STUFF

SCE&G to shut down 6 coal-fired units by end of '18. (Early enough?) 2 other units to be switched to NG by '15 before '17 closure. 2 new nuke units - 1.1GW - to come online in '17 and '18.

St. Lou Cardinals have achieved 30% recycling rate, 20% redux in E use, 10% cut in water use.

Shell investing $250M to build string of LNG fuel stations across W Canada.

Starwood Energy completed 69MW PV solar project in Ontario. Q Cells built it and supplied modules.

Guar gum a critical part of slurry used in fracking. Prices up near 20x in just last few years. Food industry also uses guar as thickening agent. India world's largest exporter. Global fracking industry set to grow 16% to $37B this year.

Grassley: Congress will probably renew wind prod tax credit. After election. Too late to avoid industry slump.

Greece's NG comp threatening supply cuts to el producers if they fail to settle arrears, raising possibility of rotating power cuts by grid operators.

NY State selling millions of dollars worth of trains and equipment from proposed high-speed rail project that fell apart in late '90's.

Hewlett Packard developed "net-zero" (E) data center. Meanwhile, study says DOE falling short on making its own data centers E efficient.

 UNESCO may dub Great Barrier Reef endangered.

France to ban chemical that may be killing bees.

Konarka Tech filed Chapter 7. Mass-based thin-film solar comp.

India's Assam State planning massive small hydro expansion. Up to 150 projects.

OPEC May oil output highest since '08. Sauds most in 23 years.

US NG March demand down 5.4% from year earlier. 2.1 TCF. Lowest for month since '04. Even though power plants increased NG use 40% over year earlier. I guess it was the warm weather.

BP put its half-share of Russian JV up for sale (near 1/3 BP output).

Japan PM said they may restart 1 of nuke plants next week. Local leaders dropping opposition.

China's power grid operator to buy el transmission assets in Brazil from Spain comp for $938M.

China, Japan started direct currency trading. Previously, China only allowed Yuan-Dollar trading.

US has slashed oil imports from Nigeria. Nigeria now looking to Asia, twice the distance (higher shipping costs).

Argentina retracted YPF nationalization. But. National govt will keep just over 1/2 of original stake (51% of YPF), the rest to be divided among Argentina's oil producing provinces. Um, sorry Repsol.

U of Hawaii got $6M fed grant to research grass-to-biofuel.

Canada announced $74M grant for biofuels development projects.

China's United En Grp may use part of '10 $5B credit from China Dev Bank to help fund 500MW Pakistan wind farm.