GSPP

Web

Editors

eDIGEST February 2007

UPCOMING EVENTS

1. Business of Health Care Conference

February 3, 2007

Haas School of Business -- University of California, Berkeley

8 Panel Discussions, including:

v “Universal Health Care: A New Business Paradigm?” featuring Tangerine Brigham (MPP 1990), Deputy Director of Health, Director of Health Access Program, San Francisco Department of Public Health

More info at: http://www.haashealthcareconference.org/

2. GSPP’s Annual Career Fair

February 15, 2007, 1:00 pm - 4:00 pm

International House - Chevron Auditorium

2200 Piedmont Avenue - Berkeley, California

More Information

3. Forum on the Humanities and the Public World

Robert Reich, Professor of the Goldman School of Public Policy
“The Four Narratives of American Public Life”
with commentary by Robin Einhorn, History, UC Berkeley

February 21, 2007 | 5pm | Maude Fife Room, 315 Wheeler Hall

American politics—as practiced by politicians, as narrated by the media, and as understood by the public—has reflected four basic stories, endlessly repeated. Two of them are stories of hope, and two are stories of fear. Robert Reich, who has written eleven books about the American political economy and held senior positions in three national administrations, will discuss these four basic narratives, and how they often distort our understanding of what’s really going on. More information

4. The Commonwealth Club’s 19th Annual Distinguished Citizen Award Dinner

Among the honorees will be: DR. DANIEL KAMMEN.

February 22, 2007, 5:30 p.m., Reception | 7:00 p.m., Dinner/Program | The Fairmont San Francisco, 950 Mason St., San Francisco | Call (415) 869-5909 for more information or to reserve your seat. More information

5. Cap and Trade as a Tool for Climate Change Policy: Design and Implementation

February 22-23, 2007

Booth Auditorium, Boalt Hall, the University of California at Berkeley

Among featured speakers: MICHAEL HANEMANN & DAVID VOGEL

Co-sponsored by the Goldman School of Public Policy’s Center for Environmental Public Policy

More conference info at: www.ccelp.berkeley.edu/capandtrade

QUICK REFERENCE LIST

In addition to the print media referenced below, broadcast media coverage includes numerous interviews with DEAN NACHT by KRON TV, KGO TV and KTVU, among others.

ALUMNI AND STUDENT NEWSMAKERS

1. “Healthcare is central to grocery contract talks. A study says the current pact left many workers without adequate insurance options. Union members are hoping for a better deal” (Los Angeles Times, January 31, 2007); story citing FELIX SU (MPP cand. 2007); http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-grocery31jan31,0,554390,print.story?coll=la-home-business

2. “Analyst: Taxpayers losing in wage flap. California spent about $70 million to recover $4 million in underpaid salaries” (Oakland Tribune, January 31, 2007); story citing ELIZABETH HILL (MPP 1975); http://www.insidebayarea.com/localnews/ci_5124305

3. “Argument for school heading to court” (Contra Costa Times, Jan. 30, 2007); story citing RICHARD WINNIE (MPP 1971); http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/16578517.htm

4. “Sea level a rising threat” (Contra Costa Times, January 26, 2007); story citing JOHN ANDREW (MPP 1996); http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/community/16551462.htm

5. “Early budget warning sign. Personal income-tax payments are $1 billion less than was predicted” (Sacramento Bee, January 25, 2007); story citing ELIZABETH HILL (MPP 1975); http://www.sacbee.com/111/story/113210.html

6. “Emergency declaration helps speed crop claims. Action clears way for out-of-state adjusters to meet with farmers, assess cold snap damage” (Contra Costa Times, Jan. 23, 2006); story by GARANCE BURKE (MPP 2005); http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/living/science/16524349.htm

7. “Debt level estimates cause some concern. Governor’s proposed bonds would set the state above the recommended amount” (Oakland Tribune, January 23, 2007); story citing ELIZABETH HILL (MPP 1975); http://www.insidebayarea.com/oaklandtribune/localnews/ci_5066627

8. “Health care access for children could increase by this summer - Legislative proposal would affect 32,000 Washington kids” (Lewiston Morning Tribune, January 23, 2007); story citing REBECCA KAVOUSSI (MPP 2001).

9. “Warming threatens state water supply. Rising seas, shrinking snowpack promise storage, sharing puzzle” (Contra Costa Times, January 22, 2007); story citing JOHN ANDREW (MPP 1996); http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/community/16502631.htm

10. “Health-care bandwagon gets rolling. States providing momentum with new initiatives” (Chicago Tribune, January 21, 2007); story citing MARIAN MULKEY (MPP 1989); http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/health/chi-0701210439jan21,1,5222064.story?page=2&ctrack=1&cset=true

11. “Senate Panel Limits Pay Deferrals for Executives. Measure Is Part of Broad Tax-Break Package to Help Small Businesses Offset Cost of Minimum Wage Rise” (Washington Post, January 18, 2007); story citing STAN COLLENDER (MPP 1976).

12. “Peralta Trustee Promises Smoother Way for Bond Money” (Berkeley Daily Planet, January 16, 2007); story citing ABEL GUILLEN (MPP 2001); http://www.berkeleydailyplanet.com/article.cfm?issue=01-16-07&storyID=26111

13. “How US is deferring war costs - As war spending on Iraq and Afghanistan nears the levels for Vietnam and Korea, concern is rising over the ‘borrow now, pay later’ approach” (Christian Science Monitor, January 16, 2007); story citing STAN COLLENDER (MPP 1976).

14. “Young views on the value of diversity. Diversity’s free pass” (San Francisco Chronicle, January 15, 2007); op-ed by GSPP student ANDREW QUINIO; http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2007/01/15/EDGEVNHSBH1.DTL&type=printable

15. “Class Acts. A new breed of young Bay Area philanthropists redefines the meaning—and methods—of giving” (San Francisco Chronicle, January 14, 2007); story citing DANIEL LURIE (MPP 2005); http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/01/14/LVGAINF8UN1.DTL&hw=class+acts&sn=003&sc=863

16. “Health-care solution: It’s Basic” (Seattle Times, January 14, 2007); column citing REBECCA KAVOUSSI (MPP 2001).

17. “Legislative analyst describes governor’s budget as risky” (San Francisco Chronicle, January 13, 2007); story citing ELIZABETH HILL (MPP 1975) and MIKE GENEST (MPP 1980); http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/01/13/BAG0INI8P91.DTL&hw=elizabeth+hill&sn=001&sc=1000

18. “Blogger bloc seeks a shake-up. Liberal writers for political Web sites run for delegate seats in their bid to influence Democratic Party policies” (Sacramento Bee, January 13, 2007); story citing BRIAN LEUBITZ (MPP cand. 2007); http://www.sacbee.com/391/story/107258.html

19. “Editorial: The oracle speaks. Governor, listen to Hill’s warnings” (Sacramento Bee, January 17, 2007); editorial citing ELIZABETH HILL (MPP 1975); http://www.sacbee.com/110/story/108821.html

20. “Feeling pinched. Some small business owners call governor’s health care plan unaffordable” Sacramento Bee, January 12, 2007); story citing MARIAN MULKEY (MPP 1989); http://www.sacbee.com/136/story/106709.html

21. “Legislature wants a greater voice in UC planning. Politicians argue more oversight could have averted disputes among system, local populaces” (Contra Costa Times, Jan. 12, 2007); story citing report by ANTHONY SIMBOL (MPP 1998); http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/email/news/16444155.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp

22. “State Report Blasts UC Growth Plans” (Berkeley Daily Planet, January 16, 2007); story citing ANTHONY SIMBOL (MPP 1998); http://www.berkeleydailyplanet.com/article.cfm?issue=01-16-07&storyID=26102

23. “Schwarzenegger’s balancing act of spending and cuts” (San Francisco Chronicle, January 11, 2007); story citing MIKE GENEST (MPP 1980); http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2007/01/11/MNG66NGR4T1.DTL

24. “State budget targets deficit” (Whittier Daily News, January 10, 2007); story citing STUART COHEN (MPP 1997); http://www.whittierdailynews.com/search/ci_4990275

25. “Arnold sparks revolutionary energy plan” (Oakland Tribune, January 10, 2007); story citing ROLAND HWANG (MPP 1992); http://www.insidebayarea.com/ci_4983592

26. “Chronicle foster-care editorials lauded” (San Francisco Chronicle, January 10, 2007); story citing FIRST PLACE FUND FOR YOUTH, founded by AMY LEMLEY (MPP 1998) & DEANNE PEARN (MPP 1998); http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2007/01/10/MNG02NG10D1.DTL

27. “Governor’s new state water plan to include 2 dams” (San Francisco Chronicle, January 9, 2007); story citing RANDY KANOUSE (MPP 1978); http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/01/09/BAGL3NFBJ81.DTL

28. “Op-Ed: Easy to imagine, difficult to accomplish” (San Francisco Chronicle, January 8, 2007); op-ed by GEORGE WILLCOXON (MPP 2006); http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2007/01/08/EDGC7N721K1.DTL

29. “After Many Years, It’s Rangel’s Turn at the Helm” (New York Times [*requires registration], January 8, 2007); story citing STAN COLLENDER (MPP 1976) and ROBERT REICH.

30. “Health laws’ reach disputed. Consumer groups say proposed rules are friendly to insurers—but industry and state disagree” (Sacramento Bee, January 7, 2007); story citing MARTY MARTINEZ (MPP 1996); http://www.sacbee.com/111/story/104059.html

31. “High risk, high health costs - Uninsurable individuals continue to face high bills without help” (Peoria Journal Star, January 7, 2007); story citing KAREN POLLITZ (MPP 1982); http://www.pjstar.com/stories/010707/TRI_BBTFH1NR.020.php

32. “Return trip for electric vehicles. Carmakers are set to unveil plans this week. A GM model owes much to the pioneering EV1” (Los Angeles Times (LATWP News Service) January 6, 2007); story citing ROLAND HWANG (MPP 1992); http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-electric7jan07,0,430192,full.story

33. “Health care plan facing opposition” (Sacramento Bee, January 6, 2007); story citing RUTH LIU (MPP 1999); http://www.sacbee.com/713/story/103790.html

34. “Pre-tax employee accounts in health proposal” (Sacramento Bee, January 5, 2007); story citing RUTH LIU (MPP 1999); http://www.sacbee.com/296/story/103277.html

35. “Focus on health saves $6 million” (Contra Costa Times, January 5, 2007); story citing CISCO DEVRIES (MPP 2000); http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/news/local/states/california/alameda_county/berkeley/16389767.htm

36. “Poll: Health-care costs worry voters” (Press-Enterprise, January 3, 2007); story citing MARIAN MULKEY (MPP 1989).

37. “With a Hefty Education Grant Come Equally Great Expectations. Gates Foundation Provides Money, and Mandates” (Washington Post, December 4, 2006); story citing ANDREW SMILES (MPP 1998).

