California voters think the government should spend more money to help maintain crumbling roads, but they offer mixed views on how to fund the upkeep, according to a new statewide Field Poll. More than 70 percent think state and local officials should dedicate additional resources to existing roadways. By a smaller margin, 48 percent to
Last week, while thousands of farmers and others involved in the agricultural industry attended World Ag Expo in Tulare, a much smaller group visited the Calgren Renewable Fuels plant in Pixley. Only they weren't there to see how the plant makes ethanol. Instead, the group of dairy operators, county officials and business people were there
Chevron has announced it will move 100 jobs from its San Ramon corporate headquarters to Houston this year. Last year, Chevron announced it was transferring 400 jobs from San Ramon to Houston. As of April 2014, Chevron's San Ramon workforce numbered 3,500 people. The jobs, in the oil giant's human resources department, are non-union and
Regulators in California, the country's third-largest oil-producing state, have authorized oil companies to inject production fluids and waste into what are now federally protected aquifers more than 2,500 times, risking contamination of underground water supplies that could be used for drinking water or irrigation, state records show. While some of the permits go back decades,
Soon after Gov. Jerry Brown proposed expanding greenhouse gas reduction policies in his State of the State address, California’s influential utilities praised Brown’s agenda but moved quietly to craft a version that could be easier for them to meet. The effort, outlined by the utilities in talks with lawmakers, state regulators and interest groups –
A local demonstration project announced Tuesday would treat up to 136,500 gallons per day of oil field wastewater for reuse in agriculture and steam-based well stimulation. OriginOil Inc., the Los Angeles-based developer of "Electro Water Separation," said it has partnered with Bakersfield oil producer Vaquero Energy Inc. to install a pair of facilities treating "produced
State regulators are scrutinizing more than 100 Kern County injection wells that if closed, as federal officials warn may be warranted, could force local oil companies to decide between cutting production and finding a new destination for several billion gallons of wastewater per year. A few of the wells inject steam to aid in oil
Michael Picker in the Sacramento Bee: Over the years, the PUC has served the state well by making sure that utilities use their economic power for our benefit and safety. Recently, working with other state agencies, the PUC has led the nation in clean energy such as wind, solar, biomass and geothermal, and in reducing
About 20 percent of California’s oil and natural-gas production uses hydraulic fracturing — with almost all of it happening in one corner of the San Joaquin Valley — according to the most authoritative survey yet released of fracking in the Golden State. Oil companies frack 125 to 175 of the roughly 300 wells drilled in
Though the biennial update is designed to supplement the Integrated Energy Planning Report (IEPR) for inter-agency "process alignment," California Energy Commission (CEC) Chair Robert Weisenmiller told the meeting earlier this week that he and California Public Utility Commission (CPUC) President Michael Picker will be using the forecast for enhanced distribution planning, to help design time-of-use