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Wendy's blames RFS for $174M in higher food cost. Each "restaurant" paying $20-30K more for food a year.

Could crop waste biomass briquette mills and improved cook stoves (half fuel use) undermine the Taliban for 1% of what US now spends? And poppy oil for biodiesel gives farmers more dollars than opium. Conversion to safflower even better. Avg cost of importing fuel to Afghan near $400/gal. Really. Most casualties from protecting convoys of fuel, water, supplies. "Not much luck convincing brass." (Well, replace the brass.)

Biomax Fuels, Middle East Environment Protection in 50/50 JV to build 1st biofuel plant in Saudi Arabia. $40M. Used cooking oil feedstock. Ready end of '13. To produce up to 2.5M tons biodiesel/yr. Biomax has similar plant in India producing 300K tons/yr.

Havana Energy (Cuba) invested $50M in sugarmill to convert marabou weed into biofuel.

BP committing $350M into Tropical ethanol Brazil project. 5M tons/yr by '15. 35K hectares, new mill for 2.5M tons of cane to sugar, eth.

Green Future Innovations opened eth facility in Philippines. Up to 160K liter/day by yearend. Full cap end of next year. Japan-based comp.

Mex Prez-elect talking privatizing Pemex. US largest import source.

Tuscaloosa Marine Shale similar geo age to Eagle Ford. Encana, Devon, Goodrich exploring. North of New Orleans TX to MS.

Chevron announced $36.7B capital spending budget for '13. Up 12%. 90% upstream. Australian LNG terminal, US deepwater.

Cap expenditure in Eagle Ford est. to reach $28B in '13. ~1/4 of all US exploration sans AK. Kazakhstan needs est. $116B.

Penn State researchers may have discovery to enable solar cell fabric.

'18 Owensboro KY muni utility doing nothing to lower op and maint costs or reduce debt or base rates over next 5 years. Will fall $70M short of covering costs.

Doosan (S Korea) signed $1.2B deal to build power and desal plant in Saudi Arabia.

Mid Am E (Buffet) completed 81Mw wind farm in Il. 50 GE 1.62Mw turbines.