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Reporting from Washington -- California's farms and vineyards could vanish by the end of the century, and its major cities could be in jeopardy, if Americans do not act to slow the advance of global warming, Secretary of Energy Steven Chu said Tuesday. snip Chu is not a climate scientist. He won his Nobel for work trapping atoms with laser light. (yet he plays one in the government) In a worst case, Chu said, up to 90% of the Sierra snowpack could disappear, all but eliminating a natural storage system for water vital to agriculture.

An agreement paving the way for the first oil drilling off the California coast in nearly 40 years has run into unexpected opposition that may sink it altogether Thursday. snip The three-member State Lands Commission has the power to scuttle the deal Thursday. Already the chairman, Lt. Gov. John Garamendi, has said he'll vote against it. The other two members - state controller John Chiang and state finance director Michael Genest - have not disclosed their intentions but Genest is leaning for it and Chiang against, setting up the possibility the plan could die on a 2-1 vote.

An agreement paving the way for the first oil drilling off the California coast in nearly 40 years has run into unexpected opposition that may sink it altogether Thursday. snip The three-member State Lands Commission has the power to scuttle the deal Thursday. Already the chairman, Lt. Gov. John Garamendi, has said he'll vote against it. The other two members - state controller John Chiang and state finance director Michael Genest - have not disclosed their intentions but Genest is leaning for it and Chiang against, setting up the possibility the plan could die on a 2-1 vote.

Funding for a $20,000 incentive for buyers of clean-fuel trucks has dried up. Some trucking firms have spent millions of dollars on greener fleets, expecting the cash. snip "It's like no good deed goes unpunished," said La Rosa, who spent an average of $130,000 on his trucks. "We followed their directions and their plans. We felt it was the port's responsibility to follow through on this. We're out over $15 million on these truck purchases." Brian Griley, president of Southern Counties Express Inc., a Rancho Dominguez company, has purchased 50 LNG trucks and 55 new diesel trucks. Without the port's...

WASHINGTON -- A new analysis shows that California would get a whopping $21.5 billion under an economic stimulus plan that's expected to be approved by the House next week, making it the biggest winner among the 50 states. snip State fiscal stabilization fund. California would get $7.8 billion under that program alone. The lion's share of the money for the stabilization fund -- 61 percent -- would have to be spent to support K-12 and post-secondary education, according to the NCSL. The remainder could be spent on public safety and other government services.

Reporting from Washington and Sacramento -- The economic stimulus package congressional leaders are drafting would wipe out nearly a quarter of California's budget shortfall, a potential windfall that could help end the impasse over how to close the nearly $42-billion gap. The House bill, which is likely to be voted on next week, would bring the state more than $11 billion in healthcare and education money that could go directly to reducing the deficit through mid-2010, state officials learned Thursday night. "This takes a big bite out of the state's budget gap," said Jean Ross, executive director of the California...

WASHINGTON -- State and local governments would benefit from more than $160 billion in federal aid under a plan pushed by House Democratic leaders in negotiations over the economic-recovery package taking shape on Capitol Hill. The House has taken the lead on the issue in closed-door discussions on the broader recovery package, which is sought by President-elect Barack Obama and is expected to have an overall price tag approaching $800 billion. Individuals familiar with the proposed state assistance said the broad outlines are likely to be accepted by the Senate, which is working on a plan of similar scope, as...

An agreement between two public agencies to cut diesel truck pollution from the Port of Oakland has turned into a tug of war over $5 million the port wants to keep in reserve and the Bay Area's air pollution board wants to use to clean the air. Snip "I hope this board steps up and says, 'Since you don't want to do it the nice way, we will do it the regulatory way. We will fine you,' " Haggerty said last month at a pollution board meeting.

