Every year the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District (SJVAPCD) asks student artists in grades K-12 to submit drawings with clean air themes for its Healthy Air Living Kids' Calendar Contest.
The winners for next year's calendar have been selected and the 2026 calendar is now available for a free download here or by contacting the SJVAPCD at public.education@valleyair.org
Entries for the 2027 contest may be submitted until September 26, 2026.
As we noted in a previous post, due to certain court decisions, the California Air Resources Board (CARB) had to delay implementing some of the requirements of recently adopted California regulations that pertain to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and the reporting of the financial risks associated with them by certain corporations operating in California.
Photo Credit: CARB website
To address that, CARB has scheduled a new public meeting to consider adopting final reporting regulations for February 26, 2026, at 9:00 A.M., with a continuation to the next day if needed.
The public comment period will begin on December 26, 2025. Written comments may be submitted on or after that date with a deadline of February 9, 2026, representing a 45-day public comment period. (CARB is providing extra time for the public to review everything because of the holidays.)
An agenda for the meeting has not yet been posted as of today, however, it will be available at this link at least 10 days before the meeting: Public Agenda
The proposed final regulations were submitted to the California Office of Administrative Law (OAL) today, December 9, 2025. These and all of the rulemaking documents are available for review on CARB's website at this link: Rulemaking Documents
As we noted in an earlier article, certain California businesses were required to submit a Climate-Related Financial Risk Report by January 1, 2026, as required by Senate Bill SB261 and the California Health and Safety Code.
Photo Credit: AI image generated by Google Gemini, Fair Use
However, this requirement has been postponed until further notice as a result of a successful legal challenge by the California Chamber of Commerce. On November 18, 2025 - the same date as a CARB scheduled public workshop on this and related reports - the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals granted an injunction against enforcement of this requirement as a result of other appeal proceedings related to it.
Those proceedings will not be held until January 9, 2026, after the January 1, 2026 deadline.
CARB will provide further information and a new reporting date once the appeal process is completed. Additionally, no enforcement action will be taken for failure to submit the report by the original date.
In the meantime, CARB has stated that they will accept voluntary reports as of today, Dec. 1, 2025
Ok folks - many of us got into the environmental arena/profession because we were tired of seeing black smoke coming out of smokestacks. Others because we were tired of not being able to see the mountains we lived by because the smog was so thick. Some people were concerned about oil spills and hazardous wastes being dumped where they shouldn't be. Some of us are old enough to remember the Cuyahoga River catching fire in Ohio! And still others woke up when all of the alarm bells about global warming started ringing.
Photo credit: ©Frank J. Maccioli
How about you? What got you interested in the environment? Let us know by answering the questions below:
1. What first got you interested in the environmental field?
2. Is your focus of concern on one area over another or all of the above?
3. If it came down to economics, how would you prioritize spending? For example, would you favor a higher priority on reducing the pollutants that cause smog (which may only impact certain geographical areas) or focusing on controlling greenhouse gases because that's a world-wide problem?
4. Do you have any other thoughts?
Please comment below. We are VERY interested in how you feel about this!
