It’s beginning to look a lot like Earth Day

California officials are packing their bags for a U.N. climate conference that Christiana Figueres, the architect of the Paris Agreement, called an unnecessary “circus.” | Kamran Jebreili/AP

BLAH BLAH BLAH?: Splashy announcements with little in the way of follow through, oil and gas companies talking up their climate bona fides, and an endless barrage of pitches from every organization with a remotely climate-related mission.

It’s beginning to look a lot like Earth Day, the time of year that’s become more of a corporate marketing exercise than a way to advance climate action. But this time the buzz is about COP28, the U.N. climate conference starting this week in Dubai.

With a new report showing that the world is barreling toward 3 degrees Celsius of warming under current commitments while negotiators still can’t agree on phasing out fossil fuels, it’s hard to feel like this year’s COP28 will move the needle on climate change. The fact that the United Arab Emirates, COP’s host this year, plotted to use the conference to push for oil and gas deals doesn’t help the prognosis.

But California officials say that despite all that, it’s important for the state to send its leaders to tout its climate achievements and forge new partnerships that could help other countries reduce emissions.

“I’ll be honest: I’ve been to these COPs before, and there is some sense of complacency among a lot of people that are there,” said Wade Crowfoot, California’s natural resources secretary, at a press briefing this morning. “I think California is there to disrupt that.”

In addition to Crowfoot, other California climate leaders will be fanning out at COP28 to spread the gospel of climate ambition and urgency. Tribal Affairs Secretary Christina Snider-Ashtari, California Air Resources Board Chair Liane Randolph, Department of Food and Agriculture Secretary Karen Ross and California Energy Commission Chair David Hochschild will join the 70,000 diplomats, politicians, advocates and business leaders gathering in Dubai this week.

Lauren Sanchez, the governor’s climate aide, won’t be there. Neither will Gov. Gavin Newsom himself, and neither will President Joe Biden or China’s president Xi JinpingThe pope also canceled his trip this morning due to illness.

What’s on tap for California?

As a subnational government, California officials will be working in the realm of what is referred to at COP as “side events.” These are places outside formal U.N. negotiating rooms where governments, NGOs and companies make their own announcements.

In addition to pushing California’s climate progress, this year’s delegation will announce a new coalition to tackle methane and another on climate resilience and adaptation for places with Mediterranean climates. Snider-Ashtari will be sharing lessons from California’s efforts to disentangle its legal framework to allow for tribes to resume land stewardship practices.

The delegation will also be looking for ways to formalize the work of states and other local governments as part of countries’ national commitments, perhaps through a process of consultation in developing national targets.

“This is the first time the U.N. climate conference has been hosted by a petrostate, and it’s a big test for the U.N. climate community,” said Sanchez. “What is the role of our fossil fuel producing nations in this transition?”

She said California, also a petrostate, will be bringing a key message about “the important role of partnering and accountability as we work to transition away from fossil fuels.”

In addition to Newsom administration officials, over a dozen members of the state legislature will be at the conference too. Last week, we reported that Sens. Henry Stern (D-Sherman Oaks), Anna Caballero (D-Salinas), Monique Limón (D-Santa Barbara), María Elena Durazo (D-Los Angeles) and Melissa Hurtado (D-Bakersfield) would be attending.

From the Assembly side, Speaker Robert Rivas’ office confirmed today that the speaker will be going along with Assemblymembers Rebecca Bauer-Kahan (D-Orinda), Jim Wood (D-Healdsburg), Dawn Addis (D-Morro Bay), Diane Papan (D-San Mateo), Matt Haney (D-San Francisco) and Marc Berman (D-Menlo Park).

The delegations are smaller than in years past, in part because of credentialing limitations at the UAE and global conflict making travel more politically fraught. But it could also be because this year’s COP just isn’t expected to be a happening COP. —

A new report says there's even more lithium at the Salton Sea than originally thought. | Robyn Beck/AFP via

California officials have for years touted the Salton Sea as a game-changing source of lithium that will power the nation’s electric vehicle revolution and revitalize the impoverished Imperial Valley.

A new report from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory backs up that assertion, if geothermal energy and lithium extraction companies can fully tap into the region’s potential.

The study, funded by the Energy Department, estimates the Salton Sea geothermal system likely contains 18 million metric tons of lithium carbonate, or enough material for build batteries for 375 million electric vehicles.

There will need to be a major expansion of the geothermal energy production capacity in the region, however, if companies and the U.S. government want to tap into that brine. The Salton Sea system has the potential to sustain nearly 3,000 megawatts of electricity, more than seven times the amount currently produced by the 11 geothermal power plants in operation.

An expansion of geothermal energy production alone won’t guarantee that large quantities of lithium will be extracted from brine drawn from deep under the Salton Sea. To date, no company has cracked that code on direct lithium extraction technology, which separates lithium from other metals contained in the brine.

Two companies exploring lithium extraction in the Imperial Valley, Controlled Thermal Resources and EnergySource Minerals, say they plan to break ground imminently on commercial-scale DLE operations and begin delivering lithium in 2025. Those timelines are pushed back from earlier estimates that production would start next year. —

Oil companies continue to push back against a price gouging penalty at the California Energy Commission. | Justin Sullivan/

SPIKES AND CAPS: Newsom’s plan to hold oil companies accountable for gasoline price spikes is grinding forward.

The California Energy Commission held a workshop Tuesday during which Western States Petroleum Association President Cathy Reheis-Boyd urged the commission to drop the plan to potentially penalize high profits and instead look to market fundamentals, such as limited production and supply, to reduce prices. She said California should drill for crude and make way for more gas stations.

Consumer Watchdog President Jamie Court urged adoption of a penalty, pointing to state regulation of investor-owned utilities and of insurers as examples of how it could be done.

The commission is early in the process and hasn’t decided if there should be a penalty yet. The first step would be finding that a penalty would be better for consumers than not having one.

But a graph presented at the meeting gave a sense of the scope of the issue. It showed the price spikes since 2015 and illustrated potential penalties. If California had penalized refiner profit margins above $1 per gallon, companies would have earned $1.2 billion above the cap during five price spikes. If it had set the cap at $0.80 per gallon, companies would have earned $3.1 billion above the cap during 18 spikes. At $0.60 per gallon, $9.5 billion.

— Neel Dhanesha of Heatmap argues that as long as COP28 is drawing attention to climate change, then the barrage of coinciding climate news can only be a good thing

— The Chevron refinery in Richmond was flaring last night , which the company said was due to a power outage at the facility.

— In other Salton Sea news, farm water runoff is forming small wetlands at the receding lake’s edge.