Recently in Environment Category

"The British Petroleum oil spill has already cost lives and created a major environmental incident," said Attorney General Holder. "The Justice Department stands ready to make available every resource at our disposal to vigorously enforce the laws that protect the people who work and reside near the Gulf, the wildlife, the environment and the American taxpayers."

The team will be led by Ignacia S. Moreno, Assistant Attorney General for the Environment and Natural Resources Division, and Tony West, Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Division, and will include relevant United States Attorneys. The combined group from the Department plans to make a site visit and meet with representatives from federal agencies working on the response.

A coordinated response continues with a comprehensive oil well intervention and spill-response plan following the April 22, 2010 sinking of the Transocean Deepwater Horizon drilling rig 130 miles southeast of New Orleans. More than 1,000 personnel from federal, state and local agencies are involved in the response effort both on and offshore, with additional resources being mobilized as needed.

SOURCE U.S. Department of Justice

President Barack Obama (http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/Moving-Forward-with-Energy-Innovation) noted that the assembled renewable energy leaders represented "the most innovative energy companies in America... (able to) save small businesses and large businesses alike up to 20 or 30 percent on their energy usage."

Berger, a former advisor to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission founded SRE in 2006 to help consumers understand that energy efficiency and renewable energy can have a highly positive financial impact for homes and businesses alike. Since then, SRE has grown to become the largest distributed energy services company (DESCO) or "on-site" renewable energy generation and energy efficiency provider in the U.S. with a mission to assist customers in achieving (i) lower energy bills, (ii) a reduced environmental footprint, and (iii) increased energy reliability.

"The transformation to a clean economy is job positive. The industry is moving in the right direction," Berger told the President. "SRE is proud to be one of the companies that is helping to lead the transformation toward a clean energy future."

In his Rose Garden press conference that followed the private roundtable meeting, President Obama made reference to companies that are rapidly growing in revenue and job creation. SRE is a prime example of this as it has grown from 21 employees in January of 2007 to a projected 400 by year's end and more than 550 by December of 2010.

SOURCE Standard Renewable Energy

Many of the participants stressed that action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions should not be delayed by the global economic downturn because it provides an opportunity to lay the foundations for a sustainable recovery based on low-carbon growth.

The symposium, "U.S. Climate Action: A Global Economic Perspective" was convened by Senators Jeff Bingaman (D-NM), John McCain (R-AZ), Olympia Snowe (R-ME) and Debbie Stabenow (D-MI).

During the opening session, the former UK Prime Minister, Tony Blair, argued that the leading economic powers around the world now understand the significant risks of climate change and appreciate that the best way to minimize the dangers is by investing in a low-carbon economy.

Mr. Blair said that the U.S. can send an important signal to the world about the importance they place on tackling global climate change through the progress it makes on its domestic climate policy over the next few months.

Senator Bingaman said "Today's bipartisan gathering of leaders to discuss how to move climate policy forward in the current economic crisis is constructive. A responsibly-designed national climate policy will create economic opportunities and jobs and spur investment in low-carbon technologies that will make U.S. businesses more competitive. The costs of climate policy can be mitigated with the right policy measures, and we need to move ahead with both energy policies and a national cap and trade program to sustain these investments."

"This was a great meeting where we discussed the key issues surrounding climate change policy with international leaders, such as former Prime Minister Tony Blair, who have already gained valuable insight on how such policies may affect manufacturing and economic opportunities," said Senator Stabenow. "For me, the bottom-line of any future climate change bill must be jobs. Climate policy can help re-build the middle class and create jobs in states like Michigan where we have the manufacturing base and engineering know-how to produce the new technology that will be needed. I intend to keep jobs and common sense at the top of the list of considerations as the climate policy discussion continues."

Governors Jim Doyle of Wisconsin, Jennifer Granholm of Michigan, and Timothy M. Kaine of Virginia provided their perspectives on the impact of climate policy on regional competitiveness, particularly with respect to impacts on U.S. jobs. Governor Doyle said "Global warming demands aggressive action at the international, national, state, local and individual levels. By combining Wisconsin's knowledge, skills and resources with those of our global neighbors, we can develop the solutions necessary for a clean energy future. The environmental and economic consequences of climate change and our dependence on fossil fuels affect everyone, and working together we will be able to generate new technologies, new businesses, new jobs for our citizens, and a cleaner and safer world for generations to come."

"In Michigan our top priority is growing the economy and creating jobs and that is why comprehensive climate change legislation is important to our state," said Governor Jennifer M. Granholm. "Not only will this legislation advance clean energy technologies that reduce U.S. dependence on foreign oil, it will create millions of new green jobs, and protect our natural resources and that is critical for a state like Michigan that has lost hundreds of thousands of manufacturing jobs."

There was strong agreement about the importance of boosting economic growth and combating climate change at the same time, and participants recognized that low-carbon investments will not only be good for jobs and economic recovery but will also improve the country's energy security and begin to cut its greenhouse gas emissions.

John Chambers of Cisco, Jeff Immelt of GE, Vinod Khosla of Khosla Ventures and Jim Rogers of Duke Energy, provided perspectives from business. Jim Rogers said "I have long been a supporter of enacting climate legislation because it will take decades to slow, stop and reverse greenhouse gas emissions. However, the 100 percent auction contained in the President's budget will unnecessarily punish the 25 states that get the majority of their electricity from coal. That represents nothing more than a tax and a wealth transfer, and it has nothing to do with meeting our environmental challenges. Congress needs to enact climate change legislation, but they also must get it right."

International policymakers, Ed Miliband, Connie Hedegaard and Tony Blair said that strong U.S. action on climate would galvanize further action across the world. Lord Nicholas Stern, author of the highly influential report "The Economics of Climate Change: The Stern Review" in 2006, said: "The U.S. has a real opportunity to take a lead given the creativity of its entrepreneurs and its technical talents."

