PREVIOUSLY:

• Massive New Fish Farm in the Works for Samoa Peninsula; Harbor District Expected to Bless Project Helmed by Norwegian Firm at Special Meeting Monday
• Humboldt Baykeeper Says: Samoa Fish Farm Proposal Looks Good So Far, But the Devil Will Be in the Details
• Let’s Take a Closer Look at This Big Fish Farm Proposal for the Samoa Peninsula
• In a Surprise Move, Nordic Aquafarms Agrees to Conduct Full Environmental Impact Report for Its Land-Based Fish Farm on the Samoa Peninsula
• Planning Commission Set to Consider Permits for Nordic Aquafarms Project Tonight
• Fishermen and Conservation Groups Appeal Nordic Aquafarms’ Environmental Report Certification to Humboldt County Supervisors
• Nordic Aquafarms Celebrates ‘Monumental Step Forward’ After Supes Deny Project Appeal
• Salmon OUT, Yellowtail IN: Nordic Aquafarms Announces Species Switch-Up at its Planned Humboldt Facility

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Press release from Nordic Aquafarms:

Yesterday, the North Coast Regional Water Quality Board voted 4-0 to adopt the NPDES order awarding the permit for wastewater discharge for co-permittees Nordic Aquafarms California and the Humboldt Bay Harbor, Recreation, and Conservation District.

Nordic is dedicated to fulfilling the conditions of the order which includes extensive water monitoring. With one more permit obtained, Nordic is pleased to continue on the path forward in the permitting process.

“We are hoping to be in front of the Coastal Commission this November and continue the positive momentum. This summer Nordic’s application had also been approved by the CDFW to raise Yellowtail Kingfish and with each successful step, we look forward to beginning construction and becoming operational,” states Brenda Chandler, CEO.

California isn’t short on lofty goals: Lawmakers have vowed to zero out the state’s carbon emissions by 2045, build 2.5 million new homes by the end of the decade and swap gas-burning appliances with electric ones in 7 million homes over the next 12 years.

Now California’s chief utility regulator is considering a new rooftop solar policy that a chorus of critics say will make it harder for the state to meet any of those ambitious targets.

On Oct. 12, the California Public Utilities Commission will vote on whether to reduce the payments that owners of solar panel-equipped apartment buildings receive for the electricity they generate on their rooftops. The decision could mirror an overhaul that the commission adopted late last year for sun-powered single-family homes and is part of a larger battle among environmentalists and energy policymakers over the role that individually-owned solar panels should play in the state’s planned divorce from fossil fuel-derived energy.

In both cases, the new rules only apply to new customers.

Supporters of the rule change — the state’s major electric utilities chief among them — argue that the new proposed rates, which vary over the course of a day, better reflect the actual value that rooftop solar panels provide to the electrical grid while offering a fairer shake to customers who don’t have the luxury of living beneath solar panels.

The new pricing system is also designed to encourage property owners to pair solar panels with batteries, which can store up solar energy in the middle of the day when it’s abundant and cheap and dispatch it when the grid needs it most after the sun sets and when the CPUC’s proposed adjusted rates are higher.

“Under these new rules I have pretty serious concerns that entire building electrification projects just won’t pencil out anymore.”
— David Chanin, co-founder of FutureFit Partners

But a notably diverse coalition of California interest groups have banded together to argue otherwise. Landlords, tenant rights organizations, affordable housing advocates, environmental nonprofits and the building industry — which rarely all agree — now say that the policy would only “eviscerate” the multifamily solar market.

What’s more, they argue, the proposed change runs counter to a host of ambitious policy goals that California lawmakers have set out to combat climate change, air pollution and the affordable housing crisis.

“This proposed decision seems to go right in the opposite direction,” said Bob Raymer, technical director at the California Building Industry Association, a lobbying group that opposes the regulatory overhaul. “It’s nuts. I’ve been doing this stuff for over 40 years and this one is just baffling.”

Solar policy déjà vu

If this argument sounds familiar, a version has played out in public once before.

In December, the commission cut the payments that homeowners with rooftop solar arrays receive by roughly 75%. The decision came after months of debate, with both sides claiming to speak in the interest of clean energy and economic justice.

