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 Abundance Choice, Part 9: Can Reservoirs be Part of the Solution?

June 1, 2022 2:30 amJune 2, 2022 7:02 am

In May 1957, Harvey Banks, then director of the California Dept. of Water Resources, submitted “The California Water Plan” to the governor and state legislature. On page 14 of part one of this comprehensive document, Table 3 depicts what Banks and his...

The Abundance Choice, Part 8: The Union Factor

May 28, 2022 2:22 amMay 31, 2022 4:47 pm

The moment we met Robbie Hunter, then president of the State Building and Construction Trades Council, we knew we were in the presence of a man who does not lose. Assemblyman Devon Mathis had urged me to contact the construction unions...

The Abundance Choice, Part 7: An Environmentalist Juggernaut

May 26, 2022 2:25 amMay 30, 2022 1:32 pm

Environmentalists in California, who constitute much of the vanguard of environmentalism in the world, have normalized extremism. The solutions they’ve proposed to supposedly save the planet, and the premises they’ve convinced millions of people to accept as beyond debate, constitute...

The Abundance Choice, Part 6: Biased, Hostile Media

May 24, 2022 2:45 amMay 25, 2022 8:18 am

You can say this for Michael Hiltzik, Pulitzer Prize winning columnist for the Los Angeles Times, he doesn’t conceal his biases. When we talked back in late November 2021, his skepticism towards our initiative felt overt. And while that may have...

The Abundance Choice, Part 5: California’s Fractured Farmers

May 20, 2022 2:30 amMay 19, 2022 9:21 pm

“We cannot support your initiative if you include the Delta Tunnel as an eligible project. And to be clear, we also cannot support your initiative if you do not include the Delta Tunnel as an eligible project.” This statement, which...

The Abundance Choice, Part 4: Crafting the Initiative for More Water

May 16, 2022 4:35 pmJune 20, 2022 11:01 am

To be fair, Assemblyman Devon Mathis (R-Porterville) didn’t come up with the idea of allocating a percentage of the state budget to accomplish a policy priority. He got that idea from the California Teachers Association, which back in 1988 convinced voters to...

The Abundance Choice, Part 3: The Mechanics of Ballot Initiatives

May 15, 2022 2:21 amMay 26, 2022 12:14 pm

By the spring of 2021, it was obvious the State Legislature was not going to change its inadequate approach to water policy. As the state faced another year of drought, restricting water use was the only solution being taken seriously...