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August 2000
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Breeding Like Rabbits - The riparian brush rabbit, added to the federal Endangered Species list in March, will get a boost from a captive breeding program sponsored by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Endangered Species Recovery Program at Cal State Stanislaus. The rabbit, with a population of less than 100, is largely restricted to riparian habitat along the Stanislaus River in Caswell Memorial State Park and to a spot of private land along the San Joaquin River near Stockton. Wildlife biologists plan to capture some rabbits this fall, with the hope of releasing them in a year or so, and with the ultimate goal of creating three separate populations numbering at least 1,200 rabbits.

Bay Odyssey 2020? - PG&E's plans to set a five-story, turbine-topped, gas-belching barge the size of a football field adrift in the Bay have run aground. Prompted by a one-day heat wave in June that caused rolling brownouts around the Bay, PG&E sought to circumvent required environmental studies in order to have the barge operational by mid-August. According to the company's preliminary application to the state Energy Commission, the four turbines could release 1,560 to 3,600 pounds of nitrogen oxides over a 24-hour period, over 20 times that released by a modern natural gas-fired plant. After strong objections from the S.F. Bay Conservation and Development Commission and environmental groups - not to mention the Davis Administration's failure to declare an "energy emergency" as PG&E had requested - the plan has been abandoned. The barge is moored in Texas, awaiting another assignment.

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