Environment

A tank at a Garden Grove aerospace plant came within a crack of exploding and forcing a toxic chemical cloud over 50,000 evacuated residents — here's what regulators knew before it happened.

California air regulators on Friday approved a contentious overhaul of the state’s carbon market, creating a program that could steer billions of dollars in free pollution permits to oil refineries and other major polluters over the objections of environmental groups, key lawmakers and three of the board’s own members. Ten members of the California Air […]

As the U.S. and Mexico pursue $800 million in upgrades to wastewater facilities on the border, local officials are working on a smaller fix to improve conditions as soon as next year.

In the face of the nation’s highest gas prices, California lawmakers approved a bill to ease restrictions on E85 conversion kits — devices that let conventional gasoline cars run on a cheaper, mostly ethanol fuel blend. Assembly Bill 2046, dubbed the “Access to Affordable Gas Act” by its author, Assemblymember Rhodesia Ransom, a Stockton Democrat, […]

California is considering handing oil refineries and other major polluters billions of dollars in free emission allowances just as the state says carbon reductions need to come faster than ever. In the last six months, two refineries have closed and gas prices have topped an average of $6 a gallon as the Iran-Israel war sent […]

Data centers are expanding into water-stressed California communities, but lax disclosure rules keep the public in the dark about actual usage

Roughly 600,000 Californians still lack access to safe and reliable drinking water supplies. The problem will cost billions to fix. So why is the Newsom administration considering a climate overhaul that could gut a key source of funding?

California set the country's most ambitious plastic recycling deadline. Now both environmental advocates and plastic producers may head to court.

Eleven weeks into the Iran war and a global energy shock, California drivers are paying the highest gas prices in the nation, an average of $6.15 a gallon this week. The pain at the pump is colliding with California’s ambitious push away from fossil fuels, as refinery closures, supply disruptions and a deepening debate over […]

Billions of gallons of sewage have entered San Diego communities through the Tijuana River. Local leaders are speeding up plans to clean up the river and protect public health.