The 2006 standards helped to create a sharp drop in the number of air conditioning shipments. The agency anticipated a slight drop of 130,000 shipments. Instead, shipments declined by more than 1.55 million, according to agency and industry estimates. Thus, the energy required for residential cooling use likely didn’t decline as expected between 2007 and 2010; it increased.
Orange County faces a critical shortage of skilled workers for some of the best-paid jobs in manufacturing, health care and information technology, according to a report to be released today.
A product of the research partnership between the Orange County Business Council, County of Orange, and Orange County Workforce Investment Board (OCWIB), the Workforce Indicators Report examines the growth of industry and employment, salary and wage trends, demographic changes and the educational attainment of Orange County students.
The Bay Area guidelines would expand the traditional scope of the law — assessing an impact a project would have on the environment — to include existing environmental conditions that would affect project workers and residents. Those conditions could include the dangers of wildfires, floods and earthquakes in addition to polluted air.
The gap reflected a drop-off in exports, due in part to lower oil prices, along with rising imports of consumer goods such as cellphones, toys and apparel. Imports climbed 1.2%, while exports fell 2% to their lowest level since October 2012.
U.S. exports of goods and services fell to $185.1 billion, the lowest level since October 2012. But the overall figure tells only part of the story. Overseas shipments of goods were the weakest in more than four years, while the figure for services was the highest on record.
The state’s exports of goods to foreign markets in August totaled $13.24 billion, down 9% from the $14.55 billion recorded in August 2014. By way of comparison, overall U.S. merchandise exports fell by 10.4% over the same period, while exports from Texas shrank by nearly one-fifth (19.1%).
The U.S. Census Bureau and the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, through the Department of Commerce, announced today that the goods and services deficit was $48.3 billion in August, up $6.5 billion from $41.8 billion in July, revised. August exports were $185.1 billion, $3.7 billion less than July exports. August imports were $233.4 billion, $2.8 billion more than July imports.
Assembly Bill 1506 grants relief to employers from frivolous actions under PAGA by allowing employers to cure certain alleged wage statement defects before an employee may recover PAGA penalties.
The U.S., Japan and 10 other countries around the Pacific reached a historic accord Monday to lower trade barriers to goods and services and set commercial rules of the road for two-fifths of the global economy.
India is opening a mine a month as it races to double coal output by 2020, putting the world’s third-largest polluter at the forefront of a pan-Asian dash to burn more of the dirty fossil fuel that environmentalists fear will upend international efforts to contain global warming.
California is a high-tax state – relative not only to what’s happening elsewhere but to our own economy. But how high is not easy to figure out because we not only pay a lot of taxes that are obvious, such as those on income, retail sales and automotive fuel, but many that are virtually hidden.
When California’s electric power system went into a virtual meltdown 15 years ago, one might think it would have cured politicians’ urges to fiddle with its operations.
“The Labor Department reported on Friday that nonfarm payrolls increased a seasonally adjusted 142,000 in September, far below the trend over the past 18 months.”
“Squeezing additional emissions cuts from factories, power plants and vehicles will be difficult because of population growth, development and increases in driving miles, air quality officials say. But state officials plan to fight smog with some of the same regulations they are relying on to address climate change, including cleaner fuel requirements, renewable electricity mandates and emissions standards to require cleaner trucks and more electric vehicles.”