Region: California
Genetically Modified Foods & California’s Proposition 37: What’s All the Fuss About?
Largely lost in the shuffle of the current presidential election campaign and several more heavily-publicized state ballot measures, California’s Secretary of State recently announced that the “California Right to Know Genetically Engineered Food Act” has qualified for the state’s November 2012 election ballot, where it will appear as Proposition 37. (The text of Proposition 37 …
CONTINUE READINGCan Economists Predict AB32’s Impact?
A mildly interesting debate is taking place among the economists. On Thursday, Bo Cutter and I published this opinion piece in the Sacramento Bee. Bo and I are both supporters of AB32 but we are not “naive supporters” of this regulation. I will speak for myself here and admit that I’m a modest man. …
Continue reading “Can Economists Predict AB32’s Impact?”
CONTINUE READINGWhat Does Climate Change Mean for Water Rights?
Dan Farber and I, along with Berkeley economist Michael Hanemann, have a new report out on climate change and water rights in California. The report—Legal Analysis of Barriers to Adaptation by California’s Water Sector—was prepared by Berkeley Law’s Center for Law, Energy & the Environment, and it can be downloaded here. The report was released …
Continue reading “What Does Climate Change Mean for Water Rights?”
CONTINUE READINGCan We Evaluate the Likely Effects of Safety Regulation Before the Regulation is Implemented?
California’s DTSC is proposing important new consumer product safety regulation. The details about this regulation are posted here. My prospective economic analysis of the regulation is posted here. An earlier draft of this analysis was co-written with Professor J.R DeShazo of UCLA.
CONTINUE READINGBREAKING NEWS: Another West Coast Win for PACE Energy Financing
Almost a year later, California wins again in the effort to reverse a federal agency’s 2010 decision that decimated PACE, a promising financing program for residential energy efficiency and renewable investments. Federal District Court Judge Claudia Wilken ruled today that the Federal Housing Finance Authority (FHFA) violated the Administrative Procedure Act’s (APA) notice-and-comment requirement when …
Continue reading “BREAKING NEWS: Another West Coast Win for PACE Energy Financing”
CONTINUE READINGCalifornia’s Groundwater Crisis: Time to Adjudicate
As Rick pointed out last week, the University of Texas has found that California’s groundwater resources are “being depleted at an alarming rate” and the state’s use of them is completely unsustainable. The Texas study follows up on Rhead Enion’s study last year issued by the Emmett Center, which pointed out that California is one …
Continue reading “California’s Groundwater Crisis: Time to Adjudicate”
CONTINUE READINGCalifornians and the Environment: PPIC’s New Survey Results
The Public Policy Institute of California this week released the results of its 12th annual “Californians and the Environment” survey. PPIC, a non-partisan think tank, always seems to be generating thought-provoking and cutting-edge scholarship focusing on the nation-state of California. Its latest environmental survey, based on recent polling of 2500 Californians, continues that tradition. The …
Continue reading “Californians and the Environment: PPIC’s New Survey Results”
CONTINUE READINGOverdrafting California’s Groundwater Resources–A Chronic Condition
A recently issued study by a University of Texas-led group of research scientists confirm a discomforting fact: groundwater resources in California’s Central Valley are being depleted at an alarming rate. As reported in the Sacramento Bee, the study warns that current groundwater extraction rates from the Central Valley aquifer–which is primarily mined to serve agricultural …
Continue reading “Overdrafting California’s Groundwater Resources–A Chronic Condition”
CONTINUE READINGThe Politics of State Energy Deregulation: A Hypothesis
If you are interested in environmental policy, state public utility commissions might be the important agencies you’ve never heard of. PUCs determine how much power capacity there will be and even more importantly, what the mix of energy sources will generate it. Sometimes pundits will speak of “national energy policy”, but that is essentially a null set: …
Continue reading “The Politics of State Energy Deregulation: A Hypothesis”
CONTINUE READINGPicking Up the PACE: FHFA Releases Proposed Property-Assessed Clean Energy Rule
It has been a long road for supporters of Property-Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) programs. With the recent release of the Federal Housing Finance Agency’s Proposed Rule on enterprise underwriting standards and mortgage assets affected by PACE programs, some residential PACE supporters may be reasonably fatigued. But while the agency’s Proposed Rule maintains its position that …
Continue reading “Picking Up the PACE: FHFA Releases Proposed Property-Assessed Clean Energy Rule”
CONTINUE READINGJoin Our Mailing List
Climate policy is changing rapidly. Stay in the loop with expert analysis via email Monday - Friday.
