STUFF TOO

Lots on the table, pards.

IEA: 1/3 of world's energy could be solar by '60. And we could all be living in the sky by '60.

Last Thursday, US Senate voted unanimously to penalize any foreign bank that does biz with Iran's central bank. Well, at least they all can agree on something. On to the House. Obama, though, already has wagged his finger.

1st online market info service for renewable avfuels got inaugurated.

Solar Bottle Bulb Project in Philippines spearheaded by MIT students. Plastic bottles (in sunlight) filled with water and readily-available chems used to light houses, schools, small warehouses.

Israeli scientists extracting algae from Red Sea put it in sunlight and salt water to make cosmetics, diet supplements and food colorants high in anti-oxidants. O that Israel-Red Sea thing. Is Red Sea still inside Egypt?

IHS Global Insight report: US oil/NG shale boom will create "870K jobs, $118B econ growth next 4 years". Gas from shale now 34% of US production, $76B of US GDP last year. Shale gas will lower electricity costs avg. 10% by '17. Probably for the utilities, not us.

Last month, N Dakota passed legislation and set aside money to sue the EPA if it tries to regulate or halt Bakken fracking. The wild north plains.

Calif Gov Brown recently fired top 2 enviro regulators because drilling permits dropped >70% last few years. Boy, that's a turn.

Senator Imhoffe: "I'm happy to bring the good news of complete collapse of the global warming movement and failure of Kyoto process". Well, maybe he can next report the temps have stopped rising.

Supreme Court weighing ownership of MT riverbeds (probably over the recent oil spill).

Bill Gates talking with China about his new nuke tech (modular and Thorium, I think). Can't get it done here in USA, huh?

Mob moving into recycling industry. Well, they do have the waste dumps, don't they?

Flights resumed in Beijing after smog cleared some.

Brazil's destruction of its forests has dropped sharply. Yay.

Global nuke gen capacity has fallen to 366GW.

US' 8K power plants emit >3B tons CO2 per year. CABN says they can provide entire US transportation fuels consumption using only 10% of that CO2 and NG in their process.

Global demand for capital may be >$12T short by '20 as investors pull out of stocks, making firms take on more debt. Stocks now 28% of total investment. McKinsey report.

Most global investors foresee China will face a banking crisis w/in 5 years from non-performing loans that will climb with econ slowdown. Well, join the club, huh?

US smashed record for billion dollar weather disasters this year with 12. More than we had in all of the '80's, even adjusted for inflation. And they killed >1K folks this year. And the year, of course, is not over. More good news, Senator Imhoffe?