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CALGARY, Alberta (Reuters) - U.S. regulators should weigh the environmental impact of oil sands extraction in Canada before granting permits for pipelines that will carry the rising flood of Canadian crude to refineries in the United States, a green group said on Wednesday. The recommendation was one of several in a report by the Washington-based Environmental Integrity Project on massive expansions and retoolings of U.S. refineries aimed at running more oil derived from the oil sands of northern Alberta.

China's national assembly Saturday signalled the country's commitment to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by adopting a law supporting its renewable energy industry. The new law, an amendment to one on renewable energy adopted by the National People's Congress standing committee, obliges electricity grid companies to buy all the power produced by renewable sources. It also empowers the State Council's energy department, the electricity regulatory agency and its finance departments to determine the amount of renewable energy available in the country's overall power generating capacity. Power companies will be obliged to take up all of that capacity, and those refusing to do so will be fined an amount up to double that of the economic loss of the renewable energy company, Ni Yuefeng, vice-president of the assembly's environmental affairs commission, told reporters.

China's national assembly Saturday signalled the country's commitment to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by adopting a law supporting its renewable energy industry. The new law, an amendment to one on renewable energy adopted by the National People's Congress standing committee, obliges electricity grid companies to buy all the power produced by renewable sources. It also empowers the State Council's energy department, the electricity regulatory agency and its finance departments to determine the amount of renewable energy available in the country's overall power generating capacity. Power companies will be obliged to take up all of that capacity, and those refusing to do so will be fined an amount up to double that of the economic loss of the renewable energy company, Ni Yuefeng, vice-president of the assembly's environmental affairs commission, told reporters.

The Senate ground to a halt Wednesday in a display of what an individual senator can do to protest his treatment by some of Capitol Hill's most powerful barons. Instead of passing a $33.5 billion measure funding energy and water projects and then moving on to other business, the chamber slogged through a 30-hour protest by Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., who halted further legislative business after one of his pet ideas was dropped from the bill. At issue is one of Coburn's top issues - greater transparency in government - as well as his sworn enemy, the powerful Appropriations Committee. Coburn had added to the energy and water bill a provision requiring reports that agencies are required to send to the appropriations panels be made available to other lawmakers and to the public. It's part of his drive for greater transparency in government.

The Senate ground to a halt Wednesday in a display of what an individual senator can do to protest his treatment by some of Capitol Hill's most powerful barons. Instead of passing a $33.5 billion measure funding energy and water projects and then moving on to other business, the chamber slogged through a 30-hour protest by Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., who halted further legislative business after one of his pet ideas was dropped from the bill. At issue is one of Coburn's top issues - greater transparency in government - as well as his sworn enemy, the powerful Appropriations Committee. Coburn had added to the energy and water bill a provision requiring reports that agencies are required to send to the appropriations panels be made available to other lawmakers and to the public. It's part of his drive for greater transparency in government.

Germany's next government plans to reduce incentives to generate solar power as early as 2010, the energy spokesman for Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats said. Shares of Bonn-based Solarworld AG and Q-Cells SE based in Thalheim fell after Joachim Pfeiffer said that Solar capacity has "massively increased" by about 3000 megawatts this year at the same time as the price of solar-power panels has plummeted. The government is "obliged" to address the matter, Pfeiffer told reporters in Berlin today. "We will review the overall renewable energy law in 2011 but will undertake reductions in solar subsidies taking effect as soon as next year," Pfeiffer said after a meeting of a group negotiating energy policy for the next four years for Merkel's prospective coalition with the Free Democratic Party.

Germany's next government plans to reduce incentives to generate solar power as early as 2010, the energy spokesman for Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats said. Shares of Bonn-based Solarworld AG and Q-Cells SE based in Thalheim fell after Joachim Pfeiffer said that Solar capacity has "massively increased" by about 3000 megawatts this year at the same time as the price of solar-power panels has plummeted. The government is "obliged" to address the matter, Pfeiffer told reporters in Berlin today. "We will review the overall renewable energy law in 2011 but will undertake reductions in solar subsidies taking effect as soon as next year," Pfeiffer said after a meeting of a group negotiating energy policy for the next four years for Merkel's prospective coalition with the Free Democratic Party.

Europe has launched a campaign to triple funding for energy research to 8 billion euros ($11.7 billion) a year in a technology race with China, Japan and the United States, but said industry would have to pay the bulk. "We don't have much choice if we are serious with tackling climate change and remaining competitive," European research commissioner Janez Potocnik told reporters on Wednesday. "In January 2009, U.S. President Obama announced investment in renewable energy and China presented a recovery plan focused on clean technologies," he added. "It is good news... however, it represents quite a challenge for the European position." Solar power should get 16 billion euros over the next decade and up to 30 energy-cutting "Smart Cities" should be built with the backing of around 11 billion euros, said the European Union's executive, the European Commission.

Europe has launched a campaign to triple funding for energy research to 8 billion euros ($11.7 billion) a year in a technology race with China, Japan and the United States, but said industry would have to pay the bulk. "We don't have much choice if we are serious with tackling climate change and remaining competitive," European research commissioner Janez Potocnik told reporters on Wednesday. "In January 2009, U.S. President Obama announced investment in renewable energy and China presented a recovery plan focused on clean technologies," he added. "It is good news... however, it represents quite a challenge for the European position." Solar power should get 16 billion euros over the next decade and up to 30 energy-cutting "Smart Cities" should be built with the backing of around 11 billion euros, said the European Union's executive, the European Commission.

