Feeds:
Posts
Comments

Posts Tagged ‘Environmental Issues’

Fire Earth, December 28, 2009
About 30 pilot whales died after they became stranded on Coromandel peninsula yesterday and will be buried by the local Maori.
Meanwhile, up to 120 long-finned pilot whales, both calves and adults, were found dead  at the Farewell Spit on Boxing Day.
“More offshore wells have been drilled in the last two years [...]

Read Full Post »

FRANK HARTZELL, Mendocino Beacon, December 17, 2009

The Obama administration has launched a new “zoning” approach that puts all ocean activities under the umbrella of nine regional planning bodies.
Public comments are being accepted through Friday, Feb. 12.
The approach is more local and integrated than the current strategy, which puts separate functions under different federal agencies. But [...]

Read Full Post »

BBC News, November 24, 2009
Three UK groups studying climate change have issued a strong statement about the dangers of failing to cut emissions of greenhouse gases across the world.
The Royal Society, Met Office, and Natural Environment Research Council (Nerc) say the science of climate change is more alarming than ever.
They say the 2007 UK floods, [...]

Read Full Post »

RICHARD BLACK with MendoCoastCurrent edits, BBC News, November 24, 2009
US President Barack Obama will announce a target for reducing greenhouse gas emissions before next month’s UN climate summit, according to a White House official.
The target is expected to be in line with figures contained in legislation before the Senate – a reduction of about 17-20% [...]

Read Full Post »

Endangered species’ communication critical to survival
ARIEL DAVID, Seattle Post Intelligence, December 8, 2008

The songs that whales and dolphins use to communicate, orient themselves and find mates are being drowned out by human-made noises in the world’s oceans, U.N. officials and environmental groups said Wednesday.
That sound pollution — everything from increasing commercial shipping and seismic surveys [...]

Read Full Post »

Dan Bacher, October 23, 2009
Environmentalists and fishermen on California’s North Coast are calling for an independent investigation into the killing of an endangered blue whale off Fort Bragg by a mapping survey boat contracted by NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service.
In order to stop the killing of any more whales, locals are also asking for an [...]

Read Full Post »

MARK CLAYTON, The Christian Science Monitor, September 17, 2009
With demands on US ocean resources control growing quickly, the Obama administration today outlined a new comprehensive ocean management plan to guide federal agencies in restoring and protecting a badly stressed US coastal and ocean environment.
Today’s policy shift proposed by the president’s Interagency Ocean Policy Task Force [...]

Read Full Post »

Editor’s Note: From 1970 to 1980, Senator Kennedy was our single-best crusader from Congress in supporting my family’s attempts to learn the truth about the Kent State Massacre where my protesting sister, Allison Krause, was murdered. We grieve for Senator Kennedy and deeply thank him for always listening to our pain and working alongside my [...]

Read Full Post »

TOM HESTER SR., New Jersey Newsroom, August 25, 2009
State and local officials joined with Ocean Power Technologies (OPT) Tuesday to recognize the success of one of the Pennington-based company’s PowerBuoys off the coast of Atlantic City.
OPT is a pioneer in wave energy technology that harnesses ocean wave resources to generate clean electricity.
“This is a celebration [...]

Read Full Post »

TODD WOODY, The New York Times, August 12, 2009
Pacific Gas & Electric has quietly dropped one of two planned 40-megawatt wave-farm projects.
Stroll through San Francisco and you can’t miss California utility Pacific Gas & Electric’s latest ad campaign. Posters plastered around town read: “Wave Power: Bad for sandcastles. Good for you.”
But PG&E recently dropped one [...]

Read Full Post »

ELIZABETH RUSCH, Smithsonian Magazine, July 2009
She was in the water when the epiphany struck. Of course, Annette von Jouanne was always in the water, swimming in lakes and pools as she was growing up around Seattle, and swimming distance freestyle competitively in high school and college meets. There’s even an exercise pool in her basement, [...]

