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A law in April upped California's renewable energy goals by 2020 to 33% from 20%, a far more ambitious goal than any other state is attempting. But, while a renewable energy economy is a laudable goal, it seems doubtful that California will actually be able to achieve it. Or if it does, it will be through smoke and mirrors gambits. PG&E is buying Renewable Energy Credits from wind farms in Canada to help them achieve their renewable goals in California even though that power will never be used

Several major renewable energy projects are planned for California, including a grid-scale concentrated solar plant (CSP). They are part of the big push towards meeting California’s ambitious goal of 33% renewable energy by 2020. But, many renewable energy projects are backstopped by the federal government with loan guarantees, and they also receive tax credits as well as benefit from federal research and development funding. All this is now threatened, and could seriously impact renewable ener

The U.S. Department of Energy has finalized a $967 million loan guarantee for a 290 MW solar photovoltaic plant on 2400 acres between Yuma and Phoenix. The Aqua Caliente project is now the world's largest PV project under construction.  This follows plans by EnviroMission to build the world's first grid-scale solar updraft tower in Arizona, which is now on the leading edge of big solar power (along with California and Nevada.) Both plants will be using state-of-the art technology to build solar

The dirty little secret about power generation is that most states, including Arizona, rely heavily on coal. Sure, Arizona has mandated 15% renewable energy by 2025 but for now, King Coal reigns. Even California, which has a much more ambitious plan of 33% renewable by 2020, relies heavily on coal. However, and somewhat hypocritically, California has banned coal plants within its borders while importing a vast amount of coal power from neighboring states, including Nevada, Arizona, and New Mexi

Research shows that almost half of all Arizona mortgages were "underwater” by the end of the first fiscal quarter of 2011. Only Nevada, at 63 percent, had a higher rate of homes with negative equity, this according to the most recent report by the private research firm CoreLogic. Although the overall number of Arizona homeowners who were underwater outdid most in the nation, their average negative equity was $5,000 below the national average of $65,000, highlighting the large disparities in hou

Ordinarily, if a large corporation has a physical presence in a state, then that state can charge sales tax on transactions. California, in a desperate attempt to raise more money, has decreed that Internet transactions are now taxable even if the company has no physical presence in California and the goods were shipped from, say, Nevada to Missouri. Yes, the great minds of the California legislature have decided that if you or a charity or a little mom-and-pop business use affiliate marketing

California ranked dead last in a poll of 556 CEOs asking which state is the best place to do business. While CEOs are certainly not an unbiased lot, they also have considerable say in where to open new facilities. And it appears they would rather be hung upside down than do business in California. This should be of concern to all Californians, especially in the current nasty recession. The survey asked CEOs to grade states based on three criteria: taxes and regulation, workforce quality, and li

The Navajo Generating Station near Page, AZ uses about 8 million tons of coal a year to provide 2.25 GW of power and nearly 95% of the electricity for the huge pumps on the Central Arizona Project canal that bring water from the Colorado River. The US Environmental Protection Agency is releasing new regulations controlling nitrogen oxides. This directly impacts the generating station and could force it to spend as much as $1.2 billion to install a new control system, as well as millions of doll

Lately, there's been a growing contrarian view of California's proposed renewable energy future. Instead of clean energy flowing seamlessly from solar, wind, and geothermal plants through a smart grid to California homes and businesses, these contrarians see a system doomed to fail, soaring energy prices, businesses leaving the state, and huge profits made by those who gamed the system with the help of compliant, overzealous state bureaucracies. As you can see, these contrarians are not embracin

In  addition to the Democrats and Republicans, there are four other ballot-qualified political parties in California, and over a dozen smaller  political bodies which are formally attempting to gain ballot access  ahead of the 2012 presidential election.  At least one of the latter is already well on its way. According  to the most recent report on voter registration from the Secretary of  State’s office, there are currently over 17 million registered voters in  California. With 23.6 million el