Edward Ring is the director of energy and water policy with the California Policy Center, which he co-founded in 2013 and served as its first president. He is also a senior fellow with the Center for American Greatness, and a regular contributor to the National Review and the California Globe. His work has appeared in the Los Angeles Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Orange County Register, and other media outlets.
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Is Covering California’s Aqueducts and Canals with Solar Panels Economical?
/by Edward RingEarlier this week, a respected YouTube channel covering the future of technology and energy released a video exploring the viability of solar panels covering California’s canals and aqueducts. The videos are hosted by Ricky Roy, a California-based mechanical engineer whose channel is called “Two Bit Da Vinci.” Reviewing his findings is an opportunity to offer some […]
The Delusional Premises of Woke Greens
/by Edward RingWhile the burgeoning democratic socialist movement is getting a lot of attention in advance of the 2026 midterm elections, a parallel dimension of wokeism quietly continues to advance. For now, the Trump administration has attenuated its most extreme threats, but its institutional support is unwavering, and its slow progress is unrelenting. The woke greens are […]
Debunking the Allegedly Prohibitive Cost of Desalination
/by Edward RingEarlier 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), got right was the need to change regulations that restrict the ability for farmers to […]
California Needs Steve Hilton’s Allegedly “Zany Ideas”
/by Edward RingVeteran political strategist Garry South has just published a guest commentary in the San Francisco Chronicle in which he asks the question, “Is Steve Hilton a serious candidate?” South then launches a series of attacks to make clear he doesn’t think Hilton is gubernatorial material. But only a serious contender could have survived California’s so-called “jungle primary,” where […]
A Fact-Based Appraisal of California’s Net Zero Strategy
/by Edward RingThe 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 percent of total energy consumed in 2023 was quietly lowered from 9.3 in the U.S. […]