Several earthy items in the Friday Fishwrap (thanks Herb Caen) worth mentioning.

Thanks to Jackie Speier the San Francisco  Bay is going to get a Billion Dollar make-over, or youth rejuvenation, however you see it.

The San Francisco Bay Improvement Act of 2010 by Rep. Jackie Speier, D-Hillsborough, would fund the restoration of thousands of acres of bay marshes that were filled in or destroyed by levees and other projects in the last century.

Among the parcels that could win grants are projects to restore 10,000 acres of former salt ponds in the South Bay, 3,300 acres at Skaggs Island near Vallejo and 10,000 acres of marsh in Suisun Bay.

The California League of Cities voted overwhelmingly to keep in schedule with the California plan to reduce greenhouse gasses, after meeting some resistance by a few members.  This will add weight to the arguments against the GOP Gubernatorial candidates vows to repeal AB 32.

The decision by the group was a victory for AB32, which calls for a 25 percent reduction in the state’s carbon emissions by 2020. The law, signed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2006, is the model for national legislation now working its way through Congress. The state law requires the California Air Resources Board to establish and enforce limits on carbon emissions, most of which will go into effect in 2012.

But AB32 has recently been criticized by those who claim it would bankrupt businesses that are suffering from the economic recession and send unemployment skyrocketing. A campaign funded largely by Texas oil companies is aimed at getting support for a November ballot measure to ask voters to suspend the law.

The oil rig explosion in the Gulf of Mexico which killed 11 workers has let loose a 10 mile by 10 mile sheen of oil in a fish-rich area.  Latest news is that the actual well,  thousands of feet down, seems not to be leaking and that what can be seen came from the break and what was on board the rig, now sunk.  We hope so.  We also hope the Administration, which recently signed off on more such drilling, finds out what happened and how it won’t happen again.

The spill measures 10 miles (16 kilometers) by 10 miles, about four times the area of Manhattan, and is comprised of a “light sheen with a few patches of thicker crude,” U.S. Coast Guard Lieutenant Commander Cheri Ben-Iesau said today. The Coast Guard’s search continues for 11 rig workers who are still missing, she said in a telephone interview.

Michael O’Berry, a senior chief petty officer with the Coast Guard, said remote-operated vehicles found no new leakage from the well yesterday.

The worst news for last.