Category: Basic Services

May 2, 2019

California is a global leader in technology, so it stands to reason that we’re focusing more on technological solutions to help overcome the growing threat from frequent and deadly wildfires. Over the past two years, California has endured a number […]

April 18, 2019

When Chitty Chitty Bang Bang was released 50 years ago, flying cars were a flight of fancy. Now, these futuristic vehicles are entering the outer fringes of reality. According to a new study published in Nature, for some journeys flying […]

April 9, 2019

U.S. Sens. Mark Warner and Cory Gardner introduced legislation Monday that would authorize the Department of Homeland Security to give state and local governments grants to purchase additional cybersecurity resources and hire more information-security personnel. Under the State Cyber Resiliency […]

March 1, 2019

The New York City Council on February 28 adopted legislation to better protect workers in the private sanitation industry. According to a report in ProPublica, one bill authorizes the city’s Business Integrity Commission (BIC) to directly police labor unions at […]

February 26, 2019

The SCC’s decision in the Walmart case illustrates the regulatory difficulty of balancing the needs of different customer classes. In Virginia, customers must buy electricity from their incumbent utility unless they have a demand greater than 5 MW or are […]

January 25, 2019

The agreement among Virginia lawmakers on Thursday marks a rare legislative intervention against utility plans to store coal ash at their plant sites as companies continue to clash with environmental groups over the most effective methods to handle the waste. […]

January 18, 2019

The market for energy storage in Texas is in limbo, in part because key issues regarding utility ownership of energy storage have yet to be resolved. The issue arose a year ago when the PUCT dismissed a request by AEP […]

December 26, 2018

California’s Strategic Growth Council (SGC) approved funding for four groundbreaking research initiatives that will develop clean technologies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and advance equitable outcomes for vulnerable communities. The research teams that were selected for funding will explore topics […]

December 18, 2018

California regulators have committed the state to ending fossil fuel use for its roughly 12,000-strong transit bus fleet by 2040, another long-term commitment to reducing the state’s carbon emissions that’s already being driven by the economics of electrifying transit and […]

November 21, 2018

Democrats came away from this year’s midterm elections with 14 governorships. The party flipped seven of those seats from Republicans. Of Democrats who ran, six campaigned on pledges to increase renewable energy in their state. The results of those elections […]