Climate Change

Amid a legal fight over California’s power to regulate car and truck pollution, state agencies are suggesting policies that need stable funding, legislative action, or lengthy rulemaking.

No immediate hike in California gas prices will occur but Democrats and Republicans in the Legislature fear the effects of the clean-fuel program.

Gov. Gavin Newsom wants to extend California's landmark cap and trade program through 2045. But earmarking half of this year's funds to the beleaguered rail project and Cal Fire would leave too little for other climate projects, critics say.

Earthquakes, wildfires and floods all could cause problems for California prisons. A new audit says they aren't ready to quickly evacuate prisoners.

Other efforts to reduce Californians' carbon footprint have cost consumers. A new auditor report notes a greenhouse gas reduction program has raised gasoline prices.

The $250 million, which would fund about 500 electric trucks serving the ports of LA and Long Beach, remains frozen as a legal dispute plays out between the EPA, a bank and a green energy group.

The Senate Judiciary Committee spiked a bill to let wildfire victims sue oil companies over climate change. Labor unions, not Big Oil, led the opposition.

Given the expected decline in gas sales under California's zero-emission vehicle mandates, the politics for implementing a new revenue source will be as thorny as the gas tax has been for 102 years.

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.

Fossil fuel companies got California into this crisis, and now it's time lawmakers hold them accountable by passing crucial legislation this year.