Newswire

Oil supplies - May 9
May 8, 2008
Staff, Energy Bulletin. Saudi Arabia's Ghawar isn't sinking (but has apparently moved)
Russian oil: Trouble in the pipeline
OPEC sees no oil shortage, would pump more if needed

Oil prices - May 9
May 8, 2008
Staff, Energy Bulletin. Why $120 oil is good
Iran says $200/barrel oil possible
Where will oil settle? Around $100

The peak oil crisis: transiting to transit
May 8, 2008
Tom Whipple , Falls Church News-Press. With crude oil now above $120 a barrel and threatening to go higher, it is clear that our preferred and convenient means of going places, our car, the airplane and the rental car soon are going to be parked because they will be too expensive to operate.

Aus Deutschland
May 8, 2008
Staff, Energy Bulletin. With several recent articles and TV pieces in the Süddeutsche Zeitung, ZDF (Second Public German TV network) and N-TV (private TV network), Peak Oil is now becoming established in mainstream German media.

Articles in German:
200 Dollar pro Barrel? Experte rät zur Abkehr
Russen-Alarm an der Öl-Front
"Peak Oil" - Wann geht uns der Saft aus?
Simone Boehringer interviews Matthew Simmons
Fatih Birol (IEA) interview: »Wir sollten das Öl verlassen, bevor es uns verlässt«

Prices & supplies - May 8
May 7, 2008
Staff, Energy Bulletin. Yergin: High oil prices spur alternative fuel shift
Greenland oil estimates over-reported
Analyst sees oil surging to $200

Peak oil - May 8
May 7, 2008
Staff, Energy Bulletin. ASPO Newsletter for May
Irish peak oil documentary and its reception
Big oil strike in Brazil has tongues wagging, but we continue towards peak oil

Preparing for which future?
May 7, 2008
John Michael Greer, The Archdruid Report. As the age of cheap abundant energy comes to its end, making meaningful plans for the future depends on a vision of the future we can expect. Many of the supposed answers to the challenge of peak oil, however, have been proposed in response to many other crises, real and imaginary. How much of our thinking about the future is defined by the attempt to find plausible problems for culturally favored solutions to solve?

The U. S. electric grid: will it be our undoing?
May 7, 2008
Gail E. Tverberg, The Oil Drum. Many believe that a decline in oil production can be remedied by increasing our use of electricity - more nuclear, wind, solar voltaic, geothermal or even coal. This model assumes that our electric grid will be working well enough for this to happen. There is substantial doubt that this will be the case.

Ignoring the elephant in the room
May 7, 2008
Dave Cohen, ASPO-USA / Energy Bulletin. The disconnect between peak oil concerns and the presidential race is almost total. The candidates remain unwaveringly oblivious to the true causes of rising fuel prices, preferring instead to dwell on irrelevant — actually, counterproductive—measures like suspending the federal gas tax during the summer months or taxing Big Oil. This is akin to putting a band-aid on a melanoma.

Prices and supplies - May 7
May 7, 2008
Staff, Energy Bulletin. WSJ quotes Yergin of CERA: 'It's not that the genie is out of the bottle -- it's that 100 genies are out of the bottle'
Goldman's Murti: Oil `likely' to reach $150-$200
NYT: Gas prices expected to peak in June
A tricky balance: oil industry employees

Peak oil - May 7
May 6, 2008
Staff, Energy Bulletin. Michael Moore talks to Larry King about PO
Kevin Phillips on Democracy Now
ASPO-Italy conference: Will Italy be the first to experience peak oil in Europe?
Peak oil explains lack of UFOs
Suzuki on peak oil and climate

Oil producers - May 7
May 6, 2008
Staff, Energy Bulletin. Indonesia mulls Opec withdrawal
Saudi fears of high oil prices fade
Russia agrees 40% rise in energy prices

Australia: Another 'big dry' forecast for irrigators
May 10, 2008
Sydney Morning Herald: ANOTHER devastating year is on the cards for many irrigators in the Murray-Darling Basin. Autumn has seen a return to near-record low inflows and history has proved that a dry autumn usually means the rest of the year will be dry. Although a La Nina weather pattern brought sometimes flooding rains to parts of NSW and Queensland over summer, the head of the Bureau of Meteorology's National Climate Centre, Michael Coughlan, warned yesterday that eastern Australia was drifting ...

