ENVIRONMENTAL LEGAL BLOGS

Illegal pot farms destroying forests, ecologist claims

            According to Yahoo!, an ecologist and consultant to the US Forest Service claims that illegal pot farming has produced contamination from liquid pesticides. The ecologist, Mourad Gabriel, says that forests in California now hold 80 times more liquid pesticides than they did merely 4 years ago (2013).

            The Yahoo! Article says that illegal pot growers “use fertilizers and pesticides long restricted or banned in the United States, including carbofuran and zinc phosphide.” One estimate is that there are 4,000 illegal farms in one county (Trinity in Northern California) alone.

            California is apparently in the process of attempting to establish regulations for chemical use on pot farms. The regulations are designed to promote the use of non-toxic chemicals. However, illicit pot growers may be no more inclined to follow the regulations than these growers are to follow the law in general. It is probably the case that severe legal punishment needs to be established for the illicit use of pot-growing chemicals poisoning the forests.

            You can read the Yahoo! Article at https://www.yahoo.com/news/toxic-waste-u-pot-farms-alarms-experts-100944016.html.

Tesla-popular, but broke

Drive around the west valley, and you can see that Tesla has become a fashion and environmental statement in its own right. There appear to be a lot of people who want the car.

            Tesla estimates that one model, Model 3, will hit a 200,000 car sales figure by 2018. However, once that sales figure is hit, the present federal subsidy of $7,500 per car will begin to phase out. See https://www.irs.gov/businesses/plug-in-electric-vehicle-credit-irc-30-and-irc-30d.

            California to the rescue. Assembly Bill 1184 (the “California Electric Vehicle Initiative”; Assemb. Memb. Phil Ting-D, San Francisco) would provide state incentives for continuing Tesla purchases. The incentives would supplement the federal incentives and would replace them once the federal incentives phase out. According to the Mercury News, http://www.mercurynews.com/2017/06/28/new-bigger-incentives-for-electric-cars-could-be-ahead-in-california/,

“The air resources board would determine the size of a rebate based on equalizing the cost of an EV and a comparable gas-powered car. For example, a new, $40,000 electric vehicle might have the same features as a $25,000 gas-powered car. The EV buyer would receive a $7,500 rebate and the state would kick in an additional $7,500 to even out the bottom line.”

            The cost? Oh, that. Ting’s proposal is to establish a $3 billion fund to cover, among other EV-related measures, the rebates. The $3 billion will come from additions to your taxes.

 

This article originally appeared in my column for the Valley New Group of newspapers in the West San Fernando Valley, California.

LED lighting—the drawback?

            Just as we are switching to energy-conserving lighting, along comes a scientist to rain on the parade. See http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-4739766/Low-energy-LED-lightbulbs-giving-HEADACHES.html.

            University of Essex (England) professor of psychology Arnold Wilkins says that light-emitting diode (LED) lights and compact fluorescent lights, energy-saving devices in vogue, have a “flicker rate” much greater than traditional lightbulbs. Professor Wilkins adds that this greater flicker rate is associated with headaches.

            For comparison purposes, Wilkins says that traditional florescent lighting, which flickers at 100 times per second, is associated with doubling the risk of headaches for those who work in an area using such lighting. Since LED’s flicker at the rate of 400 times a second, or four times more often than traditional fluorescents, he thinks the headache risk of LED’s is much worse.

            If Professor Wilkins is correct (and there are those that disagree), then we may find a giant obstacle to the mandated universal adoption of LED (and perhaps other energy-saving devices). It’s hard to feel good about saving energy and money when you have a headache.

Originally posed in my column in the Valley News Group of papers.