Free Republic

As if we don’t already pay enough for gas in California, come this summer we may be taxed on it even more by the state. The tax Californians pay for each gallon of gas they buy — called the excise tax — is expected to increase 3.5 cents per gallon in July to 39.5 cents per gallon. The state Board of Equalization - charged with setting the rate since 2010 - will meet Tuesday in Culver City to consider about a 10 percent increase because previous tax collections fell short of budgeted amounts. The excise tax isn’t the only one...

President John F. Kennedy’s nephew, Robert Kennedy, Jr., netted a $1.4 billion bailout for his company, BrightSource, through a loan guarantee issued by a former employee-turned Department of Energy official. It’s just one more in a string of eye-opening revelations by investigative journalist and Breitbart editor Peter Schweizer in his explosive new book, Throw Them All Out. The details of how BrightSource managed to land its ten-figure taxpayer bailout have yet to emerge fully. However, one clue might be found in the person of Sanjay Wagle. Wagle was one of the principals in Kennedy’s firm who raised money for Barack...

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has set an ambitious plan that requires a third of the state's electricity to come from renewable sources by 2020. But a fight over where to build large clean-energy projects is slowing the green revolution. Credit: Alyson Hurt, NPR One of these battlegrounds is Panoche Valley, ringed by rolling, scrub-covered hills. Located in California's rural San Benito County, the area was used mostly for cattle grazing, and it has escaped the notice of many Californians. Until now.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has asked the state’s air-quality enforcers to postpone a rule to require 33 percent of the power used by utilities to come from renewable sources such as wind and solar energy. Schwarzenegger asked the Air Resources Board to delay until September its adoption of the new regulation, which had been expected this month. The Republican governor said he made the request because of “ongoing discussions with legislative leaders to develop a bill that I can sign.” If those negotiations don’t prove fruitful, the ARB “will be ready and able to adopt the regulations at that time (in...

New development in California needs to be designed from the start to conserve electricity and water, decrease driving time, improve air quality and promote a sustainable lifestyle, according to a landmark study of the state's future growth. Vision California, the state's first major planning document in almost 30 years, was released Wednesday. Growth should focus not on increasing suburban sprawl but instead on creating compact development in already established cities, the report says. Bringing commuters closer to their jobs, its authors argue, can help Californians drive 3.7 trillion fewer miles and save 140 billion gallons of gasoline by 2050. "The...

SACRAMENTO – Among the proposals in the Capital A austere revised budget Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger unveiled May 14 is collecting $100 million by allowing new oil drilling in state waters off the California coast for the first time in 40 years. Awarding the lease would nullify a January ruling by the three-person State Lands Commission, which regulates drilling in the first three miles off the California coast. The commission rejected the lease sought by the Plains Exploration and Production Company to drill in Tranquillon Ridge, offshore from Vandenberg Air Force Base near Lompoc on a 2 to 1 vote, despite...

In what is touted to be the largest solar deal in the world, Pacific Gas & Electric today announced that it has expanded a series of solar-power contracts with Oakland's BrightSource Energy for a total of 1,310 megawatts of electricity — enough to power 530,000 California homes during peak hours. Peak hours in the state are usually from noon to 7 p.m. The power purchase agreements, which will now include seven power plants, add to a previous contract the two companies struck last April for up to 900 megawatts of solar thermal power. The deal with PG&E means BrightSource now...

MARCH 27, 2009 Dianne Feinstein: I Brake for Turtles California's energy-independence movement, held up by the desert tortoise. By JOHN FUND Congressman Dana Rohrabacher, a California Republican, thinks he has a partial solution to America's dependence on foreign oil. But he says liberals and environmentalists are rejecting his plan to make it easier to build solar and wind power stations. California's Mohave Desert is an inhospitable place, he notes, but 19 companies think it's perfect for siting solar or wind facilities on 500,000 acres owned by the federal government there. But Senator Dianne Feinstein, a California Democrat who used to...

California has a rapidly-expanding budget shortfall, unemployment going above 10% for the first time since the early 1980s, and perhaps the worst business climate in the nation, excepting Michigan. How does the state plan to boost the economy, create jobs, and build consumer confidence? They want to ban plasma TVs because they’re not green enough: In their continuing quest to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, state regulators have uncovered a new villain in the war on global warming : your big screen TV Couch potatoes, beware. The California Energy Commission is considering a proposal that would ban California retailers from selling...

In their continuing quest to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, state regulators have uncovered a new villain in the war on global warming : your big screen TV Couch potatoes, beware. The California Energy Commission is considering a proposal that would ban California retailers from selling all but the most energy-efficient televisions. Critics say the news standards could take 25 percent of televisions off the market — most of them 40 inches or larger. (snip) Affordable big screen TVs will still be available under the new standards, spokesman Adam Gottlieb said. In fact, he said the regulations will save you money....

