Free Republic

President John F. Kennedy’s nephew, Robert Kennedy, Jr., netted a $1.4 billion bailout for his company, BrightSource, through a loan guarantee issued by a former employee-turned Department of Energy official. It’s just one more in a string of eye-opening revelations by investigative journalist and Breitbart editor Peter Schweizer in his explosive new book, Throw Them All Out. The details of how BrightSource managed to land its ten-figure taxpayer bailout have yet to emerge fully. However, one clue might be found in the person of Sanjay Wagle. Wagle was one of the principals in Kennedy’s firm who raised money for Barack...

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has set an ambitious plan that requires a third of the state's electricity to come from renewable sources by 2020. But a fight over where to build large clean-energy projects is slowing the green revolution. Credit: Alyson Hurt, NPR One of these battlegrounds is Panoche Valley, ringed by rolling, scrub-covered hills. Located in California's rural San Benito County, the area was used mostly for cattle grazing, and it has escaped the notice of many Californians. Until now.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has asked the state’s air-quality enforcers to postpone a rule to require 33 percent of the power used by utilities to come from renewable sources such as wind and solar energy. Schwarzenegger asked the Air Resources Board to delay until September its adoption of the new regulation, which had been expected this month. The Republican governor said he made the request because of “ongoing discussions with legislative leaders to develop a bill that I can sign.” If those negotiations don’t prove fruitful, the ARB “will be ready and able to adopt the regulations at that time (in...

New development in California needs to be designed from the start to conserve electricity and water, decrease driving time, improve air quality and promote a sustainable lifestyle, according to a landmark study of the state's future growth. Vision California, the state's first major planning document in almost 30 years, was released Wednesday. Growth should focus not on increasing suburban sprawl but instead on creating compact development in already established cities, the report says. Bringing commuters closer to their jobs, its authors argue, can help Californians drive 3.7 trillion fewer miles and save 140 billion gallons of gasoline by 2050. "The...

SACRAMENTO – Among the proposals in the Capital A austere revised budget Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger unveiled May 14 is collecting $100 million by allowing new oil drilling in state waters off the California coast for the first time in 40 years. Awarding the lease would nullify a January ruling by the three-person State Lands Commission, which regulates drilling in the first three miles off the California coast. The commission rejected the lease sought by the Plains Exploration and Production Company to drill in Tranquillon Ridge, offshore from Vandenberg Air Force Base near Lompoc on a 2 to 1 vote, despite...

In what is touted to be the largest solar deal in the world, Pacific Gas & Electric today announced that it has expanded a series of solar-power contracts with Oakland's BrightSource Energy for a total of 1,310 megawatts of electricity — enough to power 530,000 California homes during peak hours. Peak hours in the state are usually from noon to 7 p.m. The power purchase agreements, which will now include seven power plants, add to a previous contract the two companies struck last April for up to 900 megawatts of solar thermal power. The deal with PG&E means BrightSource now...

MARCH 27, 2009 Dianne Feinstein: I Brake for Turtles California's energy-independence movement, held up by the desert tortoise. By JOHN FUND Congressman Dana Rohrabacher, a California Republican, thinks he has a partial solution to America's dependence on foreign oil. But he says liberals and environmentalists are rejecting his plan to make it easier to build solar and wind power stations. California's Mohave Desert is an inhospitable place, he notes, but 19 companies think it's perfect for siting solar or wind facilities on 500,000 acres owned by the federal government there. But Senator Dianne Feinstein, a California Democrat who used to...

California has a rapidly-expanding budget shortfall, unemployment going above 10% for the first time since the early 1980s, and perhaps the worst business climate in the nation, excepting Michigan. How does the state plan to boost the economy, create jobs, and build consumer confidence? They want to ban plasma TVs because they’re not green enough: In their continuing quest to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, state regulators have uncovered a new villain in the war on global warming : your big screen TV Couch potatoes, beware. The California Energy Commission is considering a proposal that would ban California retailers from selling...

