Group Wants Government to Jump-Start the E.V. Revolution

Calling for what amounts to a Marshall Plan to start manufacturing plug-in hybrids and battery-electric cars, a group of executives from the auto and utility industries, and prospective plug-in fleet buyers laid out a strategy on Monday at a roundtable in Washington.

The new group, called the Electrification Coalition, envisions significant federal assistance in jump-starting what it calls “grid-enabled” vehicles.

The Coming Nuclear Crisis

Perhaps the most worrying problem is the misconception that uranium is plentiful. The world's nuclear plants today eat through some 65,000 tons of uranium each year. Of this, the mining industry supplies about 40,000 tons. The rest comes from secondary sources such as civilian and military stockpiles, reprocessed fuel and re-enriched uranium. "But without access to the military stocks, the civilian western uranium stocks will be exhausted by 2013, concludes Dittmar.

It's not clear how the shortfall can be made up since nobody seems to know where the mining industry can look for more.

Now you can hear electric cars coming

HALOsonic technology makes electric vehicles sound more like spaceships or sports cars - which should make roads safer for people with visual impairments.

Chris Nelder, logi Energy: Is the IEA World Energy Outlook Politically Distorted?

The International Energy Agency (IEA) released its annual World Energy Outlook (WEO) this week — a report I always anticipate eagerly. Hey, it’s like Christmas for energy geeks. The IEA found coal in its stocking though, after a report the previous evening in the UK’s Guardian newspaper cited unnamed whistleblowers alleging the agency had been distorting its true view on peak oil in order to prevent public panic.

Petrobras Oct oil output stable at 2 mln bpd

RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - Brazilian state-run oil company Petrobras said on Tuesday domestic oil output in October stood at 2 million barrels per day, virtually unchanged from the record output of September.

Production remained at record levels in October after the company brought two platforms back online, increased output at the Marlim Sul and Caratinga fields and began production at its Piranema field off the coast of northern Brazil.

Petrobras, Union Fail to Agree a Day Before Deadline

(Bloomberg) -- Petroleo Brasileiro SA and a Brazilian labor union failed to agree on a wage increase today, a day before a deadline expires for the state-controlled company to make a proposal.

Officials from Petrobras and the oil workers’ union known as FUP are seeking to replace a labor contract that expired in September in meetings that started yesterday and continue tomorrow. FUP set tomorrow as a deadline for Petrobras to present a new contract proposal, Aldemir de Carvalho Caetano, finance director at the union, said.

Buffett reveals new investments

US billionaire Warren Buffett's investment firm has revealed new stakes in Nestle and Exxon Mobil.

Berkshire Hathaway said it held 3.4 million American depositary receipts - which represents shares in foreign companies - of Nestle, worth $144.7m.

It also reported owning 1.28 million shares in the oil giant Exxon Mobil, valued at $87.6m.

Pick your peak: Which resource runs out first?

Last year’s spectacularly high prices for oil made believers — at least temporarily — out of many previous peak-oil atheists. Even today, the persistence of $78-or-so-per-barrel oil even in a still struggling economy continues to keep the words “peak oil” on many lips.

Whether we’ve already hit that peak (as oil industry expert Matthew Simmons believes), arrive there before 2020 (which we have a “significant risk” of doing, according to the UK Energy Research Centre) or still have decades to go, there are no shortage of other peaks that could be looming in the not-too-distant future.

Which do you think will strike us first? Will it be peak oil or …

7 ways to generate and save energy at home

Prepare for battle if you're ready to pull away from the electricity grid and generate at least some of your energy at home. "The first thing you do is make war on consumption," said Richard Perez, the publisher of Home Power Magazine, which guides people through the transition to a life built around renewable energy. "In other words, analyze where you are using electricity and see where you can make it more efficient."

It's all gravy: Cost of Thanksgiving meal sees biggest drop since 2000

People cooking up a traditional Thanksgiving feast can be thankful it won't be as expensive as it was last year.

The price of making a traditional Thanksgiving meal -- turkey, stuffing, cranberries, pumpkin pie and all the trimmings -- will drop 4% this year, according to the American Farm Bureau Federation. That's the biggest decline since 2000, says Bloomberg News.

Waiting for the end of the world

(CNN) -- This is how the world ends -- at least at the multiplex this month.

