STUFF

TOP STUFF

Australia ready to join Europe in renewed, binding pledge to reduce GHG emissions under Kyoto treaty. Also prepared to raise '20 emissions target from 5% cut to as much as 15 or 25 should other countries take similar steps.They began pricing carbon in July.

New Zealand said it won't renew its pledge to Kyoto agreement.

KiOR (KIOR) started up wood chips-to-biofuels plant in Miss on schedule, on budget. 13M gal/yr production of fuels at full capacity (next year). To use 500 tons/day of wood. Makes biocrude, then biofuels from normal refinery tech. Another plant 3x larger in plans. With scale up, total cost per gallon drops to $5.95 in '13, $3.73 in '14, $2.62 in '15. Next gen tech estimated to produce 72 gallons of biocrude per ton of wood biomass.

US shale gas supplies will only last 5 to 7 years: expert.

OTHER STUFF

Global sea level has increased 3 millimeters per year for the last 2 decades. 60 millimeters. Easy math. Go mark your seawalls. Remember tides.

Science mag: climate change may come faster than predictions made by most computer models.

Caribbean sardine collapse linked to climate change.

UN climate chief urging Obama to play key role in climate change.

US Great Lakes levels made record Oct lows. Levels have been falling all year.

NREL: non-hardware costs make up 41-50% of expenses of selling, installing solar PV system in '10. 5Kw residential system's "soft" costs were $3.72/w. Commercial system < 250Kw $2.64/w, > 250Kw $2.16/w. Hardware costs came down significantly from $4/w in '05 to $1.14 this year.

DOI issued final enviro review of shale plan for Rocky Mountains.

BP ordered to pay Alaska $255M for lost royalties.

Company offering insurance for wind industry tax credit lapse.

UK shale gas production will take up to 5 years to start.

Ceres (Cal) landed $3.5M USAID grant to develop rice traits for Asia next 4 years.

White Biotech (Taiwan) to produce ethanol using steel mill waste gases. Initial $5M investment for demo plant.

IHI (Japan) opened algae biofuels pilot plant. Plans commercial scale by '20. Current production costs > $47/gal. Hope to reduce that 10x.

S Sudan split up 1 of Total's (FR) massive concession blocks to give (or lease) away to other comps (possibly Exxon). Largely unexplored block split into 3 parts. Total gets 1. Much reb activity. Situation getting dire for S Sudan. Govt gets 100% of revs from oil and none moving.

UK energy infra needs 330B Pound upgrade by '30.

Gulf Keystone (UK) announced more oil discovered in Iraqi Kurdistan.

Murray Energy laid off 156 from OH-based coal ops. They employ ~3K, produce ~30M tons/yr.

Panda Power broke ground on 758Mw NG combined-cycle power plant in TX.