STUFF

Asia-Pacific region accounted for 47% of global wind capacity additions in '10. >16.5GW.

CA, OR, MA, NY, CO topping US clean E installs in 2nd yearly assessment.

Last year China imported coal for first time. 86M tons. They burned ~1/2 world total, ~2.8B tons. Next 5 yrs, they may need another 1B tons/y. Their coal powergen almost tripled in the last decade. IEA est: China and India will account for 80% of increase in coal demand next 2 decades.

Mongolia has 10% of world coal reserves. Indonesia now largest coal exporter. Mongolia has 2X as much reserves. ~125B tons. But producing ~10M tons/y. 64% of exported coal going to China. South Gobi E trades in Toronto (SGQ). Plans to up production from 4M tons/y now to 14 by '13. Ivanhoe Mines owns 57%, China Investment Corp 14%.

Vanadium the next super mineral for batteries. Lifespan over 35 yrs v. lithium's 3-5 yrs. 20% more output. Safer. Potentially lower cost. BYDDF one comp developing. Already used in solar installs for storage. Ferrovanadium 90% of market but only vandium pentoxide good for batts. ENZR one comp mining (Madagascar).

Rut ro. PA solar developers built so much in recent yrs because of fed/state incentives that there's oversupply. Price of solar E credits down as much as 75% in the past yr. Legislation on way to mandate amount utilities must buy and cut off out-of-state sources. PA RPS requires utilities to have 18% clean E by '20, but only .5% solar. Most other states didn't allow out-of-state sources. PA has 71MW of solar installed, 100MW more approved. 24MW out-of-state certified.

Not sure when, but measure to open up VA waters to offshore drilling was voted down in the Senate. I guess it's too close to home, huh?

NJ to pull out of regional GHG initiative. 10 states. Wow, there's leadership, huh?

Interior designers hoarding incandescent light bulbs.

Senator Lamar Alexander sees his EV bill as "a climate step". Intro'd with Merkley. (Um, by the way, we need to extend the debt limit. Have you seen anything on that? I haven't.)  Alexander sees climate change as man-made and govt responsibility to correct it. Thank God for reasoning Republicans. S. 948 provides $2B in grants over 5 yrs for "EV deployment communities". Each would receive $250M w/ 20% match. Also, $300M in grants, loan guarantees to help comps transform large fleets, max $20M each w/ 80% share. Another $375M for batt research, deploy program @ DOE and help fed agencies' EV buys. Paid w/ redux to other programs including tax credits for clean E like wind power which, he says, "provides puny amount of unreliable E". Huh. Also suggested tax deductions for oil comps could be considered. Well, we get what we can get. No moon shot, that's for sure.

Hundreds of possible fed regulation changes could save billions of $/y: WH.

MI set new water/chem disclosure rules for drillers. TX senate passed fracking fluid disclosure law. Chevron, Exxon shareholding activists lost fracking proposals at annual meetings. Brit Columbia lawmakers called for fracking investigation.

EU urged global nuke safety checks after latest Fuku disclosure.

Largest-ever dead zone in Gulf of Mex "disaster in making" for LA fishers. And the Corps closed the Morganza spillway.

UN: metals, including rare earths, rarely recycled.

Fast-warming water threatens rare fauna around S. GA island.

Distributed geothermal could supply 7% of CA el.

'05-'09 the US published 233k scientific papers on clean E/alt fuels - 25% of world total. China close behind. And then everybody else way below. US papers far more likely to be referenced by other researchers.

Google announced $55M buy for piece of 102MW Alta IV windfarm in Tehachapi.

This week US distillate inventory went down to 141M bls, lowest in 2 yrs. And Brent was up $5 to $115.

OPEC meets June 8. G8 now.

Beijing ordered 5B meters of water released from 3 Gorges by June 10 to relieve drought. Will cut into elgen. Since '07, they allowed el price rise of 15% while coal rose 75%.

Brazil no longer needs imported gasoline.

In case we missed this: Obama ordered 100% alt fuels in govt fleets by '15. That's a little moony. A little.