STUFF

NC law bans scientific predictions of rising sea levels. Talk about burying heads in sand.

Wyandot solar farm near upper Sandusky has been producing more power than expected.

Another 497KW solar project in Hawaii.

Mason going global with mobile solar power.

IKEA plugged in Salt Lake store's solar rooftop system. State's largest private solar project.

Solar expected to make up 40% of PG&E's (Calif) clean/renewable portfolio by '20.

Sandia Lab says vertical axis wind turbines offer 3 big advantages over windmill turbs. Lower turbine center of gravity, reduced machine complexity and better suitability to very large size. With drive train at or near surface, maintenance easier, less time consuming. Fewer parts because they don't need control system to point them into the wind. Research conducted under '11 DOE program to ID advanced rotor techs for offshore wind gen.

BP Wind Energy started build on 141MW, $250M wind farm in PA that will feed power to nearby P&G plant grid.

Kyocera (KYO) and 6 other comps forming comp to build 70MW PV solar farm in Japan that will be country's largest. ~$345M, ~$5/w. Sept start, online fall of '13. FIT of ~53cents/KWh.

Senate committee passed bill in favor of tax break for wind industry. Romney's against it. Also incentives for energy efficiency, alt fuels and transit commuters.

1st comprehensive study of energy use by NYC's largest buildings shows some to be power hogs, using up to 5x as much el, NG, heating oil or steam as others of comparable size, purpose. Ample room for improvement. If the worst just reached median level of energy use, city's energy use would go down at least 18%, GHG's 24%. And that's just NYC. Initial costs for efficiency a deterrent, of course. And there's intense opposition from owners for laws requiring upgrades, retrofits.

Senate panel approved funding for Navy's $70M portion of interagency program to invest $510M  to spur commercial scale production of biofuels.

India in 2nd drought in 4 years. Rainfall ~20% below average countrywide. In west and north - their "food basket" - rainfall 70% below avg.

Exelon urging Congress to scrap wind tax credits.

China says critics confusing manufacturing advancements with dumping.

Cal regulators upheld "time of use" el pricing.

Alliant to build $700M NG plant in Iowa.

BLM approved 300-mile water pipeline to Las Vegas.

NC following trend of exempting new cars from emissions testing.

India allowing dismantling of Exxon Valdez.

EPA created mapping tool to ID "enviro justice" hot spots.

FERC signalled early support for Transco NG pipeline across NJ.

Ex-Im Bank getting lawsuit threat over financing of LNG projects near Great Barrier Reef.

Brazil court halted activity of Chevron, Transocean.

S Cal Ed says San Onofre nuke plant to be back online by yearend.

Ormat geothermal plant in Cal to get 4 more wells to maintain plant's capacity.

EIA: proven US oil reserves up 13% in '10 to 25.2B bls. Proven NG reserves reached 317.6TCF.

Sulix BioSystems (Colo) completed $31M financing for transition to commercial production of algae products. Demo plant been producing since '09. Oil and biomass products. Oil for biodiesel, jet fuels. Biomass for food, feed.

Kurds in Iraq resuming oil exports. Shut down since April. 100Kb/d. Could move "swiftly" to 200K if payments made quickly.

Frost & Sullivan reported # of EV charge stations in US could reach 4.1M by '17. Now ~10K.

By '17, India domestic coal production will meet only 73% of demand. Already spent $7B last 6 years buying coal pits in Australia and Africa.

Happy motoring, pards.