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Day Around the Bay
Well, isn't it interesting that this is happening right after the Board of Supes votes to leave PG&E and pursue Community Choice Energy?
Today, Gavin (Representing the City and County of San Francisco), PG&E, and Golden Gate Energy Company agreed to study harnessing the San Francisco Bay's tides for a greener kind of power. We're talking power that has zero-emissions and is renewable.
The study is slated to last a year and will examine environmental impact, economic feasibility, and other issues regarding the practicality of harnessing energy from natural, highly predictable tide power.
The city is contributing about $350,000; PG&E is putting up about $1.5 million, and Golden Gate Energy's role, according to PG&E's press release, is that it "currently holds key federal regulatory permits necessary to study the San Francisco Bay location" and "will work cooperatively to support the effort." Whatever the hell that means.
Funny enough, it looks like Matier and Ross had the goods on this deal about a year ago.
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I'll save these guys the trouble. The environmental impact of tidal energy includes altering the orbit of the moon. Is there anything in the CEQA about that?
this is friggin great. pg&e is about to get back another billion or two from the crooks that stole it from us during the last fiasco where we tried deregulation and asked to be bent over....
now we are about to walk from them and the rebates/lowest power prices ever
great timing guys
way to prove on an almost daily basis (no pun intended) how far you have your collective heads up your asses
we'll have greener power while we compete with pg&e and i'll still have to avoid gunfire, drive an suv on the unpaved streets, cross the street with my family to avoid the new homeless person per day in my hood, the list goes on...
i think it's really time to recall them all!
Yes, how dare the Supervisors pursue making 51% of San Francisco's energy come from renewable sources! It's not like SF voters support green energy or anything . . . oh wait, we passed Prop H in 2001 to give the Supes the power to issue bonds for renewable energy. And last year over 70% of us voted for Prop 87, the oil company tax. The Supervisors are just reflecting the values of the City.
And what does this have to do with rebates for the deregulation debacle? If PG&E ever offers rebates for 2000-2001, you should get them regardless of where you get your electricity now, right? But do you really trust PG&E with your money? How much of our money are they blowing on those bus shelter ads and annoying flash ads on SFgate telling us how green they are (while leaving out the part about how only 2% of their energy is renewable).
But if you're really into coal and nuclear energy, you'll be free to stick with PG&E. Community Choice Energy isn't mandatory. But I'm sure most of the City will feel good about using renewable energy when given the chance.
Who were the two dissenting votes on the PG&E thing?
The optimist in me would like to think that this is a great step forward in the manner in which we as a society operate. I think the decision by the Board does represent how the vast majority of the residents of the City feel.
That being said this is only a first step, now comes the hard part of actually implementing a system and infrastructure that will support the will of the people… and that is what scares me. In a city where getting a bus to run on time at least 65% of the time (Matty correct me if my stat is wrong) is almost impossible I cringe at the thought of this city’s government getting into the business of power production and distribution. I understand that the financing mechanisms are in place for the Board to act and given the current climate in the capital markets now is as good a time as any to go borrow a wad of cash. But given this group of geniuses’ ability to execute on any action plan, let alone a MAJOR infrastructure project like this I will have to take a wait and see attitude.
Additionally it seems that the City will have to get in bed with a private energy partner to get things accomplished, which only leaves the door open for all sorts of opportunities for SF politicos to wet their beak with their private industry cohorts ala Lennar Homes at Treasure Island and Hunter’s Point. And isn’t Golden Gate Energy just some shell company owned by an Alaskan petroleum baron who swooped in and bought the rights for any tidal power generation development before Gavin and his Democratic lobbyist buddies got the idea to corner that market?
In the end I am left to hold my applause until the first megawatts of power are distributed to my power outlets.
i dont have to say anymore about the incompetance of our board of supervisors and how bad they'll f' this up. we all know.
if you want to save the planet, stop the coal fired power plants in the midwest. they are causing more damage than all the cars in the country combined.
secondly, build nuclear power plants like we should have 20 years ago.
there's not much you can do about your car or the use of 770k people's power here in the city that will help.
get real. focus on the most effective solutions first. this plan, even if ever implemented in our lifetime, will put a band-aid on the hemorrhaging planet.
Just in case your curious. The two supervisors that voted against the the plan to leave PG&E were Alioto-Pier and *drum roll please* Ed Jew..