38. “Report Says China Is Cutting Emissions” (Global News Wire - Asia Africa Intelligence Wire, Financial Times, November 17, 2006); story citing NED HELME (MPP 1971).

FACULTY IN THE NEWS

1. “Op-Ed: The best way to save the planet? You decide” (Los Angeles Times, January 31, 2007);op-ed by GSPP Board Member GARRETT GRUENER & DAN KAMMEN; http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-gruener31jan31,0,4315347,print.story?coll=la-opinion-rightrail

2. “Millions of foreclosures loom” – Commentary by ROBERT REICH (Marketplace, American Public Media [NPR], January 31, 2007); Listen to this commentary

3. “Diversity Hypocrisy. The myriad, and often perverse, implications of admissions policies” (National Crosstalk, Vol. 15 No. 1, Winter 2007); op-ed by DAVID KIRP; http://www.highereducation.org/crosstalk/ct0107/voices0107-kirp.shtml

4. “Energy experts knock Bush plan for ethanol as gas substitute. They say it would be costly and inefficient and might force choice: corn for food or fuel” (San Francisco Chronicle, January 25, 2007); story citing DAN KAMMEN; http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2007/01/25/MNGAUNOPVN1.DTL

5. “State of the Union Address” (Forum, KQED-88.5 FM, January 24, 2007); program features commentary by HENRY BRADY; listen to the program: http://www.kqed.org/epArchive/R701241000

6. “Only one cheer for Bush proposal” – Commentary by ROBERT REICH (Marketplace, American Public Media [NPR], January 24, 2007); Listen to this commentary

7. “Experts: President misses chance on climate change” (Oakland Tribune, January 24, 2007); story citing DAN KAMMEN; http://www.insidebayarea.com/oaklandtribune/localnews/ci_5074476

8. “Initiative aims to cut gas use by 20 percent in a decade. President’s new energy proposal, ‘Twenty in Ten,’ intended to reduce oil dependence, draws mostly tepid or negative response” (Contra Costa Times, Jan. 24, 2007); story citing DAN KAMMEN and research co-authored with MICHAEL O’HARE and BRIAN TURNER (MPP 2006); http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/email/news/16532834.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp

9. “Congress still runs on legalized bribery” – Commentary by ROBERT REICH (Marketplace, American Public Media [NPR], January 17, 2007); Listen to this commentary

10. “Is ethanol the heart of gov.’s idea? Activists and experts offer mixed reactions to the gas alternative after the call for a low-carbon fuel initiative features a key backer of ethanol” (Los Angeles Times, January 10, 2007); story citing study co-authored by DAN KAMMEN, MICHAEL O’HARE, BRIAN TURNER (MPP 2006); http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-ethanol10jan10,1,1446423.story

11. “Against Big Pharma, Dems act wimpy” – Commentary by ROBERT REICH (Marketplace, American Public Media [NPR], January 10, 2007; Listen to this commentary

12. “Viewpoints: Actions taken at home can have global effects” (Contra Costa Times, January 10, 2007); op-ed citing journal issue co-authored by DAN KAMMEN; http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/news/local/states/california/alameda_county/oakland_berkeley/16425425.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp

13. “No new tax breaks” – Commentary by ROBERT REICH (Marketplace, American Public Media [NPR], January 3, 2007); Listen to this commentary

ALUMNI AND STUDENT NEWSMAKERS

By Jerry Hirsch, Times Staff Writer

The big supermarket chains and union officials have started talks on a new labor contract. If those early contacts have been the appetizers, the players will sit down to the main course Monday, when Southern California’s biggest grocery union local meets with Ralphs Grocery Co.

Healthcare benefits will be the central issue, just as they were in late 2003, when contract talks disintegrated into a 4½-month strike and lockout....

A study to be released today by the UC Berkeley Center for Labor Research and Education has found that lengthy waiting periods—as long as 18 months for individual health coverage and 30 months for family benefit —have left a large segment of the grocery workforce without adequate insurance options, said Ken Jacobs, Chairman of the Labor Center and a coauthor of the report.

“Our findings reveal a precipitous drop in health insurance coverage for Southern California grocery workers,” Jacobs said....

Jacobs estimated that 22,000 workers, or 50% of the 44,000 hired since the current contract took effect in March 2004, lacked health coverage.

About 29% of new hires qualified for employer-based health insurance, but only 7% had enrolled as of September. Others had opted for coverage through a family member or public health program or had decided to go without, Jacobs and coauthors Arindrajit Dube and Felix Su said....

By Steve Geissinger, MediaNews Sacramento Bureau

SACRAMENTO — Democratic leaders want to impose union-driven prevailing wage rules on new school construction projects despite a critical state report that says enforcing the rules previously has cost tens of millions in taxpayer funds.

State regulators spent about $70 million in taxpayer funds during the past three years to recover just $3 million to $4 million in underpaid private workers’ wages from employees, according to state documents released last week.

Legislative Analyst Liz Hill said in her recent study on the use of voter-approved bond funds that the Industrial Relations Department’s Labor Compliance Program spent $18 to $23 for each $1 of wages recovered, mostly on school construction projects financed with bonds approved by voters in 2002 and 2004—many of them in the Bay Area.

The nonpartisan analyst said the program’s “weak” oversight—focused so far on many school buildings in the Bay Area constructed with bonds approved by voters in past years—means lawmakers should seek other options for ensuring payment of proper wages on public projects or overhaul the current program.

“Each dollar spent on administrative costs within a bond program is one less dollar that is available for infrastructure projects,” according to Hill’s analysis.

“In this instance, the $70 million in Labor Compliance Program spending would have been able to fund about 200 new classrooms if it had instead been directed to construction,” she said….

Hill noted, however, that the programs are intended to educate contractors, as well, and acknowledged she has no yardstick to measure what potential violations the program headed off.

Nevertheless, she suggested other options for ensuring payment of proper wages or an overhaul of the current program….

3. “Argument for school heading to court” (Contra Costa Times, Jan. 30, 2007); story citing RICHARD WINNIE (MPP 1971); http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/16578517.htm

By Chris Metinko

A nearly decade-old saga surrounding plans to build a new Christian school in Castro Valley is set to begin perhaps its most consequential chapter in U.S. District Court in San Francisco next month.

That is when case of Redwood Christian School and the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty v. Alameda County is set to start in Judge Samuel Conti’s courtroom.

The lawsuit, filed in 2001, encompasses everything from religious freedoms and land-use regulations to the will of the voters and money, and it could set a precedent for the enforcement of a relatively new federal law intended to protect religious institutions, houses of worship and the general public from discrimination in zoning.

The focus of the lawsuit is the school’s and Becket Fund’s claims that the county infringed on the school’s religious freedom by denying it needed permits to build a 650-student junior and senior high school on 56 acres in Palomares Canyon along Interstate 580. The county Board of Supervisors rejected the project in 2001, just after the county planning commission also had denied it. Both bodies said, among other things, the school was not right for the Palomares site because of its size and the increased traffic it would bring to the semirural area….

However, attorneys for the Becket Fund, a nonprofit public interest law firm that represents religious groups, have argued the school has a right to build based on the First Amendment and the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act of 2000. The act forbids government from land-use regulations designed to hinder religious exercise….

Alameda County counsel Richard Winnie said denial of the project had everything to do with the Palomares land’s agricultural zoning and nothing to do with Redwood being a religious institution. Winnie said school officials had been warned by the county they would not be able to build on the land when they were purchasing it but nevertheless went ahead with the deals.

“They went ahead anyhow in the hopes of (the county) making an exception,” Winnie said. “They have shown no willingness to compromise at all, and in land-use cases compromising is important. Neighbors have to respect neighbors.”…

Winnie said he feels the Becket Fund also is seeking something else in this case. “They see this as a way of establishing new law that makes it possible to [trump] local zoning.”…

4. “Sea level a rising threat” (Contra Costa Times, January 26, 2007); story citing JOHN ANDREW (MPP 1996); http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/community/16551462.htm

By Mike Taugher, Times Staff Writer

The waters of the bay lap against the shoreline of San Francisco. A three-foot rise in sea level, a possibility that is on the more dire end of scientific predictions, would be a disaster.

Karl Mondon/Contra Costa Times

Slideshow element

The seas have been rising for 18,000 years, but the pace has quickened.

Geologic records show an average increase of about 2 inches every 100 years from the most recent ice age until the beginning of the past century.

Then, from 1900 to 2000, tide gauges around the world showed sea level rise accelerating to 4 to 8 inches.

At the Golden Gate Bridge, the Pacific Ocean crept 7 inches higher during the century, the result of continuing glacial melting and thermal expansion of the oceans….

Those figures could change when a major report from an international team of climate scientists is released next week. On Thursday, Reuters reported that the range was likely to narrow in the new report….

In one of the first efforts of its kind in California, state officials in the fall began planning to address the threats that rising seas pose to the Bay Area. One of their first steps was to compile maps that show what would happen if the sea level rose 3 feet—the upper limit for what might occur by 2100, according to climate models used by the state.

The maps show a dramatic level of inundation: Portions of Richmond, and virtually all of San Francisco and Oakland international airports, for example, would be under water….

Teams of scientists and modelers anticipate a global rise in sea level ranging from 4 to 36 inches during the next 100 years, depending on the climate's sensitivity to greenhouse gases and whether emissions continue to increase, level off or decline in the coming decades.

Even if sea level rises 12 to 24 inches, it would amount to a threat.

"It's alarming, but it's slow," said John Andrew, chief of special planning for the state Department of Water Resources.

An 18-inch rise in sea level would pose massive problems for the state's water delivery system. With a higher sea level, salt water from the ocean would reach deeper into the Delta and could intrude into drinking water intakes that pump fresh water to 23 million Californians, including 500,000 in Contra Costa County.

"A foot and a half would be huge," Andrew said….

By Clea Benson - Bee Capitol Bureau

Estimated personal income-tax payments, a key predictor of California’s financial situation for the year ahead, are significantly down from expectations in recent weeks, the Legislature’s nonpartisan budget adviser said Wednesday.

In December and January, Californians paid about 15 percent less on income from investments and other non-salary earnings than Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger predicted earlier this month when he proposed a state budget. Overall, the state has earned about $1 billion less than expected since December.

The drop was offset by an uptick in corporate tax payments, which were about $350 million above projections. Legislative Analyst Elizabeth Hill cautioned lawmakers about the apparent slowdown in personal incomes at a hearing on the governor’s spending plan for the fiscal year that begins July 1.

“Unfortunately, it’s not very good news,” Hill told the Senate Budget Committee. The data, she said, are “an early warning sign that we want to be really cautious” about budgeting.

The Legislative Analyst’s Office says there is a strong correlation between the estimated tax payments Californians make at the end of the year and the amount of tax revenue that the state receives at the time of the April filing deadline….

By Garance Burke -- ASSOCIATED PRESS

FRESNO - Freezing temperatures destroyed such a wide swath of crops that insurers have been overwhelmed by claims, prompting California regulators to declare an emergency that lets out-of-state adjusters meet with policyholders.

