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Pulling back the curtains on wage-theft enforcement in MN; Trump's latest attack is on RFK, Jr; NM LGBTQ+ equality group endorses 2024 'Rock Star' candidates; Michigan's youth justice reforms: Expanded diversion, no fees.

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Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg says rebuilding Baltimore's Key Bridge will be challenging and expensive. An Alabama Democrat flips a state legislature seat and former Connecticut senator Joe Lieberman dies at 82.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

Supreme Court Allows San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Rule to Stand

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Thursday, October 6, 2011   

The U.S. Supreme Court is allowing California's San Joaquin Valley to keep "charging" homebuilders for the air pollution their developments create. The Indirect Source Rule took effect in March of 2006 as a way to combat the Valley's out-of-control air pollution.

Paul Cook, an attorney with Earthjustice, says the rule provides incentives for "smart development."

"The San Joaquin Valley is a largely rural area. What you saw were these developers buying cheap land, converting agricultural land and contributing to really rapid sprawl."

The rule requires developers to mitigate for the pollution created by both the construction equipment used to build the project as well as the new automobile traffic generated by the development. The National Association of Homebuilders had sought to invalidate the rule, claiming that only the federal government can regulate these activities. Cook says he would like to see the San Joaquin rule become a national model.

Gordon Nipp with the Bakersfield chapter of the Sierra Club sees no reason homebuilders should get a "free pass."

"The Indirect Source Rule only offsets about half of the air pollution associated with these projects. And of course, when new projects go in, our air gets dirtier. They really ought to be doing more than the Indirect Source Rule requires them to do."

Nipp credits some developers who are doing more than what's required. For example, he says developers such as Castle and Cook have signed agreements with the air district to offset all of the air pollution associated with their projects.



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