Energy
Blog
Should We Fear the Government Knowing How Much We Drive?
Earlier this year, when discussing a laughable proposal to ban the sale of gasoline-powered cars in California, my colleague Kerry Jackson asked a critical question – “What happens to the $52 billion in revenue the state is expecting from tax hikes on gasoline and diesel sales for road repair over ...
Blog
Political Investment Decisions Hurt Taxpayers, State Retirees
The most recent estimate says that California Public Employees Retirement System, the largest public employee pension fund in the nation with about 1.8 million beneficiaries, has an unfunded liability of roughly $138 billion with total obligations of around $435 billion. While part of that gap is due to the government ...
California
Unless Legislature Embraces Free Market Energy Future, California Faces Next Solyndra
California’s solar power system generated such a glut of electricity for two weeks in March that some of it had to be sent out of state. Supporters of solar energy might believe this is evidence that it works. But it actually highlights solar energy’s biggest flaw. In late June, the ...
Business & Economics
CAPITAL IDEAS: Different Thinking Needed to Meet Demand of California’s Clean Energy Future
Download the Brief California is destined for yet another energy crisis, which, like the drought that’s been scorching the state, will be man-made. Shortages can be avoided, but that will require lawmakers to think in ways that few have engaged in in recent decades. California’s electricity demand is expected to ...
Blackouts
Stop squandering California’s energy resources
Pacific Gas and Electric Co. just announced plans to prematurely shutter California’s sole nuclear power plant, Diablo Canyon. The news came hours after energy officials issued the year’s first “flex alert” — a warning that certain areas should conserve energy to avoid a blackout. That’s right — at a time ...
California
California’s Efficient Energy: Doing More Harm than Good?
When it comes to saving the planet, some of the most popular weapons are policies to promote energy efficiency. As Tim Greeff, deputy legislative director of the League of Conservation Voters recently quipped, Efficiency is always the cheapest, cleanest, safest, quickest way to cut down on both global warming and ...
California
Dems Slash Business-Saving Bills
Long before any of 800 bills passed by the Legislature reached Gov. Jerry Browns desk this legislative session, partisan politics took precedence over repairing the states economy. Apparently restoring confidence and faith in Californias residents and businesses was less important than party politics and flexing muscle. In early 2011, Republicans ...
Blackouts
Moonbeams Over California: The 33-percent Non-solution
California Governor Jerry Brown recently signed SB 2x by Joe Simitian, mandating that 33 percent of the state’s energy come from renewable sources by 2020, an increase of 13 percent from the previous mandate of 20 percent. This signals bad news for California but reveals a key dynamic of our ...
Commentary
Now they tell us
California has to be a leader, the progressives tell us, by which they mean that ordinary people should just shut up and eat their spinach. The spinach is necessary for the good of mankind, ordinary people included, and, anyway, it tastes good, fills you up, and costs next to nothing. ...
Climate Change
How the “Green Jobs” Agenda Destroys Jobs
Proposition 23 on the Nov. 2 ballot would delay implementation of California’s Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 (Assembly Bill 32). A recent study from the California Small Business Roundtable deals with the economic costs of that legislation. The Cost of AB 32 on California Small Businesses argues that such ...
Should We Fear the Government Knowing How Much We Drive?
Earlier this year, when discussing a laughable proposal to ban the sale of gasoline-powered cars in California, my colleague Kerry Jackson asked a critical question – “What happens to the $52 billion in revenue the state is expecting from tax hikes on gasoline and diesel sales for road repair over ...
Political Investment Decisions Hurt Taxpayers, State Retirees
The most recent estimate says that California Public Employees Retirement System, the largest public employee pension fund in the nation with about 1.8 million beneficiaries, has an unfunded liability of roughly $138 billion with total obligations of around $435 billion. While part of that gap is due to the government ...
Unless Legislature Embraces Free Market Energy Future, California Faces Next Solyndra
California’s solar power system generated such a glut of electricity for two weeks in March that some of it had to be sent out of state. Supporters of solar energy might believe this is evidence that it works. But it actually highlights solar energy’s biggest flaw. In late June, the ...
CAPITAL IDEAS: Different Thinking Needed to Meet Demand of California’s Clean Energy Future
Download the Brief California is destined for yet another energy crisis, which, like the drought that’s been scorching the state, will be man-made. Shortages can be avoided, but that will require lawmakers to think in ways that few have engaged in in recent decades. California’s electricity demand is expected to ...
Stop squandering California’s energy resources
Pacific Gas and Electric Co. just announced plans to prematurely shutter California’s sole nuclear power plant, Diablo Canyon. The news came hours after energy officials issued the year’s first “flex alert” — a warning that certain areas should conserve energy to avoid a blackout. That’s right — at a time ...
California’s Efficient Energy: Doing More Harm than Good?
When it comes to saving the planet, some of the most popular weapons are policies to promote energy efficiency. As Tim Greeff, deputy legislative director of the League of Conservation Voters recently quipped, Efficiency is always the cheapest, cleanest, safest, quickest way to cut down on both global warming and ...
Dems Slash Business-Saving Bills
Long before any of 800 bills passed by the Legislature reached Gov. Jerry Browns desk this legislative session, partisan politics took precedence over repairing the states economy. Apparently restoring confidence and faith in Californias residents and businesses was less important than party politics and flexing muscle. In early 2011, Republicans ...
Moonbeams Over California: The 33-percent Non-solution
California Governor Jerry Brown recently signed SB 2x by Joe Simitian, mandating that 33 percent of the state’s energy come from renewable sources by 2020, an increase of 13 percent from the previous mandate of 20 percent. This signals bad news for California but reveals a key dynamic of our ...
Now they tell us
California has to be a leader, the progressives tell us, by which they mean that ordinary people should just shut up and eat their spinach. The spinach is necessary for the good of mankind, ordinary people included, and, anyway, it tastes good, fills you up, and costs next to nothing. ...
How the “Green Jobs” Agenda Destroys Jobs
Proposition 23 on the Nov. 2 ballot would delay implementation of California’s Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 (Assembly Bill 32). A recent study from the California Small Business Roundtable deals with the economic costs of that legislation. The Cost of AB 32 on California Small Businesses argues that such ...
