Climate Point: The Wright brothers make it to Mars and dire drought forecasts in California

Welcome to Climate Point, your weekly guide to climate, energy and environment news from around the Golden State and the country. In Palm Springs, Calif., I’m Mark Olalde.

Before Los Angeles became the center of the cinematic universe, the City of Angels was an oil town. Hydrocarbons quite literally bubbled all the way to the surface near what is now downtown, and the first oil well in the area was drilled in 1892. I'd argue that by now — 129 years later — regulators in liberal, environmentally minded California should be adept at watching over the industry. Not so, says my colleague Janet Wilson in her latest investigation for The Desert Sun and ProPublica. "Enforcement is still lax," she writes, "and in many cases, the state doesn’t know if companies are complying." She found a trail of oil spills, unpaid fines and enforcement orders that went ignored in the face of a tepid regulatory response.

Meanwhile, I wrote about a new report that came out Tuesday and shows California oil regulators aren't alone. The country's system for ensuring environmental compliance is fragmented and largely handed off to the states, leading to wildly disparate levels of oversight. There are some surprises — is Texas really doing a good job managing its polluting industries? — but the overall message is that more uniformity could go a long way.

Here's some other important reporting...

MUST-READ STORIES

From Kitty Hawk to Jezero Crater. Loyal Climate Point readers know I'm all about Mars news, so this AP story immediately caught my eye. A swatch of fabric from Orville and Wilbur Wright's first airplane has made it to the red planet aboard Ingenuity, the small helicopter set to be deployed from the Perseverance rover. It's not the first time the Wright brothers' plane has made it into space, but now it's flown all the way to another planet.

Regulatory minefield. The Star Tribune out of the Twin Cities reports that a proposed copper mine that has been at the center of environmental controversy lost approval for a permit "to fill or dredge more than 900 acres of wetland." With the change in federal administration, there are now five major permits that are back under review, casting the future of the $1 billion project in doubt. Of note, this latest permit review was initiated specifically to check if an indigenous band's water would be impacted.

Drinking toxins. In a hard-hitting piece of investigative reporting, Max Blau of Georgia Health News and ProPublica dug into 90 million tons of toxic coal ash that had accumulated in waste dumps after being generated at coal-fired power plants run by the second-largest energy provider in the country. In the end, Georgia Power "spent millions of dollars on lobbying tactics to dodge billions in environmental costs." The power company declined to answer many questions, but said it did its part to clean up its coal ash ponds. This story has it all: ratepayers footing the bill for cleanup, contaminated wells, and utilities and lawmakers turning a blind eye to a public health catastrophe.

The air is thick. Just down the Gulf Coast, the Tampa Bay Times this week published an equally disturbing investigation into public health concerns, writing that Florida's lone lead smelter "exposed workers for years to levels of lead in the air that were hundreds of times higher than the federal limit." Company-issued respirators weren't designed to handle that much contamination, a company doctor didn't tell workers the truth about lead in their blood, employees were punished for being poisoned — leading some to donate contaminated blood — and federal regulators went years without conducting inspections. The company said it has spent many millions of dollars making the smelter safer.

POLITICAL CLIMATE

Concern on the Colorado. In an ever-warming world that must feed an ever-growing population, all eyes remain on the Colorado River and the 40 million people it sustains. The current guidelines managing water usage along the river expire in 2026, so the states that use the river are launching into negotiations. The team over at KUNC public radio in Colorado prepared this helpful explainer that digs into what some of the major players want and where the battle lines lie. Meanwhile, AP reports that a Nevada town is fighting to stop the renovation of a 115-year-old earthen irrigation canal in an example of how complex water laws and systems have evolved over the years.

States vs. California. The Indianapolis Star reports that Indiana is trying to take on environmentally friendly stances coming from California cities. Earlier in March, the Hoosier State's attorney general joined a coalition of 18 states filing a brief with the U.S. Supreme Court, requesting that it intervene in a climate change case brought by two Golden State cities. Those states are taking the side of Big Oil by echoing the industry's argument that these climate change cases should be heard not in state courts — which are perceived to be less sympathetic to oil — but rather in federal courts that were packed with conservative judges in recent years.

Fossil fuels stay hungry for subsidies. Sticking with the theme of conservative states going out of their way to defend fossil fuels, Wyoming continues its legislative push to prop up its shrinking coal industry. Camille Erickson of the Casper Star Tribune reports that one proposed bill would "require utilities to take additional steps before they can receive approval from state regulators to retire aging coal or natural gas plants." A second bill would give $500,000 of taxpayers' money to the governor and attorney general "to potentially sue other states restricting the import or use of Wyoming coal."

EVER-PRESENT CLIMATE CHANGE

Weary of the weather. For The Arizona Republic, Erin Stone reports that nearly half of 18- to 34-year-olds surveyed feel stress in their daily lives that relates back to uncertainty, fear and other concerns about climate change. In this important piece, she gauges what's on her readers' minds and what this stress could mean in the long run. Take a read.

Hot with a chance of dry. Is California in for more drought? According to the Sacramento Bee, that seems likely. "State and federal officials issued remarkably bleak warnings Tuesday about California’s summer water supplies, telling farmers and others to gear up for potential shortages," they wrote.

A bloom and bust industry. "This is a disastrous year for wildflowers," desert ecologist James Cornett told The Desert Sun's Janet Wilson this week. Only a few years removed from a "super bloom" that brought hordes of people out to the desert to see wildflowers, minimal precipitation means no such spectacle is on the way. And, as the climate changes, more frequent and severe droughts can be expected, further drying up the forecast for long periods at a time.

AND ANOTHER THING

Wolfing down some news. And finally this week, let's head over to the Southwest where The Arizona Republic's Anton Delgado reports that the population of the Mexican gray wolf, a protected species, continues making a recovery. A recent survey found at least 186 of these wolves in the wild in New Mexico and Arizona, the fifth straight year their population has increased. Several decades ago, that number was believed to have fallen all the way down to seven wolves, so this update signals a welcome win, although concerns of genetic diversity and poaching persist.

Scientists agree that to maintain a livable planet, we need to reduce the atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration back to 350 ppm. We’re above that and rising dangerously. Here are the latest numbers:

That’s all for now. Don’t forget to follow along on Twitter at @MarkOlalde. You can also reach me at molalde@gannett.com. You can sign up to get Climate Point in your inbox for free here. And, if you’d like to receive a daily round-up of California news (also for free!), you can sign up for USA Today’s In California newsletter here. Mask up, and if you're eligible, get that vaccine! Cheers.