Lord Stern added: "Low carbon growth is the only growth story, because high carbon growth would eventually choke itself off. The world would react strongly to an America lead as we go forward to build an international deal at the United Nations climate change conference in Copenhagen at the end of this year."

Nobel Prize winning U.S. economist Professor Joe Stiglitz agreed, stating that "Countries around the world have been waiting for the U.S. to take leadership but they have not been sitting idle. Many countries have set out domestic plans of action on reducing their emissions. It is now the turn of the U.S. to use its power of example to motivate key countries to work together and find a global solution to this global problem."

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's climate envoy, Todd Stern, addressed the group on the discussions he has conducted to date with international policymakers on the importance of global collaboration ahead of the United Nations Climate Change conference in Copenhagen in December.

The event was organized by three leading Washington think tanks, the Center for Global Development (CGD), the Peterson Institute for International Economics, and the World Resources Institute (WRI), together with the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), which is chaired by Lord Nicholas Stern.

About the Partners

1. The Center for Global Development is an independent think tank that works to reduce global poverty and inequality by encouraging policy change in the United States and other rich countries through rigorous research and active engagement with the policy community. www.cgdev.org

2. The Peterson Institute for International Economics is the only research institution in the United States devoted to global economic issues. It was recently rated "Top Think Tank in the World" by the first comprehensive survey of more than 5000 such institutions in all countries. www.petersoninstitute.org

3. The World Resources Institute is an environmental think tank that goes beyond research to find practical ways to protect the earth and improve people's lives. www.wri.org

4. The Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment was established in 2008 at the London School of Economics and Political Science. The Institute brings together international expertise on economics, finance, geography, the environment, international development and political economy to establish a world-leading centre for policy-relevant research and training in climate change and the environment. It is funded by the Grantham Foundation for the Protection of the Environment. www.lse.ac.uk/grantham

"We agree with the President that the time for climate change action is now. We support an economy-wide cap-and-trade approach with an aggressive CO2 reduction trajectory, consistent with an 80 percent reduction by 2050. We support auctioning, rather than allocating, 100 percent of the CO2 allowances, as the President has proposed. We also support his proposal for recycling the auction revenues back into the economy with a significant portion used to protect families, particularly of low and moderate incomes. Study after study has demonstrated that an allowance auction with revenue recycling is the most effective policy for minimizing the economic impacts of a greenhouse gas cap-and-trade program. We are pleased that the President's budget proposal is so specific on this very important provision.

"Finally, we support funding for significant research, design and demonstration investments as the President has proposed, particularly in those areas which have the potential for a big global payoff such as coal retrofit carbon capture and electric vehicle battery technology. CO2 reduction is a global problem, and coal plant emissions and automobiles are two very large sources of global CO2 emissions. If the United States can develop affordable technologies to reduce emissions from these sources, we will dramatically improve the odds that the developing world will join in the emission reduction effort and we will also benefit from green technologies to export into a huge global market.

"I applaud President Obama's leadership, and look forward to working with his Administration on this initiative."

Entergy Corporation is an integrated energy company engaged primarily in electric power production and retail distribution operations. Entergy owns and operates power plants with approximately 30,000 megawatts of electric generating capacity, and it is the second-largest nuclear generator in the United States. Entergy delivers electricity to 2.7 million utility customers in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas. Entergy has annual revenues of more than $13 billion and approximately 14,300 employees.

In a letter delivered this morning to House and Senate leaders and the Obama Administration, U.S. investors specifically called for adoption of the following policies: a strong national Energy Efficiency Resource Standard; a national Renewable Portfolio Standard (also called a Renewable Electricity Standard); a mandatory national climate policy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions economy-wide; and a low-carbon fuel standard and other transportation policies to lower use oil use and greenhouse gas emissions.

Coordinated by Ceres and its Investor Network on Climate Risk, the letter was signed by leading pension funds such as the California Public Employees' Retirement System (CalPERS), the California State Teachers' Retirement System (CalSTRS); large asset managers including BlackRock and Deutsche Asset Management; nine state treasurers; three state/city comptrollers; two labor pension funds -- SEIU Master Trust and UNITE HERE -- as well as other investors (see full list of signers below).

The letter states that strong energy and climate action is 'essential' for long-term economic prosperity and that the costs of inaction could be 'economically debilitating.' "We are convinced that building our nation's low-carbon energy infrastructure is an important part of the solution to our current economic crisis. Delaying action on these policies will deny U.S. families and businesses access to low-cost clean power, reduce our nation's energy security, and require more stringent, costly solutions to address climate change in the future," states the letter.

"The value of aggressive, national action to fight climate change and remake our energy and transportation sectors cannot be overstated," said California State Treasurer Bill Lockyer, a board member of the nation's two largest public pension funds, CalPERS and CalSTRS, with approximately $300 billion in combined assets. "The benefits will extend far beyond the environment. If we succeed, we will secure long-term security and prosperity for our economy, our businesses, and our workers and families, and in the bargain save taxpayers and consumers billions and billions of dollars."

"The policies outlined in the letter would allow us to invest our clients' assets with appropriate cognizance of the continuing risks -- and exciting opportunities -- that will result from physical, regulatory and technological change spurred by a changing climate and the policy response," said Alex Popplewell, global co-head of responsible investment at BlackRock, which manages $1.3 trillion in assets. "2009 will be a year of intense investor focus on the architecture of global agreements on climate change policy. We see it as essential that the United States play a full and urgent part in both clarifying its domestic approach to this complex issue and contributing to the successful conclusion of international agreements."

