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eDIGEST October 2006

UPCOMING EVENTS

1. Master & Ph.D. Career Fair

October 5, 1-4 p.m., Pauley Ballroom, UC Berkeley campus

Co-sponsored by UCB Career Center, Goldman School of Public Policy, School of Public Health

http://career.berkeley.edu/Fairs/MSPHD.stm

2. “National Security in a Turbulent Era” by Michael Nacht

Homecoming Week event - October 6, 2006, 9:30–10:30 a.m.

Barrows Hall, Lipman Room, UCB campus

3. “Where is America Going?” by Robert Reich

Homecoming Week event - October 6, 2006, 11 a.m.–noon

Barrows Hall, Lipman Room, UCB campus

4. GSPP’s 8th Annual Alumni Recognition Dinner

Honoring 2006 Alumnus of the Year, CARL V. PATTON (MPP 1975, PhD 1976)

And honoring Reunion Classes 1971, 1976, 1981, 1986, 1991, 1996 and 2001

October 6, 2006 at The Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant Avenue

5:30 pm - cocktail reception, 7:00 pm – dinner

5. “Achieving a Low Carbon Society” by Dan Kammen

October 12, 7-9 pm, Seymour Center at Long Marine Laboratory

Information and tickets: (831) 459-3800; http://seymourcenter.usc.edu

$6 general public, $4 members

6. “What are Americans VOTING for? Do Ideas Matter in Politics?” A Panel Discussion

Oct. 26th, 7:30 p.m., UC Berkeley Wheeler Auditorium

Moderated by Bruce Cain, Director of the UC Washington Center and IGS at UC Berkeley.

Featured Panelists:

§ Robert Reich, Professor of Public Policy at the Goldman School of Public Policy, UC Berkeley; former Secretary of Labor under the Clinton Administration.

§ George Lakoff, Professor of Linguistics at UC Berkeley; Senior Fellow at The Rockridge Institute.

§ Markos Moulitsas, Founder of Daily Kos.

§ Joan Blades, Cofounder of Moveon.org and Momsrising.org.

Sponsored by the Center on Politics at the Institute for Governmental Studies, UC Berkeley. Co-sponsored by The Rockridge Institute and the World Affairs Council of Northern California; www.politics.berkeley.edu www.rockridgeinstitute.org

7. “Election Night 2006 at IGS”

Nov. 7, 2006, 5:00 p.m. - Institute for Governmental Studies Library, 109 Moses Hall, campus

Watch the returns, and get up-to-the-minute analysis from an outstanding panel of political thinkers and analysts.

Featured Panelists:

· John Ellwood - Professor of Public Policy at the Goldman School of Public Policy, UC Berkeley;

· Robert Reich - Professor of Public Policy at the Goldman School of Public Policy, UC Berkeley, and former Secretary of Labor under the Clinton Administration;

· Jack Citrin - Professor of Political Science and Associate Director of IGS, UC Berkeley;

· Peter Schrag - Political columnist with the Sacramento Bee;

· Debra J. Saunders - Nationally syndicated political columnist with the San Francisco Chronicle

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. “Bad Water Remains” (Financial Times Information Limited - Asia Intelligence Wire, The Statesman (India), September 29, 2006); story citing ANN VENEMAN (MPP 1971).

2. “Wages Lag in L.A. County, Study Says. Report shows a pay gap between local workers and their counterparts in the rest of the state” (Los Angeles Times, September 18, 2006); story citing study co-authored by DAVID CARROLL (MPP 2000) ; http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-workforce18sep18,1,5248782.story?coll=la-headlines-california

3. “State analyst predicts two-year shortfall” (Paradise Post, September 15, 2006); story about ELIZABETH HILL (MPP 1975).

4. “Budget hurdles ahead, Hill warns” (Oroville Mercury Register, September 14, 2006); story about ELIZABETH HILL (MPP 1975).

5. “The jury’s still out on McClatchy’s big deal” (Star Tribune (Minneapolis, MN), September 9, 2006); story citing GARY PRUITT (MPP 1981).

6. “Land debate between school, Alameda County goes to court” (Oakland Tribune, September 9, 2006); story citing RICHARD WINNIE (MPP 1971); http://www.insidebayarea.com/search/ci_4312033

7. “Hybrid bill debated as it awaits action” (Oakland Tribune, September 8, 2006); story citing STUART COHEN (MPP 1997); http://www.insidebayarea.com/ci_4305410

8. “‘A Critical Step’ On Warming. Powerful Player: Air Resources Board stands to gain great economic influence” (San Francisco Chronicle, September 1, 2006); story citing ROLAND HWANG (MPP 1992); http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/09/01/MNGBLKTIDU1.DTL

9. “Crucial turning point for neighborhood community groups” (Copley News Service, August 18, 2006); story citing JULIET MUSSO (MPP 1986, PhD 1995).

10. “Sri Lankan army warns children can be targets” (The Independent (London), August 16, 2006); story citing ANN VENEMAN (MPP 1971).

11. “Freelancer’s imprisonment tied to landmark press ruling” (Sacramento Bee, August 6, 2006); story by PETER BLUMBERG (MPP 1997).

12. “EPA Chemical Management Program” (Congressional Quarterly, August 2, 2006); Capitol Hill Hearing Testimony citing DANIEL CHIA (MPP 2004) & BRYAN EHLERS (MPP 2004).

13. “Court case prompts changes in zoning” (Daily Review, The (Hayward, CA), June 16, 2006); story citing RICHARD WINNIE (MPP 1971).

14. “Small, single-location businesses safest places to work, study finds” (Workers’ Compensation Monitor, June 1, 2006); story citing JOHN MENDELOFF (MPP 1974, PhD 1977).

15. “Tollway lease backers laud plan; unions not so sure” (Daily Herald (Arlington Heights, IL), June 1, 2006; story citing DENNIS HOULIHAN (MPP 1977).

FACULTY IN THE NEWS

1. “Go to UC for free, on Google Video. Berkeley Campus Shares 100 Introductory Courses” (San Jose Mercury News, Sep. 28, 2006); story citing ROBERT REICH; http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/business/15627859.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp

2. “Governor to sign global-warming bill. Why Sept. 27, 2006 will be a day to remember” (San Francisco Chronicle, September 27, 2006); op-ed by DAN KAMMEN; http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/09/27/EDG6PKDU311.DTL&type=printable

3. “Former Labor Secretary Robert Reich and Steve Moore discuss the rising cost of health care” (Kudlow & Company, CNBC News, September 27, 2006); features commentary by ROBERT REICH.

4. “Schwarzenegger Discusses Climate Change” (New York Times Online [*requires registration], September 27, 2006); story citing study led by MICHAEL HANEMANN and DAN KAMMEN’s research group; http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-Global-Warming.html?_r=1&oref=slogin&pagewanted=print

5. “National Intelligence Estimate” (Forum, KQED-88.5 FM, September 26, 2006); features commentary by MICHAEL NACHT; listen to the program at: http://www.kqed.org/epArchive/R609260900

6. “California global warming bill clouded by multiple lawsuits” (Associated Press, September 24, 2006); story citing DANIEL KAMMEN; http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/n/a/2006/09/24/international/i094503D94.DTL&type=printable

7. “Global warming fear lights fire under Congress” (San Francisco Chronicle, September 23, 2006); story citing DANIEL KAMMEN; http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/09/23/MNGOGLBFPB1.DTL&type=printable

8. “Branson Pledges to Finance Clean Fuels”(New York Times [*requires registration], September 22, 2006); story citing DAN KAMMEN; http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/22/business/22climate.html?pagewanted=print

9. “Report: U.S. must follow states lead on emissions. Bush policy that focuses on research is not best way to cut greenhouse gases, experts say” (Oakland Tribune, September 20, 2006); story citing DAN KAMMEN; http://www.insidebayarea.com/oaklandtribune/ci_4366416

10. “Survivor’ wades right into racial stereotyping” (San Francisco Chronicle, September 14, 2006); column citing JACK GLASER; http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/09/14/MNGK0L5D461.DTL

11. “California Tackles Global Warming” (On Point Radio, NPR, WBUR-Boston, aired September 13, 2006, 11-12PM ET); features commentary by DAN KAMMEN; podcast available at: http://www.onpointradio.org/shows/2006/09/20060913_b_main.asp

12. “The Solution: Environment—A New Model?” (Newsweek, International edition, Sept. 11, 2006); story citing DAN KAMMEN; http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14641849/site/newsweek/page/3/

13. “Middle East Part II: Where Do We Go From Here - A Town Hall” (Commonwealth Club, recorded Aug 22 2006, broadcast on KQED, September 8 & 9, 2006); moderated by MICHAEL NACHT; Listen

14. “Limited Corporate Virtues” (Inside Green Business, Vol. 1 No. 19, September 6, 2006); review of book authored by DAVID VOGEL.

15. “Former labor secretary Robert Reich and Steve Moore discuss pension plans” (Kudlow & Company, CNBC News, September 4, 2006); features commentary by ROBERT REICH.

16. “John Zogby, former labor secretary Robert Reich and Steve Moore discuss political apologies” (Kudlow & Company, CNBC News, September 4, 2006); features commentary by ROBERT REICH.

