The city is opposing a green power initiative on November's ballot that would mandate that a set percentage of a utility's power be generated with renewable power. Phyllis Currie, the head of Pasadena Water and Power, estimates that the initiative, called Proposition 7, could raise water and power rates in the city by 35 percent to 40 percent. "It would mean we could be mandated to bring on renewable resources much faster than we need them, have the transmission capacity for them, or can afford to pay for them," Currie said at last week's City Council meeting.

By the end of 2010, the state's large, investor-owned utilities are supposed to ensure that 20 percent of the power they sell comes from such renewable sources as the sun and wind. Utilities such as Pacific Gas and Electric Co. have been frantically signing contracts with wind farm and solar power plant developers to meet that deadline. But the report, the California Public Utilities Commission's latest quarterly update on the state's renewable power efforts, designed to fight global warming, found that the utilities probably won't reach 20 percent until 2012 or 2013. Most of the new wind farms and solar power plants they need have not yet been built.

A massive, 7,500-page draft environmental study released in January concluded that the route preferred by SDG&E through Anza-Borrego was among the least preferable environmentally. Of the top seven alternatives, the study ranked five others higher, including a "southern route" for the transmission line along Interstate 8. SDG&E officials argued that the alternate southern route proposed in the environmental study was not feasible because it required crossing tribal lands owned by the Campo and La Posta Indians. ...But top SDG&E officials contended that any southern route would require crossing tribal land when they met with top advisers to the PUC

Wind power's intermittency as an energy resource but minimal contributions toward peak-capacity needs are further evidenced in operational data from three Washington and Montana wind farms. Monthly and even daily energy production vary substantially. Officials from NorthWestern Energy and Puget Sound Energy recently shared these and other wind-power experiences, including reserve requirements (challenging) and wind forecasting (improving). These tales come from the 135 MW-capacity Judith Gap wind farm in central Montana, whose entire output NorthWestern buys from developer Invenergy Wind, and PSE's 150 MW-capacity Hopkins Ridge and 229 MW-capacity Wild Horse wind projects in southeastern and central Washington, respectively. ..."The relationship between load and wind output is almost zero," the former council member told the current council. "That's a real issue for us. We continue to learn almost every day some things about wind operations on our system."

The Anschutz Corporation, through an affiliate Transwest Express LLC, has acquired the rights to develop a proposed $3 billion, 900-mile, 3,000 megawatt high-voltage transmission line to bring electricity from wind farms in southern Wyoming to growing markets of southern California, Las Vegas and Phoenix. ...Another Anschutz affiliate, Power Company of Wyoming, LCC, already has started work developing a 2,000 megawatt wind farm project in Carbon County Wyoming.

Kern County supervisors Tuesday blessed a disputed wind park project proposed on 5,820 acres 15 miles west of Rosamond. The project would produce 300 megawatts of power, enough to light at least 90,000 homes, county planners said. Dispute over the project centered on a military testing facility nearby. Military contractor Northrop Grumman Co. had said the radar clutter from energy company enXco's plans would kill operations at its Tejon Test Facility, where work on the B2 bomber is under way.

The Kern County Board of Supervisors is set to consider plans for a 5,800-acre wind farm designed to provide electricity to 90,000 homes. Officials with the PdV Wind Energy Project say that between 100 and 300 turbines would generate electricity to be supplied to Southern California Edison.

Several thousand acres of desert scrub land west of Rosamond may eventually be dotted with massive wind turbines if Kern County Supervisors support the project Tuesday afternoon. The PdV Wind Energy Project, proposed by enXco, would use 5,820 acres to generate electricity for Southern California Edison. ...Between 100 to 300 turbines would be placed, and construction would be phased.

Efforts to reduce bird kills in the Altamont Pass Wind Resource Area may not be working, new data released this week show. The mortality rate increased 27 percent over two years among raptors targeted in an ongoing monitoring study, according to an executive summary of the data issued by Alameda County's Scientific Review Committee. The five member panel advises the county on progress being made to mitigate bird deaths in the Altamont Pass windmill area. ...The increase in the kills of the four targeted raptors - the golden eagle, red-tailed hawk, American kestrel and burrowing owl - is in comparison with a baseline study that took place between March 1998 and May 2003.

Strong neighborhood opposition to a proposed wind turbine on a Torrance elementary school campus has prompted officials to drop the project. Residents near Hickory Elementary School flooded Torrance Unified School District officials with calls Monday after reading in the Daily Breeze about the proposed turbine that would tower almost 40 feet over the neighborhood. Opponents were concerned about aesthetic, noise and safety issues.

Alameda County supervisors approved on Tuesday a new three-month, bird-monitoring contract to study the impacts of the Altamont Pass wind turbines on scores of birds, including golden eagles, red-tailed hawks, burrowing owls and other protected species. Supervisors approved the $450,000 contract with environmental consulting firm Jones & Stokes by a 3-2 vote.

