Sep 7 – McClatchy-Tribune Regional News – Chris Casteel The Oklahoman, Oklahoma City

Original source: http://www.energycentral.com/functional/news/news_detail.cfm?did=16896264

The Obama administration’s emphasis on clean energy and the fight in Congress over energy legislation is creating some tension among certain sectors, including the natural gas and wind power industries.

The American Wind Energy Association has been fighting to counter a recent column in The Wall Street Journal that challenged a key selling point of wind — that it reduces carbon emissions. The industry also is defending its federal subsidies, arguing that they are actually less than those received by oil and gas companies.

“We’ve been under attack by the fossil fuel industry for the last six months,” Denise Bode, CEO of the American Wind Energy Association, told reporters in July.

Bode is a former Oklahoma Corporation Commissioner, but she’s also a former head of the Washington-based trade group for independent oil and gas producers and was a highly visible advocate for the natural gas industry when she worked for the American Clean Skies Foundation.

Now, her organization is claiming that an oil and gas company trade group and think tanks financed in part with energy money are spreading misinformation to discredit wind as a renewable energy source. Read more

September 8, 2010 | Susanne Rust

Original source: http://californiawatch.org/watchblog/out-state-polluters-pump-effort-kill-climate-law-4541

Industrial polluters from outside of California, including Koch Industries, are stepping up the pressure to kill AB 32, California’s landmark climate change law, by flooding millions of dollars into the campaign set to derail the landmark legislation.

On Sept. 1, Flint Hills Resources, a Wichita, Kansas-based refining and chemical company owned by Koch Industries, donated $1 million to the “Yes on 23,” or California Jobs Initiative, campaign.

“Our company believes the implementation of AB 32 will set a bad precedent for regulations in other states and the federal government,” said Katie Stavinoha, spokeswoman for Flint Hills Resources.

The following day, the Texas-based Tesoro Corporation contributed $1 million on top of the more than $500,000 already donated to the campaign. Additional recent out-of-state donors include Texas-based Valero Energy Corp., Texas-based Frontier Oil Corp., and the Utah-based Western Petroleum Marketers Association.

Only one group donating to the “Yes on 23″ campaign in the last month – the California American Council of Engineering Companies Issues Fund – is from California. Read more

Sep 7 – McClatchy-Tribune Regional News – Debra McCown Bristol Herald Courier, Va.

Original source: http://www.energycentral.com/functional/news/news_detail.cfm?did=16882616

A power plant in Russell County is among two in Virginia causing water quality problems from the storage of coal ash, according to a study released this week by three environmentalist organizations.

Appalachian Power’s Clinch River Plant in Carbo is identified in the report along with 38 other sites in 21 states called “toxic” in a news statement timed to coincide with the start of public hearings on the proposed federal regulation of coal ash.

The other Virginia plant highlighted in the study is Appalachian’s Glen Lyn plant in Giles County. Three plants owned by the Tennessee Valley Authority are listed in Tennessee.

The three groups — the Environmental Integrity Project, Earthjustice and Sierra Club — allege that the ash sites are contaminating the water with heavy metals such as arsenic and lead.

They point the finger at states’ environmental protection agencies, claiming they “are not adequately monitoring the coal combustion waste” and they call on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to impose strong new regulations. Read more

Sep 7 – McClatchy-Tribune Regional News – Cathy Dyson The Free Lance-Star, Fredericksburg, Va.

Original source: http://www.energycentral.com/functional/news/news_detail.cfm?did=16887213

Because of toxic pollution at other sites across the nation where coal-ash waste has been dumped, King George County residents near the landfill should wonder if the same kind of material might contaminate their water, according to a group that recently studied the dangers of coal ash.

“If they’re concerned there could be a threat — and there certainly is that likelihood — they should absolutely test for arsenic, mercury, lead” and other toxic metals in the water, said Kate Pollard, a field organizer for the  Sierra Club. “There’s a much higher likelihood of contaminants from coal ash leaching into the water than what was previously understood.”

The Sierra Club partnered with the Environmental Integrity Project and Earthjustice to produce a report on coal-ash contamination. Called “In Harm’s Way: Lack of Federal Coal Ash Regulations Endangers Americans and Their Environment,” the report was released in late August.

It was timely on national and local levels. Read more

By MATTHEW L. WALD September 7, 2010, 8:26 am

Original source: http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/09/07/fresh-capital-in-the-uranium-fuel-race/

For decades, the business of enriching uranium for  use in nuclear reactors was simple: companies bought the uranium and sent it to one of the plants built by the federal government as part of its nuclear weapons program. The government increased the proportion of uranium 235, the kind that splits easily in reactors.

