Buried under 12 feet of snow, Northern Californians hope their blizzard will alleviate the state’s drought

Monster snowfall in the Sierra Nevada has shut down national parks and buried neighborhoods.

By Joshua Partlow, Washington Post 

SODA SPRINGS, Calif. — To keep out the snow, most of the windows of Andrew Schwartz’s cabin are boarded up with plywood, creating a gloom so persistent that he keeps his house plant alive with a grow light and consumes daily vitamin D from a pillbox in his desk.

Snow falls in such abundance around Schwartz’s home — which doubles as the UC Berkeley Central Sierra Snow Laboratory — that prior residents of his research station have been known to ski directly into a third-story window. The drifts bury cars, warp walls and pile up in monstrous mushroom caps on his roof, before sliding off with startling violence.

But even Schwartz, who has chased hailstorms in Australia and tornadoes in Oklahoma, faced weather this week unlike any he has known. The blizzard that blanketed California’s inland mountains hit Schwartz’s cabin with 70-mile-per-hour winds and blinding snow that covered up his snowshoe tracks minutes after he made them. On Tuesday afternoon, as he went to check his instruments, he slipped and plunged into a drift up to his neck.

More wintry weather looms as Californians struggle to dig out

The amount of snow that has fallen on California is rivaling some of the most bountiful years on record. Just in the past two weeks, more than a dozen feet of snow fell in this area, pushing the snowpack in the Central and Southern Sierra Nevada Mountains to roughly twice the amount of a normal year. The whiteout shut down national parks and interstates, buried neighborhoods, collapsed roofs, stranded motorists, trapped residents and knocked out power to thousands in mountain communities throughout the state.

UPS driver Juan Hernandez delivers a package to a snow-covered home in Truckee, Calif. (Josh Edelson/For The Washington Post)

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Will the Other Midwestern States Follow Illinois in stripping local governments of veto power over solar and wind projects?

The state recently joined New York and California in passing such laws, eliciting both support and pushback.

Randy DeBaillie walks toward his solar panels at his farm in Orion, Illinois on Feb. 3, 2019. Credit: Youngrae Kim for The Washington Post via Getty Images
Randy DeBaillie walks toward his solar panels at his farm in Orion, Illinois on Feb. 3, 2019. Credit: Youngrae Kim for The Washington Post via Getty Images

By Dan Gearino and Aydali Campa, Inside Climate News, Feb. 27, 2023

Two years ago, Illinois had adopted a landmark clean energy law that called for building vast amounts of renewable power. At the same time, 15 counties with some of the most land available for wind and solar had passed, or were about to pass, restrictions on new development that made the state’s goals more difficult to reach.

Something had to give.

That something came last month, when Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed a bill that took away the ability of local governments to limit or ban wind and solar power, a measure that follows similar actions in California and New York.

Now, officials from places that had restricted development of renewables projects—like Ford County, located in the rural area between Chicago and Champaign-Urbana—are livid about what they view as a power grab by majority Democrats. 

“My concern is for the health, safety and general welfare of our citizens, something the state has seemingly lost sight of,” said Cindy Ihrke, vice chairman of the Ford County Board, in an email. 

“This bill takes away a county’s ability to regulate siting in each of our unique areas,” she added. “What is good for one county is not always good for the one next door.”

Supporters of the law respond that they had little choice but to take action because local governments have relied on misleading or false information about the safety and economics of renewable energy to pass rules that are not in the public interest.

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In face of a state energy supply crunch, California’s last nuclear power plant gets a life extension

FILE - An aerial photo of the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant, south of Los Osos, in Avila Beach, Calif., is seen on June 20, 2010. Federal regulators on Thursday, March 2, 2023, granted California's largest utility an unusual exemption that could allow the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant to continue running after the expiration of its operating licenses, a key piece of a contentious proposal that could keep the reactors producing electricity for years to come. (Joe Johnston/The Tribune via AP, File)

By Michael R. Blood, AP, March 2, 2023

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Government regulators Thursday granted California’s largest utility an unusual exemption that could allow the state’s last nuclear power plant to continue running after the expiration of its federal operating licenses, a key piece of a contentious propposal to keep the reactors producing electricity for years to come.

The twin-reactor Diablo Canyon plant is scheduled to shut down by 2025. But the federal exemption will permit operator Pacific Gas & Electric to keep producing power while the Nuclear Regulatory Commission reviews an expected application from the utility to extend the plant’s operating run by up to two decades.

Read the full story here

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After a rocky start with battery electric buses, SEPTA will test hydrogen fuel-cell buses in Philly next year

Kevin Baker, a maintenance technician, refuels a hydrogen fuel-cell transit bus in Canton, Ohio, in 2021. The technology is increasingly seen as a potential fighter of emissions that contribute to climate change.
Kevin Baker, a maintenance technician, refuels a hydrogen fuel-cell transit bus in Canton, Ohio, in 2021. The technology is increasingly seen as a potential fighter of emissions that contribute to climate change. Photo credit: Tony Dejak / AP

By Thomas Fitzgerald, Philadelphia Inquirer

Before too long, you may be riding a bus that generates its own electricity and emits nothing but water vapor from the tailpipe.

SEPTA is spending $17 million on 10 fuel-cell electric transit buses that run on compressed hydrogen gas as part of the agency’s transition to a zero-emissions fleet.

“A lot of the advantage comes back to just the additional range that hydrogen affords the vehicle,” said Tyler Ladd, director of power engineering for SEPTA.

A fully charged electric battery bus can travel 150 to 200 miles, depending on the temperature and how hilly a route is, Ladd said. A tank of hydrogen, converted to electricity by fuel cells on board, will carry a bus 300 miles or more, he said.

It also takes 12 to 15 minutes to gas up a bus with hydrogen vs. a couple of hours to charge the batteries, he said. Battery charging also requires transit systems to build generating stations.

Almost all of the agency’s 1,447 buses are hybrids. Just 120 burn only diesel.

Battery-powered electric buses had been SEPTA’s preferred option for cleaner energy. But its first 25 all-electric coaches, bought in 2016, had to be pulled from the road in February 2020 after cracks were discovered in their frames.

Read the full story here

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Ex-Philly councilman gets 3.5-year prison term

Bobby Henon served on City Council for a decade prior to his conviction on bribery and fraud charges.

Former Philadelphia City Councilman Bobby Henon arrives at the federal courthouse in Philadelphia Wednesday morning for sentencing in his bribery case. Alejandro A. Alvarez / Staff Photographer

From the Philadelphia Inquirer

Former Philadelphia City Councilmember Bobby Henon was sentenced Wednesday to 3½ years in prison following his 2021 bribery conviction.

Henon has until April 17 to report to start his prison term.

Prosecutors had urged the judge to impose a sentence of roughly eight to 10 years, in line with federal sentencing guidelines. Henon’s lawyers argued for a “minimal” prison term.

Former labor leader John J. Dougherty, who was also convicted at Henon’s trial, goes back on trial next month, this time for embezzlement charges. Dougherty also faces charges he extorted a union contractor who tried to fire his nephew from a job site.

Here’s everything you need to know about Henon and Dougherty’s bribery convictions.

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