Last weekend's box-office champ "2012" primarily uses an ancient Mayan prophecy to spin a tale of world destruction. "The Road," due out November 25, showcases a father and son navigating a post-apocalyptic world of ash, cold and cannibals. And the indie documentary "Collapse" gives voice to one man's belief that, as we exhaust natural resources, civilization is ready to crumble.

OPEC should boost spare oil capacity to ‘cash in’

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) should continue to invest in oil production capacity even as demand drops so that it can "cash in" when a supply crunch arises, according to think tank Chatham House.

“Every time companies like Saudi Aramco have to turn on their excess oil capacity, it is at a time of extremely high oil prices,” Paul Stevens, a senior research fellow in energy at London-based Chatham House, said today at a conference in Abu Dhabi.

“It is much better to sell oil at $170 a barrel than at $70 a barrel, provided you are not concerned about the long-term impact of that.”

Is There an Asian Energy Crisis?

Asia comprises many developing countries. Their need for energy is extremely high and growing; industrial sectors are expanding, but they are experiencing an energy shortage.

Countries are trying to develop power plants to supply this exploding demand for electricity, and they are experiencing high system losses as a result of outdated infrastructure, theft and corruption. Smart grid technology, however, with an advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) as its foundation, can eliminate growing problems related to theft and corruption.

China provinces hit by severe gas shortage - report

BEIJING (Reuters) - Central and eastern Chinese provinces faced the worst natural gas shortage in years as supplies were diverted to snowstorm-hit northern China, while producers lacked incentives to expand output because of poor margins, a state broadcaster said on Tuesday.

Market Report: Oil Rebounds, China Warns of Carry Trade Bubble

A big rebuke from the Chinese as Obama's trip to Asia is not exactly looking like a success. Liu Mingkang, the chairman of the China Banking Regulatory Commission, warned that US Fed policy has led to massive speculation and endangers the global economic recovery. He says that the huge carry trade is having a massive impact on global asset prices and has lead to massive speculation, "that was inflating asset bubbles around the world. It has created unavoidable risks for the recovery of the global economy, especially emerging economies and the situation is seriously impacting global asset prices and encouraging speculation in stock and property markets as well."

Iraq puts off decision on oilfield again

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq's cabinet cancelled a Tuesday meeting at which it had been expected to approve deals with Western oil majors for the West Qurna and Zubair oilfields, because too many ministers were out of town, officials said.

It was not immediately clear when the decisions would now be taken but cabinet would likely try to hold a session before its next scheduled meeting on Nov. 24, said Ali al-Moussawi, manager of the government's National Media Centre.

Shell Expects the Americas to Have Big Role

Royal Dutch Shell sees a bigger role for North and South America as it seeks to boost global output of oil and natural gas in coming years, said Marvin Odum, president of the company's U.S. division.

Going forward, the region should be a "disproportionately growing part of Shell" as new projects come online in deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico and Brazil, the Canadian oil sands and natural gas fields in the U.S. and Canada, Odum said in an interview with the Chronicle this week.

Canadian Oil Sands Produce Economic Benefits, Environmental Costs

Canada is by far the largest supplier of oil to the United States, sending 1.8 million barrels south every day. And companies are spending billions looking for more, digging under stripped-out forests in search of a form of petroleum called bitumen. Environmental and native groups say the oil, which they call tar sands oil, hurts the air, land and water. They point to what it takes to get it to market.

And it takes a lot. Huge shovels dig the sand out and bitumen out of the earth and pile it into gigantic trucks. Syncrude, a joint venture among seven oil companies, runs its equipment around the clock 365 days a year.

Kosovo abandons plan for 2,000 MW thermal plant

PRISTINA (Reuters) - Kosovo has abandoned a project to build a 2,000 megawatt thermal plant due to lack of investor interest and will instead issue a new tender for a plant with half the capacity, the energy minister said on Tuesday.

Hydro wants hot water use to be metered

A water heater is one of the largest users of electricity in a typical home, the utility says.

With metered service, customers are encouraged to reduce costs by reducing their hot water use.

But some people are upset after receiving letters from Toronto Hydro giving them a conversion deadline and telling them to pay for the costs.

"They threatened to cut off my water heater unless the work is done by September. I'm away most of the summer," said Darryl Palmer, who wrote to me in August.

PV Grid Parity Not as Close as Hoped?

Writing about grid parity in IEEE Spectrum's Energy Wise, blogger Bill Sweet mentioned a recent Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory report that concluded that the installed cost of photovoltaic systems declined by >30% from 1998 to 2008, from $10.80/W to $7.50/W. Sweet indicated that although this appears encouraging, it is not.

