No Deal
What to know: California’s crunchy version of the Green New Deal is driving up costs in the Golden State, writes Joel Kotkin.
The TPPF take: The predictable outcome of California’s green energy policies has arrived and it’s a disaster.
“Back when I served in the California State Assembly from 2004 to 2010, I warned that these laws, regulations and subsidies would instead drive up electricity costs for Californians, making the grid less reliable and California’s economy less competitive,” says TPPF’s Chuck DeVore. “Now, two decades later, the results are in. In 2024, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported that California had the second-highest electricity prices in the nation for the second year running, behind only Hawaii.”
For more on California’s energy policies, click here.
Smart Women
What to know: It’s not President Donald Trump who fears smart women, writes Nichole Russell in USA Today—it’s progressives, and in particular the transgender movement.
The TPPF take: Trump has surrounded himself with smart, strong women.
“The women on his team—including Susie Wiles, the first woman to serve as White House Chief of Staff—along with the dozens of Republican women leaders around the country, appeared with Trump at event marking Women’s History Month,” says TPPF’s Sherry Sylvester. “Mainstream coverage of the event was mostly snide, as it always is when Trump directly challenges what is a given in the left-wing narrative—that he is sexist.”
For more on Trump and smart women, click here.
Real Education
What to know: Real Clear Investigations has looked into the new University of Austin, and declares it an “academic counter-revolution” and says it is “helping lead the movement to revive classical liberal education across the country.”
The TPPF take: The University of Austin could play a big role in the restoration of higher education.
“Public trust in higher education is cratering because too many schools no longer fulfill either of their two primary goals: the development of their students’ souls through providing a foundational philosophic, moral, and civic education, and a return on their investment regarding workforce outcomes,” says TPPF’s Tom Lindsay. “Hence, immediately after the University of Austin announced in November 2021 its mere intention to form, it was flooded with between 4,000 and 5,000 job applications from professors eager to find an institution that will allow them to do their real jobs, free from ideological interference.”
For more on the University of Austin, click here.