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EPA: 1M Gallons of Oil May Be in Mich. River (AP) Federal officials now estimate that more than 1 million gallons of oil may have spilled into a major river in southern Michigan, and the governor is sharply criticizing clean-up efforts as "wholly inadequate." Landrieu Pushes Oil Spill .. read full article »

Giles Parkinson at The Climate Spectator has a look at BP's ventures into renewable energy over the years - BP's other disaster.The headlines relating to BP today will no doubt be about the oil giant's record losses and the huge payout for its departing CEO. But there’s a fascinating story to .. read full article »

The NYT has an article on deepwater offshore oil, hidden under salt layers - Gulf of Mexico's Deepwater Oil Industry Is Built on Pillars of Salt.Not so long ago -- at least, in geological time -- many in the oil game thought the Gulf of Mexico was tapped out.Financiers called it "the Dead Sea." .. read full article »

NPR has an article on local currencies in Germany - Fiscal Localism On Rise In Germany.The Havelbluete, the Augusta and the Chiemgauer might sound like the names of locally brewed beers, but they are in fact micro-currencies which, like micro-breweries, are in abundance in Germany. There are .. read full article »

So I'm off to Portland, Oregon for a staid conference and a little fun (hopefully) on some of the copious Oregon rivers.  Of course on the drive down I'm stopping off in Fernie, BC so I'll have some fun for sure.I realize the old blog hasn't been getting a lot of attention in the past few .. read full article »

An international team of climate scientists led by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has confirmed that climate change is "undeniable" and clearly driven by the "human fingerprints" of greenhouse gas emissions.  The findings are based on new data that was not reviewed .. read full article »

A group of oil companies including BP, Shell, ExxonMobil, Citgo, Chevron and other polluters are using a front group called "America's WETLAND Foundation" and a Louisiana women's group called Women of the Storm to spread the message that U.S. taxpayers should pay for the damage caused by BP to .. read full article »

Cross-posted from the Consequence Blog Senate staffers expecting a typical morning commute were in for a surprise yesterday when they stepped out of Union Station and into a Big Oil Carnival. While our literal Big Oil Carnival — complete with oil-themed midway games, Tony Hayward clowns, and .. read full article »

The purpose of this hearing is to evaluate preparedness and mitigation efforts among flood-prone communities and responsible federal agencies, by evaluating the accuracy of the FEMA flood map modernization process, its impact on states and localities, mechanisms for dispute resolution, and the .. read full article »

Yesterday, the tar sands industry met unexpected opposition. The Salt Lake Tribune captured it best: “A small Canadian company, in need of millions for its ambitious plans, also is facing stiff opposition from two Utah environmental groups that are trying to thwart its efforts to build one of .. read full article »

Annual Climate Report Shows We Live in a Warming World: Global temperatures continued to increase in 2009, and atmospheric greenhouse gas levels also rose, according to a new “State of the Climate Report” from the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The report, .. read full article »

The energy and climate news hasn’t exactly been great lately, which means we all need a 22-second laugh break. Here’s yours: OK, break’s over. Back to the info-mines, you slackers. Visit Lou's Graphs Page.TCOE is on Twitter, too read full article »

speak no evil.jpg Ben Raines of the Alabama Press Register is reporting that BP is trying to hire scientists who are doing research in the oil-damaged Gulf of Mexico and then binding those scientists with legal agreements that will enable BP to bury their work and prevent them .. read full article »

by Juliette Jowit, Guardian Global temperatures in the first half of the year were the hottest since records began more than a century ago, according to two of the world's leading climate research centers. Scientists have also released what they described as the "best evidence yet" of .. read full article »

by Juliette Jowit, Guardian Global temperatures in the first half of the year were the hottest since records began more than a century ago, according to two of the world's leading climate research centers. Scientists have also released what they described as the "best evidence yet" of .. read full article »

Ottawa-based Plasco Energy Group says its energy-from-waste technology is now proven and it’s time to move to commercial delivery. To help in that effort, it announced today a $110 million private equity placement led largely by Ares Management LLC of Los Angeles. Since 2005 Plasco had .. read full article »

