Stories you shouldn’t miss:
1. State regulators yesterday acted as if climate change doesn’t exist, approving a plan to give PG&E’s biggest energy users a 17 percent rate cut, while slightly raising rates for people who have been conserving energy. But as ridiculous as the new rules are, they could have been even more absurd. The California Public Utilities Commission had considered a proposal by PG&E to dramatically slash rates for heavy energy users, the Chron and Mercury News report. Even so, the new rules will provide an incentive for energy wasters to waste even more, thereby adding to greenhouse gas emissions in California.
2. Democratic state lawmakers made it clear yesterday that they love getting tickets to major sporting events, and of course, to Disneyland. They killed a bill that would have prohibited lobbyists from showering them with gifts, the LA Times reports. The bill was written by moderate Republican Sam Blakeslee of San Luis Obispo and backed by good government groups. Democrats claimed that the cost of enforcing the new ban, about $200,000, was too high, but good government folks noted that it would have been offset by fines levied on rule breakers. Last year, elected officials accepted gifts totaling $637,000.
