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Staff Reporter
cmacho@oakdaleleader.com
209-847-3021, ext. 8128
Over 150 local residents – most from the agriculture community – turned out June 11 at the Almond Pavilion banquet facility for an update of a controversial $1.3 billion Transmission Agency of Northern California (TANC) project and the agency’s plan to construct and upgrade roughly 600 miles of high-voltage electric transmission lines and associated facilities in Northern California.
TANC is a California Joint Powers Agency (JPA) composed of 15 cities and utility districts from throughout the Central Valley, Bay Area, and other locations in Northern California. Agency members include the cities of Alameda, Biggs, Gridley, Healdsburg, Lodi, Lompoc, Palo Alto, Redding, Roseville, Ukiah, the Modesto Irrigation District (MID), Plumas-Sierra Rural Electric Cooperative, Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD), Silicon Valley Power, and the Turlock Irrigation District (TID).
Allen Short, the general manager of MID who also serves as the chairman of TANC, told the group at the Almond Pavilion that the project was necessary due to California’s move to require the use of green energy by local utilities.
Although MID, TID, and other local utilities utilize hydropower from dams on area rivers, Short told the audience the state will not recognize hydropower as renewable energy.
What the state does recognize as renewable energy, Short said, is solar, wind, and geothermal sources. He pointed out those forms of renewable energy cannot be obtained locally, creating the need for transmission towers to those areas of the state and country that possess those resources.
Some of those attending the meeting asked Short to clarify what role TANC has with the power lines leading from New Melones Reservoir that bisect the Oakdale area, and if the TANC project could follow the path of those lines. Short said those lines belong to the Western Area Power Administration (WAPA), a federal government project.
David Young, who is involved in the public comment process for TANC, is also a manager for WAPA.
Short admitted TANC was not thorough enough in bringing attention to the TANC project.
“We did a poor job,” he said of the initial comment, or scoping period for the project. The scoping period was originally scheduled to end in April, but it has since been extended twice due to public outcry regarding the project. The closing date is now scheduled for July 30.
Short said the last major electrical transmission line was built in California in 1992. The TANC project is slated to bring power to the cities and utility districts belonging to the JPA from the Lassen area of Northern California – where geothermal, solar, and wind power are available – and also from Oregon and Washington State.
The closest site using windmill turbines is the Altamont Pass area off Highway 580 between Tracy and Livermore. That project, however, has been the subject of lawsuits, with some environmentalists blaming the turbines for bird kills. The South San Joaquin Irrigation District recently installed a large solar panel farm near Woodward Reservoir just outside Oakdale.
Short said TANC has not decided on a permanent route yet for the transmission lines.
“The lines might move significantly,” he said.
Many in the audience objected to the project impacting their orchards and farmland, telling Short the Oakdale area will not benefit from establishing the new grid.
“It will benefit MID and the Bay Area, but it does nothing for us,” one person commented.
The audience, contentious at times, peppered Short with questions and comments. One person asked Short if the project will alter the Williamson Act, a law that allows local governments to enter an agreement with farmers to keep their land undeveloped. Short said he wasn’t sure how the TANC project relates to the Williamson Act.
One area resident asked how the cost of the project will impact MID ratepayers. Mike Serpa, one of three MID board members attending the meeting, said MID has not voted to approve the TANC project yet.
“I asked for a white paper on this project, and it was denied by the board,” Serpa said.
Short countered that Serpa has received all available information.
“TANC has been front and center the last three years,” he said, indicating the project has been in MID’s budget.
Short also acknowledged TANC would have the authority, as a JPA, to use the eminent domain process to obtain land for the project.
Frank Coelho, who owns a dairy near Langsworth Road and Clarabelle Avenue, voiced his frustration with federal and state regulations.
“What is freedom anymore? If we don’t pay our property taxes the county will auction off our land; we are shut down if fairy shrimp are discovered in vernal pools, our water is sent to Southern California,” he said to enthusiastic applause from the audience.
Short said the involved districts are being forced into the TANC project due to two bills, Senate Bill 14 and Assembly Bill 64, both of which mandate districts utilize renewable energy of at least 33 percent by 2020. Further, the bills require regulated electric utilities to increase their use of renewable electricity sources by at least one percent per year, reaching at least 20% by 2010.
Short said with the state refusing to recognize hydropower as a renewable source of energy, utility districts must obtain that type of energy elsewhere.
Sharon Ott, one of the organizers of the meeting, was pleased with the turnout.
“We want people to know what’s going on so they can make a decision,” she said.
Another meeting is tentatively scheduled for the Ripon area in July. Ott said she hopes residents will also attend that meeting.
“We need the power, but not this way,” she said.
TANC is a California Joint Powers Agency (JPA) composed of 15 cities and utility districts from throughout the Central Valley, Bay Area, and other locations in Northern California. Agency members include the cities of Alameda, Biggs, Gridley, Healdsburg, Lodi, Lompoc, Palo Alto, Redding, Roseville, Ukiah, the Modesto Irrigation District (MID), Plumas-Sierra Rural Electric Cooperative, Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD), Silicon Valley Power, and the Turlock Irrigation District (TID).
Allen Short, the general manager of MID who also serves as the chairman of TANC, told the group at the Almond Pavilion that the project was necessary due to California’s move to require the use of green energy by local utilities.
Although MID, TID, and other local utilities utilize hydropower from dams on area rivers, Short told the audience the state will not recognize hydropower as renewable energy.
