By PATRICIA LEIGH BROWN
for the NY Times
Published: May 11, 2013
DEL AIRE, Calif. — Fruit looms large in the California psyche. Since the 1800s, dewy images of oranges, lemons and other fruits have been a lure for seekers of the state’s postcard essence, symbols of fertile land, felicitous climate and the possibilities of pleasure.
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By Louis Sahagun reports for the Los Angeles TimesApril 27, 2013, 5:05 p.m.
Many of the nation’s 440 military bases were established in what were once sparsely populated hinterlands where soldiers trained without complaints from neighbors about the roar of warplanes and the sound of gunfire and explosions.
Now, with urban sprawl pushing up against perimeter fences, [...]
For Earth Day, Jennifer Weeks reflects on some places that were saved for Slate:
Storm King Mountain on the banks of the Hudson River in New YorkCourtesy of Ahodges7/Wikimedia Commons
The first Earth Day, in 1970, was inspired by anger. The nation was a mess. Four million gallons of oil from a blown offshore well were smearing [...]
By CURTIS MORGAN of the Miami Herald,
cmorgan@MiamiHerald.com
Hunting for oil and gas deposits off the Atlantic coast with gear that produces underwater sound blasts 100,000 times stronger than a jet engine could harm or kill tens of thousands of whales and dolphins, an environmental group contends in a new report.
The devices, called seismic air guns, are [...]
By Robert Rogers
Contra Costa Times
Posted: 04/04/2013 12:33:40 AM PDT
Updated: 04/04/2013 03:38:41 PM PDT
Related
Document: PG&E Letter to the Public Utilities Commission
RICHMOND — With clean energy upstarts cutting into its vast market share, electrical utility Pacific Gas & Electric filed a letter this week with the state Public Utilities Commission retaining the right [...]
Public transit doesn’t have to be a total bummer if you’ve got a nice enough hub for it all to connect to. That seems to be the logic behind the upcoming 1.5-million-square-foot, San Francisco Transbay Transit Center. Some are calling it the city’ “Grand Central,” and if it lives up to the plans, it’ll certainly be grand.
Designed [...]
The California Report updates Erin Brockovich’s Hinkley:
Nearly 20 years ago, Pacific Gas & Electric paid hundreds of millions of dollars to settle legal claims that it had poisoned the Mojave Desert community of Hinkley by dumping industrial waste into the ground. But that David and Goliath triumph — portrayed in the movie “Erin Brockovich” — [...]
The Lancaster, California City Council unanimously approved changes to the city’s zoning code that require housing developers to install solar with every new home they build.
This is the latest piece in what Republican Mayor R. Rex Parris described at the City Council meeting as a plan to make Lancaster “the solar capital of the universe.”
Lancaster’s [...]
Posted by Ed Ochs
of The Rock on Mar 24, 2013 in News | 0 comments
Lois Capps
Congresswoman Lois Capps (D-24th District) emphatically restated her support for a PG&E offshore high-energy seismic survey in Estero Bay, near the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant in Avila Beach, during a January 28 hearing in Washington of the Subcommittee on [...]
David Roberts reports for Grist:
As if Hollywood isn’t fracked up enough already.
The New York Times
Click on graphics in this post to embiggen.
The latest target of the unconventional oil craze is California, specifically the Monterey Shale in southern California (see map). Will California become the next North Dakota? Let us ponder.
Oil in California is nothing [...]
The San Luis Obispo Tribune editorialized about the issue of nuclear waste storage this week. Over 2,000 tons is stored in the county, on the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant site:
The seismic safety of the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant continues to be a focus of concern, and rightfully so. We need only look at [...]
Greenwire reports:
A California senator’s decision to quit and jump to Chevron Corp. has sparked questions about whether he should have negotiated for that job while in a position to help the company politically.
Former Sen. Michael Rubio (D) resigned Friday to work as manager of California governmental affairs for Chevron (E&ENews PM, Feb. 22). He had [...]
The Christian Science Monitor reports:
Uncharacteristic feeding behavior from dolphins and whales is grabbing the attention of scientists – and the public – and so far is prompting more questions than answers about what’s going on in the ocean depths.
Blue whales, which usually hang out off Costa Rica this time of year, unexpectedly showed up in [...]
By NORIMITSU ONISHI
Published: February 3, 2013 in the New York Times
FELLOWS, Calif. — Secure in this state’s history and mythology, the venerable Midway-Sunset oil field near here keeps producing crude more than a century after Southern California’s oil boom. Many of its bobbing pump jacks are relatively short, a telltale sign of the shallowness of [...]
Christopher Cook reviews the new book for SF Gate:
Foodopoly, by Wenonah Hauter, The New Press, 355 pages, $26.95
What a frightful spectacle our food has become. Human sustenance has been reduced to a corporate portfolio item – one whose success rides increasingly on sheer size and market control. In the name of profit, everything else gets [...]
Additional reporting by Ivan Penn from the Tampa Bay Times:
Progress Energy Florida plunged Citrus County into a budget crisis Wednesday after the utility refused to pay almost half of its $35 million property tax bill. The County Commission and School Board scheduled emergency meetings for Friday to cope with millions in missing revenue.
Progress, which merged [...]
IVAN PENN, TAMPA BAY TIMES reports:
Published: Wednesday, January 2, 2013 at 11:11 p.m.
Last Modified: Wednesday, January 2, 2013 at 11:11 p.m.
The crippled Crystal River nuclear plant, owned by Progress Energy, is now America’s headache.
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A PHOTO ILLUSTRATION looking at the future of power delivery by Duke Energy — the parent company of Progress Energy [...]
While the contract hasn’t been finalized, analysts are predicting that First Solar will win the rights to supply NextEra Energy Inc. with solar arrays for what will be the world’s largest solar farm. The two companies are currently working together on the 550-megawatt Desert Sunlight solar farm in Riverwide County, California.
NextEra’s Blythe project, based in southern California, will soon [...]
Additional comments on this news on my blog.
CHICAGO—New Research reveals its turkey, not chicken, that’s taking the lead in poultry sales. Research from Mintel on the U.S. poultry market reveals that turkey, duck and other specialty birds grew 6.5 percent in one year, reaching $7.1 billion from year 2011 to 2012.
Growing from $6 billion in [...]
The Environmental Working Group finds positives and negatives:
SACRAMENTO, Calif. – The California Division of Oil, Gas and Geothermal Resources has released a preliminary draft of regulations that for the first time would require oil and gas drilling companies in the state to report where they are using hydraulic fracturing technology and disclose what chemicals they [...]
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