Read Full Post »

EMMA WOOLLACOTT, TG Daily, July 15, 2009
The world’s largest wave farm is to be built off the coast of south-west England under plans announced today. Pledging an investment of £9.5 million ($15.6 million), Business Secretary Lord Mandelson dubbed the region the first “Low Carbon Economic Area”.
The Wave Hub project – a giant, grid-connected socket on [...]

Read Full Post »

MendoCoastCurrent, June 30, 2009
U.S. Department of Energy Secretary Steven Chu is making available over $32 million in Recovery Act funding to modernize the existing hydropower infrastructure in the U.S., increase efficiency and reduce environmental impact.
His  announcement supports the deployment of turbines and control technologies to increase power generation and environmental stewardship at existing non-federal hydroelectric [...]

Read Full Post »

STEPHEN IVALL, Falmouth Packet UK, June 27, 2009
The ambition for Cornwall to become a world-leading centre for wave energy has moved a step closer to reality with the launch of a two-tonne (2000kg) buoy off the coast of Falmouth.
Developed by a team at the University of Exeter, the South Western Mooring Test Facility (SWMTF) buoy [...]

Read Full Post »

MendoCoastCurrent, June 17, 2009
The West has been at the forefront of the country’s development and implementation of renewable energy technologies, leading the way in passing effective Renewable Portfolio Standards and harnessing the region’s significant renewable energy resources. The initiatives announced at the recent annual western governors’ meeting offered a collaboration of federal and state efforts [...]

Read Full Post »

JAMES RICKMAN, Seeking Alpha, June 8, 2009
Oceans cover more than 70% of the Earth’s surface. As the world’s largest solar collectors, oceans generate thermal energy from the sun. They also produce mechanical energy from the tides and waves. Even though the sun affects all ocean activity, the gravitational pull of the moon primarily drives the [...]

Read Full Post »

MARGOT ROOSEVELT, The Los Angeles Times, June 1, 2009
Silvery light flickers through the redwood canopy of the Van Eck forest down to a fragrant carpet of needles and thimbleberry brush. A brook splashes along polished stones, through thickets of ferns. How lush. How lovely. How lucrative.
This 2,200-acre spread in Humboldt County does well by [...]

Read Full Post »

Editor’s Note: The family of Allison Krause seeks and supports the creation of Four Days In May, the Kent State Truth Tribunal, a collaborative, multimedia, sharing event to dialog, document, discover and uncover the truth in the events leading to the killing of four students and wounding of nine at the Kent State Massacre.
On [...]

Read Full Post »

SustainableBusiness.com News, April 30, 2009
A bill introduced in the Senate aims to encourage development of renewable ocean energy.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) today introduced the legislation as a companion to a bill introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives by Rep. Jay Inslee, (D-Wash.), that would authorize as much as $250 million a year to promote [...]

Read Full Post »

MARK CLAYTON, The Christian Science Monitor, April 24, 2009
Three miles off the craggy, wave-crashing coastline near Humboldt Bay, California, deep ocean swells roll through a swath of ocean that is soon to be the site of the nation’s first major wave energy project.

Like other renewable energy technology, ocean energy generated by waves, tidal currents or steady offshore [...]

Read Full Post »

MendoCoastCurrent, April 17, 2009
San Francisco – PG&E has begun exploring renewable energy from space as it seeks approval from California state regulators, the CPUC, to purchase power from Solaren Corporation offering 200 megawatts over 15 years.
Solaren’s technology uses solar panels in Earth orbit, converting the energy to radio frequency for transmission to an Earth-based receiving station. The [...]

Read Full Post »

COLIN SULLIVAN, The New York Times, April 14, 2009
Palo Alto — Technology for tapping ocean waves, tides and rivers for electricity is far from commercial viability and lagging well behind wind, solar and other fledgling power sectors, a panel of experts said last week during a forum here on climate change and marine ecosystems.
While the [...]

