Alternative Energy

CleanPowerSF: Sorry, Details Matter

It's great to be granted tacit permission by our colleagues down the hall at the Guardian to cover matters relating to CleanPowerSF. It's not so great, however, to read an article about the city's clean energy program essentially urging readers and reporters alike to pay no attention to the man behi ... More >>

Shuck and Jive: Drakes Bay Oyster Company Forces a Redefinition of Environmentalism

Solar Impulse: Solar-Powered Airplane Makes Safe Landing in Phoenix

All that practice over the Golden Gate really paid off. The solar-powered airplane that departed from the Bay Area on Friday for its cross-country trip landed safely in Arizona where the plane and pilots are reportedly enjoying fame. So far the fuel-less flight has been a success; the plane flew c ... More >>

Solar-Powered Plane Takes Off From Bay Area for Cross-Country Trip

Those of you enviro nerds who have kept up with solar news might have caught sight of the Solar Impulse, the solar-powered airplane gliding over the Golden Gate Bridge a few weeks ago. At the time, it was taking a few practice laps before making its cross-country trip, which began this morning when ... More >>

Grout Expectations: The Central Subway Plan Tries to Compensate for its Shortcomings, but May Just Frack it Up

PG&E "Green Option," a Competitor for CleanPowerSF, Discloses its Terms

PG&E "Green Option" expected to cost far less than tentative CleanPowerSF ratesIn the current edition of SF Weekly, we explore the long-term goal of CleanPowerSF to provide San Francisco with "a local build-out which would supply the city with vast quantities of renewable power, energy independe ... More >>

Power Play: San Francisco's Plan for Clean, Local Energy Lacks One Detail: Everything.

Fracking In Monterey County Blocked -- Temporarily

The land of Steinbeck has more to it than fertile soil from which the nation's spinach and strawberries sprout: The country's biggest supply of shale oil lies below the central California turf.The Monterey Shale extends through most of central California and has as much as 15.4 million barrels of oi ... More >>

"Promised Land": The Message Is the Message

SF Weekly Letters

Boom or Doom: This Environmental Disaster Is No Gold Rush

Public Power: CleanPowerSF Approved By Board of Supervisors

After decades of wrangling, a controversial $19.5 million contract with Shell was moments ago approved by the Board of Supervisors to inaugurate the city's "CleanPowerSF" program. The final vote was 8-3, with only Supervisors Carmen Chu, Sean Eslbernd, and Mark Farrell dissenting. That, incidentally ... More >>

Public Power: Economic Report Says It'd Cost Millions, Lose City Jobs

On Friday afternoon, the city Controller's office released a report on the economic impact facing the city if it chooses to dabble in providing residents with public power. You couldn't time a release better -- if you were hoping no one would read it. And that's too bad. Because, per the controller' ... More >>

Greenpeace Activists Call Apple's iCloud a "Dirty Cloud"

Giant walking iPhones greeted Apple employees as they entered the company's headquarters in Cupertino this morning where Greenpeace activists criticized Apple's iCloud for using "dirty power."Demonstrators stood outside demanding employees and executives stop powering its iCloud using coal-fired pow ... More >>

Mission Pie Goes Solar

Mission Pie, already one of the few restaurants to achieve green certification, just ramped up its sustainability with the installation of rooftop solar panels to provide up to a third of its power. "It keeps getting windier in the Mission. Maybe we should have gone with wind power," joked co-owner ... More >>

Occupy SF, Please Come Pick Up Your Stuff

Um, whoever was occupying this, please come get it. ​Dump trucks swept through Justin Herman Plaza early this morning, collecting all the stuff that protesters left behind after police raided the Occupy SF encampment early this morning. Rest assured, the city has no desire to hang onto any of thes ... More >>

Clean Energy Stimulus Cash Is Slow to Be Spent

Obama Asks San Francisco "Are You In" for 2012?

Are you FB friends with Obama?​After a short and public visit to Facebook in Silicon Valley, President Barack Obama headed up to San Francisco yesterday evening where he drove past the Golden Gate Bridge on his way to the Masonic Center in Nob Hill.  "One of the greatest views in the world," ... More >>

Trendsetter

San Francisco's Clean Power Program Collapses, Starts Over

Electricity never strikes out twice in one place... we hope.​After spending months attempting and failing to negotiate the terms of a new program to provide clean, relatively cheap power to the local citizenry, San Francisco's Public Utilities Commission earlier this month began the process anew w ... More >>

Green Energy Fetches a High Price -- and Many Customers -- in Marin County

The future of Bay Area energy?​As both San Francisco and Marin County struggle to get "community choice aggregation" green-energy plans up and running, one of the big questions on observers' minds is whether electricity consumers will pay more for power from renewable sources such as wind and ... More >>

Standing Up with the Aboriginal Blackmen United

The rabble-rousers of the ABU have helped to achieve local hiring goals.

Labor Dispute Over Solar Panels Heats Up

Members of Aboriginal Blackmen United wait for a meeting with City Administrator Ed Lee​A labor dispute over solar technology is heating up, with one union now considering legal action against the city, and a Bayview worker's group visiting City Hall to demand meetings with top officials.At issue ... More >>

Union Rules Shut Down Solar Farm Construction

Recurrent EnergyNo work today​In the rock-paper-scissors game of progressive political causes, union work rules beat renewable energy AND local hiring mandates, reports The Examiner today. Construction on the behind-schedule, massive Sunset Reservoir Solar Project was halted this week after labore ... More >>

Space Aliens' Cell Phone, TV Banter Still Elusive, Scientists Say

But if E.T. uses an iPhone -- you're fucked​If space aliens ever discover cell phones or cable TV, they'll be able to hide from us forever.That's the verdict of scientists smirking at eccentric billionaire Paul Allen, co-founder of Microsoft. He put up money for the Paul Allen Array, a group of 35 ... More >>

An Eco-Indie Shopping Event

Billionaire Oilman's Traveling Green Energy Road Show Hits S.F.

Daniel KramerT. Boone PickensAs Texas oil tycoon T. Boone Pickens hits San Francisco tonight in his ongoing tour promoting a curtailing of foreign oil imports and a bolstering of domestic clean energy (in which he is invested to the gills), a long, strange article about Pickens' long, strange trip h ... More >>

Neighborhood Group Sues City over Bayview Hunters Point Biodiesel Plant

If a neighborhood group has its way, it may be a while before you see a scene such as this in San FranciscoA Bayview Hunters Point neighborhood group last week filed suit against the city planning department alleging San Francisco trampled environmental laws when it exempted a proposed biodiesel pla ... More >>

Green Scheme

The city's master plan for cleaner energy is fraught with risk. And, like it or not, you're already signed up.

Free Coke

Fortunate Sun

Cooking with Gas

The Tide Is High

Water on the Brain

One energy executive claims a tidal system that meets the city's electric needs could be built in over 20 years, at a cost of $1.5 billion

Whirly Birds

The wind-power entrepreneurs at Kenetech have spent millionsin vain tosolve this avian mystery: Why have hundredsof raptors, including golden eagles, died alongside the windmills of Altamont Pass?