News

Fools Gold: UK learns from the green energy boom and bust in Spain, but will the Obama Administration? Bloomberg (2/27/11) reports: Cornwall, the poorest county in England, said five months ago it expected a “gold rush” of $1.6 billion in solar energy investments. Now, the U.K. government may get in the way…The central government said this month it’s considering cutting incentives and reducing the size of projects, concerned that the above-market rates it promised through April 2012 may lead to too many solar farms…Britain is moving faster than any other European country to contain a surge in solar power and prevent the boom-and-bust seen in Spain and predicted for the Czech Republic. The risk is scaring off the investors who would create the “green jobs” Prime Minister David Cameron is seeking to revive the economy…“It’s going to completely kill the market,” said Tim German, renewable energy manager for the local government in Cornwall at the U.K.’s southwest tip. “Investors are starting to get cold feet.”

Winning the Future: DOE praises new green building as success — only catch, every employee needs to constantly open or close windows when the temperature alarm sounds Wall Street Journal (2/28/11) reports: When the first employees moved into the Department of Energy’s new research facility here last summer, a whole lot of people were watching—with a whole lot of anxiety…Planners of the $64 million facility, part of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, set out to make it the greenest office building in the nation…But no one was certain the building would perform as efficiently as its designers hoped…The Energy Department hopes lessons learned in this Denver suburb will help guide green-construction practices around the world. Outside experts in efficient construction point out that some of the technology used at NREL is best suited for high-sunlight, low-humidity climates like Colorado and wouldn’t work nearly as well elsewhere. The building also demands a lot from its employees, who must adjust to fluctuating temperatures throughout the day and pop up from their desks to open and shut windows; a work force less dedicated to energy efficiency might rebel…”NREL said from the beginning that this building was part of their lab,” says Richard von Luhrte, president of RNL, the international architectural firm that designed the building—and is still tweaking it…Eight months into the experiment, the building “is performing according to design,” says Byron Haselden, president of Haselden Construction LLC of Centennial, Colo., builders of the facility. “Whew!” he adds.

Parsimonious is the smug way of saying poor — affordable and reliable energy can bring millions out of poverty and that terrifies greenies Los Angeles Times (2/28/11) reports: China, a manufacturing powerhouse, is already the world’s biggest carbon emitter, but ordinary Chinese remain remarkably parsimonious in their energy use. Matthew Kahn, Rui Weng, Siqi Zeng and I, in a study published in 2010, estimated carbon emissions for urban households in China, measuring only household emissions and personal transportation. In our sample, the average Chinese household emitted less than 2.2 tons of carbon dioxide a year, which is less than 1/17th of the levels that Kahn and I found in an earlier study of U.S. cities. Even the greenest U.S. metro areas, such as San Jose and San Francisco, emitted almost 12 times as much as carbon as the Chinese metropolitan areas…The low carbon figures among Chinese households today mean that there is frighteningly large room for growth in Chinese energy use. The Chinese bought more than 18 million cars last year alone. India’s hot climate suggests that its household emissions may eventually be even higher, once a billion air conditioners come into operation.

Ken ‘all hat and no cattle’ Salazar is the kind of guy that believes the same thing Wednesday that he believed on Monday, no matter what happened Tuesday Wall Street Journal (2/26/11) reports: Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said the oil industry hasn’t yet persuaded him to re-start deep-water drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, and that he won’t “respond to political pressure” on the issue…Mr. Salazar and Michael Bromwich, the head of the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement, which oversees offshore drilling, met oil-industry executives in Houston to assess new spill-containment systems they have developed in the wake of the nation’s worst-ever marine oil spill last year in the Gulf of Mexico…Mr. Bromwich said he was “quite confident that we are getting very close to the point where we can begin issuing deep-water permits.” The U.S. government shut down deep-water drilling shortly after the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded on April 20, killing 11 people…The government’s official ban was lifted in October, but regulators have yet to allow drilling in water deeper than 500 feet despite mounting political pressure. Congressional Republicans and Gulf Coast Democrats are pushing to reopen one of the nation’s primary energy fields as oil prices climb and as unemployment hovers near 9%…Oil prices have surged on concerns of supply disruptions due to political turmoil in the Middle East and North Africa. The recent run above $100 a barrel has given strength to the push for domestic supplies…”We’re seeing potential for loss of jobs and disruption of the energy market,” said U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, a Texas Democrat.

