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Sacramento County Environment Articles



Image caption: Ocean waves may be good for more than surfing. They may play a role in reducing California's greenhouse gas emissions.
California Looks to Ocean Waves For New Clean Energy Source

Only a few small demonstration projects off the West Coast have harnessed the power of waves and tides. Costs are high and hurdles are challenging.

Image caption: Almost half of all low-income Black adults in California experience food insecurity.
Hunger and Food Insecurity in California: What It Is, What to Do About It

Hunger and food insecurity have become persistent problems in California. With the world’s fifth-largest economy, what steps can we take to make sure that everyone has enough to eat?

Image caption: Even as the state has set ambitious clean energy goals, California is once again slashing incentives for rooftop solar power.
California Slashes Rooftop Solar Incentives—Again

The utilities commission reduced payments to apartments, schools and businesses selling solar power to the grid despite a barrage of criticism. Commissioners say it reverses unfair subsidies.

Image caption: Lobbyists have been big spenders in 2023, with oil companies alone spreading around more than $15 million.
Led by Oil Companies, Lobbyists Flood State Govt With Cash

By the end of September 2023, more than $358 million had been spent this year on lobbying California’s Legislature, agencies, and Public Utilities Commission.

Image caption: There’s no “magic solution” to the state’s homeowner fire insurance crisis, Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara’s office says.
Despite Promises, Homeowners Still Face Fire Insurance Crisis

While state regulators craft new regulations and consult with the insurance industry, many Californians are paying extra-high premiums—or going without insurance entirely.

Image caption: Californians continue to set clocks back every fall, and ahead each spring.
Daylight Saving Time, Explained

After a 2018 vote authorizing the state legislature to make daylight saving time year-round, Californians are still changing their clocks twice per year. How did we get here?

Sacramento News and Review logo LOCAL NEWS
Essay: Embracing the great outdoors is a vital step in developing Sacramento’s next generation

By Trent Murphy In today's fast-paced digital age, where screens dominate the landscape of childhood experiences, it's easy to overlook the profound impact that nature...

Image caption: Warehouse storage is just one aspect of the highly complex logistics industry that keeps supply chains running.
Logistics: the Crucial Industry You’ve Never Heard Of

Logistics is one of the largest industries in California and keeps the state economy running. But it also comes with a heavy cost to the environment. Here are the facts on the most important industry you don't know much about, …

Image caption: Since 1972, the California Coastal Commission has ruled over the state’s shoreline.
California Coastal Commission: Where It Comes From, What It Does

What is the California Coastal Commission? How one of the state’s most powerful agency protects public access to the state’s scenic coast from Mexico to Oregon.

Image caption: There is a wind-turbine arms race underway in China, which already manufactures windmills whose blades sweep an area the size of 10 football fields per spin.
Wind Turbine Developments off Central Coast on ‘Fast Track’

Ocean wind farms are essential to electrify California’s grid with 100% clean energy. But they’re a giant, costly experiment—no one knows how hundreds of towering turbines will transform the remote North Coast.

Image caption: Conservation director Bryan Largay helps the Land Trust of Santa Cruz County choose its priorities.
A Conversation with California Conservationist Bryan Largay

The conservation director of Land Trust of Santa Cruz talks about the highlights of his work, and some of the issues he sees in maintaining California’s parks.

Image caption: Dianne Feinstein began her career in government six years before current Gov. Gavin Newsom was born.
Dianne Feinstein Dies, ‘Charted Own Path’ in Legendary Career

Dianne Feinstein, California’s longtime senior U.S. senator, has died at age 90, after a legendary career in public life that began in 1961 and took off amidst the turbulent, violent era of San Francisco in the 1970s.

Image caption: California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara has a plan that may be the last chance to keep home insurers covering homes in the state.
New Plan to Fix Home Insurance Crisis: What You Need to Know

Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara unveils a plan to shore up the California insurance market for homeowners. Insurers would return to wildfire zones, but would have an easier path to rate increases.

Image caption: As California's legislative session ends, lawmakers take no steps to address the state's fire insurance crisis.
Legislature Fails to Address California Fire Insurance Crisis

Legislators weren’t able to reach a compromise that helps insurers with wildfire risk while also protecting homeowners. Interest groups hope to find one in meetings this fall.

Image caption: With electric vehicles becoming more common, California's subsidy program is shifting to those who can least afford to buy one.
California to Focus Most Electric Car Rebates on Low-Income Buyers

Now that electric cars are mainstream, higher-income Californians will no longer qualify for state subsidies. Lower-income buyers could get up to $12,000.

Image caption: California Forever, a company that wants to use Silicon Valley cash to develop a new city, promises to open a "conversation" with Solano County residents about it.
California Forever: Tech Investors Begin PR Campaign for New City

California Forever, the company backed by billionaire Silicon Valley investors that wants to build a new city in Solano County, has posted a new website in an attempt to start a "conversation" about the massive project.

Image caption: One of four hydroelectric dams on the Klamath River targeted for demolition.
Dam Demolition Gets Going. Can Klamath River be Saved?

As four aging hydroelectric dams are demolished, tribes and communities along the Klamath River wait anxiously to see what the future holds. “Once a river is dammed, is it damned forever?” experts ask.

Image caption: About 52,000 acres land in Solano County, southwest of Sacramento and east of the Napa Valley, will become a new “megacity” if a group of tech titans get their way.
Tech Titans Revealed as Buyers of $1 Billion of Land in Solano County

The mysterious buyers of $1 billion worth of Solano County land have been revealed as a consortium of Silicon Valley billionaires who want to build a new city from scratch.

Image caption: The Pajaro River levee broke during the 2023 atmospheric river storms, flooding the town of Pajaro.
Is California Ready for More Extreme Weather Driven by Climate Change?

This year, a series of extreme events in California and around the country have wreaked havoc, driven by climate change. How prepared are we for things to get worse?

Sacramento News and Review logo LOCAL NEWS
SMUD, Sutter County officials grapple with the controversial possibilities of carbon-capture near Yuba City

By Russell Nichols Using less water and natural gas than older models, the Sutter Energy Center came online in 2001, claiming to be one of...