Environmentalists were skeptical that the agreement would go anywhere. They point out that California has a 3-decade-old law that bans the construction of nuclear power plants unless the state can certify that the federal government has come up with a plan for the permanent storage of spent nuclear fuel, which is highly radioactive.

No such facility exists in the country, and plans to open one at Yucca Mountain in Nevada have been put on hold by the Obama administration.

The group anticipates using treated waste water from local municipalities to cool the reactors, Hutson sad.

Nuclear waste could be sent to France for reprocessing into new fuel, he said.

I recently blogged here about misguided attempts to reduce obesity in South Central Los Angeles by banning new fast food eateries. In the wake of a Rand study that shows the folly of this plan, there are now calls to... "limit" convenience stores in the 'hood. You can’t make this stuff up, folks. These self-imagined do-gooders won't rest until no new private businesses are able to start up in that area. Also, below, I talk below about the likely big screen television ban in California. Yup - you read that right.

Jerry Hirsch of the Los Angeles Times reports on the misguided attempts to prevent obesity.

Separately, researchers looking at the shopping patterns of schoolchildren in urban Philadelphia found that more than half the 800 students they surveyed reported that they shopped at a corner store at least once a day, five times a week. Almost a third visited a store both before and after school.

On average, the students spent about $1 and purchased 356 calories of snack foods and drinks each visit. Chips, candy, sugary beverages and gum were the most frequent purchases, according to a study published online today. It also will appear in the November edition of Pediatrics, a medical journal.

How to curb such purchases is a top priority for policymakers attempting to reduce the obesity rates in poor communities.

What about free enterprise? What about freedom of choice?

"We need to look at a moratorium on these convenience stores," said Lark Galloway-Gilliam, executive director of Community Health Councils Inc., a nonprofit health policy and education organization in South Los Angeles.

The Los Angeles City Council is set to consider a proposal that would limit the density of these small food stores in South Los Angeles, said Councilwoman Jan Perry, a proponent of regulations adopted last year establishing a moratorium on new openings of fast-food restaurants whose 9th District includes much of South Los Angeles.

I know a sure-fire way to reduce obesity rates in that area: ban fat people from the area.

Marc Lifsher at the Los Angeles Times reports on the TV ban.  The industry, of course, is asking lawmakers to let consumers vote with their wallets.

But those pleas didn't appear to elicit much support from commissioners at a public hearing on the proposed rules that would set maximum energy-consumption standards for televisions to be phased in over two years beginning in January 2011. A vote could come as early as Nov. 4.

The association's views weren't shared by everyone in the TV business. Representatives of some TV makers, including top-seller Vizio Inc. of Irvine, said they would have little trouble complying with tighter state standards without substantially increasing prices.

So Vizio is happy that they'll have less competition. That's no surprise.

If all TVs met state standards, [Ken Rider commission staff engineer] added, California could avoid the $600-million cost of building a natural-gas-fired power plant.

And that’s what this is really about, right? Trying to avoid building new power plants. Sorry, but we're going to need new power plants. Start building!

Yet the trouble with the chamber's petition, which it filed Tuesday with the EPA, is that it has little basis in precedent or law.

It's true that the EPA sometimes holds hearings before administrative law judges when the legality of its regulations is challenged, but the chamber wants it to hold such a hearing before any regulation has been approved, and the judge to rule not on a law but on the scientific basis for making a law. This has a whiff of a political stunt designed to fail -- and when it does, to give the chamber a pretext for accusing the Obama administration of not giving a fair hearing to scientific arguments that challenge mainstream climate-change theory.

Environmentalists can be dismayingly smug about climate change, sometimes claiming that the science is "settled" and there's nothing left to argue about.

The weight of scientific evidence suggests very strongly that the globe is getting warmer, that greenhouse gases emitted by humans are the cause and that the health and welfare of future generations are under serious threat.

A portion of the revenue from any U.S. system capping carbon emissions must go toward softening the impact of higher energy prices on consumers, a White House official said on Wednesday.

Joseph Aldy, special assistant to the president for energy and the environment, said building a clean energy economy will not be easy.

"There will be those who are going to be vulnerable as we make this transition and ... we need to actually target the allowance value and revenues to those households, communities, and businesses," Aldy said at an Energy Information Administration forum.

Obama's proposal would use most of the revenue generated from the sell of carbon permits for tax breaks, offsetting costs for consumers.

That’s right.  The powers that be in the Peoples Republik of Kalifornia are thinking about banning some large television sets for sale in the Golden State, because of how much energy they use.  It's not like electricity is free in Kalifornia.  We have utility bills (and taxes) to pay already.  If we want to pay for more electricity (or generate more of our own), isn't that our business?

Considering the tax increases we're experiencing in Kalifornia, including the statewide sales tax increase going into effect April 1 (appropriately), I expect sales of these items to drop anyway. Click through to read where I found this on the website for the Orange County Register – there are many interesting comments left by readers.

The region's long-term plans to generate electricity to serve a growing population and to replace decades-old dirty plants were thrown into disarray this week, when a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge ruled Tuesday that local authorities had failed to do the necessary environmental and health analyses.

Officials from the South Coast Air Quality Management District, which encompasses Orange County and large swaths of Los Angeles, San Bernardino and Riverside counties, warned of likely "blackouts and brownouts" if the plants are not built.

Years ago, the air district set aside what it called Priority Reserve credits so that projects such as hospitals and police stations could be built even if they added to the region's pollution. Last year, the district, lobbied by a host of former politicians, decided to sell the credits to energy companies for $420 million: about half the market value, according to environmentalists' calculations.

Environmental and community groups said Wednesday that they would sue in federal court to nullify such credits.

Environmentalists and many industry experts say that much of the region's demand can be met through conservation and renewable energy.

But no one knows how much could be supplied by wind farms, geothermal energy, solar rooftop facilities or large solar plants, many of which are proposed in fragile desert areas.

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom began an exploratory bid a month ago.

Other prominent Democrats said to be contemplating the race include Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown and former state controller Steve Westly.

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's name has also been mentioned.

On the Republican side, Steve Poizner, who succeeded Garamendi as state insurance commissioner in 2006, is also said to be considering the race. Other names circulating from that party are two former executives of Silicon Valley companies: Meg Whitman, who was at Ebay, and Carly Fiorina, who headed Hewlett-Packard.

Just as John F. Kennedy set his sights on the moon, Al Gore is challenging the nation to produce every kilowatt of electricity through wind, sun and other Earth-friendly energy sources within 10 years, an audacious goal he hopes the next president will embrace.

Gore said he fully understands the magnitude of the challenge.

"This is an investment that will pay itself back many times over," Gore said. "It's an expensive investment but not compared to the rising cost of continuing to invest in fossil fuels."

He likened his challenge to Kennedy's pledge in May 1961 to land a man on the moon by the end of the decade.

To meet his 10-year goal, Gore said nuclear energy output would continue at current levels while the nation dramatically increases its use of solar, wind, geothermal and so-called clean coal energy.