Australia: Labor ignored warning over desal plant costs
May 10, 2008
Age: PIPING recycled sewage to reservoirs in Melbourne's east would be a cheaper and less environmentally damaging solution to the city's water crisis than desalination, the State Government was told two years ago. The conclusion was made in documents prepared for the State Government in 2006, more than a year before it decided to proceed with the $3.1 billion Wonthaggi desalination plant. Written by contractor GHD to assist the Government in formulating its 50-year water strategy, ...

Europe Grapples over Biofuels
May 9, 2008
Time Magazine: Like much of the rest of the world, Europe has invested heaps of money and even more hope in the promise of biofuels to provide secure supplies of environmentally friendly energy. But now rising food prices, trade tensions and social unrest are prompting a rethink of the E.U.'s ambitious hopes for running its cars and trucks on biofuel. The latest call for a change of course came from economist Jeffrey Sachs, special adviser to U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, who this week urged ...

Peru's Tribal Land Protected From Gas Concessions
May 9, 2008
Reuters: Indigenous rights groups praised Peru's petroleum agency on Thursday for excluding areas where isolated tribes live from an auction of oil and gas concessions. Rights groups say the decision is a turnaround for Perupetro, which previously had indicated it might open up the protected areas for bidding. "This decision acknowledges a certain standard ... that there will be no exploration or extraction of natural resources on lands inhabited by un-contacted tribes," ...

China vies for Japan's clean tech
May 9, 2008
Radio Australia: China's President Hu Jintao has expressed hope that Japan will share environmental technology with his country. He made the statement while touring a new recycling factory near Tokyo which processes used bottles and electronic devices. Mr Hu says his administration wants to focus on green businesses. China's pollution has been rapidly growing as its economy soars, posing particular concern for neighbours such as Japan and South Korea. Mr Hu and the Japanese prime ...

Cost of offshore wind farms soaring
May 9, 2008
Marketplace: Renita Jablonski: One of Britain's leading energy companies has warned wind power is becoming unprofitable in the U.K. From London, Stephen Beard reports. Stephen Beard: Centrica says the economics of offshore wind farms are now marginal. The cost of construction doubled in the past two years. The soaring price of steel and copper are mainly to blame. This is the second attack on the viability of wind power here in recent days. Last week, the Shell Oil company delivered a devastating ...

Go Easy On Biofuels Until More Clarity - World Bank
May 9, 2008
Reuters:  A senior World Bank official said on Thursday that countries should not greatly increase biofuels production until there is more clarity about how much they have contributed to the global food price crisis. Juergen Voegele, director for agriculture and rural development department at the World Bank, cautioned against shifting a lot of the blame to biofuels but also said massive subsidies for the biofuel industry was not helping the crisis. "We don't think it's ...

Australia: Motorists to pay for carbon scheme
May 9, 2008
Age: AN EMISSIONS trading scheme is likely to increase petrol prices by about 10 cents a litre, adding pain for motorists and challenging the Reserve Bank's goal of reining in inflation by 2010. As world oil prices continued their record-breaking run, hitting a peak of almost $US124 ($A132) on the New York futures exchange, energy experts, economists and petrol companies said motorists would pay even more at the bowser once a trading scheme began. Investment bank Goldman Sachs also ...

Australia: Murray-Darling drought may be permanent
May 9, 2008
AAP: There is no end in sight to the drought afflicting the Murray-Darling Basin and the big dry could become a permanent feature of eastern Australia, experts warn. The latest Murray System Drought Update contains nothing but bad news for farmers and communities struggling to cope. Even grimmer news is that it could become worse next year. Meteorologists have warned another dreaded El Nino weather pattern - which brings dry weather to eastern Australia - could be on the ...

Sugarcane Alcohol Tarnished by U.S. Maize Ethanol
May 9, 2008
Inter Press Service: Recent efforts by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva to clearly mark the difference between Brazilian ethanol and the agrofuels produced by the United States are an admission that signing an agreement with Washington to promote a global bioethanol market was a serious political mistake, say analysts. Brazilian fuel alcohol, distilled from sugarcane, has been used as a partial substitute for gasoline in the country for 30 years, and makes an acknowledged contribution to mitigating ...

