Climate Change

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.

Gardeners, housekeepers and car wash workers living paycheck to paycheck are out of work in Los Angeles County as fires damaged homes and businesses. Their income losses may be permanent.

Key moisture measurements are only 2% to 5% of average, leaving dusty soils. And the recent swing from wet to dry is among the most extreme on record. This combination of climatic conditions crossed into a danger zone, priming much of Southern California for wind-whipped fires.

Because Trump is unlikely to approve them, California has no choice but to abandon its groundbreaking rules for zero-emission trucks and cleaner locomotives.

Some Northern California cities have been soaked with almost twice their average rainfall, while southern cities are bone-dry. This season’s huge — possibly unprecedented — disparity works in favor of the state’s water supplies.