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"content": "\u003cp>Civilian nuclear power plants came on line in the mid-1950s before most of us were born. Yet in all the years since then, there has never been a permanent place to keep their highly radioactive wastes. The resulting technological constipation was supposed to be solved with a repository carved into the volcanic rocks of Yucca Mountain in southern Nevada. As geologists got into the details, the worrisome part of Yucca Mountain turned out to be not rock, but water leakage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We think of rock as strong, permanent material, and we tend to think the best rock should be the strongest. The U.S. and other nations have sought to keep their wastes in deep, crystalline rocks like granite. But we are misled by the presence of rocky mountains and the impregnable facades of bank buildings. The hardest rock, in geological reality, is highly fractured stuff because with strength comes brittleness. Tests at Yucca Mountain showed that some of the cracks in its volcanic rocks could have allowed rainwater to trickle down to the storage levels in a mere 50 years—this in a facility that by law is supposed to keep things safe not just for 10,000 years, but a million. That was all the scientific evidence needed to reinforce the stiff political opposition to Yucca Mountain, and by the time the Obama administration told Congress in 2009 that the project was off the table, it was all over but the shouting.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now a government hydrologist, \u003ca href=\"http://profile.usgs.gov/ceneuzil\">Christopher Neuzil\u003c/a>, uses his knowledge of groundwater to make a case instead for shale. The best metric for a waste repository rock is not its strength, he says, but its impermeability—resistance to water. This argument changes the game dramatically.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_6044\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/07/shaletop.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-6044\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/07/shaletop.jpg\" alt=\"Shale, Lake Berryessa\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" class=\"size-full wp-image-6044\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Shale of the Great Valley Sequence, Lake Berryessa\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Shale, for our purposes, is rock that is primarily clay. Because geologists are choosy about what they call shale, Neuzil uses “shale” as shorthand for “argillaceous formations” (\u003ca href=\"http://geology.about.com/od/more_sedrocks/qt/About-Mudrocks.htm\">mudrocks and claystones\u003c/a>). Water has a very difficult time moving through it. A lot of specialists don’t like shale: water-well drillers find it unproductive; geotechnical engineers hate to deal with its poor strength; miners consider it waste rock; road builders must take special care in it. On the other hand, shale is good for municipal landfills and for wetlands precisely because it’s so impermeable. Thick beds of shale are what keeps “fracked” oil and gas separate from drinking-water supplies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Neuzil’s publically readable paper, “\u003ca href=\"http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/2013EO300001/pdf\">Can Shale Safely Host U.S. Nuclear Waste?\u003c/a>” is in this week’s issue of \u003ci>Eos\u003c/i>, the house organ of the American Geophysical Union. In it he points out an interesting peculiarity of shale: in many places it has different groundwater pressure than the surrounding rocks. In some places the shale has excess groundwater pressure; in others it’s actually negative—the rock would suck up more water if it could but it’s too impermeable. Imagine a waste repository in a place like that where water moves inward rather than outward.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The deeper significance of these anomalies is that they represent really, really long-term natural experiments. For instance, Neuzil describes a shale formation at the Bruce Nuclear Complex in Ontario where the hydraulic head is 400 meters lower than in the rock just 200 meters above it. The explanation is that the Ice Age glaciers there squeezed groundwater out of the shale, but in the roughly 10,000 years since the glaciers melted the groundwater has barely been able to start moving back. An overpressured shale body, on the other hand, could be holding its groundwater from a time millions of years earlier before erosion removed the rocks above it. These examples suggest how well this kind of rock can seal things off.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_6045\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 519px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/07/shalewater.png\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-6045\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/07/shalewater.png\" alt=\"Groundwater pressures\" width=\"519\" height=\"305\" class=\"size-full wp-image-6045\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Depth profiles of groundwater pressure, measured as head relative to sea level (h), at four shale sites (dark gray). The two North American sites are underpressured and the two European sites are overpressured. Modified from \u003ca href=\"http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/2013EO300001/pdf\">Neuzil (Eos, 2013)\u003c/a>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Similarly, Neuzil notes, shale blocks the movement of chemicals. Drill cores show that natural chemicals like chloride ions and hydrogen isotopes move through shale only a few centimeters per thousand years. Pure molecular diffusion, without any movement of water at all, is enough to account for that. These lines of evidence show that shale could very well meet the million-year criterion for waste repositories.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Is there enough shale to handle our nuclear waste? Neuzil says that “the United States is in an enviable position with respect to the scale and sheer diversity in age, history, composition, and thickness of argillaceous formations within its borders.” It opens up the possibility of smaller, more localized repositories that share the national burden more widely. Politically, it means the states wouldn’t need to gang up on Nevada again. Scientifically, it means that more research into the details of shale would be a very fruitful public investment.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The deeper significance of these anomalies is that they represent really, really long-term natural experiments. For instance, Neuzil describes a shale formation at the Bruce Nuclear Complex in Ontario where the hydraulic head is 400 meters lower than in the rock just 200 meters above it. The explanation is that the Ice Age glaciers there squeezed groundwater out of the shale, but in the roughly 10,000 years since the glaciers melted the groundwater has barely been able to start moving back. An overpressured shale body, on the other hand, could be holding its groundwater from a time millions of years earlier before erosion removed the rocks above it. These examples suggest how well this kind of rock can seal things off.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_6045\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 519px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/07/shalewater.png\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-6045\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/07/shalewater.png\" alt=\"Groundwater pressures\" width=\"519\" height=\"305\" class=\"size-full wp-image-6045\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Depth profiles of groundwater pressure, measured as head relative to sea level (h), at four shale sites (dark gray). The two North American sites are underpressured and the two European sites are overpressured. Modified from \u003ca href=\"http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/2013EO300001/pdf\">Neuzil (Eos, 2013)\u003c/a>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Similarly, Neuzil notes, shale blocks the movement of chemicals. Drill cores show that natural chemicals like chloride ions and hydrogen isotopes move through shale only a few centimeters per thousand years. Pure molecular diffusion, without any movement of water at all, is enough to account for that. These lines of evidence show that shale could very well meet the million-year criterion for waste repositories.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Is there enough shale to handle our nuclear waste? Neuzil says that “the United States is in an enviable position with respect to the scale and sheer diversity in age, history, composition, and thickness of argillaceous formations within its borders.” It opens up the possibility of smaller, more localized repositories that share the national burden more widely. Politically, it means the states wouldn’t need to gang up on Nevada again. Scientifically, it means that more research into the details of shale would be a very fruitful public investment.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "As World's Largest Solar Thermal Plant Opens, California Looks to End Solar Wars",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"audio-wrap\">\n\u003ch2>Listen:\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>http://www.kqed.org/.stream/anon/radio/science/2013/07/2013-07-15-science.mp3\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\n\u003cp>[gallery type=\"slideshow\" link=\"file\" ids=\"5477,5479,5480,5478,5482,5481,5484\" width=\"640\"]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a few weeks, the largest solar plant of its kind in the world will start producing power in California’s Mojave Desert. The \u003ca href=\"http://ivanpahsolar.com/\">Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System\u003c/a> will supply both Northern and Southern California, inching the state one step closer to its ambitious renewable energy goal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But like many of the large solar projects being built in the Mojave, Ivanpah ran into delays and controversy over its environmental impact. Now, in an effort to streamline the process, state officials are trying to broker an agreement between conservation groups and solar companies on a path forward for renewable energy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ivanpah doesn’t use the solar technology most of us think of – those dark, silicon panels sitting on rooftops. The project harnesses the sun’s heat, reflecting off a field of 170,000 mirrors. They shimmer across a dry, dusty valley about five miles away from the California-Nevada state line, surrounding three 400-foot concrete towers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We can keep the sun’s energy – the rays of the sun – targeted back to the solar tower,” said Dave Beaudoin, construction manager for the $2.2 billion project, originally developed by Oakland-based \u003ca href=\"http://www.brightsourceenergy.com/\">BrightSource Energy\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The garage door-sized mirrors focus the heat on giant boilers on top of the towers, where water turns into steam. That steam powers a turbine that generates electricity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is definitely cutting-edge,” Beaudoin said. “It’s nothing I’ve ever done before.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/audio/as-worlds-largest-solar-thermal-plant-opens-california-looks-to-end-solar-wars/solar_power_640/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-5532\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-5532\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/07/solar_power_640.jpg\" alt=\"solar_power_640\" width=\"640\" height=\"343\">\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ivanpah will supply about 140,000 homes in Pacific Gas & Electric and Southern California Edison territories when it comes fully online by the end of the year. But getting to that finish line has been a rough road for the project.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It took several years to get permits from almost a dozen state, federal and local agencies. The project became political fodder after getting a $1.6 billion federal loan guarantee, like the bankrupt solar company Solyndra. And then there’s the desert tortoise – the controversy that’s made Ivanpah famous.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I didn’t have gray hairs before this project,” said Doug Davis, senior compliance manager for the project. Davis is looking at large mesh enclosures outside the field of mirrors, what he calls “Tortoise Head Start.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The Head Start facility is mainly for the small guys,” Davis said. “Their shells are very soft, so very susceptible to ravens.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_5585\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 350px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/07/IMG_1505.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-5585\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-5585\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/07/IMG_1505.jpg\" alt=\"A desert tortoise in the Mojave Desert. (Josh Cassidy/KQED)\" width=\"350\" height=\"241\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A desert tortoise in the Mojave Desert. (Josh Cassidy/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Desert tortoises are a threatened species, so BrightSource relocates the ones found on the construction site. Young tortoises are held until they’re big enough to release. Several dozen adults have been moved offsite and are tracked with radio tags.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>BrightSource planned on finding just 35 desert tortoises when the project began, but came up with five times that number. That meant shutting down construction and doing another biological survey. “Almost every foot of our 3,500-acres, approximately, has been covered by a biologist at least ten times,” Davis said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The relocation program has come at a cost: $55,000 per tortoise. It’s been watched closely by critics like Ileene Anderson of the \u003ca href=\"http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/index.html\">Center for Biological Diversity\u003c/a>, one of the groups concerned over the loss of desert habitat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m not a big fan of the super-large projects,” she said. Utilities were on the hunt for large renewable energy contracts after California set a \u003ca href=\"http://blogs.kqed.org/climatewatch/2011/03/29/ca-moves-forward-with-renewable-goals/\">goal of getting 33 percent\u003c/a> of its electricity from renewable sources by 2020. There was a rush to get big solar farms underway to meet the Department of Energy’s loan guarantee program deadlines. In addition to Ivanpah, six other major solar projects are expected to open in California over the next year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Many of the projects when they were first proposed and we would see the application, see where the map was, it was like ‘oh no, this is going to be a nightmare project,” said Anderson. “Put it on previously disturbed lands where there’s very few conflicts because the landscape has already been impacted.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But other environmental groups raised concerns from another perspective: climate change, something that could harm desert wildlife in the long run.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If you care about desert tortoises, you better care about climate change,” said Carl Zichella of the Natural Resources Defense Council. “Without some large scale renewable energy projects we do not hit our climate goals. We do not replace fossil fuels with clean energy in this country. It just does not happen.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Even if we paved the whole California desert with solar plants, it’s not going to save the planet,” Anderson responded.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/audio/as-worlds-largest-solar-thermal-plant-opens-california-looks-to-end-solar-wars/ivanpah_map_400/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-5531\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-5531\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/07/ivanpah_map_400.jpg\" alt=\"ivanpah_map_400\" width=\"400\" height=\"358\">\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These differing views sparked a “green vs. green” debate between those who wanted to file lawsuits to stop projects and those who didn’t want to see solar developers driven away.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think it has been tough,” Zichella said. “It’s been personally painful. We are very good at stopping things. We aren’t very good at building things.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In end, with the threat of lawsuits in the air, environmental groups negotiated with BrightSource and other developers to set aside nature preserves in the desert.