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Environmental Science
Despite California climate law, carbon emissions may be a shell game
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. But the Four Corners Generating Station in New Mexico still burns coal — only the power that Edison once delivered to California now goes to a different utility's customers in Arizona. Similar swaps are taking place at coal plants throughout the West, and they underscore the limitations California faces as it tries...
Related "Environmental Science" Articles
Despite California climate law, carbon emissions may be a shell game
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...
South African brothers charged in illegal rhinoceros hunting scheme
For five years starting in 2005, prosecutors say, two South African brothers sold American hunters on trips to hunt wild rhinoceroses. The brothers told prospective clients at hunting expos and gun shows across the United States that the animals were...
More than 5 million in state live near oil or gas well, report says
More than 5 million Californians ? most of them in Los Angeles and Kern counties ? live near an oil or gas well, and expanding drilling in the state could increase their exposure to health risks, according to a report released Wednesday...
2 Senate Democrats explore how to protect coal jobs and the environment
In June, Sen. Joe Manchin III of West Virginia, a defender of the coal industry, and Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, a champion of the environment, decided to set aside differences and learn about how climate change affects each other's...
Amid California's drought, a bruising battle for cheap water
The signs appear about 200 miles north of Los Angeles, tacked onto old farm wagons parked along quiet two-lane roads and bustling Interstate 5. "Congress Created Dust Bowl." "Stop the Politicians' Water Crisis." "No Water No...
The good news about offshore oil rigs
Never let it be said that Mother Nature doesn't appreciate irony. A new study led by researchers at Occidental College and UC Santa Barbara has found that the oil platforms dotting the California coast are fantastic for sea life. In a 15-year...
Good billionaire vs. bad billionaire won't solve climate change
To the editor: I agree with hedge-fund billionaire Tom Steyer that global warming is a critical issue. But I don't think we'll solve this crisis via a billionaire-vs.-billionaire grudge match, with him trying to shout down the Koch...
U.S. considers climate change plan that would mandate emission cuts
The United States is considering a proposal to combat climate change that would require countries to offer plans for curtailing greenhouse gas emissions on a certain schedule but would leave it to individual nations to determine how deep their cuts...
Pentagon unveils plan for military's response to climate change
Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel addressed the Conference of Defense Ministers of the Americas on Monday, unveiling a comprehensive plan for how the U.S. military will address the effects of climate change. Rising global temperatures, increasing...
Southland developers learn to coexist with quake faults
Over the last 20 years, the plateau atop Signal Hill has been transformed from a gritty industrial zone into an upscale neighborhood of homes, parks and hiking trails. Where hundreds of oil wells once stood, joggers and photographers navigate...
Obama to publicly name San Gabriel Mountains a national monument today
Beyond the typical traffic headaches and streets closures, President Obama will leave Los Angeles on Friday with a national monument in its backyard. Obama will be at Frank G. Bonelli Regional Park in San Dimas to announce his...
Critics protest Obama's San Gabriel Mountains National Monument
Holding up signs that said ?Monumental mistake? and twirling gold-and-silver hula hoops, a handful of protesters gathered in San Dimas on Friday to express their opposition to President Obama?s designation of the San Gabriel Mountains...
Average fuel economy of new autos at new record; progress may stall
New vehicles reached record-high fuel economy in 2013, according to a new Environmental Protection Agency report. The federal agency said Wednesday that 2013 model year vehicles achieved an average of 24.1 miles per gallon ? up 0.5 mpg...
Few U.S. states preparing for climate change, study says
Fewer than half of American states are working to protect themselves from climate change, despite more detailed warnings from scientists that communities are already being damaged, according to a new online clearinghouse of states?...
A man-made attempt to save the rarest fish on Earth
Olin Feuerbacher took a deep breath and plunged into the warm aquamarine water of a 100,000-gallon concrete and fiberglass tank in the middle of the Mojave Desert. Twenty feet beneath the surface, Feuerbacher inched his way across the bottom,...
L.A. business groups fear another defeat over minimum wage hike
It's been a dispiriting drumbeat for the Chamber of Commerce this year at Los Angeles City Hall. In a matter of weeks, three initiatives opposed by the chamber were embraced by the City Council: a ban on the use of hydraulic fracturing, or...
In wake of drought and fires, turtle habitat becomes death trap
Biologists strode along the cracked, dry mud surrounding this evaporating north Los Angeles County lake last week, pausing periodically to pick up an emaciated turtle and wash alkaline dust off its head and carapace. "A lot of these animals are...
California drought and climate warming: Studies find no clear link
Global warming contributed to extreme heat waves in many parts of the world last year, but cannot be definitively linked to the California drought, according to a report released Monday. The third annual analysis of extreme weather events...
West Coast warming linked to naturally occurring changes
Naturally occurring changes in winds, not human-caused climate change, are responsible for most of the warming on land and in the sea along the West Coast of North America over the last century, a study has found. The analysis challenges...
Innovations used in 12 cities around the world may help others
What makes a city work? And are there innovations that can make a city work better? We went looking for good ideas that are being tested in cities around the world, asking urban leaders who will be attending the CityLab conference in Los Angeles this week to tell us about one good idea that has...
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