Green buildings are the wave of the future. And our local schools are catching that wave with students from Arcata and McKinleyville high schools Humboldt Regional Occupational Program building trades construction class involved in the planning, design and every phase of the building process of a just-completed green home in McKinleyville. The kids and their […]
Energy Industry
Posted inNews
Wall Street Journal Goes After Blue Lake Biomass Plant
A story in today’s Wall Street Journal (dateline: BLUE LAKE, Calif.) offers a withering indictment of biomass energy plants, with Blue Lake’s own serving as exhibit A. The story opens on the “malodorous brown smoke” that billowed from the plant two years ago (Heidi Walters wrote about it shortly afterward) and goes on to suggest […]
Posted inNews
Shell Out
Well, looks like that pretty ridge view is safe from those nasty turbines now. This from Shell: Shell exits Bear River Ridge Wind Project We would like to inform you that Shell WindEnergy Inc. has decided to exit the Bear River Wind Project due to unfavorable market conditions and issues pertaining to the transportation logistics. […]
Posted inNews
“This Is the Future”
It’s finally complete. After years of operating a state-of-the-art alternative energy lab in a collection of dilapidated buildings in the back of Humboldt State’s now-empty University Annex, the Schatz Energy Research Center moved into its new digs on Friday, celebrating with the grand opening with the requisite speeches and an open house. The brand new […]
Posted inNews
Fire at PG&E Plant, Utility Asks Users to Conserve
[UPDATE: The power plant was reactivated by 6 p.m. Wednesday night.] A fire broke out around 2:10 this afternoon at Pacific Gas and Electric’s Humboldt Bay Generating Station. It was quickly extinguished, and the cause remains under investigation, according to a release from PG&E. At the request of the fire department, all power-generating units at […]
Posted inNews
Thompson’s Earmark Wish List
Rep. Mike Thompson, our perennial squeaky wheel in the U.S. Congress, has requested $387 million from the federal gubmint for 128 projects including: $80 million to restore salmon habitats $5 million to widen Hwy. 299 for big semis (do the Richardson Grovies know about this?) $5 million for St. Joseph Hospital’s new tower construction $3.9 […]
Posted inArts + Scene
Two Crows Electrocuted
The power outage in part of Arcata this morning (including the Journal office) was caused by a pair of crows shorting out a transformer according to PG&E spokesperson Jana Morris, who called KHUM in response to an inquiry from DJ Mike Dronkers. Since there were two crows, Dronkers surmised that the electrocution was perhaps related […]
Posted inNews
Mr. Bohner in the WSJ
Beautifully bearded rock god /green handiman/all-around nice guy Steve Bohner makes a surprise appearance in today’s Wall Street Journal , giving expert testimony on the solar hot-water systems industry. Bohner, who owns Arcata’s Alchemy Construction Inc., even throws down some righteous rock ‘n’ roll attitude on those Wall Street fat cats: He bristles a bit […]
Posted inNews
Offshore drilling in Humboldt?
Renewable energy may be the top priority for the Department of the Interior — and so says Department Secretary Ken Salazar — but that doesn’t mean offshore drilling is off the table. The DOI’s Minerals Managment Service will hold a public meeting April 16 at the UC San Francisco Mission Bay campus to talk about […]
Posted inNews
Whoa There, Wildcat
The AP reports that Interior Secretary Ken Salazar is dumping ye old Bush plan to open up areas of the Outer Continental Shelf in the Atlantic and the Pacific previously off limits to oil and gas drilling. A good portion of these virgin waters lie off of California. It’s not that Salazar is against expanding […]
Posted inNews
Arcata Whoops Feds
Well, all of you sniggerers who like to put down Arcata for meddling in distant world affairs when it ought to be attending to its own potholes, here’s your comeuppance: Our favorite anklebiter city may have just helped shape future world energy development. Two settlement agreements were filed last Friday in the U.S. District Court […]