California Is Transitioning From Fossil Fuels to Electric Power. It’s Going to Get Messy
San Francisco’s Skyline Shines, but Earthquake Risk Remains 120 Years After 1906
4.6 Magnitude Earthquake in Santa Cruz Mountains Shakes Bay Area Awake
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"content": "\u003cp>On a recent plunge into \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12028741/rare-video-captures-super-pod-of-2000-dolphins-breaching-playing-off-monterey-coast\">Monterey Bay\u003c/a>, Dr. Anita Giraldo Ospina noticed the water was oddly warm.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It definitely feels comfortable, let’s put it that way,” said Giraldo Ospina, principal investigator of coastal ecosystems at the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12059734/monterey-bay-aquarium-revives-30-year-old-otter-tee-worn-by-taylor-swift\">Monterey Bay Aquarium\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She’s part of ongoing research projects into how kelp species are repopulating the area. She collects \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">kelp \u003c/span>spores and tiny baby urchin from glass slides and rectangular broom heads anchored to the seafloor and stores them in plastic bags.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It looks pretty green down there,” Giraldo Ospina said. “We try to keep all the water in the bag because that’s where larvae settle into the brushes and that might be what’s floating in the water.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Baby kelp need cold, nutrient rich water to mature into tall, strong adult stipes. \u003c/span> Giraldo Ospina worries that a massive, ongoing \u003ca href=\"https://omny.fm/shows/kqed-segmented-audio/a-heat-wave-in-the-pacific-ocean-is-killing-birds-on-cas-coast\">marine heat wave\u003c/a>, which has already raised coastal waters \u003ca href=\"https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/feature-story/west-coast-waters-experiencing-another-large-marine-heatwave\">by 3 to 4 degrees Fahrenheit\u003c/a>, \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">could disrupt efforts to regrow kelp forests vital to the Monterey Bay ecosystem, depending on how warm it becomes. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_2001054\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-2001054\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/05/260519-MARINEHEATWAVE-14-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/05/260519-MARINEHEATWAVE-14-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/05/260519-MARINEHEATWAVE-14-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/05/260519-MARINEHEATWAVE-14-BL-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/05/260519-MARINEHEATWAVE-14-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Conservation science director April Ridlon (left) and research scientist Dr. Anita Giraldo Ospina look at the Kelp Forest exhibit at the Monterey Bay Aquarium on May 19, 2026. The exhibit is modeled after the kelp forests found along the Monterey Bay coast. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“We have seen kelp recovering, and we don’t know if that trend is going to continue, if we continue to have these warm waters,” Giraldo Ospina said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s the seventh marine heat wave in seven years and could be amplified by a developing \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12083376/an-incoming-super-el-nino-may-bring-california-a-wet-hot-winter\">super El Niño\u003c/a>, which has the potential to raise sea surface temperatures even higher. This combined influence could disrupt ecosystems, harm or kill local marine life and attract other species north.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“With El Niño, the fear is that the kelp that persisted [past the marine heat wave] may now decline, and recovering kelp may not get a chance to get back to what they were before,” Giraldo Ospina said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>‘More dead birds than living ones being found’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Even a few degrees of warming can set an ecosystem out of whack and lead to the die-off of almost entire populations. As of May 20, the International Bird Rescue in Fairfield has treated \u003ca href=\"https://www.birdrescue.org/2026-california-starvation-event/\">288 starving birds\u003c/a>, including brown pelicans, cormorants and common murres.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They are the same birds people are reporting finding dead on beaches, especially in Southern California, but now in Northern California as well,” said JD Bergeron, the group’s CEO.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_2001051\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-2001051\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/05/260519-MARINEHEATWAVE-02-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/05/260519-MARINEHEATWAVE-02-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/05/260519-MARINEHEATWAVE-02-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/05/260519-MARINEHEATWAVE-02-BL-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/05/260519-MARINEHEATWAVE-02-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Kelp floats in a kelp forest in Monterey Bay outside the Monterey Bay Aquarium on May 19, 2026. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Bergeron said one theory is that small schooling fish — favorite food for shore birds — are seeking colder water deeper in the ocean, beyond the birds’ reach. So they do not have enough food to eat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have had very regular concerns with brown pelican starvation events, but this one does feel a little bit different,” Bergeron said. “We’re seeing a lot more dead birds than living ones being found.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A marine heat wave off the coast of California forms when southerly winds from a semi-permanent area of high pressure weaken between Hawaii and the state.[aside postID=news_12068644 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/MarinCountyFloodingAP.jpg']The winds normally help cool the top layer of the ocean through evaporation and by mixing it with deep, cold water. Without the wind, this thin top layer warms.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The current ocean warming \u003ca href=\"https://www.integratedecosystemassessment.noaa.gov/regions/california-current/california-current-marine-heatwave-tracker-blobtracker\">began last May\u003c/a> near Eastern Asia and spread across the Pacific.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some waters have had little break since mid-2025, with more than 200 days of elevated temperatures, according to researchers with Climate Central, who said \u003ca href=\"https://www.climatecentral.org/climate-shift-index-alert/severe-marine-heatwave-climate-change-California-Mexico\">human-caused climate change has significantly intensified the marine heat wave\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Up to 45% of the ocean impacted “is experiencing conditions that are at least six times more likely due to human-caused warming,” Climate Central said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Without climate change, they wrote, the heat wave’s footprint would be 36% smaller.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>How could El Niño make the marine heat wave worse?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>An El Niño event can weaken winds and slow the upwelling of cold, nutrient-rich water, which could further intensify the marine heat wave. Without that strong mixing, warm water lingers at the surface, causing temperatures to spike.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“All the ingredients are there for a strong El Niño,” said Tom Di Liberto, media director and climate scientist with Climate Central. “If you’re making cookies, you’ve already mixed the dough, but haven’t baked them yet. We still have to wait to see if, in the summer months, these cookies get put in the oven to see if we have that strong El Niño form.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_2001055\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-2001055\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/05/260519-MARINEHEATWAVE-27-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/05/260519-MARINEHEATWAVE-27-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/05/260519-MARINEHEATWAVE-27-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/05/260519-MARINEHEATWAVE-27-BL-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/05/260519-MARINEHEATWAVE-27-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Kelp Forest exhibit at the Monterey Bay Aquarium in Monterey, on May 19, 2026, modeled after the kelp forests found along the Monterey Bay coast. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Daniel Swain, a climate scientist with UC Agriculture and Natural Resources, said in a recent live-streamed office hours series that while El Niño is not directly related to the marine heat wave, “later this year, it’s actually quite likely that El Niño will reinforce this tropical warming.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Because El Niño refers to the “sloshing of water from the tropics to the Eastern Pacific it can and does impact sea surface temperatures along the California coast,” said Alexander Gershunov, a research meteorologist at the Scripps Institute of Oceanography at UC San Diego.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It can even result in very different species of fish appearing off the coast here as the upwelling shuts down,” Gershunov said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>‘They’re in a really, really fragile state’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>If waters get even warmer, \u003ca href=\"https://www.ucdavis.edu/climate/news/unprecedented-number-of-warm-water-species-moved-northward-during-marine-heatwave\">jellyfish, crabs, dolphins, sea turtles\u003c/a> and other species could move into colder habitats, said \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Dr. \u003c/span>April Ridlon, director of science for the U.S. Ocean Conservation at the Monterey Bay Aquarium.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The more we change the ecosystems, the more possible it is for those warm water species not just to arrive every once in a while and be a novelty and a news article, but for the fundamental composition of the ecosystems to change over time because the warm waters just don’t stop,” Ridlon said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ridlon said the current marine heat wave reminds her of “\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1123047/the-blob-is-back-what-warm-ocean-mass-means-for-weather-wildlife\">The Blob\u003c/a>,” a warming event that ended about a decade ago. It decimated about \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1949757/massive-california-kelp-decline-linked-to-ocean-heat-wave-voracious-sea-urchins\">60% of kelp\u003c/a> along the Central Coast and nearly all of the kelp off the coast of Northern California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_2001057\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-2001057\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/05/260519-MarineHeatwave-25-BL_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/05/260519-MarineHeatwave-25-BL_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/05/260519-MarineHeatwave-25-BL_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/05/260519-MarineHeatwave-25-BL_qed-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/05/260519-MarineHeatwave-25-BL_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Purple sea urchins and giant kelp sit in a touch pool in the Kelp Forest exhibit at the Monterey Bay Aquarium in Monterey on May 19, 2026. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Warming water accelerates the metabolism of \u003ca href=\"https://news.berkeley.edu/2025/11/14/even-moderate-heat-waves-depress-sea-urchin-reproduction-along-the-pacific-coast/\">purple urchins\u003c/a>, causing the marine animal to voraciously devour kelp forests. \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Even after the kelp disappears, they can survive as “zombie urchins” in a low-energy state, said Daniel Okamoto, a professor in the Department of Integrative Biology at UC Berkeley.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They can sit there for decades and just hang out,” Okamoto said. “Anytime the kelp tries to come back, they have the potential to graze it down.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He’s also worried about red abalone, whose populations have declined by up to 95% off California’s North Coast. Unlike urchins, they can’t survive in starvation mode.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_2001052\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-2001052\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/05/260519-MARINEHEATWAVE-10-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/05/260519-MARINEHEATWAVE-10-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/05/260519-MARINEHEATWAVE-10-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/05/260519-MARINEHEATWAVE-10-BL-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/05/260519-MARINEHEATWAVE-10-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Kelp floats in a kelp forest in Monterey Bay outside the Monterey Bay Aquarium on May 19, 2026. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“They’re in a really, really fragile state,” Okamoto said. “The impending marine heat wave may cause some additional harm on top of what’s already been done.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sunflower sea stars nearly vanished off the California coast when an \u003ca href=\"https://www.ucdavis.edu/climate/news/falling-stars\">ocean warming\u003c/a> event accelerated the effects of a marine plant disease.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I don’t even think anybody really appreciated their importance until they were gone,” Okamoto said. It was the “equivalent of their global pandemic that wiped out most of those organisms.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "A widespread marine heat wave and brewing El Niño could further threaten California kelp, sea birds and marine ecosystems.",
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"title": "Scientists Worry El Niño Could Supercharge Marine Heat Wave Roiling Coastal California | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>On a recent plunge into \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12028741/rare-video-captures-super-pod-of-2000-dolphins-breaching-playing-off-monterey-coast\">Monterey Bay\u003c/a>, Dr. Anita Giraldo Ospina noticed the water was oddly warm.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It definitely feels comfortable, let’s put it that way,” said Giraldo Ospina, principal investigator of coastal ecosystems at the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12059734/monterey-bay-aquarium-revives-30-year-old-otter-tee-worn-by-taylor-swift\">Monterey Bay Aquarium\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She’s part of ongoing research projects into how kelp species are repopulating the area. She collects \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">kelp \u003c/span>spores and tiny baby urchin from glass slides and rectangular broom heads anchored to the seafloor and stores them in plastic bags.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It looks pretty green down there,” Giraldo Ospina said. “We try to keep all the water in the bag because that’s where larvae settle into the brushes and that might be what’s floating in the water.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Baby kelp need cold, nutrient rich water to mature into tall, strong adult stipes. \u003c/span> Giraldo Ospina worries that a massive, ongoing \u003ca href=\"https://omny.fm/shows/kqed-segmented-audio/a-heat-wave-in-the-pacific-ocean-is-killing-birds-on-cas-coast\">marine heat wave\u003c/a>, which has already raised coastal waters \u003ca href=\"https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/feature-story/west-coast-waters-experiencing-another-large-marine-heatwave\">by 3 to 4 degrees Fahrenheit\u003c/a>, \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">could disrupt efforts to regrow kelp forests vital to the Monterey Bay ecosystem, depending on how warm it becomes. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_2001054\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-2001054\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/05/260519-MARINEHEATWAVE-14-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/05/260519-MARINEHEATWAVE-14-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/05/260519-MARINEHEATWAVE-14-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/05/260519-MARINEHEATWAVE-14-BL-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/05/260519-MARINEHEATWAVE-14-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Conservation science director April Ridlon (left) and research scientist Dr. Anita Giraldo Ospina look at the Kelp Forest exhibit at the Monterey Bay Aquarium on May 19, 2026. The exhibit is modeled after the kelp forests found along the Monterey Bay coast. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“We have seen kelp recovering, and we don’t know if that trend is going to continue, if we continue to have these warm waters,” Giraldo Ospina said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s the seventh marine heat wave in seven years and could be amplified by a developing \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12083376/an-incoming-super-el-nino-may-bring-california-a-wet-hot-winter\">super El Niño\u003c/a>, which has the potential to raise sea surface temperatures even higher. This combined influence could disrupt ecosystems, harm or kill local marine life and attract other species north.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“With El Niño, the fear is that the kelp that persisted [past the marine heat wave] may now decline, and recovering kelp may not get a chance to get back to what they were before,” Giraldo Ospina said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>‘More dead birds than living ones being found’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Even a few degrees of warming can set an ecosystem out of whack and lead to the die-off of almost entire populations. As of May 20, the International Bird Rescue in Fairfield has treated \u003ca href=\"https://www.birdrescue.org/2026-california-starvation-event/\">288 starving birds\u003c/a>, including brown pelicans, cormorants and common murres.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They are the same birds people are reporting finding dead on beaches, especially in Southern California, but now in Northern California as well,” said JD Bergeron, the group’s CEO.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_2001051\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-2001051\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/05/260519-MARINEHEATWAVE-02-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/05/260519-MARINEHEATWAVE-02-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/05/260519-MARINEHEATWAVE-02-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/05/260519-MARINEHEATWAVE-02-BL-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/05/260519-MARINEHEATWAVE-02-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Kelp floats in a kelp forest in Monterey Bay outside the Monterey Bay Aquarium on May 19, 2026. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Bergeron said one theory is that small schooling fish — favorite food for shore birds — are seeking colder water deeper in the ocean, beyond the birds’ reach. So they do not have enough food to eat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have had very regular concerns with brown pelican starvation events, but this one does feel a little bit different,” Bergeron said. “We’re seeing a lot more dead birds than living ones being found.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A marine heat wave off the coast of California forms when southerly winds from a semi-permanent area of high pressure weaken between Hawaii and the state.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>The winds normally help cool the top layer of the ocean through evaporation and by mixing it with deep, cold water. Without the wind, this thin top layer warms.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The current ocean warming \u003ca href=\"https://www.integratedecosystemassessment.noaa.gov/regions/california-current/california-current-marine-heatwave-tracker-blobtracker\">began last May\u003c/a> near Eastern Asia and spread across the Pacific.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some waters have had little break since mid-2025, with more than 200 days of elevated temperatures, according to researchers with Climate Central, who said \u003ca href=\"https://www.climatecentral.org/climate-shift-index-alert/severe-marine-heatwave-climate-change-California-Mexico\">human-caused climate change has significantly intensified the marine heat wave\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Up to 45% of the ocean impacted “is experiencing conditions that are at least six times more likely due to human-caused warming,” Climate Central said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Without climate change, they wrote, the heat wave’s footprint would be 36% smaller.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>How could El Niño make the marine heat wave worse?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>An El Niño event can weaken winds and slow the upwelling of cold, nutrient-rich water, which could further intensify the marine heat wave. Without that strong mixing, warm water lingers at the surface, causing temperatures to spike.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“All the ingredients are there for a strong El Niño,” said Tom Di Liberto, media director and climate scientist with Climate Central. “If you’re making cookies, you’ve already mixed the dough, but haven’t baked them yet. We still have to wait to see if, in the summer months, these cookies get put in the oven to see if we have that strong El Niño form.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_2001055\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-2001055\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/05/260519-MARINEHEATWAVE-27-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/05/260519-MARINEHEATWAVE-27-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/05/260519-MARINEHEATWAVE-27-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/05/260519-MARINEHEATWAVE-27-BL-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/05/260519-MARINEHEATWAVE-27-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Kelp Forest exhibit at the Monterey Bay Aquarium in Monterey, on May 19, 2026, modeled after the kelp forests found along the Monterey Bay coast. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Daniel Swain, a climate scientist with UC Agriculture and Natural Resources, said in a recent live-streamed office hours series that while El Niño is not directly related to the marine heat wave, “later this year, it’s actually quite likely that El Niño will reinforce this tropical warming.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Because El Niño refers to the “sloshing of water from the tropics to the Eastern Pacific it can and does impact sea surface temperatures along the California coast,” said Alexander Gershunov, a research meteorologist at the Scripps Institute of Oceanography at UC San Diego.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It can even result in very different species of fish appearing off the coast here as the upwelling shuts down,” Gershunov said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>‘They’re in a really, really fragile state’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>If waters get even warmer, \u003ca href=\"https://www.ucdavis.edu/climate/news/unprecedented-number-of-warm-water-species-moved-northward-during-marine-heatwave\">jellyfish, crabs, dolphins, sea turtles\u003c/a> and other species could move into colder habitats, said \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Dr. \u003c/span>April Ridlon, director of science for the U.S. Ocean Conservation at the Monterey Bay Aquarium.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The more we change the ecosystems, the more possible it is for those warm water species not just to arrive every once in a while and be a novelty and a news article, but for the fundamental composition of the ecosystems to change over time because the warm waters just don’t stop,” Ridlon said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ridlon said the current marine heat wave reminds her of “\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1123047/the-blob-is-back-what-warm-ocean-mass-means-for-weather-wildlife\">The Blob\u003c/a>,” a warming event that ended about a decade ago. It decimated about \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1949757/massive-california-kelp-decline-linked-to-ocean-heat-wave-voracious-sea-urchins\">60% of kelp\u003c/a> along the Central Coast and nearly all of the kelp off the coast of Northern California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_2001057\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-2001057\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/05/260519-MarineHeatwave-25-BL_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/05/260519-MarineHeatwave-25-BL_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/05/260519-MarineHeatwave-25-BL_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/05/260519-MarineHeatwave-25-BL_qed-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/05/260519-MarineHeatwave-25-BL_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Purple sea urchins and giant kelp sit in a touch pool in the Kelp Forest exhibit at the Monterey Bay Aquarium in Monterey on May 19, 2026. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Warming water accelerates the metabolism of \u003ca href=\"https://news.berkeley.edu/2025/11/14/even-moderate-heat-waves-depress-sea-urchin-reproduction-along-the-pacific-coast/\">purple urchins\u003c/a>, causing the marine animal to voraciously devour kelp forests. \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Even after the kelp disappears, they can survive as “zombie urchins” in a low-energy state, said Daniel Okamoto, a professor in the Department of Integrative Biology at UC Berkeley.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They can sit there for decades and just hang out,” Okamoto said. “Anytime the kelp tries to come back, they have the potential to graze it down.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He’s also worried about red abalone, whose populations have declined by up to 95% off California’s North Coast. Unlike urchins, they can’t survive in starvation mode.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_2001052\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-2001052\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/05/260519-MARINEHEATWAVE-10-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/05/260519-MARINEHEATWAVE-10-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/05/260519-MARINEHEATWAVE-10-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/05/260519-MARINEHEATWAVE-10-BL-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/05/260519-MARINEHEATWAVE-10-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Kelp floats in a kelp forest in Monterey Bay outside the Monterey Bay Aquarium on May 19, 2026. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“They’re in a really, really fragile state,” Okamoto said. “The impending marine heat wave may cause some additional harm on top of what’s already been done.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sunflower sea stars nearly vanished off the California coast when an \u003ca href=\"https://www.ucdavis.edu/climate/news/falling-stars\">ocean warming\u003c/a> event accelerated the effects of a marine plant disease.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I don’t even think anybody really appreciated their importance until they were gone,” Okamoto said. It was the “equivalent of their global pandemic that wiped out most of those organisms.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>After the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/eaton-fire\">Eaton Fire\u003c/a> burned across Altadena a year and half ago, an unusual sight reappeared up amid the ashes and debris: a giant werewolf wearing a large T-shirt, with a big rainbow-colored heart that said, “I love Altadena.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Where he sits on that hill, the sun behind him when we were there in the evening, the sun was setting and the clouds were perfect. It was just such a weirdly hopeful thing,” said Taylor Jennings, who was visiting from Fresno last summer when he saw Norman standing over the fire-torn intersection of Lincoln Avenue and Mariposa Street.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“All around there’s devastation, and there’s an 8-foot [tall] werewolf. At that point, I realized how Altadena is feral, and he just seemed like the perfect mascot,” Jennings said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Norman Jr., as the werewolf is affectionately known, appeared on this burned-out corner lot in West Altadena just days after the fire, replacing a previous werewolf that popped up on the property a few years earlier.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Both belong to Jubilee House, a large sober living home for men operated by the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles. One of the residents bought the original werewolf just in time for Halloween a few years ago and named him Norman — a nod to the home’s eerie resemblance to Norman Bates’ house in the 1960 classic slasher film \u003cem>Psycho\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12082021\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12082021\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260430-WEREWOLF-OF-ALTADENA-SC-04-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1500\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260430-WEREWOLF-OF-ALTADENA-SC-04-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260430-WEREWOLF-OF-ALTADENA-SC-04-KQED-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260430-WEREWOLF-OF-ALTADENA-SC-04-KQED-1536x1152.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Courage Escamilla hams it up with Norman Jr. on a recent weekday afternoon. \u003ccite>(Steven Cuevas for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>House manager Brian Woodruff said trick-or-treaters would never stop by the house.