Op-Ed: How California can lead the way on climate-protecting technologies
3 years, 8 months ago

Op-Ed: How California can lead the way on climate-protecting technologies

LA Times  

It’s easy to be pessimistic about the problem of global climate change. They aren’t yet at the global level — where the world’s dependence on conventional fossil fuels has barely budged — but rather in pioneering countries and states that are making big investments in the new technologies needed to protect the planet. Electric vehicles account for 8% of new vehicle sales, and new policies from the California Air Resources Board aim to push that share to 100% by 2035. On the electric grid, California is an early mover to renewables — first wind, now solar — which already account for about 30% of the state’s electric supply; add in other renewable sources such as geothermal and the share climbs to nearly 40%. Even if far more of the grid is powered by these clean sources, we need “clean firm power” to fill in the gaps — whether from gaseous fuels, new kinds of nuclear reactors or fossil fuels with effective carbon capture.

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History of this topic

Commentary: California's rooftop solar infighting is a colossal waste of time
3 weeks, 3 days ago

Commentary: California's rooftop solar infighting is a colossal waste of time

LA Times  

California can’t seem to decide whether it wants to maintain its status as the nation’s rooftop solar leader. Gavin Newsom’s appointees slashed incentive payments for newly installed solar systems, there’s a chance they’ll go further, reducing energy credits for utility customers who installed solar panels before the recent changes. The California Public Utilities Commission’s consumer watchdog office estimates that Edison, …

California Climate
2 months ago

California Climate

Politico  

The fire at Moss Landing is holding its charge With help from Blanca Begert and Tyler Katzenberger Democrats are diverging on how to prevent another fire like the one at Moss Landing. Laird said he’s considering follow-up legislation to his SB 38, a 2023 law requiring battery energy storage facilities to develop emergency plans, but said Addis’ proposal goes too …

California just debunked a big myth about renewable energy
2 months ago

California just debunked a big myth about renewable energy

Raw Story  

One of the biggest myths about renewable energy is that it isn’t reliable. It found that last year, from late winter to early summer, renewables fulfilled 100 percent of the state’s electricity demand for up to 10 hours on 98 of 116 days, a record for California. Not only were there no blackouts during that time, thanks in part to …

How climate change is reshaping home insurance in California — and the rest of the U.S.
2 months, 2 weeks ago

How climate change is reshaping home insurance in California — and the rest of the U.S.

NPR  

How climate change is reshaping home insurance in California — and the rest of the U.S. toggle caption Agustin Paullier/AFP via Getty Images As the wildfires in Los Angeles tear through hillsides, raze neighborhoods and displace residents, it's too early to know how vast the destruction will be when the last of the flames is put out. Those final, unknown …

Letters to the Editor: Take these climate steps to save Alaska’s polar bears and California’s Joshua trees
3 months, 2 weeks ago

Letters to the Editor: Take these climate steps to save Alaska’s polar bears and California’s Joshua trees

LA Times  

Glaciers such as Mendenhall in Juneau, Alaska, are rapidly shrinking as average temperatures rise. To the editor: I fully agree with David Helvarg’s concern that Alaska is both a climate victim and a perpetrator. First, we need more nuclear power, the only non-warming energy source that can quickly meet the scale of our demand without undue habitat destruction. Such renewables …

Letters to the Editor: Regardless of Trump, the battle against climate change is picking up. Let’s keep it going
4 months, 1 week ago

Letters to the Editor: Regardless of Trump, the battle against climate change is picking up. Let’s keep it going

LA Times  

Postal Service worker inspects trucks in a flooded area of New Port Richley, Fla., after Hurricane Milton on Oct. 11. Last year, the average global temperature was 1.5 degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial average, a tipping point for much greater damage. The renewable energy transition has also reached a tipping point; new renewables are cheaper than fossil fuels, and almost …

Editorial: How California leaders can protect the environment from another Trump administration
4 months, 1 week ago

Editorial: How California leaders can protect the environment from another Trump administration