"Strong national climate and energy legislation will send clear market signals to the business community -- creating new industries, putting people back to work, and helping move American companies to the forefront of global competitiveness on clean energy," said Mindy S. Lubber, President of Ceres and the Director of the Investor Network on Climate Risk, an alliance of 77 investors with approximately $7 trillion in assets. "An energy efficiency resource standard is a critical component of such legislation and is equally as important as a renewable energy standard," she added.

Calling energy efficiency and conservation the "fastest, easiest, and cheapest ways to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions and improve the bottom line of companies," the letter urges passage of a national Energy Efficiency Resource Standard that would set national energy savings targets and save utility customers up to $144 billion by 2020, according to estimates provided by the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy. "Energy efficiency is the cheapest form of power we can produce and it is time for national policy to step in and tell electric utility companies that they need to shift their business practices to deliver a lot more of it," states the letter.

The letter assigns high importance to sending a signal to the markets that greenhouse gas emissions will carry a price. "National climate legislation acting in harmony with the market will facilitate greater investment in clean technologies and other climate change solutions and will enable the U.S. to not only compete globally, but to lead," it states.

To facilitate rapid deployment of existing and emerging technologies, the letter urges Congress to enact a strong national renewable portfolio standard (also referred to as a renewable electricity standard), a policy already in place in 29 states.

Stressing the need to extend clean energy policies to the transportation sector, the letter urges legislators to: adopt a national low-carbon fuel standard, support expansion of public transit and legislation to promote the reduction of vehicle miles traveled, adopt performance-based incentives to stimulate the development of new technologies and adopt maximum feasible fuel economy standards.  SOURCE Ceres, Boston, MA and INCR, Boston, MA

FMA Congresses is Holding a Three Day Event that Will Focus on Energy Reduction, Environmental Sustainability and Green Data Centers. The Event, 'Progressive Energy & Environment Congress 2' is Held from April 20 to 22 at the Westin Peachtree Plaza in Atlanta, Georgia

This conference is designed to help participants learn how reducing energy consumption can lead to higher profits by decreasing operational costs and the ways in which energy certificates, greenhouse gas credits and carbon offsetting can be optimized to obtain immediate benefits.

    The congress program features:

    -- A range of concurrent sessions with in-depth presentations on key
       issues
    -- Case studies from experts detailing practical advice and successful
       strategies
    -- Highly interactive workshop sessions with Q&A peer advice
    -- Panel discussions with lively debate amongst your peers


    Speakers:

    -- Greg G. Williams, Director, SH&E Performance Assurance & Process
       Innovation Global Policy & Strategy, MeadWestvaco
    -- Douglas Kaempf, Director of Renewable Energy, U.S. Department of
       Energy - Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy
    -- David Hitchings, Director GreeNG, Northrop Grumman Corporation
    -- Steve Wolfe, Head of Energy Management, Adams County / Ohio Valley
       Schools
    -- Karen Heyob, Associate Chief Engineer (Environmental), Honda of America

       Manufacturing Inc.
    -- Ray Ratheal, Director, Energy Policy & Planning, Eastman Chemical
       Company
    -- John Stevens,VP, Energy Strategy and Policy, Praxair Inc.
    -- David Freedman, Director, Engineering & Construction, Georgia
       Department of Natural Resources
    -- Melissa Vernon, Director of Sustainable Strategy, InterfaceFLOR
    -- Dennis Wolcott, Corporate Energy Manager, Parker Hannifin Corporation

The revolution to identify novel ways to produce energy is catching on all over the world. In India, villagers in the western state of Rajasthan have developed a Biomass Gasifier System to convert agricultural waste into electrical energy. The system converts biomass into producer gas which is used as a fuel in diesel engines. Thus the system can be used to operate pumps in remote fields, in houses to lift water, to operate saw machines, flour mills and to generate electricity.

To read more about this system click here.

While announcing a $15 billion annual investment plan to tackle climate change by building a clean energy future, president- elect Barack Obama urged top government officials from all over the world to cooperate in solving this problem. At the Bi- Partisan Governors Global Climate Summit in Los Angeles which was attended by top officials from India, China, Brazil, Britain, Canada, Indonesia and Australia apart from governors from 22 key U.S. states, Obama stated that his presidency would mark a new chapter in American leadership of climate change that would strengthen American security and create millions of new jobs in the process.
To read the whole article on the Times of India website click here.

Coal combustion is the simplest form of energy generation practiced by all countries. Unfortunately it is also the largest contributor of greenhouse gasses. New research has revealed that coal combustion waste, in the form of toxic coal ash, may also be linked to the incidence of certain rare cancer clusters amongst people living near dumping grounds. The Post and Courier newspaper in Charleston, South Carolina, conducted an investigation around power plants in the state and found that water under some of these landfills has concentrations of cancer-causing arsenics far exceeding the federal limit. These environmental hazards have gone unchecked and the operators of these landfills have not been fined, probably because of a weak government or because of loopholes in the regulations governing them.
In August, the federal agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, a division of the Atlanta- based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed its original finding of an unusually high rate of blood cancer Polycythemia Vera in three counties of eastern Pennsylvania’s coal mining region. The prevalence of cancer in the regions of Schuylkill, Luzerne and Carbon counties was four times the states rate. Coincidentally, this area also contains the nation’s highest concentration of impure coal burning power plants. These facilities burn coal so impure that even the mining industry discards them. And to make matters worse, the state supports the dumping of toxic ash in abandoned mines thus increasing the risk of groundwater contamination.
Ever since the Pennsylvania cancer cluster was confirmed, public officials have wizened up to the imminent threat these contaminants pose and have been pressing for further studies of the link between toxic ash dumping and cancer. Among the factors being considered for further research are groundwater contaminants in the local cluster area.
To read the complete article by Sue Sturgis on southerstudies.org click here. 