Tiny krill could help unlock global climate change secrets
May 9, 2008
Australian Broadcasting Corporation: Scientists in Hobart are starting small in their bid to discover the answers to one of the world's biggest problems: they are researching krill in the hope of finding out what impact climate change may be having in the Southern Ocean. The shrimp-like krill is one of the smallest animals in the Antarctic, but Dr Andrew Constable from the Australian Antarctic Division says it could help unlock some of the secrets of one of the world's most complex ecosystems. "Krill is the ...

United Kingdom: Birds make easy weather of climate change
May 9, 2008
Times: British great tits have proved themselves to be far more adaptable to climate change than their counterparts in the Netherlands. In the past half century the great tits living in Wytham Woods (also known as the Woods of Hazel) near Oxford, have brought forward the date that they lay their eggs by an average of two weeks. The advance is a response to climate change and the timings of the egg-laying showed that the birds tracked the variations in temperature. The ...

Australia: Climate change to permanently reduce autumn rain in Murray Darling Basin
May 9, 2008
Australian Broadcasting Corporation: The latest climate change science suggests Australia's food bowl should plan for permanently reduced autumn rainfall. The Murray Darling Basin Commission's May drought update also shows little prospect of an improvement in the seriously low water availability in the lower basin. Critical urban needs, and rural stock and domestic requirements, are only reasonably assured, after some water was held over by state governments from last year. Commission chief executive Wendy ...

Drill for oil in Alaska? No: Save energy, invest in renewables instead
May 9, 2008
Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Drilling in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, the United States' largest wildlife refuge made up of more than 19 million acres, would not only wreak environmental havoc on the land and the 160 different wildlife species that live there, it also would do absolutely nothing to curb our obsessive consumption of foreign oil, the true cause of the oil shortage and exorbitant gas prices we're experiencing. Opening the refuge to oil exploration, with no guarantee of how much oil ...

Environment Leaders to Meet in Kobe to Speed Post-Kyoto Treaty
May 9, 2008
Bloomberg: Environment ministers from the Group of Eight nations and nine other countries will meet in Japan this month to speed the crafting of a successor to the United Nations' climate treaty, which expires in 2012. Japan's Environment Ministry today unveiled a discussion paper for the three-day meeting, to focus on climate change and biodiversity, starting May 24 in the western city of Kobe. ``The objective of the G8 Environment Ministers Meeting is to build momentum toward the ...

Australia: Govt urged to offer more solar power incentives
May 9, 2008
Australian Broadcasting Corporation: A Ballarat environmental group wants the Victorian Government to do more to encourage people to install solar panels on their homes. From next year, the Government will pay households 60 cents for every kilowatt hour of power they feed back into the state electricity grid. But BREAZE's Nick Lanyon says the solar panels only generates a quarter of an average household's energy requrements, so there would not be anything extra to put back into the power grid. He says if ...

Australia: Koalas Under Threat From Climate Change
May 9, 2008
Science Daily: New research shows increased temperatures and carbon dioxide levels are a threat to the Australian national icon, the koala. Professor Ian Hume, Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science, and his students from the University of Sydney have been researching the effects of CO2 increases and temperature rises on eucalypts. Professor Hume's group have shown in the laboratory that increases in CO2 affect the level of nutrients and 'anti-nutrients' (things that are either toxic or ...

New Zealand: PM goes spineless on emissions trading
May 9, 2008
Manawatu Standard: Some truths are a little too inconvenient, it seems. Prime Minister Helen Clark announced this week the Government will put off bringing transport fuels into its emissions trading scheme from 2009 until 2011. The delay, which will avoid adding five to eight cents per litre for petrol from January next year, is a response to sky-rocketing petrol, food and mortgage costs. With an election fast approaching, the Government's back-peddling makes sound political sense. But decisions ...

United Kingdom: Renewable energy plans due
May 9, 2008
Press Association: Environment Minister Michael Russell is announcing measures to boost Scotland's renewable energy production as he visits a new biomass boiler. He will reveal the results of a year-long project looking at ways to increase the supply of wood for producing renewable energy. The Government set up the task force to boost the biomass sector, which it says will increase rural employment and help tackle climate change.

Spain's Renovables buys GE wind turbines
May 9, 2008
Reuters: Spanish renewable energy company Iberdrola Renovables (IBR.MC: Quote, Profile, Research) said on Friday it had ordered 200 1.5 megawatt wind turbines from General Electric Co. (GE.N: Quote, Profile, Research), worth around 430 million euros ($659 million). The turbines will be delivered in 2010 in the United States and form part of company measures aimed to boost installed wind power capacity to 13,600 MW by 2010, investing 8.6 billion euros over the 2008-2010 ...