LA Times  

Donald Trump speaks last month at a rally in Coachella, during which he threatened to withhold federal firefighting aid to California unless Gov. With Trump’s team expected to kill President Biden’s electric vehicle tax credit, among other reversals, California can cement its reputation for consistently committing to its climate policies. That worked in California’s favor in 2019, when Ford, Honda …

The climate issues at the forefront of this year’s election
4 months, 3 weeks ago

The climate issues at the forefront of this year’s election

The Independent  

For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy While this year’s presidential election …

Boiling Point: California’s role in the global fight to protect nature
5 months ago

Boiling Point: California’s role in the global fight to protect nature

LA Times  

Good morning and welcome to the final week of the spooky season. And you’re also highlighting the need for President Biden to designate three new national monuments — the Sáttítla National Monument in Northern California, and the Chuckwalla and Kw’tsán National Monuments in the state’s deserts. Sierra Club California’s new acting director Bobbi Jo Chavarria must manage these long-running disputes …

Endorsement: Yes on Proposition 4. California can’t wait to invest in climate resilience
5 months, 2 weeks ago

Endorsement: Yes on Proposition 4. California can’t wait to invest in climate resilience

LA Times  

Proposition 4 defies easy categorization. Opinion Endorsement: Yes on Proposition 2 to repair California’s many dilapidated schools Voters should approve Proposition 2 to provide $10 billion in bond money for California’s public schools and community colleges, many of which are overdue for repairs and upgrades. Opponents, including state Senate Minority Leader Brian Jones and the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Assn., say …

Your guide to California’s U.S. Senate candidates’ views on energy, the environment
5 months, 3 weeks ago

Your guide to California’s U.S. Senate candidates’ views on energy, the environment

LA Times  

Both Garvey and Schiff say they want to protect the environment and combat climate change. Schiff calls climate change “a crisis” and “the biggest existential threat facing our nation and the world.” He supports what the Democrats call the “New Green Deal,” a resolution that calls for meeting 100% of U.S. power needs with renewable energy. “Protecting our environment is …

California emissions drop 2.4% due to electric vehicles and cleaner fuels, officials say
6 months, 1 week ago

California emissions drop 2.4% due to electric vehicles and cleaner fuels, officials say

LA Times  

California greenhouse gas emissions dropped about 2.4% in 2022 — an encouraging sign that the state’s carbon footprint is decreasing once again, even as the economy rebounds from the COVID-19 pandemic, according to state officials. The California Air Resources Board announced Friday that emissions of planet-warming carbon dioxide shrank by about 9.3 million metric tons in 2022 compared with 2021 …

California hits milestones toward 100% clean energy — but has a long way to go
7 months, 1 week ago

California hits milestones toward 100% clean energy — but has a long way to go

Associated Press  

California has given America a glimpse at what running one of the world’s largest economies on renewable energy might look like. That progress is largely due to the substantial public and private investments in renewable energy — particularly batteries storing solar power to use when the sun isn’t shining, according to energy experts. “Not only is our grid more reliable …

Editorial: California is facing another record-breaking hot summer. We aren’t ready
9 months, 3 weeks ago

Editorial: California is facing another record-breaking hot summer. We aren’t ready

LA Times  

After a chilly spring it seems hard to believe that the gloom would ever leave Southern California. For example, the governor’s office revamped the state’s extreme heat plan with a new 72-page document detailing four “tracks” to protect California from the effects of rising temperatures, including developing a public heath monitoring system, helping communities prepare for heat waves and increasing …

Editorial: California can make climate polluters pay for the mess they have made of Earth
10 months, 1 week ago

Editorial: California can make climate polluters pay for the mess they have made of Earth

LA Times  

As climate change exacts a mounting toll on California, who should pay for the damage from rising sea levels and increasingly ferocious wildfires, floods and heat waves? That’s the concept behind the Polluters Pay Climate Cost Recovery Act, a bill in the California Legislature that would create a Superfund-style program to collect money from major fossil fuel companies such as …

California wants to harness more than half its land to combat climate change by 2045. Here’s how
11 months, 1 week ago