Get a green job in two years

(Fortune Magazine) -- Community colleges have long held second-class-citizen status in the world of higher education. But they've suddenly become top tier when it comes to one important thing: training for new green-economy jobs.

Carving up Africa for Food and Fuel

Fifty million acres: gone! It’s a plot of land the size of half the farmland in all of Europe. One year ago, this tract belonged to its natives. Now, foreigners hold the deed. The scale of this landgrab is truly astounding. Nothing similar has taken place since Europeans carved up the subcontinent 200 years ago.

Like a Thanksgiving Day turkey-carving gone wrong, Africa’s in-laws are helping themselves. During the past year, South Korea grabbed 1.7 million acres in Sudan. Saudi Arabia scooped up 1.2 million acres in Tanzania. China gobbled up 6.9 million acres in the Democratic Republic of Congo and another 5 million acres in Zambia. India plucked up a 99-year lease for over 1 million acres of farmland in Madagascar. Africa is selling the farm.

The Nitrogen Fix: Breaking a Costly Addiction

Over the last century, the intensive use of chemical fertilizers has saturated the Earth’s soils and waters with nitrogen. Now scientists are warning that we must move quickly to revolutionize agricultural systems and greatly reduce the amount of nitrogen we put into the planet's ecosystems.

How the 40 year drop in the minimum wage helped cause obesity

I have written about the link between wages and obesity before—with wages dropping since the 60s and healthy food prices always going up, people eat more unhealthy food. But now two economists have drilled down into these issues and claim to have found a specific link between a drop in the minimum wage and obesity

Environment Or Economy? Obama's Balancing Act

President Obama's China visit touched on the issue of climate change and cooperation on green energy research. But his weeklong trip to Asia has also brought an acknowledgment that next month's big climate change conference in Copenhagen will not result in a new treaty.

Obama Has Failed the World on Climate Change

US President Barack Obama came to office promising hope and change. But on climate change, he has followed in the footsteps of his predecessor George W. Bush. Now, should the climate summit in Copenhagen fail, the blame will lie squarely with Obama.

Bill McKibben: Mr. President: Time to Quit Fibbing and Spinning

I’ll always knock on doors for Obama. But on the climate, we need more than rhetoric and excuses.

Is Bill McKibben right to be angry with Obama?

The difference between Clinton’s flamboyant rhetorical pushing and Obama’s relatively laid back style is this: Obama’s still has a chance to work. However frustrating it may be to activists who want bigger words, bolder promises, and faster action, the fact remains that the Dems are within reach of passing a health care reform bill and have at least laid out a path to passing a clean energy bill and ratifying a binding international climate treaty in 2010. It’s too early to deem Obama’s leadership a failure.

No Peak in Oil Before 2030, Study Says

Few topics can inflame oil watchers more than the debate over “peak oil” – that difficult-to-predict moment when the world’s oil production reaches its highest level before beginning a long and irreversible path of decline.

In recent years, ominous warnings about peaking production have gained some prominence among traders and some analysts. They helped explain why oil prices soared last year on fears that oil supplies would fail to catch up with the projected growth in consumption.

A retired geologist predicted, wrongly it turned out, that global oil production would peak on Thanksgiving Day, 2005. Others believe that the peak in production will happen sometime between 2011 and 2015.

In this minefield, IHS Cambridge Energy Research Associates, the consulting firm founded by the oil historian Daniel Yergin, has resolutely been on the optimistic side of the peak oil abyss.

In a new report released this week, the firm once again explains why it believes that oil supplies will keep growing for the next two decades. After that, the firm says, production will reach “an undulating plateau,” meaning it will remain more or less flat for a couple more decades after that.

Shale-Gas Skeptic’s Supply Doubts Draw Wrath of Devon Energy

(Bloomberg) -- Arthur Berman runs a one-man energy consulting firm out of his home near Houston, producing research that says forecasts for natural-gas production in the U.S. are flawed. He’s won the industry’s attention and its anger.

Since last month, Chesapeake Energy Corp. and Devon Energy Corp., two of the five largest gas producers in the U.S., attacked Berman’s claims. Berman, 59, had his monthly column pulled from the November issue of World Oil after gas companies complained, prompting him to quit the trade journal.

