Tag: California

June 29, 2020

From Corcoran and Avenal state prisons in the arid Central Valley to historical San Quentin on the San Francisco Bay, California prisons have emerged as raging COVID-19 hot spots, even as the state annually spends more on inmate health care […]

June 23, 2020

SACRAMENTO — Gov. Gavin Newsom and Democratic state lawmakers agreed Monday on a state budget plan that would avoid the deep cuts to essential health care services that the governor had initially proposed. Even though the state faces a massive […]

June 15, 2020

California utilities have their work cut out for them this summer in light of several new requirements and deadlines issued by the CPUC. But the new orders could also open opportunities for community and residential storage projects. In a June […]

June 9, 2020

As a wave of local governments in California roll out policies that promote the electrification of buildings, the state’s energy regulators have been saddled with a complicated task: planning for the future of its natural gas system. Around 30 cities […]

June 1, 2020

California’s energy past is on a collision course with its future. Think of major oil-producing U.S. states, and Texas, Alaska or North Dakota probably come to mind. Although its position relative to other states has been falling for 20 years, […]

May 19, 2020

Children have largely escaped the ravages of COVID-19, but children’s hospitals have not eluded the financial pain the pandemic has wrought on health care providers. Pediatric hospitals offered themselves as backups to their adult counterparts in case of a surge […]

May 8, 2020

Last week, after Mayor Eric Garcetti announced that Los Angeles was offering COVID-19 tests to all city and county residents, I decided to get one myself — and test Garcetti’s bold new promise in the bargain. I was surprised how […]

May 6, 2020

California utility Pacific Gas & Electric may need to rely even more heavily on forced blackouts this year, to prevent its grid from starting more deadly wildfires like the ones that drove it into bankruptcy. PG&E’s wildfire mitigation work appears […]

May 4, 2020

Months into the spread of the coronavirus in the United States, widespread diagnostic testing still isn’t available, and California offers a sobering view of the dysfunction blocking the way. It’s hard to overstate how uneven the access to critical test […]

April 30, 2020

Last year, California utilities rolled out public safety power shut-offs that cut off service to millions of customers during times of high fire risk, when weather conditions could damage their power lines​. PG&E — which has previously said that its […]