Palms Unhoused Mutual Aid volunteers distributing supplies to a woman who calls herself "Nono" and other unhoused and housing insecure people.
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Noé Montes
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LAist
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Topline:
After the encampment she was living in got cleared, a woman who goes by the name "Nono" was given a voucher for a motel, a key element L.A. Mayor Karen Bass’s Inside Safe program. She was optimistic about its promise but, so far, has not felt safe.
Why it matters: Inside Safe is the mayor's flagship interim housing program to move unhoused people off the street and, by far, the largest. About 8,000 people have obtained a voucher for a room in one of the 38 available motels or hotels in the city.
Inside Safe motels are independent contractors and people's experiences can vary depending on the location. One person's experiences won't paint a complete picture of the program, which includes dozens of motels across the city and hundreds of people living inside of them. But Nono says some services are lacking and the rules being enforced at the motel are hard to live with.
Why now: During the reporting of How to LA's series on mutual aid volunteers who help fill the gaps in government services for the unhoused, one of the women profiled in the encampment we visited was giving housing through Inside Safe. We check in with her.
When we first met “Nono” last summer she was living in an encampment under the 405 Freeway, straddling the Los Angeles neighborhood of Palms and Culver City. She’d been living there for several years in a tent, relying on volunteers and people in her community for resources like food, water and harm reduction.
The group that provided these resources to Nono — and dozens of other unhoused people at the encampment — is called PUMA, or Palms Unhoused Mutual Aid. It’s not a formal nonprofit but a group of volunteers who come together every week to provide things like clean needles, antiseptic wipes and Narcan — not to mention homemade burritos.
“They save lives and that's a big deal,” Nono told us in August. “That's really hard to say in, like, homeless communities.”
The idea of harm reduction is not to encourage use. Providing these tools is proven to prevent death or infection among the users, keeping people alive until they can maybe get some more permanent help in the way of housing or substance abuse treatment.
Months after we first met Nono, the encampment where she’d been living was cleared out. As part of that October sweep, Nono was given a voucher for a motel, a key element in L.A. Mayor Karen Bass’s Inside Safe program. Here’s Nono in a video produced by the mayor’s office where she’s referred to as “Noelia.”
Noelia was one of the more than 50 Angelenos who voluntarily came inside from one of the largest encampments under the 405.
Inside Safe is bringing Angelenos relief and dismantling the myth that people are living on the streets because they WANT to be there. It’s just not true. pic.twitter.com/5IQy5bwFj7
“I walked in and literally that was the first time I felt safety and peace and a sense of 'this is the beginning of the rest of my life,'” she tells the camera.
The How to LA team recently caught up with her and others near the motel, which is south of Palms on Sepulveda, to talk about life in the Inside Safe program.
Living in a motel
The Inside Safe motels are independent contractors and people's experiences can vary depending on the location. So one person's experiences won't paint a complete picture of the program, which includes dozens of motels across the city and hundreds of people living inside of them.
On theevening we spent with Nono, at this motel, PUMA volunteers are supplying people with harm reduction tools like glass pipes and needle tips in different lengths — also toothbrushes.
Ndindi Kitonga, founder of PUMA, Palms Unhoused Mutual Aid
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Noe Montes
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LAist
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“What brought us here is people are letting us know that they don't have adequate food, that they don't have harm reduction services,” says Ndindi Kitonga, cofounder of PUMA, “and that they are reviving each other, using the Narcan that they have.”
Nono agrees to talk to us, but she asks us to stop recording after a few minutes. She’s lost a lot of weight and says she isn’t feeling great.
“I'm under so much stress because of the security situation over here. It's just ridiculous,” she says. “They kicked my parents out.”
There’s a no visitors rule at this motel.
Nono says she hadn’t seen her parents “in ages.” “What if they’re all I had?” she asks. “Well, I don't even have them, and that was like the one time I’d seen them.”
Kitonga explains: “You cannot have visitors, even if that visitor is your motel mate, meaning someone who lives next door to you.”
Kitonga and her fellow PUMA volunteers have worked with people placed in Inside Safe motels before and says the “no visitor policy” is not always enforced. But it is at this motel.
Sign forbidding visitors to residents of a motel that's part of the Inside Safe Program.
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Noé Montes
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LAist
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High hopes
Nono wants the Inside Safe program to work for her.
