STUFF ... Cal to cut off water for local agencies in spring. Serving 25M folks, 1M acres farmland ... EPA voluntary climate programs helped avoid 365M metric tons of GHGs, saved ratepayers $26B in energy-related costs in '12. 21K orgs/comps involved ... NC official telling EPA authority to regulate existing power plant emissions under Section 111(d) of Clean Air Act limited if exists at all ... Australia tropical cyclone activity lowest in 550 yrs ... Bloomberg named to head UN effort to help cities to adapt to climate change ... Brazil extended forest-saving moratorium on soybean trading ... Cal cities could win $100K by cutting emissions ... Egypt Nile delta sinking beneath sea.... Limited study points to birth defects up up to 30% near fracking. Over 15M folks live within mile of well in US ... TransCanada tightened vapor pressure restrictions for pipes into US ... KIOR: RFS support necessary to continue advancement, commercialization of biofuels ... Vestas forecasting return to profit ... Conn locked in long term contracts with 2 of largest wood-fired power plants in New England. To save ratepayers $15M, diversify region's power sources. Not buying the power. State's 2 el utilities buying renewable energy creds ... Clean Line Energy Partners (TX) to build high voltage DC powerline to move 3.5Gw wind farm power from SE Kansas to Indiana, further east. 750 miles. Construction start in '16 ... US NG inventories 17% below 5-yr avg for date ... Damascus missing deadlines for sending out chem weapons ... Lebanon trying to form new govt ... E Libya oil flow may be stopped again soon ... Egypt forcing BG Group to divert NG slated for export to domestic use. Increased insurgent activity in Sinai may threaten Suez, oil pipe ... Tehran could increase oil exports 2-300Kb/d rather easily, but yrs to get back to pre-sanction level, a 1.2Mb/d increase ... Kurds seemingly stopped oil exports to Turkey. Baghdad stopped payments to Kurds. 700-1K killed in Anbar in Jan, over 140K fled. Iraq returning to OPEC production quota system ... China coal use to increase 1.6% in '14 to 3.8B tons. Oil demand to increase 1.8%. NG 14.5%. China auto sales up 14% in '13 to 20M. 100 cars/1K folks (800 in US) ... China's 1st coal-to-oil project made 866K tons oil products last year. Makes ~17Kb/d with ~10K tons coal/day. Over $2B invested ... Venezuela oil shipments to US @ 792Kb/d, nearing lowest level in 28 yrs ... Japan trade deficit up 65% in '13 to $112B from fuel imports, weaker Yen ... API: exporting US crude could save US consumers $6.6B by '20. (Call me a doubter.) ... TX poised to supply Cal with oil via tankers through Panama ... Valero to spend $730M to upgrade 2 TX refineries to add combined 160Kb/d cap, allow more light crude refining. 485Kb/d total cap now ... Carbon intensity of corn ethanol (GHGs v. volume fuel produced) falling. Avg CI of gasoline from fossil increasing ... Shell spending at least $10B on floating NG liquefaction ship being built in S Korea ... AEP buying NG fields in Utica Shale (OH) from Hess for $924M ... ND Gov wants 375-mi NG pipeline in state to collect flaregas. WBI Energy Transmission to build NG pipe to connect Bakken with NW Minn. Online late '17. (Need it NOW.) ... S Korea to build 2 nuke reactors for over $7B. Start this Sept, online end of '20 ... Brit goal to be among world leaders in EV, hybrids with Go Ultra Low program ... EPA draft may tighten ozone standard to 60 PPB ... EPA wants more scrutiny of WY coal gasification project ... 500 dolphins found dead in Peru ... Drug trafficking threatening Central Am rainforests ... Scot wild salmon under siege from sea lice: report ... DOD unit that finds energy solutions in field to stay operational after leaving Afghanistan ... Smelting plant spilled thousands of gallons of chems into Columbia River ... S Korean crews cleaning up oil after pipeline cracks off coast ... SC State U added center for energy studies ... Iowa ethanol industry (41 operating plants) made 3.8B gal in '13 ... Allete Clean Energy (ALE) bought 231Mw of wind farms in MN, IA, OR from AES for $27M. (~12 cents/w by my math!. Maybe misprint.) ... Pakistan inaugurated 660Mw coal power project. $1.6B. Online '17 ... Wpd (Germany) building 2 wind farms in Ontario. 14.4Mw total. Senvion turbines (formerly REpower). Both expected online this yr ... Novozymes says India market may boom ... JFE started on 26Mw solar plant in Fukushima for health foods comp. Online '15 ... Banks have cap to meet '14 offshore wind project finance demand ... RGS Energy - Colo solar installer - filed to raise $200M from debt, equity ... TAQNIA fund (Saud) took 50% stake in Sun & Life ... Chile Atacama approved 130Mw new solar ... BWE: German onshore wind cap up 3Gw in '13 ... Solar3D bought SUNworks. Both Cal comps ... Etrion, Hitachi to build 34Mw Japan solar. 2 projects ... Suntech signed restructure deal, dismissed involuntary US bankruptcy filing ... NH, CO legislatures rejected anti clean/ren law.