STUFF

Obama blocked privately-owned Chinese comp from building wind turbines close to US Navy site in OR on national security concerns. Ralls Corp and Sany Group forced to shelve plans, divest interest. Projects would have been within or in vicinity of restricted airspace of naval weapons systems training facility. Last time a President blocked a deal for national security was in '90 when GPa Bush stopped Chinese avtech comp from buying a US manufacturer.

Bank of Spain said independent audit of country's troubled banks showed $76B shortfall to cover econ downturn. But they all passed the stress test. O yea.

Stock market's best Q3 since '10.

EIA: last week's US oil production hit avg 6.5Mb/d. Not seen since '97. Foreign oil imports fell to 7.55Mb/d. 1H12 imports avg 10.86M. In '06, imports were 13.7M.

DOE awarded $4M grant (requiring $4M match) for ocean energy test center in OR. 3rd such center.

400M folks in India have no grid el. By '17, domestic coal production will meet only 73% of demand. Already spent $7B on coal pits in Australia and Africa.

China now producing 3.5B tons of coal/yr. And still imported 5.5M tons in '11. Reports that could reach 12M tons this year.

In '11, US exported  > 107M tons of coal. Up 25% over '10. This year could be up 32% over last year though only 24% higher in 1H.

Underground el transmission costs ~10x overhead. 1/3 of outages of overhead lines. Take 2x as long to repair. Underground $1M/mile. Florida puts in a little more underground than other areas of US because of hurricanes. But susceptible to flooding. I guess we will stay with overhead. Can't even notice the ugliness anymore.

Suntech turned on 44Mw solar project in Thailand. Southeast Asia's largest PV solar plant.

Here we go. The little ins and outs of energy bottom lines. FERC ruled utilities can't unilaterally curtail wind E bought from a qualifying facility under a long-term fixed avoided-cost PPA. And if you can understand that, you must be a lawyer. Idaho case. Section 210 of Public Utilities Regulatory Policies Act. Gotta love it.