Natomas Saga

It continues, not so good news.

Levee 'emergency' is off
Declaration could delay Natomas fix, agency says
By Matt Weiser - mweiser@sacbee.com
Published 12:00 am PDT Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Levees protecting neighborhoods in Sacramento's Natomas basin might be substandard, but they don't represent an emergency situation.

That's the conclusion of the Sacramento Area Flood Control Agency's boss, who recently recommended against asking Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger for an emergency declaration to accelerate Natomas levee repairs. Such a declaration, said SAFCA Executive Director Stein Buer, could actually delay the needed work.

"It would cause us to get cross-wise with environmental groups and property groups, who would accuse us of being heavy-handed," Buer said. "Our history is to be thoughtful and respectful. That's a legacy I want to maintain and build on."

Despite losing this round, supporters may continue to press the region's elected officials to consider an emergency declaration.

Gregory Thatch, a Sacramento attorney representing several Natomas developers, said the matter still must be "fully examined."

SAFCA proposes to raise and strengthen nearly 25 miles of Natomas levees at an estimated cost of $576 million. The work is required after the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers ruled in 2006 that the levees don't meet minimal standards for urban safety.

As a result, Natomas now faces a mandatory flood insurance requirement and a likely building moratorium next year.

The proposed repairs are complicated, with some 1,500 "execution tasks" that must be achieved to keep the project on track.

Also, Buer recently acknowledged that actual levee repairs in Natomas probably won't start this year, as originally planned, due to the time required to obtain Army Corps approval.

Mega Fires

Excellent look at the new face of fire, bigger, a lot bigger.

Passing the Torch
Why the eons-old truce between
humans and fire has burst into
an age of megafires, and what
can be done about it
By Stephen J. Pyne

The Olympics traditionally open with a fire ceremony. A torch kindled by natural sources (the sun reflects off a mirror onto the torch), and hence a pure fire, is passed from Olympia, the site of the ancient games, to wherever the modern games are to take place. Last year, nature seemed determined to return the gesture, as record-shattering blazes swept over Greece and even reached the ruins of Olympia itself.

These megafires came in three waves, each more savage than the last. The first outbreak commenced in late June and continued into July and most spectacularly burned two-thirds of Mount Parnis National Park, north of Athens. The second struck at the end of July with widespread points of ignition that overwhelmed the fire services and contributed the largest single fire in Greek history, a 74,100-acre burn near Aigialia in the northern Peloponnese. The third wave surged over the Peloponnese during the end of August; one, at Ilia, broke the new size record by reaching 99,000 acres, while another burned off the forest around Olympia. Altogether some 76 people died. The flames shook the political establishment and influenced a national election.

It is tempting to conclude that this outbreak, amid record temperatures and aridity, is another signature of global warming, that these are the sparks of a coming apocalypse. After all, similar types of fires forced evacuations in the American West, ripped through Portugal, invaded Brazil, and smothered Moscow in smoke. No valence other than global climate could possibly bond such disparate landscapes. So this, it would seem, is what the future holds: a rising sea of fire punctuated by ever more frequent tsunamis of flame.

But the Greek eruption was not a pure fire—not the simple expression of natural forces against which people can take preventative measures. As Gavril Xanthopoulos, Greece’s premier fire scientist, has explained, the 2007 fires were the outcome of nature and people interacting in ways both deep and nuanced. The outbreak, and its cognates around the globe, resemble a stock market crash more than a tidal wave. In truth the global economy contributed as much to the happening as the global climate did.

The wildland fire community, meaning those who manage fires and those who study them, habitually thinks in terms of triangles. Combustion results from heat, fuel, and oxygen; fire behavior follows from weather, fuel, and terrain. And in like fashion, the global epidemic of fires can be broken down into three contributing causes.

The first is the most obvious: climate. If it rains, the fires die out, and if the winds quiet, the flames cannot spread. In this respect wildfire joins that pantheon of iconic images that have come to characterize the public awareness of global warming. Longer fire seasons, higher temperatures, more savage droughts—all of these give burning a boost. The real index, though, is not warming per se but the pattern of moisture and drought, for this is what sets aflame landscapes that are normally too empty to burn and sends flames racing through forests normally too damp to combust. In the summer of 2007, Greece suffered its worst drought in a century of keeping records. For the past 20 years, the American West has endured a sustained period of aridity, best announced by the Siege of ’87 in northern California and the 1988 Yellowstone conflagrations. Since then, the big fires have come with a roughly two-year rhythm. Nobody can say for sure how much of this agonizing bout of aridity is attributable to man-caused climate change and how much to the inevitable reappearance of dry spells in a region that has endured prolonged droughts for millennia. But certainly nature is not providing much relief. The relentless long drought has reduced options, shrunk room for maneuvers, and heightened the stakes. Its persistence could even allow landscape-sized conflagrations to catalyze a mass turnover of the biota, in which the organisms that presently inhabit the affected lands can no longer survive and will be replaced en masse. No one really knows.

Hot, dry conditions are only a necessary precondition for conflagration, however, not a sufficient one. Although they share heat as a causative factor, rising fires in Greece are not a simple complement to melting glaciers in Greenland. Ice melts from purely physical causes; melting can happen without a particle of life present. But fire cannot; it needs a biota in order to propagate. It feeds on that assembled biomass, and anything that shapes the biotic matrix will affect the kind of fire that results. Physical stresses must refract through a biotic prism, which has its own complex set of controls. Climate can only affect fire to the extent that its presence gets absorbed into the living world.

Moreover, the biota harbors a creature that can compete with lightning, climate’s firestick, as a source of ignition, and this introduces yet another prism through which fire must be refracted. Put simply, people can start and stop fires. While in one sense this makes fire seem less “natural,” it also brings combustion further within the realm of the living world.

New US Oil Fields

There are very large oil fields in our country yet to be tapped, but rising prices make them more feasible.

3 to 4.3 Billion Barrels of Technically Recoverable Oil Assessed in North Dakota and Montana’s Bakken Formation—25 Times More Than 1995 Estimate—
Released: 4/10/2008 2:25:36 PM
Contact Information:
U.S. Department of the Interior, U.S. Geological Survey
Office of Communication
119 National Center
Reston, VA 20192

Reston, VA - North Dakota and Montana have an estimated 3.0 to 4.3 billion barrels of undiscovered, technically recoverable oil in an area known as the Bakken Formation.

A U.S. Geological Survey assessment, released April 10, shows a 25-fold increase in the amount of oil that can be recovered compared to the agency's 1995 estimate of 151 million barrels of oil.

Technically recoverable oil resources are those producible using currently available technology and industry practices. USGS is the only provider of publicly available estimates of undiscovered technically recoverable oil and gas resources.

New geologic models applied to the Bakken Formation, advances in drilling and production technologies, and recent oil discoveries have resulted in these substantially larger technically recoverable oil volumes. About 105 million barrels of oil were produced from the Bakken Formation by the end of 2007.

The USGS Bakken study was undertaken as part of a nationwide project assessing domestic petroleum basins using standardized methodology and protocol as required by the Energy Policy and Conservation Act of 2000.

The Bakken Formation estimate is larger than all other current USGS oil assessments of the lower 48 states and is the largest "continuous" oil accumulation ever assessed by the USGS. A "continuous" oil accumulation means that the oil resource is dispersed throughout a geologic formation rather than existing as discrete, localized occurrences. The next largest "continuous" oil accumulation in the U.S. is in the Austin Chalk of Texas and Louisiana, with an undiscovered estimate of 1.0 billions of barrels of technically recoverable oil.

"It is clear that the Bakken formation contains a significant amount of oil - the question is how much of that oil is recoverable using today's technology?" said Senator Byron Dorgan, of North Dakota. "To get an answer to this important question, I requested that the U.S. Geological Survey complete this study, which will provide an up-to-date estimate on the amount of technically recoverable oil resources in the Bakken Shale formation."

The USGS estimate of 3.0 to 4.3 billion barrels of technically recoverable oil has a mean value of 3.65 billion barrels. Scientists conducted detailed studies in stratigraphy and structural geology and the modeling of petroleum geochemistry. They also combined their findings with historical exploration and production analyses to determine the undiscovered, technically recoverable oil estimates.

The Salmon Need More Water

The salmon that spawn in the Lower American River need a steady supply of cold water at the proper flow.

With the current water supply for the river, dictated by what can be stored in Folsom and Nimbus dams, generally inadequate to maintain this supply, we have called for the building of the Auburn Dam, as it will provide the adequate supply of cold water (and protect the physical integrity of the Parkway) while allowing the Bureau of Reclamation—who manages the dams—enough supply to meet the demands of our growing region and the needs of the salmon.

Continuing to call for the saving of the salmon without also calling for enough water storage to create the water conditions to save them is irresponsible, as is the idea to demolish the dams communities rely on for water and survival.

Editorial: Save the salmon
Published 12:00 am PDT Sunday, April 13, 2008

Whether you like your chinook grilled or poached, or even if you have no taste for salmon, last week's vote to ban salmon fishing off the California and Oregon coasts is the exclamation point on an unmitigated disaster.

In one fell swoop, thousands of fishermen, fish processors and charter boats will see their livelihoods wiped out, at least for a year.

Consumers will see prices rise for whatever salmon is left – the farm-raised stuff and wild sockeye from Alaska.

Recall when cod fishing was banned off of New England in the 1990s? A vast coastal region was hammered. Now another one will be.

"For the entire West Coast, this is the worst in history," said Don McIsaac, executive director of the Pacific Fishery Management Council. On Thursday, the federal council, as expected, approved a one-year ban on commercial and recreational fishing for chinook salmon from California to northern Oregon.