“I want to cut the red tape and ensure that our farming communities return to action,” Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner said Monday. “There is an enormous amount of work that will have to be done in a short period of time. These out-of-state adjusters will make a huge difference.”

The emergency declaration allows adjusters from other states to help assess what California officials estimate to be at least $1 billion in agricultural damages from the recent freeze.

Citrus growers alone will likely file 3,000 claims from last week’s cold snap, which wiped out as much as half of the state’s citrus crop….

Last week alone, the Fresno-based Rain and Hail Insurance Service Inc. received more than 500 claims alleging freeze damage from farmers across the San Joaquin Valley. With just 20 contract adjusters trained to check lemon and orange trees for damage, company officials said they would welcome extra workers from citrus-growing states like Florida and Texas….

Several growers said they felt better prepared to recoup their losses from this year’s freeze. A 1998 cold snap caught many without insurance and ended up costing growers more than $500 million.

Nick Hill, who grows 800 acres of citrus in Fresno and Tulare counties, was able to salvage about one-third of his tangelos to sell as fresh fruit in 1998. He said he was hopeful he’d bounce back even more quickly this time.

“My lemons are gone, the oranges don’t look so good, and the Minneolas, I just don’t know,” Hill said. “It’s bad, it’s probably really bad. But that’s why we buy insurance so we can come back next year.”

By Steve Geissinger, MediaNews Sacramento Bureau

SACRAMENTO — The state’s nonpartisan legislative analyst warned lawmakers Monday that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s approved and proposed public works bonds—now totaling $86 billion—would push California past Wall Street’s recommended debt level.

Up to three decades of annual payments on the loans, peaking at $10.4 billion a year in 2017-18, “comes at the expense of dollars that could be allocated to some other program area,” Legislative Analyst Elizabeth Hill said in a report. Legislators from both parties and stakeholder groups have voiced fears the voter-approved $42.7 billion in public works bonds—coupled with another $43.3 in infrastructure bonds the governor is seeking in future year —will overextend California’s fragile finances….

Assembly Speaker Fabian Nuñez, D-Los Angeles, said the legislative analysts’ findings “deserve careful consideration.”

Fiscal experts say each $1 billion of new bonds, sold at 5 percent interest, adds close to $65million annually to state debt costs for as long as 30 years.

“Are the bonds affordable? There’s not one right or wrong answer,” Hill said at a news conference on the report.

“It’s between allocating money to state programs or paying off infrastructure investments,” she said. “Any additional dollars that go to debt service is money that can’t be allocated somewhere else.”…

By Justus Hyatt

OLYMPIA -- Thousands of children living without health care in Washington may receive benefits this summer if a bill supporting children’s health care passes this legislative session.

Health care access for 32,000 children would be provided--which is one step closer to Gov. Chris Gregoire’s goal of “ensuring that every child in our state has access to health care coverage by 2010.”

At least $60 million would be needed to fund the proposed health care system, with half paid by the federal government….

Part of the proposed bill would establish “medical homes”–doctor’s offices where children and their families would receive regular developmental screenings and treatment.

Preventative care is cheaper than emergency room visits, said Rebecca Kavoussi, director of public policy for the Community Health Network, of Washington.

According to a Children’s Alliance document, “the average cost of hospitalization for a preventable condition, such as an earache, is enough to cover a child in Medicaid for two years.”…

By Mike Taugher, Times Staff Writer

Karl Mondon/Contra Costa Times

At the Golden Gate, the sea is rising.

In the Sierra Nevada, the snowpack is shrinking.

These developments, attributable to a warming climate, threaten one of California's most indispensable resources: water.

Without water and the ability to move it efficiently over hundreds of miles—to cities, suburbs, farms and factories—California would be unrecognizable from the highly developed, fertile and industrial powerhouse it is today.

The threats to California's water supply, in many ways the state's lifeblood, are not mere possibilities.

They are here. And now.

"What we're beginning to see clearly in California—and these are not projections—is we've clearly seen sea-level rise of about a half a foot at the Golden Gate. That's real data," said John Andrew, chief of special planning for the state Department of Water Resources. "The snow coming down from the Sierra—earlier snowmelt—that's real data."…

In California, tide gauges have recorded a sea-level rise of about 7 inches at the Golden Gate during the past 100 years. Throughout the West, spring is arriving sooner. Snowmelt in the Sierra Nevada now starts at least a week earlier than it did before World War II. And more precipitation in California is falling as rain rather than snow.

By Judith Graham and Michael Martinez, Tribune staff reporters

For almost a dozen years, conventional wisdom has dictated that far-reaching, national health-care reform wasn’t possible in this country. But political winds are blowing in a strong new direction.

Now, states are seizing the initiative, challenging policy gridlock in Washington. Business groups are standing with labor unions and consumer activists and calling for reform. Even the insurance industry has advanced a proposal for universal coverage….

Republicans are stepping forward with bold plans—a sign that previous partisan divides over health reform are weakening. This month, California GOP Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger made an enormous splash when he advanced a plan to cover 6.5 million uninsured residents of his state….

But the scope of the health problems in California is astounding: about 15 percent of the entire uninsured population of the U.S. lives in the state.

Not surprisingly, the governor’s plan has been greeted with acclaim and alarm.

Noting that Schwarzenegger’s plan assumes $5.4 billion from the federal government, “there’s a question of whether all that money will come through as hoped,” said Marian Mulkey of the California HealthCare Foundation….

By Lori Montgomery and Jeffrey H. Birnbaum; Washington Post Staff Writers

The Senate Finance Committee approved legislation yesterday to limit one element of the big pay packages awarded to corporate executives, a move that business lobbyists saw as the harbinger of an assault on corporations and the wealthy now that Democrats control Congress.

On a voice vote, the committee agreed to change rules permitting some executives to amass millions of dollars in tax-deferred accounts. Limiting that perquisite would raise $806 million over 10 years, by congressional estimates. The money would be used to help cover tax breaks for small businesses hurt by a proposed increase in the minimum wage, a top Democratic priority.

Highly paid executives are not the only target of the new Democratic majority. In an indication of the shifting priorities on Capitol Hill, oil and gas companies could lose tax breaks for drilling to raise money for renewable-energy initiatives. Drug companies are battling a House-passed plan to require the government to negotiate lower prices for Medicare recipients. And a variety of businesses, from insurance companies to wholesalers, are trying to block proposals that would increase their taxes to generate cash for Democratic proposals….

Stan Collender, who follows congressional budget-making at the public relations firm Qorvis Communications, said that though the business community is rightly nervous, “the Democrats at least are trying to find ways to pay for additional spending by going where the money is: corporate tax breaks and subsidies.”…

By J. Douglas Allen-Taylor

The newly reconstituted Peralta Board of Trustees faces an old controversy—facilities bond money spending—when it meets for the first time in the new year tonight …. But one of the trustees who helped delay close to $15 million in Measure A material and equipment requests during a contentious December board meeting believes that the matter will now go more smoothly this time around.

“We’re making improvement in the process,” Trustee Nicky Gonzalez Yuen said in a telephone interview this week. “It’s just going to take us a while to get on track” with what the trustee called “proper planning and documentation of spending requests.”…

When the four college presidents and district administrators put in their request for $21 million in Measure A equipment money last December, trustees turned down all but $5 million of the request on a 4-3 vote, with trustees on the prevailing side requesting more documentation before releasing the remaining money. The issue sparked one of the sharpest trustee meeting debates of the year, with Marcie Hodge accusing fellow trustees of “micro-managing,” Laney College Faculty Senate President Shirley Coaston saying that faculty members at her college “have cynicism about how this money is going to be spent,” and both Hodge and trustee Linda Handy walking out of the meeting before it ended.

Hodge, Handy, and Bill Riley supported allocating the full $21 million, while Yuen, Cy Gulassa, and newly installed board president Bill Withrow supported the motion to send back the remaining $16 million for further documentation. The swing vote in the decision was provided by Abel Guillen, who defeated two-term incumbent trustee Alona Clifton in last November’s elections….

By Ron Scherer - Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

To pay for World War II, Americans bought savings bonds and put extra notches in their belts. President Harry Truman raised taxes and cut nonmilitary spending to pay for the Korean conflict. During Vietnam, the US raised taxes but still watched deficits soar.

But to pay for the ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the US has used its credit card, counting on the Chinese and other foreign buyers of its debt to pay the bills….

The US is spending about $10 billion a month on Iraq and Afghanistan. By the end of this year, the total funds appropriated will be nearly $600 billion - approaching the amount spent on the Vietnam or Korean wars, when adjusted for inflation….

The US can certainly afford the war, says budget analyst Stan Collender, a managing director of Qorvis Communications in Washington. But the spending is taking resources from other areas, he notes. Because the US is borrowing to finance the war, the cost will be borne by future generations. “And it’s still going to be one of the most expensive wars we have ever fought,” he says….

By Andrew R. Quinio

Andrew R. Quinio is a junior at UC Berkeley and a student at the Goldman School of Public Policy.

If President Bush used racial diversity to justify the war in Iraq, the popularity ratings of both our commander in chief and the war would climb. Such is the infallibility that the case of racial diversity has been given.

Racial diversity is often talked about as if it were some inalienable right or a Holy Grail. Why it is so sacred, however, is rarely discussed. It has become universally accepted, especially on college campuses across the United States, that a multiracial community is the best thing one could have. And while universities today are debating how racial diversity can be achieved, there is practically no debate about why it has to be achieved….

Meanwhile, the Center for Security Policy, which promotes international peace through a strong U.S. military, reported that American universities are failing to produce national security experts needed to fight the war on terrorism. Such failures are to be expected from race-obsessed universities. When race becomes the core of an academic atmosphere there is greater incentive for students to take pride in their skin color rather than in their country. Thus, little motivation exists to strengthen or protect a unifying national character….

Before our infatuation with racial diversity completely crowds academic discourse out of existence, college campuses would benefit greatly by faithfully renewing a vibrant marketplace of ideas. Diversity should not be viewed solely in the context of race. What good is racial diversity if we all look different but think alike?….

By Carolyne Zinko; Chronicle Staff Writer

Daniel Lurie. Chronicle photo by Eric Luse

From 1999 to 2004, the number of foundations in California grew from 4,208 to 6,242, an increase of nearly 50 percent, surpassing the national growth of 35 percent, according to a recent study by the Foundation Center in New York, which tracks philanthropic giving. Santa Clara County—high tech’s ground zero—had the largest growth in the state, 148 percent, with 292 foundations formed.

Though the center does not track donors’ ages, a growing number in the Bay Area’s younger set are leading their peers into philanthropic efforts, spurred in part by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation’s unprecedented efforts to tackle global health issues and financier Warren Buffett’s historic $1.5 billion contribution to the Gates Foundation this year.

