Southern California Green Real Estate Blog

GREENING THE HARBORS

GREENING THE HARBORS On Monday, January 14, the Los Angeles and Long Beach Boards of Harbor Commissioners, in a joint meeting, approved a cargo fee that would generate $1.4 billion for transportation projects to improve traffic flow and air quality in the harbor area.

For the record, the Port of Los Angeles led the nation in container volume during 2007 for the For the eighth straight year.Last year, the Port handled 8.4 million TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units), a 1.36 percent dip in total TEU volume but a 3.2 percent increase in loaded TEUs volume over the 2006 calendar year.  Financially, exports from the Los Angeles-Long Beach-Santa Ana Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) increased by 11.2 percent to $48.7 billion from 2005 to 2006.The ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles are proposing to adopt a fee on containerized cargo to help pay for needed repair, replacement or improvement of key bridges, railway, and roadways in the harbor area. The proposed Infrastructure Cargo Fee (ICF) and complimentary and California Proposition 1B funds would pay for rail and highway projects to upgrade to aging infrastructure that would reduce congestion, expedite goods movement, and improve air quality. The greenest part of the upgrades would be improvement of the ports’ on-dock rail network, which will help reduce truck trips to the ports.  Local highway improvements include replacement of the Gerald Desmond Bridge from Long Beach to Terminal Island and construction of an interchange to allow the removal of a traffic light at Navy Way and Seaside Avenue. The ports also propose to improve access from the Harbor Freeway to the Port of Los Angeles, and replace the Schuyler Heim drawbridge on the Terminal Island Freeway by building a four-lane, elevated expressway between Ocean Boulevard and Alameda Street at Pacific Coast Highway. Also proposed is a highway-railroad grade separation in south Wilmington.   For more information on the Proposed Infrastructure Cargo Fee please access a fact sheet at http://www.portoflosangeles.org/CAAP/ICF_Tariff_Fact_Sheet.pdf

REASONS TO LOVE L.A.

 REASONS TO LOVE L.A.

Saturday was a postcard pretty day in L.A.…

SAN FRANCISCO IS SERIOUS ABOUT GREEN BUILDING REQUIREMENTS

SAN FRANCISCO IS SERIOUS ABOUT GREEN BUILDING REQUIREMENTS  West Hollywood is making great strides, but  SoCal cities can definitely take direction from what San Francisco is doing… Mayor Gavin Newsom has proposed an ordinance that would make San Francisco the city with the most stringent green building requirements in the nation. The ordinance requires developers and renovators of larger residential and commercial buildings to achieve progressively higher levels of LEED certification from the US Green Building Council in the coming years. ”We’ve got to stop playing within the margins and get serious about addressing our reliance on fossil fuels,” said Newsom during an announcement of the ordinance at 555 Mission St., Tishman Speyer’s under-construction office building, which is expected to achieve LEED Silver certification.   “A lot of people don’t realize that their homes and businesses also create a major carbon footprint, so today, by proposing these strict green building standards for our city, we’re saying enough is enough. It’s time to tackle global warming and climate change on all fronts.” If approved, the ordinance would require large projects–commercial and residential projects over 25,000 sf or 75 feet in height–to meet the base level of LEED certification starting in 2008. Large commercial projects would have to achieve LEED Silver certification starting in 2009 and LEED Gold staring in 2010. Large residential projects would have to achieve LEED Silver starting in 2010. Mid-sized buildings would have to complete a LEED checklist but would not be required to achieve any LEED credits or points (the basis for the rating system) until 2009. Starting then, mid-size commercial buildings would have to achieve three LEED credits. The bar would be raised to four points in 2010, six points in 2011 and seven points in 2012. Small and mid-size residential projects, starting in 2009, would be required to achieve 25 points from GreenPointRated, a rating system of BuildItGreen, a professional nonprofit membership organization that promotes energy- and resource-efficient buildings in California. The hurdle would increase to 50 points in 2010 and then 75 points in 2011 or 2012. The earlier increase would occur for multifamily residential buildings with more than five units. Cumulative benefits this ordinance is expected to achieve through 2012 include: reducing CO2 emissions by 60,000 tons; saving 220,000 megawatt hours of power; saving 100 million gallons of drinking water; reducing waste and storm water by 90 million gallons of water; reducing construction and demolition waste by 700 million pounds; increasing the valuations of recycled materials by $200 million; reducing automobile trips by 540,000; and increasing green power generation by 37,000 megawatt hours. The ordinance is based on the recommendations of a task force formed at the start of the year that included 10 members from San Francisco’s ownership, developer, financial, architectural, engineering, and construction community. The task force issued its report and recommendations in June.  

He’ll Be Back

Our Governator Will Sue the Federal Government Over the State’s Greenhouse Gas Plan

CNN has reported that our Governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, plans to sue the federal government over its decision not to allow a California plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Environmental Protection Agency chief Stephen Johnson refused the state’s request for a waiver that would have allowed it to cut emissions faster than a new federal plan the president signed into law prior to the Christmas holiday.

“It’s another example of the administration’s failure to treat global warming with the seriousness that it actually demands,” the governor declared.

Bush defended the decision of his EPA administrator. “Is it more effective to let each state make a decision as to how to proceed in curbing greenhouse gases? Or is it more effective to have a national strategy?”

Citing the new energy law — which sets a fuel economy standard for the whole country — Bush said Johnson “made a decision based upon the fact that we passed a piece of legislation that enables us to have a national strategy.”

California residents chuckled at his retort and stand behind our governor - who would like to raise the bar and set a higher standard for California. “Anything less than aggressive action on the greatest environmental threat of all time is inexcusable,” he said.

The new federal law will increase fuel efficiency standards by 40 percent by 2020, requiring automakers to bring their fleets to an average of 35 miles per gallon.

The California plan cuts emissions by nearly 30 percent by 2016, raising fuel efficiency standards in the state to 43.7 miles per gallon for passenger cars and some SUVs and trucks, while larger vehicles would need to reach 26.9 mpg by that year. In all, 16 states had either adopted California’s tough standards or announced plans to do so.

The Schwarzenegger camp notes that the governor has been frustrated with the White House over emissions standards, and was very exasperated after a February meeting with Johnson.

EPA officials say they went the extra mile with Schwarzenegger, even taking the unusual step of holding a second hearing in California on emissions. They say they’re sorry he’s upset, but they believe a national standard on emissions is going to be more effective. A White House official dismissed the issue, by saying the administration “looks forward to working with him on a variety of issues.”

Observers note that the ebb-and-flow relationship between Schwarzenegger and Bush is at a low point.

“It’s never been a warm, throw-your-arms-around-the-shoulders kind of relationship,” said former Schwarzenegger adviser Joel Fox. “Even during the re-election campaign for the president, he would come to California and the governor wouldn’t always be there to greet him.”

Fox said Schwarzenegger and Bush have cooperated on issues like immigration, but the two have differed on several issues, including stem cell research funding, the expansion of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program and climate change.

“He’s got a pretty strong personality, the governor has, and wants to get things done. If the federal government is one of those obstacles, then he’ll run that tank he has over it. It’s not particularly anything personal, I think.”

Schwarzenegger is much closer — personally and politically — to the president’s father, former President George H.W. Bush, another aide said.

From CNN’s Brian Todd and Dugald McConnell.

Find this article at:

http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/12/20/california.emissions/index.html 

 © 2007 Cable News Network.