Posts From Wayne Lusvardi
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Bird deaths complicate renewable energy push
On Dec. 19, San Diego Gas and Electric filed suit against NaturEner, which operates wind farms in Montana. The suit alleged NaturEner did not meet its contractual requirements to preserve eagles, raptors, bats and other protected bird species for electricity
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2014 promises water fight over Delta tunnels
Gov. Jerry Brown’s proposed twin tunnels under the California Delta will continue to be a major policy issue throughout 2014 and beyond. A spritzer of things to come is a recent article in the Daily News by Conner Everts and Adam
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Is bringing back redevelopment a good idea?
The Urban Land Institute seeks to rebuild redevelopment in California. The essence of the proposal is that redevelopment should be good to go again if just some technical tweaks are made. But we’ve been there before. California’s redevelopment law was
Read MoreSan Francisco botches energy co-op rollout
Obamacare isn’t the only new government program suffering problems. San Francisco is getting jolted by its new Community Choice Aggregation program, which the U.S. Department of Energy defines in general as, “a state policy that enables local governments to
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Solar power no help during CA’s late peak winter hours
Solar power is popular nowadays as a “renewable,” non-polluting energy source. It helps California comply with AB32, the Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006, which mandates a 25 percent reduction in greenhouse gases in the state by 2020. “Even
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CA electric rate reform adjusts rates from 2001 crisis
Now that the $42 billion in debt from the 2001 Electricity Crisis has been paid off, California is in the process of re-working electric power rates. It has mostly been high-volume electricity users who have been paying down that debt through higher power rates.
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Morro Bay Power Plant shutdown saves fish, kills birds
Power plants keep closing in California. Earlier this year, Southern California Edison announced it permanently would shut down its San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station. Then Dynergy Energy announced last month it would decommission the Morro Bay Power Plant whose three tall smokestacks
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Critics say CARB botching key part of cap-and-trade program
Bloomberg New Energy Finance (Bloomberg NEF) has accused the California Air Resources Board of a serious problem: double-counting industrial pollution emissions under its cap-and-trade program. Bloomberg NEF, a media enterprise focusing on the energy sector, isn’t the only credible entity
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LAO: Possible 2016 recession would devour budget surplus
There is good news and bad news in the impartial California Legislative Analyst’s recent release of its “2014-2015 Budget: California’s Fiscal Outlook.” The good news, “Stunning turnaround: California has budget surpluses as far as LAO can see.” That’s the San Jose
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Will Gov. Brown’s ‘small is beautiful’ sink water plan?
During California Gov. Jerry Brown’s first term in office, 1975 to 1983, one of the central planks of his political platform was “small is beautiful.” Brown borrowed his platform from economist E.F. Schumacher’s 1973 book, “Small is Beautiful: Economics as
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