$600-million price tag projected for Villaraigosa's coal plan - latimes.com

Fred Pickel, the ratepayer advocate at the Department of Water and Power, said Monday that eliminating coal from the utility's power mix ahead of a state-mandated deadline is projected to cost more than $600 million.

Westlands offers plan to retire 24,000 acres for solar power - Business - fresnobee.com

The Westlands Water District is forging ahead with efforts to plan a solar energy park on thousands of acres of poor farmland in Kings County.   [Will the animals, birds and plants currently living there notice that their habitat is covered with solar panels?]

Wisconsin’s climate is changing before our eyes

Milwaukeeans have been shivering and wet this past week, so it’s easy to believe that our soggy, cold April means that global warming or climate change isn’t a serious threat.
...
This past week’s heavy rains aren’t necessarily caused by global warming, but they do fit the long-term climate trends Wisconsin is experiencing.

“Weather is always going to be variable,” said Matt Howard, director of the city’s Office of Environmental Sustainability. “But when you’ve got an intense storm or an intense rain or an intense drought that certainly fits the pattern of the long-term trend. We’re seeing the evidence play out in the past four or five years in a number of very intense storms.”  [Over the last four billion years, how many 4-5 year periods in Wisconsin *didn't* feature a number of very intense storms?]
...By 2050, Wisconsin winters will be 4 to 9 degrees warmer, four weeks shorter and have fewer sub-zero nights. Snowfall will decrease by 14 inches per year. WICCI’s report states that the expected rate of wintertime warming is about four times greater than what Wisconsin has experienced since 1950.