Environment
Agriculture
CAPITAL IDEAS: California’s Recent History of Manipulative Taxation
Download the PDF The rest of the country wasn’t surprised when California recently considered becoming the first state in the country to tax text messages. It almost seems as if there is a group of unelected bureaucrats that does nothing but cloister itself behind closed doors and dream up new ...
Blog
2019’s Best Staged Press Conference Masks Legislation’s Silliness
Assemblyman Phil Ting, D-San Francisco, wins the award for the best staged press conference of 2019. Not since Governor Schwarzenegger brought out the infamous “Count Cartaxula” (played by my good friend Walter von Huene) have we seen anything like a tall staffer wearing a giant, mock grocery store receipt around ...
Environment
Wall Street Journal Cites PRI’s Wayne Winegarden in Electric Car Subsidy Editorial
The Electric Kool-Aid Subsidy Test Tax credits for electric cars are a classic income transfer to the rich. Time to end them. President Trump’s recent blowup over General Motors layoffs was largely misdirected, though it may spur at least one good policy result. Killing subsidies for electric cars and trucks ...
Blog
New Year’s Resolutions The California Legislature Should (But Probably Won’t) Make
Going into a new year, many of us use the occasion to start fresh, forget about the old, and resolve to improve our lives. If lawmakers are open to suggestions, here are some New Year’s resolutions the California Senate and Assembly should make: Abolish the California Environmental Quality Act. Why ...
California
California’s energy mandates amount to state-legislated energy poverty
Every Californian wants to conserve energy and see cleaner air and water in the Golden State. But in their quest to safeguard the state’s environment for future generations, Sacramento policymakers have put in place an overzealous regulatory scheme that negatively impacts poor and minority communities. The new Pacific Research Institute ...
Blog
Your Last Minute Shopping List: PRI’s 2018 Holiday Book Guide
It’s December 20 and many are scrambling trying to find last-minute gifts for their family and friends. Heck, some folks won’t even begin their shopping until the afternoon of December 24th. Back by popular demand for weary shoppers is PRI’s annual holiday book guide. We asked our PRI colleagues to ...
California
Supermajority in Sacramento portends bad bills
Humorist Will Rogers quite appropriately warned the country nearly a century ago about the dangers of Congress meeting the next morning. He encouraged all Americans to pray: “Oh Lord, give us strength to bear that which is about to be inflicted upon us. Be merciful with them, oh Lord, for ...
Blog
California’s Carbon Madness
California’s runaway housing prices caused by a policy-created shortage of homes will be getting a tailwind in a little more than a year. Beginning on Jan. 1, 2020, every home built in the state, including condominiums and low-rise apartments, will have to have solar panels on their roofs. The regulatory ...
Commentary
New York mandates create ‘energy poverty’ for citizens
New York has a proud tradition of environmental conservation. From Frederick Law Olmsted creating Central Park in the 1870s to the national environmental movement inspired by trailblazing President Theodore Roosevelt to the lush nature preserves created in the Adirondack and Catskills mountains, wise environmental stewardship has always been a cornerstone ...
Blog
CEQA Foils Yet Another Important Project for California’s Future
We’ve recently said that Elon Musk’s tunnel-boring project could be the potential foundation of a hyperloop transportation system. But as is too often the case in California, a reasonable objective has been sidelined by outrage. Musk has abandoned the project that began near his SpaceX Hawthorne Municipal Airport headquarters because ...
CAPITAL IDEAS: California’s Recent History of Manipulative Taxation
Download the PDF The rest of the country wasn’t surprised when California recently considered becoming the first state in the country to tax text messages. It almost seems as if there is a group of unelected bureaucrats that does nothing but cloister itself behind closed doors and dream up new ...
2019’s Best Staged Press Conference Masks Legislation’s Silliness
Assemblyman Phil Ting, D-San Francisco, wins the award for the best staged press conference of 2019. Not since Governor Schwarzenegger brought out the infamous “Count Cartaxula” (played by my good friend Walter von Huene) have we seen anything like a tall staffer wearing a giant, mock grocery store receipt around ...
Wall Street Journal Cites PRI’s Wayne Winegarden in Electric Car Subsidy Editorial
The Electric Kool-Aid Subsidy Test Tax credits for electric cars are a classic income transfer to the rich. Time to end them. President Trump’s recent blowup over General Motors layoffs was largely misdirected, though it may spur at least one good policy result. Killing subsidies for electric cars and trucks ...
New Year’s Resolutions The California Legislature Should (But Probably Won’t) Make
Going into a new year, many of us use the occasion to start fresh, forget about the old, and resolve to improve our lives. If lawmakers are open to suggestions, here are some New Year’s resolutions the California Senate and Assembly should make: Abolish the California Environmental Quality Act. Why ...
California’s energy mandates amount to state-legislated energy poverty
Every Californian wants to conserve energy and see cleaner air and water in the Golden State. But in their quest to safeguard the state’s environment for future generations, Sacramento policymakers have put in place an overzealous regulatory scheme that negatively impacts poor and minority communities. The new Pacific Research Institute ...
Your Last Minute Shopping List: PRI’s 2018 Holiday Book Guide
It’s December 20 and many are scrambling trying to find last-minute gifts for their family and friends. Heck, some folks won’t even begin their shopping until the afternoon of December 24th. Back by popular demand for weary shoppers is PRI’s annual holiday book guide. We asked our PRI colleagues to ...
Supermajority in Sacramento portends bad bills
Humorist Will Rogers quite appropriately warned the country nearly a century ago about the dangers of Congress meeting the next morning. He encouraged all Americans to pray: “Oh Lord, give us strength to bear that which is about to be inflicted upon us. Be merciful with them, oh Lord, for ...
California’s Carbon Madness
California’s runaway housing prices caused by a policy-created shortage of homes will be getting a tailwind in a little more than a year. Beginning on Jan. 1, 2020, every home built in the state, including condominiums and low-rise apartments, will have to have solar panels on their roofs. The regulatory ...
New York mandates create ‘energy poverty’ for citizens
New York has a proud tradition of environmental conservation. From Frederick Law Olmsted creating Central Park in the 1870s to the national environmental movement inspired by trailblazing President Theodore Roosevelt to the lush nature preserves created in the Adirondack and Catskills mountains, wise environmental stewardship has always been a cornerstone ...
CEQA Foils Yet Another Important Project for California’s Future
We’ve recently said that Elon Musk’s tunnel-boring project could be the potential foundation of a hyperloop transportation system. But as is too often the case in California, a reasonable objective has been sidelined by outrage. Musk has abandoned the project that began near his SpaceX Hawthorne Municipal Airport headquarters because ...
