STUFF

Exelon disputing allegations they deliberately misled NRC over how much money on hand to take reactors out of service and clean up sites. The CEO also said "excessive amount of wind power" being rolled out across US could lead to "unintended consequence" of shutting down nuke plants.

Repub senators intro'd legislation to force EPA to base cellulosic biofuel targets on previous year's production. (Sounds logical to me. Can't prod too much.)

Scientists asking Obama to hold climate summit.

More drought forecast for US in '13.

DOI draft fracking rule would allow drillers on fed lands to report chems used to industry-backed database - fracfocus.org.

MD legislators intro'd fracking moratorium.

National Grid announced Rhode Island's feed-in-tariff program - "Distributed Generation Standard Contracts" - enrollment sched, pricing. Target 40Mw clean energy and anaerobic digestion procurement by '14. 10Mw slated for '13. Max prices for solar 25-30 cents/Kwh.

US ethanol production reached est. 13.3B gal in '12. 2nd highest. Over 87K jobs, 296K more indirect jobs.

Poll says 64% of Americans support Renewable Fuel Standard. Renewable Fuels Assoc commissioned poll.

Global bioplastics market forecast to reach $7.7B by '16. Over 24% CAGR.

7 EU-based industry CEO's launched initiative to speed deploy of advanced sustainable biofuels in Europe.

Construction started on world's largest plasma gasification waste-to-energy plant in England. 300M Pounds Sterling. Air Products building. Westinghouse tech. 50Mw combined heat and power plant. Plans for 2nd plant next door. Both could use waste from over 1M households. ~2/3 of England's waste now goes to landfills. UK govt subsidizing the tech at wind power level - the highest.

Gulf of Mex rigs ceased drilling after discovery of faulty bolts in GE devices that connect drilling tubes, safety equipment to ocean floor. 3 week delay. ~$600K/day per rig, not including labor costs.

Scientists say nano-scaled rectifying antenna (rectenna) can turn sunlight into el at 70% efficiency. Only large-scale hydropower can beat that efficiency. U of Conn engineers looking at selective area atomic deposition (ALD) to create working rectenna.

Violent storm in Kazakhstan last month damaged power transmission lines to uranium mines. Ops halted for 1-5 months. Could be up to 21M pound shortfall.

Bank group to finance $1.9B German offshore wind farm. Siemens won 700M Euro 288Mw turbine order. 3.6Mw turbines. Construction start early '14. Online in '15.

Clean Air Act says new power plants can't emit over 1K pounds CO2 per Mwh. Most new NG plants meet that. New coal plants emit up to 1,800 lbs.

Super Bowl power outage was from faulty relay installed to prevent el cables leading to stadium from failing.