San Diego has a lot going for it: beautiful weather all year round, a great coast, and...well, the new StockTwits HQ on Coronado. And now, after several years of investment, hard work, and a smart Republican mayor, Jerry Sanders, who saw and seized the opportunity, San Diego has an emerging .. read full article »

WASHINGTON—One of the keys to sealing a global climate deal is a financial lifeline to help vulnerable countries adapt to climate change. The price tag is reckoned in tens, if not hundreds of billions of dollars. Just where will that astronomical amount of money come from? One California .. read full article »

Energy Bill, Focusing on Conservation, Can't Shake Calls for RES - NYTimes.comThe Senate's small energy package unveiled last night flirts with Republican opposition and turns its cheek to clean-power Democrats. Its first vote, nonetheless, is planned for next week.Majority Leader Harry Reid .. read full article »

Reid Unveils Pared-Down Energy and Oil Bill (AP) Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's new bill would eliminate the $75 million cap on economic liability from an oil spill, add $5 billion to the Home Star program and spend $400 million to encourage deployment of electric cars. Reid: Renewable .. read full article »

General Motors said this week it will cut out a climate-destroying chemical from its car air conditioners by 2013, in a first for an industry seeking greener auto coolants. The car giant will stop using HFC-134a -- a "super greenhouse gas" -- in all new Chevrolet, Cadillac, Buick and GMC .. read full article »

CNet has an article from Martin LaMonica on Microsoft's "Hohm" energy usage meter - Microsoft Hohm connects to home power monitor.If you're cranking the air conditioner a lot this summer, a product bundle using Microsoft Hohm will tell you a lot about your upcoming energy bills--maybe even more .. read full article »

Stuart at Early Warning has a post on global oil production numbers and their implications for global economic growth - Global Oil Supply Now Contracting?.It's too soon to remove the question mark from the end of the post title, but not too soon to be talking about the subject.For a number of .. read full article »

Yeal Environment 360 has a post on a new NASA map of marine dead zones around the globe - Map Illustrates Extent of the Planet’s Marine Dead Zones.A new NASA map illustrates the significant expansion of the world’s marine dead zones, deepwater regions where dissolved oxygen is so low marine .. read full article »

The NYT has an article on Indonesian interest in geothermal energy - Indonesia Seeks to Tap Its Huge Geothermal Reserves.The 17,500 islands of the Indonesian archipelago, perched perilously on the arc of seismic activity known as the Pacific Ring, are plagued by unpredictable and often deadly .. read full article »

For 20 years, SEI has been at the forefront of solar PV training. read full article »

One of the first and critical challenges for solar developers is locating and securing the most suitable site that meets all the technical, logistic & budgetary requirements. There are only 3 options available private, state or federal with each one having separate challenges. read full article »

Sandia National Laboratories and SunPower Corp. announced that they formalized a research agreement in which they will focus on integrating large-scale photovoltaic (PV) systems into the grid. read full article »

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid released details of a newly drafted energy bill yesterday. The bill is more notable for what's not in it, than what is in it. read full article »

By unveiling a solar heating and cooling programme that could create 25,000 new green jobs, generate US$2.6 billion in revenue and see 2 GW of new solar thermal capacity installed in the state over the next decade, New York has revealed its ambition to become America’s national leader in solar .. read full article »

Rajiv GiridharagopaL, Guozheng Shao, David S. Ginger, University of Washington; and Chris Groves, Durham University,discuss the experimental challenges and opportunities associated with two different AFM-based optoelectronic scanning probe techniques, photoconductive AFM (pcAFM) and .. read full article »

Northern Maine and Nova Scotia share coastline along the Bay of Fundy, a piece of ocean with the strongest tides in the world. In order to harness the powerful forces of those tides, the leaders of Maine and Nova Scotia have formed a partnership to develop ocean energy technologies in the area. read full article »

Xtreme Power, a provider of Dynamic Power Resources (DPRs) for utility-scale power management and energy storage systems, announced the close of a $29.5 million financing round co-led by Bessemer Venture Partners, The Dow Chemical Company through its Venture Capital group and existing investor .. read full article »