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In an effort to stem the conflict, California is trying to forge a smoother path for future projects through the \u003ca href=\"http://www.drecp.org/\">Desert Renewable Energy Conservation Plan\u003c/a>. The idea is to divvy up the desert into zones suitable for renewable energy development and conservation areas that are off-limits. Solar developers, counties, conservation groups and federal and state agencies are hashing out the comprehensive plan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Karen Douglas of the California Energy Commission says it’s unusual to see all sides working together. “There is never any perfect consensus,” she said. “But we’ve got an opportunity with this partnership to put in place what we really think of as the ‘greenprint’ that will help us conserve our desert resources not only in the face of development but in the face of climate change.”\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m cautiously optimistic,” said Anderson. “Are they covering the right species in the plan and is it implementable? All those things are still to be determined.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Other Western states have run into similar problems and are watching California’s effort. A full draft of the plan’s environmental review is expected this fall.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Photos: Lauren Sommer, Josh Cassidy, Gabriela Quiros/KQED\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a few weeks, the largest solar plant of its kind in the world will start producing power in California’s Mojave Desert. The \u003ca href=\"http://ivanpahsolar.com/\">Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System\u003c/a> will supply both Northern and Southern California, inching the state one step closer to its ambitious renewable energy goal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But like many of the large solar projects being built in the Mojave, Ivanpah ran into delays and controversy over its environmental impact. Now, in an effort to streamline the process, state officials are trying to broker an agreement between conservation groups and solar companies on a path forward for renewable energy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ivanpah doesn’t use the solar technology most of us think of – those dark, silicon panels sitting on rooftops. The project harnesses the sun’s heat, reflecting off a field of 170,000 mirrors. They shimmer across a dry, dusty valley about five miles away from the California-Nevada state line, surrounding three 400-foot concrete towers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We can keep the sun’s energy – the rays of the sun – targeted back to the solar tower,” said Dave Beaudoin, construction manager for the $2.2 billion project, originally developed by Oakland-based \u003ca href=\"http://www.brightsourceenergy.com/\">BrightSource Energy\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The garage door-sized mirrors focus the heat on giant boilers on top of the towers, where water turns into steam. That steam powers a turbine that generates electricity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is definitely cutting-edge,” Beaudoin said. “It’s nothing I’ve ever done before.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/audio/as-worlds-largest-solar-thermal-plant-opens-california-looks-to-end-solar-wars/solar_power_640/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-5532\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-5532\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/07/solar_power_640.jpg\" alt=\"solar_power_640\" width=\"640\" height=\"343\">\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ivanpah will supply about 140,000 homes in Pacific Gas & Electric and Southern California Edison territories when it comes fully online by the end of the year. But getting to that finish line has been a rough road for the project.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It took several years to get permits from almost a dozen state, federal and local agencies. The project became political fodder after getting a $1.6 billion federal loan guarantee, like the bankrupt solar company Solyndra. And then there’s the desert tortoise – the controversy that’s made Ivanpah famous.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I didn’t have gray hairs before this project,” said Doug Davis, senior compliance manager for the project. Davis is looking at large mesh enclosures outside the field of mirrors, what he calls “Tortoise Head Start.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The Head Start facility is mainly for the small guys,” Davis said. “Their shells are very soft, so very susceptible to ravens.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_5585\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 350px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/07/IMG_1505.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-5585\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-5585\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/07/IMG_1505.jpg\" alt=\"A desert tortoise in the Mojave Desert. (Josh Cassidy/KQED)\" width=\"350\" height=\"241\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A desert tortoise in the Mojave Desert. (Josh Cassidy/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Desert tortoises are a threatened species, so BrightSource relocates the ones found on the construction site. Young tortoises are held until they’re big enough to release. Several dozen adults have been moved offsite and are tracked with radio tags.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>BrightSource planned on finding just 35 desert tortoises when the project began, but came up with five times that number. That meant shutting down construction and doing another biological survey. “Almost every foot of our 3,500-acres, approximately, has been covered by a biologist at least ten times,” Davis said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The relocation program has come at a cost: $55,000 per tortoise. It’s been watched closely by critics like Ileene Anderson of the \u003ca href=\"http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/index.html\">Center for Biological Diversity\u003c/a>, one of the groups concerned over the loss of desert habitat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m not a big fan of the super-large projects,” she said. Utilities were on the hunt for large renewable energy contracts after California set a \u003ca href=\"http://blogs.kqed.org/climatewatch/2011/03/29/ca-moves-forward-with-renewable-goals/\">goal of getting 33 percent\u003c/a> of its electricity from renewable sources by 2020. There was a rush to get big solar farms underway to meet the Department of Energy’s loan guarantee program deadlines. In addition to Ivanpah, six other major solar projects are expected to open in California over the next year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Many of the projects when they were first proposed and we would see the application, see where the map was, it was like ‘oh no, this is going to be a nightmare project,” said Anderson. “Put it on previously disturbed lands where there’s very few conflicts because the landscape has already been impacted.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But other environmental groups raised concerns from another perspective: climate change, something that could harm desert wildlife in the long run.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If you care about desert tortoises, you better care about climate change,” said Carl Zichella of the Natural Resources Defense Council. “Without some large scale renewable energy projects we do not hit our climate goals. We do not replace fossil fuels with clean energy in this country. It just does not happen.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Even if we paved the whole California desert with solar plants, it’s not going to save the planet,” Anderson responded.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/audio/as-worlds-largest-solar-thermal-plant-opens-california-looks-to-end-solar-wars/ivanpah_map_400/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-5531\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-5531\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/07/ivanpah_map_400.jpg\" alt=\"ivanpah_map_400\" width=\"400\" height=\"358\">\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These differing views sparked a “green vs. green” debate between those who wanted to file lawsuits to stop projects and those who didn’t want to see solar developers driven away.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think it has been tough,” Zichella said. “It’s been personally painful. We are very good at stopping things. We aren’t very good at building things.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In end, with the threat of lawsuits in the air, environmental groups negotiated with BrightSource and other developers to set aside nature preserves in the desert.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In an effort to stem the conflict, California is trying to forge a smoother path for future projects through the \u003ca href=\"http://www.drecp.org/\">Desert Renewable Energy Conservation Plan\u003c/a>. The idea is to divvy up the desert into zones suitable for renewable energy development and conservation areas that are off-limits. Solar developers, counties, conservation groups and federal and state agencies are hashing out the comprehensive plan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Karen Douglas of the California Energy Commission says it’s unusual to see all sides working together. “There is never any perfect consensus,” she said. “But we’ve got an opportunity with this partnership to put in place what we really think of as the ‘greenprint’ that will help us conserve our desert resources not only in the face of development but in the face of climate change.”\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m cautiously optimistic,” said Anderson. “Are they covering the right species in the plan and is it implementable? All those things are still to be determined.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Other Western states have run into similar problems and are watching California’s effort. A full draft of the plan’s environmental review is expected this fall.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Photos: Lauren Sommer, Josh Cassidy, Gabriela Quiros/KQED\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Controversial Solar Farm One Step Closer to Construction",
"headTitle": "Controversial Solar Farm One Step Closer to Construction | KQED",
"content": "\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_4905\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 639px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-4905\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/06/RS2768_IMG_0111-scr-e1372462888483.jpg\" alt=\"The Panoche Valley in San Benito County. (Craig Miller/KQED)\" width=\"639\" height=\"359\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Panoche Valley in San Benito County. (Craig Miller/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The controversial Panoche Valley Solar Farm is one step closer to construction. Environmental groups sued to stop the solar project, located near Hollister, but the suit was rejected.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.progress-energy.com/index.page?\">Duke Energy\u003c/a> and San Francisco-based firm \u003ca href=\"http://www.pv2energy.com/index-1.html\">PV2\u003c/a> are planning to build the 399 megawatt solar farm in the mostly agricultural valley. But Shani Kleinhaus from the \u003ca href=\"http://www.scvas.org/index.php?\">Santa Clara Valley Audubon Society\u003c/a> said the project threatens migrating birds and three endangered animals: the blunt-nosed leopard lizard, the San Joaquin kit fox and giant kangaroo rat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Environmental groups are supportive of clean energy projects and solar projects,” she said. “But we’re not in support of siting such projects without regard to endangered species and environmental damage.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A state court of appeals rejected the suit, which claimed PV2 hadn’t pursued alternatives like putting the project somewhere else.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tammie McGhee of Duke Energy, said their plan includes habitat preservation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The project is a 28,000 acre footprint. Only 3,000 of those acres will actually have solar panels on them,” she said. “The other 23,000 acres will be for conservation and habitat preservation.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The companies still have to finish environmental studies and find a company to buy the energy. Kleinhaus says her group will stay involved and continue to opppose the plan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If it does clear the hurdles, construction would begin in 2015.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"http://www.mercurynews.com/science/ci_23554917/court-hands-solar-project-south-silicon-valley-major\">San Jose Mercury News\u003c/a> has more on the history of the battle in the Panoche Valley. \u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv>\n\u003cdiv class=\"embedly\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" class=\"thumb embedly-thumbnail-small\" src=\"http://extras.mnginteractive.com/live/media/site568/2013/0627/20130627_044914_0628solarmap.jpg\" alt=\"\">\u003ca class=\"embedly-title\" href=\"http://www.mercurynews.com/science/ci_23554917/court-hands-solar-project-south-silicon-valley-major\">Solar project south of Silicon Valley wins a major victory in appeals court\u003c/a>The environmental groups lost the first round in 2011. Then a San Benito County court rejected their arguments that county supervisors who approved the project had violated the California Environmental Quality Act and the Williamson Act, a state law that preserves ranchland by blocking development in exchange for lowering ranchers’ taxes. The court noted that the developers agreed to buy 23,000 adjacent acres — an area of cattle grazing land seven times the size of the area the solar panels would take up — and place them in permanent conservation easements as a way to offset the effects from the project.\n\u003cdiv class=\"embedly-clear\">\u003c/div>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"embedly-powered\" style=\"float: right\">\u003ca title=\"Powered by Embedly\" href=\"http://embed.ly?src=anywhere\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"//static.embed.ly/images/logos/embedly-powered-small-light.png\" alt=\"Embedly Powered\">\u003c/a>\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"media-attribution\">via \u003ca class=\"media-attribution-link\" href=\"http://www.mercurynews.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Mercurynews\u003c/a>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"embedly-clear\">\u003c/div>\n\u003c/div>\n\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>\u003c/div>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>KQED did a \u003ca href=\"http://blogs.kqed.org/climatewatch/2010/06/20/clock-ticking-for-solar-developers/\">two-part\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"http://blogs.kqed.org/climatewatch/2010/06/28/passionate-about-panoche/\">series\u003c/a> about the Panoche Valley a few years ago, when a different company was trying to build the solar farm. (Solargen sold the project to PV2.)\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "The Panoche Valley Solar Farm cleared a hurdle this week. Environmental groups sued to stop the solar project, located near Hollister, but the suit was rejected. ",
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"description": "The Panoche Valley Solar Farm cleared a hurdle this week. Environmental groups sued to stop the solar project, located near Hollister, but the suit was rejected. ",