Tasmania poised for oil, gas bonanza
May 9, 2008
Australian: TASMANIA may be on the verge of a multi-billion-dollar onshore oil and gas boom. US exploration company Empire Energy Corporation yesterday unveiled a $31 million program to drill up to eight test wells at key locations in an exploration lease covering 23 per cent of the state. It also released an independent expert's prediction that the lease could hold between 67million and 145million barrels of oil and between 344billion and 799billion cubic feet of natural gas. The ...

US Micronesian lawmakers push need for plan to combat climate change
May 9, 2008
Radio New Zealand International: US affiliated-Pacific island lawmakers have ended their three-day general assembly on Guam with a plan to further discuss global warming when they meet again in November. The Association of Pacific Island Legislatures' 27th general assembly addressed a wide range of issues that affect islands in the region. The Association passed more than a dozen resolutions to address issues like human trafficking and the need to train residents across Micronesia in skills required for the US ...

Biofuels backlash in US as food costs hit home
May 8, 2008
Agence France-Presse: A biofuels backlash has erupted in major ethanol producer the United States, as lawmakers and experts debate the merits of converting food to fuel to support America's age-old love affair with the automobile. With gasoline at record prices at US pumps, and soaring corn, rice and wheat costs sparking a global food crisis this year with deadly riots in several nations, some have questioned the wisdom of President George W. Bush's call for higher US biofuel mandates that divert US ...

Broad climate fight best, not just gas cuts-study
May 8, 2008
Reuters: An assault on climate change on many fronts makes good economic sense but will be money badly spent if the world focuses exclusively on cutting greenhouse gas emissions, a study said on Thursday. A 100-year package costing $800 billion to help people adapt to the impacts of warming -- such as droughts or rising seas -- while also funding research into new technology and curbing emissions could yield benefits of $2.1 trillion, it said. "We've got something that makes sense ...

Myanmar: Cyclone 'is a sign of things to come'
May 8, 2008
Australian: A TOP Indian advocacy group that monitors climate change in south Asia warned last night that the Nargis cyclone that devastated Burma was "a sign of things to come", as climate change caused extreme weather to increase in intensity. Meanwhile, senior Indian officials confirmed that they had warned officials in Rangoon to prepare for a high-intensity storm two days before it hit. Indian Meteorological Department director-general Ajit Tyagi said teams in his ...

Global free market for food and energy faces biggest threat in decades
May 8, 2008
Telegraph: The global free market for food and energy is facing its biggest threat in decades as a host of countries push through draconian measures to hold down prices, raising fears of a new "resource nationalism" that could endanger world food security. India shocked the markets yesterday by suspending trading in futures contracts for a range of farm products in a bid to clamp down on alleged speculators and curb inflation, now running at 7.6pc. The country's Forward Markets ...

Government scraps carbon card scheme for fear of ridicule
May 8, 2008
Guardian: Ministers have scrapped radical plans to test a carbon rationing scheme that would have forced citizens to carry a carbon card to swipe every time they bought petrol or paid an electricity bill. The plan was announced by David Miliband, former environment secretary, in 2006 as a way to cut greenhouse gas emissions and tackle global warming. But officials from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) said today that the idea was too expensive and would be ...

India Plans to Spend $2.4 Billion on Rejuvenating Forestland
May 8, 2008
Bloomberg: India, the world's fourth-largest emitter of carbon dioxide, plans to spend 100 billion rupees ($2.4 billion) on rejuvenating three million hectares of degraded forests to increase the green cover and soak up emissions. The government proposes to revive more than 6 million hectares of degraded forests in two phases over the next 10 years, the ministry of environment and forests said in an e-mailed statement today. The first phase envisages planting trees over 3 million hectares ...

Return of the population timebomb
May 8, 2008
People and Planet: It has become taboo over recent years, but population, not consumption, really is the key to managing our use of the world's resources, says John Feeney, Only since 1800, in the last 0.01 per cent of the history of Homo sapiens, has the human population shot into the billions. Now at nearly 6.7 billion, with 9 billion looming 40 years away, few environmentalists seem to care. Yet the population-environment link is clear. Our environmental impact, as gauged by total resource ...