Previously, utilities were required to pay homeowners roughly the retail rate for electricity produced by a photovoltaic array and exported back to the grid. Utilities have long chafed at that arrangement, joining organized utility workers and even some environmental groups, in arguing that the more cost-effective way to supercharge clean energy production is to focus on utility-scale (read: big) projects. That’s opposed to the disaggregated fleet of photovoltaic arrays, found disproportionately on the homes of the well-to-do, who were able to skimp on the costs of grid maintenance and upgrades, effectively shunting that onto everyone else’s monthly bills.

The CPUC agreed with that argument and replaced that retail tariff with a much lower, adjustable fee.

That’s more or less what is being considered this time around for apartment building owners, but with one highly contested difference.

Even with these lower payments, single-family homeowners with solar can still boost the benefit of their array by using the electricity they generate on site. Every kilowatt hour “self-consumed” is a kilowatt hour that the homeowner doesn’t have to pay in high retail prices. That can add up to significant savings.

But under the proposed overhaul for apartment dwellers, no such savings would be allowed. All of the electricity generated would count as an “export” to the grid and get compensated at the lower wholesale rate. Likewise, all electricity used by the residents of that apartment building would need to be purchased from the utility at retail. For accounting purposes, there would be no“self-consumption” allowed.

For rooftop solar companies, the lack of a “self-consumption” provision for apartment buildings amounts to an existential threat.

Ivy Energy, a San Diego company that sells software to multifamily landlords hoping to offer their tenants solar power, argued to the CPUC that the rule, if adopted as proposed in August, “would eviscerate the economic value proposition” for multifamily solar “rendering all new projects infeasible and unfinanceable, and effectively result in a collapse of the multifamily solar market.”

Both the state’s major investor-owned utilities and the CPUC say that coming up with a way to account for self-consumption to apartment buildings, where different residents are using different amounts of electricity at different times and would require different levels of compensation, would be a technical nightmare to administer. They argue that it would be costly to build out, raises potential privacy concerns between renters and their landlords and would result in billing so convoluted that no resident could possibly use it to predict the cheapest time to run their dishwasher.

“Illogical and convoluted” is the term used in a joint letter to the CPUC by Southern California Edison, Pacific Gas & Electric and San Diego Gas & Electric.

But just because such a system would be hard to implement doesn’t warrant upending the entire industry that has built itself up around the old system, said Bernadette Del Chiaro, executive director of the California Solar & Storage Association.

She pointed to the single-family solar market as a telling example. Since the new policy went into effect, she said, the number of residential solar projects in the pipeline has dropped at least 40%.

“But we’ve gotten ourselves in this situation where we’re almost touting the single family version” of the policy, she said. “It’s still not going to be a great thing, but at least it’s not sudden death. Which is what this is.”

In opposition: A big tent

As the CPUC mulled the decision over the summer, a disparate collection of interest groups flocked to the rooftop solar industry’s defense, but for different reasons.

Builders oppose anything that makes solar less financially attractive because the California Energy Commission, another state agency, now requires virtually all new residential construction to come equipped with solar panels.

Throwing a wrench into the economics of rooftop solar also complicates the statewide push to go electric, to the chagrin of property owners and the entire electrification industry.

“Solar is one of the biggest revenue streams for a landlord asking ‘Why should I invest all this money in a heat hump, a new hot water system?’” said David Chanin, co-founder of FutureFit Partners, a company that helps house and apartment owners make those investments. “Under these new rules I have pretty serious concerns that entire building electrification projects just won’t pencil out anymore.”

And while the overhaul for single-family solar users mostly directly affected homeowners, it’s apartment-dwelling renters who are likely to be most affected by the current decision.

The current system “really is the only mechanism we have for a lot of low-income people living in multifamily housing to get solar and clean energy,” said Andrew Dawson, a lobbyist with the California Housing Partnership, a nonprofit that advocates for affordable housing. “For electrification purposes, solar is really important to make sure that people’s bills don’t increase significantly.”

“As climate impacts like rising heat continue to increase, there is an ongoing need for grid independence.”
— Andrea Barnier, Self-Help Enterprises

Other programs do exist to help lower income Californians go green. The state’s Solar on Multifamily Affordable Housing program provides financial incentives for property owners to invest in new panels and is funded under a different formula. But that program’s coverage is patchy across the state, said Dawsom.

Andrea Barnier with Self-Help Enterprises, a low-income housing provider in Visalia, said only 15 of the organization’s 40 multifamily projects will be insulated from the policy change through that state program. For the remaining sites, and all future apartment projects, she called the new rule a potential “deterrent to all-electric design.”