"title": "Controversial Solar Farm One Step Closer to Construction | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_4905\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 639px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-4905\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/06/RS2768_IMG_0111-scr-e1372462888483.jpg\" alt=\"The Panoche Valley in San Benito County. (Craig Miller/KQED)\" width=\"639\" height=\"359\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Panoche Valley in San Benito County. (Craig Miller/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The controversial Panoche Valley Solar Farm is one step closer to construction. Environmental groups sued to stop the solar project, located near Hollister, but the suit was rejected.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.progress-energy.com/index.page?\">Duke Energy\u003c/a> and San Francisco-based firm \u003ca href=\"http://www.pv2energy.com/index-1.html\">PV2\u003c/a> are planning to build the 399 megawatt solar farm in the mostly agricultural valley. But Shani Kleinhaus from the \u003ca href=\"http://www.scvas.org/index.php?\">Santa Clara Valley Audubon Society\u003c/a> said the project threatens migrating birds and three endangered animals: the blunt-nosed leopard lizard, the San Joaquin kit fox and giant kangaroo rat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Environmental groups are supportive of clean energy projects and solar projects,” she said. “But we’re not in support of siting such projects without regard to endangered species and environmental damage.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A state court of appeals rejected the suit, which claimed PV2 hadn’t pursued alternatives like putting the project somewhere else.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tammie McGhee of Duke Energy, said their plan includes habitat preservation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The project is a 28,000 acre footprint. Only 3,000 of those acres will actually have solar panels on them,” she said. “The other 23,000 acres will be for conservation and habitat preservation.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The companies still have to finish environmental studies and find a company to buy the energy. Kleinhaus says her group will stay involved and continue to opppose the plan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If it does clear the hurdles, construction would begin in 2015.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"http://www.mercurynews.com/science/ci_23554917/court-hands-solar-project-south-silicon-valley-major\">San Jose Mercury News\u003c/a> has more on the history of the battle in the Panoche Valley. \u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv>\n\u003cdiv class=\"embedly\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" class=\"thumb embedly-thumbnail-small\" src=\"http://extras.mnginteractive.com/live/media/site568/2013/0627/20130627_044914_0628solarmap.jpg\" alt=\"\">\u003ca class=\"embedly-title\" href=\"http://www.mercurynews.com/science/ci_23554917/court-hands-solar-project-south-silicon-valley-major\">Solar project south of Silicon Valley wins a major victory in appeals court\u003c/a>The environmental groups lost the first round in 2011. Then a San Benito County court rejected their arguments that county supervisors who approved the project had violated the California Environmental Quality Act and the Williamson Act, a state law that preserves ranchland by blocking development in exchange for lowering ranchers’ taxes. The court noted that the developers agreed to buy 23,000 adjacent acres — an area of cattle grazing land seven times the size of the area the solar panels would take up — and place them in permanent conservation easements as a way to offset the effects from the project.\n\u003cdiv class=\"embedly-clear\">\u003c/div>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"embedly-powered\" style=\"float: right\">\u003ca title=\"Powered by Embedly\" href=\"http://embed.ly?src=anywhere\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"//static.embed.ly/images/logos/embedly-powered-small-light.png\" alt=\"Embedly Powered\">\u003c/a>\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"media-attribution\">via \u003ca class=\"media-attribution-link\" href=\"http://www.mercurynews.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Mercurynews\u003c/a>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"embedly-clear\">\u003c/div>\n\u003c/div>\n\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>\u003c/div>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>KQED did a \u003ca href=\"http://blogs.kqed.org/climatewatch/2010/06/20/clock-ticking-for-solar-developers/\">two-part\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"http://blogs.kqed.org/climatewatch/2010/06/28/passionate-about-panoche/\">series\u003c/a> about the Panoche Valley a few years ago, when a different company was trying to build the solar farm. (Solargen sold the project to PV2.)\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "An Environmental Catch-22: Fire Safety Chemicals in Insulation Pose Risks",
"headTitle": "An Environmental Catch-22: Fire Safety Chemicals in Insulation Pose Risks | KQED",
"content": "\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_4743\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 288px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/06/House_fire-450x253-288x162.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/06/House_fire-450x253-288x162.jpg\" alt=\"(Image: Kpahor/Wikipedia)\" width=\"288\" height=\"162\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-4743\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">(Image: \u003ca href=\"http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:House_fire_using_gasoline.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Kpahor/Wikipedia\u003c/a>)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Last year, Gov. Jerry Brown \u003ca href=\"http://gov.ca.gov/news.php?id=17508\">directed state agencies\u003c/a> to reduce water use and greenhouse gas emissions through a \u003ca href=\"http://gov.ca.gov/docs/Green_Building_Action_Plan_B.18.12.pdf\">green building action plan\u003c/a> to “shrink the state’s environmental footprint.” The order also mandated using “environmentally preferable products that have a lesser or reduced effect on human health and the environment when compared with competing goods that serve the same purpose.” \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Just seven months later, a \u003ca href=\"http://superfund.berkeley.edu/pdf/395.pdf\">study in Building Research and Information\u003c/a> revealed that plastic foam insulation used to increase energy efficiency in buildings may pose an unnecessary risk to health and the environment. Manufacturers add potentially harmful fire-retardant chemicals to insulation to pass a flammability test required in building codes. But the test isn’t reliable for foam plastic insulation, argued fire scientist Vytenis Babrauskas and his colleagues. And the codes’ requirement for a thermal barrier – a thick wallboard that separates the insulation from a room’s interior – already makes insulation fire-safe without the need for flame retardants. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Assemblywoman Nancy Skinner (D-Berkeley) first learned about this apparent environmental Catch-22 when she had to replace the insulation in her home. A legislator known for \u003ca href=\"http://www.smartvoter.org/2008/11/04/ca/state/vote/skinner_n/bio.html\">her environmental record\u003c/a>, Skinner introduced a \u003ca href=\"http://elcerrito.patch.com/groups/politics-and-elections/p/new-skinner-bill-opposes-flame-retardant-in-building-insulation\">bill in January\u003c/a> calling on state officials to revisit building standards to ensure fire safety without relying on harmful chemicals. On Monday, the bill, \u003ca href=\"http://leginfo.ca.gov/cgi-bin/postquery?bill_number=ab_127&sess=CUR&house=B\">AB 127\u003c/a>, passed the Senate Business Professions and Economic Development Committee, and could reach the Senate floor sometime in August. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Potential for harm\u003c/strong>\u003cbr>\nThe main plastic insulation flame retardants — HBCD or HBCDD, for hexabromocyclododecane, and TCPP, for tris(1-chloro-2-propyl) phosphate – aren’t chemically bound to the insulation, so they can escape into the environment. Although researchers have shown that flame retardants in furniture foam can seep from foam into the air and settle in dust, it’s not clear how HBCD and TCPP wind up in indoor air and dust. Possible routes of dispersal include points of manufacture, use and disposal. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Both compounds, classified as high-volume chemicals by the Environmental Protection Agency (with U.S. import/production volumes between 20 million and 100 million pounds), occur in soil, sewage sludge and aquatic sediments and have been found in bivalves, fish, birds and other wildlife. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In keeping with its profile as a fat-loving, bioaccumulating toxic chemical, HBCD appears in higher levels in \u003ca href=\"http://saferinsulation.greensciencepolicy.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/Covaci-HBCD-review.pdf\">predators like porpoises and falcons\u003c/a>. It’s also been found in human fat tissue, \u003ca href=\"http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21441408\">blood and breast milk\u003c/a>. Testing the possibility that the chemicals could enter our bodies through food, researchers \u003ca href=\"http://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/ehp.1204993.pdf\">found HBCD in 42 percent\u003c/a> of foods purchased in Dallas grocery stores. Canned sardines and smoked turkey sausages had the highest levels, in keeping with other studies suggesting that fatty foods could be an important exposure pathway.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Studies in animals indicate that HBCD disrupts hormone function and interferes with the developing nervous system. Less is known about TCPP, though it’s also been detected in \u003ca href=\"http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20383376\">human breast milk\u003c/a> and causes \u003ca href=\"http://toxsci.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2013/05/23/toxsci.kft100.long\">developmental\u003c/a> and neurological defects in animal studies. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Fire-safe buildings without chemicals\u003c/strong>\u003cbr>\nBuilding standards regulating foam insulation date back to the 1960s, and required that products pass the “Steiner Tunnel” test, which measures flame spread from the bottom of a tunnel to its ceiling, outfitted with insulation. In the 1970s, the thermal barrier requirement was added to protect exposed insulation because, Babrauskas and his coauthors assert in their recent study, insulation proved highly flammable even after passing the Steiner test. Using flame retardants when a thermal barrier is present, the authors concluded, does not add a fire safety benefit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml;jsessionid=6de6fdd0eab8e21e79fec4f33166?bill_id=201320140AB127\">AB 127 calls\u003c/a> on the State Fire Marshall to review California’s flammability standards for building insulation and work with government officials to ensure fire safety “while giving full consideration to the long-term human and ecological health impacts associated with chemical flame retardants.” \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After Skinner made her case before the state Senate committee on Monday, several witnesses spoke in support of the bill, including Justin Malan of the U.S. Green Building Council California. Malan argued that although the builders, architects, planners and engineers he represents strongly support energy efficiency, they know that sometimes building materials need careful review. “Let’s not make the same costly, and lethal, mistakes we made with asbestos,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Arlene Blum, executive director of the \u003ca href=\"http://www.greensciencepolicy.org/\">Green Science Policy Institute\u003c/a> and a chemist who has long sounded the alarm about the \u003ca href=\"http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2013-04-15/national/38550740_1_flame-retardants-pbdes-treated-products/2\">potential hazards of flame retardants\u003c/a>, urged the committee to \u003ca href=\"http://www.kqed.org/news/story/2012/06/18/98102/governor_orders_change_in_state_policy_on_flame_retardants_in?category=bay+area\">follow the lead of Governor Brown\u003c/a>, who directed regulators to update the \u003ca href=\"http://science.kqed.org/quest/audio/the-political-firestorm-inside-your-sofa/\">state’s furniture flammability standards\u003c/a> to increase fire safety without using potentially toxic chemicals. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Existing building standards require 15 minutes to flashover, when the fire turns from flame to conflagration as nearby combustibles ignite. By the time a fire hits the treated plastic foam insulation inside the wall, Blum said, “all the flame retardants do is make the fire more toxic, produce dioxins, which harm the health of first responders.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Lobbying against public health?\u003c/strong>\u003cbr>\nTwelve public interest and business groups followed Malone and Blum in support of AB 127. Leading the opposition to the bill was Joe Lang, representing the chemical industry’s main trade group, the American Chemistry Council. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lang, a veteran Sacramento lobbyist who once \u003ca href=\"http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/documentStore/v/c/m/vcm94b00/Svcm94b00.pdf\">represented tobacco giant Philip Morris\u003c/a>, now heads the \u003ca href=\"http://blogs.sacbee.com/capitolalertlatest/2013/02/see-which-lobbying-firms-made-the-most-money-in-2012.html\">top-grossing lobbying firm\u003c/a> in Sacramento. His firm received more than \u003ca href=\"http://www.environmentalhealthnews.org/ehs/news/2011/money-to-burn\">$1 million from chemical industry interests\u003c/a> over five years to help defeat five bills to regulate flame retardants added to consumer products. In the first quarter of this year, Lang and his associates have earned 40,000 from the American Chemistry Council, state records show.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Claiming most of the opposition’s allotted time, Lang did not argue the merits of reviewing the state’s building code but lectured the committee on the state’s \u003ca href=\"http://www.dtsc.ca.gov/PollutionPrevention/GreenChemistryInitiative/index.cfm?CFID=26318756&CFTOKEN=89839980\">Green Chemistry Initiative\u003c/a> (enacted in 2008 but plagued by budgetary problems and yet to see full implementation), which aims to identify chemical hazards and safer alternatives. He argued that AB 127 subverted the state’s green chemistry policy by asking for a separate process, not based on science, that evaluates chemical hazards one by one.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lang also argued that most of the evidence cited to show the risks of flame retardants studied chemicals that aren’t used in foam insulation. Then he referred to a \u003ca href=\"http://echa.europa.eu/documents/10162/13630/trd_rar_ireland_tccp_en.pdf\">European Union risk assessment\u003c/a> for TCPP that failed to find evidence of risk to consumers or the environment, based on exposure models, though it did show harm to workers in plants where the chemicals are made. All of the studies that AB 127 supporters point to as support for the toxicity of flame retardants don’t apply in this case, Lang said. “They’re creating a hysteria. They’re creating a sense that fire retardants used in building insulation are in fact dangerous. That’s not the case.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>EU risk assessments of another flame retardant, known as Deca, also found no significant risks to health and the environment using their exposure models. Although the EU banned Deca in 2002, the subsequent favorable risk assessment helped win a reprieve, allowing manufacturers to continue using Deca in electronics and electrical equipment. But the EU banned the chemical for good in 2008 after the European Parliament challenged the assessment, citing health and environmental concerns. (In 2009, \u003ca href=\"http://www.epa.gov/opptintr/existingchemicals/pubs/actionplans/deccadbe.html\">the EPA brokered a deal\u003c/a> with the two U.S. Deca manufacturers to phase out the chemical “to protect human health and the environment.”) \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lang didn’t mention any risk assessment studies for HBCD. But last month, the U.N. Environment Programme’s Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants \u003ca href=\"http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_MEMO-13-567_en.htm?locale=en\">voted to add HBCD\u003c/a> to its list of globally banned chemicals. \u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "Mounting research questions the safety and effectiveness of flame retardants used in consumer products. The chemicals are also used in the foam plastic insulation that improves energy efficiency in buildings. But a measure that just passed a Senate committee this week could pave the way for fire-safe, energy-efficient buildings without causing harm.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_4743\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 288px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/06/House_fire-450x253-288x162.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/06/House_fire-450x253-288x162.jpg\" alt=\"(Image: Kpahor/Wikipedia)\" width=\"288\" height=\"162\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-4743\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">(Image: \u003ca href=\"http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:House_fire_using_gasoline.