How good environmental legislation goes wrong

[Source: Los Angels Times Op-Ed] The California Environmental Quality Act is a valuable protector of this state’s resources. It guides planning by forcing agencies to consider the environmental implications of proposed projects. CEQA is also a woefully blunt instrument that thwarts economic growth and, perversely, can actually harm the environment. That’s exactly what’s happening with Read More…

The cumulative cost of regulations

[Source: Mercatus Center- George Mason University] The impact of regulation on economic growth has been widely studied, but most research has focused on a narrow set of regulations, industries, or both. These studies typically rely on regulatory indexes that measure subsets of all regulation, on country-to-country comparisons, on short time spans, or on surveys in Read More…

Don’t put AQMD under CARB’s thumb

[Source: Orange County Register] A 20-year study released last week by the USC Environmental Health Centers found “that millennial children in Southern California breathe easier than ones who came of age in the ’90s, for a reason as clear as the air in Los Angeles today,” in the school’s summary. It’s a major achievement for Read More…

Can fresh air blow away the case against Obama’s climate policy?

[Source: Bloomberg] The U.S. has already broken the link between emissions and economic growth. Any regulation proposed by the Environmental Protection Agency follows a decades-long pattern. The activists squabble with the industrialists, pitting questions of business health against questions of public health. The squabbling plays out in newspapers and private lobbying meetings while the rules are drafted, and then it continues in court until Read More…

California governor approves legislation raising paid family leave benefits for employees

[Source: Atkinson, Andelson, Loya, Ruud & Romo] On April 11, 2016, Governor Jerry Brown signed AB 908, which will increase workers’ access to State Disability Insurance (“SDI”) and Paid Family Leave (“PFL”) starting in 2018. PFL provides wage replacement benefits for up to six weeks to care for a child, parent, grandparent, grandchild, sibling, spouse, Read More…