Don’t Overlook the Union Factor in California’s Chaos
Don’t Overlook the Union Factor in California’s Chaos
All social movements require a patron saint. Californians who support illegal immigration believe they have theirs: David Huerta, president of the state’s Service Employees International Union, or SEIU. Federal officers in Los Angeles arrested Huerta during a protest outside a business where ICE was executing a search warrant Friday — just one skirmish in what...
By Will Swaim
The Economics of the Delta Tunnel
The Economics of the Delta Tunnel
One of the most controversial water issues in California is the proposed Delta Conveyance. The 45-mile-long tunnel will have the capacity to move up to 4 million acre feet per year from the Sacramento River safely under the fragile delta ecosystem, delivering water to southbound aqueducts. That’s not bad. But the reservoir storage necessary to allow the...
By Edward Ring
Assembly Bill 84 fails our most vulnerable students
Assembly Bill 84 fails our most vulnerable students
As a father of five children and a lifelong advocate for educational excellence in California, I take the well-being and future of our students personally and seriously. I have spent my career working on education policy, including running for State Superintendent of Public Instruction in 2022, because I believe every child—regardless of their zip code—deserves...
By Lance Christensen
Bay Area Transportation and Housing Policies Cannot Stop Climate Change
Bay Area Transportation and Housing Policies Cannot Stop Climate Change
A false solution to a true problem Bay Area transportation and housing initiatives are often portrayed as solutions to the climate catastrophe we are facing due to excessive greenhouse gas emissions from human activity. The thinking is that if we could get everyone to live in apartments near stations on electrified transit systems, thereby removing...
By Marc Joffe
To Save Ecosystems, Sometimes Hands-Off is Not Enough
To Save Ecosystems, Sometimes Hands-Off is Not Enough
One of the biggest debates over environmental stewardship is whether a degraded ecosystem is best left completely alone to recover or whether it should instead be restored by increasing human intervention and management. A perfect example of this is the conifer forests of California, extending over nearly 30,000 square miles. For millennia, lightning strikes ignited fires that...
By Edward Ring
California’s Indispensable Heavy Oil
California’s Indispensable Heavy Oil
The moral argument for resuming oil drilling in California is simple: the state still relies on petroleum for fifty percent of its annual energy inputs, and until we can overcome that reliance, we should be producing it here, where it’s subject to the most responsible environmental and labor standards in the world. This argument holds up...
By Edward Ring
The Clock Is Running Out for Covid Fraud Investigations
The Clock Is Running Out for Covid Fraud Investigations
A bill to allow more time to track down and file charges for these massive fraud schemes is languishing in the Senate. For all of the five-year remembrances of Covid-19, few have paused to recall the cyber smash-and-grab that hoovered billions of dollars out of state unemployment offices. Inmates in California grabbed thousands of dollars from prison library...
By Will Swaim
How California Has Destroyed Its Middle Class
How California Has Destroyed Its Middle Class
California has declared war on its middle class, and the special interests controlling the state are doing everything they can to impose this punitive economic model on the rest of America. It’s a quasi-feudal system, with the entire population divided into aristocrats and serfs. The means to destroy the middle class is to engineer an...
By Edward Ring
Disruptive Desalination Technology Comes to California
Disruptive Desalination Technology Comes to California
The concept of deep water desalination has been around for decades, but only in recent years has the enabling technology been available. Innovations pioneered by the oil and gas industry to better service offshore drilling platforms have matured. These include better ways to protect against corrosion of underwater equipment, and replacing hydraulic with electrical systems....
By Edward Ring
Gavin Newsom’s Shameless Dodge on the Homeless Crisis
Gavin Newsom’s Shameless Dodge on the Homeless Crisis
California’s governor tries — and fails — to blame the state’s homelessness epidemic on someone, anyone else. Confronting yet another calamitous state budget deficit, California Governor Gavin Newsom took time last week to blast the real public enemies: Donald Trump and someone called Amy Bublak. You know Trump. His tariffs have indeed produced volatility in the stock...
By Will Swaim
Action Alert: Charter Schools Under Attack
Action Alert: Charter Schools Under Attack
Help the charter school community fight AB 84 The Southern California News Group recently published commentary by CPC Vice President Lance Christensen on Assembly Bill 84 and the devastation it would cause to charter schools and thousands of California families. AB 84 threatens a 30% funding cut for charter schools where in-person classroom-based instruction is...
By California Policy Center
How to Save California’s Oil and Gas Industry
How to Save California’s Oil and Gas Industry
For anyone unconcerned about the state’s ongoing war against the oil and gas industry, or the impact it is going to have on California’s economic health and overall cost-of-living, a study released on May 5 should be required reading. With strong arguments and immutable data, USC Business Professor Michael Mische predicts that by sometime in 2026, we’ll...
By Edward Ring
Charter School Emerges as Financial Lifeline for Struggling Orange County District
Charter School Emerges as Financial Lifeline for Struggling Orange County District
Times are tough in Orange Unified, Orange County’s fourth-largest school district. Already facing a years-long decline in state funding that followed the district’s plummeting enrollment, school officials in June 2024 nevertheless agreed to a teachers union demand for a 10 percent pay hike. Union officials celebrated – but only briefly. In September, internal documents show,...
By Will Swaim
Fact-Checking the May Budget Revision
Fact-Checking the May Budget Revision
After six years of budget shortfalls, rising homelessness, and an exodus of residents and businesses, Gov. Gavin Newsom unveiled his $321.9 billion May Revision to California’s 2025–26 state budget on Wednesday — which he acknowledged is upside down by roughly $12 billion. Now, with just weeks until the June 15th deadline, he must work with...
By California Policy Center