Boiling Point: Let's get real about climate change, affordable energy

California Gov. Gavin Newsom speaks during a news conference

By Sammy RothClimate Columnist

Dec. 24, 2024 6 AM PT

Aliso Canyon is here to stay.

After eight years of study, the California Public Utilities Commission voted unanimously last week not to close the San Fernando Valley gas-storage field, which sprung a record-breaking methane leak in 2015. Instead, the agency will keep studying whether it’s possible to shut down the storage field, probably not until the 2030s, as California continues to shift from fossil fuels to clean energy.

Here’s the full story from The Times’ Andrew J. Campa.

“Aliso Canyon must be closed for good, but without harming working families with skyrocketing utility bills,” Gov. Gavin Newsom, who appoints the utilities commissioners, said in a statement after the vote.

He isn’t the only politician talking about affordability and clean energy as if they’re in conflict. As Sacramento Democrats gear up for a legislative session focused on cost-of-living issues — including gasoline and electricity prices — Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas (D-Hollister) has vowed that California “will continue to lead on climate, but not on the backs of poor and working people,” per this story by Politico’s Wes Venteicher.

That kind of rhetoric is unfortunate because it hides the costs of oil and gas that we tend to ignore, or to accept as inevitable: higher rates of asthma, heart attacks, cancer and deaths; infrastructure damage from heat waves; more dangerous storms and sea level rise driven by climate change; and exposure to global oil and gas markets that can be manipulated or thrown into chaos by political adversaries such as Russia.

If fixing the climate crisis were easy, we would have done it already. Change is hard.

But letting the climate crisis get even worse is way more expensive than phasing out fossil fuels.

That’s why the Biden administration is pushing out so much clean energy funding on its way out the door. The federal Energy Department made a $15-billion conditional loan guarantee to Pacific Gas & Electric, which will will fund hydropower, batteries, virtual power plants and more, as Jeff St. John reports for Canary Media.

In other federal climate action:

Officials proposed protecting monarch butterflies, many of which winter along the California coast, under the Endangered Species Act. The Trump administration could try to change course. (Lila Seidman, L.A. Times)
The Biden administration submitted the United States’ new climate emissions target under the international Paris agreement: 61% to 66% below 2005 levels by 2035. (Fiona Harvey, the Guardian)

President Biden speaks during a Hanukkah reception at the White House on Dec. 16

In other big federal news, the Environmental Protection Agency approved California’s landmark rule banning the sale of new gasoline-only passenger cars by 2035 — a priority for Newsom. As my colleague Tony Briscoe reports, though, it’s pretty much guaranteed the Trump administration will try to overturn the clean-car rule.

There’s also a chance the U.S. Supreme Court will eliminate California’s ability to set its own clean-car rules at all — as has been the state’s long-standing right under federal law. Tony wrote about that possibility here.

President-elect Trump could further slow California’s work to phase out oil and gas. The state’s high-speed train to connect Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay Area was already way over budget and years behind schedule, and now the Trump administration could block badly needed federal funds, The Times’ Colleen Shalby reports.

At the same time, California’s climate programs don’t lack internal critics. Environmental groups, for instance, are suing California over the state’s low carbon fuel standard, which they say drives air and water pollution from San Joaquin Valley factory farms. Details here from the Sacramento Bee’s Ari Plachta.

Not all is lost; far from it. Sixteen young people won a huge victory at the Montana Supreme Court, which ruled in a landmark decision that the state Constitution’s guarantee of a “clean and healthful environment” includes the right to a stable climate, as Amanda Eggert reports for the Montana Free Press. The ruling will force politicians in the deep-red state to consider climate as they make decisions involving energy and the environment.

On that note, here’s what else is happening around the West:

THE ENERGY TRANSITION

The Unit 1 generator at Pacific Gas & Electric's Diablo Canyon nuclear plant.

The California Public Utilities Commission approved $723 million — to be paid by customers of Pacific Gas & Electric, Southern California Edison and San Diego Gas & Electric — to cover continued operations of the Diablo Canyon nuclear plant through 2030. Details here from The Times’ Noah Haggerty.

Meanwhile, large-scale solar and wind development continue to divide environmentalists:

A $450-million Northern California solar farm is supposed to help the Sacramento area achieve 100% clean power by 2030. Some conservationists say it would destroy sensitive habitat. (Ari Plachta, Sacramento Bee)
Now that a controversial solar project in the Bay Area is moving toward construction, even the project’s environmental critics say its habitat conservation plan is decent. (Tanvi Dutta Gupta, Bay Nature)
The Yakama Nation is going to court over what would be Washington state’s largest wind farm, arguing that Gov. Jay Inslee overrode tribal concerns to greenlight the project. (Natalia Mesa, High Country News)

Will the Trump administration help or hurt large-scale solar development on public lands? Or will the switch from Biden to Trump ultimately change nothing? The Desert Sun’s Janet Wilson has a fabulous in-depth story.

