Environment

A bill now on the governor’s desk narrows last year's CEQA exemption for advanced manufacturing, adding community protections industry fought to soften.

Gov. Gavin Newsom backed off his plans to ease costs for utilities following wildfires they cause, striking a narrower deal with Democratic lawmakers.

A last-minute Newsom proposal could exempt a Santa Monica housing project from the regular coastal development process. The developer, Jeff Worthe, is a longtime Newsom donor and appointee.

As fire season takes hold, California is managing fuels and fire on federal lands. Can California keep it up?

California, which is having an unusually quiet fire summer, has deployed engines and crews to fight fires raging in Colorado and the Pacific Northwest — but even this well-resourced state continues to feel vulnerable.

Full suppression by 10 a.m. has not been reinstated under Trump but political pressure remains.

More than two dozen California Assembly Democrats and one state senator sent a letter Wednesday to legislative leaders asking them to delay fees under SB 54, the state’s landmark plastic reduction law, for two years — an eleventh-hour push as the Legislature hurtles toward the end of session.  The letter, addressed to Senate President Pro […]

Trump administration targets protections for more than 4 million acres of California forests.

CalEnviroScreen 5.0 dropped key SF neighborhoods from top pollution rankings.

California lawmakers are advancing an effort to preserve oil refinery safety rules that were designed to prevent fires, explosions and other catastrophes despite industry opposition.  The union-backed proposal, Senate Bill 966, would enshrine existing worker protections into state law as California regulators move to revise them in response to a legal settlement with the state’s […]