Pacific Research Institute | California Studies

CAPITAL IDEAS: California’s Blackouts: How Did We Get Here and What Can We Do to Keep the Lights On?

November 07, 2019

Download the Brief Introduction Pacific Gas and Electric of San Francisco began in October 2019 a series of electricity blackouts called “public safety power shutoffs.” The objective was to prevent its equipment from starting wildfires during hot, dry, and windy periods. The Great Blackouts of 2019 plunged nearly...

CAPITAL IDEAS: California’s Electric Car Future to Nowhere

October 01, 2019

DOWNLOAD THE BRIEF California lawmakers won’t give up on their crusade to force everyone in the state into electric cars (before eventually removing us out of our cars altogether). That electric vehicles neither sell nor perform up to reasonable expectations is irrelevant to the anti-car movement...

CAPITAL IDEAS: The Ugly Side of the Pursuit for ‘Sustainability’

August 28, 2019

California

Los Angeles County has adopted a “sustainability” program that officials expect “to enhance the well-being of every community in the county while reducing damage to the natural environment and adapting to the changing climate.” This is considered smart. By people who should know better. Our smartest...

NEW STUDY: State and Local Tax Deduction “Makes it Rain” in California, Paid for by Taxpayers in Low Tax States

August 15, 2019

A new study released today by the nonpartisan Pacific Research Institute, a California-based free market think tank, found that capping the State and Local Tax deduction brought broad-based tax relief to millions of Americans, while putting an end to taxpayers in low-tax states like Indiana...

CAPITAL IDEAS: California Fun For A Few, A Hardship For Many

July 18, 2019

California

DOWNLOAD PDF California is the most fun state in the country. So says the website WalletHub. It can’t be fun for everyone, though. Many would say living in California is a miserable existence. If the standard for fun is measured by the vast opportunities of things to...

CAPITAL IDEAS: Lease-Purchase Model May Provide Solution for Home Affordability Problem

June 20, 2019

California

READ THE PDF For a large majority of Americans, their home is their most valuable asset, while also serving as a major portion of their retirement portfolio. For others, owning their home provides a source of stability and community for themselves and their children, granting freedom...

New PRI Study: Free-Market Reforms, Private Charities Key to Addressing San Francisco’s Growing Homeless Crisis

June 19, 2019

California

A new brief on San Francisco’s homeless crisis published today by the nonpartisan Pacific Research Institute concludes that the city could make great strides in reducing homelessness by encouraging and supporting private sector involvement, while making policy changes that will invite a homebuilding boom. The brief...

CAPITAL IDEAS: Don’t Confuse Private Prisons with The Bastille

April 18, 2019

California

Download the PDF They are not as unpopular in California as President Trump is, but private prisons are becoming a preferred target of politicians. Gov. Gavin Newsom, who has a large blue-plate special of problems to solve, is at the forefront of a campaign to end the...

CAPITAL IDEAS: California’s Plastic Police Always on The Job

March 25, 2019

California

DOWNLOAD THE PDF It was inevitable. California lawmakers’ assault on choice continues in 2019. The plastic-bag ban already in effect is not enough to satisfy their appetite for micromanaging others’ lives. After successfully outlawing single-use plastic bags in grocery stores and other large retailers, with the help...

CAPITAL IDEAS: CEQA: How To Mend It Since You Can’t End It

February 20, 2019

California

It is no coincidence that California’s housing prices began to diverge from the rest of the country in 1970 – the very year that the California Environmental Quality Act (“CEQA”) was enacted. According to California’s nonpartisan Legislative Analyst, “Between 1970 and 1980, California home prices went...