Pic courtesy Marcus Vegas from flickr.com

A milestone in the World’s evolution towards complete independence from fossil fuels was reached by Hawaii this week when it decided to phase out the use of fossil fuels as an energy source. Hawaii's largest utility has signed on to a plan that aims at creating 70 percent of the island’s energy from clean sources by 2030. Under the latest agreement, Hawaiian Electric Co. will cease the construction of any new coal plants. They have also committed to integrating up to 1,100 MW of renewable energy into the island’s power grid and to converting existing fossil fuel generators into biofuels with the help of locally grown crops. Some of their more ambitious plans i.e. to build expensive undersea power cables to transport wind energy between islands, require a lot of funding. Officials don’t know where they will get their funds from but they are committed to reaching their goal.

To read more click here.

Pic1 courtesy Cougar-Studio from flickr.com

Pic2 courtesy itsbooyer from flickr.com

Revving up the pace of the green movement slowly gathering momentum around the world, BMW has announced that they are set to test their battery powered automobile titled MINI E, which will be made available for lease to select fleets and private owners in California, New York and New Jersey.  The car, which is in production in Oxford, England and Munich, Germany, will give its world premier at the Los Angeles Auto Show on November 19 and 20, 2008.
To read more about the car click here.

Pic courtesy Paul Mullett on flickr.com

At the G-8 summit in Russia, President Bush and Prseident Putin announced that they would cooperate in the rapid expansion of nuclear energy worldwide. The Bush government feels that the future energy security of the US depends on increasing reliance on nuclear energy and the agreement with Russia was the latest in a long line of initiatives to promote nuclear power.

A technology that brought about the horrific Chernobyl meltdown and the Three Mile island accident and that lay for years in scientific purgatory has been resurrected in today's high oil prices age by a well planned public relations campaign touting it as the energy of choice.
While PM Tony Blair, famed scientist Sir James Lovelock and even some environmentalists have jumped on the nuclear power bandwagon, a sober look at the consequences of re-nuclearizing the world needs to be taken.

The first consideration is the high cost of setting up nuclear power plants. With a minimum price tag of $2 billion each, the plants are 50 percent more expensive than coal-fired power plants up and far more expensive than new gas-fired power plants. The cost of doubling nuclear power's current 20 percent share of US electricity generation could well exceed half a trillion dollars.
With the country facing record consumer and government debt, the idea of nuclear power generation is well nigh unaffordable.

Secondly, the safe transport, disposal or storage of nuclear waste is still an unsolved matter for our scientists. A vault that cost the government $8 billion and 20 years to build is supposed to be an airtight, underground burial tomb dug deep to hold radioactive materials. It's supposed to be leak free for 10,000 years but the Environmental Protection Agency already suspects that the storage facility will leak.

Thirdly, an International Atomic Energy Agency study shows that uranium resources could fail to meet demand as early as 2026. Discovery of new deposits or technological breakthroughs that reduce uranium requirements are possibilities but as of now they are speculative.

Fourthly, nuclear power plants are the ultimate soft target for terrorist attacks. On the one hand, the US is worried that Iran might use enriched uranium from its nuclear power plants for a bomb. On the other hand it is advocating nuclear power all over the world. This would mean uranium and spent nuclear waste in transit everywhere and piling up in makeshift facilities, often close to populated urban areas.

In 2005, the Australian government foiled a terrorist attack on its single nuclear power plant. The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission found that more than half of the nuclear power plants in this country failed to prevent a simulated attack on their facilities!

Finally, nuclear power seems old fashioned and obsolete in today's age when distributed technologies are undermining hierarchies, decentralizing power and giving rise to networks and open-source economic models. These technologies are also giving people the chance to become active participants while nuclear power will be controlled by a few.

An aggressive effort to bring the full range of decentralized renewable technologies online: solar, wind, geothermal, hydro and biomass needs to be brought online. Hydrogen storage infrastructure is required to ensure a steady supply for electricity and transportation.

The future lies with the sun and not with uranium.

Read

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Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in an effort to alleviate Western concerns over Russian energy deals said that talk of revising PSA's or seeking to exclude foreigners from the sector were unfounded.

Lavrov said, "Assertions about 'revisions' of PSAs and especially about squeezing foreigners out of the Russian energy sector have absolutely no basis whatsoever".

He also added that "Carrying out checks in no way means that licenses for developing deposits within the Sakhalin-2 project will be withdrawn".

Recent threats from Russian officials to withdraw an ecological permit for the Sakhalin-2 oil and gas project led by Shell have led to fears that Russia wants to renegotiate the production sharing agreement.

Natural Resources Minister Yuri Trutnev said on Tuesday that work on the Sakhalin-2 project could continue while a full-scale ecological probe, due to start on October 25 is held.

Shell has doubled the estimated cost of the Sakhalin-2 project to $20 billion which has infuriated Russia, complicating talks on the strategic swap of assets with state controlled Gazprom.

Concerns about the suspension of oil pipeline loading for technical checks on the ExxonMobil run Sakhalin-1 PSA project abounded while ExxonMobil's arm in Russia said it was unaware of any order to suspend work and business was continuing as usual.

The head of Russia's technical standards agency said that he hoped Sakhalin-1 would be able to deal with any breaches of the rules at its De Kastri terminal before its planned launch on October 1.

ExxonMobil said that while the issue needed to be sorted out, the scheduled launch of the terminal was possible.

Read

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Russia's nationalist oil policy that's aiming to wrest back control of the country's resources from the world's most powerful energy firms has come under international glare following events last week.

Shell and ExxonMobil's Sakhalin island project, BP's joint venture with TNK in eastern Siberia and Total's operations in the Kharyaga oil field have all been affected by threats to revoke licenses granted years ago to the companies. The Russian move was no crude step, rather a well planned effort with ambassadors overseas, Siberian officials, the natural resources ministry officials, environmental agencies all coming in with a variety of reasons - financial, time overruns, environmental - to account for the retraction of contracts.
For Shell, BP and Total, environmental concerns were cited by government officials.