As you hear in the video from Mayor Bass’s office, she is optimistic about its promise. “This is finally the catapult that I've been waiting for, believing in, dreaming of and it's, it's all because, because of this project,” Nono said in that video.
So far, she says she hasn’t felt that safe.
Nono told us her doctor is concerned by her extreme weight loss, and that she got beat up on the sidewalk in front of the motel as someone stole her bike and wallet. And the “no visitors” rule makes her feel like she doesn't have any autonomy over her life anymore.
A man who says his name is Ivory Michaels joins the conversation with Nono.
“Your family can't visit. You know, you can't have people that may be your therapist,” he says. “They're not felons. These are grown people. What are you trying to do, isolate them?”
Michaels is not staying at the hotel. He lives in a tent across the street. He told us he used to be in the Inside Safe program but had his motel voucher revoked because, he says, he was labeled “defiant” after asking for clean linens and being told he could not have them.
“You're right, I am defiant,” he says. “I'm a grown man. I'm 53 years old. I shouldn't have limitations brought on me. You know? It's angersome.”
The rules being enforced at these places — from no visitors to limits on how many belongings one can bring in — have long been a sore point for some of the folks living in these interim housing programs, whether its through Inside Safe or something like a Tiny Homes project. The criticisms go at least as far back as the height of the pandemic, when unhoused people were moved into hotels and motels to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
“Let me say this, it's not perfect, it's not meant to be the panacea. But it's one huge, proactive, step forward for those who've been suffering greatly,” says L.A. City Councilman Kevin de León who has a Tiny Home village in his district. “There's criticism that's abundant on Tiny Homes, don't let the perfect get in the way of the good.”
A motel in Culver City that's part of the Inside Safe program.
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Noé Montes
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LAist
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It's the imperfect part of these programs — the lack of autonomy, the services and the feelings of isolation — that drive mutual aid volunteers like Kitonga to do what they do.
After the encampment where Nono was living in Palms was cleared out by city officials, Kitonga says, “People ended up in three motels. One is off of the 90, so still far away if you consider if you don't have a car, and then a bunch of other people were moved to South L.A.”
So, she adds: “You just have people who've just been in a limbo in motel rooms with very few services, loss of their community and what have you,” she says.
About 1 in 6 people choose to leave the Inside Safe program.
An imperfect solution
The primary goal for officials in L.A. City and L.A. County is to get unhoused people off the streets and, first, into interim housing. The idea being that those much needed services — water, food, a sense of security — will be satisfied once people can get inside.
In theory, that’s when the Band-Aids provided by mutual aid volunteers, like Kitonga, can come off.
“We had to choose between providing those services and organizing those efforts… and actually looking for housing for people,” says L.A. City Councilmember Nithya Raman, “where they could access those services in the context of a motel or a hotel room or a shelter site of some kind.”
Inside Safe is the mayor's flagship interim housing program and, by far, the largest. It's also the city's biggest response in terms of dollars spent. About 8,000 people have obtained a voucher for a room in one of the 38 available motels or hotels in the city.
According to our analysis of data released by the city, these vouchers cost about $8,000 per unit, per month, including additional costs like insurance. Since the program began last December, Inside Safe has incurred a total of $93.8 million in expenses.
People are promised three meals per day in addition to things like hygiene services and the overdose prevention resource Narcan. But so far, these needs are not being fully met.
L.A. Mayor Karen Bass acknowledges the drawbacks. “We are building the plane while we fly it,” she says. “Mistakes are made along the way. We're learning about gaps and things that are woefully inadequate.”
Lack of permanent housing
The goal of the program is to offer an alternative to the street while people wait for permanent housing.
The mayor “seemed to really expect that there would be a lot more available [places] for people to transition from the motels and Inside Safe spots to this longer-term housing,” says Nick Gerda, who covers unhoused communities for LAist. But “she’s running into this structural issue of a lack of affordable housing options for people.”
He notes that only “a couple hundred people” have been able to move on to a permanent place to live.
That means, he says, “The motels are largely full. There's much less capacity for people to move off the streets into the motels.”
“I wish we had a much better situation,” says Mayor Bass. “I don't think that moving people into motels, number one, is financially sustainable. But I was not going to accept the idea that while we're doing this stuff that people have to die on the streets. I think a motel room is better than somebody being in the street and possibly raped or killed.”
