Ill Wind

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California’s ambitions are vast, but the path is anything but smooth. At a recent policy summit, energy leaders wrestled with how to deliver power that’s clean, reliable, and affordable. CARE Court, barely a year old, is already being branded a flop, proof that critics can’t resist grading toddlers. Offshore wind, meanwhile, is under siege from Washington’s pseudoscience crusade, putting billions in private investment at risk. And because this is California, side plots abound: Los Angeles dreams of ferries, Burbank spins suburban drama into comedy, and the Sutter Buttes remind us that even extinct volcanoes can command attention.

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Onward…

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NCC BRINGS GOOD ENERGY TO PPIC

California’s clean energy ambitions are sky-high, but so are the stakes. At the Public Policy Institute of California’s recent half-day conference on energy transition, experts from across the spectrum gathered to confront a central challenge: how to build a future that’s sustainable and functional. Representing the New California Coalition, board member Pete Weber brought a crucial voice to the conversation on energy reliability. Drawing from both private-sector leadership and community-driven reform, Weber argued for a thoughtful recalibration, placing affordability, reliability, and opportunity on equal footing with emissions goals. His call for measurable implementation, not just lofty targets, reflected NCC’s core ethos, that bold climate progress must be grounded in real-world viability. In a moment thick with complexity, Weber offered something rare: clarity, balance, and a credible path forward.

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<WATCH AT PPIC>

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🤫 Everything you should know

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🫴 ⚖️ 😞  - PREMATURE VERDICT ON CARE COURT — CARE Court was launched as California’s most ambitious effort yet to connect people with untreated mental illness to care. One year in, the program is still in its infancy: about 2,400 petitions have been filed and just over a dozen court-ordered plans are in place. Counties are building systems, judges are sorting through cases, and lawmakers are already considering refinements to broaden access. The initiative’s original critics have been quick to call out the early numbers as proof of failure. But a little circumspection might be in order, as we’re still in the early innings of a new and complex program. Moreover, as Michelle Doty Cabrera of the California Behavioral Health Directors Association notes, focusing only on statistics misses the point. “With anything coercive, the goal is to try to engage people out of their own free will into services.” Our take? CARE Court is less a finished product than a foundation, with its true impact still to come. — CalMatters

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⚓ 🌬️💸   - TRUMP WINDING DOWN WIND  — The federal government is waging a coordinated, multi-agency assault on offshore wind, gutting $679M in funding, halting construction, and peddling pseudoscience about electromagnetic fields and national security fantasies involving drone swarms. Agencies with no energy remit, like Health and Human Services, are now probing wind farms for alleged health and security risks long dismissed by experts. The fallout is devastating. Fully permitted, under-construction projects are being halted midstream, threatening billions in investment and undermining regulatory certainty across the energy sector. Among the most painful casualties? Humboldt Bay’s $426M INFRA grant, which would help facilitate a major new energy source for California and transformative economic development for the North Coast. — NY Times

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⛴️ 🌊 🌅  - ONCE UPON A TIDE IN L.A. — L.A.’s coastal traffic nightmare may finally get a stylish maritime escape hatch. A new partnership, Pier to Pier, plans to launch a network of high-speed ferries linking Marina del Rey, Santa Monica, and Malibu in just 24 minutes. Dubbed the “Blue Highway,” the ferry project teases an envy-drawing commute that many Bay Area riders have long enjoyed — cocktail in hand — as they zip across friendly, uncongested waves. Unlike past failed ferry dreams, this one claims it’s actually happening. With scenic rides, Metro connections, and potential airport shuttles, it’s all very slick, assuming the seas behave, the city agrees, and someone coughs up the cash. — LA Times

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🎙️ 💬 🎧 - ON THE POD: VALLEY HEAT PODCAST

Valley Heat is a bizarrely addictive faux true-crime podcast set in Burbank’s Rancho Equestrian District, where petty disputes and neighborhood drama spiral into surreal comedy. It’s suburban mundanity, slow-burn paranoia, and laugh-out-loud absurdity—all delivered deadpan. — Valley Heat Podcast

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⛰️ 📷 🧑‍🚀  - ASTRONAUT PHOTOGRAPHY

Photograph: NASA

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Rising like a volcanic pimple in the middle of California’s pancake-flat farmland, the Sutter Buttes are the so-called “world’s smallest mountain range.” Once a Pleistocene lava factory, now they’re a rocky, moat-ringed geological curiosity surrounded by rice fields and sunflowers, proof that even extinct volcanoes can still upstage the neighbors. — NASA Earth Observatory

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🏃‍♂️ 💨 ✋ FAST FIVE

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1. ⛹🏾‍♀️ Golden State Valkyries first to make playoffs in inaugural season. ESPN
2. 🏞️ Yosemite feels the pinch of cuts to National Parks Service. POLITICO
3. 👏 Investigation spawns tool for residents to claim funds from DMV. CalMatters
4. 💉 West Coast unites on vaccine policy in face of RFK Jr. assault. KQED

🤷🏼 SF’s economy is gripped by optimism. But where are the jobs? SF Examiner