Environment
Energy
Whose Economy?
Unable to extend tax breaks as part of the energy bill signed into law just two months ago, some are trying to attach them to the emergency economic stimulus package. As the package emerged this week from the Senate Finance Committee, among the items added was a string of energy ...
Blackouts
Big Brother Wants Your Thermostat
The California Energy Commission recently considered a proposal to take control of home thermostats, a move that drew national attention and public protests. The CEC has now backed off,-but the story remains instructive for California consumers and policy makers alike. Under the original proposal, part of a 236-page revision to ...
Climate Change
Climate Change Captives?
Organizers said the goal of the event, dubbed “Focus the Nation,” was to move past preaching to the green choir, to reach a captive audience of students in many fields who might not otherwise tune in to climate change issues.” The Lewis & Clark College economics professor behind the day’s ...
Business & Economics
Impact – January 2008
PRI Ideas in Action – January 2008 Policy Update and Monthly Impact Report PRI continues to impact public policy in California, the nation, and abroad. Click below to view PRI’s recent contributions.
Agriculture
No need for hormone labels
SAN FRANCISCO — After 14 years of widespread use, a safe and proven technology for increasing the availability of low-cost dairy products could disappear if government regulators place fears and rumors above sound science. The technology at issue is recombinant bovine somatotropin (rbST), a drug designed to increase milk production ...
Agriculture
Different Shades of Green
Biofuels are made from either grain, sugar or vegetable oils–all important food products. There is increasing competition for feedstocks (food stocks?) between eating and energy. Rising prices for vegetable oil are forcing the world’s poor to ration every drop, or go without. Bakeries in the United States are being squeezed ...
Blackouts
Let’s Move Inside
Customers could not use their thermostats during “emergency events,” according to the proposal, part of a 236-page revision to building standards. They would apply only to new buildings. The document is scheduled to be considered by the California Energy Commission on January 30. During heat waves, customers crank up the ...
Commentary
Waiver Denial: All Pain or All Gain?
On December 19, the federal government denied California a waiver to impose vehicle standards more stringent than national standards under a law passed five years ago, Assembly Bill 1493. The gambit is another example of California’s counterproductive energy policy, heavy on government intervention. California has set climate policy goals to ...
Commentary
California Sues EPA Regarding Greenhouse Gas Emissions
EPA stresses national solution to national issue (Chicago, Illinois – January 3, 2008) On Wednesday, January 2, California, along with 15 other states, sued the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, alleging EPA unlawfully rejected California’s request to regulate automotive greenhouse gas emissions more stringently than national standards. Attorney Generals vs the ...
Whose Economy?
Unable to extend tax breaks as part of the energy bill signed into law just two months ago, some are trying to attach them to the emergency economic stimulus package. As the package emerged this week from the Senate Finance Committee, among the items added was a string of energy ...
Big Brother Wants Your Thermostat
The California Energy Commission recently considered a proposal to take control of home thermostats, a move that drew national attention and public protests. The CEC has now backed off,-but the story remains instructive for California consumers and policy makers alike. Under the original proposal, part of a 236-page revision to ...
Climate Change Captives?
Organizers said the goal of the event, dubbed “Focus the Nation,” was to move past preaching to the green choir, to reach a captive audience of students in many fields who might not otherwise tune in to climate change issues.” The Lewis & Clark College economics professor behind the day’s ...
Impact – January 2008
PRI Ideas in Action – January 2008 Policy Update and Monthly Impact Report PRI continues to impact public policy in California, the nation, and abroad. Click below to view PRI’s recent contributions.
No need for hormone labels
SAN FRANCISCO — After 14 years of widespread use, a safe and proven technology for increasing the availability of low-cost dairy products could disappear if government regulators place fears and rumors above sound science. The technology at issue is recombinant bovine somatotropin (rbST), a drug designed to increase milk production ...
Different Shades of Green
Biofuels are made from either grain, sugar or vegetable oils–all important food products. There is increasing competition for feedstocks (food stocks?) between eating and energy. Rising prices for vegetable oil are forcing the world’s poor to ration every drop, or go without. Bakeries in the United States are being squeezed ...
Let’s Move Inside
Customers could not use their thermostats during “emergency events,” according to the proposal, part of a 236-page revision to building standards. They would apply only to new buildings. The document is scheduled to be considered by the California Energy Commission on January 30. During heat waves, customers crank up the ...
Waiver Denial: All Pain or All Gain?
On December 19, the federal government denied California a waiver to impose vehicle standards more stringent than national standards under a law passed five years ago, Assembly Bill 1493. The gambit is another example of California’s counterproductive energy policy, heavy on government intervention. California has set climate policy goals to ...
California Sues EPA Regarding Greenhouse Gas Emissions
EPA stresses national solution to national issue (Chicago, Illinois – January 3, 2008) On Wednesday, January 2, California, along with 15 other states, sued the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, alleging EPA unlawfully rejected California’s request to regulate automotive greenhouse gas emissions more stringently than national standards. Attorney Generals vs the ...