When you fly military or have an intern drive you around to ribbon cuttings, it’s hard to stay in touch with gas prices Financial Times (2/25/11) reports: Companies around the world have begun to warn about the impact of higher fuel costs on their businesses, raising fears about profits and inflation…Companies in the most energy-intensive sectors, such as airlines, have been the first to raise the alarm, but analysts warned that a sustained period of high oil prices would have a widespread effect on earnings…On Friday, Thai Airways, the state-controlled carrier, said that it would have to review its revenue targets to assess the impact of the rise in oil prices…International Airlines Group, the owner of British Airways and Iberia, said it was “likely” that fares would rise again, following fuel surcharges already imposed, if the volatility in oil markets continued.

Wind can’t catch a break; even when it works it cause it problems — kind of like Congress New York Times (2/25/11) reports: The Bonneville Power Administration says it is preparing to sharply reduce the region’s wind generators’ output during extreme high water flows in the Columbia River system as a last resort to assure that hydropower dam operations do not threaten protected fish populations…If the region’s grid is carrying high power output from wind generators at a time when the river flow is extremely high, the combination of wind power and hydropower would exceed the demand for electricity, in expected scenarios…BPA says in those circumstances, it would have to curtail wind generation or increase water flows over hydro dam spillways, bypassing dam generators. But excessive flows over spillways can raise nitrogen levels in the water below the dams, violating federal regulations that protect salmon and other fish species.

You can’t make this up. Soros taps Cathy “I Directed NREL to Attack the Calzada Spanish Green Jobs Study/I Shepherded DOE Cash to My Husbands Company” Zoi to run his green energy hedge fund. Where is the outrage mainstream media? Washington Examiner (2/24/11) reports: So, yeah. The big-government policies advanced by the liberal outfits he funds — like Center for American Progress — will enrich the companies in which Soros is investing…But this story gets better…The press release casually mentions whom Soros is hiring to run this new fund: Cathy Zoi. As Cadie Thompson at CNBC’s NetNet (edited by my brother John Carney), puts it,..Zoi was Barack Obama’s “Acting Under Secretary for Energy and Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy.” An Al Gore acolyte, Zoi was Obama’s point-woman on subsidizing green tech. Now she’s going to work for George Soros to profit off of subsidized green tech…If you remember Zoi’s name, it’s because of another green-tech conflict of interest: Zoi’s husband is an executive at a window company, Serious Windows, which the White House regularly held up as a “poster child of green industry.”

Cha-Ching! Rent seekers in CA rejoice with new green energy law coming out of Sacramento Los Angeles Times (2/24/11) reports: The state Senate acted Thursday to require California utilities to boost their use of wind, solar and other renewable energy sources to a third of total supply by the year 2020…California law already requires utilities to get a fifth of their power from renewable energy. If this measure becomes law, utilities will be forced to lean even more heavily on green power — improving air quality and helping the economy in the process, supporters said. “Right now we can begin to create the jobs that this state so desperately needs, ” said state Sen. Joe Simitian (D-Palo Alto), the bill’s author…The measure passed 26 to 11. The vote split largely along party lines but with a few crossovers…Opponents said it would drive up electricity bills for homeowners and manufacturers. The additional costs would convince California companies, which already pay some of the highest energy costs in the nation, to move their jobs out of state, said Sen. Bob Huff (R-Diamond Bar).

