Energy

Ballot Initiative Seeks to Bring California In Line with Other Oil Producing States

May 6, 2013 by Andy Cohen

Lost Hills Oil Field

by Andy Cohen / San Diego Free Press

North Dakota does it. Louisiana does it. Florida too, and Alaska. Even Texas has an oil and gas severance tax, which largely funds state government there. Alaska is almost entirely dependent on their oil severance tax. But in California, no such tax exists. …

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Right now, the “no’s” are winning in U-T Poll on whether San Onofre should be shut down

May 1, 2013 by Staff
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The UT-San Diego has a poll for its readers going right now on whether you think the San Onofre Nuclear Power Plant should be shut down.

As of yesterday, May 1, “Yes”was winning – but as of today, the “no’s are ahead.

C’mon OBceans and San Diegans – Vote to shut it down. We have the link right here so you can vote.S

Here’s the link to vote

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OB Flashes: Citizens Patrol to Meet, Foodie Network in OB, and Questions on San Onofre

April 24, 2013 by Staff
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OB Crime Watch Citizens Patrol Meeting on May 13th at Woman’s Club

Please join us to discuss and share ideas to help keep OB safe.

Calls for public hearings on San Onofre grow, fears about summer power supply may be exaggerated

See this post at The Reader by OBcean Dave Rice:

Food Network shoots show at OB Noodle House – Guy Fieri visits Hodad’s again also

… and more

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The Best Bicyle Ride Around Mission Bay

April 23, 2013 by Frank Gormlie
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A Tour of the Best Bicycle Route Around San Diego’s Aquatic Playland

The tour I now present around Mission Bay is a great one and it is a ride that has been honed by me and a few riding friends over the last three decades – since the early Eighties. It is a ride along a route that has a minimum of traffic and street exposure, and it is a route that is practically 13 miles round trip from the Ocean Beach Skateboard Park in Robb Field.

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XL Pipeline Protest Today – April 17th – in Coronado

April 17, 2013 by Source

Don’t Miss this Event!

XL Pipeline Protest

April 17, 2013 11:30 – 12:30

Silver Strand Blvd & Coronado Bay Rd, Coronado

Join organizes for a press conference and protest outside the Loew’s Coronado Bay Resort where the American Petroleum Industry (API), the primary trade association of the oil and gas industry, will be holding its annual Pipeline Conference.

They will be there to say that climate change demands an end to the fossil fuel industry’s “business as usual” and to call on President Obama to reject the Keystone XL Pipeline. They”ll also draw attention to the recent tar sands spill in Arkansas, and the surprising revelation that tar sands are already being brought by train to Los Angeles for refining.

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North Park Has One Up on Ocean Beach As It Begins San Diego’s Very First “EcoDistrict”

April 11, 2013 by Source

Editor: Apparently, the commmunity of North Park has something to show Ocean Beach: North Park is about to initiate San Diego’s first “EcoDistrict”. What is that?

By John Anderson / San Diego Free Press

North Park in the first stages of becoming the first sustainable-focused neighborhood in San Diego following the U.S. lead of Portland, OR. I recently talked with Paulina Lis, who is heading up the North Park EcoDistrict project along with colleague Jennifer Owens, to learn more about the project.

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While NRC Contemplates Restart of San Onofre, New Study Shows Decline of Cancers Since Northern Calif Nuke Closed

April 10, 2013 by Michael Steinberg
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New Study: Cancer decline since Rancho Seco nuclear plant closed over 20 years ago

by Michael Steinberg

Recently Southern California Edison asked the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission for permission to restart Unit 2 at its San Onofre nuclear plant. Units 2 and 3 at San Onofre have been shut down since January 2012 after radioactive steam escaped into the environment, and subsequent investigation found that steam generators installed less than two years before had suffered significant damage to large numbers of critical tubes in the generators.

Now Edison wants to restart Unit 2 in June, and receive permission from the NRC to operate that reactor for two years, despite failing to substantially address the damage to the steam generators or pinpoint the reasons for the problems, according to environmental group Friends of the Earth.

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West Coast Babies Suffer Thyroid Problems After Fukushima Nuclear Meltdown

April 8, 2013 by Source
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Children born in Pacific coastal states in 2011 may be at greatest risk.

By Anne Hurley / msn Healthy Living / April 4, 2013

It’s already well known how devastating the March 2011 Fukushima nuclear reactor meltdown was for Japan — dramatic spikes in radiation-related illnesses, an increase in likely cancer deaths over the next several years, and pollution which may never truly be cleaned up.

