In 2005, he co-founded The Nakwatsvewat Institute, Inc., a Native American nonprofit organization that provides alternative dispute resolution services and support for tribal governance, justice, and educational institutions. His book Railtown on the history of the modern Los Angeles Metro Rail system was published by University of California Press in January 2014. Ethan is also a regular host of the weekly call-in radio show “State of the Bay” on the San Francisco NPR affiliate KALW 91.7 FM, airing Monday nights at 6pm PT.

This episode is focused on the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), which was passed at roughly the same time the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). They were signed by Republican icons Ronald Reagan and Richard Nixon respectively.  Mr. Elkind speaks on topics including:

• Successes and failures over CEQA's 40-year history
• CEQA's impact on the schedule of new transmission for renewable energy initiatives.
• The trade-offs between public engagement and the extent to which local, county and state permitting processes can slow projects that help and hurt the environment alike.
• How the US has a problem with doing large projects, especially in large transportation projects and how this is described in his recent report, Getting Back on Track: Policy Solutions to Improve California Rail Transit Projects

​Climate Money Watchdog founders Dina Rasor and Greg Williams recap our first twenty episodes. We started this podcast before most of the federal and state climate money began to flow by interviewing people who have looked for fraud in government spending for years. Then we have interviewed people who have scientific or political organizing background to hear their stories on what will or won't work in this race for climate and environmental mitigation. We are going to start moving in the direction of helping inside sources bring forward their knowledge of ongoing fraud. If you know about fraud in a climate program, please contact us. If you know about fraud in a climate program, please contact us safely at our website! If you have a topic you would like us to cover in a podcast episode, please send us an email. In the past 20 podcast episodes, we have covered such issues as:

• Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS)
  • Every Dollar Spent on CCS is a Waste - Dr. Charles Harvey and Dr. Kurt House
  • CO2 Pipelines and Carbon Capture - Kert Davies
  • How Did DoE Waste Half a $Billion on Carbon Capture? Bob Bauman
• How Community Choice Aggregation can make renewable energy more accessible
  • Community Choice Aggregation at MCE - Jenna Tenney
• How community organizing can stop dangerous and wasteful projects
  • Citizens Challenging Venture Capitalists and Carbon Capture - Mike Eise
• How oversight by government and private citizens can prevent waste
  • Enforcing ESG Claims through the SEC's Whistleblower Program - Poppy Alexander
  • Government Oversight Lessons Learned - Danielle Brian, POGO

See our main web site, our episode listing on Buzzsprout, or wherever you like to get your podcasts for full listing.