Them’s fightin’ words — President Bill Clinton takes on big corn by saying ethanol increases the price of food Wall Street Journal (2/25/11) reports: America’s political addiction to ethanol has consequences, from raising the price of food to lining the pockets of companies like Archer Daniels Midland. So we’re delighted to see another prominent booster—Bill Clinton—see the fright… “We have to become energy independent” but “we don’t want to do it at the expense of food riots,” the former President told an agriculture conference Thursday. He urged farmers to consider the needs of developing countries—the implication being that the diversion of corn to ethanol production limits food supplies and artificially raises prices…No kidding. At the same gathering, Department of Agriculture chief economist Joseph Glauber did the math. Despite a forecasted 4% increase in corn planting, Mr. Glauber expects corn used for ethanol to hit a record five billion bushels in 2011-12, or more than one-third of total U.S. production, thanks to renewable fuel mandates and tax incentives. Corn prices recently hit two-and-a-half-year highs…That means the forced U.S. ramp-up in ethanol production is commandeering corn that could otherwise go for food and contributing to higher food prices here and in much of the world. Meanwhile, India is seeing protests, China is imposing price controls, and Indonesia is stockpiling rice. Don’t forget the inflationary impact of the Federal Reserve’s easy money policies, which are pushing up prices across the globe more generally.

The paradox of becoming energy independent is that we become more dependent on foreign oil Investors (2/24/11) reports: President Obama talks much of moving to sustainable energy. But as he blocks domestic drilling, the reality is he’s outsourced U.S. oil needs to mad-dog dictators like Libya’s Moammar Gadhafi. That’s even less sustainable…Oil prices hit $100 a barrel Wednesday as thousands of Libyans marched in Tripoli. The crazed Gadhafi vowed to fight to “the last bullet, ” denouncing his own countrymen as “greasy rats” and turning his weapons of war on 1,000 of them…He also threatened to incinerate his nation’s oil wells as he goes down, an unsubtle suggestion to Big Oil companies operating in his country that they should act to save his regime…As a result, oil is soaring because markets worry that a string of petro-tyrants will go down like Gadhafi and energy may soon become scarce.

Why does Ken Salazar think he’s above the law? Only Steven Segal is Above the Law. Wall Street Journal (Feb. 24. 2011) reports: Remember the BP oil spill and its aftermath? Folks remember it on the Gulf Coast, where late last week a federal judge ruled that the Obama Administration is imposing a de facto ban on deep water drilling that is “unreasonable, unacceptable, and unjustified.” Federal Judge Martin Feldman ordered the Interior Department’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management to act on five pending deep water permit applications within 30 days. The case was brought by Ensco, an offshore driller whose permits have been under review for as long as nine months. Since finally lifting its blanket ban in October, the Administration has failed to issue a single permit, blaming strained resources and new regulations. Ensco believes, as Judge Feldman wrote, that the “government’s continuous delays are intentional,” part of an effort to use last year’s BP oil spill as an excuse to limit fossil fuel extraction.

When the Fed say they’ll implement “quantitative easing,” it’s just a fancy way to say, “You’ll be paying higher prices at the pump.” Wall Street Journal (Feb. 24. 2011) reports: Our question is: What took so long? We’re referring to the latest oil market panic, as prices for U.S. crude hit $100 a barrel yesterday (European crude hit $111) and gasoline nears $4 a gallon in parts of California. This oil trouble has been building for some time, and there’s much more at work here than turmoil in the Middle East. . . . The run-up to that price territory began in earnest last year after the Federal Reserve embarked on its QE2 strategy of further monetary easing. The Fed absolves itself of any responsibility for rising oil prices, attributing them to rising demand from a recovering global economy. Demand has been rising, but not enough to explain what has been a nearly across-the-board spike in prices for dollar-traded commodities. (Natural gas is the big exception, thanks to a boom in domestic exploration.) A spike in one or two commodities can be explained by a change in relative demand. A uniform price spike suggests at least in part a monetary explanation. The Fed will use the Libya turmoil as another alibi, but there’s no doubt in our mind that oil prices include a substantial Ben Bernanke premium.

Since it would be too awkward for President Obama to give George Soros money directly, they’ve agreed George would start a clean energy company and Obama would launder the money through subsidies Wall Street Journal (2/23/11) reports: Two of the biggest names in the investing world are teaming up to wager on clean energy…George Soros’s Soros Fund Management LLC and private-equity firm Silver Lake are starting Silver Lake Kraftwerk, which will invest in growing companies in the energy and resource sectors. The fund will aim to profit by using technology innovations to improve energy efficiency and waste processing and to modernize global power grids and other areas…The amount the two will invest in the new company wasn’t disclosed…The fund will have dual headquarters in Silicon Valley, Calif., and China and be led by Adam Grosser, who spent a decade as general partner at venture-capital firm Foundation Capital. Mr. Grosser had been working in recent months to launch his own firm…For Silver Lake, which has specialized in technology-related investments, the effort represents a new focus on energy and resource sectors. “We will target growth-stage companies with proven technologies and business models,” said Greg Mondre, a Silver Lake managing director….”Developing alternative sources of energy and achieving greater energy efficiency is both a significant investment opportunity and environmental imperative,” Mr. Soros said. His hedge fund with invest in the venture.