The Band-Aid remains
The city is not the only player when it comes to housing. Los Angeles County is responsible for providing mental health services, as well as other public health resources. But they spend a lot of money and time on housing, too.
Then there's LAHSA, the Los Angeles Homelessness Authority, the joint agency that sits between L.A. City and L.A. County.
“The bulk of what LAHSA does is refunding non profit groups, that provide the bulk of the homeless services in our system, especially the outreach work,” says Paul Rubenstein, LAHSA's deputy chief external relations officer, “the work that helps people find apartments, the work that helps people stay in apartments.”
Still, there are tens of thousands of Angelenos experiencing unsheltered homelessness. Less than half of them currently have access to one of these temporary housing programs.
“I always compare us to New York City,” says Raman, who was elected to the city council in 2020 and is up for reelection next year. “There are more unhoused people in New York than the county of Los Angeles, but only a couple of thousand … are living on the streets.”
That’s due to a court-mandated effort in the 1980s to have as many available shelter beds as unhoused people in the city.
“We don't have those shelter beds,” says Raman, “and as a result we have the astounding statistic that more people succumb to extreme weather conditions on the streets of Los Angeles than they do in the city of New York.”
Palms Unhoused Mutual Aid volunteers distributing supplies to unhoused and housing insecure people.
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Noé Montes
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LAist
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Medical supplies provided by Palms Unhoused Mutual Aid to unhoused and housing insecure people.
“I understand that no one individual or no one program or no one approach is actually at the heart or the problem of what's going on here because the social problems really are poverty, gendered violence, structural racism, gentrification,” says PUMA’s Kitonga. “They are the big ‘isms’ so, yes, I understand how and why the mayor is overwhelmed. They underestimated the scale and undertheorized what's going on here.”
California students are likely to see fewer cell phones and more gender-neutral bathrooms next year as new state education laws go into effect.
New Office of Civil Rights to open: Assembly Bill 715 establishes a state Office of Civil Rights to help school districts identify and prevent discrimination based on antisemitism, gender, religious and LGBTQ status. It will also handle questions and complaints.
Shielding schools from immigration raids: Protecting students from immigration raids was a priority for legislators this year, resulting in several pieces of new legislation.
Read on... for more new laws that will affect California schools.
California students are likely to see fewer cell phones and more gender-neutral bathrooms next year as new state education laws go into effect.
Protecting students from immigration raids was a priority for state legislators this year, resulting in several new laws, including one prohibiting school staff from allowing immigration officers to enter campuses or providing student or family information.
The most controversial of the new laws is one meant to target antisemitism, although amendments made during the legislative session resulted in a bill that defines discrimination more broadly.
New Office of Civil Rights to open
Assembly Bill 715 establishes a state Office of Civil Rights to help school districts identify and prevent discrimination based on antisemitism, gender, religious and LGBTQ status. It will also handle questions and complaints.
The legislation, along with Senate Bill 48, creates four positions to track and report discrimination. These positions will be appointed by the governor and confirmed by the Senate after Jan. 1.
“California is taking action to confront hate in all forms,” said Gov. Gavin Newsom in a statement. “At a time when antisemitism and bigotry are rising nationwide and globally, these laws make clear: our schools must be places of learning, not hate.”
The legislation has been controversial, with some organizations saying it infringes on academic freedom and prioritizes the rights of certain students over others. The California Teachers Association and California Faculty Association have said the legislation could result in the censoring of educators.
Parents can’t be jailed for truant kids
Beginning Jan. 1, parents of chronically truant children will no longer be fined or face jail time.
Assembly Bill 461 amends the state’s Penal Code to remove a section that makes it a criminal offense for a parent to have a child who is chronically truant, which is defined as missing school without a valid excuse for 10% or more of the school year.
California law requires students age 6 to 18 to attend school.
The Penal Code called for a fine of up to $2,000 or up to a year in jail for parents whose children habitually missed school.
“Criminalizing parents for their children′s truancy ignores the root causes of absenteeism and only deepens family hardships, especially as many immigrant families now fear sending their children to school,” said Assemblymember Patrick Ahrens, D-Sunnyvale, in a statement. “(This bill) ensures support and resources to keep students in school and on track for success.”
