Energy Technology

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

Lt. Governor Gavin Newsom Gets Overwhelmed by Two Meetings

It's not news that Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom has not a thing to do up there in Sacramento, a city that he himself has said is boring. But you know what is news: Newsom finally had something to do -- and didn't do it!On Monday, Newsom's morning included showing up to a meeting and casting a vo ... More >>

Occupy, Environmentalists Say No to Nukes

San Franciscans found yet another reason to protest PG&E.Yesterday, on the anniversary of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, OccupySF Environmental Justice Working Group, No Nukes Action and Greenaction for Health as well as Environmental Justice gathered in front of the Japanese Consulate ... 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 >>

Occupy Bohemian Grove: Protesters Bond at Creation of Care

Green Facade: New SFPUC Building Masks an Eco-Unfriendly Truth

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 >>

Who Hates Smart Meters? Glen Park Residents

It's been a while since we've seen any good sparring over the contentious so-called smart meter, but apparently strong sentiments are circulating in parts of the city. A kind and anonymous reader passed along this photo that's being posted around homes in Noe Valley and Glen Park neighborhoods, wher ... More >>

Clean Energy Stimulus Cash Is Slow to Be Spent

Report Touting Prop. 23 'Simply Nonsense' -- Stanford Prof

Matt SmithHere's what we'll do, y'see: We'll put out crazy-assed think-tank reports, and see if people believe 'em.​The Pacific Research Institute bills itself as a think tank that champions freedom, opportunity, and personal responsibility by advancing free-market policy solutions. But judging fr ... More >>

Who cares about gas lines? Worry about killer cellphone radiation

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 >>

Boycott of Alberta Urged By San Francisco's 'Corporate Ethics.' Canadians Pissed, Eh?

That's not maple syrup​Corporate Ethics International, a rabble-rousing San Francisco environmental nonprofit, on Thursday launched a campaign urging a boycott of Alberta in protest of the Canadian province's oil sands petroleum extraction project. The group has erected a billboard in Seattle comp ... More >>

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 >>

Smoked Out: City Announces Plans to Close Mirant Power Plant -- This Time, Definitely!

Going, going, gone​The final word is in: after more than a decade of activism and negotiations, the Mirant Power Plant will be closing for good by the end of 2010. "There was really no need to have these dirty power plants continue to exist in San Francisco," City Attorney Dennis Herrera tol ... More >>

Local Eco-Conference Swaps Press Passes for Ad Placement

Being forced to trade adspace for media coverage of an event is not the current journalistic norm. Sadly, it may become commonplace in the future.​ In the impending newspaperless world dreaded by journalists, and glowingly touted by futurists, we'll all be glorified ad-salespeople, burnishing our ... More >>

No Smoking: City Attorney Announces Settlement to Shut Mirant Potrero Power Plant 'Irrevocably' By 2010

Joe EskenaziCity Attorney Dennis Herrera delivers the big news, backed by (from left) PUC head Ed Harrington, Supervisor Sophie Maxwell, and former Board of Supes President Aaron Peskin​The answer has been revealed to the "mystery settlement" announced yesterday by City Attorney Dennis Herrera ... More >>

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 >>

PG&E Steals SF Activists' Thunder -- Make That Sunlight -- With New Solar Power Plan

David BlaikieMore attractive than ever.San Francisco-based utility Pacific Gas & Electric Co. announced yesterday that it will be undertaking a $1.5 billion project to produce more solar energy for its customers throughout the state. The initiative, which includes plans to build new solar-power ... 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.

"You Go Down to Moscone Convention Facilities. It's Compostable." And Other Gavin Newsom Environmental Insights from the State of the City Address

Does Gavin Newsom turn into Stalin when the moon is full? By Benjamin Wachs (This is State of the Citysode III: The Environment. Click here for Part II: Education, and Part 1: Health Care) 00:00 - Gavin begins philosophically. "I like to say that the world's consumption is the sum of all loc ... More >>

The Eyes Have It

Cheryl Meeker's show about the effects of nuclear dust requires more than passive viewing.

Fortunate Sun

November ballot measures promise eco-confusion

Public Power Grab

Why some "progressives" are putting energy into a bad idea.

Cooking with Gas

San Francisco Taxi Rates To Rise Pending Health Care Plan: SFGovernmentInAction

Hemp and Housing

Shuck, Swallow, Repeat

Eat the good life

First SF Weekly Sharpie Literary Awards

DISCUSSED IN THIS REVIEW: Cons, Scams & Grifts, 2001, Mysterious Press, Confidence, 2003, Lion's Gate Films What Should I Do With My Life?, 2002, Random House

Nuclear, Dude

When it comes to terrorism and U.S. atomic power plants, we may as well put Homer Simpson in charge

Mirant's Morass

The plan to build a massive new power plant in San Francisco -- once thought inevitable -- hits a few snags

The New Economy

The road to Punta Abreojos is paved with hollow intentions

Some People Have All the Luck

And then there's developer Michael Strausz

Letters to the Editor

Power Point;The Chronicle Chronicles;Outlawing Landlords and Other Amusements

Power Politics

Two major S.F. energy projects are in the works. Do we need both? The question isn't really being discussed.

Gray Skies

If Gov. Davis has his way, California soon will have dozens of new power plants -- a lot of them in the wrong places, some of them unnecessary, and very, very few of them based on renewable energy

"They're Hijacking Our Rally!"

Opponents of the Potrero Hill power plant expansion could use a lesson in organization.

Contract Killings

How the state's contracts with crucial electric power providers actually encourage them to gouge us

Russian Roulette

The Western Pacific gray whale, once thought extinct, clings to life in a remote Siberian sea. Biologists fear their research is serving as cover for massive oil drilling that could wipe out this lost tribe once and for all.

MUD in Your Eye

A small group wants to foist a municipal utility district on the city without evidence its version of "public power" will work. Demand evidence.

Letters to the Editor

Letters from January 10, 2001

Power Politics

Why a retreat from electricity deregulation is a victory for PG&E, and a loss for you and me

Unlocking the Secrets of Fusion

PG&E Is All Charged Up

The S.F.-based utility embarks on a nationwide buying spree

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?