Your Top Science Stories This Week
Dear Reader,
This week President Donald Trump weakened the Obama-era Clean Power Plan, providing a huge boost to the coal industry. Our question as California journalists is what to report to you. Do we take a pass on federal rules and laws that won't affect California, and let NPR report the news, because California has stricter rules? Or do we report on them, knowing the regulations may never be enacted because California Attorney General Xavier Becerra and a bunch of other states and environmental agencies will pile on lawsuits, tying up the issue in the courts for years? We aimed for a middle road, because the Clean Power Plan was a centerpiece of America's commitment to fight climate change. Meanwhile, California continues its iconoclastic commitment to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and improving the environment in other ways, which you can read about in our stories below, covering everything from Governor Gavin Newsom's "own damn satellite," to microbes that make and then eat plastic, to a hopeful moment for a whale. We're glad to hear your thoughts about our stories and coverage.
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Kat Snow
Senior Editor, Science
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| | | Everyone agrees that California's dirty drinking water is a crisis. Not everyone agrees on how to pay to clean it up. | | |
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| | | Officials say that Gov. Gavin Newsom's "damn satellite" will help with wildfire management. | | |
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| | | The replacement rule gives individual states wide discretion to decide whether to require limited efficiency upgrades at individual coal-fired power plants. | | |
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| | | Entrepreneurs are eager to find substitutes for plastic that naturally degrade. One option is a "natural" plastic made by microbes and then eaten by them. But the process is still in the early days. | | |
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| | | The whale has not been seen since Saturday, and is likely either in the open bay or has returned to the ocean. | | |
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| | | What particles in your home's dust are you inhaling and ingesting as you go about your day? Well, it's not a pretty picture ... | | |
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