By Miriam Raftery

November 12, 2014 (San Diego’s East County) – Viejas Chairman Anthony Pico met with Steve Black, a senior counselor to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, on February 28, 2012 and sent Black a letter  on March 5, 2012 asking him to visit Ocotillo to address tribal concerns over desecration of cultural resources  from the proposed Ocotillo Wind Energy Facility (which was since approved and built). Donna Tisdale, then with Protect Our Communities, has documents showing Black was also involved with federal approval of the controversial Tule Wind project, fielding requests from Iberdrola Renewables to help gain approval of the project in East County despite concerns about eagles.

Neither Pico nor Tisdale had any idea that Black was dating an energy company lobbyist at the time – or that he sought to gain a job as chief executive officer of the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA), the wind industry's trade group, while still employed at the Department of the Interior.   But an investigation by the Department of Interior's Inspector General has raised these concerns and more.

Photo: High-voltage Sunrise Powerlink tower by Lake Jennings

November 7, 2014 (San Diego’s East County) – San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E) has applied for a master permit to construct power line replacement projects in Cleveland National Forest. Now the Cleveland National Forest Foundation  has submitted formal comments objecting to the plan.

According to the Foundation, SDG&E’s project fails to assure that the state’s renewable energy mandate of 33% renewable by 2020 will be met; the project aims to increase energy project four-fold without proposing any reductions in dirty energy sources.

Photo: This house rocks! Boulder in center of Jamul home absorbs heat by day and gives off warmth by night.

East County News Service

November 6, 2014 (San Diego’s East County)—The San Diego Green Building Council will hold its Green Homes Tour this Sunday, November 9^th from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. The tour features innovative, sustainably designed homes throughout San Diego County.  There is a $5 fee for non-members. Several East County homes are on the tour.

October 28, 2014 (Ocotillo) – Residents in the southern portion of San Diego and Imperial Counties have voiced surprise at seeing massive wind turbines sprouting up just south of the border.  The La Rumerosa wind facility in Mexico is visible across our region – causing consternation in some quarters.

By Miriam Raftery

Photo: Wind turbines dwarf homes and barns in rural Illinois

October 17, 2014 (San Diego’s East County)--Neighbors battling wind energy projects locally just got some new ammunition in two separate cases. 

In Wisconsin, the Brown County Board of Health this week voted to declare Duke Energy’s Shirley Wind energy project a human health hazard to residents, visitors, workers and other people  up to six miles away from the wind turbines. Here in San Diego’s East County and neighboring Imperial County, wind turbines have been built within a half mile of homes and new setbacks proposed remain much less than six miles, raising questions over potential dangers to residents if those projects are built.  

In Vermont, a federal district court has found that plaintiffs provided ample evidence to allow a private nuisance claim over the Sheffield Wind Project to proceed in court for creating unreasonable noise.

By Miriam Raftery

October 10, 2014 (San Diego’s East County) – With consumer activists clamoring for his impeachment, California Public Utilities Chairman Michael Peevey has announced he will not seek reappointment when his term ends at year’s end.   His replacement will be appointed by Governor Jerry Brown.

Listen online now to hear the interview: https://www.eastcountymagazine.org/sites/eastcountymagazine.org/files/au...

October 9, 2014 (San Diego's East County) -- On our "Green Scene" report aired originally on our East County Magazine Show on KNSJ 89.1 FM radio, we interviewed Kelly Fuller with Protect Our Communities about the local nonprofit's lawsuit filed against federal agencies over the Tule Wind project planned in McCain Valley. The suit alleges that the U.S. Department of the Interior and the Bureau of Indian Affairs ignored advice from wildlife officials at state and federal wildlife agencies, who warned that the wind turbines pose threats to eagles.

For details, click "read more" and scroll down.

A Review of the video Good News, from Climate Reality

Originally Published in the ECOreport

View video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTH3otcW_hs[/embedyt

By Roy L Hales

October 9, 2014 (San Diego's East County) - "Good News," from Climate Reality, is good propaganda. The message is clear and, to a large extent, true - only it also perpetuates a myth. Solar and wind energy are not necessarily good, it depends how they are used.

By Miriam Raftery

October 4, 2014 (San Diego’s East County) The inner ears of people were “drastically” altered after exposure to low frequency noise. Living close to wind turbines may lead to severe hearing damage or even deafness. Those are the findings of scientists from the University of Munich, Germany, according to a study published in the Royal Society’s Open Science Journal on October 1^st.

By Miriam Raftery

September 30, 2014 (Sacramento)--California has become the first state in the nation to ban disposable plastic bags in major retail outlets, though 125 local jurisdictions in the state have already adopted similar ordinances.

By Miriam Raftery

September 30, 2014 (San Diego’s East County) - Over the last 40 years, total wildlife populations on earth have fallen by 52%. That’s the grim finding of the London Zoological Society’s Living Planet Index, the BBC reports.

Plan would open up 22 million acres of California to large-scale renewable energy development

By Miriam Raftery

September 26, 2014 (San Diego’s East County)--The Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service this week published in the Federal Register a Notice of Availability of the draft Desert Renewable Energy Conservation Plan (DRECP) Environmental Impact Report/Environmental Impact Statement (EIR/EIS).  A formal comment period is now open through January 9, 2015.

By Miriam Raftery

September 24, 2014 (San Diego’s East County)--Earlier this year, we reported on a 90% decline in the number of Monarch butterflies in their annual winter migration to Mexico. But now, there are signs of hope on the horizon.

Story and photos by Robert Gehr

September 23, 2014 (El Cajon)--The city of El Cajon recently installed signs at the downtown waterscape asking the public to stop feeding the ducks which gather there. It seems that the bread, etc. is contributing to the ill health of this fragile ecosystem, resulting in excessive algae, and fecal matter, plus a variety of toxins and diseases - some of which are transmittable to humans and could potentially make a person very sick, especially children.