WASHINGTON — Amid scientists' increasingly urgent warnings, the Trump administration ordered a sweeping about-face Wednesday on Obama-era efforts to fight climate change, easing restrictions on coal-fired power plants in a move it predicted would revitalize America's sagging coal industry. As miners in hard hats and coal-country lawmakers applauded, Environmental Protection...
Fighting for Clean Water With Climate Change Money Can Be a Problem
Combat climate change, or clean up California’s water? Those alarmed by the Legislature’s decision to dip into a greenhouse gas fund to pay for clean drinking water may need to get used to it: Constitutional restrictions on spending that money are set to expire in 2021. At issue is the...
How California is Working to Reduce Wildfire Risk
Millions of Californians face an unprecedented increase in natural disasters brought about climate change with an accompanying increase in risk. Unless. Imagine if everyone is prepared in advance of an emergency, and we all know what to do and where to go to keep safe. Imagine if every Californian in...
Valley’s ‘Climate Kids’ to Push Congress on Saving Earth
The world is still waiting to see if a climate case brought by 21 young plaintiffs in 2015 (Juliana vs United States ) will be allowed to continue to trial. Meanwhile, I will have the honor of traveling to Washington, D.C. this week, with three of the Central Valley’s student climate advocates. As...
US Court Weighs if Climate Change Violates Children's Rights
PORTLAND, Ore. — In a courtroom packed with environmental activists, federal judges wrestled Tuesday with whether climate change violates the constitutional rights of young people who have sued the U.S. government over the use of fossil fuels. A Justice Department attorney warned three judges from the 9th U.S. Circuit Court...
Teachers Look Online for Climate Change Info, Find Propaganda
When science teacher Diana Allen set out to teach climate change, a subject she'd never learned in school, she fell into a rabbit's hole of misinformation: Many resources presented online as educational material were actually junk. "It is a pretty scary topic to take on," said Allen, a teacher at...
Beto O'Rourke Unveils Climate Plan With Yosemite as Backdrop
EL PORTAL — Democratic presidential candidate Beto O'Rourke has announced his first major policy initiative, a $5 trillion plan to combat climate change that he says will keep the Earth from sliding past the point of no return in less than a generation. The former Texas congressman unveiled his proposal on Monday...
California Eyes Risk Pool as It Struggles with Costly Fires
SACRAMENTO — Officials were struggling Wednesday to find ways for homeowners to afford insurance in fire-prone areas of California and for utilities to survive liability from devastating wildfires that threaten to worsen with climate change. One option on the table is the creation of a new state catastrophe fund backed...
Chinese Leader XI in France to Sign Multibillion Dollar Deals
PARIS — Chinese President Xi Jinping was greeted with full honors Monday during a state visit to France in which he is expected to sign multibillion-dollar deals on energy, the food industry, transport, and other sectors as well as a bilateral statement on climate change. French President Emmanuel Macron welcomed Xi...
AP Finds Hot Records Falling Twice as Often as Cold Ones
Over the past 20 years, Americans have been twice as likely to sweat through record-breaking heat rather than shiver through record-setting cold, a new Associated Press data analysis shows. The AP looked at 424 weather stations throughout the Lower 48 states that had consistent temperature records since 1920 and counted...