Mega-Regions

As cities grow together, they will encounter a need to act more in concert, so goes the theory advanced by Richard Florida, of The Rise of the Creative Class fame.

The Rise of the Mega-Region
By RICHARD FLORIDA
April 12, 2008; Page A8

When people talk about economic competitiveness, the focus tends to be on nation states. In the 1980s, many were obsessed with the rise of Japan. Today, our gaze has shifted to the phenomenal growth of Brazil, Russia, India and China. But this focus on nations is off the mark.

The real driving force of the world economy is a new and incredibly powerful economic unit: the mega-region.

Extending far beyond a single core city and its surrounding suburbs, a mega-region is an area that hosts business and economic activity on a massive scale, generating a large share of the world's economic activity and an even larger share of its scientific discoveries and technological innovations.

While there are 191 nations in the world, just 40 significant mega-regions power the global economy. Home to more than one-fifth of the world's population, these 40 megas account for two-thirds of global economic output and more than 85% of all global innovation.

The world's largest mega is Greater Tokyo, with 55 million people and $2.5 trillion in economic activity. Next is the 500-mile Boston-Washington corridor, with some 54 million people and $2.2 trillion in output. Also in the top 10 are mega-regions that run from Chicago to Pittsburgh, Atlanta to Charlotte, Miami to Tampa, and L.A. to San Diego. Outside of the U.S., you can find megas around Amsterdam, London, Osaka and Nagoya, Milan, Rome and Turin, and Frankfurt and Stuttgart.

Mega-regions are the true force driving the rise of emerging economies. Some 40% of Brazil's total economy is made up of a corridor stretching from Rio to São Paolo. Russia is propelled by the Moscow mega. India's economy is shaped by the mega-regions of Bangalore and Mumbai.

Water For Salmon

The right flow and water temperature is vital to the health of the salmon in the lower American River and the only way to stabilize both, within the conditions of an increased need for water for residents, business, the environment, and agriculture, is to have access to more water.

That is one of the reasons—the other being to preserve the physical integrity of the Parkway—we have advocated building the Auburn Dam on the American River.

The Bureau of Reclamation is powerless to control the flow only to suit the salmon, as long as the only water they have is the now inadequate supply from the half century old Folsom Dam.

The Water Forum agreement is merely a large volume of paper without the water supply on which its hopes—for establishing adequate water flows at the right temperature for the salmon—are based.

Editorial: Feds need to deliver on American River flows
Standard for moving water would guard against stranded fish and stuck boats
Published 12:00 am PDT Saturday, April 12, 2008

Seen from its shady banks, the lower American River would appear to flow freely, with Old Man River heading downstream based on the whims of nature.

Guess again.

In the real world, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation has its hand on the spigot of the American River through its control of Folsom Dam. Because this spigot sits so close to the massive pumps in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, the bureau often depends on Folsom Lake and the American River to send water south in a hurry, to help fish or farmers.

The result: Flows in the American River can fluctuate wildly.

In February 2003, for instance, the bureau opened the spigot, increasing flows from 3,500 to 5,500 cubic feet per second. Then, 11 days later, the bureau knocked them down to half that volume.

Although the bureau followed approved procedures, the fluctuating flows ended up stranding thousands of young fish – including endangered steelhead – that were emerging from gravel bars where their parents had laid eggs. The gravel bars were flooded when the adult fish were spawning, but when the bureau dropped the flows down, it left the offspring high and dry.

For more than a decade, local water districts and environmentalists have been trying to finalize a proposed "flow standard" that would give salmon and steelhead the cool water they need to survive and thrive. In 2005, all sides seemed close to a deal that would protect both fish and water users, avoiding a costly legal battle over the Endangered Species Act.

Nuclear Power & California

A great overview article about California, and nuclear power; the one clean power source with enough depth to resolve our climate change issues.

Relative Risk: Global Warming and Imported Fossil Fuels vs. Nuclear Power
California State Assemblyman Chuck DeVore*

Understanding relative risk is at the heart of America’s current debate over a revival of nuclear power. “Nuclear power is dangerous,” say the critics. “Dangerous compared to what?” should be the reply.

Commenting in early 2007, the president of Stanford University, John Hennessy, said, “Nuclear power has to be part of the solution [to global warming]. Can we really understand the notion of risk? Nuclear plants versus carbon emissions – which will kill and has killed more people?”[1] To this we should append a question about the relative risk of nuclear power versus America’s reliance on fossil fuels.

Imported oil and natural gas can fluctuate wildly in cost or may be embargoed by hostile nations while domestic coal remains far from clean and burning any type of fossil fuel contributes to greenhouse gas emissions.

All energy comes with risks. Coal mining is a deadly occupation – burning coal emits thousands of tons of radioactive particles, damages the lungs of tens of thousands of people a year, and releases billions of tons of carbon dioxide. Natural gas presents somewhat less of a carbon problem than coal, but it is highly explosive. Hydroelectric dams can burst, causing flooding that can be detrimental to communities and the environment. Dams also damage fisheries, while inundating large swaths of carbon-impounding forests. Burning biomass for power spews particulates and other pollutants into the air and can compete with food and cash crops for limited farmland. Wind power consumes ten times the amount of cement and steel to produce the same amount of power as does nuclear, which it does only when the wind is blowing, and kills raptors and bats in the process. Photovoltaics are made with toxic materials, such as arsenic and mercury, and are still far more expensive than competing sources of energy. As a source of peaking power, solar thermal has become competitive with natural gas, mainly due to the latter’s increasing costs and price volatility. Still, because of their capricious nature, solar and wind require the construction and maintenance of backup power plants, typically powered by natural gas, to ensure grid reliability. Thus, solar and wind cannot provide reliable on-demand baseload power.

Then there’s nuclear.

In spite of the limitations of other energy sources, for the last 30 years Americans have been reluctant to invest their support in nuclear power, but this attitude is beginning to shift.

America’s 104 nuclear reactors produce about 20 percent of our nation’s electricity. By comparison, France’s 59 reactors produce 78 percent of its electricity while Sweden has 10 reactors that provide 48 percent of its power.[2] The first applications in 30 years for the building of new nuclear reactors were recently received by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). Over the next two years, the NRC expects applications for 19 new reactors[3] with a total of 30 anticipated.[4]

In spite of a U.S. nuclear energy safety record that would be the envy of the coal, gas, or oil industry, the future of nuclear power is clouded by split public opinion, the majority of which unrealistically sees wind and solar as both reliable and affordable mainstays of the U.S. power grid. Good intentions from politicians and wishful thinking from the public will not power the grid, however.

Nowhere in America is this more apparent than in California, where 54 percent of residents told the Public Policy Institute that “global warming poses a very serious threat to the state's future economy and quality of life.”[5] In 2006, in response to the publics’ desire to do something, the California legislature passed, and Governor Schwarzenegger signed, a sweeping greenhouse gas law (Assembly Bill 32 or AB 32).[6] AB 32 mandates a 25 percent reduction in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2020, returning emissions to their 1990 levels – all while the state’s population is projected to grow 20 percent to 44 million people.[7] By 2050, AB 32 requires an 80 percent reduction in GHG emissions below 1990 levels.[8] A separate California law passed last year effectively phases out the use of conventional coal power over 20 years.[9] Coal now provides about 16 percent of California’s power.[10]

Implementing these laws while growing the state economy may prove Californians right for the wrong reason when they agreed that global warming threatens the State’s economy.[11]

The transportation sector produces 41 percent of California’s GHG emissions.[12] Short of using government edicts to radically alter people’s lives, the only way to meaningfully reduce these emissions is to offload them on an expanded and cleaner electrical sector. If electricity is affordable, this can be done with electric and hydrogen-powered vehicles at costs competitive with gasoline and diesel.

Electrical generation accounts for 22 percent of California’s GHG emissions. More than half of these emissions come from burning natural gas, which provides 42 percent of California’s electricity.[13] Yet reducing California’s dependence on natural gas, which is increasingly imported from abroad, will be impossible without a major change in state energy policy.

California law favors wind, solar, biomass, geothermal, and small hydroelectric, but they are costly or unreliable and do not make much of a dent, if any, in GHG emissions.[14] That leaves nuclear power as the sole source of power that is scalable, reliable and affordable. At a cost of about $4 billion for a 1,600 mW reactor, each new reactor built would save about $1 billion in burned natural gas per year[15] and about 8 million metric tons of GHG emissions,[16] all while using about $30 million in uranium.

Yet, any discussion about nuclear power immediately turns to the question of what to do with the spent nuclear fuel created in power generation. And there it stops. Many environmental groups claim that they would not oppose nuclear power if the nuclear waste issue could be solved. But any discussion of what to do with spent nuclear fuel makes one quickly realize that many nuclear opponents are not being honest about their opposition, as nothing can satisfy their concerns.

The anti-nuclear argument is an airtight but circular argument focused on the isotope of nuclear fission: plutonium-239. Each commercial nuclear reactor creates about 500 pounds of plutonium every year of operation.[17] This plutonium is the main argument against nuclear power. With a half-life of 24,110 years, plutonium-239 must either be reprocessed and used to make electricity, or placed in geologic storage for 200,000 years – the time needed for it to decay to radioactively safe levels.

The opposition to reprocessing is rooted in the Cold War-era fears of anti-nuclear activists. They argue that extracting the fissionable plutonium from spent fuel rods renders that plutonium available for making nuclear bombs (the second nuclear bomb used in warfare was a plutonium bomb). It was this rationale that caused President Jimmy Carter to ban U.S. nuclear fuel reprocessing in 1977. The thought was that this action would inspire other nations to do the same. Opponents of reprocessing speak of “plutonium-in-commerce” to define their fear that the extracted plutonium will fuel a new nuclear arms race. This line of reasoning leads us back to long-term geologic storage and the circular argument.

