STUFF ... Drought in US intensified in March: USDA ... TX rice farmers reeling from drought ... Surge in Okla quakes near fracking ops ... Deserts can store more CO2 than previously thought: study ... Calif city to use food waste to power garbage trucks ... Japan govt plan supports nuke power, doesn't set clean energy mandates ... US gave out 1st export licenses for Canada crude ... Petroperu tendered for 200K bls of biodiesel ... Overseas Development Institute (UK) study shows existing evidence doesn't point to increased food insecurity in developing countries from biofuels production. Other factors appear to provide larger impact, like production models, land acquisition ... US Commerce Dept forecasts intl marketplace for civil nuke tech $500-740B within next 10 yrs. Potential to gen over $100B in US exports, thousands of jobs. IEA says global nuke power gen cap could grow to 580Gw by '35. 371Gw in '10 ... US could allow surveying for oil/gas development in Atlantic as early as this year ... Huge Kazakhstan oil field in state of commercial crisis. Could remain shut for 2 more yrs. $50B already spent. Hydrogen sulfide corroding pipes. 100 miles of pipe may be replaced with nickel alloy pipe ... Soitec selected in over 10 new solar projects in France. Concentrated PV. Total 16 projects selected, 103Mw. Over 80% to use Soitec CPV. Completions expected in '16 ... Bharat Light, Power (India) to raise over $1B next 5 yrs to reach 1Gw clean powgen cap from 200Mw now (3 wind farms) ... Crowd funding for rooftop solar seen topping $5B in 5 yrs, over 50x amount raised to date. US homeowners installed 792Mw solar in '13, up 60% from '12 ... SUNE closed on $150M 3-yr revolving credit facility to buy, develop solar projects in US, Canada. Another $150M expected soon. Already used $1.2B to finance 325Mw ... World Bank-backed Bangladesh home solar program world's fastest growing PV scheme ... Acciona got $87M finance for 45Mw Chile wind farm ... TX awarded TX A&M $2.2M grant to R&D offshore TX wind farm ... Suzlon German unit Senvion got new 3-yr Eur850M credit facility ... Opower shares up 21% after Friday IPO, came back some Monday.