Category: Energy

A recent poll of Southern California residents found that most of them want to keep the troubled San Onofre nuclear power plant shut down . The poll also found that the residents don’t trust its majority owner and operator, Southern California Edison, to keep safety as its first priority at the nuke plant.

” A strong majority of Edison customers want to keep San Onofre shut down and almost half don’t trust Edison to put safety before profit,” environmental group Friends of the Earth reported on October 1.

Friends of the Earth (foe.org) commissioned David Binder Research to carry out the poll. The company talked to 700 registered voters in the counties San Onofre provides electricity to.

The results: “58% of respondents said they oppose reopening the plant…Only 32% said San Onofe should reopen,” Friends of the Earth reported.

By Nadin Abbott / East County Magazine / September 24, 2012

The mood was tense as people from multiple walks of life and political views filed into San Diego City Chambers. Among them was Republican Santee Councilman Jack Dale and Democrat David Secor, candidate for U.S. Congress for the 50th district. Both Dale and Secor came to oppose the Quail Brush gas-fired power plant.

So did Massada Disenhouse, activist for the Sierra Club and Martha Sullivan, a former California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) employee, and many others.

There were supporters of the plant as well, including Gary Salas, a member of the electrical trades. Also supporting the project was John Gibson, of Hamman Construction in El Cajon.

This planned peaked plant attracted people from multiple areas of the county, not just San Diego proper.

How is climate changing?

Warming of the climate system now is unequivocal, according to many different kinds of evidence. Observations show increases in globally averaged air and ocean temperatures, as well as widespread melting of snow and ice and rising globally averaged sea level. Surface temperature data for Earth as a whole, including readings over both land and ocean, show an increase of about 0.8°C (1.4°F) over the period 1901-2010 and about 0.5°C (0.9°F) over the period 1979–2010 (the era for which satellite-based temperature data are routinely available).

By Peyton Farquhar / Prattle On, Boyo / Originally published Aug. 10, 2012

When I was a broke-ass student, my primary mode of transport was either the bus or my bike. Pedaling a bike wasn’t a bad thing because I’ve been on two wheels since I was four. But I remember all too well that boarding the bus made me feel even more impoverished, almost as if the very thought of taking public transport was an enormous badge of shame.

Back then, I didn’t realize that being an American meant having been brainwashed from a very early age by the corporate plantation owners that only poor folk take the bus.

Local Tribes Oppose Wind Turbines in Sacred Lands – Also Windy

By Nadin Abbott / East County Magazine / August 25, 2012

Watching activists defend “green wind energy” as if it was the only solution turns my stomach. It is like talking to a wall. Facts, and there are facts, make little difference. Green energy is nice and green energy is good, go blindly hug a wind turbine, seems to be the message.
So let me ask these same activists: should Pattern Energy, a division of the Carlyle group, target the Rosecrans National Cemetery for development? How dare I suggest this? Well, it’s windy there, …

Nuclear expert Daniel Hirsch speaks on Saturday, August 25, 2012

The crippled San Onofre nuclear reactors pose an unacceptable and unnecessary risk to our environment and our communities. They leave Southern California Edison ratepayers footing a 670.8 million dollar bill for critically-flawed steam generator equipment.

Professor Daniel Hirsch, will speak on “The Risks of Restarting the Damaged San Onofre Nuclear Plant” at two presentations, on Saturday, August 25, 2012. Both programs are free and open to the public.

Regulators Cover for Edison: “No One at Fault”

The announcement on July 19th by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) stating that Southern California Edison (SCE) – the owner of the San Onofre Nuclear Power station – had complied will all regulations is yet another dangerous case of regulators looking the other way coupled with gutted unsafe regulations, according to local anti-nuke activist groups. The groups include Residents Organized for a Safe Environment (ROSE), Citizens’ Oversight, and the Peace Resource Center of San Diego.

Listen to the activists:

Carol Jahnkow of the Peace Resource Center of San Diego:

“It’s a very sad commentary when regulatory agencies will allow transgressions to occur and will not speak out about them, to avoid scrutiny themselves.”

by Frances O’Neill Zimmerman

At 8:30 p.m. yesterday, July 18, a lot of people milled around the illuminated American flag on the eastern side of the small federally-owned Mount Soledad Veterans Memorial in La Jolla, as City Parks and Recreation Department tested a new idea to keep Old Glory flying 24/7 up there year-round.

Members of the La Jolla Parks and Beaches advisory committee had been notified to witness this run-through. I too was invited at mid-afternoon yesterday, as I was one of several who testified at that group’s last meeting against electrification and in favor of keeping the greater Mount Soledad Natural Park a dark park for viewing the night sky and the spectacular 360-degree panorama of the city below. Parks and Beaches chairman Patrick Ahern put off voting on this matter in both May and June, though it was heatedly discussed.

For the remainder of this article, please go to San Diego Free Press.

From San Diego Free Press

For those of an apocalyptic bent, the beginning of the final half of 2012 was near perfect.

True, the walls didn’t all come tumbling down, though those retaining the spent nuclear fuel pool atop Fukushima Unit 4 were bulging. But the signs seemed to be everywhere, from the eastern shores of Japan to the west coast of California.

The most widely reported such event was the July 1 restart of a Japanese commercial nuclear power reactor at the Ohi nuclear plant. Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda pushed for this restart, despite a massive protest in front of his office in Tokyo only days before. Digital Journal reported that 200,000 protested there on June 29

Please Join the Celebration
For the new location of

The Green Store

Open House on Saturday July 14th
from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m.
4843B Voltaire St, Ocean Beach

The Green Store on Voltaire Street has been OB’s quintessential center of green, ecology and environmental awareness for decades now. Operated by Colleen Dietzel – she and Kip Krueger originally opened it – and several energetic volunteers, the Green Store has for 23 years been providing peace, social justice and environmental information to the community of Ocean Beach and San Diego in general.

Come inside for the Celebration Schedule of music and speakers …

Editor: On July 19th, the full San Diego Planning Commission will vote on whether to deny an amendment to Open Space land to accommodate a power plant being proposed very close to Mission Trails Regional Park. A local citizen – Stephen Goldfarb – sent a letter to the Planning Commission and some elected officials outlining ten reasons to deny the amendment. The content of that letter is as follows:

Preface. I was in the audience at the Planning Commission June 28, 2012 meeting. I would like to comment on several matters. I am also writing in anticipation of the July 19, 2012 Planning Commission meeting when a vote will be completed as to denying implementation of an amendment to zone land dedicated to Open Space conservation to heavy industrial use to accommodate a power plant.

It is unclear at this time whether only the two Commissioners who were not present at the June 28 meeting will vote, or whether all Commissioners may vote anew.

Introduction. The issue of denying the applicant initiation of an amendment to install a large power plant on environmentally conserved East Elliott land is unusual for several reasons.

What happens when you combine strong mayor Jerry Sanders with a Canadian firm’s desire to build an 800 MW gas-fired power plant in San Diego? You get a secret plan that is being fast tracked through the City Council with the intent of a November ballot measure to enable passage. You also get “business as usual” at City Hall. Hear more about the proposal and what you can do on Monday, June 25, 6pm at the University Community Planning Group meeting, Forum Hall, UTC Mall (above Wells Fargo Bank).