History > 2008 > USA > Nature, Weather, Climate (V)

David Horsey

Washington

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer

Cagle

16 December 2008

Character: 43rd US president George W. Bush
 

Nearly 200, 000

Without Power in Michigan

December 29, 2008
Filed at 7:51 a.m. ET
The New York Times
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

DETROIT (AP) -- Crews were working to restore electricity to nearly 200,000 Michigan homes and businesses early Monday, a day after strong winds knocked down tree limbs and power lines, while residents in parts of the Northwest braced for another winter storm.

Meanwhile, flood warnings were posted throughout the Midwest as temperatures rose after a week of heavy snowfall. Forecasters said flooding was possible in areas of Iowa, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, and northwest Ohio.

Winter storm warnings were issued throughout the Northwest, which has been hammered by storms in recent weeks. The National Weather Service said northeastern Washington and the Idaho panhandle could expect 3 to 7 inches of new snow in the valleys, and 6 to 10 inches in the mountains through Monday evening.

In Michigan, winds gusting more than 60 mph knocked out power Sunday as temperatures dropped back into the 20s and 30s. Parts of the state also got about 4 inches of snow.

''We've had an intensifying storm system track northeast through the state,'' said Mark Sekelsky, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Grand Rapids. ''As that storm intensified, it brought the winds.''

Detroit-based DTE Energy Co. said about 135,000 customers were without power early Monday, mostly in Wayne and Oakland counties, down from about 230,000 Sunday. DTE said some could be blacked out into Wednesday

CMS Energy Corp. subsidiary Consumers Energy said about 183,000 of its customers lost power Sunday because of the winds and 62,000 remained blacked out early Monday. Consumers said all of its customers should have power by Wednesday.

Strong winds also gusted across upstate New York on Sunday, reaching 75 mph and toppling some power poles and trees from Buffalo to central New York. More than 9,000 customers in five western and northern counties were without power early Monday, down from more than 60,000 the night before.

Melting snow and ice caused problems in the Midwest. In southeastern Wisconsin, the National Weather Service predicted the Fox River would crest about a foot over flood stage Tuesday in the town of Wheatland.

Amtrak canceled one train Sunday night and one Monday morning between Chicago and Grand Rapids, Mich., because of the weather, Amtrak spokeswoman Tracy Connell said.

------

Associated Press writer David N. Goodman

contributed to this report.

Nearly 200, 000 Without Power in Michigan, NYT, 29.12.2008, http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2008/12/29/us/AP-Winter-Weather.html

Ice storms leave New Englanders in dark

 

USA Today
14 December 2008
By Kevin Johnson and Jeff Martin

FITCHBURG, Mass. — A vicious ice storm that snapped power lines and tree limbs across New England has left hundreds of thousands of people in the dark and cold and it may be weeks before electricity is restored everywhere.
"Some might not have heat for Christmas," Edward Chalmers, a priest at St. Bernard's Catholic Church, said Sunday.

At the 11 a.m. Mass, a small number of parishioners bundled in overcoats found little respite from the cold. "I think the boiler is out again," Chalmers said.

Throughout New England, convoys of utility trucks were working through the night to reconnect power lines cut by ice-laden tree limbs that sagged into the lines or fell on them. Hotels overflowed with people looking to keep warm and find food.

The storm knocked out electrical service to 1.4 million homes and businesses late last week. More than 570,000 customers still lacked power Sunday afternoon in Upstate New York, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont and Maine.

As New Englanders scraped their way out of the devastating ice storm, Arctic air slid into the Upper Midwest on Sunday night. The frigid front could bring a crippling blizzard with it, according to the National Weather Service.

By early Sunday, blizzard warnings covered large portions of Montana, Wyoming, the Dakotas, Nebraska, Minnesota and northern Wisconsin. In South Dakota, snow cats — large machines which use tracks to move across deep snow — were placed at staging areas before the storm to be ready for rescue missions.

South Dakota Department of Public Safety officials called snowmobile clubs for possible rescue operations, according to a statement.

"We're ready to roll," said Jeff Thorne, president of the Aberdeen Drift Busters snowmobile group in Aberdeen, S.D.

Tom Dravland, secretary of the Department of Public Safety, said his office anticipated "potentially life-threatening wind chills" in the storm.

