Environment

California’s landmark climate law came with promises of economic benefit. But experts say it’s virtually impossible to tell if those promises are coming true.

Climate-warming compounds are released by charred forests long after wildfires have been put out. That may do more to warm the planet more than the immediate harm from smoky air.

Californians recognize that water fuels our economy, grows our food, and sustains our natural places. The system also is in peril and the next governor will have plenty of work to do. It’s also in peril

The administration wants to roll back strict Obama-era standards for auto emissions and gas mileage. It also challenges California’s right to set its own rules.

Legislators begin to tackle the complex law surrounding fire liability, without knowledge of the cause of the most devastating fire in California history. One legislator questions whether they should act without that information.

A new statewide poll shows that voters are increasingly concerned about environmental policy, which could play out in the governor's race between Newsom and Cox.

A 152-mile long canal that irrigates pistachios and other crops in the eastern San Joaquin Valley is sinking by an inch a month, the result of groundwater over-pumping by farmers. The Sacramento Bee described the Friant-Kern Canal as an engineering marvel, but its capacity has been reduced by as much as 60 percent at because of subsidence. […]

California's cap-and-trade program is under threat by the withdrawal of Ontario from the bi-national carbon-trading market.

Calling the political vetting of federal research grant applications “a significant threat to academic freedom,” UC faculty are urging the university to better track whether and why its proposals are turned down in the Trump era.

The California Energy Commission has decreed that new homes must have rooftop solar power installations beginning in 2020. However, energy experts warn that the new rules were hastily drafted and could have adverse effects.