Read Full Post »

MARSHA W. JOHNSTON, RenewableEnergyWorld.com, March 2009
One hundred and forty-one years ago, the relentless sea off Scotland’s coast inspired the following observation from native son and author George MacDonald:
I climbed the heights above the village, and looked abroad over the Atlantic. What a waste of aimless tossing to and fro! Gray mist above, full of falling [...]

Read Full Post »

MendoCoastCurrent, March 11, 2009
Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar announced today that he has just signed his first order establishing renewable energy generation as the top priority of the Department of the Interior. Following President Obama’s lead in steering the United States into this new energy path, he said this agenda would create jobs and grow [...]

Read Full Post »

MendoCoastCurrent, February 14, 2009
Acting Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) Chairman Jon Wellinghoff recently published Facilitating Hydrokinetic Energy Development Through Regulatory Innovation. 
Consider it required reading as a backgrounder on US wave energy policy development, FERC’s position on the MMS in renewables and FERC’s perceived role as a government agency in renewable energy, specifically marine energy, development.
Missing from this key [...]

Read Full Post »

PETER BROWN, EnergyCurrent.com, February 16, 2009
On a Monday morning in May last year, the Atlantic tide set a turbine in motion on the seabed off Orkney, and the energy captured was connected to the national grid. It was, said Jim Mather, Scotland’s Minister for Enterprise, Energy and Tourism, a “massive step forward”.
The amount of electricity [...]

Read Full Post »

MendoCoastCurrent from Platts Energy Podium, February 12, 2009
The recently approved Economic Stimulus Plan includes expanding the US electric transmission grid and this may be the just the start of what will be a costly effort to improve reliability and deliver renewable energy to consumers from remote locations, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) Acting Chairman Jon [...]

Read Full Post »

Washington Post Editorial, February 12, 2009
Interior Secretary Salazar Keeps his Options Open on Offshore Drilling 
Here’s the ultimate midnight regulation: On the very last day of the Bush administration, the Interior Department proposed a new five-year plan for oil and gas leasing on the outer continental shelf. All hearings and other meetings on the scope of [...]

Read Full Post »

DANIEL B. WOOD, The Christian Science Monitor, February 11, 2009
Less than a month into his administration, President Obama is making good on campaign promises to move toward a comprehensive approach to US energy and to broaden environmental protections. The administration has moved over the past few weeks to undo many of Bush’s last-minute drilling and [...]

Read Full Post »

DAVID EWENCHIEF, The Evening Express, February 11, 2009
The Aberdeenshire Council has pointed to tides – rather than wind turbines – as the best green solution to the energy crisis. The council took part in a consultation on the Scottish Government’s Climate Change Bill, which is going through Parliament, suggesting tide and current generation would be [...]

Read Full Post »

ROB DAVIS, VoiceOfSanDiego.org, February 8, 2009
With California’s water supplies crimped and cuts on the way, the idea of a new water source in San Diego is making politicians salivate.
The seawater desalination plant proposed by Poseidon Resources Corp. is advertised as being able to tap into the Pacific Ocean, a drought-proof supply. Now the state sits [...]

Read Full Post »

MendoCoastCurrent, January 31, 2009
On January 26, 2009, Lockheed Martin and Ocean Power Technologies agreed to work together to develop a commercial-scale wave energy project off the coasts of Oregon or California.
OPT is providing their expertise in project and site development as they build the plant’s power take-off and control systems with their PowerBuoy for electricity [...]

Read Full Post »

Editors Note:  On May 11, 2009, PG&E pulled-out of Mendocino WaveConnect, read it here: http://tinyurl.com/qwlbg6 . The remains of the $6M are now solely allocated to Humboldt WaveConnect.
MendoCoastCurrent, January 29, 2009
PG&E caught a major renewable energy wave today as the California Public Utilities Commission approved $4.8 million in funding their centerpiece wave energy [...]

