High school students chronicle the lives of desert tortoises in new book.
by Louis Sahagun
5 Sep 2010 at 12:14am
Armed with digital cameras, 13 Southern California high school students ignored the discomfort of temperatures hovering above 100 degrees, lying on their stomachs in the dirt and cactus spines to document the behavior and habitat needs of desert tortoises. “It…
Gulf oil spill: New blowout preventer placed on BP’s troubled oil well
by Stephanie Chavez
4 Sep 2010 at 4:07pm
A new blowout preventer has been placed atop BP?s problem oil well, a move that should allow crews to drill into the well deep underground and kill it for good in about a week. The old blowout preventer ? a…
Salazar: Arctic oil drilling must wait
by Kim Murphy
4 Sep 2010 at 3:03pm
Interior Secretary Ken Salazar is making it clear that he’s in no hurry to open the door to new exploratory oil and gas drilling in the offshore Arctic — not, he said, until more is known about the potential pitfalls….
On PolitiCal: Fiorina announces support for rollback of state’s global warmin…
by Anthony Pesce
3 Sep 2010 at 11:00pm
One of the more memorable exchanges in Wednesday night’s debate between Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer and Republican challenger Carly Fiorina was Fiorina’s refusal to take a position on Proposition 23, which would suspend California’s landmark global warming law until unemployment…
Supposedly extinct red fox discovered near Yosemite National Park
by Carlos Lozano
3 Sep 2010 at 7:59pm
The genetic signature of canine slobber on a bait bag of chicken scraps and a fuzzy photograph snapped by a motion-sensitive camera north of Yosemite National Park have confirmed the existence of a supposedly extinct red fox, the U.S. Forest…
Up in the air…in an all-electric plane
by Tiffany Hsu
3 Sep 2010 at 3:55pm
The electric Cri-Cri airplane was airborne Thursday ? for all of seven minutes. The 4-engine aircraft, from Airbus parent corporation EADS, is the first of its kind. Its maiden flight took place at Le Bourget airport near Paris. The flight…
Billionaire Koch brothers back suspension of California climate law
by Margot Roosevelt
3 Sep 2010 at 6:16am
A company owned by oil billionaires Charles and David Koch has contributed $1 million to Proposition 23, a November ballot initiative to suspend California?s groundbreaking 2006 global-warming law. The contribution came from Flint Hills Resources LP, based in Wichita, Kan.,…
Large number of blue whales seen off Southern California coast
by Shelby Grad
3 Sep 2010 at 1:03am
An unusually large number of blue whales off the Southern California coastline is providing marine mammal enthusiasts with a rare opportunity to see Earth?s largest creatures lolling in the waves and spewing misty plumes. On Thursday, 77 amateur whale watchers…
Do smart meters boost energy bills? Not so, study concludes
by Tiffany Hsu
2 Sep 2010 at 9:42pm
P&E?s smart meters are performing accurately, according to an independent study released Thursday, after a rickety rollout that has led to thousands of consumer complaints. Customers in the spring began complaining of high energy bills almost as soon as PG&E…
Oil rig explosion: Fire out, no apparent leak from platform accident, Coast G…
by Geoff Mohan
2 Sep 2010 at 9:40pm
The U.S. Coast Guard said that the fire on an oil and gas production platform 80 miles off the Louisiana Coast has been extinguished, and there is no apparent sign of an oil slick. Read more here about the Mariner…
Gulf oil: new explosion boosts support for moratorium
by Margot Roosevelt
2 Sep 2010 at 8:15pm
The new explosion on a gulf oil production platform Thursday revved up support for the Obama administration?s moratorium on deepwater drilling, just as oil companies were mounting an offensive against the measure. ?Today?s news comes as no surprise,? said Kieran…
Gulf oil spill: BP’s ad spending climbs
by Bettina Boxall
1 Sep 2010 at 10:32pm
As BP oil spread across the gulf this summer, the company spread advertising money across the media, spending more than $93 million to counter images of the mounting disaster. That was more than triple the amount the company spent on…
Mayor Villaraigosa: ‘Go home, Texas oil companies!’
by Margot Roosevelt
1 Sep 2010 at 8:49pm
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa on Tuesday rebuked Valero Energy Corp. and Tesoro Corp., which operate refineries in Wilmington, for bankrolling a measure that would effectively scuttle the state’s efforts to curb greenhouse gas emissions. “Go home, Texas oil companies,” Villaraigosa urged…
California Senate tells motorcyclists to pipe down [Updated]
by Susan Carpenter
31 Aug 2010 at 9:58pm
Motorcyclists who swap their bikes’ stock exhaust systems for so-called loud pipes may be more likely to get a traffic ticket under a California bill that passed the Senate on Monday. SB 435, also known as the Motorcycle Anti-Tampering Act,…
Time to update the Energy Star program?
by Tiffany Hsu
30 Aug 2010 at 10:48pm
The government?s Energy Star system, used to rate products and retrofitted buildings for energy efficiency, could use a fixer-upper of its own, a legislator said Monday. The voluntary program uses relative instead of absolute ratings, comparing subjects to others in…
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