"It All Starts Thursday With a Gentle Surge of Water To Be Released From Friant Dam Into the San Joaquin River. a Massive, Unprecedented and Unpredictable River Restoration Project Will Begin, Reawakening Miles of Dried Riverbed and Salmon Runs That Have Been Extinct for Six Decades."

"Solar energy developer BrightSource Energy, Inc. has withdrawn plans for a 5,000 acre solar thermal facility to be located in the Broadwell Valley in California's Mojave Desert."

California taxpayers could be on the hook for millions of dollars in damages if the Schwarzenegger administration moves ahead with plans to close as many as 100 state parks, according to an internal memo drafted by the state parks department's attorneys.

"Abandoned mercury mines throughout central California's rugged coastal mountains are polluting the state's major waterways, rendering fish unsafe to eat and risking the health of at least 100,000 impoverished people."

"The governor says California electric utilities must get 33% of their power from renewable sources by 2020, but he plans to veto Democratic bills that push to produce it in state."

A bill to allow offshore oil leasing and a bill to ban BPA in baby bottles both died in the California legislature as it adjourned.

"Some dairy farmers are investing in machines that turn gases from cow poop into usable energy. The technology keeps potent climate change gases out of the atmosphere. But ... some California farmers are getting into trouble with air pollution officials."

This week, California state parks officials are expected to release a list of up to 100 California parks that will be closed to save money, and the impacts will be felt far and wide.

"Yorba Linda, close to one of last year's major burn areas, is among cities trapping and killing the predators. Animal activists object, and more debate is planned."

"California's third year of drought has worsened the already dire outlook for endangered coho salmon, as coastal creeks used for spawning dwindle into disconnected pools where fish get trapped and die."

"The Station fire in the San Gabriel Mountains has taken an enormous toll on the environment."

"Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger sent a letter to Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar and Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke asking them to reverse the federal government’s restrictions on water use intended to protect fish in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta."

"In a mile-high duel, driven firefighters are determined to keep flames from the historic facility."

"San Francisco Bay and the delta are dying. Salmon runs are collapsing. Droughts are getting worse. And big agriculture still wants more water."

"The Station blaze [near L.A.] has destroyed more than 50 buildings and burned more than 105,000 acres of mountainous brush. Little hope of containment is seen as long as hot, dry conditions continue."