In these green times energy producers are leaving no stone unturned in the hunt for new sources of energy.

The California State Senate passed a bill on Friday that would ban smoking at all state parks and beaches — and imposing a $100 fine for anyone caught lighting up on the sand.
Senate Bill 4 still awaits approval from the state Assembly, but seems destined to become law in the Golden State, which prides itself [...]

The California Department of Public Health is alerting health-care providers that two children in Southern California, a 10-year-old boy and a 9-year-old girl,  have been diagnosed with a strain of swine flu that has never been seen in the United States.
“Although both of these children have fully recovered, we are investigating the illnesses and working to identify any [...]

The Obama administration’s move to declare climate-warming carbon pollution a danger to human health was quickly hailed by environmental groups and leading liberals as a long-overdue shift from the Bush era and a historic first step toward regulating greenhouse gas emissions.
In making the announcement, Environmental Protection Agency administrator Lisa Jackson said that solving the problem would [...]

A scientist at the University of California, Riverside has named a newly discovered lichen after President Obama, a gesture he clearly intends as an honor.
Kerry Knudsen, lichen curator at UCR’s Herbarium, says he discovered the hardy orange organism on Santa Rosa Island,  off the California coast, and “named it Caloplaca obamae to show my appreciation for the president’s support of science [...]

California utility PG&E and solar power company Solaren say they have inked a first-of-its-kind deal to produce renewable solar power from space satellites beginning in the year 2016.

A California biologist who is conducting a kind of bee-census across the U.S. and Canada called the Great Sunflower Project is looking for volunteer field workers.
Gretchen LeBuhn, an associate professor at San Francisco State University with a fascination for bees, is studying bee colony collapse and an apparent decline in honey bee populations across North America, [...]

President Obama has promised to help create millions of new green jobs, saying that doing so will spur the U.S. economy toward recovery — and has held out Spain as having “surged ahead” of the rest of the world by investing in renewable energy.

The subprime meltdown, housing market crash and tough economic times have left behind more than broken dreams and empty bank accounts in California.

Wednesday is the deadline for California’s gas stations to install sophisticated nozzles and hoses to control vapor emissions at the pump, and the Los Angeles Times reports that some one in five station owners are in open defiance of the new state order.

Has it come to this in California? Is the Golden State really banning black cars from its famous freeways, as reported in various auto industry blogs — and even The Washington Post — on the grounds that they require more air conditioning to cool?