A new bill awaiting Governor Jerry Brown’s signature could use the state’s massive purchasing power as the world’s sixth largest economy to address greenhouse gas emissions far beyond its borders.
Activists have sent a loud and clear message to the California Public Utilities Commission: L.A. and the state should make electric transportation in the city and at the Los Angeles and Long Beach ports a priority.
Public records lawsuits are time consuming, requiring an attorney who believes the case is one for which it is worth going to the mat. But occasionally lines are crossed that simply have to be challenged.
A California company wants to pump water from an ancient aquifer in the Mojave desert. Experts warn that draining the aquifer would irreversibly harm the desert’s fragile ecosystem, and at least one politician is listening.
Co-published by The American Prospect /
“Sustainability” is the mantra for many groups and businesses near the Salton Sea. But sustainability for whom? BY DAVID BACON
California environmentalists and other critics are denouncing a proposed natural gas pipeline that would parallel Interstate 15, saying it is not only unnecessary, but that it runs counter to the state’s mission of embracing green energy.
Co-published by Fast Company
A “Made in the USA” label is not a guarantee of good working conditions, claim labor advocates and wage-and-hour officials who say sweatshops are still found in California.
Co-published by Fast Company
What’s arguably most responsible for the growing problem of electronic waste is the manufacturing model of planned obsolescence, in which software and hardware become incompatible or antiquated, or smartphones and laptops aren’t designed for durability.
The Southern California Association of Governments’ “100 Hours” initiative is intended to solve L.A.’s traffic woes, and is named for the average number of hours Los Angeles drivers spend in traffic jams every year.
Some environmental activists worry that proposals floated by Governor Jerry Brown and legislative leaders to extend cap-and-trade, the state’s primary tool in its climate fight, will bar local air districts from regulating carbon dioxide emissions at state-regulated facilities.
Other cities have zero waste policies but L.A.’s new contract requirements are being touted as the nation’s toughest, and are being studied carefully by New York City, San Diego and others.
As California regulators decide whether to reopen the Aliso Canyon natural gas storage facility, the site of the largest human-caused release of greenhouse gasses in U.S. history, residents and activists vow to redouble their fight against its reopening.
Many public health and climate activists insist that cap-and-trade offsets are a poor substitute for actual emissions cuts, and in fact, might be making pollution worse in some communities.
Promise after promise was broken when it came to protecting Sacramento’s workers and the public from lead hazards from a contaminated gun range housed in an aging recreational building.
In 2015 California’s Coastal Commission granted a permit to bury 3.6 million pounds of highly radioactive material along the coastline, right next to the iconic stretch of surfing spots known as Trestles. Since then environmentalists have been urging the commission to reverse itself.
The Cadiz project claims that pumping from the groundwater basin would not affect any springs in the Mojave Preserve. But no one seriously believes that enough water drains into the desert to replenish an ecosystem that gets an annual four to 10 inches of rainfall.
A long-beleaguered Central Coast city fights plans for a new natural gas power plant.
Co-published by Fast Company
As news broke Thursday that President Trump would pull out of the Paris climate agreement, California Gov. Jerry Brown was packing his bags for China to attend a convocation of multinational energy policy makers called the Clean Energy Ministerial.
Co-published by Fast Company
Is California’s strict zero-emissions strategy, which forces car makers to market exhaust-free hydrogen-fueled and battery-powered vehicles, really the most consumer friendly, egalitarian way to go?
Co-published by Slate
Solar-panel installers workers are riding a “solarcoaster” — joining an industry that has provided jobs and opportunity to tens of thousands of workers — while also raising concerns about how fairly workers in a fast-growing, Wall Street-fueled industry are being treated.