Environment

Commentary

Employment Gains Expected if Prop 23 Passes

The California electorate next month will vote on Proposition 23, which would suspend the implementation of the state’s global warming (i.e., energy taxation) law (“AB32″) until the unemployment rate reaches 5.5 percent for four consecutive quarters. My new paper on the employment effects of this initiative can be found here ...
Business & Economics

The Prospective Effects of Proposition 23 on Employment in California

Suspension of AB 32 Would Add 150,000 Jobs in California in 2011 and More than 500,000 in 2012, According to New Study San Francisco— A new study by the Pacific Research Institute, a free-market think tank based in San Francisco, finds that the approval of Proposition 23, suspending the implementation ...
Commentary

Prop 23 Will Boost California Employment By Half Million In 2012, 1.3 Million in 2020, Study Estimates

If approved by the California electorate this November, Proposition 23 will suspend the implementation of AB 32, the California Global Warming Solutions Act, until the State’s unemployment rate declines to 5.5% or less for four consecutive quarters. AB 32 requires a reduction in the State’s greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 ...
Agriculture

State’s silly laws, sillier candidates

SACRAMENTO – Every legislator could have skipped out of the country for the entire legislative session, and it would not have mattered one iota to anyone outside of their staff members. That’s not cynicism, so much as a fair and balanced assessment of the last legislative session. I’m reminded of ...
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 ...
Business & Economics

Progressives for Pension Reform?

With California facing a structural $19 billion budget hole, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has argued that the state will need to tap its general fund for billions to prop up faltering public-employee pension funds. With California facing a structural $19 billion budget hole, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has argued that the state ...
Commentary

Assessing a Teacher’s Value

What are the benefits and pitfalls of using student test scores to measure a teacher’s effectiveness? Help the Parents Lance T. Izumi is the senior director of education studies at the Pacific Research Institute. The “value-added” assessments are useful in analyzing teacher performance, but they can be made better. The ...
Business & Economics

State budget mess a comedy, or tragedy?

SACRAMENTO – As entertainment goes, the final regular-season episode of the Budget Show in the Capitol was shoddy. The actors – the Assembly members and senators – are B-rate. The speeches, despite their strained attempts to sound Kennedy-esque, were pretentious. Those of us in the audience sometimes rolled our eyes ...
Commentary

Ratios condemn patients to inferior care

In 1999, Gray Davis signed a law mandating a statewide ratio of one nurse to five patients in surgical wards, one to six in psychiatric wards, one to four in pediatric wards, one to three in maternity wards, and one to two in intensive care. The law was strong-armed to ...
Commentary

Toss Fraud-Ridden State Program and Recycle E-waste a Better Way

Vol. 16 No. 30, August 18, 2010 Toss Fraud-Ridden State Program and Recycle E-waste a Better Way By K. Lloyd Billingsley, editorial director SACRAMENTO—California’s Electronic Waste Recycling Act (EWRA) is a magnet for fraud on a massive scale, totaling tens of millions of dollars, as Tom Knudson revealed in a ...
Commentary

Employment Gains Expected if Prop 23 Passes

The California electorate next month will vote on Proposition 23, which would suspend the implementation of the state’s global warming (i.e., energy taxation) law (“AB32″) until the unemployment rate reaches 5.5 percent for four consecutive quarters. My new paper on the employment effects of this initiative can be found here ...
Business & Economics

The Prospective Effects of Proposition 23 on Employment in California

Suspension of AB 32 Would Add 150,000 Jobs in California in 2011 and More than 500,000 in 2012, According to New Study San Francisco— A new study by the Pacific Research Institute, a free-market think tank based in San Francisco, finds that the approval of Proposition 23, suspending the implementation ...
Commentary

Prop 23 Will Boost California Employment By Half Million In 2012, 1.3 Million in 2020, Study Estimates

If approved by the California electorate this November, Proposition 23 will suspend the implementation of AB 32, the California Global Warming Solutions Act, until the State’s unemployment rate declines to 5.5% or less for four consecutive quarters. AB 32 requires a reduction in the State’s greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 ...
Agriculture

State’s silly laws, sillier candidates

SACRAMENTO – Every legislator could have skipped out of the country for the entire legislative session, and it would not have mattered one iota to anyone outside of their staff members. That’s not cynicism, so much as a fair and balanced assessment of the last legislative session. I’m reminded of ...
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 ...
Business & Economics

Progressives for Pension Reform?

With California facing a structural $19 billion budget hole, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has argued that the state will need to tap its general fund for billions to prop up faltering public-employee pension funds. With California facing a structural $19 billion budget hole, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has argued that the state ...
Commentary

Assessing a Teacher’s Value

What are the benefits and pitfalls of using student test scores to measure a teacher’s effectiveness? Help the Parents Lance T. Izumi is the senior director of education studies at the Pacific Research Institute. The “value-added” assessments are useful in analyzing teacher performance, but they can be made better. The ...
Business & Economics

State budget mess a comedy, or tragedy?

SACRAMENTO – As entertainment goes, the final regular-season episode of the Budget Show in the Capitol was shoddy. The actors – the Assembly members and senators – are B-rate. The speeches, despite their strained attempts to sound Kennedy-esque, were pretentious. Those of us in the audience sometimes rolled our eyes ...
Commentary

Ratios condemn patients to inferior care

In 1999, Gray Davis signed a law mandating a statewide ratio of one nurse to five patients in surgical wards, one to six in psychiatric wards, one to four in pediatric wards, one to three in maternity wards, and one to two in intensive care. The law was strong-armed to ...
Commentary

Toss Fraud-Ridden State Program and Recycle E-waste a Better Way

Vol. 16 No. 30, August 18, 2010 Toss Fraud-Ridden State Program and Recycle E-waste a Better Way By K. Lloyd Billingsley, editorial director SACRAMENTO—California’s Electronic Waste Recycling Act (EWRA) is a magnet for fraud on a massive scale, totaling tens of millions of dollars, as Tom Knudson revealed in a ...
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