Environment

Commentary

Mayor Pete’s Medicare for All Who Want It plan as flawed as Medicare for All

Mayor Pete Buttigieg is in hot water with progressives. At last week’s Democratic presidential debate in Ohio, he attacked Senator Elizabeth Warren for refusing to say whether her preferred brand of health reform, Medicare for All, would require middle-class tax hikes. Soon after, a year-old tweet from the South Bend, ...
Blog

California Needs More Bans Like A Fish Needs A Bicycle

[vc_row css_animation=”” row_type=”row” use_row_as_full_screen_section=”no” type=”full_width” angled_section=”no” text_align=”left” background_image_as_pattern=”without_pattern”][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”32402″ img_size=”1000px” qode_css_animation=””][qode_content_slider auto_rotate=”0″ direction_nav=”yes” control_nav=”yes” control_nav_justify=”no”][qode_content_slider_item] Plastic Water Bottles – Earlier this year, San Francisco International Airport announced it was prohibiting the sale of plastic water bottles at its airport shops and restaurants. [/qode_content_slider_item][qode_content_slider_item] Cars that run on gas and diesel ...
Commentary

The Senate’s New Drug Bill Is Socialism Lite

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has a radical new plan to let the federal government set drug prices. In the hopes of combating this bill, many Republicans are holding up Senator Chuck Grassley’s Prescription Drug Pricing Reduction Act as a more moderate alternative. That’s a mistake. While Grassley’s bill isn’t as ...
Agriculture

Adam Smith’s ‘invisible hand’ is poking at corporate activists

Many of America’s largest public corporations recently made a commitment in principle to their “stakeholders,” which included working with their communities and “protect[ing] the environment by embracing sustainable practices.” Leaders of 181 of the 193 member companies of the prominent Business Roundtable promised to “deliver value.” It gave us a sense of ...
Agriculture

What Does the Governor’s Veto of SB 1 Mean?

California’s state government has embraced a policy of resisting nearly every federal government policy pursued by the Trump Administration. Legislation, executive orders, and lawsuits serve the dual purpose of forwarding the state’s progressive agenda and pushing back against federal policies from Washington D.C. Many have expressed surprise over Governor Newsom’s ...
Blackouts

Why Are California Gas Prices So High These Days? Thank Sacramento.

Benjamin Franklin was right that “nothing is certain but death and taxes,” though he could have added a third certainty in California – paying significantly more than the national average for gasoline. California drivers are living a real life version of the movie “Groundhog Day”, more than $4 per gallon ...
Climate Change

Policies Should Address Global Climate Change By Incenting Innovation

Amidst all of the rhetoric and dire predictions surrounding global climate change, it is easy to lose one’s perspective. But, we will not successfully minimize the risks created by global climate change without perspective. Fundamental to this perspective, U.S. greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions have been declining for more than a ...
Blog

CAPITAL IDEAS: California’s Electric Car Future to Nowhere

DOWNLOAD THE BRIEF California lawmakers won’t give up on their crusade to force everyone in the state into electric cars (before eventually removing us out of our cars altogether). That electric vehicles neither sell nor perform up to reasonable expectations is irrelevant to the anti-car movement in Sacramento. It’s almost ...
Commentary

Much Of The Buzz About Genetically Engineered Mosquitoes Is Wrong

Genetic engineering has delivered monumental scientific, technological, and humanitarian achievements – from producing human insulin in bacteria and gene therapy to treat genetic diseases to increasing food security and reducing malnutrition in developing countries.  But it continues to face brickbats, sometimes from unexpected directions. The most recent were directed at ...
Blog

California Needs To Go Nuclear – Again

California policymakers have indicated that when the state converts to a renewables-only energy framework in 2045, wind and sun will be the only sources permitted. Categorical renewables such as hydroelectric power and nuclear will not be considered. Narrowing the potential sources for electricity generation this way makes the goal nearly ...
Commentary

