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Two straw-burning electricity generating plants have been set up in east China's Jiangsu and Shandong provinces. The technology was initially brought from Denmark and consequently developed to suit local requirements in China, sources said.

How Can We define an average amount of power that each citizen consumes — continuously? From statistics, we take a nation’s gross annual primary energy consumption (in Joule), divide it first by the number of inhabitants, and then by the length of a year in seconds — and end up with an average amount of power measured in watts. the world average of this quantity happens to be 2,200 watts,

2006 has certainly not failed to impress. We have had a number of huge shocks, and we leave this year with the biggest of them all, a severe fall in the value of the dollar against the other major currencies. I must admit that I was one of the very few people who did not anticipate this, despite many suggestions to the contrary.

The largest wind farm east of the Mississippi River is now operating on all turbines.

Big Energy talks only about a hydrogen economy - using expensive technology to manufacture a product that can be made inexpensively by anyone who wants it. The idea of water power is far too democratic to control.

Arizona Public Service Co. is trying to use its eminent domain power to wrest ownership of 7,000 acres in Navajo County from a historic ranching company. APS officials said the company needs the land to ensure a steady water supply for its Cholla Power Plant near Joseph City. The Cholla plant consumes about five billion gallons of water a year, about 70 percent of which comes from wells on land owned by Aztec.

BP plans to begin replacing 16 miles of corroded pipeline in its Prudhoe Bay oil field in Alaska this winter, with an eye toward completing work over the next two years, a company spokesman said Thursday.

Global warming threatens to intensify natural disasters and water shortages across China, driving down the country's food output, the Chinese government has warned, even as its seeks to tame energy consumption.

In September, a board made up of Virginia citizens decided to take a second look at how much mercury pollution the state should allow in the air -- an issue the General Assembly had already made up its mind about.

On the outskirts of Centralia, the state's only coal-fired power plant stands like a factory from another world, shining bright around the clock, steam and smoke pouring forth as it generates enough electricity to light all of Seattle.

While coal is the lowest-cost source of reliable power, it is also a secure energy source. The U.S. contains more than a quarter of the world's recoverable reserves, equaling a 250-year supply at current consumption. As a result, coal-fired power plants generate 52 percent of U.S. electricity.

The core PCE deflator was unchanged in November generating a slowing in the year-over-year rate to 2.2% from 2.4% in the period from August to October and weaker than market forecasts for a 2.3% core inflation rate. The August core deflator was revised down from the earlier estimate which showed that core inflation rate rose to 2.5%.

Global crude futures were rangebound Friday morning, on the last day of trading in 2006, amidst very thin trading, and largely ignoring a significant draw in US crude stocks on Thursday, brokers said.

The Department of Energy today announced the selection of five projects totaling nearly $12 million targeting cost-effective technologies to improve the performance and economics of near-zero emission, coal-based power generation systems.

With Arab leaders announcing that they are looking to jointly develop nuclear energy, with Iran already out of the nuclear gate, and with countries like South Africa precariously perched on the fence, a new look at global atomic energy supplies is sorely needed.

Biomass hydrolysis and biomass-to-liquids processing in integrated thermochemical platforms could replace existing techniques of producing ethanol and gasoline, diesel range biofuels, US-based Nexant said in a study published Wednesday.

Federal officials have proposed listing the polar bear as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act, saying the melting of ice sheets is threatening the animals´ survival.

Officials announced completion of California's first megawatt- class hydrogen fuel cell cogeneration plant that transforms hydrogen from natural gas into electricity and water without combustion and captures waste heat to improve efficiency. Installed at Alameda County's Santa Rita Jail hy Chevron Energy Solutions, the project will provide half of the annual power needs, save taxpayers more than $260,000/year, and improve the environment.

Gold was indicated slightly higher in London morning trade Friday with players unlikely to be too aggressive on the last trading day of the year, ahead of the New Year long weekend. Spot bullion was indicated at $634.30/oz at 1026 GMT Friday

As Gerry Flannery pondered a new building for his construction company, he calculated how much more to spend on environment- and energy-saving innovations. The key was how quickly he would see a financial payback.

Utility officials are describing the western fast-growth pattern as a long-standing trend with important implications for coal-fired generators and coal consumption.

A giant ice shelf has snapped free from an island south of the North Pole, scientists said Thursday, citing climate change as a "major" reason for the event.

The New York Times published an interesting story last week about problems surfacing in an international emission credit trading program sponsored by the United Nations.

If the world succeeds in avoiding ecological collapse, historians may one day look back on 2006 as the “tipping-point” moment.

Texans have always had a strange affinity for cow patties. They've been bronzed for trophies. They've been tossed for sport. And they've been used, however crudely, for art.

The Sierra Club, represented by the Austin office of Environmental Integrity Project (EIP), took legal action today to stop the "unprecedented, unreasonable, and ... illegal" plan by Governor Rick Perry to "fast track" administrative hearings for construction of up to 18 dirty coal-fired power plants in the state.

As the cost of fossil fuels continues to soar, stocks continue to deplete, and damage to the environment persists, the issue of developing a sustainable fuel resource remains at the top of the environmental agenda.

The city that created the state's first municipal charter school system and the state's first public school building designed to serve as a community center now wants to be the first to go "green."

Already consumed with a record-setting bond program, a brand-new comprehensive plan and the small matter of leading the city, Dallas' mayor decided to tackle a daunting task. Ms. Miller took a crash course on coal plants and then took on TXU.

New projects in California, Vermont and Michigan will process municipal and agricultural organic residuals using innovative commercial systems.

Munich Re sees the number of severe weather-related natural catastrophes increasing in coming years because of global warming, among other reasons, the German reinsurer said on Thursday.

The state of Nevada petitioned the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission today to rule out the U.S. Department of Energy's plans to use the Yucca Mountain site in Nevada for indefinite surface storage of thousands of tons of highly radioactive nuclear waste.

The nuclear industry's plans to break ground for three or more plants by late 2008 or early 2009 is in jeopardy because of problems with the federal government's budget for fiscal 2007 and 2008...

There was no damage reported at the third nuclear power plant in southern Taiwan after several strong earthquakes Tuesday evening, nuclear power plant officials said Wednesday [27 December].

Norway will invite U.S. politicians to visit a group of fast-thawing Arctic islands in 2007, hoping to win converts for tougher action against global warming, its foreign minister says.

Palo Verde is not being moved to a higher level of NRC oversight, at least not now. In a December 22 letter, released December 26, NRC said it was classifying a recent violation, involving the chemical fouling of heat exchangers, as "green," indicating "very low safety significance." NRC had initially rated the finding as "greater than green," but changed to "green"
after obtaining information from operator Arizona Public Service and performing risk calculations

After hibernating for decades, the nuclear industry is cautiously gearing up to build a new fleet of reactors to generate electricity, benefiting from political support while hoping to avoid the blunders of the past.

Oil prices rose in thin post-holiday trading early Tuesday, edging past $63/barrel for front month Brent after Iran declared it would step up its nuclear program in response to UN Security Council sanctions.

OPEC's decision to cut production levels again from February next year has started to have a direct and heavy impact on the physical crude oil markets across Asia, forcing refiners to come to market and taking the heat off discounts for poorer-quality crudes, traders said.

When Bill Ritter started his campaign for governor, the first flare he sent up was a plan for renewable energy.

One of the biggest issues with solar and wind power is their variability. They produce power “when they want to”, and not necessarily when we would like them to. There are ways to cope with this variability, but each has some economic cost.

Solar activity is expected to be very low. The geomagnetic field was quiet. The greater than 2 MeV electron flux at geosynchronous orbit was at high levels. The geomagnetic field is expected to be quiet.

Scientists in Antarctica spent Christmas Day finishing work that may show the effects of global warming -- drilling for clues about how massive ice sheets responded to past temperature changes. The project will be vital to creating a map of how the Earth may react to higher temperatures, scientists say.

Demand for solar energy products is projected to triple by 2010, according to research from The Freedonia Group Inc.

New York fell short of an early target in its multiyear effort to boost the use of wind power and other clean energy sources.

The earthquakes that hit Taiwan on Tuesday rocked communications in Asia and underscored the vulnerabilities of a system where huge amounts of data speed through the region in cables laid deep beneath the sea.

The EC will openly support nuclear power in an energy policy statement to be released January 10, according to a report by the Paris daily Les Echos, citing a draft of the statement.

My concern is with how our government research dollars are being spent. A recent look at the DOE website turned up a project receiving funding for the development of an artificial retina. While I feel that development would be valuable, it has nothing to do with energy. I fear this is just the tip of the iceberg.

A US Appeals Court Friday cut to $2.5 billion the punitive award ExxonMobil would have to pay Alaska fishermen and others for the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill in Prince William Sound.

U.S. home sales, consumer confidence and Chicago PMI all surprise on the upside

The number of US companies reporting greenhouse gas emissions reductions to the federal government has fallen for the second consecutive year, according to the Energy Information Administration.

Freddie Mac yesterday released the results of its Primary Mortgage Market Survey (PMMS) in which the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) averaged 6.18 percent with an average 0.4 point for the week ending December 28, 2006, up from last week when it averaged 6.13 percent. Last year at this time, the 30-year FRM averaged 6.22 percent.

The US Department of Transportation has issued an advisory bulletin to operators of LNG facilities, saying an August incident at a Keyspan LNG storage site in Lynn, Massachusetts, in which intruders entered the facility undetected, highlights the need for greater vigilance in security operations.

Legislation that President Bush signed into law last week includes a provision to permanently ban all new oil and gas drilling in Montana's Rocky Mountain Front area, according to Senator Max Baucus (Montana-Democrat).

•Global crude futures traded slightly higher Thursday as the market awaited the latest round of US inventory data due out later in the day.

•Analysts polled by Platts were expecting to see a 2.4 million barrel decline in commercial crude stocks. The closing of the Houston Ship Channel on numerous occasions last week caused US crude imports to take another nosedive.

•On Thursday, the US Energy Information Administration reported an 8.1 million barrel drop in commercial crude stocks

•Despite the large draw in crude stocks, futures prices, albeit volatile, did not rally.

They don't think about the 250 tons of coal burned per hour at Drake and Nixon power plants to heat boilers to convert a million pounds of water into steam that turns thousands of blades that charge the generators that constantly create 115,000 volts of electricity that powers Colorado Springs.

While supporters vow to plow forward with plans for a nuclear waste dump at Yucca Mountain, Nev., critics hope Democrats will be able to kill the project -- which would take highly radioactive material transported through the Southland -- when they take control of Congress next month.

Internal combustion engines have established such a stranglehold on the automotive industry that they will probably outlast everyone alive today, automotive specialists suggest.

Wind energy in the UK has broken all records in 2006, making this the most productive and successful year for the sector since the country’s first commercial wind farm started generating 15 years ago.

The huge consumption of electricity as a result of the large quantity of electrical goods the Iraqi people are buying with their increasing prosperity, combined with the sabotage of power lines, have contributed to Iraq's challenge of keeping up with electrical demands.

Over the last six months, Baghdad has become an electrical island as insurgents have effectively won their battle to destroy critical high-tension lines and isolate the capital from the major concentrations of power plants to the north, south and west.

Boston is expected to become the first major city in the nation to require private developers to adhere to a strict set of so-called green-building standards, officials said yesterday.

