energy

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - Back in the 1940s, before South Tahoe Public Utility
District existed, sewage flowed directly into beautiful Lake Tahoe. Citizens rallied to sign a petition to form the District and this year marks our 70th anniversary. From a single septic field to an award-winning 7.7 million gallon per day wastewater treatment facility, with 100% recycled water and biosolids, a lot
has changed over the years.

Thinking of purchasing an electric vehicle? NV Energy is hosting a virtual electric vehicle (EV) event as a follow up to the popular EV 10 last month. This is EV 201: Finding the Right EV For You, being held virtually on Dec. 8 (Reno area) and Dec. 10 (Las Vegas area) from 7:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.

Over the past ten years, the South Lake Tahoe Moose Lodge has donated 50 Christmas food boxes annually to local families, delivering the boxes in recent years to the South Lake Tahoe Family Resource Center for distribution to families in need.

These boxes contained a complete Christmas Ham dinner for a family of four, plus enough extra food to last for several additional meals. But, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, this year the Lodge was unable to hold its normal fundraisers and food collections to put the boxes together.

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - During their last meeting, the South Lake Tahoe City Council voted unanimously to adopt a Climate Action Plan (CAP).

This plan will be used as a dynamic, policy-guiding roadmap to provide insight on strategies and actions that can be taken in the community to help move towards is two climate goals - 100 percent renewable community electricity by 2032 and a 80 percent reduction in community greenhouse gas emissions by 2040.

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - There are three open seats on the South Tahoe Public Utility Board of Directors this election season, two for a four-year term and one for a two-year term.

South Tahoe Now reached out to the candidates and below are their answers to a set of questions. For the two four-year terms, incumbent Kelly Sheehan is running for reelection, Duane Wallace is running after being appointed to fill Jim Jones's spot on the board until this election, and they are joined by David Peterson.

On April 18, 2017 the South Lake Tahoe City Council unanimously passed a resolution to: 1) Power the South Lake Tahoe community with electricity provided from 100 percent renewable sources by 2032 and 2) Reduce community carbon emissions from baseline by at least 80 percent by 2040, and reduce municipal emissions by 50 percent by 2030.

South Tahoe Now reached out to all nine candidates for South Lake Tahoe City Council and provided the same list of questions to each one of them. Once a day their answers will be published in the order received.

Today's candidate is John Friedrich

Profession: Founder and Director, Tahoe Green Jobs Initiative

How many years in SLT: 15

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - Liberty Utility and NV Energy customers in the Stateline area were without power for several hours Sunday evening and early Monday due to water that got into an unground vault on the California side. This required significant additional work to safely restore power to the six Nevada customers and 426 California customers.

The Tahoe Climate Change Action Network (TCCAN) is hosting a week of online events with opportunities to connect individual, community and regional efforts to the global movement to ensure we are counting down to a better, carbon neutral future.

INCLINE VILLAGE, Nev. - After an extensive search, Sierra Nevada University has secured a new president on August 31, 2020. Dr. Robert M. Valli, an alumnus of UC Berkeley, Stanford, and Cambridge universities, accepted the position at SNU Tahoe, replacing Dr. Ed Zschau who had been the interim president.

Dr. Valli came to SNU Tahoe from his most recent role as Dean of Long Island

INCLINE VILLAGE, Nev. - The Public Safety Outage Management (PSOM) event previously forecast for Friday, September 18 for the Incline Zone is canceled due to updated weather forecasts.

There is a Red Flag warning at Lake Tahoe with elevated fire weather conditions and NV Energy will continue to monitor conditions and take extra steps to mitigate wildfire risk. This includes staging their line crews, vegetation management crews and fire agency partners at specific locations around the lake.

Those of us who were alive remember where they were and what they were doing when they saw or heard of the first planes fly into the towers in New York City on September 11, 2001.

Chris Sneed was working in Incline Village on a pipe replacement project for Granite Construction on Lakeshore Boulevard on 9-11-01. He needed a part and ran into Spitsen Lumber. He was in line and saw the store's 12" television showing a plane hit the first tower, and then the second tower.

Heavenly, Kirkwood and Northstar, all members of the Vail Resorts family, will be operating differently during the winter season 2020/21. Vail plans on opening both Heavenly and Northstar on November 20 and Kirkwood on December 4.

Ticket sales, use of season passes and facility uses will all be handled to promote physical distancing and protect the safety of staff and guests.

