Dry spell: Ventura County struggles to refill from Santa Clara River
Farms, industries and municipalities in Ventura County could see a severe reduction in the amount of water they receive from the Santa Clara River watershed and sharply higher prices if a pair of environmental challenges are successful, a top groundwater manager said Nov. 16.
Tony Morgan, groundwater department manager for the United Water Conservation District, said at a symposium in Santa Paula that the district is unlikely to be able to supply anywhere near the water this year that it has in the past because of prolonged dry weather.
Emissions cap prompts oil firm backlash
Santa Barbara County’s decision to impose a strict cap on carbon emissions from a proposed oil project puts the county at a competitive disadvantage in California and likely will cut into the money energy firms pump into the regional economy.
The Board of Supervisors voted 3-2 on Nov. 12 to require Santa Maria Energy to cap its carbon emissions at 10,000 tons per year. Santa Maria Energy had proposed 136 wells for a site near Orcutt.
Santa Barbara County’s oil is thick and viscous. In order to extract it, companies inject steam into wells to soften the oil. Burning natural gas to create the steam is what generates the bulk of carbon emissions.
With funds and new CEO, Neighborhood Clinics turn the corner
The struggling Santa Barbara Neighborhood Clinics nonprofit is narrowing its funding gap and has a strategic plan and new permanent CEO in place, putting it on track to become financially sustainable at a time when it looks to expand service to Goleta.
“Six months ago, we were in danger of closing our doors,” said Mark Palmer, president of the board.
Study: Skilled workers priced out of San Luis Obispo
The findings highlight a pervasive mismatch between the high price of even starter homes and the number of jobs that pay wages high enough to support those prices. Experts say the gap is a significant roadblock to the state’s economic growth.
Taylor Frigon invests in Schmidt-backed cloud tech firm
Alongside its everyday wealth and investment management business, San Luis Obispo-based Taylor Frigon Capital Management has been quietly making venture capital investments over the past five years that are gaining attention from Silicon Valley heavyweights.
Taylor Frigon’s venture investment arm, Taylor Frigon Capital Partners, was an early investor in a company called Otoy in Los Angeles. The company has recently inked deals with a spate of big players — Firefox parent Mozilla, Amazon’s cloud services branch and Autodesk, the gold-standard for 3-D rendering software — to crack a previously unachievable goal.
$17.8M sale positions Camarillo shopping center for turnaround
The bankrupt Camarillo Plaza community shopping center has been sold to an undisclosed Beverly Hills buyer for $17.8 million after receiving 20 separate offers. The 74,072-square-foot mall is located on Daily Drive at the intersection of Brently Avenue, across Highway 101 from the Camarillo Premium Outlets.
