DEEPWATER WIND GOT $290M FINANCE TO BEGIN BUILDING OFFSHORE RHODE ISLAND. 30Mw initially. 6Mw Alstom turbines. Online by end of '16 ,,,, Switzerland 1st country to submit climate plan for Paris talks .... TEPCO failed to report radiation spike, leak into Pacific for 10 months. (Hari kari or karioke to come?) .... Pakistan protests over access to water .... Prominent climate change denier at Harvard institute took over $1.2M from energy industry over 14 yrs .... US oil rig count down another 33 to 986. NG rigs down 9 to 280 .... 6 Dane pension funds to vote on dumping fossil fuel investment .... DOE researching turbine that uses CO2 to make el .... PNNL researchers developing new electrolyte that allows lithium-sulfur, lithium-metal, lithium-air batts to operate at 99% efficiency .... Europe cities using EV-sharing schemes to intro them to public .... Kyrgyzstan to build dozens of small hydropower projects next several yrs. $115-160M .... Kazakhstan expects its oil production to increase up to 30% soon. (Again, I ask, who was Stan?) .... Oil production from Brit N. Sea down 1.1% in '14 .... Sauds adding 800Kb/d refining capacity this year .... Iraq became China's 2nd largest oil supplier in Jan .... Tanker with Kurd oil may have unloaded at Israel port .... Asian Development Bank to loan $30M toward 3M ton/yr LNG terminal in Pakistan. (Stan was there too.) .... 3 new oil fields found in Algeria so far this year .... Natgas discovery in Morocco in onshore shale basin. Country has est. 20TCF (Not even 1 year of US consumption.) .... Nigeria oil exports down 33% in Nov, Dec .... Moody's downgraded Petrobras debt to junk .... Shell postponing development of 200Kb/d oil sands surface mining project in W. Canada .... Exxon to cut capex 11% in '15 to $34B. Added 1.2B bls oil, 300M BOE NG to reserves in '14, more than '14 production .... Chesapeake reducing capex 37% this year .... Alaska oil production down to avg 514Kb/d .... US train derailments with crude, ethanol aboard to cost over $18B over next 20 yrs: DOT. Avg over 10 derails/yr .... 80Mw, $180M solar farm ready for groundbreak in N. Carolina. Innovative Solar Systems .... Consortium led by Acwa Power to develop 200Mw solar in Dubai. ~$400M. $344M, 27-yr loan from 3 Mideast banks. Another Acwa consortium last month got 1.7B Euro contract to build 350Mw CSP plants in Morocco .... Solar City (SCTY) lawsuit says AZ utility's fees will hurt solar. Fees on customers who generate their own power .... AES bought Main Street Power. 60Mw solar cap across US, 100Mw in development .... SoftBank, Mitsui completed another 20Mw solar farm in Japan .... Rame Energy plans to build 130Mw wind, solar in Chile next 18 months. ~$300M .... Conergy expects to install 450Mw of solar in '15. 300Mw in '14. Pipeline may grow to 4Gw. Seeks IPO .... Bangladesh targeting 2Gw clean/ren power by '20 .... Colorado rejected scale-back of RPS .... PNC promising not to finance mountaintop coal mining .... 70-yr-old coal seam fire in Montana now out .... Zimbabwe president ate baby elephant at 91st birthday party .... Indian state banned beef. Jail for possession. (If I could make this stuff up I'm not sure I could match reality. Oy. Onward and upward, pards.)