In their continuing quest to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, state regulators have uncovered a new villain in the war on global warming : your big screen TV Couch potatoes, beware. The California Energy Commission is considering a proposal that would ban California retailers from selling all but the most energy-efficient televisions. Critics say the news standards could take 25 percent of televisions off the market — most of them 40 inches or larger. (snip) Affordable big screen TVs will still be available under the new standards, spokesman Adam Gottlieb said. In fact, he said the regulations will save you money....

Earlier this month, we asked you to call your U.S. Representatives to show support for the national Omnibus Public Lands Bill, containing wilderness desig- nations for over 700,000 acres in California. (If you haven’t called your representative yet, please do so now.) Now we have an opportunity to get even more of California’s wild desert places formally designated as wilderness — the highest protection our public lands can receive from the federal government.All you need to do is write a quick, heart-felt note to Sen. Dianne Feinstein mentioning why you love wild desert places in general, and mentioning a few...

WASHINGTON -- California's Mojave Desert may seem ideally suited for solar energy production, but concern over what several proposed projects might do to the aesthetics of the region and its tortoise population is setting up a potential clash between conservationists and companies seeking to develop renewable energy. Feinstein said Friday she intends to push legislation that would turn the land into a national monument, which would allow for existing uses to continue while preventing future development.

WASHINGTON (AP) — More than 500,000 acres in the Mojave Desert would be off-limits to wind or solar energy production under legislation Sen. Dianne Feinstein intends to introduce. The land is coveted by companies seeking to develop alternative energy, setting up a potential clash with one of the more powerful members of Congress. The land would seem ideally suited for solar energy production. Nineteen companies have submitted applications to build solar or wind facilities on the property, but such development would violate the spirit of what conservationists had intended when they donated much of the land to the public, said...

In his latest effort to combat global warming, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger wants to enlist the state's troubled youth. The governor today announced the new California Green Corps., a statewide effort to train at-risk young adults between 16 and 24 years old for jobs in the state's fledgling green tech industry. "It's the kind of program that President Obama envisioned when he put together the economic stimulus package. It's all about jobs, jobs, jobs," Schwarzenegger said after touring a solar installation certificate program at American River College, a community college in Sacramento. The program will be administered by Schwarzenegger's volunteerism czar...

SACRAMENTO-While tensions are rising between President Obama and Congressional Republicans, California's Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger says he is eager for more opportunities to partner with Obama on big issues like health care and energy. He's also got some advice for the new president about building inclusive "post-partisan" coalitions. Schwarzenegger is positioned to become perhaps Obama's most important Republican ally. He was among the most prominent GOP governors who backed the economic recovery plan that cleared Congress with support from no Republicans in the House and just three in the Senate. And Schwarzenegger has advanced his own state-level initiatives on health...

Southern California Edison said it has wrapped up the world's largest-ever agreement to buy electricity generated by solar power, a series of generators in California's eastern deserts that could eventually supply more than 800,000 homes. The utility, which serves Riverside County and the sprawling southern California territory outside of the city of Los Angeles and San Diego County, hopes the first of seven plants will begin operating in 2013, the company said in a press release Wednesday morning. The Rosemead-based utility counts nearly 5 million customers in Riverside and a half-dozen other California counties. BrightSource Energy Inc. of Oakland would...

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A company backed by investors linked to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is pressing regulators to speed up a review of its proposed $2 billion solar-energy complex, warning that delays would send a "chilling signal" to the emerging green power industry. But the California Energy Commission staff opposes the move, depicting it as an end run that could break apart a precedent-setting review of the planned solar site near the Mojave Desert Preserve. At the center of the dispute is a project widely viewed as a potential breakthrough in large-scale U.S. solar development. --snip-- The company says the...

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – California on Friday became the first state in the country to force big diesel trucks to clean up their exhaust, despite warnings from truckers the new rules will force them out of business. About a million vehicles, from big rigs to school buses, are affected by the new rules, which will begin taking effect in 2011 and do not require further ratification. Some vehicles will have to start retrofitting engines in 2011 and some older trucks will be forced into retirement starting in 2012. By 2023, all trucks must meet 2010 new engine emission standards. The...