It's one mishap after another at British Energy. Being bailed out by the state four years ago should have been a galvanising experience, but to judge by a string of profit and revenue warnings over the past year, the nuclear power generator's operational problems remain as acute as ever.

President Bush is slated to sign into law Wednesday a bill passed by the US House and Senate to open about 8.3 million acres of the Outer Continental Shelf in the eastern-central Gulf of Mexico to oil and gas leasing and give the Gulf states of Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi and Texas a 37.5% share of new production revenues, the White House said Tuesday.

The California Pubic Utilities Commission on Thursday issued requirements and other details for a new energy program that aims to make the state one of the world's biggest producers of solar energy.

As the prices of corn and other grains rise with the surging demand for crop-derived fuels, China’s government is assuring the public of sufficient food supplies...

Twin Groves developer Bill Whitlock, who's based at Bloomington, said investment bankers Goldman Sachs Group Inc. started Houston-based Horizon Wind Energy about 19 years ago, making a $2 billion commitment to alternative power.

Global crude futures fell Thursday despite a strong draw of 6.3 million barrels in US crude stocks. Bearish sentiment due to the ongoing mild weather in the US and northwest Europe, shown by increasing heating oil stocks in the US, was weighing heavily on crude futures.

The European Commission wants to push European energy suppliers to sell off their grids, according to a report in German weekly news magazine "Der Spiegel."

Syngenta Seeds, Inc.of Golden Valley, Minn., has agreed to pay a $1.5 million penalty to EPA for selling and distributing seed corn that contained an unregistered genetically engineered pesticide called Bt 10.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is amending certain requirements for facilities subject to EPA's Oil Spill Prevention, Control, and Countermeasure (SPCC) regulations. The SPCC regulations require covered facilities to prevent, prepare for and respond to oil discharges. The final rule will provide alternative compliance options for certain regulated facilities.

To provide incentives for reduced air toxic emissions, EPA is proposing to amend what are known as the "General Provisions" to its air toxics standards. The proposed amendment would encourage industrial facilities to reduce air toxics emissions so they are no longer considered a "major source" of air pollution.

Approximately 4,000 public water systems will monitor drinking water for up to 25 unregulated chemicals to inform EPA about the frequency and levels at which these contaminants are found in drinking water systems across the United States. The information will help determine whether regulations are needed to protect public health.

When LEED for Homes, a green home-building program developed by the Washington, D.C.-based US Green Building Council, is launched next summer, supporters hope it becomes the gold standard of the green housing industry.

Hydrogen Engine Center's participation in the study will help prove the viability of wind energy conversion to hydrogen power and the practicality of using HEC's internal combustion engines and power generation equipment. HEC products are being designed to extend the value and reach of wind-produced energy, delivering zero-emission and renewable power to customers.

As we at Waste News looked back at 2006, we saw discussion and actions on global warming as the issue that dominated our pages. Whether it´s states taking matters into their own hands, or people like Sen. James Inhofe arguing that it´s all media hype, it seems like everyone´s debating about what to do on climate change. In another story in this issue clergy are advocating action against global warming such as engaging in a carbon fast for Lent.

India, one of the world's five largest oil importers, is making a concerted effort to boost its energy ties with Russia to a level almost on par with that which existed between the two countries during the Soviet era.

A joint Indian-Chinese team plans to chart remote Himalayan glaciers that scientists fear are rapidly melting because of global warming, threatening the great rivers that give life to one of South Asia's most fertile regions.

The Iraqi government and the Kurds in the north have reached a new settlement to an old dispute over authority to sign oil deals by the Kurds with oil companies...

Jordan's minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Khalid Shraydeh on Thursday said that Iraq, under an agreement signed between Amman and Baghdad in August, will charge Jordan $18/barrel less than the international price for each barrel of oil.

Kansai Electric Power Co. said Thursday it will resume operation of a nuclear reactor in Mihama, Fukui Prefecture, around, some 29 months after suspending its operation following the deadliest ever nuclear facility accident in Japan.

The Manitoba Provincial Government will provide C$300,000 to support the construction and feasibility assessment of anaerobic digesters at three Manitoba hog operations...Anaerobic digestion is a process that breaks down manure components producing biogas which can be used as a heating source or for the generation of electricity.

Corn is finally out of the fields on top of the Bloomington moraine, and residents can see how dramatically their horizon is changing.

By 2020, a far greater share of Minnesota's electricity may be getting pulled out of the air.

New wind turbines under construction in West Texas could power the homes of up to 70,000 CPS Energy customers, the utility said this week. The 181 turbines are expected to begin supplying power to CPS Energy by late spring.

The rough weather has passed. But, a patch of fog is on the horizon. That might as well be the financial forecast in 2007 for the utility sector.

A new report from the Geothermal Energy Association (GEA) concludes that Nevada is now on-track to be producing over 1000 MW of geothermal power -- quadrupling its current geothermal output -- over the next 3 to 5 years. This level of geothermal production would meet roughly 25% of the state's total power needs.

Freddie Mac yesterday released the results of its Primary Mortgage Market Survey (PMMS) in which the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) averaged 6.13 percent with an average 0.4 point for the week ending December 21, 2006, up slightly from last week when it averaged 6.12 percent. Last year at this time, the 30-year FRM averaged 6.26 percent.

Plumes of ozone-producing pollution routinely cross political boundaries, influence local regulatory efforts and impact health and the environment, according to a team of atmospheric chemists trying to trace ozone in the lower atmosphere.

Precious metals have resumed their downward path on the New York futures exchanges Thursday morning as traders continue to juggle their positions in a last-ditch attempt to salvage whatever profits they could before closing their books for the year.

"It will pay in cash."
Russia's Gazprom will pay in cash for a stake in the Shell-led Sakhalin 2 project, the country's deputy industry and energy minister Andrei Dementyev said Wednesday, answering a question on how Gazprom would enter Sakhalin 2 project, Russia's Prime-Tass news agency reported.

"The stats inevitably will do something different and cause a big reaction."
Market players on Wednesday feel that the US statistics will spring a surprise figure that will unbalance the market. Analysts expect declining crude and products stocks for the week ended Dec 8, mainly due to the closure of the Houston Ship Channel several times last week.

Updated: 12/20/06

The geomagnetic field was at quiet to active levels, with isolated minor storm periods at high latitudes. A high speed coronal hole stream is responsible for the disturbed periods. Solar wind speed is in slow decline and ended the period near 600 km/s. The greater than 2 MeV electrons at geosynchronous orbit were at high levels again today.

Electric utilities and 13 states filed their own suits against the Bush administration Monday over a rule that regulates fine-particle pollution, or soot, from power plants, motor vehicles and other sources.

Want biodiversity? Look no further than the air around you. It could be teeming with more than 1,800 types of bacteria, according to a first-of-its-kind census of airborne microbes recently conducted by scientists from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab).

In what may be the first of many courtroom battles, an Abilene jury ruled in favor of the booming Texas wind energy industry by saying that the world's largest wind farm did not pose a public nuisance to neighboring landowners.

Because in their rush to blanket our wonderful countryside and now the seascape with thousands of these infernal turbines - many of them higher than St Paul's cathedral - they seem to have overlooked the simple fact that wind does not blow every minute of the day.

For the economically gigantic power and natural gas industries, the question of the moment is how to best prepare for the new epoch. To approach an understanding of the scale of spending that will be required, think Apollo space program or the erection of Egypt's pyramids.

Toyota Motor Sales USA Inc. plans to reduce its North American manufacturing energy use by 27 percent compared with 2002.

A $1.6 million severance package given to a top Tennessee Valley Authority executive after only three years on the job is an "egregious Golden parachute" that taints the utility's image, U.S. Rep. Zach Wamp said Monday.

The United States and Russia has agreed to enhance global and bilateral nuclear energy cooperation, said a statement released by the Energy Department on Tuesday.

Like most hybrid cars, plug-ins run on gasoline and batteries, but plug-ins can be charged with power from electrical outlets. The research project goals are to enhance the commercial viability of plug-ins, identify strategies to accelerate the use of the vehicles and provide demonstrations and information. The funding comes from the commission’s Public Interest Energy Research Program, which awards up to $84 million annually for energy research.

US oil inventory data due to be released Wednesday by the US Energy Information Administration and American Petroleum Institute are expected to show a 1.8 million barrel decline in commercial crude stocks, analysts surveyed by Platts said Tuesday.

Shipping delays in the Houston, Sabine and Calcasieu Ship Channels took its toll on this week's US petroleum data, causing crude imports to plummet.

Robust Mild Phase for entire Nation wrapping up this week; Split-Flow creating a noticeably different pattern......

Astronomical Winter Season kicks off tonight; Mid-Con Winter Storm initiating split-flow pattern straight through Holiday Season.....

•Global crude futures were trading in a tight range Friday morning, amid very thin volumes, brokers said, slowing Thursday's drop in prices, on the final day prior to the public holidays.

•At 0931 GMT the February Brent futures contract changed hands at $62.58/barrel, up 12 cents from Thursday's settlement.

•Late during the Thursday trading session crude futures fell around $1/barrel in what appeared to be long liquidation ahead of the long public holidays. The crude complex fell, led by a pullback in the NYMEX RBOB contract, as well as the heating oil contract on the back of forecasts that mild weather is set to remain in the US Northeast throughout the public holiday.

•The EIA reported a 1 million barrel build in gasoline stocks in its weekly data, resulting from an increase in refiner output. The EIA also showed an unexpected build of 700,000 barrels of heating oil stocks in the US.

•Product futures were also stronger. The January ICE gasoil contract traded at $542.00/mt, up $3.00/mt. Both January RBOB and heating oil futures on NYMEX were up by 1.01 cents at $1.659/gallon and $1.715/gallon, respectively.

Updated: 12/22/07

Maryland may be lagging behind some Appalachian neighbors in terms of wind energy development, but officials, regulators and developers in the state are determined to improve the climate.

An alphabet soup of business and community groups is lining up to do battle over TXU Power's $10 billion plan to build up to 11 new coal-fired power plants in Texas.

American engineering firms Bechtel, Washington Group and Jacobs Group have been approached by the British government over the construction of a huge [pound]12bn repository to store the UK's nuclear waste.

The California Energy Commission will allow the Bottle Rock Geothermal Power Plant to start operating again after it had been dormant for 16 years.

The Environmental Protection Agency has named Palo Alto the first "green power community" in California, a high accolade for the eco-conscious city.

From mile-high Naro Moru, villagers have watched year by year as the great glaciers of Mount Kenya, glinting in the equatorial sun high above them, have retreated into shrunken white stains on the rocky shoulders of the 16,897-foot peak.

Climate protection and the European constitution are the focus topics from January when Germany takes over presidency of the EU for six months, Chancellor Merkel said Friday.

Nalco Company, the global leader in industrial water treatment, and Argonne National Laboratory have announced a joint research partnership to develop advanced technologies to reduce, reuse and recover power plant cooling water. Cooling water is essential to power plants, which consume more than 100 billion gallons daily in the United States.