The wind chill — which gauges how wind speed makes one feel colder than the temperature — had fallen to minus 37 at Devil's Lake, N.D., by late Saturday, according to the National Weather Service in Grand Forks. The wind chill could fall to minus 55 by this morning across the region, according to the service.

The temperature at Denver International Airport plunged to minus 15 degrees, breaking a 107-year record.

In New England the cold was visual.

Halfway up Flat Rock Road, just above downtown Fitchburg, the site of ice-covered trees glistening in the bright sunshine gives way to frozen devastation.

A short distance to the west, a once-thick stand of trees has been gouged like a bad flat-top haircut. Battered cars and trucks sat idle in the iced-over driveways of darkened homes.

"This isn't even the worst of it," says Bill Walsh, a retired school administrator.

On Sunday, he was navigating the treacherous roads in a Ford Crown Victoria. Downed limbs knocked out the car's front grill, leaving a gaping hole below the hood; the passenger-side mirror dangled and his home was dark and cold.

"When you look at all the damage in this town, it's like a hurricane blew through," says Walsh, now a volunteer at a local senior center being used as a shelter.

A Dunkin' Donuts in Leominster, Mass., one of the few businesses open Sunday, was swamped with customers. Cars circled the small shop and spilled into the street, snarling traffic.

"It was 20 degrees in my house," says Crystal Malave, 19, who carried her 18-month-old daughter, Nevaeh, into the Super 8 Motel in Leominster. Malave says she lost power sometime Thursday night and began heating the home with her gas oven.

Gerard Belliveau, 78, a retired federal government worker, joined about 200 others at the Fitchburg Senior Center. It was the third day away from his apartment.

About 10 p.m. Thursday, Belliveau said his computer screen flickered and then the lights went out. He left for shelter as the temperature began to drop too low in his apartment.

"I have everything I need here," he says, motioning to the cots scattered throughout the large auditorium.

Martin reports for the Argus Leader in Sioux Falls, S.D.

Contributing: The Associated Press

Ice storms leave New Englanders in dark, UT, 14.12.2008, http://www.usatoday.com/weather/storms/winter/2008-12-14-northeast-ice-storm-power-outages_N.htm

Northeast Struggles

After Storm Blacks Out 1.25M

December 13, 2008
Filed at 11:03 a.m. ET
The New York Times
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) -- Utility crews worked through a night of hand-numbing cold in the Northeast but they still had a long way to go before restoring power to all of the more than 1 million homes and businesses blacked out by a huge ice storm.

In New Hampshire, where more than 370,000 customers still had no electricity Saturday, Gov. John Lynch urged residents still without power to make overnight plans early.

''I think there were a lot of people who decided to just stick it out and stay home last night hoping that power would be restored today, but I think people have to assume that power will not come back today and seek shelter,'' Lynch said.

Utilities say it will be days before all service is restored.

Temperatures dipped into the teens Friday night and early Saturday in northern New England, forcing many people out of their homes and into shelters.

About 60 people spent the night at the Rochester, N.H., Middle School, including Debbie Reed, 57, who left her apartment Friday afternoon when she started seeing her breath.

''I still don't have power. I can't shower, I can't cook, I can't do much of anything,'' she said. ''My plan is to go home and see how long I can stand it. If the power isn't back on by tonight I'll come back here. It's so cold I can only stand it for so long.''

The ice storm compared with some of the Northeast's worst, especially in New Hampshire, where more than half the state -- 400,000-plus homes and businesses -- was without power at the peak of the outage. Far fewer customers were affected by the infamous Ice Storm of '98, when some residents spent more than a week in the dark. New Hampshire opened at least 25 shelters.

People lost power as far south as Pennsylvania, but most of the outages were in New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Maine and New York.

''This is pathetic,'' said Bob Cott of Portland, Maine. ''I'm already sick of winter and we have nine days to go before it officially begins.''

At least one death was blamed on the storm: New Hampshire officials said a man died of carbon monoxide poisoning after turning on his generator when his power went out Thursday night.

Both Lynch and Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick declared states of emergency Friday and called up members of the National Guard. Maine Gov. John Baldacci declared a limited emergency allowing utility crews to work longer hours.

''All of the resources at our disposal have been made available to try to get the roads clear and power restored,'' said Patrick, adding that it would be ''ambitious'' to think power would be restored by Monday to the 350,000 homes and businesses that lost service in his state.