But the Gordian knot of plutonium has already been cut by the French. The French reprocess their spent nuclear fuel. By recycling usable fuel, including plutonium and unburned uranium back into their reactors, the French reduce the volume of used nuclear material by about 96 percent.[18] This slightly increases the cost of electricity, but it eliminates the need to safely store large amounts of plutonium-239 and other materials, saving money on the back-end by making geologic storage needed for a few hundred years, rather than two-hundred thousand years.

Public Access

We should know how much we are paying people with our money, period.

California Assembly mum on golden-handshake offers to aides
By Jim Sanders - jsanders@sacbee.com
Published 12:00 am PDT Friday, April 11, 2008

In the wake of claims by Assemblyman Hector De La Torre that taxpayers could be ripped off by golden handshakes offered by the Assembly recently, the lower house has decided to keep its data secret.

The Assembly balked at releasing any financial projections or analysis of the offer it made last month to sweeten pensions of up to 222 aides if they retire this year.

Assembly Chief Administrative Officer Jon Waldie, responding to a request by The Bee, said the Legislative Open Records Act does not require release of legislative memos or correspondence to lawmakers.

This year's golden handshakes were identical to an offer made in 2002, which Waldie called successful but had no data on money saved.

Waldie called this year's plan a foolproof way to save money by creating vacancies. Roughly 20 percent of eligible employees participated six years ago – and he expects the same this year, he said.

"There's going to be a savings," Waldie said. "There's no doubt about that."

To fund the padded pensions, the Assembly expects to make a payment of about $1 million into the state's retirement system. If the tab turns out to be higher, the Assembly would foot the bill, Waldie said.

Jon Coupal of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association said the viability of the golden handshakes depends partly on future earnings of the $1 million, which makes release of Assembly projections essential.

"You've got to know what you're committing taxpayers to in the future," he said. "This is a legislative body that doesn't give a rat's behind about the taxpayer."

Mayoral Forum Announcement

Mayoral forum
Published 12:00 am PDT Friday, April 11, 2008

The Bee, News10 and The California Museum are sponsoring "Mayoral Race '08: Candidates Face the Voters." The forum will be televised and online and will include questions from the public.

When: 6 p.m. Wednesday, May 7

Where: The California Museum, 1020 O St.

Participants: Mayor Heather Fargo and challengers Adam Daniel, Leonard Padilla, Muriel Strand and Shawn Eldredge have accepted. Awaiting word from challengers Kevin Johnson and Richard Jones.

Length: Begins with a 60-minute televised forum on News10, followed by a 30-minute online discussion.

Panelists: Forum is moderated by News10 anchor Dale Schornack; panelists are The Bee's Terri Hardy and News10's Marcey Brightwell. Claudia French, museum executive director, will present questions from the community as the third panelist.

Public's role: Questions from the community will be posed in prerecorded tapings or submitted online during the forum.

Mega Regional Planning

It sounds as if it is already occurring at the level we want it to, and anything much more structured could damage the local control vital to our community.

'Sanframento' transportation team seeks I-80 corridor funds
By Tony Bizjak - tbizjak@sacbee.com
Published 12:00 am PDT Friday, April 11, 2008

As the Bay Area and Sacramento regions creep relentlessly toward each other along Interstate 80 – getting uncomfortably crowded along the way – officials from both areas are promoting an idea they call mega-regional planning.

They're so excited, they've even come up with a phrase to capture the concept:
Sanframento.

Hundreds of thousands of trucks, trains and cars ferry goods and people each day between the bay shores, the Sacramento Valley and the mountains, they point out. And tens of thousands of former Bay Area residents now call the Valley and foothills home.

It makes sense, planners say, to take a broader, holistic approach to solving congestion problems and figuring out how the I-80 corridor ought to grow.

Despite the cutesy "Sanframento" coinage, Sacramento regional transportation planning head Mike McKeever said no one is talking about merging cities or eliminating local control.

"The last thing we want is to create the impression this is something where the Sacramento area gets subsumed by the beast to the west," said McKeever of the Sacramento Area Council of Governments. "It is about getting smart."

He and other leaders said it's become clear that bay and Valley communities can do better building transportation systems by joining forces, especially when competing with Southern California for scarce transportation funds.

Much of the talk among planners at a meeting in Davis on Thursday centered on the need to keep I-80 moving between the Bay Area and Sacramento, and on improving passenger and freight train service between the bay and Valley.

Solano County Supervisor Jim Spering said leaders should stick to concrete matters, such as fixing bottlenecks like the antiquated and overmatched I-80/I-680 interchange.

So many drivers from the Bay Area and Sacramento pass through there and get stuck in the jams, "it's really not (just) a Solano County project or problem anymore."

Some officials say mega-region planning could touch on growth topics, such as whether there should be a no-build buffer zone between Yolo and Solano counties.

But West Sacramento Mayor Chris Cabaldon, a supporter of the mega-region planning idea, pointedly argued that people from San Francisco and Sacramento should steer clear of telling cities along I-80 how to grow.

Cabaldon told the planners group Thursday that Solano and Yolo cities are handling growth issues just fine, thank you, even if they don't look like San Francisco's densely packed Mission District.

The mega-region planning concept is in some respects already under way.

Cities from Colfax to San Jose participate in the Capitol Corridor regional train service that runs in the I-80 corridor and regularly hits new ridership highs.

And an ad hoc group of Bay Area and Sacramento planners teamed to score a coup Thursday at the state Capitol, jointly persuading the California Transportation Commission to award Northern California $843 million in freight movement and trade improvement funds from the voter-approved 2006 Proposition 1B transportation infrastructure bonds.

Officials say they joined lobbying forces, figuring they'd stand a better chance competing against Los Angeles and San Diego.

"We saw a common enemy; we went to war and we won," Cabaldon said.

Sacramento Green Conference

It is now over but this commentary notes some of the neat stuff that showed up.

Strategic Green

If you want to make money, you better have a contingency for a future where there’s global cooling, and brokers populate the streetcorners with signs that say “will trade carbon credits for food.” No rational investor fails to prepare for likely eventualities - and the precautionary principle that informs global warming alarm will not help your portfolio when global temperature trends are on the downside of even. The true believers will rejoice that Polar Bears lived, and you will paper walls with green stocks, pasted right on top of the internet stocks, and the membership units in the condo complex that flipped ten times and crashed before it was built.

Today was the last day of the Green California Summit at the Sacramento Convention Center, and nearly the entire main hall in the sprawling building was filled. Of the many exhibitors, our absolute surprise winner had to be Miles Motors, a company that has stealthily accumulated sales of what is now thousands of all-electric cars, sold and being operated by customers. Miles Motors has been doing a lot of fleet sales; they offer trucks; their unit sales of freeway-capable EVs have started to climb beyond a pilot phase. Why isn’t this company front page news?

At the 2008 Green California Summit there were inspiring displays of biodegradable utensils and plates and cups made from sugar cane or corn from Nature Friendly Products and Stalk Market. There were inexpensive, solar-friendly rooftops from Carlisle, and turf rooftops from GreenGrid. There were photovoltaic panels you can unroll onto a roof and walk on from Solar Integrated, building-deployable vertical-axis windvanes that look like giant corkscrews from Helix Wind, and two of the most efficient residential solar installers to-date, the meteoric Solar City and Akeena Solar.

Not to be ignored, there were a couple of companies who have developed and are selling green urinals, Zurn and Falcon, which use nearly negligible water. Moreover, unlike wave power devices, urinals do not have a lot of embodied energy. And along with Miles, and Zap, and Zenn, there were the photovoltaic powered golf carts (the flat shade roof is covered with photovoltaics) from Cruise Car; some models collect about 1.5 miles of range each day in full sun - greatly supplementing the onboard battery.

Exciting progress is being made in integrated walls, cheap, incorporating all structural elements, and employing green materials. Perform Wall manufactures (approximately) 1′ x 1′ x 2′ bricks of a foam and concrete mixture that can be stacked like Legos and filled with rebar and concrete, Sipcrete manufactures structural panels with a steel web reinforced, fairly thin concrete exterior, with foam-filled interior space interlaced with a steel frame consisting of diagonals connecting the thin exterior walls by integrating into the wire mesh.

Also exhibiting at Green California was ARXX, who manufactures a structural wall solution equally unique and innovative. ARXX manufactures approximately 1′ x 1′ x 2′interlocking rectangular blocks that have rigid foam exteriors (roughly 2″ thick foam exterior walls) that are set about 6″ apart, the interiors linked with plastic diagonal struts that include snap-in indentations for inserting rebar. Once these blocks are assembled with rebar inserted, they have concrete poured in and can have various surface treatments. This is an extremely interesting innovation.

If you care about the rivers and springs, along with using desalination plants to pump water back into aquifers who desperately need positive water inflow to guarantee their future viability, you would want to see concrete that could allow water to flow through it to facilitate aquifer replenishment. Enviro-Crete has porous concrete that allows rain and runoff to drain through its surfaces into the earth. Such a surface might often dramatically reduce runoff if it were used for parking lots, or roads and driveways, or any suface ordinarily surfaced with nonporous concrete. Porous road surfaces is an excellent idea.

Malaria, Jet Planes, & Climate Change

All too often, the alarmists in our political world call for immediate action to address the tragedy coming from one thing or another, while misstating the cause of the tragedy, hurting future discussions of similar tragedies (remember the boy-who-cried-wolf), and continuing the degradation of political discussion in general.

This story highlights one of those occurrences.

OPINION
More Global Warming Nonsense
By PAUL REITER and ROGER BATE
April 10, 2008; Page A14

Today, the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee will hold a hearing on the implications of climate change for human health. Malaria will top the menu, but so will ignorance and disinformation.