But in the 1990s, the government sold the plants to the United States Enrichment Company, now called USEC. Meanwhile, other companies started looking at the American market.

In June, a company using European centrifuge technology — far more modern than the World War II-era system used by the United States Department of Energy and inherited by USEC — opened a plant near Eunice, N.M., on the Texas border. Industry experts hailed it as part of a “nuclear renaissance.” And in May, the Energy Department gave a $2 billion loan guarantee to a French firm, Areva, to build an enrichment plant in Idaho. That plant will also use centrifuge technology.

USEC, meanwhile, is trying to modernize and use centrifuges, which cut the amount of electricity required to enrich uranium by about 95 percent. But it has had trouble getting a loan guarantee or finding American companies willing to invest heavily enough.

Now the Japanese are buying in. Read more

BY MARY ELLEN KLAS   Herald/Times Tallahassee Bureau  Posted on Wed, Sep. 08, 2010

Original source: http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/09/08/1813038/fpl-bills-to-rise-to-pay-for-nuke.html

Florida’s Public Service Commission voted 3-2 Tuesday to increase Florida Power & Light customers’ bills by $31 million starting in January to pay for development of the company’s nuclear projects.

The decision came after nearly three weeks of wrangling between the company and the commission over whether to conduct a full hearing on the issue after testimony revealed that FPL supplied the commission with inaccurate data last year regarding its nuclear projects.

After a series of votes that indicated that only PSC Chairwoman Nancy Argenziano and Commissioner Nathan Skop seemed interested in a full hearing, Argenziano moved to have the company’s request to have the increase approved, effective Jan. 1, with no discussion.

“I’m not wasting any time, let’s go. It’s where we’re headed,” Argenziano said, resigned to the fact she and Skop were outnumbered. The increase will mean that customer bills will increase 33 cents per 1,000-kilowatt hour to pay for nuclear projects, and the commission will decide sometime next year whether those costs are reasonable.

The motion, supported by Commissioners Lisa Edgar and new Commissioners Art Graham and Ron Brise, effectively nullified Argenziano’s subpoena of FPL chief Armando Olivera, who was sitting in the audience. Argenziano had ordered Olivera to appear under oath to answer questions regarding the inaccurate data submitted last year.

She said she made the motion because she wanted to end the protracted hearing that had gone into overtime. But she said she opposed granting the increase amid evidence that FPL may have intentionally misled regulators last year in its attempt to get approval for similar nuclear costs. By law, the commission must determine if what FPL is allowed to charge customers for planning and development of its nuclear projects is reasonable and prudent.

HEARING NEXT YEAR   Read more

SEPTEMBER 7, 2010, 4:17 A.M. ET

Original source: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703713504575476740661162412.html?mod=WSJ_Energy_leftHeadlines

SHANGHAI—China’s push for cleaner fuels has kept urban gas distributors in a sweet spot, but an industry regulation being tested in the northern province of Hebei suggests they face a bumpy road ahead.

Hebei’s government wants to cap gas companies’ return on equity at 8% in a bid to keep natural-gas prices in check, especially for households.

Unlike natural gas used in power plants—which had been tightly regulated because of government concern about electricity prices—home-use natural gas, used mostly for cooking, has been left largely unregulated.

While the bulk of energy consumption in China is from industry, consumers are using more energy as they become wealthier. China last year surpassed the U.S. as the world’s biggest consumer of energy, according to the International Energy Association, and the government has been struggling to meet its goals for improving efficiency and reducing pollution.

The city gas sector has been lightly regulated, but that could change as more consumers switch from burning coal and oil to less-polluting natural gas. Beijing wants natural gas to account for 10% of the nation’s energy mix by 2020, up from about 4% now. Read more

By Darryl Fears  Washington Post Staff Writer Sunday, September 5, 2010; 7:58 PM

Original source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/05/AR2010090503232.html

GRAND ISLE, LA. -

This is it. It is over. Summer is lost.

Those were Fred Marshall’s thoughts as he slumped behind his tiny desk at Gulfstream Marina, worry lines criss-crossing his face, redness framing his weary blue-green eyes in this picturesque beach town.

