news_07.htm

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Ashley Seager splashed out £17,000 on solar panels in an effort to cut his fuel bills. So now he's saving the planet, but will he save a fortune at the same time?

While all eyes are currently focused on the U.S. housing and sub prime issues, many have lost sight of what is happening outside the U.S. One needs to realize that currently, nearly 30 percent of all corporate U.S. profits come from foreign operations.

Alaska Governor Sarah Palin has approved legislation that allows the Alaska Railroad to issue $2.9 billion in tax-exempt bonds for the construction of a proposed coal-gasification facility on the Kenai Peninsula.

APS customers can help usher in a future where energy from the sun, wind and other renewable sources play an ever-increasing role in lighting and cooling Arizona's homes, schools and businesses.

Naturally-occurring arsenic in drinking water poses a growing global health risk as large numbers of people unknowingly consume unsafe levels of the chemical element, researchers said on Wednesday.

As part of its ongoing energy strategy, the European Union (EU) has agreed on an action plan to have biofuels comprise at least 10 percent of the region’s transport fuel use by 2020. “It is, of course, essential to ensure that this increase is fulfilled in a sustainable way; we cannot just sit back and assume this will happen automatically,” Piebalgs said.

I just read your article and I must be missing something. Burning wood chips is considered "neutral" because trees absorbed CO2 that is now being released - yet coal, or oil, is considered releasing new CO2. Aren't you really talking about time differences?

California's investor-owned utilities Tuesday said they would support a 33% renewables target by 2020 in proposed legislation only if municipal utilities are required to meet the same target.

California's electricity grid manager warned that power to large energy consumers is likely to be cut later Thursday to keep the state's lights on.

Canada remained the top supplier of oil to the United States in June, exporting an average of 1.852 million b/d of crude and 2.3 million b/d of both crude and refined products, according to preliminary data from the US Energy Information Administration.

More than half China's 1.3 billion population, including 278 cities, live without any form of sewage treatment, state media said on Friday, quoting city planning officials.

Starting next month, China’s State Electricity Regulatory Commission (SERC) will assume nationwide oversight over power companies that are required under the country’s renewable energy law to prioritize purchases of the maximum amount of ‘green’ electricity available in their coverage areas...

More than 8,000 Chinese enterprises have been penalized for pollution offences in the first eight months this year - marking a "success" and indicating a "grim" task ahead, said the head of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) on Wednesday.

Consumption of wind energy in the United States rose 45% last year, compared with 6.5% for solar PV and 1.8% for geothermal.

Costa Rica hopes by 2021 to become the first country in the world with zero net emissions of carbon dioxide, as this small Central American nation confronts the threat posed by global warming to its vital tourism and agriculture sectors.

Now it's at the edge of a greener frontier: alternative energy. Güssing is the first community in the European Union to cut carbon emissions by more than 90 percent, helping it attract a steady stream of scientists, politicians and eco-tourists.

Sheep and cattle farmer Ian Shippen stands in a dying ankle-high oat crop under a mobile irrigation boom stretching nearly half-a-kilometre, but now useless without water.

Just when it seemed that concerns over gasoline supplies were fading, falling inventories and surging demand hint that prices may have fallen too far, too fast, leaving outright gasoline prices and crack spread values vulnerable to snapping back higher.

Our legislators continually talk about how we can conserve and how we must develop new sources of energy. These are all valid points but they do not appear to put as much emphasis on conservation. If laws associated with synchronizing traffic lights were even minimally enforced, we could same millions of gallons of gasoline.

"Electric power is everywhere present in unlimited quantities and can drive the world's machinery without the need of coal, oil, gas, or any other of the common fuels."

A coalition of environmental groups Tuesday urged the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to regulate refinery emissions of carbon dioxide.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) confirmed recently that it has temporarily suspended the deployment and sales of travel trailers used in emergency housing while the agency works with health and environmental experts to assess health-related concerns raised by occupants.

The June incident was the second time large amounts of gray, gritty material from the company's power plant fell on Shippingport and Raccoon. The first incident, in July 2006, affected more than 300 homes. FirstEnergy earlier this year paid the maximum $25,000 for that incident.

The World Bank and the Global Environment Facility have approved the ‘Energy Development & Access’ project to increase electricity access, supply and reliability in the African country, where rolling blackouts and inaccessibility continue to impede economic growth.

He will be recommending to senior staff members and Congressmen and women that Congress correct the basic error made in 1938 when both food and drug regulation responsibilities were given to a single agency, the FDA

Germany's biodiesel production capacity is set to rise to a record 5 million tons in 2007, but analysts have warned that the boom in the country's biodiesel industry is coming to an end after the industry failed to block the government from rolling back a key tax relief scheme in court this July.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel called Friday for China and other emerging economies to set clear targets on reducing carbon emissions to stop global warming.

The amount of natural gas flared globally as part of oil operations has remained largely stable over the past 12 years, in the range of 150 to 170 billion cu m, despite moves by some countries to limit flaring, a World Bank report said Thursday.

It's not just outspoken environmentalists who are extolling the virtues of green technology.

"We believe what we've found is not far from the silver bullet, and our demonstration plant will be about showing that. We have the organism people have dreamt of -- it eats nearly anything and it makes ethanol really quickly," said Hamish Curran, the company's CEO, showing off TMO's secret weapon — several bubbling vats of bacteria ...

Investor optimism plunged 14 points to a level of 73 in August, its third consecutive month in decline and its lowest level in a year, according to the UBS/Gallup Index of Investor Optimism.

Bob Lazar of United Nuclear, has logged at least 50,000 miles testing his hydrogen kit system, which is designed to convert fuel-injected gasoline-engine vehicles to run on hydrogen, while seamlessly allowing the vehicle to still run on gasoline when the hydrogen runs out. ...simply converts existing vehicles to burn hydrogen or gasoline.

Forty per cent of Canadians feel their health has been affected by poor air quality and most feel the government is not doing enough to fix the problem, says an IBM survey on the environment's impact on health.

Illinois´ renewable energy standard will require utilities operating in the state to supply 2 percent of their power from renewable energy sources by 2008, 10 percent by 2015, and 25 percent by 2025.

...the future of this recycling expansion is cloudy, because several groups are calling for statewide bans on plastic bags and Styrofoam.

India's parliament will soon debate the accord that permits the United States to sell nuclear technology to fuel that nation's growing energy appetite. It's a hot debate not only in the West but also in Central Asia where detractors worry about an expanded nuclear role for India at a time when it is trying to build questionable energy ties.

The Kyoto Protocol's International Transaction Log is set to go live in November this year, according to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.

A tropical algae thriving on fertilizers from hotel golf courses and badly treated sewage is killing one of Costa Rica's most important coastal reefs, scientists say.

We've reported many times on the mainstreaming of solar power. We've had posts about Home Depot selling solar panels in its stores, and we've reported recently on the huge growth that is predicted for the whole industry. Of course, one thing that will hasten the adoption of solar, and renewable energy in general, is if consumers can see the financial sense in taking the plunge. This may be starting to happen.

Japan has halted work at three nuclear research units run by its Atomic Energy Agency due to concerns over the handling of fuel material and other problems, Kyodo news agency said on Friday.

Today, energy security is an indispensable subject even in general discussions about foreign policy. Securing needed energy resources is one of the prerequisites for ensuring sustainable economic growth.

Explosive demand and an aging workforce may be combining to create a catastrophic labor shortage in the energy sector.

The sharp increase in US gasoline prices in the spring and summer of 2006 was due to market factors, such as increased demand and higher crude and ethanol prices, not violations of antitrust laws, the US' top competition regulators said Thursday in a report commissioned by President George W. Bush.

Researchers armed with data from two NASA satellites have invented a way to map the fleeting changes in coastal water quality from space. The task long had evaded researchers and coastal managers relying only on ground-based data.

For years, DOE has been bedeviled by a series of security breaches, particularly at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. Those problems led to the firing of D'Agostino's predecessor, Linton Brooks.

Durham University scientists are using materials such as copper indium diselenide and cadmium telluride to find an affordable and more sustainable way to make solar panels to convert light energy into electricity, the university said in a news release Monday.

Thicker silicon-based cells and compounds containing indium, which is expansive and hard to find...

The Northwest European MTBE market will reduce in volume by around 30% next year as more European member states institute biofuel legislation favoring the use of products like ETBE or ethanol, industry sources said Wednesday.

Backers of renewable energies are ratcheting efforts to get passed this fall legislation mandating that 20 percent of Ohio's total energy come from wind energy production.

Despite a generally positive recommendation by an Oklahoma Corporation Commission administrative law judge, a proposed 950-megawatt coal-fired power plant likely would not be built if the recommendation is followed completely, Oklahoma Gas and Electric Co. said Tuesday.

The state of Oregon opposes a Department of Energy proposal to send more radioactive waste to Hanford for permanent disposal.

Governor Edward G. Rendell today unveiled plans for the construction of a new solar energy power station that will be the fourth-largest facility of its kind in the country and the largest east of Arizona when operations begin next April.

Citizens and conservation advocates across Montana commended Missoula leaders Tuesday for their decision to back out of a deal with Electric City Power, a Great Falls nonprofit with plans to build a coal-fired plant.