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Every year I bought candy, every year,” Woodruff said, laughing, as he stood on the cleared lot near Norman Jr. “And I always ended up being the one eating all the candy!”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That changed after Norman appeared on the front lawn. The trick-or-treaters came in droves, lured by the werewolf’s grinning fangs and gnarled outstretched arms. They’d stop and take pictures with Norman and leave gifts and thank you notes. So, the guys at the house decided to keep him up year-round and started creating new outfits for Norman to mark the changing of the seasons.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Summer was coming up, we can get the Big-and-Tall catalog, we can order him a tank top,” Woodruff recalled. “And then I went online, and I found some oversized sunglasses,” he said, chuckling at the memory.[aside postID=news_12071233 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/260107-Altadena-Anniversary-003-JB.jpg']Then came the fire. All ten residents of Jubilee House got out safely, but the place burned to the ground. Among the debris lay the mangled pieces of Norman’s metal limbs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The first time I came up, I didn’t expect to be so disoriented, you probably experienced this, too,” said Pastor Tim Hartley, the director of the Jubilee House program. “I didn’t know where I was.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A few weeks later, hoping to boost morale, Hartley started shopping for and found a replacement: Norman Jr.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Once we put up that werewolf, it became this landmark [after the fire] that people could use for where they were in Altadena, as well as this source of hope for people,” Hartley said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s what Norman Jr. came to symbolize for longtime Altadena resident Courage Escamilla.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“He’s kind of a symbol for people in town who for their whole life have struggled to ever feel like they fit in because they’re eccentric or different or stand out,” Escamilla said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12082025\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12082025\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260430-WEREWOLF-OF-ALTADENA-SC-07-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1500\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260430-WEREWOLF-OF-ALTADENA-SC-07-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260430-WEREWOLF-OF-ALTADENA-SC-07-KQED-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260430-WEREWOLF-OF-ALTADENA-SC-07-KQED-1536x1152.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Rigoberto Gonzales runs through the extensive menu of his Mexican food truck. \u003ccite>(Steven Cuevas for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>After the fire, he became an advocate and community booster, helping to organize rallies and fundraisers. Escamilla’s hard to miss, usually pulling up to community events on his motorcycle, sporting a red durag, with a raccoon tail dangling from the back of his waistband.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You feel like you’re now in a community that embraces the weird, the unusual, and so for me, Norman represents the message that we embrace and appreciate the strange and unusual in this town,” Escamilla said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After all, he said, fictional “monsters” are often just misunderstood.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They’re often unfairly targeted, and I always felt like I related to that on some subconscious level and have always loved monsters for the fact that they can be loved,” Escamilla said.[aside postID=news_12038756 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/METTE.LAMPCOV.CHURCH.BELL-22-KQED-1020x680.jpg']“Symbols of things that were previously seen as repugnant are now seen as something that represents love and acceptance, and I find that rather special.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Norman Jr.’s main character was another Altadena resident who lost her home. She stepped up to the task, creating new seasonal outfits and making sure he stayed upright when it was stormy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On a spring day, she draped the werewolf’s plastic and metal body and articulated limbs in a form-fitting fake fur suit with a big red heart on its chest, hand-stitched for his frame.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With everyone from the sober living home scattered to new locations, Hartley welcomed her help.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“She honored this space in a way that I just appreciated,” Hartley said. “And then she’d say, he’s a little rickety, so I’m going to put out the word to have people come help me secure him, and these strangers would all gather to help, which I just loved.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Norman Jr.’s caretaker declined to be interviewed and asked that we not use her name. But she did explain how Norman’s corner became a refuge for her after losing her home in the fire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12082022\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12082022\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260430-WEREWOLF-OF-ALTADENA-SC-05-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1500\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260430-WEREWOLF-OF-ALTADENA-SC-05-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260430-WEREWOLF-OF-ALTADENA-SC-05-KQED-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260430-WEREWOLF-OF-ALTADENA-SC-05-KQED-1536x1152.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Pastor Tim Hartley shows off a Norman Jr. T-shirt, hand-screened by a local artist, to commemorate the Eaton Fire. \u003ccite>(Steven Cuevas for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Photos of the wolfman wearing the outfits she created started blowing up on social media, and life started returning to the neighborhood, with the pace of rebuilding picking up speed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s when the little green taco truck from the San Fernando Valley appeared.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Behind the wheel was Rigoberto Gonzales. Also, a plumber who moonlights doing work on home rebuilds around town, Gonzales saw a need for food options that could appeal to the growing army of construction workers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Knowing nothing about Norman’s story, he parked his lime green truck beneath the giant oak tree that shares the same corner. Norman’s caretaker was not happy. She asked Gonzales to move, even though his vehicle didn’t disturb or block access to the werewolf.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Every time I see her, she was so mad, for no reason,” Gonzales said, as he took a break from the truck on a recent afternoon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Then she later tells me what’s the reason. She just doesn’t want me to be here.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The conflict simmered for weeks. Gonzales said he felt unfairly targeted. He said he asked her why he needed to move.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I mean, give me the reason [why] I have to move? And she only walked away,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12082027\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 1500px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12082027\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260430-WEREWOLF-OF-ALTADENA-SC-09-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1500\" height=\"2000\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260430-WEREWOLF-OF-ALTADENA-SC-09-KQED.jpg 1500w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260430-WEREWOLF-OF-ALTADENA-SC-09-KQED-160x213.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260430-WEREWOLF-OF-ALTADENA-SC-09-KQED-1152x1536.jpg 1152w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1500px) 100vw, 1500px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Melissa Lopez found so much comfort and inspiration in Norman Jr. after the fire that she decided to have him tattooed on her leg. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Melissa Lopez)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The caretaker quit caring for Norman, claiming she felt unsafe. Gonzales insisted that not he, nor any of his staff or customers, ever harassed the caretaker in any way.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Then, a group of fire survivors, who never bothered talking to Gonzales or the property managers, rallied behind the caretaker. They accused Gonzales of exploiting a vulnerable, traumatized community and ruining the sacredness of Norman Jr.’s corner.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Then, it escalated. A disgruntled resident posted Gonzales’ license plate on social media.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Others threatened to call the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department or LA County Public Health. In a community forum on Facebook, one person “joked” about putting nails under his tires. Another person suggested setting off “stink bombs.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Local therapist and activist Melissa Lopez said a few people tied to that same Facebook group later showed up to hassle Gonzales in person. After that confrontation, they appeared to have backed off.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That hurts, to see some of these violent reactions, to say they were going to bring a truck and wall off the area to him,” Lopez said. “People are gathering up pitchforks, and [it’s] scary.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Things eventually cooled down, but not without some sore feelings. Norman’s caretaker still hasn’t returned.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Norman Jr. continues to be looked after by his community of admirers — including Lopez, who just got a colorful Norman Jr. tattoo on her calf.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lopez said she found some similarity between the friction over Norman Jr. and a recent monster movie, director Guillermo del Toro’s 2025 \u003cem>Frankenstein\u003c/em> film. In the adaptation, she said, the scientist gives Frankenstein’s creature a voice, and the creature tells his story.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s so beautiful because of that, because you get to see that he’s been dehumanized, that we created a monster,” Lopez said.” And I think that’s so true of society. We create the monsters, and how quickly we go to ostracize, to condemn people.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>After the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/eaton-fire\">Eaton Fire\u003c/a> burned across Altadena a year and half ago, an unusual sight reappeared up amid the ashes and debris: a giant werewolf wearing a large T-shirt, with a big rainbow-colored heart that said, “I love Altadena.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Where he sits on that hill, the sun behind him when we were there in the evening, the sun was setting and the clouds were perfect. It was just such a weirdly hopeful thing,” said Taylor Jennings, who was visiting from Fresno last summer when he saw Norman standing over the fire-torn intersection of Lincoln Avenue and Mariposa Street.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“All around there’s devastation, and there’s an 8-foot [tall] werewolf. At that point, I realized how Altadena is feral, and he just seemed like the perfect mascot,” Jennings said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Norman Jr., as the werewolf is affectionately known, appeared on this burned-out corner lot in West Altadena just days after the fire, replacing a previous werewolf that popped up on the property a few years earlier.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Both belong to Jubilee House, a large sober living home for men operated by the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles. One of the residents bought the original werewolf just in time for Halloween a few years ago and named him Norman — a nod to the home’s eerie resemblance to Norman Bates’ house in the 1960 classic slasher film \u003cem>Psycho\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12082021\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12082021\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260430-WEREWOLF-OF-ALTADENA-SC-04-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1500\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260430-WEREWOLF-OF-ALTADENA-SC-04-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260430-WEREWOLF-OF-ALTADENA-SC-04-KQED-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260430-WEREWOLF-OF-ALTADENA-SC-04-KQED-1536x1152.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Courage Escamilla hams it up with Norman Jr. on a recent weekday afternoon. \u003ccite>(Steven Cuevas for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>House manager Brian Woodruff said trick-or-treaters would never stop by the house.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Every year I bought candy, every year,” Woodruff said, laughing, as he stood on the cleared lot near Norman Jr. “And I always ended up being the one eating all the candy!”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That changed after Norman appeared on the front lawn. The trick-or-treaters came in droves, lured by the werewolf’s grinning fangs and gnarled outstretched arms. They’d stop and take pictures with Norman and leave gifts and thank you notes. So, the guys at the house decided to keep him up year-round and started creating new outfits for Norman to mark the changing of the seasons.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Summer was coming up, we can get the Big-and-Tall catalog, we can order him a tank top,” Woodruff recalled. “And then I went online, and I found some oversized sunglasses,” he said, chuckling at the memory.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Then came the fire. All ten residents of Jubilee House got out safely, but the place burned to the ground. Among the debris lay the mangled pieces of Norman’s metal limbs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The first time I came up, I didn’t expect to be so disoriented, you probably experienced this, too,” said Pastor Tim Hartley, the director of the Jubilee House program. “I didn’t know where I was.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A few weeks later, hoping to boost morale, Hartley started shopping for and found a replacement: Norman Jr.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Once we put up that werewolf, it became this landmark [after the fire] that people could use for where they were in Altadena, as well as this source of hope for people,” Hartley said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s what Norman Jr. came to symbolize for longtime Altadena resident Courage Escamilla.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“He’s kind of a symbol for people in town who for their whole life have struggled to ever feel like they fit in because they’re eccentric or different or stand out,” Escamilla said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12082025\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12082025\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260430-WEREWOLF-OF-ALTADENA-SC-07-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1500\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260430-WEREWOLF-OF-ALTADENA-SC-07-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260430-WEREWOLF-OF-ALTADENA-SC-07-KQED-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260430-WEREWOLF-OF-ALTADENA-SC-07-KQED-1536x1152.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Rigoberto Gonzales runs through the extensive menu of his Mexican food truck. \u003ccite>(Steven Cuevas for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>After the fire, he became an advocate and community booster, helping to organize rallies and fundraisers. Escamilla’s hard to miss, usually pulling up to community events on his motorcycle, sporting a red durag, with a raccoon tail dangling from the back of his waistband.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You feel like you’re now in a community that embraces the weird, the unusual, and so for me, Norman represents the message that we embrace and appreciate the strange and unusual in this town,” Escamilla said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After all, he said, fictional “monsters” are often just misunderstood.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They’re often unfairly targeted, and I always felt like I related to that on some subconscious level and have always loved monsters for the fact that they can be loved,” Escamilla said.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“Symbols of things that were previously seen as repugnant are now seen as something that represents love and acceptance, and I find that rather special.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Norman Jr.’s main character was another Altadena resident who lost her home. She stepped up to the task, creating new seasonal outfits and making sure he stayed upright when it was stormy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On a spring day, she draped the werewolf’s plastic and metal body and articulated limbs in a form-fitting fake fur suit with a big red heart on its chest, hand-stitched for his frame.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With everyone from the sober living home scattered to new locations, Hartley welcomed her help.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“She honored this space in a way that I just appreciated,” Hartley said. “And then she’d say, he’s a little rickety, so I’m going to put out the word to have people come help me secure him, and these strangers would all gather to help, which I just loved.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Norman Jr.’s caretaker declined to be interviewed and asked that we not use her name. But she did explain how Norman’s corner became a refuge for her after losing her home in the fire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12082022\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12082022\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260430-WEREWOLF-OF-ALTADENA-SC-05-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1500\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260430-WEREWOLF-OF-ALTADENA-SC-05-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260430-WEREWOLF-OF-ALTADENA-SC-05-KQED-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260430-WEREWOLF-OF-ALTADENA-SC-05-KQED-1536x1152.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Pastor Tim Hartley shows off a Norman Jr. T-shirt, hand-screened by a local artist, to commemorate the Eaton Fire. \u003ccite>(Steven Cuevas for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Photos of the wolfman wearing the outfits she created started blowing up on social media, and life started returning to the neighborhood, with the pace of rebuilding picking up speed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s when the little green taco truck from the San Fernando Valley appeared.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Behind the wheel was Rigoberto Gonzales. Also, a plumber who moonlights doing work on home rebuilds around town, Gonzales saw a need for food options that could appeal to the growing army of construction workers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Knowing nothing about Norman’s story, he parked his lime green truck beneath the giant oak tree that shares the same corner. Norman’s caretaker was not happy. She asked Gonzales to move, even though his vehicle didn’t disturb or block access to the werewolf.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Every time I see her, she was so mad, for no reason,” Gonzales said, as he took a break from the truck on a recent afternoon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Then she later tells me what’s the reason. She just doesn’t want me to be here.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The conflict simmered for weeks. Gonzales said he felt unfairly targeted. He said he asked her why he needed to move.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I mean, give me the reason [why] I have to move? And she only walked away,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12082027\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 1500px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12082027\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260430-WEREWOLF-OF-ALTADENA-SC-09-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1500\" height=\"2000\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260430-WEREWOLF-OF-ALTADENA-SC-09-KQED.jpg 1500w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260430-WEREWOLF-OF-ALTADENA-SC-09-KQED-160x213.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260430-WEREWOLF-OF-ALTADENA-SC-09-KQED-1152x1536.jpg 1152w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1500px) 100vw, 1500px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Melissa Lopez found so much comfort and inspiration in Norman Jr. after the fire that she decided to have him tattooed on her leg. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Melissa Lopez)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The caretaker quit caring for Norman, claiming she felt unsafe. Gonzales insisted that not he, nor any of his staff or customers, ever harassed the caretaker in any way.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Then, a group of fire survivors, who never bothered talking to Gonzales or the property managers, rallied behind the caretaker. They accused Gonzales of exploiting a vulnerable, traumatized community and ruining the sacredness of Norman Jr.’s corner.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Then, it escalated. A disgruntled resident posted Gonzales’ license plate on social media.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Others threatened to call the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department or LA County Public Health. In a community forum on Facebook, one person “joked” about putting nails under his tires. Another person suggested setting off “stink bombs.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Local therapist and activist Melissa Lopez said a few people tied to that same Facebook group later showed up to hassle Gonzales in person. After that confrontation, they appeared to have backed off.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That hurts, to see some of these violent reactions, to say they were going to bring a truck and wall off the area to him,” Lopez said. “People are gathering up pitchforks, and [it’s] scary.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Things eventually cooled down, but not without some sore feelings. Norman’s caretaker still hasn’t returned.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Norman Jr. continues to be looked after by his community of admirers — including Lopez, who just got a colorful Norman Jr. tattoo on her calf.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lopez said she found some similarity between the friction over Norman Jr. and a recent monster movie, director Guillermo del Toro’s 2025 \u003cem>Frankenstein\u003c/em> film. In the adaptation, she said, the scientist gives Frankenstein’s creature a voice, and the creature tells his story.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s so beautiful because of that, because you get to see that he’s been dehumanized, that we created a monster,” Lopez said.” And I think that’s so true of society. We create the monsters, and how quickly we go to ostracize, to condemn people.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"title": "Benicia Wants to Be a Model for Life After a Refinery. Can It?",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Valero’s Benicia oil refinery employed hundreds of people and contributed millions in taxes to the local government for decades. Now, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12059271/urgent-need-benicia-braces-for-economic-future\">with the refinery on its way out\u003c/a>, local leaders hope Benicia can be a leading example for how cities transition away from the fossil fuel industry. \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But with tight city budgets and a global fuel crisis, that’s much easier said than done.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"200\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https://playlist.megaphone.fm?e=KQINC6761828258&light=true\" width=\"100%\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Links:\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/2000877/californias-fuel-fears-threaten-benicias-just-transition-to-green-economy\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">California’s Fuel Fears Threaten Benicia’s ‘Just Transition’ to Green Economy\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003ch3>\u003cstrong>Episode Transcript\u003c/strong>\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This is a computer-generated transcript. While our team has reviewed it, there may be errors.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/b>\u003cem>[00:01:00] \u003c/em>I’m Ericka Cruz Guevara and welcome to The Bay, local news to keep you rooted. The city of Benicia has been thinking a lot about its future lately. With fewer than 30,000 residents, this 15.7-square-mile town along the Carquinez Strait has been shaped for decades by the Valero oil refinery, which propped up the local economy, employed hundreds of workers and contributed taxes that paid roughly 10% of the city’s budget. But last month, Valero officially stopped refining crude oil in Benicia. Now, city leaders hope Benicia can be the shining example of a so-called just transition, away from fossil fuels to renewable energy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Mario Giuliani: \u003c/b>\u003cem>[00:01:59] \u003c/em>There are eight other communities in California that are home to a refinery, and it’s only a matter of when those communities are gonna have to go through what Benicia’s going through.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/b>\u003cem>[00:02:12] \u003c/em>Today, how Benicia is planning for a future without a refinery and why it’s easier said than done.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/b>\u003cem>[00:02:26] \u003c/em>So Julie, as I understand it, some people have referred to Benicia as a potential poster child for what a quote unquote just transition could look like. First, what is a just transition for those who don’t know what that is? And when did you first hear that in reference to Benicia?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Julie Small: \u003c/b>\u003cem>[00:02:49] \u003c/em>There’s a lot of definitions for just transition.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/b>\u003cem>[00:02:52] \u003c/em>Julie Small is a reporter for KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Julie Small: \u003c/b>\u003cem>[00:02:55] \u003c/em>In this case, a just transition is a city moving off its reliance on a fossil fuel industry in such a way that increases the healthiness of the community and the overall standard of living for the community. And it does so in such way that the economy is sustained and diversified and reinvested into clean renewable energies and industries. The first time I heard that term being applied to Benicia was at this February town hall meeting. A hundred people packed into the city library to hear from the city manager, Mario Giuliani.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Mario Giuliani: \u003c/b>\u003cem>[00:03:43] \u003c/em>We have a great responsibility and honor to be the model community on how we transition\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Julie Small: \u003c/b>\u003cem>[00:03:52] \u003c/em>He told them, you know, this is the plan for how we’re gonna make up for Valero’s departure. We are going to become that poster child for a just transition.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Mario Giuliani: \u003c/b>\u003cem>[00:04:02] \u003c/em>How do you protect a community that is home to a refinery? And so you don’t decimate that community, but you allow them to springboard to something else. And I think that we’re well positioned to kind of write that playbook\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/b>\u003cem>[00:04:19] \u003c/em>Big words there from the city manager. And also I feel like a really big task, right? Because for context, Benicia’s, as I understand it, entire local economy and city budget relies very heavily on Valero, right?\u003cem> \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Julie Small: \u003c/b>\u003cem>[00:04:37] \u003c/em>I mean, we’re talking about 10% of the tax revenue that the city collects comes from the Valero refinery. And then there’s all the other industries in the area that build parts or provide services to the refineries. It’s also all the people in town, the restaurants, services leaning heavily on that income.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/b>\u003cem>[00:05:02] \u003c/em>Can you actually remind us, Julie, why Valero is leaving Benicia in the first place?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Julie Small: \u003c/b>\u003cem>[00:05:08] \u003c/em>The company says it’s leaving because demand for fossil fuel in California is declining, you know, with the rise of renewables and we’re, you know phasing out fossil fuel cars. We’re switching to electrical vehicles. At the same time, regulations on the oil industry are increasing in California as we’re trying to get a handle on controlling emissions and also controlling gas prices. Valero’s CEO has publicly complained about some recent bills that were passed in response to gas price spikes that would have penalized oil companies if they make excessive profits. You know, it’s important to emphasize that although Valero says that’s why they’re leaving, it is part of a trend we’re seeing across the country. Refineries are closing everywhere, so it’s not just unique to California, it not just because we have all these regulations. It’s that these are huge multinational global conglomerates that are maximizing their profit. If they can move their operations overseas where the labor’s cheaper and they have more demand, they’re gonna do it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/b>\u003cem>[00:06:22] \u003c/em>As I guess Benicia’s preparing for Valero to leave, I imagine there’s been a lot of thinking and talking about what the city would look like without it. So what could a just transition look like in a town like Benicia?