Environmentalists

They are the "Redwood Rabbis" quoting Torah and Talmud on sacred stewardship to dissuade a Jewish magnate from wiping out some of the world's most ancient forest groves. They are the "Noah congregations" of evangelical Christians plying conservative Republicans with biblical passages on why saving God's creatures from extinction is a religious responsibility.

Despite strong opposition from environmentalists, the state Assembly on Thursday approved controversial legislation that allows a solar energy developer to bypass local agencies in seeking to build a large-scale power plant in a valley that is home to desert tortoises, golden eagles and bighorn sheep. The nation's leading environmental groups see K Road Power's proposed 663-megawatt Calico Solar plant as one of the most ecologically damaging renewable energy projects in the California desert.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's efforts to give a boost to corporate California are colliding with his image as an environmental crusader in his final days in office. Administration officials say their moves are needed to protect jobs in a fragile economy. But environmentalists are dismayed by what they see as a feverish push to limit restrictions on toxic chemicals in retail goods, ease key air pollution rules and permit the use of a known carcinogen to treat soil in strawberry fields.

When Austin Beutner entered the mayor's race last year, it looked like the wealthy former investment banker and onetime city jobs czar might give the Los Angeles business community its best chance in years at regaining influence at City Hall. His abrupt exit from the campaign this week after struggles with fundraising and a poor showing in the polls highlights the decline of political power that was once wielded by the city's business elite. That weakening comes as the business sector's traditional rivals - organized labor and environmental activists - are enjoying increasing influence.

Environmentalists opposed to clearing San Diego Creek have taken a preliminary step to sue Orange County to stop a $3.3-million tree-clearing project in the creek. County workers started clearing the creek last month to help prevent flooding of the upper Newport Bay in a large storm.

Environmentalists told senior advisers to President Bush on Friday that the timber industry has grossly exaggerated the economic impact of proposals to save the Northwest's northern spotted owl from extinction. The White House officials who heard the environmentalists' story Friday had heard from the timber industry the day before.

Plans to build a diversion dam on Conejo Creek near Camarillo have raised the ire of conservationists, who contend the small stream is crucial to the survival of Southern steelhead trout. Proponents of the project say there is no evidence that Conejo Creek, which flows into Calleguas Creek, is a key spawning habitat for the oceangoing fish. They say the $9-million dam is needed to meet the area's water demands and relieve pressure on overused aquifers.

An underground group of environmental activists claimed responsibility for a fire at the U.S. Forest Industries headquarters in Medford, Ore., that caused $500,000 in damage. In a fax, the Earth Liberation Front said the Dec. 26 fire was "in retribution for all the wild forests and animals lost to feed the wallets of greedy" corporations. The office that burned was headquarters for four mills--a White City veneer mill, a Grants Pass plywood mill, a Colorado stud mill and a Florida sawmill.

Television executives love "disease-of-the-week" movies, but are they ready for "disease-of-the-earth" ones? If Alex Keaton recycled his soda pop cans on "Family Ties," would the youth of America follow? That's what a small group of TV writers, producers, directors and executives mulled over with some of the nation's top environmentalists last weekend at the National Council for Families and Television's annual conference, co-sponsored with the Caucus for Producers, Writers and Directors.

A Santa Clarita environmental group Friday filed suit to halt the massive Tesoro del Valle development, saying Los Angeles County illegally issued a grading permit for the 1,109-home project without assurance of a water supply.

KLEINENSIEL, Germany - When the German government shut down half the country's nuclear reactors after the Fukushima disaster in Japan, followed two months later by a pledge to abandon nuclear power within a decade, environmentalists cheered. A year later, however, criticism of the nuclear shutdown is emerging from a surprising source: some of the very activists who pushed for the phaseout. They say poor planning of the shutdown and political opportunism by the government have actually worsened the toll on the environment in Germany, and Europe, at least in the short term.