Read Full Post »

MendoCoastCurrent, January 29, 2009
As the Monday, February 9, 2009 before 2 p.m. deadline for filing FERC Motion to Intervene papers regarding the Green Wave LLC wave energy preliminary permit off the Mendocino village coast approaches, locals, the City of Fort Bragg and fishing organization are participating and electronically filing their views with FERC.
Here’s the excellent [...]

Read Full Post »

STEPHEN POWER, The Wall Street Journal, January 28, 2009
Interior Secretary Ken Salazar indicated Tuesday that the Obama Administration could be open to expanded offshore drilling and is considering doing away with a controversial program that allows oil companies to pay in kind for oil and natural gas taken from public lands.
Salazar inherited a Bush Administration [...]

Read Full Post »

CASSANDRA PROFITA, The Daily Astorian, January 26, 2009
In a move eagerly anticipated by liquefied natural gas opponents on the North Coast of Oregon, President Barack Obama has named Jon Wellinghoff acting chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
“The move, together with likely changes to the board’s makeup in the coming months and pending challenges to [...]

Read Full Post »

Let Your Voice Be Heard by March 23, 2009
by MendoCoastCurrent and pointarenabasin
Beginning January 22, 2009 and ending on March 23, 2009, a 60-day Public Comment Period opened regarding new offshore oil and gas exploration and drilling in the pristine waters off northern California.
And while this is a multi-step process and before things are cast in stone, NOW [...]

Read Full Post »

JANE KAY, San Francisco Chronicle, January 17, 2009
The U.S. Interior Department, acting in President Bush’s final days in office, proposed on Friday opening up 130 million acres off of California’s coast to drilling for oil and natural gas, including areas off Humboldt and Mendocino counties and from San Luis Obispo south to San Diego.
After a [...]

Read Full Post »

CBS 5 with MendoCoastCurrent edits, January 8, 2009
New legislation may prevent oil drilling off the California coast in Sonoma, Mendocino, Humboldt and Del Norte counties.
Growing concern about the nation’s reliance on foreign oil has led to rekindled enthusiasm in some quarters for coastal oil drilling, and renewed efforts to protect the Northern California coast.
Two bills [...]

Read Full Post »

ALOK JHA, Guardian UK, January 5, 2009
Propellers on ships have been tried and tested for centuries in the rough and unforgiving environment of the sea: now this long-proven technology will be used in reverse to harness clean energy from the UK’s powerful tides.
The tides that surge around the UK’s coasts could provide up to a [...]

Read Full Post »

Excerpts from article by FRANK HARTZELL, The Mendocino Beacon, December 24, 2008
On January 13, 2009, from 5-7p.m. at Fort Bragg Town Hall, a “top official from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) will appear to explain the agency’s strategy on developing what it calls “hydrokinetic” power as an alterative energy source.
Ann F. Miles, FERC’s director [...]

Read Full Post »

JOHN M. BRODER, The New York Times, December 18, 2008
President-elect Barack Obama’s choice to lead the Interior Department, Senator Ken Salazar of Colorado, will inherit an agency demoralized by years of scandal, political interference and mismanagement.
He must deal with the sharp tension between those who seek to exploit public lands for energy, minerals and recreation and those [...]

Read Full Post »

JOHN KING, The San Francisco Chronicle, December 19, 2008
The impacts of climate change are a hot topic among scientists and environmental activists.  Now the Bay Conservation and Development Commission wants to hear from another perspective: the design community.
The state agency is preparing to launch a $125,000 competition that will invite architects, planners and engineers to bring innovative proposals [...]

Read Full Post »

JOHN DRISCOLL, The Times-Standard, December 15, 2008
A white paper commissioned by the state of California says that tapping the ocean for power should be done carefully.
The report for the California Energy Commission and the Ocean Protection Council looked at the possible socio-economic and environmental effects of the infant industry, including what it might mean for [...]