Gender-neutral bathroom required
Beginning on July 1, all California school campuses, except those that have only one bathroom for male students and one bathroom for female students, are required to have a gender-neutral bathroom.
Senate Bill 760, which was signed by the governor in 2023, requires that posted signs identify the designated bathroom as being open to all genders and that it be kept unlocked and available to all students.
“SB 760 is a measure that aims to create a safe and inclusive environment not only for non-binary students, but to all students, by requiring each public school to establish at least one all-gender restroom,” said former Sen. Josh Newman, author of the bill.
Cellphone use to be limited
School districts, county offices of education, and charter schools have until July 1 to adopt a policy limiting the use of cellphones during school hours.
Assembly Bill 3216, renamed the Phone-Free School Act, was approved in an effort to curb classroom distractions, bullying, and addiction to the devices. At least five other states, Florida, Indiana, Louisiana, South Carolina and Ohio, have similar laws.
Last year, Gov. Gavin Newsom sent a letter to school district leaders urging them to restrict cellphones. Excessive smartphone use increases anxiety, depression and other mental health issues in children, he said.
Shielding schools from immigration raids
Protecting students from immigration raids was a priority for legislators this year, resulting in several pieces of new legislation.
Assembly Bill 49, known as the California Safe Haven Schools Act, was passed amid a series of immigration raids that have resulted in the arrest of thousands of people. It went into effect as an urgency measure in September.
The bill prohibits school staff from allowing immigration enforcement officers on school campuses or sharing student or family information with them without a warrant or court order. School districts have until March 1 to update school policies to align with the law.
Senate Bill 98, also effective in September, requires leaders of school districts, charter schools, universities and colleges to notify staff and parents when immigration officers are on a campus. School safety plans should include an official procedure for making these notifications by March 1.
This bill, which is in effect until Jan. 1, 2031, does not prevent governing boards from establishing stronger standards or protections.
Protecting preschools, preparing families
Assembly Bill 495, known as the Family Preparedness Plan Act, expands the pool of relatives that can be authorized to make decisions and care for children if parents are detained by immigration authorities or deported.
Beginning Jan. 1, all adults related to a child by blood or adoption, within five generations, could be authorized to enroll a child in school or make decisions about their medical care while on campus.
The bill also permits courts to appoint a person, nominated by a parent, to have joint custody of a child if they are detained or deported by immigration officials.
It also requires school districts to provide information to parents and guardians regarding the right of children to have a free public education.
The legislation also extends the requirements of AB 49 to child care facilities and preschools, prohibiting staff from collecting information or documents regarding the immigration status of children or their family. Instead, they are required to report requests for this information to the California Department of Education and the state Attorney General’s Office.
Easing the road to college
This year, California high school students will find it easier to be admitted to a California State University campus.
Senate Bill 640 establishes a direct admission program that sends mailers to high school students who are eligible to attend participating campuses, informing them of that status. Qualified students must have completed all the required coursework and maintained the necessary grade point average.
“Tens of thousands of California students are fully qualified to go to CSU, but don’t jump the hurdles of the admissions process,” said Sen. Christopher Cabaldon, D-Napa, the law’s author. “At the same time, nearly half of CSU’s campuses have substantial available enrollment capacity and need more students to sustain their high quality academic programs.”
The legislation also requires the California Community Colleges system to promote the CSU dual admission transfer program, which guarantees CSU admission to eligible community college students.
Student IDs to include suicide hotline number
Student identification cards issued at California public secondary schools and institutions of higher education after July 1 will include the phone number for The Trevor Project, a crisis and suicide prevention hotline for LGBTQ youth.
Suicide is the second leading cause of death among young people age 10 to 14, and the third leading cause of death for 14- to 25-year-olds, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“In today’s political climate, LGBTQ+ students face significant levels of bullying, harassment, and discrimination — negatively impacting their mental health and academic success,” according to Assemblymember Mark González, author of the bill. “AB 727 will provide critical resources to support LGBTQ+ youth in crisis and those who have experienced harassment.”
Early education to take seats on board
The next eligible seat that comes open on the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing in 2026 must go to an early childhood education teacher, according to Assembly Bill 1123.
The bill calls for one of the six teacher representatives on the commission to hold a child development teacher permit. It also reduces the number of public representatives on the board from three to two to allow the governor to appoint someone who teaches early childhood development at a university or college.