The lead witness will be Dr. Jonathan Patz of the University of Wisconsin, Madison. He has suggested that U.S. energy policy may be "indirectly exporting diseases to other parts of the world." Dr. Patz, the World Health Organization (WHO) and others claim that global warming is now spreading disease and may be the cause of some 160,000 deaths a year.

In 2007, for example, WHO pointed to rising temperatures in an outbreak of a mosquito-borne virus, Chikungunya, in Italy. Yet WHO misdiagnosed the problem. Modern transportation, not climate change, caused the outbreak.

In that case, the transmitter of the disease, or vector, was the Asian Tiger mosquito. It is native to Asia, but exported world-wide in shipments of used tires. It is now abundant in parts of U.S. and in 12 countries in Europe. In cities, it breeds in man-made containers of water, such as saucers under flower-pots, water barrels, blocked gutters and so on. The virus was carried to Italy by an infected Indian who flew from Delhi, where an epidemic of the disease was then raging.

So the real technological villain in that case was the jet airplane. It was irresponsible, then, for WHO to state "although it is not possible to say whether the outbreak was caused by climate change . . . conditions in Italy are now suitable for the Tiger mosquito." And it was absurd for environmental alarmists to chime in with apocalyptic pronouncements.

ARPPS Commentary Published

David H. Lukenbill: Scatter homeless housing; don’t concentrate sites
By David H. Lukenbill - Special to The Bee
Published 12:00 am PDT Thursday, April 10, 2008

Most people in Sacramento are concerned about how best to help the homeless. All of us hope and pray that the unfortunate folks struggling without homes, and their associated problems, will someday be helped into being able to live a life of security and health.

We at American River Parkway Preservation Society are no exception to this concern, particularly how it impacts the American River Parkway and the adjacent communities.

Helping the homeless is often a devil's bargain, as those who work in the field know all too well, and we can generally divide the homeless into three groups.

First, those who are willing to work and just need some help in getting back on their feet, but have not yet developed the capacity to do so.

Second, those who are mentally ill, require long-term housing and treatment, and generally cannot do much about their situation without medical help.

Finally, those who are alcoholics, addicts (though some would include these in the second group) and petty criminals, who generally will not cooperate with programs offered to them.

Recently, our local government decided to become part of the national 10-year plan to reduce chronic homelessness – a combination of the second and third groups. A key part of the plan is the adoption of the "housing first" model.

Our organization is a supporter of the housing first approach to helping the chronic homeless.

Housing first is built on the common-sense concept that until homeless people are actually housed, they will not have the internal resources to devote toward rebuilding their life.

Housing first specifies two methods of implementation. One is housing and services concentrated in one area, and the other is housing scattered in individual units throughout the community with services delivered by treatment teams.

The concentrated method is particularly destructive of the communities it is housed in, and the examples in the various neighborhoods in our community bear that out.

A recent article in The Bee noted that a south Sacramento neighborhood is concerned about concentrated homeless housing moving into a converted 74-unit apartment complex. They are right to feel concern, as the complex will quite possibly degrade their neighborhood as the concentration of homeless services has degraded the 12th Street and Richards Boulevard area.

The impact of those concentrated services has been spilling over into illegal camping in the parkway, aggressive panhandlers on the K Street Mall and increased crime in both areas.

The other major benefit in the scattered-site approach is that the homeless, rather than being surrounded by other homeless who, in effect, help create and maintain the very same failure-oriented situation they are trying to escape from, are scattered into neighborhoods of regular folks whose influence is much more salutary.

Devil in Livable Details

Determining the most livable city will depend on the benchmarks set, so will reflect that point of view rather than an actual measurement of livability, which is different for just about everybody.

Sacramento sets lofty goal for general plan: Become 'most liveable city in America'
By Mary Lynne Vellinga - mlvellinga@sacbee.com
Published 12:00 am PDT Thursday, April 10, 2008

The Sacramento City Council is aiming high with its new general plan. The goal: to produce the "most liveable city in America."

But what exactly does "most liveable" mean? And how can the city measure its progress?

In an effort to wrestle this lofty ideal back down to earth, where it can be measured and weighed, the city planning staff has proposed creating a "liveability index" that could be updated every year to show the city's progress, or lack thereof.

"We need to find a way to measure the effectiveness of our policies and our elected officials," said Panama Bartholomy, a member of the city's general plan advisory committee.

The proposed liveability index is one of several significant general plan elements that will come to the City Council in draft form tonight. The council is expected to approve these proposals for inclusion in the draft general plan, which is scheduled for release in May.

The index "is essentially a series of 15 different indicators, things like crime statistics, additional miles of bike lanes added, various things that relate to health, environmental, safety," said Tom Pace, the city's long-range planning manager.

Columbia River Salmon

The river system in Washington is concerned about its salmon runs after seeing the difficulty California is having, and though dam removal is the knee-jerk reaction, there appear to be sober voices realizing that could be a very bad idea, causing more problems and probably not solving the salmon one.

It is our contention that large scale dams, like the Auburn Dam project on the American River, can protect the salmon runs downstream, if managed properly, as they have the capacity to store and release when needed, the cold water flow salmon need to spawn and grow.

Dam removal, except in the case of dams that no longer provide human benefit, harm human communities and offer questionable salmon benefit.

Salmon, as have most creatures, have shown a remarkable ability to survive and grow alongside human communities, as long as we take the steps—without harming ourselves—to protect them.

Wednesday, April 9, 2008
Last updated 11:29 a.m. PT
Restrictions tightening on Columbia
Snake River dams again in cross hairs
By LISA STIFFLER
P-I REPORTER

The collapse of the California salmon stocks makes people wonder: Could it happen here?

The Sacramento River is a prime source for the fish caught on the California coast. The Columbia River is the backbone for Washington.

The Sacramento is No. 2 and the Columbia No. 1 in the continental United States for salmon production from a river system.

Both have seen huge declines in their salmon populations from historic levels. Both ideally are managed to balance human needs with the needs of fish, which return as adults to spawn and leave as juveniles for the ocean. The Sacramento is squeezed for water used in agricultural irrigation, while the Columbia and its tributary the Snake River are home to massive dams that provide most of Washington's energy.

The rivers also are harmed by pollution, habitat damaged by development and shrinking snowpacks as the climate warms.

"We need to solve these problems in all these major river systems because if we leave any of them behind, it will hurt us coastwide," said Glen Spain, Northwest regional director for the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations, a commercial fishing interest group.

At the meeting this week of the Pacific Fishery Management Council, the focus has been on the closure or sharp curtailing of commercial fishing for chinook salmon in California and Oregon for 2008.

Washington managers expect fishing for some Columbia stocks to hit near-record lows.
"To meet conservation objectives, most salmon fisheries in Washington's waters will be even more restricted this year," Phil Anderson, deputy director of the state Department of Fish and Wildlife, said recently.

The perilous drop in salmon stocks could renew calls by Washington environmentalists, commercial fishermen and others for the removal of four dams on the Snake River. Already the groups are in a legal battle with the government over how the existing dams are being operated -- specifically, how much water is spilled over the dams and when -- in order to protect fish.

"We still think the only solution that's been biologically demonstrated as capable of not just letting fish tread water in terms of their numbers, but to get them restored, is the removal of the lower Snake River dams," said Michael Garrity of the Seattle office of American Rivers, an environmental group.

Also at issue is the role of fluctuating ocean conditions and how much food is available for young fish. Interest groups vary in how much blame they place on the ocean compared with river conditions for struggling fish populations. State managers primarily are blaming ocean conditions for this year's declines in chinook from Oregon and California and Columbia River coho salmon.

Shauna McReynolds of the Northwest RiverPartners, whose members include utilities, businesses and cities, opposed efforts to focus on dam removal and operations.

"It's all the same old stuff. Dam removal is not a silver bullet," McReynolds said. "We are way too far past that."

Johnny Cash Bridge?

The new bridge over the American River in Folsom is searching for a name.

About time to name the dam bridge
Contest ideas due April 22
By Jim Ratajczak

Folsom residents have less than two weeks to name the city’s newest bridge, which is set to open sometime next year.

Entries for the new bridge’s name will be accepted until 5 p.m. April 22.

“What we’re doing right now is accepting a wide open range of ideas,” said city spokesperson Sue Ryan.

The winning name will be chosen by the city council, but Ryan was mum on what kind of name would sway the decision makers.

“There are no established criteria at this point,” she said.

Ryan did say the city has received 309 entries as of Friday, and some of the more popular choices include Folsom Dam Bridge, Folsom Lake Bridge and Johnny Cash Bridge.

Entries like Bridge Over Troubled Waters and Double-Dam Bridge prove that there are plenty of unique ideas, too.

“This contest is a lot of fun,” she said. “I think people are really enjoying it.”

In addition to bicycle and pedestrian byways, the new bridge will provide drivers with four additional lanes.

Those four new lanes will undoubtedly help East Natoma’s traffic problem. The city’s website states the bridge is capable of holding 40,000 commuters on a daily basis, more than double the amount of vehicles that were using the Folsom Dam Road prior to its 2003 closure.

Politics & the Parkway

Regardless of the outcome of this race, it is refreshing to see the Parkway playing a prominent role in it, though neither candidate has yet shown the type of leadership around Parkway issues that will result in long-term health and sustainability of its status, though public safety has to be on the top of the list for the safety of users on its often troubled trails, particularly in the North Sacramento area.

Stopping the long presence of illegal camping in or adjacent to the Parkway has to be a priority as it has slowly degraded the ability of the adjacent community to safely use their part of the Parkway.

It is also crucial to respect the private property rights of those who live adjacent to the Parkway, while balancing the visual and physical intrusion that impacts the sanctuary for Parkway users.

