LA Times (December 17)
‘’Uber built its business by challenging regulators and entrenched assumptions about how best to assure public safety. It successfully evaded the strict local rules that the taxi industry faces on fares, licenses and driver background checks by arguing that smartphone-summoned rides were different from taxis and should be regulated under new state standards. It has also avoided a variety of mandates on employers by classifying its drivers as independent contractors, not employees.” But when it comes to testing driverless vehicles on California roads, the technology company should play be the rules.
Tags: ” Driverless vehicles, Assumptions, California, Contractors, Drivers, Employees, Employers, Fares, Licenses, Mandates, Public safety, Regulators, Rules, Smartphone, Taxi industry, Uber
New York Times (March 6)
“California is often at the vanguard of important policy changes. The state’s move toward raising the legal age to buy cigarettes should inspire other states to take similar steps to protect young people.”
Tags: California, Cigarettes, Legal age, Policy changes, Protect, Vanguard, Young people
The Economist (June 27)
“Electric buses in parts of South Korea, Italy, Britain and California are, today, recharging themselves from underground wireless chargers.” Wireless charging isn’t new. Nicholas Tesla used resonant induction in the 19th century, but it may finally prove revolutionary. From mobile phones to cars and kitchen appliances, “sales of such machines, now half a billion dollars a year, will grow 30-fold over the next decade.” Furthermore, the technology may succeed in “decarbonising the world’s road vehicles.”
Tags: Britain, California, Electric buses, Italy, Recharging, Resonant induction, Revolutionary, South Korea, Tesla, Vehicles, Wireless charging
LA Times (March 20)
Last year “Californians responded initially with big water savings but let the hoses and sprinklers run again toward the end of last year, as the Sierra snow began to fall and it was easier to hope — to pretend — that the dry times were behind us. It’s clear now that’s not the case.” With the drought in its fourth year, “Californians must begin using water as though they are still at the front end of…cataclysm.”
Tags: California, Cataclysm, Drought, Snow, Water savings
LA Times (March 12)
“California leads the pack with the share of electricity from renewable sources, more than doubling from 12% in 2008 to 25% today. In that period, private companies invested more than $20 billion in new renewable power plants here. California is home to the largest geothermal, wind, solar thermal and solar photovoltaic power plants in the world.” By2030, California is aiming to reach 50% renewable energy, after which fossil fuels will become “the alternative energy.”
Tags: Alternative energy, California, Electricity, Fossil fuels, Geothermal, Photovoltaic, Power plants, Renewable sources, Solar, Thermal, Wind
Wall Street Journal (January 30)
“Trouble has been looming over the oil patch since crude prices began falling last summer, from over $100 a barrel to under $50 today. But only now are the long-feared effects of a bust starting to ripple through the complex energy ecosystem, affecting Houston executives, California landowners and oil old-timers in Oklahoma.”
Tags: Barrel, Bust, California, Crude prices, Energy ecosystem, Falling, Houston, Oil, Oklahoma, Trouble
Bloomberg (November 11)
“Oceanographers have detected isotopes linked to Japan’s wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant off California’s coast, though at levels far below those that could pose a measurable health risk.” While the origin of the isotopes is clear, it is equally clear that the minute levels are absolutely safe, registering about 1,000 times below the EPA’s limits for drinking water.
Tags: California, Drinking water, EPA, Fukushima, Health, Isotopes, Japan, Nuclear plant, Oceanographers, Risk, Safe
New York Times (July 10)
“California is in the third year of its worst drought in decades. But you wouldn’t know it by looking at how much water the state’s residents and businesses are using.” Nearly half a year ago, the State called for a 20% reduction in water use, but so far actual savings have been closer to 5% and, “in some parts of the state, like the San Diego area, water use has actually increased from 2013.” California needs to urgently take “much stronger conservation measures.”
Tags: California, Conservation, Drought, Reduction, Residents, San Diego, Savings, Water, Water use
Los Angeles Times (May 1)
California “continues to attract more manufacturers and create more jobs than almost any other. The numbers don’t lie.” Toyota and Occidental Petroleum both announced plans to move their headquarters from California to Texas. Nevertheless, California’s business environment remains vibrant given the state’s unique “ability to incubate new companies and tech innovators, putting its businesses in the vanguard of new industries.”
Tags: Business, California, Environment, Innovators, Jobs, Manufacturers, Occidental Petroleum, Texas, Toyota, Vanguard
Los Angeles Times (March 28)
“California ought to learn from the experience of Australia, the driest continent on Earth, with a broadly similar economy.” California has been reeling from perpetual water shortages: the result of a flawed water policy. California “uses enough water in an average year to support, in theory, 318 million Californians (and their lawns and dishwashers), more than eight times the actual population of 38 million.”
Tags: Australia, California, Dishwashers, Dry, Economy, Lawns, Policy, Population, Shortages, Water