"There was a choppy day yesterday with some sharp moves on the futures markets but now it is marking time after the US stats-related move on Wednesday,"
one London-based broker said. "There's still potential concern about financial markets, but they appear to have stabilised currently, especially Asian markets, which were strong over night." Global crude futures were steady Friday ahead of the long weekend in the US.

The sharp increase in US gasoline prices in the spring and summer of 2006 was due to market factors, such as increased demand and higher crude and ethanol prices, not violations of antitrust laws, the US' top competition regulators said Thursday in a report commissioned by President George W. Bush.
"The determination that the price increases were attributable to these six factors also supports the conclusion that the increases did not stem from violations of the antitrust laws,"

This opens up the prospect of mobile phones powered by body heat or medical electronics and sensor systems powered by the patient's body heat.

The nation's first renewable fuels standard (RFS) program is set to take effect Sept. 1. Authorized by the Energy Policy Act of 2005, the program will promote use of fuels largely produced from American-grown crops.

A huge swathe of China's booming Pearl River Delta will be "engulfed" by rising sea water by the middle of the century because of global warming, state media said on Thursday, quoting weather officials.

Rapidly turning turbine blades might have contributed to the buckling of the massive wind tower that killed one worker and injured another at the Klondike III wind farm Saturday, officials of Siemens Power Generation said Tuesday.

Favorable energy policies involving budget allocations and air quality have bolstered solar energy. The latest news is coming from the Mojave Solar Park in California and expressly from Pacific Gas and Electric that has said it will buy some of its green power.

Paul Norris has the kind of power bill we all dream of - his electricity supplier sends him a cheque.

He generates so much electricity from the solar photovoltaic (PV) panels on the roof of his three-bedroom house in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, that he not only satisfies his own needs but also exports excess supplies to the National Grid.

Heating water with solar thermal in the United States could save consumers US$8 billion a year in retail energy costs, according to a report prepared for the Department of Energy.

Countries in southeast Asia must adopt binding targets for renewables and energy efficiency in order to mitigate climate change, according to the environmental group Greenpeace.

The spot gold price on Thursday rebounded in morning trade in Hong Kong. Gold opened at $665.90-666.40/oz, up from $663.60-664.10/oz at the end of the afternoon trading session on Wednesday.

Gerald Rowley keeps his dreams in his garage. There, on a quiet street in this southeast Florida town, he stores an aging Mazda 626 sedan, cream white with a worn interior, unremarkable in nearly all respects with the exception of a precisely machined, one-gallon steel box in the trunk connected to fuel lines leading to a gasoline vaporizing device under the hood.

You may be aware that China has been a leader in use of animal manure for energy. In 1998 I visited a farm complex outside of Shanghai that collected manure, manually by one man in tall boots and a shovel, from several thousand dairy cows and digested the manure in several large stainless steel tanks. The generated biogas was tapped off the top of the tanks and fed to a nearby town that used the gas for cooking in homes and restaurants, replacing coal as the fuel.

Green power should receive a share of the US$148 billion that will be needed by 2030 to reduce GHG emissions, according to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

Freddie Mac (NYSE:FRE) yesterday released the results of its Primary Mortgage Market Survey (PMMS) in which the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) averaged 6.45 percent with an average 0.5 point for the week ending August 30, down from last week when it averaged 6.52. Last year at this time, the 30-year FRM averaged 6.44 percent.

The United States praised developing nations' efforts to curb greenhouse gases on Wednesday, a marked shift from its usual call for big emitters such as China and India to do more to fight global warming.

Remember, we have about 24-36 hours remaining in our current "favorable phase" in the Atlantic before the next lull sets in, so we continue to monitor the still-disorganized Eastern Atlantic Wave.

Our neutral ENSO status at present is not at all surprising considering our multi-decadal research still monitors a strengthening of the Atlantic ThermoHaline Circulation occurring over several years now. These conveyor belt circulation patterns of the Atlantic Ocean, driven by temperature and salinity gradients, are enormously powerful mechanisms for shaping North American weather regimes for decades on end.

The United States does not intend to join a global carbon market "as a country," according to the country's leading climate negotiator.

Starting in October, Santee Cooper will buy excess power from customers who make electricity with solar panels and other generators in a bid to bolster its green energy offerings and silence criticism from environmentalists.

A team of researchers has developed an automated monitoring method that makes it possible to detect traces of drugs, from cocaine to caffeine, in municipal wastewater and monitor the patterns of drug use in entire communities.

An open source project by the H2earth Institute is in process of replicating the water fuel cell technology of the late Stanley Meyer, who ran vehicles on water, and whose patents have just now become public domain.

The wind-turbine shortage is both real and solvable. In fact, it's one of the top challenges in the industry with which executives are currently grappling.

•Crude futures moved higher Thursday, in a continuation of the rally seen late Wednesday on the back of bullish US crude and product stock data while geopolitical and storm concerns continue to provide support, traders said.

The state of Ohio could gain 40,000 person-years of employment if it were to commit to a 20% level of wind energy by 2020.

With Congress returning in September, the 11th-hour vote in August sets the stage for an exciting fall in Washington. In addition to the conference committee process, the legislation has other hurdles to clear: the Bush administration has indicated its intention to veto the energy policy bill in its current form.

The International Energy Agency Friday said the ongoing subprime crisis that has rocked stock markets could have some impact on US oil demand but not before 2008.

A Delaware-based renewable energy company's ambitious business plan may sound like it's reaching for the stars, but company officials say the target -- the sun -- is within its grasp. Critics, though, wonder whether the company's goals are too lofty.

A hole in the ozone layer over Antarctica has appeared earlier than usual in 2007, the United Nations weather agency said on Tuesday. ..is expected to continue growing until early October, would be larger than its record size in 2006.

Guardian columnist Ashley Seager did some interesting math to determine whether investing in solar power was a better option, purely financially speaking, than putting money in the bank. Now a rival British newspaper, the Daily Telegraph, is also looking at the numbers.

China's nationwide program to deliver electricity produced in western regions to the east coast is suffering because of inadequate grid infrastructure, according to a report by the official Economic Daily.

Climate negotiators from more than 150 nations assembled in Vienna on Monday with calls for a global deal beyond 2012 to replace the UN's Kyoto Protocol and include outsiders such as the United States and China.

Climate change and biofuels pose fresh challenges in the fight against poverty, which requires more than ever cooperation among scientists, the new head of an international body for agricultural research said.

Late in his presidency, George W. Bush finally brought himself to lament America's addiction to oil. But neither he nor leading Democratic politicians have ever rallied the United States to break its addiction to a more lethal form of energy: coal, which supplies half the nation's electricity.

Ethanol use in the U.S. has seen dramatic growth in recent years. According to the Renewable Fuels Association, in 2006 approximately 4.8 billion gallons of grain ethanol were produced in the U.S. This is up from approximately 1 billion gallons a decade ago

Global crude futures drifted sideways in early Tuesday trading, calming down after Monday's volatile session, which was driven by a mix of bullish and bearish news amid relatively low volumes due a public holiday in the UK. The October WTI contracts on ICE and NYMEX were up 8 cents at $72.05/b, widening the WTI/Brent spread to over $1/b for the first time since 20 August.

As he stood Wednesday in front of a 45-foot-tall array of solar panels at UNLV, Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards said Nevada would be one of the states to benefit most from his energy policy if he is elected.

Last year, for the first time ever, an industry association reported that Texas surpassed California as the country's No. 1 generator of wind energy. Not only did the Lone Star State blow past the Golden State again in this year's report, but Texas regulators in July voted to designate eight zones for production of some 20,000 megawatts of wind energy.

The electric utility industry has come a long way in the past year, abandoning its opposition to CO2 regulation in favor of campaigning for a seat at the table when such regulations are crafted. Hardly anyone in the industry seems to think that regulation will be a boon for the industry, but most, like the majority of the executives at the hearings, seem to have grudgingly accepted its inevitability.

Feeling guilty about the amount of deadly greenhouse gases you emit by driving that big SUV or using your air conditioner during the summer?

The Hanford Nuclear Reservation is on the federal government's short list of sites for storing radioactive waste that could include contaminated metal from more than 100 U.S. nuclear plants.

Catchy But Noxious: "Toilet to tap" isn´t how I would go about trying to sell it, but this op-ed piece from the Los Angeles Times makes a strong case that the city should take another look at purifying its wastewater for reuse as potable tapwater.

Published reports suggest that the US subprime disaster may be clawing its way into other domestic credit sectors and right now, a drastic rise in credit card borrowing is the first sign.

The city of Lacey is one of a handful of U.S. cities recognized by the federal government for its commitment to using "green power."

A short-lived discussion between state and federal attorneys over using Nevada's water at the planned Yucca Mountain nuclear waste site probably will end today with the parties at loggerheads unless the Department of Energy adheres to the state's ultimatum to stop using its water for bore hole work.

A recent analysis by the U.S. EPA concluded the risks to human health and the environment from air toxics emitted from petroleum refineries are low enough that no further controls are warranted.

