Environment

A new generation of legislators and the growing clout of eco-advocates from urban communities is changing the focus of environmental debates in California. Once sidelined as a fringe voice of activism, the “environmental justice” perspective—focused on how environmental decisions impact poor communities and people of color—is now at the center of high-profile deliberations.

President Trump today signed an executive order that could open waters off the California coast to new oil and gas drilling, triggering outrage from state officials—and the unveiling of a plan to try to thwart future drilling.

California Attorney General Xavier Becerra joined New Mexico Attorney General Hector Balderas in filing a lawsuit this week against the U.S. Department of the Interior for delaying the implementation of a rule intended to ensure that the taxpayers —and states— receive appropriate royalties from mining and energy companies leasing federal lands.

A slow-moving emergency is lapping at California’s shores— climate-driven sea-level rise that experts now predict could elevate the water in coastal areas up to 10 feet in just 70 years.

The California Democratic party's 'supermajority' was mightily tested with the nail-biting passage of a $52 billion transportation package, that will add 12 cents to the price of gasoline. What does that bode for another supermajority vote that could raise gas prices: the reauthorization of the the state's landmark climate change legislation, cap-and-trade?

Saying ‘a deal is a deal” the California Air Resources Board voted last week to endorse the stringent automobile emissions standards hammered out with federal agencies five years ago, vowing to go to court if the Environmental Protection Agency follows through on a threat to undo the regulations—and then blocks the state from setting its own standards.

Leaders of California’s three coastal conservation agencies are calling the Trump Administration’s proposed budget a threat to the state’s environmental and economic future, and urged California's congressional delegation to push back against deep cuts to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

President Trump traveled to Detroit today to announce that his administration was shelving the Obama administration's aggressive fuel-economy standards for cars—standards that California has been relying on to spur the production and sale of energy-efficient, electric and hybrid cars, thus reducing greenhouse gases.

Just as the Trump Administration is proposing significant cuts to federal agencies that employ climate scientists , a California official is planting himself outside federal agencies this week—hoping to poach skittish federal researchers.

The Trump Administration’s budget-cutting plans reportedly include eliminating funding for restoration and protection of the San Francisco Bay, and programs that help California coastal communities prepare for climate-related threats.