Wavering on waves in Northern California

We are stuyding it. That's Pacific Gas & Electric's firm decision on trying to capture wave energy to generate electricity, or maybe not.

Using a grant from the State of California, the utility, based in San Francisco, will study the feasability of an offshore warm energy farm near Fort Bragg on the Northern California Coast. For three years they shallt set forth and study. Perhaps by then some other wave energy installations will either have poroven seaworthy, or will have failed. And then we'll see PG&E as overly cautious (like GM with the hyrbid car) or prescient (like those mutual funds who eschewed discount mortgage bonds).

Some of the first safe energy installations slated to go online are in Europe: UK and Portugal both have aggressive plans for using wave power. There are also some plans afloat for the Atlantic Coast of North America as well as further north along the Pacific.

Plans to use offshore wind power or the onshore winds are becoming hot talking points and political issues from Lake Michigan to New Jersey. It's a credit to the hunger for energy that waves have become controversial.