natural gas

San Francisco will ban natural gas in new buildings becoming the latest in a string of cities in California to impose such restrictions.

It was 5:04 p.m. on October 17, 1989, when a powerful magnitude 6.9 earthquake shook the soft soil of San Francisco’s Marina District, crumpling the neighborhood’s old wooden buildings like paper, and sending a cascade of splintered wood and glass into the streets. With water pipes and fire hydrants disabled by the quake, the fire department responded with a rarely-used...

Gordon Sondland, the Trump-appointed ambassador to the EU, said he kept high-level Trump administration officials “in the loop” about the president’s push for Ukraine to announce investigations into his political opponents.

Two political supporters of U.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry secured a potentially lucrative oil and gas exploration deal from the Ukrainian government soon after Perry proposed one of the men as an adviser to the country’s new president. Perry’s efforts to influence Ukraine’s energy policy came earlier this year, just as President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s new government was seeking military aid...

Iran has discovered a new oil field in the country’s south with over 50 billion barrels of crude, its president said Sunday, a find that could boost the country’s proven reserves by a third as it struggles to sell energy abroad over U.S. sanctions. The announcement by Hassan Rouhani comes as Iran faces crushing American sanctions after the U.S. pulled...

A high-pressure system trapping smoke over the Bay Area spurred the air district to issue the winter season’s first Spare the Air alerts for Saturday and Sunday.

The prospects for a preliminary breakthrough in the U.S.-China trade war improved Thursday after the two sides agreed to reduce some punitive tariffs on each other’s goods, though the full extent of the rollback wasn’t clear. A Chinese spokesman announced the development Thursday as talks on ending the trade war progressed, and it triggered a rally in U.S. stock markets....

The Trump administration accelerated the pace of its environmental rollbacks for the country’s coal-fired power plants Monday, proposing to weaken two Obama-era rules aimed at cleaning up dangerous heavy metals and ash from coal plants and keeping them from washing into groundwater and waterways. The new proposals — the latest in a series of regulatory breaks granted by the administration...

Outgoing U.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry said Saturday that he asked President Donald Trump to make the phone call at the center of the impeachment inquiry because it was “important” for the country’s energy needs and had nothing to do with former Vice President Joe Biden or his son Hunter. Perry told The Associated Press that he urged Trump to...

Puerto Rico on Thursday unveiled details of a $20 billion plan to strengthen and modernize the U.S. territory’s shaky power grid more than two years after Hurricane Maria as islanders brace for a looming rate hike amid a recession. The 10-year plan aims to bury power lines, increase the use of natural gas and create a transmission and distribution system...

Long after more flamboyant colleagues flamed out of President Donald Trump’s favor amid ethics scandals, low-profile and folksy Rick Perry survived in the Cabinet in part by steering clear of controversy. Until now. The former Texas governor said Thursday he was quitting as energy secretary by year’s end. The announcement came as the House impeachment investigation highlighted his work in...

It was 5:04 p.m. on October 17, 1989, when a powerful magnitude 6.9 earthquake shook the soft soil of San Francisco’s Marina District, crumpling the neighborhood’s old wooden buildings like paper, and sending a cascade of splintered wood and glass into the streets. With water pipes and fire hydrants disabled by the quake, the fire department responded with a rarely-used…

Power shutdowns intended to prevent more devastating California wildfires are raising new concerns about another longstanding environmental threat: air pollution.

As Rudy Giuliani was pushing Ukrainian officials last spring to investigate one of Donald Trump’s main political rivals, a group of individuals with ties to the president and his personal lawyer were also active in the former Soviet republic. Their aims were profit, not politics. This circle of businessmen and Republican donors touted connections to Giuliani and Trump while trying...

Energy Secretary Rick Perry encouraged President Donald Trump to speak to Ukraine’s president — but on energy and economic issues, Perry’s spokeswoman said Sunday, addressing Perry’s role in a telephone call that’s at the center of a congressional impeachment probe for Trump. “Secretary Perry absolutely supported and encouraged the president to speak to the new president of Ukraine to discuss...

President Donald Trump’s vision of America’s tomorrows looks much like its yesterdays. He loves “beautiful” coal. “Beautiful” warships. And “those four beautiful words: MADE IN THE USA!” He speaks of the country’s might as measured by its steel mills, farms and cars rolling off Detroit assembly lines. He’s not merely summoning happy memories. His nostalgia shapes policy and lives,...

Legendary oilman T. Boone Pickens, a self-described “opinionated energy investor, entrepreneur, proponent of American energy resources and philanthropist” and billionaire, died Wednesday morning at his home in Dallas. He was 91 years old.

The City of San Jose is in the process of taking a huge step toward cleaning the air we breathe.

The City of San Jose is in the process of taking a huge step toward cleaning the air we breathe. Scott Budman reports.

Some San Jose leaders want to ban natural gas in new construction and force builders to use electricity instead all in an effort to cut greenhouse gas emissions.