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Julie Small: \u003c/b>\u003cem>[00:06:39] \u003c/em>Well, they definitely want Venetia to be a cleaner town. They don’t want to have new industries come in that are polluting. So they’re looking to get away from this cycle of having to deal with emissions over decades and high asthma rates and high breast cancer rates. So looking for industries that, one, will diversify the economy, so they’re not so dependent on one big company, but also We’ll change the focus. We’ll be actually contributing to California’s goals to become carbon neutral.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kari Bridseye: \u003c/b>\u003cem>[00:07:12] \u003c/em>We’re in a very precarious moment right now, but I’m filled with hope because of what we have here.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Julie Small: \u003c/b>\u003cem>[00:07:20] \u003c/em>I talked to Kari Birdseye, city council member at Benicia, and she’s actually by trade an environmental scientist.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kari Bridseye: \u003c/b>\u003cem>[00:07:28] \u003c/em>Anybody that knows me knows that I always talk about the opportunity for the Port of Benicia being involved in standing up the offshore wind industry in California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Julie Small: \u003c/b>\u003cem>[00:07:41] \u003c/em>So she’s really excited about the fact that the port in Benicia that is currently used by Valero to export pet coke, which is a byproduct of refining and polluting substance, using that instead as a place where you could manufacture and export parts for the nascent offshore wind industry in California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kari Bridseye: \u003c/b>\u003cem>[00:08:05] \u003c/em>And to me, that’s the perfect scenario for a just transition away from fossil fuels. Let’s be part of the solution instead of the problem.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/b>\u003cem>[00:08:16] \u003c/em>There’s also this question in the city about what to do with the land that the refinery is on as well, right? I mean, it covers like a huge swath of the city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Julie Small: \u003c/b>\u003cem>[00:08:27] \u003c/em>Yeah, 900 acres of prime land right there overlooking the Carquinez Strait. It’s beautiful area. It is going to take a while before that land is usable. There’s a buffer zone around the refinery, it’s about 500 acres, that they’re hoping could be redeveloped sooner because it’s not as contaminated as the refineries site itself. They’d like to see that become, you know, housing or businesses that are catering to the local economy. Valero has actually hired a company to repurpose the land, redevelop the land for them. Those proposals are coming in the fall, so we don’t know exactly what that’s gonna be, but there’s a lot you could do with that land. And council member Kari Birdseye talks about this.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kari Bridseye: \u003c/b>\u003cem>[00:09:23] \u003c/em>Centrally located, we have two interstates, a rail line, a port. We have so much potential here and it’s my vision to have a very diverse set of businesses and developers come in and be part of our community on the 900 acres that Valero owns right now.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/b>\u003cem>[00:09:53] \u003c/em>Coming up, why Valero’s departure from Benicia is more complicated than it sounds. Stay with us.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/b>\u003cem>[00:11:07] \u003c/em>It does seem like there is a lot of planning and daydreaming about what that future could look like in Benicia. So when exactly is the Valero refinery closing?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Julie Small: \u003c/b>\u003cem>[00:11:20] \u003c/em>That’s unclear at this moment. They’ve stopped refining. There’s nothing coming out of those stacks. But because of the global fuel crisis and California’s own problem of tightening supply between Valero and the Phillips 66 refinery in Southern California that closed last year, California lost 20% of the fuel that’s refined in the state. So California is looking to make that up. As soon as Valero said they were gonna leave, Governor Newsom, the California Energy Commission did everything they could to get Valero to stay. They couldn’t convince them to keep refining, but they did get them to agree to use their facilities to import refined fuels, store it, and then disperse it, using their pipes to get it to other parts of the state. In a community meeting, the Valero refinery manager said they thinks they probably won’t be there longer than two years, but that was like the only indication of a timeframe.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/b>\u003cem>[00:12:33] \u003c/em>It sounds like parts of the refinery are still being used because of the fact that we still, as a state and a country and I guess a world, still rely very heavily on oil and gas and that this is sort of being also pushed by this global fuel crisis that you’re just talking about. But what does that mean for Benicia? What does that means for the city’s ability to really plan for its future?\u003cem> \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Julie Small: \u003c/b>\u003cem>[00:13:03] \u003c/em>It makes it very difficult for them to plan. I mean, that’s all they can do at this point is say, well, let’s start planning. Let’s get investors in here. Let’s clean it up. There’s things they can now, like trying to figure out how much it’s gonna cost to clean it. But it really delays their ability to move forward with redevelopment, which is a big part of their financial plan. Having Valero stay in this capacity where they’re not refining. They’re not going to be paying the kind of taxes they were. They’re going to pay some small. So they’re not gonna be offering the benefit they used to, but they’re also gonna be kind of preventing the city from moving forward. And people there are understandably very concerned about that.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Christina Gilpin Hayes: \u003c/b>\u003cem>[00:13:50] \u003c/em>You know, it’s a catch-22. We might be better off, you know, environmentally, but not so much better off fiscally.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Julie Small: \u003c/b>\u003cem>[00:13:57] \u003c/em>And I talked to Christina Gilpin Hayes, she’s a resident, but she also serves on the city’s planning commission. She wasn’t like effusive, some people were really excited that Valera was leaving. She wasn’t one of those people. She’s like, look, we knew this was coming. And unfortunately, by them staying on like this, it really hamstrings the city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Christina Gilpin Hayes: \u003c/b>\u003cem>[00:14:17] \u003c/em>It just prolongs what we need to happen, you know, either go or don’t, but if you continue to use it as a storage facility, it eliminates the ability for the city to move forward.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/b>\u003cem>[00:14:34] \u003c/em>That’s not even to mention that all of this redevelopment will require a lot of money, I imagine. And we talked at the top about how California more broadly is sort of leading the way and transitioning away from oil and gas and that Benicia isn’t the first city to even try and do it, but it still seems like it’s easier said than done. So what help does exist for cities that are making this transition, Julie?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Julie Small: \u003c/b>\u003cem>[00:15:07] \u003c/em>Well, one thing that the state has done, we’ll start with the positives, is that they have created this displaced oil and gas worker fund, which basically helps these workers that are being laid off at Valero transition into jobs that match their skill, their expertise, and also offer comparable wages in other industries. They’re also offering $25,000 grants to small businesses affected by the closure of Valero. That’s kind of what’s at the state level. Locally, there’s a lot more. One of the big things that Benicia is hoping to lean on is the Bay Area Air District. Our air regulator has started a new program. It’s taking fines against polluters like Valero and reinvesting those fines back into communities that were affected by emissions. They find Valero 82 million in 2024 for over a decade of excess emissions. And they’re making… 60 million of that available to Benicia and surrounding communities. Benicia’s not sure how much of that money they’re going to get awarded and they won’t know until the fall but they’re hoping to use that money to keep the city government afloat and keep services for the community consistent so that they can handle this transition and they’re pretty confident they’re gonna get a lot of support from the Air District.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>\u003c/b>\u003cem>[00:16:29] \u003c/em>Is it enough for cities and towns like Benicia? Like, how do Benicia residents and officials feel about the support that’s coming from the state and air regulators?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Julie Small: \u003c/b>\u003cem>[00:16:40] \u003c/em>I think they feel pretty positive about what’s coming from the air regulators. At the state level, you know, they could use a lot more support.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Josh Sonnenfeld: \u003c/b>\u003cem>[00:16:49] \u003c/em>There’s a lot more that we can and should be doing at the same time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Julie Small: \u003c/b>\u003cem>[00:16:52] \u003c/em>I talked to Josh Sonnenfeld with the UC Berkeley Labor Center, and he says most of the emphasis has been on how to show up the fuel supply and not nearly enough on how do we help these refinery towns actually transition.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Josh Sonnenfeld: \u003c/b>\u003cem>[00:17:09] \u003c/em>For example, California is one of the biggest markets for clean energy products, right? Whether that’s solar panels, EVs, heat pumps. And we have an opportunity to actually build these products in California as well. And so how can we make sure that the inequities of the past century of putting low-income housing and people of color and immigrants next to refineries. That we’re actually undoing some of that damage with the new economy that we are trying to build.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Julie Small: \u003c/b>\u003cem>[00:17:41] \u003c/em>He says, you know, the state should be doing both. They should be making sure that the fuel supply stays stable, but they could also be helping refinery towns by establishing a state office to facilitate and guide economic transitions, like which other states have done. And also he cited New York State, for example, created something called a tax revenue stabilization fund. It’s basically cash that the state provides to a refinery town to cope with the sudden drop and tax revenues.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Josh Sonnenfeld: \u003c/b>\u003cem>[00:18:11] \u003c/em>There is opportunity for us to develop something similar in California. But the key is, do it in a way where we’re really, we really need the feedback of local communities about how they wanna transition their economy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Julie Small: \u003c/b>\u003cem>[00:18:24] \u003c/em>From my vantage point, I tried to find out what concretely they’re doing and I got just a lot of word salad. But, you know, other people in Benicia feel like they’re more involved in sort of the backroom discussions, feel that the state is with the town and will be helping more going forward.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/b>\u003cem>[00:18:46] \u003c/em>Well, what do you think, Julie, it will take for Benicia to, in fact, become the poster child of a just transition?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Julie Small: \u003c/b>\u003cem>[00:18:55] \u003c/em>It will take Valero’s departure, the final departure of Valero so that that land can be redeveloped. I really think that that’s the key to their future. I think it’s going to take more support from the state for displaced workers. And also just like Benicia on its own cannot create a new green economy. There’s a lot of effort regionally to create like these green economic zones, manufacturing zones for the green industry. It’s going take programs like that to provide a new identity for Benicia, a new economy. It takes ten years to decontaminate. Refinery site, according to state officials, you know, whose job is it is to do that. And that’s like probably a conservative number.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/b>\u003cem>[00:19:44] \u003c/em>What’s your sense of how city leaders are feeling in Benicia? You think they’re hopeful about their future?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Julie Small: \u003c/b>\u003cem>[00:19:51] \u003c/em>They are hopeful. I mean, it’s a really great community and it’s really politically active community. I mean in 2016, Valero wanted to bring in oil by rail and that really galvanized people. You know, I left that town hall feeling like a lot of other people probably did, which was like, yes, they can do it. I’ve since become a little more like, wait a minute, you know, they’re relying on a lot of aspects here that are tenuous. But they’re very driven and they have a lot of know-how and a lot chutzpah. Well, you have eight other refinery towns that are gonna be facing this, and having a blueprint that works is gonna make a big difference for them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/b>\u003cem>[00:20:41] \u003c/em>Well, Julie Small, thank you so much for joining me. I appreciate it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Julie Small: \u003c/b>\u003cem>[00:20:45] \u003c/em>Thank you, Ericka.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Some members of the KQED podcast team are represented by The Screen Actors Guild, American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, San Francisco-Northern California Local.\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Valero’s Benicia oil refinery employed hundreds of people and contributed millions in taxes to the local government for decades. Now, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12059271/urgent-need-benicia-braces-for-economic-future\">with the refinery on its way out\u003c/a>, local leaders hope Benicia can be a leading example for how cities transition away from the fossil fuel industry. \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But with tight city budgets and a global fuel crisis, that’s much easier said than done.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"200\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https://playlist.megaphone.fm?e=KQINC6761828258&light=true\" width=\"100%\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Links:\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/2000877/californias-fuel-fears-threaten-benicias-just-transition-to-green-economy\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">California’s Fuel Fears Threaten Benicia’s ‘Just Transition’ to Green Economy\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003ch3>\u003cstrong>Episode Transcript\u003c/strong>\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This is a computer-generated transcript. While our team has reviewed it, there may be errors.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/b>\u003cem>[00:01:00] \u003c/em>I’m Ericka Cruz Guevara and welcome to The Bay, local news to keep you rooted. The city of Benicia has been thinking a lot about its future lately. With fewer than 30,000 residents, this 15.7-square-mile town along the Carquinez Strait has been shaped for decades by the Valero oil refinery, which propped up the local economy, employed hundreds of workers and contributed taxes that paid roughly 10% of the city’s budget. But last month, Valero officially stopped refining crude oil in Benicia. Now, city leaders hope Benicia can be the shining example of a so-called just transition, away from fossil fuels to renewable energy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Mario Giuliani: \u003c/b>\u003cem>[00:01:59] \u003c/em>There are eight other communities in California that are home to a refinery, and it’s only a matter of when those communities are gonna have to go through what Benicia’s going through.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/b>\u003cem>[00:02:12] \u003c/em>Today, how Benicia is planning for a future without a refinery and why it’s easier said than done.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/b>\u003cem>[00:02:26] \u003c/em>So Julie, as I understand it, some people have referred to Benicia as a potential poster child for what a quote unquote just transition could look like. First, what is a just transition for those who don’t know what that is? And when did you first hear that in reference to Benicia?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Julie Small: \u003c/b>\u003cem>[00:02:49] \u003c/em>There’s a lot of definitions for just transition.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/b>\u003cem>[00:02:52] \u003c/em>Julie Small is a reporter for KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Julie Small: \u003c/b>\u003cem>[00:02:55] \u003c/em>In this case, a just transition is a city moving off its reliance on a fossil fuel industry in such a way that increases the healthiness of the community and the overall standard of living for the community. And it does so in such way that the economy is sustained and diversified and reinvested into clean renewable energies and industries. The first time I heard that term being applied to Benicia was at this February town hall meeting. A hundred people packed into the city library to hear from the city manager, Mario Giuliani.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Mario Giuliani: \u003c/b>\u003cem>[00:03:43] \u003c/em>We have a great responsibility and honor to be the model community on how we transition\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Julie Small: \u003c/b>\u003cem>[00:03:52] \u003c/em>He told them, you know, this is the plan for how we’re gonna make up for Valero’s departure. We are going to become that poster child for a just transition.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Mario Giuliani: \u003c/b>\u003cem>[00:04:02] \u003c/em>How do you protect a community that is home to a refinery? And so you don’t decimate that community, but you allow them to springboard to something else. And I think that we’re well positioned to kind of write that playbook\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/b>\u003cem>[00:04:19] \u003c/em>Big words there from the city manager. And also I feel like a really big task, right? Because for context, Benicia’s, as I understand it, entire local economy and city budget relies very heavily on Valero, right?\u003cem> \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Julie Small: \u003c/b>\u003cem>[00:04:37] \u003c/em>I mean, we’re talking about 10% of the tax revenue that the city collects comes from the Valero refinery. And then there’s all the other industries in the area that build parts or provide services to the refineries. It’s also all the people in town, the restaurants, services leaning heavily on that income.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/b>\u003cem>[00:05:02] \u003c/em>Can you actually remind us, Julie, why Valero is leaving Benicia in the first place?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Julie Small: \u003c/b>\u003cem>[00:05:08] \u003c/em>The company says it’s leaving because demand for fossil fuel in California is declining, you know, with the rise of renewables and we’re, you know phasing out fossil fuel cars. We’re switching to electrical vehicles. At the same time, regulations on the oil industry are increasing in California as we’re trying to get a handle on controlling emissions and also controlling gas prices. Valero’s CEO has publicly complained about some recent bills that were passed in response to gas price spikes that would have penalized oil companies if they make excessive profits. You know, it’s important to emphasize that although Valero says that’s why they’re leaving, it is part of a trend we’re seeing across the country. Refineries are closing everywhere, so it’s not just unique to California, it not just because we have all these regulations. It’s that these are huge multinational global conglomerates that are maximizing their profit. If they can move their operations overseas where the labor’s cheaper and they have more demand, they’re gonna do it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/b>\u003cem>[00:06:22] \u003c/em>As I guess Benicia’s preparing for Valero to leave, I imagine there’s been a lot of thinking and talking about what the city would look like without it. So what could a just transition look like in a town like Benicia?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Julie Small: \u003c/b>\u003cem>[00:06:39] \u003c/em>Well, they definitely want Venetia to be a cleaner town. They don’t want to have new industries come in that are polluting. So they’re looking to get away from this cycle of having to deal with emissions over decades and high asthma rates and high breast cancer rates. So looking for industries that, one, will diversify the economy, so they’re not so dependent on one big company, but also We’ll change the focus. We’ll be actually contributing to California’s goals to become carbon neutral.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kari Bridseye: \u003c/b>\u003cem>[00:07:12] \u003c/em>We’re in a very precarious moment right now, but I’m filled with hope because of what we have here.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Julie Small: \u003c/b>\u003cem>[00:07:20] \u003c/em>I talked to Kari Birdseye, city council member at Benicia, and she’s actually by trade an environmental scientist.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kari Bridseye: \u003c/b>\u003cem>[00:07:28] \u003c/em>Anybody that knows me knows that I always talk about the opportunity for the Port of Benicia being involved in standing up the offshore wind industry in California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Julie Small: \u003c/b>\u003cem>[00:07:41] \u003c/em>So she’s really excited about the fact that the port in Benicia that is currently used by Valero to export pet coke, which is a byproduct of refining and polluting substance, using that instead as a place where you could manufacture and export parts for the nascent offshore wind industry in California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kari Bridseye: \u003c/b>\u003cem>[00:08:05] \u003c/em>And to me, that’s the perfect scenario for a just transition away from fossil fuels. Let’s be part of the solution instead of the problem.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/b>\u003cem>[00:08:16] \u003c/em>There’s also this question in the city about what to do with the land that the refinery is on as well, right? I mean, it covers like a huge swath of the city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Julie Small: \u003c/b>\u003cem>[00:08:27] \u003c/em>Yeah, 900 acres of prime land right there overlooking the Carquinez Strait. It’s beautiful area. It is going to take a while before that land is usable. There’s a buffer zone around the refinery, it’s about 500 acres, that they’re hoping could be redeveloped sooner because it’s not as contaminated as the refineries site itself. They’d like to see that become, you know, housing or businesses that are catering to the local economy. Valero has actually hired a company to repurpose the land, redevelop the land for them. Those proposals are coming in the fall, so we don’t know exactly what that’s gonna be, but there’s a lot you could do with that land. And council member Kari Birdseye talks about this.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kari Bridseye: \u003c/b>\u003cem>[00:09:23] \u003c/em>Centrally located, we have two interstates, a rail line, a port. We have so much potential here and it’s my vision to have a very diverse set of businesses and developers come in and be part of our community on the 900 acres that Valero owns right now.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/b>\u003cem>[00:09:53] \u003c/em>Coming up, why Valero’s departure from Benicia is more complicated than it sounds. Stay with us.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/b>\u003cem>[00:11:07] \u003c/em>It does seem like there is a lot of planning and daydreaming about what that future could look like in Benicia. So when exactly is the Valero refinery closing?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Julie Small: \u003c/b>\u003cem>[00:11:20] \u003c/em>That’s unclear at this moment. They’ve stopped refining. There’s nothing coming out of those stacks. But because of the global fuel crisis and California’s own problem of tightening supply between Valero and the Phillips 66 refinery in Southern California that closed last year, California lost 20% of the fuel that’s refined in the state. So California is looking to make that up. As soon as Valero said they were gonna leave, Governor Newsom, the California Energy Commission did everything they could to get Valero to stay. They couldn’t convince them to keep refining, but they did get them to agree to use their facilities to import refined fuels, store it, and then disperse it, using their pipes to get it to other parts of the state. In a community meeting, the Valero refinery manager said they thinks they probably won’t be there longer than two years, but that was like the only indication of a timeframe.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/b>\u003cem>[00:12:33] \u003c/em>It sounds like parts of the refinery are still being used because of the fact that we still, as a state and a country and I guess a world, still rely very heavily on oil and gas and that this is sort of being also pushed by this global fuel crisis that you’re just talking about. But what does that mean for Benicia? What does that means for the city’s ability to really plan for its future?\u003cem> \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Julie Small: \u003c/b>\u003cem>[00:13:03] \u003c/em>It makes it very difficult for them to plan. I mean, that’s all they can do at this point is say, well, let’s start planning. Let’s get investors in here. Let’s clean it up. There’s things they can now, like trying to figure out how much it’s gonna cost to clean it. But it really delays their ability to move forward with redevelopment, which is a big part of their financial plan. Having Valero stay in this capacity where they’re not refining. They’re not going to be paying the kind of taxes they were. They’re going to pay some small. So they’re not gonna be offering the benefit they used to, but they’re also gonna be kind of preventing the city from moving forward. And people there are understandably very concerned about that.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Christina Gilpin Hayes: \u003c/b>\u003cem>[00:13:50] \u003c/em>You know, it’s a catch-22. We might be better off, you know, environmentally, but not so much better off fiscally.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Julie Small: \u003c/b>\u003cem>[00:13:57] \u003c/em>And I talked to Christina Gilpin Hayes, she’s a resident, but she also serves on the city’s planning commission. She wasn’t like effusive, some people were really excited that Valera was leaving. She wasn’t one of those people. She’s like, look, we knew this was coming. And unfortunately, by them staying on like this, it really hamstrings the city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Christina Gilpin Hayes: \u003c/b>\u003cem>[00:14:17] \u003c/em>It just prolongs what we need to happen, you know, either go or don’t, but if you continue to use it as a storage facility, it eliminates the ability for the city to move forward.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/b>\u003cem>[00:14:34] \u003c/em>That’s not even to mention that all of this redevelopment will require a lot of money, I imagine. And we talked at the top about how California more broadly is sort of leading the way and transitioning away from oil and gas and that Benicia isn’t the first city to even try and do it, but it still seems like it’s easier said than done. So what help does exist for cities that are making this transition, Julie?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Julie Small: \u003c/b>\u003cem>[00:15:07] \u003c/em>Well, one thing that the state has done, we’ll start with the positives, is that they have created this displaced oil and gas worker fund, which basically helps these workers that are being laid off at Valero transition into jobs that match their skill, their expertise, and also offer comparable wages in other industries. They’re also offering $25,000 grants to small businesses affected by the closure of Valero. That’s kind of what’s at the state level. Locally, there’s a lot more. One of the big things that Benicia is hoping to lean on is the Bay Area Air District. Our air regulator has started a new program. It’s taking fines against polluters like Valero and reinvesting those fines back into communities that were affected by emissions. They find Valero 82 million in 2024 for over a decade of excess emissions. And they’re making… 60 million of that available to Benicia and surrounding communities. Benicia’s not sure how much of that money they’re going to get awarded and they won’t know until the fall but they’re hoping to use that money to keep the city government afloat and keep services for the community consistent so that they can handle this transition and they’re pretty confident they’re gonna get a lot of support from the Air District.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>\u003c/b>\u003cem>[00:16:29] \u003c/em>Is it enough for cities and towns like Benicia? Like, how do Benicia residents and officials feel about the support that’s coming from the state and air regulators?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Julie Small: \u003c/b>\u003cem>[00:16:40] \u003c/em>I think they feel pretty positive about what’s coming from the air regulators. At the state level, you know, they could use a lot more support.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Josh Sonnenfeld: \u003c/b>\u003cem>[00:16:49] \u003c/em>There’s a lot more that we can and should be doing at the same time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Julie Small: \u003c/b>\u003cem>[00:16:52] \u003c/em>I talked to Josh Sonnenfeld with the UC Berkeley Labor Center, and he says most of the emphasis has been on how to show up the fuel supply and not nearly enough on how do we help these refinery towns actually transition.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Josh Sonnenfeld: \u003c/b>\u003cem>[00:17:09] \u003c/em>For example, California is one of the biggest markets for clean energy products, right? Whether that’s solar panels, EVs, heat pumps. And we have an opportunity to actually build these products in California as well. And so how can we make sure that the inequities of the past century of putting low-income housing and people of color and immigrants next to refineries. That we’re actually undoing some of that damage with the new economy that we are trying to build.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Julie Small: \u003c/b>\u003cem>[00:17:41] \u003c/em>He says, you know, the state should be doing both. They should be making sure that the fuel supply stays stable, but they could also be helping refinery towns by establishing a state office to facilitate and guide economic transitions, like which other states have done. And also he cited New York State, for example, created something called a tax revenue stabilization fund. It’s basically cash that the state provides to a refinery town to cope with the sudden drop and tax revenues.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Josh Sonnenfeld: \u003c/b>\u003cem>[00:18:11] \u003c/em>There is opportunity for us to develop something similar in California. But the key is, do it in a way where we’re really, we really need the feedback of local communities about how they wanna transition their economy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Julie Small: \u003c/b>\u003cem>[00:18:24] \u003c/em>From my vantage point, I tried to find out what concretely they’re doing and I got just a lot of word salad. But, you know, other people in Benicia feel like they’re more involved in sort of the backroom discussions, feel that the state is with the town and will be helping more going forward.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/b>\u003cem>[00:18:46] \u003c/em>Well, what do you think, Julie, it will take for Benicia to, in fact, become the poster child of a just transition?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Julie Small: \u003c/b>\u003cem>[00:18:55] \u003c/em>It will take Valero’s departure, the final departure of Valero so that that land can be redeveloped. I really think that that’s the key to their future. I think it’s going to take more support from the state for displaced workers. And also just like Benicia on its own cannot create a new green economy. There’s a lot of effort regionally to create like these green economic zones, manufacturing zones for the green industry. It’s going take programs like that to provide a new identity for Benicia, a new economy. It takes ten years to decontaminate. Refinery site, according to state officials, you know, whose job is it is to do that. And that’s like probably a conservative number.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/b>\u003cem>[00:19:44] \u003c/em>What’s your sense of how city leaders are feeling in Benicia? You think they’re hopeful about their future?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Julie Small: \u003c/b>\u003cem>[00:19:51] \u003c/em>They are hopeful. I mean, it’s a really great community and it’s really politically active community. I mean in 2016, Valero wanted to bring in oil by rail and that really galvanized people. You know, I left that town hall feeling like a lot of other people probably did, which was like, yes, they can do it. I’ve since become a little more like, wait a minute, you know, they’re relying on a lot of aspects here that are tenuous. But they’re very driven and they have a lot of know-how and a lot chutzpah. Well, you have eight other refinery towns that are gonna be facing this, and having a blueprint that works is gonna make a big difference for them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/b>\u003cem>[00:20:41] \u003c/em>Well, Julie Small, thank you so much for joining me. I appreciate it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Julie Small: \u003c/b>\u003cem>[00:20:45] \u003c/em>Thank you, Ericka.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"title": "An Incoming ‘Super El Niño’ May Bring California a Wet, Hot Winter",