The man who couldn’t figure out his taxes reassures taxpayers that they can afford higher gas prices Bloomberg (2/23/11) reports: The risk of higher fuel prices is that they may leave consumers less to spend on other goods, hurt corporate profits and force central banks to raise borrowing costs to curb price increases…U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner said the economic recovery has put the world on a better footing to withstand the increase in oil prices caused by turmoil in the Middle East…“The economy is in a much stronger position to handle” rising oil prices, Geithner said today during a Bloomberg Breakfast in Washington. “Central banks have a lot of experience in managing these things.”…Political turmoil in Libya, holder of Africa’s largest oil reserves, will add “stagflationary winds” to the global economy, according to Mohamed El-Erian, chief executive officer at Pacific Investment Management Co. Protests in Libya pose more “systemic” risk to the global economy than the upheaval in Egypt and Tunisia, El-Erian said in a Bloomberg Television interview yesterday…Geithner also said the U.S. financial system is in better shape than before the recession and is able to provide the funding needed for the expansion…“The core of the American financial system is in a much stronger position than it was before the crisis,” he said. “We’re way ahead of any other major economy.”

Bitter-Sweet — No permits can be issued if the government shuts down over the budget debate New York Times (2/22/11) reports: As lawmakers struggle to pass a spending bill before current federal funding runs out next week, observers warn that a government shutdown could severely hamper land management agencies and the people and businesses they support… Failure to extend funding could mean furloughs for tens of thousands of agency employees and lead to the closure of national parks, the loss of regional tourism dollars and the cessation of permitting for oil and gas drilling, mining, recreation and other public land uses…The last time the federal government shut down in 2005 and 2006, for example, the National Park Service was forced to close 368 sites and turn away a reported 7 million visitors, according to a September 2010 report by the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service (CRS). Monuments and national museums also shut down, the report found.

Is it really a desert squirrel we are fighting over or is it that greenies don’t like any form energy? New York Times (2/23/11) reports: Just weeks after regulators approved the last of nine multibillion-dollar solar thermal power plants to be built in the Southern California desert, a storm of lawsuits and the resurgence of an older solar technology are clouding the future of the nascent industry…The litigation, which seeks to block construction of five of the solar thermal projects, underscores the growing risks of building large-scale renewable energy plants in environmentally delicate areas. On Jan. 25, for instance, Solar Millennium withdrew its 16-month-old license application for a 250-megawatt solar station called Ridgecrest, citing regulators’ concerns over the project’s impact on the Mohave ground squirrel…At peak output, the five licensed solar thermal projects being challenged would power more than two million homes, create thousands of construction jobs and help the state meet aggressive renewable energy mandates. The projects are backed by California’s biggest utilities, top state officials and the Obama administration.

Live Free or Die: NH votes to pull out of Northeast cap and tax scheme — hold the champagne, Dem. Gov. says he’ll veto Bloomberg (2/23/11) reports: A bill pulling New Hampshire out of the U.S. Northeast carbon cap-and-trade program advanced in the Republican-led state House…The House of Representatives voted 240-108 for a bill that would remove New Hampshire from the 10-state Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative at the end of this year, according to the legislature’s website…The bill passed the House Committee on Science Technology and Energy on Feb. 15. Today’s vote sent the bill to the House Finance Committee. It must be brought back for a House vote before being sent to the state Senate…Governor John Lynch, a Democrat, said Feb. 10 he’ll oppose the Republican effort to pull the state out of the regional program, which regulates carbon dioxide from power-plant smokestacks.

