Subject: Energy Technology

• Terrorists Attack US Power Plant

  Israeli terrorists have caused significant damage to a power plant in Palestine, insured by the U.S. government for up to $48 million dollars. READ THE STORY ON ALJAZEERA.COM Tony Snow, White House Chief of Verbal Diarrhea, previously described Israel's current assault on the Palestinians as legitimate self-defence, precipitated by "the hostage-taking and attacks by Hamas last weekend." Funny, I don't think he would consider the Iraqi insurgency a legitimate self-defence, precipitated by pris

  July 2, 2006

• Weak on both sides...

  … and radioactive in the middle. By now you know that North Korea has apparently successfully tested a nuclear weapon. (Experts prefer the term "device", rather than "weapon", but given the fact that this device's sole function is to cause large-scale destruction, I think the word weapon is allowable.) The BBC reports: The size of the bomb is uncertain. South Korean reports put it as low as 550 tons of destructive power but Russia said it was between five and 15 kilotons. The 1945 Hiro

  October 9, 2006

• Rohrabacher, Big Oil: a Match Made in Hell

  Ah, Huntington Beach with its smelly smokestacks, oily bathtub-ring-like shoreline and human waste bobbing in the ocean. What's not to love? Your congressman, the esteemed Dana Rohrabacher (R-Abramoff), certainly showed he's got your back, Surf City-zens, as he voted just last night to let those poor, starving, raggamuffin oil companies drill for natural gas off the California coastline. Unfortunately for you hicks, a higher slice of the rest of the House--including scores of members of Dana's o

  May 19, 2006

• White House Oil Men: OUT! More Taxes on Gas: IN!

  My how times change. The boost that 9/11 gave the oily men in the White House was as short-lived as any post-Seinfeld sitcom starring Jason Alexander. It seems like only yesterday that Dickless Cheney was defending our latest Blood for Oil campaign by suggesting Americans essentially have a God-given right to our "way of life"--even if, no, ESPECIALLY if that means giving a petroleum-jelly-covered middle finger to Kyoto, worldwide imbalances in energy consumption and all the nasty diseases assoc

  May 23, 2006

• Offshore Oil Drilling Deja Vu All Over Again

  We swear we already warned you about a congressional vote to drill off our coast, and then rejoiced with you when it was defeated. Yeah, wasn't it like two weeks ago? Never underestimate the power of Big Oil lobbyshits. Congress, obviously in need of a diversion from far more grave national matters like flag-burning amendments (really, has anyone ever seen a flag burning? In the U.S.? In person? No, your annual family vacation to Tehran does not count!), once again has put despoiling our coastli

  June 28, 2006

• Drilling Bit Players

  Further proving that otherwise politically conservative Newport Beach has an environmental streak when it comes to its own shores (but no one else's): Rep. John Campbell (R-The Arches) joined Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-Garden Grove) as the only members of the Orange County congressional delegation to vote against lifting the 25-year ban on oil and natural gas drilling off most of the Pacific and Atlantic coasts and the eastern part of the Gulf of Mexico. The legislation, which passed by a vote of

  July 5, 2006

• Beach Break: Killing Nemo

  Cut off from the powerful, cleansing waves of the Pacific ocean by a massive concrete breakwater, the gentle swells that lap the Long Beach coastline are so dirty that they were recently ranked the most polluted beach water in California by the Santa Monica-based environmental group Heal The Bay. Although Mayor Bob Foster and a majority of the city council favors studying the possibility of tearing down at least part of the breakwater, such action could be years away. But city residents might b

  August 2, 2007

• Monday's Headlines & Surprises: Laguna prefers goats on grass

  Mexicans are safe on this one: A report issued recently to the Laguna Beach City Council found that goats will clear vegetation from fire-sensitive slopes for a cost of $198,000 per year, while juveniles working off a crime in the county’s Probation Department would require $385,000. A consultant to the city noted that goats are “advantageous in their ability to work in all types of weather and terrain conditions.” So the goats win again. But tell me recidivism rates for probation punks w

  September 10, 2007

• Ode to Sneaky Pete

  March 25, 1999

• Fight the Power Plants

  March 29, 2001

• Broccoli, er, Barack Obama Remarks Are Best Served Prepared

  Prepared remarks for a town hall meeting? Isn't that why they used to unload on Bush? No, it was because ol' Dubya's questioners seemed even better briefed than he was. Observers say President Obama truly chose folks at random during his first presidential visit to Southern California and Orange County, and the first visit by a sitting president to the Orange County Fairgrounds in Costa Mesa. More on that is coming from Weeklings who were actually there, but in the meantime chew on these pre

  March 18, 2009

• Burning Up

  January 10, 2008

• Handymanity

  August 10, 2006

• Bitter Pill

  January 20, 2000

• Corn Power

  How to Make and Use Biodiesel

  July 5, 2007

• Prius Drivers Have Discovered the Hybrid Car Can Take Them On an Unexpected Adventure

  April 23, 2009

• Mostly, No

  WEB EXCLUSIVE! Ladies and gentlemen, the propositions!