Global crude futures headed further south on Tuesday due to lack of trading activity and bearish sentiment in the market. At 1134 GMT, February ICE Brent futurs contract changed hands at $61.63/barrel, down 51 cents/barrel from Monday's close. NYMEX WTI was seen down by 34 cents/barrel to $61.87/barrel

In support of an emerging energy-water research program, the U.S. Department of Energy's National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) has updated its groundbreaking 2004 study estimating future freshwater requirements for the U.S. thermoelectric generation sector.

EnergyBiz 2006 Executive Summit - Sponsored by SPL WorldGroup.
EnergyBiz magazine recently assembled chief executive officers from 8 power companies to discuss the state of the industry. They are alarmed at what they know -- and what consumers, political leaders, regulators and investors do not grasp. Listen online to this lively discussion now.

Today the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency finalized a Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) rule that encourages reductions in chemical emissions and increases in recycling at facilities nationwide. EPA also announced today its decision to continue requiring TRI data reporting on an annual basis.

European emissions of acid rain-causing sulphur dioxide have declined by 65 percent since 1990, contributing to a decline in air pollution across Europe, a United Nations agency said on Friday.

An experimental system that uses electricity from wind turbines to produce and store pure hydrogen successfully went online last week. Developed through a partnership between Xcel Energy and the U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), the project links two wind turbines to devices called electrolyzers -- which pass the wind-generated electricity through water to split the liquid into hydrogen and oxygen.

OPEC has complained that the price of oil has fallen from $78 to around $62 but has shown no concern that it rose from a lower level below $30 only three years ago. High oil prices impact on world economic growth and with US GDP destined to fall below 3% this year one can certainly say that the high price of oil has played a role in this and when the US is under pressure its currency weakens.

The months-long review process of a proposed $12 million wind power project on Beaver Ridge has ended with the application winning the necessary town permits, but an appeal is in the works.

The company uses renewable sources for about 2 percent of its energy use and has added solar and landfill gas as energy sources at North American operations in recent years.

Off-peak capacity in America's existing electric power grid could be used to power as many as 185 million plug-in hybrid-electric vehicles -- about 84 percent of the nation's passenger vehicle fleet -- according to a new study by the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland, Wash.

A regional environmental group Monday released a comprehensive "climate change roadmap" to reduce pollution linked to global warming by 75 percent in the northeastern United States and eastern Canada.

Duke Energy and other electricity generators must be held legally responsible for contributing to global warming and the devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina, according to papers filed in a Mississippi federal court.

When railroads ruled, it was the sweating firemen shoveling coal into the furnace who kept the engines running.

The business outlook for the global base metal industry continues to be favorable for 2007, as base metal prices moderate but remain at favorable levels, Moody's said in report Tuesday.

Xcel Energy and the U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory today unveiled a unique facility that uses electricity from wind turbines to produce and store pure hydrogen, offering what may become an important new template for future energy production.

With the new year fast approaching, so too comes new ideas. The Democrats are about to control both chambers of Congress and bring with them their legislative priorities that include an emphasis on renewable energy programs and clean air proposals.

Nuclear power is not the right choice for new generation, a top Nordic council official said in Vilnius December 18.

The federal government won't recommend changes in the way coal companies deal with electrical storms or seals on mined- out areas until its own report on the Sago Mine disaster is completed sometime next year, the nation's top mine safety official said.

With a second production cut in two months, OPEC seemed to have done just enough last week to ensure that crude oil futures markets will see out 2006 at a relatively high $60 or more.

The United States needs to urgently set a "carbon price" as the first step in cutting emissions of carbon dioxide contributing to global warming, a panel of environmental and energy experts said Thursday.

The first Adelie penguin chicks of the season -- black fluffballs small enough to hold in the hand -- started hatching this month, and the simple fact that there are more of them in the south and fewer of them further north is a sign of global warming, scientists say.

A few years ago, the plan to store the nation's nuclear waste in Nevada seemed all but certain. But now that's being rethought, for a variety of reasons.

Poland became the 19th country to join the Methane to Markets partnership, the international initiative that promotes the recovery and use of methane as a source of clean energy. The partnership extended membership to Poland during its steering committee meeting today in Rome.

Gold and other precious metals are once again in a selloff mode on the New York futures exchanges, as further profit taking takes hold. With the dollar holding on to its recent gains, gold is expected to remain under pressure.

President George W. Bush Monday signed into law a bill to open India's civilian nuclear energy market to technology and fuel from the United States.

A plan by state-run Oil India Limited to carry out exploration below India's mighty Brahmaputra river has sparked protests from local people in the remote northeast who fear loss of livelihoods.

Solar Activity Forecast: Solar activity is expected to be at low to moderate levels. Geomagnetic Sudden Impulse

The geomagnetic field is expected to be at quiet to unsettled levels on 19 December. A recurrent high speed coronal hole stream is expected to become geoeffective on 20 December with active to minor storm conditions likely to result and persist through the remainder of the forecast period. Brief isolated major storm periods may occur on 21 December.

Bowing to public pressure, Oregon's Environmental Quality Commission endorsed tough new mercury controls Friday for coal-burning power plants in the state.

Momentum is building for federal action on climate change, said Rep. Tom Udall, D-N.M. But despite the tectonic political shift caused by last month's election, it remains a tough legislative road, according to Udall.

The UK Government has approved the world's largest offshore windfarm, the 1-GW London Array, off the coast of Kent. Britain is second only to Denmark in the offshore wind sector and projects such as the London Array, which will be the biggest in the world when completed.

Leaders of US House and Senate committee Friday criticized as inadequate new agreements between the Department of Interior and five oil and natural gas companies meant to fix flawed Gulf of Mexico leases.

Calling itself a "coalition of coalitions," the leaders of the Energy Initiative Coalition Friday pledged to present Congress with energy policy proposals that will reflect the points of view of producers, consumers and environmentalists.

Forty-two US senators have written President George W. Bush to urge him to include in the administration's fiscal-year 2008 budget proposal a five-year extension of the production tax credit for renewable energy.

New York and 11 other states will file a lawsuit Monday challenging a Bush administration rule that regulates fine-particle pollution, or soot, from power plants and other sources, parties familiar with the suit said Monday.

A small utility near Lake Tahoe's north shore thought it had the answer to providing long-term affordable energy -- coal.

But after an outpouring of public criticism and political pressure, the Truckee Donner Public Utility District voted to reject a 50-year contract to obtain energy from a planned coal plant in Utah.

Two mountain lions have died of bubonic plague in northwest Wyoming, posing a risk of possible infection to humans, a local scientist said on Friday.

Today in Rome, Piero Gnudi and Fulvio Conti presented the company’s new strategic commitment towards sustainable development.

The UK's biggest coal-fired power plant is to be the subject of a 100m project aimed at cutting carbon emissions. The owner of Selby Power Station, Drax, said it intended to revamp turbines at the North Yorkshire site, in a bid to improve efficiency by five per cent and save a million tonnes of coal.

This year is poised to be the third warmest in the contiguous United States since records began 111 years ago, US government weather forecasters said on Thursday.

This year is on track to be the warmest in the Netherlands since temperatures were first measured in 1706, the Dutch meteorological institute KNMI said on Tuesday, linking the record with global warming.

NOAA sunspot Region 930 produced a category R3 (Strong) radio blackout with an associated S2 (Moderate) solar radiation storm at 0240 UTC, 13 December (9:40 P.M. EST, 12 December).

Geothermal and wind energy companies were among the winners from a last-minute bundle of tax breaks that Congress passed last week.

Elevated particle emissions resulting from increased economic activity in Asia may have increased Australia’s tropical rainfall, according to new research on the way pollution influences our climate.

Asia must impose tighter regulations on emissions and fuel efficiency standards to combat air pollution that contributes to some half-a-million premature deaths annually, Asian ministers and environmentalists said Wednesday.

Wyoming Gov. Dave Freudenthal told members of the Western Governors Association on Friday that the group needs to determine the feasibility of renewable energy now that they have heard theoretical arguments about the benefits.

Global oil major BP announced Thursday new restrictions beginning January 9, 2007 for dirty and clean petroleum product tankers limiting the age and type of hull for vessels carrying oil, a spokesman said.

Bushfires burned across four Australian states on Tuesday, destroying houses and blackening an area larger than Luxembourg, with one major fire front stretching 250 km (155 miles).

The number of California wineries and vineyards adopting environmentally sustainable practices has jumped 24 percent since 2004, according to an industry progress report.

Controversy still swirls around the proposal to place 130 wind turbines off the coast of Cape Cod in Massachusetts. One formidable political obstacle, however, will soon leave the scene, with a strong supporter taking his place.

China wants to slow its growth in carbon emissions, a top energy policy maker said on Tuesday, as the world's number two producer of greenhouse gases threatens to overtake the United States by 2009.

BWEA is pleased to see the publication of this new measure to enable the planning system to take a more active role in tackling climate change.

Just as Bill Clinton used the battle cry "It's the economy, stupid!" to keep his 1992 presidential campaign focused, political leaders worldwide are chanting a new mantra based on growing alarm about global warming.

Concerns about climate change rank above questions on energy and terrorism, a new environmentalists' poll of likely Democrat voters in Iowa's presidential caucus shows.

Truckee-area residents split over whether potential price or environmental threat should dictate choice in power deal.

Congress late last week passed the Tax Relief and Health Care Act of 2006, H.R. 6408 (the Act), which, among other things, extends the sunset dates for the production tax credit (the PTC) and the energy credit. Some of the noteworthy energy-related provisions of the Act include:

Congress´ extension of the wind energy production tax credit will spur renewable energy development, strengthen America´s energy security and help fight global warming, according the American Wind Energy Association.

Global crude futures leapt on Thursday as OPEC agreed to cut crude production by a further 500,000 b/d, according to an OPEC delegate as ministers of the oil cartel met in the Nigerian capital Abuja Thursday .

Global crude futures rose on Friday after an attack on a Shell oil facility in Nigeria, adding to the bullish market sentiment created Thursday by OPEC's decision to cut production by a further 500,000 b/d from February.

Dominion is delaying installing scrubbers to reduce emissions at some of its coal-fired power plants, opting instead to buy imported low-sulfur coal, a company spokesman told Platts on Monday.

Launched amid high hopes and much fanfare a couple of years ago, it seems the EU emissions trading scheme will ultimately fail to deliver in its current form, according to latest research* from independent market analyst Datamonitor (DTM.L).

The European Commission issued final warnings to Austria, Denmark, Hungary and Italy on Tuesday for failing to submit plans that allocate how much carbon dioxide (CO2) their industries may emit in 2008-2012.

The European Parliament called Thursday for a European strategy on transport energy with the aim of phasing out fossil fuel, cutting oil dependency and the widespread introduction of renewable energies such as biofuels.

Fertilizer and sediment runoff from sugarcane, banana and pineapple plantations are threatening tourism by damaging a coral reef stretching along the Caribbean coasts of Mexico, Belize, Guatemala and Honduras, according to a report released on Tuesday.

Jill Cody used to feel guilty whenever she drove her car or flew on an airplane. She worried about pumping heat-trapping carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and contributing to global warming.

But the San Jose professor found a way to ease her conscience.

Long-term management plans for national forests will no longer go through a formal environmental impact statement, the U.S. Forest Service announced Tuesday.