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Kpahor/Wikipedia\u003c/a>)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Last year, Gov. Jerry Brown \u003ca href=\"http://gov.ca.gov/news.php?id=17508\">directed state agencies\u003c/a> to reduce water use and greenhouse gas emissions through a \u003ca href=\"http://gov.ca.gov/docs/Green_Building_Action_Plan_B.18.12.pdf\">green building action plan\u003c/a> to “shrink the state’s environmental footprint.” The order also mandated using “environmentally preferable products that have a lesser or reduced effect on human health and the environment when compared with competing goods that serve the same purpose.” \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Just seven months later, a \u003ca href=\"http://superfund.berkeley.edu/pdf/395.pdf\">study in Building Research and Information\u003c/a> revealed that plastic foam insulation used to increase energy efficiency in buildings may pose an unnecessary risk to health and the environment. Manufacturers add potentially harmful fire-retardant chemicals to insulation to pass a flammability test required in building codes. But the test isn’t reliable for foam plastic insulation, argued fire scientist Vytenis Babrauskas and his colleagues. And the codes’ requirement for a thermal barrier – a thick wallboard that separates the insulation from a room’s interior – already makes insulation fire-safe without the need for flame retardants. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Assemblywoman Nancy Skinner (D-Berkeley) first learned about this apparent environmental Catch-22 when she had to replace the insulation in her home. A legislator known for \u003ca href=\"http://www.smartvoter.org/2008/11/04/ca/state/vote/skinner_n/bio.html\">her environmental record\u003c/a>, Skinner introduced a \u003ca href=\"http://elcerrito.patch.com/groups/politics-and-elections/p/new-skinner-bill-opposes-flame-retardant-in-building-insulation\">bill in January\u003c/a> calling on state officials to revisit building standards to ensure fire safety without relying on harmful chemicals. On Monday, the bill, \u003ca href=\"http://leginfo.ca.gov/cgi-bin/postquery?bill_number=ab_127&sess=CUR&house=B\">AB 127\u003c/a>, passed the Senate Business Professions and Economic Development Committee, and could reach the Senate floor sometime in August. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Potential for harm\u003c/strong>\u003cbr>\nThe main plastic insulation flame retardants — HBCD or HBCDD, for hexabromocyclododecane, and TCPP, for tris(1-chloro-2-propyl) phosphate – aren’t chemically bound to the insulation, so they can escape into the environment. Although researchers have shown that flame retardants in furniture foam can seep from foam into the air and settle in dust, it’s not clear how HBCD and TCPP wind up in indoor air and dust. Possible routes of dispersal include points of manufacture, use and disposal. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Both compounds, classified as high-volume chemicals by the Environmental Protection Agency (with U.S. import/production volumes between 20 million and 100 million pounds), occur in soil, sewage sludge and aquatic sediments and have been found in bivalves, fish, birds and other wildlife. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In keeping with its profile as a fat-loving, bioaccumulating toxic chemical, HBCD appears in higher levels in \u003ca href=\"http://saferinsulation.greensciencepolicy.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/Covaci-HBCD-review.pdf\">predators like porpoises and falcons\u003c/a>. It’s also been found in human fat tissue, \u003ca href=\"http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21441408\">blood and breast milk\u003c/a>. Testing the possibility that the chemicals could enter our bodies through food, researchers \u003ca href=\"http://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/ehp.1204993.pdf\">found HBCD in 42 percent\u003c/a> of foods purchased in Dallas grocery stores. Canned sardines and smoked turkey sausages had the highest levels, in keeping with other studies suggesting that fatty foods could be an important exposure pathway.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Studies in animals indicate that HBCD disrupts hormone function and interferes with the developing nervous system. Less is known about TCPP, though it’s also been detected in \u003ca href=\"http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20383376\">human breast milk\u003c/a> and causes \u003ca href=\"http://toxsci.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2013/05/23/toxsci.kft100.long\">developmental\u003c/a> and neurological defects in animal studies. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Fire-safe buildings without chemicals\u003c/strong>\u003cbr>\nBuilding standards regulating foam insulation date back to the 1960s, and required that products pass the “Steiner Tunnel” test, which measures flame spread from the bottom of a tunnel to its ceiling, outfitted with insulation. In the 1970s, the thermal barrier requirement was added to protect exposed insulation because, Babrauskas and his coauthors assert in their recent study, insulation proved highly flammable even after passing the Steiner test. Using flame retardants when a thermal barrier is present, the authors concluded, does not add a fire safety benefit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml;jsessionid=6de6fdd0eab8e21e79fec4f33166?bill_id=201320140AB127\">AB 127 calls\u003c/a> on the State Fire Marshall to review California’s flammability standards for building insulation and work with government officials to ensure fire safety “while giving full consideration to the long-term human and ecological health impacts associated with chemical flame retardants.” \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After Skinner made her case before the state Senate committee on Monday, several witnesses spoke in support of the bill, including Justin Malan of the U.S. Green Building Council California. Malan argued that although the builders, architects, planners and engineers he represents strongly support energy efficiency, they know that sometimes building materials need careful review. “Let’s not make the same costly, and lethal, mistakes we made with asbestos,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Arlene Blum, executive director of the \u003ca href=\"http://www.greensciencepolicy.org/\">Green Science Policy Institute\u003c/a> and a chemist who has long sounded the alarm about the \u003ca href=\"http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2013-04-15/national/38550740_1_flame-retardants-pbdes-treated-products/2\">potential hazards of flame retardants\u003c/a>, urged the committee to \u003ca href=\"http://www.kqed.org/news/story/2012/06/18/98102/governor_orders_change_in_state_policy_on_flame_retardants_in?category=bay+area\">follow the lead of Governor Brown\u003c/a>, who directed regulators to update the \u003ca href=\"http://science.kqed.org/quest/audio/the-political-firestorm-inside-your-sofa/\">state’s furniture flammability standards\u003c/a> to increase fire safety without using potentially toxic chemicals. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Existing building standards require 15 minutes to flashover, when the fire turns from flame to conflagration as nearby combustibles ignite. By the time a fire hits the treated plastic foam insulation inside the wall, Blum said, “all the flame retardants do is make the fire more toxic, produce dioxins, which harm the health of first responders.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Lobbying against public health?\u003c/strong>\u003cbr>\nTwelve public interest and business groups followed Malone and Blum in support of AB 127. Leading the opposition to the bill was Joe Lang, representing the chemical industry’s main trade group, the American Chemistry Council. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lang, a veteran Sacramento lobbyist who once \u003ca href=\"http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/documentStore/v/c/m/vcm94b00/Svcm94b00.pdf\">represented tobacco giant Philip Morris\u003c/a>, now heads the \u003ca href=\"http://blogs.sacbee.com/capitolalertlatest/2013/02/see-which-lobbying-firms-made-the-most-money-in-2012.html\">top-grossing lobbying firm\u003c/a> in Sacramento. His firm received more than \u003ca href=\"http://www.environmentalhealthnews.org/ehs/news/2011/money-to-burn\">$1 million from chemical industry interests\u003c/a> over five years to help defeat five bills to regulate flame retardants added to consumer products. In the first quarter of this year, Lang and his associates have earned 40,000 from the American Chemistry Council, state records show.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Claiming most of the opposition’s allotted time, Lang did not argue the merits of reviewing the state’s building code but lectured the committee on the state’s \u003ca href=\"http://www.dtsc.ca.gov/PollutionPrevention/GreenChemistryInitiative/index.cfm?CFID=26318756&CFTOKEN=89839980\">Green Chemistry Initiative\u003c/a> (enacted in 2008 but plagued by budgetary problems and yet to see full implementation), which aims to identify chemical hazards and safer alternatives. He argued that AB 127 subverted the state’s green chemistry policy by asking for a separate process, not based on science, that evaluates chemical hazards one by one.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lang also argued that most of the evidence cited to show the risks of flame retardants studied chemicals that aren’t used in foam insulation. Then he referred to a \u003ca href=\"http://echa.europa.eu/documents/10162/13630/trd_rar_ireland_tccp_en.pdf\">European Union risk assessment\u003c/a> for TCPP that failed to find evidence of risk to consumers or the environment, based on exposure models, though it did show harm to workers in plants where the chemicals are made. All of the studies that AB 127 supporters point to as support for the toxicity of flame retardants don’t apply in this case, Lang said. “They’re creating a hysteria. They’re creating a sense that fire retardants used in building insulation are in fact dangerous. That’s not the case.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>EU risk assessments of another flame retardant, known as Deca, also found no significant risks to health and the environment using their exposure models. Although the EU banned Deca in 2002, the subsequent favorable risk assessment helped win a reprieve, allowing manufacturers to continue using Deca in electronics and electrical equipment. But the EU banned the chemical for good in 2008 after the European Parliament challenged the assessment, citing health and environmental concerns. (In 2009, \u003ca href=\"http://www.epa.gov/opptintr/existingchemicals/pubs/actionplans/deccadbe.html\">the EPA brokered a deal\u003c/a> with the two U.S. Deca manufacturers to phase out the chemical “to protect human health and the environment.”) \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lang didn’t mention any risk assessment studies for HBCD. But last month, the U.N. Environment Programme’s Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants \u003ca href=\"http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_MEMO-13-567_en.htm?locale=en\">voted to add HBCD\u003c/a> to its list of globally banned chemicals. \u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "California Official Welcomes Obama's Climate Program",
"headTitle": "California Official Welcomes Obama’s Climate Program | KQED",
"content": "\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_4727\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 216px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/06/smokestack-4x3-216x162.jpg\" alt=\"(Craig Miller/KQED)\" width=\"216\" height=\"162\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-4727\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">(Craig Miller/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>President Obama introduced his long-awaited \u003ca href=\"http://www.scribd.com/doc/149882710/President%E2%80%99s-Climate-Action-Plan\">plan to combat climate change\u003c/a> in a speech today at Georgetown. He’s directing the EPA to limit greenhouse gas emissions from new and existing power plants, supporting more renewable energy development and expanding efficiency standards for appliances. He’s also funding local initiatives to build more resilient infrastructure and calling for an end to public financing for new overseas coal plants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California officials are welcoming the plan. Mary Nichols, who heads the California Air Resources Board, the agency that regulates pollution, said it’s a good fit with the state’s efforts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“California benefits enormously from having the federal government step up with a climate program,” she said. “It can only enhance our activities if we have a strong federal partner.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California’s \u003ca href=\"http://science.kqed.org/quest/audio/cap-and-trade-101-how-californias-carbon-market-works/\">cap-and-trade program\u003c/a>, which is managed by the Air Board, already limits carbon emissions from power plants in the state. Nichols says she expects Obama’s plan will provide more federal funding for state projects, including one to reduce pollution from \u003ca href=\"http://www.arb.ca.gov/msprog/onroadhd/onroadhd.htm\">diesel trucks\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>KQED Science managing editor Paul Rogers writes for the \u003ca href=\"http://www.mercurynews.com/politics-government/ci_23532865/obama-announces-sweeping-new-global-warming-plan\">Mercury News\u003c/a> on the impacts the plan will have in California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"mceItemEmbedly\">\n\u003cdiv class=\"embedly\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://extras.mercurynews.com/mercurynews-fb.png\" class=\"thumb embedly-thumbnail-small\">\u003ca class=\"embedly-title\" href=\"http://www.mercurynews.com/politics-government/ci_23532865/obama-announces-sweeping-new-global-warming-plan\">Obama announces sweeping new global warming plan\u003c/a>In the largest environmental initiative of his presidency, President Obama will announce this morning the nation’s first mandatory restrictions on greenhouse gases from new and existing power plants. The rules, which be drafted by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, are set to be unveiled at a mid-morning speech Obama is scheduled to deliver at Georgetown University.\n\u003cdiv class=\"embedly-clear\">\u003c/div>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"embedly-powered\" style=\"float:right\">\u003ca target=\"_blank\" href=\"http://embed.ly?src=anywhere\" title=\"Powered by Embedly\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"//static.embed.ly/images/logos/embedly-powered-small-light.png\" alt=\"Embedly Powered\">\u003c/a>\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"media-attribution\">\u003cspan>via \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"http://www.mercurynews.com\" class=\"media-attribution-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Mercurynews\u003c/a>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"embedly-clear\">\u003c/div>\n\u003c/div>\n\u003c/div>\n\u003cp>And \u003ca href=\"http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/06/25/195466923/obama-to-lay-out-broad-plan-to-address-climate-change\">NPR has a national perspective\u003c/a> on the plan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv>\n\u003cdiv class=\"embedly\">\n\u003cp>\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" class=\"thumb embedly-thumbnail-small\" src=\"http://media.npr.org/assets/img/2013/06/25/climate_custom-8d5e9d46bcd08378e49a7871931d62c58cea5d98.jpg\" alt=\"\">\u003ca class=\"embedly-title\" href=\"http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/06/25/195466923/obama-to-lay-out-broad-plan-to-address-climate-change\">Obama To Lay Out Broad Plan To Address Climate Change\u003c/a>President Obama is expected to announce a sweeping plan to address climate change this afternoon. Read the plan and a White House fact sheet. The president has framed this issue as a moral responsibility, to leave the Earth in good shape for generations to come.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"embedly-clear\">\u003c/div>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"embedly-powered\" style=\"float: right\">\u003ca title=\"Powered by Embedly\" href=\"http://embed.ly?src=anywhere\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"//static.embed.ly/images/logos/embedly-powered-small-light.png\" alt=\"Embedly Powered\">\u003c/a>\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"media-attribution\">via \u003ca class=\"media-attribution-link\" href=\"http://www.npr.org\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Npr\u003c/a>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"embedly-clear\">\u003c/div>\n\u003c/div>\n\u003c/div>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_4727\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 216px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/06/smokestack-4x3-216x162.jpg\" alt=\"(Craig Miller/KQED)\" width=\"216\" height=\"162\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-4727\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">(Craig Miller/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>President Obama introduced his long-awaited \u003ca href=\"http://www.scribd.com/doc/149882710/President%E2%80%99s-Climate-Action-Plan\">plan to combat climate change\u003c/a> in a speech today at Georgetown. He’s directing the EPA to limit greenhouse gas emissions from new and existing power plants, supporting more renewable energy development and expanding efficiency standards for appliances. He’s also funding local initiatives to build more resilient infrastructure and calling for an end to public financing for new overseas coal plants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California officials are welcoming the plan. Mary Nichols, who heads the California Air Resources Board, the agency that regulates pollution, said it’s a good fit with the state’s efforts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“California benefits enormously from having the federal government step up with a climate program,” she said. “It can only enhance our activities if we have a strong federal partner.