STUFF ... Brazil's worst drought in decades decimating crops. Jan 2nd driest in 80 yrs. El rationing, LNG imports looming ... US public transit use highest since '56. 10.6B pax trips ... Exelon to spend $400-500M in post-Fukushima fixes to 17 reactors ... E Libya militia selling oil, defying govt. Tanker flagged under N Korea. "Will be bombed" if doesn't follow govt orders when leaving. Now blockaded in port by militia backing govt ... Maliki saying Saudi, Qatar openly funding Iraq insurgents. Iraq elections April 30 ... 71 of 73 major Chinese cities didn't meet enviro standards last year. Serious probs 189 days in Beijing. Pollution starting to affect neighbor countries ... Kazakhstan suing oil majors developing Caspian field over repeated delays. $50B 13-yr project to produce as much as Angola from reserve almost as big as Brazil's. Kaz also seeking $737M in fines over NG leaks/pollution ... Iraq, Jordan expect pipeline could deliver 1Mb/d to Jordan by '18 ... Nigeria filling stations running dry ... Eqypt trying to pay near $5B owed foreign energy comps before comps move out ... Trans Canada pipeline project getting reviewed. 930-mile new segment, conversion of 1,800-mile NG pipe to oil by '19. Est. 1.1Mb/d cap. West Canada oil to East refineries to offset 700Kb/d imports now ... Shell wants UK political stability. Wants Scotland in UK, UK in EU ... Panama Canal Authority: new canal online Jan '16 ... Exxon expects to add 300KBOE/d to production this year ... US rail congestion from winter forcing some utilities to pull coal units offline. Stockpiles low, concern over deliveries. Railroads also rerouting ethanol deliveries for East coast running out ... China targeting shale gas output of 6.5BCM/y by '15, 60-100 by '20 (5.8-9.7BCF/d) ... Complete stoppage of Russia NG through Ukraine would give Europe up to 56BCM NG deficit this yr ... N Sea NG production down substantially last 3 yrs. UK may have to import 70% of NG by '20 ... 2% of US gas stations offer E85. 5% of light duty vehicle fleet can use it ... USDA announced $60M for 195 advanced biofuel projects ... Cost Exxon $11.48/BOE in '13, up from $9.91 in '12. (And oil over $100/bl. Go figure.) ... Wide gap appeared between China rhetoric, bargaining position on '15 climate pact ... S US chickadees invading North ... Intl consortium hit with $738M fine for NG leaks at offshore GOM drilling megaproject (Assuming it's the GOM.) ... Utica shale gas field growing: report ... PJM grid operators: we can handle 30% clean energy without any significant reliability issues assuming transmission upgrades, higher reserves. 12 PJM states have renewable portfolio standards of 18-25%. PJM to grow from 4Gw solar, wind in '10 to 33Gw wind, over 9Gw solar by '29. Will require $14B new transmission, reserves up to 1.5Gw ... Consortium, UN launched small hydropower interactive online database. 75Gw now installed globally. 173Gw potential. N Am has tapped 86% of potential. Central Asia under 4%. East Asia 20% ... India suspended wind forecasting fines due to data inaccuracy ... 30Gw offshore wind will be connected by HVDC by '20: Navigant. Will help triple mart for HV submarine power cable. ~9K km offshore cable next 15 yrs ... GE unit developing lower offshore wind cost. "Passive Boost." Medium freq transformer, diode bridge converts 33KVAC to 50KVDC. Lowers cost11-15% ... US crude inventories up 1.4M bls last week ... Gasoline prices in US expected to climb next few months with annual switch to summer blend ... OPEC Feb production up 240Kb/d to over 30M, mostly on Iraq ... Since '08, US oil product exports up 1.7Mb/d to 4.3M in Dec. Covered ~25% of global increase in demand. (US is ~25% of world econ.) ... N Dakota said Dec backlog of wells drilled but not fracked grew to 635. To be months before we know the slowdown from winter ... UN inspectors saying Iran reducing stocks of highly enriched Ur as required by current deal. Long way to final deal ... Last week Israel intercepted ship shipping long range missiles from Iran to Gaza. (Can we stop the hate?) ... US Supreme Court ruled Argentina must pay BG Group $185M for losses in '02 price freeze, currency change. (OK. US Supreme Court ruling on UK comp/Argentina. See anything weird there?) ... Ukraine failed to pay Gazprom for Feb NG deliveries. "No issues" with transit shipments to Europe ... NRC found 11 nuke power units in US with "degraded" level of safety, security performance or worse ... Enel Green Power completed 30MW wind farm in Brazil ... Public Service Enterprise to spend up to $12B next 5 yrs on mostly transmission upgrades for reliability. 20% increase over last 5 yrs ... Trina Solar sold its 1st utility-scale PV project in China. 50MW ... Yingli supplying 27.5Mw for Israel project ... Yendenko (JP) to build $30M 12.5Mw solar plant in Japan. Online '16. Plans 9 more solar projects ... Europe's clean energy project finance up 4% in '13 ... Renewable Energy Trust Capital (Cal) raised $125M to buy utility-scale, commercial, industrial solar plants ... At least 37Gw solar PV cap added globally in '13. Asia-Pacific lead, Total world solar cap136.7Gw at year start ... UK Green Investment Bank 24.5M Pounds for biomass install at turkey farm ... Northland Power (Canada) increased credit faciility to C$600M from C$250M ... Canadian solar consortium to invest $1B in 500Mw India solar plant, panel factory ... SCTY: 62% US homeowners "interested" in solar roof ... Chaori to sell solar farms to repay bondholders after default ... Tokya radiation less than Paris's 3 yrs after Fukushima.