STUFF

Laos gave go-ahead for $3.6B hydro power plant on Mekong rigorously opposed by neighbor countries, enviros.

NRC says ~1/3 of US 104 nuke reactors should be required to install filtering systems that cost $45M each to limit how much radioactive material/gas is sent into atmos after accident. Well, that seems reasonable. Comes from Fukushima review. Let alone Chernobyl. Or 3 Mile Island.

A climate change solution: floating schools in Bangladesh. School goes to the students when the students can't get to the school.

Panamanian islanders moving to main land because of rising sea levels. Huh. My sister and brother in FL keep telling me there's no rising GOM. And they live right on the water. Course, they're all Republicans.

Ousted Duke (Progress E) CEO to lead TVA.

DOE team stepping up to help restart NY, NJ service stations. About time somebody is.

Bill Gates backing tech that could help stall superstorms. All I got for now on facts. Bill's doing awesome work. What's Carlos Slim doing for the world?

AEP petitioning FERC to split into 2. (AEP into 2, not FERC.)

German shippers fined, blocked from US ports after dumping oil.

New Zealand coal comp ignored warnings before deadly explosion.

Italy energy shakeup including 150% boost in oil production.

Alaska oil fields that produced 2Mb/d in '88 down to 613Kb/d in '11. Ouch.

E expert: "vulnerability of our critical infrastructure has been exposed".

Increasing shale production bringing strong growth to smaller producers.

With BP buy-in, Rosneft refocusing on finances.

Canadian firm buying Utah oil producer for $861M.

Panasonic freezing new investment in Malay PV manufacturing.

How much did Obama's investments in clean energy in last 4 years alleve destruction from Sandy? There's a fed study for millions o dollars.

In '98, NREL demonstrated sunlight to get H from water @ 12.4% efficiency. Now, Japan, S Korea, Singapore on it. And this month DOE announced availability of all of $1M in grants on it. Photosynth without the green stuff. 3rd, 5th columns of periodic table. And on it goes. Why does the world fight science? Why are people? Oy.

Study: US govt underfunding hydro projects. ~ 1/4 of US hydro cap owned/operated by US Army Corps. Answer right there. US Army Corps. Federal jobs for life. Do dah. O do dah day. Decline since mid-'80's. What hasn't. 50-year life designed. But, that always means 100 years. Or more. Hoover Dam getting old.

Mexico aiming for 12Gw of wind power by '20. 1Gw now.