Lormon, John L, and Matthew L Abbot. “California Businesses Face New Organic Waste Mandates in 2022.” Procopio, Procopio, 30 Jan. 2022, https://www.procopio.com/california-businesses-face-new-organic-waste-mandates-in-2022/. 

Organic waste collection regulation has now come into effect starting January 1, 2022, for local jurisdictions. Senate Bill 1383 will now require the department of recycling and the state air resource board to implement new strategies to reduce emissions that have relatively short lifetimes. The health and safety code will require state reduction for methane cutting it 40% below and landfill to cut by 75% from organic waste. Commercial businesses must now provide containers for their customers, employees, contractors, etc. to be provided with a waste bin conducting that compost be separated from regular waste. The regulation will have a permit for each local business to stay running and open monitored by jurisdiction. 

I didn’t know how much composting can reduce emissions by severity, I mean if individuals can just regularly selective and divide compost waste and regular waste from going into landfills and have such a great reduction it should be implied for everyone to do it not just local businesses. The statistics given in this article show how around America this has been regulated and is now being brought to California for local businesses to keep in mind how much severity they do by not composting and it being brought to landfills where it’s producing so much methane. 

Rynor, Morgan. “California Bill Seeks to Do Away with Environmental Laws for Public University Housing.” abc10.Com, ABC 10, 23 Feb. 2022, https://www.abc10.com/article/news/education/california-plan-would-streamline-housing-laws-colleges/103-96382473-da58-43d4-bd66-2e9ef410b1fe.

Senator Scott Weiner has proposed new legislation for colleges and universities, cutting back the number of admissions accepted since it’s having an environmental impact. UC Berkeley is the main priority since this new lawsuit is requiring them to cut emissions from 8,000 students to a cut to 5,000 students due to housing impact on the environment. Due to these decisions, the university will lose approximately $57 million in revenue. Many families and students are worried that they are going to get cut even though they have been accepted to the university already and have put in hard work for their dream school. 

It is devastating to hear from your dream college that you won’t be able to go because of the enrollment cut, but I think students are making it a far more great deal that one out of many schools they applied to isn’t taking them in since their enrollment will impact the environment which isn’t reversible. Berkeley is already a very competitive school to even get in, their acceptance rate being 17.5 % for being a public school. So the reactions from parents are selfish to me, this lawsuit started in 2018 and hasn’t been brought to attention until now, 4 years later. 

Martín, Hugo. “A Sport-Fishing Boat Pollutes ‘as Much as 162 School Buses.’ Will Boat Businesses Survive Regulation?” Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, 19 Nov. 2021, https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2021-11-19/california-air-resources-emissions-regulator-sport-fishing-whale-excursions-rules. 

Whale watching and sport-fishing are great components to dangerous pollutants since their diesel-powered boats are outdated and need a new filter that reduces pipe emissions. But this may mean many shops that are financially supported by these businesses have to close down since the new expenses are either too expensive or don’t meet the requirements for the new regulations. These new environmental regulations are shifting jobs that produce petroleum to rather cleaner and renewable energies. A lot of the boats that need their filter replaces are made out of wood and fiberglass so the amount they have to pay for a generator is far too large, expensive, and heavy to use since they produce so much heat. If they work together they can cut 1,560 tons of emissions by 2032 the latest boat owners may request postponing. 

Although I think it’s a great idea for one of the largest emissions that produce 21% of emissions in that area, there is that grudge that many people who have spent their entire lives working in these types of businesses will have been shut down and find new jobs they know nothing about. Many of these workers have been working in this industry since they were teenagers and rely on them to be financially supported. Just because these regulations are doing good for the environment doesn’t mean they do good for everyone else who is impacted by them.

James, Ian. “California Adopts Drought Rules Outlawing Water Wasting, with Fines of up to $500.” Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, 4 Jan. 2022, https://www.latimes.com/environment/story/2022-01-04/california-adopts-drought-rules-outlawing-water-wasting. 

Even though we had a good amount of rain during December that doesn’t mean the drought is over. California regulators want to continue reinforcing continuing conserving water, the goal is to cut down to 15% since the regular amount we use is 80% for pumping human use every year. This would be prohibiting overwatering yards, washing cars without a shutoff nozzle, and even watering grass within 48 hours after rainfall. This is all in the practice of reinforcing in case of expectations that the drought will continue within the following months. Those who violate will be fined $500 if crossed a violation, this will be enforced for households and water agencies. It could have an impact on low-income families to face shutoffs and tax liens from agencies violating regulation and lack of protection for those customers. 

In no way regulators are trying to make this reinforcing conserving water a burden for any household, low or high income but rather for the protection of the water usage within California. Having a plan to conserve as much water as California can and cut down the among of water human usage pumps can be a stability factor for the future of droughts in California. I think adding a fine can convince people to follow protocols and listen for the benefit of the future. Even if low-income families are having trouble paying a fine, regulators have set up a 12-month plan with their water agencies for them to pay.

Norris, Trenton H, et al. “California Enacts New Law Restricting Environmental Marketing Claims on Consumer Products: Environmental Edge: Blogs.” Arnold & Porter, 14 Oct. 2021, https://www.arnoldporter.com/en/perspectives/blogs/environmental-edge/2021/10/ca-enacts-new-law-restricting-environmental. 

