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This is the time of year when water utilities set their rates, which almost inevitably go up. But this year, the rate hikes are likely to be higher than usual, as water utilities cope with the unexpected impact of mandatory conservation on their budgets. . . In 1990, water was sold for $222 per acre-foot by Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, which provides about half the water used in San Diego County. For 2016, the price was nearly $1,000 an acre-foot.

This letter to Honorable Tom Lackey, Assembly Member, 36th District, estimates the effects of including transportation fuels in California’s cap-and-trade program on: (1) the retail price of gasoline and diesel fuel and (2) the additional amount motorists are spending on gasoline and diesel fuel as a result of the program.

Ridership of all modes of public transportation declined 1.3% last year from 2014, when transit use reached the highest level since 1958, according to new data from the American Public Transportation Association. The average price of a gallon of gasoline fell 27% in 2015 from a year earlier.

The proposed spending is more than double the $3.09 billion in cap-and-trade auction spending included in Governor Jerry Brown’s proposed budget, and comes at a time when the spending of auction revenue is under scrutiny. The auctions are generating billions of dollars a year for programs that are unrelated to those who are required to pay, but the process was not approved by a two-thirds majority of lawmakers, as the California Constitution requires for tax increases.

In contrast, inflation in California is expected to worsen. Consumer prices, the metric that economists use to quantify inflation, rose 1.5 percent statewide during 2015, but are expected to rise by an annual pace of 2.3 percent in 2016. In 2017, consumer prices in California are expected to jump 3.5 percent.

California plans to delay state-required warnings on metal cans lined with the chemical BPA, arguing too-specific warnings could scare stores and shoppers in poor neighborhoods away from some of the only fruits and vegetables available — canned ones, officials said Thursday.

A report from online real estate company Trulia out Tuesday confirms what many prospective young Los Angeles homebuyers have figured out: housing here is out of reach. Only 27 percent of local households can afford a median-priced starter house, which Trulia said cost $329,000, Curbed L.A. reports. The report finds fewer homes available to buyers at all income levels in L.A. County and that home inventory has all but vanished in Orange County, San Francisco and San Diego.

That means that regulators are not just setting ground rules for the insurance industry. They are determining the actual prices that are charged and paid. So when new regulations are approved, they often drive up the cost of doing business and drive down profitability. It creates pressure for insurers to come back to the department and seek rate hikes, distorts the insurance market, leads to fewer consumer choices and erodes the state’s business climate. It crushes competition, which is the real way to drive down rates for insurance and everything else.

The nationwide scope of the problem was reflected Monday in a letter the U.S. Justice Department sent to chief judges and court administrators in every state. It said too many people are being subjected to heavy fines for minor crimes, and penalized or even jailed when they can’t pay.

The L.A. metro area was ranked as the nation’s most congested region with motorists spending an average of 81 hours sitting still on the road in 2015. . . The study also identified the top 10 worst stretches of roadway across the globe. Four of them are in L.A.

Major renovations on existing homes will have to be undertaken with energy efficiency in mind, using products and systems that meet an updated state building code. California’s code is already among the strictest in the nation. . . New homes will also be required to meet higher energy standards. By 2020, each home built in California should produce as much power as it consumes. At least one builder estimates that advanced energy systems will add $50,000 to the cost of a new, super-efficient home. What will that mean in a state where low-cost housing is in short supply?

California’s current housing market suffers from a shortage of supply and the lingering effects of the housing crash and the Great Recession. California currently ranks near the bottom in terms of its supply of housing relative to population growth. Add that to the increasing demand to live near the coast, to be close to tech hubs, and to be near downtowns, and it’s not too surprising that home prices throughout the state continue to rise. Additionally, the cost of development and stringent regulations imposed on developers has contributed to the lack of homebuilding in California.

In recent years, California has experienced negative domestic migration, meaning more people are moving from California to other states than the number of residents moving to California from other parts of the country. Statistics on the characteristics of California’s inbound and outbound migrants suggest patterns in migration over the past decade are more related to housing costs than tax structure.

The problem with inclusionary policies and other coercive approaches to housing, such as rent control ordinances, is that while they may be politically gratifying, they divert attention from the real problem of housing in California, which is that we have way too little of it.

California boasts some of the highest wages and fastest rates of job growth in the nation but high housing costs are pushing many people out of the state, according to a trio of reports released Wednesday.