17. “Is green good or bad for state’s economy?” (San Francisco Chronicle, September 1, 2006); story citing MICHAEL HANEMANN; http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/09/01/MNGBLKTICG1.DTL&type=science

18. “Global Warming Plan Could Be Costly. Businesses can expect to make major changes and consumers may face higher bills, experts say” (Los Angeles Times, September 1, 2006); story citing DAN KAMMEN; http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-warm1sep01,1,772724,full.story?coll=la-headlines-business

19. “Q&A: What Bill Would Do, Who’s Affected” (Los Angeles Times, September 1, 2006); story citing DAN KAMMEN; http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-warmqa1sep01,1,1165828.story?coll=la-headlines-business

20. “Former labor secretary Robert Reich and Steve Moore discuss the widening income gap between the rich and poor in the US” (Kudlow & Company, CNBC News, September 1, 2006); features commentary by ROBERT REICH.

ALUMNI AND STUDENT NEWSMAKERS

1. “Bad Water Remains” (Financial Times Information Limited - Asia Intelligence Wire, The Statesman (India), September 29, 2006); story citing ANN VENEMAN (MPP 1971).

Geneva, Sept. 28: The world has made strides in improving access to clean water in developing countries, but lack of safe drinking sources and decent sanitation still claims the lives of 1.5 million youngsters every year, Unicef warned today. In a new report, the UN children’s agency said that more than 1.2 billion people have gained access to safe water since 1990. Between 1990 and 2004, global coverage of safe drinking water rose from 78 per cent to 83 per cent, with Latin America, the Caribbean and South Asia at the forefront. ‘The progress made to date in increasing the number of people with access to safe water has been impressive,’ says Unicef head Ms Ann Veneman, in a statement. ‘However, unsafe water and lack of basic sanitation contribute to the deaths of an estimated 1.5 million children under five each year as a result of diarrhoea.’

By Joe Mathews, Times Staff Writer

The wages, education and benefits of workers in Los Angeles County lag those of their counterparts elsewhere in California, according to a report to be released today by the nonpartisan California Budget Project.

The report [prepared with assistance from David Carroll, senior analyst at the CBP], titled “Left Behind: Workers and Their Families in a Changing Los Angeles,” relies on data from the Census Bureau as well as the state Employment Development Department and Franchise Tax Board to paint a portrait of California’s leading city as an economic world apart.

The typical Los Angeles worker — one whose earnings are in the 50th percentile — makes 83 cents for every dollar earned by the typical worker in the rest of the state, according to the report. Over the last generation, that wage gap has widened. From 1979 to 2005, the inflation-adjusted hourly wage of the typical L.A. worker decreased by more than 6%, while increasing nearly 6% in the rest of the state.

Over the last 15 years, the number of jobs in L.A. County — home to more than one-quarter of California workers — declined by 2.8%, while increasing in the rest of California by 28.5%.

“The breadth of the disparity between Los Angeles and the rest of the state is important, and it really is pervasive,” said Jean Ross, director of the California Budget Project. “Los Angeles was at the center of the bust in the early 1990s and on the periphery of the boom in the late 1990s.”…

The report draws few hard conclusions about the causes of the disparity, but points to a number of factors.

Half of L.A.’s workers are foreign-born, compared with less than a third in the rest of the state. In 2005, the percentage of workers who had not completed high school was the same as in 1979 — a little more than 20%. In the rest of the state, 13% of workers had not finished high school. Also, the value of a high school diploma is less in L.A. than in the rest of California. Workers with a high school education here earn 86.7 cents for every dollar earned by workers with the same schooling in the rest of the state….

[This story was also reported in Copley News Service and The Associated Press, http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/breaking_news/15550314.htm ]

[Read more about the CBP study at: http://www.cbp.org/ ]

3. “State analyst predicts two-year shortfall” (Paradise Post, September 15, 2006); story about ELIZABETH HILL (MPP 1975).

By Kelly Reed - Staff Writer

Photo: State Legislative analyst Elizabeth Hill gives a presentation Thursday at the Paradise Elks Lodge.

Ridge residents got a crash course on the status of the state budget by Elizabeth Hill, the state legislative analyst, who said challenges loom on the horizon for California.

Hill spoke at a Rotary Club luncheon meeting Thursday at the Paradise Elks Lodge. She and her staff advise legislators and government officials about fiscal policies in a nonpartisan manner. Her office is in charge of writing up the proposition information in the voter sample ballots every year, presenting the pros and cons of each one. Hill has worked for the department for 20 years.

This year, the 2006/2007 budget saw an increase in education spending, most projects being fully funded and a $9 billion carryover from the last fiscal year. Last fiscal year the state saw an unexpected burst in revenue as well. But the state faces some challenges.

“We haven’t dug out yet,” Hill said.

Budget shortfalls are predicted for the next two fiscal years of about $4.5 to $5 billion each year unless changes are made to balance the budget, Hill said.

In 2001, revenue decreases led to budget shortfalls, which the state made up for by decreasing some spending and increasing revenue. Mostly, though, the state has been borrowing the money.

Now, California is in debt about $21.6 billion and borrowing is no longer an option.

“We’ve maxed out the state credit card,” she said.

Some other challenges the state faces are the overcrowded prison system, which could be completely filled by June 2007, health care costs and potential federal reductions in funding, Hill said.

Her office is worried about other factors that could affect the budget, such as housing and energy costs….

Hill said she likes to travel to different parts of the state before elections and talk to people on government issues.

4. “Budget hurdles ahead, Hill warns” (Oroville Mercury Register, September 14, 2006); story about ELIZABETH HILL (MPP 1975).

By Larry Mitchell/MediaNews Group

Paradise — Elizabeth Hill, who may understand state government as well as anyone, spoke in Paradise on Thursday, offering a message that was not too cheery.

Although California collected $17 billion in unexpected revenue last fiscal year, “we’re not out of the woods yet,” she said….

After her talk, Hill fielded a lot of questions from club members and their guests. One person, who noted she’d often recommended the state live within its means, asked her how often legislators take her advice.

She said she hasn’t kept track of how regularly her suggestions are followed. She feels she’s done her job if she’s put sound recommendations out there, she said.

Sometimes it’s necessary to keep repeating the message, she added. “It’s like planting a little seed that has to be watered. We have little victories.”

In the last budget cycle, she said she warned legislators to be cautious about spending the surprise burst of revenue because there was no certainty it would appear again the following year.

She felt she was heard, she said. “I think they really did hold back.” Most of the expenditures they approved were of a one-time nature.

Hill, who worked in state government for about a decade before she became legislative analyst, was asked her opinion of term limits.

She said the limits have resulted in more diversity among legislators, but “the institutional knowledge is less.”

For instance, she said, after the next election, she expects to have at least 50 new legislators to familiarize with the workings of her office….

Thursday morning, Hill met in Chico with about 25 people who work with the developmentally disabled.

Her message was that state funding for programs for the developmentally disabled will likely depend on the performance of the state economy, which is pretty uncertain at this point.

5. “The jury’s still out on McClatchy’s big deal” (Star Tribune (Minneapolis, MN), September 9, 2006); story citing GARY PRUITT (MPP 1981).

By Neal St. Anthony - Staff Writer

Newspaper companies and cereal companies have something in common: They are often shared over the breakfast table by loyal customers.

They also are mature businesses that have turned to big acquisitions and brand extensions, such as Internet editions or fruit-laced Cheerios, in search of growth.

And it’s not always easy.

General Mills, which bought Pillsbury a few years ago, suffered a big case of shareholder heartburn en route to the eventual digestion of its crosstown rival and improved financial health.

Now that the McClatchy Company’s acquisition of Knight Ridder Inc. … has gone through, we’ll see if McClatchy’s big gamble pays off similarly….

McClatchy insists that the deal is sound. In fact, the McClatchy board in July paid CEO Gary Pruitt a special $1 million bonus for completing the $6 billion acquisition of Knight Ridder. The deal makes California-based McClatchy, parent of the Star Tribune, the No. 2 newspaper peddler in the country, behind Gannett Co., publisher of USA Today, among other papers….

The acquisition bonus paid to Pruitt is not unusual. MediaNews Group Inc. President Joseph Lodovic snagged a $1 million bonus from his board in August for acquiring several important Knight Ridder newspapers from McClatchy, including the San Jose Mercury News and the Pioneer Press.

Pruitt and the board also deserve credit for fully disclosing the merger-related compensation. Often these extras are lumped together with other pay and not disclosed until year-end proxies are filed.

“I think he deserved the bonus,” said John Miller of Aerial Capital Management in Chicago, a McClatchy shareholder. “We have confidence in him. A year or two from now, I wouldn’t be surprised if he has enhanced shareholder value for everybody.”

Now Pruitt, who sold 12 of the 32 Knight Ridder papers for a healthy $2.1 billion, has turned his focus to making the deal work, and Wall Street is paying close attention to the biggest play in years in the struggling newspaper industry….

Big newspaper companies, with pretax profit margins in the 20 percent neighborhood, still earn good money. But the industry is less profitable thanks to the Internet and other competition. Circulation, advertising and profits at big newspaper companies are down.

