During nearly two decades in Congress representing the Central Coast, Lois Capps (D-Santa Barbara) has been a relentless advocate for alternative energy. As she prepares to leave the House of Representatives when her term expires – she’s not standing for re-election next year – the change in energy production along the Central Coast is something Read More →
The Obama Administration has achieved an important milestone in getting a general agreement on the Trans-Pacific Partnership. The TPP involves roughly 40 percent of the global economy and includes most of Asia except China. It lowers tariffs, reduces informal barriers that get in the way of U.S. exports of services and adds new protections for Read More →
Ventura County has a balanced budget but a big deficit when it comes to philanthropy. Staff writer Marissa Nall reports in today’s Business Times that giving in the county that represents more than half the population of the 805 area code averaged just $2,153 per person in 2014, according to a report by the Read More →
Just a year ago, Dynergy, a Texas-based energy firm, shut down the aging power plant that’s loomed over the city of Morro Bay for decades, idling the three 450-foot-tall smokestacks that are part of the city’s skyline. Now Trident Winds, a British company, has proposed something new in the field of power production: a floating Read More →
The startup culture that’s taking hold across our region is worthy of much deeper news coverage than our business journal can provide on a weekly basis. That’s why I’m delighted to announce that next year Pacific Coast Business Times will launch the Central Coast Innovation Awards, a program that will capture many of the Read More →
Clean diesel, like clean coal, might just be headed for the scrap heap of environmental history. Volkswagen’s stunning revelation that it cheated air pollution control rules in order to get better performance and better mileage from 11 million vehicles has sent its stock price plunging. It faces perhaps as much as $37,000 per vehicle or Read More →
Houston, we have a problem. More than three months after a Plains All-American Pipeline pipe burst, spilling thousands of gallons of oil into the Pacific Ocean near Santa Barbara, a big chunk of the region’s oil and gas industry remains shut down. That’s partly because there is simply no way for ExxonMobil, Venoco and Freeport-MacMoran Read More →