A geomagnetic storm began on December 14 at 1416 UTC (9:16 A.M. EST). A solar flare on 13 December at 0240 UTC (12 December, 9:40 P.M. EST) from NOAA Region 930 produced strong radio blackouts (R3) and an associated moderate (S2) solar radiation storm. A large Earth-directed coronal mass ejection was also observed with this event, producing today’s geomagnetic storming. Strong to severe (G3 – G4) geomagnetic storming is expected to last through 15 December.

The number of turbines planned for a massive wind farm on Lewis has been cut significantly in fresh plans submitted by developers, seeking to allay environmental concerns.

Gold was steady during London morning trade Wednesday, with further dollar weakness expected to provide the precious metal with support. Spot bullion was indicated at $628.75/oz at 0943 GMT Wednesday

Former Vice President Al Gore said Thursday there was a "temptation" to suppress scientific findings that don't agree with policy and urged scientists to take a more active role in communicating research with the public.

Consumption of green fuels by 2012 in the United States will “far exceed” the legislated goal of 7.5 billion gallons, according to the latest projections from the Department of Energy.

US House Representative Edward Markey, Democrat-Massachusetts, vowed that the 110th Congress, which will convene in January with a Democratic majority, will ensure that oil companies that did not agree to the insertion of price threshold clauses in 1998 and 1999 deepwater Gulf of Mexico federal drilling leases will ultimately pay such royalties or face punitive action.

HyPower believes that its H2 Reactor's electrolysis process is the most efficient to date with an unprecedented ratio of hydrogen production to electrical input. Currently the H2 Reactor requires 1 watt hour to produce 1 liter of hydrogen. This is approximately 2 to 2.5 times more efficient than the current performance of competing technologies.

A proposed nuclear plant in Idaho might be used to produce ethanol in addition to generating electricity, Alternate Energy Holdings said Thursday.

Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich´s plan to reduce power plant mercury emissions by at least 90 percent by 2015 has won final approval from the state.

Of course nuclear fusion is possible. We are already harnessing the energy of nuclear fusion in the form of solar thermal and photovoltaics, wind, hydro, and biomass derived from the nuclear fusion of the sun.

Your article keeps your readers in denial of the dire effects of the imminent and inescapable downward trend in world oil production. Read any of the dozens of books on peak oil. Start with Matthew Simmons, because he's a businessman. These effects -- famine, depression, resource wars, disasters -- will be made worse by global warming.

Bushfires were burning on Thursday in four Australian states: Tasmania, New South Wales, South Australia and Victoria.

This year is set to be the sixth warmest since records began in the 1850s, with 10 of the warmest years in the past 12, according to a British report on Thursday.

Chicago-based independent power producer Midwest Generation Tuesday said it had reached an agreement with Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich on a plan that will allow the company to begin reducing mercury emissions from its power plants 18 months ahead of federal regulations, followed by multi-year programs to further cut other emissions at each of the company's six plants in the state.

Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty is calling on the state's electric utilities to include carbon dioxide emission offsets for any new fossil-fueled power plants in an effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Pawlenty, a Republican, on Tuesday asked the Center for Climate Strategies to help Minnesota begin a discussion with affected parties to develop a plan to "aggressively" reduce GHG emissions in Minnesota.

A new study on how to integrate wind resources into the transmission grid in the Midwest found that up to 25% of a utility's generation portfolio could come from wind generation at minimal cost, the American Wind Energy Association said Wednesday.

New Jersey plans to sue the federal government for allegedly disregarding clean air laws regarding the permitting of a Reliant Energy Inc. coal-fired power plant in Pennsylvania.

The next two years offer hope that the country can seriously start to tackle the problem of global warming and set in motion the best approach to biofuel development, according to a major environmental activist.

The northern hemisphere has been warming twice as fast as the southern hemisphere in recent years, the U.N's weather agency said Thursday.

A loud explosion and an electrical fire in an ocean water circulation pump at Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant Tuesday afternoon caused an emergency shutdown of one of the plant's two reactors.

New York state is suing the federal government to hasten the clean up of radioactive contamination in the soil and groundwater at a site near Buffalo where nuclear fuel was reprocessed 40 years ago, officials said.

The world's oceans may rise up to 140 cms (4 ft 7 in) by 2100 due to global warming, a faster than expected increase that could threaten low-lying coasts from Florida to Bangladesh, a researcher said on Thursday.

Saudi Arabia kept world oil markets guessing Wednesday as to the likely outcome of OPEC talks in Abuja Thursday, oil minister Ali Naimi saying OPEC needed to do "a little more" to restore balance between supply and demand, but adding that oil markets were in "much better condition" than they were when the cartel last met in Doha in October.

Changes in the political landscape will alter the course of natural gas development. With a Democratic congress headed to Washington in January, it is unlikely that any ambitious new drilling programs will get underway.

Opposition to proposed coal-burning plants in west Kansas isn't limited to Kansas.

"There was an attack last night...12,000 b/d of output has been shut in".
A spokesman of Shell reacting on the latest attack of militants in the Niger Delta, Nigeria's key oil-producing region, where areound 40 people were taken hostage on late Thursday on an oil flow station operated by Shell.

"I must express great concern if the OPEC ministers's decision is aimed at maintaining crude oil prices at high levels for their own profits".
At a press converence in Tokyo, Japan's Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry, Akira Amari, Friday called OPEC's decision to cut an additional 500,000 b/d of output from the beginning of February "extremely dangerous" for the world's economic growth.

General Motors, Honda and other automakers are competing to be first on the mass-appeal market with fuel cell-powered cars that will use energy more efficiently than gasoline-powered vehicles and won't pollute.

Increased support for renewable energies would have the greatest impact on GHG emissions, primary energy demand and import dependency, according to a study requested by the European Parliament's energy committee.

Region 930 (N03W63) continues to exhibit a Beta-Gamma-Delta magnetic configuration. Isolated X-class flares. The geomagnetic field reached major to severe storm levels. A sudden impulse was observed.Solar wind speed is currently 900 km/s.

South Korea would focus its discussions on the reduction of global reliance on oil during the upcoming inaugural meeting of the world's top five oil-consuming nations in China, energy officials said Thursday.

A pair of orbiting satellites have surveyed the Earth's water in unprecedented detail, showing sharp decreases in parts of Africa over the past five years, scientists said on Tuesday.

Carbon dioxide emissions from the burning of fossil fuels will produce a 3 percent reduction in the density of Earth's outermost atmosphere by 2017, according to a team of scientists from the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) and Pennsylvania State University (PSU).

Sinclair Tulsa Refining Company has pleaded guilty to two felony counts of deliberately manipulating wastewater discharges at its Tulsa Refinery in violation of the Clean Water Act (CWA).

A concentrator solar cell has achieved a conversion efficiency of 40.7%, leading to the possibility of solar systems which generate electricity at 8¢ to 10¢ per kWh.

A Dutch scientist predicts a new generation of nuclear reactors will create energy while producing virtually no long-lasting nuclear waste.

Two-thirds of the forests in the Congo River Basin could disappear within 50 years if logging and mineral exploitation continues at current rates, environmental group WWF said in a report.

With a commitment to expanded environmental cooperation, EPA Administrator Stephen L. Johnson signed a trilateral Statement of Cooperation with the Chinese State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA) and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) in Beijing today.

A challenging package of measures for planners and housebuilders, which will help to reduce carbon emissions and bring innovation to the building industry, was published today by Communities Secretary Ruth Kelly. The aim is to put tackling climate change at the heart of the planning system and the way we build new homes.

The spot price of uranium jumped this week to at least $65 a pound and is expected to rise even higher next week based on the results of an auction of 260,000 lb U3O8 Friday by Texas-based Mestena Uranium.

The US is disappointed that OPEC decided to put in place the framework for a second cut in crude oil production, but relieved to see that the cut will not come into effect until February 1, US Secretary of Energy Samuel Bodman said in Beijing Friday.

The US Chamber of Commerce Wednesday asked the Bush administration to clarify how states and counties found to be in violation of US air-quality standards can prove that their problems are caused by pollution that originates in China and other countries.

Officials with the US government and three large utilities are in talks with Chinese and Indian officials that could lead to technology-sharing agreements aimed at limiting greenhouse gas emissions.

Now in a Mild Phase (along with most of the Nation), the Northeast is dealing with the "weather schizophrenia" that characterizes regimes that don't yet have Blocking but also only have a moderate-El Niño.

On March 22, 2006, Johnson Matthey Inc. and two senior company managers were charged in a 29-count indictment. Specifically, the defendants charged with conspiring to conceal the high level of pollutants they discharged by cheating on required tests and submitting false information about the amount of selenium released into wastewater.

Warmer-than-normal weather in the early part of 2006 will cut US natural gas consumption by an estimated 0.5% for the year, the US Energy Information Administration said on Tuesday.

•Global crude futures were weaker ahead of the US inventory data release and OPEC meeting on Thursday, on the back of fund selling late Tuesday and early Wednesday, brokers said. "Hedge Funds have sold into the markets, both late on Tuesday and this morning as well. Otherwise it's pretty quiet and eyes are focusing on the US data," a London-based broker said.

•Market players added that they think funds have decided that demand is waning and there is less reason to be bullish about crude prices.

•Global crude futures leapt on Thursday as OPEC agreed to cut crude production by a further 500,000 b/d, according to an OPEC delegate as ministers of the oil cartel met in Abuja Thursday.

•A delegate said there was agreement that the cut should be 500,000 b/d and that it would "most likely" be implemented from the beginning of Feb.

• Global crude futures rose on Friday after an attack on a Shell oil facility in Nigeria, adding to the bullish market sentiment created Thursday by OPEC's decision to cut production by a further 500,000 b/d from February.

•Militants in the Niger Delta, Nigeria's key oil-producing region, took around 40 people hostage after an attack late Thursday on an oil flow station operated by Shell, a company spokeswoman said Friday, leaving around 12,000 b/d of output shut in.

•OPEC's decision to reduce output from February, coming on top of a 1.2 million b/d cut which took effect at the start of November, added to the bullish sentiment, as did the release of the weekly US natural gas market data by the EIA on Thursday.

A top Bush administration official warned Tuesday that the new Democrat majority Congress would raise energy prices if it makes good on its promise to pass legislation to curb industrial greenhouse gas emissions blamed for global warming.

The US natural gas storage surplus will increase during the remainder of December before shrinking again in January and February, Raymond James energy analyst Marshall Adkins said Monday, warning clients to avoid getting caught in what he called the "gas bear trap."

North America's dependence on oil will force higher prices and lifestyle changes in years to come, a leading Canadian energy analyst warned a Denver audience in a recent speech.
"Ultimately we will get to the point where (oil) supply is unable to meet demand in an economically feasible way. That's the break point -- something has to give," said Peter Tertzakian, chief energy economist for Calgary-based ARC Financial Corp.

Algae may seem like one of life’s little annoyances, but researchers hope the green, slimy stuff will one day replace one-third of the natural gas used to power an electric plant run by Arizona Public Service.

Russia is a key player in the energy game because it is the world's largest exporter of natural gas and the second-biggest oil exporter after Saudi Arabia. It also has the potential to become an even bigger supplier to other countries.

TransCanada, an energy company based in Calgary, Alberta, plans to apply within 30 days for a permit to build a $250 million to $300 million wind farm on two western Maine mountains.

The European Commission is determined to avoid a repeat of the failure of the first round of the ETS, which appears to have a net long position due to an oversupply of emission credits. However, with proposed caps being pared down, German coal power plants may face real pain.

