PG&E wants changes to system of dividing costs among customers [Bakersfield Californian]
Residential customers of Pacific Gas and Electric Co. would pay a smaller share of the utility’s costs than they do now while small businesses and farmers would pay substantially more under a proposal set to be aired publicly next week. The San Francisco-based company says it supports making adjustments to its cost-distribution system because a recent study found the utility’s system for balancing rates has become lopsided. The proceeding will not affect how much money the utility receives from ratepayers; that’s the topic of a separate process now entering final stages. Instead, the so-called “phase two” proceeding offers to rebalance how PG&E’s costs are borne by various categories of ratepayers.
Trade groups sue California to stop western Joshua tree’s threatened species listing [Palm Springs Desert Sun]
A month after the California Fish and Game Commission voted to make western Joshua trees a candidate for listing as a threatened species, several trade groups and a high desert town are suing to block the protections granted to the Mojave Desert’s iconic plant….If western Joshua trees are ultimately listed as threatened, the move will make it more difficult to permit projects that will kill the plants to clear land. Industrial interests have been pushing back against the listing since before it was approved….Joining CalCIMA in the lawsuit against the Fish and Game Commission are the California Business Properties Association, the California Cattlemen’s Association, the California Manufacturers and Technology Association, the High Desert Association of Realtors and the city of Hesperia.
Column: How China took Trump to the cleaners in their big trade deal [Los Angeles Times]
January seems so long ago it’s almost prehistoric, but if you can cast your mind back that far you’ll recall that President Trump signed a big deal signifying a cease-fire in his incredibly destructive trade war with China. The so-called Phase 1 deal called for China to step up its purchases of U.S. goods and produce by $200 billion over two years. The idea was to shrink China’s enormous trade surplus with the U.S., which had reached a record $323.3 billion in 2018….The latest trade figures, ably collated and analyzed by Chad P. Bown of the Peterson Institute for International Economics, show that China has fallen far behind on its purchase commitments. So far behind, Bown says, that the chances it will meet its year-end 2020 commitments are effectively nil. As of Sept. 30, Bown calculates, China has purchased only about half as much from the U.S. as it should have bought by that point in the year. It’s possible that China will step up purchases over the last three months of 2020 in some sectors such as agriculture. “China is buying more farm products each month,” Bown told me. “But still well below the pace it would need to meet the year-end target. So it’s got a lot of buying it needs to do in October-November-December.”
https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2020-10-27/hiltzik-china-beat-trump-in-trade-deal
Commentary: Rep. TJ Cox secures funds for water projects and provides key help to Valley towns [Fresno Bee]
…TJ Cox has been working on development projects in the rural Central Valley for years, and I knew from the first time I met him that he saw the potential in our communities. It’s a shame our former member of Congress didn’t share that perspective. TJ and I share concern about the petty, partisan stalemate over water that had pushed Central Valley ag nearly off a cliff and imperiled the health of thousands of families in the rural heartland of the Central Valley. He knew there was a better, more collaborative way, and it started by putting people first. Two years later, TJ has made good on his promise. That made me even more furious to see our absentee former congressman try to smear and minimize TJ’s big wins on water, both drinking water and for agriculture.
https://www.fresnobee.com/opinion/readers-opinion/article246735141.html
Opinion: Don’t call immigrant farmworkers heroes, they are underappreciated esssential workers [San Francisco Chronicle]
It’s easy to call California’s immigrant farmworkers the heroes of this pandemic. After all, roughly 400,000 of them are out there putting food on our table and doing it while putting their lives on the line….Calling them heroes implies that even in these times they are equipped to shoulder the burden of a $47 billion dollar industry and without asking for anything in return. The reality is that immigrant farmworkers are succumbing to COVID-19 infection and health problems at disproportionate rates, yet nobody notices because these immigrants are hidden in the shadows where America’s political and anti-immigrant rhetoric has left them. Don’t call them heroes. Call them what they really are — victims. I’ve experienced the victimization of immigrants firsthand. For close to half a century, my parents were victimized by confusing immigration policies, inhumane working conditions and social and economic marginalization while working the broccoli, lettuce and tomato fields of California’s Central Coast. I’ve carried my parents’ experience with me throughout my 15-year academic career at San Jose State University, where I teach and write about Mexican culture, immigration and the immigrant experience as a philosophy professor.
Review: Why small farms need a reordering of our society [Associated Press]
“A Small Farm Future: Making the Case for a Society Built Around Local Economies, Self-Provisioning Agricultural Diversity and a Shared Earth,” by Chris Smaje (Chelsea Green)
With the possible exception of parks, perhaps no use of the land is viewed more favorably in America than a small farm. It’s encompasses all the values and myths we hold holy — seemingly pollution-free stewardship of the land, green vistas of vibrant crops, and contented animals munching grass. If only the realities and economics of small farming were so engaging.With the possible exception of parks, perhaps no use of the land is viewed more favorably in America than a small farm. It’s encompasses all the values and myths we hold holy — seemingly pollution-free stewardship of the land, green vistas of vibrant crops, and contented animals munching grass. If only the realities and economics of small farming were so engaging.
https://www.sacbee.com/entertainment/celebrities/article246744191.html
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