Category: Energy

By Debbie L. Sklar / Special to the OB Rag

In 1855, a group of San Diegans began prospecting for coal on Point Loma.

The project was an ambitious one. The San Diego Coal Co. hoped to develop the deposit into a local source of fuel and a profitable business for its investors. A local coal supply also could have helped San Diego compete as a coaling station for steamships and potentially benefit from future railroad development.

The men behind the venture were associated with San Diego’s small Mormon community. Among them was Ephraim Green, a former member of the Mormon Battalion who later said he had noticed coal on Point Loma before leaving San Diego in 1847.

The story has acquired a mythology of its own. One version says the Mormon prospectors were acting on a “revelation” that coal could be found there. But the historical record tells a more complicated story.

Reports of possible coal deposits on Point Loma dated to at least 1849. In 1855, Green returned to California and told members of the Mormon colony at San Bernardino about the coal he remembered seeing on Point Loma. He eventually led interested men to the site.

The prospecting soon became a formal business.

The San Diego Coal Co. was formed in November 1855 by Green, H.C. Ladd, George Warren Sirrine and Seth Benjamin Tanner.

by Ernie McCray

I sat the other night
squirming in my seat
as a woman,
Tina Cordova,
a co-founder and executive director
of the Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium,
spoke about our country’s neglect
in respect
to protecting
people who suffered the effects
of the “Trinity Nuclear Test”
in New Mexico,
how since that day
in July, 1945,

A group of eight or ten of us

By Angelo Haynes

Activists from across San Diego and Riverside counties appeared this week at the county administrative building for a hearing on the Golden Pacific Power Link Project, a new proposed power line that would cross through San Diego County Districts 2 & 5. The project is planned to be a 500-kilovolt electric transmission line that would necessitate a new substation named “North of SONGS” (San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station)  to be built bordering Camp Pendleton in Orange county.

The proposed power lines would be suspended on towers that would be 200 feet tall, or 20 stories, starting with an existing substation near the southern border, south of the 8 in Imperial Valley. The total length of the line would span between 135-145 miles long and would cross through many sensitive habitats and established communities in north and east counties.

SDG&E states that the line is needed to strengthen the regional power network and maintain power effectiveness in compliance with future policy goals of the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) and the Calif Independent System Operator (CAISO). The CAISO is an independent transmission planning authority that manages the flow of electricity across 80% of California’s grid in addition to a part of Nevada’s grid.

Feds Want to Begin ‘Review’ of How California Manages Our Coast

By Tammy Murga / KPBS / August 11, 2026

Public hearings this week could influence the future of oil production, rocket launches and other federal industrial projects off California’s coast.

The Trump administration is evaluating the state’s Coastal Commission and other coastal agencies. Depending on the outcome, the state could lose its authority to review and regulate projects that involve the coastline.

Coastal leaders and environmentalists across California, including San Diego County, said the results of the federal government’s new review are already predetermined.

“The current federal administration is behaving in an unprecedented way, and they are very excited to advance offshore oil drilling and other types of projects off the California coast,” said Jennifer Savage, the Surfrider Foundation’s California policy manager.

A routine review that the Biden administration largely completed last year showed favorability with the agencies managing the coast, she said.

In May, however, U.S. Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick said California “has repeatedly and unfoundedly obstructed spaceport development in bad faith.”

Spaceport development could include construction of infrastructure for spacecraft to launch and land. The Coastal Commission had rejected a request last year from the U.S. Space Force to increase SpaceX rocket launches off California’s coast due to concerns over beach closures and environmental and noise impacts.

By Blanca Begert / LA Times / July 31, 2026

California hit a major milestone in May, generating more than half its electricity from the sun in what is believed to be a global first, according to an analysis of federal data.

“California has had a wealth of solar growth in the last five years,” said Abby Lestina, an analyst at Grid Status, a group that tracks electricity supply and demand in U.S. power markets but was not involved with the analysis. “It makes sense that they would reach this goal.”

It’s the first time a large-scale power system is known to have surpassed 50% solar for an entire month.

It’s also the second significant power record set by the state recently. For the first five months of 2026, California made more electricity from solar than from natural gas, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Burning natural gas has long been the dominant source of electricity in the state. This could be the first year that solar beats gas in California’s power mix.

California has been trending in this direction for years, but the boom in new battery storage around the state allows it to save solar power when it’s overabundant and use it when the sun goes down.

Two things happened on last Thursday, August 6th, that affect you and your utility bill.

First, Sempra — the company that owns SDG&E — released its earnings report for the second quarter of 2026, from April thru June, and revealed it made nearly $800 million, a significant increase from the $460 million it earned during the same period last year. The earnings are Sempra’s consolidated profit across California, Texas and infrastructure businesses. SDG&) is a regulated subsidiary and owned utility of Sempra.  SDG&E provides energy for 3.7 million people across San Diego and Southern Orange County.