Challenger cites his endorsements in Sacramento County supervisor race
By Ed Fletcher - efletcher@sacbee.com
Published 12:00 am PDT Wednesday, April 9, 2008

Although Sacramento County Supervisor Susan Peters has raised more than 20 times as much money for her campaign as challenger Warren Harding, he's not intimidated by her fundraising edge or incumbent status.

Instead, Harding – a longtime Arden area park district commissioner – said he's scoring key endorsements and will run a viable campaign.

The two are competing in the June 3 primary in the nonpartisan race to represent the 3rd District, which includes Arden Arcade, Carmichael, Foothill Farms, Campus Commons, College Greens, east Sacramento, River Park and Sierra Oaks.

Harding, a Democrat, pointed to endorsements by former Supervisor Illa Collin, Save the American River Association President Warren Truitt and the Sacramento Central Labor Council.

Harding said that his experience as a former county employee and on a park board have prepared him for the job.

Harding, 63, has served on the Arden Manor Recreation and Park District's board for nearly 30 years.

By most objective measures of campaign strength, Peters has a clear advantage:

• She has $149,383 in her campaign coffers compared to Harding's $6,622.

• Harding said his Web site is days away, while Peters' – www.joinsusan.com – is professionally produced.

• As the incumbent, Peters enjoys a name recognition advantage.

And it remains to be seen whether the challenger having the same name as the nation's 29th president is advantageous. President Warren Harding is viewed by some scholars as being one of the country's least successful presidents.

Peters, a former developer, has earned high marks from the local business community.

She has been known to personally drive potential investors through her district, has worked to fix and beautify roadways to help improve the business climate, and kept a sharp eye on the county budget.

Peters, a Republican, is endorsed by numerous local elected officials including state Sen. Dave Cox, R-Fair Oaks; Sheriff John McGinness; District Attorney Jan Scully; and Supervisor Jimmie Yee, among them.

McGinness said she's been a good partner.

"She recognizes that public safety is an important piece to improving the business climate," McGinness said.

While fewer in number, Harding's endorsements could help affirm his legitimacy to voters.

"Warren Harding will give much more than lip service to protection of the American River Parkway," as a yet to be published flier for Harding quotes Collin as saying.

Truitt said preservation of the parkway was his motive for endorsing Harding.

"I just think that we just need a fresh approach," said Truitt, who noted he was speaking for himself, not the association, which doesn't make political endorsements. "I would like to see more attention paid to the parkway."

Dams Can Stay Deal

Tribes seal $900 million deal
Yakama, Colville, Umatilla and Warm Springs tribes agree to back federal dam-operation plans for 10 years
Tuesday, April 08, 2008
SCOTT LEARN and MICHAEL MILSTEIN
The Oregonian Staff

For decades, as Columbia and Snake river dams helped push salmon, sturgeon and lamprey numbers down, Northwest tribes battled the federal government over its treatment of what the tribes see as sacred species.

That dynamic changed Monday, when four tribes and the government announced a history-making deal:

The tribes will agree for 10 years to support the government's controversial plans for operating its dams and bow out of a long-running lawsuit that has faulted dam operations. And they pledge not to advocate breaching dams or listing Pacific lamprey as endangered

In exchange, the government -- mostly courtesy of the Bonneville Power Administration's electric customers -- will pay $900 million in the next decade for habitat and hatchery improvements spelled out by the tribes.

"We are now putting aside the hostilities and putting trust in one another," said Fidelia Andy of the Yakama Nation, chairwoman of the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission. "We are eager to leave behind the gridlock."

"It's moving our energy from courtrooms to streambeds," added John Ogan, attorney for the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs.

Environmental groups and Oregon officials said the deal fails to help endangered fish past the dams that kill them or address removal of Snake River dams. That risks throwing more dollars at a problem that has swallowed billions without restoring endangered fish, they said.

"I firmly believe this agreement doesn't go far enough and isn't aggressive enough to restore our salmon runs," Oregon Gov. Ted Kulongoski said Monday. Before the deal, the state had been allied with the tribes in demanding more help for fish.

Federal strategy

As recently as January, the tribes had complained that the latest federal strategy for offsetting the damage from dams is "a step backwards" for fish. They criticized that strategy for cutting back water releases to help fish and sending them downriver on barges instead.

"This agreement doesn't change the law, and it doesn't change the science," said Todd True, an attorney with Earthjustice who is working for some of the environmental groups suing the government.

U.S. District Court Judge James Redden still has to rule on the federal government's strategy, with the parties due back in his courtroom in early May. Environmental groups and the state of Oregon will continue to argue that the plan, even with the additions negotiated by the tribes, isn't adequate for fish survival.

But Steve Wright, Bonneville Power's administrator, said he thinks Redden will be impressed that the tribes and the government have followed the judge's instructions to collaborate on a plan. The tribal agreements, out for public comment until April 23, better cement funding for fish projects, Wright said, something Redden wanted to see.

The agreement "increases the probability of success," Wright said. "I think it's a rather dramatic turn, actually, to have (the tribes) move over to our table in the courtroom."

The tribal backing also helps give the government moral high ground -- "nobody has more passion for the fish and more at stake than the tribes," Wright emphasized Monday -- and some rhetorical ammunition against salmon advocacy groups.

When told that some were harshly criticizing the deal, Andy, the intertribal commission chairwoman, fired back, noting that tribes had worked on the agreement for two years: "This is a direct insult to us as tribes," she said.

Rice in the Delta Announcement

Rice May Save Sinking Delta
Compiled By Staff
April 8, 2008

The Department of Water Resources has announced plans to fund a rice cultivation project that could stop, or even reverse, sinking land in the Delta.

Studies show that rice farming has the potential to stop, and possibly reverse the sinking of land (subsidence) as well as to store carbon as organic matter. Economic benefits to the local area through commercial rice farming will also be part of the evaluation. The project will be made possible via Proposition 84 flood control activity funds.

Local public agencies meeting the criteria defined in California Water Code Section 12311(a) are invited to apply for the funding. A Proposal Solicitation Package is available online at: www.dfm.water.ca.gov/dsmo/docs/Final_Draft_PSP_Rice.pdf

The minimum size of the rice growing plot is 300 acres and the required average depth of peat underlying the site is seven feet. It is the department's intent to have one funding recipient for a multi-year project lasting up to eight years.

For more than 100 years, as West Delta islands have been reclaimed and farmed, the land (which is primarily comprised of peat) has been disappearing, or "subsiding," because of oxidation and strong winds. The elevation of some islands has been reduced more than 25 feet and the land continues to "sink" by one-half inch to one inch per year. As the land subsides, more hydraulic pressure is exerted on the levees, increasing the risk for levee failure. Millions of dollars are spent every year maintaining these levee systems to protect the islands from flooding.

A public meeting has been scheduled to discuss the PSP with potential applicants at the following time and location: April 10, 2008, 10 a.m. – Noon, Walnut Grove Public Library, 14177 Market St., Walnut Grove.

Green Economy

A good overview of the view that working to reduce climate change will create terrific business opportunities.

OPINION
Climate Change Opportunity
By FRED KRUPP
April 8, 2008

In the Frank Capra movie classic, "It's a Wonderful Life," the Bailey Brothers Building and Loan is facing a Depression-era bank run. George Bailey leaps over the counter, blocks the door, and says to the panicky investors that they're "thinking of this place all wrong."

Today's investors need to hear the same message: If you're worried that stopping global warming will wreck the economy, you're looking at this all wrong. Solving global warming will be an added cost, yes – but a bargain compared with the economic cost of unchecked climate change. And fixing this problem will create an historic economic opportunity.

Energy is the biggest business in the world, "the mother of all markets," says venture capitalist John Doerr, Google's first funder. The winners of the race to reinvent energy will not only save the planet, but will also make megafortunes. Venture capitalists and companies like Google are already jockeying to fund clean energy start-ups. In 2007, clean tech was the fastest growing category of venture investing in the U.S., growing four times as much as Internet investing, according to PriceWaterhouseCoopers.

Action on global warming is coming soon. Governors, mayors and CEOs are already making bold and binding commitments; the presumptive presidential candidates from both parties are strong supporters of new federal policy initiatives. Meanwhile, under the radar, smart entrepreneurs are inventing new technologies to cash in on the high-tech bonanza to come, offering clean, affordable energy without carbon emissions.

A Silicon Valley firm, Innovalight, has figured out a way to harvest solar energy much more cheaply than present technology allows by dissolving silicon nanocrystals in ink, which will ultimately be printed onto roof panels like we print ink onto paper. Using a platform they developed as postdoctoral students at Berkeley, the founding scientists of a company called Amyris have re-engineered yeast to ferment sugar into pure hydrocarbon fuels. Unlike ethanol, the fuel has the energy density of gasoline (or jet fuel, if that's what they program the yeast to produce) and can be shipped through existing pipelines and pumped into any car now on the road.

Green Energy Good Business

A major focus for the Chamber’s annual Cap to Cap trip to Washington DC.

Green energy powers to the top of Sacramento chamber's lobbying list in D.C.
By David Whitney - dwhitney@mcclatchydc.com
Published 12:00 am PDT Tuesday, April 8, 2008

WASHINGTON – Clean-energy technology, which last year was not even on the agenda, was a top advocacy item for the Sacramento Metro Chamber on Monday as 350 of its members spread out over Capitol Hill on the business organization's annual Capitol-to-Capitol lobbying trip.

"For Sacramento and the region, clean energy is becoming an economic driver," said John DiStasio, a Sacramento Municipal Utility District general manager and co-leader director of chamber's Clean/Green Technology Team.