Oil geologist Berman, who worked two decades for Amoco Corp., says company production projections for so-called shale gas in the U.S. are at least double what drill results justify. At issue are the rates of production decline in shale wells, where water, sand and other materials are injected to fracture rock and make gas flow.

“I think that the wells decline at a much higher rate than the operators think they do,” Berman said in an interview in Houston. “They’re being overly optimistic.”

Of oil reserves, fudged data and World Energy Outlook '09

(Arab News - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- The energy industry is peculiar -- in more than one ways. The issue of reliable data, or rather the lack of it, plagues the industry. National priorities, global geopolitics and corporate interests make the matter still worse.

The World Energy Outlook (WEO) compiled each year by the Paris-based International Energy Agency (IEA) is an eagerly sought after annual affair. The precious database compiled by the OECD energy watchdog is regarded -- and indeed correctly too -- as a guide post to industry trends.

The just released WEO '09 has been no exception. And as always it reached some interesting conclusions. Despite the repeated claims of peak oil pundits arguing it was just round the corner, the document concludes that as a consequence of the financial crisis, in fact the global energy use is set to fall this year. The report projected the global demand to remain lower than projected in last year's report, reflecting the impact of the economic crisis and of new government policies introduced over the past year.

A person familiar with IEA's plans said "demand-management policies" are having more impact, than previously expected, on the consumption patterns in the developed world, which accounts for about 55 percent of world oil consumption.

Has Oil Production Peaked?

Given that oil is a non-renewable resource, in a sense the world is always running out of it. Unless global demand collapses, at some point in the future oil production will peak and eventually be exhausted. But this prediction is close to a tautology. For it to be useful, believers in scarce oil must be able to predict such things as the timing of the oil peak, the state of demand when oil production reaches it, and the pattern of decline.

But the track record of “peak oil” theorists on such matters has not been impressive: their predictions have steadily moved forward the date that global oil production will peak. Worse still, they have made no serious attempt to identify why their earlier predictions have had to be revised.

GCC oil revenue will hit $1tr in 2030

The world is expected to reach its peak oil production level in 30 years, he said.

"The challenge is to reduce the peak oil demand," Al Khateeb said, adding global oil consumption is expected to reach 120 million barrels per day before 2040.

He said currently 61 per cent of the energy available gets wasted. "We use only 39 per cent of the energy available to us," said Al Khateeb.

Monbiot: The one thing depleting faster than oil is the credibility of those measuring it

If the whistleblowers are right, we should be stockpiling ammunition. If we are taken by surprise, if we have failed to replace oil before the supply peaks then crashes, the global economy is stuffed. But nothing the whistle-blowers said has scared me as much as the conversation I had last week with a Pembrokeshire farmer.

Wyn Evans, who runs a mixed farm of 170 acres, has been trying to reduce his dependency on fossil fuels since 1977. He has installed an anaerobic digester, a wind turbine, solar panels and a ground-sourced heat pump. He has sought wherever possible to replace diesel with his own electricity. Instead of using his tractor to spread slurry, he pumps it from the digester on to nearby fields. He's replaced his tractor-driven irrigation system with an electric one, and set up a new system for drying hay indoors, which means he has to turn it in the field only once. Whatever else he does is likely to produce smaller savings. But these innovations have reduced his use of diesel by only around 25%.

Why peak oil doesn’t matter

A large proportion - up to 50 per cent or more - of the original oil resource cannot be profitably extracted because it’s simply too expensive to get the stuff out. Long before geological limits are imposed on oil production via peak oil, economic limits kick in.

That means total production depends more on the price, rather than the quantity, of oil. As investors we can therefore think about oil as an unlimited resource with a variable price.

The Next Step for the Bakken Oil Formation

The problem, however, is that peak oil is more than just a U.S. concern. Even more troubling is how easy people simply dismiss the bad news — even more so when the strings are being pulled by politics.

Were you surprised after a whistleblower came forward last week, accusing the IEA of being politically distorted?

When one-quarter of the world's oil production comes from just twenty fields, you'd think people would be a little interested in the fact that the largest of those fields are well past the peak.

Robert Bryce: The New Natural Gas Paradigm: 30,000 Trillion cubic feet (and counting)

While the peak oil debate will surely rage on for years to come, perhaps the more important finding in the IEA report was completely ignored. In the executive summary, the IEA concludes that “The long-term global recoverable gas resource base is estimated at more than 850 tcm (850 trillion cubic meters.” That translates to just over 30,000 trillion cubic feet of gas. That’s more than double the 2008 estimate put forward by the IEA, when it said that “Ultimately recoverable remaining resources of conventional natural gas, including remaining proven reserves, reserves growth and undiscovered resources, could amount to well over 400 tcm.”