NEVADA CITY, California, November 19, 2008 (ENS) - Four dams on the Klamath River that have blocked salmon runs upstream to their spawning areas may be removed in the year 2020 under an historic agreement among federal, state and corporate parties. Dam removal will re-open over 300 miles of habitat for the Klamath's salmon and steelhead populations and eliminate water quality problems such as toxic algae blooms caused by the reservoirs. The federal government, the state of California, the state of Oregon and the PacifiCorp electric utility Thursday announced an Agreement in Principle to remove the four dams as part...

The People's Republic of California - which voted for Barack Obama over John McCain by a margin of 24 points - did something else that should send an even louder message: the "green," "global warming," "alternative energy" initiatives got utterly annihilated. Proposition 7 - which would have required utilities to generate 40 percent of their power from renewable energy by 2020 and 50 percent by 2025 - went down 65% to 35%. And Proposition 10 - which would have created $5 billion in general obligation bonds to help consumers and others purchase certain high fuel economy or alternative fuel vehicles,...

WASHINGTON – Fearing environmental damage to the state's coastline, California's top leaders made it clear Monday that they want nothing to do with President Bush's plan to lift the moratorium on offshore drilling. Bush said his approach would reduce pressure on record gasoline prices, and he urged Congress to follow his lead. "Failure to act is unacceptable," Bush said. But as soon as the president made the announcement in a Rose Garden ceremony, California's Democratic leaders accused Bush of cozying up to oil interests. They said his plan would do nothing to lower gasoline prices. "Once again, the oilman in...

Energy Policy: Big Brother may soon be doing more than watching us. Regulators in the Golden State want to control the temperature inside your house. Now take your hands off that thermostat and back away slowly.The 1960s sci-fi series "Outer Limits" began with a "control voice" solemnly intoning: "There is nothing wrong with your television set. . . . Do not attempt to adjust the picture." Well, there's nothing wrong with our thermostats either. Yet the state of California proposes taking control of them to save energy and the Earth. The California Energy Commission has proposed requiring the use of...

SACRAMENTO - Pacific Ethanol was still a fledgling business in 2005 when its founder, former Secretary of State Bill Jones, persuaded state officials to give him the small but exclusive fuel deal that established his company as a player in California's burgeoning alternative fuel market. Two years later, that company is an ethanol empire. And Jones is the fuel's most influential champion in the state, using his political connections and 21 years of Sacramento experience to shape policies that are dramatically boosting California's thirst for ethanol - stemming the state's dependence on gasoline, but at a cost of millions in...

SACRAMENTO — California homeowners are rejecting new rebates for solar power equipment, saying the state has made installing the rooftop panels far more costly than expected. As a result, Public Utilities Commission reports show a decline of 78% in rebate requests in the first three months of this year, compared with last year, and the solar installation industry says it is threatened with collapse across much of California.

Sacramento -- Just a few months after the November election, the governor of California will make a decision that could answer a long-simmering question about the state's energy future. While it's barely been discussed during this year's gubernatorial campaign, whoever is governor will have the power early next year to approve or deny a bid by the world's largest mining company to build a liquefied natural gas terminal off the Southern California coast. The decision will help settle a continuing debate about liquefied natural gas among environmentalists, big business and local activists that touches on cornerstone issues in California, ranging...

Former President Bill Clinton was cheered Friday as he spoke to a university crowd in support of a California ballot measure that would tax oil to fund alternative energy research. Clinton called Proposition 87 "California's way to energy independence." The measure would tax companies drilling for oil in California until it has generated $4 billion. The money would be set aside for loans, grants and subsidies to promote alternative fuels and more energy-efficient vehicles. "To save the planet, improve our national security and create the next generation of good jobs for the American people - that's what Prop 87 represents...

SAN FRANCISCO Pacific Gas & Electric Co. announced plans Thursday to buy natural gas generated from cow manure on California dairy farms. PG&E officials said the utility signed a deal with Microgy Inc., a subsidiary of Portsmouth, N.H.-based Environmental Power Corp., to buy enough biomethane to power an estimated 50,000 homes. The agreement represents the PG&E's first purchase of natural gas generated from cow patties. Manure-derived methane could make up a larger share of the San Francisco-based utility's electricity supply if the pilot project is successful, said spokeswoman Darlene Chiu. The deal could help increase the percentage of PG&E's electricity...

