STUFF

Exxon oil pipeline rupture in Arkansas. Up to 10K bls spilled. Nuke accident also in Ark. 1 dead, 3 injured. no radiation reported.

Israel's offshore NG field started production over weekend. Will supply 50-80% of country's needs next 10 yrs. NG ~40% of their elgen in recent yrs. Expect ~50% by '15. Smaller NG reserve began running out recently. Pipe from Egypt bombed repeatedly. Another major field farther north may make Israel an NG exporter. But may have to share with Lebanon. 1 of world's largest offshore gas finds in 10 yrs. Govt to set 52-62% tax rate on energy.

Cost of China's enviro degradation put at $230B in '10. 3.5% of GDP. 3x '04. Based on costs of pollution, damage to ecosystem. Not full set of data. 16K dead pigs in rivers near Shanghai. Paper mill wastewater used to water wheat.

Faced with lawsuit, Bloomberg compromising some cab owners can buy hybrids, if big enough, instead of Nissan selection. Nissan won 10-yr contract for all 13K NYC cabs.

Climate models say Antarctic sea ice should be disappearing. It's increasing slightly. (Back to drawing boards. Think flowback's coming from anti-climate change peeps? Heck of an opening.)

Study: climate change will drastically change vegetation patterns in Arctic, spur more warming. (Well, once the hole is punctured in climate modeling . . .)

Obstacles to broad use of carbon capture, sequestration for power plants can't be overcome without more money from govt, industry: expert.

TX starting multi-decade effort to increase water supplies, make state more resilient to dry spells climate scientists say will become more frequent. (On present climate models?)

Coal power comeback in Europe as NG supply dries up.

Pipeline construction way up in US N east. Flat elsewhere.

Marubeni (Japan) working to revive geothermal elgen. To tap near volcanos. To replace nukes. Govt last yr eased rules to allow geo in national parks. All but 2 of 50 reactors still shut down. Marubeni ops Costa Rica geo, developing another in Indonesia. Japan has 539Mw geo in ops. 17 plants. Potential 23Gw est. ~11.2Gw in ops worldwide.

Expert: powering world with nukes would cost 1 quadrillion $. Equiv of Germany's energy use added to global grid every yr now. Cost put at $100B per reactor. Includes insurance risk, decommissioning, waste storage for 10K plants.

Global mart for small, medium wind turbine systems forecast to double to $634M by '15. Most in emerging markets. Small is under 50Kw, medium 50-250. Price of power for small 15-35 cents/Kwh over life. Need wind over 5 meters/sec. Install costs 2,500-7.500 Euro/Kw.

USDA, DuPont to establish guidelines for corn stover collection. 5 yrs to set standards for % of stover collectable without diminishing soil quality. DuPont's $200M plant to use 375K tons/yr of stover, opens in '14.

ZeaKal (Cal) raised $3.8M. Tech raises crop yield up to 50%, oil content up to 34%.

Blume Distillation (Cal) closed $2.2M round. To accel assembly of bioethanol production system. Comm systems to produce 20-500K gal/yr.

Govt says US farmers intend to plant record-high combined 174.4M acres of corn, soy this year. Most corn since '36. 97M. Record high plantings in fringe states. Slightly less in Corn Belt. 77M acres soy, slightly less than '12.

PEIX posted $20M loss for '12. $1.8M gain in '11. Revs down to $816M from $901M.

Crude palm oil prices expected to drop this month.

UK biofuel consumption down to 2.6%. Removal of fuel duty rebate for used cooking oil significantly reduced biodiesel consumption. 5% cap on 1st gen biofuels EU proposal a bigger prob.

Total (FR) to sell 49% stake in Canada oil sands project back to Suncor (reversing '10 deal) for $500M. $1.65B loss. Total would need to spend $5B more over 5 yrs. Execs said no. Increasing labor costs, labor shortage (!), falling prices of Canada heavy crude v. rising US oil production. Total still has 2 oil sands projects in Can.

Brazil became oil exporter for 1st time in '12. Offshore deposits 50B bls (~ N Sea) to 150B. Petrobras says their pre-salt exploration success rate 87%, world avg 20-25%. They plan to invest $236B next 4 yrs to increase production. (Where will that money come from? BRIC Bank?)

Supreme Court declined to hear challenge of EPA NO2 standard. EPA says cross-state ruling would gravely undermine Clean Air Act enforcement.

TX man got 15-yr prison term for biodiesel fraud.

OECD: no meaningful econ recovery in Eurozone rest of this year.

UK's net energy imports rose in '12 to highest level since '76. N Sea production probs led to larger coal imports.

Iraq plans 9-13Mb/d production by '20. 2.9-3.3 now.

Fed study says China econ growth to slow over next 15 yrs. Unlikely to return to 10%. Worst case under 1%.

Chinese buying 20M new Vs/y, not many trade-ins.

NG rigs in US down 29 to near 14-yr low of 389. Oil rigs up 30 to 1,354.

Conoco temporarily suspended new NG drilling in San Juan Basin. Low NG prices.

Possible peak global oil demand by '20: report. Should keep prices $80-90 long term.

S Sudan may take a year to reach pre-shutdown production. Equipment damage. Pumped mainly by China, Malay, India comps.

BP expects latest oil discovery offshore Brazil has commercial prospects. Flow rate 5.6Kb/d.

Innova Tech says its zinc-ion ZIP-caps asymmetric ultra capacitor expected to provide 25x cost reduction, 5x energy density increase. Without ultra-pure materials or expensive "dry room". Asymmetric ultra capacitors have greater E density v. today's Electric Double Layer Capacitors by combining 1 acitvated carbon EDLC ion-absorption electrode with 1 ion-insertion electrode. (And if you understood that, you belong here.)

Brazil to provide $1.5B in grants, loans to fund clean/ren energy research.