Environment

When Gov. Jerry Brown arrives in Paris next week for a major international conference on climate change, he will showcase one of the world’s most sweeping programs to cut greenhouse gas emissions. California has perhaps the most comprehensive cap-and-trade program in the world, setting a limit and a price for pollution from factories, utilities and […]

What is California’s Climate Change Plan? For decades, California has been a leader on environmental and climate change policies, including the Zero Emission Vehicle Mandate in 1990 and a “Clean Car” bill in 2002 that became a model for the National Fuel Efficiency Standards that President Obama announced in 2012. The California Air Resources Board […]

The Legislature may have scuttled the centerpiece of Gov. Jerry Brown’s climate change plans, but it still approved ambitious new environmental policies that will impact the economy and life of Californians. In coming years, the new legislation means California’s homes and buildings are expected to use dramatically less electricity and the power grid will increase […]

Some of the world’s most ambitious climate change legislation is currently under consideration in America. But the lawmakers in question aren’t in D.C. — they’re in Sacramento. California lawmakers are intensely debating far-reaching goals to curb greenhouse gas emissions. The bill contains three proposals: one to double energy efficiency in buildings, one to derive 50 […]

The oil industry helped Democrat Jim Cooper win his first election to the Legislature last year. Now it’s seeking his help fighting Democratic leaders in the state Capitol. Cooper is one of a handful of potential swing votes the oil industry is targeting as it tries to kill a controversial proposal to cut in half […]

At a Pacific Gas and Electric power plant east of San Francisco, greenhouse gases flow from a stack as the air shimmers from heat, with no dirty cloud of pollution in sight. In the distance, wind turbines spin slowly under a cloudy sky. And nearby in the city of Antioch, local schools are celebrating the […]

Not far from the Amish farms of Central Pennsylvania, in the rolling hills southwest of coal mining country, Dennis Brubaker raises 30,000 pigs a year for slaughter. In four enclosed barns, the hogs gain two pounds a day away from predators. That is, until they are shipped away to be processed for supermarkets.  Methane Digesters on California Dairy […]

One sunny Saturday in Stockton, Mary Serrano climbed into the driver’s seat of a bright-red, all-electric Chevrolet Spark. A retiree who normally drives a 20-year-old Toyota Camry, she was curious about the new technology on display at the local fairground. “I feel like I’m going to outer space,” she said giddily, as a company representative […]

California’s carbon marketplace is one of the tools the state is using to work toward its 2020 greenhouse gas emissions goal. Large industries under the cap have choices about how they comply, including paying for permissions to pollute. But how does it all work? We explain (in a little longer than two and a half […]

EL DORADO, Arkansas – On the east side of this small town, tucked away not far from the Louisiana border, sit two massive incinerators with a surprising link to a landmark environmental law in California. It’s a place where old paint, leftover pesticides, seized cocaine, recalled hairspray, expired pharmaceuticals and many other hazardous chemicals come […]