''This is not going to be a couple of hours,'' Patrick said. ''It's likely to be several days.''

An army of utility crews from across the East, Midwest and Canada headed into the region to help restore power.

By Saturday morning, crews had restored power to about 150,000 homes and businesses in Massachusetts, but more than 200,000 still were in the dark.

Peter Judge of the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency said that despite the cold, fewer than 1,000 residents took advantage of the 40 shelters set up across the state.

In Maine, about 176,000 homes and businesses still were without power Saturday, mostly in Central Maine Power's service area. At its peak on Friday, 220,000 CMP customers were in the dark. Maine officials say 150 to 200 people spent the night in shelters.

Vermont utilities reported just under 15,000 customers were without power Saturday morning.

Central Vermont Public Service Corp. had 33 line crews from western Pennsylvania helping its workers repair power lines. A number of retirees also pitched in, said CVPS spokeswoman Christine Rivers.

''We'd put one line up, and it seemed like another would break,'' said CVPS Springfield Operations Supervisor Stan Tucker. ''It seems like every line has multiple problems.''

In eastern New York, National Grid and other utilities reported more than 255,000 customers without service.

''Trees were down on all the roads,'' said Miguel Figueroa, 28, as he waited for coffee at a Starbucks in Colonie, N.Y. ''... I couldn't even get on the Thruway today.''

About 4,700 customers lost power in Pennsylvania, most of them in the Poconos, and some 17,000 customers were blacked out in Connecticut.

------

Associated Press writers David Tirrell-Wysocki and Holly Ramer in Concord, N.H.; Beth LaMontagne Hall in Portsmouth, N.H.; Mark Pratt in Boston; Clarke Canfield in Portland, Maine; John Curran and Lisa Rathke in Montpelier, Vt.; and Mike Hill and Jessica M. Pasko in Albany, N.Y., contributed to this report.

    Northeast Struggles After Storm Blacks Out 1.25M, NYT, 13.12.2008, http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2008/12/13/us/AP-Ice-Storm.html

Northeast Ice Storm

Darkens Homes,

Fills Shelters

December 13, 2008
Filed at 10:51 a.m. ET
The New York Times
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) -- As it got down into the teens and single digits in New Hampshire, people who lost power from a massive ice storm showed up at some shelters by the dozens.

''We're just loading up more cots and more blankets; I guess we're up to 36 people already,'' Kevin Pratt, fire chief in the southern New Hampshire town of Raymond said Friday night.

The local middle school usually houses 25 people comfortably, but if the need's there, they'll accommodate, he said. Visitors could eat a spaghetti-and-meatball dinner and take a shower.

''People's houses are getting cold and they're getting cold,'' Pratt said. ''They're wise.''

The town has about 10,000 residents, just about all of whom were in the dark following the storm, which left 1.25 million homes and businesses in New England without electricity; some were expected to stay that way for at least several days.

In New Hampshire, emergency management officials, the Red Cross and local communities opened at least 25 shelters across the state.

Gov. John Lynch, who requested a federal emergency declaration in order to receive generators, cots and other supplies from the government, urged residents to check on their neighbors, especially those who are elderly and live alone.

''I think there's no substitute for that kind of neighbor-to-neighbor assistance that New Hampshire is traditionally famous for,'' Lynch said.

The ice storm compared with some of the Northeast's worst, especially in New Hampshire, where more than half the state -- 400,000-plus homes and businesses -- was without power. There were far fewer outages during the infamous Ice Storm of '98, when some residents spent more than a week in the dark.

''All the motels have no electricity, and that's why I'm here,'' said Duke Straychan of Hampton, who came to stay overnight at Portsmouth High School. He can't do without power because he uses an oxygen tank at night. People at the shelter dined on American chop suey and shepherd's pie and watched ''The Polar Express'' in the cafeteria.

Hot meals of turkey and mashed potatoes were delivered to people staying at Londonderry High School. There were about 100 visitors with more expected, said Leslie Shaffer, a spokeswoman for the American Red Cross. She believed most would still be there on Saturday.

The numbers also were rising at Nashua High School South, as well, as surrounding towns filled up their own shelters, said Mark Sousa, the city's emergency manager.

