What's Hot

Oil companies look at permanent refinery cutbacks
Los Angeles Times
Consumer advocates want regulators to examine oil firms' response to slumping gasoline use, which would probably mean higher prices for drivers.   Read More...

More Department of Energy grants for designing new nuclear plants
Power-Gen Worldwide
The Department of Energy has awarded grants to General Atomics, Areva and Westinghouse for conceptual design and planning for its Next Generation Nuclear Plant, an advanced reactor usable for electricity or hydrogen production.   Read More...

Sci-fi blockbuster "Avatar" has few fans among miners
Reuters
Biggest-grossing movie "Avatar" paints big mining companies as the villains of the future, but wins no Best-Movie or Best-Director Oscars.   Read More...

Gas companies sue Texas towns for pipeline denials
Dallas Morning News
Lawsuits against two Texas municipalities are asking courts whether gas pipeline companies can use the power of eminent domain to acquire easements on public property.   Read More...

Sierra Club pushes new Utah power plant from coal to gas
Deseert Valley Times
Energy developer Sithe Global will drop its coal-fired plan, and construct a natural gas-fired power plant at the Toquop site in Lincoln County after an intense Sierra Club "Beyond Coal" campaign.   Read More...

Trusting science on climate change
CNNMoney.com
Do climate change scientists really know what they're talking about? CNNMoney went beyond the climate scientists and put the question to a broader swath of scientific opinion.   Read More...

Executive departures at clean energy firms
New York Times
A worrisome spate of executive departures has hit renewable energy startups this week, with the president of SolarReserve, and the chief executives of Clipper Windpower and Aurora Biofuels stepping down.   Read More...

Natural-gas group comes out against EPA rules
NASDAQ
Natural-gas providers are lining up against planned Environmental Protection Agency rules to curb greenhouse-gas emissions, citing concerns that the regulations could make it harder to obtain permits needed to boost supplies.
  Read More...


Wyo., neighboring states bear burden of grouse 'candidate' listing
New York Times/Greenwire
The Interior Department's decision last week to place the greater sage grouse on its "candidate list" for Endangered Species Act protection sent a shock wave through the Interior West, where resource-strapped state governments now must try to preempt a final ESA listing by adopting even tougher conservation policies.   Read More...

Carbon Capture and Storage Coalition launched in California
PennEnergy
Prompted by a study highlighting the importance of carbon capture and storage (CCS) to meet California's long-term target of reducing its greenhouse gas emissions, a group of energy companies with an interest in advancing CCS announced the launch of the California CCS Coalition.   Read More...

Tri-State to build largest cooperative-owned solar PV facility
NRECA
Tri-State Generation and Transmission Cooperative is partnering with First Solar to build Cimarron I, the largest cooperative-owned photovoltaic (PV) project in the world and one of the largest solar facilities in the U.S.   Read More...

Los Angeles electric rate linked to solar power
New York Times
Los Angeles averages more than 300 days of sunshine a year.  It would seem, then, that solar energy would be a thriving local industry here.  But that has never been the case, and experts cite cost as the main reason.   Read More...

Arch Coal acquires 35% equity stake in clean-coal plant
Wall Street Journal Online
Arch Coal Inc. (ACI) has acquired a 35% interest in the Trailblazer Energy Center, a clean fossil-fuel power plant being developed by Tenaska Inc. in Texas.   Read More...

Backlash on biofuels: Ethanol’s cost challenged
Yale Environment 360
Economics prof says growing food crops to produce ethanol is harmful to the environment and the world’s poor. notes that the Obama administration backs subsidies that put half the U.S.’s corn crop into biofuel production.   Read More...

Solar industry learns lessons in Spanish sun
New York Times
Two years ago, this gritty mining city hosted a brief 21st-century gold rush. Long famous for coal, Puertollano discovered another energy source it had overlooked: the relentless, scorching sun.   Read More...

Group challenges sage grouse finding
Casper Star-Tribune/AP
An environmental group is challenging plans by the Interior Department to classify sage grouse as merely a candidate for protection under the Endangered Species Act and not list the bird as threatened or endangered.   Read More...

Clean coal? Obama funds research to capture carbon
USA TODAY
Can coal be clean? President Obama is moving ahead with efforts to create non-polluting coal.   Read More...

Making clean tech cheap, as well as green
It’s called clean technology’s “competitive conundrum’’: how to get people to pay for cleaner energy when electricity produced from traditional sources like nuclear power, coal, or natural gas costs less.   Read More...


MythBusters

Solar industry learns lessons in Spanish sun
New York Times
Two years ago, this gritty mining city hosted a brief 21st-century gold rush. Long famous for coal, Puertollano discovered another energy source it had overlooked: the relentless, scorching sun.   Read More...


Climate News

Trusting science on climate change
CNNMoney.com
Do climate change scientists really know what they're talking about? CNNMoney went beyond the climate scientists and put the question to a broader swath of scientific opinion.   Read More...


Roundtable in the News

Business leaders applaud effort to require disclosure of taxpayer subsidies to lawyers who sue government
Western Business Roundtable
Wealthy activist groups that sue the government and then force taxpayers to pick up the tab for their attorneys' fees would now have those taxpayer subsidies disclosed to the public under legislation jointly introduced by Republicans and Democrats in the U.S. House this week.   Read More...


Outrage of the Week

In Utah, a move to seize federal land
Los Angeles Times
The state House passes a bill allowing the use of eminent domain to take protected land from the federal government. Utah wants to develop a stretch outside Arches National Park and other areas.
  Read More...



Kudo of the Week

Lummis, Herseth Sandlin, Bishop lead bipartisan effort to shine light on lawsuit payments
U.S. Rep. Cynthia Lummis
A bipartisan trio of western members of Congress, U.S. Representatives Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo., Stephanie Herseth Sandlin, D-S.D., and Rob Bishop, R-Utah, have teamed up to introduce the “Open EAJA Act of 2010.” The bill seeks to reinstate critical oversight and transparency measures for payments made to organizations through the Equal Access to Justice Act (EAJA).
  Read More...


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