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: An Alternative Vision – Keep Scott Dam, Save Lake Pillsbury

June 11, 2026 6:00 amJune 11, 2026 5:30 pm

A recent article in Grist characterized recent efforts by the Trump administration to preserve Scott Dam as a “culture war crusade.” That is accurate, so long as we recognize that efforts to demolish the dam – and diminish the value of the...

Ringside: Californians Will Consume AT LEAST Another Five Billion Barrels of Crude Oil

June 4, 2026 6:00 amJune 4, 2026 6:01 am

There is no realistic scenario imaginable that does not include Californians consuming at least another five billion barrels of oil before the state achieves its much touted official goal of a “clean energy future.” Here are the numbers: In 2025...

Ringside: Chad Bianco Could Hand the U.S. Congress to Democrats

June 1, 2026 1:20 pmJune 1, 2026 5:03 pm

As we ponder the results of the election in progress, wondering which races will have known outcomes by the end of the evening and which shall end up so close that it will take a month before we have final...

Ringside: Fine Tuning the Environmentalist’s ‘Water Renaissance’ Plan for California

May 27, 2026 2:11 pmMay 27, 2026 2:12 pm

The recently released “Water Renaissance” plan, a product of “conservation groups and tribes,” gets a very big idea right. There is no reason why California’s coastal megacities should have to import water. With that one visionary presumption, this report has...

Ringside: California’s Plans for Energy and Water Can be Misleading

May 20, 2026 4:53 pmMay 20, 2026 4:53 pm

When Governor Gavin Newsom’s water plan calls for nine million acre feet of new water supply, it turns out part of that total is increased storage capacity in reservoirs, which will not result in an equivalent amount of available water....

Ringside: When it Comes to Water, California Needs to Think Big Again

May 14, 2026 6:00 amMay 14, 2026 6:01 am

For most of the previous century, Californians successfully designed and built big water infrastructure. In sixty years, from 1910 through 1970, we built the most impressive system of interbasin transfers in the world. The Los Angeles Aqueduct, Hetch Hetchy Aqueduct,...

Ringside: Why California’s GOP Voters Must Show Up in November

May 13, 2026 5:01 amMay 13, 2026 5:02 am

The chances that a Republican could be elected governor in California have not been this good in a generation. But to do it, the winning candidate will have to attract a record turnout from registered Republicans, while also earning votes...