STUFF

Obama '12 budget cuts hydropower R&D 21%, $49M to $39M. Not too alarming, considering the deficit. How much more gain in hydro tech is there to find? Though it is at the top of the clean E pyramid - clean 24-7.

Hydro Quebec and Pub Svc of NH planning 140-mi powerline to bring 1.2GW of Canadian hydropower to NH. Another agreement has Hyd Queb providing up to 225MW of hydpwr to 2 VT utilites starting in '12. Can has 475 hyd plants w/ 70GW cap. Reportedly 163GW more in potential. Hyd now 60% of Can elgen.

US solar PV industry worth ~ $6B in '10.

IMF: "Age of America" ends in '16. China catches up in PPP. Annual world GDP growth >4% next 5 yrs. In PPP: purchasing power parity - goods/svcs from non-US countries corrected to US prices assuming equiv goods/svcs should be priced the same, rather than using exchange rates. You know what? Blah blah blah. Economic gobbledegook. Anyway, the '08 crash took world GDP growth from >5% to under zero. And, O by the way, there won't be enough oil for 4% growth in the next 5 yrs (another 17mb/d). Maybe I'm wrong. It's hard to make predictions. Especially about the future.

Sale of oil leases planned for GOM. Area has up to 420M bls oil, 2.6TCF NG.

Boehner open to ending some oil tax breaks...BLM proposes halting mining claims for clean E projects...Cheap platinum substitute could breakthrough fuel cell cost problem...UN plans effort to boost nuke reactor safety...Medvedev calls for unified nuke safety standards...MIT study: storing spent fuel better than reusing it. Huh?

TX drought worst in 45 yrs. NOAA says it could continue to mid summer. Fire.

Thorium molten salt reactors (LFTR) seems best nuclear tech. How 'bout that cold fusion thing?

N. Ireland's Phoenix Gas announced >40% rise in NG prices. Held price down during winter.

Woolsey left Vantage Point for Lux Capital.

DOE says up to $130M from ARPA-E will go for 5 new program areas for critical breakthroughs. $30M focused on biofuels. PETRO - plants engineered to replace oil - one of the 5. 4th round of ARPA-E funding.

Mitsubishi reached $1.10/liter target for rice straw, barley straw eth...UC Berkeley formed Synthetic Bio Institute...China has enough grain for food, fuel and feed: COFCO. Except I think feed goes before fuel.

Opinions.

Trails, pards.