STUFF

China ready to build 4 new nuke plants, 7 reactors. Will be operated by CNNC Nuke Power and CGNPG.

PANL bought Fujifilms worldwide OLED patent portfolio for $105M.

GM to trial wireless EV charging.

CNOOC to buy Nexen (Canada) for $15.1B.

Alaska sueing to block enforcement of fed rules to limit pollution from large ships, citing they will hurt state's econ.

Smithsonian scientists freezing eggs, sperm of world's corals.

EPA sued by enviros to force designating northeast Utah's heavily-drilled Uinta Basin as out of compliance with ground-level ozone standards.

NRG Energy to buy GenOn Energy in $1.7B stock deal. Will give NRG 47GW of capacity and make it largest unregulated el generator in US.

Calif homes certified E-efficient added avg 9% to sale value from '07-'12.

NJ gov signed solar subsidy bill.

Bacteria outbreak in N Europe linked to climate change: study.

Military moves escalating friction over crude-rich S China Sea.

RRB Energy, Vestas' former JV partner in India, restarted production of 225KW wind turbines, discontinued in '05, targeting emerging markets led by Africa. RRB also plans to intro 3MW turbine in next 2 yrs.

Clariant (Germany) opened Germany's biggest pilot plant for cellulosic ethanol from ag waste. Up to 1K tons of cell eth from ~4.5K tons of wheat straw. ~$34M invested.

Spain researchers @ U of Murcia producing biodiesel in single step using biocatalysts and green solvents like ionic liquids. Making fuel from veg oil, CO2 and methanol. They say it's a cheaper method than current tech.

Iranian naval commander says closing Hormuz wouldn't make common sense.

Putin announced South Stream NG pipeline project will start in Dec. JV between Gazprom and Italy's Eni. Est. $18B cost. Will supply southern Europe with 63B cubic meters of NG as early as '15.

EPA delaying finalizing new rules for cooling water intakes until '13.

WTO set up panel to consider US and allies' concerns over rare earths markets.

Biomass power plants facing pollution violations.

Global CO2 emissions have gone from 12B metric tons in '65 to ~34B in '11. Growth speeding up since '02. Asia-Pacific region gone from <2B in '65 to >15B in '11. US was ~4B in '65, 6B in '11. Europe has flat-lined @ around 4B. But US per capita emissions was way ahead of Europe and rest of world. Avg. amount of CO2 emiss that causes atmos increase of 1 PPM is 14.1B metric tons.