Last but not least, the Arizona Republic’s Brandon Loomis wrote about the renewed push for copper mining in ecologically sensitive Southwestern mountain ranges, driven by multinational companies eager to supply copper for renewable energy technologies — with potentially dangerous consequences for rivers and groundwater.

WATER, WATER EVERYWHERE

The California Aqueduct, part of the State Water Project, runs through farmland

The Biden administration approved new operating rules for California’s two main water delivery systems, which redirect enormous amounts of flow from Northern California rivers to San Joaquin Valley farms and Southern California cities. But are the new rules too generous to farms and cities, or insufficiently protective of parched rivers and endangered fish species? My colleague Ian James has the story.

A few other news items:

A landmark federal report outlines steps the U.S. government can take to help state and local governments curb groundwater depletion — a growing problem, especially with climate change. (Ian James, L.A. Times)
A five-mile stretch of California’s Merced River, mysteriously dried up in 2022. State officials now think they know why: Farmers took too much for the river to bear. (Kurtis Alexander, San Francisco Chronicle)
President Biden signed a bill that will make it easier for nonprofits to clean up abandoned mines that pollute water supplies — without worrying about getting sued if they miss anything. (John Leos, Arizona Republic)

Meanwhile, along the California coast:

San Franciscans voted to turn a two-mile stretch of coastal highway threatened by sea level rise into a public park. Now a local politician who supported the plan faces a recall campaign. (Hannah Wiley, L.A. Times)
The government funding bill signed by President Biden includes $250 million to cut down on sewage flowing onto San Diego County beaches from the Mexican city of Tijuana. (Tammy Murga, San Diego Union-Tribune)

ON THE LANDSCAPE

A firefighting jet drops retardant over Malibu Canyon during the Franklin fire

California has fined a San Fernando Valley landscaping company $276,000 for failing to protect its workers from extreme heat — the first such enforcement action under the state’s new heat protection rules.

Here’s the story from The Times’ Suhauna Hussain, who writes that the company “lacked written procedures for how to protect employees in high temperatures that often exceeded 95 degrees, and employees were forced to purchase their own drinking water, in violation of the rules, which require that employers provide fresh drinking water free of charge,” per a citation from the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health.

Nevada, meanwhile, just joined California as one of a few states with heat-protection rules for workers, although it sounds like they were watered down after industry pushback, per the Nevada Independent’s Amy Alonzo.

If talking about heat in December isn’t weird enough, let’s talk fire too:

Malibu was mostly spared by this month’s Franklin fire (20 structures destroyed). But the blaze was the latest manifestation of a vicious cycle in which flammable invasive grasses are choking out fire-resistant vegetation in the Santa Monica Mountains. One possible solution? Planting oak trees. (Noah Haggerty, L.A. Times)
The U.S. Forest Service closed all trails leading to Mt. Baldy’s summit until next December, citing a recent fire. Many Southern California hikers are furious, convinced the move was unnecessary. (Jack Dolan, L.A. Times)
California is implementing insurance reforms that officials say will make home insurance more accessible to people in wildfire-prone neighborhoods, even as rising temperatures drive more destructive fires. Consumer advocates worry the reforms will be a boon for insurance companies. (Laurence Darmiento, L.A. Times)

Before we wrap for the holidays, a quick jaunt through our public lands:

An environmental group is suing Utah Gov. Spencer Cox over his efforts to wrest control of public lands from the federal government, calling them illegal. (Anastasia Hufham and Shannon Sollitt, Salt Lake Tribune)
New Mexico officials hope President Biden will block a proposed power line across Caja del Rio, a high-desert volcanic plateau, by declaring the landscape a national monument. (Austin Fisher, Source New Mexico)
Congress passed a bipartisan outdoor recreation bill that, if signed by Biden, will support long-distance bike trails, climbing with fixed bolts, affordable housing and more on public lands. (Caitlyn Kim, CPR News)

And also, some wildlife stories:

Scientists are raising baby desert tortoises on a Marine Corps base to try to learn new ways to protect them as climate change, development and disease push them toward extinction. (Alex Wigglesworth, L.A. Times)
The mountain lion that moved into Griffith Park after P-22 was probably killed by a car. (Lila Seidman, L.A. Times)
The developer of a planned luxury community in the Verdugo Mountains is suing conservation activists who oppose the project, saying they trespassed to gather intel on protected wildlife. (Jack Flemming, L.A. Times)

ONE MORE THING

A fallen tree trunk in Big Basin Redwoods State Park, which mostly burned in 2020

Just a few years after the CZU Lightning Complex fire, majestic trees are rising again in Big Basin Redwoods State Park. If you’re looking for hope this holiday season, my colleague Christopher Reynolds has got you covered.

No Thursday edition of Boiling Point this week — see you next week. Happy holidays, everyone.

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