Some are creating new types of foundations by borrowing business models used in the venture capital world. Others are creating projects more appealing to their friends than conventional institutional programs. And those without millions are putting what they do have—time and effort—into innovative nonprofits, hoping that their successes will make it hip to do good….

Daniel Lurie, 29, of San Francisco also founded his own nonprofit. His Tipping Point Community is modeled after the Robin Hood Foundation in New York, an enormously successful group created by commodities trader Paul Tudor Jones II to enlist well-heeled friends to raise money for programs that fight poverty.

Lurie is the son of Rabbi Brian Lurie and Mimi Haas, and the stepson of the late Levi Strauss & Co. executive Peter Haas. He worked on the 2000 presidential campaign of U.S. Sen. Bill Bradley, and was taken with Bradley’s belief that people should want to be part of something bigger than themselves. Tipping Point gives young donors a place to make their first foray into the charity world by taking on issues of poverty and class. The Tipping Point board of directors, on which Lurie sits, determines which programs will receive money and how much. Among those receiving grants: the Homeless Prenatal Program, which helps low-income mothers; Rubicon Programs, a job-training program in Richmond; and Build, a program that helps low-income teens do better in school and assists them with starting their own businesses.

All the money donated goes toward the programs, Lurie said, and the board of directors pays for staff salaries out of its own pockets. Some $891,000 was raised from 100 donors—young and well established alike—for eight programs during the first year.

Raising funds to help the poor is not easy, despite statistics showing that 1 in 10 Bay Area residents lives in poverty.

“Sometimes it’s easier to sell the arts and a museum building you can walk through to see the art than to appeal for donations to end poverty,” Lurie said. “When you see a homeless person on Sixth Street, there’s a sense of hopelessness about it—there’s no building you can go to, to see the depths of poverty.”…

[Tipping Point Community: Daniel Lurie, (415) 348-1240; http://www.tippoint.org/]

16. “Health-care solution: It’s Basic” (Seattle Times, January 14, 2007); column citing REBECCA KAVOUSSI (MPP 2001).

By Nicole Brodeur; Seattle Times staff columnist

The state Legislature opened this new session in the usual way: back-patting, pledge-making and head-scratching over how to bring health care to the state’s uninsured.

Lawmakers can get their start with the Basic Health Plan. It’s funded largely by tobacco taxes, a move voters approved back in 2001 with the passage of I-773.

Not long after, with some 130,000 people on the rolls, the state found itself in a deficit. Lawmakers cut 30,000 of them from Basic Health and put the millions in tobacco money toward other needs.

Now that the state is again in the black, it’s time to restore Basic Health funding and keep more people in the pink….

All Basic Health enrollees live on incomes below 200 percent of the poverty level. Most have jobs, but their employers can’t, or won’t, provide health coverage. (Think Wal-Mart.)…

It’s one answer to a problem that continues to grow. Right now, 593,000 people in the state are uninsured.

Community health-care officials say 20,000 people should be added to the Basic Health rolls, which are presently capped at 106,000. They also want Basic Health’s numbers expanded further, as the state had promised before the deficit hit.

“We are hoping that the question that voters have been asking since 2001: ‘Whatever happened to that expansion ... ?’ gets answered,” said Rebecca Kavoussi, director of Public Policy for the Community Health Network of Washington. The network’s clinics served 200,000 uninsured people last year in places such as the Sea Mar Community Health Center in Seattle.

Kavoussi hopes the Legislature looks at the growing need for basic insurance among adults, puts back the money diverted from Basic Health, “and makes it right.”…

By Lynda Gledhill; Chronicle Sacramento Bureau

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s budget is filled with risky assumptions and optimistic outlooks, the nonpartisan legislative analyst said on Friday, which could erase a projected $2.1 billion reserve and make it harder for the state to wrestle with its deficits in the future.

Elizabeth Hill said the governor’s 2007-08 budget proposal has an “unusually high” number of potential problems.

“Our sense is that the actual amount of budget savings and new revenue will ultimately fall short of the levels outlined by the administration,” said Hill, who is widely respected by leaders of both major political parties. “We are concerned that the budget contains a number of optimistic assumptions and also a number of significant legal and policy issues around a number of the major proposals.”

Schwarzenegger unveiled a $143.4 billion budget Wednesday, saying the state had essentially wiped out its operating deficit while proposing modest spending increases and significant cuts to welfare and public transit.

By the legislative analyst’s calculations, the state has an $800 million operating deficit and a deficit averaging $5 billion over the next several years. Even if all of Schwarzenegger’s proposals come to fruition, the deficit would only be cut in half, Hill said.

“We believe it is critical to identify additional realistic budgetary solutions and to the extent that there are additional spending commitments that funding be identified to pay for them,” she said.

Hill questioned the governor’s revenue assumptions for property taxes, Indian gaming funds and gas taxes….

“We believe that this budget is built on realistic and solid fundamentals that will take the state to a net operating deficit of zero next year,” Mike Genest, Schwarzenegger’s finance director, said in a statement….

“Assembly Republicans agree with the nonpartisan legislative analyst that we must get serious about eliminating California’s long-term structural budget deficit once and for all,” said Assembly Budget Committee Vice Chair Roger Niello, R-Fair Oaks….

Another significant revenue source counted on by the administration is $506 million from Indian gaming. However, lawmakers have said they will not ratify the gaming compacts unless they are rewritten. Hill said that even if passed quickly, the revenues generated would fall $300 million short.

“We think this is a significant expansion in the number of slot machines for the five tribes ... and the five casinos would largely have to double their existing operations by July 1, 2007,” she said.

Genest said the five tribes are ready to go as soon as the compacts are ratified.

[Other stories citing Elizabeth Hill and Mike Genest were reported in the major state newspapers, including the Sacramento Bee, San Jose Mercury News, Ventura County Star, etc.]

By Shane Goldmacher - Bee Capitol Bureau

Paula Villescaz, 18, writes a blog posting Friday after returning home from Mira Loma High School. She worked last year for Charlie Brown’s unsuccessful challenge to Rep. John Doolittle and is running for a delegate seat in the state Democratic Party.

Sacramento Bee/Renée C. Byer

For Brian Leubitz, November’s elections stirred mixed emotions.

A devoted liberal, he was elated as Democrats were swept into power in Washington, D.C. But as a California blogger who spent much of 2006 cheering for Phil Angelides, the Democrat who was thumped by Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, the day was bittersweet.

So Leubitz, who goes by the name “SFBrianCL” on the Internet, and a growing coalition of bloggers on the left are organizing to try to ensure Democrats don’t lose out on the statehouse again.

This weekend, Leubitz—and some 30 of his online cohorts—are injecting themselves directly into the political process by running for election as Assembly district delegates to the California Democratic Party. They hope to translate the blogosphere into real political clout. Registered Democrats will elect 12 delegates in each of the 80 Assembly districts this weekend, according to the state party’s Web site.

Paula Villescaz, an 18-year-old student at Mira Loma High School, is one of the many posters to announce her candidacy on Leubitz’s Calitics Web page.

“The state party is largely composed of old buddies who get together to socialize every once in a while, with most meetings being poorly attended and little business getting done in them,” wrote Villescaz, who spent much of the last year working on Charlie Brown’s unsuccessful bid to unseat Rep. John Doolittle, R-Roseville. “This is why I hope to get a seat.”

At most, bloggers could fill 3 percent of the 960 state Democratic Party Assembly delegate seats. But win or lose, the cyber voices of liberals like Leubitz and Villescaz are starting to be heard.

The clearest measure of their success is their steadily increasing Web traffic.

“I started the site in August 2005, and back then I would get 90 hits a day,” recalls Leubitz. “In November, it peaked at 3,000.”…

This week, the Assembly Democratic caucus is inviting a host of bloggers, including Leubitz…, to talk to Democratic aides in the Capitol about how to get their bosses’ messages out in the blogosphere….

Legislative Analyst Elizabeth Hill has once again provided a needed reality check for an optimistic budget proposed by a California governor.

Hill concluded last week that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger was using several wishful assumptions in claiming he can reduce the state’s operating deficit to zero in the coming fiscal year while still squirreling away a $2.1 billion reserve. Among other things, Hill questioned whether the state will receive more than a half-billion dollars from gaming compacts with Indian tribes and avoid costly judgments in ongoing litigation.

There’s also the political reality that the governor, during a time of plenty, won’t be able to cut Cal-WORKS welfare payments for children. Schwarzenegger hopes to save $465 million through his welfare “reform” proposal and avoidance of a cost-of-living increase for Cal-WORKS recipients.

Taken together, “the downside risks in this budget could easily exceed the $2.1 billion reserve budgeted for 2007-’08,” Hill concluded.

Hill is jokingly known as “the oracle” and the “budget nun” for her prudent analysis. She and her staff are not infallible, but she offers some good reasons this year to avoid complacency about the state’s perennial mismatch between spending and revenues….

By Gilbert Chan, Bee Staff Writer

Sean Fisher says the health care proposal would force him to scrap plans to expand his work crew. Sacramento Bee/Bryan Patrick

Sean Fisher expects he can easily double his work crew once the construction business picks up again.

But the tile shop owner likely won’t do much of any new hiring if the state imposes a proposed payroll tax to fund mandatory health insurance for all Californians.

“It’s too expensive. I wouldn’t expand,” said Fisher, owner of Tile Outlet franchise shops in Roseville, Rocklin and Citrus Heights. “If I had to pay 4 percent, I would close my doors.”

Fisher is among a number of small business owners casting a critical eye on Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s proposal, announced earlier this week, to provide universal health care coverage in California by enacting a 4 percent payroll tax on companies that don’t currently offer health insurance. The proposal, part of the governor’s new health care initiative, would apply only to companies with 10 or more employees….

Under the governor’s $12 billion plan, the cost of establishing a statewide insurance pool for uninsured Californians would be shared by employers, employees, doctors, hospitals and health plans….

One expert says the changes could spark lively debate at smaller companies.

“It is possible some of these employers would start to get pressure from their employees (to get coverage),” said Marian Mulkey, senior program officer at the Oakland-based California HealthCare Foundation.

The Schwarzenegger administration stresses the plan’s success hinges on every player in the state’s massive health care system sharing the financial burden….

Roughly 67 percent of employers in California offer health care insurance, according to a 2004 survey by the California HealthCare Foundation, in its most recent study. The rate is 55 percent among companies with three to nine employees and 81 percent of those with payrolls between 10 and 49….

By Matt Krupnick

The Legislature should take more control over the University of California’s contentious long-range planning, the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office [in a report prepared by Anthony Simbol] said Thursday.

Better oversight would help avoid disputes between universities and cities that have become common across the 10-campus system, the report notes. City leaders in Berkeley, Santa Cruz and Davis have argued that UC plans fail to take community needs into account.

In 2005, Berkeley leaders sued the university over a 15-year plan that called for a 2.2 million-square-foot expansion of the UC Berkeley campus. The university quickly agreed to double its annual payments to the city to help pay for fire protection and sewer service.

