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California lawmakers started the year signaling they were ready to get tough on data centers, aiming to protect the environment and electricity ratepayers. Nine months later, they have little to show for it.

Of four data center bills in play, two never made it out of the Legislature, including one that would have required data centers to publicize their power use and another that would have provided incentives for them to use more clean energy.

California lawmakers started the year signaling they were ready to get tough on data centers, aiming to protect the environment and electricity ratepayers. Nine months later, they have little to show for it.

Of four data center bills in play, two never made it out of the Legislature, including one that would have required data centers to publicize their power use and another that would have provided incentives for them to use more clean energy.

Following several years of planning and investment, the City of Antioch has reached a climate-resilient milestone: a new brackish water desalination facility near its existing water treatment plant.

The facility, supported by $10 million in Proposition 1 desalination grant funding from the Department of Water Resources (DWR) and a $60 million low-interest loan from the California Water Boards’ Drinking Water State Revolving Fund, will produce up to 6 million gallons per day of treated drinking water —an important boost to regional supply reliability amid rising salinity in the San Joaquin River.

The politically appointed Board of Directors of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California is proposing to increase its Special Property Tax by 71% over the next three years, from 0.007% to 0.018% of the Assessed Value of $4.1 trillion in its 5,200 square mile service territory.  This is after doubling the rate in 2024.  Since 2024, the rate of taxation will have increased by over five times, from 0.0035% to 0.018%.

To put this in simpler terms, the annual tax on a million dollar house will increase from $35 in 2024 to $180 in 2028.  The total MWD haul will increase from $136 million in 2024 to $859 million in 2028, an increase of 6.3 times when factoring in the annual increase in the Assessed Value, and almost $1 billion in 2030.

California’s Multibenefit Land Repurposing Program helps farmers transition irrigated land into new uses, such as wildlife habitat, groundwater recharge areas, or even solar farms. The idea is to save water while strengthening rural communities.

This offers a more sustainable path forward than simply leaving fields unplanted, which is a common “business-as-usual” strategy, said Gopal Penny, a researcher with the Environmental Defense Fund who co-authored a study about California’s new approach in the journal Frontiers.