Monterey County Environment Digest

A new bill in Congress proposes banning new offshore fossil fuel drilling along the coast from Monterey to Mendocino County, U.S. Rep. Jimmy Panetta, D-Carmel Valley, said this week. The Central Coast of California Conservation Act would prohibit new exploration, development or production leases for natural gas or oil along the Central Coast, and a portion of the North Coast.

A huge algae bloom is responsible for the deaths of sea lions, pelicans and whales off the California coast.

A new online urban tree canopy mapping tool for California has been released by CalFire.

Named after the founder of Silicon Valley's Hewlett Packard, David Packard, the new $50 million research vessel arrived at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute to begin its mission of deep sea science exploration.

Jane Goodall recently gave a lecture about “Hope for Sea Otters” in Carmel and led two "Sea Otter Safaris" in Elkhorn Slough.

While it’s an unprecedented third year in a row for no commercially caught salmon, brief windows will be allowed for sportsfishing in California.

The Senate Judiciary Committee spiked a bill to let wildfire victims sue oil companies over climate change. Labor unions, not Big Oil, led the opposition.

The pipeline caused a major oil spill a decade ago, fouling the ocean off Santa Barbara County. The new owners say they don’t need new permits for repairs. The fine is the Coastal Commission’s largest.

Trump ordered his attorney general to move against state climate programs that clash with his energy agenda. Legal experts say his claims about the laws being unconstitutional are an overreach.

The California Air Resources Board is going to spend $100 million to track greenhouse gas emissions with satellites.

In the recurring legislative fight between YIMBY legislators and defenders of California’s signature environmental law, one bill could be a final legislative showdown.

The ports of LA and Long Beach are the biggest sources of air pollution in the LA basin. Air quality officials have drafted new rules to help electrify the ports. But community groups representing 400,000 residents say they don’t go far enough or fast enough to clean up their dirty air.

Read on for an update in the cleanup and testing for health risk following the January 16 fire at the Moss Landing battery storage facility.

Evacuating the Tahoe basin in summer could take 14 hours, and 99% of properties are at risk — yet new resorts are being built in high-danger fire areas.

Billions of state and federal dollars are spent on Lake Tahoe. But is all this attention actually protecting this unique treasure? Pollutants pour in, while development continues. Funding has shifted in focus to tourism and traffic projects, while money spent directly on fixing the lake has declined.

Officials for the Moss Landing battery storage facility which caught fire on January 16 expect the cleanup to take up to one year. Read on for details.

More flareups are possible at the Moss Landing batter storage facility are possible as crews work to delink batteries and clean up. Read on for more information.

Phase 1 of the clean up following the fires at the Moss Landing battery storage facility has begun. Read on to learn more about the process and how long it is expected to take.

A new bill by a Bay Area state senator aims to create a special fund to help clean up so-called forever chemicals in California’s water supply. Senate Bill 454 was introduced by Jerry McNerney, D-Pleasanton, on February 18 and, if passed by the state Legislature and signed by the governor, would create the PFAS Mitigation Fund.

Read on to learn more about the Steelhead Rescue and Rearing Program run by the Monterey Peninsula Water Management District to support the population of steelhead trout on the Carmel River.

AS HOST TO the largest battery storage facility in the world, on a site that just had its fourth fire in four years, the people of Monterey County have grown to realize that Moss Landing is a learning laboratory for California’s green energy transition.

The largest marine sanctuary in the continental U.S. starts at the ocean’s edge in San Francisco. It’s bigger than Yellowstone National Park. And it could use a little help.The Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary stretches from Marin County to the southern end of Big Sur and has a host of volunteer opportunities, from water quality monitoring to on-the-water kayaking naturalist, according to a press release Friday.

For the past three years, more than 200,000 western monarch butterflies spent their winters along the California coast — huddling together in tall tree groves, finding respite from the wind from November to February.

The statewide count of overwintering monarch butterflies shows a sharp drop in number. Read on to learn more.

Following a three-year process of community and stakeholder input, Monterey County is ready to release the draft Climate Action Plan. Read on for more information about the plan and the planning process.

CHRIS BENNER AND MANUEL PASTOR have had front row seats to the changes taking place in the so-called Lithium Valley, the region around the Salton Sea, where a network of companies have hatched a plan for local and state government entities to mine vast quantities of lithium to use in the batteries that power electric vehicles.

The number of monarch butterflies overwintering in California are at a near-record low, and the wiping out of the Topanga butterfly habitat by the LA fires has made matters worse. Read on to learn more.

Energy demands from big tech, including for AI, has elected officials giving an old power source a second look.

HUGE FLAMES BLAZED through the roof of the industrial building. Billowing smoke rose slowly to a plume and moved inland. Teresa Villaruz and her family watched from their car on Highway 1.

The LA fires have left domestic workers and day laborers jobless. They may soon be hired for wildfire cleanup work, where they can be exposed to ash and other toxins.

Read on to learn more about the fire which broke out on January 16 at a battery storage plant located on the grounds of the Moss Landing power station.

Read on to learn more about the 327-acre Pico Blanco property on the Little Sur River and the agreement by which the Esselen Tribe of Monterey County is to conserve and steward it moving forward.