Environment
Agriculture
Fourth of July cookouts cost a little more this year
There are regional cost differences from the AFBF data, highlighting how different areas of the country have different living expenses. For a 10-person meal, the least expensive place to spend the holiday is in the Northeast, where you’ll pay an average of $71.35 for groceries. The Midwest comes in a ...
Agriculture
H-2A bill looks to update the program for the better
The H-2A farmworker visa program might finally be headed for the overhaul it has needed for a long time. The U.S. House of Representatives has an opportunity to take up the Securing Agriculture’s Workforce Act (SAWA) currently being championed by House Agriculture Chairman G.T. Thompson. Under the current program, farmworkers ...
Blog
California’s Bad Energy Policy Is the Real Threat to the AI Boom
In early 2026, data centers consumed roughly 1,000 megawatts of electricity, about 2% of California ISO’s peak load. The California Energy Commission projects that figure will reach 4,500 megawatts, or 9% of peak demand, by 2040. That projection sits on top of overall peak demand the CEC expects to rise between 42 and ...
Blog
California’s Regulatory Blob
On the surface, it might appear to be minor. Nothing too big. But from seemingly insignificant rules come sweeping, burdensome regulatory frameworks. The plan is to only outlaw a particular type of automobile tire for fuel economy purposes, but it sets up regulators to police anything they wish to, from engine displacement ...
Agriculture
New World Screwworm is here, let’s put those Checkoff dollars to work
It is about 1,500 miles from the Imperial Valley of California to Zavala County, Texas, where the invasive pest was discovered recently. The announcement of the 3-week-old calf carrying the insect caused a ripple of alarm through the livestock industry nationwide. There are a few things to note immediately. First, ...
Blog
Newsom says, “AVOID Chevron.” Californians may want to avoid Sacramento’s gas policies
Chevron controls 19% of California’s gas market with more than 1,600 stations, making it the state’s largest branded gasoline retailer according to a joint report prepared in part by the California Energy Commission. The company operates two of the eleven remaining refineries in California, one in Richmond and one in El Segundo. ...
Blog
Environmentalists Vs. Renewable Energy
Virginia-based power firm AES has plans to build a 40-acre battery facility in the Coyote Valley hard up against a conservation area not far off U.S. 101. The valley is “a key wildlife corridor,” says the Sierra Club, that features “open space, trees, and agricultural fields.” The project would be sited on ...
Blog
A public bank in California would be costly, risky and unnecessary
But lawmakers were pushing forward anyway. AB 2243 would have established a taxpayer-funded commission to study the feasibility of a public bank and how it could act “as an additional financial tool to lower borrowing costs, strengthen local lending partnerships and help finance urgent public needs like affordable housing, infrastructure, ...
Blog
California’s ‘Scarcity Mindset’
The late, great comedian Sam Kinison once said that instead of sending food to starving nations, we should send U-Hauls because, he would scream, “there wouldn’t be world hunger if you people would live where the food is! You live in a desert, understand that?! Nothing grows out of here!” ...
Agriculture
Time to right size the Farm Bill
The first Farm Bill was passed in 1933 to stabilize food production and protect the land the U.S. food supply was grown on. The economic collapse of the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl were hardships, in part, to be corrected by the New Deal and the Farm Bill. The ...
Fourth of July cookouts cost a little more this year
There are regional cost differences from the AFBF data, highlighting how different areas of the country have different living expenses. For a 10-person meal, the least expensive place to spend the holiday is in the Northeast, where you’ll pay an average of $71.35 for groceries. The Midwest comes in a ...
H-2A bill looks to update the program for the better
The H-2A farmworker visa program might finally be headed for the overhaul it has needed for a long time. The U.S. House of Representatives has an opportunity to take up the Securing Agriculture’s Workforce Act (SAWA) currently being championed by House Agriculture Chairman G.T. Thompson. Under the current program, farmworkers ...
California’s Bad Energy Policy Is the Real Threat to the AI Boom
In early 2026, data centers consumed roughly 1,000 megawatts of electricity, about 2% of California ISO’s peak load. The California Energy Commission projects that figure will reach 4,500 megawatts, or 9% of peak demand, by 2040. That projection sits on top of overall peak demand the CEC expects to rise between 42 and ...
California’s Regulatory Blob
On the surface, it might appear to be minor. Nothing too big. But from seemingly insignificant rules come sweeping, burdensome regulatory frameworks. The plan is to only outlaw a particular type of automobile tire for fuel economy purposes, but it sets up regulators to police anything they wish to, from engine displacement ...
New World Screwworm is here, let’s put those Checkoff dollars to work
It is about 1,500 miles from the Imperial Valley of California to Zavala County, Texas, where the invasive pest was discovered recently. The announcement of the 3-week-old calf carrying the insect caused a ripple of alarm through the livestock industry nationwide. There are a few things to note immediately. First, ...
Newsom says, “AVOID Chevron.” Californians may want to avoid Sacramento’s gas policies
Chevron controls 19% of California’s gas market with more than 1,600 stations, making it the state’s largest branded gasoline retailer according to a joint report prepared in part by the California Energy Commission. The company operates two of the eleven remaining refineries in California, one in Richmond and one in El Segundo. ...
Environmentalists Vs. Renewable Energy
Virginia-based power firm AES has plans to build a 40-acre battery facility in the Coyote Valley hard up against a conservation area not far off U.S. 101. The valley is “a key wildlife corridor,” says the Sierra Club, that features “open space, trees, and agricultural fields.” The project would be sited on ...
A public bank in California would be costly, risky and unnecessary
But lawmakers were pushing forward anyway. AB 2243 would have established a taxpayer-funded commission to study the feasibility of a public bank and how it could act “as an additional financial tool to lower borrowing costs, strengthen local lending partnerships and help finance urgent public needs like affordable housing, infrastructure, ...
California’s ‘Scarcity Mindset’
The late, great comedian Sam Kinison once said that instead of sending food to starving nations, we should send U-Hauls because, he would scream, “there wouldn’t be world hunger if you people would live where the food is! You live in a desert, understand that?! Nothing grows out of here!” ...
Time to right size the Farm Bill
The first Farm Bill was passed in 1933 to stabilize food production and protect the land the U.S. food supply was grown on. The economic collapse of the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl were hardships, in part, to be corrected by the New Deal and the Farm Bill. The ...