People lost power as far south as Pennsylvania, but most of the outages were in New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Maine and New York. Ice-covered trees cracked and fell on roads and cars.

''This is pathetic,'' said Bob Cott of Portland, Maine, who lost power. ''I'm already sick of winter and we have nine days to go before it officially begins.''

At least one death was related to the storm: New Hampshire officials said a 49-year-old Danville man who lived in a camper died of carbon monoxide poisoning after turning on his generator when his power went out Thursday night.

Both Lynch and Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick declared states of emergency Friday morning and called up members of the National Guard. Five hundred Massachusetts Guard members were cleaning up debris and clearing access to downed power lines. Lynch put 150 on alert and deployed 25.

''All of the resources at our disposal have been made available to try to get the roads clear and power restored,'' said Patrick, adding that it would be ''ambitious'' to think power would be restored by Monday to the 350,000 homes and businesses in his state left in the dark.

''This is not going to be a couple of hours,'' Patrick said. ''It's likely to be several days.''

In Methuen, Mass., 40-year-old Itziar Richardson of North Andover was staying at a Red Cross shelter at the Comprehensive Grammar School with her husband and their 2-month-old son.

''I'm not having a good day,'' she said. ''It's definitely not the best situation with the baby, but you have to make the best of it.''

Crews from Canada and South Carolina were headed to Maine, where Gov. John Baldacci declared a limited emergency allowing utility crews to work longer hours. Utilities there chipped away at a huge backlog of power outages, reducing the total of more than 225,000 customers to about 210,000, mostly in southern and coastal areas.

In eastern New York, particularly around Albany, the state capital, outages at National Grid and other utilities brought the statewide total to more than 255,000.

''Trees were down on all the roads,'' said Miguel Figueroa, 28, as he waited for coffee at a Starbucks in Colonie, N.Y. ''... I couldn't even get on the Thruway today.''

In Vermont, four shelters were set up in southern Vermont for the more than 20,000 customers who were without power Friday night. It could be days before some homes and businesses get their lights back on, officials said.

Route 9 between Brattleboro and Bennington, Vt., a major road, was closed because of downed trees.

The ice storm extended to Pennsylvania, where about 4,700 customers, most of them in the Poconos, lost power, and Connecticut, where some 17,000 customers were without electricity at the height of the storm. Those states mostly got heavy rain or rain changing to snow.

------

Associated Press writers David Tirrell-Wysocki and Holly Ramer in Concord, N.H.; Beth LaMontagne Hall in Portsmouth, N.H.; Mark Pratt in Boston; Clarke Canfield in Portland, Maine; John Curran and Lisa Rathke in Montpelier, Vt.; and Mike Hill and Jessica M. Pasko in Albany, N.Y., contributed to this report.

    Northeast Ice Storm Darkens Homes, Fills Shelters, NYT, 13.12.2008, http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2008/12/13/us/AP-Ice-Storm.html

Obama Team Set on Environment

December 11, 2008
The New York Times
By JOHN M. BRODER

WASHINGTON — President-elect Barack Obama has selected his top energy and environmental advisers, including a Nobel Prize-winning physicist and the former head of the Environmental Protection Agency, presidential transition officials said Wednesday.

Collectively, they will have the task of carrying out Mr. Obama’s stated intent to curb global warming emissions drastically while fashioning a more efficient national energy system. And they will be able to work with strong allies in Congress who are interested in developing climate-change legislation, despite fierce economic headwinds that will amplify objections from manufacturers and energy producers.

The officials said Mr. Obama would name Steven Chu, the director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, as his energy secretary, and Nancy Sutley, deputy mayor of Los Angeles for energy and environment, as head of the White House Council on Environmental Quality. Mr. Obama also appears ready to name Carol M. Browner, the E.P.A. administrator under President Bill Clinton, as the top White House official on climate and energy policy and Lisa P. Jackson, New Jersey’s commissioner of environmental protection, as the head of the E.P.A.

Aides cautioned that while Mr. Obama appeared to favor Ms. Browner for the new White House post, there were still issues to be resolved before the appointment was formalized. Mr. Obama plans to name the environmental team next week in Chicago, aides said.

