GLOBAL WARMING BOOSTS CHANCES OF MEGADROUGHTS around world that can threaten civilization ... 1 in 5 Americans now affected by drought: report ... Worst drought in 8 decades in state of Sao Paulo, Brazil. Water rationing in 18 cities. Capitol city's main reservoir at 12% of capacity ... Arctic permafrost holds ~2x the carbon as atmos. NSF research reports sunlight boosts conversion of carbon in permafrost to CO2, not bacteria as previously thought. Warming could exacerbate release of CO2 from Arctic waters ... Gulf of Maine waters warming at alarming rates ... Est. 4K bl oil spill into Mexico's San Juan River after oilpipe theft attempt. Slick heading to reservoir outside Monterrey ... "Alarming" amount of arsenic found in groundwater near TX fracking sites ... Syngenta asking EPA to raise tolerance level for bee-killing chem (neonicotinoid) ... Calif blue whales have hit historical pre-whaling numbers. (At least one good story a day.) ... Premiers of Quebec, Ontario to enhance bilateral cooperation on cutting carbon emissions. (Another good one. Yay.) ... Ontario expects to add 3.3Gw new clean power capacity next 18 months. (And on it goes.) ... China's new solar policies promote distributed generation ... US can become world's clean power superpower: Hillary ... Former Treasury Secretary Paulson started climate change program at his think tank to fund research, advocate more aggressive enviro action. 1st initiative in China ... Alterra got C$110M loan for 202Mw wind project in TX, 62Mw hydropower project in BC ... Fuel Cell Energy (FCEL) to accelerate commercial development of solid oxide fuel cell tech with $7.5M contract ... $1.3B tax breaks for Tesla (TSLA) from Nevada for gigabatteryfactory ... Global lithium-ion battery market expected to grow 4x by '20: Frost & Sullivan ...BP may be fined up to $18B for Gulf disaster ... Denmark set new record for wind power use ... 1st phase 18Mw solar project for Permian Basin power ... Oklahoma governor formed committee on fracking-related quakes. Folks want action ... Nova Scotia set to ban fracking ... China's clean power comps face record ($4.6B) bond repayments in 2H14. Sinovel Wind may struggle to meet obligations, using only 20-30% of manufacturing capacity this year. Avg. cap use for global wind turbine industry ~60% ... UK offshore wind capacity set to grow to 11Gw by '20 from 3.7Gw in '13 ... E5 ethanol rollout in Vietnam at 150 stations ... Sasol (S Africa) cleared major hurdle to build US' 1st natgas-to-liquids plant in Louisiana. Army Corps of Engineers OK'd wetlands permit. Est. plant cost $11-14B ... 2 EDF nuke plants in Britain could be out of action until yearend. 2.4Gw total. More stress on grid ... All Earth Renewables started construction on near 5Mw solar to power 12 state govt facilities in Vermont. Dual-axis tracking. Sunpower (SPWR) panels ... SPI Solar (SOPW) bought right to develop, op 30.5Mw of solar projects in UK. Also rights to 50Mw more.