STUFF

Commerce Dept prelim decision proposing duties of 13.7 to 26% on China wind turbine towers, citing unfair subsidies. Well, let us talk of subsidies. Fair or unfair.

CO2 levels in Arctic hit 400PPM this spring. They report that on local wx, right? Um. No they don't. Remember, folks, what is it? 425 or 450PPM  is going to be catastrophic for our kids, let alone our grandkids. Can we grasp this? Can we blast down the climate denyers or is it all in God's plan. We shall see.

Software ap that analyzes energy use and shows how to use less took 1st prize in DOE contest. $30K prize. Shows too how many trees needed to compensate for CO2's emitted. Brilliant.

AEP w/drew ap to refit Big Sandy in KY with $1B pollution controls. 49-yr-old plant. Uses ~90 railcars of coal/day. More $ than probably converting to NG.

Admin announced plans to offer potentially hundreds of thousands of acres of Fed waters off Mass for wind power development. Well, the Kennedys may have to look at windmills when they look out to sea. O well.

IEA: public anxieties may hamper or even halt fracking unless producers address concerns, which can be done by adding 7% to costs.

>300K peep have fled Mali since fighting erupted in north in Jan between rebs and govt. 1st I herd of it. Just another prob. Get in line.

World Bank: worldwide trading volume in C emissions up 17% in '11 to 10.3B met tons of CO2 equiv. EU permits >3/4 of total. Trading grew 11% by value to $176B. Record # of emissions products traded.

Sorghum's emergence as "advanced" biofuel may be <2 yrs away.

Spain put moratorium on clean/renew E subsidies. I bet there's more coming later on that.

Study: Indus civilization may have been wiped out by climate change.

Investigation of WalMart alleged bribery in Mex may redound to oil/gas industry. Fretting going on.

Canada ordering drones to patrol oil reserves in Arctic. Speaking as a pilot I don't like when drones take over. Except in the Arctic. Or Antarctic, for that matter. You cannot count on the heaters.

France, Spain banned more tuna fishing. Quotas met early. And, o the heck, tuna turing up radioactive. But, jeeze leweeze, that's US west coast.

Neb supreme court refused to hear Keystone XL challenge. What are those 3 monkeys? Don't see, don't hear, don't talk.

Western Wind Energy (WNDEF) made $20M deal (paid in $2.50 shs - 33% discount) to buy 4GW of wind power development pipeline from Champlin/GEI Wind Holdings. Near-term projects in Hawaii and Utah. 40% of pipe will be economic w/out subsidies: mgmt. WNDEF soon to get $90M cash from US for wind projects completed in '11.

Alterra Power ((MGMXF) to buy 4 wind power sites in BC from private sellers. Potential >1GW. BC only region in N Am to pass C tax. Financing for wind projects much harder to get now. Buyers market.

Power REIT (PW) to buy clean/ren E infra. May be 1st comp to bring tax-advantaged REIT structure to clean/ren E. REIT profits go direct to shareholders.  (Go right to GO in Monopoly.) Taxed as income, not dividend.

Crude prices getting close to production costs of ND, TX fracking and deepwater platforms. NG prices also down from highs.

Repsol pulling out of Cuba offshore after $100M loss on dry well. Cuba's hopes down to Petronas (Malaysia) drilling in FL Straits.

US Senate group starting up seeds-to-wheels review of Ren Fuel Stds.

Wisc eth producers exported $75M of eth in 1Q11, surpassing dairy's $64M. Ethanol heads at Packers games I guess this fall. How do you make those hats?

US biodiesel production thru 1st 4 months of year 331M gal. March 108M. April 98M  v. '11's 72M.

Graphene report teaser: Synthetic graphite sells for up to $20K/ton. Natural graphite (mined) ~$2,500/ton. Tech advances allowing natural graph to be used in aps reserved for synthetic. Natural value measured in size of flakes and C content.

Great Lakes Biodiesel on track for Fall completion of 170M liter/yr plant in Ontario. Or is it per day?

Citizens Budget Commission: NYC should embrace waste-to-energy plants to reduce $300M/y of waste disposal costs. Trash hauled hundreds of miles to landfills @ $95/ton. Crazy. Waste-2-E commonplace in Europe. I myself remember Cincinnati Incinerator. Even where it was. Back in the day. No, maybe that was the car safety lane. Check Dr. Oz about memory today. Yea, interrupted by NBC news about John Edwards trial while on memory foods. Really. Anyhoo, waste-2-E plants also in CT, NJ, Long Island (9% of NYC's garbage).

Cal to approve all new roofs to be solar-ready starting in '14.

It takes 52 gals of water to produce an egg. 713 gals for a cotton T-shirt.

Russia's dysfunctional econ failing to attract investment vital for E.

India comp granted approval for $6.3B coal mine in Australia. '16 completion. Initial export capac 30M tons/y.