STUFF

Senate voted to maintain funding for military biofuels program.

Los Angeles will stop using el from coal plants by '25 at latest.

Fed appeals court blocked FNMA, FMAC from participating in clean energy financing program in Cal.

Experts: incremental climate change solutions aren't working.

Church groups plan civil disobedience today to protest govt inaction on climate change. (Will any news orgs cover that?)

Trading shortfall forcing Germany to cut 14 climate programs. (Looking for more on this.)

EU backing curb of transportation supercreds. (Again, looking for more details.)

New shale development standards for Marcellus. 4 energy comps, enviros on board.  2 yrs in making. Center for Sustainable Shale Development will dole out seal of approval for drillers. Comps also agreed on outside audits of ops.

Study: PA wastewater rules have stemmed toxic releases from NG drilling.

NY town's fracking ban headed back to court.

EIA: US oil production to surpass imports this year.

Anadarko huge Gulf of Mex oil discovery. (I'm sure more on this later.)

Yingli (YGE) (China) in new strategic alliance with GCL-Poly Energy. Yingli a leading solar panel maker. GCL a top supplier of polysilicon.

UK Energy Secretary says Scotland clean/renewable energy industry would be damaged if country votes for independence late in '14. It will be much harder for Scots to spread costs of clean/ren investments across just 2.5M households to keep prices competitive instead of access to 23M houses.

Near 75% of US residential rooftops not suitable for solar. Community solar rising as option. Colo, MN projects. Crowd funding also gaining ground. Investors earn returns for investing in solar arrays.

Pike Research est. over 11M EV charging stations in world by '20. Most of early EVs to be in small # of cities. Example, most of Canada EVs will be in Toronto, Montreal. In Europe, ~200K charging units sold in '12. Pike est. 2.4M in '20. Germany to be largest market, followed by France, UK, Netherlands. In US, Pike sees west coast, northeast leading, followed by TX, FL, HI. They see over 400K EVs in US by '20. Copenhagen, Amsterdam models for green-minded cities.

MD offshore wind energy bill passed both houses of legislature. Gov to sign. To help development of 200Mw project offshore Ocean City. Requires utilities to buy offshore clean energy credits. $10M fund for small, minority businesses to participate in supply chain.

Sapphire Energy (Cal) selling crude oil from algae farm in NM to Tesoro. Farm recently reached continuous cultivation, oil production. Patented method to convert wet algae to crude oil. Entire algae cell used. Process scalable, effective with wide range of algae strains. Refined into diesel fuel compatible with existing network of pipelines, refineries, transportation systems.

Cal Energy Commission approved $5.5M for clean energy transportation projects. $2.6M to Buster Biofuels to convert warehouse into biodiesel manufacturing, fueling facility. Used cooking oil, other waste materials feedstock. 5M gal/y of fuel.

RFA says boosting to E15 mandate would provide additional 6-7B gal/y of ethanol demand. 2B gal of eth production currently idled.

Butamax to appeal GEVO's win in patent dispute.

Valero may spend 2-3x more on RINs this yr than last. Up to $750K. They're calling for either end to RFS or make ethanol blenders responsible for RFS blending mandate requirements rather than importers, refiners. ($750K is not all that much for Valero. They just want to turn policy.) Another industry exec said brokers, funds should stop using RIN market as casino. (They will when it calms down or law inacted.)

SG Biofuels (Cal) ID'd over 2M genetic markers in jatropha. Diversity comparable to corn, other domestic crops. Ability to drive significant yield, performance gains through molecular breeding. SGB's 1st-gen hybrids outperforming commercial jatropha.

Raizen (Brazil) expects ethanol, sugar production to increase 10% this year in crush in coming weeks. Ethanol should hit 2.2B liters. 42% ethanol this season, rather than 44%. Expects ethanol exports to increase 20% this year over last.

Canada RFA launched new committee to promote advanced biofuels.

Global Data: global nuke elgen to climb almost 30% by '20. Influx of 45 new nations. 2.3M Gwh in '12 going to over 3. 198 new reactors. Modest growth '00-'11. Then Fukushima and falloff. Global power consumption to climb from 20M Gwh in '12 to over 27 in '20. AAGR of 4%. Asia-Pacific region to lead.

Gazprom offering to bail out Cyprus in exchange for exploration rights. Russia's elite rely heavily on Cyprus banks to avoid taxes. etc. Stand to lose ~$3B from EU bailout offer.

Shell still owes Tehran $2.3B for crude purchased before embargo.

Chevron 29Kb/d pipeline between Salt Lake refinery and Boise leaked thousands of gallons of diesel into wetlands around Salt Lake just weeks before millions of migrating birds expected.

Broad-based congressional support for Keystone. Trans Can has all needed permits to begin build of southern half in July.

DOE has cybersecurity model for utilities.

India launched annual rating system for state power distribution comps to boost lending to them, help improve performance.

NRC delayed decision on restart of San Onofre (Cal) reactor.

Detroit Electric to begin producing EVs this summer. Most capital from Hong Kong. Car range greater than Nissan Leaf. 2-seat sports car. Carbon fiber body. ~$135K. Batts from S Korea's Kokan. April reveal. Unnamed China partner. 4 models by '15.

Hawaiian Electric Industries (HE) announced $26.75/sh price for 6.1M shs. JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley handling.

India's Kamataka state plans tender for 130Mw solar projects next month. 3-10Mw capacity for each project. PV solar and solar thermal. Developers responsible for connector lines, ensuring water availability. 2 yrs to build after signing.

Lloyd's to finance 2 Scot wind farms. Plans to offer $500M for clean/renewable energy projects this year. 2 117Mw farms, 39Mw farm. Scots get up to 35% of power from clean/ren. 9% in England. Lloyd's aims to close biomass deal. Helius Energy reportedly talking with the bank, RBS for 100Mw plant.

Suntech Japan unit says panel supply unaffected by bankruptcy.

Norway regulator approved Statkraft osmotic pilot project. 1st in world to get energy from difference in saltwater and fresh. 2Mw. 2-yr build. IDE Tech (Israel) plans to help with design.

NAS: aging workforce, faltering education system hamstringing US energy sector.

Red tide of dead crustaceans washing ashore in Chile.