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).

The California Nanny State Invades Household Kitchens

July 1, 2022 2:30 amJune 30, 2022 5:31 pm

Unsurprisingly, every top search result for “Senate Bill 1383 food waste” yields links to propitious, upbeat summaries of what’s coming to every household kitchen in California. For example, from CalRecycle, under the heading “Recycling Organic Materials into New Products,” there is...

The Abundance Choice, Part 15: Our Fight for More Water

June 16, 2022 2:30 amJune 15, 2022 8:49 pm

There are plenty of ways to ration water, and California’s state legislature is pursuing all of them. Restrict agricultural water allocations until millions of acres of California’s irrigated farmland is taken out of production. Ban outdoor watering entirely in urban...

The Abundance Choice, Part 14: Infinite Abundance

June 14, 2022 2:30 amJune 15, 2022 12:43 pm

From the inaugural Stanford Digital Economy Lab gathering in April 2022, noted venture capitalist Steve Jurvetson posted the following quote to Facebook: “Our goal is to usher in an era of infinite abundance.” “Infinite abundance.” This phrase epitomizes the ongoing promise of California’s tech...

The Abundance Choice, Part 13: The Lords of Scarcity

June 9, 2022 2:30 amJune 14, 2022 6:50 am

One of the farmers who supported our attempt to qualify the Water Infrastructure Funding Act for the November 2022 ballot was John Duarte. It was a privilege to speak with Duarte, because his reputation had preceded him. Duarte is the...

The Abundance Choice, Part 12: Numbers Don’t Lie

June 7, 2022 2:30 amJune 7, 2022 4:13 pm

Scope insensitivity happens whenever a statistic has huge emotional impact but in reality has little relevance to the issues and challenges it purports to illuminate. It is scope insensitivity that makes conscientious Californians willing to put a bucket in their shower....

The Abundance Choice, Part 11: The Desalination Option

June 5, 2022 2:30 amJune 6, 2022 5:09 pm

On May 12, the California Coastal Commission Board of Directors voted 11-0 to deny the application from Poseidon Water to build a desalination plant in Huntington Beach. Since 1998, Poseidon has spent over $100 million on design and permit work for this plant. At least half...

The Abundance Choice, Part 10: Time to Stop Wasting Wastewater

June 3, 2022 2:30 amJune 4, 2022 3:59 pm

If there is any source of water that ought to be optimized, it is the wastewater produced by California’s urban centers. Perennially issuing from sewage treatment plants throughout the state, every year this torrent of mostly treated effluent is equivalent in volume...