Green Sprawl: Obama Administration wants to cover CA desert with solar panels; sadly, that land is sacred to Native Americans Los Angeles Times (2/23/11) reports: The Native American group La Cuna de Aztlan Sacred Sites Protection Circle, which Figueroa founded, has joined with environmentalists in a federal lawsuit to block six mammoth solar projects approved by the Department of the Interior…The projects targeted include BrightSource Energy’s 3,600-acre solar facility in San Bernardino County’s Ivanpah Valley, where work began in October, and Solar Millennium’s proposed 5,900-acre solar thermal project eight miles west of Blythe, abutting the geoglyph-covered mesa…The lawsuit, filed in December, accuses the Bureau of Land Management of fast-tracking the solar projects without the required environmental review and without consulting with Native American tribes that oversee the preservation of sites with religious and cultural significance. The federal agency disregarded its formal agreement to consult with La Cuna to protect sacred sites that may be impacted by projects on bureau-controlled lands, Figueroa said…Cory Briggs, the lead attorney for the groups that filed that lawsuit, said the Obama administration raced to approve solar projects in California before the Dec. 31 deadline for economic-stimulus funding. The stimulus package offered generous subsidies for renewable energy projects approved before the deadline.

OPEC says we can count on them for oil — Mr. President, there is always oil in the Gulf of Mexico, the Arctic and let’s not forget about onshore. New York Times (2/22/11) reports: The political turmoil sweeping the Arab world drove oil prices sharply higher and stocks much lower on Tuesday despite efforts by Saudi Arabia to calm turbulent markets… The unrest that has spread from Tunisia to Libya pushed oil prices to a two-year high and has spurred an increase in gasoline prices. The specter of rising energy costs and accelerating inflation in turn unsettled investors….Oil is now at a price not seen since the recession began, and it is more than $20 above goals set in recent months by Saudi officials as strong enough to satisfy the top producers but not so strong they might suffocate the global economic recovery…Although there are still plentiful supplies of oil and gasoline in the United States and in much of the world, American consumers are now paying an average of $3.17 a gallon for regular gasoline, a steep rise of 6 cents a gallon over the last week, according to the AAA daily fuel gauge report. With consumers paying roughly 50 cents more a gallon than a year ago, analysts are warning that prices could easily top $3.50 by the summer driving season.

Whoops! Cape Wind folks forgot the number one rule in business — customer focus Yahoo! (2/22/11) reports: The second-largest utility in Massachusetts has agreed to buy electricity from three wind power companies to help it meet renewable power mandates, but it won’t be buying from a high-profile wind farm off the coast of Cape Cod…On Friday, NStar filed contracts with the Department of Public Utilities to buy power from Hoosac Wind in Massachusetts, Groton Wind in New Hampshire and Blue Sky East in Maine…Cape Wind, the nation’s first offshore wind farm, is still trying to find a buyer for half its power. It agreed last year to a 15-year deal to sell the first half to National Grid starting at 18.7 cents per kilowatt hour, and increasing 3.5 percent annually…If Cape Wind doesn’t sell the rest of its power within the next several months, it may be forced to move ahead with a project smaller than the 130-turbine, 468-megawatt wind farm planned in Nantucket Sound.

I wonder if Dept. Sec. Poneman is speaking about the spare capacity in the Gulf or OPEC? “…Ample supply [of oil] in the market place and in fact there seems to be spare capacity…” Bloomberg (2/22/11) video interview: U.S. Deputy Energy Secretary Daniel Poneman discusses the outlook for oil prices and supply amid the unrest in Libya. Poneman speaks with Erik Schatzker on Bloomberg Television’s “InsideTrack.”

Sen. Feinstein pens editorial explaining how rent seeking works; essentially, when taxpayer money is cut off the project folds. Los Angeles Times (2/23/11) reports: The House of Representatives this week approved legislation that irresponsibly eliminates a key Energy Department loan guarantee program that is helping grow California’s renewable energy industry and creating jobs across Southern California…Before I get into the particulars, here’s the bottom line: By rescinding about $2 billion in Recovery Act funds and loan authority, the House has jeopardized some $40 billion of private industry investment in clean energy… Twenty-four California companies have applied for a total of $16.2 billion in loan guarantees that would bring tens of thousands of jobs to California, firmly establishing an industry of the future in our backyard.