The commission, which governs the licensing and preparation of the state’s teachers, is made up of 15 voting members, including the state superintendent of public instruction, six practicing teachers, a school administrator, a school board member, a school counselor, a faculty member from a teacher preparation program, a human resources administrator, and three public representatives.
The early childhood representatives will be seated after the next eligible seat is vacated or a representative’s term ends.
In the 60 years since California first began issuing child development permits to early childhood educators, there has never been a voting member on the commission, which governs their licensure and preparation, said Assemblymember Al Muratsuchi, D-Torrance, author of the bill.
Jordan Rynning
holds local government accountable, covering city halls, law enforcement and other powerful institutions.
Published December 30, 2025 12:17 PM
A screenshot from body worn video taken during Parias' arrest by federal immigration agents on Oct. 21.
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U.S. District Court, Central District of California
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Topline:
A federal judge has dismissed criminal charges against Carlitos Ricardo Parias, known as Richard LA on TikTok, where he posts content on local breaking news. Judge Fernando M. Olguin ruled on Saturday that the government violated Parias’ constitutional rights by not allowing him to speak to his lawyers before trial.
The backstory: Parias was arrested on Oct. 21 and charged with assaulting a federal officer and damaging government property. Federal immigration agents alleged in court documents filed the day of his arrest that Parias accelerated his car aggressively after agents had boxed him in. One of the agents then shot Parias in the arm, also hitting a deputy U.S. Marshal in the hand with a ricochet bullet.
Why the case was dismissed: Olguin explained his ruling in an order to dismiss the case, saying Parias was prevented from speaking to his lawyers while detained at the Adelanto immigration detention facility “for nearly the entire month preceding trial.” Olguin criticized both Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for not ensuring Parias could speak with his lawyers and have a fair trial.
What the government says: ICE did not answer LAist’s questions about whether Parias or others have been prevented from speaking with their attorneys while detained. The agency provided a statement from Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin, who said “Parias has a history of driving without a license, failing to prove financial responsibility, vehicle code violations, and resisting arrest. He entered the country illegally at an unknown date and location.”
The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Los Angeles also told LAist in a statement that the prosecutors “strongly disagree with the court’s version of the facts” and may appeal Olguin’s decision. Meanwhile, Parias remains in immigration custody.
From Parias’ lawyers: Federal public defenders Cuauhtemoc Ortega and Gabriela Rivera told LAist in a statement they're confident a jury would acquit Parias and “are grateful that Mr. Parias’ constitutional rights were vindicated.”
Keep up with LAist.
If you're enjoying this article, you'll love our daily newsletter, The LA Report. Each weekday, catch up on the 5 most pressing stories to start your morning in 3 minutes or less.
A line of federal immigration agents and protesters stand-off near the Glass House Farms facility outside Camarillo on July 10, 2025. Protesters gathered after federal agents conducted an immigration raid earlier in the day.
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Larry Valenzuela
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CalMatters/CatchLight Local
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Topline:
President Donald Trump focused on California first as his administration rolled out its crackdown on unauthorized immigration, sending the National Guard to Los Angeles and carrying out high profile raids throughout the state.
Why it matters: Raids on California streets and lawsuits that followed helped rewrite the ground rules for how agents can operate. What began as before-dawn operations in Golden State farm towns quickly expanded into a broader nationwide strategy: surprise workplace and neighborhood sweeps and roving patrols miles from the border.
What's next: California expects further interior enforcement, additional legal battles over sanctuary laws, funding, and renewed attempts to expand detention capacity.
Read on... for more on what happened in 2025 and what to expect in the coming year.
Raids on California streets and lawsuits that followed helped rewrite the ground rules for how agents can operate. What began as before-dawn operations in Golden State farm towns quickly expanded into a broader nationwide strategy: surprise workplace and neighborhood sweeps and roving patrols miles from the border.
CalMatters reporters across California documented how tactics first seen in Kern County, such as warrantless traffic stops and a heavy reliance on appearance-based profiling, spread statewide and then across the country. The U.S. Supreme Court has upheld these methods.
Early in the second Trump administration, the federal government sent Marines to the border, citing a crisis. Those troops have since quietly gone home.