Scientists find toxic chemicals in penguins
May 8, 2008
Telegraph: An alphabet soup of toxic chemicals may be seeping into the oceans as glaciers melt through global warming. They include Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and other industrial chemicals which have been linked to health problems in humans. The alarm has been raised after traces of the banned pesticide DDT were found by scientists who tested Adélie penguins. They believe glaciers have been acting as a cold store for DDT which was in worldwide use as an insecticide - ...

Britons throwing away £10bn worth a year, research says
May 8, 2008
Guardian: Britons are throwing away £10bn worth of food that could be eaten each year, £2bn more than estimates have previously suggested, a government-funded programme to cut waste reveals today. The average household, ranging from a single older person to a group of students, is chucking out £420 of such food each year and the sum rises to £610 for the average family with children. About £6bn of the wasted annual food budget is food that is bought but never touched - including 13m ...

Canada could be barred from Kyoto carbon trades
May 8, 2008
Canadian Press: Canada could be barred from an international carbon-trading system if a United Nations investigation finds it broke Kyoto Protocol rules for greenhouse-gas reporting. The UN Climate Change Secretariat says Canada was notified on May 5 that it would be investigated for allegedly violating a Kyoto reporting requirement. Canada and other Kyoto signatories are obliged to keep a national registry of greenhouse gases. The registry tracks holdings of greenhouse-gas credits and shows ...

Evangelicals press to fight global warming
May 8, 2008
Dallas Morning News: When the Senate takes up legislation next month to confront global warming, environmental groups will have some fervent new allies: evangelicals and other Christian activists. Concerned about what they see as a moral and biblical issue, religious groups from the right are joining with environmental organizations from the left in supporting strong measures to fight global warming. Some Christian leaders are using the clout they have built up in Republican circles to lobby ...

New Zealand: Fury over 'unethical' warming website
May 8, 2008
New Zealand Herald: New Zealand climate scientists are upset their names have been used by an American organisation wanting to challenge the increasingly accepted view that climate change is human induced. Among the five scientists is Niwa principal scientist Dr Jim Salinger, who said he was annoyed the Heartland Institute was trying to use his research to prove a theory he did not personally support. The institute describes itself as a non-profit research and education organisation not affiliated ...

Government clashes with Europe over carbon permit revenue
May 8, 2008
Independent: The Government is on course for an embarrassing showdown with the European Union, business groups and environmental charities after refusing to guarantee that billions of pounds of revenue it stands to earn from carbon-permit trading will be spent on combating climate change. The dispute follows the publication yesterday of a discussion document by the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) outlining how the UK will operate phase three of the EU's Emissions Trading ...

Canada: Liberals say carbon tax will be revenue-neutral
May 8, 2008
Canwest News Service: Liberal MPs say the Conservative government is attempting to stigmatize a potential Liberal proposal for a national carbon tax as "a tax grab" before the Liberals even finalize and announce their plan. Whatever design the Liberals choose, it will be revenue neutral, ensuring that taxpayers get back through reduced income taxes as much as they are charged in extra levies on fuel, Liberal finance critic John McCallum said Thursday. "By definition, something that is ...

Meat in a low-carbon world
May 8, 2008
BBC: It was easy when "good" meant anything which could have stepped off a John Constable canvas: free range chicken, foraging pigs and grazing cattle. But then climate change came along. No one noticed at first, still concentrating their fire on the obvious targets like 4x4s, long flights and coal power stations; but our meaty diet is laden with greenhouse gases, and trying to reduce them throws up some unpalatable choices. It has prompted the Vegetarian Society to take ...

Once Lush Sahara Dried Up Over Millennia, Study Says
May 8, 2008
National Geographic: The grassy prehistoric Sahara turned into Earth's largest hot desert more slowly than previously thought, a new report says–and some say global warming may turn the desert green once again. The new research is based on deposits from a unique desert lake in remote northern Chad. Lake Yoa, sustained by prehistoric groundwater, has survived for millennia despite constant drought and searing heat. The body of water contains an unbroken climate record going back at least ...

