Sammy Roth

3 weeks ago | latimes.com | Sammy Roth

Donald Trump announced his first run for president on June 16, 2015. He lashed out against Mexican immigrants, environmentalists and other supposed enemies foreign and domestic. Francis’ landmark climate change encyclical, “Laudato Si: On Care for Our Common Home,” wasn’t meant as a response to Trump. But the 184-page teaching served as a powerful call to action. Francis preached urgency and compassion.

1 month ago | latimes.com | Sammy Roth

Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas, one of the most powerful people in Sacramento, just rammed a bill through his chamber that would place a six-year pause on new clean energy rules for homes in California, a few months after Los Angeles County was devastated by ferocious wildfires that demonstrated the urgency of climate change. The Hollister Democrat says he’s not trying to stop progress on confronting the climate crisis.

1 month ago | latimes.com | Sammy Roth

Solar panels and lithium-ion battery units at the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power’s Eland plant in Kern County. I didn’t know much about email newsletters when Sarah Day Owen, an editor at the Desert Sun in Palm Springs, asked if I would start writing a weekly guide to all things energy and water. But it sounded fun and useful. And so the Current was born. Nearly 10 years later, I’m still writing weekly news roundups, now for the L.A. Times. Don’t worry, Boiling Point isn’t ending.

1 month ago | latimes.com | Sammy Roth

Before sitting down with Pedro Pizarro, president and chief executive officer of Edison International, I gave some thought to how I would ask him about the Eaton fire. Pizarro lives in Pasadena, not far from the charred remains of Altadena. His company’s biggest subsidiary — the utility Southern California Edison, which supplies electricity to 15 million people — has been accused in dozens of lawsuits of igniting the fire.

1 month ago | latimes.com | Sammy Roth

Solar panels on the roof of Mandalay Bay Convention Center on the Las Vegas Strip. For the latest episode of the “Boiling Point” podcast, I invited two of the most prominent voices in California’s long-running rooftop solar debate to hash out their differences. The result helped explain why it’s so difficult to make faster progress on climate — even in the Golden State. Brad Heavner, executive director of the California Solar & Storage Assn., slammed Gov.