California wants to harness more than half its land to combat climate change by 2045. Here’s how

LA Times  

California has unveiled an ambitious plan to help combat the worsening climate crisis with one of its invaluable assets: its land. Gavin Newsom’s California Climate Commitment geared toward helping the state reach carbon neutrality by 2045 — includes 81 targets that will help harness the power of millions of acres across the Golden State. “We’ve had a really strong environmental …

California unlikely to meet landmark goals for reducing greenhouse gas emissions
1 year ago

California unlikely to meet landmark goals for reducing greenhouse gas emissions

LA Times  

Wind turbines rise above an array of solar panels at the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power’s Tree Wind Farm and Solar Power Plant in Kern County’s Tehachapi Mountains. California has long been a leader in emissions control, and the new report has faced pushback from state officials who say they are much further along in hitting the goals …

Editorial: California can’t let big polluters win by undermining climate change disclosure laws
1 year ago

Editorial: California can’t let big polluters win by undermining climate change disclosure laws

LA Times  

California took a big step last fall when lawmakers passed a pair of laws requiring big companies doing business in the state to disclose their greenhouse gas emissions and climate-related risks, shining a light on their role in fueling the climate crisis. Opinion Editorial: California’s lawsuit against Big Oil could help end decades of climate lies California’s climate lawsuit against …

Column: Hate the storm? Then start getting serious about climate change
1 year, 1 month ago

Column: Hate the storm? Then start getting serious about climate change

LA Times  

You know how oil and gas pollution is supposed to bring not only hotter heat waves, drier droughts and bigger wildfires, but also more intense storms? As The Times’ Grace Toohey wrote last week, scientists have found that because of rising temperatures, a catastrophic storm “is more likely to happen and to be more intense, with a 2% chance of …

Column: Biden’s Western solar plan sounds scary. But it’s better than climate change
1 year, 1 month ago

Column: Biden’s Western solar plan sounds scary. But it’s better than climate change

LA Times  

An America flag flutters in the breeze at the Daggett solar farm in San Bernardino County, seen in October. Weiner also described the federal government’s maps as “grainy,” saying they offer “more of a 30,000-foot view than a ground-level view” of which public lands are suitable for solar. As an example, Donnelly pointed to the desert lands surrounding Nevada’s Ash …

Opinion: Here is one way California can end its rooftop solar wars
1 year, 2 months ago

Opinion: Here is one way California can end its rooftop solar wars

LA Times  

California needs to accelerate rooftop solar deployment, not constrain it. Because California has long been a leader in rooftop solar policy, the commission’s decisions may be imperiling rooftop solar elsewhere: Last month, Hawaii instituted similar cuts to its incentives. Without incentives, though, it doesn’t make financial sense for most Californians to install rooftop solar, meaning we all get less of …

Editorial: Solar installations are plummeting and California regulators are to blame
1 year, 3 months ago

Editorial: Solar installations are plummeting and California regulators are to blame

LA Times  

Solar Optimum installer Marat Poghosyan carries a solar panel on the roof of a home in Brea on June 15. California’s rooftop solar industry has declined dramatically since state regulators slashed consumer incentives, according to industry and utility data. That’s when the PUC’s changes to the net energy metering program took effect, slashing the compensation new solar customers receive for …

From decarbonization to electric cars, California hopes to showcase climate leadership at COP28
1 year, 4 months ago

From decarbonization to electric cars, California hopes to showcase climate leadership at COP28

LA Times  

World leaders are gearing up for COP28, an annual U.N. climate conference that will begin this week in Dubai, and California is expected to play a sizable role in the proceedings. “Part of our presence in California is really to make the case that subnational governments — that is, states, provinces, cities — need to have a central role in …

Column: Solving climate change will have side effects. Get over it
1 year, 4 months ago

Column: Solving climate change will have side effects. Get over it

LA Times  

When I wrote a column two weeks ago urging the Biden administration to approve a lot more solar and wind farms on Western public lands, I knew I would get flak from critics of large-scale renewable energy — and indeed I did. I could spend all my time singing the praises of rooftop solar — which I did last week, …

