By Rebecca Bowe

Which would you rather have: $11.6 million in cash, or a pile of Monopoly money?

Pacific Gas & Electric Co. stands to lose 40,000 meters to a public power district, which says it can deliver electricity service that’s cheaper, more reliable, and more accountable to ratepayers than what the private utility offers. Read more »

by Rebecca Bowe

This jar contains the debris picked up by a manta trawler, a device that skims the surface of the ocean, in a single hour.

The tall ship Kaisei has returned from its month-long voyage to the plastic garbage vortex swirling through the North Pacific Gyre, and the preliminary findings of the ocean researchers are something of a wake-up call.

“We trawled thousands of miles, Read more »

By Rebecca Bowe

Here’s the latest twist in the fight over 113 Steuart Street, a shuttered two-story building on the city's northern waterfront that high-profile developer Hines Interests wants to raze and replace with a tall, shiny green building called 110 The Embarcadero. A committee that’s pushing to landmark 113 Steuart is claiming that Hines has used “industrial espionage” to try and thwart their efforts.

On Aug. Read more »

By Rebecca Bowe and Cecile Lepage

The Guardian's rooftop view of the Potrero power plant.

“I know that there are many people who doubted that this day would ever come, but I’m happy to report that it finally has,” City Attorney Dennis Herrera announced at a press conference at City Hall this morning.

Herrera was referring to an agreement between the City and County of San Francisco and Mirant Potrero, LLC to shut down of the polluting Potrero Power Plant no later Read more »

By Rebecca Bowe

This just in from City Attorney Dennis Herrera's office:

City Attorney Dennis Herrera has reached an agreement with Mirant to permanently shutter the company's Potrero power plant by the end of 2010, and to secure the Atlanta-based energy giant's unprecedented commitment to join the City in actively pushing for the plant's closure should state or federal energy regulators attempt to delay it. Read more »