California Voices

Spreck Rosekrans, Restore Hetch Hetchy: San Francisco’s Water Department has persuaded Congress to deny long-promised access to unreachable areas of Yosemite National Park. This power play ban environmentally benign boating on Hetch Hetchy Reservoir, and reverses the guarantees of access made by San Francisco in 1913.

Gov. Gavin Newsom has unveiled the "framework" of a long-sought compromise on divvying up water in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.

Re: “Gov. Newsom: California must get past differences on water. Voluntary agreements are the path forward,” Gov. Gavin Newsom, Feb. 4, 2020. Our water status quo isn’t working. We’ve accepted a false choice that pits our environment against our farmers – and ultimately, it’s a false choice that serves to flood our courts with lawsuits […]

Re: “Why desalination can help quench California’s water needs,” By Wendy Ridderbusch, Jan. 29, 2020. Wendy Ridderbusch shouldn’t confuse diversifying one’s portfolio, a good thing, with making bad investments. Those are not the same thing. Investing hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars in the most expensive, climate impacting and environmentally destructive local water […]

Alex Morris, California Energy Storage Alliance: California’s future can be powered by both renewable and reliable energy, but we must have the foresight to make the right investments in storage capacity now.

Rob Stutzman, Mitt Romney campaign alum: Many of us hope that Mitt Romney’s decision is a moment of leadership that sears consciences and emboldens people to treat our politics with more dignity and complexity than Trump, cable news and the petulance of many Democrats present to us daily. A good place to start in doing your part to resist our slouch toward banal tribalism is in defending Romney for his act of conscience, even if you disagree.

Adam Freed and Panama Bartholomy: Approximately 20% of the U.S. greenhouse gas emissions are associated with the electricity and fuels used in our commercial and residential buildings. Democratic presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg is offering solutions.

Two recent critiques of the state's efforts to raise academic achievement by disadvantaged students indicate that reality is beginning to rear its ugly head.

Re “Gov. Newsom: California must get past differences on water. Voluntary agreements are the path forward” Feb. 4, 2020. We applaud Gov. Gavin Newsom for his effort. While many details remain to be worked out, the governor hits at the heart of the matter and the reason the voluntary agreements are so worth the effort: […]

Gov. Gavin Newsom is threatening a stake seizure of Pacific Gas & Electric if it doesn't meet his demands for change. Is it real or just a bluff.