Political action committees funded by technology companies, the state’s major utilities and other corporate interests have spent several million dollars more to pass a ballot measure that would greenlight major development projects with minimal environmental or public review than public interest and labor groups have spent opposing it. Developers and other corporate interests aim to…
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California Governor Gavin Newsom recently signed SB 868, a bill legalizing residential solar panels for balconies. At a time when the Trump administration is unraveling federal climate progress, California’s so-called “Plug and Play Solar Act” enables homeowners and renters to purchase and plug lightweight solar panels into a regular power outlet and generate up to 1200 watts of electricity.
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Earlier this year, as the Trump administration ramped up pressure on California to agree to increased oil and natural gas drilling permits up and down the Pacific Coast, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick took to the social media platform X to berate the California Coastal Commission, and the Coastal Zone Management Act’s system for maintaining the coast in line with California regulations…
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2026 could turn out to be the hottest year on record. Yet, climate change is now on the back burner while the Trump administration intensifies its all-out assault on climate and environmental actions, as indicated by the president’s attack on the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine for publishing what he called “fraudulent, biased, and misleading” material on climate change.
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Earlier this year, Gallup asked a national sample of Americans whether they would support an AI data center being built in their local area. Seventy-one percent opposed it, 48 percent of them strongly. Opposition to living near a nuclear power plant was markedly lower, at 53 percent. Republicans, Democrats and independents all rejected data centers. Asked why, respondents most often pointed to…
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The government of French Polynesia plans to challenge an American startup’s proposal to explore the waters just beyond its maritime borders for seabed mining. “We were approached, but we were not consulted,” Moetai Brotherson, the territory’s president, told Grist. “We are not remaining passive while industrial activities are proposed immediately next to ecosystems that French Polynesia has…
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