As he sold investors on an improbable plan for turning Inland Empire cow manure into electricity, W. Patrick Moriarty had an answer for everything. With a folksy delivery, the Orange County businessman promised cutting-edge technology, a respected engineering firm and tax-exempt financing to extract methane gas from mountains of manure and use it to generate enough power to light a small city. "He told me categorically that we would get our money back with interest and that the project was good as gold," said Shmuel Erde, a Beverly Hills lender. What Moriarty and his business partner, Wayne Stephens, didn't tell...

California's growth patterns -- the migration to hot inland regions, construction of big new homes and paving of open space -- are contributing both to increasing temperatures and record demand for electricity. Experts say development choices can play a large role in making hot weather even hotter. "People usually talk of greenhouse gases. What's forgotten is what we've actually done to the surface of the planet,'' said Bill Patzert, a climatologist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena. "I call it extreme makeover warming.'' The housing boom in places like the Central Valley causes growing electricity demand during heat waves,...

SACRAMENTO - The suspected death toll from more than a week of searing, triple-digit temperatures in California climbed to more than 50 Tuesday as residents sweated calls to cut power and the rotting carcasses of dairy cows baked in the sun. The stretch of 10 straight 100-plus degree scorchers marks the first time in 57 years that both Northern and Southern California - an area stretching nearly 900 miles - has experienced simultaneous, extended heat waves, Undersecretary for Energy Affairs Joe Desmond said. "This is a historic heat wave," he said, calling conditions "extreme." He also noted the average temperature...

The purveyors of revisionist political history are back at work this week, inspired by the death of Enron Corp. founder -- and convicted felon -- Kenneth Lay to revive the myth that were it not for Enron and Lay, California wouldn't have experienced its 2001 energy crisis. ... --snip-- Attorney General Bill Lockyer had the good manners to remain silent about Lay's death from heart disease three months before he was to be sentenced for lying to mask the failing company's condition. It was Lockyer who in 2001 told an interviewer that "I would love to personally escort Lay to...

Why are Senators Boxer and Feinstein and so many others we trust supporting Phil Angelides for governor? HEALTH CARE WORKER: "Phil Angelides was the one we could count on to stand up to Schwarzenegger." Our teachers. Our police and firefighters. And the Sierra Club. ENVIRONMENTALIST: "Join Barbara Boxer, Dianne Feinstein and all of us in supporting Phil Angelides for governor."

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's pledge to fight global warming has opened a rift as wide as the Atlantic Ocean between two groups of oil companies in California. The governor's high-profile initiative, which sets firm targets to reduce the greenhouse gas pollution that contributes to global warming, is supported by BP, the London-based oil giant whose Arco gasoline is the state's biggest seller, and Royal Dutch Shell of the Hague, Netherlands, owner of the Shell brand. U.S. companies such as Chevron Corp. of San Ramon, Calif., and Exxon Mobil Corp. of Irving, Texas, oppose the directive. In private, the Americans, who generally...

Oil giant BP is expected to announce today the construction of a second, clean-burning power plant, this time in the United States, a BP executive told an Anchorage audience this week. BP and some partners moved forward last year with a similar but smaller plant in Scotland. In all, BP plans to spend $8 billion to build a total of 10 plants worldwide that generate "carbon-free" power, the executive said. Charles Christopher, BP's CO2 program manager, spoke Wednesday at the Alaska Forum on the Environment about the oil company's efforts to reduce greenhouse gases and make money doing it. BP...

California regulators on Thursday allocated $300 million collected from electricity customers to subsidize purchases and installation of solar energy units in 2006. The action was aimed at "jump starting our implementation of what was originally called the governor's million solar roofs initiative," said California Public Utilities Commission President Mike Peevey. That proposal was "a marquee idea of the governor's ... legislative agenda (but) got bogged down in politics in Sacramento," said PUC member Susan Kennedy, who attended her last meeting after being tapped to become chief of staff for Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. A broader plan that would tap ratepayers for...

