Today San Francisco launches SFGreasecycle, a free program in which the city will pick up used cooking oil and grease from local restaurants, hotels and other commercial food preparation establishments. Those substances then will be turned into biodiesel, a fuel made of plant oil that burns cleaner than petroleum-based fuels. San Francisco officials believe theirs will be the largest such effort in the nation. Eventually, the city wants to recycle grease produced in homes with the intention of someday using the locally produced biodiesel to power all city vehicles, including public buses and fire trucks. SF Chronicle 11/20/07
The board of supervisors Tuesday gave the final OK needed to create the ID card program, effectively legitimizing the city's estimated 40,000 illegal immigrants. SJ Mercury 11/21/07
The Board of Supervisors in this famously liberal enclave is expected to give final approval today to an ordinance that would give undocumented immigrants a way to gain easier access to city and business services and prove residency. According to a Newsom spokesman, the bill continues with the thinking established in a 1989 ordinance that declared San Francisco an "immigration sanctuary." All city departments and companies with city contracts would be required to accept the card as valid proof of identification and residency, unless state or federal law requires other documentation. Contra Costa Times 11/20/07
Two fishers filed a class-action lawsuit Tuesday against the owners and operators of a container ship that spilled 58,000 gallons of bunker fuel Nov. 7 after hitting with the Bay Bridge. It says the accident, which caused an oil slick that flowed out of San Francisco Bay and into the ocean, threatens the livelihood of commercial fishers throughout the Bay Area. Contra Costa Times 11/21/07
Oyster-growers in Tomales Bay are dealing with slow sales of their product despite the fact it was left completely untouched by an oil spill in the Bay. Other farms have been closed by just the possibility that some oil may have contaminated their oysters, but growers in this area are blocked from the oil by a major landmass. Customers are afraid, still, the oysters might be contaminated. Contra Costa Times 11/21/07
Southern California water officials said on Tuesday that they plan to purchase large amounts of water from Central Valley farmers, a move designed to ease an anticipated water shortage but likely to increase customers' bills. But because the farmers' market-rate water is more expensive than the water the MWD normally imports, officials said, residents can expect their bills to rise in 2009. LA Times 11/21/07
Nearly 100,000 pounds of live Dungeness crab apparently caught by Oregon fishermen near the Farallones are headed to Bay Area seafood wholesalers for distribution to consumers - a major blow to local commercial fishermen. Most Bay Area seafood wholesalers and distributors had agreed not to purchase locally caught Dungeness. At about 12:10 a.m. Tuesday, two Oregon fishing boats that had been seen setting their crab gear outside the Golden Gate docked at a Monterey commercial pier, and later attempted to sell their pull, effectively ignoring a ban on fishing agreed on by Bay Area fishers. SF Chronicle 11/21/07
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