Today Common Good released Two Years, Not Ten Years: Redesigning Infrastructure Approvals, our new report on the costs of delaying infrastructure permits. The report concludes that a permitting delay of six years on public projects costs the nation over $3.7 trillion, more than double the $1.7 trillion needed through the end of this decade to modernize America’s decrepit infrastructure.
The legislation does not spell out how the state will achieve that level of petroleum reduction. Instead, it maintains the California Air Resources Board’s existing, broad authority over vehicle emissions and fuel standards. And it does not call for an “up or down” vote on ARB regulations.
Korean businesses represent at least a third of those in the downtown garment district, generating at least $10 billion in annual revenues, according to the Korean American Apparel Manufacturers Association. But now some Korean apparel makers are considering moving to El Paso, the Los Angeles Times reports. They say the hike in the minimum wage here and strict labor laws are mainly to blame for their desire to relocate. El Paso has fewer regulations, cheaper rent and an abundance of skilled laborers.
The incredible innovation we are seeing in Silicon Valley and other parts of the state is due in large part to smart policy that supports a healthy environment and the economy. SB 32 will provide the long-term policy certainty to help spur even more innovation, investment and job creation. Companies will have the confidence to continue developing new technologies and business models.
If you drive a car, gas prices will be higher. If you want to buy a house, you very likely could be priced out of the market. Small business owners will have to raise prices in order to cover the increases in gas and delivery charges. In some cases, small businesses may have to close up shop all together, which would be the worst consequence – intended or not.
Some of those same stakeholders are involved in SB 350, and we’re once again getting their bland assurances that it will be a win-win, without adverse effects. But as with that 1996 electric power bill, the devil is in the details, and those details are once again being written behind closed doors without a full explanation of their real-world impacts
Gov. Jerry Brown is working on an ambitious plan for transmitting electricity across state lines and bolstering California’s role in the region, according to energy officials.
Here’s how this dubious business works. Solar-leasing companies install rooftop systems (which often cost tens of thousands of dollars) at no upfront consumer cost. Homeowners rent the panels for 20 years at rates that typically escalate over time but are initially cheaper than power from the grid. Investors get to pocket the myriad state and federal subsidies while homeowners are promised hundreds of dollars annually in savings on their electric bills.
“It does not look at the rest of the economy — how much this will cost, what other jobs will be lost as energy costs increase, and what jobs will be lost as consumers pay more for energy and housing and less for other purchases,” said Rob Lapsley, the organization’s president.
An Oakland lawyer who just won a $36 million settlement from Bank of America for failing to pay overtime to 365 employees said he expects to see an uptick in overtime-related lawsuits in the Bay Area — particularly for companies in the sharing economy, such as Uber or Lyft.
Water shortages aren’t that different than food shortages that arise in some parts of the world. The weather is the proximate cause, but the real problem stems from failed public policy. Quite simply, California policy makers have not been building and permitting sufficient water projects to carry this state through dry years.
A new analysis released this week by the Kaiser Family Foundation estimated that just over a quarter of employers that offer health plans would pay the 40 percent tax in 2018 on at least one plan if they don’t make changes. The National Business Group on Health, a nonprofit association of large employers, found that half of its members reported that at least one of their health plans would trigger the tax in 2018. Both groups predicted that the proportion of employers affected would go up significantly over time.
Benchmark egg prices in California have gone up by 150 percent in a year, from $1.45 per dozen large eggs last August to $3.61 today, according to the USDA. While the avian flu outbreak this spring that resulted in the killing of 48 million domestic chickens and turkeys, mostly in the Midwest, continues to have a ripple effect across the country, a perfect storm of additional factors in California, namely the rollout of Proposition 2 and higher chicken feed prices, are wreaking havoc on Bay Area supermarket egg prices and limiting the supply of eggs to local restaurants, ice cream shops and bakeries.
Less than a third of governments seeking a global climate agreement have submitted plans for reducing emissions, raising concerns over developing countries’ commitment to a deal months before talks are meant to culminate in Paris.
Solar power has gotten so cheap to produce—and so competitively priced in the electricity market—that it is taking hold even in a state that, unlike California, doesn’t offer incentives to utilities to buy or build sun-powered generation.
