The measure would also accelerate the state’s goal of reaching 50% renewable energy. Legislation approved two years ago set a deadline of 2030 , but the new proposal would move that up to 2025.
Drivers in the car-crazy California metropolis spent 104 hours each driving in congestion during peak travel periods last year. That topped second-place Moscow at 91 hours and third-place New York at 89, according to a traffic scorecard compiled by Inrix, a transportation analytics firm.
With President Trump pledging $1 trillion for infrastructure, California officials on Wednesday took a break from their feud with the new administration to propose a list of $100 billion in projects for possible federal funding to help rebuild the Golden State’s system of crumbling roads and bridges and improve transit and water storage.
California has a big — and growing — glut of power, an investigation by the Los Angeles Times has found. The state’s power plants are on track to be able to produce at least 21% more electricity than it needs by 2020, based on official estimates. And that doesn’t even count the soaring production of electricity by rooftop solar panels that has added to the surplus. . . Californians are paying a higher premium to switch on lights or turn on electric stoves. In recent years, the gap between what Californians pay versus the rest of the country has nearly doubled to about 50%.
Rocket engine manufacturer Aerojet Rocketdyne has chosen Huntsville, Ala., as its final assembly site for the new AR1 rocket engine, creating 100 new jobs in the area.
The facility at the utility’s Mira Loma substation in Ontario contains nearly 400 Tesla PowerPack units on a 1.5-acre site, which can store enough energy to power 2,500 homes for a day or 15,000 homes for four hours. The utility will use the collection of lithium-ion batteries, which look like big white refrigerators, to gather electricity at night and other off-peak hours so that the electrons can be injected back into the grid when power use jumps.
Overhauling the environmental law, the California Environmental Quality Act, is a perennial issue at the Capitol, and the measure benefiting the Warriors arena was one of the most high-profile CEQA reforms in recent years. But the failure of the 2011 legislation to meet its stated goals reveals the difficulty lawmakers have had in making meaningful changes to the law.
“Two years ago, California Senate leader Kevin de León pushed through a law requiring the state to generate half of its electricity from renewable sources by 2030. On Thursday, he said there was a mistake in the legislation, SB 350 — it didn’t go far enough.”
Donald Trump’s pick to head the Environmental Protection Agency cast doubt on whether California should continue to have power to impose its own emission rules for cars and trucks, an authority the state has enjoyed for decades that is also the cornerstone of its efforts to fight global warming.
Politicians who represent the region in the Capitol have also been skeptical of state regulations, and it’s unclear whether they’ll be swayed by some of the report, which analyzed the cap-and-trade program, renewable energy standards and energy efficiency initiatives. According to the study, there has been $13.4 billion in economic benefits, primarily from the construction of solar generation facilities.
For its part, Gildan said it has yet to decide where to make American Apparel goods. The company makes the bulk of its products in manufacturing hubs in Central America and the Caribbean. Although it has some production sites in the U.S., the only finished goods made here are socks.
A confidential Federal Railroad Administration risk analysis, obtained by The Times, projects that building bridges, viaducts, trenches and track from Merced to Shafter, just north of Bakersfield, could cost $9.5 billion to $10 billion, compared with the original budget of $6.4 billion.
For years, American Apparel proudly touted its “Made in Los Angeles” motto. With its sale Tuesday to a Canadian sportswear firm, neither American Apparel’s name nor its motto will ring so true. . . Gildan, which said it will buy American Apparel’s inventory in a separate deal, will now move most, if not all, production to its manufacturing hubs in Central America and the Caribbean, analysts said. With minimum wage going up in the state, a company like Gildan would view manufacturing in L.A. as more of a liability than an asset.
Brown’s plan unveiled on Tuesday would add $4.3 billion a year over the next decade on everything from repairs to additional public transit. The governor convened a special session of the Legislature to deal with transportation funding in the summer of 2015, but it finally fizzled out last fall.
Less than four years after declaring California’s budget was balanced for the foreseeable future, Gov. Jerry Brown on Tuesday said the state is now projected to run a $1.6-billion deficit by next summer.