california

Most California counties fall short of reopening criteria as coronavirus cases climb

The vast majority of California isn't close to meeting Gov. Gavin Newsom's reopening requirements, a Times analysis finds.




california

California voters asked to vote by mail in November due to coronavirus fears

Gov. Gavin Newsom ordered ballots be mailed to the state's 20.6 million voters for the November election while imposing new rules for in-person voting.




california

Senior care homes source of nearly half of all California coronavirus deaths, data show

New data analyzed by the Los Angeles Times show that nearly half of all COVID-19 deaths in the state are associated with elder care facilities.




california

A politically connected firm gets an $800-million mask contract with California. Then it falls apart

California's deal with Bear Mountain Development Co. for coronavirus equipment was one of the state's largest.




california

California governor says community spread started at nail salon

He said he couldn't provide more information because of health and privacy concerns.




california

California NICU disaster preparedness




california

Class Notes: Harvard Discrimination, California’s Shelter-in-Place Order, and More

This week in Class Notes: California's shelter-in-place order was effective at mitigating the spread of COVID-19. Asian Americans experience significant discrimination in the Harvard admissions process. The U.S. tax system is biased against labor in favor of capital, which has resulted in inefficiently high levels of automation. Our top chart shows that poor workers are much more likely to keep commuting in…

       




california

Class Notes: Harvard Discrimination, California’s Shelter-in-Place Order, and More

This week in Class Notes: California's shelter-in-place order was effective at mitigating the spread of COVID-19. Asian Americans experience significant discrimination in the Harvard admissions process. The U.S. tax system is biased against labor in favor of capital, which has resulted in inefficiently high levels of automation. Our top chart shows that poor workers are much more likely to keep commuting in…

       




california

Class Notes: Harvard Discrimination, California’s Shelter-in-Place Order, and More

This week in Class Notes: California's shelter-in-place order was effective at mitigating the spread of COVID-19. Asian Americans experience significant discrimination in the Harvard admissions process. The U.S. tax system is biased against labor in favor of capital, which has resulted in inefficiently high levels of automation. Our top chart shows that poor workers are much more likely to keep commuting in…

       




california

Class Notes: Harvard Discrimination, California’s Shelter-in-Place Order, and More

This week in Class Notes: California's shelter-in-place order was effective at mitigating the spread of COVID-19. Asian Americans experience significant discrimination in the Harvard admissions process. The U.S. tax system is biased against labor in favor of capital, which has resulted in inefficiently high levels of automation. Our top chart shows that poor workers are much more likely to keep commuting in…

       




california

Class Notes: Harvard Discrimination, California’s Shelter-in-Place Order, and More

This week in Class Notes: California's shelter-in-place order was effective at mitigating the spread of COVID-19. Asian Americans experience significant discrimination in the Harvard admissions process. The U.S. tax system is biased against labor in favor of capital, which has resulted in inefficiently high levels of automation. Our top chart shows that poor workers are much more likely to keep commuting in…

       




california

Class Notes: Harvard Discrimination, California’s Shelter-in-Place Order, and More

This week in Class Notes: California's shelter-in-place order was effective at mitigating the spread of COVID-19. Asian Americans experience significant discrimination in the Harvard admissions process. The U.S. tax system is biased against labor in favor of capital, which has resulted in inefficiently high levels of automation. Our top chart shows that poor workers are much more likely to keep commuting in…

       




california

Optimal solar subsidy policy design and incentive pass-through evaluation: using US California as an example


Renewable energy is an important source to tackle against climate change, as the latest IPCC report has pointed out. However, due to the existence of multiple market failures such as negative externalities of fossil fuels and knowledge spillovers of new technology, government subsidies are still needed to develop renewable energy, such as solar photovoltaic (PV) cells. In the United States, there have been various forms of subsidies for PV, varying from the federal level to the state level, and from the city level to the utility level. California, as the pioneer of solar PV development, has put forward the biggest state-level subsidy program for PV, the California Solar Initiative (CSI). The CSI has planned to spend around $2.2 Billion in 2007–2016 to install roughly 2 GW PV capacity, with the average subsidy level as high as $1.1/W. How to evaluate the cost-effectiveness and incentive pass-through of this program are the two major research questions we are pursing.

Our cost-effectiveness analysis is based on a constrained optimization model that we developed, where the objective is to install as much PV capacity as possible under a fixed budget constraint. Both the analytical and computational results suggest that due to a strong peer effect and the learning-by-doing effect, one can shift subsides from later periods to early periods so that the final PV installed capacity can be increased by 8.1% (or 32 MW). However, if the decision-maker has other policy objectives or constraints in mind, such as maintaining the policy certainty, then, the optimally calculated subsidy policy would look like the CSI.