Although an informal UC policy calls for campus leaders to negotiate in good faith with city officials, systemwide oversight is nearly nonexistent, the LAO report said.

UC headquarters “does not provide campuses with specific requirements for how local communities should be involved in the (planning) process,” the report notes. “As a result, the degree to which local communities are involved in the planning process can vary across campuses.”…

State legislators on Thursday called for hearings into the analysts’ recommendations. Assemblywoman Loni Hancock, D-Berkeley, said the report shows that the state might have more control over the UC system than legislators had thought….

Assemblyman John Laird, D-Santa Cruz, who requested the report about a year ago, said it would be a starting point for reforms.

“The good thing about this report is it raises the issue in a civil, objective manner,” Laird said….

[Another story on Anthony Simbol’s report appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2007/01/12/BAG39NHJNA1.DTL&type=printable ]

By Richard Brenneman

“No UC campus has paid its fair share for identified off-campus mitigation measures,” concludes a just-released report by the state Legislative Analyst’s Office (LAO).

Though official policy of the University of California requires campuses to [negotiate] financial agreements to pay for the impacts of expansion on surrounding community, the policy has failed to yield a single agreement.

That failure is just one of several reasons the highly regarded non-partisan office concluded in a just-released report that state lawmakers needs to exert more control over the University of California’s long-range planning practices.

While the report didn’t look specifically at UC Berkeley’s controversial Long Range Development Plan (LRDP) for 2020, author and Cal grad Anthony Simbol said that the planning process varied from campus to campus.

“We found a lack of standardization, and public participation in the planning process wasn’t the same at each campus,” he said….

Simbol, who received his master’s degree in public policy from UC Berkeley, said he didn’t include his alma mater as a focus of the report….

Another problem with the LRDP process concerns the future size of student bodies on UC campuses.

“After 2014, the population group between the ages of 18 and 24 will decrease, and will be reflected a decline in the number of projected high school graduates,” Simbol said.

But graduate enrollment will continue to rise until the last of the population spike crests—meaning that most of the remaining growth will occur in graduate and professional schools, Simbol said.

“And there are ways to accommodate these changes without growth of physical facilities,” he said….

“There are a lot of issues the legislature should be aware of,” Simbol said, “because they will have to find the funding to support the priorities. The legislature needs to know what campus plans are to see if the legislature is going to be interested in funding them.

“The role of the legislature is important, and it’s important to provide oversight,” he said.

By Lynda Gledhill, Chronicle Sacramento Bureau

(01-11) 04:00 PST Sacramento—Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger released a proposed $143.4 billion budget Wednesday that largely holds the line on spending and whittles down the deficit with a combination of accelerated repayment of debt, additional tax money brought on by higher gasoline prices and cuts to welfare programs and public transit districts….

The state has been facing a $5.5 billion budget deficit, but the governor said he was able to balance the budget because of higher-than-predicted revenues, $3.4 billion in cost-cutting measures and other proposed solutions, and the early repayment of $1.6 billion in economic recovery bonds that results in long-term savings….

Even though the proposal balances the state’s budget this year, there still would be an operating deficit in the 2008-2009 fiscal year of about $800 million, said Department of Finance Director Mike Genest….

24. “State budget targets deficit” (Whittier Daily News, January 10, 2007); story citing STUART COHEN (MPP 1997); http://www.whittierdailynews.com/search/ci_4990275

By Mike Zapler - Sacramento Bureau

SACRAMENTO - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Wednesday released a proposed budget for the next fiscal year that he said would eliminate the state’s lingering budget deficit but which calls for cutting welfare spending, boosting college tuition fees and using public transit funds to close the budget gap….

…[P]eople who use public transit would not reap the benefits of more than $1.1 billion that’s gushed into a fund for public transportation, thanks to spiking gas prices.

That money, which would be used to reduce the deficit, is badly needed by transportation agencies across the state to avoid service cuts, said Stuart Cohen, executive director of the Oakland-based Transportation and Land Use Coalition….

25. “Arnold sparks revolutionary energy plan” (Oakland Tribune, January 10, 2007); story citing ROLAND HWANG (MPP 1992); http://www.insidebayarea.com/ci_4983592

By Ian Hoffman and Janis Mara, Staff Writers

In the state’s biggest, immediate step toward cutting global warming pollution, Gov. Schwarzenegger on Tuesday began shifting California’s 26 million cars and trucks off petroleum-based fuels and toward alternatives that emit less greenhouse gas….

“Our cars have been running on dirty fuel for too long. We have been dependent on foreign oil for too long, so I ask you to free us from dirty oil and from OPEC,” Schwarzenegger said in his state of the state address, referring to the oil cartel….

Greenhouse gases from cars, trucks and aircraft are a powerful contributor to global warming, but each mobile source is small and notoriously difficult to regulate. The new policy reaches past those difficulties to take effect at the refinery, the fueling station and perhaps the electrical outlet in the household garage….

Several experts predicted a flush of capital for California-based green energy technologies and, for consumers, a dazzling menu of automotive choices from plug-in hybrids to cars running on hydrogen, natural gas and plant-derived biofuels—to as many as 7 million more such vehicles in 2020, or 20 times more than are on the road now….

Roland Hwang, head of vehicles policy for the Natural Resources Defense Council, planted the idea of a greenhouse standard for fuels with state regulators and the governor’s staff.

“What the financial markets will see is a fairly substantial shifting of capital from drilling for more oil to investing in the cleaner fuels of the future,” he said….

[Roland Hwang was also cited in other stories reported in the Sacramento Bee: http://www.sacbee.com/111/story/105602.html and in the Los Angeles Times: http://www.latimes.com/news/la-fi-global9jan09,1,5477278.story ]

Chronicle Staff Report

The Chronicle’s editorial board has been named the recipient of the annual Community Hero Award by the Oakland-based First Place Fund for Youth foundation for its series of editorials on California’s troubled system for foster care.

The foundation, in announcing the award Tuesday, praised editorials by former staff writer Pati Poblete that “informed the public about the serious defects in the statewide foster-care system.”

“The Chronicle’s editorial board articles not only increased the public’s awareness of the foster-care failures, they also allowed those organizations working with foster youth to have the opportunity to share the information with decisionmakers,” the foundation said. “The breadth and clarity of the editorials left no doubt as to the need for change.”

Editorial Page Editor John Diaz said the board was “humbled and grateful” for the award. “The real heroes are all the young people who are overcoming the odds of a dysfunctional foster-care system,” he said.

The First Place Fund for Youth, founded in 1998 [by Amy Lemley and Deanne Pearn], provides services, housing and counseling to young people as they leave foster care for independent living. The foundation distributes reprints of The Chronicle’s editorials to its staff as a training tool.

First Place Fund for Youth plans to present the award to editorial board members during the group’s annual benefit dinner April 27 in Oakland.

By Mark Martin, Chronicle Sacramento Bureau

Sacramento—Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger today will propose building two new dams to increase the state’s water supply, making a push to spend billions of dollars on controversial projects sure to start a fight with Democrats and environmentalists….

Schwarzenegger is expected tonight to call for a $4 billion to $5 billion water spending plan, with most of the money going toward building the Sites Reservoir in Colusa County and the Temperance Flat Reservoir near Friant Dam….

“We haven’t really added any storage in 30 years, and we think these new projects can make economic and environmental sense,” said Steve Hall, executive director of the Association of California Water Agencies….

It’s unclear if water districts would be willing to put up some of the money for the new dams. Hall said final costs would have to be calculated first.

The proposals may split differing water agencies, with some in the water-rich northern part of the state being less supportive. Randy Kanouse, a lobbyist for the East Bay Municipal Utilities District, said his district was wary of any water project that would be paid for—even partially—by taxpayers but only benefit some….

By George Willcoxon

George Willcoxon is an Oakland native and a graduate of UC Berkeley’s Goldman School of Public Policy.

Things often look good—or easy—on paper. In its report, the Iraq Study Group rather glibly advocated for a new diplomatic offensive to arrest the deterioration in Iraq. While I sympathize with the ISG’s recommendations, I created this op-art piece [below] to show the tension between what is needed in the region and what is possible, and to amplify how blithe some of the ISG’s recommendations were.

There are some subtle absurdities in the piece. First, many Arab states and Iran refuse to sit down with Israel. The United States refuses to sit down with terrorist organizations such as Hezbollah and Hamas. There are some truly odious people on the invitation, namely Muqtada al-Sadr and Hassan Nasrallah. Getting the attendees into the room would alone be an astonishing accomplishment.

The second absurdity is that the agenda for such a conference would very long and difficult—a multiple-year process rather than a multiple-day process….

The most promising way forward in the region is to attempt a long-term, “global” settlement, on the model of the Helsinki process in the 1970s between the Soviets and the West, rather than attempting to address each problem in the region piecemeal. Thus, most of the agenda items reflect a Helsinki-type process. Unfortunately, this strategy is probably the most difficult, as it requires the deftest American diplomacy, and will take years to bear fruit—if it does bear fruit, which is not assured.

[View the author’s graphic illustrating the personalities and agenda that would be involved in a full-scale diplomatic offensive: http://web.mac.com/gwillcoxon/iWeb/George%20Willcoxon/Writings_files/Summit%20Invitation%20copy_1.jpg

29. “After Many Years, It’s Rangel’s Turn at the Helm” (New York Times [*requires registration], January 8, 2007); story citing STAN COLLENDER (MPP 1976) and ROBERT REICH.

By Robin Toner

It is the committee that produced the Social Security and Medicare laws, that created the modern welfare state and reinvented it in the 1990s, that raised taxes and slashed them, again and again and again. No committee, arguably, has more power or attracts more lobbyists than the Committee on Ways and Means. House members sometimes wait for years for a seat on it, then for decades to rise in seniority.

Representative Charles B. Rangel, Democrat of New York, joined the committee in 1975, and now, at the age of 76, has finally arrived at the very top. He takes the chairmanship of the 41-member panel, with a new majority of 24 Democrats, at a moment fraught with risk and possibility. Over the next two years, the committee will play a central role in defining, and financing, the Democratic Party’s agenda after 12 years out of power….

He brushes off speculation about his party’s plans for the Bush tax cuts, many of which have been criticized by Democrats for years as a giveaway to the richest Americans; it is simply premature, he argues, since their expiration date is three years off. Stan Collender, a longtime budget analyst, says it makes no political sense for Congress to “deal with tax cuts before you have to, certainly not before the 2008 election.”…

Still, there are real fault lines, even within his party. The recent elections showed a resurgent populism, a new skepticism on trade and a new alarm that global competition translates into lower wages and shakier benefits for too many Americans. Democrats who embraced free trade under President Bill Clinton are now having second thoughts.

