Environment
Blog
Celebrating the Sound of Freedom
That sound you heard on the Fourth of July was not bands playing “God Bless America” or other patriotic songs. No, it was people complaining on social media about fireworks being set off in their neighborhoods. Where I live in Sacramento, you can buy fireworks for your family 4th of ...
Tim Anaya
July 9, 2018
Environment
Wayne Winegarden Discusses CA’s Renewable Mandate and SB 100 on Air Talk
Listen to PRI’s Senior Fellow in Business and Economics Wayne Winegarden discuss SB 100, legislation to increase California’s renewable energy mandate, on “Air Talk with Larry Mantle” on Southern California Public Radio. Winegarden makes the case that such renewable energy mandates raise electricity costs for manufacturers and businesses, and increases ...
Pacific Research Institute
July 6, 2018
Agriculture
Ending War on Coffee Latest Example of Why Government Shouldn’t Play Dietician
A few months back we wrote about California’s “nags and nannies who relish forbidding pleasure, especially those of a gastronomic nature,” and their success in convincing a Los Angeles Superior Court judge to issue a preliminary ruling which requires stores that sell coffee to post cancer warning labels around their ...
Kerry Jackson
July 3, 2018
Business & Economics
CAPITAL IDEAS: A Futuristic and Cheaper Alternative to High-Speed Rail
Download the PDF California’s “bullet” train to nowhere keeps going — nowhere. Unless tearing down a bridge just to rebuild it is somewhere. Construction of an overpass near Fresno was scrapped late last year—yes, we’re learning about this just now because it was done “quietly”—because, according to the California High-Speed ...
Kerry Jackson
June 27, 2018
California
California May Mandate Solar Panels on All New Homes
California may soon become the first state to mandate solar panels be installed on all new homes, apartments, and condominiums. The California Energy Commission passed a building code regulation requiring all homes constructed in 2020 or later to have solar panels on their roofs, by a unanimous vote on May ...
Pacific Research Institute
June 21, 2018
Blog
Proposed Water Tax Dropped in State Budget Deal
Sacramento has been trying for some time now to add a 95-cents-a-month tax on drinking water to pay for “secure access to safe drinking water for all Californians, while also ensuring the long-term sustainability of drinking water service and infrastructure.” Those dreams of more taxes were delayed last week, though, ...
Kerry Jackson
June 13, 2018
Blog
The June Primary is Over. So, What Now?
Now that the June primary is behind us, pundits and political observers are on overdrive telling us what it all means and what we can expect from the fall campaign. Perhaps we should all pause before writing the June primary’s eulogy as hundreds of thousands of votes remain to be ...
Tim Anaya
June 11, 2018
California
California Drivers Denied Transparency at the Pump
Brandon Johnson, who racks up the miles delivering pizza, told CBS13 in Sacramento that high gasoline prices have forced him to spend “a small fortune” on “a car that doesn’t get bad mileage.” Monica Torres, a struggling single mother in Bakersfield, says “crazy” fuel prices have caused her to raise ...
Kerry Jackson
June 7, 2018
Blog
New Permanent State Water Restrictions Won’t Increase Supply
California’s man-made drought will become permanent in 2022, the year that “guidelines for efficient water use” must be in place to comply with a couple of bills signed in late May by Gov. Jerry Brown. The main provisions of Senate Bill 606 and Assembly Bill 1668 are, according to the ...
Kerry Jackson
June 6, 2018
Commentary
Obamacare’s Partisans Complain about High Premiums but Oppose Solution
Exchange plan premiums will rise an average of 15 percent next year, according to a Congressional Budget Office analysis released this past Wednesday. Congressional Democrats blamed the president. Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., tweeted that the rate hike is “largely due to Trump Administration sabotage of the health insurance market.” Senate ...
Sally C. Pipes
May 29, 2018
Celebrating the Sound of Freedom
That sound you heard on the Fourth of July was not bands playing “God Bless America” or other patriotic songs. No, it was people complaining on social media about fireworks being set off in their neighborhoods. Where I live in Sacramento, you can buy fireworks for your family 4th of ...
Wayne Winegarden Discusses CA’s Renewable Mandate and SB 100 on Air Talk
Listen to PRI’s Senior Fellow in Business and Economics Wayne Winegarden discuss SB 100, legislation to increase California’s renewable energy mandate, on “Air Talk with Larry Mantle” on Southern California Public Radio. Winegarden makes the case that such renewable energy mandates raise electricity costs for manufacturers and businesses, and increases ...
Ending War on Coffee Latest Example of Why Government Shouldn’t Play Dietician
A few months back we wrote about California’s “nags and nannies who relish forbidding pleasure, especially those of a gastronomic nature,” and their success in convincing a Los Angeles Superior Court judge to issue a preliminary ruling which requires stores that sell coffee to post cancer warning labels around their ...
CAPITAL IDEAS: A Futuristic and Cheaper Alternative to High-Speed Rail
Download the PDF California’s “bullet” train to nowhere keeps going — nowhere. Unless tearing down a bridge just to rebuild it is somewhere. Construction of an overpass near Fresno was scrapped late last year—yes, we’re learning about this just now because it was done “quietly”—because, according to the California High-Speed ...
California May Mandate Solar Panels on All New Homes
California may soon become the first state to mandate solar panels be installed on all new homes, apartments, and condominiums. The California Energy Commission passed a building code regulation requiring all homes constructed in 2020 or later to have solar panels on their roofs, by a unanimous vote on May ...
Proposed Water Tax Dropped in State Budget Deal
Sacramento has been trying for some time now to add a 95-cents-a-month tax on drinking water to pay for “secure access to safe drinking water for all Californians, while also ensuring the long-term sustainability of drinking water service and infrastructure.” Those dreams of more taxes were delayed last week, though, ...
The June Primary is Over. So, What Now?
Now that the June primary is behind us, pundits and political observers are on overdrive telling us what it all means and what we can expect from the fall campaign. Perhaps we should all pause before writing the June primary’s eulogy as hundreds of thousands of votes remain to be ...
California Drivers Denied Transparency at the Pump
Brandon Johnson, who racks up the miles delivering pizza, told CBS13 in Sacramento that high gasoline prices have forced him to spend “a small fortune” on “a car that doesn’t get bad mileage.” Monica Torres, a struggling single mother in Bakersfield, says “crazy” fuel prices have caused her to raise ...
New Permanent State Water Restrictions Won’t Increase Supply
California’s man-made drought will become permanent in 2022, the year that “guidelines for efficient water use” must be in place to comply with a couple of bills signed in late May by Gov. Jerry Brown. The main provisions of Senate Bill 606 and Assembly Bill 1668 are, according to the ...
Obamacare’s Partisans Complain about High Premiums but Oppose Solution
Exchange plan premiums will rise an average of 15 percent next year, according to a Congressional Budget Office analysis released this past Wednesday. Congressional Democrats blamed the president. Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., tweeted that the rate hike is “largely due to Trump Administration sabotage of the health insurance market.” Senate ...