Tag "Wayne Lusvardi"
Back to homepageWater fight: Now it’s four bonds
For California’s water, now it’s dueling water bonds — four of them. First bond: On Friday, Senate Republicans refurbished their own water-bond proposal, now for $8.7 billion. According to the Los Angeles Times, “Nearly a third of the money in the
Read MoreBoxer-Feinsten water bill stresses conservation, not supply
There are two ways to manage water. One way is to capture more water and store it for dry years. The second way is to keep dividing up existing water supplies. This second way is pushed in a newly proposed bill,
Read MoreSan Onofre decommissioning: $4.4 billion wasted
According to the U-T, the decommissioning of the San Onofre nuclear powerplant will cost $4.4 billion. The money, of course, will be paid by ratepayers. It is owned mainly by Southern California Edison and SGD&E. Even if stockholders are hit
Read MoreCan CA be 100% clean energy by 2050?
Can California be oil-free by 2050, just 36 years from now? Yes, according to Mark Jacobson of Stanford’s Precourt Institute for Energy. He says California can be oil free by 2050 with a quadruple redundant energy system of thousands of
Read MoreState funds dry cleaners’ shift to CO2
The California Energy Commission’s Public Interest Energy Research Program has produced a dry cleaning machine that uses CO2. The carbon-based cleaning process replaces perchoroethylene chemical-based dry cleaning. The machine is being tested by the Aramark uniform cleaning corporation in Los Angeles. Colorado-based
Read MoreGroundwater war breaks out
Future historians might mark July 20 as the date when a full scale war broke out over California’s groundwater. On July 20 in the Los Angeles Times, George Skelton, the dean of California journalists, said it was unfair to tell him
Read MoreLawsuit could expand state control of groundwater
Sacramento Superior Court Judge Allen Sumner just issued a preliminary ruling that Siskiyou County must regulate groundwater well permits along the Scott River in accordance with “Public Trust Doctrine.” This means the water now mainly used by hay farmers
Read MoreWill CA groundwater regulation bring shortages?
One area of California that largely has remained free of regulation is groundwater. Although state courts “adjudicate” groundwater rights and disputes, this longstanding system largely respects the private ownership of the water. Even the federal government mostly works within this
Read MoreRichmond pols continue posturing on underwater mortgages
A majority of the Richmond City Council still wants to use eminent domain powers to to seize “underwater mortgages” even though the bond market refused to sell $34 million in municipal bonds for the city last year due to Richmond
Read MoreJudge rules smelt can’t stop water sales
On June 13, a coalition of sports fishermen and Northern California groundwater users sued to stop water sales to the parched Central Valley. They contended conveying water through the Delta would kill Delta Smelt fish. But that didn’t convince
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