Regulations

Enviros battle over merits of rooftop solar vs. desert solar

Things aren’t working out well for renewable energy advocates who hoped cheaper rooftop solar energy would replace large solar power plants in California’s Mojave Desert and return “economic democracy” to the people with millions of rooftop solar installations. This is

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

Chris Reed October 27, 2014

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

VIDEO: Our self-made immigration mess

CalWatchdog Staff October 25, 2014

We’ve made immigration so difficult, that we’ve created the incentives to break the law. Reason Magazine’s Editor Matt Welch joins CalWatchdog’s James Poulos about some solutions to our state’s illegal immigrant problem.

Are benefits of Prop 1 being oversold?

Chris Reed October 25, 2014

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

San Francisco rebuked for ‘fundamental’ abuse of property rights

Chris Reed October 24, 2014

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

Experts warn of new easy-money hazard

John Seiler October 23, 2014

COSTA MESA — Federal regulators are repeating the same easy-money mistakes that led to the Great Recession. So warned five housing and banking experts today at a Breakfast Panel discussion before local business and community leaders at the Westin South

CA advances driver’s licenses for illegals

James Poulos October 22, 2014

Despite incomplete approval from the federal government, California has begun forging ahead with driver’s licenses for immigrants who are illegally present in California. A bill signed into law last year, Assembly Bill 60, was subject to additional requirements by the Department

Has CA ranch found cheap route to carbon containment? Maybe

Chris Reed October 22, 2014

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

Federal official calls for regulating CA medical marijuana

John Seiler October 21, 2014

For once, the Feds have a point. Outgoing Deputy Attorney General James M. Cole has helped alter President Obama’s prohibitionist attitude on state marijuana laws toward one accommodating the differences among the 50 states. In an interview with the Los Angeles

PRI-Forum for Corporate Directors discussion Oct. 23

John Seiler October 20, 2014

The Pacific Research Institute, CalWatchdog.com’s parent think tank, is partnering with the Forum for Corporate Directors in a breakfast panel discussion Thursday, Oct. 23 from 7-9 a.m. Location: The Westin South Coast Plaza, 686 Anton Blvd., Costa Mesa, CA 92626.