S. Africa moves to restrict coastal development
May 8, 2008
Reuters: South Africa moved on Thursday to curb coastal property developments to help protect vast stretches of coastline from environmental damage. A property boom in Africa's biggest economy led to a rise in multi-million dollar apartment blocks, mansions and golf and polo estates close to coastal areas, aimed mostly at the foreign tourist market. A new bill -- introduced in parliament but still be debated before becoming law -- will, for the first time, introduce a comprehensive ...

Sahara dried out slowly, not abruptly: study
May 8, 2008
Reuters: The once-green Sahara turned to desert over thousands of years rather than in an abrupt shift as previously believed, according to a study on Thursday that may help understanding of future climate changes. And there are now signs of a tiny shift back towards greener conditions in parts of the Sahara, apparently because of global warming, said the lead author of the report about the desert's history published in the journal Science. The study of ancient pollen, spores and ...

Schwarzenegger challenges automakers to meet Calif. rules
May 8, 2008
Associated Press: Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said Thursday that pressure from the auto industry will not deter California from attempting to impose strict emission rules for vehicles sold in the state. The Republican governor met privately with seven auto executives who requested the get-together. In an interview afterward, he said he told them "the train has left the station" and that they should stop challenging California rules that are intended to help slow the rate of global ...

UK climate adviser says flight rationing unwelcome
May 8, 2008
Reuters: Britain's growing hunger for flights abroad should not be rationed in the fight against climate change, the chief of the UK's new climate change committee said. Flights out of Britain already account for 6.4 percent of the country's CO2, and Britons were named in a survey last October as the world's worst offenders when it comes to carbon emissions from air travel. Last year, Britain's opposition Conservative party -- which is well above the ruling Labour party in opinion polls ...

German Politicians Unwilling to Get Behind Wheel of Green Cars
May 8, 2008
Deutsche Welle: According to a study unveiled by German Environment Aid (DUH) in Berlin on Thursday, May 8, many of Germany's top politicians drive cars with twice the level of carbon emissions the European Commission recommends. "Do as I say, and not as I drive," seems to be how most leading German politicians feel about environmental issues. While they all pay lip service to battling climate change, urging the nation to separate their garbage, switch to green energy and cut back ...

United Kingdom: Great tits find the secret of survival
May 8, 2008
Telegraph: The great tit is making the most of the warming climate in Britain and defying gloomy predictions about extinctions. Climate change has already produced shifts in the distribution of some species, such as amphibians, grasses, migratory birds and butterflies, and by one estimate about one million species worldwide are in danger of extinction over the next half century. But the great tit (parus major) has changed its behaviour to take climate change in its stride, according to ...

NH Senate gives preliminary OK to global warming initiative
May 8, 2008
Associated Press: New Hampshire's Senate has given preliminary approval to entering a 10-state regional effort to cut greenhouse gas emissions to preserve the state's climate and way of life. The Senate voted 16-8 Thursday to ask its Finance Committee to review a bill that implements the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative known as RGGI. Gov. John Lynch believes the initiative will help New Hampshire's environment and economy. The bill adds New Hampshire to the other New England states, ...

Oil Lobby Reaches Out to Citizens Peeved at the Pump
May 8, 2008
Washington Post: Faced with a national outcry over the high price of gasoline and soaring profits for energy companies, the oil and gas industry is waging an unusually pricey campaign to burnish its image. The American Petroleum Institute, the industry's main lobby, has embarked on a multiyear, multimedia, multimillion-dollar campaign, which includes advertising in the nation's largest newspapers, news conferences in many state capitals and trips for bloggers out to drilling platforms at sea. ...

United States: Solar water heaters, clotheslines get legislative OK
May 8, 2008
Honolulu Star-Bulletin: Solar water heaters and clotheslines won big at the state Legislature this session, but a plastic-bag bill snagged on whether counties should be allowed to enact tighter restrictions. The governor has until July 8 to take action on the bills. Among those she will also consider is a measure that will require all homes built after 2010 be equipped with solar water heaters. Another bill passedwould ensure that homeowners have the right to hang their laundry on a line. But ...

Australia: Woodside Says Free Permits, Rebates May Offset Carbon Burden
May 8, 2008
Bloomberg: Woodside Petroleum Ltd., Australia's second-largest oil and gas producer, said free emissions permits or rebates on exported products may compensate liquefied natural gas producers for higher costs arising from carbon trading. The use of tax adjustments is another option to help prevent Australian LNG producers from losing sales to rivals in countries such as Indonesia and Qatar where there are no carbon constraints, Perth-based Woodside said in a submission on the design of a ...