China's growing energy demand is not to blame for higher world oil prices and does not pose any threat to global energy security, Zhang Guobao, vice-chairman of the government's key energy regulator, the National Development and Reform Commission, told an International Energy Agency seminar in Sydney on Tuesday.

As the world's largest gas producer and the source of a third of Europe's gas imports, the dominance of Russia on the global energy stage is undisputed.
Plans to construct a number of coal-fired power stations along the Russian/Chinese border will serve to increase this dominance, further boosting the continued rise of the energy superpower.

A coalition of groups on Monday filed a petition with the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission opposing Southern Nuclear Operating Co.'s plans for potential new reactors at the two-unit Vogtle in Georgia...

Global crude futures fell Monday, continuing a sharp sell-off late Friday triggered by a stronger US dollar and a weakening across many commodities.

At a news conference last year, Dominion Virginia Power announced that it would spend millions to install anti-pollution scrubbers at its coal-fired power plant in Chesapeake.

With less aplomb, the state's largest electric utility has quietly changed plans.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency continued to make significant progress in cleaning up America's most contaminated hazardous waste sites over the past year. Superfund, the federal government program that cleans up these sites, completed work at 40 sites during fiscal year 2006 for a cumulative total of 1,006 sites with construction work completed.

To provide American consumers with improved information when shopping for cars and trucks, EPA is issuing new methods to determine the miles per gallon (MPG) estimates that appear on new vehicle window stickers. The new standards will take effect for model year 2008 vehicles, which may be available for sale as soon as next month.

In 2002, a federal permit reducing the environmental impacts of New England's largest fossil fuel plant was celebrated as one of the region's most significant and hard-won victories. But the Somerset coal-burning power plant never complied; its owners appealed the permit. Now EPA officials are re issuing the order, but the company could appeal again.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is providing broader access to a larger audience by making agency library materials available through its public Web site. Retrieving materials will be more efficient and easier to locate by using EPA's online collection and reference services.

European Commissioner for Energy Andris Piebalgs lashed out against Russia’s energy strategy speaking at the International Energy Week in Moscow. He said the plan is unable to satisfy growing energy consumption in Europe.
Russian Industry and Energy Minister Viktor Khristenko said in response that Russia had been taking “consistent steps” in this field.

Eco-friendly vehicles, including an electric sport model still on the drawing board, were the stars of an alternative transportation show in California.

Many chemicals were detected in ground water from selected areas of the Piedmont Aquifer System (PAS), but concentrations of those chemicals were below drinking-water standards in most cases, according to a report released by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS).

Vendors squat alongside every roadway selling bananas and rice, large grilled rodents euphemistically called “bush meat,” and tiny packets of Chiclets gum. Parallel to the roads are open sewers, covered only by wood or steel planks that act as driveways into the ubiquitous walled compounds. Poverty is the norm in a country where a person with clean clothes and a working bicycle is middle class.

Politically, India is no longer dominated by a single party but instead is governed by relatively stable if somewhat unruly coalitions. Economically the country is snapping at China's heels, competing with it for global energy resources to feed its fast-growing economy while also presenting an attractive market for Chinese goods. So the tone for the visit was set right at the beginning -- a gracious formalness befitting two proud and ancient civilisations combined with a brisk, businesslike, if bullish, approach.

Interest has cooled slightly in a $1 billion coal gasification plant proposed for Kalama since Washington voters last month required utilities to increase investments in renewable forms of energy such as wind power.

Iran has cut the volume of gas it is sending to Turkey from 27 million cubic meters/day to around 5 million cu m/d, a spokesman for Turkish gas importer Botas told Platts Tuesday, adding that the volumes had been cut early last week.

Iran will cease to be an energy exporter within two decades if it fails to resolve its energy problems, a senior Iranian official said. “It is a reality that Iran's energy consumption is increasing.

Addressing the 11th international oil and gas conference dubbed “Recent Developments in the World's Oil and Gas: Challenges and Opportunities”, Nozari said National Iranian Oil Company now has the capacity to produce about 4.3 mm bpd oil and 500 mm cmpd natural gas for sale in the Asian, west European and African markets.

Flipping on a light switch is usually an unconscious act for Michiganders. But when the lights don't go on, which is what happened Aug. 14, 2003, the darkness that ensues can be frightening.

That's why, for at least the next 24 years, Michigan will maintain its dependence on a centuries-old source of reliable power: coal.

If all the cars and light trucks in the nation switched from oil to electrons, idle capacity in the existing electric power system could generate most of the electricity consumed by plug-in hybrid electric vehicles.

Texans overwhelmingly oppose Gov. Rick Perry's fast- tracking of permits for new coal-burning electric plants and prefer renewable energy and conservation over construction of new power plants, according to a poll released Wednesday by a group fighting the new coal plants.

New Jersey is waging another legal battle over air pollution coming from a power plant outside the state's borders, officials said Thursday.

The public will get two more chances to weigh in on Duke Energy's proposal to build two coal-fired power units west of Charlotte.

American Electric Power Co. has settled a lawsuit filed by residents in southern Ohio by agreeing to reduce sulfuric acid emissions from a coal-fired power plant in Cheshire, Ohio.

Kuwaiti oil minister Sheikh Ali al-Jarrah al-Sabah Tuesday reiterated that he did not see the need for another OPEC production cut in Abuja if oil prices remained at current levels.

OPEC's Nigerian president Edmund Daukoru said Monday he could not rule out a decision by OPEC to cut crude production for the second time in two months when the cartel meets in the Nigerian capital Abuja Thursday.

Decreasing oil supplies and increasing gas supplies are interdependent and interlinked, but this is not a case of “One goes up if the other goes down”. The reason is Peak Oil and a rapid shift away from 'conventional oil' to lighter fossil hydrocarbons in the oil-and-gas mix: around 15% to 20% of world oil is today, in fact, gas-based and gas-related...

The wind-energy industry won a battle in Pennsylvania with a new state law that will settle the question of whether the value of turbines on wind farms can figure into property tax assessments.

"OPEC will not cut production at its meeting in Abuja next Thursday."
Saudi-owned newspaper Al-Hayat reported Monday that OPEC would not cut production when ministers meet in Abuja, Nigeria, on Thursday but would hold an extraordinary meeting in Vienna in January to review market developments.

"If the level is what we have here, we are not in favor [of another cut]".
SKuwaiti oil minister Sheikh Ali al-Jarrah al-Sabah Tuesday reiterated that he did not see the need for another OPEC production cut in Abuja if oil prices remained at current levels.

"It is obvious that the view attributing [the] oil price hike to China's oil import growth fails to grasp the underlying factor that has led to the rise of oil. It is also a vicious attempt to deliberately exaggerate the impact of China's increasing energy demand on the global energy market".
Zhang Guobao,vice-chairman of the Chinese government's key energy regulator, the National Development and Reform Commission,commenting on China's growing energy demand and its possible impacts on prices and global energy security at an International Energy Agency seminar in Sydney on Tuesday.

The geomagnetic field was quiet to active. Solar wind speed at ACE has increased slightly to approximately 680 km/s. The greater than 2 MeV electron flux at geosynchronous orbit reached high levels again today.

The recent murders are reminiscent of a wave of assassinations which swept through the city in the 1990s, targeting businessmen and bankers.

New satellite observations show that emissions of nitrogen oxides -- a major smog-forming pollutant -- are declining over the eastern US, researchers with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the University of Bremen, Germany, said Friday.

The possible sale of Houston-based Horizon Wind Energy less than two years after it was purchased by Goldman Sachs reflects the booming outlook for the renewable energy business, industry observers say.

The countries of the Power Triangle all have an interest in improving relations with one another.
Like the other two states, China has a strong interest in issues related to market access, energy security, and the fight against Islamic terrorism.

As the United Nations discussions on climate change drew to a close in Nairobi, Kenya, Secretary General Kofi Annan faulted policymakers worldwide for a “frightening lack of leadership” in confronting this crucial global issue.

The European Union has many problems and worries. A relatively new one of these worries is the matter of energy security.
Emerging in the past several years, this concern is raised in almost every meeting, summit and report, and EU leaders also mention it constantly. Javier Solana, the EU security and foreign policy representative, is the latest leader to voice this concern.

Russia has found the Achilles' heel of the US colossus.
In concert with its oil-producing partners and the rising powerhouse economies of the East, Russia is altering the foundations of the current US-led liberal global oil-market order, insidiously working to undermine its US-centric nature and slanting it toward serving first and foremost the energy-security needs and the geopolitical aspirations of the rising East.

Russia has set the agenda for the global transition to an entirely new model of international energy security designed to address intensifying concerns, especially those of the rising East.

Three US Democratic governors Friday helped to launch a new campaign by an alliance of labor unions and business and environmental interests to promote among states a plan to cut the nation's oil imports and increase the use of renewable energy by 2025.

Energy Minister Hilmi Guler said that the Shah Deniz project which allows economical gas purchases from Azerbaijan and offers the opportunity to sell natural gas to Greece and Italy is maintained successfully. Minister Guler said "Russia is not blocking gas purchases."

US Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman Tuesday said he would encourage China to use its strategic petroleum reserves carefully.

The US Senate early Saturday extended through January 1, 2009, a secondary tariff of 54 cents/gal on ethanol imports into the US. The measure, which was part of an omnibus tax bill passed in the waning hours of the 109th Congress, passed US House last Friday, and is now on its way to President Bush for his signature.

About 15 % of the carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions predicted for the US in 2025 could be avoided at almost no cost by expanding the use of renewables to provide 25 % of the country's electricity and motor fuels, according to a Rand Corporation study.

The housing market has been central to the economic outlook for the past several years. A buoyant residential sector provided critical support in the recovery from the 2001 recession. More recently, the housing slowdown since mid-2005 has been instrumental in helping realize the Fed’s goal of moderating economic growth, in order to nip inflationary pressures in the bud.

US scientists say they have developed a new technology for cleaning oil spills on oceans, lakes and other waterways.
Victoria Broje and Arturo Keller of the University of California-Santa Barbara say they have constructed and successfully field tested an improved version of the mechanical skimmer -- the mainstay device for recovering oil spilled on water.

The US Senate early Saturday passed by a vote of 79-9 a broad tax and healthcare bill that includes language allowing new oil and gas drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, and directs billions of dollars in revenues to Gulf states.

The Bush administration wants to encourage China to trust in energy markets, and not simply buy up energy properties from abroad, US Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman said Friday.

The US government has streamlined the way it reviews and sets air pollution standards, officials said on Thursday, but environmental and health advocates warned the change may increase the influence of political appointees at the expense of scientists.

The University of South Carolina will install scrubbers on its new biomass steam- and electricity-generating plant to ensure it satisfies federal clean air rules -- and to address community concerns about air pollutants.

State-run oil holding Petroleos de Venezuela (PdVSA) is to introduce as extra-heavy oil the prodigious reserves in the Orinoco oil belt during the World Congress of Heavy Crude Oils held in Beijing.

For the sixth time this year, Venezuelan oil shipments to the United States decreased based on the figures provided by the Energy Information Administration, the statistical arm of the US Department of Energy.

The Department of Energy on Thursday announced a new push to fix how Yucca Mountain design mistakes are identified and corrected, a long-standing problem on the nuclear waste project.

