CHINA EXPECTED TO LAUNCH SUBSIDY FOR LITHIUM BATTERIES FOR EVs .... No El Nino drought relief for Texas .... Severe drought ongoing in Brazil .... Not much precip in Calif since December. State midway through rainy season .... Extreme weather events expected to double: study .... Breathing India air took 6 hours off Obama's life .... Private agreement better than law at protecting Amazon: scientists .... Wood burning not major threat to climate: study .... No link between diesel techs, cancer: study .... Saltwater creeping toward pure Louisiana aquifer .... Winter wheat planting in Iraq way down because of ISIS .... Kurds rocketing ISIS in Mosul .... Tanker with stranded Kurd oil left Gulf of Mex .... White House to OK oil/gas drilling off Atlantic coast, ban it in some areas off Alaska .... BP freezing 80K workers' wages .... Colorado oil driller idling new well completions .... Oklahoma court to consider oil comps' liability for earthquakes .... Sauds can cope with low oil prices for at least 8 yrs: expert .... Total plans 10% capex cut, speeding up billions of asset sales .... BHP Billiton to cut its US onshore rig count from 26 to 16 by July .... Venezuela's sale of Citgo called off. Plans to raise $2.5B by selling debt instead .... Producers expect Canada oil production to fall 65Kb/d this year, 120K in '16 .... US oil drilling rig count down 49 last week, drop most in N Dakota: Baker Hughes .... US gasoline demand up 5.4% in Dec yoy. Avg. over 9.1Mb/d .... Ukraine deal to build natgas pipeline with Poland to access LNG hubs .... Fuel shortages in Pakistan after govt cut pump prices .... Panama Canal expansion expected complete by yearend .... Beijing to start construction on 4 new subway lines this year .... World's largest oil refinery (in India) added algae demo project. Algae from CO2 .... Brazil biodiesel production expected to rise 25% this year to 4B liters. Consumption up 15% in '14 .... Mississippi biodiesel plant OK'd to restart after '14 explosion/fire. Now 130K gal feedstock storage, up from 46K .... Philippines 30M liters/yr ethanol plant shut down over fish kills .... U of Minnesota researchers ID'd potential materials to boost ethanol, petrol products production .... India looking to support biofuels with tax incentives, fuel standards for E85, ED95 .... $465M investment last week in West Canada Sedimentary Basin. Riverstone, partners venture. Formation below Bakken rocks .... 3 comps finished 4.5Mw solar plant in Massachusetts .... 40Mw, ~$86M solar plant online in Kenya by Jan '16. Finance from China Ex-Im Bank. Africa Development Bank finance expected later. Another 40Mw solar plant planned for Kenya with Spanish backers .... GE turbines to supply 151Mw China wind project .... Abengoa (ABGB) started construction on 100Mw PV solar project in Chile online by yearend, 110Mw solar thermal project with up to 17 hours thermal storage online in 2Q17 .... Florida Power & Light to triple solar capacity by '17 to 335Mw .... Brazil bank raised $408M for clean/renewable power, water treatment projects. Loans from IFC, Bank of Am, 2 others .... Bank of Am goal $50B for green projects next 10 yrs .... Mitsubishi finished 6Mw solar plant in Fukushima .... American Capital unit got $62.7M in loans from OPIC, IFC, IFC-Canada for 36Mw Jamaica wind project. $26.9M equity investment from Am Cap. Vestas trubines. Online early '16 .... Trinidad, Tobago proposing $1B clean power fund .... NV Energy's 2nd 100Mw RFP .... US-funded biomass power project failed in Liberia.