Wildfires

Blog

Coronavirus Chronicles: States Want Bailout for Past Profligate Spending

Even as House members consider themselves non-essential workers (they’ve decided to vote from home), it hasn’t stopped some lawmakers from coming up with bad ideas for the next stimulus package, including relief for states and municipalities with pre-existing economic conditions. In California, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced last week at his ...
Business & Economics

Daniel Kolkey – What the Governor Can Do to Help Californians in the Next Fire Season

This podcast is a recorded lecture from PRI’s second annual policy conference in Sacramento. The speaker is Judge Daniel Kolkey, a partner with Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher. He served as an Associate Justice on the California Court of Appeals and Legal Affairs Secretary for Governor Pete Wilson. California is approaching ...
Blog

What We’re Watching – The Best of PRI’s 2020 CA Ideas in Action Conference

PRI’s second annual “California Ideas in Action” conference was held a few weeks back.  This year’s conference featured PRI scholars, policy experts, and real life changemakers discussing how free market ideas can address the new decade’s major challenges in California – homelessness, the future of work, education, health care, and ...
Blog

Bankruptcy Deadline May Not Save PG&E from State Takeover

Reeling from multiple massive state wildfires that its actions likely triggered, Pacific Gas & Electric, or PG&E, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy this time last year. The investor-owned utility faces a June 30, 2020 deadline to come up with a plan to come out of bankruptcy, address the estimated $25 ...
California

California Not Exactly Roaring Into The ‘20s

A recent New York Times story posed an interesting question. “California is booming,” the Times says. “Why are so many Californians unhappy?” Despite Gov. Gavin Newsom’s recent 2-hour-and-50-minute budget announcement – where he boasted of his administration’s “successes” – there are many troubling signs the state is slowing down. Chief ...
Blog

California Governor Never Met a Task Force He Didn’t Like

If you were able to make it through California Governor Gavin Newsom’s almost three-hour budget briefing, you’ve probably been following the enormous funding proposals included in the $222.2 billion budget estimate. You can save 167 minute of your time and read the blog post by PRI’s Tim Anaya. Governor Newsom ...
Blog

At the Intersection of Art and Climate In California

When the California Air Resources Board opens its new headquarters in two years in Riverside, it will be basking in the radiance of the “world’s largest permanent collection of artworks addressing air quality and the effects of climate change.” The cost: $2.42 million, funded by a public art alliance. And ...
Blackouts

Kerry Jackson – The Great Blackouts of 2019

PRI Center for California fellow Kerry Jackson discusses the electricity shutoff that plunged some 3 million Californians into darkness. He reviews the history of California’s utility problems, the lack of market incentives for delivering power in the state, and examines the policy decisions that have contributed to the ongoing wildfire ...
Blackouts

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

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 3 million ...
Blog

Free Markets: Power to The People

Gov. Gavin Newsom announced last week that he was going to name an energy czar “in the wake of Pacific Gas and Electric Company’s prolonged power outages,” says the Sacramento Bee, because. According to the governor, “the entire system needs to be reimagined.” “We cannot afford the kind of public ...
Blog

Coronavirus Chronicles: States Want Bailout for Past Profligate Spending

Even as House members consider themselves non-essential workers (they’ve decided to vote from home), it hasn’t stopped some lawmakers from coming up with bad ideas for the next stimulus package, including relief for states and municipalities with pre-existing economic conditions. In California, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced last week at his ...
Business & Economics

Daniel Kolkey – What the Governor Can Do to Help Californians in the Next Fire Season

This podcast is a recorded lecture from PRI’s second annual policy conference in Sacramento. The speaker is Judge Daniel Kolkey, a partner with Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher. He served as an Associate Justice on the California Court of Appeals and Legal Affairs Secretary for Governor Pete Wilson. California is approaching ...
Blog

What We’re Watching – The Best of PRI’s 2020 CA Ideas in Action Conference

PRI’s second annual “California Ideas in Action” conference was held a few weeks back.  This year’s conference featured PRI scholars, policy experts, and real life changemakers discussing how free market ideas can address the new decade’s major challenges in California – homelessness, the future of work, education, health care, and ...
Blog

Bankruptcy Deadline May Not Save PG&E from State Takeover

Reeling from multiple massive state wildfires that its actions likely triggered, Pacific Gas & Electric, or PG&E, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy this time last year. The investor-owned utility faces a June 30, 2020 deadline to come up with a plan to come out of bankruptcy, address the estimated $25 ...
California

California Not Exactly Roaring Into The ‘20s

A recent New York Times story posed an interesting question. “California is booming,” the Times says. “Why are so many Californians unhappy?” Despite Gov. Gavin Newsom’s recent 2-hour-and-50-minute budget announcement – where he boasted of his administration’s “successes” – there are many troubling signs the state is slowing down. Chief ...
Blog

California Governor Never Met a Task Force He Didn’t Like

If you were able to make it through California Governor Gavin Newsom’s almost three-hour budget briefing, you’ve probably been following the enormous funding proposals included in the $222.2 billion budget estimate. You can save 167 minute of your time and read the blog post by PRI’s Tim Anaya. Governor Newsom ...
Blog

At the Intersection of Art and Climate In California

When the California Air Resources Board opens its new headquarters in two years in Riverside, it will be basking in the radiance of the “world’s largest permanent collection of artworks addressing air quality and the effects of climate change.” The cost: $2.42 million, funded by a public art alliance. And ...
Blackouts

Kerry Jackson – The Great Blackouts of 2019

PRI Center for California fellow Kerry Jackson discusses the electricity shutoff that plunged some 3 million Californians into darkness. He reviews the history of California’s utility problems, the lack of market incentives for delivering power in the state, and examines the policy decisions that have contributed to the ongoing wildfire ...
Blackouts

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

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 3 million ...
Blog

Free Markets: Power to The People

Gov. Gavin Newsom announced last week that he was going to name an energy czar “in the wake of Pacific Gas and Electric Company’s prolonged power outages,” says the Sacramento Bee, because. According to the governor, “the entire system needs to be reimagined.” “We cannot afford the kind of public ...
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