 A sea lion on buoy number 14 in San Diego Bay San Diego Water Board Still Weighing Options Over Desal
After more than a decade spent talking about building a large-scale ocean desalination plant in Carlsbad, California, the private equity firm proposing to finance the project has one last hurdle to overcome: It needs someone to agree to buy the water.
Poseidon Resources has put forth several iterations over the years of its proposed plant in San Diego County, expected to produce up to 50 million gallons of freshwater daily. In one attempt, Poseidon inked agreements with local water agencies claiming it could sell water at no greater cost than imported water supplies.
But investors and members of the San Diego County Water Authority, both of whom Poseidon needs for support, balked at the claim and those agreements were scrapped. Continue reading Poseidon Resources’s Private, For-Profit California Desalination Projects Face Challenges on Two Fronts
Photo: Poseidon Resources
Opposition calls their claims grossly inaccurate
Supporters of ocean desalination in California commonly lament the numerous permits required in this state to build a plant capable of converting seawater into drinkable tap water.
In late April, backers of a bill to create a state task force with the goal of streamlining the process claimed desalination plants require up to 30 permits in California to gain approval.
“With 30 permitting steps, these are overlapping and confusing requirements,” Rep. Isadore Hall (D-Los Angeles), chief sponsor of Assembly Bill 2595, told state representatives in the Committee on Natural Resources in Sacramento. Continue reading Ocean Desal Backers Exaggerate Permit Burden
Chevron's El Segundo Refinery In El Segundo, California, a city manager is fired after finding a secret, possibly illegal, backroom deal with Chevron to pay unusually low taxes in this company town.
One morning after a council meeting in December, Doug Willmore, El Segundo’s city manager, walked outside to his car and found a note. It was a warning for him and his family to get out of town.
“Who does something like that?” says Willmore, who had relocated from Salt Lake County, Utah, earlier that year. He says had he known the city had such close ties to Chevron Corporation, he probably would not have taken the job.
Tucked between a waste treatment plant and the largest oil refinery in California, the city of El Segundo just south of Los Angeles International Airport has earned a reputation over the years as a sort of “Mayberry by the Sea.” The town’s picturesque little league fields, antique streetlights and quaint holiday parades all help give it a hometown feel despite its beachfront industrial development. Continue reading Chevron’s Huge Tax Break Cost City Manager His Job
 (Photo courtesy of the Pacific Legal Foundation) A unanimous Supreme Court ruling yesterday in favor of Mike and Chantell Sackett marks a significant victory for private property advocates. It also represents one of the biggest wins for the Pacific Legal Foundation (PLF) in its 30-year history as a nonprofit law firm working to rollback environmental laws and advance a broad conservative agenda.
For the PLF, the story of an Idaho couple getting strong-armed by the Environmental Protection Agency while trying to build their dream home represented far more than the interests of a single family and their dashed American dream. It was textbook PLF. Continue reading EPA Loses Major Supreme Court Decision on Wetland Enforcement
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