Two San Francisco companies have been accused of illegally dumping more than 100 tons of debris around Bay View Hunters Point. The city has filed suit and is seeking $1 million in damages. Both companies deny the charges, but the city says it found identifying information in the rubbish that lead to the business owners. [San Francisco Chronicle]
Speaker of the House John Boehner has undone Nancy Pelosi’s steps to green the U.S. Congressional cafeteria and reintroduced foam plastic coffee cups. This morning his aid tweeted “The new majority – plasticware is back.” [Guardian]
The Google Ventures backed start-up Transphorm came out of stealth mode yesterday to reveal its breakthrough energy efficiency technology. It claims to eliminates 90 percent of the energy waste when transforming AC to DC power and vice versa, which could save terawatts of energy. The technology can be applied to any device – from cars to cell phone chargers – that convert power. [Grist]
A webcam of Molly the barn owl and her hatching chicks went viral last year. Millions of people around the global watched, some dubbing themselves as having Molly Obsessive Disorder. Well, now Marin County has its very own barn owl live streaming video capturing the every move of two young birds, who have yet to be named. [Marin Independent Journal]
PG&E chose not to install safety valves on their San Bruno gas lines in 2006 because they concluded that most of the damage from an explosion would occur in the first 30 seconds, officials revealed yesterday during a National Transportation Safety Board hearing in Washington D.C. Documents also revealed that PG&E workers were concerned about the pipe when it was installed in 1956. [San Jose Mercury News] [San Francisco Chronicle]
Urban agriculture is the new hot thing in San Francisco. And with small farms sprouting up in the unlikeliest of places, the city is passing a new planning code that defines where and how these farms can take root. The city is also allowing farmers to sell from their lots, although not in any formal produce stand sort of way. But despite the locavore movement taking hold, there is concern that veggies may become toxic by contaminated soil. And one city agency is also worried about an uptick in water use, given a long term supply shortage. [Civil Eats]
The National Transportation Safety Board will seek answers from PG&E officials over the next three days about the San Bruno gasline explosion last September. Specifically, safety officials will try to determine why PG&E lacked any automatically controlled valves to shut off the gas, which gushed uncontrolled for more than an hour. [San Francisco Chronicle]
Two of the most powerful venture capital investment groups – Khosla Ventures and Google Ventures – have ponied up $42 million for WeatherBill, a San Francisco-based crop insurance company. Founded by former Google executives, WeatherBill operates on the premise that climate change will increasingly disrupt agriculture, making the already precarious business of growing food even more unpredictable. [Wall Street Journal]
A small team of diverse scientists have received big money to try and resolve once and for all the contentious debate over climate change. Berkeley Earth says they will differ from past similar attempts by making all of their research and analysis open for review. Berkeley Earth is funded by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Fund for Innovative Climate and Energy Research and the Koch Foundation, among others. [California Watch]
A statewide effort to help consumers reduce their energy bills begins today. The federally funded Energy Upgrade California program will offer rebates between $1,000 and $4,000 to homeowners who invest in energy efficiency. The state hopes the new program “reduces consumer confusion” by consolidating all incentive options under one roof. [San Jose Mercury News]
Details are coming out about the California Public Utilities Commission’s initial investigation into Muni safety violations, and it’s not pretty. One driver was caught sleeping. Others speeding through school zones. And dozens of instances of failing tracks and emergency phones. [San Francisco Examiner]
Tags: california public utilities commission, investigation, muni, safety violations
A parody of Alicia Keys and Jay-Z's hit "Empire State of Mind," this short video will show at the San Francisco Green Film Festival March 3-6, 2011. sfgreenfilmfest.org
It’s been a point of maddening frustration for scientists and environmentalists that as the predictions on global warming grow more dire, the public seems...
Read more »
It’s been a long, cold rainy winter this year in California. But it could get worse — much worse. The USGS warned this past...
Read more »
Listen to WOW reporter Alison Hawkes’ radio story about the greening of Treasure Island, which aired on KQED’s California Watch.
Read more »
We're camping out at public meetings, traipsing through parks, and sticking our noses into green tech research to bring you relevant local stories that matter.
WOW is produced by two local environmental journalists for you, our eco-savvy readers. We'd love to hear what you want from this site.