In a filing with the CPUC, the state’s three investor-owned utilities note that multifamily solar is still a relatively rare phenomenon in California. At last count, just 217 residential facilities across the state make use of the program, along with 513 other mixed residential and commercial sites.

But with the state vowing to simultaneously turbocharge apartment construction, electrical vehicle purchases and the jettisoning of gas stoves and hot water heaters, critics say that while supporting distributed solar may not be vital now, it will be in the near-future.

“As climate impacts like rising heat continue to increase, there is an ongoing need for grid independence and alternate energy solutions from batteries during rolling blackouts and emergencies, so this also impacts our ability to develop resilient communities,” said Barnier.

A coming political dust-up?

It may only be a matter of time before this argument gets dragged out of the highly-technical and mostly overlooked corridors of the CPUC and into the broader realm of partisan politics.

In July, the California Democratic Renters Council, a coalition of tenant rights, pro-housing and environmental justice advocacy groups, sent a letter to the CPUC’s five commissioners. It decried the proposed regulatory change that “would force renters to buy all of their power from the utility even when it is generated on their own rooftop” and “discriminate against renters by not giving them the same fair treatment as single-family homeowners.”

Though many observers expect the CPUC to ultimately vote for the overhaul next week, the breadth of the coalition that has mobilized against it might be difficult for other state lawmakers to overlook, said Raymer with the building industry.

“From a political standpoint, if this gets passed the way it’s proposed, I think the Legislature will be right back in 2024 addressing this,” he said.

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CalMatters.org is a nonprofit, nonpartisan media venture explaining California policies and politics.

Since its inception in 2021, California’s COVID-era $5.2 billion rent relief program has been plagued with delays, criticism and a lawsuit.

Now, it might be at risk of running out of money.

That could leave the more than 100,000 renters who are still awaiting assistance from a program that stopped taking new applications more than a year ago officially out of luck.

The first warning sign came in the form of an email a staffer with the state Housing and Community Development Department sent out in early September to lawyers representing many of those same anti-poverty groups, which entered into a legal settlement with the department over the program earlier this year.

“As of July 31, 2023, the program had $128,940,473 in funding left for disbursement to applicants,” the staffer wrote in the email shared with CalMatters. The next round of payments would provide assistance to an estimated 5,521 households. But any money leftover “is unlikely to add enough funds to the remaining balance to support more than one additional” payment, the letter stated.

In other words, the program may soon be out of cash, though it’s impossible to say when.

In a statement, department spokesperson Pablo Espinoza did not dispute the contents of the email, but insisted that the program still has cash available for now.

“We have not run out of funds and we continue to evaluate applications that are eligible for funding,” he wrote. “The fact is that this was always meant to be a temporary emergency program, and funding is not infinite. It is unclear whether there will be sufficient funding to pay all eligible applicants,” he added in a subsequent statement.

That contradicts prior assertions made by the department.

In March 2022, Nur Kausar, then a spokesperson for the state housing department, told CalMatters that the program would “continue to operate until all complete applications received are processed and all eligible applicants have been paid.”

A Screenshot of California’s COVID-19 Rent Relief webpage. Image via the Wayback Machine on March 13, 2022.

A statement on the program website, since removed but stored on Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine, included a similar claim: “All eligible applications received on or before March 31, 2022, for rent or utilities owed between April 1, 2020 through March 31, 2022, will be paid.”

The program was created to help struggling tenants cover rental debt accrued between the beginning of the pandemic and March 2022. The housing department has struggled to work through a backlog of unaddressed applicants and unresolved rejection appeals in the 19 months since.

Espinoza acknowledged those prior statements in his statement.

“This is an error that has been addressed and corrected with all stakeholders for some time now. We embrace this renewed opportunity to reiterate the information accurately,” Espinoza said.

According to the housing department, 92,713 Californians are still awaiting an initial decision on their request for financial assistance. Another 34,751 appealed a prior rejection. It’s impossible to say how many of these nearly 130,000 applications will ultimately be rejected.

The prospect of the state’s COVID relief fund closing out its accounts comes just as the last COVID-era moratoriums on evictions expire across the state. In Los Angeles and Alameda County, that’s led to a spike in eviction proceedings

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CalMatters.org is a nonprofit, nonpartisan media venture explaining California policies and politics.