The team, like the dozen others, will meet with the Sacramento congressional delegation, California Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer, and other congressional and Bush administration leaders in search of federal dollars and specific legislation benefiting the region.

Among the larger teams are those focused on flood control, transportation, clean technology and health care issues – the four leading topics of the chamber's 38th annual lobbying trip.

The Sacramento Metro Chamber's entourage has taken over several floors of the Mayflower Hotel where the participants will stay until the trip winds down Wednesday. Attendance has been capped for several years at 350 members.

Governor’s Announcement on the Parkway

Using Discovery Park to make an announcement about a parks bill was a great setting, though ignoring the homeless camp set up just down the road, and trying to ignore the protesters regarding planned park closures.

As governor plugs bill for park volunteers, protesters blast his plan to close some parks
By Andy Furillo - afurillo@sacbee.com
Published 12:00 am PDT Tuesday, April 8, 2008

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger played politics with parks Monday, using Sacramento County's treasured jewel of the American River Parkway as a backdrop to boost a bill to make it easier for volunteers to keep them clean and green.

Almost immediately afterward, the governor found himself jabbed by another prong in the politics of the parklands. Barely an hour after his appearance underneath the budding oaks by the banks of the river, some 200 protesters descended on the Capitol to implore Schwarzenegger to recant on his proposed budget cuts that would close 48 parks in the state system.

Schwarzenegger's support for volunteerism in the parks at the same time he is seeking to close four dozen of the state's finest came as a curiosity to some west steps protesters.

"I just question the juxtaposition of promoting volunteerism on one end and a proposal that would affect volunteerism on the other end," said Michele Luna, executive director of Stewards of the Coast and Redwoods, a Sonoma County group that provides 350 volunteers to work at three state parks, two of which are slated for closure under the governor's budget. "It doesn't quite make sense."

Gubernatorial spokesman Aaron McLear said there was nothing inconsistent about the governor's push for volunteerism while advocating the closures.

Energy, Green & Oil

A great overview of current research, the global political situation around energy independence and global warming.

Energy Independence Isn’t Very Green
By Steve Stein
Conflicting priorities are confusing policy

THERE’S BROAD AGREEMENT that America should reduce its dependence on imported oil, but far less agreement on why. Are we combating global warming, or are we distancing ourselves from hostile and unstable regimes? The popular reply is that it hardly matters — we need to do both and the goals reinforce each other. But these two national energy goals are not only different but frequently in conflict, and effective policy will not be forged until those conflicts are addressed. Meanwhile, we ’ll continue to see watered down legislative efforts similar to the Energy Act of 2007 and its predecessors. When dependence on foreign oil first became a major issue in 1973, the country imported less than a third of its petroleum; it now imports over 60 percent.

It was never easy to convince the public that we should curb oil use for security reasons alone. As foreign sources grew more numerous, credible energy experts insisted that this diversity of supply provided ample security. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, it was widely accepted that no single country, nor even the entire OPEC cartel, could pose a real threat. The fact that America was devoting increasing military resources to protecting the international oil trade was viewed as just another consequence of being the “sole remaining superpower.”

So in pleading the case for lowered oil consumption, energy security advocates gratefully accepted a new rationale — concerns about climate change. In 1973, those concerns were barely a blip on the political radar screen, but they have grown steadily since about 1988. “Stop global warming” has become a remarkably effective rallying cry, even inspiring award-winning documentaries and TV specials. Commercial interests have also latched onto this movement. Automobile makers find it easier to market gas-electric hybrid cars in the interest of saving the planet from excessive warming than in saving the country from Middle Eastern extremists. The ethanol lobby, too, identifies its raison d ’etre more with greening the planet than with energy security. Combating climate change somehow seems more inclusive and less confrontational than mere energy security. For all these reasons, advocates of the latter (let ’s call them the “oil independents”) have eagerly accepted a strategic partnership with the climate change establishment (the “climate greens”).

Unfortunately, however, the partnership rests on unstable ground.

THREE FAULT LINES

THERE ARE THREE conspicuous fault lines between the positions of oil independents and climate greens. The first and most obvious is that mitigating climate change requires curtailing not just consumption of oil and gas, but also of coal, which has even higher carbon dioxide emissions. Since C02 is fingered as the main culprit in man-made global warming, it isn’t surprising that coal becomes continually less welcome. But America has far more coal than it has oil or natural gas, and from the viewpoint of energy independence, that can ’t be ignored. The partners’ attempts to bridge their differences on coal are not yet promising.

Second, oil independents and climate greens face conflict over oil substitutes that emit no carbon at all. Climate-change activists have deep environmentalist roots. These often lead them to oppose large hydroelectric dams and even wind and solar projects. And one important noncarbon fuel — nuclear energy — remains anathema to the environmental establishment. The most recent report of the UN’s International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) halfheartedly notes nuclear energy’s positive attributes, but few climate greens concur. This is more typical view:

“We believe that the financial and safety risks associated with nuclear power are so grave that nuclear power should not be a part of any solution to address global warming. There is no need to jeopardize our health, safety, and economy with increased nuclear power when we have cleaner, cheaper solutions to reduce global warming pollution. ” — June 2005 statement signed by 313 national, international, regional, and state environmental organizations, including Sierra Club, Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth.

Of course, not all global warming activists agree. Some, like NASA scientist James Lovelock, are convinced that the planet’s atmosphere is fast approaching a tipping point, beyond which the warming trend will become irreversible. Lovelock sees nuclear as the only quick fix, but his views have made little headway. Environmental allies may adopt similar rhetoric about urgency, but are remarkably nimble in accepting a more long-term view of matters when urgency appears to force unpleasant choices.

This contretemps over nuclear power indirectly illuminates the third fault line in the partnership between energy independents and climate greens: the partners ’ vastly different time horizons. Ironically, it isn’t the nuclear issue itself that sets up this conflict between climate greens and oil independents — most energy security advocates have given up on nuclear as a primary solution because fission raises its own set of security problems. But energy security advocates ’ sense of urgency about our energy problems is nevertheless as strong as Lovelock ’s, and they see the need to focus intently on what must happen within ten years.

Climate greens, on the other hand, are accustomed to looking out over four decades and more. A recent IPCC report predicts a rise in temperature of 2–11.5 degrees Fahrenheit, and a rise in the sea level of 7–23 inches by 2100. While the IPCC does include mitigations that should be accomplished by 2030, much of its report addresses changes that would only begin at that time. This patient approach has become more entrenched after shorter range benchmarks proved feckless. The Kyoto protocol of 1997 envisioned reducing greenhouse gases (GHG) to their 1990 levels, with a further 15 percent reduction by 2012; but few signatories have come anywhere near that goal. Canada, for example, committed to lowering its GHG emissions to 94 percent of their 1990 level. In 2004, its actual GHG emissions were 26.6 percent above the 1990 level.

If reducing America’s dependence on foreign oil is viewed as a security matter, then it makes little sense to focus on what might happen 40 years hence. Seismic geopolitical changes can occur far more rapidly. If energy self-sufficiency is important at all, it is important because of events that can easily occur within a decade.

Unforeseen Consequences

While always a potentially troubling outcome of new things that so often don’t become known until after the fact, this can help create another industry of binding the nano particles more closely and permanently in the commodities whose properties they change.

Let’s hope UC Davis gets the nod to do the related research.

Tiny silver particles in clothing may lead to pollution, research suggests
By Carrie Peyton Dahlberg - cpeytondahlberg@sacbee.com
Published 12:00 am PDT Monday, April 7, 2008

In the unknowns of emerging nanotechnology, researchers are wondering if the science behind trendy no-smell socks, underwear and hunting gear might create unintended consequences in the environment.

Just a few simulated washings, for example, can pull nanosilver out of new socks that rely on it for killing odors, researchers said Sunday. That action sets the substance free to travel into wastewater and perhaps into fertilizer.

That prospect underscores the importance of studying nanosized materials that are increasingly a part of clothing and medical, electronic, and other consumer products, said UC Davis professor Alexandra Navrotsky.

"As a society, we should be doing research on these effects ideally before products go to market, not after," said Navrotsky, who heads a campus nanomaterials research unit.

University of California, Davis, is competing for a five-year, $25 million National Science Foundation grant to create a center devoted to studying the environmental impacts of nanomaterials, so small they are measured in billionths of a meter.

The campus, which survived the first cut when 30 grant applicants where whittled to 10, could learn later this month whether it is among three semifinalists.

California Green

The selling of products that are good for the environment is still a matter of convincing the consumer that they are good for them and their pocketbook.

For consumers, all that is green is not always gold.

California firms hope to turn green into gold
Expo seeks to educate consumers on recycled goods
By Ngoc Nguyen - ngnguyen@sacbee.com
Published 12:00 am PDT Monday, April 7, 2008

For companies devoted to eco-friendly wares and services, it is not enough that California is at the vanguard of the green business movement.

Manufacturers must convince consumers that their new products are good, not just good for the environment.

That's what Stockton-based Timbron International hopes to accomplish at the Green California Summit and Expo in Sacramento, which starts today.

Timbron recycles Styrofoam into interior trim and moldings. Home Depot carries the company's wares, but Timbron still has to work on educating potential customers, said Heather Gadonniex, the firm's sustainability and marketing manager.

Timbron products are made from 90 percent recycled content, collected in the region. Installing the materials in area buildings closes the local recycling loop, Gadonniex said.

"We really want to get the message out to the local community that Styrofoam is recycling, and it's recycling in Sacramento's backyard," she said.

So far, though, consumers have hesitated about molding that is technically "plastic" and not wood, she said.

Suburban Living

People will continue, as they have for thousands of years, to want to live in the suburban areas of towns for the same reasons even most advocates of urban density living choose to, less crime, more space.

