While the progressive candidates in America rely on millions of college-educated liberals as its base, it depends on two additional sources of political power. The loss of either one could be fatal to the party’s ability to win elections. The first is America’s financial elites, providing money and institutional support. The second is America’s low-income...
In a recent guest op-ed published by the Wall Street Journal, California Governor Newsom claimed that “Clean Energy Powers California’s Economic Growth,” a claim that is transparently false. Aggressive “clean energy” mandates, paired with perpetually escalating restrictions on conventional energy sources, are the reasons Californians pay the highest prices in America for gasoline and electricity, and nearly the highest...
A deregulatory agenda designed to revive the Democratic Party is already floundering With great fanfare, California Governor Gavin Newsom recently signed “historic” legislative package designed to “advance an abundance agenda.” It’s a nod to the recent (and fashionable) book Abundance by the liberal bloggers Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson, and it’s supposed to reform a state best known for...
Last month, in recognition of the annual celebration of Earth Day, it seemed appropriate to compile a list of ten common myths that constitute the major premises of modern environmentalism. That list, along with explanations of why each of these premises is unfounded and counterproductive, can be summarized as follows: 1 – There is no climate crisis....
Nobody knew how the fire started. It took hold in the dry chaparral and grasslands and quickly spread up the sides of the canyon. Propelled by winds gusting over 40 miles per hour and extremely dry air, the fire spread over the ridge and into the town below. Overwhelmed firefighters could not contain the blaze...
If Californians haven’t already, they’re bound to hear much more about CEQA—pronounced “SEE-kwuh” or the California Environmental Quality Act—in the coming days. Viewed as the Holy Grail of environmental policy, CEQA was signed into law by then-Gov. Ronald Reagan in 1970 in an attempt to allow public input into large government projects. However, a half-century...
A March 5 “Perspective” in the Manteca Bulletin highlights a chronically underemphasized problem impacting every Californian. Bass, as editor Dennis Wyatt succinctly explains, are a “destructive, invasive species, that are a serious threat to the sustainability of the ecosystem.” Wyatt proposes a solution that has been implemented in Oregon, a bounty system. As he puts it, “The state would...
“I think what we can learn here is that we are guests in this landscape.” – Marissa Christiansen, Executive Director of the Climate and Wildfire Institute, Los Angeles If you’re looking for one sentence that encapsulates the mentality and premise that underlines mainstream environmentalism in America today, these words from Marissa Christiansen, quoted in the...
The misguided quest for efficient government As the wildfires raged in southern California last month, we witnessed bipartisan support for the reintroduction of The Fix our Forests Act, ostensibly designed to reform forest management. At the same time, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power announced that it will submit to outside investigations to...
Fifty years ago, in late July and August 1974, a 156-page paperback book with a red cover showed up in alternative bookstores, radical collectives, and coffee houses across America seemingly from nowhere. The book, Prairie Fire: The Politics of Revolutionary Anti-Imperialism, electrified and reinvigorated the nation’s dispirited and dispersing leftist radicals and exacerbated a new...
Edward Ring, Director of Water and Energy Policy at California Policy Center, testified before the U.S. House Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on the Administrative State, Regulatory Reform, and Antitrust on Thursday, February 7, 2025. The hearing, “California Fires and the Consequences of Overregulation,” examined the ways years of overregulation on environmental issues has thwarted effective fire...
His responses to criticism don’t withstand scrutiny. The people of Los Angeles are experiencing one of the most horrific disasters in the city’s history. Wind-driven fires have raced through the canyons and into neighborhoods, destroying thousands of homes and costing dozens of lives. The ordeal has only begun; rebuilding is certain to take years. For...