Environment
California
Unless Legislature Embraces Free Market Energy Future, California Faces Next Solyndra
California’s solar power system generated such a glut of electricity for two weeks in March that some of it had to be sent out of state. Supporters of solar energy might believe this is evidence that it works. But it actually highlights solar energy’s biggest flaw. In late June, the ...
Commentary
If GOP Fails To Repeal And Replace Obamacare, Single-Payer Could Be Next
It’s no secret that the cost of failure in the GOP healthcare reform effort will be that Obamacare remains on the books indefinitely. Last week, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell hinted that he might be willing to pay that cost. He said that Republicans would work with Democrats to produce ...
Business & Economics
Empower The Private Sector To Close The Infrastructure Funding Gap
If you believe the civil engineers, then on top of current planned expenditures, the U.S. needs an additional $5.2 trillion in investment into the nation’s roads, water systems, electric grids, ports & waterways, and airports between now and 2040. While such investments may be imperative, the ability of the government ...
Business & Economics
New PRI Issue Brief Finds Government Policies Have Strangled State’s Housing Market, Made Housing Unaffordable
Big government policies and political constraints are the primary causes for rising California home prices and lack of supply, according to the findings of a new “California Ideas in Action” issue brief released today by the non-partisan Pacific Research Institute. Reforms to open California’s housing market are recommended as the ...
Environment
Make Water Policy Work Like Water
As California’s water situation continues to cause problems, well-intentioned analyses continue to promote misguided solutions while missing some obvious simple steps. Mike Taugher of the Contra Costa Times recently related California’s water woes to the nation’s economic troubles. “In both cases,” he says, “lax regulatory oversight was a factor in ...
Business & Economics
Government Should Leave Sharing Economy Alone
Governments tend to target innovative industries that are too new to be regulated and single them out for punitive taxes and nasty abuse. As Art Laffer once put it, governments aren’t happy when business pioneers enjoy “success without the benevolent, guiding wisdom of” of the regulatory state. This was the ...
Commentary
The Path To Health Care Reform Starts With Health Savings Accounts
Congress left Washington last week without passing a plan to repeal and replace Obamacare. They are now back with an amendment to the failed American Health Care Act. A growing number of Americans aren’t waiting for lawmakers to figure out how to make health insurance more accessible and affordable. They’re ...
Business & Economics
Free Market Would Do More to Protect California’s Environment Than State Regulation
California is home to six of the 10 cities with the worst air pollution in the country. This seems inconceivable, given that the state has the strictest environmental rules in the nation. Clearly, policymakers have been making the wrong choices. Of course, there’s little chance they’ll admit error. Their response ...
California
CAPITAL IDEAS: Will Largest Gas Tax Increase In State History Bring Traffic Relief?
Download the Brief It’s painfully obvious that lawmakers in Sacramento just can’t help themselves. Otherwise Gov. Jerry Brown and a majority of legislators wouldn’t support a $52 billion tax hike to fix California’s gouged, pitted and cracked roads. They would find a way to do it with the resources they ...
Agriculture
One State, Under Water
After a particularly soppy winter refilled California’s gasping reservoirs and swelled the Sierra Nevada snowpack—to 175 percent above its historical average, in some spots—grateful residents hailed the end of a dry spell that stretched back six years. Governor Jerry Brown has declared that the state’s drought is mostly over, though ...
Unless Legislature Embraces Free Market Energy Future, California Faces Next Solyndra
California’s solar power system generated such a glut of electricity for two weeks in March that some of it had to be sent out of state. Supporters of solar energy might believe this is evidence that it works. But it actually highlights solar energy’s biggest flaw. In late June, the ...
If GOP Fails To Repeal And Replace Obamacare, Single-Payer Could Be Next
It’s no secret that the cost of failure in the GOP healthcare reform effort will be that Obamacare remains on the books indefinitely. Last week, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell hinted that he might be willing to pay that cost. He said that Republicans would work with Democrats to produce ...
Empower The Private Sector To Close The Infrastructure Funding Gap
If you believe the civil engineers, then on top of current planned expenditures, the U.S. needs an additional $5.2 trillion in investment into the nation’s roads, water systems, electric grids, ports & waterways, and airports between now and 2040. While such investments may be imperative, the ability of the government ...
New PRI Issue Brief Finds Government Policies Have Strangled State’s Housing Market, Made Housing Unaffordable
Big government policies and political constraints are the primary causes for rising California home prices and lack of supply, according to the findings of a new “California Ideas in Action” issue brief released today by the non-partisan Pacific Research Institute. Reforms to open California’s housing market are recommended as the ...
Make Water Policy Work Like Water
As California’s water situation continues to cause problems, well-intentioned analyses continue to promote misguided solutions while missing some obvious simple steps. Mike Taugher of the Contra Costa Times recently related California’s water woes to the nation’s economic troubles. “In both cases,” he says, “lax regulatory oversight was a factor in ...
Government Should Leave Sharing Economy Alone
Governments tend to target innovative industries that are too new to be regulated and single them out for punitive taxes and nasty abuse. As Art Laffer once put it, governments aren’t happy when business pioneers enjoy “success without the benevolent, guiding wisdom of” of the regulatory state. This was the ...
The Path To Health Care Reform Starts With Health Savings Accounts
Congress left Washington last week without passing a plan to repeal and replace Obamacare. They are now back with an amendment to the failed American Health Care Act. A growing number of Americans aren’t waiting for lawmakers to figure out how to make health insurance more accessible and affordable. They’re ...
Free Market Would Do More to Protect California’s Environment Than State Regulation
California is home to six of the 10 cities with the worst air pollution in the country. This seems inconceivable, given that the state has the strictest environmental rules in the nation. Clearly, policymakers have been making the wrong choices. Of course, there’s little chance they’ll admit error. Their response ...
CAPITAL IDEAS: Will Largest Gas Tax Increase In State History Bring Traffic Relief?
Download the Brief It’s painfully obvious that lawmakers in Sacramento just can’t help themselves. Otherwise Gov. Jerry Brown and a majority of legislators wouldn’t support a $52 billion tax hike to fix California’s gouged, pitted and cracked roads. They would find a way to do it with the resources they ...
One State, Under Water
After a particularly soppy winter refilled California’s gasping reservoirs and swelled the Sierra Nevada snowpack—to 175 percent above its historical average, in some spots—grateful residents hailed the end of a dry spell that stretched back six years. Governor Jerry Brown has declared that the state’s drought is mostly over, though ...