While Western companies have not commented publicly, the moves have attracted international condemnation.
Japan was stinging in its reaction saying the delay in the Sakhalin-2 project would have a 'negative influence on overall Japanese-Russian relations.'

Japan is to take gas from the Sakhalin-2 project and has two leading companies, Mitsui and Mitsubishi, holding 45 per cent of the venture.

Russia's nationalized energy giant Gazprom, is believed to be the reason behind the politicking and in fact in response to Japan's statement, Russian ambassador said that a state-run company could speed along the project. He meant Gazprom, which has been trying to negotiate its entry into Sakhalin for many years now.

The asset swap that was being negotiated between Gazprom and Shell, which would give Gazprom a 25 percent stake in Sakhalin-2 has also been suspended.
Costs overrun have been touted as the reason behind the falling through of the deal. Cost increases mean that Gazprom can claim a reduction in value of the 25 per cent of Sakhalin that it is acquiring, which means recalculating the asset swap.

The Production Sharing Agreement signed a decade ago between Shell and the government, allows the government to retain ownership while the partners develop the project and take revenue in early years to pay back their investment. After this, the government receives an increasing proportion of revenues up to 70 per cent. Cost overruns and delays mean that the government will get less money, and get it later.

PSA's and cost overruns also affect ExxonMobil's Sakhalin-1 project. Costs could increase there, from $12.8bn to $17bn. The Russian government reacted angrily and said that Exxon could be stripped of its license.

Total faces the withdrawal of its license for environmental reasons and failing to reach production levels set out in its PSA.

PSA's made sense for Russia in the mid-90's when the government was financially stretched and could not invest on its own account.

But it is unpopular in today's Kremlin, when the rising oil prices have filled government coffers. Also the fact that they are internationally enforceable make them humiliating for the government in that it does not have sovereignty over its assets.

Gazprom is in talks with ONGC, India to buys out its stake, which will give the company a stake in 2 key projects on the island. Gazprom is also keen to secure the stake of three owners in the TNK-BP venture.
There have been reports that exploration licenses for the Kovykta field could be withdrawn from BP.

It certainly seems clear that Gazprom and the government are strategically exerting pressure on foreign companies.

Read

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According to a report by Greenpeace and the Global Wind Energy Council, Wind has the potential to supply one third of the world’s electricity by 2050.
Ambitious or unrealistic?

Despite 9 years of government support and subsidy, wind farms in the UK, one of the windiest locations in the world, have been erected at a snail’s pace.
Roughly just 1.4 percent of total UK electricity supply comes from wind power. Though the government wants 20 per cent of electricity generation to come from renewable sources by 2020 (most of that capacity provided by wind farms), there are many hurdles.

Primarily, the problem is inadequacy of the electricity infrastructure. The second problem is nimbysism, that is though most people say they approve of wind farms, the average time it takes to get a wind farm through planning is 5 years!

Offshore wind farms were supposed to be the solution. But development has barely begun because of problems with shipping lanes, bird life, radar interference and soaring costs.
Tax breaks in the US and Germany for investors in wind farms have caused a run on turbines, and the soaring cost of steel, required to embed giant turbines 20 meters in the sea bed, make off-shore wind farms look distinctly uncompetitive.

Greater incentives to build offshore can be offset only by higher electricity prices in the long run.
All in all, wind seems good in theory, but plain old blustery in practice.

Read

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The US Environmental Protection Agency has given a $10,000 grant to a team from the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, as part of their People, Prosperity and the Planet competition.

Dr. Warren Ostergren and his student team will use the grant to develop a lower-cost heliostat with the idea of creating an alternative energy system that is less damaging to the environment.

The idea of EPA's P3 competition is to bring together people from varying disciplines like engineering, chemistry, industrial design, politics, economics and architecture to prevent pollution.
In 2008, the teams will be invited to bring their designs to Washington D.C. to compete for a $75,000 grant which will help them implement their projects in the field.

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California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said they cannot wait for the Bush administration to take action on climate change and agreed to work together to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Gov. Schwarzenegger said that this partnership with Bloomberg and another made with British Prime Minister Tony Blair in July on clean energy technologies will help improve the environment and they did not need the federal government to take the lead.

His partnership with Bloomberg marks the latest environmental push from a Republican governor who has accused President Bush of failing to show leadership on climate change.

Bloomberg, also a Republican, has echoed the Governor's remarks saying "we can't wait for Washington to do something".

The actor turned politician plans to turn a landmark global warming bill into law that makes California the first U.S. state to mandate a cut in greenhouse gas emissions, equal to 25 percent by 2020.

Bloomberg, who was on a 2-day visit to California, to discuss environment and education also announced a five-point program to make New York an "environmentally sustainable city" by taking an inventory of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases that will help set targets for lowering emissions.

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Government approval for Shell's $20 billion Sakhalin project was withdrawn and state-owned Gazprom was reported to be trying to buy half of the TNK-BP joint venture, giving impetus to doubts about the involvement of foreign companies in the Russia's oil and gas sector.

The reason for withdrawing environmental approval on the Sakhalin-2 project was supposedly to "satisfy the arguments of the prosecutor's office". The prosecutor generals office had allaged that the permission to develop the second phase of the

Sakhalin scheme had been granted illegally. Shell denied the charge and said it was continuing work on Sakhalin, but admitted that the removal of its environment permit might lead to more delays and further cost overruns.

Shell has faced lots of problems on the project with doubling costs and mounting anger from environmentalists over potential damage to the endangered whale population. In this situation state-owned Gazprom has been trying to purchase 25 percent stake in Sakhalin-2.