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"headTitle": "An Incoming ‘Super El Niño’ May Bring California a Wet, Hot Winter | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>Scientists predict that an upcoming \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/forum/2010101913837/a-monster-el-nino-is-brewing-in-the-pacific\">“Super El Niño”\u003c/a> will make 2026 to 2027 the hottest years on record and bring significant sea level rise to the Bay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>An update on Thursday from the National Weather Service’s Climate Prediction Center said that El Niño is likely to emerge as soon as May and persist through the end of winter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While El Niño, a warming of the ocean, and La Niña, a cooling of the ocean, are natural patterns that come and go every 2 to 7 years, this year’s El Niño could be one of the strongest on record — and may give Bay Area residents a preview of what life on the coast will be like in just a decade or two if global warming continues at its current pace.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Daniel Swain, a climate scientist with UC Agriculture and Natural Resources, said the term “Super El Niño” is just a colloquial way to describe a “more extreme than merely strong” climate pattern.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Super El Niño is not something magical, it’s not something new, that’s never happened before,” Swain said this week during his live-streamed “office-hours” series.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Swain said El Niños in 1982, 1997, and 2015 each resulted in “very different global effects” — ranging from record rainfall, which caused some \u003ca href=\"https://www.whoi.edu/science/b/people/kamaral/1982-1983ElNino.html\">Peruvian\u003c/a> rivers to carry 1,000 times their normal flow in 1983, to severe drought in \u003ca href=\"https://www.climate.gov/news-features/understanding-climate/2015-state-climate-el-ni%C3%B1o-came-saw-and-conquered\">Ethiopia\u003c/a> in 2015.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10898113\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-10898113 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/03/ElNino.jpg\" alt=\"A downed tree in Oakland after last weekend's El Niño-fueled storms.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1224\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/03/ElNino.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/03/ElNino-400x255.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/03/ElNino-800x510.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/03/ElNino-1180x752.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/03/ElNino-960x612.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A downed tree in Oakland after El Niño-fueled storms in 2016. Scientists warned the climate pattern could be the strongest on record, and result in a temporary sea level rise of around 6 inches in California. \u003ccite>(Andrea Kissack/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>This year’s “Super El Niño,” Swain said, will result in a temporary sea level rise of around 6 inches in California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You have to add that number to climate change-caused sea level rise, which — depending on where you are in California — ranges from about 6 inches to a foot over the past century,” Swain said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Beyond sustained sea level rise, scientists expect major storms and flooding starting this winter. They predict that these storms will be particularly strong as the effects of El Niño compound with the effects of climate change.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bay Area residents should expect “significant implications for coastal flooding [and] for wind and surf damage along the coast,” Swain said, pointing to the large \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12019798/repair-work-left-santa-cruz-wharf-vulnerable-to-collapse-a-rebuild-is-uncertain\">wave events in Santa Cruz \u003c/a>and the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1999871/after-king-tides-swamp-marin-san-rafael-weighs-billion-dollar-defenses-against-the-bay\">king tide flooding in Marin\u003c/a> last year as examples of what may be in store.[aside postID=news_12069118 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/MarinCountyFloodingAP3.jpg']On KQED’s Forum on Thursday, science writer David Wallace-Wells and climate activist Bill McKibben compared this El Niño to a particularly deadly event in 1877. The main difference between then and now?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“People in the 1870s had no idea what was happening to them, whereas in this case, scientists from across the planet have given us timely warning that we should be using to prepare for what’s ahead,” McKibben said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This preparedness, however, will likely be impacted by federal cuts to science and weather programs, he warned: “We’re not doing a great job of heeding the wonderful warning that science has been able to provide us. We’re not doing a great job of heeding the wonderful warning that science has been able to provide us.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>San Francisco’s Department of Emergency Management said that the possibility of a strong El Niño is part of the city’s preparedness planning. In the coastal city, El Niño can mean a higher potential for heavy rain, localized flooding, and storm-related disruptions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our focus is on coordinating closely with partner agencies, preparing our response systems, and encouraging the public to take preparedness steps before severe weather arrives,” a spokesperson said in a statement on Thursday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>McKibben reminded listeners that winter is coming: “Don’t let your insurance lapse this year,” he said. “We’re headed into a very, very interesting season, I’m afraid.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Scientists predict that an upcoming \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/forum/2010101913837/a-monster-el-nino-is-brewing-in-the-pacific\">“Super El Niño”\u003c/a> will make 2026 to 2027 the hottest years on record and bring significant sea level rise to the Bay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>An update on Thursday from the National Weather Service’s Climate Prediction Center said that El Niño is likely to emerge as soon as May and persist through the end of winter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While El Niño, a warming of the ocean, and La Niña, a cooling of the ocean, are natural patterns that come and go every 2 to 7 years, this year’s El Niño could be one of the strongest on record — and may give Bay Area residents a preview of what life on the coast will be like in just a decade or two if global warming continues at its current pace.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Daniel Swain, a climate scientist with UC Agriculture and Natural Resources, said the term “Super El Niño” is just a colloquial way to describe a “more extreme than merely strong” climate pattern.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Super El Niño is not something magical, it’s not something new, that’s never happened before,” Swain said this week during his live-streamed “office-hours” series.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Swain said El Niños in 1982, 1997, and 2015 each resulted in “very different global effects” — ranging from record rainfall, which caused some \u003ca href=\"https://www.whoi.edu/science/b/people/kamaral/1982-1983ElNino.html\">Peruvian\u003c/a> rivers to carry 1,000 times their normal flow in 1983, to severe drought in \u003ca href=\"https://www.climate.gov/news-features/understanding-climate/2015-state-climate-el-ni%C3%B1o-came-saw-and-conquered\">Ethiopia\u003c/a> in 2015.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10898113\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-10898113 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/03/ElNino.jpg\" alt=\"A downed tree in Oakland after last weekend's El Niño-fueled storms.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1224\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/03/ElNino.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/03/ElNino-400x255.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/03/ElNino-800x510.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/03/ElNino-1180x752.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/03/ElNino-960x612.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A downed tree in Oakland after El Niño-fueled storms in 2016. Scientists warned the climate pattern could be the strongest on record, and result in a temporary sea level rise of around 6 inches in California. \u003ccite>(Andrea Kissack/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>This year’s “Super El Niño,” Swain said, will result in a temporary sea level rise of around 6 inches in California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You have to add that number to climate change-caused sea level rise, which — depending on where you are in California — ranges from about 6 inches to a foot over the past century,” Swain said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Beyond sustained sea level rise, scientists expect major storms and flooding starting this winter. They predict that these storms will be particularly strong as the effects of El Niño compound with the effects of climate change.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bay Area residents should expect “significant implications for coastal flooding [and] for wind and surf damage along the coast,” Swain said, pointing to the large \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12019798/repair-work-left-santa-cruz-wharf-vulnerable-to-collapse-a-rebuild-is-uncertain\">wave events in Santa Cruz \u003c/a>and the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1999871/after-king-tides-swamp-marin-san-rafael-weighs-billion-dollar-defenses-against-the-bay\">king tide flooding in Marin\u003c/a> last year as examples of what may be in store.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>On KQED’s Forum on Thursday, science writer David Wallace-Wells and climate activist Bill McKibben compared this El Niño to a particularly deadly event in 1877. The main difference between then and now?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“People in the 1870s had no idea what was happening to them, whereas in this case, scientists from across the planet have given us timely warning that we should be using to prepare for what’s ahead,” McKibben said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This preparedness, however, will likely be impacted by federal cuts to science and weather programs, he warned: “We’re not doing a great job of heeding the wonderful warning that science has been able to provide us. We’re not doing a great job of heeding the wonderful warning that science has been able to provide us.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>San Francisco’s Department of Emergency Management said that the possibility of a strong El Niño is part of the city’s preparedness planning. In the coastal city, El Niño can mean a higher potential for heavy rain, localized flooding, and storm-related disruptions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our focus is on coordinating closely with partner agencies, preparing our response systems, and encouraging the public to take preparedness steps before severe weather arrives,” a spokesperson said in a statement on Thursday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>McKibben reminded listeners that winter is coming: “Don’t let your insurance lapse this year,” he said. “We’re headed into a very, very interesting season, I’m afraid.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>Fire risk experts cautioned California lawmakers this week that the state needs to change course to both survive and bounce back from \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12021019/la-fires-threaten-california-insurance-market-stability-housing-costs\">wildfires\u003c/a> and other natural catastrophes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the state Capitol on Tuesday, Nancy Watkins, an actuary at financial adviser Milliman who specializes in fire risk and insurance, counseled lawmakers that the state needs to stop “nibbling around the edges.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Nobody is going to save California from our decisions,” she said. “The state has to really step in and be more strategic about how to make things happen faster.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a \u003ca href=\"https://sd18.senate.ca.gov/news/senate-leader-taps-senators-becker-and-padilla-advance-effort-wildfire-recovery-and-energy\">statement on \u003c/a>Wednesday, state Sen. Steve Padilla, D-San Diego, and Sen. Josh Becker, D-Menlo Park, said they would study the report’s findings and develop a plan to help strengthen recovery efforts and protect residents from rising energy and insurance costs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This work is essential,” Becker said. “We must advance reforms that protect access to insurance, lower costs, support wildfire resilience, and provide fair outcomes for those impacted — while ensuring our utilities are both accountable for safety and financially stable enough to attract low-cost capital on behalf of ratepayers.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wildfires over the past decade have driven up \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1985175/insurance-in-california-is-changing-heres-how-it-may-affect-you\">home insurance \u003c/a>rates and made coverage harder to obtain in many parts of California. In response, the state has invested heavily in firefighting capacity, early fire-detection technology and vegetation management. But Watkins told legislators those efforts alone are not enough.[aside postID=science_2000680 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/12/480270735_qed-1020x680.jpg']“The buildup of wildfire risk is a state and a local issue. It’s arising from climate change, it also arises from decades of decisions that we’ve made on land use, building, fire suppression, and decades of regulatory decisions,” Watkins said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Watkins said the state should focus more heavily on making communities less vulnerable to wildfire by making them less ready to burn, rather than relying primarily on detecting and extinguishing fires quickly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We cannot address this problem through ignition reduction, fuel reduction, or fire suppression, and we definitely can’t get it just through early detection. This all has to include home hardening and defensible space within communities at a much, much greater scale than has been done,” Watkins said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Watkins recently co-authored an\u003ca href=\"https://www.milliman.com/en/insight/state-wildfire-mitigation-framework-measure-twice-cut-once\"> article\u003c/a> with Michael Wara of the Woods Institute for the Environment at Stanford University and Dave Winnacker, wildfire policy adviser of the Western Fire Chiefs Association, which outlined a roadmap for reducing wildfire risk in California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In an email to KQED, Watkins said the paper was intended to give policymakers “explicit, tangible steps” to better protect communities and reduce the state’s growing wildfire exposure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Fire risk experts cautioned California lawmakers this week that the state needs to change course to both survive and bounce back from \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12021019/la-fires-threaten-california-insurance-market-stability-housing-costs\">wildfires\u003c/a> and other natural catastrophes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the state Capitol on Tuesday, Nancy Watkins, an actuary at financial adviser Milliman who specializes in fire risk and insurance, counseled lawmakers that the state needs to stop “nibbling around the edges.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Nobody is going to save California from our decisions,” she said. “The state has to really step in and be more strategic about how to make things happen faster.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a \u003ca href=\"https://sd18.senate.ca.gov/news/senate-leader-taps-senators-becker-and-padilla-advance-effort-wildfire-recovery-and-energy\">statement on \u003c/a>Wednesday, state Sen. Steve Padilla, D-San Diego, and Sen. Josh Becker, D-Menlo Park, said they would study the report’s findings and develop a plan to help strengthen recovery efforts and protect residents from rising energy and insurance costs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This work is essential,” Becker said. “We must advance reforms that protect access to insurance, lower costs, support wildfire resilience, and provide fair outcomes for those impacted — while ensuring our utilities are both accountable for safety and financially stable enough to attract low-cost capital on behalf of ratepayers.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wildfires over the past decade have driven up \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1985175/insurance-in-california-is-changing-heres-how-it-may-affect-you\">home insurance \u003c/a>rates and made coverage harder to obtain in many parts of California. In response, the state has invested heavily in firefighting capacity, early fire-detection technology and vegetation management. But Watkins told legislators those efforts alone are not enough.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“The buildup of wildfire risk is a state and a local issue. It’s arising from climate change, it also arises from decades of decisions that we’ve made on land use, building, fire suppression, and decades of regulatory decisions,” Watkins said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Watkins said the state should focus more heavily on making communities less vulnerable to wildfire by making them less ready to burn, rather than relying primarily on detecting and extinguishing fires quickly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We cannot address this problem through ignition reduction, fuel reduction, or fire suppression, and we definitely can’t get it just through early detection. This all has to include home hardening and defensible space within communities at a much, much greater scale than has been done,” Watkins said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Watkins recently co-authored an\u003ca href=\"https://www.milliman.com/en/insight/state-wildfire-mitigation-framework-measure-twice-cut-once\"> article\u003c/a> with Michael Wara of the Woods Institute for the Environment at Stanford University and Dave Winnacker, wildfire policy adviser of the Western Fire Chiefs Association, which outlined a roadmap for reducing wildfire risk in California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In an email to KQED, Watkins said the paper was intended to give policymakers “explicit, tangible steps” to better protect communities and reduce the state’s growing wildfire exposure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "the-view-inside-californias-last-nuclear-power-plant",
"title": "A Rare Look Inside California’s Last Nuclear Power Plant",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cem>California is transitioning to clean energy. KQED is reporting on what that means for you. What works? What doesn’t? How much does it cost? Help us find these answers and more by \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"http://donate.kqed.org/sojo?ms=W2510EANXXXX22\">\u003cem>donating today\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem>. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The most striking view off one of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12080669/should-california-keep-its-last-nuclear-power-plant-running\">San Luis Obispo County\u003c/a>’s winding coastal roads is not the lashing ocean waves of the Pacific Ocean or cows plodding out from the shade of a California live oak tree.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It is two enormous concrete domes that come into focus along a final climb that began 7 miles back at Avila Beach. The land sinks away, and what looks like a small town emerges, showcased in a palette of grays, whites and terracotta.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This is Diablo Canyon, California’s last operating nuclear power plant.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Just years ago, the plant was slated to close, and employees worked to decommission it, until a \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220SB846\">2022\u003c/a> about-face by Gov. Gavin Newsom led the state to extend its operations to 2030. Now lawmakers in Sacramento are talking about allowing it to operate even longer, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/2000605/the-debate-for-keeping-diablo-canyon-open-past-2030-is-on-what-could-it-mean-for-your-bills\">potentially to 2045\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But local groups, some of whom have protested the plant \u003ca href=\"https://www.foundsf.org/The_Diablo_Canyon_Blockade_1981\">since its construction\u003c/a>, are banging the drum ever louder about their concerns for \u003ca href=\"https://mothersforpeace.org/2025-reports-on-the-health-impacts-of-living-near-diablo-canyon-nuclear-plant/\">safety\u003c/a> or a catastrophic \u003ca href=\"https://mothersforpeace.org/campaign-to-stop-diablo/\">meltdown\u003c/a>, as well as the danger posed by spent nuclear waste at a site near several seismic faultlines.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_790877\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1910px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-790877\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/06/Diablo-Canyon-Panorama-e1466523869791.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1910\" height=\"1271\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/06/Diablo-Canyon-Panorama-e1466523869791.jpg 1910w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/06/Diablo-Canyon-Panorama-e1466523869791-400x266.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/06/Diablo-Canyon-Panorama-e1466523869791-800x532.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/06/Diablo-Canyon-Panorama-e1466523869791-768x511.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/06/Diablo-Canyon-Panorama-e1466523869791-1440x958.jpg 1440w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/06/Diablo-Canyon-Panorama-e1466523869791-1180x785.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/06/Diablo-Canyon-Panorama-e1466523869791-960x639.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1910px) 100vw, 1910px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Aerial view of the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant, which sits on the edge of the Pacific Ocean at Avila Beach in San Luis Obispo County. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of PG&E)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, academics are furiously analyzing how much keeping Diablo Canyon open would \u003ca href=\"https://ceepr.mit.edu/workingpaper/the-economics-of-continued-operation-of-the-diablo-canyon-nuclear-power-plant-2030-2045/\">cost\u003c/a> and if it would support or hinder the state’s clean energy transition. And business groups are lining up in \u003ca href=\"https://diablocanyon2045.com/\">support\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So when PG&E offered press tours earlier this year, KQED accepted. The nuclear power plant has not garnered this much attention in years, but now, once again, all eyes are on Diablo Canyon. What does it look like inside?\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Out on the water\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>PG&E’s Diablo Canyon Power Plant tour started on a boat in a protected marina just south of the reactors. This, and another cove just outside the breakwaters, are the site of a key piece of the plant’s cooling system — and a major concern for environmentalists, who argue it hoovers up and kills marine life and have \u003ca href=\"https://theotterproject.org/blog/diablo-canyon-power-plants-marine-life-destruction-will-continue-without-intervention\">called it\u003c/a> “the most destructive facility” along California’s coast.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dipping a hand in Diablo Cove, the water is lukewarm, not the frosty standard for the ocean in these parts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_2000152\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-2000152\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/02/260213-DIABLOCANYONNUCLEARPOWERPLANT-25-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/02/260213-DIABLOCANYONNUCLEARPOWERPLANT-25-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/02/260213-DIABLOCANYONNUCLEARPOWERPLANT-25-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/02/260213-DIABLOCANYONNUCLEARPOWERPLANT-25-BL-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/02/260213-DIABLOCANYONNUCLEARPOWERPLANT-25-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Tom Jones, a regulatory and environmental senior director at PG&E, pilots a boat near the Diablo Canyon Power Plant in San Luis Obispo on Feb. 13, 2026. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>That’s because Diablo Canyon draws 2 billion-2.5 billion gallons of ocean water daily — enough to fill more than 3,000 Olympic-size swimming pools — into the plant to cool equipment, and discharges the water back into the ocean typically 16 to 17 degrees hotter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The warmer water makes it feel as if a chunk of Southern California’s coast has been lobbed off and transferred north.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Out on the water, there was a hotbed of animal activity: a floating sea otter and chubby seals sunning themselves on rocks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_2000844\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1999px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-2000844\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/04/260213-DiabloCanyonNuclearPowerPlant-23-BL_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1999\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/04/260213-DiabloCanyonNuclearPowerPlant-23-BL_qed.jpg 1999w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/04/260213-DiabloCanyonNuclearPowerPlant-23-BL_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/04/260213-DiabloCanyonNuclearPowerPlant-23-BL_qed-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/04/260213-DiabloCanyonNuclearPowerPlant-23-BL_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1999px) 100vw, 1999px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Diablo Canyon Power Plant in San Luis Obispo on Feb. 13, 2026, the state’s only active nuclear power plant. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>There were other species too — sea bass, stingrays, and California’s state fish, the garibaldi, which typically live farther south along California’s coast, but have moved here.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Diablo Canyon staff said the warm water leads to essentially no change to the environment. Because fishing and other activities are not allowed within 2,000 yards of the plant, it’s a “de facto marine sanctuary,” said Tom Jones, a senior director in charge of future planning for Diablo Canyon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the California Coastal Commission, the state agency tasked with protecting the coastline and its natural resources, reported in 2025 that the plant’s cooling system kills almost two billion larval fish annually, plus other organisms that aren’t measured.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_2000151\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-2000151\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/02/260213-DIABLOCANYONNUCLEARPOWERPLANT-17-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/02/260213-DIABLOCANYONNUCLEARPOWERPLANT-17-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/02/260213-DIABLOCANYONNUCLEARPOWERPLANT-17-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/02/260213-DIABLOCANYONNUCLEARPOWERPLANT-17-BL-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/02/260213-DIABLOCANYONNUCLEARPOWERPLANT-17-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Lion Rock, home to hundreds of California sea lions, harbor seals, and seabirds, near the Diablo Canyon Power Plant in San Luis Obispo, on Feb. 13, 2026. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>While adult populations may be abundant in Diablo Cove, the commission wrote that adults often appear far from where they spawn, and their presence here may be the result of productive marine habitats nearby.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The commission also warned that removing eggs and larvae near Diablo Canyon leads to “a significant reduction” of species dozens of miles from the plant.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“These planktonic organisms,” wrote the commission, “constitute the base of the food web in California’s coastal waters.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>To the turbine deck\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>We donned hard hats and safety equipment and passed through heavy security to enter the “protected area,” which consists of spaces closer to the nuclear reactors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We entered the turbine deck, an industrial building the size of two-and-a-half football fields. It was hot and loud on the deck, with a slight vibration underfoot.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_2000153\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-2000153\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/02/260213-DIABLOCANYONNUCLEARPOWERPLANT-35-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/02/260213-DIABLOCANYONNUCLEARPOWERPLANT-35-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/02/260213-DIABLOCANYONNUCLEARPOWERPLANT-35-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/02/260213-DIABLOCANYONNUCLEARPOWERPLANT-35-BL-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/02/260213-DIABLOCANYONNUCLEARPOWERPLANT-35-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The turbine deck at the Diablo Canyon Power Plant in San Luis Obispo on Feb. 13, 2026, the state’s only active nuclear power plant. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The steam-driven turbine inside is an enormous semi-cylinder that looks like a horizontal steel pipe cut in half, and spins a generator to produce electricity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The PG&E guide pointed out the window at a containment dome, where uranium atoms are split apart, releasing huge amounts of heat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_2000154\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-2000154\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/02/260213-DIABLOCANYONNUCLEARPOWERPLANT-40-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/02/260213-DIABLOCANYONNUCLEARPOWERPLANT-40-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/02/260213-DIABLOCANYONNUCLEARPOWERPLANT-40-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/02/260213-DIABLOCANYONNUCLEARPOWERPLANT-40-BL-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/02/260213-DIABLOCANYONNUCLEARPOWERPLANT-40-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A view of a reactor containment building from the turbine building at the Diablo Canyon Power Plant in San Luis Obispo on Feb. 13, 2026, the state’s only active nuclear power plant. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>A cascade of effects follows: the heat warms water and creates steam, the steam travels through pipes to turn the turbine, the turbine connects to a generator, which makes electricity that’s then sent across the grid and delivered to about three million Californians.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nuclear generates nearly\u003ca href=\"https://www.energy.ca.gov/data-reports/energy-almanac/california-electricity-data/2024-total-system-electric-generation\"> 9%\u003c/a> of the state’s energy supply, part of an energy mix that includes gas, hydroelectric, solar, wind, geothermal and even small amounts of coal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_2000854\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 1172px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-2000854\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/04/PGE-Graphic.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1172\" height=\"727\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/04/PGE-Graphic.jpg 1172w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/04/PGE-Graphic-160x99.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/04/PGE-Graphic-768x476.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1172px) 100vw, 1172px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Power generation at Diablo Canyon. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of PG&E)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>While California’s demand for electricity has been flat for years, it’s now growing with the adoption of electric vehicles, people swapping gas appliances for electric ones, and data centers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The debate to keep Diablo Canyon open is spurred, in part, by this uptick in demand. Maureen Zawalick, senior vice president and chief risk officer at PG&E, said stepping into the turbine deck reminds her of the end uses of all this power: “safety in hospitals, kidney dialysis, stop lights and everything else.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California is walking its \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/2000695/california-is-transitioning-from-fossil-fuels-to-electric-power-its-going-to-get-messy\">economy across a tightrope.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state’s growth in the 20th century was built on a foundation of fossil fuels, but leaders see its future as being powered by the buildout of renewables like solar and wind, along with batteries to store excess power.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When heat waves strained California’s power grid and caused rolling blackouts in 2020, state lawmakers and Newsom voted to extend Diablo Canyon’s operation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now, as electricity bills continue to rise and demand is forecast to grow, proponents argue that keeping the plant open even longer can help California wobble across the precarious middle of the tightrope.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>The simulator\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>We shed our safety gear and headed to the training building, with classrooms and an exact replica of the control room, called the simulator.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It was cool and quiet again as employees completed a training exercise, manipulating switches, lights and screens on a semicircle of vertical boards. Zawalick said the simulator’s seafoam green walls are meant to inspire calm, but its very existence is due to nuclear disasters that have occurred elsewhere in the U.S.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_2000156\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-2000156\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/02/260213-DIABLOCANYONNUCLEARPOWERPLANT-52-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/02/260213-DIABLOCANYONNUCLEARPOWERPLANT-52-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/02/260213-DIABLOCANYONNUCLEARPOWERPLANT-52-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/02/260213-DIABLOCANYONNUCLEARPOWERPLANT-52-BL-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/02/260213-DIABLOCANYONNUCLEARPOWERPLANT-52-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A training facility at the Diablo Canyon Power Plant in San Luis Obispo on Feb. 13, 2026, the state’s only active nuclear power plant. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Simulators became a requirement for all nuclear power plants in 1979 after the Three Mile Island nuclear accident in Pennsylvania. The partial meltdown was the most serious nuclear accident in U.S. history and was caused by both human and equipment failure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Practicing in a replica of Diablo Canyon’s actual control room is meant to train workers with the muscle memory to handle a variety of emergencies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Employees spend 20% of their time in the Diablo Canyon simulator training for everything from planned refueling to routine maintenance to \u003ca href=\"https://www.dcisc.org/download/library/annual-reports/35th-annual-report-93.pdf\">major emergencies\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Spent nuclear fuel\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>To finish the tour, we drove uphill and farther from the ocean to find dozens of hulking concrete cylinders that contain spent fuel, called “dry casks.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The nuclear material is the concern of resident groups who fear an earthquake or terrorist attack could destabilize the storage and spew radioactive waste into the ocean or nearby communities. People living nearby are mailed annual emergency \u003ca href=\"https://www.prepareslo.org/en/emergency-planning-zone-information.aspx\">preparedness\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://www.pge.com/assets/pge/docs/about/pge-systems/emergency-planning-brochure.pdf\">documents\u003c/a> and have access to a free dose of \u003ca href=\"https://www.prepareslo.org/en/potassium-iodide-information.aspx\">potassium iodide\u003c/a>, which protects the thyroid gland against radiation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_2000848\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-2000848\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/04/260213-DiabloCanyonNuclearPowerPlant-60-BL_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/04/260213-DiabloCanyonNuclearPowerPlant-60-BL_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/04/260213-DiabloCanyonNuclearPowerPlant-60-BL_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/04/260213-DiabloCanyonNuclearPowerPlant-60-BL_qed-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/04/260213-DiabloCanyonNuclearPowerPlant-60-BL_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Spent nuclear fuel in dry storage behind a raw water reservoir with desalinated ocean water at the Diablo Canyon Power Plant in San Luis Obispo on Feb. 13, 2026, the state’s only active nuclear power plant. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Linda Seeley has rallied against Diablo Canyon for decades as a member of the anti-nuclear nonprofit Mothers for Peace.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“As much as I would love it if nuclear waste were not toxic and lethal to a thousand generations in the future, that’s not the fact. The fact is that it is toxic,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Once fuel has been used inside the plant, radiation levels are dangerously high and have the potential to kill an exposed person \u003ca href=\"https://diablocanyonpanel.org/decom-topics/spent-fuel-management/\">in minutes\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_2000157\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-2000157\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/02/260213-DIABLOCANYONNUCLEARPOWERPLANT-59-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/02/260213-DIABLOCANYONNUCLEARPOWERPLANT-59-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/02/260213-DIABLOCANYONNUCLEARPOWERPLANT-59-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/02/260213-DIABLOCANYONNUCLEARPOWERPLANT-59-BL-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/02/260213-DIABLOCANYONNUCLEARPOWERPLANT-59-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A raw water reservoir with desalinated ocean water at the Diablo Canyon Power Plant in San Luis Obispo on Feb. 13, 2026, the state’s only active nuclear power plant. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The spent fuel spends 7 to 10 years next to the reactors in “wet storage,” a large pool of water treated with chemicals. The liquid absorbs heat and decays of the uranium, which has high levels of radiation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The nuclear material is then packed into the double-lined, stainless steel and reinforced dry casks, roughly 20 feet tall. Each is bolted to a 7.5-foot-thick, steel-reinforced concrete pad designed to withstand earthquakes. The fuel requires special handling for \u003ca href=\"https://diablocanyonpanel.org/decom-topics/spent-fuel-management/\">tens of thousands of years\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Diablo Canyon is located roughly 3.5 miles from the Hosgri fault, which presents the \u003ca href=\"https://www.nrc.gov/docs/ml1633/ML16334A406.pdf\">main seismic risk\u003c/a> to the plant. Another fault, the Shoreline, is closer to the plant, but smaller. Some seismologists are concerned that a quake along the faults could cause a \u003ca href=\"https://mothersforpeace.org/may-15-2025-top-seismologist-urges-immediate-shutdown-of-diablo-canyon-nuclear-reactor-citing-unacceptable-risk-of-an-earthquake-triggered-meltdown/\">meltdown\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The U.S. government is legally \u003ca href=\"https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-10/chapter-III/part-961\">obligated\u003c/a> to take ownership of all commercially spent nuclear fuel, but because the government has not yet built a permanent place to put it, the fuel is stored at the power plant.[aside postID=science_2000695 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/05/250523-SOLAR-BALCONY-MD-08-KQED-1020x680.jpg']Current solutions like Diablo Canyon’s dry storage casks, while they may be thorough, are only licensed until 2064 by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Zawalick said PG&E is confident in the storage of Diablo Canyon’s spent fuel, though. She pointed out that nuclear power is “the only energy source that knows exactly where every ounce of our waste is.” The Nuclear Regulatory Commission and PG&E monitor the spent fuel on a \u003ca href=\"https://diablocanyonpanel.org/decom-topics/spent-fuel-management/\">daily\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.nrc.gov/waste/spent-fuel-storage/oversight\">annual basis\u003c/a>. “It’s secured, it’s inspected, it’s audited, it’s sampled. I’m a fan of all energy sources, but I don’t know where solar panels are sent when they’re done, and batteries, and all of that.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Zawalick pointed to the powerful transmission lines carrying energy created here out to millions of Californians: to illuminate rooms for special and mundane occasions, preserve food in refrigerators, run air conditioners, and warm their shower water.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Order and safety come up frequently on the Diablo Canyon Power Plant tour: background checks, armed guards, seismic protective measures, reminders to hold on to handrails when on steps. The result is a calm and kempt environment, situated on a hillside overlooking the Pacific.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But underneath the serenity lie the inherent risks of nuclear power, especially when sited near seismic faultlines. Diablo Canyon has been the source of passionate debate as long as the idea of it has existed. And any effort to keep it operating longer will be no different.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And with that, the tour was over, and the guides returned to their work. A cow made its way slowly across the access road, with no idea of its contentious neighbor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "All eyes are turned to Diablo Canyon Power Plant as the debate about extending its life returns to Sacramento. But what’s it like inside?",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>California is transitioning to clean energy. KQED is reporting on what that means for you. What works? What doesn’t? How much does it cost? Help us find these answers and more by \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"http://donate.kqed.org/sojo?ms=W2510EANXXXX22\">\u003cem>donating today\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem>. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The most striking view off one of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12080669/should-california-keep-its-last-nuclear-power-plant-running\">San Luis Obispo County\u003c/a>’s winding coastal roads is not the lashing ocean waves of the Pacific Ocean or cows plodding out from the shade of a California live oak tree.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It is two enormous concrete domes that come into focus along a final climb that began 7 miles back at Avila Beach. The land sinks away, and what looks like a small town emerges, showcased in a palette of grays, whites and terracotta.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This is Diablo Canyon, California’s last operating nuclear power plant.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Just years ago, the plant was slated to close, and employees worked to decommission it, until a \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220SB846\">2022\u003c/a> about-face by Gov. Gavin Newsom led the state to extend its operations to 2030. Now lawmakers in Sacramento are talking about allowing it to operate even longer, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/2000605/the-debate-for-keeping-diablo-canyon-open-past-2030-is-on-what-could-it-mean-for-your-bills\">potentially to 2045\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But local groups, some of whom have protested the plant \u003ca href=\"https://www.foundsf.org/The_Diablo_Canyon_Blockade_1981\">since its construction\u003c/a>, are banging the drum ever louder about their concerns for \u003ca href=\"https://mothersforpeace.org/2025-reports-on-the-health-impacts-of-living-near-diablo-canyon-nuclear-plant/\">safety\u003c/a> or a catastrophic \u003ca href=\"https://mothersforpeace.org/campaign-to-stop-diablo/\">meltdown\u003c/a>, as well as the danger posed by spent nuclear waste at a site near several seismic faultlines.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_790877\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1910px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-790877\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/06/Diablo-Canyon-Panorama-e1466523869791.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1910\" height=\"1271\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/06/Diablo-Canyon-Panorama-e1466523869791.jpg 1910w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/06/Diablo-Canyon-Panorama-e1466523869791-400x266.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/06/Diablo-Canyon-Panorama-e1466523869791-800x532.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/06/Diablo-Canyon-Panorama-e1466523869791-768x511.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/06/Diablo-Canyon-Panorama-e1466523869791-1440x958.jpg 1440w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/06/Diablo-Canyon-Panorama-e1466523869791-1180x785.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/06/Diablo-Canyon-Panorama-e1466523869791-960x639.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1910px) 100vw, 1910px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Aerial view of the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant, which sits on the edge of the Pacific Ocean at Avila Beach in San Luis Obispo County. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of PG&E)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, academics are furiously analyzing how much keeping Diablo Canyon open would \u003ca href=\"https://ceepr.mit.edu/workingpaper/the-economics-of-continued-operation-of-the-diablo-canyon-nuclear-power-plant-2030-2045/\">cost\u003c/a> and if it would support or hinder the state’s clean energy transition. And business groups are lining up in \u003ca href=\"https://diablocanyon2045.com/\">support\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So when PG&E offered press tours earlier this year, KQED accepted. The nuclear power plant has not garnered this much attention in years, but now, once again, all eyes are on Diablo Canyon. What does it look like inside?\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Out on the water\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>PG&E’s Diablo Canyon Power Plant tour started on a boat in a protected marina just south of the reactors. This, and another cove just outside the breakwaters, are the site of a key piece of the plant’s cooling system — and a major concern for environmentalists, who argue it hoovers up and kills marine life and have \u003ca href=\"https://theotterproject.org/blog/diablo-canyon-power-plants-marine-life-destruction-will-continue-without-intervention\">called it\u003c/a> “the most destructive facility” along California’s coast.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dipping a hand in Diablo Cove, the water is lukewarm, not the frosty standard for the ocean in these parts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_2000152\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-2000152\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/02/260213-DIABLOCANYONNUCLEARPOWERPLANT-25-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/02/260213-DIABLOCANYONNUCLEARPOWERPLANT-25-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/02/260213-DIABLOCANYONNUCLEARPOWERPLANT-25-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/02/260213-DIABLOCANYONNUCLEARPOWERPLANT-25-BL-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/02/260213-DIABLOCANYONNUCLEARPOWERPLANT-25-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Tom Jones, a regulatory and environmental senior director at PG&E, pilots a boat near the Diablo Canyon Power Plant in San Luis Obispo on Feb. 13, 2026. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>That’s because Diablo Canyon draws 2 billion-2.5 billion gallons of ocean water daily — enough to fill more than 3,000 Olympic-size swimming pools — into the plant to cool equipment, and discharges the water back into the ocean typically 16 to 17 degrees hotter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The warmer water makes it feel as if a chunk of Southern California’s coast has been lobbed off and transferred north.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Out on the water, there was a hotbed of animal activity: a floating sea otter and chubby seals sunning themselves on rocks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_2000844\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1999px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-2000844\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/04/260213-DiabloCanyonNuclearPowerPlant-23-BL_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1999\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/04/260213-DiabloCanyonNuclearPowerPlant-23-BL_qed.jpg 1999w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/04/260213-DiabloCanyonNuclearPowerPlant-23-BL_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/04/260213-DiabloCanyonNuclearPowerPlant-23-BL_qed-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/04/260213-DiabloCanyonNuclearPowerPlant-23-BL_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1999px) 100vw, 1999px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Diablo Canyon Power Plant in San Luis Obispo on Feb. 13, 2026, the state’s only active nuclear power plant. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>There were other species too — sea bass, stingrays, and California’s state fish, the garibaldi, which typically live farther south along California’s coast, but have moved here.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Diablo Canyon staff said the warm water leads to essentially no change to the environment. Because fishing and other activities are not allowed within 2,000 yards of the plant, it’s a “de facto marine sanctuary,” said Tom Jones, a senior director in charge of future planning for Diablo Canyon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the California Coastal Commission, the state agency tasked with protecting the coastline and its natural resources, reported in 2025 that the plant’s cooling system kills almost two billion larval fish annually, plus other organisms that aren’t measured.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_2000151\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-2000151\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/02/260213-DIABLOCANYONNUCLEARPOWERPLANT-17-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/02/260213-DIABLOCANYONNUCLEARPOWERPLANT-17-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/02/260213-DIABLOCANYONNUCLEARPOWERPLANT-17-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/02/260213-DIABLOCANYONNUCLEARPOWERPLANT-17-BL-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/02/260213-DIABLOCANYONNUCLEARPOWERPLANT-17-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Lion Rock, home to hundreds of California sea lions, harbor seals, and seabirds, near the Diablo Canyon Power Plant in San Luis Obispo, on Feb. 13, 2026. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>While adult populations may be abundant in Diablo Cove, the commission wrote that adults often appear far from where they spawn, and their presence here may be the result of productive marine habitats nearby.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The commission also warned that removing eggs and larvae near Diablo Canyon leads to “a significant reduction” of species dozens of miles from the plant.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“These planktonic organisms,” wrote the commission, “constitute the base of the food web in California’s coastal waters.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>To the turbine deck\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>We donned hard hats and safety equipment and passed through heavy security to enter the “protected area,” which consists of spaces closer to the nuclear reactors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We entered the turbine deck, an industrial building the size of two-and-a-half football fields. It was hot and loud on the deck, with a slight vibration underfoot.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_2000153\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-2000153\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/02/260213-DIABLOCANYONNUCLEARPOWERPLANT-35-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/02/260213-DIABLOCANYONNUCLEARPOWERPLANT-35-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/02/260213-DIABLOCANYONNUCLEARPOWERPLANT-35-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/02/260213-DIABLOCANYONNUCLEARPOWERPLANT-35-BL-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/02/260213-DIABLOCANYONNUCLEARPOWERPLANT-35-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The turbine deck at the Diablo Canyon Power Plant in San Luis Obispo on Feb. 13, 2026, the state’s only active nuclear power plant. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The steam-driven turbine inside is an enormous semi-cylinder that looks like a horizontal steel pipe cut in half, and spins a generator to produce electricity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The PG&E guide pointed out the window at a containment dome, where uranium atoms are split apart, releasing huge amounts of heat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_2000154\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-2000154\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/02/260213-DIABLOCANYONNUCLEARPOWERPLANT-40-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/02/260213-DIABLOCANYONNUCLEARPOWERPLANT-40-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/02/260213-DIABLOCANYONNUCLEARPOWERPLANT-40-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/02/260213-DIABLOCANYONNUCLEARPOWERPLANT-40-BL-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/02/260213-DIABLOCANYONNUCLEARPOWERPLANT-40-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A view of a reactor containment building from the turbine building at the Diablo Canyon Power Plant in San Luis Obispo on Feb. 13, 2026, the state’s only active nuclear power plant. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>A cascade of effects follows: the heat warms water and creates steam, the steam travels through pipes to turn the turbine, the turbine connects to a generator, which makes electricity that’s then sent across the grid and delivered to about three million Californians.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nuclear generates nearly\u003ca href=\"https://www.energy.ca.gov/data-reports/energy-almanac/california-electricity-data/2024-total-system-electric-generation\"> 9%\u003c/a> of the state’s energy supply, part of an energy mix that includes gas, hydroelectric, solar, wind, geothermal and even small amounts of coal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_2000854\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 1172px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-2000854\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/04/PGE-Graphic.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1172\" height=\"727\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/04/PGE-Graphic.jpg 1172w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/04/PGE-Graphic-160x99.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/04/PGE-Graphic-768x476.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1172px) 100vw, 1172px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Power generation at Diablo Canyon. