Hayley Smith is an environment reporter at the Los Angeles Times covering climate policy and California’s clean energy transition. Her work has received honors from the Center for Integrity in News Reporting, the Society of Environmental Journalists, the California News Publishers Assn., the Los Angeles Press Club and the Best of the West. She received the 2025 SEAL Award for environmental journalism and was selected as a 2026 Energy Journalism Fellow at Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy. She holds a master’s degree in journalism from USC.
Latest From This Author
The City Council ordinance will halt new oil and gas drilling in L.A. and phase out production on existing oil wells over the next 20 years. It applies to some 600 active and 1,200 idle wells within city limits.
Experts say Newsom’s environmental legacy won’t just define what’s next for California’s new governor, it could shape the national agenda.
California is only about halfway to its 2030 greenhouse gas reduction goal, according to the state’s latest inventory, released in September.
California-based Il Fornaio will pay $3 million to settle an EEOC lawsuit alleging widespread sexual harassment and retaliation affecting at least 100 female employees, many of them teenagers.
Southern California firefighters gain ground on the Norte, Bryson and Henderson fires as Santa Ana winds ease, but incoming rain brings its own risks.
Former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Gov. Gavin Newsom marked 20 years of California’s landmark climate law, celebrating a rare show of bipartisan unity amid deepening political polarization.
Three lawsuits filed Friday challenge the Trump administration’s rollback of vehicle mileage rules as illegal, including one led by California.
One of several bills signed this week is a law to advance the use of virtual power plants to make greater use of clean energy at home.
Up to 12 million tons of coal per year would be shipped to a Trump-backed Oakland terminal with open-air storage, defying promises of an enclosed facility.