Energy Technology

Coastal Commission Raises More Concerns About Surf City Desalination Plant

If Poseidon Resources Inc. hopes to have its yet-to-be built Huntington Beach desalination rig online by 2017, it must answer several tough questions about its viability. That was the basic gist of a California Coastal Commission letter sent to company Vice President Scott Maloni last Monday. The si ... More >>

Green Technology Makes OC Register See Red

Media Matters for America, the progressive watchdog counterpart to Accuracy in Media, takes issue with an Orange County Register editorial that uses the financial woes of nearly dead electric car company Fisker Automotive to argue against government investment in green technology: "Despite the incre ... More >>

Ace Hoffman Is Tilting at 'Nofre

The anti-nuke activist has spent years fighting the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station. Now, the impossible is on his horizon: its permanent shutdown

Orange County Register Flambéed for Fawning Over Frickin' Fracking

A media watchdog is barking about a recent Orange County Register editorial on an industry-friendly study boosting fracking, the controversial oil drilling technique critics fear causes earthquakes and groundwater contamination.

Matt Damon's 'Promised Land' Is a Fracking Film

Gus Van Sant directs Damon and John Krasinski's (and Dave Eggers') message as the message

San Onofre Nuclear Plant Targeted in Ballot Proposal That Can Start Collecting Signatures

​Signatures can be collected for a state voter initiative that would effectively shut down San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station.California's only other operating nuclear power plant in Diablo Canyon would also be mothballed should such a measure pass.Ben Davis Jr., the Santa Cruz activist who fo ... More >>

Scott Samuelsen, UCI Engineering Professor, Honored At White House Today

UCI.eduScott Samuelsen​A UCI professor got a White House nod today. Scott Samuelsen, who teaches mechanical, aerospace and environmental engineering, was honored as a "Champion of Change" in D.C for his innovations in hydrogen power and smog reduction. The honor comes after Samuelsen and ... More >>

Is Your Car a Piece of Crap? Fight Back with a Poop-Powered Ride

​Put the key in the ignition, press it forward, hear that click, then the bronchial "ruhr-ruhr-ruhr," then the mechanical whimper and finally this lament screamed into the overhead lamp: "This car is a piece of crap."Been there.Ironically, a piece of crap may soon power your car.

Obama Administration Announces Ban On New Offshore Drilling; Thank The Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill

Hopefully not for at least another 7 years.​In direct conflict with its previous proclamations, the Obama administration today announced that there will not be any further new offshore oil drilling along the Atlantic Coast, the eastern Gulf of Mexico or the Pacific Coast. At least, not for th ... More >>

Inaugural CleanTech OC Conference Should Have Been Better Attended

​If attendees took anything other than swag away from the inaugural CleanTech OC Conference & Expo in Irvine Monday, it was this: the green revolution is back, baby. After a red hot 2008, the clean technology industry was battered for a spell by the recession, but banks are back to lending, ve ... More >>

Hella This, NorCal: OC Beats You in Creation of Green Businesses

​When it comes to the creation of green businesses, those BART-riding, granola-gnawing, patchouli-oiling earth muffins in Northern California have nothing on Orange Countians.According to the Environmental Defense Fund's map of California's Green Economy, Orange County's 275 green companies ar ... More >>

6 Great Non-Hockey Quotes From Retired Anaheim Ducks Captain Scott Niedermayer

​You really can't blame Anaheim Ducks captain Scott Niedermayer for hanging up his skates. What is there left to accomplish in hockey? He led Canada to the gold medal in the last Olympics and alongside his brother Rob helped Anaheim win its first Stanley Cup in 2006-07 (the franchise's first so fa ... More >>

Dana Rohrabacher's Latest Jewel

Drill Dana Drill​Reducing oil company offshore drilling will increase the number of offshore oil drill spills.--Congressman Dana Rohrabacher (R-Huntington Beach) expressing his logic this week to The Orange County Register's Dena Bunis in an article outlining efforts by California Democrat senator ... More >>

Calvert, Hedrick Get Into Slapping Fight over Oil Spill

calvert.house.govCalvert, right, with oil company lobbyist.​The campaign staff for Democratic congressional candidate Bill Hedrick has made a habit this year of sending out near-daily e-mails documenting some reason why they thinks that incumbent Ken Calvert is a fat, corrupt, corrupt fatso. Hones ... More >>

See, Hear and Experience the Green Evolution

​The UC Irvine Libraries' spring exhibit "Green Evolution: Creating a Sustainable Future" kicks off with an energy expert talking about the revolutionary new ways power will be generated and vehicles will be propelled in our brave new future.

Poll: Californians Bullish on Green Technologies Despite Recession

​A recent statewide poll shows a majority of California voters support the state's landmark 2006 law that requires reducing greenhouse gas emissions and imposing fees on companies that emit these gases if most of the money collected is returned to state residents.The breakdown in the poll conducte ... More >>

Obama's Oil Drilling Pipe Dream Harshes Surfrider's Mellow

oceanswavesbeaches.blogspot.com​The Surfrider Foundation released a statement today, expressing their disapproval of Obama's proposal to open areas of the Gulf of Mexico, Atlantic coastline and Arctic coastline to oil drilling and exploration. They are not stoked.

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 pl ... More >>

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. T ... More >>

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 ... More >>

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

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 ... More >>

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 ... More >>

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. A ... More >>

Corn Power

How to Make and Use Biodiesel

Handymanity

One guys barehanded attempt to save the worldand pay just 60 cents for gas

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 v ... More >>

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 legi ... More >>

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 ... More >>

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 poo ... More >>

A CLOCKWORK ORANGE

Letters

I fell sorry for you!! How do you live with yourself?

The Cuban Solution

San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station is running out of steam. But Edison has a crazy plan to save it.

No Blood for Wesson Oil!

The futures so fried youve gotta drive green

Somebody Call Roto-Rooter!

San Onofre nuke plant ranks No. 3 for possibility of meltdown

Dude, Wheres My Electric Car!?!

Can one activist fight off Detroit, Japan, Big Oil and the Bush administration to keep EVs alive?

San Onofre Nightmare Generating Station

10 reasons we should say so long to SONGS

More Fuelish War Talk

Hot Water Has Navy in Really Hot Water

County reports say radioactive ground-water contamination at El Toro is worse than we all thought

Alternative Groove

Study shows sun, wind, geothermal power would solve 'crisis'

Fight the Power Plants

Was electric deregulation cover for union-busting in power plants?

Death Trap

Hot Rods!

Nuclear power gets a second look

Waste Central

San Onofres nuclear waste aint going nowhere

Duck and Cover-up

"Atomic City" Doesn't quite reveal the whole truth of our curious relationship with Nukes

Bitter Pill

Anti-radiation pills may never be fashionable in California

Cancer Politics

Radiation is good for youjust ask a scientist!

Prescription for Disaster

If San Onofre is so safe, why are federal officials pushing anti-radiation pills on its neighbors?