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California’s \u003ca href=\"http://science.kqed.org/quest/audio/cap-and-trade-101-how-californias-carbon-market-works/\">cap-and-trade program\u003c/a>, which is managed by the Air Board, already limits carbon emissions from power plants in the state. Nichols says she expects Obama’s plan will provide more federal funding for state projects, including one to reduce pollution from \u003ca href=\"http://www.arb.ca.gov/msprog/onroadhd/onroadhd.htm\">diesel trucks\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>KQED Science managing editor Paul Rogers writes for the \u003ca href=\"http://www.mercurynews.com/politics-government/ci_23532865/obama-announces-sweeping-new-global-warming-plan\">Mercury News\u003c/a> on the impacts the plan will have in California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"mceItemEmbedly\">\n\u003cdiv class=\"embedly\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://extras.mercurynews.com/mercurynews-fb.png\" class=\"thumb embedly-thumbnail-small\">\u003ca class=\"embedly-title\" href=\"http://www.mercurynews.com/politics-government/ci_23532865/obama-announces-sweeping-new-global-warming-plan\">Obama announces sweeping new global warming plan\u003c/a>In the largest environmental initiative of his presidency, President Obama will announce this morning the nation’s first mandatory restrictions on greenhouse gases from new and existing power plants. The rules, which be drafted by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, are set to be unveiled at a mid-morning speech Obama is scheduled to deliver at Georgetown University.\n\u003cdiv class=\"embedly-clear\">\u003c/div>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"embedly-powered\" style=\"float:right\">\u003ca target=\"_blank\" href=\"http://embed.ly?src=anywhere\" title=\"Powered by Embedly\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"//static.embed.ly/images/logos/embedly-powered-small-light.png\" alt=\"Embedly Powered\">\u003c/a>\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"media-attribution\">\u003cspan>via \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"http://www.mercurynews.com\" class=\"media-attribution-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Mercurynews\u003c/a>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"embedly-clear\">\u003c/div>\n\u003c/div>\n\u003c/div>\n\u003cp>And \u003ca href=\"http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/06/25/195466923/obama-to-lay-out-broad-plan-to-address-climate-change\">NPR has a national perspective\u003c/a> on the plan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv>\n\u003cdiv class=\"embedly\">\n\u003cp>\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" class=\"thumb embedly-thumbnail-small\" src=\"http://media.npr.org/assets/img/2013/06/25/climate_custom-8d5e9d46bcd08378e49a7871931d62c58cea5d98.jpg\" alt=\"\">\u003ca class=\"embedly-title\" href=\"http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/06/25/195466923/obama-to-lay-out-broad-plan-to-address-climate-change\">Obama To Lay Out Broad Plan To Address Climate Change\u003c/a>President Obama is expected to announce a sweeping plan to address climate change this afternoon. Read the plan and a White House fact sheet. The president has framed this issue as a moral responsibility, to leave the Earth in good shape for generations to come.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"embedly-clear\">\u003c/div>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"embedly-powered\" style=\"float: right\">\u003ca title=\"Powered by Embedly\" href=\"http://embed.ly?src=anywhere\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"//static.embed.ly/images/logos/embedly-powered-small-light.png\" alt=\"Embedly Powered\">\u003c/a>\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"media-attribution\">via \u003ca class=\"media-attribution-link\" href=\"http://www.npr.org\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Npr\u003c/a>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"embedly-clear\">\u003c/div>\n\u003c/div>\n\u003c/div>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"title": "Southern California Nuclear Plant to Shut Down for Good",
"headTitle": "Southern California Nuclear Plant to Shut Down for Good | KQED",
"content": "\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_4099\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-4099\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/06/sanonofrebanner.jpg\" alt=\"sanonofrebanner\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">(David McNew/Getty Images)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Southern California Edison is retiring the \u003ca href=\"http://www.songscommunity.com/\">San Onofre\u003c/a> nuclear power plant. The plant has not operated since January 2012, when a radioactive leak was discovered in one of its generators. The permanent closure could put pressure on California’s electrical grid in the long-term.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The California Independent System Operator, which manages the grid, \u003ca href=\"http://www.mercurynews.com/science/ci_23412261/closure-southern-california-nuke-plant-shouldnt-lead-blackouts\">does not expect statewide problems with power supply\u003c/a>, though there \u003ca href=\"http://www.caiso.com/Documents/SummerOutlook_PowerGridIdentifiesLocalReliabilityConcerns_SouthernCaliforniaDuringHeatWaves.pdf\">could be impacts in Southern California\u003c/a> as people crank up their air conditioners this summer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“From an overall state, perspective I’m not concerned about energy, other than the local pocket in San Diego and south of Los Angeles,” said Steve Berberich of the California Independent System Operator, the entity that balances the state’s electric grid.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>State energy regulators were already planning for the summer without the nuclear plant’s 2,000 megawatts of power. Several transmission corridors were improved so more electricity could be imported into the area and a handful of new power plants are expected to come online.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We will get through this summer, assuming we don’t have any major catastrophes or fire,” says Berberich. “I think we can squeak by.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Southern California’s power supplies \u003ca href=\"http://science.kqed.org/quest/audio/as-renewables-boom-california-struggles-to-quit-coal/\">were already constrained\u003c/a>, as several large natural gas plants on the coast are being retrofitted or replaced. The plants use hundreds of millions of gallons of seawater for cooling, a technology that’s being phased out.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With those changes in mind, the California Public Utilities Commission \u003ca href=\"http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/california-requires-50mw-of-energy-storage-for-local-capacity-requirements-191087921.html\">approved a long-term energy plan\u003c/a> for Southern California Edison earlier this year. The utility will add 1,400-to-1,800 megawatts of power by 2021, with the majority coming from new natural gas plants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The time-frame for me to be able to sleep better is really probably 2015,” said Berberich. “Let me just say, next summer I don’t expect to be quite as challenging as this summer.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Decommissioning Costs\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The California Public Utilities Commission is reviewing how Southern California Edison customers could be hit with the costs associated with the San Onofre plant, including maintenance and cost of replacing its power.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Decommissioning the nuclear plant could also cost billions, a price tag that’s generally covered by a trust fund. “Each of the nuclear plants has a decommissioning trust fund so over time they’re paying into that fund,” says Edward Randolph, energy division director at the California Public Utilities Commission.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“One of the questions that will come up is: the decommissioning fund for San Onofre is not fully funded yet since it wasn’t expected to go offline yet,” he said. “So an additional question would be: how do you fund the decommissioning when the trust fund is not fully funded yet.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>San Onofre is one of two nuclear power plants in the state. The other is \u003ca href=\"http://science.kqed.org/quest/video/whats-next-for-nuclear/\">PG&E’s Diablo Canyon\u003c/a> power plant near San Luis Obispo.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv>\n\u003cdiv class=\"embedly\">\n\u003cp>\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" class=\"thumb embedly-thumbnail-small\" src=\"http://www.trbimg.com/img-51b205b0/turbine/la-me-ln-san-onofre-shutdown-20130607/400/16x9\" alt=\"\">\u003ca class=\"embedly-title\" href=\"http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-san-onofre-shutdown-20130607,0,865861.story\">Activists praise San Onofre closure, but 1,100 layoffs expected\u003c/a>Anti-nuclear activists and Sen. Barbara Boxer celebrated Southern California Edison’s announcement Friday that the troubled San Onofre nuclear plant will be permanently retired. The coastal plant near San Clemente once supplied power to about 1.4 million homes in Southern California but has been shuttered since January 2012 when a tube in its newly replaced steam generators leaked a small amount of radioactive steam, leading to the discovery that the tubes were wearing down at an unusual rate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"embedly-clear\">\u003c/div>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"embedly-powered\" style=\"float: right\">\u003ca title=\"Powered by Embedly\" href=\"http://embed.ly?src=anywhere\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"//static.embed.ly/images/logos/embedly-powered-small-light.png\" alt=\"Embedly Powered\">\u003c/a>\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"media-attribution\">via \u003ca class=\"media-attribution-link\" href=\"http://www.latimes.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Latimes\u003c/a>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"embedly-clear\">\u003c/div>\n\u003c/div>\n\u003c/div>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "The San Onofre nuclear plant has not operated since January 2012, when a radioactive leak was discovered in one of its generators. The permanent closure could put pressure on California's electrical grid in the long-term. The California Independent System Operator, which manages the grid, does not expect statewide problems with power supply this summer. ",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_4099\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-4099\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/06/sanonofrebanner.jpg\" alt=\"sanonofrebanner\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">(David McNew/Getty Images)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Southern California Edison is retiring the \u003ca href=\"http://www.songscommunity.com/\">San Onofre\u003c/a> nuclear power plant. The plant has not operated since January 2012, when a radioactive leak was discovered in one of its generators. The permanent closure could put pressure on California’s electrical grid in the long-term.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The California Independent System Operator, which manages the grid, \u003ca href=\"http://www.mercurynews.com/science/ci_23412261/closure-southern-california-nuke-plant-shouldnt-lead-blackouts\">does not expect statewide problems with power supply\u003c/a>, though there \u003ca href=\"http://www.caiso.com/Documents/SummerOutlook_PowerGridIdentifiesLocalReliabilityConcerns_SouthernCaliforniaDuringHeatWaves.pdf\">could be impacts in Southern California\u003c/a> as people crank up their air conditioners this summer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“From an overall state, perspective I’m not concerned about energy, other than the local pocket in San Diego and south of Los Angeles,” said Steve Berberich of the California Independent System Operator, the entity that balances the state’s electric grid.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>State energy regulators were already planning for the summer without the nuclear plant’s 2,000 megawatts of power. Several transmission corridors were improved so more electricity could be imported into the area and a handful of new power plants are expected to come online.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We will get through this summer, assuming we don’t have any major catastrophes or fire,” says Berberich. “I think we can squeak by.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Southern California’s power supplies \u003ca href=\"http://science.kqed.org/quest/audio/as-renewables-boom-california-struggles-to-quit-coal/\">were already constrained\u003c/a>, as several large natural gas plants on the coast are being retrofitted or replaced. The plants use hundreds of millions of gallons of seawater for cooling, a technology that’s being phased out.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With those changes in mind, the California Public Utilities Commission \u003ca href=\"http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/california-requires-50mw-of-energy-storage-for-local-capacity-requirements-191087921.html\">approved a long-term energy plan\u003c/a> for Southern California Edison earlier this year. The utility will add 1,400-to-1,800 megawatts of power by 2021, with the majority coming from new natural gas plants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The time-frame for me to be able to sleep better is really probably 2015,” said Berberich. “Let me just say, next summer I don’t expect to be quite as challenging as this summer.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Decommissioning Costs\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The California Public Utilities Commission is reviewing how Southern California Edison customers could be hit with the costs associated with the San Onofre plant, including maintenance and cost of replacing its power.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Decommissioning the nuclear plant could also cost billions, a price tag that’s generally covered by a trust fund. “Each of the nuclear plants has a decommissioning trust fund so over time they’re paying into that fund,” says Edward Randolph, energy division director at the California Public Utilities Commission.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“One of the questions that will come up is: the decommissioning fund for San Onofre is not fully funded yet since it wasn’t expected to go offline yet,” he said. “So an additional question would be: how do you fund the decommissioning when the trust fund is not fully funded yet.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>San Onofre is one of two nuclear power plants in the state. The other is \u003ca href=\"http://science.kqed.org/quest/video/whats-next-for-nuclear/\">PG&E’s Diablo Canyon\u003c/a> power plant near San Luis Obispo.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv>\n\u003cdiv class=\"embedly\">\n\u003cp>\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" class=\"thumb embedly-thumbnail-small\" src=\"http://www.trbimg.com/img-51b205b0/turbine/la-me-ln-san-onofre-shutdown-20130607/400/16x9\" alt=\"\">\u003ca class=\"embedly-title\" href=\"http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-san-onofre-shutdown-20130607,0,865861.story\">Activists praise San Onofre closure, but 1,100 layoffs expected\u003c/a>Anti-nuclear activists and Sen. Barbara Boxer celebrated Southern California Edison’s announcement Friday that the troubled San Onofre nuclear plant will be permanently retired. The coastal plant near San Clemente once supplied power to about 1.4 million homes in Southern California but has been shuttered since January 2012 when a tube in its newly replaced steam generators leaked a small amount of radioactive steam, leading to the discovery that the tubes were wearing down at an unusual rate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"embedly-clear\">\u003c/div>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"embedly-powered\" style=\"float: right\">\u003ca title=\"Powered by Embedly\" href=\"http://embed.ly?src=anywhere\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"//static.embed.ly/images/logos/embedly-powered-small-light.png\" alt=\"Embedly Powered\">\u003c/a>\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"media-attribution\">via \u003ca class=\"media-attribution-link\" href=\"http://www.latimes.