Mary Nichols has 'rock star' influence as top air quality regulator
A meeting with Gov. Jerry Brown and Chevron executives was ending when an oil company official turned to Mary Nichols, California's top regulator for air pollution. There was only so much Chevron...
View ArticleGov. Brown's inaugural speech continues his green, fiscal themes
SACRAMENTO - Marking a historic occasion with a simple, subdued ceremony, Edmund Gerald Brown Jr. called Monday for ambitious new environmental rules as he embarked on an unprecedented fourth term as...
View ArticleCalifornia's push for clean energy has a problem: no place to store it
On a quiet Sunday morning last April, power plants were pumping far more energy into California's electricity grid than residents needed for their refrigerators, microwaves and television sets. So...
View ArticleCalifornia's cap-and-trade program is key to Gov. Jerry Brown's agenda
For Gov. Jerry Brown, fighting climate change is more than a central tenet of his political agenda. It's also a key source of funding. California's cap-and-trade program, in which permits to pollute...
View ArticleFor Jerry Brown, climate change issue melds the spiritual and political
Buried in Pope Francis' encyclical on climate change was a reference that Gov. Jerry Brown could have appreciated. The pontiff cited a French priest, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, whose controversial...
View ArticlePassage of California climate change bill could set global example
When Gov. Jerry Brown visits the Vatican this week for an international conference, he'll be carrying a resolution from state lawmakers supporting Pope Francis' recent encyclical on climate change....
View ArticleBrown seeks to broaden California's clean-energy reach in the West
Gov. Jerry Brown is working on an ambitious plan for transmitting electricity across state lines and bolstering California's role in the region, according to energy officials. The plan would integrate...
View ArticleOil industry, environmentalists in ad war over bill to cut gasoline use
When Californians check their mailboxes or flip on their radios these days, they might be forgiven for thinking an election is around the corner. It's not, of course. But with just a week left for...
View ArticleWhat's the deal with California's controversial climate change bill?
When Gov. Jerry Brown started his fourth and final term in January, he laid out three ambitious environmental goals for the next 15 years. First, double the energy efficiency of older buildings....
View ArticleState lawmakers challenge Air Resources Board's power over climate change rules
Top members of Gov. Jerry Brown's staff hosted more than a dozen Assembly members recently to take their temperatures on hotly contested environmental legislation. Instead, the meeting became a gripe...
View ArticleWhy climate law advocates are watching these black and Latino lawmakers
The "wanted" poster with pictures of five state lawmakers appeared in the pages of a Spanish-language newspaper in Southern California last week. "Would these politicians be willing to confront the...
View ArticleThe inside story of how power struggles doomed Jerry Brown's top priority
One of Gov. Jerry Brown's most ambitious environmental goals was hanging in the balance when two powerful California lawmakers met for dinner near the Capitol. Pushing the governor's proposal to slash...
View ArticleGov. Brown's renewable energy plan could boost solar, wind industries
Gov. Jerry Brown's proposal this week to significantly boost the amount of energy California derives from renewable sources could reinvigorate the state's utility-scale solar and wind industries, as...
View ArticleCalifornia's greenhouse gas emission targets are getting tougher
Gov. Jerry Brown accelerated California's effort to slash greenhouse gas emissions Wednesday, burnishing the state's reputation as a pacesetter in the battle against climate change. In an executive...
View ArticleCalifornians back new policies to fight climate change, poll says
Californians are concerned about the effects of climate change and support new steps to address the problem, according to a poll released Wednesday night by the Public Policy Institute of California....
View ArticleCalifornia is ahead of the game as Obama releases Clean Power Plan
President Obama's plan to cut carbon pollution from power plants over the next 15 years will force states to address climate change by pushing them to act more like California. The Clean Power Plan...
View ArticleGov. Jerry Brown takes aim at oil companies over 'highly destructive' product
Gov. Jerry Brown, who is in the middle of a political battle over climate-change legislation, took aim at oil companies Monday, saying they sell a "highly destructive" product."The oil industry is in...
View ArticleThis Democrat's decision on climate change could be a game changer
Henry T. Perea was having a change of heart. For years, the Democratic assemblyman had griped about the Central Valley getting shortchanged by Sacramento and overshadowed by Los Angeles, San Francisco...
View ArticleGas reduction dropped from California climate change bill
Gov. Jerry Brown faced a cascade of setbacks Wednesday as climate change legislation was stripped of his targets for reducing gasoline use, his effort to fix dilapidated roads was delayed, and there...
View ArticleA quick guide to California's climate change battle
California's battle against climate change involves an alphabet soup of agencies responsible for different programs and several key laws that guide state actions. Here's a glossary: SB 350: This bill...
View ArticleGov. Brown signs climate change bill to spur renewable energy, efficiency...
California launched an ambitious effort Wednesday to expand renewable energy and increase energy efficiency, advancing Gov. Jerry Brown's plans for battling climate change. Brown signed the new goals...
View ArticleCutting ozone will require radical transformation of California's trucking...
At a laboratory in downtown Los Angeles, a big rig spins its wheels on massive rollers as a metal tube funnels its exhaust into an array of air quality sensors. Engineers track the roaring truck's...