Some feel that Gazprom is acting as the political arm of Kremlin and the permit issue is the latest attack by the government in an attempt to wrest back control of oil and gas assets held in the private sector.
Local reports hint that ExxonMobil's Sakhlain 1 project could meet a similar fate.

Sakhalin-2 is one of 2 projects run by western energy firms under production sharing agreements signed in the 1990's when

Russia lacked the resources to develop oil and gas projects on its own. With the Russian economy now booming thanks to high oil prices, many government officials have called for a revision of the Sakhalin-2 deal to include Russian participation.

Similarly, Gazprom is said to be in talks to buy the holding in the TNK-BP joint venture that is currently controlled by three local Russian investors.

Russia has taken repeated steps in recent years to consolidate state control over the energy sector.

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BP said that 1,000 barrels of oil were spilled in a highly industrial area in the Port of Long Beach, California.

The company said that the released product, used in the production of transportation fuels, has been contained and that it is working with officials to clean up the release. Locations for possible released product into the environment are being investigated.

Beside the fact that the company does not expect a supply disruption, the leak has also not caused any injuries, harm to wildlife or any significant impact on the environment. No oil has been released into the ocean or its tributaries.

BP said that the product pipeline was in compliance with federal and state pipeline regulations and that the company takes full responsibility for the leak and its cleanup.

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Shell Oil Co. President, John Hofmeister, touted the importance of a "culture of conservation" and investment in alternative fuels.

He said that with fuel prices at the current highs can be used by policy makers to force market changes. World oil prices as low as $10 a barrel in 1998 made investment in alternative fuels not ecenomical but under present circumstances, solar, wind and other alternative energy projects are doable.

Hofmeister said that conventional oil and gas resources are no longer enough for the country's energy security. Fuel derived from oil shales, gasified coal; ethanol and other biofuels; hydrogen fuel and wind and solar energy will play a major role in energy futures.

The US represents 8 percent of the world's population consuming 25 percent of the energy supply. "It's not a sustainable formula," he said, noting that the rest of the world wants its "fair share," too.

Conservation in the US needs to be stepped up. Different designs of homes, factories and vehicles are needed above and beyond adjusting thermostats and driving slower.

In June, Shell announced plans to build a wind farm worth $200 million on the island of Maui to help meet Hawaii's renewable energy goals and do away with the need for a coal-generating plant.
Shell and GM operate 5 hydrogen fuel cell passenger vans in Washington and Shell provides a refueling station near the Capitol.
The company is also investing in producing ethanol with various partners.

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The controversial plan to effect ship-to-ship oil transfers may have got the go ahead from the Maritime and Coastgurad agency but environmental groups have vowed to wage a battle against it on the basis that the project would put the Fort and its two special protection areas for seabirds in serious danger.

The EU has launched an investigation to check whether the proposal to pump Russian crude oil between supertankers breaches any environmental regulations.

Mark Ruskell, a green environmentalist said that the Forth Ports situation could descend into a legal battle and that investor confidence in a less than clean PLC would suffer. He feels that the time is coming when executive ministers should use the licensing powers they hold.

Alyn Smith, the Scottish Nationalist MEP who triggered the EU investigation, said the outcome could overrule the Maritime and Coastguard agency's decision.

Forth Ports said that safety was of paramount importance and that it would await the decsion of the panel of independent experts  who  are carrying out the risk assessment of the proposal.

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The oil spill from the sunken oil tanker Solar 1 off Guimaras island in the Philippines is being touted as a disaster on the scale of the Exxon Valdez catastrophe.

Though the amount of oil aboard Solar 1 is a fraction of what the Valdez disgorged when it foundered off Alaska, the fact remains that the Valdez spilled in a relatively remote area. A number of people depend on the Guimaras region for their livelihood and with the Solar 1 having leaked one-tenth of the contained oil so far, experts say a ticking time-bomb is on the ocean floor.

Nestor Yungue, a marine biologist said that the speed with which the oil reached the Guimaras coast is a concern since it does not allow for the chemical disintegration of the pollutants. The Valdez crude took time to hit the Alaskan coast contaminating 1,300 miles of coastline, killing a quarter-million sea birds, 1000's of otters and hundreds of seals.

It will be 3 to 6 months before we are able to see the damage in this instance.
Environmental economist Rodelio Subade said damage from the Solar 1 would not be limited to 'tradable goods' like fish stocks but could have an impact on generations of fishermen.

The Taclong national marine reserve took a direct hit when the tanker sank. Mangroves expert, Resurreccion Sadaba, said that coral reefs and marine organisms including fish and mollusks have started dying. He also said seedlings and saplings among 90 hectares of mangrove thickets, vital shelters for fish fry, were already “showing signs of withering”.

Mangroves are the basis of the marine food chain and with their removal the whole system will collapse.
The Taclong reserve is also a vital nursery for 2 of the country's richest fishing grounds, the Sulu Sea and the Visayan Sea. If the spill is not contained within the narrow straits on either side of Guimaras, these would be hard hit.

The tourism industry is already suffering with mass cancellations for both this year and the next.

The Coast Guard is spraying dispersants to contain the slick, pushed by currents and monsoon towards the Visayan Sea. When the winds shift in October, it will be open seas between the tanker wreck and the Sulu Sea which is the site of one of the world's most biologically diverse coral formations.

A Japanese salvage ship is on its way to try to refloat the tanker or siphon off the remaining oil.

All of the Sunshine Maritime Development's remaining tankers have been grounded since the Solar 1 sank. Company president, Clemente Cancio, defended the qualifications of Norberto Aguro, the tanker's captain saying he was an expert in manning chemical tankers which are more difficult to handle than oil tankers. But he added that Aguro might have been wrong in setting sail in those weather conditions. The tanker had passed inspection before it sail.

