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• Jan 31 @01:14 pm Wind power blowing up in California Wind energy now supplies about 5% of California’s total electricity needs, or enough to power more than 400,000 households.
• Jan 21 @05:01 pm Some idle solar energy projects may soon connect to grid Two federal agencies and Southern California Edison say they're close to ending a long impasse that has made renewable energy projects sit unused. Negotiations with a third agency are tougher.
• Dec 16 @12:10 am EPA finalizes tough new rules on emissions by power plants The Obama administration finished crafting tough new rules Friday curbing mercury and other poisons emitted by coal-fired utilities, according to several people briefed on the decision, culminating more than two decades of work to clean up the nation’s dirtiest power plants.
• Dec 7 @02:17 pm First Solar Sells California Solar Farm to MidAmerican Energy First Solar Inc. is selling one of its large California solar farms to MidAmerican Energy Holdings Co., ending the solar-panel maker's search for a buyer. The sale places MidAmerican Energy, a unit of Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc., in the solar-power business for the first time. MidAmerican operates fleets of wind farms and conventional power plants. The companies didn't disclose terms of the deal Wednesday, but said the Topaz solar-power plant, in San Luis Obispo County, is worth more than $2 billion. Shares of First Solar rallied nearly 7% on the news, and traded at $49.16, up 6.7%.
• Dec 7 @02:10 pm Renewable Northwest Project Applauds FERC Ruling on BPA Over-Generation Policy Portland, Ore. -- In response to today’s Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) ruling on the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) “Environmental Redispatch and No Negative Pricing policy,” Rachel Shimshak, executive director of non-profit advocacy group Renewable Northwest Project, issued the following statement: We are pleased that the Commission has ruled on this issue and has determined that BPA's “Environmental Redispatch and No Negative Pricing Policy” is discriminatory. With these questions answered, Renewable Northwest Project is eager to continue working with BPA and regional partners toward solutions to over-generation that are economical, equitable and good for the environment.
• Nov 12 @02:37 pm Breaking ground in California Valley: Sun rises on new solar farm A forest of thousands of sturdy metal posts is sprouting in the wide open spaces of California Valley.The posts will eventually support 720,000 photovoltaic panels that will be part of the California Valley Solar Ranch, one of the world’s largest facilities to turn sunlight into electricity.
• Nov 9 @08:18 am California hits renewable energy milestone: 1 gigawatt of solar power installed to date California has hit a major renewable energy milestone: 1 gigawatt -- or 1,000 megawatts -- of solar power has been installed on rooftops throughout the state, according to a report to be released Wednesday by Environment California, a statewide advocacy group. One gigawatt is roughly the size of two coal-fired power plants and is enough energy to power 750,000 homes. Five countries have hit the 1 gigawatt installation mark to date: Germany, Spain, Japan, Italy and the Czech Republic. California has installed more solar power than France, China and Belgium.
• Oct 24 @10:59 am Viewpoints: Solar merits subsidies – just like other energy sources "What the federal government should not do is be in the business of picking winners and losers," proclaims John Boehner, GOP speaker of the House of Representatives. "For the federal government to be out there picking one company over another, one type of energy sources over another I think is wrong." What prompted this espousing of free-market rhetoric so popular with the tea party crowd?
• Aug 25 @12:26 pm Fracking in Sacramento: Gasland cometh? Concerns about fracking’s environmental impact—not to mention a scene from fracking documentary Gasland, where a man lights methane-heavy water coming out of his kitchen faucet on fire—is reason for alarm. And such concerns have led to improved regulation in other states. But in California, the state’s regulating agency, the Division of Oil, Gas & Geothermal Resources, has maintained fracking is used too infrequently to be a concern, and therefore needs minimal oversight.
• Aug 18 @03:35 am Dark Day for Solar Thermal: Solar Trust Switches 500MW Power Plant to PV Solar Trust said today that it will convert a 500-megawatt solar thermal power plant it had been planning in Blythe, California into a 500-megawatt plant made from photovoltaic panels. The shift comes because of "improved market conditions" for building power plants with PV modules.
• Aug 10 @02:48 pm California Solar Project Gets U.S. Approval WASHINGTON—The Interior Secretary Wednesday approved the highest capacity solar-panel plant ever constructed on public-owned land. The approval cleared a permitting hurdle for First Solar Inc.'s 550-megawatt Desert Sunlight project, which needed to pass an environmental review from the Interior Department because it is being built on federal land.