While Sempra stock holders are reaping it in, San Diego utility customers are having a difficult time paying  their bills. A March 2026 report from the Public Advocates Office at the California Public Utilities Commission found that nearly one in five San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E) customers is behind on their bills. The average past due balance for these customers is around $500, reports CBS8.

By Cathy Bussewitz / Associated Press PBS News / July 31, 2026

American oil and gas giants raked in massive spring profits while fighting between Iran and the U.S. impeded petroleum shipments and consumers around the world paid more for fuel and confronted shortages.

The conflict, now in its sixth month, halted most shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow waterway that previously served as a delivery route for a fifth of the world’s oil and natural gas. With global supplies constrained, prices for Brent crude, the international standard, soared from about $70 to above $100 a barrel for much of March, April and May, and at one point reached $126.

The money that oil companies accrued between the beginning of April and the end of June could receive extra scrutiny this year. Gasoline, diesel and jet fuel prices climbed sharply during that period, increasing costs for drivers and airline passengers. Supplies ran low in some countries, leading to sporadic fuel rationing in Australia and government office closures in Nepal and Sri Lanka.

Exxon Mobil on Friday reported that its second quarter profits doubled to $14.53 billion, boosted by record diesel production. The oil giant, based in Spring, Texas, brought in $116.02 billion in revenue, up 42%.

Chevron, based in Houston, nearly quadrupled its profits to $12.07 billion and revenue jumped 56% to $70.06 billion.

Six of Europe’s largest oil companies posted combined first-quarter profits of $22 billion, more than 40% higher than last year.

U.S. Hits 81 Targets in Iran; Iran Attacks 85 U.S. “Assets”; Oil and Gas Prices Rise, Stocks Fall

Just when you thought you could settle into the summer, with gas prices coming down and some things appearing to get normal — BOOM! Trump’s war with Iran is back on and he says the MoU is over.

Ostensibly because Iranian forces attacked three tankers in the Strait of Hormuz, Trump’s military unleashed a barrage against 81 Iranian targets and in response, Iran attacked 85 targets considered U.S. “assets” within the region.

The Iranian foreign ministry stated that the U.S. attacks violated Article 1 of the MoU relating to the ceasefire, Article 5 – related to the management of the Strait of Hormuz, which says Iran is responsible for managing passage through the waterway – and Article 10, which pertains to a waiver on Iranian oil exports.

The impacts of all this was immediate. Oil prices rose and the Dow Jones initially fell 700 points this morning.

The tankers Iran struck were attempting to skirt the passage way that according to the MoU, Iran is responsible for managing.

Now Trump says the ceasefire deal with Iran is “over”, and that dealing with Tehran is a “waste of time”.

In the middle of the NATO summit in Turkey, Trump also threatened more attacks tonight, Wednesday. (He also ramped up his insane pressure to get Greenland.)

Everyone is urging calm and a return to the ceasefire and more negotiations.

Movement Against ‘Golden Pacific Powerlink’ 

PRESERVATION ACTION ALERT
Help Protect Backcountry Historic Resources and Anza-Borrego Desert State Park

From San Diego Energy Justice Alliance

With City studies concluding a not-for-profit utility would save San Diegans billions, a coalition of groups is calling on the City Council to begin organizing a public utility.
The most recent city-funded study will be presented to the council this Monday afternoon, June 22, during a meeting set to begin at 2 p.m. in council chambers.

Using the most conservative assumptions, the city’s consultants concluded in the study that not-for-profit public power would save utility customers $500 each year.
Under more realistic assumptions, projections, total savings for customers are projected to reach tens of billions of dollars in coming decades. An earlier city funded study also found a not-for-profit public utility would lower electric bills for customers.

“We have the studies and know the facts,” said Dorrie Bruggemann, a board member of Public Power San Diego, which is among the groups in the newly formed San Diego Energy Justice Coalition.

San Diego Gas & Electric has just formally requested an 8.6% rate increase with the California Public Utilities Commission. SDG&E wants it to begin in 2028.

The utility seeks approximately $3.8 billion for 2028, including about $2.9 billion for electric operations and $900 million for natural gas service. If the CPUC approves their request, “SDG&E estimates the increase would add roughly $14.03 per month to the average residential electric bill and $8.45 per month to the average residential gas bill compared to 2027 rates,” reports CBS8. That’s a combined $22.48 to the average monthly bill, reports the OB Rag.

The filing by San Diego’s for-profit utility, launches “what is expected to be an 18-month review process before state regulators determine whether to approve, modify or reject the proposal,” says CBS8/

Meanwhile, the San Diego City Council on Tuesday, June 16th, voted to endorse 10 bills in the state legislature aimed at lowering electricity rates and making investor-owned utilities more accountable to ratepayers, reports KPBS.