"The corrective action program has been a chronic problem for the Yucca Mountain Project," said Paul Golan, principal deputy director for the Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management.

The program is the first of its kind in Pakistan and also one of the first to be developed under ADB's evolving clean energy and efficiency initiative, through which ADB is planning to expand energy efficiency operations in its developing member countries to $1 billion per year.

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa will turn a valve and raise a steel gate to send water spilling once more into a 62-mile stretch of the Owens River, which was a rushing stream generations ago before the aqueduct diverted its flow and reduced it to a pathetic trickle.

As announced today by the Canadian Government, Air Liquide Canada, a global leader in industrial and medical gases and related equipment, will be an active participant in the innovative "Hydrogen on the Hill" project.

The Public Service Commission has the duty of regulating utilities, but the PSC's performance in recent years brings to mind a question raised more than 2,000 years ago by the Roman poet Juvenal: "But who is to guard the guards themselves?"

Alaska's new governor, Sarah Palin, held meetings with North Slope producers Tuesday, one day after being sworn into office.

It is warmer in Europe's Alpine region now than at any time in the past 1,300 years, the head of a wide-ranging climatic survey said on Tuesday.

Australia's military on Thursday rushed to help battle bushfires that threaten to merge into a giant fire-front ahead of what authorities said could be one of the most dangerous weekends for blazes in the country's south.

Scientists have engineered baker's yeast to produce ethanol faster and more efficiently, according to a Massachusetts Institute of Technology research paper published on Thursday.

On December 13th, the MIT Enterprise Forum of Cambridge will host discussions with four expert panelists at the cutting edge of biofuels and the future of biodiesel in the energy market. This session provides a rare view into some of the central questions surrounding biofuels.

The British government will examine safety zones around offshore renewable energy installations, with a focus on windfarms and wave/tidal devices.

Today, K-12 schools, universities, retailers, restaurants and manufacturing and electric suppliers from across the state came together to file a petition asking the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) to investigate lifting the existing suspension and restoring consumers' right to exercise choice in electricity suppliers.

California's new global-warming law could prompt electricity generators, petroleum refiners and other industries to leave the state for more pollution-friendly climes unless a host of other states or the federal government adopt similarly aggressive climate-change measures, the chief sponsor of the law said Wednesday.

Blakeslee's effort comes after California Energy Commission member John Geesman in October warned that cogeneration could disappear and be replaced with less efficient generation unless policymakers follow through on their
stated support for cogeneration projects.

Under the state's stringent goal to reduce carbon emissions, cities including Burbank and Glendale are trying to decide how to handle their stakes in a Utah coal power plant that provides up to half of their energy needs.

8Dec2006--Global crude futures, in particular ICE Brent, jumped above $63/barrel as the Brent loading program for January showed a 41% fall compared to December, brokers said.

7Dec2006--Global crude futures were stronger Thursday as the market consumed the US inventory data published Wednesday and monitored the latest attack on an oil installation in Nigeria.

Worldwide demand for hybrid-electric vehicles will reach 3.9 million units by 2015 and nearly double that figure by 2020, a research group said.

Coal mines in Ohio are boosting production to meet new demands for energy at a time when the state lacks the power to force the cleanup of decades-old environmental damage estimated at $300 million, a newspaper reported.

The Department of Energy today announced the selection of six research and development projects that will promote the production of hydrogen from coal at large-scale facilities. This central approach will combat climate change by allowing for the capture - and subsequent sequestration - of carbon dioxide generated during hydrogen production.

The US is facing a "new reality" in addressing nuclear waste, and with Yucca Mountain potentially "decades" away, the country must employ interim storage and reprocessing before shipping most civilian waste to the Nevada repository, an official with the Department of Energy said Tuesday.

The Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the Cabinet is expected to approve today (Wednesday) Pakistan’s first renewable energy policy to attract local as well as foreign direct investment in the renewable energy projects.

Thomas Edison's nineteenth-century electric distribution system relied on direct current (dc) power generation, delivery, and use. This pioneering system, however, turned out to be impractical and uneconomical, largely because in the 19th century, dc power generation was limited to a relatively low voltage potential and dc power could not be transmitted beyond a mile. Edison's power plants had to be local affairs, sited near the load, or the load had to be brought close to the generator.

England must spend up to 9 billion pounds (US$17 billion) bolstering flood defences against a predicted 40 centimetre rise in sea levels due to global warming, insurers said on Tuesday.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is embarking on a three-year study to determine the state of America's lakes. The "Survey of the Nation's Lakes" is the first-ever attempt to assess real-world conditions by studying 909 lakes, ponds and reservoirs whose profiles are representative of all lakes in the United States.

The European Union should set binding targets for reducing carbon emissions and for increasing the use of renewable energies, according to a report adopted without opposition by one of its committees.

The European Union is taking the lead when it comes to ensuring cuts in greenhouse gas emissions that cause global warming. It has demanded a 7 percent reduction in the allowable carbon dioxide releases and is now requiring 10 nations to submit new proposals on just how they will accomplish this.

Two European energy producers Wednesday cast doubt on construction of a new generation of nuclear plants in the UK even if a pro-nuclear government eases the way for new projects.

Australia's climate is now permanently hotter and drier, and the country faces major temperature rises and significantly less rainfall by 2070, scientists said on Monday.

I know I‘m going to get flack for this, but fuel cells for portable devices still seem to be following their “getting behind the curve” trajectory. I‘ve discussed this before: someone positions fuel cells for major adoption, usually within a year. Prototypes are announced, some products come out, but commercial traction remains elusive. The media buzz continues, however, and the following year the same pattern is repeated.

A global climate change agreement which would underpin an international carbon market is still four years off, the Head of the UN's climate change body said at a climate change conference in Nairobi.

Projects Include Solar Energy, Wind Power, Hydro Power, Hydrogen, Biomass, Biofuels, Geothermal, Hybrid Vehicles. GreenEnergyTV.com is passionate about exposing Green/Alternative/Renewable/Clean Energy to the world via video clips from those who have pioneered success. The company's launch last week has already exceeded initial expectations...

The high-pressure line, located in Cote Blanche Bay near Baldwin, Louisiana, has been shut in since mid-October, when the line exploded and caught fire after being struck by a tugboat pushing barges.

Four House Democrats who serve as ranking committee members have signed a letter asking the Environmental Protection Agency to stop its planned library closures.

Many of the U.S. auto industry's environmental efforts, including plug-in hybrids and flexible-fuel vehicles, will have little affect on the nation's energy use or output of greenhouse gases if the latest government forecast of energy trends through 2030 holds true.

India, likely to be one of the countries worst-hit by global warming, is already ahead of most developing nations in putting in place measures to help it adapt to climate change, the World Bank said on Thursday.

Iraq will not be able to reach its crude production capacity targets or sustain higher output because of damage to overworked reservoirs, insufficient and cumbersome investment procedures, sabotage, corruption and the absence of
a hydrocarbon law, according to a US government report.

A TOP Kremlin official has warned western oil giants their money is no longer needed for the development of Russia's huge energy reserves.

The market for biofuels could falter unless there is significant progress in producing fuel from cellulosic biomass, like plant stalks and wood chips, according to a report from BioWorld Today.

New York officials have released preliminary draft rules for implementing the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative to cut power plant emissions of carbon dioxide, which are considered a major contributor to global warming.

Federal regulators continued their investigation last week on a series of incidents at Catawba Nuclear Station, and say there is no threat to public safety. Findings are expected to be published within 30 days.

In the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission assured the public that a nuclear power plant, including the Beaver Valley Nuclear Power Station in Shippingport, could withstand a hit from a passenger jet.

The U.S. government's plan for a "renaissance" in nuclear power may be crimped by tightening world- wide supplies of uranium and a lack of enrichment facilities to turn the uranium into fuel for power plants, The Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday.

As we move closer to the next OPEC Meeting, just one week away on 14^th, December in Abuja Nigeria, conjecture mounts on what OPEC will and should do. The price of crude, WTI/Brent is trading around the $62-63 level and the OPEC basket at $59.

Four out of five Texas residents do not support Governor Rick Perry's plan to fast track 12 or more new coal-fired power plants without first addressing the effects of pollution, according to a survey released on Wednesday.

People slept among strangers and browsed a little longer in lighted bookstores during their search for warm surroundings Monday, the fifth day of a blackout caused by a winter storm.

The British government is to outline proposals that would add about 5,000 companies and organizations to the European Union's carbon-trading scheme, The Guardian reported on Wednesday.
Citing unnamed sources within the government, the Guardian newspaper said that the initiative would include supermarkets, universities, hotels, hospitals and government departments and has received an initial enthusiastic response from some companies.

"There is a question as to the extent of the sanctions, but there will be sanctions."
Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy told RTL radio. He was speaking after a Paris meeting on Tehran's nuclear program with the powers that make up the UN Security Council and that they are agreed that "there will be sanctions" against Iran.

A two year drought that left farmers without irrigation water and brought hosepipe and swimming pool restrictions is over in half of Spain but continues in the other half, the Met office said on Tuesday.

Two proposed "clean" coal plants in Oregon and Washington have ignited a debate among the Northwest's renewable energy advocates that argue there is no such thing as clean coal.

The M6 flare had an associated Type IV radio sweep and a Tenflare. The X6 flare had an associated Type IV radio sweep, a Tenflare, and a Type II radio sweep (estimated shock speed of 827 km/s). A CME was probably associated with this event,

The geomagnetic field has been unsettled to active with isolated minor storm periods observed at high latitudes. Solar wind speed is unknown as the recent solar energetic proton events have contaminated the ACE SWEPAM instrument, a condition expected to continue until energetic proton fluxes subside.

Facing a mandate to slash toxic mercury emissions from coal-fired power plants, 23 states are thumbing their noses at a federal cleanup plan and are instead developing their own far tougher plans to deal with mercury.

That inconsistency -- or lack of trust -- is what has driven a wedge between Russia and some of its trading partners, namely those in the former Soviet Union. Recall that last winter Russia cut off natural gas supplies to Ukraine in an effort to collect closer-to-market prices. And while the dispute was legitimate, it put into question whether Russia could be trusted to fulfill its contractual obligations.

Massive solar panels laid out on the Saharan sand could be Europe's answer to its future electricity needs, a study by the Basle Sarasin Bank suggests.

EVERY schoolchild in Scotland is to be offered the chance to see former US vice-president Al Gore's film about the dangers of global warming under a scheme by energy company ScottishPower.

U.S. scrap tire recovery rates are increasing while stockpiles are decreasing due to state cleanup laws and growing markets for crumb rubber, according to a report from the Rubber Manufacturers Association.

Scrap tire piles have shrunk 80 percent since 1990, when they contained more than 1 billion tires.

A severe tornado ripped roofs off homes and tore down walls in a residential area of northwest London on Thursday, injuring six people.

Freddie Mac yesterday released the results of its Primary Mortgage Market Survey (PMMS) in which the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) averaged 6.11 percent with an average 0.5 point for the week ending December 7, 2006, down from last week when it averaged 6.14 percent. Last year at this time, the 30-year FRM averaged 6.32 percent.

The Southern Ocean may slow the rate of global warming by absorbing significantly more heat and carbon dioxide than previously thought, according to new research.

