KMUD: The Environment Show May 3, 2022 Every Tuesday at 7 PM Host: Tom Wheeler of EPIC Guests: Alicia Hamann, Executive Director of Friends of the Eel River and Redgie Collins, Legal & Policy Director at CalTrout. In this segment of The Environment Show, Tom gets current with efforts to remove dams in the Eel … Read more
Wednesday, October 27, 2021 President Marybel Batjer California Public Utilities Commission 505 Van Ness Avenue San Francisco, CA 94102 via electronic mail as feasible RE: Potter Valley Project Equipment Failure Dear President Batjer, This letter is meant to apprise you of important developments regarding PG&E’s Potter Valley Project (Project). The Project is a hydroelectric … Read more
What is wrong with this picture? Looking below the surface at Scott Dam’s design Did you know Scott Dam was originally designed to run straight across the Eel River Canyon? So why is there an angle in Scott Dam? How does this design impact dam safety? Scott Dam, as we see it today, is a … Read more
California Gov. Jerry Brown made international news when he vowed to fight President Donald Trump’s attempts to cut America’s climate change research and rescind the nation’s commitment to the Paris Agreement. Brown’s commitment to fighting climate change seems real, and under his leadership, his state has engaged in numerous greenhouse-gas reduction plans. But there are … Read more
About 80 feet behind the PG&E hydropower plant in Potter Valley, gray-green silt-laden water from the Eel River passes through a steel gate and is invisibly transformed. It has become part of the Russian River, which provides water for more than 600,000 people from Redwood Valley to northern Marin County. “Once it passes the gate, … Read more
March 15, 2017 The Honorable Fred Upton Chairman Energy and Commerce Committee U.S. House of Representatives Washington, DC 20515 The Honorable Bobby Rush Ranking Member Energy and Commerce Committee U.S. House of Representatives Washington, DC 20515 Dear Chairman Upton and Ranking Member Rush: We at Friends of the Eel River appreciate the opportunity to … Read more
WASHINGTON — Despite the spectacular near failure of Oroville Dam, a linchpin of California’s vast plumbing system, Congress and the state remain focused on building new dams and repairing existing ones. But they are giving short shrift to cheaper, more environmentally benign alternatives for water storage. With more rain this week, the state’s water system … Read more
Glen Canyon Dam on the Colorado River has a total generating capacity of 1,320 megawatts, far exceeding the minuscule maximum capacity of the Potter Valley Project at 9.4 megawatts. Economic consulting firm Power Consulting recently published their study, The Impact of the Loss of Electric Generation at Glen Canyon Dam, in which they expose how unnecessary antiquated … Read more
WASHINGTON Federal burdens dampen California’s hydroelectric power potential, PG&E and Turlock Irrigation District officials told lawmakers Tuesday. They were preaching to the Capitol Hill choir. Summoned by House Republicans who hope to unleash more of what they called a “clean, renewable and domestic energy resource,” the two California utilities’ representatives described a regulatory thicket that … Read more
Data compiled from daily reports by the state’s major grid manager indicate that in 2015, solar became the No. 1 source of renewable energy in California. Not only did solar beat wind power for the first time, but it also topped drought-depleted hydropower, the long-standing leader in California electricity generation outside fossil fuels and nuclear.