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of PG&E)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>While California’s demand for electricity has been flat for years, it’s now growing with the adoption of electric vehicles, people swapping gas appliances for electric ones, and data centers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The debate to keep Diablo Canyon open is spurred, in part, by this uptick in demand. Maureen Zawalick, senior vice president and chief risk officer at PG&E, said stepping into the turbine deck reminds her of the end uses of all this power: “safety in hospitals, kidney dialysis, stop lights and everything else.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California is walking its \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/2000695/california-is-transitioning-from-fossil-fuels-to-electric-power-its-going-to-get-messy\">economy across a tightrope.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state’s growth in the 20th century was built on a foundation of fossil fuels, but leaders see its future as being powered by the buildout of renewables like solar and wind, along with batteries to store excess power.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When heat waves strained California’s power grid and caused rolling blackouts in 2020, state lawmakers and Newsom voted to extend Diablo Canyon’s operation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now, as electricity bills continue to rise and demand is forecast to grow, proponents argue that keeping the plant open even longer can help California wobble across the precarious middle of the tightrope.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>The simulator\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>We shed our safety gear and headed to the training building, with classrooms and an exact replica of the control room, called the simulator.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It was cool and quiet again as employees completed a training exercise, manipulating switches, lights and screens on a semicircle of vertical boards. Zawalick said the simulator’s seafoam green walls are meant to inspire calm, but its very existence is due to nuclear disasters that have occurred elsewhere in the U.S.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_2000156\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-2000156\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/02/260213-DIABLOCANYONNUCLEARPOWERPLANT-52-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/02/260213-DIABLOCANYONNUCLEARPOWERPLANT-52-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/02/260213-DIABLOCANYONNUCLEARPOWERPLANT-52-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/02/260213-DIABLOCANYONNUCLEARPOWERPLANT-52-BL-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/02/260213-DIABLOCANYONNUCLEARPOWERPLANT-52-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A training facility at the Diablo Canyon Power Plant in San Luis Obispo on Feb. 13, 2026, the state’s only active nuclear power plant. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Simulators became a requirement for all nuclear power plants in 1979 after the Three Mile Island nuclear accident in Pennsylvania. The partial meltdown was the most serious nuclear accident in U.S. history and was caused by both human and equipment failure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Practicing in a replica of Diablo Canyon’s actual control room is meant to train workers with the muscle memory to handle a variety of emergencies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Employees spend 20% of their time in the Diablo Canyon simulator training for everything from planned refueling to routine maintenance to \u003ca href=\"https://www.dcisc.org/download/library/annual-reports/35th-annual-report-93.pdf\">major emergencies\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Spent nuclear fuel\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>To finish the tour, we drove uphill and farther from the ocean to find dozens of hulking concrete cylinders that contain spent fuel, called “dry casks.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The nuclear material is the concern of resident groups who fear an earthquake or terrorist attack could destabilize the storage and spew radioactive waste into the ocean or nearby communities. People living nearby are mailed annual emergency \u003ca href=\"https://www.prepareslo.org/en/emergency-planning-zone-information.aspx\">preparedness\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://www.pge.com/assets/pge/docs/about/pge-systems/emergency-planning-brochure.pdf\">documents\u003c/a> and have access to a free dose of \u003ca href=\"https://www.prepareslo.org/en/potassium-iodide-information.aspx\">potassium iodide\u003c/a>, which protects the thyroid gland against radiation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_2000848\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-2000848\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/04/260213-DiabloCanyonNuclearPowerPlant-60-BL_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/04/260213-DiabloCanyonNuclearPowerPlant-60-BL_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/04/260213-DiabloCanyonNuclearPowerPlant-60-BL_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/04/260213-DiabloCanyonNuclearPowerPlant-60-BL_qed-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/04/260213-DiabloCanyonNuclearPowerPlant-60-BL_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Spent nuclear fuel in dry storage behind a raw water reservoir with desalinated ocean water at the Diablo Canyon Power Plant in San Luis Obispo on Feb. 13, 2026, the state’s only active nuclear power plant. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Linda Seeley has rallied against Diablo Canyon for decades as a member of the anti-nuclear nonprofit Mothers for Peace.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“As much as I would love it if nuclear waste were not toxic and lethal to a thousand generations in the future, that’s not the fact. The fact is that it is toxic,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Once fuel has been used inside the plant, radiation levels are dangerously high and have the potential to kill an exposed person \u003ca href=\"https://diablocanyonpanel.org/decom-topics/spent-fuel-management/\">in minutes\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_2000157\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-2000157\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/02/260213-DIABLOCANYONNUCLEARPOWERPLANT-59-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/02/260213-DIABLOCANYONNUCLEARPOWERPLANT-59-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/02/260213-DIABLOCANYONNUCLEARPOWERPLANT-59-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/02/260213-DIABLOCANYONNUCLEARPOWERPLANT-59-BL-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/02/260213-DIABLOCANYONNUCLEARPOWERPLANT-59-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A raw water reservoir with desalinated ocean water at the Diablo Canyon Power Plant in San Luis Obispo on Feb. 13, 2026, the state’s only active nuclear power plant. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The spent fuel spends 7 to 10 years next to the reactors in “wet storage,” a large pool of water treated with chemicals. The liquid absorbs heat and decays of the uranium, which has high levels of radiation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The nuclear material is then packed into the double-lined, stainless steel and reinforced dry casks, roughly 20 feet tall. Each is bolted to a 7.5-foot-thick, steel-reinforced concrete pad designed to withstand earthquakes. The fuel requires special handling for \u003ca href=\"https://diablocanyonpanel.org/decom-topics/spent-fuel-management/\">tens of thousands of years\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Diablo Canyon is located roughly 3.5 miles from the Hosgri fault, which presents the \u003ca href=\"https://www.nrc.gov/docs/ml1633/ML16334A406.pdf\">main seismic risk\u003c/a> to the plant. Another fault, the Shoreline, is closer to the plant, but smaller. Some seismologists are concerned that a quake along the faults could cause a \u003ca href=\"https://mothersforpeace.org/may-15-2025-top-seismologist-urges-immediate-shutdown-of-diablo-canyon-nuclear-reactor-citing-unacceptable-risk-of-an-earthquake-triggered-meltdown/\">meltdown\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The U.S. government is legally \u003ca href=\"https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-10/chapter-III/part-961\">obligated\u003c/a> to take ownership of all commercially spent nuclear fuel, but because the government has not yet built a permanent place to put it, the fuel is stored at the power plant.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Current solutions like Diablo Canyon’s dry storage casks, while they may be thorough, are only licensed until 2064 by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Zawalick said PG&E is confident in the storage of Diablo Canyon’s spent fuel, though. She pointed out that nuclear power is “the only energy source that knows exactly where every ounce of our waste is.” The Nuclear Regulatory Commission and PG&E monitor the spent fuel on a \u003ca href=\"https://diablocanyonpanel.org/decom-topics/spent-fuel-management/\">daily\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.nrc.gov/waste/spent-fuel-storage/oversight\">annual basis\u003c/a>. “It’s secured, it’s inspected, it’s audited, it’s sampled. I’m a fan of all energy sources, but I don’t know where solar panels are sent when they’re done, and batteries, and all of that.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Zawalick pointed to the powerful transmission lines carrying energy created here out to millions of Californians: to illuminate rooms for special and mundane occasions, preserve food in refrigerators, run air conditioners, and warm their shower water.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Order and safety come up frequently on the Diablo Canyon Power Plant tour: background checks, armed guards, seismic protective measures, reminders to hold on to handrails when on steps. The result is a calm and kempt environment, situated on a hillside overlooking the Pacific.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But underneath the serenity lie the inherent risks of nuclear power, especially when sited near seismic faultlines. Diablo Canyon has been the source of passionate debate as long as the idea of it has existed. And any effort to keep it operating longer will be no different.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And with that, the tour was over, and the guides returned to their work. A cow made its way slowly across the access road, with no idea of its contentious neighbor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cb>Here are the morning’s top stories on Thursday, April 30, 2026\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">California lawmakers are considering new rules for electric bikes as \u003ca href=\"https://www.capradio.org/articles/2026/04/27/why-e-bike-advocates-say-californias-crackdown-may-not-solve-the-biggest-safety-risks/\">safety concerns grow on roads and trails.\u003c/a> But experts say much of the data behind those concerns is misleading. \u003c/span>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003ca href=\"https://news.ucsc.edu/2026/04/california-trees-habitat-loss/\">New research from UC Santa Cruz\u003c/a> shows climate change is a bigger threat to California’s native trees than previously thought. \u003c/span>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">To the north of the Imperial Valley, another battleground is emerging in the\u003ca href=\"https://www.kpbs.org/news/environment/2026/04/27/coachella-residents-call-for-data-center-moratorium-as-debate-expands-across-southern-california\"> debate over AI data centers\u003c/a>. Residents are pushing back against a large data center campus in the city of Coachella.\u003c/span>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003ch2 class=\"page-title\">\u003ca href=\"https://www.capradio.org/articles/2026/04/27/why-e-bike-advocates-say-californias-crackdown-may-not-solve-the-biggest-safety-risks/\">\u003cstrong>Why e-bike advocates say California’s crackdown may not solve the biggest safety risks\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Two cyclists speed past members of the American River Bike Patrol blasting music from portable speakers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Never too late for a helmet,” Vic Massenkoff with the patrol yells as they pass by. It’s clear to Massenkoff the riders are on electric motorcycles which are illegal on the trail. But the patrol is a volunteer group, not an enforcement agency, so warnings and polite suggestions are often the only tools available along Sacramento’s American River Parkway.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lately, members say they’ve been seeing more of these higher-powered devices, often referred to as “e-motos.” “They go so fast that we can’t talk to them,” said John Poimroo, director for the patrol. “We’ll wave, ‘Hey, slow down,’ and they’re just off.” The speed limit on the trail is 15 mph, which even legal e-bikes can easily exceed. \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=VEH§ionNum=312.5.\">California allows\u003c/a> Class 1 and Class 2 e-bikes to assist riders up to 20 mph, while Class 3 bikes can assist up to 28 mph.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But electric motorcycles — often referred to as e-motos — can go much faster. Some exceed the state’s limits as sold while others can be modified to do so. Many of them are referred to as e-bikes despite not meeting the state’s definition. Marketing for these e-motos tends to focus on youth. That distinction is central to a growing debate at the California Capitol, where lawmakers are considering several bills to improve e-bike safety.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Marc Piazza is the commander for the Sacramento Regional Park Rangers. He said legal e-bikes haven’t been much of an issue on the trail. “It’s not the e-bikes, it’s the e-motorcycles,” he said. “Totally different classification.” Much of the available injury data relies on law enforcement and hospital reporting that does not clearly distinguish between legal e-bikes and more powerful devices. That’s concerning for Asha Weinsteing Agrawal, education director for the Mineta Transportation Institute at San Jose State University. She recently led a state-commissioned \u003ca href=\"https://transweb.sjsu.edu/press/MTI-Electric-Bicycle-Safety-Study-Identifies-Illegal-Over-Powered-Devices-Key-Problem\">study\u003c/a> on e-bike safety. “None of these people are digging into whether this was a legal or illegal e-bike or what class of legal e-bike it might have been,” she said. “Like the general public, they hear the word e-bike and that’s enough. They write it down and they go on.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That means some injuries and crashes attributed to e-bikes may have involved devices that are not legal e-bikes at all. “The e-motos are absolutely a key safety concern, there is no doubt about that,” Weinsteing Agrawal said. “What unfortunately we don’t have enough data to really know is, ‘Are the legal e-bikes a safety concern?”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kazu.org/kazu-news/2026-04-27/climate-change-could-create-zombie-forests-bill-would-help-seniors-reduce-wildfire-risk\">\u003cb>Climate change puts native trees at risk\u003c/b>\u003c/a>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>New research from UC Santa Cruz shows climate change is a greater threat to California’s native trees than previously thought.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca class=\"Link\" href=\"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/gcb.70866\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The study\u003c/a> estimates in the next 30 years some species may lose as much as half of their habitat. Lead author Blair McLaughlin said the rising temperatures and droughts that come with climate change increase water stress. ”It can also lead to higher vulnerability to pests and disease,” she said. “And it can also lead to more frequent and severe wildfires.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In some places, this could create what’s called “zombie forests,” where hardier adult trees remain but can’t produce seedlings. Joshua trees, certain oaks and madrones are a few of the vulnerable species.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>McLaughlin said maintaining groundwater levels and careful planning can help prevent loss. ” For example, that would be to do things like make sure that we aren’t putting new developments in the limited areas that are likely to support these threatened species into the future,” she said. She adds addressing climate change and supporting ecosystem stewards like indigenous tribes and ranching communities is vital.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2 class=\"ArticlePage-headline\">\u003ca href=\"https://www.kpbs.org/news/environment/2026/04/27/coachella-residents-call-for-data-center-moratorium-as-debate-expands-across-southern-california\">\u003cstrong>Coachella residents call for data center moratorium as debate expands across Southern California\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>An hour’s drive north of the Imperial Valley, a new battleground is emerging in California’s debate over data centers and artificial intelligence.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Coachella Valley, known for its \u003ca class=\"Link\" href=\"https://www.coachella.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" data-cms-ai=\"0\">\u003cu>famed music festival\u003c/u>\u003c/a> and \u003ca class=\"Link\" href=\"https://www.hcn.org/issues/55-10/agriculture-how-the-coachella-valley-became-known-for-its-dates/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" data-cms-ai=\"0\">\u003cu>date palm farms\u003c/u>\u003c/a>, is now the planned site for a massive 240-acre technology campus that includes a large data center project. The campus would be built in the city of Coachella, a small, largely working-class city where 97% of residents identify as Latino. It would be a key part of the city’s ongoing efforts to \u003ca class=\"Link\" href=\"https://www.desertsun.com/story/money/business/2026/04/17/coachella-data-center-controversy-where-when/89542742007/?gnt-cfr=1&gca-cat=p&gca-uir=true&gca-epti=z11xx59p118550l115750c118550e007700v11xx59d--31--b--31--&gca-ft=6&gca-ds=sophi\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" data-cms-ai=\"0\">\u003cu>create its own energy utility\u003c/u>\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a \u003ca class=\"Link\" href=\"https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=1377919637698791&set=a.221352513355515\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" data-cms-ai=\"0\">\u003cu>statement\u003c/u>\u003c/a> earlier this month, city officials said they haven’t approved the project yet and that it will need an environmental impact report.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Residents of Coachella and elsewhere in the valley are pushing back against the project, raising fears about energy and water needs, noise and air pollution. At a City Council meeting last week, Coachella resident Stephanie Ambriz called on city officials to institute a moratorium on data center development. “We have made it abundantly clear that we don’t want or need this project,” Ambriz said. “You can build a utility without data centers.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The debate in the Coachella Valley comes after months of fiery opposition from residents against a \u003ca class=\"Link\" href=\"https://www.kpbs.org/news/environment/2026/04/07/imperial-county-supervisors-clear-path-for-massive-data-center-complex-amid-fierce-opposition\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" data-cms-ai=\"0\">\u003cu>massive data center project in the Imperial Valley\u003c/u>\u003c/a>, south of the Salton Sea. The two developments fit into an emerging trend of data centers being proposed in rural communities. Earlier this month, an \u003ca class=\"Link\" href=\"https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2026/04/13/most-new-data-centers-in-the-us-are-coming-to-rural-areas/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" data-cms-ai=\"0\">\u003cu>analysis by the Pew Research Center\u003c/u>\u003c/a> found that the vast majority of existing data centers are in urban centers. But more than two thirds of planned data centers are coming to rural areas.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cb>Here are the morning’s top stories on Thursday, April 30, 2026\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">California lawmakers are considering new rules for electric bikes as \u003ca href=\"https://www.capradio.org/articles/2026/04/27/why-e-bike-advocates-say-californias-crackdown-may-not-solve-the-biggest-safety-risks/\">safety concerns grow on roads and trails.\u003c/a> But experts say much of the data behind those concerns is misleading. \u003c/span>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003ca href=\"https://news.ucsc.edu/2026/04/california-trees-habitat-loss/\">New research from UC Santa Cruz\u003c/a> shows climate change is a bigger threat to California’s native trees than previously thought. \u003c/span>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">To the north of the Imperial Valley, another battleground is emerging in the\u003ca href=\"https://www.kpbs.org/news/environment/2026/04/27/coachella-residents-call-for-data-center-moratorium-as-debate-expands-across-southern-california\"> debate over AI data centers\u003c/a>. Residents are pushing back against a large data center campus in the city of Coachella.\u003c/span>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003ch2 class=\"page-title\">\u003ca href=\"https://www.capradio.org/articles/2026/04/27/why-e-bike-advocates-say-californias-crackdown-may-not-solve-the-biggest-safety-risks/\">\u003cstrong>Why e-bike advocates say California’s crackdown may not solve the biggest safety risks\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Two cyclists speed past members of the American River Bike Patrol blasting music from portable speakers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Never too late for a helmet,” Vic Massenkoff with the patrol yells as they pass by. It’s clear to Massenkoff the riders are on electric motorcycles which are illegal on the trail. But the patrol is a volunteer group, not an enforcement agency, so warnings and polite suggestions are often the only tools available along Sacramento’s American River Parkway.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lately, members say they’ve been seeing more of these higher-powered devices, often referred to as “e-motos.” “They go so fast that we can’t talk to them,” said John Poimroo, director for the patrol. “We’ll wave, ‘Hey, slow down,’ and they’re just off.” The speed limit on the trail is 15 mph, which even legal e-bikes can easily exceed. \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=VEH§ionNum=312.5.\">California allows\u003c/a> Class 1 and Class 2 e-bikes to assist riders up to 20 mph, while Class 3 bikes can assist up to 28 mph.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But electric motorcycles — often referred to as e-motos — can go much faster. Some exceed the state’s limits as sold while others can be modified to do so. Many of them are referred to as e-bikes despite not meeting the state’s definition. Marketing for these e-motos tends to focus on youth. That distinction is central to a growing debate at the California Capitol, where lawmakers are considering several bills to improve e-bike safety.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Marc Piazza is the commander for the Sacramento Regional Park Rangers. He said legal e-bikes haven’t been much of an issue on the trail. “It’s not the e-bikes, it’s the e-motorcycles,” he said. “Totally different classification.” Much of the available injury data relies on law enforcement and hospital reporting that does not clearly distinguish between legal e-bikes and more powerful devices. That’s concerning for Asha Weinsteing Agrawal, education director for the Mineta Transportation Institute at San Jose State University. She recently led a state-commissioned \u003ca href=\"https://transweb.sjsu.edu/press/MTI-Electric-Bicycle-Safety-Study-Identifies-Illegal-Over-Powered-Devices-Key-Problem\">study\u003c/a> on e-bike safety. “None of these people are digging into whether this was a legal or illegal e-bike or what class of legal e-bike it might have been,” she said. “Like the general public, they hear the word e-bike and that’s enough. They write it down and they go on.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That means some injuries and crashes attributed to e-bikes may have involved devices that are not legal e-bikes at all. “The e-motos are absolutely a key safety concern, there is no doubt about that,” Weinsteing Agrawal said. “What unfortunately we don’t have enough data to really know is, ‘Are the legal e-bikes a safety concern?”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kazu.org/kazu-news/2026-04-27/climate-change-could-create-zombie-forests-bill-would-help-seniors-reduce-wildfire-risk\">\u003cb>Climate change puts native trees at risk\u003c/b>\u003c/a>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>New research from UC Santa Cruz shows climate change is a greater threat to California’s native trees than previously thought.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca class=\"Link\" href=\"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/gcb.70866\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The study\u003c/a> estimates in the next 30 years some species may lose as much as half of their habitat. Lead author Blair McLaughlin said the rising temperatures and droughts that come with climate change increase water stress. ”It can also lead to higher vulnerability to pests and disease,” she said. “And it can also lead to more frequent and severe wildfires.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In some places, this could create what’s called “zombie forests,” where hardier adult trees remain but can’t produce seedlings. Joshua trees, certain oaks and madrones are a few of the vulnerable species.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>McLaughlin said maintaining groundwater levels and careful planning can help prevent loss. ” For example, that would be to do things like make sure that we aren’t putting new developments in the limited areas that are likely to support these threatened species into the future,” she said. She adds addressing climate change and supporting ecosystem stewards like indigenous tribes and ranching communities is vital.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2 class=\"ArticlePage-headline\">\u003ca href=\"https://www.kpbs.org/news/environment/2026/04/27/coachella-residents-call-for-data-center-moratorium-as-debate-expands-across-southern-california\">\u003cstrong>Coachella residents call for data center moratorium as debate expands across Southern California\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>An hour’s drive north of the Imperial Valley, a new battleground is emerging in California’s debate over data centers and artificial intelligence.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Coachella Valley, known for its \u003ca class=\"Link\" href=\"https://www.coachella.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" data-cms-ai=\"0\">\u003cu>famed music festival\u003c/u>\u003c/a> and \u003ca class=\"Link\" href=\"https://www.hcn.org/issues/55-10/agriculture-how-the-coachella-valley-became-known-for-its-dates/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" data-cms-ai=\"0\">\u003cu>date palm farms\u003c/u>\u003c/a>, is now the planned site for a massive 240-acre technology campus that includes a large data center project. The campus would be built in the city of Coachella, a small, largely working-class city where 97% of residents identify as Latino. It would be a key part of the city’s ongoing efforts to \u003ca class=\"Link\" href=\"https://www.desertsun.com/story/money/business/2026/04/17/coachella-data-center-controversy-where-when/89542742007/?gnt-cfr=1&gca-cat=p&gca-uir=true&gca-epti=z11xx59p118550l115750c118550e007700v11xx59d--31--b--31--&gca-ft=6&gca-ds=sophi\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" data-cms-ai=\"0\">\u003cu>create its own energy utility\u003c/u>\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a \u003ca class=\"Link\" href=\"https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=1377919637698791&set=a.221352513355515\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" data-cms-ai=\"0\">\u003cu>statement\u003c/u>\u003c/a> earlier this month, city officials said they haven’t approved the project yet and that it will need an environmental impact report.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Residents of Coachella and elsewhere in the valley are pushing back against the project, raising fears about energy and water needs, noise and air pollution. At a City Council meeting last week, Coachella resident Stephanie Ambriz called on city officials to institute a moratorium on data center development. “We have made it abundantly clear that we don’t want or need this project,” Ambriz said. “You can build a utility without data centers.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The debate in the Coachella Valley comes after months of fiery opposition from residents against a \u003ca class=\"Link\" href=\"https://www.kpbs.org/news/environment/2026/04/07/imperial-county-supervisors-clear-path-for-massive-data-center-complex-amid-fierce-opposition\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" data-cms-ai=\"0\">\u003cu>massive data center project in the Imperial Valley\u003c/u>\u003c/a>, south of the Salton Sea. The two developments fit into an emerging trend of data centers being proposed in rural communities. Earlier this month, an \u003ca class=\"Link\" href=\"https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2026/04/13/most-new-data-centers-in-the-us-are-coming-to-rural-areas/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" data-cms-ai=\"0\">\u003cu>analysis by the Pew Research Center\u003c/u>\u003c/a> found that the vast majority of existing data centers are in urban centers. But more than two thirds of planned data centers are coming to rural areas.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cem>California is transitioning to clean energy. KQED is reporting on what that means for you. \u003c/em>\u003cem>What works? What doesn’t? How much does it cost? Help us find these answers and more by \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"http://donate.kqed.org/sojo?ms=W2510EANXXXX22\">\u003cem>donating today\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/californiareport-podcasts\">California\u003c/a> is in a state of transition.