A world apart
May 7, 2008
Guardian: Set-aside, the scheme to take a proportion of farmland out of production and rid Europe of the grain mountains of the 1980s, has itself been set aside. Good for tackling overproduction and, by accident, good for wildlife affected by agricultural intensification, set-aside has been officially reduced to 0% this year by the EC. In the UK, conservation bodies are worried that an area of some 500,000 hectares, which provided a sanctuary for beleaguered wildlife in the farmed landscape, ...

Canada facing Kyoto probe over greenhouse gases
May 7, 2008
Reuters: Canada will be investigated on suspicion of violating rules for registering greenhouse gases that are the mainstay of a U.N.-led fight against global warming, official documents show. Canada played down the news, saying it was taking quick steps to ensure it complied by the rules. Ottawa could be suspended from rights to trade carbon dioxide if found to be in breach of the rules by the enforcement branch of the U.N.'s Kyoto Protocol. Greece was suspended last month, the first ...

3Degrees' Utility Partnerships Stand Out Among Nation's Top 10 Rankings
3Degrees' utility partners have once again been recognized as industry leaders in marketing green power. All four 3Degrees' utility green power partnerships that have been operating more than a year appear on the nation's latest Top 10 rankings, recently released by the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). 3Degrees' utility partners achieved Top 3 status on four of the five lists; this is among more than 750 utility green pricing programs in the nation.

US House Representative Jon Porter Presents Congressional Recognition To Senergy Cooling Systems And SolCool One, LLC
To recognize the commercial debut of the Millennia solar air conditioning and heating system, Nevada's 3rd District Representative, Jon Porter, presented Senergy Cooling Systems and SolCool One, LLC with a Congressional Recognition Certificate at Quality Technical Training Center in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Spire to Attend IEEE Photovoltaic Specialists Conference
BEDFORD, MA – May 8, 2008 – Spire Corporation, (Nasdaq: SPIR), a global solar company providing turnkey solar factories and capital equipment to manufacture photovoltaic modules worldwide, today announced it will attend the 33rd IEEE Photovoltaic Specialists Conference from May 11 to May 16, 2008 in San Diego, California. Spire will be located in Booths 216 and 218 at the conference site in the Manchester Grand Hyatt Hotel.

Bipartisan Companion for Extension of Renewable Energy Tax Credits Introduced
Congressman Roscoe Bartlett (R-MD) and 34 other members of the U.S. House of Representatives have introduced H.R. 5984, a bipartisan companion to S. 2821, also known as the Clean Energy Tax Stimulus Act of 2008. S. 2821 was introduced by Senators Maria Cantwell (D-WA) and John Ensign (R-NV) and has 43 cosponsors. S. 2821 was included as an amendment to The Foreclosure Prevention Act of 2008 which was approved by a vote of 88-8. House leaders stripped that provision from the bill when it was considered in the House.

Centrosolar Invests in PV Cell Production
A joint venture for the production of crystalline solar cells has been launched by co-investors Centrosolar Group AG and Qimonda AG. The production plant will be established near Porto in Portugal next to the existing semiconductor factory of Qimonda. The facility will have a capacity of approximately 100 megawatts (MW) by the end of 2009.

RusSUNHydro Conducts Hydropower Study
The joint Russian-Indian power company RusSUNHydro has begun feasibility studies on the possibility of participation in a tender process for a number of hydropower sites in Himachal Pradesh, India.

EnerNOC Acquires South River Consulting
EnerNOC, Inc. announced that it has acquired privately-held South River Consulting, LLC, an energy procurement and risk management services provider. Under the terms of the transaction, EnerNOC acquired 100% of the membership interests of South River for a purchase price of approximately US $4.75 million.

Boralex & Gaz Metro Win 272-MW of Wind Power Contracts
Boralex Inc. and Gaz Metro Limited Partnership announced that a consortium between the two companies has won contracts for two wind power projects totaling an installed capacity of 272 megawatts (MW). The contracts were awarded following a call for tenders by Hydro-Quebec.

Renewable Energy in Yemen: Welfare or Necessity?