Dan Walters: California growth will lead to more development conflicts
By Dan Walters - dwalters@sacbee.com
Published 12:00 am PDT Sunday, April 6, 2008

California's housing meltdown is wreaking economic and personal havoc, but it won't last forever.

The state's ever-growing population will soak up the now-vacant housing units in a year or two, and home building will resume, driven by the inexorable demand.

Generally speaking, California needs about 200,000 units of new housing – single-family homes, apartments, condos or mobile homes – each year.

During the development lull, however, there's a great debate under way in a variety of venues, from the Capitol to local city councils to academic conferences, over what kind of housing it should be.

Will it be a resumption of the horizontal development that California has traditionally embraced, with new single-family subdivisions creeping outward from core cities and reached by automobile? Or will it be higher-density vertical development like that of Eastern cities (and San Francisco), served by mass transit?

The debate is not new but has gained volume because the advocates of vertical development – what Attorney General Jerry Brown describes as "elegant density" – have a new political lever in global warming.

Brown is waging a crusade for his development vision, something of a throwback to the "small is beautiful" credo he sometimes espoused as governor three decades ago – although his personal commitment is somewhat suspect since he and his wife, citing crime fears, moved from an urban loft in Oakland to a comfortable home in the Oakland hills after he took office last year.

Possible River Drowning Announcement

Man slips, possibly drowns in river
Published 12:00 am PDT Sunday, April 6, 2008

FAIR OAKS – A 23-year-man slipped from rocks on the American River shortly after 2 p.m. Saturday and is presumed to have drowned, according to Sacramento Metro Fire District Assistant Chief Mark Van Brunt.

Van Brunt was on the scene at the San Juan rapids area at about 4:30 p.m. Saturday. He said a rescue team rushed to the river after receiving a call for help. Divers subsequently were summoned to search under water, but were not successful.
Officials are not releasing the man's identity yet.

"He slipped off some rocks trying to hop them and get to some mud islands," Van Brunt said. The man was with a group of friends, who attempted to rescue the man, who was not an able swimmer. But the friends couldn't reach him.

Van Brunt said the group admitted they had been drinking at the river.

– Susan Ferriss

Tahoe Burning

It is obvious to most folks—who don’t bring an ideological approach to the issue—that reducing the fuel available for forest fires is what reduces the damage they can cause and well-targeted logging reduces the fuel.

Assuming that can be accomplished just by thinning around homes (though important) is rightly described, as one news website commenter did, as “woefully misinformed”.

John Brissenden: Picking right trees to cut in Tahoe forest
By John Brissenden - Special to The Bee
Published 12:00 am PDT Saturday, April 5, 2008

When people think of Lake Tahoe, they see crystal blue waters surrounded by green forests – a vision that visitors from around the world come to experience. Decisions being made in the next few weeks could alter that vision, as the temporary California-Nevada Lake Tahoe Fire Commission makes its recommendations on whether to open Tahoe's forests to large-scale logging, build new roads and otherwise "fireproof" the forests in the Tahoe basin.

As owner of an all-season resort just south of Tahoe, my family and our loyal customers have a huge stake in the commission's recommendations. We know, after 26 years of living in the forest, that you can't fireproof the forest. What we can do is reduce the risks on our own property. The commission should be recommending programs to fund fire-safe improvements for residents, not expensive infrastructure to facilitate heavy logging.

Everyone agrees that the forests in the Tahoe basin need to be thinned. The issues are how to go about it and where it will do the most good. Fuels reduction needs to be a priority around homes and less so in forested areas far away from development. The focus needs to be on the small trees and brush that ignite and spread wildfire. The fact is logging projects far away from the urban boundary do little to protect us. Rather than spend millions of state and federal dollars to support the timber industry, we need to spend that money on programs to help homeowners make their residences fire-safe.

The Angora fire report by the U.S. Forest Service stated that a large number of homes burned as a result of blowing embers and heat from nearby buildings – far more than from forest fuels. By protecting homes with fire-wise construction materials and landscaping, homeowners also protect their neighbor. California has instituted new building code standards, requiring new homes to be built using materials that can resist being ignited by embers. The Tahoe Regional Planning Agency should adopt those codes so that the same level of protection is provided to homeowners on the Nevada side of the basin.

Adequate defensible space can determine if a home survives a wildfire – and whether firefighters can defend it. These brave men and women want to save every home, but if the homeowner hasn't done the critical work to remove nearby brush, tree limbs, woodpiles and other sources of ignition, firefighters are forced to pass it by and try to save a home that is defensible. A report, released by the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency in January 2007, showed that less than a third of the homes in the Tahoe basin complied with local defensible space requirements. Every resident, including second homeowners, needs to pay attention to their property year-round to make sure that their property is maintained and defensible.

Rancho Cordova & Rancho Murieta Solar Homes

With the amount of sun we receive, this is a very good move, and one that should be followed by other communities as the solar technology improves and green building becomes more mainstream.

A very good thing for our region.

SMUD, home builder strike deal for 1,487 solar-powered homes
By Jim Wasserman - jwasserman@sacbee.com
Published 12:00 am PDT Saturday, April 5, 2008

A Utah home builder and the Sacramento Municipal Utility District have struck a deal to build 1,487 solar-powered homes in Rancho Cordova and Rancho Murieta by 2012, the parties announced Friday.

The utility calls the agreement with Woodside Homes the nation's largest solar-home project so far, keeping the capital region at the forefront of efforts to power homes with sunlight.

Sacramento receives an average of about 320 days of sunshine a year.

Thirteen months ago SMUD announced a similar deal with Miami-based Lennar Corp. for 1,254 new homes in Sacramento County. That was then called the largest partnership in the country. Lennar last year also reached agreement with Roseville Electric to build 650 solar homes there.

A Woodside official said the deal is a response to demand.

"We have had a steady stream of folks coming to our office asking, 'Are you solar?' " said Brian Cuttings, project manager at Woodside's Sacramento division. "We see there's a definite segment of the market that says you've got to have solar."

More than 1,000 of the homes are proposed for Rancho Cordova subdivisions at Douglas and Grant Line roads. Another 350 are planned in the firm's Sunridge Park subdivisions in Rancho Cordova, and 99 more are scheduled to be built in Rancho Murieta.

Water Wars

The lack of effective leadership, so far, to renew the aging infrastructure of the California water system is becoming dangerous and one hopes the legislature begins to follow the governor’s lead, supported by Senator Feinstein, to start addressing it.

This article is a great overview of the situation.

CAPITOL JOURNAL
There's still no end in sight to California's water wars
George Skelton
Capitol Journal
April 3, 2008

SACRAMENTO — Fortunately, winter snowfall in the Sierra was average. So homes haven't flooded in the Central Valley. Neither is there a drought, at least caused by nature.

There is a court-caused drought, of sorts, because a federal judge is trying to protect a vanishing little fish, the smelt, from being sucked into and chomped up by giant water pumps in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. Consequently, there's a 30% cut in deliveries of southbound water from Northern California.

But this is noticed primarily by San Joaquin Valley farmers.

So although it's fortunate that no swollen rivers have burst their banks or carwashes have been padlocked, it's also unfortunate in a way. Because public pressure is off politicians and water warriors to finally fix California's old, vulnerable plumbing system.

We're getting close to the 50th anniversary of the last time Sacramento achieved anything really significant regarding water development. In 1959, newly elected Gov. Pat Brown cajoled and coerced the Legislature -- and later the voters -- into enacting the then-controversial California Water Project.

That came only after killer floods had inundated Northern California four years earlier. It was the worst flooding in nearly a century. The main culprit was the Feather River, a major tributary of the Sacramento River. The Feather flooded Yuba City and Marysville, killing more than 20 people and floating houses toward San Francisco Bay, 130 miles southwest.

"We must build now and ask questions later," declared state water director Harvey Banks, an exhortation he used in his many speeches selling the water project. The fish-chomping Delta pumping plant later was named after Banks.

Brown formed a coalition of flood-frightened northerners, parched valley farmers and thirsty southerners to build the huge Oroville Dam on the Feather River. He also built the California Aqueduct to deliver water south.

But Brown ran out of money for a third vital piece of the plan: a peripheral canal to funnel Sacramento River water around the fragile, brackish Delta and directly into the southbound aqueduct. Since then, the Delta fishery has tanked -- not just the tiny smelt, but popular salmon and striped bass.

After Brown, Gov. Ronald Reagan also fell short of money and delayed building the canal. Gov. Jerry Brown persuaded the Legislature to reauthorize the big ditch, but an unlikely coalition of rich farmers and skittish environmentalists talked voters into repealing the legislation. Paradoxically, the farmers thought Brown had provided too many protections for the environment while the environmentalists believed he hadn't provided enough.

And that's pretty much where we are today -- except that when these facilities were built, California had 16 million people. Today there are 38 million.

We didn't know back then about global warming reducing the Sierra snowpack and melting it faster, threatening even worse droughts and floods and making water storage even more crucial. And the earthen levees of the Delta mixing bowl weren't crumbling as they are today.

But there still are the same water wars: north versus south. Environmentalists versus developers. Everybody versus farmers. Delta farmers versus valley farmers.

"This issue is more important to the long-term economic viability of California than any other issue, including budget reform," says Steve Merksamer, a political lawyer, former chief of staff to Gov. George Deukmejian and a key player in a recently aborted attempt to sponsor a water bond initiative for the November ballot. "Without water, people die. Forget growth. People will die.

Great Project

In the continuing turn-around of the old Alkali Flats neighborhood, this newest project nears completion.

New life nears for historic Globe Mills building in Alkali Flat
By Edgar Sanchez - esanchez@sacbee.com
Published 12:00 am PDT Thursday, April 3, 2008

Ignoring a sign that warned "Keep out – dangerous building," about 30 people walked into the old Globe Mills in Alkali Flat last week.

