Whenever evaluating a new energy technology, caution is warranted. During what was arguably the first big cleantech boom around 2009, schemes were sold to angel investors thrilled to find a hot sector in the wake of the recent financial crash. Almost anything that sounded good got funded. Some of these schemes, such as a “clean”...
On Tuesday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit heard oral arguments in California Policy Center v. Garcia-Brower, CPC’s lawsuit challenging California Senate Bill 399, a law that violates employers’ First Amendment rights by prohibiting the discussion of “religious or political matters” during mandatory workplace meetings. Jeffrey Schwab, Senior Counsel with Liberty Justice Center, presented...
Critics of the policies that have turned California into the most inhospitable place in America to do business or try to make a living tend to focus on outgoing Governor Gavin Newsom. But California is a one-party state. Other entrenched politicians play a powerful supporting role, and Attorney General Rob Bonta is a prime example. Appointed...
There are at least three ways to evaluate the economic viability of energy projects. The easiest way is to just repeat whatever is in a press release. The other extreme, a mandatory exercise for anyone poised to actually invest and build a project, is to develop complex projections that take into account the benefits of...
On the advent of America’s 250th anniversary, the conventional narrative is that our country is deeply divided. Typical takes on the state of disunity in the United States include this headline from a guest op-ed that recently appeared in USA Today, “America celebrated together at 200. We won’t at 250,” and “We still had a sense of oneness...
Two hundred and fifty years ago, in the space of 365 days, in one of history’s best two-for-one deals, the world got Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations and the Declaration of Independence. There’s a third reason to celebrate 1776. That same year, on November 1 – All Saints Day for the liturgically inclined – the...
The reason to socialize a portion of the cost of major infrastructure is so the ratepayer doesn’t have to bear an unaffordable share of the construction financing payments. The broader benefit to society is to achieve greater affordability for what constitutes raw materials for prosperity; transportation, water, and energy. Whether or not they are ever...
California cities continue to struggle with recurring fiscal stress. Los Angeles recently closed a budget gap approaching $1 billion. San Jose addressed a shortfall of roughly $50 million while acknowledging that structural challenges remain. Oakland reopened its two-year budget to address a gap of roughly $265 million while continuing to wrestle with insolvency concerns. Across...
When I told a friend recently that I was sorry to hear she was getting a divorce, she replied, “You wouldn’t be sorry if you really knew my husband.” When I admitted that I knew him but not really, she followed with a painfully detailed catalog of his offenses and promised that I’d get an...
A very successful businessman—and a major contributor to Democratic Party candidates and causes—once explained to me why he talked, acted, and thought like a Republican but never considered supporting any Republican candidate, ever. “We’ve already got the Republicans,” he told me. This is the transactional essence behind corporate support for Democrats in California, the one-party...
California’s oil industry has been active for well over a century, and Los Angeles was always at the heart of it. By 1894, about 80 wells were already producing oil in the city, setting off a boom that peaked in the 1970s at nearly 100 million barrels per year. Today oil production in Los Angeles County is barely...
Local elected officials from communities across California have signed a coalition letter opposing AB 1383 (McKinnor). The signatories — from city council members to school board trustees — have direct experience overseeing local budgets and understand the long-term fiscal challenges that rising pension costs can create for cities, counties, school districts, and other local agencies. In...
With midterm elections just around the corner, both major political parties are themselves coping with divided constituencies. The Democratic Socialists vie for dominance against more moderate Democrats. MAGA Republicans confront disaffected libertarians and neocons. And outside all these polarized factions are millions of voters that don’t find any politician or political agenda credible enough to...
As the United States celebrates the semiquincentennial of its founding in 1776, it is worth reflecting on a remarkable historical coincidence: the birth of our nation occurred the same year Adam Smith published An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations. Smith’s seminal work articulated the concept of the invisible hand,...