Oklahoma Wind Power Has Vast Potential

Bright Solar Power Plan Has Dark Side

Industry Growth and Policy Progress on the Agenda at Solar 2008
Solar 2008, the 37th conference put on by the American Solar Energy Society (ASES), brought together engineering, business and policy experts in the solar industry in San Diego, California from May 3-8. On the agenda at this year's conference was a look at solar energy in transition, as the technology continues to more toward the center of the U.S. energy landscape.

SolCool One, LLC and Senergy Cooling Systems Deliver First DC Millennia HVAC to Houston, Texas
SolCool One, LLC and its manufacturing partner, Senergy Cooling Systems, delivered the first Millennia direct current air conditioning/heating system to Alternative Energy Group of Texas the wholesale distribution HUB for the Millennia in Houston, Texas. The 1.5 ton, 18,000 BTU split version of the Millennia in the Greater Houston area demonstrates how the built in smart charger uses renewable, direct current and or alternate current grid sources to charge on-board deep cell batteries that power its 24 or 48 volt internal system. The battery driven Millennia can cool or heat uninterrupted for hours or days without any charging from outside sources at approximately 2/3 less power consumption than comparable conventional hardware.

SolCool One, LLC and Senergy Cooling Systems Deliver First DC Millennia HVAC to Madisonville, Louisiana
SolCool One, LLC and its manufacturing partner, Senergy Cooling Systems, delivered the first Millennia direct current air conditioning/heating system to The Green Energy Outlet, the wholesale distribution HUB for the Millennia in Louisiana. The 1.5 ton, 18,000 BTU split version of the Millennia in Louisiana demonstrates how the built in smart charger uses renewable, direct current and or alternate current grid sources to charge on-board deep cell batteries that power its 24 or 48 volt internal system. The battery driven Millennia can cool or heat uninterrupted for hours or days without any charging from outside sources at approximately 2/3 less power consumption than comparable conventional hardware.

New Report on Methods for Calculating Solar Capacity
As utilities work to meet electricity demand, especially during peak summer days, examining the relationship between demand and solar photovoltaic (PV) output can be of significant value to the utility industry. Over the years, energy researchers have developed different statistical methods for calculating this relationship. However, there is no consensus across the utility or solar industries on a statistical method for calculating the capacity value of PV or its practical use in electricity markets and utility planning. The new report, Photovoltaic Capacity Valuation Methods, released today by the Solar Electric Power Association (SEPA) in consultation with project partners, and funded in part by the U.S. Department of Energy's Solar America Initiative, examines the variety of capacity calculation methods in use, and lays the foundation for building consensus within the solar industry, electric utility, and research communities.

U.S. Renewable Energy Leaders: Don't Count on Carbon Price Alone
Proclaiming "give us a chance, we'll deliver" and "2009 will be a new beginning," leaders of several renewable energy groups this week asserted electricity from wind, solar, geothermal, biomass and hydro can help the U.S. make substantial progress toward mitigating the buildup of carbon dioxide in the earth's atmosphere.

HelioVolt and Architectural Glass & Aluminum Partner To Make BIPV
Thin-film solar energy product producer, HelioVolt Corp. and Architectural Glass & Aluminum Co. (AGA) announced a partnership to develop and manufacture building integrated photovoltaic (BIPV) products. The joint offering will incorporate solar energy systems directly into standardized curtain wall products, the exterior glass facades that dominate modern urban construction. By embedding PV thin film into building materials, the solar-enabled curtain walls are designed to improve aesthetics, simplify installation and reduce operating costs for solar energy in new construction.

U.S. Wind Industry Installs 1400 MW of Wind Power in First Quarter 2008
With the fate of a key federal incentive in the balance, the U.S. wind energy industry continued new installations at a rapid pace in the first quarter of 2008, putting 1,400 megawatts (MW) or approximately US $3 billion worth of new generating capacity in place, the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) said in its quarterly market report this week.

Grant Will Help DMEA Members Use Solar
Delta-Montrose Electric Association (DMEA) residential members interested in solar photovoltaic (PV) systems will have a new financial incentive available June 1, 2008. A US $25,000 matching grant to DMEA from the Governor's Energy Office (GEO) will enable DMEA to offer a limited number of its members a US $2/watt rebate on new PV systems installed beginning June 1.

Averox Adds Wind and Solar to Telecom Base Stations
Averox Inc. announced that it will install wind and solar powered generators for telecom base stations to its telecom services portfolio. The power demand of base stations accounts for about 90% of the energy requirements of a mobile network.