• Aug 3 @05:28 am Tepco Reports Second Deadly Radiation Reading at Fukushima Nuclear Plant Tokyo Electric Power Co. reported its second deadly radiation reading in as many days at its wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant north of Tokyo. The utility known as Tepco said yesterday it detected 5 sieverts of radiation per hour in the No. 1 reactor building. On Aug. 1 in another area it recorded radiation of 10 sieverts per hour, enough to kill a person “within a few weeks” after a single exposure, according to the World Nuclear Association. Radiation has impeded attempts to replace cooling systems to bring three melted reactors and four damaged spent fuel ponds under control after a tsunami on March 11 crippled the plant. The latest reading was taken on the second floor of the No. 1 reactor building and will stop workers entering the area.
• Jul 27 @10:26 pm Study: 15,000 per year train for green jobs in CA. A report issued Thursday counted 298 green-job training programs in California, most of them created within the last five years. They train between 12,600 and 15,100 students per year -- numbers that are probably too low, because the study's authors couldn't get complete enrollment data for most of the programs.
• Jul 27 @07:00 pm Green energy: California poll finds overwhelming support A new statewide survey of environment issues conducted by the Public Policy Institute of California found more residents favor climate change policy, want to cut greenhouse gas emissions and believe they are already experiencing the effects of global warming. "This is a clear mandate that people want to move beyond dirty energy,” said David Graham-Caso, Los Angeles Sierra Club spokesman. The survey, the 11th since 2000, sampled more than 2,500 people and found Californians are strongly supportive of policies that encourage fuel efficiency and renewable energy, according to Mark Baldassare, president and CEO of PPIC.
• Jul 22 @05:55 pm New Rule Could Spur More Energy Projects Federal energy regulators approved a major rule change that they said would lead to more big electricity transmission lines getting built in the U.S. The new order, adopted Thursday, should particularly benefit wind- and solar-energy projects, which are often located in remote places that are poorly served by existing interstate transmission lines, said Jon Wellinghoff, chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
• Jul 21 @05:59 pm U.S., Seeking to Reshape Electric Grid, Adopts a Power Line Rule WASHINGTON — Federal regulators laid down principles on Thursday for planning and paying for new power lines, part of a long-term policy effort to help the nation’s electricity grid grow enough to meet the demands of renewable energy and a competitive electricity market.
• Jul 21 @05:49 pm FERC approves sweeping overhaul of transmission rules Federal regulators finalized far-reaching rules today that revamp how the United States plans, builds and allocates costs for new power lines. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission voted 5-0 to approve rules calling for transmission providers to participate in regional planning and cost-allocation methods and to consider state and federal goals for expanding the use of renewable energy. The rule will take effect 60 days after it is published in the Federal Register, and transmission developers must then provide plans that comply with principles outlined in the final rule.
• Jul 21 @05:07 pm Bloomberg Gives Sierra Club $50 Million to Fight Coal Plants New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said he will donate $50 million to the Sierra Club, an environmental advocacy group, to promote the organization’s fight against coal-fired power plants.
• Jul 21 @05:00 pm American Wind Energy Association applauds FERC's new transmission planning and cost allocation policy “AWEA applauds FERC for its leadership in finalizing reforms that could serve to cut the Gordian knot that is blocking investment in our aging power grid. This is an important step toward removing the main hurdle: how to make sure all users pay their fair share of new lines. Preventing free-riding will help improve grid reliability, and reduce electricity bills by facilitating access to lower cost resources, including wind energy."
• Jul 18 @04:50 pm Radiation-Tainted Beef Spreads Through Japan’s Markets Japanese agricultural officials say meat from more than 500 cattle that were likely to have been contaminated with radioactive cesium has made its way to supermarkets and restaurants across Japan in recent weeks. Officials say the cattle ate hay that had been stored outside and exposed to radiation.
• Jul 16 @04:55 pm Radioactive cesium detected in Fukushima shiitake Radioactive cesium exceeding the government standard has been detected in shiitake mushrooms grown indoors in 2 cities in Fukushima Prefecture, about 60 kilometers from the troubled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. This is the first detection of radioactive cesium exceeding the standard in produce grown in greenhouses in the prefecture since the nuclear accident.
• Jul 14 @02:34 pm Salazar Approves Major Renewable Energy Projects, Identifies Next Step in Solar Energy Development The renewable energy projects that Salazar announced today - two utility-scale solar developments in California, a wind energy project in Oregon, and a transmission line in Southern California - together will create more than 1,300 construction jobs, provide a combined 550 megawatts of electricity, enough to power 185,000 to 380,000 homes, and generate several million dollars annually in local government tax revenues. The projects are part of Interior’s “Smart from the Start” approach to processing existing applications for renewable energy development on public lands in a coordinated, focused manner with full environmental analysis and public review.