The Ontario Energy Ministry Tuesday said it had directed the Ontario
Power Authority to secure 2,000 MW of renewable capacity beyond the more than
2,000 MW already under contract and to issue a solicitation by the end of this
year for 500 MW of wind and other renewable projects of at least 10 MW each.

The agreement allows PG&E to purchase from Microgy 8,000 Mcf of renewable natural gas. Mircrogy plans to construct four production facilities on the site of large dairy farms in California and interconnect those systems to PG&E's extensive gas pipeline network.

Nearly half of all Americans wouldn't be able to turn the lights on if the country were to immediately ban the use of coal-fired power plants.

Polluters along two of China's main rivers have defied a decade-old clean-up effort, leaving much of the water unfit to touch, let alone drink, and a risk to a sixth of the population, state media said on Monday.

Researchers at the US Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory have created a new class of catalysts that might help overcome some of the hurdles inhibiting the production of hydrogen for use in fuel cells.

The geomagnetic field ranged from quiet to active levels. Solar wind speed increased to approximately 670 km/s due to a coronal hole high speed stream.

Countries battle for control of ocean tracts thought to be replete with fossil fuels.

The Chinese have moved in, bringing with them two marble lions that stand guard outside their Arctic Yellow River research station, and so too have Japan and South Korea. Scientists from India's first expedition to the Arctic are poised to join them. In June, a visiting delegation from Washington talked of beefing up US interests at Ny-Alesund, while the Russians are in negotiations.

The only way to address global warming is through nuclear power, and reprocessing nuclear waste would solve the problem of what to do with contaminated material, U.S. Rep. Zach Wamp said Thursday.

Gov. Ted Strickland doesn't like the word "quota," but he said the proposal that he plans to put before lawmakers as soon as this week should help make Ohio a player in renewable energy technology.

“Financial market turmoil has shifted the focus away from terrorism and toward subprime and other credit problems as the most important near-term threats to the U.S. economy,”

The spot price of uranium appears to have settled for now in a range of $90 to $95/pound U3O8, according to Ux Consulting and TradeTech.

Once we turn the calendar to September, the diminishing daylight hours makes it very difficult for Upper Mid-West and Northeastern States to produce critical days...

The Southwestern U.S. 2007 Monsoon patterns (clouds, moisture, rains) are coming to a close, and will be replaced by subsidence, and ample desert sun, resuming the hot temperatures reminiscent of this June and early July.

In an effort to end Los Angeles' dependence on landfills, sanitation officials are reviewing 12 proposals to build the nation's first major trash-to-energy plant in the city. The plant would take residual garbage -- what's left after bottles, cans and other recyclables are picked out -- and convert it into gas or electricity.

•Global crude futures drifted sideways in early Tuesday trading, calming down after Monday's volatile session, which was driven by a mix of bullish and bearish news amid relatively low volumes due a public holiday in the UK.

•On Monday, NYMEX RBOB futures rallied as supportive fundamentals--with gasoline supply/demand balances tightening--put a floor on prices last week.

Duke Energy Corp. plans to use its recently purchased Tierra Energy unit to build a wind-energy division in its unregulated business, seeing an opportunity for selling alternative energy to industrial customers. Duke expects to make money from Tierra's planned wind generators by 2009.

As the nation's coal-fired power plants work to create cleaner skies, they'll likely fill up landfills with millions more tons of potentially harmful ash.

With four major gas pipeline developments being recorded in as many months, Russia and Iran appear set to play a large role in the expansion of exports to a gas-hungry Europe. However, all pipelines, in one form or another, appear to wind their way back to Turkmenistan, where President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov appears determined to erode Russia's stranglehold on his country's hydrocarbon resources.

The government of Australia will provide funding to help every school in the country to install solar hot water systems and rainwater tanks.

Increasing production of biofuels to combat climate change will release between two and nine times more carbon gases over the next 30 years than fossil fuels, according to the first comprehensive analysis of emissions from biofuels.

BP America Inc. has promised not to increase wastewater discharges at its Whiting, Ind. refinery despite receiving permission to do so.

Cutting greenhouse gas emission need not be distant dream or expensive. Advocates of co-firing bio-mass with coal or natural gas say that it is an effective way for utilities to begin now to reduce their carbon footprints.

"I personally wouldn't have a theoretical maximum," de Boer said. "I would let the market make that choice. We're facing a huge challenge, and the more economically viable we make it, the better it is."

China has banned mining on mountains sacred to Buddhists after protests from monks that the exploitation was damaging ancient temples and violating holy sites, the official Xinhua news agency reported on Thursday.

Fifty-six citizens groups are looking for the US Congress and President George Bush to block any efforts by some Congressmen to raise the federal gasoline tax to pay for upkeep and repairs on aging American bridges.

Despite a backdrop of meager funding and career-killing derision from mainstream scientists and engineers, cold fusion is anything but a dead field of research.

Reflecting a shift in priorities under the Democratic majority, Congress is moving to spend as much as $6.7 billion next fiscal year to combat global warming, an increase of nearly one-third from the current year.

Ohio State University researchers used microbe-rich fluid from cows to generate electricity in a new, small cellulose-based microbial fuel cell.

Global crude futures were moving sideways in early European trading Friday, looking for direction after most of the recent market-moving news eased, as Mexican crude oil production seems back on track, sources said.

When the Fed announced a 50bp cut in the discount rate last week and also made a point of announcing an extension of the maturity of discount window loans to 30 days, our first reaction was to ask: Great, but what about next week? The troubles affecting the US markets are about solvency, not mere liquidity.

The dollar was up against the yen, but down against the euro and British pound on Thursday, as investors increased their appetite for risk overnight after strong trading sessions in Asia.

In a groundbreaking survey conducted by Energy Insights, an IDC Company, 81% of respondents indicated concern about climate change. When participants in Energy Insights National Residential Online Panel were asked specifically about their concern regarding the effects of climate change, 51% of respondents said they are very concerned and 30% said they are somewhat concerned. Only 5% indicated they are not concerned at all about climate change.

A recent analysis by EPA on the risks from air toxics emitted from petroleum refineries found that the risks to human health and the environment are low enough that no further controls are warranted.

London (UK) --Green energy devices such as wind turbines and solar panels are to be made compulsory on millions of new homes and offices under government plans to boost green energy.

The UK Government is set to miss targets for increasing renewable energy and cutting carbon emissions by a wide margin, a report warns today.

If permits and other applications from federal and state sources come through, a New York-based company could begin tests on a new technology to generate electricity from the tidal flows in the Housatonic River in 2009.

University of New Hampshire will power its campus with renewable landfill gas from the Turnkey Recycling and Environmental Enterprise facility owned by Waste Management

The use of geothermal heat pumps in the United States has increased 500% in the past 15 years.

The German government passed an energy and climate agreement aiming to reduce the country's CO2 emissions by 36% compared with 1990 levels, the government said Friday on its website.

Key players in real estate and construction misjudge the costs and benefits of "green" buildings, creating a major barrier to more energy efficiency in the building sector, a new study by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) reports.

Millions of Egyptians could be forced permanently from their homes, the country's ability to feed itself devastated.

Have your eyes recently popped out of your head when you opened your electric bill? Do you, like me, live in one of those U.S. states where electricity has been deregulated and the state no longer oversees the generation price so your utility rates have skyrocketed since 2002?

The Governor ceremoniously signed the bill while visiting an Erie County middle school that is adding a 30-kilowatt photovoltaic system as part of its renovation. The solar panels were funded with a $250,000 grant through the states Energy Harvest program.

The first group of SmartWay Grow & Go truckers to use renewable fuels will be recognized by the Environmental Protection Agency's top air official today at the Great American Trucking Show in the Dallas Convention Center.

Virginia business and government leaders looking for innovative ways to improve the environment should cast their eyes north toward Charles County, Md. Officials there are moving toward approval of a first-in-the-nation endeavor that would use treated wastewater instead of groundwater in power-plant operations.

One of the biggest barriers in front of the hydrogen industry is that of building a complicated infrastructure for producing, shipping, storing and consuming hydrogen for fuel. But what if we could bypass all that and create a distributed system in which consumers produce their own fuel without worrying about filling and changing large tanks filled with hydrogen?

The six states and two Canadian provinces belonging to the Western Climate Initiative have pledged to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the West by 15 percent by 2020.

Hennessee Group LLC, an adviser to hedge fund investors, yesterday notes that while some hedge funds focused on mortgage backed securities have suffered well publicized losses related to the decline in the sub-prime mortgages space, many hedge funds have also been able to generate profits as a result of its decline.

Norwegian oil and gas player Hydro has revealed that it is investing an additional NOK62 million in Colorado, US-based solar energy firm Ascent Solar, a producer of super-thin, flexible solar cell modules.

The U.S. Department of Energy's domestic FreedomCAR and Fuels presidential initiative has now gone global, and researchers at Sandia National Laboratories are playing a key role in that worldwide effort.

Infectious diseases are emerging more quickly around the globe, spreading faster and becoming increasingly difficult to treat, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Thursday.

A global insurance organisation is preparing for the “accelerating development of environmentally friendly energies, products and technologies.”

Ethanol, mainly an alcohol-based gasoline additive and more rarely an alternative fuel, has become a controversial topic when discussing clean alternatives to petroleum products. Ethanol additive helps gasoline burn slightly cleaner and mildly reduces carbon emissions.

