Consumer Choice Has Revolutionized Electricity Business in California, DeShazo Says

/0 Comments/in /by

JR DeShazo is quoted in a recent column in the Los Angeles Times on the rise of community choice aggregators (CCAs) and their effects on California’s major electric utilities. “The pressure they’ve placed on the [investor-owned utilities] has produced a focus on competition that did not exist before,” said DeShazo, director of the Luskin Center for Innovation and co-author of a 2016 study on CCAs. “So a competitive dynamic already has emerged that has been beneficial to customers.” Only a small number of states have legalized these government-affiliated, non-traditional utilities, which now serve almost 2 million Californians.

Read the story

 

Villasenor Is Among 70+ Internet Luminaries Ringing the Alarm on EU Copyright Filtering Proposal 

/0 Comments/in /by

John Villasenor, UCLA Luskin professor of public policy, joined more than 70 influential tech leaders to warn the European Parliament that a copyright bill it is considering poses “an imminent threat to the future” of the Internet. At issue is Article 13, which would require Internet platforms to automatically filter uploaded content. “Article 13 takes an unprecedented step towards the transformation of the Internet, from an open platform for sharing and innovation into a tool for the automated surveillance and control of its users,” said the letter co-signed by Villasenor, who is also a professor of electrical engineering and management. Three weeks after the letter was published, the European Parliament voted to send the bill back to the drawing board. A revised copyright bill will be debated in September.

Read the story

 

Blumenberg Says Trump’s Welfare Reform Plan Misses a Key Piece: Transportation 

/0 Comments/in /by

UCLA Luskin’s Evelyn Blumenberg is quoted in a Washington Post article about whether a Trump administration order to toughen work requirements for welfare recipients overlooks a well-documented link between transportation and employment.  “Since the 1990s, things have become much more difficult for welfare recipients,” said Blumenberg, a transportation expert and professor of urban planning. “And I have not seen an upswell in movement for supporting the transportation part of this.” Cars play a key role in access to jobs that are “suburbanizing.” Blumenberg said, “It’s a touchy subject in transportation circles, where funds are focused on increasing access to public transit, even though poor people more than anyone need the flexibility and instant mobility of having a car.”

Read the story

 

Kaplan Discusses CDC Report About Suicide Rates Rising Across U.S. 

/0 Comments/in /by

New CDC figures documenting the growing rate of suicide may not reflect the full scope of the problem, said Mark S. Kaplan, professor of social welfare at UCLA Luskin. Many suicides are actually classified as ”accidental deaths,” Kaplan, a noted suicide prevention researcher, told WebMD. “Some are classified as unintentional self-injury when, in fact, if you take a closer look, they look more like suicide,” he said. “The true incidence of suicide is unknown.” Kaplan said the Great Recession from 2007 to 2009 contributed to what he terms ”deaths of despair” by suicide. Some people, he said, never recovered economically.

Read the story