STUFF

Welcome, John.

Bill Gates the richest man on our planet again. Go Bill.

S&P lowered Berkshire to AA. Really. How about we all lower S&P.

Tesla (TSLA) to sell up to $830M in shares, debt as part of plans to repay DOE loan.

US House commitee approved bill to bypass admin review, issue permit for Keystone XL pipe.

Pentagon completed its 1st microgrid at Ft Bliss.

Greenland's accelerated glacier melt may have helped shift North Pole. (Has Santa been notified?)

IG accepting EPA proposed improvements to oil/gas emissions tracking.

Study: groundwater contamination in Ark not linked to fracking. (Maybe the pipeline rupture a few weeks ago?)

Moniz got unanimous confirmation from Senate to head DOE.

Exxon, Synthetic Genomics reupping on algae fuels R&D. Basic science research focused on developing algae strains with much improved production characteristics. They 1st partnered up in '09 on it. Tillerson: "venture probably further than 25 yrs away from successfully developing fuels." (Why would he want to lessen oil/gas power?)

Neste helping EU as oil price fixing probe widens.

Edeniq 1st demo cellulosic ethanol plant completed successful performance test. Processes over 1 metric ton/day of corn stover, switchgrass, wood chips. $20.5M DOE grant.

IEA: US ethanol market growth to stall through '18 from political opposition to RFS, ethanol blend wall, stalling demand at pumps, rising feedstock costs.

Protests - with 7 public self-immolations - over high energy prices brought down Bulgarian govt in Feb. Elections last week brought back essentially the same govt with 30% of vote. Expect more instability. Monopolies run power distribution. Promised bill cuts don't happen. VAT on el. Avg monthly salaries ~$534.

Oil must be in range of $50/bl to sustain econ growth. Used to be over $80/bl was recessionary. New normals, apparently. New techs to save, displace oil cost far less than oil now. In '12, US spent $291B on imported oil - over 1/2 of trade deficit. Bulk of US national security budget spent on protecting oil supply routes.

Next big oil hopes offshore Ireland. 1.6B bls discovered last year. Drilling getting started by Providential/Exxon. Irish govt est. up to 10B bls in area.

Oil majors weighing risks of beginning ops in Somalia. Lot of bad guys to deal with.

Teacher, principle in Colo high school set to lose jobs over students' anti-fracking presentation.

Regulators ruled S Cal Ed yet to account for what caused troubles at San Onofre nuke plant. Offline over year. Hearings coming to restart 1 reactor.

Equitix (UK) investing $15M to replace inefficient heat systems with wood-powered boilers. UK Green Investment Bank pitching in 5.1M Pounds more from Energy Efficiency Fund. Cuts bills, emissions up to 30%. Roundwood Energy to fund, install, maintain, fuel the systems up to 20 yrs. Woodpecker Energy making wood pellets/chips biomass boilers.

Toshiba began making power transformers at new $59M Brazil plant. S Am market forecast to grow to $250B in '15 from $210B in '12.

Investors flocking to EUR300M low-risk Germany clean energy bond.

Holmen, Eurofidene 2 to jointly develop 51Mw Swede wind farm.

Evolucia exploring acquisitions, NAZ listing to expand LED offerings.

Sun Ed received enviro approval for 100Mw Chile solar farm.

Thuga Renewable Energy increased wind portfolio to 145Mw.

India creating offshore wind agency to drive project development.

Coal-to-liquids prospects dimming.

FERC ordered standards to shield infrastructure from solar flares.

Belgium regulator proposing reopening nuke reactors.

China utility purchasing stake in Australia grid comp.