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Latimes\u003c/a>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"embedly-clear\">\u003c/div>\n\u003c/div>\n\u003c/div>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_3345\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 288px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/05/PGEBatteryProject-288x162.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-3345\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-3345\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/05/PGEBatteryProject-288x162.jpg\" alt=\"PG&E's Dave Fribush shows the interior of their 4MW battery storage project in San Jose. (Photo: PG&E)\" width=\"288\" height=\"162\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">PG&E’s Dave Fribush shows the interior of their 4 MW battery storage project in San Jose. (Photo: PG&E) \u003ccite>(Courtesy of PG&E)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>You probably wouldn’t notice it if you drove right past it — but this week PG&E unveiled California’s largest battery, now storing electrons in San Jose. The project is a pilot for energy storage technology, as electric utilities look for ways to balance increasing amounts of solar and wind energy on the grid.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The 4-megawatt sodium-sulfur array can power about 2,400 homes for up to seven hours. That takes a mighty big battery. “If you pulled a semi-truck up next to it, it would be about the same length and a little bit taller,” says Jon Eric Thalman of PG&E.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Storing electricity is not something utilities have traditionally done. “On the grid, we generate the amount of power that is needed, minute-by-minute,” Thalman says. “We don’t store it and have it at the ready.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the electric grid is rapidly changing in California. When the sun is shining and the wind is blowing, solar and wind farms produce electricity much like traditional power plants do. But if clouds pass over a solar project, “the change in power can be 80 percent of its output, easily,” says Thalman. “Something has to make up that drop and it happens in seconds.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_3383\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 216px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/05/photo-216x162.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-3383\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/05/photo-216x162.jpg\" alt=\"The battery holds seven hours of electricity for 2,400 homes. (Photo: PG&E)\" width=\"216\" height=\"162\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-3383\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The battery holds seven hours of electricity for 2,400 homes. (Photo: PG&E)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>That’s where PG&E’s battery project comes in. While this project is small, PG&E says it’s a pilot for energy storage projects down the road. “It is one of the main ways to think about storing energy because it’s so flexible, but there are challenges as have to solve,” says Venkat Srinivasan, of the \u003ca title=\"JCESR - main\" href=\"http://www.jcesr.org/\">Joint Center for Energy Storage Research\u003c/a> at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They are more expensive than we want them to be, but I think it’s a start,” he says. “It’s showing the proof of principal. I think we need more of these before we figure out if these are viable technologies that we can use on a big scale.” PG&E’s $18 million project was funded in part by a $3 million grant from the California Energy Commission.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fluctuations in renewable energy are currently balanced by natural gas power plants. PG&E also has a \u003ca href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helms_Pumped_Storage_Plant\">“pumped hydro” project\u003c/a> where water is pumped uphill when there’s excess electricity and then generates power through a dam when demand peaks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s a lot things that batteries can do that traditional resources can’t,” says Thalman. “The question for utilities and the operators is: do we want to value that? Batteries and energy storage can respond a lot faster than traditional sources. That’s not something we value right now with a market.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The California Public Utilities Commission is looking at setting energy storage goals for the state’s utilities, based on a law passed in 2010. Southern California Edison is required to \u003ca href=\"http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-02-13/edison-seeking-energy-storage-to-meet-california-requirement.html\">add at least 50 MW of energy storage\u003c/a> to the grid as part of a larger plan for new power plants.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_3345\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 288px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/05/PGEBatteryProject-288x162.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-3345\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-3345\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/05/PGEBatteryProject-288x162.jpg\" alt=\"PG&E's Dave Fribush shows the interior of their 4MW battery storage project in San Jose. (Photo: PG&E)\" width=\"288\" height=\"162\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">PG&E’s Dave Fribush shows the interior of their 4 MW battery storage project in San Jose. (Photo: PG&E) \u003ccite>(Courtesy of PG&E)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>You probably wouldn’t notice it if you drove right past it — but this week PG&E unveiled California’s largest battery, now storing electrons in San Jose. The project is a pilot for energy storage technology, as electric utilities look for ways to balance increasing amounts of solar and wind energy on the grid.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The 4-megawatt sodium-sulfur array can power about 2,400 homes for up to seven hours. That takes a mighty big battery. “If you pulled a semi-truck up next to it, it would be about the same length and a little bit taller,” says Jon Eric Thalman of PG&E.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Storing electricity is not something utilities have traditionally done. “On the grid, we generate the amount of power that is needed, minute-by-minute,” Thalman says. “We don’t store it and have it at the ready.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the electric grid is rapidly changing in California. When the sun is shining and the wind is blowing, solar and wind farms produce electricity much like traditional power plants do. But if clouds pass over a solar project, “the change in power can be 80 percent of its output, easily,” says Thalman. “Something has to make up that drop and it happens in seconds.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_3383\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 216px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/05/photo-216x162.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-3383\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/05/photo-216x162.jpg\" alt=\"The battery holds seven hours of electricity for 2,400 homes. (Photo: PG&E)\" width=\"216\" height=\"162\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-3383\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The battery holds seven hours of electricity for 2,400 homes. (Photo: PG&E)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>That’s where PG&E’s battery project comes in. While this project is small, PG&E says it’s a pilot for energy storage projects down the road. “It is one of the main ways to think about storing energy because it’s so flexible, but there are challenges as have to solve,” says Venkat Srinivasan, of the \u003ca title=\"JCESR - main\" href=\"http://www.jcesr.org/\">Joint Center for Energy Storage Research\u003c/a> at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They are more expensive than we want them to be, but I think it’s a start,” he says. “It’s showing the proof of principal. I think we need more of these before we figure out if these are viable technologies that we can use on a big scale.” PG&E’s $18 million project was funded in part by a $3 million grant from the California Energy Commission.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fluctuations in renewable energy are currently balanced by natural gas power plants. PG&E also has a \u003ca href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helms_Pumped_Storage_Plant\">“pumped hydro” project\u003c/a> where water is pumped uphill when there’s excess electricity and then generates power through a dam when demand peaks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s a lot things that batteries can do that traditional resources can’t,” says Thalman. “The question for utilities and the operators is: do we want to value that? Batteries and energy storage can respond a lot faster than traditional sources. That’s not something we value right now with a market.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The California Public Utilities Commission is looking at setting energy storage goals for the state’s utilities, based on a law passed in 2010. Southern California Edison is required to \u003ca href=\"http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-02-13/edison-seeking-energy-storage-to-meet-california-requirement.html\">add at least 50 MW of energy storage\u003c/a> to the grid as part of a larger plan for new power plants.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Riverside County Cuts Solar Fees; Others May Follow",
"headTitle": "Riverside County Cuts Solar Fees; Others May Follow | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>Solar panels have sprouted up all over the sunny spots of California, but for industrial scale projects, there’s no beating desert country — if the price is right. Developers are cheering a decision by Riverside County officials on Tuesday to slash fees on new projects. Riverside could set a new standard for how local communities do business with big solar. \u003ca href=\"http://www.californiareport.org/archive/R201305220850/b\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">»\u003c/a> \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Source: \u003ca href=\"http://www.californiareport.org/archive/R201305220850/b\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Riverside County Cuts Solar Fees; Others May Follow\" rel=\"noopener\">The California Report – Science\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003ch2>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_54854\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-full wp-image-54854\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/04/Quest-Sandra-Postel-Smith-photo-640x3601.jpg\" alt=\"Freshwater expert Sandra Postel \" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/04/Quest-Sandra-Postel-Smith-photo-640x3601.jpg 640w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/04/Quest-Sandra-Postel-Smith-photo-640x3601-400x225.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Photo by Virginia Smith\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>\u003cspan style=\"color: #888888\">\u003cstrong>An Expert Opinion:\u003c/strong>\u003c/span>\u003cstrong> Sandra Postel\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>Sandra Postel has been a leading authority on global freshwater issues for 25 years. Through her organization, \u003c/em>\u003c/strong>\u003ca href=\"http://www.globalwaterpolicy.org/\">\u003cstrong>\u003cem>The Global Water Policy Project\u003c/em>\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>, Postel conducts research, writes, and travels the world providing insights into water challenges and solutions. A former Pew Scholar in Conservation and the Environment, she is currently the National Geographic Society’s \u003c/em>\u003c/strong>\u003ca href=\"http://www.nationalgeographic.com/explorers/bios/sandra-postel/\">\u003cstrong>\u003cem>Freshwater Fellow\u003c/em>\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003cstrong>\u003cem> —and she NEVER drinks bottled water if she can help it.\u003c/em>\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>You’ve said in the future the human story will become a water story, what do you mean by that?\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>\u003cbr>\n\u003c/em>\u003c/strong>Water is going to be a central driver of the human experience over the next several decades and beyond. It’s about the scarcity of water; the fact that we’re running into limits in so many places around the world when it comes to water to grow food, water to keep cities expanding, and water to keep our populations supplied with what they need.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>It’s been said “What oil was to the twentieth century, water will be to the twenty-first,” meaning conflict will erupt over water access. Are wars over water inevitable?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem> \u003cimg class=\"alignright\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/04/Quest-water-glass-196x253.png\" alt=\"Water glass\" width=\"196\" height=\"253\">\u003c/em>I think water’s a more serious issue than the oil issue, given that there’s no substitute for water. We can’t transition away from water, the way we can from oil to other sources of energy. The idea that there will be wars over water the way there have been wars over oil; I think that’s a distraction. There’s going to be enormous social unrest and many humanitarian crises around water and related food shortages within countries. We need to think about and plan more for these circumstances than worrying about armies mobilizing over water. When you look at the river basins around the world, there’s more of a tendency to cooperate than to enter into conflict, so that’s a good thing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>I remember once watching David Letterman do a monologue when New York was in drought where he said, “I keep hearing about this water shortage so last night I turned on my shower and this morning it was still going strong.” How can you communicate about water scarcity when, in the first world, it’s pretty much available on demand? \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I think most people do only think about water from the point of turning on their tap. But it’s hiding in so many other places in our lives; embedded in everything we wear, everything we eat, everything we do. It takes about 2000 gallons a day to sustain the average American’s lifestyle. More than half is our diet. So helping people think about how their dietary choices increase or decrease their personal water footprint makes a difference. Also, it takes 700 gallons to make a cotton shirt. That awareness is really missing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_54872\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 542px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-large wp-image-54872 \" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/04/Quest-cotton-field-542x360.jpg\" alt=\"Cotton field\" width=\"542\" height=\"360\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">According to the NRDC, it takes anywhere from 700 to 2,000 gallons of water to produce about a pound of conventional cotton; just enough to make a single t-shirt.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>What have been some success stories in water conservation?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In terms of urban conservation, I think Boston is one of the best, in part because it’s in a part of the country that you don’t think of as needing to conserve so much. In the late 1980s, Boston was looking at a potential diversion of the Connecticut River to add supply to their reservoir.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_54870\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 337px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-54870\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/04/Quest-Connecticut-River-337x253.jpg\" alt=\"The Connecticut River in western Massachussetts\" width=\"337\" height=\"253\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Connecticut River in western Massachussetts\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>But the citizens said they wanted to protect the river and its salmon populations, so they asked the water authority to take a serious look at conservation measures. They did, and what they put in place was one of the most progressive and comprehensive conservation programs that I’ve seen. It involved retrofitting homes, strategic pricing, education, audits of industries, fixing leaks. A lot of older cities have tremendous leakage in the system.