Pruitt hopes to stop the slide in print circulation with more entertaining papers that appeal to younger readers, along with specialty publications and expanded websites….

McClatchy has avoided the layoffs that other media companies have endured. Still, it plans to pare $60 million in annual costs from the merged company.

Pruitt, 48, a boyish-looking, charismatic CEO who radiates confidence in a business known for ink-drenched newsroom skeptics, says McClatchy has done a heck of a deal.

But he has his doubters and there is already speculation that Pruitt will have to take McClatchy private within a couple of years unless he can improve performance and the stock price by 2008.

“The McClatchy board might believe it would be worse off if another purchaser had bought Knight Ridder,” said John Fossum, a professor at the Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota….

Champions of good journalism are rooting for McClatchy. Pruitt was a First Amendment lawyer and free-press devotee before he became a high-buck CEO who bagged $5.5 million last year. He takes the “watchdog” role seriously.

We won’t know the outcome of the Knight Ridder deal for a while. Rest assured, Pruitt - like General Mills CEO Steve Sanger… has bet his job on this deal….

The Pillsbury acquisition eventually worked. General Mills’ stock went up, as did Sanger’s seven-figure paydays….

6. “Land debate between school, Alameda County goes to court” (Oakland Tribune, September 9, 2006); story citing RICHARD WINNIE (MPP 1971); http://www.insidebayarea.com/search/ci_4312033

By Josh Richman, Staff Writer

A religious school’s long-running legal battle with Alameda County over a plot of Castro Valley land is finally set to go to trial by jury Feb. 5….

Redwood Christian—represented by the Washington D.C.-based Becket Fund for Religious Liberty—sued the county in 2001, claiming the county had violated its First Amendment religious freedoms and a federal law protecting religious institutions from zoning discrimination when it denied permission for construction of a 650-student junior and senior high school on 45 acres in Palomares Canyon along Interstate 580.

The county contends Redwood Christian bought the land knowing it wasn’t zoned for such use, and the school plan is unsuitable because of its size and potential traffic….

County Counsel Richard Winnie said Friday his office is “very practical about these things, we’ll always consider sitting down and talking, but we’ve found over the years the other side is wrapped up in a cause.”

He noted [U.S. District Judge Samuel Conti] had suggested Friday that Redwood Christian try to eliminate some redundancies and consolidate its case into fewer claims.

The judge last week denied Redwood Christian’s motion for a ruling in its favor without trial. He partially granted but mostly denied the county’s summary judgment motion, throwing out only two of Redwood Christian’s 17 claims. The Becket Fund had hailed those rulings as a civil-rights win.

“You’d think that they won the case the way they’re talking,” Winnie quipped Friday. “They have overestimated their case every step of the way and it really is unfortunate, because I think they’re misleading a lot of people.”…

7. “Hybrid bill debated as it awaits action” (Oakland Tribune, September 8, 2006); story citing STUART COHEN (MPP 1997); http://www.insidebayarea.com/ci_4305410

By Kiley Russell, MEDIANEWS

More hybrid electric vehicles will be allowed in the state’s car pool lanes under a bill waiting for Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s signature.

The bill by Assemblyman Ted Lieu, D-Torrance, would increase the number of carpool permits to 85,000 from 75,000 for the eco-friendly vehicles. It would allow hybrid drivers to use the lanes even when they are driving alone….

The bill is opposed by some environmentalists and is contrary to a Caltrans report that suggests the HOV lane perk should not be expanded. High gas prices are already encouraging car pools, the report found.

Meanwhile, the state’s auto dealers aren’t convinced that the car pool program is boosting sales of hybrid vehicles, said Marcella Rojas, spokeswoman for the California Motor Car Dealers Association.

“We haven’t seen a bigger impact because of the program,” Rojas said. “With gas at $3 a gallon, hybrids are kind of ruling the roads.”…

The Caltrans report, required under a 2004 law that created the current program, documented mixed results for the hybrid car pool program.

Between April 2005 and April 2006, traffic congestion increased to “unacceptable” levels on 3 percent to 5 percent of the car pool lanes monitored by Caltrans. However, during that same period, traffic flow improved on 3 percent to 4 percent of lanes statewide.

“On any given day, it appears that approximately 10 percent of (car pool) lane-miles will operate under degraded conditions with or without hybrids,” according to the report.

Still, as the popularity of hybrids and car pooling rises with gas prices, any program that allows single-occupancy vehicles to use the state’s car pool lanes is redundant and could seriously irritate commuters, said Stuart Cohen, executive director of the Transportation and Land Use Coalition.

“The problem is many of our (car pool) lanes are already slowing down to the same speed as the regular lanes,” Cohen said. “And at that point we’re deterring people from trying to get out of their cars and form a car pool and get on buses and we may be encouraging people to switch back and drive alone.”

By Mark Martin, Chronicle Sacramento Bureau

Assembly Speaker Fabian Nuñez hugs Assemblywoman Fran Pavley after the Assembly approved her global warming bill. Associated Press photo by Rich Pedroncelli

Sacramento — The agreement between Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Democratic legislators to cap greenhouse gas emissions will give a state agency with a history of shaping national environmental policy tremendous new clout over the California economy.

A 46-31 vote in the Assembly on Thursday sent sweeping global warming legislation to Schwarzenegger’s desk, and he has promised to sign the bill that calls for the 11-member California Air Resources Board to become the key player in the state’s ambitious effort to curb carbon emissions. The board has a monumental task as it enters a years-long process of developing both regulations and market-based schemes that could affect everything from forest management to the price of gas….

In addition to setting specific reduction targets for various industries, the board must come up with ways the industries can cut emissions, and it will have the power to impose fees to implement new emission-reduction programs….

The board is accustomed to the spotlight.

For nearly 40 years — it was first created as the California Motor Vehicle Pollution Control Board — the board has forced changes that began in California and spread worldwide. The board required automakers to begin using the catalytic converter in the 1970s and ushered in unleaded gas.

Many of the board’s actions were firsts in California that eventually were adopted by the federal government….

And a controversial decade-long push to require that 10 percent of all cars sold in the state produce no tailpipe emissions was weakened, and in 2003, the board changed the regulations to require more hybrid and fuel-efficient cars.

The long battle has been applauded by some environmentalists for forcing the auto industry to begin to change its vehicles, but it also shows that the board can struggle with new regulations without getting some cooperation from business.

Recently, the board’s regulations implementing a 2002 law requiring cars to have lower emissions have been held up because of a lawsuit by the auto industry….

All sides of the greenhouse gas issue predict a long, complicated fight….

“The regulatory battle has just begun,’’ said Roland Hwang, vehicle policy director at the Natural Resources Defense Council.

[The California Air Resources Board’s Program Manager is Chuck Shulock (MPP 1978), a member of Gov. Schwarzenegger’s Climate Action Team.]

9. “Crucial turning point for neighborhood community groups” (Copley News Service, August 18, 2006); story citing JULIET MUSSO (MPP 1986, PhD 1995).

By Dan Laidman

LOS ANGELES—Five years after activists in San Pedro and Wilmington became the pioneers of the city’s neighborhood council movement, the network of community groups has arrived at a crucial turning point.

The young system is getting its first top-to-bottom probe at the same time it copes with very public growing pains. The stakes are significant, for there are ongoing disputes about how closely the citizen groups should resemble traditional political entities, and how much influence they should have in city government.

“There are a lot of balls in the air right now,” said Juliet Musso, an associate professor of public policy and political science at the University of Southern California, who has studied the neighborhood councils….

“There’s a tension between that grass roots character and the need for standards and guidelines to function as quasi-governmental entities,” Musso said. “Unless the city can bring the neighborhood councils along and work in partnership to develop change, I think there’s going to be this continuing tension.”

The commission charged with evaluating of the neighborhood council system was mandated by the 1999 charter reform that created the groups as a way to connect Los Angeles’ neighborhoods to City Hall amid brewing secession movements in the Harbor Area, San Fernando Valley and other parts of the city….

10. “Sri Lankan army warns children can be targets” (The Independent (London), August 16, 2006); story citing ANN VENEMAN (MPP 1971).

By Justin Huggler, Asia Correspondent

The Sri Lankan government has defied growing condemnation and declared that it considered children and young people killed in an air strike to be combatants and legitimate targets.

“If the children are terrorists, what can we do?” said a military spokesman, Brigadier Athula Jayawardana.

The government claimed that children killed and injured in the bombing on Monday were child soldiers conscripted by the Tamil Tiger rebels.

The United Nations children’s organisation, Unicef, condemned the air strike as “shocking” in a statement issued in Geneva and New York. Unicef’s head, Ann Veneman, said: “These children are innocent victims of violence.”

The Tamil Tigers are known to use conscripted child soldiers. But Unicef said its information indicated that those killed in the air strike were schoolchildren attending a first aid course. And there was international concern yesterday at the government’s statement that it was prepared to target and kill child soldiers….

11. “Freelancer’s imprisonment tied to landmark press ruling” (Sacramento Bee, August 6, 2006); story by PETER BLUMBERG (MPP 1997).

By Peter Blumberg — Special to The Bee

When he took to the streets last year to film a clash between police and anarchist demonstrators, Josh Wolf may have had no idea he was walking into contemporary journalism’s most hazardous predicament.

