The Fish and GameCommission Ignores California State Legislature – So, Who Has Oversight?

Given the recent criticism surrounding the California Fish and Game Commission, it’s only a matter of time before a state investigation is launched looking into their actions.

Assemblyman Adam Gray, D-Merced, addressed the California Fish & Game Commissionin February about legislation dealing with Bobcat trappings. Gray explained the legislative intent of Assembly Bill 1213, dealing with bobcat trappings, and said the legislature voted on the bobcat trapping bill with the anticipation that any decisions would be scientific and fact based. Gray asked the commission to hold to the Legislature’s findings, which narrowed the bill from a complete statewide ban “…because of the lack of reliable Bobcat assessments in California, and impact on local businesses which rely on hunting and trapping,” Gray explained. See the video:… Read More

A public pension crisis of epic proportions is brewing in California. The state’s public pension disaster is the greatest financial challenge California has faced since the Great Depression.

A new book by economist Lawrence McQuillen, exposes the true magnitude of the unfunded liability disaster, and focuses on the critical policy actions that drove California’s public pension debt to these heights. In California Dreaming: Lessons on How to Resolve America’s Public Pension Crisis, McQuillen, Senior Fellow at The Independent Institute, also examines the perverse political incentives of elected lawmakers and pension officials that reward them for not fixing the problem, rather letting it… Read More

Imagine a way to extract water from humidity in the air, and turn it into a glass of pure drinking water. I just saw a machine do this.

Pacific AirWell provided a water-making demonstration this week on the dead lawn at the Capitol.

With many communities around the state running out of water, and some chronically challenged with very little or contaminated water, these water making machines could be a portable, cost-effective answer for communities, businesses and homes.

“Today’s Capitol demonstration is the hands-on part of ongoing discussions with State officials toexplore innovative ways to reduce the demands upon surface and ground water, and effectivelymitigate California’s drought by improving the State’s drought resiliency,” said Matt Gray, Pacific AirWell CEO. “We are grateful for the support of lawmakers and look forward to bringing reliefto the people of California.”

One of the Pacific AirWell techs filled me in on the operational processes of the machines. Atmospheric water generation is a technology-based process used to condense water… Read More

Senate Bill 277 by Sen. Richard Pan, D-Sacramento, unleashed a passion and a rage in California voters not seen in for years. The bill angered so many parents, Assembly and Senate recall elections are underway across the state, and a referendum to repeal the mandatory vaccination bill has been launched.

Parents say the new law violates Constitutional rights, as well as their right to choose what’s right for their children. Aren’t Democrats all about the right to choose, or is that only for abortions?

There are three important issues at stake in this… Read More

A bill in the California Legislature is blazing through to mandate the reduction of 50 percent in the use of petroleum-based fuels, 50 percent reduction in energy use by existing buildings and increases the Renewable Portfolio Standard from 33 percent renewables to 50 percent — notably as California is well ontrack to meet the 2020 goal.

SB 350 is authored by Sen. President pro Tem Kevin de Leon. “Do we have the courage to press forward,” asked De Leon, to legislative committee members at Monday’s Assembly Natural Resources Committee hearing on SB 350.

De Leon was long on drama about the “threat of climate change,” but short on verifiable data, and never broached what California can do alone if indeed climate change is the scourge of the entire world.

Radical activists have wormed their way into positions of government authority to implement carbon… Read More

Can California really reduce petroleum-based fuels by 50 percent and still have any sort of economy? Most of California’s businesses and residents rely on oil and gas for day-to-day transportation needs. But a bill currently in the legislative committee process, SB 350, would compromise the availability of transportation fuels.

TheRenewable Portfolio Standard, passed in 2011, called for 33 percent of electricity retail sales be served by renewable energy resources by the year 2020.

However, the President of the California State Senate, Kevin de Leon, no student of economics, is pushing a bill through the… Read More

Conservatives on the Irvine City Council have abolished a million dollar business license tax, to reduce the taxes levied on local businesses. This move followed the council’s recent vote overturning the city’s mandated “living wage” ordinance. Mayor Pro-Tem Jeffrey Lalloway authored the issue, with votes in support from council members Christina Shea and Lynn Schott, all Republicans.

While the business tax amounted to… Read More

Nearly every climate change and clean energy expert admits that California will achieve the legislatively mandated policy goals of AB 32, California’s Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006, which said the state has to reduce carbon emissions to 1990 levels by the year 2020.

So why is the California Air Resource Board and Legislature seeking to move the target before the deadline?

The Assembly Select Committee on Clean Energy was asked to address how Californians can reduce on-road petroleum use by 50 percent, by 2030. Assemblyman Bill Quirk, D-Hayward, the Committee Chairman,… Read More