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Boston’s water use today is back to where it was fifty years ago. It’s gone down 43% from the peak. And this is greater Boston: two and a half, three million people. The conservation program cost half as much as the alternative would have cost, and it is better for the environment. The river wasn’t diverted, and now there’s actually extra water, in a sense, surplus water in the reservoir.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Do you drink eight cups of water daily? What kind of water bottle do you use?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_54851\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 241px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-thumbnail wp-image-54851\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/04/Quest-Sandra-Postel-2-253x169.jpg\" alt=\"Photo credit: Cheryl Zook/National Geographic\" width=\"241\" height=\"162\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Photo credit: Cheryl Zook/National Geographic\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>I drink tap water and I drink it out of a glass –or I have any number of stainless steel bottles that I put water in if I’m going to take a hike, or play tennis, or do something outdoors. I don’t drink bottled water unless I absolutely have to because I’m somewhere where there’s no other water available.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>You grew up on Long Island, but now live in New Mexico. 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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>A proposal before county supervisors would require new and remodeled buildings to be wired for plug-in chargers. \u003ca href=\"http://www.kqed.org/news/story/2013/05/20/121058/santa_clara_county_may_mandate_ev_chargers?category=science\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">»\u003c/a> \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Source: \u003ca href=\"http://www.kqed.org/news/story/2013/05/20/121058/santa_clara_county_may_mandate_ev_chargers?category=science\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Santa Clara County May Mandate EV Chargers\" rel=\"noopener\">KQED Radio News – Science\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"audio-wrap\">\n\u003ch2>Listen:\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>http://www.kqed.org/.stream/anon/radio/science/2013/05/2013-05-20-science.mp3\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_2790\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 288px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/05/NetMetering-288x162.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-2790\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-2790\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/05/NetMetering-288x162.jpg\" alt=\"As rooftop solar power grows, the electric utility business model could change. (Photo: Lauren Sommer/KQED)\" width=\"288\" height=\"162\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">As rooftop solar power grows, the electric utility business model could change. (Photo: Lauren Sommer/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>California has been a champion of solar incentive programs and so far, those policies have largely worked: the state is home to more than half of all rooftop solar projects in the country.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But they may have worked a little too well in one respect. As increasing numbers of Californians generate their own electricity, they rely less on electric utilities and that’s raising major questions about the future of California’s utilities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The utility business model has been largely the same for decades. Utilities build transmission lines, deliver power to customers and recover those costs via your monthly bill.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So it’s not hard to see why a customer like Chuck Pershing might make utilities nervous. “This is from PG&E,” he says, digging through a folder of bills. “Electric is $4.73. Here’s another which was $5.01.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chuck and his wife Suzanne Pershing pay next-to-nothing to Pacific Gas & Electric because of the solar panels atop their four-bedroom house in San Leandro. On a sunny afternoon, the panels are cranking out power – more than the couple are actually using. That extra power goes onto PG&E’s grid, where it supplies other homes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You can see where it says ‘received,” says Pershing, pointing to his electric meter. “So PG&E is receiving from us right now 4.32 kilowatts per hour.” PG&E keeps track of this and credits the Pershings on their bill. While they still have to buy electricity from PG&E at night when there’s no sun, it’s effectively cancelled out by the extra power they feed back to PG&E during the day.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s called “\u003ca href=\"http://www.gosolarcalifornia.ca.gov/solar_basics/net_metering.php\">net energy metering\u003c/a>” and it helps solar projects like this one make financial sense. “It’s great,” says Pershing, who says he can’t resist going outside and checking the meter daily.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Victims of Success\u003cbr>\n\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It has been a great program so far,” says David Rubin, who works on net-metering at PG&E. “It was an appropriate thing to do to help the solar market grow. We do, however have a concern.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>About 85,000 PG&E customers have gone solar. Under state law, once these homegrown electrons make up five percent of peak demand, utilities don’t have to buy the power anymore.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The problem, Rubin says, is that solar customers aren’t paying their fair share. “Solar customers really use the grid more intensively than non-solar customers,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https://www.google.com/fusiontables/embedviz?viz=GVIZ&t=LINE&gco_vAxes=%5B%7B%22title%22%3Anull%2C+%22minValue%22%3Anull%2C+%22maxValue%22%3Anull%2C+%22useFormatFromData%22%3Atrue%2C+%22viewWindow%22%3A%7B%22max%22%3Anull%2C+%22min%22%3Anull%7D%7D%2C%7B%22useFormatFromData%22%3Atrue%2C+%22viewWindow%22%3A%7B%22max%22%3Anull%2C+%22min%22%3Anull%7D%2C+%22minValue%22%3Anull%2C+%22maxValue%22%3Anull%7D%5D&gco_curveType=&gco_booleanRole=certainty&gco_lineWidth=2&gco_hAxis=%7B%22useFormatFromData%22%3Atrue%2C+%22minValue%22%3Anull%2C+%22maxValue%22%3Anull%2C+%22viewWindow%22%3Anull%2C+%22viewWindowMode%22%3Anull%7D&gco_legend=in&gco_title=Customer+Solar+Projects+in+California%E2%80%99s+Investor-Owned+Utilities&gco_series=%7B%220%22%3A%7B%22lineWidth%22%3A2%2C+%22pointSize%22%3A7%7D%7D&gco_theme=maximized&containerId=gviz_canvas&isXyPlot=true&q=select+col0%2C+col1+from+1gpYZLkIhgjxu_Q7f-N_4gXUtncn1MDyEbkuIE-U&qrs=+where+col0+%3E%3D+&qre=+and+col0+%3C%3D+&qe=+order+by+col0+asc+limit+12&width=500&height=300\" frameborder=\"no\" scrolling=\"no\" width=\"500\" height=\"300\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Everyone pays for the grid – building and maintaining the wires and substations – through the price of electricity. By reducing their bills close to zero, Rubin says solar customers avoid paying for power lines they’re still using.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Those costs then become the responsibility of our other customers,” he says, who subsidize about $200 million a year in lost electricity sales. That’s why the state’s big utilities are bringing the issue to the California Public Utilities Commission, the agency that sets power prices. Utilities want to see the net-metering program changed, so solar customers get smaller credits or are charged a fixed monthly fee to support the grid.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We don’t think that we are losing customers,” says Rubin. “We are proud that we represent that largest number of solar customers within the country. We just want to make sure it grows in a sustainable way.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>New Competition\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The utility anxiety is palpable,” says Edward Fenster, co-founder of \u003ca href=\"http://www.sunrunhome.com/\">Sunrun\u003c/a>, a residential solar company based in San Francisco. He says the growth of rooftop solar is a fundamental threat to utilities and the monopoly they’ve held.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“PG&E has never had to compete in 140 years,” Fenster says. “It doesn’t have a sales force. Utilities just can’t raise rates forever now, without having to worry about a competitive force.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Solar companies don’t dispute that their customers still need PG&E’s grid. “In theory you should pay something for that,” says Fenster. “That said, you’re also providing a benefit to everybody, which is that you’re reducing the need for the utility to invest in transmission and power generation, saving everybody money.”\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">Being on the wrong side of history, you can win battles, but it’s very difficult to win wars.\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>Several Bay Area solar companies including Sunrun recently formed the\u003ca href=\"http://allianceforsolarchoice.com/\"> Alliance for Solar Choice\u003c/a>, a coalition set up to defend net metering. Fenster says they only expect to fight more of these battles as solar claims more of the market.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think this is a 20-year journey for us,” Fenster says. “But again, I think the populous is very much behind solar. I mean, being on the wrong side of history, you can win battles, but it’s very difficult to win wars.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>The Death Spiral\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The real concern is that as we move toward higher and higher levels of renewable power on the customer side, we’re going to see bigger shortfalls and the utilities are going to have to raise more revenue,” says Severin Borenstein, an energy economist at UC Berkeley.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Here’s the catch: as utilities raise electricity prices, it encourages more of their customers to go solar. That equals an even bigger shortfall and utilities raise prices again. It quickly becomes what Bornstein calls a “death spiral.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Even for those who hate utilities, it’s not a death spiral that should make them happy because none of these solar customers are really energy independent,” says Borenstien. “They still require having a grid.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Public Utilities Commission is expected to release its net-metering analysis by the end of the summer. Many say whatever regulators decide to do, it will set a precedent not just for solar customers in California, but for the solar industry across the country.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cdiv class=\"audio-wrap\">\n\u003ch2>Listen:\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>http://www.kqed.org/.stream/anon/radio/science/2013/05/2013-05-20-science.mp3\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_2790\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 288px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/05/NetMetering-288x162.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-2790\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-2790\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/05/NetMetering-288x162.jpg\" alt=\"As rooftop solar power grows, the electric utility business model could change. (Photo: Lauren Sommer/KQED)\" width=\"288\" height=\"162\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">As rooftop solar power grows, the electric utility business model could change. (Photo: Lauren Sommer/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>California has been a champion of solar incentive programs and so far, those policies have largely worked: the state is home to more than half of all rooftop solar projects in the country.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But they may have worked a little too well in one respect. As increasing numbers of Californians generate their own electricity, they rely less on electric utilities and that’s raising major questions about the future of California’s utilities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The utility business model has been largely the same for decades. Utilities build transmission lines, deliver power to customers and recover those costs via your monthly bill.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So it’s not hard to see why a customer like Chuck Pershing might make utilities nervous. “This is from PG&E,” he says, digging through a folder of bills. “Electric is $4.73. Here’s another which was $5.01.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chuck and his wife Suzanne Pershing pay next-to-nothing to Pacific Gas & Electric because of the solar panels atop their four-bedroom house in San Leandro. On a sunny afternoon, the panels are cranking out power – more than the couple are actually using. That extra power goes onto PG&E’s grid, where it supplies other homes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You can see where it says ‘received,” says Pershing, pointing to his electric meter. “So PG&E is receiving from us right now 4.32 kilowatts per hour.” PG&E keeps track of this and credits the Pershings on their bill. While they still have to buy electricity from PG&E at night when there’s no sun, it’s effectively cancelled out by the extra power they feed back to PG&E during the day.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s called “\u003ca href=\"http://www.gosolarcalifornia.ca.gov/solar_basics/net_metering.php\">net energy metering\u003c/a>” and it helps solar projects like this one make financial sense. “It’s great,” says Pershing, who says he can’t resist going outside and checking the meter daily.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Victims of Success\u003cbr>\n\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It has been a great program so far,” says David Rubin, who works on net-metering at PG&E. “It was an appropriate thing to do to help the solar market grow. We do, however have a concern.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>About 85,000 PG&E customers have gone solar. Under state law, once these homegrown electrons make up five percent of peak demand, utilities don’t have to buy the power anymore.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The problem, Rubin says, is that solar customers aren’t paying their fair share. “Solar customers really use the grid more intensively than non-solar customers,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https://www.google.com/fusiontables/embedviz?viz=GVIZ&t=LINE&gco_vAxes=%5B%7B%22title%22%3Anull%2C+%22minValue%22%3Anull%2C+%22maxValue%22%3Anull%2C+%22useFormatFromData%22%3Atrue%2C+%22viewWindow%22%3A%7B%22max%22%3Anull%2C+%22min%22%3Anull%7D%7D%2C%7B%22useFormatFromData%22%3Atrue%2C+%22viewWindow%22%3A%7B%22max%22%3Anull%2C+%22min%22%3Anull%7D%2C+%22minValue%22%3Anull%2C+%22maxValue%22%3Anull%7D%5D&gco_curveType=&gco_booleanRole=certainty&gco_lineWidth=2&gco_hAxis=%7B%22useFormatFromData%22%3Atrue%2C+%22minValue%22%3Anull%2C+%22maxValue%22%3Anull%2C+%22viewWindow%22%3Anull%2C+%22viewWindowMode%22%3Anull%7D&gco_legend=in&gco_title=Customer+Solar+Projects+in+California%E2%80%99s+Investor-Owned+Utilities&gco_series=%7B%220%22%3A%7B%22lineWidth%22%3A2%2C+%22pointSize%22%3A7%7D%7D&gco_theme=maximized&containerId=gviz_canvas&isXyPlot=true&q=select+col0%2C+col1+from+1gpYZLkIhgjxu_Q7f-N_4gXUtncn1MDyEbkuIE-U&qrs=+where+col0+%3E%3D+&qre=+and+col0+%3C%3D+&qe=+order+by+col0+asc+limit+12&width=500&height=300\" frameborder=\"no\" scrolling=\"no\" width=\"500\" height=\"300\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Everyone pays for the grid – building and maintaining the wires and substations – through the price of electricity. By reducing their bills close to zero, Rubin says solar customers avoid paying for power lines they’re still using.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Those costs then become the responsibility of our other customers,” he says, who subsidize about $200 million a year in lost electricity sales. That’s why the state’s big utilities are bringing the issue to the California Public Utilities Commission, the agency that sets power prices. Utilities want to see the net-metering program changed, so solar customers get smaller credits or are charged a fixed monthly fee to support the grid.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We don’t think that we are losing customers,” says Rubin. “We are proud that we represent that largest number of solar customers within the country. We just want to make sure it grows in a sustainable way.