Richard “Dick” Streufert died after a long illness on Saturday, September 30 at his home in Freshwater, with his beloved wife Nancy at his side. Dick was born in Garber, Oklahoma in 1937 into a large German family of Lutheran pastors. He was raised in Oklahoma City and attended college at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, graduating in 1962 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering (BSME). Over the course of his 30-year career as a digital design engineer in the military division of Delco Electronics, his designs powered many critical military and space applications, including the mission computers for F-16 fighter aircraft. He retired in 1992 as manager of a computer processing group in the Advanced Digital Engineering Department of Delco Systems Operations in Santa Barbara.

Dick was a creative man who loved technical challenges. When he and Nancy moved in 1986 to a home off the grid at the Hollister Ranch (west of Santa Barbara in the Santa Ynez Mountains), Dick designed a solar-powered system and a wind generator to power the home. He loved the outdoors and the natural world, and his many interests included sailing (Lake Michigan and the Pacific Ocean out of Santa Barbara harbor), camping and fly-fishing in the Sierras with his Delco buddies, organic gardening, astronomy, any and all kinds of weather phenomena, woodworking, building furniture, and restoring old cars, particularly Jaguars. In 2001, Nancy and Dick moved to Humboldt County, God’s country among the redwoods, where Nancy serves as an Episcopal priest and Dick happily maintained their 29-acre property, hauling fallen trees and chopping wood and puttering around in his 1000 sq. ft. shop.

Dick was preceded in death by his parents, The Rev. Luther T. Streufert and Clara Heerwagen Streufert, his brother Norman, and his first wife Judith. He is survived by his wife of 36 years, Nancy Streufert; his sons from his marriage to Judith: Steven Streufert and Steven’s children Gitanjali Castalian and Robin Brown; Peter Streufert; and Eric Streufert, daughter-in-law Lindsay and their children Holden, Ava, and Isla; brother and sister-in-law Mark and Mary Streufert; sister Marian Jenz; nephews David Jenz and Christopher Streufert; nieces Lisa Siblik and Anna Guerard; and beloved cats Mortie and Meeso.

The family wishes to thank the doctors, nurses, aides, therapists and other staff members at St. Joseph Hospital in the Progressive Care Unit, Eureka Rehabilitation, and Hospice of Humboldt for their compassionate care of Dick during his last weeks of life.

Friends and acquaintances are invited to his funeral service and celebration of life to be held Friday, October 13, 2023, at 2 p.m. at St. Alban’s Episcopal Church, 1675 Chester Avenue, Arcata. Donations in Dick’s memory may be made to St. Alban’s and will be gratefully received to support the church’s creation care ministry. Final arrangements were made by Ayres Family Cremation with care and compassion.

“For I know that my Redeemer lives,
     and that at the last he will stand upon the earth;
 and after my skin has been thus destroyed,
     then in my flesh I shall see God.”
(Job 19:25-26)

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Frank Aaron Henry Sr.
November 28, 1961- September 29, 2023

Frank Aaron Henry Sr.– a father, grandfather, great-grandfather, brother, uncle, cousin, son, and great friend. Frank passed away unexpectedly on September 29, 2023 at his home in Eureka. 

Frank  was born November 28, 1961 in Eureka to Kathleen and Elliott Henry.  Frank was considered a little brother to Joyce Moser, Elliott ‘Sonny’ Henry, and Tanya Norris and a big brother to Madeline Henry, Vicky Henry, and Valerie Ryles. Frank was a proud father to Bud Henry, Frank Henry Jr., Lena Henry, Kayla Henry, and Kayce Salas; a proud father-in-law to William Salas, Greg Campbell, and Louisa-Weezie Jones; a proud grandfather to SyLenna, Dauwin, and Kenek Poe, Gabe and Ava Salas, Brandon and Lousia Henry, Isaiah Hersey-Henry, Kaydence McCullough, Sammy and Jesus Jones; and proud great-grandfather to Andrew Henry.

Frank was a proud Yurok man who cared deeply for his family. Frank Henry worked in mills most of his life until he got injured in 2018. After this he decided to go back to school, after a lot of encouragement, to obtain the career that he had always dreamed of being a substance use counselor. He then started at College of the Redwoods addiction studies program in 2019 where he graduated in 2021. He then started interning at Crossroad NCSAC. Frank was so proud of himself when he was offered a full-time job when his internship was finished. He loved his job at Crossroads for the four years that he was there. He loved the people he met there and cherished the friendships he made with staff and residents. Frank found a passion for helping others on their journey to recovery that he found 10 years ago.