Canada-based upstream minnow Loon Energy on Tuesday signed a contract with Peruvian authorities to secure the exclusive right to explore an area of the country's northern jungle known as block 127, where it expects to find crude oil, company officials said late Tuesday.

The McGuinty government is investing $3 million in six new projects designed to bring innovations to market that will help make Ontario industry more environmentally sustainable, Minister of Small Business and Entrepreneurship Harinder Takhar announced today...

Some focus on the sun, others on the wind, and at least one includes a role for pig power.

While the particulars vary, state laws requiring electric utilities to use renewable energy sources to help curb greenhouse-gas emissions and meet growing power demands are rapidly becoming the norm.

A new class of catalysts created at the U.S. Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory may help scientists and engineers overcome some of the hurdles that have inhibited the production of hydrogen for use in fuel cells.

Whether it's window dressing or a sincere recognition that our energy habits must change, this special session has already produced more than just a coal bill.

Two anti-nuclear groups have given up their legal opposition to Progress Energy's bid to add 20 years to the operating license of the Shearon Harris nuclear plant in Wake County.

October crude futures on the New York Mercantile Exchange opened 3 cents lower at $69.80/barrel Friday despite additional gains in the RBOB market.

The Solar Electric Power Association has released its online Solar Programs Options Tool (SPOT).

The tool combines quantitative data with a short user survey to recommend and prioritise types of solar activities for further investigation by electric utilities which are interested in developing solar projects or programs.

The planting of native trees in urban areas means cleaner, healthier cities that are fighting the effects of climate change, Natural Resources Minister David Ramsay announced today.

Ontario's Chief Energy Conservation Officer, Peter Love, today called on Ontario's municipalities to appoint local energy conservation officers to help him create a "culture of conservation" throughout the province.

"We will look at the pluses and minuses, including to greenhouse gas emissions, of the process of collecting the chopsticks, carrying them to facilities and then producing the biofuel."
Japan's Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries ministry official Toyohisa Aoyama said.

"During the time that crude oil prices were dropping to their lowest levels since the Great Depression, Shell, Texaco and Saudi, by and through Equilon and Motiva, agreed to and did in fact fix and raise the price of gasoline sold to the independent Shell and Texaco branded retail dealers."
A case, filed Tuesday in US District Court in San Francisco said.

Sen. Harry Reid said Saturday he will do everything he can to stop construction of new coal-fired power plants proposed for Nevada.

Utility companies, Reid said, should instead invest their billions in solar, wind and geothermal power.

Fossil-fuel burning power plants are still the cheapest source for electricity, but industry experts say that, in the near future, residents and businesses will depend on a combination of alternatives -- many of which are still under development and come with a high price tag -- to meet energy demands and environmental concerns.

Total renewable energy consumption increased 7 percent between 2005 and 2006, according to preliminary data released today by the Energy Information Administration.

A thaw of Antarctic ice is outpacing predictions by the UN climate panel and could in the worst case drive up world sea levels by 2 metres (6 ft) by 2100, a leading expert said on Wednesday.

Smog is menacing Japanese cities for the first time in 30 years and cropping up in rural areas for the first time ever, alarming the government and prompting experts to point the finger at neighboring China.

A political flare-up over subsidies for solar water heating installation has diverted attention from more important issues, according to Solar Industries Association chief executive Brian Cox.

Southeast Asian countries will begin talks on nuclear safety this year, a senior Singaporean official said Thursday, as more countries explore nuclear energy as an alternative to expensive oil and gas.

The spot price of uranium dropped $15 a pound over the past week and now stands at $90/lb U3O8, Ux Consulting said late Monday.

Any glaciers then -- a time when the planet was much warmer -- would only have been in small areas in Antarctica's interior and not in the Northern hemisphere, said Paul Wilson, from Britain's National Oceanography Centre, who led the study.

Support for new nuclear power plants deteriorated slightly during the past two years among people living close to existing reactors, according to a survey by the Nuclear Energy Institute.

Green building is gaining in popularity throughout the United States, but to date, most green building efforts have focused on a single building and are usually championed by either the building's owner or its primary tenant. Given that, can entire neighborhoods be swept up in the pursuit of green building and sustainable design and development?

Uganda began construction Tuesday on a hydropower project that has been plagued by corruption allegations since it was conceived more than 10 years ago to solve this country's power crisis.

US and Australian calls for a new world deal to fight climate change and ditch the United Nations' Kyoto Protocol misrepresent key elements of the UN plan, the global body's top climate official said on Thursday.

In a victory for environmentalists, a US court in California has ordered the Bush administration to issue a timely, single, comprehensive scientific report on greenhouse gas emissions and climate change.

Freddie Mac (NYSE:FRE) yesterday released the results of its Primary Mortgage Market Survey (PMMS) in which the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) averaged 6.52 percent with an average 0.4 point for the week ending August 23, down from last week when it averaged 6.62. Last year at this time, the 30-year FRM averaged 6.48 percent.

US renewable energy consumption increased 7% from 2005 to 2006, at a time when total US energy use declined 1%, according to report from the US Energy Information Administration.

Nearly two dozen gasoline stations owners have filed suit against Shell, Chevron and Saudi Refining, alleging that the companies conspired to fix gasoline prices for 23,000 Shell- and Texaco-branded dealers nationwide between 1998 and 2001.

Congress is hoping that an ethanol industry with an endless appetite for corn will have a sweet tooth too.

Under the farm bill the House of Representatives passed last month, the federal government would buy surplus sugar and sell it to ethanol producers, where it would be used in a mixture with corn.

The US Energy Information Administration on Thursday reported a 23 Bcf net storage injection for the week ending August 17, raising nationwide stocks to 2.926 Tcf. The build was below consensus expectations of a 27- to 32-Bcf injection.

Because wind in Texas blows mostly at night and enegy-intensive air conditioner use rises with the triple-digit temperature during the day, TXU, in conjunction with Shell, had to find a way to store energy for use when it is most needed.

The bridge collapse in Minneapolis is giving rise to other concerns. Hundreds of billions is needed to rebuild the nation's infrastructure. It's not just roads and bridges. It's also generation and transmission.

•Global crude futures recovered slightly on Wednesday morning following Tuesday afternoon's sell-off, which saw prices for front-month Brent and WTI slip below the psychologically important $70/barrel mark as supply fears stemming from Hurricane Dean eased. At 10:02 GMT, October ICE Brent was up 13 cents to $68.82/b, having fallen to their lowest value since early June at $68.14/b during Tuesday trading.

•Global crude futures were moving sideways Friday, looking for direction after most of the recent market-moving news eased, as Mexican crude oil production seems back on track, Pemex said.

In an effort to develop alternative energy sources such as fuel cells and solar fuel from “artificial” photosynthesis, scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory are taking a detailed look at electrons – the particles that set almost all chemical processes in motion.

20-year purchase agreement between Southern California Edison and Stirling Energy Systems, Inc. will result in 20,000+ dish array, covering 4,500 acres, and capable of generating 500 MW -- more electricity than all other present U.S. solar projects combined.

For hundreds of years, inquisitive minds have experimented with storing and discharging electricity with capacitors. One of the first of these capacitors is the now familiar glass Leyden jar.

Iraq's oil output has been consistently below US program goals, despite four years of effort and $2.7 billion in US reconstruction funds, and the situation does not appear to be improving...

They've become as much a symbol of Africa's landscape as the stereotypical lions and plains.
Discarded plastic bags -- in the billions -- flutter from thorn-bushes across the continent, and clog up cities from Cape Town to Casablanca.

A US liberal lobbying organization Monday released analysis that showed that House members who had received sizable campaign contributions from the fossil fuels industry tended to vote against a recently passed measure that would ratchet up its taxes.

Australian scientists want to string a vast array of probes across the oceans of the southern hemisphere to warn of changes in ocean circulation that may affect the global climate.

The same heat that is triggering historic energy demand in the Tennessee Valley forced TVA to cut power production at Browns Ferry Nuclear Power Plant.

John Kanzius has found a way to burn salt water with the same radio wave machine he is using to kill cancer cells.

The hydrogen fuel cell will provide 50 percent of the power needed to cool the Fujitsu Sunnyvale campus data center and labs, reducing the amount of fossil fuel that must be burned to maintain operations and easing pressure on the local power grid.

Speculation that foreign steel makers could turn to the US to fill metallurgical coal shortfalls may be moot, as current US supply might not be sufficient to meet spot cargo demand, several industry sources said.

The renewable-energy industry is poised to become the 10th largest job sector in the commonwealth, surpassing the textile industry that was once a staple in the region.

Summertime and the living is easy. Air conditioners pumping and the icemaker’s working fine. And yet, now too is the summer of our discontent, made torrid by fears of war and terrorism. It sometimes seems to sensible hardheaded people (in which group most of us number ourselves) that to confront those issues holding the green palms of renewable energy is almost a little effete, distracted by environmentalism from the blood and iron realities of the day.

Glaciers are sensitive to climate change and have been receding since the start of the industrial age but the pace of shrinkage has accelerated in recent years.

