Newport

Public sector fleet vehicles will be driving on the equivalent of $2/gallon fuel through the partnership of Newport Beach, CA-based FirmGreen Inc. and the Waste Authority of Central Ohio, which opened a Green Energy Center near Columbus, OH, on Monday.

FirmGreen Energy, a privately held Newport Beach, CA, alternative energy company announced Wednesday that ground has been broken for a three-phase trash-to-energy project with the Franklin County Solid Waste Authority of Central Ohio (SWACO). The project will involve capturing, cleaning and using methane and carbon dioxide (CO-2) from SWACO’s landfill gas in multiple end-use applications.

On the eve of its annual shareholder meeting Tuesday in Newport Beach, CA, Sempra Energy’s General Counsel John Light announced he is retiring effective June 30 as the executive vice president/general counsel for the San Diego-based utility holding company. Light, 62, was a long-time partner in the Los Angeles office of Latham & Watkins for 31 years before accepting the general counsel’s position at the newly formed Sempra Energy in mid-1998. He plans to return to Latham & Watkins’s LA office. Light directed the legal affairs of the newly merged holding companies, Pacific Enterprises and Enova for Southern California Gas Co. and San Diego Gas and Electric Co., respectively, and helped Sempra’s current diversified strategy that includes various merchant operations, in addition to two the state’s major private-sector utilities. Sempra CEO Stephen Baum said Light’s role was “integral in Sempra’s growth and success.”