Recognizing a rare liability for the majority party, Republicans have begun more aggressively criticizing Democrats for their management of the crisis. In recent weeks, Republicans have pressed the Brown administration and Democratic lawmakers to approve more water storage facilities, while excoriating Democrats and their environmentalist allies for reduced water deliveries to protect endangered fish. Senate
UC Davis fish biologist Peter Moyle is on a boat in the Suisun Marsh. He says the smelt is close to extinction. “Whether a small number of fish can continue the species is a good question,” says Moyle. He's been sampling fish monthly for more than 30 years. The crew on board hoists a large
With California’s growing cap-and-trade program yielding a budgetary bonanza, lawmakers and interest groups have ample ideas for how to spend the money. Floating proposals as the pivotal period for budget negotiations begins, they say they want to fund port improvements, pay for heavy-duty trucks and ferries, nurture urban rivers, sponge up carbon in soil and
One month after mounting a legal challenge to San Benito County's ban on the controversial oil exploration practice of fracking, a Southern California oil company has withdrawn its lawsuit. The decision now means that none of the local bans on fracking in California is under legal challenge, environmentalists said Monday, even as several more counties
The Oakdale and South San Joaquin irrigation districts defied the federal government by diverting some Stanislaus River water to a local reservoir, where it might help thirsty crops, rather than releasing it down the river to benefit fish. The move follows an announcement that the irrigation districts are willing to go to extraordinary lengths, including
A 25 percent cutback in urban water use – as Gov. Jerry Brown imposed last week – is less a hardship on California residents than an adjustment to a new reality. Droughts like the one gripping California now are inevitable, though climate change makes their frequency and severity unpredictable. We need to change the way
The agency that regulates the oil industry in California is — by its own admission — in disarray. After a series of embarrassing disclosures about regulatory lapses that allowed drilling in protected aquifers, officials at the Division of Oil, Gas and Geothermal Resources are trying to untangle years of chaotic operation. But the fixes aren’t
An oil company has sued to block San Benito County's voter-approved fracking ban in a move that could affect the growing trend of California cities and counties' efforts to stop the controversial oil drilling practice of hydraulic fracturing. In the lawsuit, Citadel Exploration, based in Newport Beach, is attempting to overturn Measure J, approved by
Environmental activists asked state energy officials to declare an end to a Massachusetts-based company's proposal to build a $4 billion clean coal plant near Tupman. Saying work on the project appears to have stalled, the Sierra Club joined two local groups in petitioning the California Energy Commission to "terminate" SCS Energy California LLC's Hydrogen Energy
Regulators in California, the country's third-largest oil-producing state, have authorized oil companies to inject production fluids and waste into what are now federally protected aquifers more than 2,500 times, risking contamination of underground water supplies that could be used for drinking water or irrigation, state records show. While some of the permits go back decades,