Lewis calls the whole proposal, its implications and its aftermath "just weird." For instance, he didn't receive the letter from Schumacher until July 5 - almost three weeks after the board's decision. "This letter was the first anyone knew about it," Lewis said. "We were just shocked this could happen without notifying anybody." Galvin is mobilizing the neighborhood and hopes people will show up at a school district meeting tonight to complain. "It's imperative we show opposition to this thing. Otherwise it's going to get shoved down our throats, which is what the school district has done already," she said. [EDITOR'S NOTE: Windaction.org has been informed that this project has since been canceled due to complaints filed by residents in Torrance.]

The California Desert Coalition, which formed to oppose the proposal, took out a newspaper ad that urged residents to wear red to display their anger. Many did so, wearing red shirts, hats, scarves, and even tiny rubber bands to hold back their hair. They said they weren't against a quest for renewable energy but wanted it done without harm to their homes and the environment they hold dear. "We have a lot to protect here; we have a lot to fight for," said April Sall, a coalition leader. Russell Betts, a Desert Hot Springs city councilman, said one transmission route would economically harm the town by slicing through a proposed commercial zone. He suggested that Los Angeles officials are expecting desert residents to "absorb the cost of their operation."

California's big electrical utilities may miss the state's deadline for increasing their use of renewable power if Congress doesn't extend tax credits for new solar plants and wind farms, the head of Pacific Gas and Electric Co. said Friday. Like all California utilities, San Francisco's PG&E has been scrambling to sign contracts with renewable-power developers. State law requires that by the end of 2010, 20 percent of the electricity each utility sells must come from renewable sources. But Peter Darbee, PG&E's chief executive officer, said many developers have already warned him that their projects may fall through if Congress doesn't extend tax credits due to expire at the end of the year.

Despite some changes to the route of the proposed Sunrise Powerlink, analysts at the California Public Utilities Commission have not changed their opinion about the controversial line, according to an environmental study released yesterday. The revised environmental report includes an evaluation of wind power that San Diego Gas & Electric hopes to tap in northern Baja California as well as more than a dozen changes being considered for Sunrise, a proposed $1.5 billion, 150-mile power line that would stretch from the Imperial Valley to Rancho Peñasquitos. In the end, the analysts repeated findings from the first draft of the report, namely that there are five "environmentally superior" alternatives to the SDG&E proposal, including proposals to generate power within San Diego County or to build alternate lines that would - unlike Sunrise - avoid Anza-Borrego Desert State Park.

When it unveiled its Sunrise Powerlink project three years ago, San Diego County's electric utility warned that rolling blackouts like those that swept California during the 2000-01 electricity crisis could return to the region in 2010 without the new power line. Now, because of state delays in evaluating the $1.5 billion project, that high-voltage transmission line ---- even if it is eventually approved ---- won't be available to help meet the county's peak summer demand for electricity in either 2010 or 2011, utility officials say. ...Bill Powers, an activist and engineer from San Diego who has been fighting Sunrise, maintains there is another option: Ship the power west via an existing line in Baja California and north on wires that connect Tijuana with San Diego. "You've got a lot of options here that don't necessarily involve building any new transmission," Powers said.

A second local wind turbine project was proposed for an area near Camp Rock Road - the latest example in the statewide push for renewable energy as presented at the most recent Municipal Advisory Council meeting. FPL Energy of Florida plans to construct 34 turbines - which are a total of 389 feet tall, the equivalent of a 40-story building - on just 52 of those acres, explained Eduardo Batalla, director of wind energy projects for the company. The utilized property will be along the ridge of the mountains. Batalla said that West Fry Wind Project is in talks with the Bureau of Land Management to acquire 3,100 acres by Camp Rock Road in the Johnson Valley Off-Road Vehicle area.

A fund that helps the state's largest utilities buy renewable energy at above-market rates won't last much longer, possibly providing the big power firms with a loophole to get out of looming renewable energy mandates. ...Meanwhile, utilities complain, the state's method of determining market rates sets the price benchmark artificially low. As a result, the utilities will run through the renewable kitty faster than expected, and in fact, could spend the whole amount, on just a few projects. The CPUC says the money will run out in the next 12 to 18 months.

In a setback for San Diego Gas & Electric Co.'s controversial transmission line, state regulators Friday ordered that a draft report examining the Sunrise Powerlink's environmental impacts be expanded to include new information about a Mexico wind power project. The four-page ruling by California Public Utilities Commissioner Dian Grueneich and Administrative Law Judge Steven Weissman also directs the agency that runs the state power grid to recalculate the economic benefits of Sunrise and project alternatives. The ruling marked the second time in a year that the finish line for the $1.5 billion project has been pushed back.

Pacific Gas & Electric Co. has under contract all of the renewable power it needs to meet state mandates by 2010, if the promised power systems can be built in time. It's a big if. Expiring tax credits, the lag in building utility-scale renewable energy and increased competition for renewable power sources are potential roadblocks for the Northern California utility and the state's two other major utilities. ...Another issue for PG&E and the other utilities is that costs are rising 20 percent per year for renewable power.