“California’s public employee unions are backing a pack of bills that might help them hold on to members if the Supreme Court this summer issues a ruling that’s expected to deliver a serious blow to the finances for labor organizations. Two of the bills lay out standard guidelines governing how public agencies collect dues from […]
California’s ban on state-funded travel grew to include a ninth state on Friday with Attorney General Xavier Becerra announcing new restrictions on public employees attending work-related events in Oklahoma. Since 2017, California has forbidden state employees from traveling to states with laws that California leaders perceive to be discriminatory against gay and transgender people. Becerra […]
“What we do has not just national, but international implications. We’re the fifth-largest economy in the world,” said Assembly Majority Leader Ian Calderon (D-Whittier), who introduced a bill this year that bars sit-down restaurants from providing plastic straws unless a customer requests one. “You better believe that if we do something and it works here, […]
The laws set an initial limit for indoor water use of 55 gallons per-person per-day in 2022, which gradually drops to 50 gallons per person by 2030. Just how consumers will be required to meet the goals remains unknown. The Department of Water Resources and State Water Resources Control Board will conduct studies and recommend […]
The list of electronics for which Californians must pay an upfront recycling fee for could get much longer. The California Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery (CalRecycle) formally adopted 11 recommendations in May as a part of its Future of Electronic Waste Management in California project, which includes a suggestion to add most devices that […]
President Trump’s announcement last year centered on his allegation that the Paris Agreement hurts the U.S. economy. The fact that our collective economies are stronger than non-alliance states proves just the opposite. Alliance states are not only reducing emissions more rapidly than the rest of the country, but we are also expanding our per capita […]
As California accelerates its efforts to reduce greenhouses gases over the next decade, experts are pointing to vulnerabilities in its celebrated cap-and-trade system, weaknesses that could make the state’s goals difficult—even impossible—to reach. . . . One calculation is out of California’s control: a possible political shift in Ontario, Canada, after provincial elections there next […]
In 2009 the U.S. government attended the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen and pledged to reduce overall greenhouse gas emissions 17 percent by 2020. To make it happen, the Obama administration directed the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to lead the way starting with carbon dioxide (CO2) and that resulted in the Clean Power […]
Do we currently have the technology to create an energy infrastructure that is based 100% on renewable energy? That is a legitimate and very useful debate to have, and one that is playing out in the published literature. Two recent systematic reviews in particular take opposite sides of this question. In one Heard et al […]
In 2009, the United States pledged at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen to reduce overall greenhouse gas emissions by as much as 83% by 2050 and by 17% as early as 2020. This pledge was made in the context of a line of legislative and regulatory attempts at CO2 regulation in the […]
It’s March 2016. Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk is on stage for the dramatic unveiling of the Tesla Model 3. Tesla will make hundreds of thousands a year, he said. It will be fun to drive. It will be affordable. “In terms of price, of course, it’ll be $35,000,” he beamed, awash in thunderous applause. […]
California can’t fit all of its environmental regulators in its 25-story Environmental Protection Agency headquarters, and it doesn’t want to shell out tens of millions of dollars to find them new digs, either. Gov. Jerry Brown’s administration found a solution that will sound familiar to any longtime traveler squeezing his knees into tight airplane seats: […]
PRIDE’s contract at the California Health Care Facility is coming to an end, primarily because state government’s largest union filed a grievance charging that it violated state protections against outsourcing public sector jobs. The union wants to bring the disabled workers onto the state payroll, but there are no guarantees. Some of the disabled workers […]
The Trump administration is aiming new regulations at states looking to soften the loss of deductions under the new federal tax law. The Internal Revenue Service and Treasury Department said new rules would be coming soon, in what appears to be a warning to states that have sought workarounds for residents who face a bigger […]
A federal judge struck down a local ban prohibiting companies from transporting coal though an Oakland, California, export terminal that U.S. miners see as a key link to overseas markets. The ban enacted by the city in 2014 violates a development agreement, U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria said Tuesday in a 37-page ruling. As demand […]