Earlier this month, we asked you to call your U.S. Representatives to show support for the national Omnibus Public Lands Bill, containing wilderness desig- nations for over 700,000 acres in California. (If you haven’t called your representative yet, please do so now.) Now we have an opportunity to get even more of California’s wild desert places formally designated as wilderness — the highest protection our public lands can receive from the federal government.All you need to do is write a quick, heart-felt note to Sen. Dianne Feinstein mentioning why you love wild desert places in general, and mentioning a few...

WASHINGTON -- California's Mojave Desert may seem ideally suited for solar energy production, but concern over what several proposed projects might do to the aesthetics of the region and its tortoise population is setting up a potential clash between conservationists and companies seeking to develop renewable energy. Feinstein said Friday she intends to push legislation that would turn the land into a national monument, which would allow for existing uses to continue while preventing future development.

WASHINGTON (AP) — More than 500,000 acres in the Mojave Desert would be off-limits to wind or solar energy production under legislation Sen. Dianne Feinstein intends to introduce. The land is coveted by companies seeking to develop alternative energy, setting up a potential clash with one of the more powerful members of Congress. The land would seem ideally suited for solar energy production. Nineteen companies have submitted applications to build solar or wind facilities on the property, but such development would violate the spirit of what conservationists had intended when they donated much of the land to the public, said...

In his latest effort to combat global warming, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger wants to enlist the state's troubled youth. The governor today announced the new California Green Corps., a statewide effort to train at-risk young adults between 16 and 24 years old for jobs in the state's fledgling green tech industry. "It's the kind of program that President Obama envisioned when he put together the economic stimulus package. It's all about jobs, jobs, jobs," Schwarzenegger said after touring a solar installation certificate program at American River College, a community college in Sacramento. The program will be administered by Schwarzenegger's volunteerism czar...

SACRAMENTO-While tensions are rising between President Obama and Congressional Republicans, California's Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger says he is eager for more opportunities to partner with Obama on big issues like health care and energy. He's also got some advice for the new president about building inclusive "post-partisan" coalitions. Schwarzenegger is positioned to become perhaps Obama's most important Republican ally. He was among the most prominent GOP governors who backed the economic recovery plan that cleared Congress with support from no Republicans in the House and just three in the Senate. And Schwarzenegger has advanced his own state-level initiatives on health...

Southern California Edison said it has wrapped up the world's largest-ever agreement to buy electricity generated by solar power, a series of generators in California's eastern deserts that could eventually supply more than 800,000 homes. The utility, which serves Riverside County and the sprawling southern California territory outside of the city of Los Angeles and San Diego County, hopes the first of seven plants will begin operating in 2013, the company said in a press release Wednesday morning. The Rosemead-based utility counts nearly 5 million customers in Riverside and a half-dozen other California counties. BrightSource Energy Inc. of Oakland would...

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A company backed by investors linked to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is pressing regulators to speed up a review of its proposed $2 billion solar-energy complex, warning that delays would send a "chilling signal" to the emerging green power industry. But the California Energy Commission staff opposes the move, depicting it as an end run that could break apart a precedent-setting review of the planned solar site near the Mojave Desert Preserve. At the center of the dispute is a project widely viewed as a potential breakthrough in large-scale U.S. solar development. --snip-- The company says the...

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – California on Friday became the first state in the country to force big diesel trucks to clean up their exhaust, despite warnings from truckers the new rules will force them out of business. About a million vehicles, from big rigs to school buses, are affected by the new rules, which will begin taking effect in 2011 and do not require further ratification. Some vehicles will have to start retrofitting engines in 2011 and some older trucks will be forced into retirement starting in 2012. By 2023, all trucks must meet 2010 new engine emission standards. The...

NEVADA CITY, California, November 19, 2008 (ENS) - Four dams on the Klamath River that have blocked salmon runs upstream to their spawning areas may be removed in the year 2020 under an historic agreement among federal, state and corporate parties. Dam removal will re-open over 300 miles of habitat for the Klamath's salmon and steelhead populations and eliminate water quality problems such as toxic algae blooms caused by the reservoirs. The federal government, the state of California, the state of Oregon and the PacifiCorp electric utility Thursday announced an Agreement in Principle to remove the four dams as part...

The People's Republic of California - which voted for Barack Obama over John McCain by a margin of 24 points - did something else that should send an even louder message: the "green," "global warming," "alternative energy" initiatives got utterly annihilated. Proposition 7 - which would have required utilities to generate 40 percent of their power from renewable energy by 2020 and 50 percent by 2025 - went down 65% to 35%. And Proposition 10 - which would have created $5 billion in general obligation bonds to help consumers and others purchase certain high fuel economy or alternative fuel vehicles,...