STUFF

WFR's sub Sun Ed sold another 33MW of solar farms in Italy and Spain to Germany's KGAL.

Email showed a senior DOE official pushed the Solyndra loan even though his wife's law firm represented the comp and he promised to recuse himself. Well, there's the problem. Some stupid arrrogant SOB.

Oilspill off NZ. How could a ship plow into a well-documented reef in calm waters?

State Dept assigned important enviro impact study of Keystone pipeline to a company with financial ties to the pipeline company. How long does the incest go on?

Just a suggestion for the protesters (Occupy Wall Street): publicly-financed federal elections. Constitutional amendment.

DOE project probing possible CO2 repository for NE coal plants. Drilling 7k feet into Newark Basin - upstate New York to Philly.

Unusual cluster lately of generator failures at nuke plants.

EU hit Belarus with more sanctions for arresting political opponents. Previous sanctions set to expire Nov 1 extended.

IEA expecting 4Q demand increase of 400kb/d, down from 700k seen in '09, '10.

Not enough money in Europe to bail out EU banks if Spain, Italy default. Devolves to the govts. Wall Street has loaned EU banks ~$2.7T. >$1T gone to GM, FR banks that face collapse with those defaults. Though that is likely covered with credit default swaps. But EU showing signs of recession. Like in US, we can't afford that. Still, what if Greece defaults?

Sauds, Kuwait, Bahrain have turned against Assad in Syria. Iraq, likely at Iran's behest, sending Assad financial support.

Sauds unlikely to expand oil production. They say expected increases from Iraq and Brazil enough to meet demand. Aramco remains committed to spend $125B next 5 yrs to maintain production and increase refinery capacity. But Sauds actually cut back production 400kb/d in Sept.

Pipeline bomb in Iraq. Temporary cut of 700kb/d.

EU Commission preparing to declare Canada oil sands 25% dirtier to produce than conventional oil.

Nestle: rising food prices "similar" to '08 ... low water levels in Chile reservoirs (hydro power) ... possible tight heating oil supply for NE US ... Syrian oil production down 20kb/d ... Chavez proposed new oil exporters cartel ... rising Chinese labor costs may bring jobs back to US ... low water storage in China ... escalating investment in geothermal power ... global spending on fossil fuel subsidies $409B in '10, up $110B from '09 ... Asian E comps looking to buy, dismantle, ship old western refineries.

BP biofuels going for full vertical integration in US cellulosic ethanol expansion.