Despite denials from her soon-to-be former employers, the Albright Group, former Clinton EPA head and soon-to-be climate change czar Carol Browner served as a de facto lobbyist for Dubai Ports World, owned by the United Arab Emirate of Dubai, which arranged to buy a company operating six major U.S. ports, including New York and New Jersey. Browner told the Obama transition team that she never served as a lobbyist in her time in Washington, and her employer, the Albright Group, owned by former secretary of state Madeleine Albright, also said that the firm does not lobby. But in 2006, when...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ua05RTaDE8o

SACRAMENTO - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the chairwoman of the state Air Resources Board both signaled Wednesday that regulators will approve a landmark plan to combat global warming, even though a vote has yet to be cast. The air board takes up the plan, which is contested by key business groups and some economists, Thursday. Asked why the state should push ahead during a recession, Schwarzenegger said: "Well, first of all, let me just say that I recommend very strongly that we move forward, because it doesn't make any sense that we are looking at our health and destroying our...

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- President-elect Barack Obama will nominate Nobel laureate Steven Chu as energy secretary and Lisa Jackson to lead the Environmental Protection Agency, according to media reports Wednesday. Obama is also expected to name Carol Browner as energy 'czar,' the reports said. Chu, a Chinese-American, won the Nobel Prize in physics in 1997.

California's air-quality regulators once again find their pursuit of aggressive public health safeguards in conflict with the economy. snip In all, 900,000 trucks and 170,000 businesses COULD be affected.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger officially named San Francisco Democrat Carole Migden to a high-paying seat on the state's waste board on Friday. The job pays $132,178 per year. The first was ex-Assemblyman John Laird. Then came former Sen. Sheila Kuehl. All three are Democrats. All three also happened to be members of the LGBT caucus. A couple years back, she pressed the vote button of an Assembly Republican for her own legislation. Earlier this year, she paid a state record $350,000 fine for campaign finance violations. She pleaded no contest to misdemeanor reckless driving after a 30-mile drive in her state-owned...

FRESNO, Calif. (AP) - Lowering air pollution in Southern California and the San Joaquin Valley would save more lives annually than ending all motor vehicle fatalities in the two regions, according to a new study. The study, which examined the costs of air pollution in two areas with the worst levels in the country, also said meeting federal ozone and fine particulate standards could save $28 billion annually in health care costs, school absences, missed work and lost income potential from premature deaths.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, seeking to influence a United Nations conference on climate change next month, is convening a global summit on greenhouse gas emissions next week in Los Angeles. snip The Schwarzenegger administration said it plans to account for those carbon emissions and said the value of the conference will outweigh those concerns.

No, you didn't read that headline incorrectly. This morning's report by Legislative Analyst Mac Taylor finds a state budget meltdown that certainly would rank among the very worst ever seen, if the numbers hold up: an almost $28 billion shortfall in revenues over the next 18 months, and... perhaps even more stunning... annual shortfalls in the range of $22 billion after that. Granted, these are only projections and they do not account for the implementation of solutions.

Assembly Speaker Karen Bass said late Monday that more than 40 of her colleagues have signed a friend-of-the-court brief supporting a petition to overturn Proposition 8 in the state Supreme Court. The petition filed last week by gay marriage advocates argues that a simple majority of voters can't make such a major change to the state Constitution. Among the signers: Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata, who called the initiative "a radical and dangerous precedent to set.," and incoming Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg.

Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Yahoo is in the midst of implementing a tax structure that shifts assets to overseas subsidiaries in order to enjoy the generally lower tax rates there, according to Wall Street analysts briefed by the company. Technology companies frequently use so-called "transfer pricing" structures to offshore profits, and avoid the relatively high U.S. corporate tax rate of roughly 40%. In Ireland, for example, the corporate tax rate hovers around 12.5%.

Expansion of the Big West of California refinery could get under way as soon as January after county supervisors approved the long-fought project Tuesday evening. The board’s unanimous decision came after the company agreed to a series of new conditions proposed by Supervisor Mike Maggard to ensure safe operations at the facility. snip The project’s environmental review underwent major revisions, a delay that Big West says cost it $75 million to $125 million.