STUFF

Judge upheld WY fracking trade secret protection.

Russia granting China Arctic oil/gas exploration licenses.

Scotland approved offshore wind farm that Trump didn't want. 11 turbs. $350M.

Wind E generated  >5Gwh over 48-hr last week in UK. Powered over 10% of country's el demand. UK now has 870 turbines in 20 offshore wind farms.

Earlier this month, Denmark wind turbines produced near 4Gwh for grid. Only ~800Mwh short of country's el demand, but they export a lot of it.

Peru declared state of emergency over Amazon oil pollution.

India expects their oil production to increase 11% this year to over 300M bls. Also plan to adopt fracking, horizontal drilling tech for shale gas. They want energy independence by '30. 6.7% econ growth this year, last year was 5%.

N Sudan auctioned off oil/gas exploration blocks last year. Development this year. 1 block est 1.56B bls. Hopes to reach 320Kb/d production by '18.

US NG exports to Mex up 24% last yr to 1.7BCF/d.

Centrica (UK) signed deal with Cheneire (US) to export LNG 5 years out. Centrica to pay L10B over 20 yrs for 9BCF/y.

UK faces EU legal action over charges they tweaked air quality data for London in '11 to avoid fines. City used dust suppresent tech to remove pollutants from air and "glue" them to roads. Not illegal. But only did it near monitoring stations. Tsk Tsk.

USDA study: burning biomass far cheaper, more efficient, cleaner than burning heating oil. Switchgrass pellets. 25% cheaper, 35% less CO2.

Chicago Fed national activity index up .44 in Feb. Down .49 in Jan. 3-month moving avg up .09 in Feb, up .28 in Jan.

In '05, Congress gave new anti-manipulation powers to FERC. In '07, powers to FTC for oil/gas price manipulations. FERC using them. FTC isn't . FERC had 10-15 folks enforcing during Enron, now 200.

EPA: water quality in 55% of US rivers, streams "poor". (Watch what you drink.) '08-'09 data. 2K rivers, streams. Dearth of vegatation worsening erosion. Excessive nitrogen in 27%, high levels of phosphorous in 40%. Some increases in bacteria, mercury.

Future Capital Partners (UK) bought Appomatox Bio Energy (US) for $220M. To use some of equipment to start plant in UK. Lowers cost of UK plant build by ~$76M.

Panasonic's solar unit to post profit on home solar installs focus. May boost solar panel production 30% in coming year. Operating margins 5-10%.

Bosch abandoned $2.6B foray into solar power equipment market.

Japan Asia got $17M bank loan for 5 solar projects with total capacity of 5.5Mw. On Hokkaido.

Miasole providing their thin-film solar tech for KSK coal plant in India. US Export-Import Bank $9M finance for 11.6Mw project. 100Mw expected installs in next yr. 4th such project in India since '12. 2'nd with Ex-Im loan.