But in 2008, the agency didn’t include unconventional gas – that is, gas from shale, tight sands, and coalbed methane -- in its estimate of recoverable gas resources. The IEA’s latest report provides further proof that the shale gas revolution necessitates a re-thinking of our approach to natural gas, and therefore, energy policy.

IEA says sees little OECD oil demand recovery

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Oil demand in wealthy countries has not improved much and the patchy state of global recovery could prompt OPEC to keep output steady at its next meeting, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said on Tuesday.

High distillate stocks in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the group of 30 rich nations, underscored the sluggish rebound in those economies, since diesel is a key indicator of industrial activity, IEA executive director Nobuo Tanaka said.

Crude spike not warranted in soft economic recovery - IEA

SINGAPORE (ICIS news)--A sharp and sudden increase in crude prices could do more damage given the imbalance of the ongoing global economic recovery, said an executive at the International Energy Agency (IEA) on Tuesday.

While improving economic fundamentals, particularly in Asia and the Middle East, have helped drive up fuel prices, the same is not evident in the rest of the world, said Nobuo Tanaka, the IEA's executive director, in an interview.

Kuwait says OPEC to keep production steady

KUWAIT CITY (AFP) – Kuwait's Oil Minister Sheikh Ahmad Abdullah al-Sabah said on Tuesday OPEC will leave its production unchanged at its meeting next month, adding that current oil price was "comfortable."

"Nothing. (Quota will remain) as is," the minister told reporters when asked if the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) could alter its production quota at its December 22 meeting in Angola.

Russia to launch new Asian oil export route in Dec

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia will sell its first tanker of Siberian oil from a new Pacific port in December as Moscow seeks to conquer Asian markets and warn Europe that competition for energy resources is rising.

Traders told Reuters on Tuesday Russian leaders will attend the tanker-loading ceremony at the port of Kozmino, which will mark the launch of the Pacific branch of Russia's first pipeline to Asia.

EU risks winter gas crunch despite Russia pact

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The European Union and Russia on Monday (16 November) signed an early warning agreement designed to prevent sudden energy cut-offs. But the Slovak Prime Minister, after separate talks in Moscow, said a fresh gas crisis is lurking round the corner.

"From what I have heard today it seems that there will be enormous problems between Russia and Ukraine as Kiev is not capable of paying. There were even indications of a repeated disruption of gas supplies to Europe in January," Slovakia's Robert Fico said.

Gas surplus to vanish by 2011: Gazprom

Depressed natural gas NG-FT consumption in Europe will rise next year and the surplus of gas will disappear in 2011, boosting prices, Gazprom deputy chief executive Alexander Medvedev said Tuesday.

PetroChina Raises Gas Output at Second-Biggest Field for Winter

(Bloomberg) -- PetroChina Co. has raised daily natural gas output from Changqing field, its second-biggest, to 55.8 million cubic meters to meet winter heating demand, the company said.

Sinopec 2010 Gas Output May Rise More Than 50 Percent

(Bloomberg) -- China Petroleum & Chemical Corp., the country’s largest oil refiner, may increase natural gas production by more than 50 percent to meet the nation’s demand for the cleaner-burning fuel.

Newcastle Coal Exports Fall 20%; Ship Queue Lengthens

(Bloomberg) -- Coal shipments from Australia’s Newcastle port, the world’s biggest export harbor for the fuel, fell by 20 percent last week while the number of vessels waiting to load lengthened.

French Oct Gasoline Consumption Down 2.9% From Year Earlier

PARIS -(Dow Jones)- The consumption of gasoline in France in October dropped 2.9% from a year earlier, after four consecutive months of increase from June to September, French oil industry association Union Francaise des Industries Petrolieres said Tuesday.

"This drop puts an end to the consecutive increases from June to September that led to belief in a recovery of gasoline consumption in France after several months of fall," UFIP said.

Colonial Pipeline Limits Gasoline Shipments on Excess Orders

(Bloomberg) -- Colonial Pipeline Co., which operates the largest pipeline linking U.S. Gulf Coast refiners and East Coast markets, will limit shipments of gasoline because orders exceeded the company’s ability to deliver fuel on time.

