Electricity rate shock more likely than blackouts this summer
May 15, 2013 By Wayne Lusvardi There have been many forecasts of possible rolling blackouts in California this summer due to a shortage of power from the shutdown of the San Onofre nuclear power plant and the instability of a
Read MoreCA media ignore Obama administration’s fracking views
May 14, 2013 By Chris Reed The debate over hydraulic fracturing — using high-powered water cannons to reach natural gas and oil reserves deep underground — is heating up in California, driven by the vast economic potential of the Monterey
Read MoreCA inmate reduction plan shuns out-of-state prisons, other options
May 9, 2013 By Katy Grimes You’ve heard of the Millionaire Next Door? Now meet the Criminal Next Door. In what appears to be a nod to the powerful prison guards union, California is shunning sending prison inmates to lower
Read MoreBullet train CEO on war path
May 9, 2013 By Chris Reed Last month’s Los Angeles Times’ bombshell about the state bullet-train project could scarcely have made those in charge of the California High-Speed Rail Authority look worse. The Times reported that in determining who would
Read MoreTX soaring way above CA in energy production
May 6, 2013 By John Seiler The California fantasy is that energy magically will flow in abundance from windmills and solar panels, even when there’s no wind and at night. The reality is that it’s old-fashioned “fossil” fuels that will
Read MoreHemet abuses redevelopment
May 6, 2013 By Nick Sibilla Carina Alvarez has a dream for a comfortable retirement. But it’s turning into a bureaucratic nightmare. Carina bought a four-plex on Mobley Lane in Hemet for $170,000 back in 2010 as an investment. She
Read MoreFeinstein, Boxer stymie water, power & wildlife for Lake McClure
May 4, 2013 By Wayne Lusvardi New York Times journalist Peter Passell once wrote: “California’s water system might have been invented by a Soviet bureaucrat on an LSD trip.” And as the 1960s hippies would have put it, the trip
Read MoreLegitimacy, not consensus, is key to Delta modernization
May 3, 2013 By Wayne Lusvardi Do we care whether there is a consensus about what to do with the so-called natural resources of the Sacramento Delta among scientists and interest group “stakeholders” in California? The Public Policy Institute of
Read MoreOnly hope for further state bullet train $$ is gone
May 1, 2013 By Chris Reed We’ve seen some very good reporting about the bullet-train fiasco from around the state. The two best recent examples are stories outlining the chicanery in the bidding process for the contractor for the first
Read MoreCould Obama also privatize the Central Valley Water Project?
May 1, 2013 By Wayne Lusvardi Almost out of nowhere, the Obama Administration has opened up discussions for possibly privatizing the model asset of the New Deal, the Tennessee Valley Authority, to bring in revenues to the federal government and
Read More