Tag Archives: california

Bumps on the road to EV infrastructure in California

by Myrna Posted on December 4, 2012

Bumps on the road to EV infrastructure in California

By Susie Cagle

About a third of the electric cars in the U.S. are spinning on California roads, but the state still has much work to do to build the charging infrastructure to support them.

drwhimsy

There are about 1,000 public chargers in the state right now, and New Jersey-based NRG is poised to install 200 fast chargers and the wiring for 10,000 more regular chargers throughout the state by 2016. A fast charger can juice up a vehicle in as little as 15 minutes, while the regular kind can take hours. But building up the infrastructure isn’t simple, as KQED reports:

Still, a multitude of challenges face NRG and other charging companies, like Bay Area-based ChargePoint andEcotality. Fast chargers produce very high voltage. They require complicated permitting. And they cost upward of $40,000 each.

Right now, the financials don’t add up says NRG’s Terry O’Day.

“The public charging infrastructure is extraordinarily expensive and there aren’t enough cars right now so there isn’t an effective business model to make the investment work,” he says.

But that charging investment is vital if more Californians are going to start buying and driving electric cars.

John O’Dell, Senior Editor at Edmunds.com says for electric cars to catch on its vital to have a reliable charging network.

“Public charging infrastructure is critical to the widespread acceptance of plug-in and particularly battery electric vehicles. Because without public chargers you basically have a fairly short leash on your vehicle and you are not going to be willing to drive it long distances.”

To complicate matters, companies have developed competing charging standards. E.g., you can’t just charge your Tesla at any old charger — it has to be a proprietary Tesla charger. The CEO of one Silicon Valley charging company describes the whole situation as “somewhat of a mess.”

Still, what the state might lack in competence in makes up for in enthusiasm. Despite all the problems, the number of fast chargers is California is expected to quadruple over the next year.

Susie Cagle writes and draws news for Grist. She also writes and draws tweets for

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Bumps on the road to EV infrastructure in California

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Controversial California oyster farm returned to wilderness

by Myrna Posted on November 30, 2012

Controversial California oyster farm returned to wilderness

By Susie Cagle

How sustainable are California oysters? Trick question: not sustainable enough, apparently.

OrinZebest

A years-long battle over an oyster farm at Point Reyes National Seashore north of San Francisco ended this week in the farm’s definite closure. The 70-plus-year-old Drakes Bay Oyster Company will be forced to vacate the area before year’s end, turning it over in full to a colony of seals, who are adorable but kind of indifferent to all the people losing their jobs before the holidays.

The seashore area was added to the national parks system in 1962. Ten years later, a 40-year lease was granted to the oyster farm, with the understanding that it would then be returned from “potential wilderness” to the actual kind. The farm had been seeking a 10-year extension of its lease, but the feds decided to stick to the original plan.

Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar announced the decision yesterday. The Marin Independent Journal reports on reactions:

“This is going to be devastating to our families, our community and our county,” [oyster farm owner Kevin] Lunny said. “This is wrong beyond words in our opinion.” …

The oyster farm has outspoken supporters, Sen. Dianne Feinstein among them.

“I am extremely disappointed that Secretary Salazar chose not to renew the operating permit for the Drakes Bay Oyster Co.,” Feinstein said. …

Sierra Club Executive Director Michael Brune lauded the decision.

“We’re thrilled that after three decades this amazing piece of Point Reyes National Seashore will finally receive the protections it deserves,” he said. “Once the oyster factory operations are removed, as originally promised … this estuary will quickly regain its wilderness characteristics and become a safe haven for marine mammals, birds and other sea life.”

But how bad are the oysters for the adorable, indifferent seals, anyway? The science is not clear, as The New York Times reported last year:

“I don’t think the mariculture operation is incompatible with an objective of having a healthy population of harbor seals in Drakes Estero,” wrote Peter Boveng of the National Marine Fisheries Service.

His colleague Sean Hayes suggested that removing the oysters, which filter the estero’s water, could lead to a harmful accumulation of seal feces. “Attention needs to be placed on whether current mariculture is providing an ecosystem service to the Drakes Estero ecosystem today,” he wrote.

And, citing examples of harbor seals’ living placidly alongside oyster and crab operations elsewhere, Steven Jeffries of the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife wrote, “There is really no reason why oyster farming and harbor seals cannot coexist in a healthy and productive Drakes Estero ecosystem.”

But the necessary collaborative work between the parks service and the farm would, a report concluded, “not be a simple trivial matter.” More than a dozen other farms still operate in the Point Reyes park area — as more leases expire, we may find out just how not simple and not trivial these matters truly are. At least we have these guys.

arbabi

Susie Cagle writes and draws news for Grist. She also writes and draws tweets for

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Controversial California oyster farm returned to wilderness

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California’s Central Valley is tired of taking Los Angeles’ shit

by Myrna Posted on November 26, 2012

California’s Central Valley is tired of taking Los Angeles’ shit

By Philip Bump

From the Los Angeles Times:

Los Angeles’ land in Kern County features a red barn and a sign: “Green Acres Farm.” The city’s website proudly describes the corn, alfalfa and oats that are grown there.

Hey, sounds nice! Except:

[T]he city of Los Angeles … has been sending up more than 20 truckloads a day of “wet cake” from the Hyperion Sewage Treatment Plant near LAX. …

Most experts say recycled products such as sludge and compost are safe if handled properly. But Kern County officials filed court declarations from scientists who are skeptical. Portland State University engineer Gwynn Johnson, for instance, said research shows that biosolids contain metals, antibiotics and flame retardants, and that more study is needed to determine the implications for “human health and the environment.”

Residents tend to focus on the “ick” factor.

Ronald Hurlbert, who owned property near one sludge operation that at one point received waste from Orange County, said the odor was “virtually unbearable (like a well-used bathroom at LAX),” according to a sworn declaration filed in court by Kern County officials.

vmiramontes

As it drives through Kern County, this RV will also be leaving behind its sludge.

At issue: Los Angeles’ endless supply of solid waste. Not, you know, garbage. Waste. Much of which is shipped north from the city every day into California’s agricultural heartland, the Central Valley — where it is increasingly unwelcome. This is the downside to recycling: Sometimes, no one wants to do (or live near) the dirty work.

One of the most bitter battles in California is over sludge, the batter-like material left over after treatment plants finish cleaning and draining what is flushed down the toilet or washed down the sink.

“Batter-like.” Let that one marinate in your brain for a while. Until the ’80s, the poo-batter was dumped in the ocean — until someone figured out that dumping lightly processed feces into the sea was a form of pollution.

Kern County voters passed a ballot measure in 2006 banning sludge from entering the county. Los Angeles sued. While the dispute remains unresolved in the courts, Los Angeles is allowed to keep using Kern County as its toilets’ toilet.

And there’s more to come for the Central Valley.

Meanwhile, Los Angeles County announced that it had purchased 14,500 acres in Kings County — also in the Central Valley — where it would be allowed to send hundreds of thousands of tons of sludge and yard waste.

Some material could start arriving at the end of next year.

Source

Central Valley residents tire of receiving L.A.’s urban waste, Los Angeles Times

Philip Bump writes about the news for Gristmill. He also uses Twitter a whole lot.

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California’s Central Valley is tired of taking Los Angeles’ shit

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