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>New Competition\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The utility anxiety is palpable,” says Edward Fenster, co-founder of \u003ca href=\"http://www.sunrunhome.com/\">Sunrun\u003c/a>, a residential solar company based in San Francisco. He says the growth of rooftop solar is a fundamental threat to utilities and the monopoly they’ve held.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“PG&E has never had to compete in 140 years,” Fenster says. “It doesn’t have a sales force. Utilities just can’t raise rates forever now, without having to worry about a competitive force.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Solar companies don’t dispute that their customers still need PG&E’s grid. “In theory you should pay something for that,” says Fenster. “That said, you’re also providing a benefit to everybody, which is that you’re reducing the need for the utility to invest in transmission and power generation, saving everybody money.”\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">Being on the wrong side of history, you can win battles, but it’s very difficult to win wars.\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>Several Bay Area solar companies including Sunrun recently formed the\u003ca href=\"http://allianceforsolarchoice.com/\"> Alliance for Solar Choice\u003c/a>, a coalition set up to defend net metering. Fenster says they only expect to fight more of these battles as solar claims more of the market.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think this is a 20-year journey for us,” Fenster says. “But again, I think the populous is very much behind solar. I mean, being on the wrong side of history, you can win battles, but it’s very difficult to win wars.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>The Death Spiral\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The real concern is that as we move toward higher and higher levels of renewable power on the customer side, we’re going to see bigger shortfalls and the utilities are going to have to raise more revenue,” says Severin Borenstein, an energy economist at UC Berkeley.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Here’s the catch: as utilities raise electricity prices, it encourages more of their customers to go solar. That equals an even bigger shortfall and utilities raise prices again. It quickly becomes what Bornstein calls a “death spiral.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Even for those who hate utilities, it’s not a death spiral that should make them happy because none of these solar customers are really energy independent,” says Borenstien. “They still require having a grid.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Public Utilities Commission is expected to release its net-metering analysis by the end of the summer. Many say whatever regulators decide to do, it will set a precedent not just for solar customers in California, but for the solar industry across the country.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"disqusTitle": "Solar plane takes off on historic cross-country trip",
"title": "Solar plane takes off on historic cross-country trip",
"headTitle": "QUEST | KQED Science",
"content": "\u003cp>\u003cimg class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-53840\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/05/impulse_takeoff640.jpg\" alt=\"impulse_takeoff640\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/05/impulse_takeoff640.jpg 640w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/05/impulse_takeoff640-400x225.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lighter than an SUV and covered with more than 12,000 solar cells, \u003ca href=\"http://www.solarimpulse.com/\">Solar Impulse\u003c/a>, the world's first solar plane that can fly day and night without recharging, launched from Moffett Field this morning in a cross country voyage. The $150million project initiated by co-pilots Bertrand Piccard and André Borschberg will test the limits of solar aviation and be a proving ground for a planned trip across the world in 2015.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At 5:15am, a crowd of 25 journalists gathered around Piccard as he answered questions about what it's like to fly the plane and whether he was exhausted. \"I'll be in the air for 20 hours but I've been dreaming of this flight for 10 years so there is no time to be tired,\" he said. Researchers from the \u003ca href=\"http://www.nasa.gov/centers/ames/home/index.html\">NASA Ames Research Center\u003c/a> also stood 50 feet from the tarmac to catch a glimpse of the plane taking off.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The single-seater plane was financed by several large corporations including Omega, Solvay and Deutsche Bank. The companies developed new technologies in order to create the aircraft. The monocrystalline solar cells needed to be flexible enough to curve atop the wings and the resulting cells are the thickness of a human hair.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Solar cells power four electric engines and excess energy is stored in four lithium batteries located below the wings. Since the batteries account for 25 percent of the plane's total weigh other elements had to be eliminated. There is no heating or cooling system and many metal parts were replaced with plastic; Solvay designed ultra-light polymers that could replace metal in the instrument panels and control box.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For all of the plane's high-tech innovation it's far from ready for commercialization. Flying at 43 miles per hour, it could easily be outpaced by a pigeon. But Piccard has said the goal is not speed but duration and Borschberg believes the technology developed for this plane could be used by everyone. \"All the technology we have used in the airplane can be used on the ground, it wasn't developed by aviation companies,\" Borschberg said. \"One day it could be used in refrigerators in your home or in electric batteries in your car.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The plane will fly at 28,000 feet, stopping in Phoenix, Dallas and Washington D.C. before touching down in New York. The pilots will take turns flying, switching out at each city where they will talk to the public about the plane.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To watch live coverage of the flight and watch Piccard as he talks about what he sees from above visit the \u003ca href=\"http://live.solarimpulse.com/\">live stream\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-53825\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/04/IMG_1116-e1367605528209.jpg\" alt=\"SolarImpulsePilots\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/04/IMG_1116-e1367605528209.jpg 640w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/04/IMG_1116-e1367605528209-400x225.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-53871\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/05/sign-e1367606668261.jpg\" alt=\"sign\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/05/sign-e1367606668261.jpg 640w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/05/sign-e1367606668261-400x225.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-53869\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/05/piccardthumbsup-e1367606141260.jpg\" alt=\"piccardthumbsup\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/05/piccardthumbsup-e1367606141260.jpg 640w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/05/piccardthumbsup-e1367606141260-400x225.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cscript src=\"//storify.com/QuestScience/solar-plane-marks-first-transcontinental-solar-voy.js\" type=\"text/javascript\" language=\"javascript\">\u003c/script>\u003c/p>\u003cnoscript>[\u003ca href=\"//storify.com/QuestScience/solar-plane-marks-first-transcontinental-solar-voy\" target=\"_blank\">View the story \"Solar Plane marks first transcontinental voyage\" on Storify\u003c/a>]\u003c/noscript>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ciframe src=\"https://vine.co/v/bQHiY35A5Oi/embed/simple\" frameborder=\"0\" width=\"600\" height=\"600\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "Lighter than an SUV and covered with more than 12,000 solar cells, Solar Impulse, the world's first solar plane that can fly day and night without recharging, launched from Moffet Field this morning in a cross country voyage. ",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For all of the plane's high-tech innovation it's far from ready for commercialization. Flying at 43 miles per hour, it could easily be outpaced by a pigeon. But Piccard has said the goal is not speed but duration and Borschberg believes the technology developed for this plane could be used by everyone. \"All the technology we have used in the airplane can be used on the ground, it wasn't developed by aviation companies,\" Borschberg said. \"One day it could be used in refrigerators in your home or in electric batteries in your car.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The plane will fly at 28,000 feet, stopping in Phoenix, Dallas and Washington D.C. before touching down in New York. The pilots will take turns flying, switching out at each city where they will talk to the public about the plane.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To watch live coverage of the flight and watch Piccard as he talks about what he sees from above visit the \u003ca href=\"http://live.solarimpulse.com/\">live stream\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-53825\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/04/IMG_1116-e1367605528209.jpg\" alt=\"SolarImpulsePilots\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/04/IMG_1116-e1367605528209.jpg 640w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/04/IMG_1116-e1367605528209-400x225.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-53871\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/05/sign-e1367606668261.jpg\" alt=\"sign\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/05/sign-e1367606668261.jpg 640w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/05/sign-e1367606668261-400x225.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-53869\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/05/piccardthumbsup-e1367606141260.jpg\" alt=\"piccardthumbsup\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/05/piccardthumbsup-e1367606141260.jpg 640w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/05/piccardthumbsup-e1367606141260-400x225.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cscript src=\"//storify.com/QuestScience/solar-plane-marks-first-transcontinental-solar-voy.js\" type=\"text/javascript\" language=\"javascript\">\u003c/script>\u003c/p>\u003cnoscript>[\u003ca href=\"//storify.com/QuestScience/solar-plane-marks-first-transcontinental-solar-voy\" target=\"_blank\">View the story \"Solar Plane marks first transcontinental voyage\" on Storify\u003c/a>]\u003c/noscript>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ciframe src=\"https://vine.co/v/bQHiY35A5Oi/embed/simple\" frameborder=\"0\" width=\"600\" height=\"600\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"info": "What kind of no sabo word is Hyphenación? For us, it’s about living within a hyphenation. Like being a third-gen Mexican-American from the Texas border now living that Bay Area Chicano life. Like Xorje! Each week we bring together a couple of hyphenated Latinos to talk all about personal life choices: family, careers, relationships, belonging … everything is on the table. ",
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"marketplace": {
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"info": "Our flagship program, helmed by Kai Ryssdal, examines what the day in money delivered, through stories, conversations, newsworthy numbers and more. Updated Monday through Friday at about 3:30 p.m. PT.",
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"mindshift": {
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"info": "The MindShift podcast explores the innovations in education that are shaping how kids learn. Hosts Ki Sung and Katrina Schwartz introduce listeners to educators, researchers, parents and students who are developing effective ways to improve how kids learn. We cover topics like how fed-up administrators are developing surprising tactics to deal with classroom disruptions; how listening to podcasts are helping kids develop reading skills; the consequences of overparenting; and why interdisciplinary learning can engage students on all ends of the traditional achievement spectrum. This podcast is part of the MindShift education site, a division of KQED News. KQED is an NPR/PBS member station based in San Francisco. You can also visit the MindShift website for episodes and supplemental blog posts or tweet us \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/MindShiftKQED\">@MindShiftKQED\u003c/a> or visit us at \u003ca href=\"/mindshift\">MindShift.KQED.org\u003c/a>",
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"order": 12
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM1NzY0NjAwNDI5",
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"tagline": "Deeply-reported investigative journalism",
"info": "For decades, the process for how police police themselves has been inconsistent – if not opaque. In some states, like California, these proceedings were completely hidden. After a new police transparency law unsealed scores of internal affairs files, our reporters set out to examine these cases and the shadow world of police discipline. On Our Watch brings listeners into the rooms where officers are questioned and witnesses are interrogated to find out who this system is really protecting. Is it the officers, or the public they've sworn to serve?",
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"info": "Our weekly podcast explores how the media 'sausage' is made, casts an incisive eye on fluctuations in the marketplace of ideas, and examines threats to the freedom of information and expression in America and abroad. For one hour a week, the show tries to lift the veil from the process of \"making media,\" especially news media, because it's through that lens that we see the world and the world sees us",
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},
"perspectives": {
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"order": 14
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"info": "The economy explained. Imagine you could call up a friend and say, Meet me at the bar and tell me what's going on with the economy. Now imagine that's actually a fun evening.",
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"title": "Political Breakdown",
"tagline": "Politics from a personal perspective",
"info": "Political Breakdown is a new series that explores the political intersection of California and the nation. Each week hosts Scott Shafer and Marisa Lagos are joined with a new special guest to unpack politics -- with personality — and offer an insider’s glimpse at how politics happens.",
"airtime": "THU 6:30pm-7pm",
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"possible": {
"id": "possible",
"title": "Possible",
"info": "Possible is hosted by entrepreneur Reid Hoffman and writer Aria Finger. Together in Possible, Hoffman and Finger lead enlightening discussions about building a brighter collective future. The show features interviews with visionary guests like Trevor Noah, Sam Altman and Janette Sadik-Khan. Possible paints an optimistic portrait of the world we can create through science, policy, business, art and our shared humanity. It asks: What if everything goes right for once? How can we get there? Each episode also includes a short fiction story generated by advanced AI GPT-4, serving as a thought-provoking springboard to speculate how humanity could leverage technology for good.",
"airtime": "SUN 2pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Possible-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.possible.fm/",
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"source": "Possible"
},
"link": "/radio/program/possible",
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"spotify": "https://open.spotify.com/show/730YpdUSNlMyPQwNnyjp4k"
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},
"pri-the-world": {
"id": "pri-the-world",
"title": "PRI's The World: Latest Edition",
"info": "Each weekday, host Marco Werman and his team of producers bring you the world's most interesting stories in an hour of radio that reminds us just how small our planet really is.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 2pm-3pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/The-World-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
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},
"radiolab": {
"id": "radiolab",
"title": "Radiolab",
"info": "A two-time Peabody Award-winner, Radiolab is an investigation told through sounds and stories, and centered around one big idea. In the Radiolab world, information sounds like music and science and culture collide. Hosted by Jad Abumrad and Robert Krulwich, the show is designed for listeners who demand skepticism, but appreciate wonder. WNYC Studios is the producer of other leading podcasts including Freakonomics Radio, Death, Sex & Money, On the Media and many more.",
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},
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