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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...