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                       NEWS RELEASE FROM THE

                    CALIFORNIA ENERGY COMMISSION

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For Immediate Release              For more information contact:
July 10, 1995                      Claudia Chandler - 916-654-4989


                  FIVE CALIFORNIA COMPANIES EARN 
                 NICE-3 GRANTS TO COMBAT POLLUTION


Five California companies with new technologies to save energy, 
cut pollution and encourage recycling have received federal 
grants totalling $1.7 million.

At an awards ceremony held Monday, July 10 at the State Capitol 
in Sacramento, the U.S. Department of Energy recognized this 
year's winners in its NICE-3 program Ñ pronounced "Nice cubed," 
an acronym for National Industrial Competitiveness through 
Energy, Environment and Economics.   

NICE-3 funds proposals sponsored by state agencies partnered 
with private industry.  The goal is to encourage technology 
that prevents industrial pollution and produces benefits to 
the nation's economy, environment and energy use.

"New technologies can save energy, cut pollution and encourage 
recycling, but industry is sometimes wary to try them until 
the technologies are proven in the marketplace," said Resources 
Secretary Douglas P.  Wheeler who helped present the awards.  
"We applaud the California companies that have accepted and
demonstrated new ideas and the public/private partnerships that 
have successfully nurtured these technologies."

Joining the California Energy Commission was an unprecedented 
coalition of 10 state agencies that solicited the awards from the 
U.S. Department of Energy.

Representatives from the state's Air Resources Board, Department 
of Pesticide Regulation, Trade and Commerce Agency, Department of 
Water Resources, Department of Food and Agriculture, Integrated 
Waste Management Board, State Water Resources Control Board, 
Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Toxic 
Substances Control all worked together with the Energy 
Commission to locate California companies that fit the 
energy-saving criteria.

With $5 million available in the NICE-3 program, the maximum 
award was $400,000; the national average was $250,000.  
California's grants ranged in size from $301,000 to $425,000, 
with a combined value of $1.7 million. 

"DOE estimates that all 14 of the projects will prevent 
163 million tons of pollution nationwide, and will save 
industrial users more than $6.8 billion by the year 2010," 
said California Energy Commission Vice Chair Sally Rakow.

California industries selected for the grants (amount of grant 
in parentheses) include: 

*  Pacific Clay Products ($325,000) Ð A Lake Elsinore brick 
   manufacturing company with an innovative design for brick 
   kilns that would use half the natural gas and emit 40 percent 
   less pollution than current kilns. 
   Contact: Allen Cunningham, Vice President, 714-674-2131.

*  Tri-Valley Growers ($400,000) Ð A Modesto olive processing 
   plant that recycles water, cuts down on pollution and 
   produces animal feed from material presently discarded as 
   waste.
   Contact: Duane Rohrer, 209-572-5980.

*  MBA Polymers Inc. ($300,000) Ð A plastics company in 
   Berkeley that developed a way to recover and reuse plastic 
   from automobiles, appliances and electronic and electrical 
   equipment. 
   Contact: Dr. Michael Biddle, President, 510-704-7585.

*  Louisiana Pacific ($400,000) Ð A pulp and paper company in 
   Samoa, near Eureka, that will reconfigure its plant to a 
   closed system eliminating the discharge of pollutants and 
   wastewater while reducing freshwater consumption by 875 
   million gallons a year. 
   Contact: Kirk Girard, Environmental Manager, 707-443-7511.

*  ANON Inc. ($276,000) Ð A San Jose company that will eliminate 
   the need for hazardous, toxic cleaning agents used in the 
   manufacture of semiconductors by using gaseous sulfur 
   trioxide instead.  
   Contact: Dr. Ahmad Waleh, 408-428-2860.

Representatives of the five companies receiving grants joined 
legislators from their areas and officials from the state 
agencies making up the California Interagency Group at the 
awards ceremony in the Governor's Conference Room at the State 
Capitol.  

"Our state can be proud of its success in this federally 
sponsored cost-sharing program," said Energy Commission Vice 
Chair Rakow.   "The technologies that the NICE-3 program is 
funding might never reach the marketplace without these grants. 
We expect these projects to pay big returns for the entire 
country, not just California."

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