Published by West Marin Independent Press  (Contact the Editor)
First Quarter 2009
Transforming the future from the ground up. Click to see the back page
    A new study finds that the annual costs and revenue losses to the state resulting from global warming will number in the billions of dollars by 2050.
    Global warming could translate into annual costs and revenue losses throughout California's economy of between $2.5 billion and $15 billion by 2050, according to a summary of cost analyses presented on March 11 to Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's climate advisers.
    The study further found that property damage caused by sea level rise and more devastating wildfires could push those costs far higher.
    The final report, a compilation of 40 studies commissioned by the governor's Climate Action Team, is expected to come out this Spring. It will provide a comprehensive snapshot of global warming's potential costs to property owners, businesses and state government
By Norman Solomon
The natural beauty of the North Bay region has been appreciated by many generations of Californians. But behind the pastoral settings and windswept coastline, changes are in the works. Choices are being made in offices and boardrooms that will irrevocably impact the North Bay - and the environment its residents have long enjoyed. Top decision-makers are weighing factors that include powerful financial interests.
Those officials are busy deciding on the future of the North Bay - whether to expand the landfill, extend the quarry, authorize the cement factory, bend coastal regulations, approve desalination at the expense of water conservation, permit rapid development, accept aerial spraying, excuse more energy consumption with 'carbon offsets,' defer to environmental impact reports from corporate contractors ...
Smart grid technology, which, in theory, will make the US power grid more efficient and interactive, “may not be the bright idea its backers suggest unless it can be made more secure.” And therein, says business and technology reporter Thomas Claburn in Information Week (www. informationweek.com), lies the rub.
    “Without some thought given to security as ... Smart Meter devices are developed and deployed,” Claburn says, “we risk repeating the same dumb mistakes that leave networked computers open to attack.”
    There are currently around 40 million smart meters in use worldwide, about 2 million of which are in the US. Claburn cites “an additional 100 million planned around the globe over the next few years.” The Obama administration's recovery plan calls for 40 million smart meters to be deployed in the US over the next three years.
    The devices make energy monitoring data available online to home users and utilities in real time, enabling a variety of new scenarios for saving and selling
energy. For example, writes Claburn, ”home owners using smart meters could, through a properly equipped utility, collect solar energy and sell any excess to their power company.“
    But security researchers warn that the devices could be used to conduct
attacks on the power grid and on people's homes if developed without sufficient security. That, he says, ”could mean blackout attacks, data theft, and billing fraud.“
    ”We will be engineering major vulnerabilities into the power grid if the
vendors of meters do not bake security in - and they won't do that unless the government folks responsible for allocating money make 'provable defense against known and reasonably expected attacks' a prerequisite for funding,“ Alan Paller, director of research at the SANS Institute, told Claburn in an e-mail.
    IOActive president and CEO Joshua Pennell attempted to deliver that message to the Committee of Homeland Security and the Department of Homeland Security in March.
    Testifying before the committee, Pennell said that based on their research and the ability to easily introduce serious threats, ”IOActive believes that the relative security immaturity of the smart grid and AMI markets warrants the adoption of proven industry best practices including the requirement of independent third-party security assessments of all smart grid technologies that are being proposed for deployment in the nation's critical infrastructure.“