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Golden State’s 20th-century success was built on a foundation of fossil fuels: the car allowed the population to skyrocket and suburbs and freeways to proliferate, homegrown oil production generated major capital, and \u003ca href=\"https://cupblog.org/2025/04/02/hollywoods-climate-crisis-a-very-short-history-brian-jacobson/\">Hollywood\u003c/a> illuminated soundstages with lights powered by coal and oil.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California is now banking on a different future, one built on renewable and carbon-free electricity. Lawmakers passed a 2018 \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=201720180SB100\">mandate\u003c/a> requiring that utilities source 100% of their electricity from renewable and zero-carbon sources by the end of 2045. “It will not be easy. It will not be immediate. But it must be done,” then-Gov. Jerry Brown said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Adding to the challenge is a steep increase in electricity costs, reflected in the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1999400/bay-area-electricity-bills-are-some-of-the-highest-where-does-your-money-go\">monthly utility bills\u003c/a> Californians must pay each month. Costs have \u003ca href=\"https://www.publicadvocates.cpuc.ca.gov/press-room/reports-and-analyses/2025-q4-electric-rates-report\">nearly doubled\u003c/a> in the last decade, largely driven by investments to shore up the grid against climate-fueled wildfires. The high price of power makes a key component of the transition, the switch from gas to electricity, daunting.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Despite this, the state is making major progress, but there’s still a long way to go. And like any adolescence, things are prone to get awkward.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state of limbo has a name: “\u003ca href=\"https://emilygrubert.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Grubert-and-Hastings-Simon-2022-Designing-the-mid-transition-A-review-of-medium-t.pdf\">mid-transition\u003c/a>,” coined by Emily Grubert, a sustainable energy researcher at the University of Notre Dame. California is among the first places “actually dealing with many of these questions of managed transition” away from fossil fuels, Grubert said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1997021\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1997021\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/05/250523-SOLAR-BALCONY-MD-01-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/05/250523-SOLAR-BALCONY-MD-01-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/05/250523-SOLAR-BALCONY-MD-01-KQED-800x534.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/05/250523-SOLAR-BALCONY-MD-01-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/05/250523-SOLAR-BALCONY-MD-01-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/05/250523-SOLAR-BALCONY-MD-01-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/05/250523-SOLAR-BALCONY-MD-01-KQED-1536x1025.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/05/250523-SOLAR-BALCONY-MD-01-KQED-1920x1281.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Matthew Milner (left) and Rupert Mayer work to install solar panels in Milner’s backyard in Kensington on May 23, 2025. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The progress and targets California has yet to achieve are visible in the charts below.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California’s use of renewable and zero-carbon sources to generate electricity grew from 41% in 2013 to about \u003ca href=\"https://www.energy.ca.gov/data-reports/energy-almanac/california-electricity-data/2024-total-system-electric-generation\">67%\u003c/a> in 2023. That includes renewables like solar, wind, and geothermal energy and zero-carbon sources like nuclear and large hydroelectric projects.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>State officials often trot out the fact that California’s economy has “decoupled” its economic growth from planet-warming pollution. “In California, we know that a healthy, clean climate and thriving economy aren’t zero-sum games. We can excel at both,” Gov. Gavin Newsom said in 2025.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_2000730\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1631px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-2000730\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/04/Estimated-Annual-Clean-Energy.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1631\" height=\"1160\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/04/Estimated-Annual-Clean-Energy.jpg 1631w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/04/Estimated-Annual-Clean-Energy-160x114.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/04/Estimated-Annual-Clean-Energy-768x546.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/04/Estimated-Annual-Clean-Energy-1536x1092.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1631px) 100vw, 1631px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">California has increasingly built out and deployed renewable energy in recent years. Renewable and carbon-free sources like solar, wind, hydroelectric and nuclear power comprise the majority of our power now. \u003ccite>(\u003ca href=\"https://www.energy.ca.gov/data-reports/clean-energy-serving-california/estimated-annual-clean-energy\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> California Energy Commission \u003c/a>)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>California’s GDP more than \u003ca href=\"https://www.ppic.org/publication/californias-economy/\">doubled\u003c/a> from 2000 to 2023, even as overall greenhouse gas emissions fell by \u003ca href=\"https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/sites/default/files/2025-11/nc-2000-2023_ghg_inventory_trends_figures.xlsx\">21%\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California has successfully built out battery storage, reaching 16,942 megawatts (MW) of capacity, enough to power roughly \u003ca href=\"https://www.gov.ca.gov/2023/07/12/icymi-california-grid-reaches-5600-mw-of-battery-storage-capacity-a-1020-increase-since-2020/\">13\u003c/a> million homes for 4 hours. That represents a \u003ca href=\"https://www.energy.ca.gov/news/2025-11/californias-battery-storage-fleet-continues-record-growth-strengthening-grid\">2100%\u003c/a> increase since 2019. The batteries hold excess solar and wind energy, which is deployed when the sun sets or the wind stops blowing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California’s clean energy transition will be challenging and expensive, but Grubert said, sticking to the current approach is enormously costly as well, and simply not an option on a dangerously warming planet.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_2000733\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-2000733\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/04/SecondGraphClimate.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1123\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/04/SecondGraphClimate.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/04/SecondGraphClimate-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/04/SecondGraphClimate-768x431.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/04/SecondGraphClimate-1536x862.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/04/SecondGraphClimate-1200x675.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">California officials said they have “decoupled” economic growth from overall greenhouse gas emissions. \u003ccite>(\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/news/california-greenhouse-gas-emissions-decline-across-most-sectors\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> California Air Resources Board \u003c/a>)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Among the challenges will be expanding and strengthening the electricity grid to feed more energy-hungry \u003ca href=\"https://www.energy.ca.gov/filebrowser/download/9328?fid=9328\">data centers, electric vehicles and appliances\u003c/a>, while safeguarding utility poles and wires against wildfires and extreme weather.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state will also need to maintain both aging fossil fuel infrastructure and an expanding electric system in a way that won’t put further strain on Californians struggling with high utility costs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>How can California achieve its energy future without breaking the bank? Over the coming months, KQED will tell the stories of a California in mid-transition: the challenges and potential solutions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_2000735\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-2000735\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/04/Clean-Energy-Milestone_Nov-2025-1920x1080-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/04/Clean-Energy-Milestone_Nov-2025-1920x1080-1.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/04/Clean-Energy-Milestone_Nov-2025-1920x1080-1-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/04/Clean-Energy-Milestone_Nov-2025-1920x1080-1-768x432.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">California’s battery storage capacity has exploded in recent years, providing a major asset to the grid during extreme heat. \u003ccite>(\u003ca href=\"https://www.energy.ca.gov/news/2025-11/californias-battery-storage-fleet-continues-record-growth-strengthening-grid\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">California Energy Commission\u003c/a>)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The stories will examine how this enormous shift is unfolding at the state, community and individual levels.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We’ll look at the power sources available to the state — including nuclear, solar, wind — the challenges that come with them, and the costs of building out new sources of power or keeping older ones online.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We’ll report on community efforts to swap gas appliances for electric ones, including how low- and middle-income families are making this switch.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And we’ll cover how individuals, even in this murky middle ground, are taking action: renters investing in portable heat pumps and solar panels, libraries loaning out induction cooktops, electric vehicle owners trying to turn their cars into a backup battery.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Follow along as we chronicle the messy, erratic and exciting birth of a new California energy system.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>California is transitioning to clean energy. KQED is reporting on what that means for you. \u003c/em>\u003cem>What works? What doesn’t? How much does it cost? Help us find these answers and more by \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"http://donate.kqed.org/sojo?ms=W2510EANXXXX22\">\u003cem>donating today\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/californiareport-podcasts\">California\u003c/a> is in a state of transition.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Golden State’s 20th-century success was built on a foundation of fossil fuels: the car allowed the population to skyrocket and suburbs and freeways to proliferate, homegrown oil production generated major capital, and \u003ca href=\"https://cupblog.org/2025/04/02/hollywoods-climate-crisis-a-very-short-history-brian-jacobson/\">Hollywood\u003c/a> illuminated soundstages with lights powered by coal and oil.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California is now banking on a different future, one built on renewable and carbon-free electricity. Lawmakers passed a 2018 \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=201720180SB100\">mandate\u003c/a> requiring that utilities source 100% of their electricity from renewable and zero-carbon sources by the end of 2045. “It will not be easy. It will not be immediate. But it must be done,” then-Gov. Jerry Brown said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Adding to the challenge is a steep increase in electricity costs, reflected in the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1999400/bay-area-electricity-bills-are-some-of-the-highest-where-does-your-money-go\">monthly utility bills\u003c/a> Californians must pay each month. Costs have \u003ca href=\"https://www.publicadvocates.cpuc.ca.gov/press-room/reports-and-analyses/2025-q4-electric-rates-report\">nearly doubled\u003c/a> in the last decade, largely driven by investments to shore up the grid against climate-fueled wildfires. The high price of power makes a key component of the transition, the switch from gas to electricity, daunting.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Despite this, the state is making major progress, but there’s still a long way to go. And like any adolescence, things are prone to get awkward.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state of limbo has a name: “\u003ca href=\"https://emilygrubert.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Grubert-and-Hastings-Simon-2022-Designing-the-mid-transition-A-review-of-medium-t.pdf\">mid-transition\u003c/a>,” coined by Emily Grubert, a sustainable energy researcher at the University of Notre Dame. California is among the first places “actually dealing with many of these questions of managed transition” away from fossil fuels, Grubert said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1997021\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1997021\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/05/250523-SOLAR-BALCONY-MD-01-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/05/250523-SOLAR-BALCONY-MD-01-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/05/250523-SOLAR-BALCONY-MD-01-KQED-800x534.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/05/250523-SOLAR-BALCONY-MD-01-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/05/250523-SOLAR-BALCONY-MD-01-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/05/250523-SOLAR-BALCONY-MD-01-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/05/250523-SOLAR-BALCONY-MD-01-KQED-1536x1025.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/05/250523-SOLAR-BALCONY-MD-01-KQED-1920x1281.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Matthew Milner (left) and Rupert Mayer work to install solar panels in Milner’s backyard in Kensington on May 23, 2025. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The progress and targets California has yet to achieve are visible in the charts below.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California’s use of renewable and zero-carbon sources to generate electricity grew from 41% in 2013 to about \u003ca href=\"https://www.energy.ca.gov/data-reports/energy-almanac/california-electricity-data/2024-total-system-electric-generation\">67%\u003c/a> in 2023. That includes renewables like solar, wind, and geothermal energy and zero-carbon sources like nuclear and large hydroelectric projects.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>State officials often trot out the fact that California’s economy has “decoupled” its economic growth from planet-warming pollution. “In California, we know that a healthy, clean climate and thriving economy aren’t zero-sum games. We can excel at both,” Gov. Gavin Newsom said in 2025.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_2000730\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1631px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-2000730\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/04/Estimated-Annual-Clean-Energy.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1631\" height=\"1160\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/04/Estimated-Annual-Clean-Energy.jpg 1631w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/04/Estimated-Annual-Clean-Energy-160x114.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/04/Estimated-Annual-Clean-Energy-768x546.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/04/Estimated-Annual-Clean-Energy-1536x1092.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1631px) 100vw, 1631px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">California has increasingly built out and deployed renewable energy in recent years. Renewable and carbon-free sources like solar, wind, hydroelectric and nuclear power comprise the majority of our power now. \u003ccite>(\u003ca href=\"https://www.energy.ca.gov/data-reports/clean-energy-serving-california/estimated-annual-clean-energy\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> California Energy Commission \u003c/a>)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>California’s GDP more than \u003ca href=\"https://www.ppic.org/publication/californias-economy/\">doubled\u003c/a> from 2000 to 2023, even as overall greenhouse gas emissions fell by \u003ca href=\"https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/sites/default/files/2025-11/nc-2000-2023_ghg_inventory_trends_figures.xlsx\">21%\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California has successfully built out battery storage, reaching 16,942 megawatts (MW) of capacity, enough to power roughly \u003ca href=\"https://www.gov.ca.gov/2023/07/12/icymi-california-grid-reaches-5600-mw-of-battery-storage-capacity-a-1020-increase-since-2020/\">13\u003c/a> million homes for 4 hours. That represents a \u003ca href=\"https://www.energy.ca.gov/news/2025-11/californias-battery-storage-fleet-continues-record-growth-strengthening-grid\">2100%\u003c/a> increase since 2019. The batteries hold excess solar and wind energy, which is deployed when the sun sets or the wind stops blowing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California’s clean energy transition will be challenging and expensive, but Grubert said, sticking to the current approach is enormously costly as well, and simply not an option on a dangerously warming planet.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_2000733\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-2000733\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/04/SecondGraphClimate.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1123\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/04/SecondGraphClimate.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/04/SecondGraphClimate-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/04/SecondGraphClimate-768x431.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/04/SecondGraphClimate-1536x862.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/04/SecondGraphClimate-1200x675.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">California officials said they have “decoupled” economic growth from overall greenhouse gas emissions. \u003ccite>(\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/news/california-greenhouse-gas-emissions-decline-across-most-sectors\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> California Air Resources Board \u003c/a>)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Among the challenges will be expanding and strengthening the electricity grid to feed more energy-hungry \u003ca href=\"https://www.energy.ca.gov/filebrowser/download/9328?fid=9328\">data centers, electric vehicles and appliances\u003c/a>, while safeguarding utility poles and wires against wildfires and extreme weather.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state will also need to maintain both aging fossil fuel infrastructure and an expanding electric system in a way that won’t put further strain on Californians struggling with high utility costs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>How can California achieve its energy future without breaking the bank? Over the coming months, KQED will tell the stories of a California in mid-transition: the challenges and potential solutions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_2000735\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-2000735\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/04/Clean-Energy-Milestone_Nov-2025-1920x1080-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/04/Clean-Energy-Milestone_Nov-2025-1920x1080-1.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/04/Clean-Energy-Milestone_Nov-2025-1920x1080-1-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/04/Clean-Energy-Milestone_Nov-2025-1920x1080-1-768x432.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">California’s battery storage capacity has exploded in recent years, providing a major asset to the grid during extreme heat. \u003ccite>(\u003ca href=\"https://www.energy.ca.gov/news/2025-11/californias-battery-storage-fleet-continues-record-growth-strengthening-grid\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">California Energy Commission\u003c/a>)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The stories will examine how this enormous shift is unfolding at the state, community and individual levels.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We’ll look at the power sources available to the state — including nuclear, solar, wind — the challenges that come with them, and the costs of building out new sources of power or keeping older ones online.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We’ll report on community efforts to swap gas appliances for electric ones, including how low- and middle-income families are making this switch.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And we’ll cover how individuals, even in this murky middle ground, are taking action: renters investing in portable heat pumps and solar panels, libraries loaning out induction cooktops, electric vehicle owners trying to turn their cars into a backup battery.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Follow along as we chronicle the messy, erratic and exciting birth of a new California energy system.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "san-franciscos-skyline-shines-but-earthquake-risk-remains-120-years-after-1906",
"title": "San Francisco’s Skyline Shines, but Earthquake Risk Remains 120 Years After 1906",
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"headTitle": "San Francisco’s Skyline Shines, but Earthquake Risk Remains 120 Years After 1906 | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12069967/mayor-lurie-on-san-francisco-we-are-on-our-way-back-but-we-still-have-work-to-do\">San Franciscans\u003c/a> love to gather at Dolores Park to watch the skyline glow at sunset. The hard edges of the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11934056/the-transamerica-pyramid-at-50-from-architectural-butchery-to-icon\">Transamerica Pyramid\u003c/a> catch the light. Then the San Francisco Marriott Marquis, with its Art Deco-inspired windows, and finally, the spiraling silvery-grey of the Salesforce Tower.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But when Mary Ellen Carroll looks out at the skyline and rows of Victorian homes with soft-story ground floors, she’s filled with anxiety.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I see all these people, all these buildings, and the extent of the need that could occur after a big earthquake,” said Carroll, executive director of the San Francisco Department of Emergency Management. “How many people are ready for that?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That “heavy responsibility” for Carroll shakes up every April 18, the anniversary of the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/10930485/see-how-san-francisco-rebuilt-110-years-after-the-1906-quake\">1906 earthquake\u003c/a>. This year marks 120 years since the magnitude 7.9 rupture along the San Andreas fault roughly two miles offshore.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The quake and the fires that followed killed 3,000 people, leveled much of San Francisco and left more than half the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13898345/the-1906-earthquake-survivor-who-fought-for-san-franciscos-homeless-population\">city’s residents unhoused\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12080164\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12080164\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260415-SPUREARTHQUAKE-01-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260415-SPUREARTHQUAKE-01-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260415-SPUREARTHQUAKE-01-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260415-SPUREARTHQUAKE-01-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Mary Ellen Carroll, executive director of the San Francisco Department of Emergency Management, at her office in San Francisco City Hall on April 15, 2026. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The anniversary reminds Carroll that the Bay Area remains extremely vulnerable.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There’s a 72% chance that a magnitude 6.7 earthquake or stronger will occur here in the next three decades, according to \u003ca href=\"https://www.usgs.gov/faqs/what-probability-earthquake-will-occur-los-angeles-area-san-francisco-bay-area#:~:text=San%20Francisco%20Bay%20area%3A,an%20earthquake%20measuring%20magnitude%207.5\">a 2014 analysis\u003c/a> from the United States Geological Survey.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When the earth shakes wildly again, it will do so in a Bay Area transformed from 1906, now home to a population more than 10 times larger.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12080264\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1973px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12080264\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/240416-1906-san-francisco-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1973\" height=\"1424\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/240416-1906-san-francisco-KQED.jpg 1973w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/240416-1906-san-francisco-KQED-160x115.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/240416-1906-san-francisco-KQED-1536x1109.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1973px) 100vw, 1973px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">This photograph, taken by George Lawrence from a series of kites five weeks after the great earthquake of April 18, 1906, shows the devastation brought on the city of San Francisco by the quake and subsequent fire. The view is looking over Nob Hill toward the business district, South of the Slot, and the distant Mission. The Fairmont Hotel, far left. dwarfs the Call Building. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Harry Myers)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>San Francisco spent more than $20 billion on seismic upgrades over the past several decades. The money went to \u003ca href=\"https://data.sfgov.org/Housing-and-Buildings/Map-of-Soft-Story-Properties/jwdp-cqyc\">retrofitting older brick and wood buildings\u003c/a>, seismic improvements to infrastructure, constructing new, safe hospitals, police and fire stations and strengthening emergency response systems.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But a \u003ca href=\"https://www.spur.org/publications/policy-brief/2026-04-09/120-years-after-1906\">new policy brief from the Bay Area think tank SPUR\u003c/a> warns that more than 3,700 pre-1995 concrete buildings — concentrated downtown — could face significant risk, and some fire hazards have gone unaddressed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There would definitely be buildings that could collapse,” said Sarah Atkinson, author of the report.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12080162\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12080162\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260413-SPUREARTHQUAKE-03-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260413-SPUREARTHQUAKE-03-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260413-SPUREARTHQUAKE-03-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260413-SPUREARTHQUAKE-03-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sarah Atkinson, a hazard resilience senior policy manager at the San Francisco Bay Area Planning and Urban Research Association (SPUR), at the organization’s offices in San Francisco on April 13, 2026. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The state has significantly improved its early warning system, too. While phone applications and alerts give people an \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/2000568/after-4-6-earthquake-jolts-santa-cruz-seismologists-double-down-on-myshake-alerts\">extra moment to drop and hold on\u003c/a>, they do little to improve a building’s seismic safety. Some researchers point to evidence that a much larger earthquake than the 1906 quake could shake the Bay Area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Carroll said most San Franciscans cannot grasp what a colossal rattling will feel like.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s going to take an earthquake for us to take an earthquake seriously,” Carroll said. “There will be catastrophic damage. It will interrupt the economy, likely take lives, and we’ll take considerable time to recover.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>‘A big earthquake can happen again’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Predicting where the next damaging Bay Area earthquake isn’t an exact science. Seismologists know a lot about faults: their general size, stress and history. But scientists can’t tell exactly when or where a rupture will occur.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Beneath the region, there lie many medium- to large-faults, including the San Andreas and Hayward faults, as well as many smaller fissures. Evan Hirakawa, a USGS research geophysicist, said seismologists are watching the Hayward Fault, which runs beneath the East Bay Hills, because it has the highest likelihood of a major earthquake.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The San Andreas has a lower probability because it experienced an intense quake a little more than a century ago, which is “recently” in geologic time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12080165\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12080165\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260415-SPUREARTHQUAKE-02-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260415-SPUREARTHQUAKE-02-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260415-SPUREARTHQUAKE-02-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260415-SPUREARTHQUAKE-02-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A view of high-rises in downtown San Francisco from Salesforce Park on April 15, 2026. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>But an impressive quake could also happen on a separate fracture.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We see these old black and white pictures of people in 1906, dealing with the rubble, but in some ways [the next big quake] might not be that different,” Hirakawa said. “People should know that a big earthquake can happen again.