Hundreds of National Guard troops were deployed to Los Angeles following civil unrest about immigration arrests. President Donald Trump threatened to send forces to the Bay Area, then backed off. State officials objected, while federal leaders characterized the moves as necessary. The standoff deepened long-running tensions between California and the White House over the state’s sanctuary policy and federal authority.
All this fell most heavily on families with deep roots in California. CalMatters found deportations increasingly reached people who have decades-long residence, U.S.-citizen children, stable employment, and even those following legal pathways. ICE detained people at green-card interviews and routine check-ins. The changes destabilized school systems, the agricultural economy, and health care.
A federal lawsuit over a deaf asylum seeker’s prolonged detention exposed gaps in medical care and disability accommodations in immigration facilities. Under Trump, asylum seekers with pending claims lost protection from arrest. A new system is emerging where people trying to follow the rules are easier targets than those evading them. Detention centers drew scrutiny as local authorities shied away from conducting health and safety inspections, while advocates reported worsening conditions inside.
A quieter but equally consequential trend has emerged: The immigrant population shrank. Love them or hate them, Trump’s immigration policies were achieving the administration’s goals. Pew Research found the national immigration population shrank by about 1.4 million people in the first half of 2025, the first decline in half a century. Economists warned about slower growth. State leaders weighed long-term impacts on the workforce, schools, and social service systems.
Enforcement grew more data-driven. Drone surveillance expanded in urban areas, and advocates warned about new uses of artificial intelligence to identify deportation targets and analyze asylum and visa applicants’ digital histories.
2026 outlook
California expects further interior enforcement, additional legal battles over sanctuary laws, funding, and renewed attempts to expand detention capacity. School districts and employers are preparing for more mass removals, while lawmakers are considering new privacy protections.
Sunset Boulevard House, also known as The Bridges House by architect Robert Bridges, was destroyed by the Palisades Fire.
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Brian van der Brug
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Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
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Topline:
The Eaton and Pacific Palisades fires renewed attention to issues such as utility oversight, insurance coverage, and the broader challenges of wildfire planning in a changing climate. But California found pushing its climate agenda forward to be an uphill battle this year: ambitious climate goals faced a hostile federal government economic pressures.
Agenda setbacks: Anticipating opposition from President Donald Trump, state leaders chose to abandon important clean-air rules before he even took office, including plans to phase out diesel trucks and transition to cleaner trains. Nearing mid-year, Trump and his allies in Congress blocked the state’s clean-car mandate, a blow to emissions reduction plans. By the end of the legislative session, these issues converged, as legislators passed a six-bill deal that included a plan to boost oil drilling, relief for ratepayers who fund wildfire mitigation, and an extension of the now rebranded “cap-and-invest” program.
Read on... for more on what 2025 delivered on the climate front.
Days after 2025 began, two fires scorched through Los Angeles neighborhoods, the most destructive in California’s history. The Eaton and Pacific Palisades fires also renewed attention to issues such as utility oversight, insurance coverage, and the broader challenges of wildfire planning in a changing climate. And their harms rippled outward, leaving thousands of low-income workers and immigrants without jobs.
Nevertheless, as part of budget negotiations, Gov. Gavin Newsom sought to reauthorize California’s landmark cap-and-trade program, launching a debate that would resolve in the final hours of the legislative session.
Blaming climate and environmental regulation, Phillips 66 and Valero followed through on plans to shutter oil refineries, raising concerns about gas prices and the future of the state’s oil industry. In Wilmington, Phillips 66 is now closed. A high-profile explosion at Chevron’s El Segundo refinery nearby underscored persistent safety and environmental risks tied to remaining facilities.
By the end of the legislative session, these issues converged, as legislators passed a six-bill deal that included a plan to boost oil drilling, relief for ratepayers who fund wildfire mitigation, and an extension of the now rebranded “cap-and-invest” program.
As lawmakers passed sweeping reforms to California’s landmark environmental review law, critics warned exemptions may make it easier for potentially high-polluting advanced manufacturing facilities to take root in already vulnerable areas.
Affordability, the cost of climate adaptation, and pollution harms, in the skies and in the waste stream, continue to be key issues for California. As Gov. Gavin Newsom’s balancing act continues, the state will navigate tensions with environmental justice advocates unhappy with compromises. Emerging risks include the cost – in energy and water – of data centers, and the environmental consequences of the battery economy.
