Climate Point: California is burning

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.

Climate change is tossing fuel onto the flames that have set California alight. USA Today reports that more than 360 individual wildfires are burning across the state, pushed by high temperatures, wind and erratic weather patterns. Hundreds of thousands of acres have already gone up in the blazes.

Among those acres are more than 43,000 in the remote, beautiful Mojave National Preserve. It's home to some of the densest and largest Joshua tree woodlands in the world, and I traveled there with photographer James Quigg to report for The Desert Sun on how this incredible scenery was torched, in part due to fuel from invasive species.

Here's some other important reporting....

MUST-READ STORIES

Drill, baby, drill. Secretary of the Interior David Bernhardt announced on Monday that the administration would sell leases for drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge as soon as this year, NPR reports. It was already clear that the Trump administration was prioritizing opening up this protected area, but the timeline appears to be picking up speed.

When even manufactures shun rollbacks. Reuters reports that even as the administration has taken numerous swings at California's vehicle emissions standards that are more stringent than federal rules, automakers are siding with the Golden State to not anger a 40-million-person customer base. The state announced voluntary agreements with Ford, Volkswagen, Honda and BMW on Monday.

Bad news on the Colorado. Ian James of The Arizona Republic takes us through the latest discussions on the most important river in the country. Two states — Arizona and Nevada — and Mexico will see their allocation from the Colorado River continue to decline, as Lake Mead sits at 40% capacity. The news isn't all doom and gloom, though, as earlier projections for the drop in available water were even lower.

POLITICAL CLIMATE

A "sagebrush rebel" strikes again. Of all President Donald Trump's controversial nominees, by far one of the most criticized has been William Perry Pendley. He's an avowed opponent to public land ownership — once called a "sagebrush rebel" — but is the de facto leader of the Bureau of Land Management, the largest land holder in the country. Matthew Brown of the AP reports that after massive outcry from the environment world, Pendley's nomination was finally pulled. But it turns out, "Pendley signed an order that made his own position, deputy director of policy and programs, the bureau's default leadership post while the director's slot is vacant."

Where do the Dems really stand? Alex Kaufman of HuffPost reports that the Democratic National Committee, which at first included language in its party platform pushing for an end to fossil fuel subsidies, removed that pledge. The DNC said its inclusion was accidental, hence the correction. Then, the American Petroleum Industry's spokesperson decided to share the story, with an off-the-mark take, saying that "you can't eliminate subsidies that don't exist." The fossil fuel industry is likely the most heavily subsidized in the world, but that's a topic for an entire edition of this newsletter.

Playing conservationist. Regardless of former Vice President Joe Biden's waffling on subjects like fracking, he has still made climate and environment pledges that represent the antithesis to the GOP's policy priorities. Outside is here with an interesting look into the party's use of nature as a backdrop for politicking: "As sure as the annual journey of waterfowl out of Alaska and Canada and down into the southern United States and Mexico, that means another migration has started to take place: that of Republican politicians into the outdoors."

POLLUTION COMING TO A TOWN NEAR YOU

The air is thin...and deadly. Regulators in Colorado have announced they're planning to launch an investigation after an oil refinery north of Denver sent toxic emissions into the air above permitted levels. The Denver Post reports that one local county official said the company operating the refinery, Suncor Energy, has reverted to a simple strategy: "problem, apology, repeat."

Bedlam at the border. It's no secret that border wall construction has been given legal go-ahead to eschew many laws. Now, the Tucson Star obtained emails from U.S. Fish and Wildlife officials who warned the Department of Homeland Security that its actions were destroying a protected refuge. Construction did not slow.

The toxic vacation spot. If you don't live in Southern California, perhaps you don't know this strange tidbit, but the largest lake in the most populous state was actually born from an engineering snafu that poured Colorado River water into the desert 115 years ago. Now, that body of water, called the Salton Sea, is an unholy public health crisis, as it's quickly drying up and sending toxic, pesticide-laced dust into the air from its exposed lakebed. So what's the fix? That's a great question, one California still can't answer. For The Desert Sun, I've got the latest updates on the state's struggles to find a solution.

AND ANOTHER THING

Pitting conservation against clean energy. As the saguaro is to Arizona, so is the Joshua tree to Southern California and parts of Nevada. The iconic — albeit super weird-looking — plant is up for protection under the California Endangered Species Act after the feds denied a similar request nationally. As opposing ideologies clash over the proposed listing, fears mount that developers will hurry up and destroy the plants while they still can, as I reported recently. Then, the solar and wind industries joined the fight, arguing species protection would make their industry's vitally important growth slow. Regulators quickly picked apart that claim, but on Thursday they still punted another month on protecting the gangly plants.

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. Wear a mask, please. Cheers.