Author: Edward Ring

Edward Ring is the director of water and energy policy for the California Policy Center, which he co-founded in 2013 and served as its first president. The California Policy Center is an educational non-profit focused on public policies that aim to improve California’s democracy and economy. He is also a senior fellow of the Center for American Greatness. Ring is the author of two books: "Fixing California - Abundance, Pragmatism, Optimism" (2021), and "The Abundance Choice - Our Fight for More Water in California" (2022).

Ringside: Debunking the Allegedly Prohibitive Cost of Desalination

August 5, 2026 12:00 pmAugust 5, 2026 12:00 pm

Earlier this summer a guest op-ed appeared in the Orange County Register, “Learning the right lesson from San Diego’s desal water surplus.” But the “lesson” presented was only partly accurate. What the authors, both affiliated with the Property and Environment Research Center (PERC),...

Ringside: A Fact-Based Appraisal of California’s ‘Net Zero’ Strategy

July 30, 2026 6:00 amJuly 30, 2026 6:01 am

The Statistical Review of World Energy is arguably the most authoritative and comprehensive source publicly available for national and global energy statistics. And a funny thing happened between the report issued in 2024 and the report issued in 2025. “Renewables” as a...

Ringside: Dredging the Delta Can Prevent a Catastrophe

July 22, 2026 3:00 pmJuly 22, 2026 3:01 pm

It’s January 2027, and for the last few months, a super El Nino has already delivered torrential rains to the Pacific Coast of North America. California’s reservoirs have been releasing record quantities of water to preserve space for the next round...

Ringside: Commercializing Hydrocarbon Production from Air and Water

July 16, 2026 8:30 amJuly 16, 2026 8:31 am

Whenever evaluating a new energy technology, caution is warranted. During what was arguably the first big clean tech boom around 2009, schemes were sold to angel investors thrilled to find a hot sector in the wake of the recent financial...

Ringside: The Dismal Economics of Floating Offshore Wind

July 9, 2026 7:00 amJuly 9, 2026 7:01 am

There are at least three ways to evaluate the economic viability of energy projects. The easiest way is to just repeat whatever is in a press release. The other extreme, a mandatory exercise for anyone poised to actually invest and...

Ringside: Choosing the Right Infrastructure Projects Can Deliver Affordable Abundance

July 2, 2026 6:30 amJuly 2, 2026 6:31 am

The reason to socialize a portion of the cost of major infrastructure is so the ratepayer doesn’t have to bear an unaffordable share of the construction financing payments. The broader benefit to society is to achieve greater affordability for what...

Ringside: The Best Way to Eliminate Methane Leaks is to Drill

June 25, 2026 6:30 amJuly 1, 2026 7:26 pm

California’s oil industry has been active for well over a century, and Los Angeles was always at the heart of it. By 1894, about 80 wells were already producing oil in the city, setting off a boom that peaked in the 1970s...