San Joaquin County Environment Articles

California can increase water savings in urban and suburban areas by 30 to 48 percent using nothing but existing technology, a new report from the Pacific Institute says.

Gas prices are going up. But America has long paid too little for gasoline, along with a low gas tax rate. Is it time for all of that to change?

California’s outdated water rights laws have failed to account for the effects of climate change, says a new expert report, which makes some strong recommendations.

Thousands of miles of railroad track, including some in Santa Cruz County, now sit idle. The fate of those largely abandoned tracks has become a burning controversy.

The climate change era has created a whole new set of terms for a wide variety of storms and other weather phenomena. Here are some of the most important.

California has a new law to ban leaf blowers, which both annoy neighbors and pollute the air. Here’s why the law might not do enough, explained.

The pesky mosquito can be deadly as well as annoying. Here’s how local governments in California have been waging war on mosquitoes for more than a century.

What do resource conservation districts protect? Pretty much everything that’s worth saving.

Why is California still experiencing offshore oil spills half-a-century after the catastrophic Santa Barbara disaster? The answer is found in the state’s longtime, close relationship with the oil business.

Here’s why cargo ship traffic has been dangerously heavy at California’s ports in 2021, and how the backup may have caused a disaster.

The state’s largest power utility faced new criminal charges Sept. 24, but PG&E has a long and disturbing history of causing wildfires. Why? And how can the company change?

Despite a history of wildfires in the area, the state wants to build nearly 150 new campsites in Auburn State Recreation Area in El Dorado and Placer counties.

Residential wells are drying up in the state’s main agricultural region at the same time that agricultural businesses consume almost 90 percent of the water there.

Even as California’s wildfires grow more intense seemingly every year, insurers are cancelling policies for homeowners in the path of the fires.

Noise is a form of pollution that threatens public health like any other type of environmental pollution. Here's what federal, state and local governments are doing to quiet things down.

What’s a LAFCO? That’s the odd-sounding acronym for the independent boards that get a grip on suburban sprawl and government inefficiency.

A combination of factors all related to climate change are fueling the ‘unprecedented’ growth of the Caldor Fire in El Dorado County.

As a new wildfire burned through Nevada and Placer counties, federal officials said they would now be more aggressive fighting fires.

After admitting a power line may have started the Dixie Megafire in Butte County, PG&E now says it will place 10,000 miles of power lines underground.

As fire, heat waves and drought threaten the state’s water and power supplies, the governor calls for consumers to cut back on use.