The environmental group Greenpeace, which organised the shoot, said the aim was to "establish a symbolic relationship between the vulnerability of the melting glacier and the human body."

...Scruton's larger point is sound: that proper environmental stewardship is fundamentally a matter of conscience, a byproduct of every person keeping his or her own house in order. And I agree that it's imperative that we recognize our planet as the magnificent source of wealth it is -- but also as a finite, damageable one that we must do out utmost to preserve and pass on to our descendants.

U.S. District Judge Roger Hunt pressed a Justice Department attorney Wednesday to explain why the Department of Energy after 20 years is suddenly rushing to drill bore holes to collect rock samples at the planned Yucca Mountain nuclear waste site.

Kentucky--After weeks of intensive negotiations behind closed doors, lawmakers contended in a 10:30 p.m. news conference that they have no idea how much the legislation might be worth to companies, such as Peabody Energy, that have proposed building multibillion- dollar plants to convert coal into synthetic fuels.

Here we go again. Nameplate values (once again quoted here as if they have any significance whatsoever) are meaningless. Wind proponents appear to think that is all that matters.

OPEC August 14 raised its forecasts of world oil demand and demand for its own crude this year and next.

But it warned that the demand outlook was being clouded by a number of "emerging uncertainties," including the extent of the fallout from the housing loans crisis in the US which has already caused volatile swings in global equity markets.

Eighty-two percent of 1,152 people polled who live near US power reactors support nuclear power, and 71% say the construction of a new unit near them would be acceptable if it's needed to supply electricity, according to a public opinion poll the Nuclear Energy Institute released August 20.

The Portland company will use 33 photovoltaic modules to produce enough electricity to light and heat the office and warehouse, as well as power all computers and manufacturing tools.

"This invitation has been accepted and the preparation is underway. When the trip becomes definite we will make an announcement."
Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said. The Iraqi Prime Minister Nurial-Maliki has invited Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad after he visited Tehran earlier this month

The Nigerian government is seeking to end frequent adjustment in prices of petroleum products that have been stoking unrest in the country, by boosting local production and supply,

ExxonMobil on Monday said it was continuing normal production operations at its Gulf of Mexico and Mobile Bay operations despite Hurricane Dean,

A materials scientist is heated up over the effect of John Kanzius external radio-wave generator on salt water.
It is scientifically a staggeringly important discovery, said Rustum Roy, a leading authority on microwave applications on materials technology.

Solar activity is expected to be very low to low. The geomagnetic field is expected to be quiet 21 August and quiet to unsettled 22 - 23 August.

Drillers tried from above ground Saturday to reach six trapped miners in Utah after the deaths of three rescuers suspended work underground indefinitely.

The drillers were boring a fourth hole in the cavern where the six miners were believed trapped. Three previous holes yielded no sign of the men, alive or dead, the Salt Lake Tribune reported Saturday.

A uninimous ACC in late May rejected SoCal Ed's proposal to build the 230 mile line, saying the project would raise electricity costs for Arizona ratepayers and provide no benefits to the state.

ESA satellites are tracking the path of Hurricane Dean as it rips across the Caribbean Sea carrying winds as high as 260 km per hour. The hurricane, which has already claimed eight lives, is forecast to slam into Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula on Tuesday morning.

In the nearly two years since environmentalists first started noting the wildly varying permit fees that cities charge homeowners seeking to harness the sun's power, the eye-opening push appears to be paying off: From Silicon Valley to the North Bay's bucolic wine country, dozens of cities are falling all over themselves to make it easier for residents to put up the panels.

The Solar Roadway is a series of interconnected Solar Road Panels that you actually drive on. The idea is to replace all current asphalt roads, parking lots, and driveways with Solar Road

...in the face of global poverty, critical lack of sanitation, water scarcity and climate change, we all need to do much better.

Plants that can be grown for fuel are often touted as a vast, clean energy source -- except by those who say precious food is being diverted into gas tanks, and that biofuel crops are using up dwindling land and water. Enter willow, hemp and switchgrass.

We've often heard the media and government officials talk up the potential for a future hydrogen economy to revolutionize the way we consume and produce energy. And while we've seen some promising applications of hydrogen as a fuel source in the last few months, it still seems very unlikely that we'll ever see a hydrogen-based energy market on the scale that some are envisioning.

•Global crude futures dropped almost $1/barrel Monday as fears of hurricane Dean affecting major oil production and potentially damaging US refineries eased.

•Global crude futures drifted lower Tuesday, following the significant falls on Monday as forecasters predicted that Hurricane Dean would not pose a significant threat to US Gulf of Mexico production facilities, sources said.

•All eyes have been on the development of the first major hurricane in the US Gulf Coast in 2007 and the energy complex has started to dissociate from the equity markets, with traders looking more to fundamentals for price direction.

In June, Yemen's president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, discussed nuclear cooperation with French leaders during an official visit in France, the reports said. Western diplomats said August 20 that the US and members of the European Union would likely support Yemen's bid for a power reactor.

Providing clean energy for tribes and selling excess power to the regional and national grids is like “touching” the enemy—in this case, polluting emissions and poor energy policies—without causing harm. It is “in fact, gaining honor through the benefits of clean energy,”

The cul-de-sac of 40 small houses is everything you might expect in American suburbia. Minivans sit parked in perfectly proportioned driveways. Clumps of kids ride bikes around the neighborhood. Dogs bark behind backyard fences. A nearby four-lane drones in the background.

"I have noticed that when I tell people that these new houses have energy costs of approximately 50 cents a day, they tend to think about their own homes. People respond to the idea. They just need education and awareness."

There is a 92 percent chance that Arctic sea ice extent in September will melt to its lowest level at least since the 1970s, when satellite measuring efforts began, the researchers said. They had predicted a 33 percent chance of a record low in April, but changed the forecast after a rapid disintegration of sea ice during July.

Not a drop of rain fell last week, and a drop likely wouldn't have stood much chance anyway with temperatures and heat indexes looking more like oven temperatures than weather reports. Record-breaking, triple digit heat throughout the Charlotte area combined with dry conditions to keep lake levels throughout the Catawba River Basin low.

Australian scientists have discovered a giant underwater current that is one of the last missing links of a system that connects the world's oceans and helps govern global climate.

Warmer, drier weather coupled with alterations to the waterways of North America's Great Lakes will likely drive Lake Superior down to record low water levels sometime this year, experts say.

BRITAIN has no hope of hitting targets to get 20 per cent of the country's energy from wind, solar and wave power by 2020, officials have warned.

China shut down small thermal power plants with installed capacity totaling 6.95 million kilowatts in the first half of the year, completing about 70 per cent of the pre-set goal in 2007.

The Oklahoma Supreme Court last week decided not to hear a case filed by a large independent gas producer and others to block the construction of a massive new coal-fired power plant.

Plans for a $1.6 billion coal-fired power plant on Minnesota's boundary with South Dakota cleared a major milestone Wednesday, when two administrative law judges urged state regulators to issue permits for transmission lines to deliver power to customers in Minnesota.

The global credit crunch centered on subprime mortgage lending is spilling over into US gas markets as speculative funds liquidate positions in the financial commodity markets, sources said Thursday.

Global crude futures recovered on Friday after Thursday's massive selling spree across the petroleum sector, support coming in particular from US product futures following a fire that forced Chevron to shut one of two crude units at its 325,000 b/d Pascagoula, Mississippi, refinery.

Earthquakes on long, straight faults can rupture faster than previously thought and trigger powerful shock waves that make quick-moving quakes even more destructive, according to a new study published on Thursday.

The Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) has released a study that shows that "the aggressive development and implementation of a full portfolio of advanced electricity technologies could reduce the economic cost of cutting future U.S. CO2 emissions by more than 50 per cent while meeting the continuing growth in demand for electricity."

The increase in world agriculture prices caused by the global boom in biofuels could benefit many of the world’s rural poor—one of many conclusions of a landmark new 450-page book

A full 31% of India's primary energy comes from bio energy that include agricultural and forest waste, wood chips, animal waste and bio fuels. The share of such non-commercial bio energy is second only to coal which accounts for just over a third of India's primary energy mix. About 70% of India's domestic energy need is met by bio energy

I'm going to make a prediction today: you will never drive a hydrogen fueled car. Although hydrogen does indeed have some benefits in certain applications, it's my task today to separate the reality of useful fuel cells from the hydrogen hype. That may seem like a bold statement to you now, but by the end of this article, you'll understand why.

The Nature Conservancy recently came out with a study that American families are spending more time indoors with television, video games and the Internet than in the outdoors. The group expressed concern about what this means for the future of conservation.

To talk about going nuclear in New Zealand might be bordering on treason, but in France it is the source of most of their power and no small amount of pride.

Lawmakers are taking time to speak on panel discussions, network ideas, and learn more about the environmental benefits of using green energy.

More than eight thousand legislators and staff are gathering at the Boston Convention and Events Center (BCEC) for the National Conference of State Legislatures annual meeting.

Lightning has killed 499 people in China so far this year, nearly 200 more than in the same period last year, and the country's top meteorologist blamed recent extreme weather on global warming.