• Jul 13 @08:43 am California leads 'clean economy,' study finds Nationwide, 2.7 million people work in the "clean economy," according to a new study. It employs nearly 320,000 people in California. In the Los Angeles metropolitan area, the sector accounts for about 90,000 workers.
• Jun 21 @03:12 pm Gov. Jerry Brown sees future in massive solar plant near Blythe California Gov. Jerry Brown, just a day after vetoing the Democrat-backed state budget, on Friday used the backdrop of the future site of one of the world's largest solar plants to issue a call for fiscal responsibility and investment in a green economy for the state's future.
• Jun 21 @02:00 pm Radioactive tritium leaks found at 48 US nuke sites 'You got pipes that have been buried underground for 30 or 40 years, and they've never been inspected,' whistleblower says
• May 31 @06:28 am Germany to Forsake Its Nuclear Reactors BERLIN—Germany on Monday said it would close all of its 17 nuclear reactors by 2022, a sharp policy reversal that will make it the first major economy to quit atomic power in the wake of the nuclear crisis in Japan.
• May 20 @01:57 pm Fukushima Revives The Low-Dose Debate The general public avoided exposure to high levels of radioactivity, but questions linger about the long-term effects of contamination.
• May 10 @08:48 pm Japan to Cancel Plan to Build More Nuclear Plants TOKYO — Prime Minister Naoto Kan said Tuesday that Japan would abandon plans to build more nuclear reactors, saying his country needed to “start from scratch” in creating a new energy policy.
• May 10 @11:43 am Tokyo Retreats From Its Nuclear Ambitions TOKYO—Prime Minister Naoto Kan said Japan should start over in forming a long-term energy policy, dropping plans to get half its energy needs from nuclear power and instead turning to renewable sources. "The existing energy-policy outline needs to be scrapped, and discussions should be started from scratch," he said Tuesday at an evening briefing.
• May 9 @03:18 am Japanese plant in harm's way will suspend nuclear power production Reporting from Tokyo—A Japanese utility agreed Monday to take its reactors offline at a seaside nuclear power plant, just days after Prime Minister Naoto Kan called for the shutdown over concerns that a strong earthquake and tsunami could provoke another nuclear crisis.
• Apr 17 @03:26 pm U.S. is increasing nuclear power through uprating Turning up the power is a little-publicized way of getting more electricity from existing nuclear plants. But scrutiny is likely to increase in the wake of Japan's nuclear crisis.
• Apr 15 @03:48 pm Siemens Rethinks Nuclear Ambitions German engineering giant Siemens AG is considering whether to abandon its goal of becoming a major player in the atomic-power industry, according to people familiar with the matter, as Japan's nuclear crisis continues to unfold.
• Apr 12 @10:52 pm Gov. Brown signs law requiring 33% of energy be renewable by 2020 The California law increases a previous mandate of 20% renewable energy. U.S. energy secretary calls the law a model for other states, and an industry group says it could create 100,000 jobs.
• Apr 12 @09:37 pm California renewable energy gets major boost in new law Gov. Jerry Brown signed into law Tuesday a mandate that 33% of electricity in California must come from renewable sources by 2020. Brown, along with U.S. Secretary of Energy Steven Chu, signed the bill while helping dedicate a new solar panel manufacturing plant in Milpitas.
• Apr 12 @08:09 am Japanese Declare Crisis at Level of Chernobyl TOKYO—The Japanese government raised its assessment of the monthlong crisis at its Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant to the highest severity level by international standards—a rating only conferred so far upon the Chernobyl accident.
• Apr 10 @10:13 pm Diablo Plant Delays License Bid for Quake Study The owner of California's Diablo Canyon nuclear-power plant said it wouldn't seek license renewals for its two reactors until new studies of the area's vulnerability to earthquakes can be conducted. Pacific Gas & Electric Co. had applied for a 20-year license extension for the plant, which sits on California's earthquake-prone central coast. But in a letter to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Sunday, the utility asked regulators to delay its application until it can complete new seismic studies.
• Apr 8 @08:04 am EU to Propose Carbon Tax on Fuels BRUSSELS—The European Union next week will propose taxing transport and heating fuels according to their greenhouse-gas emissions as well as their energy content, introducing a climate-change component in EU tax rules for the first time, after years of negotiations.