A new study suggests what many worldwide have feared — that the devastation from the traveling radiation has in fact sickened infants in other countries, including babies born shortly after the incident in Hawaii, Alaska, Washington, Oregon, and California.

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Hundreds of Point Loma Residents Angered Over Lack of Progress on 60 Year-Old Navy Fuel Pipeline

April 4, 2013 by Staff

Petition Builds Calling On Navy and City to Fulfill Promises and Repair Pipeline

10 News is reporting that “more than 350 residents are petitioning the Navy and city leaders to repair, replace or remove a fuel pipeline that is nearly sixty years old.” They are fearful that the pipeline – if not repaired – will crack and burst, spilling fuel in their neighborhoods. And they are angry for the lack of action despite government promises to fix it – promises made for years.

Yet the Navy claims the pipeline is safe.

The fuel pipeline runs from the Point Loma Naval Base all the way out to Miramar Marine Air Station – a distance of 17 miles. The pipeline is nearly 60 years old.

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Power Outage in Ocean Beach and Near Lindbergh Field

March 14, 2013 by Staff

UPDATE: SDG&E now say hit-and-run car crash caused outage; all power should be restored by 1 pm
Close to 3,000 SDG&E consumers awoke this morning – Thursday, March 14, without power. Customers in Ocean Beach, the Midway District, Old Town and other neighborhoods near San Diego’s Lindbergh Field lost power in the wee early hours, beginning right after 4 a.m.

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Fukushima, San Onofre and Our Health

March 11, 2013 by Michael Steinberg
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It’s been two years since Fukushima’s multiple meltdowns. San Onofre in the Southland has been shut down for over a year.

Time to look back and gaze forward. This article will concentrate on nuclear power plants’ radioactive emissions and their effects on our health.

To do this I’ll be drawing on a recent book, Mad Science: The Nuclear Power Experiment. This book came out last year, authored by Joseph Mangano, executive director of the Radiation and Public Health Project (radiation.org). The RPHP has been studying nuclear power plant radioactive releases effects on human health for several decades.

Numerous peer reviewed epidemiological and clinical studies published in various scientific journals by Mangano and his associates in the RPHP have found that children living within 50 miles of nuclear power reactors have higher amounts of radioactivity in their teeth; have higher rates of cancer, including leukemia; and that such rates drop after reactors shut down.

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SAN ONOFRE: Secret report confirms Edison knew of major problems

March 8, 2013 by Source
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Friends of the Earth: ‘Bombshell’ for plans to restart crippled reactor

From Bill Walker / Friends of the Earth

A secret Mitsubishi Heavy Industries report released today confirms that Southern California Edison knew about serious problems in the radically redesigned replacement steam generators for the San Onofre nuclear reactors years before the defective equipment was installed, yet failed to make changes to fix the problems. The report was released today by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission after Senator Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) and Representative Edward Markey (D-Mass.) revealed its existence and demanded it be made public.

The report documents that Edison knew of specific safety concerns with the replacement steam generator design as early as 2005, and failed to incorporate changes proposed to fix it because they would trigger a more lengthy and public review by the NRC. It fatally undermines Edison’s case for restarting one of the plant’s crippled reactors and for receiving any compensation from the California Public Utility Commission.

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Author Q & A: ‘The Golden Shore: California’s Love Affair with the Sea’

February 21, 2013 by Source
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Conservationist David Helvarg – a former OBcean and writer on the original OB Rag – talks about his book, “The Golden Shore,” a tribute to California’s beautiful and iconic coastline, and the Navy’s and San Diego’s roles in shaping it.

By Serge Dedina / Wildcoast

No one has done more to educate the public on ways to preserve our coast and ocean than David Helvarg. Author of six books and the founder and Executive Director of the Blue Frontier Campaign, Helvarg will be speaking about his newest book, The Golden Shore: California’s Love Affair with the Sea at the Birch Aquarium on Tuesday Feb. 26 from 6:30-8 p.m.

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500 San Diegans Rally in Mission Bay Against the Keystone Pipeline

February 18, 2013 by Source
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500 San Diegans are reportedly to have rallied and marched in Mission Bay yesterday, Sunday, Feb. 17th, in protest of the Keystone XL Pipeline project. They joined with protesters in twenty other cities in North American yesterday, calling upon President Obama to block it and for leaders at all levels to take action in the fight against global warming.

Here is the official press statement on the event by organizers from SanDiego350:

Speaking at the San Diego rally, Mayor Bob Filner expressed his concerns about Keystone, climate change and what he wants to do in San Diego.