Under pressure from public power districts, Nebraska environmental regulators have abandoned, for now, any talk of controlling mercury pollution more aggressively than what is required by new federal rules.

OPEC raised its estimate of world oil demand for this year and next and said concern about potential weakness in financial markets "clouds" forecasts for oil consumption and future growth.

Oregon will establish some of the most aggressive greenhouse gas reduction goals in the country under a bill signed into law Tuesday by Gov. Ted Kulongoski.

Peruvian Rescue teams scrambled on Friday to find survivors in the disaster zone of a powerful earthquake that killed some 500 people and where an aftershock of 6.0 magnitude struck on Friday, the U.S. Geological Survey and witnesses said.

Pacific Gas and Electric Company today announced that it is the first utility to join The Green Grid, a non-profit consortium dedicated to advancing energy efficiency in data centers and business computing ecosystems.

Solar activity remains at very low levels. There was no activity of note in the past 24 hours. The geomagnetic field was at quiet to unsettled levels. Enhanced solar wind flow from a coronal hole produced occasional unsettled periods.

The Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation -- also known as the conveyor belt -- was featured in the documentary "An Inconvenient Truth" and the disaster flick "The Day After Tomorrow" as a changeable force that could wreak havoc on the climate in Europe and North America if it slowed down.

Transmission technology is getting a much-needed boost. Consolidated Edison, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and American Superconductor are teaming in a pilot project to test technology to enable what is being called Secure Super Grids.

The maker of a solar powered 'water cracker' - a technology that releases hydrogen from a water molecule, has pre-sold the technology to a large European energy consortium in Spain.

Stocks surged on Friday, with all three major indexes topping 2 percent, after the Federal Reserve unexpectedly cut the discount rate by half a percentage point to 5.75 percent in a move to keep credit flowing and calm jittery markets.

Climate change could melt the top 11 feet of Alaska permafrost by the end of the century, according to a new study.

The federal study applied one supercomputer climate models to the future of permafrost.

This vast carbon reservoir, contained in permafrost soil in northeastern Siberia, contains about 75 times more carbon than the amount released into the atmosphere each year by the burning of fossil fuels, the researchers said in a statement.

When it comes to producing earth-friendly solar energy, pink may be the new green, according to Ohio State University researchers. Scientists there have developed new dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) that get their pink color from a mixture of red dye and white metal oxide powder in materials that capture light

"There has been no formal decision to postpone the opening ceremony but if there is an election then it is highly unlikely that the ceremony will go ahead until after the polls close and a new government has been formed," he said.

Shell Oil cannot begin exploration and development work off Alaska's Arctic Coast this fall under an order handed down Wednesday by a US appellate court.

Freddie Mac (NYSE:FRE) yesterday released the results of its Primary Mortgage Market Survey (PMMS) in which the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) averaged 6.62 percent with an average 0.4 point for the week ending August 16, up from last week when it averaged 6.59. Last year at this time, the 30-year FRM averaged 6.52 percent.

Moray B. King has put forth a scientific model that suggests that the reason so many experimenters are observing more energy emerging from their electrolysis systems than what they put into it, is that the configuration harnesses zero point energy.

•Global crude futures recovered on Friday after Thursday's massive selling spree across the petroleum sector, support coming in particular from US product futures following a fire that forced Chevron to shut one of two crude units at its 325,000 b/d Pascagoula, Mississippi, refinery. "Price support this morning is on the back of hurricane Dean and Chevron's latest refining problems in the US," a London broker said.

•Recent trading sessions have been dominated mainly by financial markets, and Thursday's plunge was triggered by strong falls in global equities that resulted in funds liquidating positions in oil futures, market sources said.

Computer power supply died...no backup. But we're back now, hoping to get caught up and back on schedule! Thanks for your patience!)

The grants are awarded on a first-come, first-serve basis, and interested parties are encouraged to apply as early as possible.

Do the overall efficiencies of renewable energy sources, such as wind, solar, and geothermal add up in terms of their complete life cycle from materials sourcing, manufacture, running, and decommissioning" Researchers in Greece have carried out a life cycle assessment to find the answer.

BioSolar, Inc, developer of a technology to produce bioplastic materials from renewable plant sources that will reduce the cost of solar cells

The leaders of Canada's 10 province and three territories ended a three-day conference Friday unable to agree on a national strategy for reducing greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs), with three oil and gas producing provinces spurning attempts to set absolute reductions and establish a carbon-trading program.

Tom Quinn hoped to finish his log home on a rolling hillside above Mosier this year, then kick back and feast on his Columbia River Gorge view: wildflowers, stands of pine and oak, the whipped cream swirl of Mount Adams.

Representatives of the Department of the Interior take issue with the construction of a coal-fired power plant at Gascoyne in southwestern North Dakota. Computer models tell us that twin 250- megawatt units would "impair visibility" six days a year at Theodore Roosevelt National Park.

The standard lead-acid battery starts more than 600 million passenger vehicles globally and also powers golf carts, forklifts and other modes of transportation. So it's a good thing that, according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), 98.8 percent of lead in lead-acid batteries can be recovered through recycling.

EPA and India's largest oil producer last week signed an agreement to work together to reduce emissions of methane, a potent greenhouse gas.

Hydrogen holds fantastic promise as a plentiful, clean-burning fuel and an eventual replacement for gasoline. Environmentalists like it because it might trim the amount of greenhouse gas spewed by the nation's automobiles.

While the national media focused mostly on the Renewable Energy Standard (RES) approved by the U.S. House of Representatives this past weekend, there are many more pieces to the entire energy package that have important implications for clean energy.

Canada's garbage dumps may be getting crowded, but landfill operators are trying to find the cash in all that trash by sucking in the stink and turning it into energy.

Making big cuts in emissions linked to global warming could come at considerable cost to the U.S. economy: between $400 billion (€293 billion) and $1.8 trillion (€1.3 trillion) in reduced growth over the next four decades, a new study says.

With the public's demand for green energy growing and favorable tax policies in place at least through the end of next year, wind energy's upward draft shows no sign of abating. In fact, in its first-quarter 2007 market report, the American Wind Energy Association projected another 3,000 megawatts of capacity being built this year and thousands of megawatts remain on the drawing board in the ensuing years.

North Korea is seeking foreign help after massive flooding left hundreds dead or missing and swept away many buildings, a UN aid agency spokesman said on Tuesday.

Attitudes about nuclear power and the perceived risks of disposing highly radioactive waste haven't changed much in five years with only 28 percent of respondents in an MIT survey agreeing that nuclear waste could be stored safely into the distant future.

Temperatures should be down a few degrees this week, but Duke Energy's struggle to provide power for the Charlotte region isn't over.

UK energy watchdog Ofgem has published information on the size of the renewables obligation for UK energy suppliers for the 2006 to 2007 obligation period, which finished in March 2007. Ofgem said that electricity suppliers must comply with their obligation for this period before September 1, 2007.

Stock markets stabilize after subprime induced selloff, easing concerns over the economy and putting spotlight back on crude demand.

The United States must “expand and diversify production from clean coal, nuclear, biomass, other renewables, and unconventional oil and natural gas,” concludes the National Petroleum Council.

Nevada Power Co. broke ground Thursday on a $400 million, natural gas-fired power plant in southeast Las Vegas as it races to keep up with population growth in Southern Nevada.

THERE is a noticeable link between the provision of power and the incidence of poverty. When electricity illuminates homes, schools and clinics, pumps water and powers machines, it lights up lives, brightens prospects and radiates hope for the future by kindling learning, opening up communications, unlocking income-generating activities and driving up living standards.

"Slower [economic] growth means that energy prices are likely to be dampened" and a slowing economy will "drain liquidity from some of the speculative and investment money in the marketplace."
Wachovia economist Jason Schenker said in a conference call with investors Tuesday. Schenker said that US energy markets are potentially at risk of a sharp downturn in prices if the current concerns over subprime mortgage rates spread to other areas of the economy.

"Damage from the earthquake appears to be limited to those sections of the plant that would not affect the reactor or systems related to reactor safety."
UN International Atomic Energy Agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei

The geomagnetic field is expected to be quiet to unsettled with isolated active periods for
the next two days (15 - 16 August) as a coronal hole rotates into a geoeffective position.

San Carlos wants residents and business owners to get some sun this summer -- and protect the environment in the process.

US energy markets are potentially at risk of a sharp downturn in prices if the current concerns over subprime mortgage rates spread to other areas of the economy, Wachovia economist Jason Schenker said in a conference call with investors Tuesday.

The whole idea stinks. But generating heat and power from livestock manure is appealing. The compost is placed into an oxygen-free machine that separates the methane gas and then uses it to create electricity to power farms or transport over the grid.

If the companies that supply nuclear power plants are ready for a revival, the utilities that will operate the plants are champing at the bit.

At the G-8 summit of world leaders in June, President Bush repeated his calls for developing nations to curb their emissions of greenhouse gases. Without their cooperation, he said, drastic measures in the United States to battle climate change would make little sense.

Water quality is at the top of the summer agenda for many municipalities as residents swim, fish and boat in recreational waters. However, many homeowners or organizers of parking lot car washes may not realize the effects of untreated car wash affluent on local water quality.

