Challenging the Premise of Our Destruction
Challenging the Premise of Our Destruction
The most powerful and destructive perception in the world today is that using fossil fuels will cause catastrophic climate change. This belief, marketed by every major government and corporate institution in the Western world, is the foundational premise underlying a policy agenda of stunning indifference to the aspirations of ordinary people. The war on fossil...
By Edward Ring
California Holds the Key to Western Water Security
California Holds the Key to Western Water Security
Dams and aqueducts on the Colorado River make civilization possible in the American Southwest. But for the last 20 years, as a prolonged drought has gripped the region, withdrawals from the river have averaged 15 million acre-feet per year, while inflows into Lake Mead and Lake Powell have averaged only 12 million acre feet per year. For the first...
By Edward Ring
The Bullet Train Epitomizes Golden State Corruption
The Bullet Train Epitomizes Golden State Corruption
It sounded too good to be true, and it was. Travel from downtown San Francisco to downtown Los Angeles in two hours via high-speed rail. California voters in 2008 approved Proposition 1A, authorizing $9.95 billion in general obligation bonds to build this so-called “bullet train.” They were told not only that the total cost would...
By Edward Ring
Assemblyman Isaac Bryan’s Assault on Working Families
Assemblyman Isaac Bryan’s Assault on Working Families
Bryan is also sponsoring a bill to gut California’s 112-year-old initiative and referendum process so voters no longer have veto power over California’s Democrat-controlled legislature. It isn’t hard to figure out who controls everything Assemblyman Isaac Bryan does in the California State Legislature. In the November 2022 election, every single one of the first 29 of...
By Edward Ring
Cleaning Bay Source Pollution Will Enable More Delta Diversions
Cleaning Bay Source Pollution Will Enable More Delta Diversions
On February 21, the California State Water Resources Control Board waived environmental regulations in order to permit more storage in Central Valley reservoirs. This came a week after Governor Gavin Newsom temporarily suspended environmental laws that prevent reservoir storage if flow through the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta falls below 58,000 acre feet per day. A guest opinion piece...
By Edward Ring
The “Net Zero” Delusions of California’s Ruling Class
The “Net Zero” Delusions of California’s Ruling Class
Last week, I attended an event in downtown Sacramento produced by an industry trade association. One of the highlights of this event was a plenary session where a high ranking state politician addressed the crowd. The participants shall remain anonymous, because who they were doesn’t matter. What was said, and how it was received, was...
By Edward Ring
California Per Capita General Fund Spending Doubles – Where Is It Going?
California Per Capita General Fund Spending Doubles – Where Is It Going?
California’s state government is spending twice as much as it did a decade ago, and by every metric that matters to ordinary Californians, things have only gotten worse. Even without further analysis, this is an incredible fact. California’s state government, in constant dollars, is spending nearly twice as much per resident as it did a...
By Edward Ring
Voters Approve Over $3.0 Billion Per Year in New Local Taxes
Voters Approve Over $3.0 Billion Per Year in New Local Taxes
When state ballot initiatives propose new taxes, it’s big news. But while every election features a handful of state tax and bond proposals that get statewide attention, additional hundreds of local state and bond proposals fly under the radar. Fortunately, after each election cycle and once all the votes are certified – something that in...
By Edward Ring
The “Reparations” Scam
The “Reparations” Scam
California is considering paying “reparations” to Black Californians who are directly descended from enslaved people, which may surprise most Californians. After all, slavery was never legal in the Golden State. Governor Newsom, heedless of the fiasco he’s inviting, formed a “Reparations Task Force,” no doubt with his future presidential aspirations in mind. The task force...
By Edward Ring
Looming Deficits Present Another Opportunity to Offer Solutions for California
Looming Deficits Present Another Opportunity to Offer Solutions for California
Just a few months ago, Gov. Gavin Newsom was bragging about California’s “$100 billion budget surplus.” At the same time, the California Policy Center was pointing out that the governor’s “surplus” was fantasy – that state and local governments owed about $1.6 trillion. In those heady days, however, with obliging media cheering him on, Newsom...
By Edward Ring
Pension Costs Are Still Eating Government Budgets
Pension Costs Are Still Eating Government Budgets
About 20 years ago, I read an ad in a local Sacramento newspaper that said “Get a government job and become an instant millionaire.” The ad went on to describe how public bureaucrats in California enjoyed benefits private sector employees can only dream of, including a guaranteed retirement pension worth the equivalent of millions of...
By Edward Ring
Solar Farms Should Not Displace Prime Farmland
Solar Farms Should Not Displace Prime Farmland
Successfully coping with severe droughts in California and the Southwest requires tough choices, all of them expensive and none of them perfect. But taking millions of acres out of cultivation and replacing them with solar farms is not the answer. California produces over one-third of America’s vegetables and three quarters of the country’s fruits and nuts –...
By Edward Ring