San Benito County Sustainability Articles

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.

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.

California ranks among the top states suffering economic damage from climate-related disasters. The report describes food shortages, floods, droughts, wildfires, pollution, disease—all linked to climate change.

California grants climate credits for fuel made from cow manure, but there’s a paradox: The state’s program encourages collection of methane yet promotes natural gas.

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.

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.

A climate-friendly water packaging pilot program has been implemented at St. Louise Regional Hospital (SLRH) in Gilroy. Starting this month, all packaged water at SLRH will be distributed in environmentally friendly cardboard containers which are absent of microplastics or BPAs, …

California has used reclamation districts to turn millions of acres of unusable swamps into fertile agricultural land, starting in the earliest days of the Gold Rush. Here’s how it happened.

The Hollister City Council voted Aug. 7 to partner with Sunnyslope Water District and approve wastewater service for the future Gavilan College site, Fairview Corners subdivision and Cielo Vista. The city’s Domestic Wastewater Treatment Plant would take in the additional …

A conversation with Stacy Caldwell, CEO of Tahoe Truckee Community Foundation

The Hollister City Council meeting went on until almost midnight June 20 as council members engaged in a lengthy discussion regarding potential expansion of services for the city’s Domestic Wastewater Treatment Plant. Two resolutions to have the city of San …

Zoning laws that restrict new housing development cause environmental damage, racial and class segregation, and force people into cars creating traffic. Now, a new movement wants to abolish zoning in the United States.

Renewable energy sources provided 37 percent of California electricity in 2021, a new record for the state as it moves toward its 2045 goal of 100 percent clean energy. Battery storage will play a huge role in reaching that goal.

The future of farming in California is changing as the planet warms, altering the rain and heat patterns that guide which crops are grown where. “We’re adjusting for survival,” one grower said.

State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond announced April 20 that Hollister High School is one of 14 schools in the state to have earned a 2023 California Green Ribbon Schools award. “We congratulate this year’s honorees,” Thurmond said. “California …

The latest statewide snowpack measurement from the California Department of Water Resources is another indication that the tremendously wet winter might have been too much of a good thing. The agency’s readings from 130 snow sensors placed throughout the Sierra …

A sizeable coalition has called for California's water regulator to take emergency measures to protect Mono Lake and suspend diversions to Los Angeles.