Frank enjoyed getting together with his children and grandchildren to celebrate birthdays, achievements, watching his grandchildren play sports, family trips, watching steelers play and WWE, and fights. Frank loved to show up to football games to watch his granddaughter SyLenna cheer an hour early. Frank loved when his son Bud Henry would spend hours watching the fights together. Frank loved to spend time with his daughter Lena Henry watching crime shows and to be a part of her children’s achievements. Frank loved spending time with Kayce Salas going fishing. Frank Loved to go Hunting and playing sticks with his grandsons Kenek Poe and Dauwin Poe. Frank loved his time talking about Legos with his grandson Gabe Salas.  Frank was proud to watch his grandson Brandon Henry become such a great man, father, and husband. Frank loved to watch all his grandchildren grow into the amazing young women and men that they are today and cherished the memories that he had with all five of his children and 11 of his grandchildren. 

Frank Aaron Henry Sr. is survived by his mother, Kathleen Henry; his mother-in-law of 34 years, Maria Avelar; his five sisters: Joyce, Tanya, Madeline, Vicky, and Valerie; the numerous nephews and nieces he has; his wife of 34 years, Manuela Avelar, whom he loved dearly; his four children, whom he loved with all his heart: Bud Henry, Lena Henry, Kayla Henry, and Kayce Salas; his son-in-law, Billy Salas, and Greg Campbell; his daughter-in-law, Louisa-Weezie Jones; and his 11 grandchildren, whom he loved watching grow into the amazing young people they are today: SyLenna, Dauwin, and Kenek Poe; Gabe and Ava Salas; Brandon and Louisa Henry; Isaiah Hersey-Henry; Kaydence McCullough; Sammy and Jesus Jones; and his great-grandson, Andrew Henry.

Frank is preceded in death by his amazing son, Frank Aaron Henry Jr.; his grandmother, Lucy Henry; his grandparents, Frank and Zelma Green; his father-in-law, Carlos Avelar; his beloved father, Elliot Henry; his two brothers, Elliott ‘Sonny’ Henry and Eldred Norris; his nephew, To-Tehl Elliott Henry Surber; and one of his best friends, Ben Casey.

Services and viewing for Frank Henry Sr. will be at Paul’s Chapel on Saturday October 7, 2023 at 11 a.m. Potluck style reception following at 2 p.m. Arcata Veterans Memorial Building (1425 J St. Arcata.) please feel free to bring a dish to share if you would like.

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Gwendolyn Faye Jones was born to Calvin and Edna Faulk on July 21, 1950 in Arcata. She passed away peacefully, surrounded by loved ones, October 2nd, 2023, in Eureka.

Gwen grew up in the town of Cranell and graduated from McKinleyville High with the class of 1968. She had many professions throughout her life, including bartending at the Powderhorn in Eureka, where she met her husband Bill Jones. Gwen and Bill spent 48 years together before her passing. They raised five children and their granddaughter, Brittany. They had numerous grandchildren, great-grandchildren and their home was open to anyone at any time.

Gwen was a social butterfly and sitting still was not something she liked to do. Between house parties, card games and nights spent drinking and dancing at the Moose Lodge, you could always find Gwen surrounded by family and friends. She loved yard sales, cooking for anyone who would eat, and camping.

Gwen is preceded in death by her parents Calvin & Edna; Her brothers Jerry and Cal, as well as her sister Wanda. She is survived by her husband, Bill Jones; her brother, Delbert Faulk; her children, Mendy Jones (Gary), Raeleen Olson, Carolee Strong (Randy), Brandon Jones and Kimberly Adams (Rodney); her grandchildren, Brittany Holland (Jeff), Derek Armstrong, Ashlie Taulman (Robbie), Connor Jones (Jamie), Halle Strong, Natalie, Harlee and Robert Adams; her five soon-to-be six great grandchildren; as well as numerous nieces and nephews whom she loved dearly.

She will be greatly missed, and the world is a dimmer place without her smiling face.

There will be a memorial service at the McKinleyville Moose Lodge on a date in November to be determined.

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Press release from the Eureka Police Department:

The Eureka Police Department is requesting the public’s assistance in locating Zachary Daniels. Daniels was reported by his family to have been living as a transient lifestyle in the Eureka/Humboldt area. He last contacted his family in February of 2023.

Daniels is described as being a white male adult, 38 years old, with brown hair and brown eyes. He is approximately 6 feet 3 inches tall weighing 180 pounds. Anyone with information regarding the whereabouts of Daniels is asked to contact the Eureka Police Department Investigations Unit at 707-441-4300.