Opinion: California’s greenhouse gas emissions are rising — and we’re not even counting them all
1 year, 4 months ago

Opinion: California’s greenhouse gas emissions are rising — and we’re not even counting them all

LA Times  

California has committed to substantially reducing its greenhouse gas emissions, aiming for carbon neutrality by 2045. But the California Air Resources Board recently released a preliminary greenhouse gas inventory suggesting the state’s emissions increased slightly last year compared with the previous year. California’s greenhouse gas inventory is likewise not just going in the wrong direction but also ignoring a lot …

Opinion: What California Gov. Gavin Newsom could learn from China’s response to climate change
1 year, 5 months ago

Opinion: What California Gov. Gavin Newsom could learn from China’s response to climate change

LA Times  

Gavin Newsom put an international spotlight on California’s climate policies in his speech at the United Nations last month. California has long led by example on environmental matters, and the world’s leading polluters, including China, have looked to the Golden State for ideas on reducing air pollution and increasing clean energy production. California’s climate ambitions will be met only by …

Editorial: California’s transportation spending doesn’t match its climate promises
1 year, 5 months ago

Editorial: California’s transportation spending doesn’t match its climate promises

LA Times  

Rush-hour traffic at the intersection of the 110 and 101 freeways in Los Angeles on June 15, 2021. Opinion Editorial: California’s lawsuit against Big Oil could help end decades of climate lies California’s climate lawsuit against big oil companies isn’t only notable for its pursuit of industry accountability for the damage being caused by fossil fuels. Of the state’s primary …

Here are all the climate and environment bills that California just passed
1 year, 6 months ago

Here are all the climate and environment bills that California just passed

LA Times  

This story was originally published in Boiling Point, a newsletter about climate change and the environment. New support for clean energy: Assembly Bill 1373 — which could help get California’s first offshore wind farms built, and maybe some clean geothermal power plants too, by allowing the state to sign long-term contracts to buy electricity from those facilities — was approved. …

California is going big on offshore wind. That’s good for climate, but not enough
1 year, 6 months ago

California is going big on offshore wind. That’s good for climate, but not enough

LA Times  

This story was originally published in Boiling Point, a newsletter about climate change and the environment. Gavin Newsom announced a deal with legislative leaders that could prompt construction of California’s first offshore wind farms — an expensive but valuable resource that researchers have found can play a key role in reaching 100% clean energy. He described the legislation — along …

Editorial: The climate crisis didn’t take a year off. California lawmakers shouldn’t either
1 year, 6 months ago

Editorial: The climate crisis didn’t take a year off. California lawmakers shouldn’t either

LA Times  

After years of stagnation, last year California legislators made progress in fighting climate change, passing most of Gov. The bill is up against an intense lobbying push from powerful business interests opposed to it, including the California Chamber of Commerce, which called it an “onerous emissions tracking and paperwork requirement that will increase costs on California businesses.” It’s obvious why …

California is working on solutions to worsening climate change. Will they be enough?
1 year, 7 months ago

California is working on solutions to worsening climate change. Will they be enough?

LA Times  

In the opening chapter of “The Ministry for the Future,” science-fiction author Kim Stanley Robinson details a calamitous heat wave that kills almost all the residents of a small town. “The simple equation is climate change, warmer atmosphere, more intense rain, more pollution, more problems but also major catastrophic infrastructure damage,” said Stefanie Sekich, senior manager of Surfrider Foundation’s coast …

Opinion: Wind farms off California’s coast should be the future of the state’s clean energy grid
1 year, 7 months ago

Opinion: Wind farms off California’s coast should be the future of the state’s clean energy grid

LA Times  

A rendering of some different types of offshore floating wind turbines that could be used off the coast of California. Offshore wind could be the economic engine and energy solution California needs, but only if our state policymakers lead the way — and we’re running out of time to get it right. New research from Energy Innovation, GridLab and UC …