Liberals like Robert B. Reich, the former secretary of labor, argue that the new Congress must provide “more economic security at home,” like affordable health insurance or better pension protection, to cushion workers in this rough, new, competitive environment. But at the same time, many Democrats argue that the Clinton-era emphasis on deficit reduction and fiscal responsibility must be restored, raising the question of how all their new spending (not to mention a fix to the alternative minimum tax) will be paid for….

By Clea Benson - Bee Capitol Bureau

The California Pan-Ethnic Health Network, sponsor of a new law requiring health plans to provide translators for their members who do not speak English, was pleased with the way the Schwarzenegger administration was proposing to implement the statute—back in September.

But in December, something changed, the leaders of the nonprofit advocacy group say. Schwarzenegger’s Department of Managed Health Care released a new draft of the regulations that required far too little of insurers, in the organization’s view. That version is now on its way to becoming final.

“We didn’t expect such a big change, and all of it negative,” said Marty Martinez, the group’s policy director. “I think they’re bending to opposition from the health plans.”…

Consumer advocates say the final version deleted a requirement that health plans must operate hotlines that consumers can call if they need translation assistance and that it weakened requirements for plans to notify their members that the services are available….

By Eliot Brown

PEORIA - Angie Walker is what insurers would consider a high-risk patient.

The 32-year-old Peoria woman has had five heart surgeries in her life, two of them open heart, in addition to numerous other procedures for a condition called tricuspid atresia. Her heart is effectively missing a chamber, she said, and she spent a good part of her childhood and adolescence seeing doctors who tried to partially correct the problem.

Eight years ago she grew too old to be covered by her parents’ insurance and became uninsured.

Unable to work a full time job with benefits, she’s left without insurance not because she doesn’t want to buy private insurance, but her condition puts her at high risk to insurance companies. Her only option is a state program for similar individuals, though the premiums run in the hundreds of dollars a month, well above anything she can afford.

Walker is not alone- experts say nationally there are likely tens of thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands of individuals in the same situation: They don’t have health care through an employer and have a condition or disease that prevents them from receiving private insurance. For people with cancer, diabetes, HIV/AIDS, leukemia, cirrhosis and similar health problems, a “need not apply” sign effectively hangs on the doors of private insurers in most states….

The private market is far more limiting than employer-sponsored health coverage, which generally has more extensive regulation. Due to the passage of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPPA) of 1996, insurers and employers are not able to exclude pre-existing conditions for people that move from one job to another.

“Your best bet has been and remains to get a job with good health benefits,” as the current system is generally based around that model, said Karen Pollitz, project director at Georgetown University’s Health Policy Institute.

Insurers on the private market are getting increasingly wary of taking on applicants with any risk as costs rise, she said, and in a 2001 study she found that seemingly innocuous conditions such as hay fever and knee injuries often led to rejection. “If you’re on your own, you’re in trouble,” she said….

By John O’Dell, Times Staff Writer

GM’s electric Chevrolet Volt. (Wieck)

The electric car, derided as impractical by automakers since General Motors Corp. pulled the plug on its revolutionary EV1, is staging a comeback amid lofty fuel prices and persistent worries about the nation’s dependence on imported oil.

GM, the chief villain in the recent documentary “Who Killed the Electric Car?” intends to announce plans for a new family of electric vehicles as the annual North American International Auto Show in Detroit begins a four-day media preview today….

Toyota won’t comment on its plans, but GM executives said last month that they believed electric power—from onboard generators, hydrogen fuel cells and even household current—would drive most vehicles of the future….

GM’s plan “is very aggressive, and if they really go forward it gives them the potential to leapfrog the competition,” said Roland Hwang, senior auto technology analyst with the Union of Concerned Scientists….

33. “Health care plan facing opposition” (Sacramento Bee, January 6, 2007); story citing RUTH LIU (MPP 1999); http://www.sacbee.com/713/story/103790.html

By Aurelio Rojas - Bee Capitol Bureau

Even before Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger formally unveils his health care plan Monday, fellow Republicans in the Legislature are vowing to block any plan that provides coverage for illegal immigrants….

Schwarzenegger has made health care his top priority. He says he wants all uninsured Californians—children and adults—to have insurance, with individuals, government, employers, medical providers and insurers sharing the costs. That would cost an estimated $12 billion a year—and the governor has been steadfast in his opposition to raising taxes.

Advocates who have been briefed on the governor’s plan to cover all children say he is not likely to suggest a way to pay for it when he releases it.

Ruth Liu, Schwarzenegger’s associate secretary for health policy, said the administration is still “developing all components” of the plan.

“Certainly, we are well aware there was a problem with this issue in the previous session,” Liu said. “But on Monday, we are going to go ahead and tell you about all the different elements of the plan.”…

34. “Pre-tax employee accounts in health proposal” (Sacramento Bee, January 5, 2007); story citing RUTH LIU (MPP 1999); http://www.sacbee.com/296/story/103277.html

By Aurelio Rojas - Bee Capitol Bureau

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s plan to reduce health care costs and increase access will require employers to establish pre-tax health care contribution plans for employees, administration officials announced Thursday.

The much-anticipated plan that the Republican governor is scheduled to unveil Monday also will require health plans and insurers to offer a benefit package that includes rewards, including a premium reduction, if certain healthy living goals are met.

The more far-reaching proposal would be the health saving accounts, which were created by Congress to induce medically uninsured employees to set aside part of their salaries—before taxes—to pay for health care….

But the mandates may rankle some businesses….

But Ruth Liu, Schwarzenegger’s associate secretary for health policy, said businesses would benefit because their employees would be healthier and happier.

“I wouldn’t exactly call (the proposals) mandates,” Liu said. “I like the word ‘require’ better.”

The governor’s plan would require employers to allow employees to make pre-tax health insurance contributions, whether or not they offer employer-sponsored health coverage….

The state Franchise Tax Board estimates requiring employers to establish pre-tax health care contribution plans for employees would create $2.8 billion in federal and $900 million in state income tax savings. The $900 million would be lost to the state treasury, but Liu said the state would benefit in the long run from lower costs on subsidized care….

By Kristin Bender - MediaNews Staff

The city of Berkeley has reduced its skyrocketing workers’ compensation claims by nearly $6 million throughout the last four years by taking some innovative approaches to creating a safer and healthier work environment.

The mayor banned soda machines inside City Hall.

Berkeley bought $600 worth of ergonomically correct office chairs for its workers. The $199 standard-issue models cause all kinds of back and neck problems, according to safety experts.

The city paid three-quarters of the cost for employees to join the Berkeley YMCA because exercise reduces stress, and less stress means fewer illnesses.

Old and worn fire department gurneys, which collapsed a couple times causing injuries, were replaced.

Employees were given a one-time 1 percent pay increase last fiscal year when workers’ compensation costs began to decline….

Cisco DeVries, the chief of staff for Mayor Tom Bates, said the city has taken heat for spending an estimated $300,000 annually on gym memberships for employees.

But now Berkeley has proof that it’s a good investment.

“We get criticized for the fact that it costs money, but we just saved $6 million in workers’ compensation,” he said. “It’s not just an amenity for employees—it’s a safety issue.”…

36. “Poll: Health-care costs worry voters” (Press-Enterprise, January 3, 2007); story citing MARIAN MULKEY (MPP 1989).

By Jim Miller And Lora Hines; The Press-Enterprise

Three out of four California voters fear they will not be able to pay for the costs of a major injury or illness, according to a statewide survey on people’s views about health care….

The poll, prepared for The Press-Enterprise and other California media subscribers, is the first half of a two-part survey funded by the nonprofit California Wellness Foundation, an independent organization focused on improving the health of Californians….

Today’s survey found that four out of five people think the government should ensure all Californians have access to affordable coverage….

Marian Mulkey, senior program officer at the California Healthcare Foundation, said most employer-based-health-care plans would cover major illnesses or injuries. But treatment and recovery costs could become unaffordable, she said.

“In the employer context, the chances that you would face a situation where you would not be covered in a catastrophic event are pretty slim,” said Mulkey, whose independent, nonprofit organization monitors the way health care is delivered and financed in California.

But, as premiums go up, Mulkey said, employer contributions are staying about the same. However, employee contributions and out-of-pocket expenses are rising, she said.

“Someone who suffers from a chronic illness and needs ongoing care is feeling the pinch more than they would have two or three years ago,” Mulkey said.

People who suffer from chronic illnesses require more doctor visits, which lead to more co-payments. The cost of a chronic illness could overwhelm someone who earns a modest income, Mulkey said.

“That starts to mount up,” she said. “The question is what’s the alternative. If they aren’t able to pay, who should pay? Whose responsibility is it?”

Seventy-five percent of the Field Poll’s respondents said they are concerned that employers could reduce the amount contributed toward workers’ health care. Almost as many people said they worry they won’t be able to pay their health-care premiums, deductibles and co-payments….

37. “With a Hefty Education Grant Come Equally Great Expectations. Gates Foundation Provides Money, and Mandates” (Washington Post, December 4, 2006); story citing ANDREW SMILES (MPP 1998).

By Jacqueline L. Salmon - Washington Post staff writer

WASHINGTON - Irasema Salcido's heart raced when she pulled the letter from a stack of mail in her Capitol Hill office. She tore open the envelope.

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is pleased to award the Cesar Chavez Public Charter Schools a grant in the amount of $1,570,000….

That moment in September 2005 marked the launch of a partnership between a Harvard-educated daughter of migrant farm workers and a charity built on the fortune of a billionaire Harvard dropout….

But Gates money doesn't just come with dreams. It also comes with demands….

Salcido … opened the first Cesar Chavez Public Charter School for Public Policy in 1998 in a Southwest Washington supermarket basement. The school, named for the late Mexican-American labor and civil rights leader, seeks to offer a college-prep curriculum to kids whose families earn less in a year than the annual tuition of pricey private schools….

Salcido reached out to the Gates Foundation in 2004 through an official she knew there, education program director Jim Shelton, who arranged for Melinda Gates to tour the school that year….

The pitch worked. The foundation dispatched program officer Andrew Smiles to help Salcido put together a proposal.

After prowling around the Capitol Hill campus, Smiles liked much of what he saw. Girls in bracelet-size hoop earrings and boys in baggy jeans walked past hand-lettered posters listing the grade-point averages of top students. Like the tail of a kite, sheets of paper lined a hall with the names of graduating seniors and the colleges to which they had been accepted. Bates, Penn State, Howard, the University of Maryland - every Chavez graduate has been accepted to college, according to the school.

Many teachers were former policy wonks with Ivy League degrees. Smiles also saw promise in the public policy-oriented focus that linked coursework to the world at large. The school fit with the Gates "three R's" approach: rigor, relevance and relationships.

But some classes weren't as rigorous as they could be, Smiles concluded, and inexperienced teachers didn't know how to push kids to do more than recite answers by rote.

In a few weeks, he and Chavez administrators hammered out a 30-page plan with 11 target actions, known as "deliverables,'' in exchange for foundation support to fix problems and add two campuses. Most of the Gates money would come toward the end of a five-year grant.

