California lawmakers are expressing interest in pursuing legislation to potentially add a "fast-track" option for listing chemicals for possible phaseouts or bans under the toxics department's Safer Consumer Products (SCP) green chemistry program, primarily to address criticism that the program's current review process is too slow.

California trucking industry representatives are telling state air board officials they would support widespread remote sensing activities to identify highly polluting diesel trucks as part of a new heavy-duty vehicle inspection and maintenance program instead of mandating on-board diagnostics (OBD) data and reports to prove compliance.

Powerful industry groups such as investor-owned utilities (IOUs), finance companies, renewable power generators and large energy consumers are clashing over the California Public Utilities Commission's (CPUC) new rulemaking to develop a wildfire cost-recovery policy that may have enormous implications for the future of the state's utilities.

California-led states, environmentalists and an industry coalition are detailing their legal arguments in litigation targeting U.S. EPA's determination that it must weaken Obama-era vehicle greenhouse gas standards, arguing the move violates EPA's own regulations and was not done with a reasonable basis.

Oil and biofuels groups are adding to the lengthy list of organizations filing suit over U.S. EPA's 2019 renewable fuel standard, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit is consolidating the fresh challenges with an existing case that combines a host of already-filed challenges to the 2019 fuel targets.