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West Coast

Study: Microgrids Could Reduce California Power Shutoffs—to a Point

Researchers report that isolated grids that produce their own power could support communities when the electricity goes out. But that reliability comes at a cost.

By Emma Foehringer Merchant

Scott Hensen, vice president of floor planning for KB Home, points to a battery display panel on a SunPower SunValut storage system inside the garage of a model home during a tour of KB Home microgrid communities in Menifee on Wednesday, Oct. 26, 2022. Credit: Watchara Phomicinda/MediaNews Group/The Press-Enterprise via Getty Images
Heat radiates off of the panels of one of the solar farms in Desert Center, California, on Monday, May 8, 2023. Credit: Alex Gould

Solar Is Booming in the California Desert, if Water Issues Don’t Get in the Way

By Wyatt Myskow

A woman and her children cross the street at the intersection of Fruitvale Avenue and MacArthur Boulevard in the Dimond District of Oakland, California, on Wednesday, Sept. 9, 2020. Credit: Jane Tyska/Digital First Media/East Bay Times via Getty Images

As Extreme Fires Multiply, California Scientists Zero In on How Smoke Affects Pregnancy and Children

By Emma Foehringer Merchant

In Signal Hill, California, an oil pump jack stands idle near homes, in February 2023. California law S.B. 1137, which required a safety buffer zone of 3,200 feet around homes and schools for new oil and gas drilling, was suspended after the petroleum industry last year collected enough signatures in a petition campaign to place a referendum on the 2024 general election ballot. The bill was originally signed into law by Governor Gavin Newsom last year and also banned new drilling near parks, health care facilities, prisons and businesses open to the public. Credit: Mario Tama/Getty Images.

Environmental Justice Advocates Urge California to Stop Issuing New Drilling Permits in Neighborhoods

By Liza Gross

Sunrun installers place solar panels on the roof of a home in Granada Hills, California. Credit: Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images

California Denies Bid from Home Solar Company to Sell Power as a ‘Micro-Utility’

By Emma Foehringer Merchant

Nearby homes are in danger of fire after an explosion on the Signal Hill oil field in Long Beach, California, June 1933. Credit: FPG/Hulton Archive/Getty Images

History of Racism Leaves Black Californians Most at Risk from Oil and Gas Drilling, New Research Shows

By Liza Gross

Developers have redesigned Treasure Island to withstand a rising San Francisco Bay, elevating land and setting aside space for ever-higher sea walls. Engineers say planned fortifications will hold — but with flood risk accelerating, no one knows for how long. Credit: Yesica Prado/San Francisco Public Press

Promising to Prevent Floods at Treasure Island, Builders Downplay Risk of Sea Rise

By Kristi Coale, San Francisco Public Press

An aerial view of landslide damage in La Cañada Flintridge, California on Monday, Feb. 27, 2023. Credit: Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images

California, Battered by Atmospheric Rivers, Faces a Big Melt This Spring

By Bob Berwyn

A grove of tufa towers along the south shore of Mono Lake, California, where long-term drought, global warming and water diversions threaten an ancient ecosystem. Photo credit: Bob Berwyn

Mono Lake Tribe Seeks to Assert Its Water Rights in Call For Emergency Halt of Water Diversions to Los Angeles

By Bob Berwyn

State Sen. Lena Gonzalez toured Mark Twain Elementary School before speaking at a press conference to promote support for Proposition 13, the historic school facilities bond, in Long Beach on Friday, Feb. 28, 2020. Credit: Brittany Murray/MediaNews Group/Long Beach Press-Telegram via Getty Images

Q&A: California Drilling Setback Law Suspended by Oil Industry Ballot Maneuver. The Law’s Author Won’t Back Down

By Liza Gross

Residents work to push back wet mud that trapped cars and invaded some houses on Jan. 11, 2023 in Piru, east of Fillmore, California. A series of powerful storms pounded California in striking contrast to the past three years of severe to extreme drought experienced by most of the state. Credit: David McNew/Getty Images

Confronting California’s Water Crisis

By Liza Gross

An oil rig that has repeatedly emitted toxic gases operates next to a single-family home, an apartment complex and, just beyond the trees, a playground, in Kern County, California. Credit: Liza Gross

California Activists Redouble Efforts to Hold the Oil Industry Accountable on Neighborhood Drilling

By Liza Gross

More than two thirds of the Colorado River begins as snow in Colorado. However, warm temperatures and dry soil are steadily reducing the amount of snowmelt that makes its way into the river, which supplies 40 million people across the Southwest. Credit: Alex Hager/KUNC

This Winter’s Rain and Snow Won’t be Enough to Pull the West Out of Drought

By Alex Hager, KUNC

Firefighters are silhouetted against the setting sun while monitoring fire and wind conditions from a hillside in Hemet, California on Sept. 6, 2022. Credit: Frederic J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images

California Had a Watershed Climate Year, But Time Is Running Out

By Liza Gross

A boat dock sits on dry ground far from the water at Lake Mendocino on April 22, 2021 in Ukiah, California. Credit: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

When the State Cut Their Water, These California Users Created a Collaborative Solution

By Emma Foehringer Merchant

An active oil drilling rig is located next to a single family home on Sept. 21, 2022 in Signal Hill, California. Credit: Allison Dinner/Getty Images

Petition Circulators Are Telling California Voters that a Ballot Measure Would Ban New Oil and Gas Wells Near Homes. In Fact, It Would Do the Opposite

By Liza Gross

Lorraine Capolungo near the site of her mobile home in the Creekside Mobile Home Park, which burned in the Cache Fire in Clearlake, California. Credit: Michael Kodas

Mobile Homes, the Last Affordable Housing Option for Many California Residents, Are Going Up in Smoke

By Anne Marshall-Chalmers

Una bomba extrae petróleo crudo justo detrás de la ventana del dormitorio de Yesinia Martínez, quien ha tenido problemas de salud, la mayoría relacionados con la extracción de petróleo y gas, desde que era pequeña. Crédito: Liza Gross

Cuando tu vecino es un pozo de petróleo

By Liza Gross

A pumpjack extracts crude oil just behind Yesinia Martinez's bedroom window. Martinez has had health problems, most linked to oil and gas extraction, since she was little. Credit: Liza Gross

When an Oil Well Is Your Neighbor

By Liza Gross

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