Energy

vision Barry Faulkner On the eve of the biggest victory in her cross country career, Amber Steen was shaken, but not stirred. Roused briefly from sleep in the wee hours by an earthquake which rattled her Newport Beach home, the Newport Harbor High junior made a semiconscious decision to not let even Mother Nature deter her from her finish-line focus. "When (the temblor recorded at 7.1 on the Richter scale) happened, I woke up for a couple minutes," Steen recalled.

Not everything was upbeat and positive during the grand opening of the Mendes Bros. Art. of Jiu Jitsu Academy in Costa Mesa on Sunday. While a celebration took place in the new studio, other fighters did their best to ignore that party and trained at Team Triunfo gym next door. A driveway separates the front doors of each studio. Team Triunfo, a gym for jiu jitsu and mixed martial arts with about 100 members, has been on the block in Costa Mesa for the past year. The new academy has moved in next door, making it hard to avoid any type of controversy.

This past winter I wrote two columns about the proper pruning of stone fruits and other deciduous fruit trees. This important chore continues to be one of the more misunderstood gardening responsibilities. I still get comments from readers who say they enjoyed the articles. I promised then that I would mention the value of summer pruning at a later time. In those original columns, written in December, I remarked that the objectives of summer and winter pruning are quite different, although both important.

California needs a stable energy policy to attract investment in renewable energy, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger told an audience of high-ranking state politicians, scientists and business leaders Tuesday at the Island Hotel in Newport Beach. Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, UCI Chancellor Michael Drake and Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown were part of the crowd at a daylong symposium. Schwarzenegger and Brown were the keynote speakers at an event that featured professors, industry leaders and government officials giving their outlook on California’s energy future.

Assemblyman Chuck DeVore will speak on state energy policy today at the home of supporters in Irvine. The talk, “An Inconvenient Answer to an Inconvenient Truth ... Energy Policy in California,” touches on one of DeVore’s pet issues — nuclear power. DeVore recently reintroduced a bill this legislative session to allow nuclear power in California. An earlier version of the bill died in legislative committee in 2007. DeVore dropped plans for a ballot initiative on the issue in November after surveys showed a lack of support for nuclear power in the state.

An estimated 70 sled dog enthusiasts and more than 100 of their high-energy dogs raced over trails in Fairview Park on Saturday as part of the Southern California Working Snow Dogs Group’s fourth annual Not-So-Great Serum Run. The dog sled racing event pays tribute to the Great Serum Run of 1925 in which 20 mushers and 150 sled dogs battled sub-zero temperatures to haul cases of medicine to Nome, Alaska, which was in the throes of a...

NEWPORT BEACH — Phil Baltazar spends six days a week driving to homes and businesses around Southern California and encouraging them to embrace an alternative source of energy. He envisions a day, not far in the future, when the word “alternative” won’t apply. Baltazar, who lives in Newport Beach and graduated from Newport Harbor High School 10 years ago, works as a consultant for REC Solar, a company that provides solar paneling for homes and businesses.

Speakers and exhibitors are needed for the U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon 2013 and XPO. The Irvine-based Orange County Great Park has been selected to host the October event, which will be organized outside Washington, D.C., for the first time. Speakers are requested to provide educational talks on the clean, renewable and efficient theme of the XPO during the Powerful Ideas Symposium. Exhibitors can spotlight services or products offered by their companies at indoor and outdoor booths.

Despite protests that the city of Newport Beach spent too much on its newly erected Civic Center, city officials are saying some respite may be in sight, especially in terms of energy savings. The City Council recently received a one-time check for $261,150 from Southern California Edison for its completion of the Savings by Design program, California's new-construction energy efficiency program, and also expects to save more than $78,000 a year in savings on energy bills. "For relatively little costs, you can put in the savings if you really think about the design," said Steve Badum, Newport Beach assistant city manager.