Now that he’s been imprisoned for refusing to cooperate with a criminal investigation, the San Francisco freelance videographer may feel as if he’s stepped into a time warp.

Rewind to 34 years ago, when a case out of San Francisco led the U.S. Supreme Court to issue its landmark First Amendment ruling limiting the rights of reporters to protect confidential sources.

William Alsup, the federal judge who last week incarcerated Wolf, was then a clerk with the high court, fresh out of Harvard Law School.

Here’s the twist: Alsup’s boss, Justice William O. Douglas, came down on the side of freedom of the press, arguing that the government has no business trying to shake information out of a journalist.

But all these years later, Alsup sided with the government that news reporters shouldn’t be treated differently from anyone else when they have evidence of a crime that the federal government wants.

In this case, prosecutors have been trying since February to get Wolf to hand over all the footage he recorded of a July 2005 protest—only part of which was broadcast on local TV—because they think it might show who set fire to a police cruiser in the Mission District.

How did it come to this? Alsup didn’t show much sympathy for Wolf’s principled stand against turning himself into “a surveillance arm of the government.” In a recent court hearing, the judge asked why a journalist supposedly devoted to the public’s right to know wants to keep secrets.

“Every person, from the president of the United States down to you and me, has to give information to the grand jury if the grand jury wants it,” Alsup said last week just before finding Wolf in contempt and turning him over to U.S. marshals.

Whatever his personal views, Alsup may have felt he had little choice but to come down hard on Wolf.

The high court’s 1972 decision in a fiercely split 5-4 vote declined “to grant newsmen a testimonial privilege that other citizens do not enjoy.” Branzburg v. Hayes, 08 U.S. 665.

That ruling remains the only time the court has considered the use of a reporter’s privilege—and it has haunted journalists ever since, including the New York Times reporter jailed last year in the case of the White House leak about the CIA agent….

However Wolf’s case play out, it is heartening to know that Alsup is committed to full disclosure on both sides of the journalist-government fence.

Alsup is presiding over a case brought by the American Civil Liberties Union to force the Bush administration to release information about its secret surveillance of anti-war activists at the UC Berkeley and Santa Cruz campuses.

When the ACLU complained recently of foot-dragging by the feds on a freedom of information request, Alsup ordered the Department of Homeland Security to speed things up, citing the strong public interest in the subject matter.

If a judge is willing to take extreme measures to help prosecutors get a peek at a journalist’s private recording of anti-government activists, it’s good to know the same judge is looking out for public access to public records of the government spying on college kids.

Peter Blumberg is editor of the San Francisco Daily Journal, where an earlier version of this column first appeared.

12. “EPA Chemical Management Program” (Congressional Quarterly, August 2, 2006); Capitol Hill Hearing Testimony citing DANIEL CHIA (MPP 2004) & BRYAN EHLERS (MPP 2004).

Statement of Michael P. Wilson Assistant Research Scientist University of California, Berkeley

Committee on Senate Environment and Public Works

Mr. Chairman and members of the Committee, thank you very much for inviting me to the hearing today on chemicals policy and the Toxic Substances Control Act. I am Michael Wilson, an assistant research scientist with the Center for Occupational and Environmental Health at the University of California, Berkeley and the lead author of a report regarding chemical problems in California and the steps the California Legislature can take to respond to those problems. I will speak briefly about the report, entitled Green Chemistry in California: A Framework for Leadership in Chemicals Policy and Innovation, which was published by the University of California in March of this year. I would like to acknowledge co-authors Daniel Chia and Bryan Ehlers and the Advisory Committee of experts that provided technical guidance and rigorous review of the document over a two-year period.

The report responds to three questions posed to the University by the California Legislature:

· What are the key chemical challenges facing California?

· What are the causes of those challenges?

· How might the Legislature respond to those challenges?

In answering these questions… three themes emerged out of our investigation. First, there is insufficient information in the marketplace to make informed decisions about chemicals.

Second, government is overly constrained in its capacity to protect public and environmental health from chemicals.

And third, more needs to be done to motivate investment in safer chemical technologies, known as “green chemistry.” …[T]he report finds that the root cause of these challenges can be traced to longstanding deficiencies in federal regulation, particularly with the Toxic Substances Control Act, or TSCA. The report illustrates that the weaknesses of TSCA have produced a Data Gap, a Safety Gap, and a Technology Gap in the U.S. chemicals market….

13. “Court case prompts changes in zoning” (Daily Review, The (Hayward, CA), June 16, 2006); story citing RICHARD WINNIE (MPP 1971).

Oakland — Alameda County supervisors closed a loophole in county zoning laws Thursday, attempting to reduce the legal ammunition Castro Valley-based Redwood Christian Schools can muster as a July federal court date approaches.

The court case involves Redwood Christian’s longstanding efforts to open an 800-student high school campus at East Castro Valley Boulevard and Palo Verde Road.

Thursday’s zoning changes require that groups such as fraternities, sororities, clubs, beauty, business and trade schools obtain use permits for their buildings in unincorporated areas….

County Counsel Richard Winnie said the county “is revising these (zoning) sections to make it clear that the county treats religious and nonreligious land uses in the same nondiscriminatory manner, and to remove any possibility that a case could be filed in the future.”

In November 2001, the Washington, D.C.-based Becket Fund for Religious Liberty sued supervisors and their advisory bodies for denying Redwood Christian Schools the necessary permits to build and operate a high school….

Both appointed and elected leaders, backed by some local residents, indicated in 2000 that the semirural area was inappropriate for a high school campus….

14. “Small, single-location businesses safest places to work, study finds” (Workers’ Compensation Monitor, June 1, 2006); story citing JOHN MENDELOFF (MPP 1974, PhD 1977).

Small workplaces that are a business’ only location are among the safest places to work, according to a new study.

Researchers from the RAND Corp. said the study’s findings are important because businesses with fewer than 100 employees play a vital role in the U.S. economy, employing more than half of all American workers. Researchers said that small, single-site businesses may be safer because they could have an owner on the premises who watches over the safety of employees.

“At a small workplace, one person can make more of a difference, and it seems plausible that an on-site owner might feel more responsibility to try to avoid injuring workers than a hired manager would,” said John Mendeloff, the study’s lead author and a professor of public policy at the University of Pittsburgh.

[For more information on the study, visit: http://www.rand.org/pubs/technical_reports/TR371/ .]

15. “Tollway lease backers laud plan; unions not so sure” (Daily Herald (Arlington Heights, IL), June 1, 2006; story citing DENNIS HOULIHAN (MPP 1977).

By Joseph Ryan, Daily Herald Staff Writer

For more than three hours Wednesday, a panel of state senators exploring the idea of leasing the tollway system to a private company heard mostly encouraging words.

Privatization advocates tried to sooth fears of outrageous tolls, mismanagement and loss of public control, saying all those issues can be resolved in a well-drafted lease agreement.

Meanwhile, union officials asked lawmakers to study other options before leasing the 274-mile tollway system for billions of dollars.

Federal transit officials headlining the Chicago hearing told a packed room of 10 lawmakers and more than 100 spectators that an Illinois tollway lease will be a welcome first in the nation….

Facing massive pension and road building deficits, key lawmakers and Gov. Rod Blagojevich are supporting an ongoing process this summer to explore leasing the tollway….

Suburban lawmakers have been concerned about ill affects of any such lease on public control, safety, upkeep and expansions….

Unions speaking Wednesday shared the same thoughts.

“Some of us need to be the ants at the picnic,” Dennis Houlihan, a labor economist for AFSCME, said in the final remarks of the day. “You need to be sure you are hearing both sides of the issue.”

FACULTY IN THE NEWS

By Lisa M. Krieger

The best of college is now available, for free, without unpleasantries such as 8 a.m. classes, pop quizzes or term papers.

In a new deal with Google Video, the University of California-Berkeley is sharing with the public, via the Internet, dozens of videotaped seminars, speeches, special events and even entire courses taught by some of the campus’ leading professors….

Easy to view and accessible to everyone, the Web site offers more than 100 introductory-level lectures in subjects such as physics, biology, chemistry, information systems and bioengineering. Viewers can’t earn credit, but they don’t have to find a parking space either….

Also online are … speeches by luminaries such as economist [and UC Berkeley professor] Robert Reich, who proposed that a Massachusetts liberal will be the next president….

UC-Berkeley is the first campus to post entire course lectures online and the only school with its own page on the Web site of Google Video, a new, vast and often chaotic video marketplace that features everything from “I Love Lucy’” reruns to amateur footage of car crashes and cats flushing toilets….

The Google Video project will be easier [than the campus-based Web site (http://webcast.berkeley.edu)] for those less technologically inclined—including legions of older Cal alumni, nostalgic for the intellectual inspiration of faculty members…. The Google site is more polished than the university’s Webcasts, with higher resolution and light editing….

More than 250 hours of UC-Berkeley content is now available online (http://video.google.com/ucberkeley).

- Daniel M. Kammen

THERE IS a saying that “life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.” Such an event takes place today in San Francisco, and warrants a place in history….

