by The Editors on September 26, 2007
Carlsbad-based Aptera Motors is the dream of CEO Steve Fambro and COO Chris Anthony (founder of Epic Wake Boats). According to a story in the North County Times, Fambro’s prototype vehicle gets 300 miles to the gallon.
Made out of strong, lightweight composite materials such as fiberglass, the Aptera is a three-wheeled, hybrid diesel/electric vehicle that looks like something out of the Jetsons. The Aptera weighs 850 pounds, seats two, and the company says, gets 300 mpg. . . Because it has been classified as a motorcycle by California, the Aptera can legally use the car-pool lane —- even if there’s only one passenger.
Fambro has already rounded up $1 million from Idealab and another million from “Esenjay Explorations, an oil and gas drilling company based in Corpus Christi, Texas.” But now, as you might expect, the company needs more money. . . don’t we all.
[Link: North County Times]
by The Editors on September 26, 2007
If these look like the kind of exciting, interesting, people you’d like to spend a Saturday morning with, then you’ll be happy to know that The Palomar Audubon Society will be invading Carlsbad on Saturday September 29 at 8 AM for a Bataquitos Lagoon field trip. The group will be on the lookout for “shorebirds, gulls, waders and waterfowl.”
[Link: Palomar Audubon Society]
by The Editors on September 23, 2007
Leave it to the Oceanside City Council to ignore a recommendation from their own Planning Commission and approve an “82-room hotel, a restaurant and four 3,400-square-foot condominiums” on the northern shore of Buena Vista Lagoon, according to an opinion piece by Judi Wilson in the North County Times.
Buena Vista Lagoon, located on the border between the cities of Carlsbad and Oceanside, was designated California’s first Ecological Reserve in 1969. From far inland, along Buena Vista Creek, this ancient watershed nourishes the only fresh water lagoon in San Diego County, offering shelter, food and nesting habitat to a vast variety of birds and animals.
The Buena Vista Audubon Society along with several other groups is going to appeal Oceanside’s decision to the California Coastal Commission. For more info visit the Buena Vista Audubon Society Thursday September 27, 2007 at 7:30 p.m. at the Nature Center, 2202 S. Coast Highway, Oceanside.
[Link: North County Times]
by The Editors on September 19, 2007
NRG Engergy, the company that owns Carlsbad’s tallest structure (and our favorite building in Carlsbadistan) has asked state officials if it can turn up the power output knob on the Encina Powerplant to increase it by 200 megawatts by summer 2010.
Three older units — each of about 100 megawatts capacity and built as long ago as 1954 — will be retired and replaced by newer, more efficient gas-fired units, NRG said. . . Two other existing units, built in the mid-1970s, will remain in operation at the plant.
The company says the units will be 30 percent more efficient and be “well below California’s newly imposed greenhouse gas standard,” NRG will also rename the plant the Carlsbad Energy Center. Locals say Encina. . .
[Link: Reuters]
by The Editors on September 15, 2007
Dave Boerlin and a truck load of trash. . . including a beach chair and a toy truck.
We’d like to send out a special Carlsbadistan thank you to the 210 volunteers who gathered at Frazee Beach (at Pine Ave. and Carlsbad Blvd.) this morning at 9 AM as part of 23rd Annual California Coastal Cleanup Day. Under the guidance of Dave Boerlin they picked our beach clean and left it a much better place for everyone.
“We had 210 people signed up,” Boerlin said today while packing up. “We removed between 300 and 400 pounds of trash.”
We all appreciate the work everyone put in this morning. Thank you very much.
by The Editors on September 11, 2007
San Diego Coastkeeper and I Love A Clean San Diego are partnering with the California Coastal Commission to host the 23rd Annual California Coastal Cleanup Day on Saturday September 15. The event is a major part of International Coastal Cleanup which includes all 50 states and almost 100 countries. According to organizers it is one of the world’s largest volunteer events.
If you’d like to help clean up the beach in Carlsbadistan (we’d love it if you would) please register for the Frazee Beach site (at Pine Ave. and Carlsbad Blvd.) The event starts at 9 AM and goes until noon. So far more than 143 volunteers have signed up for the Carlsbadistan location. For more info click the link.
[Link: Cleanup Day]
by The Editors on August 31, 2007
Carlsbad’s anti-development forces will likely shift back into high gear as the Planning Commission meets next Wednesday to discuss the environmental impact report on what’s called The Ponto Beachfront Village Vison Plan.
The plan envisions 180 hotel rooms and 126 time-share condo units in a resort overlooking Batiquitos Lagoon; a 215-room Hilton at Poinsettia Lane and Carlsbad Boulevard; and a third 269-room hotel on Ponto Drive where the storage units stand.. . The plan also proposes 128 attached condominium units in a mixed-use project on Carlsbad Boulevard north of Avenida Encinas.. . . Interspersed would be shops, restaurants and a wetland interpretive park all linked by a trail, and a pedestrian underpass to South Carlsbad State Beach.
Wow, Carlsbad’s stretch of Coast Highway could look just like Newport Beach’s. Joy.
[Link: San Diego Union Tribune]
by The Editors on August 16, 2007
Mark Gruman and Tim Loveday have no problem calling themselves “gurus.” They formed their Carlsbad-based sustainable furniture rep firm, Channel Logic, this year “to advance the presence of sustainability in the marketplace by becoming the premiere source for sustainable home furnishings and raw materials products.” Their blog Sustainable Furniture Gurus hopes to act as a conduit to facilitate sustainable furniture discussions.
We’re climbing mountains of paperwork to find answers on global trade issues, product sources, and questions on sustainable standards. It will take years before the global market goes from brown to green to truly sustainable.
It’s not easy being green. We all could use a little help, right?
[Link: Sustainable Furniture Gurus]
by The Editors on August 11, 2007
According to a story in the Coast News the California Coastal Commission has approved Poseidon Resources fifth application for its planned desalination plant in the lagoon next to the Encina Power Plant.
“This is precisely what we’ve been hoping to accomplish, to get to a point when we could get a hearing,” said Peter MacLaggan, senior vice president for Poseidon. “It’s an important milestone, but it’s just a procedural step. We need to focus on preparing for the hearing.”
The approval is not for the plant itself, but for an application to present a plan to the Coastal Commission in mid November 2007. In other words, Poseidon Resources has been given permission to ask permission.
[Link: Coast News Group]
by The Editors on July 18, 2007
We have friends who used to ride motocross out near this zone so we’ve never really thought about it being great hiking, but Paula Story writes in the San Diego Union Tribune that Calavera Lake is a “gem of open space.”
On just about any day, you’ll find early morning runners or mountain bikers pounding out the miles, moms taking their kids for an after-lunch stroll and the post-work crowd walking their dogs. Some folks fish in the lake, too. . . The actual number of trails in the area is not defined; many are unofficial, and some have been created for convenience, increased technical difficulty or just because. Preserve Calavera reminds users that off-road vehicles are prohibited in the area, which is home to numerous plant, bird, mammal and amphibian/reptile species – six are threatened or endangered, including the California gnatcatcher.
Guess our moto friends were breaking the law, breaking the law. Follow the link for all the details on great hiking right here in Carlsbadistan.
[Link: San Diego Union Tribune]
Carlsbad-based Aptera Motors is the dream of CEO Steve Fambro and COO Chris Anthony (founder of Epic Wake Boats). According to a story in the North County Times, Fambro’s prototype vehicle gets 300 miles to the gallon.
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