The deliverables included strengthening the curriculum, training teachers, drawing up more detailed budgets and taking steps to reduce student attrition.

Nearly a quarter of the freshman class, Smiles discovered, had disappeared by the time their sophomore year began.

Smiles stays in constant contact by phone and in person, taking on an oversight role typical for a central office in a large school system. In July, he met with Chavez administrators to review progress on such matters as the new school calendar and dropout prevention. With pressed khaki pants and a thatch of unruly brown hair, Smiles looked like a cross between a Microsoft engineer and a prep-school English teacher as he took notes on a legal pad.

"It'd be great to get some perspective on the deliverables," he told them. "I'm also hoping that this meeting can serve as reflecting time to say, 'Here we are, getting prepared for two more schools.' "

Salcido gave a mock groan. "Do you have to remind us?" she said, as laughter rippled across the room.

Smiles grinned. "I know," he said. "Exactly."

38. “Report Says China Is Cutting Emissions” (Global News Wire - Asia Africa Intelligence Wire, Financial Times, November 17, 2006); story citing NED HELME (MPP 1971).

A report released this week at the United Nations Climate Change Conference countered claims that developing countries like China are not doing enough to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The report, entitled “Greenhouse Gas Mitigation in Brazil, China and India: Scenarios and Opportunities through 2025,” also finds that 70 percent of China’s unilateral emissions reductions had been financed domestically. “Our analysis shows the actions China and Brazil are taking will result in emissions cuts to levels comparable to what the United States is projected to do under its voluntary target by 2010, also equal to nearly 40 percent of what the EU will do by 2010,” said Ned Helme, president of the Center for Clean Air Policy (CCAP), the US-based think-tank that produced the report.

Chinese officials heralded the report’s findings. “The results of this project and our continued work with CCAP to find win-win opportunities for climate policy in China will be very important in helping us move forward,” said Lu Xuedu, deputy director of China’s Office of Global Environmental Affairs under the Ministry of Science and Technology. “The more developed countries do, the more developing countries will follow.”…

FACULTY IN THE NEWS

Americans should be taxed for the energy they consume. But it isn’t the government that should decide how that money is spent.

By Garrett Gruener and Daniel M. Kammen,

Garrett Gruener is a venture capitalist and the founder of Ask Jeeves (now Ask.com). Daniel Kammen is co-director of the Berkeley Institute of the Environment at UC Berkeley.

It’s become painfully obvious that the oil-addicted United States must take action to stop global warming—and equally obvious that sensible energy action will have to come from Congress, business and the American people. Piecemeal approaches won’t work. What we need—and quickly—are market-based incentives to make it attractive to stop emitting the carbon that causes global warming.

The longer we wait to take action on global warming, the more it will cost us in the long run. So it makes sense to adopt a tax on carbon emissions now. The trick is to design a “global cooling tax” that a majority of Americans will want to pay. We propose a tax that will hit energy hogs hardest. But under our scheme, whether you use a little or a lot, you would be able to invest your tax dollars directly in clean technologies that would lower your energy bills.

Americans consume 300 billion gallons of gasoline a year, and staggering quantities of coal and natural gas. What can we do to stop drastic climate change while we wait for viable alternative sources of energy? Plenty—if we are willing to pay and make our investments work for us....

Our carbon tax proposal is based on the principle that every consumer of fossil-fuel energy should have to pay the price of getting rid of the carbon generated by burning it. So the owner of a gasoline-powered Hummer who drives it 10,000 miles a year would pay $200 a year, and a Prius driver would pay $50….

But instead of going to the Treasury, the tax money would be credited into individual “energy savings accounts.” Each taxpayer could decide how best to spend it to reduce carbon emissions, to benefit himself and the planet. You could use your $555 toward installing solar panels on your roof, cutting your electricity bill to zero. Or you could direct your tax money to a charity that plants fast-growing trees at the equator, or to a private company that would suck up the carbon in the atmosphere and sequester it under the ocean floor. You could pool your “cooling tax” money with your neighbors and build a windmill to supply your town with electricity or a plant to supply you with a non-carbon alternative to gasoline….

The results would be transformative. The U.S. would no longer be a net generator of greenhouse gases. Instead, its companies would lead in creating new markets in environmentally sound technologies funded by the investment choices of individual Americans. It’s in our national interest to invest in our energy future — and within our power to innovate our way out of this crisis.

2. “Millions of foreclosures loom” – Commentary by ROBERT REICH (Marketplace, American Public Media [NPR], January 31, 2007); Listen to this commentary

SCOTT JAGOW: Last year, more than a million families lost their homes to foreclosure…. A lot of these people got sub-prime loans. So they didn’t very good credit to start with and they’re probably poor. Commentator Robert Reich worries about what’s to come.

ROBERT REICH: A few years ago, banks were awash in money, eager to give mortgages to almost anybody who applied. And investors were all too happy to get high yields from mortgage-backed securities.

Which meant an explosion of sub-prime lending along with all sorts of gimmicks making it easy to meet the payments: adjustable-rate mortgages, interest-only loans, no down payments, often financing 100 percent of the value of the home.

Well, it’s time to pay the piper and the piper’s raising rates and calling in the loans.

… Now that the economy is perking up, adjustable rates are increasing. The Mortgage Bankers Association estimates that in 2007, more than $500 billion worth of mortgages will be adjusted upward….

Some families won’t be able to afford the additional payments.

And here’s the kicker: Even if they could just barely afford them, they won’t qualify for refinancing.

That’s because, now that the housing bubble has burst, the value of their home is less than what it was a few years ago. They’d be trying to get a loan for more than their house is worth. And these days, mortgage lenders are refusing to do that kind of refinancing.

Which means more foreclosures. According to a report issued last month by the Center for Responsible Lending, 1-in-5 sub-prime loans made in past two years will end in foreclosure. That’s about 2.2 million borrowers who are likely to lose their homes….

JAGOW: Former Labor Secretary Robert Reich now teaches public policy at the University of California-Berkeley.

By David L. Kirp

In the continuing debates over who ought to be admitted to America’s top colleges, “diversity” has been both a mantra and a moral trump card. In academe, to question it risks being labeled as hopelessly retrograde. I’ll take that risk. Contrary to the conventional wisdom, many of the winners in the diversity sweepstakes aren’t poor or minority students, and many of the losers have powerful justice-based claims.

From the start, the incantation of diversity has been an act of hypocrisy. In the 1978 Bakke case,Supreme Court Justice Lewis Powell declared that promoting diversity justified the use of race as one among multiple factors in admitting students. Powell may have envisioned an admissions committee constructing a class composed of would-be Einsteins, Warhols, kids from Appalachia, point guards and minorities, but insiders appreciated that the opinion legitimated quotas. To pass muster the “diversity” formula had to be built backwards. Rather than starting out with a straightforward quota—admit X percentage of minorities—the university simply had to calculate how heavily to weight race in order to admit the desired number….

Minorities win and whites lose—that’s how the diversity issue is publicly framed, but the facts are otherwise. Most of the applicants who receive favored treatment are not minorities. Many are the offspring of alumni— “legacies,” a quaint term suggestive of feudal entitlement….

Children of the famous are similarly pampered, most notoriously at Brown, where the arrival of John F. Kennedy Jr., “John John,” helped to put the habitual doormat of the Ivy League on the map. A host of celebrities’ kids followed in his wake….

The biggest losers, of course, are children from poor families. They have neither the cachet of the rich or famous nor the cosseting that raises grades and test scores. A widely reported study of the 146 most selective colleges by the Century Foundation showed that 74 percent of students came from families in the upper quartile of the income bracket; just three percent came from the bottom quartile….

Poor students actually fare worse than they would under a system of admissions based entirely on grades and test scores….

David L. Kirp, a professor of public policy at UC Berkeley, is the author of “Shakespeare, Einstein, and the Bottom Line: The Marketing of Higher Education.”

David R. Baker, Chronicle Staff Writer

Only one fuel—ethanol—can satisfy President Bush’s plan to vastly expand America’s use of gasoline substitutes, energy experts say.

And that might not be a good thing, they say.

In his State of the Union address Tuesday night, Bush said that within 10 years, he wants the United States to use five times as much alternative fuel as it does now. That step, coupled with tougher mileage standards on cars, would reduce gasoline usage by 20 percent, he said.

Ethanol is the only alternative fuel that can be produced in large enough quantities to meet his mandate, many experts say. And, as it is made in the United States, ethanol has serious drawbacks….

Scientists have argued for years about how much of a net power gain corn ethanol provides, some insisting that it consumes more than it produces. The federal government, for its part, estimates that ethanol gives about 1.6 units of energy for every unit that goes in. But even some researchers who agree say that the fuel doesn’t provide much benefit in the end and that the nation shouldn’t rely too heavily upon it to the detriment of other biofuels.

“That’s really a step backward,” said Daniel Kammen, an energy specialist and co-director of the Berkeley Institute of the Environment at UC Berkeley. “We know that not all biofuels are created equal.”…

Silicon Valley engineers are trying to perfect a better way to make ethanol, distilling it from wood chips and crop waste…. But for all the attention and venture capital pouring into it, cellulosic ethanol isn’t quite ready for the mass market….

As a result, many in the world of alternative fuels worry that Bush’s initiative could boost corn ethanol and stifle other, potentially better sources of power.

“You’re locking in corn ethanol,” Kammen said. “This is how not to make policy.”…

5. “State of the Union Address” (Forum, KQED-88.5 FM, January 24, 2007); program features commentary by HENRY BRADY; listen to the program: http://www.kqed.org/epArchive/R701241000

Forum assesses President Bush’s State of the Union address. Host: Michael Krasny.

Guests: Henry Brady, professor of political science at UC Berkeley….

6. “Only one cheer for Bush proposal” – Commentary by ROBERT REICH (Marketplace, American Public Media [NPR], January 24, 2007); Listen to this commentary

KAI RYSSDAL: Every new public policy creates its winners and its losers. Commentator Robert Reich says when it comes to making winners of consumers, the president’s health care proposal deserves a cheer. But just one cheer.

ROBERT REICH: The president’s proposal takes a step toward decoupling health care from employment.

Under his proposal, everyone would be eligible for a tax deduction for health insurance up to the same amount. Regardless of whether the insurance is provided by the employer or purchased elsewhere.

And there would no longer be any advantage to getting it at work, because employer-paid premiums would be included in taxable income….

Two cheers for the president or any politician who worries about lower-income people who can’t afford health insurance even with a tax deduction….

And three cheers for the politician who bypasses America’s inefficient private insurance market and establishes a single payer. Not a single provider, you can still choose your doctor or hospital. I’m talking about a single payer that provides all Americans with health insurance just as good as the health insurance their representative in Congress receives free of charge….

