STUFF

TVA revamping customer solar program after 12 cents/kwh premium was so popular that TVA was going ~$5M in hole/yr.

EPA finalized cross-state air pollution rule in July, requiring coal plants to hold allowances for their emissions starting Jan 1. Problems arising, especially in TX. But the agency let the GHG deadline slip (I think Obama's decision), though promises a new schedule. It IS confusing.

USGS: rare earth minerals/metals deposits found in Afghanistan.

DOE approved Solyndra loan Sept '09. Their tech depended on expensive polysilicon. What a polysilly tenet. Polysil prices began a steep decline in Feb '08 and flattened out in May '09 way below the peak. Well, what didn't. So. Was it all that campaign contribution? Not that I would wanta to be going up to Congress to explain it. The point is the government should get it's money back. With interest. Good ruck.

Arctic sea ice at or near new record low.

Boehner's funding from coal up 2,400%.

Japan planning floating wind farm off Fukushima coast.

Pirates took a tanker off the WEST coast of Africa near Nigeria. Um, that's new.

Libya's Sirte Oil has restarted NG production from country's largest fields. Libya has also started pumping ~160kb/d to coastal storage. World is expecting 3-400kb/d pretty easy to resume, the rest 18 months or longer.

Oil prices haven't changed much in last 50 years relative to Swiss Francs or gold. 2.5 grams of gold bought a barrel of oil in 1950. Today it's 2 grams. Conventional wisdom assumption: capital, not geology, creates oil.

Brent oil above $112.

Chevron shut down 2 oil pipelines in GOM. 1, at least, because of leak. Is this rap?

Bolivia's state energy company (YPFB) to supply Brazil's Petrobras w/ 2.2MCM of NG/d for a power plant.

Kuwait (who remembers the Gulf War?) exceeds the US now in power use per person. It's usually included in rent. I assume that's electricity and HVAC plus transportation. It is hotter there.

Japan plans to start importing LNG from US as early as '15. They can't now without US approval. Huh.

Bloom Energy raised another $150M from VC's. SOFC tech. Check that out. Kleiner et al in for $650M.

Wind generation may come down to neodynium ($100/kilo) v. dysprosium ($1-2k/kilo). O yea, and Molycorp ramping up at Mountain Pass CA.

Happy trails, dudes and dudettes. Happy trails.