Energy

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Would Newsom’s Climate Catalyst Action Fund Fuel Second Coming of Solyndra?

Last week, California’s nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s office was on a roll – releasing several, often-critical analyses of some of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s high profile budget proposals. Particularly pointed was its analysis of Newsom’s proposal to create a so-called “Climate Catalyst Action Fund.”  According to the administration’s budget documents, it “would ...
Energy

Wayne Winegarden in Heartland News Story on CA Solar Roof Mandate

California Solar Home Law Likely to Price Many Out of the Market By Kenneth Artz A new building code in California requires all newly constructed homes statewide to be solar-powered. Tens of thousands of homes will be affected by the first-of-their-kind rules approved in 2018 by the California Energy Commission under Gov. ...
Climate Change

Policies Should Address Global Climate Change By Incenting Innovation

Amidst all of the rhetoric and dire predictions surrounding global climate change, it is easy to lose one’s perspective. But, we will not successfully minimize the risks created by global climate change without perspective. Fundamental to this perspective, U.S. greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions have been declining for more than a ...
Blog

California Needs To Go Nuclear – Again

California policymakers have indicated that when the state converts to a renewables-only energy framework in 2045, wind and sun will be the only sources permitted. Categorical renewables such as hydroelectric power and nuclear will not be considered. Narrowing the potential sources for electricity generation this way makes the goal nearly ...
Climate Change

The Rush To Renewable Energy Defies Science, Economics, And Common Sense

Whether it’s the Green New Deal, in which climate change abatement is only one of several radical proposals, or the general brainwashing of the younger generations about the impending end of the world, the absence of rational analysis and the willful ignorance of facts is counterproductive. Rather than promoting a ...
Blog

Big Government Plays Favorites with Renewable Energy, We All Pay the Difference

Renewable portfolio standards (RPS) can be considered the flagship environmental policy for state government in the US. The RPS programs have been adopted by 29 states and apply to half of the national electricity market. The staple of any RPS program is mandating the use of one energy source over ...
California

Welcome to California

Building homes in California requires a significant investment of time, money, and other resources, leading many developers to avoid construction projects. But in northwest Los Angeles County, one builder has stayed the course since 1994. On completion in 2021, the 15,000-acre Newhall Ranch—billed as one of the world’s first large-scale ...
Blog

When The Lights Go Out In California

When Sacramento unwisely decided that 100% of retail electricity sales in the state would have to be generated by renewable sources by 2045, most reasonable people would have thought that hydroelectric power would be included in the portfolio. But it seems the policymakers in Sacramento might not be altogether reasonable. ...
Blackouts

The problem with government-protected utility monopolies

Just a few months back it was noted that California was suffering through a resurgence of medieval diseases. Another plague of premodern times now threatens to visit the state this summer: darkness. Bloomberg News reported that “California may go dark this summer.” Pacific Gas & Electric plans to cut power ...
Climate Change

Green New Deal would cause a new Depression

Democrat firebrands Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. Ed Markey just unveiled their “Green New Deal,” a multi-trillion-dollar effort to overhaul the energy industry and slash America’s net greenhouse gas emissions to zero within a decade. The legislation’s title is fitting. The original New Deal failed to create jobs and actually ...
Blog

Would Newsom’s Climate Catalyst Action Fund Fuel Second Coming of Solyndra?

Last week, California’s nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s office was on a roll – releasing several, often-critical analyses of some of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s high profile budget proposals. Particularly pointed was its analysis of Newsom’s proposal to create a so-called “Climate Catalyst Action Fund.”  According to the administration’s budget documents, it “would ...
Energy

Wayne Winegarden in Heartland News Story on CA Solar Roof Mandate

California Solar Home Law Likely to Price Many Out of the Market By Kenneth Artz A new building code in California requires all newly constructed homes statewide to be solar-powered. Tens of thousands of homes will be affected by the first-of-their-kind rules approved in 2018 by the California Energy Commission under Gov. ...
Climate Change

Policies Should Address Global Climate Change By Incenting Innovation

Amidst all of the rhetoric and dire predictions surrounding global climate change, it is easy to lose one’s perspective. But, we will not successfully minimize the risks created by global climate change without perspective. Fundamental to this perspective, U.S. greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions have been declining for more than a ...
Blog

California Needs To Go Nuclear – Again

California policymakers have indicated that when the state converts to a renewables-only energy framework in 2045, wind and sun will be the only sources permitted. Categorical renewables such as hydroelectric power and nuclear will not be considered. Narrowing the potential sources for electricity generation this way makes the goal nearly ...
Climate Change

The Rush To Renewable Energy Defies Science, Economics, And Common Sense

Whether it’s the Green New Deal, in which climate change abatement is only one of several radical proposals, or the general brainwashing of the younger generations about the impending end of the world, the absence of rational analysis and the willful ignorance of facts is counterproductive. Rather than promoting a ...
Blog

Big Government Plays Favorites with Renewable Energy, We All Pay the Difference

Renewable portfolio standards (RPS) can be considered the flagship environmental policy for state government in the US. The RPS programs have been adopted by 29 states and apply to half of the national electricity market. The staple of any RPS program is mandating the use of one energy source over ...
California

Welcome to California

Building homes in California requires a significant investment of time, money, and other resources, leading many developers to avoid construction projects. But in northwest Los Angeles County, one builder has stayed the course since 1994. On completion in 2021, the 15,000-acre Newhall Ranch—billed as one of the world’s first large-scale ...
Blog

When The Lights Go Out In California

When Sacramento unwisely decided that 100% of retail electricity sales in the state would have to be generated by renewable sources by 2045, most reasonable people would have thought that hydroelectric power would be included in the portfolio. But it seems the policymakers in Sacramento might not be altogether reasonable. ...
Blackouts

The problem with government-protected utility monopolies

Just a few months back it was noted that California was suffering through a resurgence of medieval diseases. Another plague of premodern times now threatens to visit the state this summer: darkness. Bloomberg News reported that “California may go dark this summer.” Pacific Gas & Electric plans to cut power ...
Climate Change

Green New Deal would cause a new Depression

Democrat firebrands Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. Ed Markey just unveiled their “Green New Deal,” a multi-trillion-dollar effort to overhaul the energy industry and slash America’s net greenhouse gas emissions to zero within a decade. The legislation’s title is fitting. The original New Deal failed to create jobs and actually ...