Energy

Blackouts

Competitive Energy Markets, Not Monopoly, Delivers Affordable, Reliable, And Low-Emission Energy

Texas’ energy debacle during this past winter has led to a great deal of introspection regarding which energy market structure is the most appropriate. Most analysts would agree that energy market regulations should facilitate access to affordable and reliable electricity, while generating the lowest feasible emissions. The controversy arises with ...
Blog

Requiring Uber/Lyft Drivers to Go Green Is Costly and Unrealistic Virtue Signaling

In a state where residents are increasingly given orders rather than more choices, an unelected group has decided that by 2030, 90% of all rideshare miles must occur in electric cars. We’re expected to accept this as progress. It will turn out to be anything but. The California Air Resources ...
Agriculture

California Has Millions of Acre-feet of Water Waiting to Be Built

As part of its May Revise rollout, the Newsom administration announced $5.1 billion for water infrastructure and drought response. While the announcement invests on funding better data collection, continuing the implementation of Sustainable Groundwater Management Act, or SGMA, and maintaining current water infrastructure, nothing in Newsom’s proposed funding will solve ...
Blackouts

California’s Energy Policy Risks Tilting at Windmills as Electric Car Sales Grow

A cosmic policy convergence is brewing a nasty storm that will hit California hard in a few years. With deadlines for an all-renewable electricity grid as well as the end of sales of new gasoline-powered cars bearing down on the state, we’re facing a future of commonplace blackouts and energy ...
Blog

California’s Tomorrowland Of Energy Won’t Be Arriving On Time

California’s mandate to transition to an all-renewables electricity portfolio has always seemed like a fantasy. A just-released report “charting” the path to 100% clean power does nothing but confirm those suspicions. A joint summary released March 15 by the California Energy Commission, the California Public Utilities Commission and the California ...
Blackouts

Power Outages: California, Texas, next the U.S?

California was the object of ridicule last year when residents experienced widespread power outages due to high temperatures and wildfires.  Now, during an historic cold spell, Texas is under fire for an energy infrastructure that left much of the state without power. The finger pointing will go on for months ...
Blog

Lessons from the Left Coast: The economic costs from adopting California’s approach to global climate change

All signs indicate that the Biden Administration is adopting California’s approach to global climate of prohibit, discourage, and subsidize. The prohibit plank refers to punishing the politically disfavored energy sources of nuclear and natural gas. California has punished nuclear power generation by shuttering the San Onofre Nuclear Generating station in ...
Climate Change

President Biden Should Not Adopt California’s Approach To The Environment

Whether it is canceling the Keystone XL pipeline or obstructing new permits for oil and gas projects on federal lands, President Biden appears to be adopting California’s approach to addressing the problem of global climate change. If fully adopted, there will be large economic consequences with little net environmental benefit. ...
Business & Economics

Wayne Winegarden Quoted in Nor Cal Record Story on Covid-19 Stimulus Bill

New federal COVID stimulus package could help in short term; longer-term impact less clear By Sarah Downey As final agreements on the new COVID-19 stimulus package were negotiated last week, crucial help for businesses and families was approved alongside projects having less to do with economic recovery. “The new relief package reminds ...
Blackouts

Powering California With Wind – A utility’s perspective

Milton Friedman famously declared that “one of the great mistakes is to judge policies and programs by their intentions rather than their results.” While California desperately needs to apply this wisdom across the policy spectrum, arguably, the gap between policy leaders’ intentions and the empirical results are the widest when ...
Blackouts

Competitive Energy Markets, Not Monopoly, Delivers Affordable, Reliable, And Low-Emission Energy

Texas’ energy debacle during this past winter has led to a great deal of introspection regarding which energy market structure is the most appropriate. Most analysts would agree that energy market regulations should facilitate access to affordable and reliable electricity, while generating the lowest feasible emissions. The controversy arises with ...
Blog

Requiring Uber/Lyft Drivers to Go Green Is Costly and Unrealistic Virtue Signaling

In a state where residents are increasingly given orders rather than more choices, an unelected group has decided that by 2030, 90% of all rideshare miles must occur in electric cars. We’re expected to accept this as progress. It will turn out to be anything but. The California Air Resources ...
Agriculture

California Has Millions of Acre-feet of Water Waiting to Be Built

As part of its May Revise rollout, the Newsom administration announced $5.1 billion for water infrastructure and drought response. While the announcement invests on funding better data collection, continuing the implementation of Sustainable Groundwater Management Act, or SGMA, and maintaining current water infrastructure, nothing in Newsom’s proposed funding will solve ...
Blackouts

California’s Energy Policy Risks Tilting at Windmills as Electric Car Sales Grow

A cosmic policy convergence is brewing a nasty storm that will hit California hard in a few years. With deadlines for an all-renewable electricity grid as well as the end of sales of new gasoline-powered cars bearing down on the state, we’re facing a future of commonplace blackouts and energy ...
Blog

California’s Tomorrowland Of Energy Won’t Be Arriving On Time

California’s mandate to transition to an all-renewables electricity portfolio has always seemed like a fantasy. A just-released report “charting” the path to 100% clean power does nothing but confirm those suspicions. A joint summary released March 15 by the California Energy Commission, the California Public Utilities Commission and the California ...
Blackouts

Power Outages: California, Texas, next the U.S?

California was the object of ridicule last year when residents experienced widespread power outages due to high temperatures and wildfires.  Now, during an historic cold spell, Texas is under fire for an energy infrastructure that left much of the state without power. The finger pointing will go on for months ...
Blog

Lessons from the Left Coast: The economic costs from adopting California’s approach to global climate change

All signs indicate that the Biden Administration is adopting California’s approach to global climate of prohibit, discourage, and subsidize. The prohibit plank refers to punishing the politically disfavored energy sources of nuclear and natural gas. California has punished nuclear power generation by shuttering the San Onofre Nuclear Generating station in ...
Climate Change

President Biden Should Not Adopt California’s Approach To The Environment

Whether it is canceling the Keystone XL pipeline or obstructing new permits for oil and gas projects on federal lands, President Biden appears to be adopting California’s approach to addressing the problem of global climate change. If fully adopted, there will be large economic consequences with little net environmental benefit. ...
Business & Economics

Wayne Winegarden Quoted in Nor Cal Record Story on Covid-19 Stimulus Bill

New federal COVID stimulus package could help in short term; longer-term impact less clear By Sarah Downey As final agreements on the new COVID-19 stimulus package were negotiated last week, crucial help for businesses and families was approved alongside projects having less to do with economic recovery. “The new relief package reminds ...
Blackouts

Powering California With Wind – A utility’s perspective

Milton Friedman famously declared that “one of the great mistakes is to judge policies and programs by their intentions rather than their results.” While California desperately needs to apply this wisdom across the policy spectrum, arguably, the gap between policy leaders’ intentions and the empirical results are the widest when ...
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