California has new weapons to battle summer blackouts: Battery storage, power from record rain
1 year, 8 months ago

California has new weapons to battle summer blackouts: Battery storage, power from record rain

LA Times  

An aircraft takes off from Los Angeles International Airport behind electric power lines at sunset It’s a summertime sequence that’s become all too familiar in California: Extreme heat forces air conditioners into overdrive, which pushes the state’s power grid to the brink. “In general, we’re doing better this summer because we have better hydro, we have more batteries.” Since last …

California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s climate agenda highlights tensions with environmental groups
1 year, 8 months ago

California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s climate agenda highlights tensions with environmental groups

Associated Press  

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — In the rush to cut California’s pollution and rid the state of fossil fuels, the most intriguing confrontation hasn’t involved business leaders or the oil industry. Anthony York, Newsom’s senior adviser for communications, said the environmental movement has mostly been about saying “no” to things to stop dirty projects that cause harmful pollution. She said Newsom’s policies …

Letters to the Editor: California doesn’t have a homeowner insurance crisis. It has a climate crisis
1 year, 9 months ago

Letters to the Editor: California doesn’t have a homeowner insurance crisis. It has a climate crisis

LA Times  

To the editor: The insurance dominoes are toppling everywhere. People who didn’t pay attention to the consequences of climate change before are taking notice now that their personal cost has a dollar sign. We can adapt to inevitable catastrophes only to a limited extent by “building safer communities.” We can move somewhere not endangered by wildfires, biblical storms and floods, …

Editorial: Climate change is making California more expensive. Home insurance is the latest bellwether
1 year, 9 months ago

Editorial: Climate change is making California more expensive. Home insurance is the latest bellwether

LA Times  

It’s bad news that California’s largest home insurance provider, State Farm, decided it’s too risky and expensive to sell new policies in the state. It’s even worse news that State Farm simply publicized what other insurance companies have been doing quietly for several years by refusing to renew policies and pulling out of communities at risk for wildfires. The company …

Editorial: California needs a lot more solar. Why not put panels along highways and parking lots?
1 year, 10 months ago

Editorial: California needs a lot more solar. Why not put panels along highways and parking lots?

LA Times  

California is racing to build enough solar panels, wind turbines and battery storage to meet its carbon-cutting mandates and prepare its electrical grid for worsening heat waves and growing energy demand. That’s why California needs to think creatively and find ways to put more solar energy in already built-out places, including rooftops and parking lots, canals and agricultural fields, so …

Environmentalists sue California over reduced solar incentives
1 year, 10 months ago

Environmentalists sue California over reduced solar incentives

LA Times  

Arnold Schwarzenegger, center, tours a rooftop solar installation that will power AltaSea’s 35-acre campus at the Port of Los Angeles in April. The law says the “total benefits” of the new incentive program should roughly equal the program’s “total costs.” As far as the environmentalists are concerned, the Public Utilities Commission ignored several key benefits of solar. Clean power produced …

Editorial: California shouldn’t let power companies get their way on our electric bills
1 year, 11 months ago

Editorial: California shouldn’t let power companies get their way on our electric bills

LA Times  

What Californians pay on their electric bills is based almost entirely on how much power they consume, with maintenance, grid operation and other expenses built into the rates. But because energy use does not vary as much by income as you might think, it means that low-income customers end up spending more of their paychecks supporting the utilities’ infrastructure than …

Can California put an end to corporate greenwashing?
2 years ago

Can California put an end to corporate greenwashing?

