In unsurprising news, Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney’s budget proposal reduced the projected revenues from the city’s beverage tax by about 15 percent. For a multitude of reasons, revenues have not met expectations. Soda tax revenue was already earmarked as the funding source for new pre-K seats, community schools, and other programs. As a result of […]
Electricity in California would all come from sources like wind and solar if a bill in the Assembly becomes law. Senate Bill 100 starts by boosting the state’s renewable electricity requirement to 60 percent by 2030. Democratic state Sen. Nancy Skinner says the bill also sets a goal of getting 100 percent of electricity from […]
Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom and former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa both have said they want developers in California to build a half million homes in a year — something that’s never happened, at least in modern history. And they want builders to do it for seven straight years, resulting in 3.5 million new homes […]
Every building is a complex system. Seemingly inconsequential and difficult-to-identify building attributes can have an outsized impact on energy consumption, skewing our understanding of the overall building performance. So why don’t industry-standard best practices for building energy modeling account for those kinds of nuances? After decades conducting audits, I began to ask myself this question […]
Questioning a widely accepted standard for energy engineering is not to be taken lightly. Yet in 2014 I found myself doing just that. While collaborating on the Department of Energy-sponsored Building Asset Rating (BAR) program, my faith in the gold standard of energy analysis was shattered. In the process, I came to the conclusion that […]
PG&E monthly electricity bills rose on March 1, the company said Monday — but, thanks to a drop in cost for natural gas usage, overall bills are headed for their first decline in years. On March 1, electricity bills for PG&E customers rose to an average of $111.59 for the typical residential customer who consumes […]
Car break-ins are on the rise across the Bay Area. In fact, 2017 was a record-breaking year for our three largest cities. We’re seeing record numbers of car burglaries in San Francisco, Oakland and San Jose. Chances it has happened to you or someone you know. San Francisco leads the pack with 31,120 break-ins last […]
Sacramento County’s median price for resale homes rose by nearly 14 percent in January compared to the same month last year, though the number of sales slumped from December in a typical seasonal pattern, CoreLogic reported Thursday. The double-digit percentage increase in the median price of resale detached homes in the county was partly a […]
Currently, California has a waiver from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on the Clean Air Act. It will allow California to dedicate more resources to mandate electric car use across the Golden State. While California means well, the EPA should revoke the waiver if the state insists on using it to direct billions of dollars […]
For those who are frustrated because they can’t buy their first house and start climbing the homeownership ladder, this housing shortage doesn’t fall under an academic title such as “market imbalance.” It isn’t being shrugged off as some temporary oddity where transactions aren’t working out now but just be patient, everything will be fine later. […]
California, many say, is the future. A center for creative industries and new technology—look at its impressive rollout of electric vehicles and autonomous cars—it’s also a diverse state, pushing progressive policies that could be models for the rest of the country. And people are leaving in droves for opportunities elsewhere. The actual migration patterns in […]
It increasingly appears that insisting on 100 percent renewable sources—and disdaining others that don’t produce greenhouse gases, such as nuclear power and fossil-fuel plants with carbon-capture technology—is wastefully expensive and needlessly difficult. In the latest piece of evidence, a study published in Energy & Environmental Science determined that solar and wind energy alone could reliably […]
Starting in early April, auto manufacturers and technology companies will be free to put cars onto California city streets for testing with no one at the wheel – and in fact no one even in the car. The Department of Motor Vehicles received legal approval Monday to publish the ground rules – and will begin […]
Even as drivers debate repealing California’s recent gasoline tax hike, an often-overlooked state program has quietly helped push fuel prices higher. Dubbed the Low Carbon Fuel Standard, the program is designed to fight climate change by forcing oil companies to lower the “carbon intensity” of the fuels they sell in California. For years, it had […]
Health insurance premiums in California are expected to rise nearly 18 percent in 2019 as a result of federal policy changes enacted by Congress and the Trump administration, according to an analysis released Monday by the Urban Institute left-leaning think tank. In 2019, roughly 1 million fewer Californians will be enrolled in health plans in […]