Infrastructure

CA green energy market snags on price glitch

Call it a green-energy glitch. Central planning of California’s green-energy market has run into a price glitch with the launching of its Energy Imbalance Market, which was meant to balance solar power and natural gas power at dusk each day. California’s

High-speed rail takes two more swipes at CEQA

Kathy Hamilton November 17, 2014

This is the second in a series of articles updating the status of the California high-speed rail project in the wake of the California Supreme Court green-lighting bond funding. The first article covered two earlier attempts by the California High-Speed

Will MWD try — again — to sabotage client seeking new water supplies?

Chris Reed November 17, 2014

I’ve been a journalist in Socal since 1990, and I’ve never seen a story about government behavior as strange as the ones about the giant Metropolitan Water District of Southern California trying to sabotage its biggest client’s efforts to broaden

Solar crash ramped up CA natural gas power

Wayne Lusvardi November 12, 2014

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

‘Net neutrality’ = double-nickel

John Seiler November 11, 2014

President Obama’s “net neutrality” scheme was branded “Obamacare for the Internet” by Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Tex., a 2016 presidential hopeful. A better analogy is the double-nickle, the 55 mph speed limit President Nixon imposed on the country in 1974, just

Can Gov. Brown pluck federal $ for bullet train?

Wayne Lusvardi November 11, 2014

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

Gov. Brown faces high-speed rail hurdles

Kathy Hamilton November 10, 2014

Republicans’ triumph last week in the U.S. Congress already is rippling across the country. Does that bother Gov. Jerry Brown and his push for getting more federal funding for California’s high-speed rail project? So far, Congress allocated only $3.5 billion

Mexico also having high-speed rail problems

John Seiler November 10, 2014

California isn’t the only place having problems building high-speed rail. So is Mexico. The Times reported: Bowing to intense criticism, the government of President Enrique Peña Nieto yanked a contract worth nearly $4 billion from a Chinese-led consortium to build

Think tank explained CA’s affordable housing debacles long ago

Chris Reed November 10, 2014

A weekend story about the gross failure of affordable housing policies in San Francisco contained plenty of public frustration and official consternation. But it also is one more example of the very shallow way this issue is almost always covered

High-speed rail seeks to run over CEQA

Kathy Hamilton November 6, 2014

This is the first in a series of articles updating the status of the California high-speed rail project in the wake of the California Supreme Court green-lighting bond funding. Proponents insist a major reason for building the California high-speed rail