Gas Prices
Business & Economics
Deep Reform, Not Window Dressing, for a Cooler, Cleaner California
The California Air Resources Board (CARB) wants car companies to install metallic reflective windows, which regulators believe will reduce energy use and fight global warming. Though possibly well intentioned this plan amounts only to window dressing. Legislators should pursue deeper environmental reforms with more benefits and fewer disadvantages. CARB believes ...
K. Lloyd Billingsley
December 9, 2012
California
Implementing AB 32 will increase unemployment, household expenses
With the passage of California’s Assembly Bill 32, the Golden State has embarked upon an experiment in energy policy that has no modern parallel. Several recent studies have shown that the consequences to the state could be dire, and that California faces a choice between continuing on its current trajectory ...
Kenneth P. Green
September 26, 2012
Business & Economics
Was Obama’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve release the best way to lower gasoline prices?
On June 23, the Obama administration, in conjunction with other governments, announced a plan to release a total of 60 million barrels of oil from strategic oil reserves in the U.S. and other countries, at a rate of 2 million barrels per day for 30 days. That day, oil prices ...
Robert P. Murphy
August 9, 2011
Business & Economics
The Truth About Energy Profits
America’s largest oil and natural gas companies recently reported quarterly earnings, and as expected, profits were up. But the caricature of fat-cat energy executives lining their pockets at the expense of the everyman doesn’t hold up to scrutiny. ExxonMobil posted quarterly earnings of $10.7 billion on Thursday, up 69 percent ...
Lawrence J. McQuillan
July 13, 2011
Commentary
32-23=0
California voters rejected Proposition 23 and thereby missed their chance to delay implementation of AB 32, California’s Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006. That measure is certain to worsen a state economy still in recession, with an unemployment rate of more than 12 percent. AB 32 seeks to turn back ...
K. Lloyd Billingsley
November 17, 2010
Agriculture
Walmart’s Sustainable Agriculture Campaign Benefits Farmers, Consumers and the Environment
Retail giant Walmart announced plans this month to expand their “sustainable agriculture” goals, including sourcing more of the food they sell from small- and medium-sized farms, and doubling the amount of local produce grown and sold to customers within the same state. While critics contend that the corporation is destructive ...
Amy Kaleita
October 19, 2010
Electric Vehicles
New EPA Car Labels Should Stick to Facts
Vol.4 No.9 September 21, 2010 New EPA Car Labels Should Stick to Facts By Amy Kaleita, Ph.D., Senior Fellow in Environmental Studies, Pacific Research Institute Last month, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Transportation jointly announced that they are considering an upgrade of the energy and environmental ...
Amy Kaleita
September 21, 2010
Business & Economics
Democrats picking on oil companies
SACRAMENTO – Legislators are more than six weeks past the constitutional deadline for passing a state budget, yet the state’s majority Democrats last week weren’t even holding budget hearings. Why bother? The state is $19 billion in the red, but the two sides aren’t even close to coming to terms. ...
Steven Greenhut
August 13, 2010
Blackouts
The Energy Policy Morass
‘Think, Baby, Think’ April 26, 2010, Vol. 15, No. 30 If you think the health care debate is a tangled mess, try wading into the thickets of the energy sector, which is high on the Obama administration’s list of targets to subjugate. Few areas of national policy offer as bad ...
Steven F. Hayward
April 21, 2010
Business & Economics
Guest view: Consider value-added tax, tort reform
Editors note: Several weeks ago, we asked readers to share their thoughts on what our state and region can do in the year ahead to help the economy specifically, how to grow the good-paying jobs we so desperately need. We also asked business leaders to tell us what theyve ...
James Quinn
January 2, 2010
Deep Reform, Not Window Dressing, for a Cooler, Cleaner California
The California Air Resources Board (CARB) wants car companies to install metallic reflective windows, which regulators believe will reduce energy use and fight global warming. Though possibly well intentioned this plan amounts only to window dressing. Legislators should pursue deeper environmental reforms with more benefits and fewer disadvantages. CARB believes ...
Implementing AB 32 will increase unemployment, household expenses
With the passage of California’s Assembly Bill 32, the Golden State has embarked upon an experiment in energy policy that has no modern parallel. Several recent studies have shown that the consequences to the state could be dire, and that California faces a choice between continuing on its current trajectory ...
Was Obama’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve release the best way to lower gasoline prices?
On June 23, the Obama administration, in conjunction with other governments, announced a plan to release a total of 60 million barrels of oil from strategic oil reserves in the U.S. and other countries, at a rate of 2 million barrels per day for 30 days. That day, oil prices ...
The Truth About Energy Profits
America’s largest oil and natural gas companies recently reported quarterly earnings, and as expected, profits were up. But the caricature of fat-cat energy executives lining their pockets at the expense of the everyman doesn’t hold up to scrutiny. ExxonMobil posted quarterly earnings of $10.7 billion on Thursday, up 69 percent ...
32-23=0
California voters rejected Proposition 23 and thereby missed their chance to delay implementation of AB 32, California’s Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006. That measure is certain to worsen a state economy still in recession, with an unemployment rate of more than 12 percent. AB 32 seeks to turn back ...
Walmart’s Sustainable Agriculture Campaign Benefits Farmers, Consumers and the Environment
Retail giant Walmart announced plans this month to expand their “sustainable agriculture” goals, including sourcing more of the food they sell from small- and medium-sized farms, and doubling the amount of local produce grown and sold to customers within the same state. While critics contend that the corporation is destructive ...
New EPA Car Labels Should Stick to Facts
Vol.4 No.9 September 21, 2010 New EPA Car Labels Should Stick to Facts By Amy Kaleita, Ph.D., Senior Fellow in Environmental Studies, Pacific Research Institute Last month, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Transportation jointly announced that they are considering an upgrade of the energy and environmental ...
Democrats picking on oil companies
SACRAMENTO – Legislators are more than six weeks past the constitutional deadline for passing a state budget, yet the state’s majority Democrats last week weren’t even holding budget hearings. Why bother? The state is $19 billion in the red, but the two sides aren’t even close to coming to terms. ...
The Energy Policy Morass
‘Think, Baby, Think’ April 26, 2010, Vol. 15, No. 30 If you think the health care debate is a tangled mess, try wading into the thickets of the energy sector, which is high on the Obama administration’s list of targets to subjugate. Few areas of national policy offer as bad ...
Guest view: Consider value-added tax, tort reform
Editors note: Several weeks ago, we asked readers to share their thoughts on what our state and region can do in the year ahead to help the economy specifically, how to grow the good-paying jobs we so desperately need. We also asked business leaders to tell us what theyve ...