SAN CLEMENTE, Calif. (AP) - The California Public Utilities Commission approved a massive $680 million renovation that would extend the life of the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station by at least 13 years. The commission on Thursday gave Southern California Edison the green light to replace four aging steam generators that power the two nuclear reactors at the seaside plant about 60 miles south of Los Angeles. Under the PUC's decision, Edison's ratepayers would be on the hook for up to $782 million, including possible cost overruns. Customers would pay about 50 cents extra on their monthly bills beginning in...

Solar cell manufacturer SunPower is expected to announce today that it has won a $330 million contract to supply solar cells to a global solar systems installer, PowerLight, over the next five years. The deal is the biggest in Sunnyvale-based SunPower's history and will help it expand its manufacturing capacity over time, said Tom Werner, chief executive of SunPower. The announcement also comes on the heels of the plan unveiled this week by state regulators to provide $3.2 billion in incentives over the next decade to encourage Californians to use solar panels on homes and office buildings. The incentive plan...

For Immediate Release: 12/13/2005 For More Information: Contact Bernadette Del Chiaro (916) 446-8062 x 103 $2.9 Billion Solar Roofs Program Proposed For California 3,000 MW in 11 Years Could Make California World Leader in Solar Power SAN FRANCISCO—The California Public Utilities Commission (PUC) officially unveiled its version of the Million Solar Roofs program, called the California Solar Initiative, proposing an 11-year, $2.9 billion incentive program to install 3,000 MW of solar on a million homes, businesses, farms, schools and municipal buildings. The program, if approved in mid-January by the 5-member Public Utilities Commission, will be the nation’s largest solar power...

CALIFORNIA IMPACT: Although the state's utility doesn't buy directly from the Gulf Coast, the coming shortage there will cause higher prices here Home heating bills in Northern California will leap by an estimated 40 percent this winter as a result of the loss of natural gas production when Hurricane Katrina blew through the Gulf of Mexico. That's the steepest increase since fraud and deregulation caused a major spike in 2001, and it's especially painful because of the higher gasoline prices consumers already have suffered as a result of the hurricane. The average monthly gas portion of a Pacific Gas and...

SACRAMENTO (AP) - The state Senate on Thursday rejected Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's plan to reorganize California's energy agencies. On a 26-12 vote, lawmakers opposed the governor's plan to consolidate four state agencies under a new Cabinet-level secretary of energy. Schwarzenegger said the plan would centralize decision-making and improve accountability. Democrats in the Senate said it violated the state Constitution. "Nobody here is disputing that we need a comprehensive energy policy," said Sen. Martha Escutia, D-Norwalk. "You cannot transfer duties from the PUC to an executive body ... You have to follow a process." In June, the Legislature's lawyers said such...

NEW YORK — Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce has agreed to pay $2.4 billion to resolve investors' claims it helped hide losses at Enron Corp., marking the biggest individual settlement since the energy trader collapsed in a massive accounting fraud. The settlement announced Tuesday with the Toronto-based bank — Canada's fifth-largest financial institution and the operator of the securities firm CIBC World Markets — could help compensate investors who lost tens of billions of dollars when Enron failed in 2001. Combined with similar agreements with Citigroup Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. and others, the settlements have now reached more...

SAN FRANCISCO -- The California Supreme Court overturned a lower court decision Wednesday and ordered election officials to place an initiative that would re-regulate the state's electricity market back on the Nov. 8 special election ballot. The justices, in a 6-0 decision, said the constitutionality of Proposition 80 could be decided after the election if it's approved by voters. They said it was "usually more appropriate to review constitutional and other challenges to ballot propositions or initiative measures after an election" unless there was "some clear showing of invalidity." "At this point," they added, "we cannot say that it's clear...

SACRAMENTO – A Sacramento court ordered another initiative off California's November ballot Friday – an attempt by consumer advocates to re-regulate the state's electricity market. A three-judge panel of the 3rd District Court of Appeal ruled that Proposition 80 was "unquestionably invalid on its face" because it would give broader powers to the Public Utilities Commission. The court said the state constitution only allows the Legislature to increase the PUC's jurisdiction. It would take a constitutional amendment to change that requirement but Proposition 80 would only enact a statute, the justices added. "Without such an amendment, Proposition 80 attempts to...

