Talk about being caught with your pants down: the city of Oakland, which is suing oil companies over “climate change,” has been fined by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for polluting San Francisco Bay.
As Heartland.org reports, in late April, the EPA fined Oakland and the East Bay Municipal Utility District (EBMUD) $360,000 for permitting untreated sewage to flow into the San Francisco Bay. Oakland has been hit with fines before for sewage discharges; in 2014, EBMUD and the seven communities it serves, including Oakland and Berkeley, paid $1.5 million in civil penalties and were required to repair 1,500 miles of pipes over a 21-year period.
But as The San Francisco Chronicle reported in April:
But over nearly a three-year period ending June 30, 2017, Oakland, EBMUD and the Stege Sanitary District — which is part of the larger public utility and serves El Cerrito, Kensington and part of Richmond — were found to have violated rules that bar sanitary sewer overflows from reaching waters, according to the Environmental Protection Agency and the San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board.
As The Los Angeles Times reported last September, “San Francisco and Oakland are suing to get five oil companies, including San Ramon-based Chevron, to pay for the cost of protecting the Bay Area from rising sea levels and other effects of global warming.”
The LA Times noted, “… the cities could try to put oil companies on the hook for billions.” Oakland City Atty. Barbara J. Parker pontificated, “The law is clear that the defendants are responsible for the consequences of their reckless and disastrous actions.”