Environment

Moody’s: Energy edict will hammer SoCal municipal utilities

Assembly Bill 32, the landmark 2006 law requiring California to begin shifting to cleaner-but-costlier forms of renewable energy, hasn’t hit consumers as hard as some economists feared for an ironic reason: Dirtier “brown energy” got cheaper. The U.S. fracking/shale revolution

Brown warns climate fight will cost trillions, disrupt lifestyle

Dave Roberts October 12, 2015

Gov. Jerry Brown warned at a recent climate change workshop that trillions of dollars, the transformation of our way of life and a worldwide mobilization on the scale of war will be required to stave off climate change’s “existential threat”

Brown raises fire alarm

James Poulos September 19, 2015

Stinging from a surprise defeat in the Legislature over the scope of proposed emissions cuts, Gov. Jerry Brown has declared a state of emergency over California’s raging wildfires. “His announcement, which will help expedite debris removal and waive fees to replace

High-speed rail workshops will review environmental concerns

Kathy Hamilton September 14, 2015

The High-Speed Rail Authority has restarted an aggressive plan to finish the environmental work on the San Francisco to San Jose and the San Jose to Merced segments of the High-Speed Rail Project. Completion of the final environmental documents is

CA Legislature sends Brown microbead ban

James Poulos September 14, 2015

After a roller coaster ride through the Senate, a bill enacting the nation’s toughest ban on so-called “microbeads” headed to Gov. Jerry Brown’s desk for signature. Doubts overcome After sailing through the Assembly in May, AB888, introduced by Richard Bloom, D-Santa Monica,

CA Democrats scale back emissions bill

James Poulos September 12, 2015

In a remarkable reversal, California Democrats have dropped a main provision in landmark legislation ratcheting up emissions regulations. As Republicans cheered, liberals nationwide decried the turnabout, with Golden State environmentalists blaming a sizable campaign against the bills launched by a nervous oil industry.

Politics of CA solar power getting messier

Chris Reed September 9, 2015

The standard narrative of solar power in California has long been that it’s a wonderful idea that everyone should embrace, a view touted by Democratic governors and Republican governors alike for nearly a quarter-century. But as CalWatchdog reported last week,

SB350 support hinges on cost vs. environmental protections

Joel Fox September 1, 2015

Looking at the results of the California Business Roundtable/California Manufacturing & Technology Association poll on Senate Bill 350, the new climate change policy being considered in the CA Legislature, you can almost see how campaign arguments would be formulated if

Wyoming hopes to help CA meet renewable energy goal

Chris Reed August 30, 2015

Gov. Jerry Brown’s announcement at his January “State of the State” speech that he wanted California to have 50 percent of its electricity generated from renewable sources by 2030 won applause from environmentalists around the nation and strong support from

Economist: Taxpayers may pay for $15 billion Delta tunnels

Dave Roberts August 26, 2015

California taxpayers may be liable for picking up part of the $15 billion cost of the proposed Delta tunnels project, an economist warned at a legislative hearing last week. The project consists of two 40-foot diameter, 30-mile-long pipes transferring water