WASHINGTON - TheU.S. Environmental Protection Agencyissued regulations that for the first time will curtail air pollution from natural gas wells that use a controversial production technique known as hydraulic fracturing, or fracking. The regulations will limit emissions of volatile organic compounds, which react with sunlight to create smog. The rules also will curb carcinogens and methane, the main component of natural gas and a potent contributor to climate change. The rules are expected to affect about 11,000 new wells annually that undergo fracking and an additional 1,200 that are re-fracked to boost production.

SACRAMENTO - Good reform ideas are a dime a dozen. Look in any faculty lounge. But successful strategies for implementing those ideas are rare. Espousing sweeping reform that can't be enacted because it's politically unacceptable is a common habit of profs, pols and pundits. There also are idealists unwilling to compromise, who'd rather strike out than bunt the runner to the next base. California Forward, a blue-ribbon reform group, is none of that. But the think tank provides a case study of how difficult it is to enact significant change when confronted by the status quo. Not that every proposed reform is golden or all status quo rotten.

AMARGOSA VALLEY, Calif. - April Sall gazed out at the Mojave Desert flashing past the car window and unreeled a story of frustration and backroom dealings. Her small California group, the Wildlands Conservancy, wanted to preserve 600,000 acres of the Mojave. The group raised $45 million, bought the land and deeded it to the federal government. The conservancy intended that the land be protected forever. Instead, 12 years after accepting the largest land gift in American history, the federal government is on the verge of opening 50,000 acres of that bequest to solar development.

As the sun sets over the ocean, the six crewmen on the Cape Blanco are starting a long night's work off the far side of Santa Catalina Island, putting on orange slickers and hard hats to fish for the milky white mollusks that have become California's most valuable catch. Below the gentle waves off the side of the boat swims an immense school of market squid. Capt. Nick Jurlin, pacing impatiently with a cigarette dangling from his mouth, is eager to pull in as much of it as possible.

Reporting from Goleta, Calif. -- Gov. Jerry Brown said Friday that he was taking a closer look at a controversial method of oil extraction known as hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking," as he seeks to help California maintain its role as one of the country's top crude producers. Speaking to business leaders at a renewable energy conference in Goleta, Brown said he was studying fracking, which oil companies are touting as a potential key to tapping previously unreachable deposits in the Golden State.

For half her life, Studio City resident Nancy Hoover Pohl has fought to preserve Fryman Canyon as a scenic area where people surrounded by the vast concrete and steel city can go to enjoy a piece of the wilderness. At Monday's meeting of the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy, Pohl, 83, was honored for those years of service with the passage of a resolution to rename an overlook on Mulholland Drive, between Skyline Drive and Allenwood Road, the "Nancy Hoover Pohl Overlook at Fryman Canyon."

When Laguna Beach biologist Elisabeth Brown's admirers describe her, they use the adjectives pragmatic, persuasive, sensitive, thoughtful and tenacious. Having watched her quiet contributions over two decades, Brown's supporters say the no-nonsense environmentalist has been skillful and effective in protecting the county's natural resources. Laguna Beach Mayor Paul Freeman calls himself "a big fan of hers."

A coalition of environmental groups has filed suit against Los Angeles County, claiming the county's decision to allow the development of a massive residential project along the Santa Clara River would harm the waterway, destroy wildlife habitat and despoil cultural sites. According to the suit, filed Thursday in Los Angeles County Superior Court, the county would allow irreversible damage by approving the first phase of the Newhall Ranch development. Construction would also involve unearthing and desecrating American Indian burial sites and would threaten the California condor and the rare San Fernando Valley spineflower, the suit alleges.

The bid to bring a large-scale desalination plant to Southern California cleared a major hurdle Friday when water regulators approved a permit for a Huntington Beach facility to turn seawater into drinking water. Connecticut-based firm Poseidon Resources is proposing a seawater desalination plant on a 12-acre site next to a coastal power plant, which is adjacent to a popular state beach. According to the company, it would be the largest such facility in the Western Hemisphere.