Hydroelectric Energy

Federal energy officials have endorsed a controversial proposal to build a reservoir, dam and hydroelectric facility in the Santa Ana Mountains to provide power during periods of peak energy use, a project some environmental groups say will destroy pristine wilderness favored by hikers and hang gliders. The decision also shifts the planned site from Morrell Canyon to nearby Decker Canyon.

Off the western coast of Scotland, on the Isle of Islay, science teacher Ray Husthwaite turns on the light in his classroom. The electricity comes from a power cable that runs to the mainland. But it also comes from the ocean. A few miles from the school, wave action compresses and decompresses air in a chamber. The moving air powers a turbine, which generates electricity.

A federal environmental report analyzing the effects of a proposed 500-megawatt hydroelectric plant near Lake Elsinore gave local officials insufficient information, the Board of Supervisors declared by vote Tuesday. The board urged the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which prepared the document, to further investigate the 2,400-acre project's effect on transportation, water quality, views and recreation, including hang gliding in the Santa Ana Mountains.

In 1941, folk singer Woody Guthrie wrote a paean to the Columbia River's Grand Coulee Dam, enthusing that power generated by the New Deal monument "is turning our darkness to dawn." But this summer, the Pacific Northwest's mightiest river could leave California in the dark. A stubborn drought has reduced water levels behind the Columbia's network of power-producing dams by a third, leaving less electricity available for export to the south.

To the long list of Enron Corp.'s victims, add Northwest salmon. A fresh round of evidence released Wednesday suggested that Enron traders shipped emergency power out of California, even as hydroelectric dams in the Pacific Northwest -- struggling to ease the energy crisis -- were running full tilt. That's where the salmon, an icon of the Northwest, come in.

Giving up its fight to dam one of California's last free-flowing rivers, a Central Valley power company agreed Tuesday to shelve plans for a massive hydroelectric project on the Clavey River near Yosemite National Park. Planners for the Turlock Irrigation District, which had sought for eight years to build a 413-foot-tall hydroelectric dam in the river's pristine canyon, said tougher environmental standards and slow economic growth had prompted them to halt the project.