Environment

Struggling with what officials call the largest and most expensive toxic contamination in California history, embattled state regulators have changed the formula for assessing the level of lead-laced soil in residential areas—a move that could result in a significant number of homes falling off the priority cleanup list.

The Trump administration has postponed deciding whether to approve millions in federal funding for an electrified Caltrain. Should the project become the newest casualty of the word of words (and tweets) between the President and state Democrats, it will be a signal that “the state’s outspoken political opposition to the Trump administration might come with a price.”

Cozying up to the new administration might not be a good political look for most state Democrats—but if President Trump wants to make due on his campaign promise to direct up to $1 trillion towards new infrastructure projects, well, California lawmakers might just make an exception.

Democrats in the California Legislature, wary of as-yet unknown environmental polices to come from the Trump White House, have moved to preempt potential federal rollbacks by introducing a trio of bills to maintain existing state protections—both for the environment and for the scientists who study it.

President Trump is a big booster of the country’s fossil fuel sector, pledging to revive the coal industry and advance oil and gas drilling. But given his outspoken skepticism about the dangers of climate change, questions abound about whether he'll be inclined to keep allocating federal dollars to either support large scale renewable energy projects or to incentives consumers to buy electric cars and install rooftop solar system. California is depending on this kind of federal support to meet its clean energy goals.

Included in the president’s proposed infrastructure priority list is $250 million for the Cadiz water project in the Mojave Desert. The controversial project would pump groundwater from the Mojave Desert and deliver it via pipeline to Southern California customers. It has so far been blocked by the federal Bureau of Land Management. That might change.

California officials have discerned a chilling signal that the Trump administration may be willing to halt the state’s unique authority to impose its own vehicle emission rules—a move that could undercut its pioneering effort to battle climate change. The threat arose during the confirmation hearing for Scott Pruitt, Trump’s choice to head the Environmental Protection […]

California officials have discerned a chilling signal that the Trump administration may be willing to halt the state’s unique authority to impose its own vehicle emission rules—a move that could undercut its pioneering effort to battle climate change. The threat arose during the confirmation hearing for Scott Pruitt, Trump’s choice to head the Environmental Protection Agency.

There is already a ban in place that prohibits additional federal leasing off California's coast until 2022. But Obama declined to make that permanent, even as he ruled out energy exploration in parts of the Atlantic and Arctic Oceans. The Trump administration’s response is a big unknown.

In what is likely Barack Obama’s final environmental action before Donald Trump moves into the White House, the president has just expanded the California Coastal National Monument—adding a mix of lighthouses, rocky outcroppings, stands of redwoods and significant Native American grounds that will be knitted into the existing federal preserve on and off the coast from […]