If named to the White House climate post, Ms. Browner, an acolyte of former Vice President Al Gore, will have forceful support in the new Congress, including Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Representative Henry A. Waxman of California, who will be the new chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, and Senator Barbara Boxer of California, who is returning as chairwoman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. Opposing their efforts will be many Republicans and some Democrats, as well as manufacturers, utilities, oil companies and coal producers who will bear the brunt of the costs of any steps to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, the main culprit in global warming.

In the coming months, the administration will also have to devise a strategy for dealing with global talks to address climate change, which are already under way.

In addition, both Ms. Browner and Ms. Jackson, who have strong reputations for regulating industry, will be under pressure to revisit and overturn many of the clean-air rules and other regulations imposed during the Bush administration over the objections of environmentalists.

Mr. Obama has promised to spend liberally to finance infrastructure projects and support so-called green technologies that will create jobs while benefiting the environment. These officials will work with Mr. Obama’s economic advisers to try to find — and finance — projects that accomplish these goals.

It was not immediately clear how responsibilities for managing climate change, technological innovation and huge energy infrastructure spending will be divided among them.

Dr. Chu will be taking on one of the most challenging jobs in government at the Department of Energy. He will be responsible for the maintenance and development of the nation’s nuclear weapons stockpile, as well as for modernizing the nation’s electrical power delivery system.

He will also play a central role in directing the research and development of alternative energy sources needed to replace fossil fuels in a era of constrained carbon emissions. Mr. Chu shared a Nobel Prize in physics in 1997 for work on supercooled atoms.

At the Lawrence Berkeley laboratory, he has sponsored research into biofuels and solar energy and has been a strong advocate of controlling greenhouse gas emissions.

Scott Segal, director of the Electric Reliability Coordinating Council, an industry group, said he was pleased that Dr. Chu had the technical expertise to realistically assess future energy technologies.

“His experience seems to dovetail perfectly with the president-elect’s commitment to bringing new energy technology to market in a timely fashion,” Mr. Segal said. “An understanding of the art of the possible in energy technology will be critical to the development of a cost-effective climate change policy.”

Although the scope of Ms. Browner’s job at the White House is still under discussion, aides said that if appointed she would coordinate administration policy across departmental lines and advocate for Mr. Obama’s energy and environmental policies on Capitol Hill. It was not clear on Wednesday whether her office would carry the bureaucratic clout of the National Security Council or the National Economic Council.

Before coming to Washington to head Mr. Clinton’s E.P.A., Ms. Browner was Florida’s top environmental officer. Since leaving government at the end of the Clinton administration, she has been a partner in an international consulting business with Madeleine K. Albright, Mr. Clinton’s second-term secretary of state. Among her clients at the Albright Group was a Dubai-based port operator that sought a contract to manage American ports. The deal fell apart amid heated Congressional criticism.

Ms. Browner, a lawyer, is well known in Washington and around the country as a forceful environmental advocate and experienced capital player. She is married to Tom Downey. a former New York congressman.

“She was a really strong administrator in really tough times,” said Dan Becker, director of the Safe Climate Campaign, an environmental group.

Ms. Jackson has been the head of New Jersey’s Department of Environmental Protection since 2006, but in October, Gov. Jon S. Corzine announced that she would become his chief of staff starting this month. She has a master’s degree in chemical engineering from Princeton and spent 16 years at the federal E.P.A. as a top enforcement officer in Washington and New York.

She has led the Obama transition team at E.P.A. and knows the agency inside and out, according to associates.

S. William Becker, executive director of the National Association of Clean Air Agencies, which represents state environmental bodies, said Ms. Jackson was among the most respected state environmental officials.

“Her state experience allows her to know what works and what doesn’t work on the ground,” said Mr. Becker, who is not related to Dan Becker. “I also am glad to see they chose an engineer to run E.P.A. The typical choice is an attorney.”

Ms. Sutley, who will direct the Council on Environmental Quality, is now the top environmental adviser to the mayor of Los Angeles, Antonio R. Villaraigosa. She has years of experience in managing water supplies and water quality in California and has also worked on energy-saving construction rules for the City of Los Angeles.

She was a special assistant to Ms. Browner at the E.P.A.

Jeff Zeleny contributed reporting.

    Obama Team Set on Environment, NYT, 11.12.2008, http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/11/us/politics/11appoint.html?hp

Polluters to Spend

Record Sum to Fix Violations

December 4, 2008
Filed at 11:54 a.m. ET
The New York Times
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The government's latest statistics show that companies violating environmental laws will spend a record $11.8 billion to reduce pollution.