A group of U.S. governors has urged federal regulators to reform the national power transmission system to provide greater access for green power.

Typhoon Durian swept southern Vietnam with strong winds and heavy rains on Tuesday, killing at least 50 people, sinking hundreds of fishing boats and damaging houses, days after it battered the Philippines.

The United States will increasingly seek alternatives to petroleum by 2030, according to the latest long-term energy projections from DOE's Energy Information Administration (EIA). As a result, petroleum consumption is projected to only increase 20 percent by 2030, while the total energy consumption for transportation increases by nearly 40 percent.

The University of Akron has received close to $1.3 million to research and develop new fuel cells.

The UK's Environment Agency has for the first time penalized four companies more than GBP750,000 ($1.5 million) for failing to account for their carbon emissions in 2005, the first year of the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme.

The argument that nuclear should form part of a balanced energy mix has now been accepted by the British public, attendees at the UK's annual industry get-together in London were told December 7.

Scientists are reporting a major advance in technology for water photooxidation --using sunlight to produce clean-burning hydrogen fuel from ordinary water.

Carbon dioxide emissions from energy use should grow from 2005 levels of 5,945 million mt to 7,950 million mt in 2030, the US Energy Information Administration said Tuesday, a lower level than the 8,114 million mt of CO2 emissions EIA anticipated just last year.

The US Court of Federal Claims has awarded the Sacramento Municipal Utility District $39.8 million in a breach of contract lawsuit against the US Department of Energy, the utility said late Monday.

The US Environmental Protection Agency said Thursday it plans to overhaul the process it uses to set national air-quality standards for emissions from power plants, petroleum refineries and other industrial sources.

US ethanol consumption should jump to 11.2 billion gallons in 2012, well beyond the 7.5 million b/d requirement of last year's energy policy act, the US Energy Information Administration said Tuesday.

US House Republican leaders canceled a planned floor vote Tuesday on a Senate bill that would open more than 8 million acres of the Outer Continental Shelf in the Gulf of Mexico to energy development.

US House Democrats warned oil and gas companies Thursday they would dramatically toughen up enforcement of leasing requirements on federal lands following a report by the Interior Department's inspector general criticizing the Mineral Management Service's management of leases.

Nuclear waste should be kept at the reactors where it is produced until the planned Yucca Mountain storage site opens, the chairman of the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission told reporters Wednesday.

•Global crude futures, in particular ICE Brent, jumped above $63/barrel as the Brent loading program for January showed a 41% fall compared to December, brokers said.

•North Sea Brent Blend crude loadings for January are set to fall to 158,516 b/d from December's output level, market sources said Friday, down 41% December. Trading sources said that the larger program in December was a major factor in the reduction of output in January, while unconfirmed talk production problems persist.

•Futures prices fell significantly Thursday despite militants attacking Eni's Brass terminal in Nigeria in the Bayelsa state of the Niger Delta

Supporters of Bethany's municipal airport put a road block in a plan that could save city consumers a total of $75,000 a year in electric bills.

Wind Capital Group has offered to erect four, 260-foot windmills that could provide enough electricity to power the town of 3,000.

Santa Fe city government wants to start buying its electricity from a new wind power company, but it may run into opposition from Public Service Co. of New Mexico, the state regulated power monopoly.

The average temperature in 2006 is likely to be amongst the hottest since records began nearly 150 years ago, giving what seems another example of global warming, experts said on Monday.

President Bush has a dream. Just as Richard Nixon realigned global politics by going to Beijing, President Bush will do the same by going to Tehran and Caracas. In Bush's vision, he is the only one who can cut a deal and assert US interests with Ahmadinejad and Chavez, just as Nixon asserted US interests with China.
In one dramatic move, or so he fantasizes, Bush will be magically transformed from a loser to a man of destiny

Algae Bioreactor System Connected Directly to Smokestack of APS' Redhawk 1,040 Megawatt Power Plant Recycles Greenhouse Gases into Renewable Biofuels

The buoyant world economy and oil boom brought exceptional growth and boom to Arab oil producing counties in particular where current account surpluses and government revenues "exploded to multiples of their pre-boom levels," Director General and Chairman of the Board of Directors at Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development Abdlatif Al-Hamad told a forum of the Institute of International Finance (IIF).

The study shows around one quarter of the oil volumes previously assessed in key North American and Greenland basins. Crucially the Arctic is a gas province with 85 % of the discovered resource and 74 % of the exploration potential being gas.

Australian firefighters fear dozens of bushfires in remote mountains in the southeast could join up to form major fire-fronts, driven by hot weather in the drought-plagued region.

Sustainability is the theme at this year's Los Angeles Auto Show, where carmakers are unveiling plans for more fuel-efficient models. Mike O'Sullivan reports, auto executives, including General Motors chief Rick Wagoner, say alternative energy will be the key to their future business strategy.

Prime Minister Tony Blair pledged on Monday to renew Britain's nuclear arsenal, saying new threats from Iran, North Korea or nuclear terrorists made it "unwise and dangerous" to disarm.

Brazil, whose ethanol production should more than triple in the next five years, is looking for new markets for some of that output in both Asia and other markets closer to home.

China is confident of making a big contribution to an international bid to meet future energy needs through nuclear power, a senior official said yesterday.

China plans to start delivering oil to its third strategic reserve in Huangdao, Shandong Province from next April, according to an official from the National Development and Reform Commission.
The first phase of the new reserve, with capacity of 3.2 mm cm, will hold enough oil to meet the country's total needs for three days.

Nine clean-coal projects in nine states will receive about $1 billion in tax credits, but western coal projects are not included in this round of funding.

Cars with dramatically better gas mileage. More energy-efficient houses and offices. Doubling the renewable energy flowing through New Mexico's grid. Those are among the 69 recommendations announced Friday by a special climate advisory group created by Gov. Bill Richardson last year to find ways to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

Commodities, having fallen from favor earlier this fall, received a boost in October and November from an old friend -- the US dollar. Or, more specifically, the weak US dollar. The greenback has been pummeled amid rumblings that China, the second largest holder of dollar-denominated assets may cut their exposure amid growing expectations that the US economy is coming in for a landing, be it hard or soft.

4Dec2006-Global crude futures weakened Monday, relenting from strong gains made last week, as the US dollar's recent weakness seems to have halted and OPEC appeared to lack consensus yet on whether another round of production cuts were needed at its upcoming meeting December 14.

5Dec2006-Global crude futures recovered from losses made on Monday as support for front-month Brent was found around the $63.15/barrel level as well as reports that China has bolstered its strategic oil reserve, broker said.

Recent news of falsified customer satisfaction surveys and suppressed employee injury reports at Southern California Edison have caused some anti-nuclear energy activists to question safety at the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station north of Oceanside.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is asking Fortune 500 companies to step up to the plate and double their current level of green power purchasing. Green power is environmentally friendly electricity obtained from renewable sources such as solar, wind, geothermal, biomass, biogas and low-impact hydro.

"It will strengthen European Union energy security. Thanks to supplies from the Caspian Basin, it will allow the development of more efficient energy-demand management in Azerbaijan and also the exchange of expertise."

Three related Rocky Mountain natural gas pipeline projects would be environmentally acceptable with appropriate mitigation measures, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's staff concluded in a draft environmental impact statement.
Known as the Rockies West Phase Project, the three proposed pipelines would transport 1.5 bn cfpd of gas.

Faced with rising demand for energy and keen to reduce their dependency on Russian gas supplies, European countries are eyeing Norway's natural gas, available to the continent through a burgeoning web of pipelines.

"We are very proud to be involved in the opening of the Victoria Hydrogen Fuelling Station," said Minister Lunn. "It's a key step towards the successful completion of the hydrogen highway and another way Canada's New Government is demonstrating its commitment to clean energy as part of our environmental approach for clean air."

Last week the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments in a case dealing with global warming. This is a significant development for our industry because it marks the first time a climate change-related case has been brought before the nation´s topmost tribunal. The court´s decision is expected around June.

It's not a function of science. It's a matter of whether the richest countries are willing to pay for it. That's what believers in nuclear fusion are saying and it's behind the signing of an agreement by 31 countries to build the most advanced nuclear reactor.

Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi called for creating a pan-European department for energy control, to avoid disruptions in electricity supply in European countries.

A strong radio blackout (R3) occurred today at 05/1035 UTC (05:35 a.m.ET) due to a major flare on the Sun.

Lower Colorado River Authority (LCRA) and Microgy, Inc. today announced an agreement for the purchase, for an eighteen-month period, of all Renewable Natural Gas (RNG) generated from Microgy's Huckabay Ridge facility in Stephenville, Texas.

As California carries out a new mandate to cut global warming pollution, its progress will be measured against its greenhouse gas output in 1990 -- the target point the state must reach by 2020.

That may sound simple enough. But, like California itself, figures for that benchmark year rest on ever-shifting ground.

"PSEG failed to live up to its obligations under the 2002 consent decree, putting air quality and public health at risk," said Granta Nakayama, EPA assistant administrator for the Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance.

The Niger Delta has been impacted by 1.5 mm tons of crude oil spills over the last 50 years threatening rare species including primate fish, turtles, bird and damaging crops while destroying the livelihood of many of the 20 mm people living there and fuelling the upsurge in violence.

The Energy Policy Act of 2005 authorized $1.65 billion in credits for clean-coal projects. The act allocated $800 million of credits to integrated gasification combined cycle projects, $500 million to non-IGCC advanced coal electricity generation projects, and $350 million to gasification projects.

Von Roll America Inc. will pay a penalty of $750,000 as part of an agreement with the federal government regarding alleged clean air and hazardous waste violation at the company´s East Liverpool, Ohio, hazardous waste incinerator.

OPEC does not need to cut crude output again when it meets in Nigeria in two weeks, US Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman said Friday, indicating he was concerned about the impact of such a cut on heating oil supplies as the US enters the winter season.

The Philippines fears up to 1,000 people were killed in landslides and floods set off by Typhoon Durian but officials said on Monday that many of the bodies might never be found.

Two Minnesota power companies have been expending much of their energy lately in a behind-the-scenes struggle that's about to become public.

The outcome might affect the quality of the air Minnesotans breathe and affect the state's economy for generations to come. Much of the friction has centered on a single question: What's the most cost-effective way to produce electricity in the first third of this century?

UPDATE: The prime rate, as reported by the Wall Street Journal's bank survey, is among the most widely used benchmark in setting home equity lines of credit and credit card rates. It is in turn based on the fed funds rate, which is set by the Federal Reserve. The COFI (11th District cost of funds index) is a widely used benchmark for adjustable-rate mortgages.

Maintenance delays and unexpected mechanical problems that have hit US Gulf Coast refineries are helping push spot gasoline and distillates prices higher than normal for this time of year, Gulf Coast products traders and market observes said Friday.

Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov held talks with top Chinese leaders aimed at shoring up bilateral ties and pushing forward a series of large-ticket economic and trade projects.

Khalid Al-Falih, senior vice president of state-owned conglomerate Saudi Aramco, made his remarks as US addiction to foreign oil reverberated along the campaign trail before legislative elections. His warning was endorsed by top executives of US oil companies, which sponsored a daylong program on crucial US-Saudi ties at the annual conference of the National Council on US-Arab Relations, a private outreach group.

