Bills to manage California's power supply await the Legislature when it returns from July recess. At issue is the state's ability to provide electricity consistently, even when an unexpected demand or oversupply arises.
The California Energy Commission has decreed that new homes must have rooftop solar power installations beginning in 2020. However, energy experts warn that the new rules were hastily drafted and could have adverse effects.
California’s oil and gas regulator has endured years of scolding from the Legislature for a lack of accountability, from environmentalists for allowing an industry to run roughshod over a state regulator, and from the federal Environmental Protection Agency for failing to enforce clean water laws. But the state’s oil watchdog is undertaking a comprehensive reform, officials say, that will radically change the agency’s culture and modernize a department with one foot in the last century.
A Trump administration move to reconsider a historic agreement on use of California desert land is ostensibly about renewable energy production, but undoing the plan could also open up sensitive desert land to off-road recreation, mining and livestock grazing.