A group of 18 US senators has urged the White House to support robust loan gurantees for innovative new energy technologies, a document shows.

U.S. braces for Round three of August 2007's intense Heat & Humidity again next week....

As the world's demand for water has tripled over the last half-century and as the demand for hydroelectric power has grown even faster, dams and diversions of river water have drained many rivers dry. As water tables fall, the springs that feed rivers go dry, reducing river flows.

•Crude futures moved higher Wednesday ahead of the release of the weekly US petroleum stock data later in the day. The main impetus for the recent strengthening in petroleum prices stemmed from product futures

•Crude futures gained ground Wednesday despite further falls in Europe's main stock markets, a stronger dollar and persistent fears of further funds liquidations to come.

Higher refinery activity has pushed crude to record highs but helped gasoline prices drop 11 percent. Will the trend continue?

New production, new energy sources and some conservation could push down prices by 2010 - but don't expect $20 a barrel anytime soon.

Hank Patton gazes out across a collection of forests, orchards and pasture in the heart of the Columbia River Gorge and sees a vision of the future.

Get ready for the world's first carbon-free city -- smack-dab in the center of the oil-rich Middle East. It may seem strange that the emirate of Abu Dhabi, one of the planet's largest suppliers of oil, is planning to build the world's first carbon-neutral city.

The Methane to Markets Partnership, an international initiative including 20 countries and nearly 600 public and private sector organizations, will be featuring over 20 methane reduction project opportunities at its Beijing exposition Oct. 30 - Nov. 1.

A decade ago, the Hong Kong stock market was dominated by the finance and real estate sectors, limiting the choices for investors. That has changed drastically over the past few years

The American Council on Renewable Energy (ACORE) likes to say that we are in Phase II of renewable energy development. In this worldview, the past 30 years were about developing core clean-energy technologies, and the next couple of decades will be about focusing the nation’s efforts on putting (as ACORE says on its web site) “these new technologies to use in our society...

It has become a routine part of any given week to hear from IT companies about "green" innovations -- products or prototypes designed to have less of an effect on the environment.

6Aug2007--Global crude futures continued Friday's cross market sell-off as mainly "non-oil factors" seem to be dominating the current prices, traders said.

Global crude futures recovered slightly in European morning trading on Tuesday from the massive price plunge along the sector that shook the petroleum complex on Monday, triggered by bearish technicals and a lack of fundamental support, sources said.

The park will consist of photovoltaic arrays located on a six-acre site adjacent to 6th Avenue in Lakewood, Colorado. Construction is expected to start during late summer/early fall of 2007, with electric generation beginning mid-December 2007.

The desalination plant is a joint project of El Paso Water Utilities and the U.S. Army/Fort Bliss. It produces potable water by treating a previously unusable resource -- brackish groundwater from the Hueco Bolson Aquifer.

...the 3.4 magnitude tremor on the evening of Dec. 8 was no ordinary act of nature: It had been accidentally triggered by engineers drilling deep into the Earth's crust to tap its inner heat and thus break new ground — literally — in the world's search for new sources of energy.

Colorado Springs Utilities found itself in a seemingly contradictory position in July: Though customers broke the record for the most electricity used in one day, on July 17, the utilities company still was able to sell excess power it generated to other cities.

Right now, five of them are scheduled to come on line in the next couple years. Why, then, is Victorville moving forward with a large natural gas-fired plant that has a small solar component?

Gold was indicated slightly lower in London morning trade Tuesday, but had found support around the $670/oz level, a UK-based analyst said.

For years, corn lobbyists held power and influence over legislators to make them believe corn is ethanol and ethanol is corn, one analyst says.

The Tennessee Valley Authority and its distributors are exempt from a key requirement of the energy legislation adopted Saturday by the U.S. House of Representatives.

The House voted 220-190 for an amendment to require by 2020 that at least 15 percent of the electricity sold by most utilities must come from renewable sources, including wind, solar and biofuels.

Jarzombek, 59, has largely powered his Baiting Hollow home with wind power since installing a 100-foot wind turbine in the early 1980s.

Iraq's power grid is on the brink of collapse because of insurgent sabotage, rising demand, fuel shortages and provinces that are unplugging local power stations from the national grid, officials said Saturday.

While parts of the Middle East are racked with turmoil, other areas are peaceful and inviting. Private interests are becoming major suppliers and building new power-related facilities. Though incremental, the openness is essential if countries there are to meet their expected future need for electricity.

Wires to West Texas windmills, wires to a southeast Texas electric company, wires to connect north and south -- wires everywhere. The state is in a headlong rush to extend its electric transmission system.

The fate of PPL Corp.'s tentative plan to build Pennsylvania's first new nuclear reactor in a quarter-century could rest on the fate of an un-debated provision in the recently passed Senate energy bill.

Two C-class flares were produced by Region 966. Region 966 has shown modest growth during the past 24 hours and is now a small, D-type sunspot group. The geomagnetic field was quiet from the beginning of the period through 06/1500Z. Since then activity has increased to unsettled to active levels. The increase is being driven by the onset of a high
speed stream from a coronal hole, as evidenced by steadily rising solar wind speeds.

ENGINEERS in the North East may have developed a way to cut greenhouse gas emissions from power stations to almost nothing.

The coal-fired power plant churns into the air 3,373 tons of nitrogen oxide, 5,538 tons of sulfur dioxide, 221 tons of carbon dioxide and 77 pounds of mercury each year. That stew of chemicals has been linked to illnesses, increased mortality rates, acid rain and global warming. And to all of that add 253 tons of tiny particles born of combustion.

A Senate bill to cut US greenhouse gas emissions would raise energy prices and also reduce American economic output by more than half a trillion dollars over two decades, according to a government report released Monday.

We keep looking for the perfect solar powered appliances, and keep finding them in Modern Mechanix.

"Some" of Belgium's nuclear plants may escape the country's nuclear phase-out law, according to an agreement reached between the ruling Christian Democratic and Liberal parties forming a new government coalition in Belgium.

A state climate change panel is considering a slate of bold proposals to reduce vehicle use in the interest of lowering greenhouse gas emissions: --More bike paths, sidewalks and HOV lanes.

Q. I’m not a tree hugger, but I’ve seen enough glaciers melt on the news to know something’s wrong. Do you have any ideas on going green in Buffalo? And can I put a windmill in my backyard?

Americans overwhelmingly support increasing the generation of electricity from renewable sources. And why shouldn't they? Renewable energy sources such as wind, solar, biomass and geothermal can help us fight climate change, save American consumers big-time dollars, help rural economies, and create thousands of manufacturing jobs.

Tennessee's largest coal-fired power plant is in hot water this summer, forcing TVA to scale back some of its power generation. With the prolonged drought and dam repairs reducing the flow on the Cumberland River...

The US Department of Energy has improved the quality assurance program at its Yucca Mountain repository site in Nevada, but it's too early to tell whether the turnaround is robust enough to produce a high-quality repository license application, the Government Accountability Office said Monday.

The US House narrowly passed a controversial energy tax bill Saturday that would strip more than $15 billion in production incentives from large oil and natural gas companies over the next 10 years.

The National Association of Manufacturers on Monday urged members of the US House of Representatives to reject an expected floor amendment to a broad energy bill that would require utilities to obtain 20% of their power supply from renewable resources by 2020, saying it is "deeply concerned" the proposal would raise electricity prices.

As drought lingers almost all over Turkey, water reserves at a number of the country's hydroelectrical power plants have dropped to critical levels while an increased electricity demand is forcing some others to work at full capacity even though they lack enough water.

"The equity markets have managed to reverse the losses of the previous day but it will be a harder task for oil to do the same. WTI is back to the price levels of early July and from June 26 to July 31 the large speculative funds have added 67,000 fresh longs that have now gone into losses or break-even at best," analysts for Petromatrix said in a report Tuesday.

Wind power, now recognized as a utility-scale energy source, represents unique challenges for the industry in terms of system planning and operation. A significant challenge is how to address the variable nature of wind – it does not blow at the same speed all of the time.

Urban and industrial air pollution can stifle rain and snowfall, a new study shows, because the pollution particles prevent cloud water from condensing into raindrops and snowflakes. These findings are reported in the 10 March issue of Science.

If seismometers in the Washington, DC, area registered a slight tremor July 30, it may have been caused when the Democratic leaders of the US House of Representatives dropped a massive 786 page energy bill into the legislative hopper.

A one-sentence provision buried in the Senate's recently passed energy bill, inserted without debate at the urging of the nuclear power industry, could make builders of new nuclear plants eligible for tens of billions of dollars in government loan guarantees.

Brazilian President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva defended biofuels and growing concerns about their drawbacks, saying they offer an "opportunity" to lift developing countries out of poverty. The Brazilian leader said that the success his country's booming biofuels industry has enjoyed could be reproduced in some of the poorest parts of the world, helping to alleviate poverty.

Half of the National Association of Home Builders builder members incorporate green into their building practices. In 2006, two percent of homes built were considered "green" and estimates suggest that number will rise to 10 percent of homes in 2010.

Six California cities, concerned about global warming and greenhouse gas emissions, are refusing to allow a third coal-fired generating unit to be built at the Intermountain Power Project near Delta.