Greenies can’t help themselves — environmental groups slow down the Obama Administration’s effort to fast track renewable energy permits. Maybe if the permits were printed on recycled paper they’d be happy Politico (2/23/11) reports: The Obama administration wants to double the amount of renewable power permits awarded this year but is running into a potential problem: environmentalists…Partly driven by the presidential election, the Interior Department has set a goal of approving permits for 9,000 megawatts’ worth of renewable energy on public lands by the end of 2011. That’s more than twice what Interior approved in 2010 through its Fast Track program for a dozen renewable projects… On paper, this should be easy…Environmental groups can ill-afford to fight forms of energy that they are promising will keep the lights on without contributing to climate change. And renewable energy developers — already struggling to compete with older, more established and, for the moment, cheaper fossil fuels — cannot afford to spend years in court waiting for their projects to move forward. So the groups are continually collaborating to head conflict off at the pass…But there is already grumbling at the margins that one side or the other isn’t holding up its end of the bargain.

Wind and Solar meet Shale Gas — new study argues EU can reach carbon targets and save a ton of money by switching to natural gas New York Times (2/22/11) reports: Energy companies across Europe are probing the ground for natural gas trapped in shale rock, hoping to replicate an American boom that has given consumers in the United States a major new supply of affordable fuel… In countries like Britain, Germany and Poland, exploratory drilling is under way, or about to begin, as engineers try to determine how much shale gas is present and how easy it will be to retrieve. New technologies for extracting natural gas from stone have raised worries about contamination of drinking water while also driving a huge drilling expansion in the United States, helping push prices down by two thirds since 2008 and reducing dependence on imports…Shale gas production accounted for 14 percent of U.S. natural gas production in 2009 and is expected to reach 45 percent by 2035, the U.S. Energy Information Agency estimates.

The Obama Administration says that we don’t need new production in the Gulf because and can just get more oil from OPEC—but that assumes OPEC countries, like Libya are producing oil: Wall Street Journal (2/22/11) reports: The head of the International Energy Agency said Tuesday that any small disruption in oil production as a result of unrest in Libya could cause a rise in the price of oil, but that there are strategic stockpiles and the organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries is ready to use its spare capacity…”The market is tight, so certainly if small disruption happens it may create a spike in the price, ” Nabuo Tanaka told reporters on the sidelines of an oil ministers meeting in the Saudi Arabian capital. “If physical disruption happens, and if it’s significant, we have to mobilize, ” he added. “We have strategic stockpiles of 1.6 billion barrels and I know that OPEC has a good spare capacity and they need to work.”…Mr. Tanaka said Tuesday he had received reassurances from OPEC’s secretary general that the organization would use its spare capacity in the case of a supply disruption. “I talked with Secretary General El Badri and he said he is very much committed if disruption happens, he will use it, the spare capacity,” Tanaka said. “The message to the market is, ‘Don’t panic. We have enough stockpiles.'” He also said the IEA’s forecast “at this moment, is if OPEC produced current level the market will be very well provided.”

Continued: Obama Administration bets on Middle East oil over Gulf of Mexico Reuters (2/21/11) reports: U.S. oil prices led the rally to jump by more than $5, the most in over two years, as traders also rushed to cover short positions in the key Brent/WTI spread, which had blown out to a record $16 a barrel. The April spread narrowed to $10 during the day, but widened to over $12 in after-hours trade…The focus was on deadly clashes in Libya, where one oil firm was shutting down some 100,000 barrels per day (bpd) of production and others evacuated staff. The leader of the Al-Zuwayya tribe threatened oil exports to the West would be cut off unless authorities stopped violence…”The market is on edge about the potential for Middle East and North Africa supply disruptions,” said Mike Wittner, head of commodities research, Americas, at Societe Generale…”If you’ve got reports that actual disruptions are starting to occur, it’s going to have a supportive impact. A lot of it is high-quality crude and that is important as well.”…The increasingly violent protests that appeared to put Muammar Gaddafi’s four decades of rule in jeopardy were the realization of weeks of mounting concerns that Egypt-inspired unrest would seep into nearby oil producers.

