.

September 21, 2012 (San Diego)-A coalition of local community groups announces that it will fill the San Diego City Council chambers on Monday, September 24 at 2 p.m.

They will call on the City Council to uphold a recent Planning Commission decision to deny a community plan amendment request that would have paved the way for a 100 megawatt gas-fired power plant on open space designated land adjacent to Mission Trails Regional Park.

August 10, 2012 (East County) – The Perseid Meteor Showers will be peaking August 11 and 12 this year.  The meteor shower occurs every August when the Earth passes through space debris left by Comet Swift-Tuttle.  The meteors are bright and often leave trails of luminous gas.  There are a number of events across East County to participate in and enjoy the show.

By Megan McGlamery

March 8, 2012 (San Diego)—“Our biggest challenge is to stabilize climate change,” Mike Bullock, chairman of the Transportation Committee for Sierra Club’s San Diego chapter, told attendees at the Forging a Sustainable Future Conference hosted by UnitedGREEN at San Diego State University last weekend. 

To accomplish that, the state has set ambitious goals to reduce greenhouse gas emissions--and mandated that counties reduce driving and encourage public transportation. 

But the San Diego Association of Government (SANDAG) failed to meet those goals in a Regional Transportation Plan(RTP) that it approved last fall. Now, California Attorney General Kamala Harris has joined with the Sierra Club, the Cleveland National Forest Foundation, and other environmental groups to sue SANDAG.