The German company Sulfurcell, a producer of Copper Indium Selenide (CIS) thin-film modules, signed agreements this week to supply companies in China and India with 16 megawatts (MW) of product. read full article »

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Aerogenerator X British company Windpower has always thought big.    A couple of years ago, they came up with the design for their Aerogenerator, a 144 meter Vertical Axis Wind Turbine (VAWT) that would generate up to 5 MW of electricity.     Their brand new design (the Aerogenerator X) .. read full article »

Today, emergency response teams in the gulf are torn between two disasters: the ongoing cleanup of the BP disaster and a new oil geyser spewing into the Gulf near Jefferson Parish, LA. In Michigan, teams are still working to contain a spill from a ruptured pipe that threatens the Kalamazoo .. read full article »

by Terry Macalister, Guardian BP's attempt to draw a line under its troubles in the US by axing its chief executive has been blunted after Tony Hayward said he would be "too busy" to attend a Senate hearing on Thursday. The oil company risked further inflaming a delicate trans-Atlantic .. read full article »

Witnesses Panel I Mark Begich, United States Senator, State of Alaska Panel II Brian O’Neill, Partner, Faegre & Benson LLP Joe Banta, Project Manager, Prince William Sound Regional Citizens’ Advisory Council Thomas G. McInerney, Lt. Gen. USAF (Ret) read full article »

Witnesses Panel 1 Cynthia Dohner, Regional Director, Southeast Region, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Tony Penn, Deputy Chief, Assessment and Restoration Division, Office of Response and Restoration, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Dr. Eva J. Pell, Under Secretary for .. read full article »

Witnesses Panel I Lael Brainard, Under Secretary for International Affairs, U.S. Department of the Treasury Jonathan Pershing, Ph.D., Deputy Special Envoy for Climate Change, U.S. Department of State Rear Admiral David W. Titley, Oceanographer and Navigator of the Navy, U.S. Department .. read full article »

Today is a hot, sticky day in Delhi, almost 90 F in the shade, and in my apartment, less than ten years old, I’m sweating as I type underneath the fan. In fact, I’m sweating even when I turn on my air conditioner. And yet, outside, in Delhi’s most beautiful park, Lodhi Gardens, I can sit .. read full article »

From the Wonk Room. As Washington, D.C. wilts in the global heat wave gripping the planet, the Democratic leadership in the Senate has abandoned the effort to cap global warming pollution for the foreseeable future, unwilling to test a Republican filibuster. Instead of testing the hypocrisy .. read full article »

Nuclear Energy Loses Cost Advantage - NYTimes.comPARIS — Solar photovoltaic systems have long been painted as a clean way to generate electricity, but expensive compared with other alternatives to oil, like nuclear power. No longer. In a “historic crossover,” the costs of solar .. read full article »

Witnesses Panel I Kristina M. Johnson, Ph.D., Under Secretary, Department of Energy Scott Blake Harris, General Counsel, Department of Energy Michael F. Hertz, Deputy Assistant Attorney General, Department of Justice, Civil Division Panel II David A. Wright, Vice Chairman, Public .. read full article »

Panel 1 Don Briggs, President, Louisiana Oil and Gas Association Dr. Joseph R. Mason, Chair of Banking, E.J. Ourso School of Business Louisiana State University Ethan Treese, Vice President, Federal Government Solutions Dun and Bradstree Panel 2 Leslie Bertucci, Owner, R&D .. read full article »

The hearing will explore both the damages suffered by the tourism industry in the Gulf region and the process by which the independent Gulf Coast Claims Facility will evaluate tourism-related claims. Witnesses Kenneth Feinberg, Administrator, Gulf Coast Claims Facility Roger Dow, .. read full article »

The hearing addressed implementation efforts in transportation programs under the Committee’s jurisdiction, including highways, bridges, public transportation, rail, and aviation. read full article »

Visit Lou's Graphs Page.TCOE is on Twitter, too read full article »