Mayor Pete’s Medicare for All Who Want It plan as flawed as Medicare for All

Mayor Pete Buttigieg is in hot water with progressives. At last week’s Democratic presidential debate in Ohio, he attacked Senator Elizabeth Warren for refusing to say whether her preferred brand of health reform, Medicare for All, would require middle-class tax hikes. Soon after, a year-old tweet from the South Bend, ...
Blog

California Needs More Bans Like A Fish Needs A Bicycle

[vc_row css_animation=”” row_type=”row” use_row_as_full_screen_section=”no” type=”full_width” angled_section=”no” text_align=”left” background_image_as_pattern=”without_pattern”][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”32402″ img_size=”1000px” qode_css_animation=””][qode_content_slider auto_rotate=”0″ direction_nav=”yes” control_nav=”yes” control_nav_justify=”no”][qode_content_slider_item] Plastic Water Bottles – Earlier this year, San Francisco International Airport announced it was prohibiting the sale of plastic water bottles at its airport shops and restaurants. [/qode_content_slider_item][qode_content_slider_item] Cars that run on gas and diesel ...
Commentary

The Senate’s New Drug Bill Is Socialism Lite

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has a radical new plan to let the federal government set drug prices. In the hopes of combating this bill, many Republicans are holding up Senator Chuck Grassley’s Prescription Drug Pricing Reduction Act as a more moderate alternative. That’s a mistake. While Grassley’s bill isn’t as ...
Agriculture

Adam Smith’s ‘invisible hand’ is poking at corporate activists

Many of America’s largest public corporations recently made a commitment in principle to their “stakeholders,” which included working with their communities and “protect[ing] the environment by embracing sustainable practices.” Leaders of 181 of the 193 member companies of the prominent Business Roundtable promised to “deliver value.” It gave us a sense of ...
Agriculture

What Does the Governor’s Veto of SB 1 Mean?

California’s state government has embraced a policy of resisting nearly every federal government policy pursued by the Trump Administration. Legislation, executive orders, and lawsuits serve the dual purpose of forwarding the state’s progressive agenda and pushing back against federal policies from Washington D.C. Many have expressed surprise over Governor Newsom’s ...
Blackouts

Why Are California Gas Prices So High These Days? Thank Sacramento.

Benjamin Franklin was right that “nothing is certain but death and taxes,” though he could have added a third certainty in California – paying significantly more than the national average for gasoline. California drivers are living a real life version of the movie “Groundhog Day”, more than $4 per gallon ...
Climate Change

Policies Should Address Global Climate Change By Incenting Innovation

Amidst all of the rhetoric and dire predictions surrounding global climate change, it is easy to lose one’s perspective. But, we will not successfully minimize the risks created by global climate change without perspective. Fundamental to this perspective, U.S. greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions have been declining for more than a ...
Blog

CAPITAL IDEAS: California’s Electric Car Future to Nowhere

DOWNLOAD THE BRIEF California lawmakers won’t give up on their crusade to force everyone in the state into electric cars (before eventually removing us out of our cars altogether). That electric vehicles neither sell nor perform up to reasonable expectations is irrelevant to the anti-car movement in Sacramento. It’s almost ...
Commentary

Much Of The Buzz About Genetically Engineered Mosquitoes Is Wrong

Genetic engineering has delivered monumental scientific, technological, and humanitarian achievements – from producing human insulin in bacteria and gene therapy to treat genetic diseases to increasing food security and reducing malnutrition in developing countries.  But it continues to face brickbats, sometimes from unexpected directions. The most recent were directed at ...
Blog

California Needs To Go Nuclear – Again

California policymakers have indicated that when the state converts to a renewables-only energy framework in 2045, wind and sun will be the only sources permitted. Categorical renewables such as hydroelectric power and nuclear will not be considered. Narrowing the potential sources for electricity generation this way makes the goal nearly ...
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