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Stephen Sherman Wade was 8 years old and living in Southern California when the 1994 Northridge earthquake shook his family’s home for more than 20 seconds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Beds shuddered against the wall,” Wade said. “It was terrifying.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After moving to San Francisco’s SoMa neighborhood in 2020, he made it a priority to find a home that was seismically safe.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“No building is ever going to be 100% structurally sound against an earthquake,” Wade said, “but you can build pretty well for it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>‘We still have a lot of work to do’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>San Francisco’s earthquake dilemma is long-standing. The SPUR brief states that 60% of the city’s buildings were constructed prior to 1940, “without consideration for modern earthquake codes.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many are made of concrete, and in previous quakes elsewhere, similar buildings “pancaked on themselves,” causing “a lot of deaths,” Atkinson said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 1992, San Francisco developed a seismic hazard rating system to assess more than 200 city-owned buildings, using a 1-to-4 scale (best to worst). The city is still \u003ca href=\"https://onesanfrancisco.org/the-plan-2018/building-our-future-earthquakes#:~:text=Seismic%20Hazard%20Ratings%20(SHRs)%20were,prioritization%20of%20seismically%20vulnerable%20structures.\">working to address\u003c/a> many at-risk buildings.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12080328\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 1212px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12080328\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260416-SPUR-Map-KQED.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1212\" height=\"820\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260416-SPUR-Map-KQED.png 1212w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260416-SPUR-Map-KQED-160x108.png 160w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1212px) 100vw, 1212px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A new policy brief from the Bay Area think tank SPUR warns that more than 3,700 pre-1995 concrete buildings could face significant risk if a large earthquake were to occur near San Francisco. The map highlighted in the SPUR reporter is sourced from the City and County of San Francisco. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of SPUR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Officials are now turning to concrete buildings and requiring owners to self-report to staff by June 2027. The thousands of commercial, government, industrial and multi-family buildings are scattered throughout the city, but a concentrated block is in downtown.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On the emergency services side, Carroll’s team is modernizing the city’s earthquake plan, transforming a big binder of scenarios into actionable lists that staff can also pull up on their phones during a disaster. The update is due by the end of the year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Simultaneously, the city is asking voters to approve a \u003ca href=\"https://sfpublicworks.org/eser-2026#:~:text=The%20previous%20three%20ESER%20bonds,progress%20to%20protect%20San%20Francisco.\">$535 million bond\u003c/a> in June. The measure would fund seismic upgrades to fire stations, police stations, the 911 center, the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12060130/san-francisco-reveals-new-earthquake-firefighting-system-36-years-after-loma-prieta\">emergency firefighting water system\u003c/a>, and improvements to the bus system.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’ve touched every neighborhood in the city, and we still have a lot of work to do, which is why another bond is coming up,” said Brian Strong, the city’s chief resilience officer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But there’s a new complication, he said. The city cannot rely on federal disaster aid under the Trump administration, and city budget constraints are limiting its office’s capacity to focus on seismic issues.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We need to start making investments upfront so that when an earthquake happens, we don’t need to have that sort of high level of support from the federal government,” Strong said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>‘It’s a known limitation of earthquake warning’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Robert Olshansky remembers when there was no early earthquake warning system. Phones didn’t blare in the middle of the night, agencies didn’t text warnings.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Olshansky was rocked by a moderate-sized tremor in Southern California in 1971 and lived in North Berkeley during the Loma Prieta quake in 1989. By contrast, the 1906 quake released about 16 times as much energy as the Loma Prieta quake, according \u003ca href=\"https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/events/1906calif/18april/got_seismogram_lp.php\">to the USGS\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12080163\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12080163\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260413-SPUREARTHQUAKE-07-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260413-SPUREARTHQUAKE-07-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260413-SPUREARTHQUAKE-07-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260413-SPUREARTHQUAKE-07-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The San Francisco Bay Area Planning and Urban Research Association (SPUR) offices in San Francisco on April 13, 2026. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>At the time, Olshansky was about to put his home on the market that weekend so he and his family could move out of state. When he got home early from work, the house began to shake. His impulse was to run out, but he froze and endured the shaking.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I turned on the news to try and find out what happened, but it wasn’t clear at first,” Olshansky said. “There was the Bay Bridge, there was a fire in the Mission District. We were seeing all these bits of news.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Today, systems like the MyShake app developed by UC Berkeley’s Seismology Lab can send alerts within seven seconds of a magnitude 4.5 earthquake or larger. But in the case of a “1906-type earthquake,” communities closest to the epicenter will likely get no warning, said Angie Lux, a project scientist for earthquake warning with the lab.[aside postID=news_11999982 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/MyShakeUCBerkeley-1020x679.jpg']“It’s a known limitation of earthquake warning, but I don’t think that it makes the system not useful,” Lux said. “Just having that warning means that people take action faster.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But there might be another signal for some large quakes in Northern California. Chris Goldfinger, a marine geologist at Oregon State University, published a study last fall that found \u003ca href=\"https://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/gsa/geosphere/article/21/6/1132/661517/Unravelling-the-dance-of-earthquakes-Evidence-of?searchresult=1\">large earthquakes likely occurred in\u003c/a> sync along the West Coast’s two major faults — the San Andreas and the Cascadia Subduction Zone — over the past 3,000 years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The faults rupturing together may produce “shaking that could actually be stronger than 1906,” and after the Cascadia moves, the San Andreas could follow within “minutes to hours to days” and up to 50 years, Goldfinger said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That would give you more than the few seconds that you’d get now from the early warning system we have,” Goldfinger said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He said the Bay Area will eventually jolt harder than people have experienced in modern history.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s definitely going to happen,” Goldfinger said. “It is just really a question of when and a question of how prepared we will be for it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "Exactly 120 years after the 1906 earthquake, San Francisco faces ongoing seismic risk and experts warn the city is still not fully prepared for a major quake.",
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"title": "San Francisco’s Skyline Shines, but Earthquake Risk Remains 120 Years After 1906 | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12069967/mayor-lurie-on-san-francisco-we-are-on-our-way-back-but-we-still-have-work-to-do\">San Franciscans\u003c/a> love to gather at Dolores Park to watch the skyline glow at sunset. The hard edges of the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11934056/the-transamerica-pyramid-at-50-from-architectural-butchery-to-icon\">Transamerica Pyramid\u003c/a> catch the light. Then the San Francisco Marriott Marquis, with its Art Deco-inspired windows, and finally, the spiraling silvery-grey of the Salesforce Tower.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But when Mary Ellen Carroll looks out at the skyline and rows of Victorian homes with soft-story ground floors, she’s filled with anxiety.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I see all these people, all these buildings, and the extent of the need that could occur after a big earthquake,” said Carroll, executive director of the San Francisco Department of Emergency Management. “How many people are ready for that?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That “heavy responsibility” for Carroll shakes up every April 18, the anniversary of the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/10930485/see-how-san-francisco-rebuilt-110-years-after-the-1906-quake\">1906 earthquake\u003c/a>. This year marks 120 years since the magnitude 7.9 rupture along the San Andreas fault roughly two miles offshore.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The quake and the fires that followed killed 3,000 people, leveled much of San Francisco and left more than half the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13898345/the-1906-earthquake-survivor-who-fought-for-san-franciscos-homeless-population\">city’s residents unhoused\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12080164\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12080164\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260415-SPUREARTHQUAKE-01-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260415-SPUREARTHQUAKE-01-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260415-SPUREARTHQUAKE-01-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260415-SPUREARTHQUAKE-01-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Mary Ellen Carroll, executive director of the San Francisco Department of Emergency Management, at her office in San Francisco City Hall on April 15, 2026. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The anniversary reminds Carroll that the Bay Area remains extremely vulnerable.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There’s a 72% chance that a magnitude 6.7 earthquake or stronger will occur here in the next three decades, according to \u003ca href=\"https://www.usgs.gov/faqs/what-probability-earthquake-will-occur-los-angeles-area-san-francisco-bay-area#:~:text=San%20Francisco%20Bay%20area%3A,an%20earthquake%20measuring%20magnitude%207.5\">a 2014 analysis\u003c/a> from the United States Geological Survey.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When the earth shakes wildly again, it will do so in a Bay Area transformed from 1906, now home to a population more than 10 times larger.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12080264\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1973px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12080264\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/240416-1906-san-francisco-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1973\" height=\"1424\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/240416-1906-san-francisco-KQED.jpg 1973w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/240416-1906-san-francisco-KQED-160x115.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/240416-1906-san-francisco-KQED-1536x1109.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1973px) 100vw, 1973px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">This photograph, taken by George Lawrence from a series of kites five weeks after the great earthquake of April 18, 1906, shows the devastation brought on the city of San Francisco by the quake and subsequent fire. The view is looking over Nob Hill toward the business district, South of the Slot, and the distant Mission. The Fairmont Hotel, far left. dwarfs the Call Building. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Harry Myers)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>San Francisco spent more than $20 billion on seismic upgrades over the past several decades. The money went to \u003ca href=\"https://data.sfgov.org/Housing-and-Buildings/Map-of-Soft-Story-Properties/jwdp-cqyc\">retrofitting older brick and wood buildings\u003c/a>, seismic improvements to infrastructure, constructing new, safe hospitals, police and fire stations and strengthening emergency response systems.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But a \u003ca href=\"https://www.spur.org/publications/policy-brief/2026-04-09/120-years-after-1906\">new policy brief from the Bay Area think tank SPUR\u003c/a> warns that more than 3,700 pre-1995 concrete buildings — concentrated downtown — could face significant risk, and some fire hazards have gone unaddressed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There would definitely be buildings that could collapse,” said Sarah Atkinson, author of the report.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12080162\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12080162\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260413-SPUREARTHQUAKE-03-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260413-SPUREARTHQUAKE-03-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260413-SPUREARTHQUAKE-03-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260413-SPUREARTHQUAKE-03-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sarah Atkinson, a hazard resilience senior policy manager at the San Francisco Bay Area Planning and Urban Research Association (SPUR), at the organization’s offices in San Francisco on April 13, 2026. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The state has significantly improved its early warning system, too. While phone applications and alerts give people an \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/2000568/after-4-6-earthquake-jolts-santa-cruz-seismologists-double-down-on-myshake-alerts\">extra moment to drop and hold on\u003c/a>, they do little to improve a building’s seismic safety. Some researchers point to evidence that a much larger earthquake than the 1906 quake could shake the Bay Area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Carroll said most San Franciscans cannot grasp what a colossal rattling will feel like.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s going to take an earthquake for us to take an earthquake seriously,” Carroll said. “There will be catastrophic damage. It will interrupt the economy, likely take lives, and we’ll take considerable time to recover.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>‘A big earthquake can happen again’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Predicting where the next damaging Bay Area earthquake isn’t an exact science. Seismologists know a lot about faults: their general size, stress and history. But scientists can’t tell exactly when or where a rupture will occur.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Beneath the region, there lie many medium- to large-faults, including the San Andreas and Hayward faults, as well as many smaller fissures. Evan Hirakawa, a USGS research geophysicist, said seismologists are watching the Hayward Fault, which runs beneath the East Bay Hills, because it has the highest likelihood of a major earthquake.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The San Andreas has a lower probability because it experienced an intense quake a little more than a century ago, which is “recently” in geologic time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12080165\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12080165\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260415-SPUREARTHQUAKE-02-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260415-SPUREARTHQUAKE-02-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260415-SPUREARTHQUAKE-02-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260415-SPUREARTHQUAKE-02-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A view of high-rises in downtown San Francisco from Salesforce Park on April 15, 2026. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>But an impressive quake could also happen on a separate fracture.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We see these old black and white pictures of people in 1906, dealing with the rubble, but in some ways [the next big quake] might not be that different,” Hirakawa said. “People should know that a big earthquake can happen again.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Stephen Sherman Wade was 8 years old and living in Southern California when the 1994 Northridge earthquake shook his family’s home for more than 20 seconds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Beds shuddered against the wall,” Wade said. “It was terrifying.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After moving to San Francisco’s SoMa neighborhood in 2020, he made it a priority to find a home that was seismically safe.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“No building is ever going to be 100% structurally sound against an earthquake,” Wade said, “but you can build pretty well for it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>‘We still have a lot of work to do’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>San Francisco’s earthquake dilemma is long-standing. The SPUR brief states that 60% of the city’s buildings were constructed prior to 1940, “without consideration for modern earthquake codes.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many are made of concrete, and in previous quakes elsewhere, similar buildings “pancaked on themselves,” causing “a lot of deaths,” Atkinson said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 1992, San Francisco developed a seismic hazard rating system to assess more than 200 city-owned buildings, using a 1-to-4 scale (best to worst). The city is still \u003ca href=\"https://onesanfrancisco.org/the-plan-2018/building-our-future-earthquakes#:~:text=Seismic%20Hazard%20Ratings%20(SHRs)%20were,prioritization%20of%20seismically%20vulnerable%20structures.\">working to address\u003c/a> many at-risk buildings.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12080328\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 1212px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12080328\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260416-SPUR-Map-KQED.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1212\" height=\"820\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260416-SPUR-Map-KQED.png 1212w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260416-SPUR-Map-KQED-160x108.png 160w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1212px) 100vw, 1212px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A new policy brief from the Bay Area think tank SPUR warns that more than 3,700 pre-1995 concrete buildings could face significant risk if a large earthquake were to occur near San Francisco. The map highlighted in the SPUR reporter is sourced from the City and County of San Francisco. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of SPUR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Officials are now turning to concrete buildings and requiring owners to self-report to staff by June 2027. The thousands of commercial, government, industrial and multi-family buildings are scattered throughout the city, but a concentrated block is in downtown.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On the emergency services side, Carroll’s team is modernizing the city’s earthquake plan, transforming a big binder of scenarios into actionable lists that staff can also pull up on their phones during a disaster. The update is due by the end of the year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Simultaneously, the city is asking voters to approve a \u003ca href=\"https://sfpublicworks.org/eser-2026#:~:text=The%20previous%20three%20ESER%20bonds,progress%20to%20protect%20San%20Francisco.\">$535 million bond\u003c/a> in June. The measure would fund seismic upgrades to fire stations, police stations, the 911 center, the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12060130/san-francisco-reveals-new-earthquake-firefighting-system-36-years-after-loma-prieta\">emergency firefighting water system\u003c/a>, and improvements to the bus system.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’ve touched every neighborhood in the city, and we still have a lot of work to do, which is why another bond is coming up,” said Brian Strong, the city’s chief resilience officer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But there’s a new complication, he said. The city cannot rely on federal disaster aid under the Trump administration, and city budget constraints are limiting its office’s capacity to focus on seismic issues.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We need to start making investments upfront so that when an earthquake happens, we don’t need to have that sort of high level of support from the federal government,” Strong said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>‘It’s a known limitation of earthquake warning’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Robert Olshansky remembers when there was no early earthquake warning system. Phones didn’t blare in the middle of the night, agencies didn’t text warnings.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Olshansky was rocked by a moderate-sized tremor in Southern California in 1971 and lived in North Berkeley during the Loma Prieta quake in 1989. By contrast, the 1906 quake released about 16 times as much energy as the Loma Prieta quake, according \u003ca href=\"https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/events/1906calif/18april/got_seismogram_lp.php\">to the USGS\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12080163\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12080163\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260413-SPUREARTHQUAKE-07-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260413-SPUREARTHQUAKE-07-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260413-SPUREARTHQUAKE-07-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260413-SPUREARTHQUAKE-07-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The San Francisco Bay Area Planning and Urban Research Association (SPUR) offices in San Francisco on April 13, 2026. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>At the time, Olshansky was about to put his home on the market that weekend so he and his family could move out of state. When he got home early from work, the house began to shake. His impulse was to run out, but he froze and endured the shaking.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I turned on the news to try and find out what happened, but it wasn’t clear at first,” Olshansky said. “There was the Bay Bridge, there was a fire in the Mission District. We were seeing all these bits of news.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Today, systems like the MyShake app developed by UC Berkeley’s Seismology Lab can send alerts within seven seconds of a magnitude 4.5 earthquake or larger. But in the case of a “1906-type earthquake,” communities closest to the epicenter will likely get no warning, said Angie Lux, a project scientist for earthquake warning with the lab.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“It’s a known limitation of earthquake warning, but I don’t think that it makes the system not useful,” Lux said. “Just having that warning means that people take action faster.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But there might be another signal for some large quakes in Northern California. Chris Goldfinger, a marine geologist at Oregon State University, published a study last fall that found \u003ca href=\"https://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/gsa/geosphere/article/21/6/1132/661517/Unravelling-the-dance-of-earthquakes-Evidence-of?searchresult=1\">large earthquakes likely occurred in\u003c/a> sync along the West Coast’s two major faults — the San Andreas and the Cascadia Subduction Zone — over the past 3,000 years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The faults rupturing together may produce “shaking that could actually be stronger than 1906,” and after the Cascadia moves, the San Andreas could follow within “minutes to hours to days” and up to 50 years, Goldfinger said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That would give you more than the few seconds that you’d get now from the early warning system we have,” Goldfinger said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He said the Bay Area will eventually jolt harder than people have experienced in modern history.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s definitely going to happen,” Goldfinger said. “It is just really a question of when and a question of how prepared we will be for it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"info": "Our flagship program, helmed by Kai Ryssdal, examines what the day in money delivered, through stories, conversations, newsworthy numbers and more. Updated Monday through Friday at about 3:30 p.m. PT.",
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"info": "The MindShift podcast explores the innovations in education that are shaping how kids learn. Hosts Ki Sung and Katrina Schwartz introduce listeners to educators, researchers, parents and students who are developing effective ways to improve how kids learn. We cover topics like how fed-up administrators are developing surprising tactics to deal with classroom disruptions; how listening to podcasts are helping kids develop reading skills; the consequences of overparenting; and why interdisciplinary learning can engage students on all ends of the traditional achievement spectrum. This podcast is part of the MindShift education site, a division of KQED News. KQED is an NPR/PBS member station based in San Francisco. You can also visit the MindShift website for episodes and supplemental blog posts or tweet us \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/MindShiftKQED\">@MindShiftKQED\u003c/a> or visit us at \u003ca href=\"/mindshift\">MindShift.KQED.org\u003c/a>",
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"info": "For decades, the process for how police police themselves has been inconsistent – if not opaque. In some states, like California, these proceedings were completely hidden. After a new police transparency law unsealed scores of internal affairs files, our reporters set out to examine these cases and the shadow world of police discipline. On Our Watch brings listeners into the rooms where officers are questioned and witnesses are interrogated to find out who this system is really protecting. Is it the officers, or the public they've sworn to serve?",
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"tagline": "Politics from a personal perspective",
"info": "Political Breakdown is a new series that explores the political intersection of California and the nation. Each week hosts Scott Shafer and Marisa Lagos are joined with a new special guest to unpack politics -- with personality — and offer an insider’s glimpse at how politics happens.",
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"info": "Possible is hosted by entrepreneur Reid Hoffman and writer Aria Finger. Together in Possible, Hoffman and Finger lead enlightening discussions about building a brighter collective future. The show features interviews with visionary guests like Trevor Noah, Sam Altman and Janette Sadik-Khan. Possible paints an optimistic portrait of the world we can create through science, policy, business, art and our shared humanity. It asks: What if everything goes right for once? How can we get there? Each episode also includes a short fiction story generated by advanced AI GPT-4, serving as a thought-provoking springboard to speculate how humanity could leverage technology for good.",
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"pri-the-world": {
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"info": "Each weekday, host Marco Werman and his team of producers bring you the world's most interesting stories in an hour of radio that reminds us just how small our planet really is.",
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"radiolab": {
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"info": "A two-time Peabody Award-winner, Radiolab is an investigation told through sounds and stories, and centered around one big idea. In the Radiolab world, information sounds like music and science and culture collide. Hosted by Jad Abumrad and Robert Krulwich, the show is designed for listeners who demand skepticism, but appreciate wonder. WNYC Studios is the producer of other leading podcasts including Freakonomics Radio, Death, Sex & Money, On the Media and many more.",
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"reveal": {
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"title": "Reveal",
"info": "Created by The Center for Investigative Reporting and PRX, Reveal is public radios first one-hour weekly radio show and podcast dedicated to investigative reporting. Credible, fact based and without a partisan agenda, Reveal combines the power and artistry of driveway moment storytelling with data-rich reporting on critically important issues. The result is stories that inform and inspire, arming our listeners with information to right injustices, hold the powerful accountable and improve lives.Reveal is hosted by Al Letson and showcases the award-winning work of CIR and newsrooms large and small across the nation. In a radio and podcast market crowded with choices, Reveal focuses on important and often surprising stories that illuminate the world for our listeners.",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.revealnews.org/episodes/",
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},
"rightnowish": {
"id": "rightnowish",
"title": "Rightnowish",
"tagline": "Art is where you find it",
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