LA Times  

A proposed California bill would require large companies that do business in the state to report their greenhouse gas emissions. The Corporate Climate Responsibility Monitor found American Airlines’ strategies to be of “very low integrity,” saying the airline’s net-zero promise lacks a commitment to reduce its own emissions, and that its offsetting program “has the potential to mislead customers.” The …

Calif. climate bill would make companies disclose emissions
2 years, 1 month ago

Calif. climate bill would make companies disclose emissions

Associated Press  

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Democratic lawmakers in California introduced a package of climate bills Monday aimed at holding corporations accountable for their greenhouse gas emissions. The bills include legislation to require companies to disclose their greenhouse gas emissions to the public, ban the state’s public pension funds from investing in major fossil fuel companies, and create a group to analyze climate-caused …

Op-Ed: There’s one big climate fight that California is losing
2 years, 2 months ago

Op-Ed: There’s one big climate fight that California is losing

LA Times  

After a fire, part of Montecito, Calif., was especially vulnerable to a flood-induced cascade of boulders and debris in 2018. The United Nations lauds countries’ mitigation commitments, but finds an ever-widening “adaptation gap” between what is spent, around $29 billion annually, and what is needed, around $71 billion a year now and $340 billion in 2030. Enhancing the height and …

California lowers incentives for rooftop solar panels
2 years, 3 months ago

California lowers incentives for rooftop solar panels

Associated Press  

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — California utility regulators on Thursday approved major changes to the state’s booming rooftop solar market that they say will more evenly spread the cost of energy and help reduce the state’s reliance on fossil fuels in the evening. That’s led to criticism that rooftop solar customers aren’t paying their fair share into the rest of the energy …

California to vote on roadmap for carbon neutrality by 2045
2 years, 3 months ago

California to vote on roadmap for carbon neutrality by 2045

The Independent  

For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy California air regulators were set …

California just slashed rooftop solar incentives. What happens next?
2 years, 3 months ago

California just slashed rooftop solar incentives. What happens next?

LA Times  

California sharply reduced incentive payments for rooftop solar power Thursday, taking a sledgehammer to a program that helped 1.5 million homes and businesses put solar panels on their roofs and made the state a leader in fighting the climate crisis. Solar installers and clean energy activists call that argument flawed, saying the technology’s benefits — including less air pollution in …

Climate change is rapidly accelerating in California, state report says
2 years, 4 months ago

Climate change is rapidly accelerating in California, state report says

LA Times  

A firefighter goes through the burn zone of the Fairview fire near Hemet on Sept. 9, 2022. Ten of the 20 largest wildfires since 1950 burned in 2020 and 2021, including the record-breaking August Complex, which surpassed 1 million acres in 2020 to become the state’s first “gigafire.” “It is troubling how some of the changes are occurring a lot …

Climate deniers are costing California too much time, money
2 years, 6 months ago

Climate deniers are costing California too much time, money

LA Times  

Looking back, Bradley Bentz doesn’t know what took him so long to move out of Los Angeles County. “I kind of just.,” Bentz said, searching for the right words to sum up his life, “fell in love.” Lumber trucks display the Stars and Stripes in Greenville’s Gold Diggers Day parade. “I really think it would take a disaster to scare …

Op-Ed: Think bigger. Switching to electric cars isn’t enough
2 years, 6 months ago

Op-Ed: Think bigger. Switching to electric cars isn’t enough

LA Times  

It might feel like the easy solution — just replace your gas-guzzling SUV with an electric SUV, and if everyone does that, eventually we’ll solve climate change. After all, car exhaust is the single biggest source of greenhouse gas emissions in California, so surely switching gas-powered cars to electric ones will make a huge dent in fighting climate change. There …

Record heat wave puts California in fossil fuel conundrum
2 years, 6 months ago

Record heat wave puts California in fossil fuel conundrum

Associated Press  

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A record heat wave put California in a fossil fuel conundrum: The state has had to rely more heavily on natural gas to produce electricity and avoid power outages while Gov. The effort worked, but meeting the state’s heightened energy demand also required activating generators fueled by natural gas, which is still a major part of the …

California vows to ban gas-fueled cars. But its record on big climate promises is mixed
2 years, 6 months ago

California vows to ban gas-fueled cars. But its record on big climate promises is mixed

LA Times  

It was the sort of bold, climate-focused initiative that California has developed a reputation for — an effective ban on the sale of new gasoline-powered cars by 2035. “The Air Resources Board’s greatest claim to fame before the climate era was its role in creating and enforcing the adoption of catalytic converters and other technologies to reduce the emissions of …

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