The Board of Marine Enquiry questioned why there were excess of 4 men on a tanker with a capacity of 16 and noted that the tanker was only carrying 19 life vests.
Cancio said that Petron Corp., the company which had chartered Solar 1 required at least 2 surveyors on board and the crewman present at the enquiry affirmed that the 2 seamen who are missing had been wearing life jackets before the tanker capsized.

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A storm brewing in the Caribbean weakened and took concerns over US oil supply and prices down with it.
Hurricane Ernesto was downgraded to a tropical storm after it flooded Haiti's southern coast. However, meteorologists predict that the storm is likely to pick up force again as it moved towards the Gulf, possibly reaching hurricane levels.

Light sweet crude for October delivery fell 76 cents to $71.75 on the NY Mercantile Exchange.
Prices at London's ICE Futures exchange fell by 55 cents to $72.15 a barrel.

The unpredictable storm and unease over Iran's nuclear program will make trade in the energy markets hard over the next few weeks, with both factors having the capacity to generate new highs in the crude market.

While large oil producers in the Gulf of Mexico are prepared to evacuate non-essential personnel, world energy markets are also concerned over Iran's stand-off with the West over its nuclear program.

Natural gas futures on the Nymex went down by 51.8 cents to $6.64 per 1,000 cubic feet and gasoline futures fell 4.41 cents to $1.8510 per gallon. Heating oil futures dropped 1.58 cents to $2.0140 a gallon.

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Solar 1, a tanker carrying around 2 million liters of oil sank off the Philippines coast 11 days ago and is continuing to leak according to coastgaurd officials.

While the head of the Philippine Coastgaurd said that more oil had leaked from the sunken tanker overnight, a spokesman from Petron Corp said that their aerial surveys have confirmed that there is no more seepage.

The widening slick has already damaged about 200 miles of the Guimaras island coastline, and is now threatening fishing grounds.

Sludge and dead wildlife have been washing up on the beaches, causing damage to reefs, marine reserves and tourism.

Villagers from the neighboring Negros and Panay islands have erected makeshift booms to hold the oily sludge back.

In response to the Philippines government's appeal for international assistance with the clean-up, teams of experts from Japan and the US are expected to assess the damage.

Presidential spokesman Ignacio Bunye said the government needed to focus its energy and resources in addressing the problem and that it was making "tactical decisions" on the clean-up.

The tanker was on its way to a power plant on the southern island of Mindanao when it sank. Of the 20 crew members, 2 are still missing.

Officials are trying to decide whether it would be best to refloat the vessel or to suck out the remaining fuel.

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BP PLC denied allegations made by unidentified BP workers that the company had manipulated data from the pieline inspections at Prudhoe Bay, where operations have been cut down this month following a pipeline leak.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is probing allegations that BP inspected more areas of known good pipe than bad and thus manipulated data in order to avoid replacing pipelines. Days after the pipeline leak and subsequent shutdown, Transportation Department's Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration had ordered the firm to conduct more rigorous tests on the transit pipelines.

BP spokesman, Robert Wine said that the company has been working with the DOT and the EPA ever since the original leak and would provide any information required for the investigations.

Alaska Attorney General David Marquez said that the state had served subpoenas on BP and other leaseholders in Prudhoe Bay to preserve all documentation related to the Aug. 6 pipeline leak and corrosion dating to 1996.

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Plans for a wind farm that could supply half of Cape Cod's electricity to be built off of Buzzards Bay may have to be revised after a report finds that the wind turbines would be illegal under the Ocean Sanctuaries Act and may also threaten the roseate tern, an endangered bird species.

The Ocean Sanctuaries Act prohibits structures from being built on the seabed or under the subsoil and also forbids construction or operation of offshore or floating electric generating stations in the Cape and Islands Ocean Sanctuary. So the developer's plan to build the 120 450-foot tall turbines would be illegal.

Developer Jay M. Cashman who had hoped to see the turbines produce clean energy by 2011 said he's willing to work with state officials to come to an agreement on the wind farm which cannot go ahead without approval from state regulators.

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More than 13,000 gallons of fuel oil have been pumped from a 1965 shipwreck.
An 18 member team is removing the oil from the wreck due to the potential environmental hazard and containment booms have been installed around the site as a precaution.

The ship ran aground a beach at the Damon Point State Park and lay covered by sand for decades till waves exposed the rusting hulk and a beachcomber discovered oil earleier this year.

The park is an important habitat for several species of birds and a nesting site for the snowy plover and the streaked horn lark.

As much as 47,000 gallons could still be inside the 3 remaining fuel tanks in the wreck. The recovered oil is being taken for processing and re-blending to a storage operation on Kent for turning it into usable petroleum products.

The $1 million cost for pumping out the oil is being covered by the state's Oil Spill Response Account.

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With the Lebanon-Israel truce having been announced, the clean-up work on the oil spill off the Lebanese coast can finally get underway.
OPEC has pledged 200,000 USD from their humanitarian fund to assist in cleaning up 150 km of polluted shorelines. About from the 10,000-15,000 tons oil spilled from the Jiyeh power station.

The UN had previously sent to envoys to Syria to take stock of the situation and has now announced that an International Assistance Plan has been drawn up to help the Lebanese government in dealing with the environmental disaster.
Experts under the aegis of the Regional Marine Pollution Emergency Response Center for the Mediterranean Sea drafted the plan which will be presented for scrutiny on Thursday at Athens.

The fund pledged by OPEC will be channeled through the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and will be spent on essential supplies.

Previous efforts to clean up teh oil spill met with Israeli naval blockades. Lebanese Environment Minister said his country will sue Israel for "this terrible crime", but did not give any details nor has there been any follow up since his statement last week.

