News

 

Ethanol: How the promise dwindled

By Dale Kasler -

Sacramento Bee

Published 12:00 am PDT Thursday, March 20, 2008

The cash crunch at Sacramento's Pacific Ethanol Inc. spotlights the swift decline of an industry battered by too much supply, too-expensive corn and too many increases in plant construction costs.

Ethanol – hailed by some as a "green" fuel that would reduce America's dependence on foreign oil – is in a major slump here and nationwide...(more)

 

Dark side of a hot biofuel

By Tom Knudson
Sacramento Bee

Sunday, January 20, 2008

Every morning, the cage doors swing open and 34 orangutan orphans climb into the outstretched arms of their human mothers.

Grabbing at wrists, tugging at elbows, these baby apes cling to the young women like Velcro, happy to be free of their cages, to play in the dappled sun of the nearby forest for a few hours... (more)

It's a bumpy ride on the Hydrogen Highway

By Ken Bensinger
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

January 11, 2008

Cadillac unveiled a concept car this week that runs partially on hydrogen, adding to the ranks of futuristic vehicles powered by the universe's most common element. Yet even if you could drive it -- there's only one now -- you couldn't get from L.A. to San Francisco, because there aren't enough fueling stations... (more)

PG&E to get watts from waves

By Elizabeth Douglass and Victoria Kim
Los Angeles Times Staff Writers

December 19, 2007

Pacific Gas & Electric Co. went surfing Tuesday, becoming the first U.S. utility to commit to buying electricity generated by the tumult of the sea.

The San Francisco-based company, which this year proposed a test facility for producing power from ocean waves, said the electricity in its new contract would come from a wave project planned by Canada's Finavera Renewables Inc. for the waters off the coast of Northern California's Humboldt County...(more)