Under the terms of the Kyoto Protocol, all Annex 1 member states -- those states with mandatory emissions reduction targets to be reached by 2008-2012 -- must have a national emissions registry to track the purchase and sale of carbon credits in the international market.

With biofuels being blamed for rising food prices and offering limited environmental benefits, diverse luminaries like former US vice-president Al Gore and Microsoft’s Bill Gates are throwing their considerable support behind cellulosic ethanol, a second generation biofuel.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez unveiled "Petro Casa," a plant in Guacara, Carabobo state, that manufactures PVC kits used to assemble 18,000 houses each year, a venture of state petrochemical company Pequiven, during a speech.

Ling Wen seems an unlikely coal baron. A longtime banker with a penchant for smartly tailored suits, he is a rising star among a new generation of Communist Party technocrats guiding China's industrial flagships.

Hoping to get a vote before they set off for a month long vacation, House leaders filed a massive energy bill late last night that they say will boost the renewable fuels infrastructure and increase energy efficiency, among other "green initiatives." Yet this proposal is bad news for consumers smarting from high prices at the pump, according to H. Sterling Burnett, a senior fellow with the National Center for Policy Analysis (NCPA).

Global crude futures weakened significantly Thursday, continuing the massive sell-off on late Wednesday after the release of US crude and product stock data by the Energy Information Administration, analysts said.

The time has come to once and for all put to rest the notion that crude oil and gasoline are joined at the hip as commodities in solidarity. Yes, there's a thin veil of truth to the myth, born of the fact that the latter is refined from the former. But for all practical purposes, it's prudent to consider each separately from the other.

The Energy Information Administration was so excited about this week's data that it released the report 7 minutes early. And an exciting report it was, showing that the US refining system is finally back to pre-Katrina and Rita status.

Energy is the hot topic on Capitol Hill this summer. Separate bills are emerging that include increasing mileage standards and encouraging the use of alternative fuels.

At a time when millions of Americans are focusing on energy issues and policies, a new survey finds that most US adults have a fundamental lack of knowledge regarding energy demand and supplies and the role of America's oil and natural gas companies.

We're just wild about Harry. Harry Reid, that is.
U.S. senator from Nevada. Majority leader of the U.S. Senate. Protector of Utah air quality. We're not wild about everything that Harry does. But we are just ecstatic about that last thing. The air quality thing.

I have not been too kind to fuel cells in previous columns, although it’s nothing personal. Fuel cells are a perfectly good technology, and they do have certain advantages over batteries. The companies making fuel cells tend to be highly dedicated – even evangelistic – about their products. The technical problems are being tackled, and prototypes have proven that fuel cells can work if only…

The Geothermal Energy Association (GEA) today applauded the comprehensive energy legislation unveiled by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA). "This bill will help put America on the path to energy independence and sustainability," stated Karl Gawell, GEA's Executive Director.

The US House and the Senate could vote this week on a bill that would establish a new agency at the US Department of Energy to conduct long-term, high-risk research on energy technologies. Negotiators from the two chambers agreed unanimously late Monday on a final version of the so-called America Competes Act, which includes language creating an Advanced Research Projects Agency at DOE.

Q: Is there a list of national companies that take a multiple approach to home renewable energy systems? I am looking for companies that can assess a home's energy needs and the possibilities available in terms of wind, water, sun, geothermal etc. and then both sell and install the system. -- Brenda N., Bath, Maine

Tokyo Electric Power Co. will allow the International Atomic Energy Agency to inspect its earthquake-hit Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant over August 6-9, Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry said Thursday.

Mainstream venture capitalists in clean technology must first balance the different financing models, market strategies, and regulatory constraints before investing in emerging technology companies

Business, farm, labor, environmental leaders and congressional members gathered on Capitol Hill this week in a last-minute push to garner support for the National renewable portfolio standard (RPS) legislation up for debate on the U.S. House of Representatives floor. The vote, however, will come down to the wire since Congress will adjourn for its August recess after Friday.

Marathon Petroleum has agreed to pay a $1 million civil penalty to settle charges that it attempted to manipulate the crude oil market, the US Commodities Futures Trading Commission said Wednesday.

Unprecedented high natural gas and distillate fuel prices since 2000 have caused increased interest in new coal power plants. Despite global warming concerns, new coal power plants continue to be a heavy favorite for new electric generation facilities

The Bush administration is working to finalize an industry-backed emissions rule for power plants that critics say conflicts with a landmark Supreme Court decision that was handed down earlier this year.

The Ontario Power Authority (OPA) is making a significant addition to its suite of business-focused Demand Response programs as part of its long term planning to address electricity system supply and demand needs.

A new composite material for plastic solar cells, formulated at Ohio State University, offers what researchers there claim is the best bet yet for beating the relatively high cost of grid-supplied electricity. Building on the best aspects of previous attempts to construct organic dye-sensitized solar cells, these researchers promise to best today's inorganic silicon-based solar cells, and beat the cost of traditional electricity generation sources in just a few years.

I am amazed with the statement that ozone/smog levels have been reduced in the US. My personal observations are that across the US smog is now worse than even 10 years ago and much worse than 20 years ago.

Governor Edward G. Rendell today urged U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) to support legislation requiring the nation's utility providers to use a greater portion of clean and renewable technologies to meet America's energy demands.

Taking their case to Travis County, Texas, District Court, a coalition of cities campaigning for clean air in the Lone Star State has sued the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality over the permits for TXU's two-unit, lignite-fired Oak Grove project in Robertson County.

There is a lot of natural gas in the 'North Slope' underlying the now rapidly declining Prudhoe Bay oil field. However, it is a very long way from any market. The high capital and significant operating cost of a pipeline results in a 'delivered to market Chicago hub' price higher than market price--even today.

Solar activity is expected to be very low. The geomagnetic field ranged from quiet to unsettled.

Nigeria's oil-producing Ondo state Wednesday directed four oil companies including Shell and Chevron, to urgently clean up crude spillage in the coastal area of the state.

You have to hand it to the Israelis. As the world's photovoltaic cell producers scramble to find more effective and cheaper ways of installing pv cells onto the limited space availalbe on buildings, a research team at the Tecnnicon Israel institute of Technology has come up with a way of coating helium balloons with photovotaic cells and floating them above the rooftops of buildings on the ground.

Tucson Electric Power officials are asking customers to conserve energy to avoid rolling blackouts. The plea comes after a severe thunderstorm Tuesday damaged a power plant. People in the Tucson area should turn their thermostats up 5 degrees, said Joe Salkowski, a TEP spokesman.

The emergence of global warming as a mainstream concern has altered the political landscape for coal -- the abundant domestic fuel that provides half the nation's electricity and is a major driver of the economy of far Southwest Virginia.

The American Wind Energy Association has launched a major media campaign to encourage support for a national renewable electricity standard (RES). The ads will begin to air on Sunday, July 29 in key markets.

The US House of Representatives was poised Monday to vote on -- and likely to pass -- two pieces of legislation to strengthen sanctions on Iran and one bill to boost sanctions on Sudan.

US House Republicans Wednesday said they don't believe they will have enough votes to block energy legislation Democratic leaders hope to bring to the floor on Friday.

A US Senate panel passed legislation Tuesday that would force the Bush administration to expedite its review of California's landmark global warming regulations for cars and trucks.

US environmentalists on Thursday updated their annual report showing the highest-emitting power plants and the results are largely the same as they were a year ago. ...The 12 states with the dirtiest plants are mostly ones that are home to large coal-fired power plants

The $1.5 billion National Enrichment Facility will provide the United States with an alternative domestic source of enriched uranium required to operate the country's nuclear power plants. It is the first major nuclear facility to be licensed by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in the United States in three decades...

It’s certainly no secret that one of the primary factors adding fuel to the fire has been hedge funds.

One of the main reasons for the sudden interest has been the resounding amount of issuers looking to create risk within previously unseen in the market until just last year. As a matter of fact, some recent issues have contained tranches which were written specifically for the risk community.

•At 09:55 GMT September ICE Brent changed hands at $76.51/barrel, down 54 cents. September WTI on both ICE and NYMEX were off by 53 cents at $77.69/b.

• Global crude futures weakened significantly Thursday, continuing the massive sell-off on late Wednesday after the release of US stock stock data by the EIA, analysts said

•At 11:19 London time, September ICE Brent was down 26 cents to $75.50/b. September NYMEX WTI decreased 6 cents to $76.80/b.

•After OPEC officials had made comments about whether or not to increase crude output to meet world demand, Indonesian oil minister Purnomo Yusgiantoro said late Thursday, that there had been no communication between members yet on any plans to raise output after crude prices hit record highs this week.

US President George W. Bush's senior advisers will recommend he veto the
US House energy bills to be debated on the floor later Friday if they are
presented to the president in their current form, the Office of Management and
Budget said in a State of Administration Policy released Friday.

Under Germany's renewables law, any power produced by wind units has to be fed into
the grid by energy suppliers, therefore the supplies of generation increase significantly.

A tug of war over carbon dioxide emissions in Europe has turned litigious, with governments and environmental watchdogs fighting at the region's highest court over the right to pollute.

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