STUFF

Thousands of fish dying in US midwest rivers, lakes, streams from heat, drought. But, cooler temps on way. And a little rain yesterday. In 1 IL lake, tho, carcasses clogged power plant intake screen, forcing generator shut down.

Thousands of N Korea farmland acres destroyed by torrential rain, floods. Food shortages even worse. World Food Program to send emergency aid.

Amount of atmos aerosols (tiny dust-like particulate matter) traveling to N Am from Asia roughly comparable to what is produced in N Am (which, presumably, bombards Europe and Africa). And so on we go. Polluting each other. In varying degrees.

Sat data showing Amazon deforestation rate may have slowed in last year. But there was a recent scaling back of Brazil forestry law.

Pakistan engineer says he made a car that runs on water. Hydrolysis requiring almost no energy. Khan (our favorite nuclear proliferator) says "no fraud". But don't fret, oil comps will buy up water comps if it's true. Or buy this guy's patent, if he has one. Meanwhile, USA last week authorized $280M for hydropower projects in Pakistan. Yea, like US has so much extra money to just give away another $280M to a very questionable ally. Oy.

Fed appeals court to hold off ruling whether NRC can cite lack of funding (how about the $280M to Pakistan hydropower?) for failing to act on Mount Yucca waste dump.

Swestern US shrubland to shift to grassland as climate changes. Somebody says. So, could cellulosic feedstock be grown there? Or should we pump in desalinated ocean water to irrigate?

Comps asking EU to fund carb capture/sequest projects. Greece and Spain may be ahead in line.

Railroads picking up shale biz as coal biz drops.

Israel weighing NG export options.

TX expediting air permits for combined heat and power elgen (cogeneration) for systems up to 15MW. Tech reduces emissions and water use. TX PUC has ID'd  >7GW potential for more cogen at commercial and industrial sites. Olympic village and London sport venues using it. TX already has ~17GW of cogen capacity. Largest fleet in US. Gens ~20% of state el.

UK pledging $156M (100L) for 2 clean/renew E and E efficiency funds. And world's 1st food-grade plastic bottle recycling plant going up in London.

India's grid highly politicized. Farmers get free power to pump water, but much diverted to other uses. Distribution losses - theft, poor metering - running ~30%, double most countries.

Baghdad oil contracts have been let at $1-2/bl concession. Kurds offering up to $5.

Sauds this year on track to beat record oil output.

Libyan oil prod still short of pre-war.

Refinery probs in IL, IN behind higher midwest pump price increases lately. What are the probs? Profits?

Lukoil and Exxon consortium bidding on oil/gas field on Ukraine's Black Sea shelf.

Nigeria's oil prod up to 2.7Mb/d from 2.4M.

Ecuador expects to increase oil output to 556Kb/d by '16, up 9% from this year.

Enterprise pipeline on sked to increase Seaway pipe capacity to US southern refineries by next year. US pipeline comps have completed $20B of projects to build, expand or reverse 24 pipes in past year.

Venezuela's state oil comp has to set aside $4-7B/y next 5 yrs to pay off heavy debt.

Shell to drill 8 wells next year in Arctic seas, 3 more than planned, to make up for this year's slow start.

INEOS: FL cellolosic eth plant expected to be at 8M gal/y full capac by yearend. Locally-sourced waste feedstock.

Sinopec wants to produce bio avfuel from used cooking oil. Potential prod 20K tons/y (~240M gal, if my math be correct).

Conventional geothermal potential in Latin Am up to 300TWh/y. Pacific Rim the best. Argentina has FIT for geo. They're aiming for 8% of elgen to be clean/renew by '16 with at least 30MW geotherm. Chile has 16GW potential. Their RPS is 10% clean/ren by '24, at least .5%/y after '14. Peru thought to have 3GW potential and have FITs and tax incentives for clean/ren. Goal of 5% by '14. Inter-Am Dev Bank 5-yr target to invest 25% of loans toward climate projects. No geo plants currently online in S Am, but several nearing completion. ENLAY.PK, MGMXF.PK some stocks. El Salvador has 24% - 204MW - of geo elgen. Costa Rica 12% - 163MW. Nicaragua 87MW. Guatemala 49. In Caribbean, World Bank puts geo costs at 5 cents/KWh v. fossil's 24 cents.

GE announced partnering with Enel Green Power for $156M for 200MW MN wind farm. GE turbs. Duh. GE wind portfolio approaching 10GW. But check that cost. Almost parity with NG and wind is free, NG is not. And NG will go up. Even though wind is variable, it's there for peak. And 100% clean except for making the parts and putting them up. But that's a wash comparison. At least.

Xcel E: on April 15, near 57% of elgen in Colo was from wind power.

FSLR considering India manufacturing plant.

US military has ponied up for 168 EV's. AF says more on way.

Nuke pack powering new Mars rover. Radioisotope thermal elgen to power the 1 ton for 23 months. Not 24. 23. Previous rovers were solar. But panels got covered with dust and engineers didn't think of dust blower-offers. And solar ran short of power in Martian winter. Using Plutonium 238. Doesn't readily split, but decays rapidly, giving off heat. Great spot.

Possible breakthrough in decades-old Oregon timber war. BLM plans to sell >8M board ft of Douglas fir from 285 acres.

Gibson guitar to pay $350K to settle wood trafficking dispute. Really.

Oklahoma probably near burnt out.

1st commercial deepsea mine got green light.

HUD granting money for post-Katrina water infra.

Lake levels falling in US Great Lakes region.

Christie allowing enviro cleanup waivers.

Happy trailers, pards. Special Monday howdy to David. Hay Dave.