RYSSDAL: Robert Reich is a professor of public policy at the University of California Berkeley. He was secretary of labor for President Clinton

7. “Experts: President misses chance on climate change” (Oakland Tribune, January 24, 2007); story citing DAN KAMMEN; http://www.insidebayarea.com/oaklandtribune/localnews/ci_5074476

By Douglas Fischer and Ian Hoffman, Staff Writers

President Bush on Tuesday laid out an agenda for energy security but largely ignored climate change, calling for aggressive measures to replace gasoline in the nation’s fuel tanks without limiting the global-warming potential of the fuels that might replace it….

But the president also sought more drilling—including the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge; more subsidies for nuclear power; and a doubling of the nation’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve….

Scientists and environmentalists hoping for a comprehensive agenda said the President missed an opportunity—sought by states, activists, even industry—to establish a national policy addressing both energy security and climate change.

The president made no mention of energy efficiency, conservation or policy changes for electricity production, the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions….

Bush’s silence on greenhouse gas emissions also sets up a potential collision between fossil-fuel-based federal policy and recent state efforts to shift to bio-based alternatives.

It allows, for instance, carbon-intensive fuels such as liquid coal and oil shale to replace gasoline. Neither would be allowed in California under the low-carbon fuel mandate signed last week by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

In fact, even corn-based ethanol—darling of the Bush plan—is unlikely to meet California’s new standard.

“With California’s low-carbon fuel standard, it just seems that much more retrograde,” said Dan Kammen, director of the University of California, Berkeley’s Renewable and Appropriate Energy Lab.

“To be silent on the carbon content is an implicit subsidy for the status quo. And the status quo is oversubsidized corn ethanol.”…

By Mike Taugher

President Bush on Tuesday called for a 20 percent reduction in gasoline consumption within 10 years, mostly by using more ethanol and other alternative fuels….

The alternative fuel requirement would be a huge boost for corn farmers. But ethanol made from corn does not reduce greenhouse gas emissions as much as ethanol made from other stocks, according to Daniel Kammen, director of the Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory at UC Berkeley.

Kammen published research [co-authored with Michael O’Hare and Brian Turner] last year showing that ethanol can significantly reduce the nation’s reliance on foreign oil, but the environmental benefits of ethanol depend on how the fuel is produced.

Corn-based ethanol made in plants fueled by coal produces more greenhouse gases over the production cycle than gasoline, Kammen said.

On average, however, even corn-based ethanol produces a modest reduction in greenhouse gas emissions when compared to gasoline.

Still, Kammen said it makes sense to boost ethanol production with other types of ethanol while the industry is still growing.

“It makes our job harder when the next president figures out it’s not such a good idea,” he said.

Last year, Bush mentioned ethanol grown from switchgrass as a promising source of new energy.

“That sentiment was the right one,” Kammen said, adding that relatively little has been done at the federal level to promote ethanol production from new sources.

9. “Congress still runs on legalized bribery” – Commentary by ROBERT REICH (Marketplace, American Public Media [NPR], January 17, 2007); Listen to this commentary

Bob Moon: The Senate voted unanimously yesterday to force lawmakers to come clean about earmarks…. But Marketplace commentator Robert Reich thinks the Democrats are aiming way too low.

ROBERT REICH: The real scandal in Washington is the everyday bribery that remains legal.

I’m talking about campaign contributions given for legislative favors—a particular provision in this or that bill, an amendment here, an earmarked appropriation there.

Lobbyists orchestrate this contemptible process. And members of Congress keep it going because the money buys television time for their reelection campaigns. And television advertising keeps them in power....

The only way to stop this system of legalized bribery is to cut it off at its core.

Require television and radio networks that use the public airwaves to offer candidates free time. Give public financing to candidates who agree to strict limits on fundraising.

And ban earmarks altogether. There’s no good reason why taxpayer money should be appropriated for any special interest....

Moon: Former Labor Secretary Robert Reich teaches public policy at the University of California at Berkeley.

By Janet Wilson and Elizabeth Douglass, Times Staff Writers

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s senior staff declared there “are no winners and losers” in California’s ambitious low-carbon fuel initiative unveiled in Sacramento on Tuesday. But some parts of the energy industry may have more to gain than others.

Former California secretary of state Bill Jones, co-founder and chairman of Fresno-based Pacific Ethanol Inc. and a contributor to Schwarzenegger’s reelection campaign, was a featured speaker, suggesting that ethanol has a major role in the governor’s vision for sharply reducing greenhouse gases by shifting to lower-carbon fuel. Not a single oil or gas company was represented onstage.

While some scientists and environmentalists applaud ethanol, others say that it is far from a sure bet in terms of reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and analysts said replacing petroleum with things like ethanol could actually raise prices for consumers at the fuel pump, especially in the short run….

A number of studies…raise questions about whether corn-based ethanol, the form now most widely used in the United States, actually reduces carbon, the largest greenhouse gas contributor believed to be causing global warming.

“I don’t think much of ethanol for energy or anything else,” said Tad W. Patzek, professor of geoengineering at UC Berkeley, who said that several studies that he has co-written…found that the coal, petroleum and other fossil fuels used by tractors to grow corn, and the heating equipment used to distill it into fuel, zeroed out any benefits from burning ethanol rather than petroleum.

But others cited a study by different UC Berkeley researchers [Dan Kammen, Michael O’Hare, Brian Turner, et al.] last January that concluded that if natural gas rather than coal was used to process ethanol, there was the potential for a 13% to 15% reduction in greenhouse gases over gasoline….

[The biofuel energy study—published in Science in Jan. 2006—was developed by students and faculty of the Energy and Resources Group and Richard & Rhoda Goldman School of Public Policy at UC Berkeley, and is available to the public on its Web site.]

11. “Against Big Pharma, Dems act wimpy” – Commentary by ROBERT REICH (Marketplace, American Public Media [NPR], January 10, 2007; Listen to this commentary

KAI RYSSDAL: Item four on the Democratic list of things to get done in their first hundred hours comes up Friday: Change the way Medicare pays for prescription drugs. It’s a test of political muscle. But commentator Robert Reich says the Democratic approach is, well, wimpy.

ROBERT REICH: House Democrats are pushing a bill to require Medicare to negotiate drug prices, but in what appears to be a bow to the political clout of Big Pharma, the bill does not authorize Medicare to drop from its approved list drugs on which manufacturers fail to offer good deals.

That’s like Wal-Mart telling its suppliers “We’re going to use our bargaining clout to get the lowest prices for our customers, but regardless of what price you offer we’ll still carry your product in our stores.” What kind of incentive is that?…

The way to do this without denying seniors drugs of their choosing would be for Medicare to set up its own drug plan to compete with those of private insurers. Medicare would subsidize any plan, so seniors wanting drugs not on the approved list would still have access to them, but Medicare’s plan would be the cheapest, because the plan’s size would give it the most bargaining power, and because it would only include drugs that manufacturers offered at a deep discount….

House Democrats should come up with a bill with real teeth in it, that forces drug companies to offer real discounts. Even if it doesn’t pass this time, an upcoming Democratic presidential candidate could run on it, and then turn it into law after winning the next election.

RYSSDAL: Robert Reich is a professor of public policy at the University of California at Berkeley. He used to be the Labor Secretary for President Clinton.

By Peter Langley

This past summer I wrote a column for this space that expressed skepticism about global warming. Well, I have become a convert.

The weight of evidence that the Earth’s mean temperature is rising has become too compelling to seriously dispute. Further, the scientific community has identified emissions from burning fossil fuels, which are accumulating in the atmosphere, as what is causing this.

Although I didn’t see Al Gore’s movie “An Inconvenient Truth,” I did read the September/October 2006 special issue of UC Berkeley’s “California,” which was devoted to global warming. The facts presented were sobering.

The UC scientists interviewed have been studying the dynamics of meteorological behavior for three decades to predict short-term effects and long-term trends affecting land masses, oceans and the atmosphere….

Fortunately, we live in a state where our elected representatives have already begun to take this problem seriously. Legislation passed last year mandates by 2020 a reduction of greenhouse gases from power plants and vehicles to 1990 levels….

You can also … reduce your “carbon footprint” by buying a hybrid gasoline-electric vehicle. The math is simple: a vehicle getting 40 to 50 miles per gallon pollutes a lot less than one getting 15 to 25.

Owning a hybrid also gives you access to the “plug-in” revolution. This will be driven by the advanced batteries installable in hybrid vehicles that are coming to market…

But I’ll put my faith in the power of an idea: that global warming can be reversed by the efforts of average citizens making intelligent choices in the marketplace to reduce greenhouse gases ... and that the idea will spread.

[Dan Kammen’s article in the special global warming issue of California magazine was about how plug-in hybrid electric cars can drive away oil imports; you can read it at: http://www.alumni.berkeley.edu/calmag/200609/plugngo.asp ]

13. “No new tax breaks” – Commentary by ROBERT REICH (Marketplace, American Public Media [NPR], January 3, 2007); Listen to this commentary

SCOTT JAGOW: The country’s lowest paid workers could see an immediate benefit from the new Congress. The Democrats wanna raise the federal minimum wage from $5.15 to $7.25 an hour. President Bush says he’ll sign the bill, but only if it contains new tax breaks for small business. But Commentator Robert Reich says Congress should pay no attention.

ROBERT REICH: Small businesses don’t need new tax breaks because the minimum wage increase won’t actually impose new burdens on them….

In fact, a minimum wage hike may actually help small businesses. Evidence from states that have already increased their own minimum wages suggests that a modest increase convinces more people to enter the labor market — people like retirees, spouses or teenagers who wouldn’t bother working at a lower minimum wage….

The nation can’t afford a tax cut anyway. Democrats have pledged to restore fiscal responsibility by requiring that any new tax cuts be fully paid for.

Maybe this is why the President says he’s willing to sign on. He wants to seem in favor of a minimum wage increase because it’s so popular, but he doesn’t really want it. So his talk of a small business tax cut is just a ploy to give him an excuse to veto it.

JAGOW: Former Labor Secretary Robert Reich teaches public policy now at the University of California at Berkeley….

FACULTY SPEAKING ENGAGEMENTS & EVENTS

January 25 ROBERT REICH was featured speaker on “Berkeley’s Economic Future—How do we compete and thrive in the new economy?” - a City of Berkeley roundtable discussion with Mayor Tom Bates, held at Berkeley City College.

January 26 ROBERT REICH gave a talk on “Global Economy Is Not What It Seems,” at The University Section Club’s Annual Dinner, held at International House.

January 26 ROBERT REICH spoke on “The Real Meaning of Corporate Social Responsibility” in the Berkeley-Columbia Executive MBA Program.

VIDEOS & WEBCASTS

To view a complete list of GSPP videos, visit our Events Archive at: /news-events/archive.html

Recent events viewable on UC Webcast: http://webcast.berkeley.edu/events/archive.php?select2=36

If you would like further information about any of the above, or hard copies of cited articles, we’d be happy to provide them.

We are always delighted to receive your material for inclusion in the Digest. Please email the editor at wong23@berkeley.edu .

Sincerely,

Annette Doornbos

Director of External Relations and Development