Monthly Archives: March 2026

If You Think Gov. Newsom Cares about California’s Environment, Think Again

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RIP CEQA

Last year Gov. Gavin Newsom strongarmed the State legislature into gutting the California Environmental Quality Act. Newsom told the legislature that he wouldn’t sign off on the State’s $321 billion spending plan unless they approved his “reforms”.

Many legislators were worried that the bill Newsom was pushing for, SB 131, would create a slew of exemptions from the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). While exemptions had already been created for housing and transit projects, SB 131 would allow exemptions for “advanced manufacturing” projects. These legislators were concerned because approval of the bill involved removing language from the State’s Public Resources Code that defined what could be considered an “advanced manufacturing” project. People in leadership said, don’t worry, we’ll fix this before the end of the session.

But of course, nothing got fixed. The definitions weren’t clarified. While there’s a push now in the legislature to clarify the definitions, it will be an uphill battle because well-financed business interests prefer the lack of clarity.

What kinds of “advanced manufacturing” projects might now be exempt from environmental review now that SB 131 has passed? Here’s a partial list from the web site Legal Planet.

aerospace manufacturing
animal feed and organic fertilizer
plastic bottle manufacturing
semiconductor fabrication
lithium ion batteries
lithium recovery and processing
rare earth materials production

Among the most concerning would be last four on the list. Making semiconductors involves the use of toxic materials such as arsenic and antimony, as well as toxic chemicals like sulfuric acid and hydrofluoric acid. Lithium processing involves the production of significant toxic waste, and many rare earth minerals are themselves toxic.

Would you be okay with one of these “advanced manufacturing” projects being approved in your neighborhood? If not, you might want to to contact your representatives in the State Assembly and the State Senate.

Find Your Representative

Here’s an article from CalMatters that gives an overview of the whole disturbing mess.

California Blew a Hole in Environmental Planning Law. Now, Lawmakers Are Trying to Fix It

America Is at War. Again.

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Protest at LA City Hall on Saturday, March 7.


We’re at war again. This time in Iran. For the past week the US and Israel have unleashed punishing aerial attacks, but it’s hard to say why we’re at war or how it’s expected to end. In justifying the air strikes, Trump has offered a few different reasons. He’s said the goal is to destroy Iran’s nuclear weapons program, even though he said it had been obliterated last year. He’s said the US is trying to foment regime change, even though there doesn’t appear to be any Iranian opposition group prepared to step into that role. US officials have also claimed that there was an imminent threat of an attack by Iran on the US, but they haven’t shown any evidence to back up that claim.

Protesters asked why the US is spending money on fighting foreign wars instead of helping Americans at home.

A small group of protesters gathered at LA City Hall on Saturday afternoon to speak out against the war. I’d say there were about 150 people there. It may have grown larger, but I had to leave around two thirty. The protest seemed to have been organized by a few different groups.

The chants were familiar from past anti-war protests, but the questions they asked were still relevant. Analysts have estimated that the first week of the war has cost the US almost $900 million a day. The protesters were asking why we aren’t spending that money on things that would make a real difference in the lives of American citizens, like education or healthcare or housing.

Signs demanded an end to the assualt on Iran.

The US spent between 10 and 15 years fighting in Vietnam, depending on where you draw the line. The war in Iraq officially lasted from 2003 through 2011, though American troops were still active in the region after that date. The war in Afghanistan ran from 2001 through 2021. Many American soldiers died in each of these conflicts, and many more foreign civilians lost their lives. These wars turned farmlands to wastelands, homes to rubble, and left behind toxic chemicals and unexploded ordnance which are still taking lives today. And what did Americans gain from these wars?

The gathering on Saturday was small, but if the conflict continues, I think it’s pretty certain we’ll see the protests growing steadily larger. Americans are tired of war. It’s time to put a stop to it.