Climate Change
California
Cali’s Climate Change Budget Cuts Show Programs Are More About Politics Than Cutting Emissions
Sobered by the reality of a budget deficit, the governor has proposed cutting money for climate programs. It was surely a hard choice, but practical. Something has to go and there’s no better place to show spending discipline than by holding back funds dedicated to a political fantasy. After years ...
Agriculture
Taking The Bread Out Of California’s Breadbasket
Extremism in the pursuit of environmental policy might not be a vice, but it’s never a virtue. See: California’s plan to convert 20 percent of its agricultural operations to organic practices by 2045. The transition is part of the California Air Resources Board’s Scoping Plan To Achieve Carbon Neutrality. Apparently, ...
California
California’s misguided climate change priorities
According to a new study released last month, California’s wildfires in 2020 spewed nearly 127 million metric tons of carbon dioxide into our atmosphere. This was twice the reduction in greenhouse gas emissions that California had achieved over 18 years, according to the UCLA-University of Chicago study. Likewise, California’s 2018 ...
Blog
The Latest (Useless) Addition To Municipal C-Suites
Never heard of a chief heat officer? Safe to say most people haven’t. Safer to say scarcely anyone has. Yet here they come, the latest in politicians’ mad dash to do something – anything – that looks like an effort to “fight climate change.” “As global temperatures continue to ...
Blog
The Prohibitions Will Continue … Until There’s Nothing Left To Ban
In both cases, the unelected members of the California Air Resources Board are making decisions that kill consumer choice. CARB’s unanimous Sept. 22 vote phases out sales of natural gas and water heaters by 2030, pending a final board approval in 2025 of the rules that are to be ...
Blackouts
Are Europe’s Energy Problems A Preview of Things to Come in California?
As Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a package of climate bills that supercharge the rush to renewable energy, much of Europe was preparing for a winter shivering in the dark. Why does California think that the problems created by a reckless commitment to green energy elsewhere will bypass this state? ...
Agriculture
Life Is Too Short To Drink Subsidized Wine
Can the quality of California wine taste better than it already does? Apparently there’s a way to grow grapes that will do just that. A farming experiment at Robert Hall Winery in Paso Robles has produced grapes that, the San Francisco Chronicle reports, are “noticeably tastier” than grapes from ...
Blog
Urban bike lanes no answer to climate change ‘code red’
But not in California, where the barriers to having a constructive debate about this issue are many. They start with the huge logical gap between the state’s goal to have “eligible” renewable power sources and zero-carbon resources supply 100 percent of California’s electricity retail sales and the electricity used by ...
Climate Change
Defying Markets to Promote Organics
Advocates of President Biden’s 2021 American Rescue Plan touted the $1.9 trillion-dollar stimulus bill as a vehicle for various goals—to fund a national vaccination program, stop Covid-19, and reopen schools. Who could be against any of that? Those who questioned the price tag back then would like to direct you to the ...
Blog
California Push to Expand Wind Power Swaps One Set of Problems for Another
Is there anything that can stop or even slow the runaway train of green energy in California? Maybe there’s a break coming in the fairly near future and it probably won’t be the one most people are expecting. The California Energy Commission last week “adopted a report establishing offshore wind ...
Cali’s Climate Change Budget Cuts Show Programs Are More About Politics Than Cutting Emissions
Sobered by the reality of a budget deficit, the governor has proposed cutting money for climate programs. It was surely a hard choice, but practical. Something has to go and there’s no better place to show spending discipline than by holding back funds dedicated to a political fantasy. After years ...
Taking The Bread Out Of California’s Breadbasket
Extremism in the pursuit of environmental policy might not be a vice, but it’s never a virtue. See: California’s plan to convert 20 percent of its agricultural operations to organic practices by 2045. The transition is part of the California Air Resources Board’s Scoping Plan To Achieve Carbon Neutrality. Apparently, ...
California’s misguided climate change priorities
According to a new study released last month, California’s wildfires in 2020 spewed nearly 127 million metric tons of carbon dioxide into our atmosphere. This was twice the reduction in greenhouse gas emissions that California had achieved over 18 years, according to the UCLA-University of Chicago study. Likewise, California’s 2018 ...
The Latest (Useless) Addition To Municipal C-Suites
Never heard of a chief heat officer? Safe to say most people haven’t. Safer to say scarcely anyone has. Yet here they come, the latest in politicians’ mad dash to do something – anything – that looks like an effort to “fight climate change.” “As global temperatures continue to ...
The Prohibitions Will Continue … Until There’s Nothing Left To Ban
In both cases, the unelected members of the California Air Resources Board are making decisions that kill consumer choice. CARB’s unanimous Sept. 22 vote phases out sales of natural gas and water heaters by 2030, pending a final board approval in 2025 of the rules that are to be ...
Are Europe’s Energy Problems A Preview of Things to Come in California?
As Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a package of climate bills that supercharge the rush to renewable energy, much of Europe was preparing for a winter shivering in the dark. Why does California think that the problems created by a reckless commitment to green energy elsewhere will bypass this state? ...
Life Is Too Short To Drink Subsidized Wine
Can the quality of California wine taste better than it already does? Apparently there’s a way to grow grapes that will do just that. A farming experiment at Robert Hall Winery in Paso Robles has produced grapes that, the San Francisco Chronicle reports, are “noticeably tastier” than grapes from ...
Urban bike lanes no answer to climate change ‘code red’
But not in California, where the barriers to having a constructive debate about this issue are many. They start with the huge logical gap between the state’s goal to have “eligible” renewable power sources and zero-carbon resources supply 100 percent of California’s electricity retail sales and the electricity used by ...
Defying Markets to Promote Organics
Advocates of President Biden’s 2021 American Rescue Plan touted the $1.9 trillion-dollar stimulus bill as a vehicle for various goals—to fund a national vaccination program, stop Covid-19, and reopen schools. Who could be against any of that? Those who questioned the price tag back then would like to direct you to the ...
California Push to Expand Wind Power Swaps One Set of Problems for Another
Is there anything that can stop or even slow the runaway train of green energy in California? Maybe there’s a break coming in the fairly near future and it probably won’t be the one most people are expecting. The California Energy Commission last week “adopted a report establishing offshore wind ...