“If we’re going to save our beaches in San Diego, we need to take our heads out of the sand, especially the tar sands,” he said, imploring the Mission Bay crowd to push President Obama to deny permits for the Canadian pipeline that is part of a massive proposed tar sand mining and pipeline project intended to deliver bitumen slurry to Texas coastal refineries.

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Is Big Oil Too Big to Tax in California?

February 18, 2013 by Jim Miller

Soon our national political discourse will be dominated by the nightmarish sequester debate with the Republicans’ doomsday austerity strategy being countered by the Democrats’ austerity-lite program that draws from the eternal verity of Simpson-Bowles. God help us.

Standing in stark contrast to the reigning austerity-lite crowd inside the Democratic Party is perhaps the brightest progressive hope in the country, Senator Elizabeth Warren. Rather than playing the populist note to bash Republicans and then retreating to safe, chamber of commerce approved positions that put Social Security and Medicare “on the table” like many of her colleagues in the Democratic Party, Warren is consistently taking it to the 1% whenever she can, and she really means it.

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Mayor Filner to NRC: ‘Restarting San Onofre is a dangerous experiment that threatens millions of residents.’

February 15, 2013 by Source
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From East County Magazine

In a letter sent to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission on February 8, San Diego Mayor Bob Filner urged denial of Southern California Edison’s request to restart Unit 2 at the San Onofre Nuclear Generation Station for five months at 70% as a test to see if similar problems that caused failure of a steam generator at Unit 3 would occur.

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California Leads Nation in Fighting Global Warming

February 14, 2013 by Source

By John Lawrence/ San Diego Free Press

As of January 1, 2013, the cap-and-trade portion of California’s Global Warming Solutions Act, AB 32, went into effect. Over 300 major polluters in California will face emissions reductions obligations, and in 2015, the program’s size will double to include transportation fuels and natural gas. These companies were given an allowance as to how much carbon pollution they can dump into the atmosphere. They can buy additional “allowances” from the state which held its first sale November 2012. There are more auctions scheduled.

Eventually companies will be able to trade allowances among themselves. So a company that emits less CO2 than they are allowed to can sell the remaining portion of its allowance to a company that exceeds its allowance. As years go by, the allowances will be reduced thus reaching California’s goal to cut its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions back to 1990 levels by 2020.

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PUC Delays Vote on SDG&E’s Proposed Fossil-Fuel Power Plants – Again – and the Sierra Club Is Pissed Off!

February 14, 2013 by Frank Gormlie
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During a period of time when the nuclear power station at San Onofre has been disabled for a year now, there are renewed calls, according to the U-T, to allow SDG&E to proceed with their plans to build two fossil-fuel power plants. Yet, when the California Public Utilities Commission sat down to vote on the utility’s proposals yesterday, Feb. 13th, they refused to take a vote and instead delayed their decision – again – and this time for the fourth time

The San Diego Chapter of the Sierra Club – who has opposed these plants – is pissed off, and they’re demanding answers – and rightfully so. The Chapter head, Lori Saldana, called it “unacceptable.”

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Protest the Keystone Pipeline at Mission Bay – Sunday, February 17th

February 11, 2013 by Source
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San Diego Joins National Protest Against Keystone XL

A number of prominent environmental organizations and groups have come together to organize a San Diego protest against the Keystone Pipeline and to fight against climate change – joining groups nation-wide for a day of action.

Groups such as SanDiego350.org, Citizens Climate Lobby, Sierra Club San Diego, Environmental Health Coalition, Women Occupy San Diego, and many other organizations are planning a rally on Sunday, Feb. 17th, at the Mission Bay Park Visitors’ Center, in east Mission Bay, near the I-5 freeway. Protesters are being asked to wear all-black.

Protests are also happening in Los Angeles , San Francisco and other cities across the country. The pipeline is designed to carry dirty tar sands oil from Canada to the U.S.
San Diego speakers include:

  • San Diego Mayor Bob Filner,
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SDG&E and Southern California Edison Up to Same Old Tricks: They Want You to Pay for Repairs to San Onofre

February 7, 2013 by Source

By John Lawrence / San Diego Free Press

We have written before about how electric utility companies try to get ratepayers rather than stockholders to pay for repairs to their equipment.

In particular, we wrote previously how SDG&E appealed to the California Public Utility Commission (CPUC) for a rate increase after the disastrous Witch Creek fire:

“It’s standard operating procedure for San Diego based SEMPRA Energy, parent corporation of San Diego Gas and Electric, to delay costly maintenance and then, when there is a breakdown in the system such as the 2007 Witch Creek Fire which burned 198,000 acres, killed two people, injured 40 firefighters and destroyed more than 1,100 homes, to go to the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) and get a ruling that would allow them to charge the ratepayers for costs associated with that disaster.”