Sempra Energy said it had awarded nearly $1.2 billion in contracts to build liquefied natural gas terminals in Baja California and Lake Charles, La. Construction will begin soon on the company's proposed LNG terminal, called Energia Costa Azul, 14 miles north of Ensenada, Sempra said. The San Diego company said it expected to complete negotiations this year for the LNG supply to its proposed Louisiana terminal and then would begin building that facility.

SACRAMENTO — A bipartisan citizens' panel Thursday recommended that the Legislature reject Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's proposal to create a state Department of Energy, dealing a blow to his plan to reorganize the state's tangled energy bureaucracy. Members of the Little Hoover Commission, which analyzes all state government reorganization plans, said they favored the idea behind the governor's proposal to centralize California's energy policy under a cabinet-level energy czar. The committee, however, voted 7 to 1 against the plan after lawyers from both the Legislature and the attorney general's office questioned the constitutionality of provisions that would transfer some rate-making functions...

ALHAMBRA, Calif. (AP) - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Thursday urged Californians to conserve energy this summer while promoting his plan to create a state energy agency. He said he doesn't want a repeat of the power crisis of 2000-2001, which followed the state's foray into deregulated energy markets and led to rolling blackouts and soaring utility bills. "There is no doubt about it that California will face big energy challenges this summer and probably for years to come," said the governor, speaking at the office of the Independent System Operator, which manages most of the state's power grid. "Conservation saves...

Senate says LNG siting should be federal decision 6/23/2005, 7:15 a.m. CT The Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate has voted to let the federal government override states' objections to the location of liquefied natural gas terminals. Supporters argued that L-N-G imports will help meet a growing demand for natural gas and lower prices. But opponents of the provision, part of a wide-ranging energy bill the Senate hopes to complete this week, said states should get more of a say in locating terminals because of concerns about tanker spills and terrorists. An amendment that would have given governors the...

Nearly five years after blackouts rolled across California, electricity surged back toward the spotlight Monday when the last of eight voter initiatives qualified for November's special election. Like the claims and counterclaims that wracked the state during the 2000-2001 energy crisis, nothing about the electricity initiative is likely to be simple. Sell It Yourself Despite the convenient labels, California never really deregulated electricity when the state Legislature changed the ground rules of the once-monopoly business in 1996. Now, the ballot measure wouldn't really re-regulate, although the consumer group promoting it likes to call it a "re-regulation and blackout avoidance" initiative....

Gov. Schwarzenegger is fighting the good fight, so we can forgive him when he occasionally misfires. His "Million Solar Roofs Initiative" to subsidize photovoltaic (PV) systems is one such error. PV systems convert sunlight into electricity. This is great but for a few problems: the systems are costly; they rarely produce the electricity claimed; and, even with subsidies, PV does not pay for itself. Senate Bill 1 is the legislative vehicle for the governor's initiative. It passed the state Senate on a 30-5 vote with only Republican opposition. The next stop is the Assembly, then the governor's desk. California has...

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Plans to build a coal-fired power plant in Nevada's high desert to provide more energy for Southern Californians are opposed by renewable energy advocates and may also run afoul of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's new effort to fight global warming. At a joint public hearing Wednesday by the California Energy Commission and Public Utilities Commission, energy officials were expected to debate whether Schwarzenegger's greenhouse gas reduction goals will impact companies generating electricity outside California. Nevada, where environmental regulations tend to be more lax, already has several power plants supplying energy to California, and there are plans to...

Former Gov. Gray Davis now admits he was unprepared for the 2000-01 energy crisis that sent electricity bills soaring, brought rolling blackouts and ultimately helped bring an early end to his political career. Davis, recalled by voters in an unprecedented move, was replaced by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in October 2003, a year after Davis had won a second term. The former Democratic governor said he erred by buying power at inflated rates during the height of the crisis, but said he acted because he "wasn't willing to risk" sustained blackouts. "Did it turn out to be a mistake? Yes," Davis...