Though the biennial update is designed to supplement the Integrated Energy Planning Report (IEPR) for inter-agency "process alignment," California Energy Commission (CEC) Chair Robert Weisenmiller told the meeting earlier this week that he and California Public Utility Commission (CPUC) President Michael Picker will be using the forecast for enhanced distribution planning, to help design time-of-use
As chair of the Air Resources Board, Mary Nichols plays a central role in deciding where Californians get their energy, what fuel goes in their cars and how their homes are built. She also oversees the state's ambitious program for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, one that analysts say could be a model when world leaders
California environmental regulators are exploring how rice farmers can reduce carbon emissions, paving the way for crops to become part of the state’s greenhouse gas reduction program and affecting one of the Sacramento Valley’s powerhouse agricultural industries. The California Air Resources Board this month directed staff to begin the process for including rice in the
State lawmakers reacted to Gov. Jerry Brown’s inaugural address with praise and trepidation Monday and, in a reflection of the political dynamic in California, that was just among the governor’s fellow Democrats. Senate President pro Tem Kevin De Leon (D-Los Angeles) said he was most excited by Brown’s ambitious new proposal for further reductions to
California's political leaders pledged to advance the state's landmark laws on climate change and fend off challenges from opponents such as oil companies. "We're just at the beginning," Gov. Jerry Brown said. "There's still lots of skeptics and lots of deniers." Brown and top lawmakers spoke at a conference Monday hosted by Tom Steyer, a
After an earthquake and tsunami decimated northeast Japan in 2011 — an unexpected weather incident that scientists are still struggling to understand — the Japanese government built Sanriku Fukko National Park. A triumph of weather-conscious design, built in part to revitalize the area’s flagging economy, the park boasts reconstructed pine forests, tidal flats and seagrass beds hugging the
Future droughts in California are likely to bite deeper and last longer than the one now gripping the state, according to new research into the potential effects of climate change. Scientists from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography and the U.S. Geological Survey used computer climate modeling tools to estimate the effects of warmer temperatures in
In what may be the last act of a political career spanning more than four decades, Jerry Brown will begin his fourth and final term as governor uniquely positioned to build his legacy as California's longest-serving chief executive. On Wednesday morning in the Capitol, he sketched out an agenda that casts him as both an
California's pioneering climate-change law has a long reach, but that doesn't mean all its mandates will help stave off global warming. To meet the requirement that it cut carbon emissions, for example, Southern California Edison recently sold its stake in one of the West's largest coal-fired power plants, located hundreds of miles out of state.
The stubborn high-pressure systems that block California rains are linked to the abundance of human-caused greenhouse gases that heat the oceans, according to a major paper released Monday by Stanford scientists. But two other new studies disagree -- saying there's no evidence that warming ocean waters are to blame for our drought. The three teams