Posts Tagged: infrastructure
News
In February, Texas experienced a freak weather event, a deep freeze that shut down its electrical system, damaged its infrastructure and cost dozens of lives. The storm revealed the lack of preparation and investment by the Texas state government, the flaws of its system of deregulated privately-owned utilities, and the failures of the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, or ERCOT. The latter is responsible for maintaining the state’s energy infrastructure.
Opinion
OPINION: President Biden campaigned on a goal of net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. But this goal will not be achievable without deploying technologies and practices that can pull greenhouse gases from the atmosphere – or from smokestacks of industrial facilities that have few viable alternatives – and securely store it underground or use it in long-lived products like concrete.
News
A fight is brewing in the Capitol – about the Capitol. It’s all about plans to build a new Visitors Center beneath the domed West Wing and demolish the 68-year-old East Annex, replacing it with one of three proposed buildings.
Opinion
OPINION: As it helps draft a strategy for recovery, the Legislature and Gov. Gavin Newsom’s Task Force on Business and Jobs Recovery should look to the role that hydrogen and fuel cell vehicles can play in achieving all that, just as other governments around the world are doing.
Opinion
OPINION: As a state, we are fighting this pandemic with a hand and a foot tied behind our backs. Decades of disinvestment in public health infrastructure has weakened our public health system, making this crisis even worse.
News
California’s vulnerability to climate change — from deadly fires to sea level rise — has been well documented. But the Legislature’s nonpartisan fiscal adviser says the state, with rare exceptions, has only just begun to assess the risk climate change poses to roads, dams, parks and schools.
News
Things are not going well for PG&E. Amid massive blackouts that PG&E has put in place to avoid liability in the event of a wildfire, millions of Californians were left without power — for days at a time in some cases. San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo has called for a public takeover of PG&E — a move backed by at least two dozen cities — that would reclassify the company as a nonprofit electric and gas cooperative instead of an investor-owned company.
Opinion
OPINION: The California Legislature is currently considering several proposals to put a $4 billion bond measure on a 2020 ballot for safe drinking water, drought preparation, wildfire prevention, and climate resilience. An $8.9 billion bond initiative has also been filed by environmental advocates. Many Californians might ask, “Didn’t we already pay for that?”
News
While wildfires have gotten much of the attention in California as consequences of climate change, it’s really rising sea levels that will likely wreak the most damage. With more than 25 million people living near the coast, some $150 billion worth of property is at risk.
Opinion
OPINION: California is facing a wildfire crisis of epic proportions, and with the 2019 fire season already upon us, the immediate threat of yet another highly destructive and costly wildfire looms over communities all across the state. Everyone agrees that something must be done to address this crisis, and yet legislators still have not taken definitive action.
Headquarters of the Sacramento Municipal Utility District, (Photo: Cassionhabib, via Shutterstock)