To this list we can now add Sept. 27, 2006, the day Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will sign a piece of landmark legislation that has been agreed upon by a coalition of Republicans, Democrats, climate and energy scientists, activists and a cadre of industry leaders: Assembly Bill 32 (AB32), the California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006.

AB32, introduced by Assemblywoman Fran Pavley, D-Agoura Hills, and Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez, D-Los Angeles, calls for a cap on greenhouse-gas emissions statewide, and a 25 percent reduction by 2020. More important than the target, which is itself dramatic, is the fact that California will establish emission controls on the largest industrial sectors, including utilities, oil refineries and cement manufacturing, and will use market mechanisms—emissions trading—to find the economically most-efficient ways to reduce global warming….

Instead of opposing AB32, the market-based flexibility that the bill embraces has convinced the giant Northern California utility, Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E), to support the bill, as do a wide range of Silicon Valley companies and venture capitalists, that have been investing heavily in the clean and renewable energy sector. In fact, studies from my research group at UC Berkeley, as well as macroeconomic models of the state economy prepared for the California Environmental Protection Agency, both find that an investment in clean energy will likely bring economic benefits to the state in the form of significant numbers of new jobs and export opportunities for what is becoming known as the ‘‘clean tech’’ sector….

Shortly before her death, Rachel Carson wrote: “Man’s attitude toward nature is today critically important because we have now acquired a fateful power to alter and destroy nature. But man is a part of nature, and his war against nature is inevitably a war against himself ... (We are) challenged as mankind has never been challenged before to prove our maturity and our mastery, not of nature, but of ourselves.”

Today, a vital step is being taken to meet that challenge.

Daniel M. Kammen is the Class of 1935 distinguished professor of energy at the University of California, Berkeley. He co-directs the Berkeley Institute of the Environment and is founding director of the Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory (RAEL). He has appointments in the Energy and Resources Group and the Goldman School of Public Policy.

3. “Former Labor Secretary Robert Reich and Steve Moore discuss the rising cost of health care” (Kudlow & Company, CNBC News, September 27, 2006); features commentary by ROBERT REICH.

LARRY KUDLOW, host: …All right, big problem, health-care costs. They’ve climbed twice as fast as wages and inflation in 2006 to nearly double their cost in 2000. Joining us now to highlight the problems and the solutions, our dynamic duo, Bob Reich, former labor secretary and professor of Public Policy at the UCal-Berkeley, and Steve Moore, senior economics writer for The Wall Street Journal editorial board.

Robert Reich, first of all, why are these health-care premiums going up so fast? Let’s start there.

Mr. ROBERT REICH (Former Labor Secretary): Larry, I think a lot of it has to do with new drugs, new technology and the fact that we have extraordinarily inefficient health-care system. We have a system in which right now employers have every incentive, because of competition, to shift the costs of copayments, deductibles and premiums on to their employees. So that means employees are hit by a double-whammy, not only are the price of drugs going up and medical costs going up, but also the shifting of costs onto them.

KUDLOW: They could get it all tax-free….. We’re subsidizing the wrong thing.

Mr. REICH: Well, I think we’ve got to decouple health care from employment. I think that’s the long-term necessary goal….

Mr. STEVE MOORE: …I see the solution to this problem of stampeding costs of health care on the backs of employers precisely by putting the consumer back in the equation…. Bob, I think … higher copayments are a good thing….

Mr. REICH: …[M]ay I just say, Steve, I agree with you half. The half that you agree with me. But in terms of health-savings accounts and in terms of increasing copayments and deductibles, average working people don’t even see a doctor as much as they need to see to get the preventative care they need to avoid the diabetes and all of the heart disease and everything else down the road. In other words, the problem for average Americans is that they are not seeing general practitioners, their normal family doctors enough….

KUDLOW: Bob Reich, when you say move employers out, do you mean move government in? Your administration, the Clinton Administration tried to have a government takeover of the health-care system, which would work about as good as the post office….

Mr. REICH: I think everybody… ought to be given the opportunity, nobody is forced to, but everybody ought to be given the opportunity for a kind of Chevrolet-style health-care plan. And that is they would join in the same health-care plan that Congress, that members of Congress have, the same health-care plan that we have with regard to Medicare....

Mr. MOORE: Sounds like government control.

Mr. REICH: … This is not mandatory at all. This is just using the huge economies of scale and bargaining leverage that the government now has to get down the price of drugs and the price of medical providers.

Mr. MOORE: But you know what, Bob? Bob, the whole health-care explosion of costs has happened in direct correlation with the increased government involvement in health care….

Mr. REICH: ... Steve, you know as well as I do, that the cost of Medicare, in terms of administrative costs, is about less than 2 percent. The private insurance market has about a 15 percent insurance cost in terms of administration. And on top of that...they are skimming the cream. They’re looking for healthy people and trying to avoid sick people.

KUDLOW: What I don’t understand—is how government running anything could possibly be good. What are we going to have, more state planning and socialism and a capitalist system? Why shouldn’t we have thorough going market-driven consumer choice? Change the tax system ….

Mr. REICH: You think the health market … works by competitive principles?

KUDLOW: Yes. Yes. Yes. Free markets work, whether it’s oil or health.

Mr. REICH: Private insurers are trying to avoid sick people, and they are trying to avoid sick people and they’re trying to find healthy people....

By The Associated Press

Sacramento, Calif. (AP) -- California’s landmark effort to set a cap on greenhouse gas emissions is just one step in a long-term strategy by the nation’s most populous state to combat global climate change, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said in an interview.

The governor said the state will push for further industrial reductions and initiatives such as placing greater emphasis on renewable energy and hydrogen-fueled cars....

The industrial emissions cap deal hammered out by Schwarzenegger and the state’s legislative Democrats has been praised by environmentalists, but business leaders have warned that it will increase their costs and force them to scale back their California operations.

Schwarzenegger dismissed the criticism, citing a study by the University of California at Berkeley that estimates 89,000 jobs will be created as the state weans itself from fossil fuels.

‘‘When you set goals, it makes other industries be innovative. They end up being innovative and creating new ways of solving problems, and that’s what this is all about,’’ Schwarzenegger said. ‘‘We feel very strongly we can do that and add jobs and make industries boom.’’...

[This story appeared in dozens of sources worldwide, including the <a href=“http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/26/AR2006092601331_pf.html“>Washington Post</a>, <a href=“http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2006/09/27/america/NA_GEN_US_Schwarzenegger_Global_Warming.php“>International Herald Tribune</a>, <a href=“http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/n/a/2006/09/26/national/a235854D35.DTL&type=printable“>San Francisco Chronicle</a>, and <a href=“http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/breaking_news/15618272.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp“>San Jose Mercury News</a>]

5. “National Intelligence Estimate” (Forum, KQED-88.5 FM, September 26, 2006); features commentary by MICHAEL NACHT; listen to the program at: http://www.kqed.org/epArchive/R609260900

Forum discusses the National Intelligence Estimate’s reported findings that the war in Iraq has contributed to the global terrorist threat. Host: Michael Krasny.

Guests: Michael Nacht, dean of Goldman School of Public Policy at UC-Berkeley….

In a report completed in April by America’s 16 intelligence agencies, the assessment says the war in Iraq has created a new generation of terrorists and increased the level of threat. Is the U.S. less safe because of the war in Iraq?

KRASNY: Michael Nacht, what do you think—if it weren’t Iraq, it would be something else?

MICHAEL NACHT: These are not easily verifiable assertions. I think what we know is that there were expectations going into Iraq which seemed very plausible to the leadership of the Bush administration… that we could win a quick conventional military victory, and that there would be no insurgency afterwards, and that slowly but surely Iraq could become a model of a moderate and perhaps a democratic multiethnic state and, if that model spread…throughout the middle east, it would tone down Islamic extremism….

After three and a half years we have a lot of evidence that it’s not working, and what’s happened instead is that the Al Qaeda and other militant Muslims, who are very angry over a lot of issues, are drawn to Iraq because if they can defeat the United States in Iraq, then they could demonstrate that all of the Arab, and many of the non-Muslim, governments that cooperate with the U.S. are corrupt and that their way, through Islam as they define it, is the way to go. So, it is an exceptional recruiting ground for militants and Muslims and it’s being exploited. It’s not by any means the only problem; clearly, there’s a lethal sectarian struggle between Sunnis and Shiites in Iraq whose origins go back all the way to after Mohammed’s death, so it’s a 1500-year-old struggle…. I think Iraq has clearly stimulated the growth of militant Muslims willing to go and fight the United States.

KRASNY: …It’s clearly your conclusion that the invasion of Iraq and the ongoing war in Iraq has increased hatred and global terrorism?

MICHAEL NACHT: I think the way it has actually played out, it’s making our problems worse rather than ameliorating them. That’s right.

KRASNY: …John Negroponte has said that should the Iraqi people prevail in establishing a stable, politically secure environment, the jihadis will be perceived to have failed and fewer jihadis could leave Iraq to carry on elsewhere.

MICHAEL NACHT: There is not some sense of a finite supply of a few hundred or a few thousand people; you’ve got people, as you can see from the London bombings, who could be British citizens… going about their lives but they…can be influenced by events and some might be motivated to go and do things outside their ordinary activities, and set off bombs…. So it’s not as if it’s finite and if there are more in Iraq there would be fewer elsewhere, because you have a huge pool of primarily young male Muslims to draw on, and more and more can be radicalized. And I think that the Iraq situation is not helping to tamp that down; in fact, it’s stimulating it….