Save the Valley is among three groups that have joined together to challenge plans by Duke Energy Corp. and Vectren Corp. for a new type of coal-fired electric plant in southwestern Indiana. The coalition says the power plant could cost consumers billions of dollars and might never work.

At least six Arab countries are developing domestic nuclear power programs to diversify energy sources.
Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Morocco and Algeria have shown interest in developing nuclear power primarily for water desalination.

The civil war in Angola ended in 2002. In this speech, given at Harvard University, Rafael Marques argues that the peace agreement signed in April 2002 has failed to promote democratic values or engage citizens in public affairs. Elections that the government promised the people since 1999 have not materialized.
Instead, Angola is undergoing a process of commercialization as a substitute to democratization.

An outspoken opponent of U.S. government efforts to reestablish the gray wolf in western states has pleaded guilty to trying to poison the federally protected species, a U.S. prosecutor said.

Ukraine's Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych and the US Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman discussed greater use of Ukraine's energy transit capacity and construction of new oil and gas pipelines in Ukraine, the government's press service said Tuesday.

The Government Accountability Office, the watchdog agency for Congress, is beginning a broad investigation into potential deficiencies in how the government collects billions of dollars in royalties from companies that produce oil and gas on federal territory.

Freddie Mac announced that its quarterly national Conventional Mortgage Home Price Index (CMHPI) rose 4.0 percent in the third quarter 2006 on an annualized basis, down from a revised second quarter 2006 annualized rate of 5.2 percent.

The US House will vote Tuesday on a Senate bill that would open more than 8 million acres of the Outer Continental Shelf in the Gulf of Mexico to energy development, congressional sources said Friday.

Clouds of uncertainty may be hovering over the nuclear deal, but India's ties with the US is speeding along in other areas of energy resources. Washington has offered New Delhi a role in its efforts at framing a response to the volatility in the global oil and gas market, while pushing for upscaling the government framework for co-operation in coal sector.

Government lawyers are urging a federal appeals court to allow a section of a canal separating California and Mexico to be lined with cement to stop millions of gallons of water from seeping south of the border each year.

Worldwide demand for hybrid-electric vehicles (HEVs) will advance rapidly to 3.9 million units in 2015 and then to nearly double that number by 2020. HEVs are expected to quickly penetrate the world light vehicle market in response to rising energy demand, which in turn has led to erratic fuel prices and increased emissions regulations worldwide.

Energy ministers from the world's biggest oil consuming nations are scheduled to meet in Beijing over December 15-16 to discuss various energy issues

Currently this seems to be so within the energy market, where concerns over global warming and the security of fossil fuel supplies are driving innovation in the renewable energy sector.

It's no coincidence the Web site of Spanish electric utility Iberdrola is awash with the color green. From wind farms across the Iberian Peninsula to consulting on an ambitious wind-farm project in northern China to a tidal marine project off Spain's north coast, Iberdrola is betting on renewable energy to power its own future.

The following are remarks by US Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke before the National Italian American Foundation.

The Bush administration on Tuesday updated a renewable energy strategy it hopes will lead the US from an oil-based economy to one based on ethanol, green power and bio-based plastics and chemicals made without petroleum.

Members of the Washington, Oregon and California and New Mexico utility commissions are expected to sign the framework on Friday at an energy efficiency workshop in San Francisco.

Total employment in Canada’s wind energy industry will more than quadruple within the next five years, according to an industry survey.

France hailed its achievements in nuclear energy while Britain basked in European Union approval for its green policies on Wednesday, as the two nations inaugurated regular talks on nuclear power.

There seems to be something about being near an ocean that spurs the growth of a solar power industry. On the East Coast, for instance, New Jersey appears to have the most vibrant solar power market, with more than 1,840 solar power installations.

The Arctic front that has locked Western Canada in an early winter deep-freeze, has apparently not been harsh enough to kill an insect infestation munching through the region's forests.

Cost-efficient, sustainable fuel a hit in Michigan. The LaLondes aren't using the corn to feed animals. They're heating their home.

29Nov2006--Global crude futures hit a one-month highs Wednesday ahead of the US inventory report as fund buying, cold weather forecasts in the US and a weak dollar all added support to the market.

30Nov2006--Global crude futures climbed further Thursday as fundamental and technical factors pushed prices out of a $4-$5/barrel range seen over the last two months, brokers said, as bullish sentiment extended into a fifth day.

Demand for ethanol as an alternative energy source has been a driving force behind the explosive volume growth in the corn futures market, according to David Lehman, chief economist and managing director at the Chicago Board of
Trade.

The Department of Energy is seeking to broaden its access to public land in rural Nevada for studies of nuclear waste railroad corridors to Yucca Mountain, asking permission to reserve use of another 208,000 acres along possible shipping routes.

Global energy demand will increase 60% by 2030, hydrocarbon reserves in Europe are declining and the EU imports 50% of its energy, which will rise to 70% without policy reform.

Eneco is a development stage company that claims to have invented and patented a "solid state energy conversion/generation chip" that will convert heat directly into electricity or alternatively refrigerate down to -200 degrees Celsius when electricity is applied.

The Bush administration, looking at the prospect of stronger oversight from a Democratic-led Congress, is withdrawing a proposal to let big polluters report less often on what they spew from their smokestacks.

The EU and governments of a number of countries of the Black Sea and Caspian Sea regions agreed Thursday in Astana, Kazakhstan, on a common energy strategy, the European Commission said in a statement.

The European Commission is getting serious about reducing greenhouse gasses. On November 29th, it announced that it wanted much deeper cuts in carbon emissions from its member states during stage two of the EU's Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS) that runs from 2008 to 2012.

Lower oil prices and a US commercial property boom will help offset the serious problem of a cooling housing market, according to Dallas Federal Reserve President Richard Fisher. In an interview this week, Fisher also said he was personally satisfied with current US interest rates of 5.25 percent.

Cities in the United States and Canada are dumping billions of gallons of untreated sewage into the Great Lakes each year, a report by a Canadian environment organization said on Wednesday.

Environmentalists are fighting a proposal to build another coal-fired power plant in the Four Corners area, saying the region cannot handle more pollution.

The Gulf Stream carrying warm water to the North Atlantic slowed about 10 percent in the Little Ice Age from 1200 to 1850, said a US study published on Wednesday that may give clues to the effects of modern global warming.

Amid the rooftops and chimneys of this seaside town south of London spins a solitary symbol of Britain's growing devotion to green energy. Usually relegated to windy plains or planted offshore, a wind turbine has sprouted on the roof of Daren Howarth's terrace house.

India's monsoon rains have intensified over the last half-century as average temperatures have risen, and more severe weather could be in store if global warming continues, scientists reported on Thursday.

A typical company spends about 65 percent of its revenue or more on fuel. While part of the problem is leadership that is pre-occupied with other issues, an even bigger share is tied to the fact that innovation in the energy sector has been lacking.

The U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced last week that it has allocated $800 million in "tax-credit" bonds for a total of 610 renewable energy projects to be located throughout the United States.

30Nov2006--The US Supreme Court on Wednesday heard oral arguments in a landmark global-warming case that could force the Bush administration to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from motor vehicles and, possibly later, stationary sources such as power plants.

A state lawmaker is questioning proposed tax breaks to encourage the construction of coal gasification power plants in Wyoming.

Freddie Mac yesterday released the results of its Primary Mortgage Market Survey (PMMS) in which the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) averaged 6.14 percent with an average 0.4 point for the week ending November 30, 2006, down from last week when it averaged 6.18 percent. Last year at this time, the 30-year FRM averaged 6.26 percent.

A Portland, Maine, dairy plans to have more than 90 percent of its delivery fleet running on biodiesel fuel by the end of this year.

A number of recent findings in microbiology are pointing towards a potential revolution in the production of hydrogen, power, and biobased materials.

Algerian Oil Minister Chakib Khelil Thursday said he believes OPEC should agree to cut production at its December 14 meeting, with the reduction effective end-January.

The Republic of Poland officially has requested to become a member of the international Methane to Markets Partnership. Poland would join the United States and 17 other countries in efforts to advance the cost-effective, near-term recovery and use of methane – a potent greenhouse gas – as a clean energy source.

The solar energy market and industry have been experiencing a price decrease in solar modules since the second half of 2006. More and more companies are offering large quantities of modules -- and it seems as if the acute module shortage which was limiting project development has vanished.

Emissions of carbon dioxide from renewable energy facilities in the United States have doubled since 1990, according to government reports.

New Region 928 (S07W32) emerged on the disk today as a small C-type group. The geomagnetic field ranged from quiet to severe storm levels during the past 24 hours. An initially quiet field became disturbed after 0500Z due to an extended period of southward interplanetary magnetic field.

Coal, oil or natural gas: all fossil fuels contain the energy of sunlight, stored with the aid of photosynthesis in energy-rich chemical compounds.

Roseville Electric, has joined the California Climate Action Registry (Registry), a distinguished group of organizations demonstrating leadership by voluntarily taking action on climate change. As a member, Roseville Electric will work with the Registry to annually track, report and certify its greenhouse gas emissions.

Sandia National Laboratories researchers Todd Lane and Victoria VanderNoot have been awarded a research grant to develop a technology that can successfully detect deadly toxins from harmful algal blooms (HABs).

Spot gold prices opened markedly higher Friday at $646.00-646.50/oz, up from Thursday's close of $637.90-638.40/oz.

A strong undersea earthquake struck near the Moluccas islands in northern Indonesia on Wednesday, the US Geological Survey said on its Web site, but there were no reports of a tsunami or casualties.

29Nov2006--The Supreme Court will hear arguments today on whether the Environmental Protection Agency has the authority to control greenhouse gas emissions and whether it should exercise that authority.

The surprisingly mild 2006 Atlantic hurricane season ended with a whimper on Thursday and forecasters said it was too early to know if El Nino will last long enough to flatten next year's hurricanes too.

Toyota North American President Jim Press urged Congress Wednesday to extend federal tax credits for hybrid vehicles and accelerate its buying of hybrids and alternative fleet vehicles to help address energy concerns.

An environmental case to be heard by the US Supreme Court on Wednesday is the latest in a growing number of legal disputes linked to climate change around the world.

Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., the world's leading retailer, today announced an ambitious campaign to sell 100 million compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs) at its Wal-Mart and Sam's Club locations by the end of 2007.

•Global crude futures climbed further Thursday as fundamental and technical factors pushed prices out of a $4-$5/barrel range seen over the last two months, brokers said, as bullish sentiment extended into a fifth day.

•On Wednesday the latest US inventory report by the Energy Information Administration showed unexpected draws in product stocks.

•Global crude futures relented slightly from strong gains made in the previous five sessions as profit taking halted the rise
•The US dollar floundered close to a 20-month low against the euro and a 14-year trough against the pound in Asian trade Friday after taking a beating from weaker-than-expected US manufacturing data, dealers said.
•Meanwhile, Venezuelan Energy Minister Rafael Ramirez said Thursday that OPEC could decide to cut a further 500,000 b/d output at its December 14 meeting.

Wind turbines could produce hydrogen that would cost less than US$3 a kilogram delivered, according to a report prepared for the U.S. Department of Energy.

Foreign diplomats in Australia's parched capital are being asked to stop watering embassy lawns in solidarity with a nation suffering its worst known drought.

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