The release of climate change proposals by Senate Democrats on Tuesday quickly spawned a heated debate over the direction of California’s economy and the potential effect of new environmental regulations.
California is one of just a handful of states currently not included in the FMMO. In recent years, dairy farmers in Idaho also have been lobbying to be included under the federal marketing order. But dairymen in that state have yet to petition the USDA.
California manufacturers from food processors to apparel makers are warning costs will skyrocket if state regulators proceed with a plan to reduce their allocations of free greenhouse gas emission credits.
Further, a lack of comprehensive demographic data prevents us from concluding whether the solar initiative and the decal program have served a diverse population of Californians. However, the limited demographic data that does exist shows that participants in the solar initiative’s General Market Program tend to be largely older, wealthier, and have received more education than most California homeowners. . . With respect to the decal program’s capacity to appeal to a diverse population, a recent consumer survey for a related incentive program for low-emission vehicles found that, although the ages of respondents are somewhat evenly distributed, most respondents were male and earned $100,000 or more per year.
The comments, downgrading expectations for a strong outcome at Paris, suggest that the architects of a global climate deal are already resigned to the prospect that governments will fail to aim high enough when setting out their targets for cutting greenhouse gas emission in the coming months.
The California Air Resources Board says the state has 16 regions that are not meeting the current standard. More rural, mountainous and less populated areas of California would likely exceed federal limits if the new standard is approved.
In an open letter, the owners Alan Beatts and Jude Feldman explain that they can’t pay San Francisco’s new $15 minimum wage (a minimum wage that they support). That increase will raise their payroll costs by 39% and their overall costs by 18% — and since they can’t raise the cost of their books (because they’re pre-priced, and retail priced books are already a tough sell in the age of Amazon), the only way they could cover the increase would be to stop paying themselves, or fire almost everyone and work insane hours. The cafe attached the store will stay open for the foreseeable, since those prices are flexible and can be raised to account for their increased overheads.
Employment growth in 2014 was higher in counties that saw bigger declines in the duration of benefits. Overall, the authors estimate that the benefit cut led to the creation of 1.8m extra jobs in 2014—about two-thirds of the total.
The Obama administration’s plan for the federal budget will contain a new line-item that is numerically trivial but philosophically important: $15 million for states to analyze the costs and benefits of their job-licensing requirements. . . State governments, with little public attention or debate, have spun a vast web of red tape that bars entry into working-class professions. Jobs like florists, manicurists, barbers, and on and on, impose unnecessarily burdensome restrictions on those who can practice the trade, closing off potential avenues for upward mobility. These restrictions have no policy rationale; they exist because incumbents in those fields have an interest in keeping out competition.
A comprehensive analysis of the Golden State’s cap-and-trade program.
Published in 1961, Jacobs’ book exposed the flaws of that era’s urban-renewal programs. But she probably would never have imagined one of the more recent threats to old downtowns and to the oftentimes quirky small businesses that reside in historic buildings: disability lawsuits.
We applaud the governor’s efforts to protect our environment and address climate change. But the proposed goals will not come cheaply, with additional costs pinching the wallet of every Californian. We feel the need to ask an important question: How do we get there without emptying our pocketbooks and further burdening millions already living in poverty?
Data released today by the BLS indicates that the electricity price indexes hit all-time highs for the month of December and for the year. 2014 was the most-expensive year ever for electricity in the United States.
In practice, Proposition 103 prevents insurers from offering time-sensitive rate adjustments that allow consumers to realize the benefits of competition. This out-of-date and clumsy initiative also inhibits companies from creating and offering new insurance products, as is necessary for transportation network companies such as Uber and Lyft.
California farmers now must abide by the nation’s strictest rules for a widely used pesticide in a change designed to protect farmworkers and people who live and work near agricultural fields but is likely to raise prices on produce.