When BP’s oil started flowing into the Gulf of Mexico in April, beachgoers and money stopped flowing into town. By the time the company managed to cap the deep-water well in mid-July, the damage was done. Summer, when Grand Isle merchants earn the profits they rely on for the rest of the year, was gone, said Marshall, 48. Read more

September 4, 2010 |  8:03 am

Original source: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/greenspace/2010/09/interior-secretary-ken-salazar-offshore-oil-drilling-arctic-poll.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+GreenspaceEnvironmentBlog+%28Greenspace%29

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar is making it clear that he’s in no hurry to open the door to new exploratory oil and gas drilling in the offshore Arctic — not, he said, until more is known about the potential pitfalls.

Winding up a two-day trip to Alaska’s North Slope that included a town hall in Barrow, a stop at the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, and a flight over the Beaufort and Chukchi seas, Salazar said reports on what caused the Deepwater Horizon blowout in the Gulf of Mexico will have to be in before Shell Alaska can be allowed to commence drilling new wells off Alaska’s northern shores.

That may or may not happen in time for the oil company to begin operations in time for next summer’s drilling season, he added. Read more

By CLIFFORD KRAUSS and JOHN M. BRODER September 3, 2010

Original source: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/04/business/04oil.html?_r=1&ref=energy-environment

For decades, thousands of oil and gas platforms have operated quietly in the shallower waters of the Gulf of Mexico, largely forgotten by the public and government regulators.

But just as the BP disaster in April brought new scrutiny to the dangers of drilling in the deepest waters of the gulf, Thursday’s fire aboard a platform owned by Mariner Energy could well drag the shallow-water drillers into the spotlight’s glare.

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement, the new agency responsible for overseeing offshore oil and gas development, said Friday that it was investigating the cause of the Mariner fire, which forced the 13 crew members to jump overboard and rattled nerves in a region that was still coping with the effects of the Deepwater Horizon disaster.

Members of Congress expressed alarm about the accident, with some saying it was proof that drilling laws needed to be tightened. And even industry executives said it was likely the fire would toughen the already difficult regulatory climate for gulf drilling after the Deepwater Horizon explosion killed 11 people and caused the largest maritime oil spill in American history. Read more

rdaysog@sacbee.com Published Tuesday, Sep. 07, 2010

Original source: http://www.sacbee.com/2010/09/07/3009448/bp-aids-statesschool-content.html

BP, the energy giant responsible for the largest offshore oil spill in history, helped develop the state’s framework for teaching more than 6 million students about the environment.

Despite a mixed environmental record even before the Gulf of Mexico disaster, state officials included BP on the technical team for its soon-to-be-completed environmental education curriculum, which will be used in kindergarten through 12th-grade classes in more than 1,000 school districts statewide.

Environmental watchdogs and some experts who worked on the project said BP’s involvement is troubling given its handling of the Deepwater Horizon tragedy, which killed 11 workers and dumped more than 200 million gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico.

“I’d hate to see how a section in future textbooks mentioning the BP oil spill will look,” said Lisa Graves, executive director for the Wisconsin-based Center for Media and Democracy, a critic of so-called “greenwashing” techniques by corporations to make their products appear eco-friendly.

“I think it’s very worrisome because their fundamental goal is to profit from energy and not to teach children,” Graves said. Read more

The donation to the Proposition 23 campaign comes from a subsidiary of Kansas-based Koch Industries, which owns refineries and controls 4,000 miles of oil pipelines.

By Margot Roosevelt, Los Angeles Times  September 4, 2010

Original source: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/politics/la-me-prop-23-koch-20100904,0,7842413.story?track=rss&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+latimes%2Fnews%2Flocal%2Fpolitics%2Fcal+%28L.A.+Times+-+California+Politics%29&utm_content=Google+Reader

The fight over a November ballot initiative to suspend California’s global warming law has escalated sharply with the Koch brothers, oil billionaires and “tea party” backers, making a million-dollar entry into the fray.

The contribution to the campaign for Proposition 23 came Thursday from a subsidiary of Wichita, Kan.-based Koch Industries, the nation’s second-largest private company (after the agribusiness giant Cargill). A spokeswoman for the subsidiary, Flint Hills Resources, said the company “may consider additional support.” The Kochs’ company has estimated annual revenues of $100 billion, owns refineries in Alaska, Texas and Minnesota, and controls about 4,000 miles of oil pipelines.

California’s global warming law, known as AB 32, is designed to cut the state’s emission of greenhouse gases to 1990 levels by the end of this decade. A significant chunk of the reductions would come through regulations aimed at fostering alternative fuels and generating electricity from solar, wind and other alternative energy sources. Read more