STUFF

National Coal will "effectively" stop mountaintop removal mining in settlement with enviros.

Finnish comp opened $173M, 20Mw combined heat, power plant in Lithuania. Biomass, muni waste -fueled plant will produce 40% of seaport city's heating needs. Will dent Gazprom's 100% dominance. City also planning LNG terminal by end of '14. Lithuania plans to interconnect their grid with Sweden's, Poland's by '16. CHP plants provide near 30% of energy mix in Finland.

Gazprom looking to get LNG facility on Baltic Sea in next 5 yrs. Wants to send 10M tons/yr LNG from Finland coast. Already sending NG to German coast through pipeline. Want to link Britain into it. Gazprom supplies ~25% of Europe's NG. Europe on cusp of getting NG from Azerbaijan via pipe.

UK released subsidy prices for clean/renewable energy for '14-'19 for over 1Gw projects. 155 Pounds/Mwh for offshore wind, 100 Pounds for onshore wind, 125 Pounds for PV solar, hydropower 95 Pounds, biomass 105.

EPA told Congress E10 blend wall won't be hit until '14.

Pleasant Valley Biofuels to start up 1.5M gal/yr biodiesel plant in Utah this month. Waste veg oil, tallow, virgin organic oils feedstock.

Cereplast (CERP) moved HQ, Europe office to cut op expenses $600-800K/yr. 1H13 sales to "substantially exceed" 1H12.

Duke U study linked fracking to groundwater contamination in northeast PA houses within kilometer of drilling. Methane in 82% of drinking water samples. Concentrations 6x higher than homes farther away. Concentrations of ethane 23x higher. Propane also found. No biological source of ethane, propane in region. But Marcellus gas high in both.

Israel put 40% cap on NG exports. Pipeline to Turkey or $15B LNG port to export to Asia? Israel uses ~7BCM/yr. With 40% cap, reserves could supply Israel for 25 yrs.

China accounted for 25% of global GHG emissions in '11. US under 17%. US emissions falling, China growing (3.4% in '12).

Funding disappearing for nuke fusion over poor progress. Reactor at Lawrence Livermore National Ignition Facility under threat of fund cut. $486M. Congress reconsidering contribution to ITER in France.

UK '11 fossil fuel imports up ~10%, exports fell. '12 GHG emissions up 3.5% from move to coal, cold winter.

Nigeria privatizing 80% of 10 NG-fired power plants. Over 4.2Gw total (design capacity over 5.4Gw).

Abengoa (SP) opened ethanol from muni solid waste demo plant, their 1st use of the tech. Largest globally, though. 25K tons of waste generates up to 400K gallons. They're building cellulosic corn to ethanol plant in Kansas, $110M waste to energy plant in AZ to gen power.

Renewables Infrastructure Group planning biggest IPO for UK clean power. $460M. To buy 14 wind farms, 4 solar parks in Brit, France, Ireland. 276Mw total. Previous IPO - Greencoat Wind - up 7% since March debut. Bluefield Partners planning 150M Pound IPO to invest in solar.

EIB may lend Drax $160M to convert 1/2 of Brit's largest coal power plant to wood-fired. $1B plan.

India solar credits dropped to floor price for 1st time this month. Down 19% from May. India's solar capacity up 79% in last FY to over 1.6Gw.

Mitsubishi to supply 47Mw turbine for Turk geothermal plant. Follows '08 turbine delivery to same plant. Mitsu has orders for over 100 turbines from 13 countries for geo plants. They've supplied ~30% of global capacity.

Vestas signed 99Mw wind turbine contract.

Geological ests. indicate 2x more shale gas in north England than previously thought.

Acciona got 45Mw wind project in Chile.

ADB: Asia requires $944B of energy efficiency investment.

Philippines mapped out plan to switch to 100% clean/renewable energy in 10 yrs.

Foxx got 100-0 Senate confirm to head DOT.