Climate Change

Trump ordered his attorney general to move against state climate programs that clash with his energy agenda. Legal experts say his claims about the laws being unconstitutional are an overreach.

Billions of state and federal dollars are spent on Lake Tahoe. But is all this attention actually protecting this unique treasure? Pollutants pour in, while development continues. Funding has shifted in focus to tourism and traffic projects, while money spent directly on fixing the lake has declined.

Evacuating the Tahoe basin in summer could take 14 hours, and 99% of properties are at risk — yet new resorts are being built in high-danger fire areas.

The governor’s planned $20 billion tunnel to divert more water south and bypass the Delta would bring years of construction noise, pollution and traffic. Residents worry their rural farm towns will never be the same.

California and other states and counties are using a legal strategy that took down Big Tobacco, hoping to make fossil fuel companies pay for damage they have long denied. But many obstacles remain.

California’s new Low Carbon Fuel Standard has been stalled because it lacks ”clarity.” The new standard, which offers incentives for cleaner fuels, is highly controversial because it would raise gas prices.

San Gabriel Valley areas scarred by the Eaton Fire are at “high to very high risk” of debris flows this week. How do they happen? What is being done to prepare? And what do survivors of a catastrophic one that killed 23 people remember about the day that the hills came down?

In some areas, hazards have surged. Buildings in the highest hazard zones will be subject to the strictest fire-resiliency rules.

About a quarter — 25.3% — of all new cars registered in California in 2024 were electric cars, compared with 25% in 2023. The flat sales follow several years of rapid growth, and sales are still far below the state's 35% target.

The president’s order has no immediate effect on offshore wind leases already authorized, including two large areas off California’s coast. But it sends a current of uncertainty through the fledgling renewable energy industry, which relies on federal and state support.