The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that when the upgrades are made, releases of pollutants into the environment will be reduced by an estimated 3.9 billion pounds per year.

The data was released Thursday. It represents the final look at environmental enforcement under the Bush administration, which has favored encouraging companies to comply with the law, rather than pursuing fines and criminal enforcement.

Environmentalists say some of the biggest investments would not have occurred under changes the Bush administration is trying to complete before leaving office.

    Polluters to Spend Record Sum to Fix Violations, NYT, 4.12.2008, http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/washington/AP-EPA-Enforcement.html

Hawaii Endorses Plan for Electric Cars

December 3, 2008
The New York Times
By JOHN MARKOFF

SAN FRANCISCO — The State of Hawaii and the Hawaiian Electric Company on Tuesday endorsed an effort to build an alternative transportation system based on electric vehicles with swappable batteries and an “intelligent” battery recharging network.

The plan, the brainchild of the former Silicon Valley software executive Shai Agassi, is an effort to overcome the major hurdles to electric cars — slow battery recharging and limited availability.

By using existing electric car technologies, coupled with an Internet-connected web of tens of thousands of recharging stations, he thinks his company, Better Place L.L.C. of Palo Alto, Calif., will make all-electric vehicles feasible.

Mr. Agassi has succeeded in assembling a growing consortium of national governments, regional planning organizations and one major car company. Tuesday’s announcement follows earlier endorsements from Israel, Denmark, Australia, Renault-Nissan and a coalition of Northern California localities supporting the idea leading to the deployment of an electric vehicle with a range of greater than 100 miles, beginning at the end of 2010 in Israel. The company plans test deployments of vehicles in 2009 and broad commercial sales in 2012.

Mr. Agassi has raised $200 million in private financing for his idea. In October, he obtained a commitment from the Macquarie Capital Group to raise an additional $1 billion for an Australian project.

On Tuesday, he said that he was optimistic about his project despite the dismal investment and credit markets because his network could provide investors with an annuity. Users of his recharging network would subscribe to the service, paying for access and for the miles they drive.

Given the downturn in the mortgage market, he said that investors are looking for new classes of assets that will provide dependable revenue streams over many years. “I believe the new asset class is batteries,” he said. “When you have a driver in a car using a battery, nobody is going to cut their subscription and stop driving.”

Mr. Agassi has argued that even if oil prices continued to decline, his electric recharging network — which ideally would use renewable energy sources like solar and wind — could provide competitively priced energy for a new class of vehicles.

He supposes that his network idea will be appropriate first for “island” economies that typically have significantly higher energy costs, and then will become more cost-competitive as it is scaled up.

“We always knew Hawaii would be the perfect model,” he said in a telephone interview. “The typical driving plan is low and leisurely, and people are smiling.”

Hawaii is a relatively small market with high energy costs. The state has about 1.2 million cars and replaces 70,000 to 120,000 vehicles annually.

Drivers on the islands also rarely make trips of more than 100 miles, meaning there will be less need for his proposed battery recharging stations. Part of Mr. Agassi’s model depends on quick-change service stations to swap batteries for drivers who need to use their cars before they have completely recharged their batteries.

Peter Rosegg, a spokesman for the Hawaiian Electric Company, said that Better Place would become a major customer for electricity and was also planning to invest in renewable energy sources that would be connected to the electric grid.

“It’s going to be a nonexclusive agreement, but so far they’re the only one that has shown up,” Mr. Rosegg said.

In late November, the mayors of San Francisco and other major Bay Area cities endorsed the Better Place network to help create an electric recharging network by 2012. The company estimates that it will cost $1 billion to build a charging network in the Bay Area that may create as many as half a million charging stations.

Despite challenges, the Better Place model is promising, said Daniel M. Kammen, a professor in the Energy and Resources Group at the University of California, Berkeley. It could appeal to owners of fleets of vehicles and to early adopter customers who are willing to work through the difficulties that will inevitably accompany a new transportation system. “It has a lot of promising features,” he said.

    Hawaii Endorses Plan for Electric Cars, NYT, 3.12.2008,
    http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/03/technology/start-ups/03hawaii.html