In so many ways that it almost defies description, California’s lawmakers have relied on obtuse, punitive, flawed logic to justify recently passed laws implementing urban water rationing in California. Rather than undertake the Sisyphean task of enumerating them, let’s just focus on one critical factor: the opportunity cost. California’s urban water consumption is already down […]
After the deluge that inundated California during our most recent water season, there is no chance Californians will confront a water supply crisis this year. Water levels, as reported by the California Data Exchange Center, are above the historical average for this date in every one of California’s major reservoirs. But storms of scarcity remain on […]
If there is anything that unites Californians it is a belief that anything is possible. How else to explain our state’s mad rush into renewables. Even a skeptic ought to be impressed. With massive wealth, a diverse and resilient economy, abundant sunshine and mild winters, and infinite reserves of imagination that define our culture, the […]
As we move into the final month of 2023, it is appropriate to review recent legislative actions that will have a significant impact on California’s ability to deliver abundant and affordable energy and water to its residents. There isn’t much good news. Almost without exception, the California Legislature is making energy and water scarce and […]
Thanksgiving is here again, and thankfully, California has already had one wave of storms hit the state. And thanks to last winter’s deluges, all of California’s major reservoirs are at storage levels well above historical averages. Our focus this week returns to water, and how important it is to achieve water abundance. The concept of […]
There are solutions to energy, water and infrastructure challenges that make compelling economic and environmental sense even if there was no climate crisis. But for those policymakers and influencers who believe we face an existential threat for which the only appropriate way to cope is to achieve “net zero,” these solutions ought to be even […]
Here’s a question for every oil and gas producer in California. It is especially directed to the five “bad guys” — Exxon Mobil, Shell, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, and BP — that were recently sued by California’s grandstanding attorney general, Rob Bonta: When are you going to quit playing defense? As Alex Epstein has tirelessly expounded both […]
Two weeks ago (ref. WC #14), we provided a blistering critique of wind energy (bias alert, not a fan), but questioning whether or not one “renewable” technology is actually renewable is not an indictment of all renewable technologies! Last week (WC #15) we surveyed electricity storage technologies, pump storage in particular. This week, we will […]
Energy is water. A filtration plant producing one million acre feet (MAF) of desalinated water over one year requires 400 megawatts of continuous power. Pumping 1 MAF per year from the pumps immediately south of the Delta through the California Aqueduct all the way into the Los Angeles Basin requires about 300 megawatts of continuous […]
It’s about time Californians of all ideological persuasions wake up and stop what is possibly the most economically wasteful and environmentally destructive project in American history: the utility scale adoption of wind energy. And with that acknowledgement of bias clearly stated, readers are invited to review this week’s selections and make up their own minds! […]