Recently in Science and Technology Category

This is the longer version of an article that was published Sunday. The piece addressed the question of whether San Bernardino and Riverside counties could eventually become a hub for environmental technology research.

The answer seems to be maybe. The Inland Empire does benefit from the presence of institutions like UC Riverside and Cal State San Bernardino, but a historian quoted in the article makes the cogent point that Silicon Valley didn't come to exist simply because a lot of smart people went to Stanford University. The Cold War imperative to enhance information technology for defense purposes was crucial, since the Pentagon had money to spend on research that eventually led to innovations in civilian products.

That line of thinking suggests that for the Inland Empire or any other region to become a major clean technology hub, the federal government would have to find a reason to funnel millions to new research and choose to concentrate that funding in a given region.

That said, there are people in the Inland Empire who are trying to start new businesses in clean technology. The article focused on one such firm, Viresco Energy. The extended version that follows here has more detail on the company's process for deriving diesel fuel from biosolids.