• Apr 5 @10:08 pm Rush to Use Crops as Fuel Raises Food Prices and Hunger Fears Soaring food prices have caused riots or contributed to political turmoil in a host of poor countries in recent months, including Algeria, Egypt and Bangladesh, where palm oil, a common biofuel ingredient, provides crucial nutrition to a desperately poor populace. During the second half of 2010, the price of corn rose steeply — 73 percent in the United States — an increase that the United Nations World Food Program attributed in part to the greater use of American corn for bioethanol.
• Apr 1 @08:47 pm California Looks to Update Quake Plans The recent earthquakes in Japan and New Zealand have prompted officials in Los Angeles, San Francisco and elsewhere to re-examine their own building codes, disaster-response measures and recovery plans. In particular, the Japanese quake and tsunami have raised fresh concerns about California's two nuclear plants, which sit near fault lines that run though the central and southern parts of the state.
• Mar 30 @07:32 pm California Assembly OKs increased renewable energy requirement A mandate that California utilities increase their use of renewable energy sailed through the state Assembly on Tuesday and is headed for the governor's desk. Environmental groups say the legislation is the most ambitious of its kind in the country. It would require the state's electricity companies to provide 33% of power from renewable resources by the year 2020. State law now sets a 20% goal.
• Mar 30 @03:03 am Proposal Aims to Gut DOE Loan Program About $41 billion in loan guarantees for renewable-energy projects are caught up in the bipartisan wrangling over the federal budget, which could derail dozens of projects and eliminate tens of thousands of jobs. Even established companies are concerned, underscoring the nascent industry's reliance on government help.
• Mar 29 @07:18 am County supervisors approve solar project Kern County supervisors blessed a 6,047-acre solar project between Taft and Interstate 5 on Tuesday. The 700-megawatt project will place photovoltaic solar panels on 4,868 of those 6,047 acres, converting the land from agricultural uses to industrial power generation. Developer Maricopa Sun LLC President Jeff Roberts of Fresno said the company, which is affiliated with Granville Homes, bought the land eight years ago but couldn't farm it because it lacked a critical component of the agricultural process: "This is land we tried for eight years to find water for," he said.
• Mar 23 @02:31 pm U.S. Power Companies May Face Financing Hurdles In the wake of the Japanese crisis, President Barack Obama and top administration officials have maintained their support for nuclear power. The White House this week said it still supports a budget proposal for an additional $36 billion in loan guarantees for new nuclear-plant construction. But some in the U.S. nuclear industry say they question the strength of the administration's support for these loan guarantees given the damage and radiation leaks at Japan's Fukushima Daiichi power facility following the March 11 earthquake and tsnuami [sic].
• Mar 22 @02:18 pm Calif. cap-and-trade plan suffers legal setback California's attempt to implement its landmark global warming law with a market-oriented "cap-and-trade" system of pollution credits hit a snag Monday with a judge's ruling that the state had not looked hard enough at alternatives.
• Mar 17 @02:58 pm Battle-proof Wind Farms Survive Japan's Trial by Fire Despite assertions by its detractors that wind energy would not survive an earthquake or tsunami the Japanese wind industry is still functioning and helping to keep the lights on during the Fuksuhima crisis.
• Mar 14 @11:08 pm Crisis Revives Doubts on Regulation Japan's nuclear-power crisis is reviving long-held doubts about the strength of the nation's nuclear regulatory system and its independence from government efforts to sell nuclear technology abroad.
• Mar 14 @05:19 am Will Fukushima Disaster Spell the End for a U.S. Nuclear Revival? The full impact of the nuclear emergency in Japan will depend on how bad it gets
• Mar 13 @11:12 pm House GOP targets state's tough emission standards Taking advantage of a spike in gasoline prices, House Republicans are moving rapidly to gut California's landmark controls on greenhouse-gas emissions from cars as a way to prevent the tougher state standards from spreading nationwide.
• Mar 11 @04:38 pm Landmark smokestack imploded in Laughlin With white smoke and dust flowing out its top, the 500-foot-tall concrete smokestack of the Mohave Generation Station crashed to the ground in dramatic fashion at 9 a.m. Friday.
• Feb 24 @11:04 pm California Senate OKs renewable energy bill Reporting from Sacramento The state Senate acted Thursday to require California utilities to boost their use of wind, solar and other renewable energy sources to a third of total supply by the year 2020.