Environment

“I felt trapped.” For months, a firefighter kept reliving her colleagues' screams when a Mendocino County wildfire encircled them. On the day she planned to take her life, she got help instead — just in time.

About 10% of Cal Fire’s workforce quit the agency last year. “We are at critical mass, guaranteed,” one Cal Fire captain said. Workers’ comp cases for PTSD are routinely denied, and many crews are fatigued from working weeks at a time with no time off.

Over a nine-hour meeting, car owners, environmentalists and industry representatives showed up in droves to voice concerns about ramping up electric car sales and banning new gas-powered cars in 2035. Board members asked for more strategies to help low-income residents.

As drought intensifies, the order affects many cities and growers from Fresno to the Oregon border, including 212 public water systems.

California’s climate change plan fails to provide substantial evidence that capturing carbon will meet ambitious greenhouse gas goals, critics say. The plan “does California a disservice,” one state advisor said.

Who loses and who gains as California cleans up its cars? Nearly 32,000 mechanics would lose jobs by 2040 under the proposed phaseout of new gas-powered cars. Electric companies would be the big winners.

Sacramento Valley growers protected for decades by their water rights are suffering for the first time during this record-breaking drought. Wildlife refuges are struggling, too.

Gov. Newsom is considering seeking federal funds to keep Diablo Canyon open as California transitions away from fossil fuels. But there are many complications to keeping nuclear power in California.

The commission, in a marathon session today, killed a proposed desalination plant in Huntington Beach that’s been debated for more than 20 years.

Under the new scoping plan, California would almost eliminate oil and shift to renewable sources. But where’s the update on the controversial polluting-trading market known as cap and trade?