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CA hugely benefits from fracking boom that drives enviros nuts

Having seen a gallon of gas drop to $3.09 at a Valero or two — after a summer in which gas prices fell instead of their usual habit of increasing in July and August — I think it’s beyond obvious

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Hydropower AB 32 scam as bad as one L.A. Times detailed

The Los Angeles Times had a good analysis over the weekend of how AB 32 is being gamed in ways that make suspect its claims to be cleaning up the environment. California’s pioneering climate-change law has a long reach, but

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De Leon ‘green jobs’ vow didn’t pan out for Obama, Brown

New Senate President Kevin De Leon’s announcement Friday that creating a broad swath of “green jobs” would be a priority will be greeted with applause by greens in West L.A. and the Bay Area and on campus, but it will

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Are benefits of Prop 1 being oversold?

Proposition 1 — a $7.1 billion state bond to pay for a variety of water projects — was billed as a huge improvement over bloated past proposed water bonds when it emerged from the Legislature this summer. Now Gov. Jerry

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San Francisco rebuked for ‘fundamental’ abuse of property rights

In an era in which eminent domain is routinely used to reward the wealthy and politically connected — to the detriment of  poor and middle-class property owners — it’s easy to forget that property rights as conceived of in the

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Has CA ranch found cheap route to carbon containment? Maybe

If a recent San Francisco Chronicle story is right, the problem posed by carbon and other greenhouse gases accumulating in the atmosphere — which most scientists think will play havoc with the climate — might just have a cheap, low-tech

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CA unemployment drops to 7.3%

Perhaps Gov. Jerry Brown’s campaign slogan is right: “California is back.” Unemployment dropped to 7.3 percent in September, down from 8.8 percent a year ago. Except the national rate is 5.9 percent. So California clearly is just following the national recovery,

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You’re far more likely to be impoverished in CA than Mississippi

For decades, economists have complained about the stupidity of the Census Bureau’s annual report on poverty in the U.S. because it didn’t include cost of living in its rankings of the 50 states. An example of the old stats can

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Anti-fracking fervor builds in CA even as it lifts U.S. economy, stature

Anti-fracking sentiment in California continues to build, and we’re likely to see a spate of local moratoriums aimed at blocking the oil-drilling process in many cities and counties. This is happening even in places not normally associated with petroleum production,

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AG doesn’t write slanted ballot language for plastic bag measure

The Attorney General’s Office of the state of California has a long, ugly history under Kamala Harris, Jerry Brown and Bill Lockyer of writing ballot language that pushes voters one way or the other — always to the benefit of

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