Energy Costs
California
Becerra’s free power plan won’t be free
Democratic gubernatorial candidate Xavier Becerra has proposed giving away a couple of hours of electricity on the days that California has generated too much. It’s not a crazy idea. But it is an inadvertent admission that the current power system doesn’t make sense. Solar power is booming in sunny California. ...
Blog
Who should be liable when utility equipment sparks wildfires?
Who should be liable when utility equipment sparks wildfires? by Kerry Jackson | August 21, 2026 California utilities have been responsible for more than 1 million acres of scorched land. Power lines and other equipment, often outdated, have caused thousands of wildfires. Last year’s Eaton Fire in Los Angeles County for instance, ...
Blog
Higher Energy Prices Could Cost Families Over $1,100 in 2026
Californians face a $1,518 increase in energy costs – higher than the $1,120 increase faced by the average U.S. family and much higher than $809 increase New York residents will see.[1]The below map illustrates the estimated increase in annual energy expenditures between 2025 and 2026 should the current elevated prices ...
Blog
BOOK EXCERPT Urban Policy Beyond the Nation’s Big Metros: Smaller-City Case Studies from California, Washington and Michigan
It’s easy to think that urban policy is solely about big cities and their surrounding suburbs, much in the way that one would naturally believe that farm policy is solely about farm regions. A quick perusal of the statistics suggests that America is indeed an urban nation despite its vast ...
Commentary
Starving Coal of Capital Puts the Power Grid at Risk
Winter Storm Fern was a warning. When temperatures plunged into the single digits and heavy snow blanketed much of the country, the electric grid faced a serious stress test. For years, I have cautioned that rising electricity demand and the premature retirement of dependable power plants were putting the U.S. ...
AI
Read the latest from PRI's Free Cities Center
Cities should rethink their zeal for subsidizing AI data centers
Kate Gallego has had it. In her 2025 State of the City address, Phoenix’s mayor called on lawmakers to eliminate Arizona’s special tax treatment for “new data centers.” Calling it “a holdover from a time before our economy was the magnet for job growth that it is today,” Gallego declared ...
Blog
Spending Watch
Legislators Did Not Relieve California’s Energy Poverty Problem
Legislators Did Not Relieve California’s Energy Poverty Problem Wayne Winegarden September 2025 The legislative year is over and there is lots to be concerned about. Paramount among these concerns, the legislature passed several bills that will worsen the state’s energy affordability problems. Perhaps most disappointing, though not unexpected, legislators passed ...
Business & Economics
Louisiana Is Litigating Away Its Economic Prosperity
Numerous Louisiana parishes are suing oil and gas companies over coastal erosion. A Plaquemines Parish courtroom has a front row seat to one of the more high-dollar cases taking place where the plaintiffs have reportedly asked for more than $3 billion in damages from just one of the defendants. Undoubtedly ...
Blog
Should the Dodgers Have to Cancel their Phillips 66 Sponsorship? A Lawmaker Says Yes.
In a March 11 letter, Senate Majority Leader Lena Gonzalez, a Long Beach Democrat, asked owner and Chairman Mark Walter “to end the Los Angeles Dodgers’ sponsorship deals with fossil fuel companies.” “Ending the sponsorship with Phillips 66,” which owns the 76 brand (formerly Union 76) that partners with the ...
Blog
Put Up Your Nukes, California
An endling, the last member of an endangered species, lives above a cove in San Luis Obispo, County. Having endured on those grounds for four decades, it is likely to go extinct sometime in the 2030s. There is, however, a growing effort to not only save it, but to breed more ...
Becerra’s free power plan won’t be free
Democratic gubernatorial candidate Xavier Becerra has proposed giving away a couple of hours of electricity on the days that California has generated too much. It’s not a crazy idea. But it is an inadvertent admission that the current power system doesn’t make sense. Solar power is booming in sunny California. ...
Who should be liable when utility equipment sparks wildfires?
Who should be liable when utility equipment sparks wildfires? by Kerry Jackson | August 21, 2026 California utilities have been responsible for more than 1 million acres of scorched land. Power lines and other equipment, often outdated, have caused thousands of wildfires. Last year’s Eaton Fire in Los Angeles County for instance, ...
Higher Energy Prices Could Cost Families Over $1,100 in 2026
Californians face a $1,518 increase in energy costs – higher than the $1,120 increase faced by the average U.S. family and much higher than $809 increase New York residents will see.[1]The below map illustrates the estimated increase in annual energy expenditures between 2025 and 2026 should the current elevated prices ...
BOOK EXCERPT Urban Policy Beyond the Nation’s Big Metros: Smaller-City Case Studies from California, Washington and Michigan
It’s easy to think that urban policy is solely about big cities and their surrounding suburbs, much in the way that one would naturally believe that farm policy is solely about farm regions. A quick perusal of the statistics suggests that America is indeed an urban nation despite its vast ...
Starving Coal of Capital Puts the Power Grid at Risk
Winter Storm Fern was a warning. When temperatures plunged into the single digits and heavy snow blanketed much of the country, the electric grid faced a serious stress test. For years, I have cautioned that rising electricity demand and the premature retirement of dependable power plants were putting the U.S. ...
Read the latest from PRI's Free Cities Center
Cities should rethink their zeal for subsidizing AI data centers
Kate Gallego has had it. In her 2025 State of the City address, Phoenix’s mayor called on lawmakers to eliminate Arizona’s special tax treatment for “new data centers.” Calling it “a holdover from a time before our economy was the magnet for job growth that it is today,” Gallego declared ...
Spending Watch
Legislators Did Not Relieve California’s Energy Poverty Problem
Legislators Did Not Relieve California’s Energy Poverty Problem Wayne Winegarden September 2025 The legislative year is over and there is lots to be concerned about. Paramount among these concerns, the legislature passed several bills that will worsen the state’s energy affordability problems. Perhaps most disappointing, though not unexpected, legislators passed ...
Louisiana Is Litigating Away Its Economic Prosperity
Numerous Louisiana parishes are suing oil and gas companies over coastal erosion. A Plaquemines Parish courtroom has a front row seat to one of the more high-dollar cases taking place where the plaintiffs have reportedly asked for more than $3 billion in damages from just one of the defendants. Undoubtedly ...
Should the Dodgers Have to Cancel their Phillips 66 Sponsorship? A Lawmaker Says Yes.
In a March 11 letter, Senate Majority Leader Lena Gonzalez, a Long Beach Democrat, asked owner and Chairman Mark Walter “to end the Los Angeles Dodgers’ sponsorship deals with fossil fuel companies.” “Ending the sponsorship with Phillips 66,” which owns the 76 brand (formerly Union 76) that partners with the ...
Put Up Your Nukes, California
An endling, the last member of an endangered species, lives above a cove in San Luis Obispo, County. Having endured on those grounds for four decades, it is likely to go extinct sometime in the 2030s. There is, however, a growing effort to not only save it, but to breed more ...