The Alpharetta, Georgia-based company issued the requirement, known as an allocation, in a bulletin to shippers for the 67th cycle. The restriction applies to shipments on Colonial pipelines running north of Collins, Mississippi.

Petrobras eyes end to Iran operations

Brazilian state-run Petrobras is considering ending its activities in Iran, local reports said today.

Petrobras international director Jorge Zelada said the company was studying the pull out because discoveries it had made there were not commercially viable, and the concessions would be returned to the government.

India's Reliance looks to oil for growth: chairman

MUMBAI (AFP) – Indian energy giant Reliance Industries will launch an "aggressive" oil and gas exploration campaign over the next three years, its chairman Mukesh Ambani told shareholders on Tuesday.

Devon Seen Finding Ample Demand as Exxon, Eni Chase Oil Assets

(Bloomberg) -- Devon Energy Corp., the biggest independent oil and gas producer in the U.S., has plenty of company in seeking to sell billions of dollars in energy assets. It may also find plenty of suitors eager to bid.

Regal Petroleum Fined Record $1 Million for Breaching Rules

(Bloomberg) -- Regal Petroleum Plc, a U.K. explorer in central Europe and Africa, was fined a record 600,000 pounds ($1 million) by London’s Alternative Investment Market for misleading investors about a Greek discovery in 2005.

Regal fell as much as 2.4 percent in London trading after AIM’s Disciplinary Committee said the company was over- optimistic about the Kallirachi prospect in Greece and took longer than it should have to inform the market that the two wells were being abandoned.

Chevron sues former lawyer in Ecuador case

Chevron Corp. has sued a lawyer who used to represent the plaintiffs in a $27 billion pollution lawsuit against the oil company in Ecuador, hoping to cast doubt on the case.

Electricity from the Ocean

I know that when I can buy a car that meets my needs that can be charged by plugging into my garage at night, I'll buy it ... and I'll stop patronizing my neighborhood gas station. And when enough people do this, those gas stations will close (not all at once, but one by one) ... leaving a lot of contaminated vacant lots, not a desirable asset. There are a lot of dominos in the oil business, just as in the automotive business, and when they start to fall it might get ugly.

CEOs endorse 'foothold strategy' for electric cars

A group of CEOs on Monday came out favor of a regional roll-out of electric vehicles in up to eight cities to demonstrate the viability of the technology and incubate the fledgling industry.

The Electricifcation Coalition held a press conference in Washington, D.C. and released an Electrification Roadmap, which prescribes the business and policy steps required to ramp up electric vehicle adoption.

Enzyme Producers Set Sights on Taking Oil Out of Chemical Production

COPENHAGEN -- Enzyme producers that use bacteria and living cells to break down biomass into sugar in the production of bioethanol, an alternative to petroleum-based vehicle fuel, are now taking aim at oil used in chemical manufacturing.

Their goal: to replace the oil used to make chemical ingredients in plastics, fibers, diapers or synthetic rubber with sugars extracted from plants in an enzyme-based process.

Nuclear energy best substitute for fossil fuels

KUWAIT: Director of the Arab Nuclear Energy Institute, Dr. Abdulmajid Mehjoob, said yesterday that the institute is extremely interested in seeing Arab countries turn to using nuclear energy in many fields, including electricity production and water distillation.

Electricity-hungry Vietnam looks to join nuclear club

HANOI (AFP) – Vietnam is expected to take a key step towards meeting its burgeoning appetite for electricity by paving the way for its first nuclear power plant, but debate is still raging over the controversial project.

Parliament in the fast-growing communist state is set to vote at the end of November on the project -- which lawmakers have been mulling for more than a decade -- after legalising the use of nuclear power in 2008.

First Energy Bank to build $1 bln Saudi solar plant

MANAMA (Reuters) - Bahrain-based First Energy Bank plans to build a $1 billion polysilicon plant in Saudi Arabia with a local partner to cater to rising regional investments in solar power, the company said on Tuesday.

Sustainability certificate to promote green in curriculum

A sustainability committee of interdisciplinary faculty has recently been created to foster sustainability in education across the board at Temple. Terry Halbert, the director of Temple’s GenEd program, is overseeing the group, which is working on the creation of a sustainability certificate that will be available for Temple students to earn along with their degrees.

Building a resilient future for the Sunshine Coast

Evidence suggests that our climate is changing, with predictions indicating we can expect more severe storms, higher temperatures and rising sea levels.

