RUSSIA'S ABILITY TO TAP NEW OIL RESOURCES targeted by latest US, EU sanctions. Latest drilling tech to be withheld. Exxon, BP affected ... World Court unit ruled Russia must pay $50B to former Yukos shareholders. Russia expropriated Yukos in '05. Russia to appeal ... Ukraine parliament rejected allowing EU, US comps to buy up to 49% of Naftogaz. Also against liquidating Naftogaz or splitting it in 2 to conform with EU rules ... Rosneft says profits rising despite sanctions ... US judge ordered seizure of Kurd oil on tanker off TX coast. (Yesterday I reported it was being unloaded in Galveston. That was wrong.) ... Stanford researchers, including Chu, claim major breakthrough in lithium batt design. Pure lithium anode could boost EV range to 300 miles ... DOE taking 1st steps to curb leaks in natgas systems (pipelines, compressors, etc.) ... Small islands 1/2 world's most climate-vulnerable real estate: study. S Pacific summit just held on it ... Peru got high-tech map pinpointing illegal destruction of its trees ... Global warming among top US national security concerns: defense experts ... Sea star plague spreading in Pacific offshore Cal ... Exelon to buy Bloom Energy fuel cell plants ... Styrene listed as possible carcinogen ... NM nuke waste repository cited for 52 safety violations ... Duke Energy buying $1.2B power gen capacity ... TX onshore oil production up 27% last month: regulators. (Not clear if that's over last year or previous month this year.) ... SMA Solar cutting 600 more jobs, may lose up to $60M this year ... France $13.4B energy plan to spur efficiency, clean/renewable power using tax credits, low-interest loans. Now legislature approval sought. (I still don't understand why they want to cut nuke power back to 50% of total power gen. Nuke is 24/7 CLEAN power.) ... Brazil's 1st solar-specific power auction drew 10.8Gw interest. Also 626 wind projects proposed, 8 biogas projects. Oct 31 auction. Govt expected to buy ~1Gw solar ... BMW offering fast batt chargers to help EV sales ... Trees soak up air pollution, provide $7B/yr in US health benefits: study ... TX city dumped special powder in reservoir to fight evaporation ... Green Plains (GPRE) 2Q profit up 5x over last year to $32M on revs of $838M. 6 mo net $75M vs. $8.5M last year ... Global biodiesel market to see 8.1% CAGR through '18: TechNavio report ... India could save $3B/yr of petrol imports with E10 policy ... US utilities importing more coal from countries like Russia, Colombia, Indonesia to hedge against poor rail service, fulfill unique blends, lower costs vs. US coal. 1.23M tons imported 1Q14, up 73% over 1Q13 ... Ongoing BNSF backlog stranding grain shipments across Great Plains, threatening to shut down Wisc coal power plant by Jan ... New software to let EVs "talk" with utilities to help manage grid stability ... Jinko Solar getting $225M investment for new projects. China Development Bank led funding. Jinko to develop over 600Mw this year ... China solar exports up 18% to $7.42B 1H14 over 1H13 ... UPS reached '16 goal of reducing global CO2 emissions 10%. New target 20% by '20. Reduction of 1 mile/day/driver saves up to $50M/yr plus less emissions. 3.6K of 96K vehicle fleet now using alt fuels. Going to LNG ... India's Uttar Pradesh planning 300Mw solar auction. Bids by Sept 8. Another 20Mw auction for projects under 5Mw ... Astonfield to build 2 solar projects - 4Mw total - in Mauritius. $8.2M. Part of 10Mw auction ... Xinyi Solar to raise $100M in share issue ... NRG Yield raised $652M from stock sale.