Wayne Lusvardi, Author at CalWatchdog.com

Posts From Wayne Lusvardi

Wayne Lusvardi

Tunnel could boost high-speed rail cost

The cost of the high-speed rail project might be going above the current estimate of $68 billion. The California High-Speed Rail Authority recently announced a strategic shift to consider an alternative for its 40-mile Palmdale-to-Burbank link. Instead of the current plan

Water fight: Now it’s four bonds

Wayne Lusvardi August 9, 2014

For California’s water, now it’s dueling water bonds — four of them. First bond: On Friday, Senate Republicans refurbished their own water-bond proposal, now for $8.7 billion. According to the Los Angeles Times, “Nearly a third of the money in the

Boxer-Feinsten water bill stresses conservation, not supply

Wayne Lusvardi August 5, 2014

There are two ways to manage water. One way is to capture more water and store it for dry years. The second way is to keep dividing up existing water supplies. This second way is pushed in a newly proposed bill,

Can CA be 100% clean energy by 2050?

Wayne Lusvardi August 4, 2014

Can California be oil-free by 2050, just 36 years from now? Yes, according to Mark Jacobson of Stanford’s Precourt Institute for Energy. He says California can be oil free by 2050 with a quadruple redundant energy system of thousands of

State funds dry cleaners’ shift to CO2

Wayne Lusvardi July 30, 2014

The California Energy Commission’s Public Interest Energy Research Program has produced a dry cleaning machine that uses CO2. The carbon-based cleaning process replaces perchoroethylene chemical-based dry cleaning. The machine is being tested by the Aramark uniform cleaning corporation in Los Angeles. Colorado-based

Groundwater war breaks out

Wayne Lusvardi July 27, 2014

Future historians might mark July 20 as the date when a full scale war broke out over California’s groundwater. On July 20 in the Los Angeles Times, George Skelton, the dean of California journalists, said it was unfair to tell him

Lawsuit could expand state control of groundwater

Wayne Lusvardi July 23, 2014

Sacramento Superior Court Judge Allen Sumner just issued a preliminary ruling that Siskiyou County must regulate groundwater well permits along the Scott River in accordance with “Public Trust Doctrine.” This means the water now mainly used by hay farmers

Will CA groundwater regulation bring shortages?

Wayne Lusvardi July 22, 2014

One area of California that largely has remained free of regulation is groundwater. Although state courts “adjudicate” groundwater rights and disputes, this longstanding system largely respects the private ownership of the water. Even the federal government mostly works within this

Richmond pols continue posturing on underwater mortgages

Wayne Lusvardi July 17, 2014

A majority of the Richmond City Council still wants to use eminent domain powers to to seize “underwater mortgages” even though the bond market refused to sell $34 million in municipal bonds for the city last year due to Richmond

Judge rules smelt can’t stop water sales

Wayne Lusvardi July 14, 2014

On June 13, a coalition of sports fishermen and Northern California groundwater users sued to stop water sales to the parched Central Valley. They contended conveying water through the Delta would kill Delta Smelt fish. But that didn’t convince