Santa Clara County Environment Articles

The California Coastal Commission has broad authority to protect the state's shoreline. Now, some want to curtail its power over affordable housing proposals.

The agreement is intended to ensure that restoration and redevelopment of the site is done in a way that protects public health and the environment,.

The California legislature is readying a $15.5 billion bond issue to address climate resiliency for voters to approve on the 2024 state ballot, after the budget shortfall forced billions in cuts to climate spending.

As climate change continues to drive temperatures to new extremes, employees in many jobs face increasing risk of injury and death. Here’s what California is doing to take the heat off workers.

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.

California stands as America’s agricultural powerhouse, growing half of its fruits and vegetables. Here’s how California farming has shaped the state, from the early missions to today’s “factories in the field.”

Almost one million California residents are forced to drink from contaminated water supplies, or pay for bottled water. Economic inequality makes the crisis worse. What is the state doing to fix it?

By almost any measure, the balance between advancing projects critical to California's future and environmental protection under the California Environmental Quality Act has been lost. The failure to reform CEQA is not for a lack of knowing what the solutions …

2023’s torrential rainstorms have eased California's drought conditions. But there’s a lot more to drought than the amount of rain, and this drought isn't over yet.

Climate change driven storms are creating new problems for Gavin Newsom and California's budget process, which is already reeling from a projected $25 billion deficit that emerged after a $97 billion surplus disappeared.

The wild and suspenseful saga that is the winter of 2023 continues, with the latest chapter bringing rare snowfall to South Valley—not just once, but multiple times since last week—blanketing the hills above Morgan Hill, Gilroy and Hollister with accumulated …

The hills east of San Jose and mountains of San Benito County are likely to see more snow and more windy, dangerous conditions this afternoon, based on the latest winter weather advisory from the National Weather Service. Forecasters late Sunday, …

Kevin McCarthy has reached the top position in the U.S. House, but has still fallen short in addressing the ongoing water crisis in his owndistrict, a new CNN.com report says.

A dozen days of wet and wild weather haven’t ended the drought, and won't cure the driest period in the West in the past 1,200 years.

With a projected $25 billion deficit, Newsom proposes slashing $6 billion from climate change programs even as a historic storm likely driven by climate change batters the state.

Experts are predicting that by next summer or fall, El Niño will probably be in place, which could bode well for California and the West’s water outlook for several years.

2022 was a year that needed a lot of explaining. And California Local was there. Here are our 10 most important explanatory journalism stories from the year gone by, from immigration to cryptocurrency to wealth inequality and more.

A violations report released this month identified more than 2,135 violations and millions of dollars in fines at the Lehigh Cement Plant's 3,500-acre site between 2012 and 2021.

Despite December storms, water supplies remain low in many areas. Some managers expect to impose severe restrictions on their customers.