Victorville has committed to building the nation’s first hybrid power plant using gas and solar,another energy boost for Buck Johns. His Newport Beach-based Inland Energy is “master consultant” to the desert city on the estimated $800 million, 550-megawatt project. It will be near the city’s big cargo airport and another Johns venture, the High Desert Power Project; that four-year-old, gas-fired plant was the first power plant built in California since the 1980s. Risk-taking Victorville wants to sell power into the state grid while also reducing in-town electric rates and offering discounts to attract businesses. The city is writing a $50 million check to General Electric as down payment on $173 million of equipment and getting ready to issue bonds. Johns says he expects the construction permit in April and the plant opening in 2010. Early next year, he says, Inland will submit plans to the California Energy Com-mission for an almost identical hybrid plant 48 miles to the west in Palmdale, though that city might flip the project to a private buyer. Would Johns like California to go nuclear? “You bet” …
Provocative UCI biz prof Peter Navarro has struck a nerve with his “The Coming China Wars.” CNBC has made him a regular contributor, and Navarro has been in demand for other TV and radio interviews, op-ed pieces and speaking gigs. He says the book has sold about 30,000 copies: “An expanded paperback edition will be released in the spring with new chapters on China’s military buildup, China’s ambitious space program and the epidemic of contaminated, cancerous and defective Chinese products” …
A good run of grants for UCI: $1.5 million from Costa Mesa’s Emulex Corp. to endow a chair in electrical engineering and computer science; an anonymous $1.1 million to endow a chair in the name of constitutional scholar, former chancellor and still campus resident, Jack Peltason; and a multimillion grant from the National Math and Science Initiative, being announced by Chancellor Michael Drake this week, to help the university train teachers …
Chapman U this week dedicates the Fahmy Attallah Piazza, which includes the Marion Halfacre Fountain; Lee Ann, Chris and Christa Lee Canaday Amphitheater; and (ahem) Wells Fargo Stage. No name yet on the gelato cart …
Former Freedom Communications (OC Register) chief Sam Wolgemuth has been elected chairman of World Relief, humanitarian arm of the National Association of Evangelicals …
Latham & Watkins litigator Jon Anderson, 55, and three sons completed the grueling Baja 1000 off-road race …
One more time before 2007 ends: Anaheim-based Hichborn Consulting Group is using the Agent 007 theme for its holiday party …
He almost beat dad: “They say only 10% of all golfers break 100. Preston Ellis, my little red-headed 10-year-old, shot a 98 at Marbella CC,” e-mails political consultant Dave Ellis (Delta Partners). “Now I’ll teach him how to bet.”