By Samantha Young, Associated Press Writer

(09-24) 09:45 PDT Sacramento, California (AP) -- Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Wednesday is expected to sign into law the United States’ first state cap on greenhouse gas emissions, after striking a deal with legislative Democrats that brought California and the governor global notoriety.

But even before the bill is signed, the law’s future is in doubt.

Federal lawsuits related to greenhouse gas issues, involving California, Vermont and Massachusetts, could cloud California’s latest attempt to be a leader in the fight against global climate change.

At the heart of California’s attempt to curb the gases believed responsible for global warming are state auto regulations that are being challenged by U.S. and foreign automakers. The rules, adopted in 2004 by the state Air Resources Board, would force auto companies to cut emissions from their cars and light trucks….

Dan Kammen, a professor of energy and public policy at the University of California, Berkeley, called the lawsuits a “side story” that should be resolved by the time the state begins implementing its cap in 2012.

“There’s lots of time for this to be settled in the courts,” said Kammen, director of the university’s Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory. “And every day that goes by, California’s case gets stronger on this while the politics are changing.”…

By Zachary Coile, Chronicle Washington Bureau

Washington -- Congress, it appears, is channeling Al Gore. After years of debating whether global warming was real or a hoax, the House and Senate staged six hearings this week on how the government should respond to climate change.

And the Bush administration, which has downplayed the threat of global warming during its six years in office, released a 244-page strategic report this week laying out plans to address the rapid warming of the planet....

The administration’s strategic plan for climate change, announced Wednesday, calls for voluntary actions by industry to cut emissions and government investments in research on promising technologies, such as carbon sequestration. The report does not call for strict limits on greenhouse gases but repeats Bush’s call for reducing “greenhouse gas intensity.”

Dr. [Daniel] Kammen, director of the Renewable And Appropriate Energy Laboratory at UC Berkeley, who testified at Thursday’s hearing [before the House Government Reform Committee on climate change research], noted that reducing greenhouse gas intensity would actually allow America to increase its emissions because intensity measures the growth in emissions against the growth of the U.S. economy.

“Reducing intensity is a sham. It’s a bookkeeping trick because our overall energy use is still going up,” he said. “We have to turn it around, as California did. We have to have targets like an 80 percent reduction. We will never get there with an intensity reduction.”

But Kammen said he was glad to see the growing consensus among Republicans and Democrats in Congress that global warming is a real problem that must be addressed.

“This is incredibly heartening,” he said. “The approaches may differ and finger-pointing is part of the political process. But I don’t believe we would have had this hearing two years ago.”

By Andrew C. Revkin and Heather Timmons

Sir Richard Branson, the British magnate and adventurer, said yesterday that his personal profits from airlines and a rail company that he controls — a sum he estimated at $3 billion over the next 10 years — would be invested in developing energy sources that do not contribute to global warming.

He announced the plan on the second day of the Clinton Global Initiative, a three-day meeting in Manhattan that amounts to a competitive festival of philanthropy run by former President Bill Clinton....

The overall United States budget for research in renewable energy sources like wind, solar, hydrogen and farmed fuels is a bit over $1 billion a year, but that amount is far less than what was spent during the oil shock of the 1970’s.

And while drug and semiconductor companies typically invest 10 percent or more of revenue into research, in the energy industry the typical research budget is about 0.3 percent of revenue, said Daniel M. Kammen, an energy expert at the University of California, Berkeley....

[This story also appeared in the <a href=“http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/living/health/15581257.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp“>San Jose Mercury News</a>]

By Ian Hoffman, Staff Writer

Climate experts say its dubious whether the developing world will scale back its greenhouse-gas emissions unless the United States cuts its emissions first, and a newly released report by budget advisers to Congress suggests the most cost-effective way is through a carbon trading system such as California is pioneering.

Without directly criticizing Bush administration climate policy, the Congressional Budget Office report says that the policy of spending on research alone will delay those reductions and ultimately make them more expensive….

The report says global warming is happening because of market failures that fail to account in the price of fossil fuels, for example, for the damage that greenhouse-gas emissions are doing in warming the planet. The report concluded that a federal policy combination of research and carbon pricing — either by taxing the use of fossil fuels or creating a carbon market for trading in permits to release greenhouse gases — will balance the costs and cut emissions most effectively….

The report is one of the most palpable federal steps beyond debating the human role in climate change to weighing fixes. It arrives in a Congress considering a record 200 pieces of legislation related to climate and energy, double last years count and more than during the 1970s oil crisis. “I think this will have a big impact,” said physicist Dan Kammen, director of the Energy and Resources Group at the University of California, Berkeley. “You’re now starting to get federal agencies doing analyses not just of what the potential harms of climate change are but what are the potential solutions and the costs and benefits of different strategies.”

Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., said the budget office report showed that capping and trading carbon emissions was the right path and “explains why we have not seen the shift we have been hoping for” to more carbon-free technologies.

“We will be wasting taxpayer dollars if we continue to rely exclusively on government supported R&D to solve the problem of global warming,” he said in a statement.

[Oklahoma Republican Jim] Inhofe said the only place where such a carbon market has been tried is the European Union’s attempt to meet the greenhouse-gas reduction targets under the Kyoto Protocol. That approach, said Inhofe, has proved “seriously flawed,” with only two of 15 nations able to meet the targets.

Berkeley’s Kammen said the comparison is off-base because the European carbon market was limited to emissions from power plants. Adding the cost of carbon emissions to the use of fossil fuels in electricity production moved investment into other sectors of the economy.

Three European nations — Denmark, Germany and Spain — plunged money from carbon trading into renewable energy technologies, Kammen said, and managed to get job growth there.

“All of those countries not only are going to meet their Kyoto targets but they are seeing job growth in the clean energy sector,” he said.

California is embarking on an economy-wide carbon market that would spread the cost of emissions cuts across all major sources of greenhouse gases, from refineries to cement plants to power stations.

C.W. Nevius [Columnist]

From left: Stephannie Favor, Sundra Oakley and Rebecca Borman during the first episode of the CBS reality series “Survivor: Cook Islands.” CBS photo by Monty Brinton via Associated Press

You know what often happens when people begin to discuss race in this country.

We change the subject.

That won’t happen tonight. In one of the most controversial, calculated and anticipated experiments of the new television season, the hit CBS reality show “Survivor’’ will divide its 20 contestants by race. There will be four “tribes,” each made up solely of Asian, black, Hispanic or white members.

The idea has drawn howls of protest from groups all over the nation....

…So what are we getting so upset about?

Actually, most experts agree, the issue isn’t race. It is stereotyping. Jack Glaser, a professor of public policy at UC Berkeley, says there is a well-known concept sociologists call “entitativity.”

“It says that whenever people see members of an ethnicity as a group, they start to distort the perceptions of them,” Glaser says. “People tend to remember the things that fit into the stereotype.”...

“I don’t think it will lead to race riots,” says Glaser, “but I can imagine people being offended. Let’s just say that if I were consulting with a network for a show about race relations, this would not be it.”…

By host Tom Ashbrook:

They call it California Dreamin’ on global warming. Some mean a compliment by that. Some mean a dis.

Two weeks ago, Republican governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and California’s Democratic state assembly shook hands on an ambitious plan to cut the state’s CO2 emissions 25 percent by 2020. That’s huge—by far the country’s most ambitious attack on greenhouse gases.

Proponents have cheered a clarion call to bold action that they say will put the Golden State way out front on new energy technologies. Opponents have sneered that it’s feel-good environmentalism on a grand scale that will break the bank.

Hear about California’s big bet against global warming.

Guests: … Daniel Kammen, Director of the Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory at the University of California at Berkeley….

12. “The Solution: Environment—A New Model?” (Newsweek, International edition, Sept. 11, 2006); story citing DAN KAMMEN; http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14641849/site/newsweek/page/3/

By Tony Dokoupil

California’s land-mark deal to require a 25 percent cut in industrial carbon-dioxide emissions by 2020 will have only a tiny impact on global climate, according to scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). But the symbolic impact could be huge. “If the world follows California’s example it might be enough to avoid the worst effects of global warming,” says Bill Collins, a researcher in NCAR’s climate-modeling group. “That means shorter, less intense heat spells, and fewer dry spells.” It also means an end-of-century average global temperature within 2 degrees of preindustrial-age conditions—the European Union’s working threshold for tolerable warming.

California’s new plan builds on existing bio-friendly legislation, including support for hybrid electric vehicles, solar-powered homes and in-state ethanol production. But its “cap and trade” model for controlling industry emissions is reproducible elsewhere, says Daniel Kammen, director of UC Berkeley’s Renewable and Appropriate Energy Lab. The solution requires tracking carbon emissions, and offering salable permits as a reward to those companies who improve their energy efficiency. “That’s the beauty of this system,” says Kammen. “It puts the market to work to find the most economically efficient ways to cap emissions.

