California wind turbines provide electricity carried through nearby power lines. (Photo: Mark Higgins, via Shutterstock)
OPINION: As finger-pointing continues over California’s rolling blackouts, some are trying to pin the blame to renewable energy. They are wrong. It’s clear that California’s ambitious renewable energy efforts were not at fault.
An illustration of an energy-producing, energy-storage system. (Image: petrmalinak, via Shutterstock)OPINION:< There are current and new emerging storage technologies to help address our need for storage that can hold very large amounts of energy. The problem is we don’t currently have the right processes in place to get these types of projects built.
Transmission tower with power lines surrounded by trees. <(Photo: Pictures_n_Photos, via Shutterstock)OPINION: The devastation of fire season in wine country and southern California has only been compounded by never-ending public safety power shutoffs across the state. While the purpose of power shutoffs by utility companies, like PG&E, is to prevent their uninspected equipment from catching fire during hot, windy weather, the constant lack of power is an unacceptable solution for California homeowners and business owners and their operations.
A view of homes and stores along Bridgeway Street, Sausalito.(Photo: Boris Vetshev, viua Shutterstock)OPINION: During last month’s PG&E Public Safety Power Shutoffs, like so many across California, my family lost electricity for four days. We couldn’t turn on the lights, access the internet or charge our phones. But we didn’t lose water for a moment, thanks to the steps our water provider had taken to prepare for this kind of emergency.
A California school bus powered by propane. (Photo: SchoolBusFleet.com)In the last decade, numerous California school districts have adopted propane-based school buses in an attempt to eliminate costs and toxic emissions. Since 2013, the Elk Grove Unified School District near Sacramento has added 16 propane buses to its fleet and expects up to 12 more in the next month.
Renewable energy: Windmills line a ridge near Palm Springs at sunset. (Photo: Joe Belanger, via Shutterstock)The California Public Utilities Commission is poised to decide the formula that determines how much consumers are charged by the big investor-owned utility companies, or IOUs—such as Pacific Gas & Electric or Edison, for example—when the customers switch to local community energy programs. It’s a complex issue, but one with major implications for consumers’ pocketbooks.
Lines delivering energy and communications along a rural stretch of the Pacific Coast Highway. (Photo: Lux Blue, via Shutterstock)OPINION: California is a national leader in clean energy. Contrary to the perspective of advocates for Community Choice Aggregators (CCAs), the question before the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) on Sept. 27 is not whether our state will continue to lead the nation in renewable energy, but whether all customers will contribute equitably to the costs of those investments and to system-wide electric reliability.
Students at Alliance Susan & Eric Smidt Technology High School, Los Angeles. (School photo)OPINION: College application season is upon us. This fall, I will begin my senior year of high school at Alliance Susan & Eric Smidt Technology High School and submit my application to my first-choice school, the California Institute of Technology, to study engineering. I’m excited to make my college dreams come true, after four years of hard work.
Dear Editor: I respectfully disagree with Paul Mitchell’s opinion in the April 24, 2018, Capitol Weekly article,“CA120: Political intrigue: BOE’s redistricting and the gas tax.” My vote against raising the gas tax was a matter of policy, not politics.
A rush-hour traffic jam on the approach to the Oakland-San Francisco Bay Bridge. (Photo: Aaron Kohr)OPINION: If you’ve ever sat in traffic crawling at 5 miles per hour or been late to an appointment because of inadequate public transportation, I don’t need to tell you that transportation represents a constant challenge in California. Too many of those problems stem from a planning process that has consistently failed to put people first. California can do better. And let’s not kid ourselves about which people are most likely to get left out of transportation planning decisions: Low-income communities of color.