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The Exposition Line train at the La Cienega/Jefferson station after finishing a test run.

According to a new report, five California locales placed among the top 25 American cities for public transportation.

The rankings were determined by exceedingly useful website Walk Score through a series of calculations resulting in a “Transit Score” which “measures how well a location is served by public transportation, and is based on data released in a standard open format by public transit agencies.”

In California, San Francisco rated the highest, coming in second overall with a transit score of 80, just one point behind the top-rated city of New York. Los Angeles just missed the top ten, scoring the 11^th spot just behind Portland, OR and ahead of Milwaukee, WI. Walks Score considers L.A. the 13^th most “walkable” city in America, citing downtown L.A., Koreatown and Mid-City as the best neighborhoods for getting around on foot. Los Angeles is sure to rank even higher on the site’s next survey, given the completion of the new L.A. Metro Expo Line that recently opened for service.

San Jose (15), San Diego (18) and Sacramento (22) were the other California cities that made the list.

As reported by Think Progress, while there are plenty of positive trends to be gleaned from their information (and demand continues to grow), a 2009 report found that citizens of almost every other country in the world use public transportation more than Americans.

Jaime Rius/AFP/Getty Images

California’s largest utility this week has proposed a new way to support green energy.

Dubbed the “Green Option,” the program would allow Pacific Gas and Electric Company’s five million customers in cities like Napa, San Jose and Berkeley the chance to pay an average of $6 more per bill to help fund renewable energy solutions like wind farms and solar plants. According to a press release from PG&E, the proposal recently sent to the California Public Utilities Commission is the result of customer demand.

"On behalf of our customers, PG&E is already one of the largest suppliers of renewable energy in the country," said Helen Burt, senior vice president and chief customer officer of PG&E in the release. "We have heard from many of our customers, however, who want to do even more to support clean energy and the green economy. Our Green Option, backed by an independent third-party's environmental certification, will give them that choice."

PG&E would use the money collected through the program to buy “renewable energy credits,” evidence that would show how much electricity a facility generated on a given day.

The utility hopes to have the proposal approved by early 2013.

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You can breathe easy, Team California Solar: we’re still Number One.

According to a report from the Interstate Renewable Energy Council, the state of California is responsible for close to half of America’s photovoltaic activity through 2010 (869 megawatts of installed capacity out of the nation’s total of 1,831 megawatts).

Within the state, San Diego reigns as California’s top solar-powered city, according to a new report from the Environment California Research & Policy Center. The city boasts more than 4500 solar-topped homes, businesses and government facilities, double the number of just two years ago.  San Diego accounts for close to 37 megawatts of the state’s sun-juiced energy.

“San Diego didn’t become the state’s Number One solar city by happenstance,” said mayor Jerry Sanders in a press release. “It was the result of local policies and programs that encourage investment in solar power.”

Los Angeles comes in second place with over 4,000 installations, while San Jose takes the bronze at over 2700 installations.

Everyone loves a list. Ranking, rating, arranging – there’s something about putting things in a neat, numerical sequence to bring a little sense of order to the world.

The start of a new year is always a great time to make lists. Having already categorized the year that was, now is when we start looking forward and making predictions of what is yet to come. Which is why I was excited to peruse environmental blog Triple Pundits list of the 10 Sustainable Cities to Watch in 2012.

It’s an exotic list that spans the globe, including Doha, Qatar, and Accra, Ghana. It’s so much so that only two American cities make the list: my beloved Detroit, MI and our very own neighbors in San Jose, CA. Focusing on the city’s light rail system and robust Green Vision Goals, they term San Jose “one of the greenest, cleanest and safest cities in the USA.” (The blog also a point to call L.A.’s sustainability a miserable failure). 

Well done, San Jose. Just don’t let it go to your head.

Jim_Briones

Friends and family back home in the Midwest love to razz me for living in Southern California. I get the earthquake jokes, plastic surgery jabs and my personal favorite, “How’s the land of fruit and nuts?” That one just never gets old.

I just smile and laugh along with them. I also wait for glorious days like today, when the early January temps soar into the 80s and I’m cruising Venice Beach on a bike. Back home, the temperature is hovering somewhere around the freezing point of 32 degrees Celsius. It’s the perfect time to call and have that whole “Why I live in L.A.” conversation. They just love that.

I’m also a fan of the artistic minds that like to call California home, much like the guys of Masterworks Wood and Design and their offshoot, Wood Bicycle, in San Jose. Led by Bill Holloway and Mauro Hernandez, the men of Masterworks craft gorgeous and ornate wooden bicycles, often from the wood of reclaimed and condemned trees from urban areas. They also utilize wood from the Green Sawmill in San Mateo, who specializes in “urban timber recovery”: wood that would otherwise end up in landfills, chippers or burned.

The bikes are simply beautiful, rolling works of art that are sure to turn heads wherever they’re ridden (like the “Cherry Bomb”, pictured above). Sturdy but delicate, the bikes are recommended for serious road-raging the trails. But when it comes to cruising, they don’t roll much cooler.