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Updated April 30

The last snow survey of the season found the state snowpack at 37% of the May average . That equates to 8.4 inches of snow water equivalent. The standard survey at Phillips Station in Lake Tahoe was 1.5 inches, with a snow water equivalent of 0.5 inches, which is 3% of the May average. The last two months brought snow to the Sierras, but it did not make up for the very dry January and February, Sean de Guzman, Department of Water Resources Snow Survey and Water Supply Forecast Section chief, said April 30. “The last two weeks have seen increased temperatures leading to a rapid reduction of the snowpack.” The state’s six largest reservoirs hold between 83% (San Luis) and 126% (Melones) of their historical averages for this date. Lake Shasta, California’s largest surface reservoir, is 94% of its historical average and sits at 81% of capacity.

The California grid operator reported that the Western Energy Imbalance Market it operates produced $60 million in first-quarter gross benefits this year. Since 2014 gross revenues have reached $919.7 million, according to CAISO. Of the nine participants to date, Arizona Public Service reaped the highest gross benefits of $11.26 million, followed by CAISO at $9.57 million, then PacifiCorp at $7.8 million. Powerex reaped the smallest amount at $1.09 million.

PG&E donated almost $5 million to the U.S. Forest Service to pay for removing trees and other vegetation, and the necessary equipment . Funded projects in six national forests in California are to include “prescribed pile burning, mechanical thinning and bio-mass removal for mulching,” PG&E stated April 30. Monies also are to be used to help finish National Environmental Policy Act surveys and requisite documentation. The national forests to be thinned include Los Padres, Plumas, Shasta Sequoia, Six Rivers and Stanislaus.

The California Air Resources Board updated its draft electric medium- and heavy-duty truck rules April 28, increasing the number of clean vehicles. If adopted, about 4,000 zero emission trucks would be on California roads in 2023, and projected to grow to 100,000 by 2030 and up to 300,000 in 2035. The new proposal was welcomed by clean air and environmental justice advocates for its climate and air protection, and job creation potential. “CARB’s decision to nearly double the proposed rule is a big step in the right direction,” said Jimmy O’Dea, the Union of Concerned Scientists senior vehicles analyst. “If passed, it would be the most significant policy to-date for electric trucks in the United States, if not the world.” Heavy-duty trucks are the largest source of smog-forming NOx in California and emit nearly 40% of the state’s diesel particulate matter. Disadvantaged communities bear the brunt of this pollution.

A Los Angeles-based coalition of automakers and public agencies seek $150 billion in federal stimulus funding to help electrify transportation and industry . The request to Congress by the Transportation Electrification Partnership includes $85 billion for electric vehicle infrastructure, from chargers to grid upgrades. Of that amount $20 billion would be for utility improvements and $10 billion for solar and energy storage projects to bolster the grid, according to TechCrunch. The partnership seeks an additional $15 billion for medium- and heavy-duty vehicle chargers. The request also includes:

$11 billion for transit and school bus charging. $5 billion for state and local government fleets. $4 billion for the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program. $4 billion for pilot projects and startups.

“Funding of the scale proposed here could enable a transformation not only in the LA metropolitan area, but across the country, as well as provide opportunities where possible for local hire through community benefit agreements, which are an effective mechanism to ensure charging infrastructure projects include workers living local to a project, as well as other targeted hiring policies, such as US Veteran hiring, are achieved,” LACI Chief Executive Matt Peterson stated, TechCrunch reported.

More than 70 representatives joined a lawsuit challenging the Trump Administration’s gutting of the federal Clean Power Plan that aimed to slash greenhouse gas emissions and other pollution from coal fueled generating plants. The U.S, Environmental Protection Agency’s “conclusion that the Clean Power Plan was unlawful cannot be reconciled with the Clean Air Act’s text, structure, or history,” stated Rep. Jared Huffman (D-CA) and Rep. Paul Tonko (D-NY). “We will continue to oppose this Administration’s willful misinterpretations of environmental laws that seek to justify rolling back critical public health protections and undermine future Administrations’ ability to safeguard our environment and the American people.” They along with Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, and dozens of other lawmakers, submitted an amicus brief to the U.S. District Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit April 24. The replacement power plant rule, the Affordable Clean Energy finalized by the Environmental Protection Agency in August, rejects President Obama’s Clean Power Plant rule. EPA asserted that the Obama rule created an undue burden on industry.