STUFF

Enel Green Power 150MW wind farm in OK turned on. Power going to Western Farmers El Coop. Pushes the coop's wind portfolio to 366MW, almost 16% of its elgen and purchased power capacity. OK on track to meet '15 goal of 15% clean E by end of this year. Now has 2.3GW of wind cap. Enel's OK farm plus 1 in Kan financed with $340M tax equity partnership agreement with syndicate led by JP Morgan.

Bureau of Ocean E Mgmt published enviro assessment for wind E leasing area offshore Mass, RI.

BLM announced final enviro impact statement for Power Comp of WY's 2-3GW WY wind project.

Foret Plasma Labs planning plant in Cal to build relatively small plasma gasification generators that run on biomass waste. Resultant gas can run a turbine or make biodiesel and charcoal residue good for fertilizer.

11 enviro orgs suing EPA to force better regs of toxic coal ash, citing groundwater contam at 29 sites in 16 states. Present regs >30 yrs old. Arsenic, lead, hex chromiuim ( remember Julia Robert's movie?), mercury just to name the worst ash residue. ~150M tons of ash in US per year. May be world, but I think it's US.

Solarworld (Germany) plans to file anti-dumping case with other EU producers against Chinese solar comps.

June private sector job numbers were good. Not great. Not great at all. But, OK. But total job #'s were not OK. Why? Because govt jobs were lost. And that's actually good news, right? We need to get back to balanced budgets. Is that what Obama meant with "the private sector is doing fine"? Public jobs are 80% of public budgets. Let's be thinking right.

Air pollution from power plants, autos and trux and such and ag changing alpine veg in Rocky Mountain National Park meadows: NPS.

Global food prices, adjusted for inflation, >40% higher now than in '00.

Final turbine of 3 Gorges dam connected to grid. Cost >$50B for the dam. Supplies 11% of China hydropower.

Cal hi-speed rail got legislative thumb up.

Japan inquiry declared Fukushima a man-made disaster with govt-industry collusion.

German state pledged $1.3B toward fighting climate change. Extreme weather sticking EU with Euro15B annual bill.

Coast Guard delays could stall Shell's Arctic offshore drilling plans.

KY coal mine closed after failing to pay overdue fines.

Argentine developer planning Latin Am's biggest windpower project, expecting $3B from China Dev Bank. Argentina blocked from intl bond marts since $95B default in '01-'02. 1.35GW farm. Chinese turbines. 306MW cluster of windfarms in Mexico currently Latin Am's biggest.

UK Trade Ass may take legal action against the govt if wind power subsidies are cut >10%.

Suzlon (India) agreed to build $10M wind rotor blade plant in Brazil after Brazil's State Development Bank this month suspended loans to developers buying >60% of equipment from foreign comps. Suz will do same in S Africa for same reason. Brazil was fastest-growing major wind mart in '11, installed capacity up 63%.

Ex-Exxon advisor to DOE: global oil production on plateau since '04. Expect descent in 1-4 years. Declination rates in fracked wells unexpectedly fast. Americans consume world-high 24bl/y. Each. Average.

Ethanol industry bracing for worst spell since bankruptcy days of '07-'08. US blend wall, corn prices, drought. Etc. We don't like using food for fuel. US eth production fell to 857kb/d. 3 plants shutdown. Margins 20 cents below min viability point. Looks like short ethanol.

3,200 people violently evicted in S. Guatemala to clear lands for sugarcane ethanol: a report.

DOE BioEn Sci Center researchers say heat-loving bacteria could be key to next-gen biofuels.

Navy's paying $26/gal for biofuels.

WNDEF's $90M tax-free 1603 grant from govt overdue. Stock down 25% since due date. May 22. "Most 1603's running late."