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High-speed rail takes two more swipes at CEQA
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
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High-speed rail seeks to run over CEQA
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
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Little Hoover questions green energy costs
Gov. Jerry Brown is on a political roll. He won re-election and passage of an historic $7.5 billion water bond that contains funding for the first surface water storage projects in 50 years. But that hasn’t deterred the Little Hoover Commission,
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Prop. 1 would follow $32 billion past water bonds
Proposition 1 on today’s ballot marks the first time in 50 years California has proposed building at least two new major dams and reservoirs. If voters concur, by 2023 dams would be built with the $7.5 billion water bond. An
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CARB rejects delay for ‘hidden gas tax’
The California Air Resources Board rejected pleas at its latest meeting to delay bringing transportation fuels into the cap-and-trade program – despite arguments that it will result in higher gas prices, cost thousands of jobs and harm the state’s
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8 of 9 Water Bond Czars hail from NorCal
Call them Water Bond Czars. They’re the nine members of the California Water Commission and will decide how to implement Proposition 1, the $7.5 billion water bond on the Nov. 4 ballot, should voters pass it. While most media
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Stormwater tax drowns voters
California is embarking on a program of capturing storm water from flood control channels for urban landscaping at high costs. And stormwater capture projects won’t require voter approval under Proposition 218, the Right to Vote on Taxes Act, because courts have
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Counties vie for ‘disadvantaged’ cap-and-trade bucks
In the fictional town of Lake Woebegon, all of the children are above average. But in the real world of California, all of the counties are disadvantaged. Or so it seemed at a recent California Air Resources Board meeting
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Tiered pricing ends up subsidizing solar panels for the rich
In a new development for energy conservation, it turns out charging more for electricity, the more juice is used, could be bad for the environment. This “tiered pricing” is also called Increasing Block Pricing. IBP is pushing some homeowners into
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Lack of mental health accounting ‘sheer craziness’
In 2004 California voters passed Proposition 63, based on the promise it would tax the rich to help the state’s mentally ill population. But 10 years later, while it’s been successful in taking about $10 billion from top earners,
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