Homeless people with schizophrenia face abnormally high hurdles to obtaining their Supplemental Security Income benefits. But one government program has sliced their wait times to mere days, rather than months. Part of a special report on homelessness and mental health in San Francisco, in the fall 2014 print edition. Stories rolling out online throughout the fall.
Author Archives: Lisa Weinzimer
Lisa Weinzimer has written for energy trade publications for more than 13 years. She covered renewables development, energy efficiency, regulations, climate change and a host of other issues as a longtime reporter for McGraw Hill trade publications. Before that, she covered California’s energy crisis and its aftermath for California Energy Markets. She also now freelances for a major Bay Area law firm.
Posted inHomelessness and Mental Health, Social Services
S.F. Alternative Court Provides Lifeline
For Kim Knoble, the city’s behavioral health court kept her out of jail and helped her recover from a debilitating disorder. Part of a special report on homelessness and mental health in San Francisco, in the fall 2014 print edition. Stories rolling out online throughout the fall.
Posted inHousing, Housing Solutions, Media, Neighborhoods
Working Groups Envision Plans for an Affordable San Francisco
City residents, advocates and experts gathered at “Hack the Housing Crisis” to come up with ways to make San Francisco more affordable and create space for new tenants. Possible solutions included building portable houses and creating social media websites where renters and landlords could connect. Part of a special report on solutions for housing affordability.
Posted inClimate Change, Environment
Plans to Relax California Climate Regulations Upset Some Environmentalists
California regulators are weighing plans to make it easier and less expensive for oil refineries and other big industries to comply with the state’s new cap-and-trade system for cutting greenhouse gas emissions, and environmentalists are alarmed. At a hearing last week in Sacramento, the California Air Resources Board heard staff proposals to amend the year-old cap-and-trade program to extend “transition assistance” to industry through 2018. The change, coming on the heels of lobbying from industry, would give businesses possibly hundreds of millions of dollars worth of free allowances to pollute, and alter the economics of the emerging auction market for carbon.
Posted inClimate Change, Environment, Media
Many Residents in the Dark About California Carbon Cap-and-Trade, Survey Finds
A majority of California residents have never heard about the state’s landmark cap-and-trade program to limit greenhouse gas emissions from industry, a survey from the Public Policy Institute of California shows. While 54 percent of state residents sampled had heard nothing about the new multibillion-dollar carbon market, 33 percent had heard a little and 12 percent a lot, the survey, which was released July 31, found.
Posted inClimate Change, Climate Change, Economy & Business, Environment, Utilities
Carbon Storage Could Aid Climate, but at What Cost?
While building a power plant in Southern California that buries carbon dioxide underground can help the industry meet California’s greenhouse gas and gas reduction goals, local concerns regarding health effects and air pollutants challenge the project’s environmental claims.
This story is part of a special report on climate change in the Summer print edition of the San Francisco Public Press.
Posted inClimate Change, Environment, Government & Politics, Utilities
California’s Hunger for Low-Carbon Power Could Hurt Other States
California’s effort to ensure that the state receives low carbon electricity could end up increasing greenhouse gas emissions elsewhere in the country, thanks to a practice known as contract reshuffling.Importing low-carbon electricity from out-of-state suppliers of renewable sources such as solar, wind, geothermal and hydropower is one way California’s electric utilities can decrease their carbon emissions.
This story is part of a special report on climate change in the Summer print edition of the San Francisco Public Press.