One of California’s primary emissions reduction strategies — manure digester projects that capture methane from dairy and hog farms and refine it into  “renewable natural gas.” — could not only be prolonging the state’s dependence on natural gas, tying it with the state’s Low Carbon Fuel Standards and offsets programs could also be promoting the … Continued


California’s public transportation system is on the edge of what has been described as a “fiscal cliff.” Due to lower post-pandemic ridership and inflation, among other factors, transportation agencies just don’t have enough funding to meet their needs. The funding deficit is particularly acute in the San Francisco Bay Area, where it could mean steep … Continued


Terra Verde

Shasta At Risk

Terra Verde is joined this week by guests from the Mount Shasta Bioregional Ecology Center who describe how the organization works to protect the forests and source waters of the most northern reaches of California from emerging threats such as the massive Golden State Natural Resources wood pellet manufacture and export scheme.


On April 17, a federal court in San Francisco struck down the City of Berkeley’s first-of-its-kind law banning natural gas infrastructure from new buildings. The ruling can have implications beyond Berkeley, especially since more than seventy local and state jurisdictions around the country have followed Berkeley’s lead in requiring or strongly incentivizing all-electric new buildings, … Continued


Terra Verde

Martinez Residents Demand Action Following Refinery’s Toxic Release

Last Thanksgiving, the Martinez, CA oil refinery released somewhere between 20 and 24 tons of spent catalyst, a byproduct of the oil refining process. That spent catalyst wafted over Martinez neighborhoods and settled on cars, houses, and gardens. It contained toxic heavy metals, including vanadium, aluminum, barium, chromium, nickel, and zinc. When local residents woke … Continued