STUFF

Recent Obama exec order made goal of 40Mw of combined heat/power plants in US over next decade. I guess it was his legal limit. Or what? It's not much. A coal plant is 600-1K Mw.

Protesters in TX tethering themselves to logging equipment being used to clear southern Keystone XL leg.

10's of thousands dead fish washed up on Ontario shores of Lake Erie. Reasons unknown yet.

USGS: measurements in recent years of naturally-occurring methane in NY State wells could serve as baseline for water supply quality if fracking OK'd in state. 1/2 of state's groundwater has methane. And, yes, the fracking occurs underneath aquifers. But you drill a hole, you give methane a way to float up. I guess the answer is continual testing, vigilance. And rules for shut down.

Shell project to capture > 1M tons CO2/yr from oil sands ops scheduled to begin in '15. Est. cost $1.36B, possible breakeven. Canada, Alberta to contribute $874M over next 10 years plus. Will reduce processing emissions 35%. To pipe liquified CO2 near mile underground below multiple layers of rock, mineral formations. Shell partnered up with Chevron, Marathon.

Canada moving to phase out coal elgen. But loosened rules.

Calif grid has reached 1Gw of solar power.

Denver fed appeals court upheld Interior's '09 cancellation of 77 leases near pristine Utah fed lands. Leases sold at Dec '08 auction. Do the timing.

Railroad (probably Buffett's) increasing capacity for Bakken crude shipments.

Russia, Japan near deal on LNG export terminal. My guess is Russian LNG going to Japan.

Latest OPTT grant from Homeland Security to finance redeploy of ocean wave-powered unit off NJ to demo effectiveness of "long duration maritime vessel detection platform". Also $75K grant from MD Tech Development Corp. To build on Navy program funding that ended in Feb.

Fotowatio Renewable Ventures (Netherlands), solar power developer backed by US' Denham Capital Mgmt, won right to build 20Mw farm near Australia capital. To be largest in country in '14.

UK to launch "Green Deal" in Oct with 200M Pound fund. Loans of up to 10K Pounds to improve homes' E efficiency. Independent assessments will ID best improvements to reduce energy bills. Repay over 20 years attached to property. Goal to cut C emissions 80% by '50 and to end "fuel poverty" - when energy bills are > 10% of income. 20% of UK folks live in that. 2.7K excess winter deaths/yr caused by under heating. In '09, 7.8M UK folks couldn't afford the energy bills. Meanwhile, E.on's profits up 23% in 1H12. NG retail prices up 18%, el prices up 16% in 1st half. Pretty unbelievable, A? Govt has to protect people from business. How long has this been going on?

Ethanol production in US half as profitable now as in May. But still profitable. Net returns late Aug ~28 cents/gal.

Oregon looking to adopt Calif Low C Fuel Standard as early as Dec. The policy now in fed appeals court examining law's constitutionality. Expect that to be sustained.

Volvo Trucks successfully tested biodiesel - "bio-DME" - derived from black liquor wastes. C emissions roughly 95% lower than fossil diesel. Dang. Bio-DME could replace half the diesel used in Europe's commercial vehicles by '20. Go on that.

PTT in Thailand expects algae biodiesel to be commercially viable by '17 @ $150/bl (where they expect Brent oil then).

Ireland comp set to intro country's 1st commercial-scale algae biofuel production. EU 4-yr grant coming to end.

Nestle calling 1st gen biofuels an "aberration". Pushing US, EU support for advanced biofuels.

Citigroup: Sauds could become net oil importer by '30. They now produce 13% of world supply - 11.2mb/d in '11 (Or less). 1/4 going to half their elgen. So that oil's sure putting out CO2s.

QBotix has developed autorobot that can reduce cost of solar power 20% with auto dual-axis tracking systems.

Norway study says Arctic oil/gas reserves not as much as thought.

Analyst at China Financial Markets says commodity prices to fall as much as 50% over next few years. Production has ramped up dramatically. Ebb and flow. Business cycles. Supply demand. Arithmetic. Common sense.

Despite Isaac relief, drought conditions worsen in US.

AL, LA sue Interior over change to offshore drilling royalty payments.

Workers suffered minor injuries in France nuke plant accident. I'm sure we'll hear more about that.

Pope Benedict got an EV. Well, bless that.