SanLuisObispo.com: Environment

Chevron is putting solar technologies to the test

Sun, 21 Mar 2010 21:24 PDT

By By TIFFANY HSU -- On a dirt plot near Bakersfield where a massive refinery once churned out gasoline and asphalt, one of the world's largest oil companies is looking for something more green.

On Monday, Chevron Corp. plans to reveal that it has transformed the 8-acre site into a sprawling test facility with 7,700 solar panels. The panels, in various sizes, represent seven cutting-edge photovoltaic technologies from seven companies that Chevron is checking out as possible candidates to power its operations worldwide.

Chevron, which has operations in 100 countries, said it was looking for panels that cost less and are more reliable and efficient than what's available today.

Chevron is putting solar technologies to the test

Sun, 21 Mar 2010 21:24 PDT

By By TIFFANY HSU -- On a dirt plot near Bakersfield where a massive refinery once churned out gasoline and asphalt, one of the world's largest oil companies is looking for something more green.

Chevron, which has operations in 100 countries, said it was looking for panels that cost less and are more reliable and efficient than what's available today.

Scientists suspect El Nino is to blame in surge of starving sea lion pups

Sun, 21 Mar 2010 21:24 PDT

By By TONY BARBOZA -- Marine mammal centers along the Southern California coast have been inundated with starving sea lion pups, the latest calamity to befall marine life and a pattern scientists believe could be tied to El Nino climate conditions.

Since January, the Pacific Marine Mammal Center in Laguna Beach has rescued at least 27 emaciated sea lion pups that washed up stranded on the Orange County coast - a three- to fourfold increase from the norm, said Dr. Richard Evans, the center's medical director.

The pups, most under 6 months old, have gone without food for so long they've started digesting their blubber and muscle to keep themselves warm in the chilly Pacific waters, biologists say. Their eyes bulge, and their skin hangs loosely over protruding spines, hipbones and ribs.

Timing of essence in tuna vote, and Japan is beneficiary

Sat, 20 Mar 2010 20:07 PDT

By By SATOSHI KOREEDA, IZURU JITSUMORI AND TOSHIYUKI FUKUSHIMA -- An unlikely ally and impeccable timing helped Japan snatch an unlikely victory from the jaws of defeat in Doha, Qatar, at an international trade meeting.

While early projections pointed to the easy passage of a proposal to ban the export of Atlantic bluefin tuna - a result that would have stung Japan as the main importer of the prized fish - some shrewd behind-the-scenes maneuvering set the stage for the proposal's demise.

The beginning of the end for the proposal led by Monaco and the European Union was triggered by an outburst from the Libyan delegate at the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, or CITES.

Report calls for more study in California's San Joaquin Delta battle

Fri, 19 Mar 2010 23:11 PDT

By By BETTINA BOXALL -- Any hope that a panel of scientists would end the brawl over environmental restrictions in the hub of California's water system evaporated as warring factions each found ammunition in a report released Friday.

Charged with evaluating the basis of federal fish protections that are limiting the pumping of water supplies from Northern California's Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, the National Academy of Sciences committee concluded the protections were on the whole scientifically justified.

"In no case did we say these did not have a scientific underpinning," said committee Chairman Robert Huggett, professor emeritus at the Virginia Institute of Marine Sciences at the College of William and Mary.

Sequoias tell tale of drought and fire 3,000 years ago

Fri, 19 Mar 2010 06:49 PDT

By By MARK SOMERSON -- Researchers have gone back 3,000 years in time to study the conditions of California's Sierra Nevada area.

To do this, they looked at 52 of the world's oldest trees and found that they contained a history of the area that showed droughts and fires from 800 to 1300.

University of Arizona scientists dated fire scars on ancient giant sequoia trees, Sequoiadendron giganteum, in the Giant Forest of Sequoia National Park.

Water restrictions to California farms justified' but need more study, report says

Thu, 18 Mar 2010 17:29 PDT

By By MICHAEL DOYLE -- Controversial cuts in water deliveries to farms in California's San Joaquin Valley appear to be "scientifically justified" but still in need of further study, elite scientists have concluded in a report to be issued Friday.

In a politically sensitive study, the National Research Council determined two federal agencies had a "sound conceptual basis" for their actions protecting Chinook salmon, delta smelt and other endangered fish. The conclusion undercuts a common farmer criticism.

But the 65-page report may give some ammunition, as well, to those skeptical of water delivery restrictions imposed by the Fish and Wildlife Service and National Marine Fisheries Service.

Mideast envoy resuming his trip

Thu, 18 Mar 2010 22:59 PDT

By By PAUL RICHTER -- The Obama administration announced Thursday that its Middle East peace envoy is headed to the region this weekend to resume consultations that had been suspended earlier in the week over a diplomatic dispute with Israel.

The resumption of the trip by envoy George J. Mitchell indicated possible progress in talks between U.S. and Israeli officials after a conflict followed Israel's announcement last week of a new housing project in disputed East Jerusalem, a step taken as Vice President Joe Biden was visiting the country to promote peace talks with Palestinians.

