Bear Essentials October 31st: FISH, FARMS, AND FUELS
October 31, 2025
This Halloween, we’ve got tricks, treats, and maybe an apparition or two. LA is spending $800 million summoning a hydrogen future that mostly exists in PowerPoints. Richmond might be paralyzed by fear (or maybe they should be): A single company — responsible for 25% of the city’s budget —is potentially eyeing the exit. And deep in the desert, the world’s rarest fish stares down extinction like it’s just another Tuesday. It’s a spooky season special: ghost fuels, corporate hauntings, fish stories — and a brilliant water plan arriving 20 years late due to a cursed political slogan.
FUEL’S ERRAND?
Los Angeles is moving to overhaul its coastal Scattergood power plant with $800 million in new hydrogen-ready turbines, tech that doesn’t yet have a clean fuel supply, a stable market, or, anymore, federal backing. California had counted on billions from the feds to build out its hydrogen hub, but the Trump administration pulled the plug this month, redirecting $1.2B in California-bound funds to red-state projects. Now the state is pressing ahead, betting on “green” hydrogen that’s rarely produced without fossil fuels and remains — for the time being — prohibitively expensive. “We’re dumping a lot of our very limited resources,” one critic warned, “into an inefficient, expensive option.” For now, it’s a natural gas plant with better branding — and a future that depends on a fuel that doesn’t yet exist at scale.
🤫 Everything you should know
⛽ - RICHMOND RUNS ON CHEVRON — Turns out nearly one in every four dollars in Richmond’s general fund comes from a single source: Chevron. A spreadsheet the city accidentally released shows the oil giant pumped $58.8 million into city coffers last year — 23.6% of the general fund — via taxes, utility fees, and settlement payments. That’s enough to keep the lights on, the parks open, and city staff paid. But Chevron’s getting itchy. As California tightens the regulatory screws, oil companies are packing up — or shutting down. Chevron already moved its HQ to Texas and cut hundreds of Bay Area jobs. A full exit isn’t off the table. “When refineries close,” Chevron warned, “it’s not just an industry issue — it’s a community issue.” Richmond, take note: kill the golden goose, and you’d better have a backup plan. — Richmondside
🧑🌾 - LABOR PAINS — President Trump’s immigration crackdown is hammering the very hands that feed America. Nearly half of U.S. farmworkers lack legal status, and raids are clearing fields faster than harvest crews — 155,000 fewer farmworkers since spring, a 6.5% drop. The results have been predictable: rising food prices, panicked employers, and ICE agents cuffing moms in front of their kids. Farmers are scrambling to plug the labor gap with H-2A visas — temporary permits that allow foreign nationals to do seasonal farm work — but even with approvals up eightfold since 2005, they’re no match for mass deportations. As one farmer put it: “I could offer $50 an hour — Americans still wouldn’t show up after lunch.” Deport the undocumented if you must, but don’t act surprised when your produce is pricier, and your apples come stamped “Product of Chile,” (probably with a tariff attached). — Christian Science Monitor
💧 - A STREAM COME TRUE — After decades of dragging its feet and sipping on Sierra streams, Los Angeles is nearly doubling its wastewater recycling efforts — from 25 to 45 million gallons a day — in a $930 million project that promises to slake the thirst of half-a-million people and throw a lifeline to Mono Lake in the High Sierras. Environmentalists are calling it a watershed moment (literally). The water will be filtered, piped ten miles, then percolated into groundwater before hitting taps in 2028. Just don’t call it “toilet-to-tap.” As Board President Richard Katz put it, “This project got delayed 20 years because of a very catchy political slogan.” — LA Times
We rely on word of mouth to expand our Bear Essentials community. If you know others who share our desire for common sense, pragmatic solutions to California’s biggest problems, please urge them to subscribe for free! Just send them here.
🎙️ 💬 🎧 - ON THE POD: FISH WATER PEOPLE
Fish Water People is CalTrout’s behind-the-dams podcast, where Executive Director Curtis Knight reels in scientists, policy nerds, river rats, and restoration junkies to talk fish, flow, and the future of California’s water. It’s conservation with conversation — and yes, sometimes a fish story big enough to need two microphones. — Fish Water People
🏜️ 🐟 💅 - DEATH VALLEY DIVA
Image credit: Wikipedia
Bow down to the rarest fish on Earth: the Devils Hole pupfish, subject of a recent seven-minute episode of PBS’s Untold Earth documentary series. Fewer than 40 of these glittery, pelvic-fin-free icons exist in the wild, surviving in a 93-degree underwater hellscape with less oxygen than a group chat. They've been drunk, hungry, and earthquaked, and yet they remain unbothered. Peep the doc; you won’t regret it. — PBS Terra (YouTube)
🏃♂️ 💨 ✋ FAST FIVE
- ☢️ Dangerous levels of radiation detected in SF neighborhood. SFGate
- 🎨 Move over Paris; Oakland has its own art heist to deal with. NY Times
- 💸 Don’t panic over federal cuts to homeless programs. Reason
- 😃 Upzoning plan would be a boon to San Francisco economy. SF Examiner
- 🗺️ See the SoCal districts most impacted by new Prop 50 maps. LA Public Press
