"An environmental group has sued the U.S. Energy Department over its decision to award over $1 billion to help keep California’s last nuclear power plant running beyond a planned closure that was set for 2025. The move opens another battlefront in the fight over the future of Diablo Canyon’s twin reactors."

"Despite its aggressive reputation for cutting greenhouse gas emissions, California releases more of a climate-warming pesticide than all other states combined, most of it from homes fumigated for termites, according to a study published Wednesday."

"Growers’ use of the neurotoxic weed killer paraquat is concentrated in just five agricultural counties, leaving low-income Latinos disproportionately exposed to a chemical linked to Parkinson’s disease, a new analysis shows."

"The oil and gas company-owned Richmond Standard tells mostly positive stories about the major industry that dominates this California city and its skyline."

"A group of 75 animal rights organizations, including several in California, signed a joint letter sent to Interior Secretary Deb Haaland on Monday urging her to nix a proposal by the U.S. Department of Fish & Wildlife to shoot nearly half a million “invasive” owls over the next 30 years."

"The city of Berkeley, California, has agreed to repeal the nation’s first-ever gas ban, raising questions about the fate of similar restrictions on fossil fuels across the West."

"Chevron has agreed to pay a record-setting $13 million to two California agencies in the wake of investigations by The Desert Sun and ProPublica of dozens of oil spills, and of lax enforcement by the state's oil and gas division. But the announcement late Wednesday masks ongoing issues."

"Over the past 20 years, Victor Ramirez has worked in warehouse after warehouse across southern California. And in almost all of them, he's felt painful, unbearable, oppressive heat. A few years ago, he fainted on the job."

"California’s Yurok Tribe, which had 90% of its territory taken from it during the Gold Rush of the mid-1800s, will be getting a slice of its land back to serve as a new gateway to Redwood National and State Parks visited by 1 million people a year."