Requiring increased efficiency standards for all replacement vehicles and implementing robust low-income financing solutions are critical to maximizing the impact the vehicle retirement & replacement program in California.

This week the US EPA unveiled its groundbreaking proposed rule to cut carbon dioxide emissions. Yet there’s another critical factor that should also be central to states’ implementation strategies – ensuring the reliability of our energy system in the face of climate change.

From January 1st to May 22nd of this year, the U.S. Senate cast a total of 163 votes. 68 of these votes – nearly 42% of all the 163 votes cast – were taken expressly to use cloture to thwart and avoid a filibuster.

The announcement today that California’s Monterey shale oil deposits can not be recovered with current technology sends a clear message: California should continue to focus its efforts on leading the world in the use of technologies that reduce oil dependence, improve air quality, and help our citizens save money.

In the midst of the state’s worst drought in 500 years, policy makers are desperately seeking stop-gap measures to address California’s dire water needs. Relief programs should help, but the aid is a far cry from the billions of dollars in losses the state ultimately expects to lose due to the drought, including in the form of lost revenue for schools.

Despite previous debunking of a similar piece of research, the Western States Petroleum Association (WSPA) just released an economic impact study by the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corporation (LAECD), claiming the industry supported nearly half a million direct and indirect jobs and generated $113 billion in economic value in California in 2012.

Half of the nation’s public school facilities need at least $200 billion in repairs and modernization to be considered in good overall condition. Such findings point to the importance of programs such as California’s Proposition 39, which closed a corporate-tax loophole and diverted half of the new revenue to energy efficiency and renewable energy projects in public schools.

A group of oil and economic experts today questioned the viability of California’s Monterey Shale oil deposits and encouraged state legislators to proceed with caution as they consider whether to include the Monterey Shale in forecasts of the state’s energy and economic future.

Business Leader and Next Generation co-founder Tom Steyer, geoscientist Dr. David Hughes of the Post Carbon Institute, and Robert Collier, a research fellow with Next Generation, discuss the prospects of developing California's Monterey Shale during a panel in Sacramento.

North Dakota's flaring, Senator Landrieu’s takeover of the Energy & Natural Resources Committee, & Gov. Christie's law breaking.