What the state does recognize as renewable energy, Short said, is solar, wind, and geothermal sources. He pointed out those forms of renewable energy cannot be obtained locally, creating the need for transmission towers to those areas of the state and country that possess those resources.
Some of those attending the meeting asked Short to clarify what role TANC has with the power lines leading from New Melones Reservoir that bisect the Oakdale area, and if the TANC project could follow the path of those lines. Short said those lines belong to the Western Area Power Administration (WAPA), a federal government project.
David Young, who is involved in the public comment process for TANC, is also a manager for WAPA.
Short admitted TANC was not thorough enough in bringing attention to the TANC project.
“We did a poor job,” he said of the initial comment, or scoping period for the project. The scoping period was originally scheduled to end in April, but it has since been extended twice due to public outcry regarding the project. The closing date is now scheduled for July 30.
Short said the last major electrical transmission line was built in California in 1992. The TANC project is slated to bring power to the cities and utility districts belonging to the JPA from the Lassen area of Northern California – where geothermal, solar, and wind power are available – and also from Oregon and Washington State.
The closest site using windmill turbines is the Altamont Pass area off Highway 580 between Tracy and Livermore. That project, however, has been the subject of lawsuits, with some environmentalists blaming the turbines for bird kills. The South San Joaquin Irrigation District recently installed a large solar panel farm near Woodward Reservoir just outside Oakdale.
Short said TANC has not decided on a permanent route yet for the transmission lines.
“The lines might move significantly,” he said.
Many in the audience objected to the project impacting their orchards and farmland, telling Short the Oakdale area will not benefit from establishing the new grid.
“It will benefit MID and the Bay Area, but it does nothing for us,” one person commented.
The audience, contentious at times, peppered Short with questions and comments. One person asked Short if the project will alter the Williamson Act, a law that allows local governments to enter an agreement with farmers to keep their land undeveloped. Short said he wasn’t sure how the TANC project relates to the Williamson Act.
One area resident asked how the cost of the project will impact MID ratepayers. Mike Serpa, one of three MID board members attending the meeting, said MID has not voted to approve the TANC project yet.
“I asked for a white paper on this project, and it was denied by the board,” Serpa said.
Short countered that Serpa has received all available information.
“TANC has been front and center the last three years,” he said, indicating the project has been in MID’s budget.
Short also acknowledged TANC would have the authority, as a JPA, to use the eminent domain process to obtain land for the project.
Frank Coelho, who owns a dairy near Langsworth Road and Clarabelle Avenue, voiced his frustration with federal and state regulations.
“What is freedom anymore? If we don’t pay our property taxes the county will auction off our land; we are shut down if fairy shrimp are discovered in vernal pools, our water is sent to Southern California,” he said to enthusiastic applause from the audience.
Short said the involved districts are being forced into the TANC project due to two bills, Senate Bill 14 and Assembly Bill 64, both of which mandate districts utilize renewable energy of at least 33 percent by 2020. Further, the bills require regulated electric utilities to increase their use of renewable electricity sources by at least one percent per year, reaching at least 20% by 2010.
Short said with the state refusing to recognize hydropower as a renewable source of energy, utility districts must obtain that type of energy elsewhere.
Sharon Ott, one of the organizers of the meeting, was pleased with the turnout.
“We want people to know what’s going on so they can make a decision,” she said.
Another meeting is tentatively scheduled for the Ripon area in July. Ott said she hopes residents will also attend that meeting.
“We need the power, but not this way,” she said.
July 21, 2009 - 07:06 AM
Spanish company touts process to turn urban waste into biodiesel
A group of Spanish developers working under the company name Ecofasa, headed by chief executive officer and inventor Francisco Angulo, has developed a biochemical process to turn urban solid waste into a fatty acid biodiesel feedstock. “It took more than 10 years working on the idea of producing biodiesel from domestic waste using a biological method,” Angulo told Biodiesel Magazine. “My first patent dates back to 2005. It was first published in 2007 in Soto de la Vega, Spain, thanks to the council and its representative Antonio Nevado.”
Using microbes to convert organic material into energy isn’t a new concept to the renewable energy industries, and the same can be said for the anaerobic digestion of organic waste by microbes, which turns waste into biogas consisting mostly of methane. However, using bacteria to convert urban waste to fatty acids, which can then be used as a feedstock for biodiesel production, is a new twist. The Spanish company calls this process and the resulting fuel Ecofa. “It is based on metabolism’s natural principle by means of which all living organisms, including bacteria, produce fatty acids,” Angula said. “[It] comes from the carbon of any organic waste.”
He defined urban waste as “organic wastes from home like food, paper, wood and dung,” and added that any carbon-based material can be used for biodiesel production under the Ecofa process. “For many years, I wondered why there are pools of oil in some mountains,” he said, explaining the reasoning behind his invention. “After delving into the issue, I realized that [those oil deposits] were produced by decomposing organic living microorganisms.” This, in Angulo’s mind, sparked the idea that food waste and bacteria could be turned into fatty acids that could react into biodiesel. Two types of bacteria are under further development by Biotit Scientific Biotechnology Laboratory in Seville, Spain: E. coli and Firmicutes. The Ecofa process also produces methane gas, and inconvertible solids that can be used as a soil amendment or fertilizer. “There is a huge variety of bacteria,” Angulo said. “Currently, [biodiesel producers] receive a fat that must be processed through transesterification into biodiesel, but we are also working on other types of bacteria that are capable of producing fatty acids with the same characteristics as biodiesel.” He said this would eventually allow producers to skip the transesterification step.
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