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A crew of about 600 recovered 90 percent of the four tonnes of crude oil that spilled from a storage tank into the Zhouhe river in northwest China.

Workers at Yongning Drilling Co. were cleaning a tank when another burst leaking 10 tonnes of crude oil of which 4 tonnes spilled into the river causing a 5.6 mile slick.

The clean-up crew built 6 makeshift mini dams to prevent the slick from expanding.
Zhouhe is a tributary of the Luohe river which flows into the Yellow river, the country's second longest.

A crude oil spill from a pipeline run by a state oil firm in a eastern coastal province in China caused locals to rush to collect the oil and sell it to refineries for a profit.

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Two representatives of the UN Environment Program were finally able to evaluate the consequences of the oil spill in Lebanon.
UN Executive Director said that despite the complex political situation, it is appalling that more than 3 weeks into a crisis that is looking to rival the 1999 Erika tanker spill, there has been no move towards a clean-up or support given to the Lebanese government for an on-the-ground assessment.

If all the oil contained in the bombed power plant leaks into the Mediterranean Sea, this spill will be comparable to the Exxon Valdez disaster of 1989.

Though the two experts getting to assess the disaster in Syria is a start,much more needs to be done.

The UNEP is working with the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the European Commission and the International Maritime Organization to create conditions under which remedial action over the oil spill can be taken.

With 140kms of the coastline already affected, many marine species such as sea turtles and bluefin tuna are thought to be severely affected.

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Central New York might soon have a 'green' power plant to provide cheaper energy to the city and school district and also work towards lowering pollution.

The Siemens Corp. is planning to build the plant which will use willow trees to extract energy. The process for extraction is called gasification and willow trees are a sound choice for it owing to the fact that they can be harvested within 3 years of planting.

Mayor Driscoll said New York would sign a 20-year contract to buy power from the plant which is projecting savings of 30 percent over current electricity rates. Siemens is still awaiting approval from the Syracuse Common Council and environmental permits.

The proposed facility will also significantly reduce carbon pollution to the tune of if 40,000 cars were removed from the road.

Siemens has also built a gas-fired plant for Monroe County and a gasification plant in Georgia that extracts gas from carpet scraps!

Siemens is partnered on the New York green plant project by the State University College of Environmental Science and Forestry that will help Siemens acquire fuel for the plant.

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The oil spill that had been caused by Israeli jets hitting a plant in Lebanon and polluting over 80 kilometers of Lebanon's coastline has spread to the neighboring Syrian coastline.

The environmental disaster is threatening fish spawn and sea turtles, including the endangered green turtle.

An environmental catastrophe is looming over the entire Mediterranean region... and hostilities must be suspended to allow immediate access to the affected areas.

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Oil prices rose to new highs of 76 usd as traders watched tropical storm Chris in fear of it developing into a hurricane and damaging rings and refineries on the oil-rich Gulf Coast.

The much hoped for cease-fire in Lebanon also seems like a distant possibility with Israel killing 11 more people and capturing 3 Hezbollah fighters.

Further dissent in the Iranian nuclear matter has also caused the sudden climb in prices as well as concern that Iran and Syria, both backers of Hezbollah, are ordering troops to 'raise readiness'.

Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has called on Muslims everywhere to resist US and Israeli aggression as Iran refuses to bend to the UN deadline and stop uranium enrichment.
In the event that sanctions are imposed against Iran, it is likely that the country might retaliate by blocking the Strait of Hormuz, which is a essential outlet for oil shipments to the US.

While the key issue in the oil price matter is supply instability, it is also expected that the inventory data will show a huge draw in US fuel stocks with high demands despite the $3 gallon prices.

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Due to instability in oil-producing regions and higher energy demands in China and India pushing crude oil costs higher, the Senate moved closer to passing a Bill that would make 8.3 million acres in the Gulf of Mexico available for oil and natural gas drilling.

The Bill will allow drlling in coastal waters, a move that has invited major opposition from enviromental groups.

Advocates of the bill, say that it is an oppotunity for America to increase its domestic supplies of energy and that the debated area contains enough natural gas to heat and cool 6 millions homes for 15 years.

The area of the Gulf ofMexica has been under a drilling ban for a quarter of a century. The ban covers 85 percent of America's coastal areas.

Some lawmakers have taken issue with the fact that the bill specifically prohibits drilling between 125 miles and 230 miles of Florida's shore until 2022 while awarding royalties to four Gulf states that allow drilling. There is also a clause in the bill for revenue-sharing which would result in 37.5 percent of revenues being given to the Gulf states.

While manufacturers have expressed strong support for the bill, critics claim that the legislation's impact on oil prices will be negligible considering the high levels of demand.

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As if the casualties and loss of human life as well as the effect on oil prices was not enough, the Lebanon situation has now extended itself to include an ecological crisis.

An attack by the Israel Air Force on a power plant has caused a 15,000 tonnes oil spill along almost 130 kilometers of the Beirut coast causing hundreds of oil-coated fish to be washed ashore.

There are reports of the oil spill reaching as far as outside the Syrian harbor of Latakia, 120 kilometers north of Beirut.
Lebanon has appealed to the UN for help. While under the UN contingency plan to deal with such pollution, countries such as Algeria, Cyprus and the European Union have expressed their willingness in assisting with a clean-up by hand drive along wide stretches of the coast, the operation cannot start until the military offensive stops.

A shipment from Kuwait containing material to help contain the spill was unable to start work due to the continuing hostilities.

Other factors seem to have influenced the disaster - a leak from an Egyptian commercial boat and Israeli gunboat hit by Hezbollah missiles and effluent from a cement factory in Northern Lebanon.

A major concern is that if the spill is not contained soon, it could spread to the rest of the Mediterranean.
Marine life has been heavily affected and will continue to be.
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