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The California Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) passed in 2002 and was accelerated in 2006. It mandates that electricity providers get at least 20% of their retail sales from renewable sources by the end of this year and 33% by 2020. However, three major utilities have not reached that goal and are scrambling to meet it by buying renewable energy from out of state, something which seems contradictory and self-defeating. Why buy energy out of state and have it travel hundreds, sometimes a thou

In 2008, California voters approved a $9.4 billion proposition to build a High Speed Rail [HSR] network in California. The trains will reach speeds over 200 mph. Construction may start as soon as 2011 and will take years to complete. On Jan 28, 2009 California got a $2.3 billion share of $8 billion for HSR from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.  This was less than the $4 billion the state had hoped for but obviously still welcome.  The primary line will run from San Francisco to Los A

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s quest to convince the federal government to put-up-or-shut-up by paying California an additional $6.9 billion he says the state needs to carry out Washington D.C. imposed mandates is just one high-profile example of states increasingly asserting their rights. The battle over when states rights trump federal government edicts is as old as the constitution, waxing and waning in favor of each camp for nearly 225 years.  But recently, an increasing number of states are

California's Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein has proposed legislation that would divert a large portion of California's public water supply to Southern California agribusinesses. Feinstein's complete reversal on policy intended to protect the California delta estuary evidences the fact that party platforms mean less to entrenched Washington bureaucrats than the favors they owe their lobbyist allies. Senator Feinstein is attaching her legislation to a fast-tracked Senate jobs bill under the

In the aftermath of the release of Carly Fiorina’s infamous “Demon Sheep” ad, the average Republican voter in California’s Senate primary faces a number of questions. However, the two questions that seems to subsume them are “What the hell were they thinking?” and “What the hell happened?” Naturally, the first question seems most intuitive, given that everyone from Rachel Maddow to National Review have joined in mocking the ad for its over-the-top portrayal of Tom Campbell’s ideological indiscre

Another one bites the dust. In tragic  news for California, the state just lost another big-name business.  EA’S Pandemic Studios was a beloved maker of video games, and will  cease to function, at least physically, in California. In an interview  with Kotaku, the studio’s CEO, John Riccitiello, blamed  the loss of the studio on ridiculous levels of taxation and the high  price of living in the state, and explained that as a  businessman, working in California simply no longer made sense. “For

Over at Free & Equal, ballot access expert, Richard Winger, delivered a point-by-point rebuttal of Jonathan Alter's advocacy of a top-two, open primary system in Newsweek.  Here is the full text of Winger's press release: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Newsweek Column Spreads Common Misconceptions About "Top-Two" Primaries  Ballot Access Expert Richard Winger Writes Editorials Against Measure In June of 2010, the voters of California will vote on a measure to institute a Washington-Style "Top-Two" Prima

From FreeandEqual.org: A Back Room Budget Deal earlier this year means the so-called "Top-Two" Primary will be voted on by California citizens. The vote would institute a Washington state style "Top-Two" system, in which the top two vote getters in the primary are the only names to appear on the November ballot -even if that means only one political party is represented. Free & Equal board member Richard Winger writes in Ballot Access News: California newspaper reporters and political columni

Now, just because something  is fashionable, that doesn't mean it's right. Unfortunately, many  government leaders these days don't seem to grasp that fact. A bill  currently in the California Assembly would make it a rule that consumer  products would have to be labeled according to the amount of greenhouse  gases used to create said product. For an already ailing business community,  this is a terrible idea. The current rage for all things  green, may, ironically, cause a serious setback in t

Heads of the Pacific Coast side of the Fishery Management Council decided on Wednesday, April 8 to basically call off this year's salmon fishing season, after fears that the King/Chinook salmon population may be undersized and may be threatened by the additional fishing season, after a smaller number of the Sacramento River and Klamath River Chinooks migrated to California and Oregon this year. (One way that Pacific Coast fishery authorities have tried to alleviate the situation in the past has