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Edison and Mitsubishi Knew San Onofre Steam Generators Were Defective

February 7, 2013 by Michael Steinberg
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By Michael Steinberg / Black Rain Press
A press release issued Wednesday by two prominent members of Congress charged that Southern California Edison (SCE) and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) knew that the two replacement steam generators for the San Onofre nuclear plant were defective, and avoided adding safety measures to keep from triggering stricter scrutiny by the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

Senator Barbara Boxer of California and Congressman Ed Markey of Massachusetts send a letter to NRC Chair Allison Macfarlane on Wednesday stating,

“Southern California Edison and MHI were aware of serious problems with the design of San Onofre nuclear power plant’s replacement steam generators before they were installed. Further, SCE and MHI rejected enhanced safety modifications and avoided triggering a more rigorous license amendment and safety review process.”

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Parties Cry Foul at Public Uitlities Commission’s Investigation of San Onofre Nukes

January 31, 2013 by Staff
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By Women’s Energy Matters

Parties to the California Public Utilities Commission’s (CPUC) investigation of the San Onofre nuclear generating station outage are crying foul over ongoing procedural delays and a narrow Scoping Memo issued Tues. Jan. 28th.

Women’s Energy Matters, the Coalition to Decommission San Onofre, United Public Workers For Action and Michael Aguirre charge that both seem designed to force southern California customers to pay even higher rates in the next couple of years to fund Edison’s reckless plan to restart one of its severely damaged reactors —instead of getting immediate refunds for the year the nuclear plant has been offline.

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Showdown at San Onofre: Why the Nuclear Industry May Be Dealt a Big Blow

January 15, 2013 by Source

sdfp onofre back upBy Harvey Wasserman / Alternet

Two stricken California reactors may soon redefine a global movement aimed at eradicating nuclear power.

They sit in a seismic zone vulnerable to tsunamis. Faulty steam generators have forced them shut for nearly a year.

A powerful “No Nukes” movement wants them to stay that way. If they win, the shutdown of America’s 104 licensed reactors will seriously accelerate.

The story of San Onofre Units 2 & 3 is one of atomic idiocy.

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“King” Tides to Surge onto Beaches Thursday through Saturday

January 10, 2013 by Source

National Weather Service says Super Swells to Hit Ocean Beach and Point Loma with nearly 7 feet

NBC San Diego: Some major tides will hit San Diego shorelines beginning Thursday morning, the National Weather Service (NWS) announced.

The super swells – dubbed California “king tides” or “astronomical tides” – strike the coast between two to four times per year when the gravitational forces of the sun, Earth and a full moon are all in alignment.

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Police Trailer in Pier Lot and Wireless Antennaes on the Masonic Lodge Both on Tonight’s OB Planning Board Agenda

January 2, 2013 by Frank Gormlie
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UPDATE: Go here for an update of the Planning Board decision.

There are two somewhat controversial issues before the Ocean Beach Planning Board tonight at their monthly meeting. The Board will discuss them during their publicly-held meeting which starts sharply at 6pm, at the OB Recreation Center, 4726 Santa Monica Avenue.

Wireless Upgrade at Masonic Lodge

First up on the Action Calendar is Sprint Wireless application for an upgrade and renewal to their permit which they hold on their wireless antennas on the Masonic Lodge, located 1711 Sunset Cliffs Boulevard. . … (come inside for more)

Police Trailer to be Permanent?

The second issue of note, is the application by the City of San Diego via the Police Department for a Coastal Development Permit for the existing “Police Trailer” in the middle of the OB Pier parking lot. … (come inside for more.)

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OB Doesn’t Have Problems with Wireless Cell Sites at the Masonic Lodge and at Local Churches

December 28, 2012 by Frank Gormlie
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Issue of Wireless Sites on Masonic Lodge Before Planning Board on January 2nd

Unlike some other communities, Ocean Beach apparently doesn’t have any problems with wireless phone companies installing their cell sites on the Masonic Temple … as well as on local churches around the neighborhood.

The issue of the cell towers or antennae on the Mason’s building went before the Project Review Committee earlier this month on December 19th, and it was basically a non-issue, it seems, not controversial at all – as the Review Committee’s chair, Landry Watson, told the OB Rag. The sub-committee did recommended approval for the permit renewal.

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