CalEnergy power plant plans killed
Local officials have been among the strongest supporters of promoting the Salton Sea known geothermal area, however, last week the plans of continuing with a project long in the making officially fell through.
According to the Desert Sun, CalEnergy, which is part of Berkshire Hathaway Energy, owned by Warren Buffett, asked the California Energy Commission earlier in the summer to terminate the license for the proposed Black Rock power plant.
The company had previously requested construction extensions in 2007, 2011 and 2014 — if the company would’ve still wanted to move forward with the project, it would have had to pay an annual compliance fee of more than $27,000 earlier this year.
Although the Imperial Valley has a mineral rich water reservoir underneath the Salton Sea, making it a prime location for geothermal energy generation, the high, upfront costs to operate a geothermal facility has become the biggest challenge to spur the growth of the resource in the area.
Since the year 2000, only one new facility opened in the valley, the EnergySource John L. Featherstone plant.
Australian company Controlled Thermal Resources is currently working to build a new plant north of Red Hill Bay which they expect to generate 250 megawatts in its first phase — the facility is expected to begin operations in 2021.
More on Buffett
Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway was outbid by Sempra Energy to purchase a Texas transmission company according to the San Diego Union-Tribune.
The report says that Sempra has offered $9.45 billion for Dallas-based Oncor Electric; the bid exceeds the $9 billion offered by Berkshire Hathaway. Oncor is a transmission company which owns distribution lines that deliver electricity to more than 3.4 million homes and covers more than 122,000 miles.
According to Reuters, the board at Energy Future opted for the Sempra bid after receiving assurances from Sempra officials that its offer for Oncor would receive approval from the Public Utility Commission of Texas, as well as a U.S. bankruptcy judge.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Sempra became the company to make an offer for Oncor in addition to Buffett and two other offers prior to Berkshire Hathaway had been blocked by regulators in Texas.
Among Sempra’s holdings is San Diego Gas & Electric and Southern California Gas. Sempra Energy currently has a market value of about $30 billion.
Censoring Climate
During the weekend, President Donald Trump’s administration broke up the Climate Science Advisory Committee whose objective was to help the country prepare for the effects of climate change in the U.S.
This committee was established in 2015 by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to help businesses, states and local governments make use of the next national climate assessment, which is expected to be finalized in 2018.
According to Nature, on Aug. 18, 13 federal agencies were due to deliver their final comments on a federal report on the state of climate science in anticipation to the main assessment that will be released next year.
Scientists are concerned that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency administrator Scott Pruitt will attempt to meddle with the document. A top researcher told Nature that the report expected to be published in November is still on track to meet its goal.
The members of the now-defunct committee are expected to continue with their work and research outside of the federal advisory committee process.