The New Kyoto Protocol — stop losing trillions of yen on biomass. Japan Times (2/22/11) reports: None of the government’s 214 biomass promotion projects — with public funding coming to ¥6.55 trillion — over the past six years has produced effective results in the struggle against global warming, according to an official report released Tuesday…The Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry, which evaluates public works projects, urged the agriculture and five other ministries conducting biomass projects using sewage sludge, garbage and wood, to take corrective action…The Administrative Evaluation Bureau found in a study of biomass projects through March 2009 that the cumulative budget totaled about ¥6.55 trillion…The six ministries taking part in such projects, however, have yet to confirm the financial results for 92, or 44 percent, of the 214 projects, with one bureau official saying: “The figures tell everything. The ministries need to produce certain results because they are using taxpayers’ money.”

What’s the main difference between Al Gore and Bernie Madoff? One is in jail and the other is still peddling his scheme to investors Securities and Exchange Commission (2/18/11) reports: The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged a group of seven individuals who perpetrated a fraudulent pump-and-dump scheme in the stock of a sham company that purported to provide products and services to fight global warming…The SEC alleges that the group included stock promoters, traders, and a lawyer who wrote a fraudulent opinion letter. The scheme resulted in more than $7 million in illicit profits from sales of stock in CO2 Tech Ltd. at artificially inflated prices. Despite touting impressive business relationships and anti-global warming technology innovations, CO2 Tech did not have any significant assets or operations. The company was purportedly based in London, and its stock prices were quoted in the Pink Sheets…According to the SEC’s complaint filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, the scheme was perpetrated through Red Sea Management Ltd., a Costa Rican asset protection company that laundered millions of dollars in illicit trading proceeds out of the United States on behalf of its clients. The U.S. Department of Justice today announced related criminal charges against six of the individuals.

Winning the Future: China plans to build rail link across Columbia as alternative to Panama Canal so they can quickly receive coal shipments New York Times (2/21/11) reports: Many experts agree that for the world to rein in rising greenhouse gas emissions, the galloping economies of China and India would have to figure out how to base their future economic expansion on technologies and fuels that are “cleaner” than the fossil fuels the United States and Europe used in their own industrial revolutions long ago…We hear a lot about how China and India are becoming world leaders in clean technology, producing and installing solar factories and wind farms at a breakneck pace. Problem solved? Well, no…A couple of developments this week underscored why we should not sleep easy: burgeoning economic growth in China and India requires tons of energy in whatever form it is available. So, yes, while China and India have become bold pioneers in clean technology, they are also enthusiastically developing new sources of the oldest, most polluting fuels. The investments in the latter often dwarf the new clean-tech commitments in terms of dollars and ambition…The Financial Times reported this week that China and Colombia are discussing a plan to build a rail link across Colombia that could serve as an alternative to the Panama Canal. One major reason that China is pursuing the project, the newspaper notes, is that China has become a major importer of Colombian coal, and a rail link carrying it from the eastern coast to the western coast for export to Asia would remove a logistical barrier.

Will the peak oilers please stand up? We’re looking at you T. Boone — Brazil to become top 5 oil producer with Lula discovery Houston Chronicle (2/20/11) reports: Brazil’s quest to remake itself into a global oil superpower is gaining momentum on this giant ship anchored about 200 miles south of Rio de Janeiro in the deep waters of the Atlantic Ocean…Crews on this tanker-like vessel recently began extracting the first barrels of oil from a giant field known as Lula, more than three miles below, that has been called the biggest oil discovery in the Americas in three decades…Production is still at a trickle as the project ramps up. But lessons learned here will be critical in developing a vast network of nearby “pre-salt” reservoirs that are estimated to hold 50 billion to 100 billion barrels of oil — enough to turn Brazil into one of the world’s top five producers of crude…“The challenges to develop this area are very big,” acknowledged Humberto Americano Romanus, a senior engineer with Petrobras, Brazil’s state-owned oil company, as he stood on the Cidade de Angra Dos Reis on a hot, clear February day in the Southern Hemisphere’s summer.