Infrastructure

A billion here, a billion there for high-speed rail

“A billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon you’re talking real money,” Sen Everett Dirksen, R-Ill., supposedly said, although the Dirksen Center says there’s no record of it. The longtime Republican minority leader died in 1969. But whoever said

Attempted $1B cover-up can’t even crack Top 5 of bullet-train outrages

Chris Reed May 9, 2014

With any big public works project, a report that an independent consultant had been pressured by the responsible government agency to hide a nearly $1 billion increase in project cost is absolutely outrageous. Pathetically enough, when it comes to the

$Will Beverly Hills ban fracking black gold?$

Will Beverly Hills ban fracking black gold?

Wayne Lusvardi May 8, 2014

Come and listen to a story about a city named Beverly Hills and its bubblin’ crude. “The Beverly Hillbillies” still plays on TV in reruns, providing laughs about the Clampetts from Tennessee who strike it rich in oil on

Mass transit for poor frowned on in Bay Area

Chris Reed May 8, 2014

There’s plenty of research that shows that bus rapid transit is far the most cost-effective type of mass transit, with a flexibility that’s particularly helpful to the less affluent. This is from a Reason Foundation study released in January about

SF splits over CleanPowerSF co-op

Wayne Lusvardi May 7, 2014

San Francisco is suffering from a split personality when it comes to establishing CleanPowerSF, an electricity buyers’ club approved by the city’s Public Utilities Commission in 2010 to replace the monopoly Pacific Gas & Electric utility. Such buyers’ cooperatives are authorized

Skepticism rises over need to reduce CO2 levels

Wayne Lusvardi May 5, 2014

It’s not even Halloween, but this sounds scary. The San Francisco Chronicle headline warned, “High Carbon Dioxide Levels Set a Record.” CO2 is a greenhouse gas of the type that AB32, the Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006, is designed

Legislative committee OKs $2 billion oil tax

Dave Roberts May 1, 2014

The Senate Education Committee last week approved a $2 billion tax hike on California’s oil industry that critics say would drive up energy costs and push businesses out of state. Proponents of Senate Bill 1017 tout the additional revenue it

Ivanpah morphs into gas-solar hybrid

Wayne Lusvardi April 28, 2014

This is Part 2 of a two-part series on the Ivanpah solar plant. Part 1 is here. As its name implies, the Ivanpah Concentrated Solar Thermal Power Plant in the Mojave Desert is supposed to provide renewable energy from the rays of the

How do you like your higher electricity bill?

John Seiler April 26, 2014

On CalWatchDog.com, for four years Wayne Lusvardi has been detailing in hundreds of articles the effective dismantling of California’s and America’s old electricity system — nuclear, coal and now even gas; and its replacement with “renewable” sources — wind, solar

Ivanpah solar power shifts pollution to the desert

Wayne Lusvardi April 25, 2014

This is Part 1 of a two-part series on Ivanpah solar power. It’s supposed to be the latest thing in solar power. Gov. Jerry Brown and other state politicians tout the new Ivanpah Concentrated Solar Thermal Power Plant in the Mojave