13. “Middle East Part II: Where Do We Go From Here - A Town Hall” (Commonwealth Club, recorded Aug 22 2006, broadcast on KQED, September 8 & 9, 2006); moderated by MICHAEL NACHT; Listen

This Town Hall featured: Michael Nacht, As’ad Abukhalil, David Biale, Thomas Dine, Fred Lawson, Glenn E. Robinson.

14. “Limited Corporate Virtues” (Inside Green Business, Vol. 1 No. 19, September 6, 2006); review of book authored by DAVID VOGEL.

The Market for Virtue, The Potential and Limits of Corporate Social Responsibility, by David Vogel, The Brookings Institution, 2005

“[P]ractices that improve the workplace and benefit society in ways that go above and beyond what companies are legally required to do”—or Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), for short—have attracted a huge amount of commentary and debate in recent years. Claims are made about its role in guiding business behavior. Counter-claims decry CSR as distorting the profit-making duty of corporations. In this book, Vogel—the Solomon Lee Professor of Business Ethics at the Haas School of Business and professor of political science [business and public policy] at the University of California, Berkeley—offers a scholarly analysis that is bound to become an indispensable cornerstone of any serious examination of CSR.

Vogel focuses on “the market forces that encourage and limit the practice of corporate social responsibility or business virtue,” including such forces as “consumer demand for responsibly made products, actual or threatened consumer boycotts, challenges to a firm’s reputation by nongovernmental organizations, pressure from socially responsible investors, and the values held by managers and other employees.”

While concluding that “there is a market for virtue” that drives corporate behavior beyond legal requirements, just as importantly “there are limits to the market for virtue,” with the main constraint being the market itself, writes the author. Because some companies behave virtuously in some areas, CSR proponents mistakenly assume the number of areas can expand. There is a place for companies practicing CSR, “But there is also a large place for their less responsible competitors.”…

In his final analysis, Vogel emphasizes the important roles of both voluntary CSR and government regulatory requirements. This conclusion builds on the experience of some firms that have tried to be green but found markets unsupportive. “If Ford wants to manufacture and market more fuel-efficient vehicles, why doesn’t it support public policies that would increase the market for these vehicles?” Vogel asks. The same goes for other products and companies. But few firms want to expand government regulatory requirements, Vogel notes. Ultimately, “Civil and government regulations both have a legitimate role to play in improving public welfare,” the author writes.

In brief, the market for virtue, at some level, must be a mandatory market if it is to get beyond the current limits so well documented in Vogel’s clear-eyed analysis.

15. “Former labor secretary Robert Reich and Steve Moore discuss pension plans” (Kudlow & Company, CNBC News, September 4, 2006); features commentary by ROBERT REICH.

MICHELLE CARUSO-CABRERA, host: “America’s private pension system is now in crisis.” That’s a quote from Malcolm Gladwell… in this week’s issue of The New Yorker…. Gladwell goes on to say that American taxpayers are at risk of assuming tens of billions of dollars from once-profitable companies. So what’s the solution?….

[if] the pension system is so at risk, what is wrong with saying, `You know what, you, as individuals, as Americans, need to take on the security of your retirement’ as we are essentially doing, as more and more companies move to 401(k) systems? Robert:

Mr. ROBERT REICH (Former Labor Secretary): Well, Michelle, you’re absolutely right. That’s essentially what’s happening. We went from defined benefit systems where companies would actually guarantee retirees a certain amount every month to the 401(k) defined contribution system. And now companies are basically even moving out of a defined contribution system because company contributions are getting less and less. People are essentially on their own. And a similar thing is happening with health care. We used to have a system with health insurance was coming from employers. Employers are shifting more of the costs to employees, in terms of higher co-payments and higher deductibles and higher premiums. So basically we have a society in which people are on their own, with saving and health care, and a lot of people... a lot of people are getting crushed in that process….

Mr. MOORE: Look…the problem, though, is under the old pension system, the one that Bob was describing, these companies, Ford and GM were … making pension promises that they couldn’t keep. And so then you had these companies going bankrupt. The federal government had to come in and bail them out. Under this system, people have IRAs, they have 401(k) plans and so on that allow them to generate these kind of private pools of capital for retirement….

Mr. REICH: Here’s the problem. And the problem is it’s perfectly fine for somebody who is upper middle class, somebody who’s earning 100, 150, $200,000 a year, they could save. They can save for retirement. They can have a 401(k) plan. They can have an IRA. But if you’re earning 20, 30, $40,000 a year, it is very difficult for you to do this.

CARUSO-CABRERA: But the point Steve is making is that even if you are working at company that at one point had a pension, when you’re making 20 or 30 grand, you thought you had that pension and now, poof, it’s going away. Isn’t it better to say to Americans, ‘You know what? You’ve got to take care of yourself’?

Mr. REICH: Well…no, no, companies should have contractual rights. I don’t think bankruptcy laws should be used to excuse a company from the pension promises that that company made to its employees. That is an abuse of the entire bankruptcy process. We’ve turned bankruptcy into a way of getting out of promises that workers assumed were being made to them and, thereby, basically, give leaving workers high and dry….

16. “John Zogby, former labor secretary Robert Reich and Steve Moore discuss political apologies” (Kudlow & Company, CNBC News, September 4, 2006); features commentary by ROBERT REICH.

Senator JOSEPH BIDEN: You cannot go to a 7-Eleven or a Dunkin’ Donuts unless you have a slight Indian accent. I’m not joking.

MICHELLE CARUSO-CABRERA, host: Comments like that by Senator Joe Biden, Democrat from Delaware, are causing what’s an influx of political apologies lately. Is this just an age-old problem rearing its ugly head again? Or are politicians simply insensitive? And does it help them out when they apologize for things like they’ve said? ... We’ve brought in our pollster John Zogby, president and CEO of Zogby International, to see how the public is reacting to this recent wave of political mea culpas…. John, what happens when politicians apologize? Does it help them?

Mr. JOHN ZOGBY: Well, it all depends on the context, of course, but it certainly is one way to make the story go away a lot faster. You know, if we look at recent alternatives, denial, ‘I did not have sex with that woman,’ just makes the story continue on and on and on. Or, you know, and most recently, in the case of Senator [George] Allen, in the famous macaca incident, Allen really hurt himself with a series of miscues, almost cover-ups and denials over the next few days until he finally owned up and apologized….

CARUSO-CABRERA: Robert Reich, ‘I did not sleep with that woman.’ Boy, should he have come clean a lot sooner? Would that have helped him out?

Mr. ROBERT REICH (Former Labor Secretary): Oh, I don’t know. And I don’t want to revisit that, Michelle. But I’ll tell you something. There is a big difference between an apology—an apology is cheap. You know, ‘I’m sorry.’ I mean, if George Allen says, ‘I’m sorry somebody took offense at what I said,’ that’s easy. But what I don’t hear politicians doing—either Democratic or Republican politicians—I don’t hear them taking responsibility. I mean really taking responsibility. I wish that…for example, George W. Bush would have said…, ‘I take responsibility for there not being weapons of mass destruction there’ or ‘Our intelligence was bad. I was wrong.’ ‘We’re in a really terrible pickle right now. I take responsibility for the fact that we really did a terrible job on Katrina. We…weren’t prepared. We didn’t even do a follow-up. Nothing happened over the past year. That’s my responsibility.’ I don’t hear politicians taking that kind of responsibility….

Mr. STEVE MOORE: … But one of the issues… is you apologize and it’s just another day of headlines. I mean, this was the problem with the George Allen fiasco of the last couple of weeks is that it was a story day after day after day. I personally thought it was a mistake for him to call up this guy and apologize because it was just a headline in The Washington Post....

Mr. REICH: That’s why Harry Truman’s adviser said, ‘If you’re going to eat crow, eat hot crow. Eat warm crow. Do it right away.’… ‘Don’t wait till the crow gets cold.’…

By David R. Baker, Chronicle Staff Writer

The U.S. flag hangs on an oil refinery in Carson (Los Angeles County).

Industries are split on the law. Associated Press photo by Nick Ut

Take your pick:

Will California’s drive to cut greenhouse gases reshape the state’s industries, weaning businesses away from fossil fuels and setting the stage for the state’s next golden age?

Or will it drive away businesses, ship jobs to Nevada and kill the California economy?

With Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger poised to sign into law a hard-fought agreement over global warming, economists and business groups remain sharply divided over the legislation’s likely effects.

The measure, which passed the Assembly on Thursday on its way to the governor’s desk, will limit the amount of greenhouse gases spewed within the state.

Some see the effort as the latest crushing regulatory burden to hit business, especially if other states don’t follow suit. They say it will raise power prices, because electricity plants are among the largest producers of greenhouse gases. That in turn will boost the cost of doing business in California, already an expensive place to make a buck….

But others sense an opportunity. They argue that California can cut greenhouse gas emissions with little increase in the price of electricity and, down the road, will reap an enormous payback by having retooled its economy for the 21st century. Much of the rest of the world is working to turn industry greener — California could lead the trend in the United States, they say. Global warming, they say, ultimately represents a much more insidious economic threat than any regulatory mandate. “California’s economy is vulnerable to climate impacts, but it can benefit from climate action,” Michael Hanemann, professor of agricultural and resource economics at UC Berkeley, said in a statement.