The new AB 1201 restrictions concerning companies marketing claiming their products as being “biodegradable” and “environmentally friendly” can only be used if products are composed by the ASTM standards and have documentation supporting these claims. Section 42357 prohibits terms like “biodegradable” that still contain plastic in them alone or with another material. If it is claimed as recyclable, the material made from it has to be at least 75% of that is from recycling programs. The AB 1201 will impact manufacturers as it would be hard to distribute their products along California if they don’t meet the standard. Those who fail to meet the requirements will be fined $2,500 per violation. 

This is very necessary to proceed with taking action and accountability with companies who claim they are environmentally friendly and don’t do any harm with producing their products but are doing the quite opposite. It will later further take precautions and steps for companies to produce products that don’t contain plastic to avoid getting fined. I mean customers have shown they would be willing to pay more for a product if it had a sustainable message like producing fewer emissions. All these greenwashing companies are doing is showing more of the companies values rather than how good the product might be. 

Angst, Maggie. “’A Crisis on Our Hands’: San Jose’s Reid-Hillview Airport Exposes Children to High Lead Levels, Study Finds.” The Mercury News, The Mercury News, 17 Aug. 2021, www.mercurynews.com/2021/08/03/a-crisis-on-our-hands-san-joses-reid-hillview-airport-exposes-children-to-high-lead-levels-study-finds/?utm_campaign=CELPU&utm_source=hs_email&utm_medium=email&_hsenc=p2ANqtz–lBhJhiss_f59FLonBjjyNdNeApZ7vI9WWISzM9EKiBvxQroQDlFKrssrN94MnJj3GiInt. 

A study done by the Santa Clara Board of Supervisors found that from the 17,000 samples of blood they took of children 18 and younger from 2011-2020 who live within a mile and half-mile have higher levels of lead in their blood than children who live farther away.  Residents for the longest time have been requesting to shut down the airport before 2031 which was the Federal Aviation Administration approved date but it might happener sooner due to federal grant obligations. Since the opening in 196, thousands of homes, two dozen schools, and childcare centers have been built right by the airport.  The neighborhood is very frustrated “Why do we have to live with this just because we live in a poor area? Our children are not able to defend themselves, and now they’re just condemned to the toxication of lead”. 

It is unfair, poor communities are thrown this problem that is affecting their children’s health, you don’t see this problem in rich cities like Atherton where their health is being risked but rather are thrown upon those who are already affected in other ways. What makes this justifiable? Because they’re poor doesn’t mean they deserve it. This needs to be fixed and shut down immediately, more people need to know that Santa Clara Board isn’t doing anything about it.    

Dino Grandoni, Brady Dennis. “Biden Aims for SWEEPING Climate Action as Infrastructure, Budget Bills Advance.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 11 Aug. 2021, 1:47 pm EDT, www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2021/08/10/biden-climate-congress/.

In this article, we see the political view of climate change and the $3.5 trillion budget bill. The point of the budget bill is to cut emissions that are created by burning fossil fuels and human activities. Biden’s goal is to cut 50% of emissions by the end of this decade. But if Biden were to succeed this number the rest of the world would have to contribute to see change, the United States only accounts for one-seventh of the world’s greenhouse emissions, largely China would have to take part to reduce the numbers. The European Union already agreed to block 55% by 2030, but China, India, Russia, and other nations will proceed remains unlikely.

It feels like we are running out of time to take action, every day is one day we lose if we continue to do nothing about our climate. It might not affect us now but in the future, for our future generation, it will harm them and species all over the world. It’s great to see Biden care for our future and more people every day do small contributes to reducing climate change, but to see a change in our climate not only that one person in the group has to change (United States) but the whole group (the rest of the world).

Slack, Sarah A. “A New AGENDA: Significant Changes in U.S. Environmental Policy Are Expected in 2021.” The National Law Review, 21 Jan. 2021, www.natlawreview.com/article/new-agenda-significant-changes-us-environmental-policy-are-expected-2021

Since the Trump administration has been out of office, Biden’s administration will need to replace regulations that Trump aimed to reduce for environmental justice. Biden’s goal is to take action towards climate change, environmental justice, chemical regulations, wetlands/waters in the United States. Creating efforts in environmental justice Biden plans on making the EPA create a community mapping system (basically a mapping for communities to have specific plans for local outreach and public participation) as well as changes for PFAS creating listings in hazardous substances to have a mechanism to promote Safe Drinking Water Act. Many changes are yet to come for California’s climate policy, FIRFA, Wetlands/ waters, TSCA, ESG.

For the past 4 years while Trump was in office he had made his biggest effort in rather than moving forward to fixing the climate only to make regulations and orders continue and worsen the future of our climate. Now that Biden is in office he has made it clear through his entire campaign that he will make it an effort to bring change in taking action towards climate change, I hope that Biden makes this statements true and take action because he doesn’t and continues these regulations he would only be another president that ignores climate change or doesn’t take action to stop regulation like navigating waters, Biden has made it clear that he plans to move back to Obama’s-era rule that was replaced during the Trump administration.