Author Archives: dniemeier

Western Climate Initiative

By dniemeier | Published: July 28, 2010
The Western Climate Initiative (WCI) released its plan for the regional carbon market, of which California is a member. The plan outlines the general framework for partially achieving AB 32 goals. Because the WCI is comprised of six other western states, in addition to California, and four Canadian provinces, the goals have been set a [...]
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Things to watch, July 4, 2010

By dniemeier | Published: July 4, 2010
PPIC will release its tenth annual Statewide Survey on Californians and the Environment this month. The survey reviews Californians’ views on climate change and energy policy, perceptions of global warming, attitudes toward regulating greenhouse gas emissions, and preferences for specific emissions and energy policies. New proposition numbers: Proposition 22    Prohibits the State from Taking Funds [...]
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Unraveling the Flow of Transportation Funds

By dniemeier | Published: May 15, 2010
I’ve recently been trying to unravel more than a skimming of the general flow of transportation funding in California. Here is the basic starting point, with thanks to Caltrans for providing the chart. I’ve also uploaded the budget sheet to Seadragon:
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Hobson’s Choice

By dniemeier | Published: May 3, 2010
For a thoughtful discussion on the Gulf spill, see this blog entry by Tom Beamish (at UC Davis): http://mitpress.typepad.com/mitpresslog/2010/05/the-gulf-spill-and-the-hobsons-choice-of-oil-production.html#more
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Graham Walks Away

By dniemeier | Published: April 25, 2010
The Washington Post has announced that the anticipated press conference called for tomorrow (Monday, April 26) to announce the outline of the Kerry-Lieberman-Graham compromise proposal for a climate and energy bill has been canceled. Graham states “…appears to be a decision by the Obama Administration and the Senate Democratic leadership to move immigration instead of [...]
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Why people get frustrated with government

By dniemeier | Published: March 22, 2010
So I recently requested data from a report that was commissioned by FHWA. The back and forth between us (myself and the contractors who did the report for FHWA) is interesting. It felt a bit surreal sometimes… Here is my email request (the pdf of the report is available on the web): I am trying [...]
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Rapid Succession

By dniemeier | Published: March 19, 2010
Another Caltrans Director leaves for a local agency.
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One UC Chancellor vs Another

By dniemeier | Published: December 22, 2009
It’s interesting to contrast the way in which UC Berkeley (and the UC system) has handled Chancellor Birgeneau’s student protests (see a summary here) and the way in which the system (and then-President Dynes) handled similar incidents against then Chancellor Denton (see a summary here).
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Synopsis of Copenhagen

By dniemeier | Published: December 17, 2009
Climate progress has a nice round up of Copenhagen talks.
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Tidy List of What Aliens Are Doing to the Earth

By dniemeier | Published: December 8, 2009
From the National Wildlife Federation’s Dr. Amanda Staudt (full post), While opponents want to draw attention to decade-old emails, here is what is happening right now to the planet: Temperatures this decade have been higher than any other decade on record, and one degree (F) higher than average temperatures in the 20th century. Ocean temperatures [...]
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