A Policy Blueprint for Government Leaders Full PDF Version here INTRODUCTION The devastating fires in Los Angeles County underscore the urgent need for proactive measures to reduce wildfire risk and improve community resilience in California. While no preparation can entirely prevent tragedies when 100 MPH winds ignite urban canyons, there are practical steps local and...
The first time I’d ever heard of the Santa Ana wind was while reading an essay famed author Joan Didion wrote, “Los Angeles Notebook,” which is included in her book Slouching Towards Bethlehem. Writing in 1968, Didion describes what had happened just a decade earlier. “The longest single Santa Ana period in recent years was...
A respected advocate for farming interests in California once explained to me that every acre of lawn requires 5 acre feet of water per year. The unsubtle implication was that the more lawn we kill, the less water we waste. But this is zero sum thinking. How much lawn are we talking about, and how...
Given our mission to review and recommend water and energy policies and projects, it would be negligent to ignore the horrific firestorms that have torn through Los Angeles County. And before beginning, we must acknowledge that no amount of preparation can entirely prevent tragic outcomes when 100 MPH winds turn the urban canyons of Southern...
California has collected record gasoline tax revenue in 2024 according to data released by the U.S Census Bureau in December. If Californians buy as much gasoline and diesel as they did the last quarter of 2023, the state will rake in over $10 billion for the year. The final number will not be released for several more months, but it is unlikely Californians will buy...
The lightest and most abundant substance in the universe, the simplest possible molecule, hydrogen (H2), is touted as the clean burning fuel of the future. Zero pollution. But how can hydrogen be extracted or manufactured in its pure form, and how can hydrogen be stored, distributed, and converted into practical applications? If you’re following the...
Returning readers are accustomed to reading an array of policy suggestions or commentary on the myriad policy failures that lead to tragedies like this week’s devastating wildfires. But today we want to tell you how you can help. As we write, nearly 12,000 structures — homes, businesses, churches and schools — have been destroyed, and...
SPECIAL MESSAGE FROM PRESIDENT WILL SWAIM Before we get to our regularly scheduled programming — in which we discuss the myriad policy failures that led to this week’s devastating wildfires — we want to tell you how you can help. As we write, nearly 10,000 structures — homes, businesses, churches and schools — have been...
Pushing back against the winds of change in Washington, DC, California Governor Newsom reiterated his commitment to the state’s high-speed rail (HSR) boondoggle while tacitly lending support to a new effort to incinerate taxpayer funds: a 54-mile high-speed connector line that would join HSR with Brightline West service planned for the I-15 corridor. Newsom participated...
After a period of municipal financial stability, California local governments are once again facing fiscal distress. A robust system of municipal financial reporting and monitoring can provide early warnings of fiscal trouble and allow policymakers at the state and local level to proactively address them. Join California Policy Center and XBRL US for a half-day conference, Modernizing Municipal Reporting, featuring keynote speaker California...
The Speaker of the Assembly in the California state legislature, Robert Rivas, recently said that “California must not fixate on Trump and forget about affordability.” Fat chance. California has been under the absolute control of “progressive liberals” for a generation. It’s their policies that have made the state unaffordable. By now, the only people who deny that...
History repeats itself, Karl Marx wrote, “First as tragedy, then as farce.” But he didn’t say what happens the third time, when tragic farce strikes again and the whole benighted process repeats itself. Take the case of Julie Su, President Joe Biden’s acting secretary of the U.S. Department of Labor. In the past four years,...
Earlier this month, California Assemblyman Isaac Bryan of Los Angeles introduced a bill, Assembly Bill 7, which would affect admissions for the University of California (UC) and California State University (CSU) systems. The legislation would require the state’s public colleges to “consider providing a preference in admissions to an applicant who is a descendant of...
They may not care much about education, but give teacher union leaders in the city of Orange, California, credit for speed and political ingenuity. Shortly after a successful March recall campaign in which leaders of the Orange Unified Education Association replaced two conservatives with two union-backed trustees, the newly configured board promptly awarded teachers a...