Read Full Post »

MARGOT ROOSEVELT, The Los Angeles Times, December 12, 2008
California regulators adopted the nation’s first comprehensive plan to slash greenhouse gases on December 11th and characterized it as a model for President-elect Barack Obama, who has pledged an aggressive national and international effort to combat global warming.
The ambitious blueprint by the world’s eighth-largest economy would cut [...]

Read Full Post »

TED NESI, Providence Business News, December 5, 2008
The list of suitors lining up to develop renewable energy projects off Rhode Island’s coastal waters is getting longer.
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has begun reviewing a permit application from Grays Harbor Ocean Energy Co., a year-old company based in Seattle, to build 100 large towers that [...]

Read Full Post »

Guardian.co.uk, December 3, 2008
Way back in Napoleonic Paris, a Monsieur Girard had a novel idea about energy: power from the sea. In 1799, Girard obtained a patent for a machine he and his son had designed to mechanically capture the energy in ocean waves. Wave power could be used, they figured, to run pumps and [...]

Read Full Post »

Wind-Works.org, November 17, 2008
The French Minister for Energy and the Environment announced that the government was launching an aggressive new program to propel the country to the forefront of solar energy development.
The announcement by Minister Jean-Louis Borloo was made at the annual Grenelle meeting of French environmental stakeholders. Minister Borloo outlined 50 actions the Sarkozy [...]

Read Full Post »

MendoCoastCurrent, November 18, 2007
Developing Wave Energy in Coastal California: Potential Socio-Economic and Environmental Effects, authored by a team of scientists from H.T. Harvey and Associates, UC Davis Bodega Marine Laboratory, UC Santa Cruz, the Farallon Institute for Advanced Ecosystem Research, Planwest Partners and Humboldt State University, and jointly funded by the California Ocean Protection Council and the California [...]

Read Full Post »

MICHELLE MA, Seattle Times, November 17, 2008
What started out as a mad dash to extract energy from the ocean’s waves and tides has slowed to a marathoner’s pace — complete with a few water breaks and sprained ankles along the way.
In the past three years, more than 100 preliminary permits have been issued nationally for [...]

Read Full Post »

MendoCoastCurrent, November 9, 2008
MendoCoastCurrent applauds Frank Hartzell’s reporting in the Fort Bragg Advocate-News and the Mendocino Beacon, and in winning reporting awards from the California Newspaper Publishers Association’s Better Newspapers Contest for work published in 2007. The awards were recently announced at CNPA’s annual awards luncheon in late October 2008.
Reporter Frank Hartzell’s on-going, in-depth and [...]

Read Full Post »

MARTIN LAMONICA, CNET, November 5, 2008
Energy and environmental policy is poised for dramatic change under an Obama administration even with a slumping economy.
With the incoming administration and Congress, renewable energy advocates and environmentalists said they anticipate a comprehensive national energy plan focused on fostering clean-energy technologies.
“The election is over. Now the hard work begins,” wrote [...]

Read Full Post »

KATE GALBRAITH, The New York Times, September 23, 2008
For years, technological visionaries have painted a seductive vision of using ocean tides and waves to produce power. They foresee large installations off the coast and in tidal estuaries that could provide as much as 10% of the nation’s electricity.
But the technical difficulties of making such systems [...]

Read Full Post »

MendoCoastCurrent, September 9, 2008
Fort Bragg, California City Council has filed a lawsuit against the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) in the Washington D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals.
Concerns escalated last August when FERC denied Fort Bragg’s second request for a rehearing on FERC’s national licensing policies for wave energy or hydrokinetic energy projects. The community stakeholders, [...]

Read Full Post »

GABE MELINE, Bohemia.com, September 3, 2008
While presidential candidates call for alternative forms of energy and “sustainable” is the word of the year, the idea of ocean-wave buoys along the Sonoma and Marin coast continues to attract attention as a potentially viable form of energy.
Though no firm proposal is in place, the wheels have been turning [...]

Read Full Post »

Older Posts »