As to the incentive pass-through question, we took a structural approach and in addition used the method of regression discontinuity (RD). While in general, the incentive pass-through rate depends on the curvature of the demand and supply curve and the level of market competition, our two estimations indicate that the incentive pass-through for the CSI program is almost complete. In other words, almost all of the incentive has been enjoyed by the customer, and the PV installers did not retain much. Based on the RD design, we observe that PV installers tend to consider the CSI incentive as exogenous to their pricing decision.

The relative good performance of the CSI in terms of both the cost-effectiveness and the incentive pass-through aspect are tightly related to its policy design and program management. International speaking, the biggest challenge for the design of any PV subsidy program is the quick running out of the budget, and in the end, it looks like customers are rushing for the subsidy. Such rushing behavior is a clear indication of higher-than-needed incentive levels. Due to the policy rigidity and rapid PV technological change, the PV subsidy policy may lag behind the PV cost decline; and as a result, rational customers could rush for any unnecessarily high subsidy.

Due to the high uncertainty and unpredictability of future PV costs, the CSI put forward a new design that links the incentive level change and the installed capacity goal fulfillment. Specifically, the CSI has designed nine steps to achieve its policy goal; at each step, there is a PV capacity goal that corresponds to an incentive level. Once the capacity goal is finished, the incentive level will decrease to the next lower level. Furthermore, to maintain the policy certainty, the CSI regulated that every step-wise change in the incentive level should not be higher than $0.45/W, nor smaller than $0.05/W, together with other three constraints.

A good subsidy policy not only requires flexible policy design to respond to fast-changing environment, but also demands an efficient program management system, digitalized if possible. For the CSI, the authority has contracted out a third-party to maintain a good database system for the program. Specifically, the database has documented in detail every PV system that customers requested. Key data fields include 22 important dates during the PV installation process, customers’ zip code, city, utility and county information, and various characteristics of the PV system such as price, system size, incentive, PV module and installer. All information is publicly available, which to some extent fills in the information gap held by customers and fosters the market competition among PV installers. For customers to receive the incentive, their PV systems have to pass the inspection of the local government, and also to be interconnected to the grid. On the supply side, the CSI has also certified and created a list of PV installers that every customer can choose from.

Although the CSI has ended in 2014 due to fast PV cost reduction starting from 2009, its experience has been transferred to other areas in the United States and in Europe. It is highly possible that other similar new technologies and products (e.g. the electric car and the battery) can adopt the CSI policy design, too. In summary, a good and successful policy may need to be simply, clear, credible, foreseeable, flexible, end-able, and incentive-compatible. The PV subsidy policy in China still has a long way to go when compared to the CSI.

Authors

  • Changgui Dong
      
 
 




california

Class Notes: Harvard Discrimination, California’s Shelter-in-Place Order, and More

This week in Class Notes: California's shelter-in-place order was effective at mitigating the spread of COVID-19. Asian Americans experience significant discrimination in the Harvard admissions process. The U.S. tax system is biased against labor in favor of capital, which has resulted in inefficiently high levels of automation. Our top chart shows that poor workers are much more likely to keep commuting in…

       




california

Class Notes: Harvard Discrimination, California’s Shelter-in-Place Order, and More

This week in Class Notes: California's shelter-in-place order was effective at mitigating the spread of COVID-19. Asian Americans experience significant discrimination in the Harvard admissions process. The U.S. tax system is biased against labor in favor of capital, which has resulted in inefficiently high levels of automation. Our top chart shows that poor workers are much more likely to keep commuting in…

       




california

Class Notes: Harvard Discrimination, California’s Shelter-in-Place Order, and More

This week in Class Notes: California's shelter-in-place order was effective at mitigating the spread of COVID-19. Asian Americans experience significant discrimination in the Harvard admissions process. The U.S. tax system is biased against labor in favor of capital, which has resulted in inefficiently high levels of automation. Our top chart shows that poor workers are much more likely to keep commuting in…

       




california

California Utility Opens First Sustainable Campus as Model Utility Site

Burbank Water & Power opens a sustainable power plant campus as a model for re-adapting industrial sites from water reclamation to solar




california

Are environmental laws to blame for California's wildfires?