  November 2, 2006

• Huntington Beach City Government

  Seemed like a good idea at the time . . .

  October 19, 2006

• You've Been Pump'd!

  February 16, 2006

• A CLOCKWORK ORANGE

  October 6, 2005

• Letters

  March 31, 2005

• The Cuban Solution

  March 10, 2005

• No Blood for Wesson Oil!

  March 4, 2004

• Jonathan Richman, Citizen

  February 5, 2004

• Buying Woodstock

  Is Ladera Ranch the green revolution or the same development crap in a new package?

  December 11, 2003

• Somebody Call Roto-Rooter!

  October 2, 2003

• MTBE Lies I Told You

  June 19, 2003

• Dude, Wheres My Electric Car!?!

  May 15, 2003

• San Onofre Nightmare Generating Station

  June 27, 2002

• More Fuelish War Talk

  March 28, 2002

• Diary of a Mad County

  March 21, 2002

• Radiation Vibe

  October 18, 2001

• Hot Water Has Navy in Really Hot Water

  October 11, 2001

• Anti-Nuclear War

  August 2, 2001

• Alternative Groove

  July 26, 2001

• Death Trap

  March 15, 2001

• Hot Rods!

  February 15, 2001

• Redumpvelopment

  December 28, 2000

• Waste Central

  November 16, 2000

• Duck and Cover-up

  September 21, 2000

• It's the End of the World As You Know It, and I Don't Feel Fine

  April 27, 2000

• Cancer Politics

  December 30, 1999

• Letters

  May 6, 1999

• Prescription for Disaster

  February 4, 1999

• Keeping Abreast of the Latest From Our Nuclear Power Plant

  Perhaps you thought the only news coming out of the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS) lately concerned fresh Nuclear Regulatory Commission complaints about operators being slow to address nagging plant problems (coming six months after an announcement that a battery on a backup generator had been inoperable for years and more than a year after revelations that a worker falsified records to hide that he'd skipped hourly fire patrols), or the latest batch of anti-cancer potassium iodid

  May 8, 2009

• The Sun Also Rises in Seal Beach

  Photo by Gaetan LeeBurning, man.Ever wonder if that mysterious, burning orb in the sky might help us break free from the shackles of Big Oil, high energy bills and Middle East entanglements? Or, at least, loosen said shackles?If so, you're in luck. Promoters of solar energy are presenting the partially docent-led, partially self-guided Seal Beach Solar Tour from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday. Meet at the Boeing parking lot at Westminster Avenue and Seal Beach Boulevard (lots of free parking for your

  June 11, 2009

• Wax On, Wax Off: Oil and Water - Surfrider Foundation Defeats Tranquillon Ridge Project

  John Wiley​Ever since the State Land Commission shut down the proposed Tranquillon Ridge Oil and Gas Project in a 2-1 vote in January, a battle has raged between its opponents and proponents. On friday, while we were chasing the big swell around, our reps in the California State Assembly scored a big one for the ad hoc resistance movement that has sprung up in opposition to the offshore project. Our very own Surfrider Foundation is leading the charge. Chad Nelsen, Surfrider's Environmental Dir

  July 29, 2009

• Californians Fare Best in NRDC Oil-Dependence Rankings

  ​The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) just concluded a press conference in Washington, D.C., where the environment protectors released a report ranking states by: a) how vulnerable its citizens are to the combined effects of the economic downturn and changing oil prices and, b) significant steps taken to reduce oil dependence through smart clean-transportation policies. California comes out on the top where it should for a change.According to "Fighting Oil Addiction: Ranking States' Oi

  August 11, 2009

• Clothes Lines: a Green Solution That's Been Clotheslined

  ​They are an old-fashioned device that could save household energy as well as machine-damaed and worn-out clothing. Unfortunately, they are also banned in several U.S. communities. Just try installing a clothes line in Irvine or any Orange County gated community and see what happens. Torture is allowed and encouraged for even thinking such a thing.

  October 22, 2009

• Fire Up the Vanagon, They're Talking Nukes at San Onofre Again

  Pretty!​The serious reconsideration of expanded nuclear power amid our uncertain energy future can mean only one thing: the resumption of serious protests against expanded nuclear power. With the San Onofre Nuclear Generation Station (SONGS) so close, and a public workshop and hearing about the plant's operations coming up tomorrow, someone had better get Jackson Browne, Martin Sheen and Harry Dean Stanton on the horn again.

  November 4, 2009