Combine this with mounting financial pressure from increasing oil prices, and you begin to see the enormous impact climate change and peak oil will have on our community, our environment and our lifestyle.

That is why we need to act now.

The Draft Sunshine Coast Climate Change Strategy aims to guide the transition to a low carbon, low oil, resilient future for the Sunshine Coast.

GE Enlightens China Regions Working to Curb Pollution

(Bloomberg) -- The Ordos region of Inner Mongolia, home to one of China’s biggest deserts, is being transformed into the site of a pine forest that will stretch across its low hills as far as the eye can see.

The local government’s tree-planting program is part of a plan to “assume our green responsibilities and build a civilized way of life,” Du Zi, the local Communist Party secretary, told energy executives at a conference last month in Beijing.

Hawaii's famed white sandy beaches are shrinking

A "triage," strategy could be applied to Kailua, which is lined by multimillion-dollar homes but doesn't have seawalls.

Fletcher proposes identifying areas where a land conservation fund would buy five or six adjoining properties. The state would tear down buildings on these plots and allow the beach to shift inland.

He said when erosion hits more sections of Kailua beach, there's going to be a clamor to put up seawalls.

"That will be a very important moment," Fletcher said. "If we allow the first home to put up a seawall, then we're probably dooming the entire beach over the course of a couple of decades...

Our view on climate change: Imperfect ‘cap-and-trade’ is best option to fight warming

It’s complex, costly — and as good as the political system can produce.

Opposing view: ‘There is a better way’

Employ carbon-cutting strategies that don’t kill jobs and raise costs.

China "studying" plan to delay final climate deal

BEIJING (Reuters) - China on Monday distanced itself from proposals to delay a binding climate pact to 2010, but might be willing to sign up to a "political deal" at climate talks next month if it includes strong commitments from rich nations.

Beijing's domestic quest to boost energy efficiency and curb emissions growth will also continue unabated even if a set-back in global negotiations slows the flow of foreign investment into carbon-cutting projects in China, experts said.

Denmark seeks specific pledges at climate talks

COPENHAGEN – Denmark has told the United States and all other developed countries they must bring specific pledges to cut greenhouse gases to next month's climate change conference, the Danish prime minister said Tuesday.

Obama calls for climate pact with 'immediate' effect

BEIJING (AFP) – US President Barack Obama said on Tuesday that the United States and China want next month's climate change talks in Copenhagen to culminate in a global accord that has "immediate operational effect."

We "agreed to work toward a successful outcome in Copenhagen," Obama told journalists after talks with Chinese President Hu Jintao.

SKorea sets greenhouse gas reduction target

SEOUL, South Korea – South Korea announced its first greenhouse gas reduction target Tuesday, pledging to cut emissions of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases by 4 percent below 2005 levels by 2020.

The announcement came amid dimming prospects for a new global climate-change pact at next month's U.N. conference in Copenhagen. South Korea is not among countries that must cut emissions under the existing Kyoto Protocol, and Tuesday's voluntary target-setting could put pressure on developed nations to act more aggressively to fight global warming.

Climate change could put public's health at risk

A new report found that nearly all communities in the U.S. face added health risks because of climate change, but few states have developed plans to address this.

Survey: Gov'ts see climate change as aid challenge

NAIROBI, Kenya – A global network of aid agencies says world powers consider climate change the most significant challenge to humanitarian work.

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies says rich, middle-income and poor nations expect aid agencies to face more demands caused by climate change-related emergencies such as floods.

Climate deal key to fight "devastating" hunger: U.N.

ROME (Reuters) – The United Nations said on Monday that agreeing a climate change deal in Copenhagen next month is crucial to fighting global hunger, which Brazil's president described as "the most devastating weapon of mass destruction."

Russia's Medvedev warns of climate catastrophe

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Russian President Dmitry Medvedev warned on Monday that climate change posed a "catastrophic" threat in some of the sharpest comments yet on a subject the Kremlin has often seemed reluctant to confront.

U.S. submarine's trip to Arctic should sound alarms for Canada: expert

The recent surfacing of a U.S. submarine near the North Pole and an increase in military activity in the Arctic this year should send a warning to the Canadian government that other nations are serious about boosting their presence in the resource-rich region, says a specialist on Canada's northern security.

The U.S. navy recently confirmed that the USS Texas and its 134-member crew completed an Arctic mission, with some U.S. media outlets noting the nuclear- powered submarine broke through the ice near the North Pole and stayed on the surface for 24 hours.