STUFF

Montana Board of Oil and Gas issued 228 oil permits in June. More than total for all '11. ~20 drilling rigs in state now.

NY town passed law strictly restricting wind turbines and asked planning board to consider terminating BP Wind Energy's ap for $300M wind project. BP thinking of getting around it by seeking state's Article X process that generally imposes 12-month deadline for approval of projects of 25MW and up. I would think if the folks don't want it don't force it down their throats, BP. Clean energy industry stands for more than just clean energy.

Interstate Power and Light, subsid of Alliant, planning >$1B investment in elgen for Iowa and Minnesota next 5 years.They'll reduce emissions and increase efficiency of existing coal power fleet for ~$430M, buy 431MW of nuke power, build a new 600MW combined-cycle NG plant for $650-750M and continue with clean/renewable E and E efficiency projects.

AEP customers soon to pay for $642M of fuel costs that have added up over last 3 years. Regulators set out a 7-year schedule that will cost typical household $2-3/mo, but saving consumers $100M on interest rate charges.

Columbus, OH dumping AEP in '14 for American Muni Power's lower rates to power city grid serving ~13K customers, streetlights and city bldgs. They'll pay base rate of ~$42/MWh v. AEP's $58. Columbus spent $63M on power last year. AEP saw OH sales drop $90M in Q2 v. year ago. HQ in Columbus.

Toledo Public Power - owned by city - up and running. 1 customer for now - a metals recycler. 6MW. Toledo Power buys wholesale el from American Muni Power - a non-profit muni utilities group. Toledo developing $28M landfill gas gen project. And a solar and wind power park going in. Plan to save power costs for biz.

US Office of Surface Mining says KY fails to make coal industry pay enough to clean up enviro wreckage it leaves behind. They're required to pay larger reclamation bonds, according to '77 fed law. 15-25 mining permits per year forfeited in KY. State's Div of Abandoned Mine Lands faces >$4M in unfunded reclamation costs. But state in May raised minimum bond amount from $10K to $75K. And 36 permits since May climbed from $66K avg to $154K. Gov considering a bond pool financed by fees on coal ops.

Nova Scotia moving ahead with 3 large wind power projects for ~$200M. Expected to bring total wind power close to 500MW by '15, near technical limit that can be integrated into province's grid.

Xcel E's Swestern Pub Svc Comp seeking proposals for 88,705MWh of renewable/clean power gen other than wind or solar, or equiv amount of biogas of ~665M BTUs to be online by '15. Part of plan to diversify their renew/clean portfolio. New Mex's RPS calls for 15% ren/clean by '15. 10% must be other than wind or solar - biomass, hydro, geo, etc.

Sudan and S Sudan reportedly reached a deal on their oil situation, and to hold border talks. A little bit of better news out of that region.

Not just Exxon and Chevron, but Total and Gazprom joined in dealing directly with Iraq Kurds for oil/gas development.

Cheyenne Light, Fuel and Power, subsid of Black Hills Corp, moving ahead on $222M NG-fired power plant to replace some of Black Hill's coal-fired plants. Hoping for '14 completion. To ask for phased-in rate increase to help pay for it.

Footprint Power, a Jersy startup, to build NG-fired plant on former Dominion Power coal power plant site in Salem, Mass.

Bill to tax coal production $10/ton intro'd in Congress to help local western communities mitigate health, traffic, other effects of increased train traffic expected if plans to expand west coast ports pan out. Coal to be shipped out of WY, MT coal fields. (So, I'm assuming just tax on that coal production.) Avg price for exported coal ~$148/ton in '11. Tax could generate est. $115B over 10 years. By my math, that puts coal production (again, assuming just western coal is meant) at 1.15B tons/y. Bill also calls for railroads to mitigate coal dust by covering or spraying loads. Montana Rail Link says they already do.

US Bank and National Co-op Bank jointly financing $64M to help Borrego Solar (Calif) build 8 solar projects, half in Mass, half in muni landfills. Total 18MW. <$4/w. Getting better. USB's 5th deal with Borrego. The bank's invested >$700M in clean/renew projects, mostly solar.

New leadership organization will help facilitate el transmission improvement in west US.

PSE&G (NJ) announced $883M solar plan for projects on former industrial sites, landfills, large roofs and finance for home and biz installs. Could get up to 233MW total. Gov signed bill recently calling for 4% of elgen from solar by '28 from <2 now.="now.">
World's 1st solar chimney power plant to be built in Iran. Converts solar radiation to thermal energy to drive turbines.

DC district court judge ruled EPA exceeded its authority in attempting to force W Va. and coal industry to come up to standards not provided for in rules, and rules weren't properly promulgated.