View ArticleOil industry pumped cash into lobbying as fight over energy bill raged
During a pitched battle over climate change legislation this year, the petroleum industry dramatically ramped up its spending on lobbying, new disclosures show.More than a dozen oil companies or...
View ArticleCalifornia's Paris delegation: Who's going and who's paying?
California may not be a member of the United Nations, but it will have a heavy footprint in December at the world summit on climate change in Paris. Lawmakers attending the summit Eight Democratic...
View ArticleCalifornia revs up for Paris climate-change summit
In the wonky world of climate change, California's presence at the United Nations summit in Paris next month is expected to be a star-studded affair. There will be an actual movie star, former Gov....
View ArticleBrown readies to take spot on global climate stage: 'They're not calling him...
Gov. Jerry Brown was deep into a two-hour meeting on climate change with some of California's top scientists when he interjected a highly technical and much more personal question. He wanted to...
View ArticleBrown pushes cities, states to set tough environmental targets
More than a year and a half ago, Franz Untersteller, the environment secretary for the German state of Baden-Württemberg, stepped into a meeting with Gov. Jerry Brown in Sacramento. Untersteller was...
View ArticleIn Paris, Schwarzenegger and Brown unite to seek climate action
It was like the debut of an environmentally themed buddy cop drama, with a political odd couple uniting against a common foe. In one chair was California's governor, Jerry Brown, the cerebral Democrat...
View ArticleChina and the world turn to California for climate change expertise
China's top negotiator at the United Nations summit on climate change practically gushed as he described his country's relationship with California. During a speech Monday, Xie Zhenhua described Gov....
View ArticleCalifornia billionaire Tom Steyer has rare access and a big megaphone on...
Sitting under a soaring ornamental ceiling in a museum near the Seine, Gov. Jerry Brown gave thanks for the political backdrop that has enabled California's tougher environmental rules. "If it weren't...
View ArticleCalifornia falling short in push for more clean vehicles
Even as California sells itself as an environmental success story during the United Nations summit here, the state is in danger of failing to meet its own targets for getting clean vehicles on the...
View ArticleJerry Brown in Paris: California governor goes deep on climate change and...
California Gov. Jerry Brown had a song stuck in his head, and he wanted to hear it. Standing outside a conference center shortly after giving a speech on climate change, he asked for someone to play...
View ArticleCalifornia's cap-and-trade program faces daunting hurdles to avoid collapse
The linchpin of California's climate change agenda, a program known as cap and trade, has become mired in legal, financial and political troubles that threaten to derail the state's plans to curb...
View ArticleCalifornia lawmakers unplug the state's electric car program
California's electric-car rebate program, which has helped put thousands of Teslas, Nissan Leafs and Chevrolet Volts on the road, is running out of money. In the state budget passed earlier this...
View ArticleA grand bargain? Gov. Jerry Brown in talks with oil companies about climate...
Gov. Jerry Brown's administration has been talking directly with oil companies in hopes of reaching a consensus on extending California's landmark climate programs, opening a back channel with an...
View ArticleWith climate legislation stalling, Jerry Brown looks to potential fight at...
The battle to extend California's climate policies could grind to a halt this year, but Gov. Jerry Brown plans to continue pressing the issue before his final term in office ends - even if that...
View ArticleCalifornia's regional electricity grid plan on hold
Gov. Jerry Brown's plan for a regional electricity grid is being put on hold this year, and lawmakers are no longer expected to consider a measure that would allow California to partner with five...
View ArticleClean tech leaders try to put a business-friendly spin on climate change...
Mark Bauhaus used to make a point of avoiding Sacramento. Like other technology executives, he saw state politics as nothing more than a drag on Silicon Valley's freewheeling innovation. Yet this...
View ArticleWhile cap-and-trade funds stay mired in debate, businesses feel the hit
A look at how one Shasta County town's workforce may shrink without a portion of California's cap and trade revenues that its local legislator has been asking for in Sacramento.
View ArticleA big question complicating the climate debate: Are current policies only...
In early 2015, Democratic members of the state Assembly huddled in a Cal State Sacramento conference room to hear Mary Nichols, chair of the powerful Air Resources Board, explain how her agency...
View Article'An exercise in threading the needle': Lawmakers perform balancing act to...
In this year's debate over California climate policy, much of the attention has centered on a proposal to extend and expand the state's mandate for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. But it's another...
View ArticleCalifornia's climate change law clears a big hurdle after lobbyists crank up...
A controversial measure to extend California's target for reducing greenhouse gas emissions was approved by the Assembly on Tuesday, clearing a major hurdle in a battle at the Capitol over the future...
View Article'A real commitment backed up by real power': Gov. Jerry Brown to sign...
Gov. Jerry Brown marked a milestone for California's climate change policies Wednesday even as he warned of more battles to come, saying opponents of new environmental regulations were "vanquished" as...
View ArticleCalifornia's new climate change laws almost didn't happen this year. Here's...
California's climate legislation was heading for debate before supporters decided to play by their own rules and form a coalition that could change the direction of California environmental policy.
View ArticleGov. Brown signs sweeping legislation to combat climate change
California will become a petri dish for international efforts to slow global warming under legislation signed by Gov. Jerry Brown on Thursday, forcing one of the world's largest economies to squeeze...
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