Wildfires
Blog
California… We Gotta Get Outta This Place
Last fall, The Babylon Bee posted a piece of biting satire that said the U-Haul company had named Gov. Gavin Newsom as its salesperson of the year for the third time in a row “after a record-setting sales quarter.” “Thanks to Gavin Newsom, literally every middle-class family has moved out ...
California
California Burning – Panel Discussion
California once again experienced one of the largest wildfires in state history in 2021, in the shadow of a severe drought that is increasing fire danger. In this panel discussion from PRI’s annual Ideas in Action Conference in Sacramento, policy experts discuss what can be done to reduce wildfires and ...
CEQA
UC Berkeley Case Shows Why Comprehensive Reform Badly Needed to End CEQA Abuse
By Chris Carr The California Supreme Court last week declined to stay a lower court order in a case involving a housing and classroom complex under construction on the UC Berkeley campus. This will effectively shut the door to one of America’s finest public universities for thousands of prospective students. ...
California
Chris Carr Featured in Nor Cal Record in Article on UC Berkeley Case
By Sarah Downey Last week’s legislative action to exempt the University of California at Berkeley from a long-standing state environmental law, is raising questions about how the statute could be further reformed to help not just schools but a host of infrastructure, housing, wildfire protection, and other projects. What’s clear ...
Business & Economics
The Problems with CEQA – with Chris Carr
The California Environmental Quality Act, or CEQA, is a 50-year-old law responsible for holding up many projects in the state due to its labyrinthian process and its vulnerability to lawsuits. Across the state, housing developments, schools, hospitals, even bike paths and wildfire mitigation efforts have been stymied by CEQA. Chris ...
California
CEQA: The high cost of good intentions
By Chris Carr and Ken Broad California is in a quagmire due in no small part to the weaponization of CEQA, the California Environmental Quality Act. We are not providing the physical infrastructure befitting the world’s 5th-largest economy and leading crucible of innovation. Too often, critical projects don’t get built, ...
California
New Report Shows How “CEQA Gauntlet” Hinders Housing, School, Infrastructure, Climate Projects
With 3,000 prospective UC Berkeley students facing rejection due to a California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) lawsuit, the nonpartisan Pacific Research Institute today released “The CEQA Gauntlet,” a new research project detailing how CEQA adds expense and delay to – and in some cases halts – critical California projects including ...
California
Watch Videos from 2022 PRI California Ideas in Action Conference
Conference Theme: Saving California As PRI’s new book Saving California suggests, market-based reforms can help solve California’s biggest policy problems and even advance the goals of the state’s most progressive legislators. Come hear policy experts and real life changemakers discuss reforms that could push the state onto a better track and ...
Blog
No More Games – Return the Surplus to CA Taxpayers
Last year, I got a kick out of playing CalMatters’ Spend the Surplus Game. This year, not so much. CalMatters created a clever online game that lets you decide how California should spend its surplus. This year, it’s projected to be $45.7 billion. Of that amount however, I only get ...
California
A Better California Doesn’t Require A Big-Government Budget
For most, “budget” means a set amount of money they’re able to spend over a defined period of time, such as the funds available in a household account. To California lawmakers, “budget” holds a different meaning. In their world, it typically defines an opportunity to freely spend a massive harvest ...
California… We Gotta Get Outta This Place
Last fall, The Babylon Bee posted a piece of biting satire that said the U-Haul company had named Gov. Gavin Newsom as its salesperson of the year for the third time in a row “after a record-setting sales quarter.” “Thanks to Gavin Newsom, literally every middle-class family has moved out ...
California Burning – Panel Discussion
California once again experienced one of the largest wildfires in state history in 2021, in the shadow of a severe drought that is increasing fire danger. In this panel discussion from PRI’s annual Ideas in Action Conference in Sacramento, policy experts discuss what can be done to reduce wildfires and ...
UC Berkeley Case Shows Why Comprehensive Reform Badly Needed to End CEQA Abuse
By Chris Carr The California Supreme Court last week declined to stay a lower court order in a case involving a housing and classroom complex under construction on the UC Berkeley campus. This will effectively shut the door to one of America’s finest public universities for thousands of prospective students. ...
Chris Carr Featured in Nor Cal Record in Article on UC Berkeley Case
By Sarah Downey Last week’s legislative action to exempt the University of California at Berkeley from a long-standing state environmental law, is raising questions about how the statute could be further reformed to help not just schools but a host of infrastructure, housing, wildfire protection, and other projects. What’s clear ...
The Problems with CEQA – with Chris Carr
The California Environmental Quality Act, or CEQA, is a 50-year-old law responsible for holding up many projects in the state due to its labyrinthian process and its vulnerability to lawsuits. Across the state, housing developments, schools, hospitals, even bike paths and wildfire mitigation efforts have been stymied by CEQA. Chris ...
CEQA: The high cost of good intentions
By Chris Carr and Ken Broad California is in a quagmire due in no small part to the weaponization of CEQA, the California Environmental Quality Act. We are not providing the physical infrastructure befitting the world’s 5th-largest economy and leading crucible of innovation. Too often, critical projects don’t get built, ...
New Report Shows How “CEQA Gauntlet” Hinders Housing, School, Infrastructure, Climate Projects
With 3,000 prospective UC Berkeley students facing rejection due to a California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) lawsuit, the nonpartisan Pacific Research Institute today released “The CEQA Gauntlet,” a new research project detailing how CEQA adds expense and delay to – and in some cases halts – critical California projects including ...
Watch Videos from 2022 PRI California Ideas in Action Conference
Conference Theme: Saving California As PRI’s new book Saving California suggests, market-based reforms can help solve California’s biggest policy problems and even advance the goals of the state’s most progressive legislators. Come hear policy experts and real life changemakers discuss reforms that could push the state onto a better track and ...
No More Games – Return the Surplus to CA Taxpayers
Last year, I got a kick out of playing CalMatters’ Spend the Surplus Game. This year, not so much. CalMatters created a clever online game that lets you decide how California should spend its surplus. This year, it’s projected to be $45.7 billion. Of that amount however, I only get ...
A Better California Doesn’t Require A Big-Government Budget
For most, “budget” means a set amount of money they’re able to spend over a defined period of time, such as the funds available in a household account. To California lawmakers, “budget” holds a different meaning. In their world, it typically defines an opportunity to freely spend a massive harvest ...