The announcement about Mitchell's trip followed a phone call Thursday between Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Philip Crowley, the chief State Department spokesman, did not provide details of the call.

Monarch butterflies at lowest population levels in decades

Thu, 18 Mar 2010 18:24 PDT

By By BILL HANNA -- Monarch butterflies, hit hard by strong storms at their winter home in Mexico, have dwindled to their lowest population levels in decades as they begin to return to Texas on their springtime flight back to the United States and Canada.

The monarch loss is estimated at 50 to 60 percent and means the breeding population flying northward is expected to be the smallest since the Mexican overwintering colonies were discovered in 1975, said Chip Taylor, a professor of entomology and director of Monarch Watch at the University of Kansas.

"I think it is very clear that the butterflies lost more than half of the population," Taylor said. "I'm hoping it wasn't as high as 70 or 80 percent. We've never seen it this bad before."

New protections denied for polar bears, bluefin tuna

Thu, 18 Mar 2010 14:34 PDT

By By RENEE SCHOOF -- A U.N. organization that regulates wildlife trade voted Thursday against bans on hunting polar bears threatened by shrinking Arctic ice and on fishing for the Atlantic bluefin tuna, a species that can grow to nearly 1,400 pounds and is prized in Japan for sushi and sashimi.

The U.S. government backed both proposals at a meeting of the 175-nation Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species in Doha, Qatar.

U.S. officials argued that polar bears shouldn't be hunted for commercial trade because they already were threatened by melting sea ice caused by global warming. Canada allows a hunt for polar bears for trade in their pelts and other body parts and for trophy hunting.

Endangered species dilemma: Protect whales or salmon they eat?

Thu, 18 Mar 2010 05:04 PDT

By By LES BLUMENTHAL -- When it comes to dinner, Puget Sound's killer whales show no respect for international boundaries.

It's long been known that their favorite meal is Chinook salmon. However, using new genetic tests on the orcas' feces, and fish tissue and scales taken from the waters near where the whales are feasting, scientists say that as much as 90 percent of the Chinook they eat are from Canada's Fraser River.

Though the dietary habits of killer whales may not seem like a big deal, the orcas and various salmon species are protected on both sides of the border. Efforts to revive endangered species that share the same ecosystem can become intertwined.

Drive started for ballot measure to suspend California's greenhouse gas law

Wed, 17 Mar 2010 23:09 PDT

By By DENIS CUFF -- WALNUT CREEK, Calif. - A backlash against efforts in California and Congress to rein in greenhouse gas emissions is brewing in economic hard times.

A coalition of businesses - including two San Francisco Bay Area oil refiners - and an anti-tax group has begun a signature drive for a November ballot initiative that would suspend California's pioneering law to combat global warming until the jobless rate drops back to 2006 levels.

Supporters of California's law, including Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, say the initiative would cripple the state's emerging clean energy industry.

Report: Many power plants emitting more mercury

Wed, 17 Mar 2010 16:10 PDT

By By RENEE SCHOOF -- Many of America's coal-fired power plants lack widely available pollution controls for the highly toxic metal mercury, and mercury emissions recently increased at more than half of the country's 50 largest mercury-emitting power plants, according to a report Wednesday.

The nonpartisan Environmental Integrity Project reported that five of the 10 plants with the highest amount of mercury emitted are in Texas. Plants in Georgia, Missouri, Alabama, Pennsylvania and Michigan also are in the top 10.

The report, which used the most recent data available from the Environmental Protection Agency, found that mercury emissions increased at 27 of the top 50 plants from 2007 to 2008. Overall, power plant emissions of mercury decreased 4.7 percent in that timeframe, but that amount was far less than what would be possible with available emissions controls, the report said.

Report: Mercury emissions climb at many large coal-fired power plants

Wed, 17 Mar 2010 16:10 PDT

Five of the 10 plants with the highest amount of mercury emitted are in Texas, according to the nonpartisan Environmental Integrity Project. Plants in Georgia, Missouri, Alabama, Pennsylvania and Michigan also are in the top 10.

The report, which used the most recent data available from the Environmental Protection Agency, found that mercury emissions increased at 27 of the top 50 plants from 2007 to 2008. Overall, power plant emissions of mercury decreased 4.7 percent in that period, but that amount was far less than what would be possible with available emissions controls, the report said.

Web site aims to simplify solar-panel purchase with free quote, design

Wed, 17 Mar 2010 05:15 PDT

By By DANA HULL -- SAN JOSE, Calif. - American consumers regularly purchase everything from electronics to music to plane tickets online. But buying a solar system for your house? That requires research, arranging time for multiple contractors to come out and measure your roof, and comparing bids.

Until now.

Sungevity, an Oakland, Calif., startup founded in 2007, is the first solar company to shift the bulk of the sales experience online. The Web-based process, which provides aerial photographs of your house outfitted with solar panels and a firm price quote within 24 hours, is designed to make going solar fast and easy, as well as more affordable.