A certain Commander in Chief says that wildfires are being made 'so much worse by the bad environmental laws.' Here's what's really happening.




california

California Paves the Way for Lower-VOC Cleaning Products to Reduce Smog

Household cleaning products in the U.S. might soon be a little greener, thanks to a new rule in California that will require companies to reformulate products so they contain fewer volatile organic compounds, or




california

California teen collects 50,000 rotting golf balls from coastal waters

Alex Weber, 18, has just published a study that analyzes how these balls enter and degrade in the water.




california

11 electric cars now under $27,000... in California

There are now 11 mass-manufactured electric cars that come in under $27,000 in California... after federal and California incentives.




california

A Healthy California School Lunch: Fruit, Veggies, And A Bit Of Lead

Vinyl man (pictured) may be disappointed. "The hundreds of thousands of lunch boxes given away by California state health officials over the last several years were designed to promote healthful habits, bearing slogans such as "Eat Fruits & Vegetables




california

Geothermal Power Projects Abandoned in Switzerland, California

It's like that 1965 movie Crack in the World, where drilling for geothermal energy causes all kinds of problems. There are such high hopes for real geothermal power; there is a lot of heat down there that can vaporize water and run turbines.




california

California Court Overturns Order to Destroy GMO Beets

It seems that GMOs are again steamrolling their way through our legal system. Back in December it seemed there may be a light at the end of the tunnel when a federal judge ordered that 258 acres of genetically modified sugar




california

California gets serious in the fight against plastic microfibers

New legislation would require polyester clothing to have a label warning about shedding in the wash.




california

California governor signs bill legalizing hemp farming in the state

After making its way through the Californian legislature with bi-partisan support (!), the California Industrial Hemp Farming Act (aka SB 566) was signed by governor Jerry Brown and became state law.




california

California, Oregon and Washington join British Columbia to create new environmental superpower

Last week, California joined Oregon and Washington in signing a pact with British Columbia called the Pacific Coast Action Plan on Climate and Energy, which forms an alliance to set shared fuel standards and mandates for cutting carbon emissions.




california

California feeds the duck with mandatory solar panels on new houses

Fortunately, that's not the only change in their building regulations.




california

What the media missed in its coverage of California's energy code changes

Mandatory solar panels are not the biggest deal here.




california

Is wearing a face mask the new normal for Californians?

Air quality in San Francisco is the worst in the world right now.




california

EPA tries to throw out case for California schools contaminated with pesticides

Latino students are exposed to higher levels of pesticides. But the EPA and parents clash over what should be done.




california

Sea otters may help combat harmful agricultural run-off in California

As a keystone species, the importance of the sea otter on the health of coastal ecosystems can't be understated. A new study shows that they may even play a key role in helping coastlines cope with agricultural run-off.




california

Paleontologists discover lost ecosystem off the coast of southern California

The ecosystem had thrived for thousands of years but collapsed less than two centuries ago.




california

"Go Dry" Movement Spreads, As Californians Rip Up Their Grass Lawns

Cut the grass will you?...Are you done edging?....Time to water the




california

In California, people without rooftop solar panels pay a $65 per year subsidy to those with them

Solar power is a wonderful thing but the benefits are not evenly distributed.




california

California utility offers rebates and incentives for going all-electric

SMUD demonstrate that all-electric living is actually cheaper than gas.




california

California utilities will pay you to drive electric

And why not?




california

Judge allows California to require cancer warning on Monsanto's Roundup

A judge has ruled against Monsanto; company complains that it would drive some customers away. Unsealed documents add to drama.




california

Yikes! California's extreme drought could last "a decade or more", 2014 driest year in a century

California has been going through a drought for about 3 years now, with 2013 being the driest year on record.




california

5 nuts not grown in California

National almond, walnut and pistachio crops are very thirsty, and predominantly grown in drought-stricken California; if you’re looking for alternatives, consider these.




california

California heatwave cooks mussels in their shells

Exposed by low tide and bereft of a cooling breeze, the mollusks overheated to the point of cooking.




california

Recycling is broken: California's rePlanet shuts all its recycling centers

We have long called for deposits on everything. California shows that even that is not enough.




california

New California law helps diners to bring their own containers

It's still up to a restaurant to decide to fill them, but the law provides detailed guidelines on how to do it safely.




california

#1 metro area in US for electric car growth is no longer in California

If you thought the top market for electric car growth was somewhere in California, you'd be right many months out of the year, but not the 4th quarter of 2013.




california

8 Awesome Airstream Hotels, From the California Desert to the French Pyrenees

A drive-in movie theater in the wilderness and an urban rooftop are just a few of the innovative spots from which stylish trailer hotels are popping up.




california

Photo: California towhee is the picture of spring

Our photo of the day comes from Atascadero, California.




california

California hotels banned from offering mini toiletries in plastic

It's part of a statewide effort to crack down on plastic waste.




california

Car industry splits over California emissions rules. What side is your car maker on?

I was disappointed to see that Subaru, beloved of TreeHugger types, is on the wrong side of this issue.




california

Pipeline that spilled 105,000 gallons of oil in California was only one in county without 'auto shut-off'

Why make exceptions like this?




california

This is the ongoing gas leak in California that's an epic ecological disaster

Impact of greenhouse gases released since October measured over a 20-year time frame is equivalent to emissions from 7 million cars.