Posts From Wayne Lusvardi
Back to homepage
Solar crash ramped up CA natural gas power
Yesterday a problem struck California’s electricity system that wasn’t supposed to happen until at least 2015. Freak low-lying clouds at about 3 p.m. cut temperatures to only 68 degrees in Los Angeles and 64 in San Francisco, about 6
Read More
Can Gov. Brown pluck federal $ for bullet train?
Successful politicians never accept defeat. So it’s not surprising — but still a little startling — that Gov. Jerry Brown is not dumping his high-speed rail project in the junk yard after the Nov. 4 victories of its Republican opponents. He
Read More
Little Hoover questions green energy costs
Gov. Jerry Brown is on a political roll. He won re-election and passage of an historic $7.5 billion water bond that contains funding for the first surface water storage projects in 50 years. But that hasn’t deterred the Little Hoover Commission,
Read More
Water issue re-elects GOP Sen. Vidak in Dem district
You knew Democrats were in the deep end of the pool over water issues in California back on May 14. That’s when they asked Republican state Sen. Andy Vidak of Hanford to read out loud Joint Resolution 25 in the state Senate. It
Read More
Prop. 1 would follow $32 billion past water bonds
Proposition 1 on today’s ballot marks the first time in 50 years California has proposed building at least two new major dams and reservoirs. If voters concur, by 2023 dams would be built with the $7.5 billion water bond. An
Read More
8 of 9 Water Bond Czars hail from NorCal
Call them Water Bond Czars. They’re the nine members of the California Water Commission and will decide how to implement Proposition 1, the $7.5 billion water bond on the Nov. 4 ballot, should voters pass it. While most media
Read More
Enviros battle over merits of rooftop solar vs. desert solar
Things aren’t working out well for renewable energy advocates who hoped cheaper rooftop solar energy would replace large solar power plants in California’s Mojave Desert and return “economic democracy” to the people with millions of rooftop solar installations. This is
Read More
Drought emergency strikes Southland water district
Will next year bring restrictions to water use in Southern California that cause people’s yards to go brown and die? Could be, if the Southland suffers a worst-case scenario of low rainfall and no imported water, Tony Zampiello told
Read More
Stormwater tax drowns voters
California is embarking on a program of capturing storm water from flood control channels for urban landscaping at high costs. And stormwater capture projects won’t require voter approval under Proposition 218, the Right to Vote on Taxes Act, because courts have
Read More
Tiered pricing ends up subsidizing solar panels for the rich
In a new development for energy conservation, it turns out charging more for electricity, the more juice is used, could be bad for the environment. This “tiered pricing” is also called Increasing Block Pricing. IBP is pushing some homeowners into
Read More