California’s gross state product could grow by $60 billion to $74 billion in the next 14 years if it takes advantage of opportunities created by greenhouse gas restrictions, according to Berkeley researchers.

“The economic evidence supports a cap on global warming emissions,” Hanemann said.

Advocates believe that companies focused on energy-efficient products or renewable sources of power will flock to California and thrive. As more states and countries try to curb emissions, these “clean-tech” businesses will be ready to help them….

By Marc Lifsher, Times Staff Writer

Sacramento — California’s ambitious plan to curb global warming will be costly to businesses and consumers, experts said Thursday, and its effect on the climate could be negligible — unless other states and nations follow.

Although it is too early to know what will happen over the next two decades, the state’s basic industries, including utilities, oil refineries and steel mills, can expect to make major changes in how they do business. And consumers may face higher bills for electricity, gasoline and other goods that use energy….

But experts stressed that California could do little if anything to curb climate change on its own because of the global nature of the problem….

Although the economic effects of a mandatory cut in emissions could be sweeping, California has a lot at stake in the battle against global warming, perhaps more than any other state, climate experts say.

Its water supplies, its top industry — agriculture — and its most popular recreational activities all depend on a healthy climate, as do forests, deserts, ocean ecosystems and the species that inhabit them….

National environmental organizations and their new election-year ally, Schwarzenegger, locked arms Wednesday and predicted that the initiative would help protect the planet, provide global leadership and create thousands of high-paying jobs in high-tech industries. They cited a 2005 study by the California Air Resources Board that estimates that the drive to limit greenhouse gas emissions and develop alternative energy sources will produce 83,000 jobs and $4 billion in economic growth….

The bill heading to the governor’s desk would authorize the Air Resources Board to write rules setting up a carbon dioxide emissions trading market. A company that emits less than its quota allows would be able to sell pollution credits to another firm that can’t hit its target.

How well that market functions could play a major role in determining whether electricity prices rise or possibly fall. For now, experts remain sharply divided on the question. Sally Benson, a UC Berkeley geologist, said studies foretold possible hikes in electricity bills of as much as 20% to pay for the cost of disposing excess carbon dioxide underground.

In contrast, another UC Berkeley researcher, Dan Kammen, predicted that electricity consumers could save billions of dollars as wind, solar and geothermal power — which don’t produce carbon dioxide — become more economical.

Under a business-as-usual scenario for greenhouse gas emissions, temperatures in California would increase by 7 to 10 degrees by 2070, and heat waves in Los Angeles would become six to eight times more frequent by the end of the century, according to a 2004 report by 19 scientists published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Sierra Nevada snowpack, important to supplying water to Southern California, would decline by 73% to 90%.

The scientists reported that without any effort to control emissions, the changes in California’s natural resources would be extreme.

Nearly all alpine forests would be wiped out and the state’s water supplies would be “fundamentally disrupted,” they wrote. The changes would be “apparent before mid-century.”…

By Janet Wilson and Marla Cone, Times Staff Writers

Amid concern about global climate change, the state Legislature gave final approval Thursday to AB 32, a bill to combat global warming.

If California were to meet its emission-reduction goal, what would the effect be on the state’s climate?

Unless other states and nations follow suit, there would be little effect, according to Ken Caldeira, a climate scientist at the Carnegie Institution’s department of global ecology at Stanford.

“While it’s important for the United States and California to show leadership, the actual effect on California’s climate of reducing the state’s carbon dioxide emissions will be negligible,” Caldeira said. “It would be an altruistic gift from California to the rest of the world.”

But Dan Kammen, who heads UC Berkeley’s Renewable and Appropriate Energy Lab, called the legislation a “big step because every trend until now has been toward ecological devastation, and this reverses that.” He said there would be a multiplier effect because California buys 25% of its power from elsewhere and would require much of that power to be clean or its greenhouse emissions to be traded in a market-based cap-and-trade program.

Will consumers pay more or less for energy as a consequence of the state’s efforts?

Experts disagree.

Kammen said costs would go down. He co-authored a 2004 study that found $20 billion in consumer benefits over the next few years from increased use of wind power and energy efficiency measures. But other researchers say reducing greenhouse gases just from power plants, which are major greenhouse gas emitters, will create costs in the billions of dollars….

MICHELLE CARUSO-CABRERA, host: The Census Bureau’s annual report revealed that the gap between the richest and poorest Americans widened last year. But who’s picking up more of the tax burden? …

Steve, given us your take on this widening income gap in the United States.

Mr. STEVE MOORE (Wall Street Journal Editorial Board Senior Economics Writer): Well, these are just the facts, Michelle…. But what it’s basically showing is that over the last three years, the percentage of the income tax burden borne by the wealthy has actually increased. So, just to give you one example, the top 1 percent…, in terms of earnings, now pay about 35 percent of the federal income tax burden. That’s very close to an all-time record. The bottom 50 percent, that is all Americans with an income below about $45,000 a year pay only 3½ percent of all federal income taxes. So, the point here is that the income tax system is already extremely progressive. One last point, because I know Bob Reich is chomping at the bit here, this isn’t happening because there’s been a huge shift in the income earned by the wealthiest. In fact, the IRS data show that the percent earned by the top 1 percent over the last four years has actually been relatively steady.

CARUSO-CABRERA: Robert, that sounds pretty impressive.

Mr. ROBERT REICH (Former Labor Secretary): Well, it would be impressive if it were completely true, and, Steve, you know what I like, Steve, what I like about you is you stick to your guns even when they are blazing in exactly the wrong direction! And, of course, you are literally right. … [B]ut you leave out what the big picture is. Here’s the big picture. We know that median wages …, the family smack in the middle, is earning less now adjusted for inflation than they earned in 2000. They’ve made no progress at all. In fact, they are going downward. And, yet,… the overall American economy is much larger than it was in 2000, 2001, after the recovery. We are in a recovery. So, where has all the money gone? Where has all the wealth gone? It’s gone to the... very top. People who are earning over $750,000 a year, have never done as well. So, obviously, they’re going to be paying more in income taxes as a whole even though individually their income tax portion of their total income is going to be less and less.

CARUSO-CABRERA: Stephen, do you deny that there is a widening income gap in the United States?

Mr. MOORE: There is a widening income gap. I think that’s something that almost everyone agrees. And it’s been happening for the last 30 years. And by the way, it’s happening in almost all countries in the world. And largely it’s a result of the fact that when you’ve got a lot of skills, got a lot of education, got a lot of talents, there’s a high premium in the global economy for that.... So, I think… clearly we have to fix our education system. We have to give businesses more of an incentive to invest in the factories and so on here, but that didn’t happen.

Mr. REICH: But, Steve, …how about a progressive… income tax…[Y]ou’re just talking income taxes. What about sales taxes and payroll taxes? … They’re all regressive.

Mr. MOORE: This is the whole point that I’m trying to make in the editorial tomorrow. The top 1 percent are paying 35 percent of all the income tax. How progressive—it’s already an extremely progressive system.

Mr. REICH: Steve, you are not making… sense in one very large regard. Individual people, individuals who are very, very wealthy, earning over $750,000, they are paying less and less. They are getting huge tax cuts from the federal government….

FACULTY SPEAKING ENGAGEMENTS & EVENTS

Sept. 11 “National Security, the War on Terror, and the Constitution: A Forum” – Featured panelist: STEPHEN MAURER, Director of the Goldman School of Public Policy Project on Information Technology and Homeland Security. A campus-wide community forum held in honor of Constitution Day and the fifth anniversary of the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center. http://igs.berkeley.edu/events/forum91106.htm

Sept. 13 “National Security and Intellectual Freedom: A Panel Discussion” - Featured panelist: MICHAEL NACHT, a national-security scholar and dean of the Goldman School of Public Policy. The Free Speech Movement Café hosted this panel to address the impact of post-9/11 changes in national-security law, policy, and climate upon constitutionally protected freedoms of inquiry.

Sept. 14 ROBERT REICH gave a talk on “The Global Economy is No Longer What it Seems” at Cedar Crest College in Allentown, PA.

Sept. 18 ROBERT REICH addressed the challenges of global competition before 600 of the nation’s top IT executives at the annual Society for Information Management SIMposium, Dallas, TX.

Sept. 19 ROBERT REICH presented the keynote address—on challenges ahead for healthcare staffing in light of economic developments, changing health policy and the acute shortage of healthcare professionals—at the 2006 Healthcare Staffing Summit, San Diego, CA.

Sept. 20 DAN KAMMEN testified before the U. S. House of Representatives Science Committee, Subcommittee on Energy, on “The Department of Energy’s Plan for Climate Change Technology Programs.” http://www.house.gov/science/hearings/energy06/Sept 20/index.htm

Sept. 21 DAN KAMMEN testified at a Capitol Hill Senate Briefing on “Energy, Decarbonization, and Climate Change,” chaired by Senators Feinstein and Jeffords.

Sept. 21 DAN KAMMEN testified before the U. S. House of Representatives Committee on Government Reform, “Climate Change Technology Research: Do We Need a ‘Manhattan Project’ for the Environment?”.

http://reform.house.gov/GovReform/News/DocumentSingle.aspx?DocumentID=50310

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