All were welcomed by waiting attendants who requested they each sign a waiver of liability releasing the hosts from responsibility in case of a mishap.

The main host was Michael F. Malinowski, the architect whose blueprints are turning the historic mill into 146 stylish rental units at 12th and C streets.

After more than two years of construction, the $40 million project is about 90 percent completed, with 115 of the units destined as affordable senior apartments and 31 as market-rate lofts.

Weintraub on Mayoral Contest

With the recent change in the mayoral office—more money, more power—we will see a more vigorous opportunity for visionary leadership in this race and those of the future; and that is a very good thing.

Daniel Weintraub: Mayor’s race should be debate over city’s future
By Daniel Weintraub - dweintraub@sacbee.com
Published 12:00 am PDT Thursday, April 3, 2008

The race unfolding now for mayor of Sacramento promises to be a contest between a steady but uninspiring incumbent and a young political newcomer with grand hopes and no record in public office. And while the race is nonpartisan, it might also shape up as a campaign between an old vision for the Democratic Party and a new one.

Mayor Heather Fargo is seeking a third term after eight years as mayor and 19 at City Hall, including her years on the City Council. Her strongest challenger will be Kevin Johnson, a former NBA superstar with the Phoenix Suns who returned to his hometown after his basketball career to devote himself to economic development and education in the poor neighborhood in which he grew up.

Fargo is a former state employee who governs like a bureaucrat. She is cautious. She craves consensus. She does not venture far from her prescribed duties as, essentially, chairwoman of the City Council.

Johnson could not be more different. He is impatient. He can be brash. And he is not afraid of confrontation with entrenched interests.

Place Design

Designing to accommodate the peculiarities of the place is not new—in our area the old mission style of home really worked well to beat our heat and with its open to the west, caught the Delta breeze in the evenings—but this one is really cool.

Sustainable design
Coastal Fog Tower harvests Chilean mist

INHABITAT — One of the most promising approaches to sustainable architecture is the design of structures that benefit from the unique profile of their immediate environment.

The Coastal Fog Tower is highly specialized in this approach, utilizing a type of fog unique to Chile called camanchaca.

Standing 400 meters tall, this seaside spire is a cloud-catching marvel that stands to harvest airborne water molecules in the Huasco River valley. Its construction as a stacked weave serves to trap and wick moisture into the tower, while its spiraling structure provides a large surface area that funnels water into the basement.

Gas Reservoir

While certainly seeing the viability and need for above ground storage of natural gas, I can’t see any reason, beyond profit, to restore it below ground anywhere near where people live.

The problems just seem huge.

Bill to protect neighborhood above natural gas reservoir clears Senate panel
By Judy Lin - jlin@sacbee.com
Published 12:00 am PDT Wednesday, April 2, 2008

The state Senate moved Tuesday to help protect a Sacramento neighborhood sitting atop a proposed mile-long natural gas reservoir.

A bill that cleared its first committee hurdle would make the reservoir developer financially responsible to the strictest legal standard should anything happen to the working-class neighborhood of Avondale-Glen Elder in south Sacramento.

Sen. Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, said his Senate Bill 1700 would cover everything from property damage to physical side effects as a result of prolonged exposure to the gas.

"The ordinary standard, when something goes wrong would be negligence, which requires a whole lot of proof and litigation," Steinberg said Tuesday. "This simply says if you are confident that a project won't be of harm to the neighborhood, then you should be comfortable saying you would take on liability if something does go wrong."

Sacramento Natural Gas Storage is seeking permission from the state and city to reopen an underground reservoir to hold up to 8 billion cubic feet of natural gas for clients such as the Sacramento Municipal Utility District. The Florin Gas Field had been pumped dry and its wells sealed years ago.

Although aimed at the local firm, SB 1700's provisions would apply to any corporation operating a natural gas storage facility.

Off Roaders in the Forest

The continuing balancing act between the motorized and non-motorized in the woods evolves, and the more it serves each, while protecting what each treasure, the better for all of us.

Off-roaders lose 1,000 miles of trail in new Eldorado plan
By Matt Weiser - mweiser@sacbee.com
Published 12:00 am PDT Wednesday, April 2, 2008

Off-road enthusiasts will have about 1,000 fewer miles of trails to motor across in the Eldorado National Forest next year.

The Eldorado covers nearly 790,000 acres on the southern flank of Lake Tahoe.

It is one of the most heavily used national forests in America and has seen growing conflict over off-road vehicles in areas also used by hikers and other non-motorized visitors.

Forest managers Tuesday designated an official network of off-road vehicle routes within the forest in hopes of minimizing conflicts and protecting the environment. The action comes after a three-year planning process, triggered by a lawsuit filed by environmentalists in 2002.

The Eldorado plan helped launch a national effort to manage off-roading in federal forests. All U.S. forests are now required to complete such plans. The Eldorado plan is the first for the huge Sierra Nevada region.

Getting there was contentious. More than 6,000 people posted comments during the off-road mapping process.

"What people will have out there is a system of routes they know they can ride on," said forest spokesman Frank Mosbacher. "It does enhance the conservation of the forest environment. It increases the likelihood you'll have more quiet recreation."

The plan appears to be a mixed bag for both environmentalists and off-road enthusiasts.

Parkway Volunteers

Any restrictions, other than the common sense ones of liability and safety, placed on volunteers wanting to help their community, are really corrosive to the common good, and one hopes this kerfuffle soon bites the dust.

Daniel Weintraub: Legislature toying with civic-minded volunteers
By Daniel Weintraub - dweintraub@sacbee.com
Published 12:00 am PDT Tuesday, April 1, 2008

Every fall, the American River Parkway Foundation leads a massive, citizen-powered clean-up of the regional park that brackets the American River from the outskirts of Sacramento to the edge of downtown near the state Capitol. Last year, more than 1,000 volunteers turned out on the third Saturday in September, and working together for just three hours, they removed more than 20,000 pounds of trash.

But if a state law that is set to expire at the end of this year is allowed to go away, the parkway foundation and its good works might also fade into history. The group would no longer be able to rely on the volunteers who are its lifeblood.

Instead, the nonprofit foundation would have to pay anyone who worked on projects financed even in part by taxpayer dollars, including the kind of government grants that help the foundation pay its overhead costs.

It sounds absurd that the state would force a foundation to spend more taxpayer money when it wants to spend less, to pay wages and salaries to people who are eager to work for free. But this is no bureaucratic mix-up.

It is a deliberate policy advocated by the labor unions that are so influential with the Democratic majority in the Legislature. Those unions do a very good job representing their members, and in their eyes, any job done by a citizen volunteer for free is one less job for a worker who might be a member of a union.

Volunteer groups, especially those that use a lot of free labor for environmental projects, thought they had put this issue to rest a few years ago. In 2004, under pressure from Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, the Legislature adopted a fix that exempted volunteers from the wage requirement otherwise associated with government-financed projects. But that exemption was temporary, and it is about to expire. So here we go again.

Taxes for Schools & Other Things

Another poignant reminder of why tax increases, whether for school bonds, property assessments for the Parkway, or other public needs, meet such resistance from a public increasingly skeptical of public leadership’s ability to utilize the new money wisely.

Editorial: What if they build a school and nobody comes?
Board pushes ahead for new high school that only 61 students say they will attend
Published 12:00 am PDT Tuesday, April 1, 2008

The Sacramento City Unified School District board seems hell-bent on opening yet another small high school in September, though only 61 students have committed to attending. At a time when the school district has a $24 million deficit and current high schools are far from full, this is utterly nonsensical.

Even after district staff sent a message and fliers to all 4,000 eighth-graders in the district and made personal visits to every middle and K-8 school, the proposed new small high school has drawn only 61 kids. (Thirteen listed it as a second choice).

Instead of using that lack of interest as a signal to engage in fresh thinking, district staff and the school board are plowing ahead.

On one track, they're proceeding with renovating the Marian Anderson elementary school to turn it into a high school. They have set aside $8 million for this, at the expense of other projects. That may seem affordable, since voters approved $225 million in bonds in 2002 to upgrade existing schools and build new schools. But by 2005, the district had $356 million in proposed projects. With so many needs, voters should be outraged that the district plans to spend money on a school few want.

On a second track, district staff are pursuing the idea of placing the 61 ninth-graders who are interested in the new high school at Kit Carson middle school as a one-year "incubator" while Marian Anderson elementary is being transformed into a high school. To this end, the district is planning to survey parents of the 1,800 seventh- and eighth-graders at Kit Carson and Sutter middle schools, asking them if they would send their child to ninth grade at Kit Carson and continue 10th-12th grade at the renovated Marian Anderson site.

Hydrogen Highway Announcement

SMUD to officially open solar-powered fueling station
By Bill Lindelof - blindelof@sacbee.com
Published 7:06 am PDT Tuesday, April 1, 2008

The Sacramento Municipal Utility District will formally open a solar-powered hydrogen fueling station for fuel-cell vehicles Tuesday near its headquarters on S Street.

The station, a joint venture of SMUD, BP, Ford Motor Company and the U.S. Department of Energy, is designed to demonstrate fuel cell electric vehicles and the generation of hydrogen from alternative resources.

The station produces hydrogen using power from the large solar panels. The solar panels make electricity, an "electrolyzer" uses that energy to separate water into hydrogen to make clean fuel for the vehicles.

The hydrogen will be used in SMUD's own fuel-cell vehicles and similar vehicles owned by others.

The solar panels produce 80 kilowatts of electricity, equivalent to what is needed to power about 40 single-family homes, or enough hydrogen for about 14 fuel-cell vehicles.