NV Energy is urging its electric customers in both northern and southern Nevada to conserve electricity Tuesday and Wednesday between 2:00 p.m. and 9:00 p.m. in order to offset energy supply issues caused by record-breaking heat throughout the Western United States. Conservation is the best way to reduce strain on the local power grid.

Liberty Utilities gets some of its power from NV Energy so they too are asking for customers to limit unnecessary power use and stay prepared for potential outage.

Effective measures to conserve energy during this time period include:
 Turn off lights

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - A gasoline leak at the Flyers Energy station in South Lake Tahoe on Wednesday morning forced the evacuation of all employees and customers at the Smart & Final store on Lake Tahoe Boulevard.

According to South Lake Tahoe Fire Rescue (SLTFR) Battalion Chief Jim Drennan, 75 gallons of gasoline leaked as a gas truck was transferring it into tanks. No gas went into the street and all went into a catch basin container.

Heavy fumes filled the nearby Smart & Final. SLTFR assisted 11 people at the scene and two were transferred to Barton Hospital, said Drennan.

With its decision last week, the U.S. Supreme Court delivered a real sense of relief and a bit of a reprieve to approximately 800,000 DREAMers in America, including 200,000 in California alone. When the justices sided with Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients, ruling that the way the Trump administration rescinded the program in 2017 was unlawful, it was a big victory for immigrant communities and their many allies.

The year 2020 started out with the driest February on record in California since the 1850s, and this combined with warming temperatures and recent winds are resulting in quickly drying grass.

The increasing fire danger posed by dead grass and hotter, drier conditions

INCLINE VILLAGE, Nev. - The Tahoe East shore Trail has become an interpretive trail after 23 new educational signs were installed thanks to funds from the NV Energy Foundation. The signs provide information on regional history, the environment, and local wildlife.

The popular trail runs between Incline Village and Sand Harbor State Park with parking on SR28 at Tunnel Creek in Incline.

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - Dr. Kendra Yee received a "landslide" of nominations from staff and physicians to be the 2020 Barton Health Doctor of the Year.

Dr. Yee is Chief of COVID-19 Emergency Operations, Chief of Staff, Medical Director of the Emergency Department, and a practicing Emergency Medicine Physician at Barton Memorial Hospital.

Heartfelt nominations for Dr. Yee spoke to her vision and dynamic leadership on the frontline of the coronavirus pandemic, and steadfast care for patients and healthcare workers alike:

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - The commitment of Bread & Broth over the last thirty years has solely focused on the mission to ease hunger in the South Lake Tahoe community. That mission took on new meaning beginning in mid-March with the onset of the COVID-19 outbreak when record numbers of individuals seeking food assistance from the various programs and services provided by B & B.

2020 marks the 50th Anniversary of Earth Day and now, more than ever, it is important to spend time reflecting on and celebrating Mother Earth. The Sierra Nevada Alliance (Alliance) is proud to provide a way to appreciate our planet and inspire advocacy from the safety of your couch during the coronavirus pandemic. The Alliance is inviting everyone to celebrate Earth Day online with the Virtual Wild and Scenic Film Festival On Tour.

In today’s world, our own voice is the strongest it has EVER been. You can reach so many people through social media. Unfortunately, very few of us use this platform to do something bigger than ourselves. We post our opinions but don’t act upon them to make changes. And that’s where Natalia and Alex Dodov stray from the rest of us. Instead of sitting on the sidelines, they use their opportunities and energy to help kids learn about avalanche safety solutions.

Seeing The Dodov Foundation In Action

The ultimate mission of the Lake Tahoe Unified School District (LTUSD) is to help youth thrive. Sadly, it is our students - not we, adult, decision-makers - who will most suffer climate change. LTUSD must also support the future health and well-being of our students.

So, in 2017, the School Board formally resolved to:

Increase reliance on clean, renewable energy sources to power the District’s facilities, in line with and in collaboration with, the City of South Lake Tahoe’s recent pledge to power 100 percent of our electricity use with renewable energy by 2030.

After testing nearly every hybrid on the market including products from Toyota, Nissan, Honda, Hyundai, Kia, and Ford. Toyota’s 2020 Avalon hybrid is the best yet (actually it is tied with the Camry Hybrid and Lexus ES300h which essentially share chassis and hybrid system). Usually, the predominant factor in buying a hybrid is fuel economy and while the Avalon is rated at 43/43/43 mpg which is not the highest rating among hybrids, it can clearly outperform those numbers while doing so many other things extremely well.