The Western media reported last week on how the German company Urenco shipped nuclear material to Siberia, where the highly toxic waste was stored in containers in the open air. The company has stopped deliveries and will store the material with higher standards in Germany in the future. The radiation warning sign was so small that few passers-by took note in the commuter rail station in Kapitolovo, Russia. Fifty-six steel canisters were sitting there on a summer day three years ago. Just a stone's throw away, people were waiting for trains to take them to downtown St. Petersburg.

The Western media reported last week on how the German company Urenco shipped nuclear material to Siberia, where the highly toxic waste was stored in containers in the open air. The company has stopped deliveries and will store the material with higher standards in Germany in the future. The radiation warning sign was so small that few passers-by took note in the commuter rail station in Kapitolovo, Russia. Fifty-six steel canisters were sitting there on a summer day three years ago. Just a stone's throw away, people were waiting for trains to take them to downtown St. Petersburg.

"A quick update on the slow motion oil spill that is the Alberta Tar Sands and how the death of birds is just one of the huge environmental problems here: The Winnipeg Free Press reports that the long-running trial of Syncrude over the death of some 1,600 ducks in one of its toxic tailing ponds has concluded, with Syncrude found guilty. Syncrude Failed to Deploy Duck Deterrent Systems in Snow Storm Judge Ken Tjosvold: It should have been obvious to Syncrude that deterrence should have been in place in the spring as soon as reasonably possible. Syncrude dud not deploy deterrence early enough or quickly enough. I am convinced beyond a reasonable doubt that Syncrude could have acted lawfully by using due diligence to deter birds from the basin...and it did not do so. The crux of the case was whether or not Syncrude deployed noise-producing duck deterrent systems early enough in the season. Defending its actions, Syncrude maintained that a snowstorm had delayed their deployment. In the snowstorm, with no other place to land, other bodies of water being ice-covered, the birds landed in the toxic tailing pond. There, soaked with toxic sludge, they became unable to fly and either were eaten by ravens or sank to the bottom dead. "

"Late last year we reported that the US Federal Trade Commission proposed a new label for compact fluorescent lightbulbs that would show vital statistics like mercury content and the light output in terms of lumens rather than watts, which would make the brightness of CFLs, LEDs and other lighting technology more comparable among consumers. Well word has just hit that the new system has been approved and we'll soon see nutrition-facts-style labels on our lights. EarthTechling gave us a heads up about the new label, pointing us to the announcement from the FTC. The FTC states, "Under direction from Congress to re-examine the current labels, the FTC is announcing a final rule that will require the new labels on light bulb packages. For the first time, the label on the front of the package will emphasize the bulbs' brightness as measured in lumens, rather than a measurement of watts. The new front-of-package labels also will include the estimated yearly energy cost for the particular type of bulb.""

US economic, military and political dominance is likely to decline over the next two decades, according to a new US intelligence report on global trends. The National Intelligence Council (NIC) predicts China, India and Russia will increasingly challenge US influence. It also says the dollar may no longer be the world's major currency, and food and water shortages will fuel conflict.

The residue of millions of tons of coal burning at Kingston Fossil power plant in the Watts Bar Reservoir in Tennessee burst the bounds of the pond in which it was contained, burying as many as 400 acres of land in up to six feet of sludge. The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), which owns the coal-fired power plant-first operated in 1955-announced that 15 homes were buried and no injuries were reported. A combination of rains and accumulating sludge likely contributed to the disaster-one of two major ash pond collapses in the past decade. All told, about 2.6 million cubic yards of so-called coal ash slurry escaped, the TVA says. The collapsed pond is one of three on the site.

As Mike wrote a while back, even the Prius can't save Toyota. On Monday the world's biggest car-maker announced that, in contrast to 2007's 2.3 trillion yen operating profit, for the past year the company made an operating loss of 150 billion yen. Furthermore Toyota confirmed they are freezing the scheduled opening of their new Mississippi factory, which was expected to produce new Prius models for the US market. However, the Australian Federal Government believe their deal with Toyota to build a hybrid Camry plant in Victoria is still on track. They are kicking in $35 million AUD on the proviso that it does proceed. The New York Times reports that Toyota's president, Katsuaki Watanabe told the media conference, that "The change in the world economy is of a magnitude that comes once every hundred years," going on to comment, "We are facing an unprecedented emergency." Such that the company apparently has unplugged electric hand dryers at some offices in an effort to cut costs.

A major coal industry group has spent an estimated $45 million on an ongoing advertising campaign promoting the clean energy potential of coal, but its members are spending relatively little on the research that would make the technology a viable solution, a report by the Center for American Progress [CAP] finds. View details of investment in carbon capture and storage by companies backing clean coal front group. The only hope for the coal industry (at least in a world that is itself not suicidal) is a very well-funded effort to demonstrate and deploy carbon capture and storage. This will take at least 10-years from the time the industry (and government) gets serious - and probably much longer (see "Is coal with carbon capture and storage a core climate solution?"). That was true ten years ago when the coal industry - and car companies - lobbied against Kyoto saying they needed time to develop new technology. But those complaints turned out to just be an excuse for inaction, as many warned.

Oregon State University professor Jane Lubchenco has been added to Obama's growing cabinet. Lubchenco, a marine biologist, will head the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Along with wanting to curb overfishing, Lubchenco has also been a voice for curbing greenhouse admissions that contribute to global warming, reports the Washington Post. Her appointment will put the NOAA in a rank of prestige, as Lubchenco is a member of the National Academy and the Royal Society, of America and England

Like a losing army that loots and then sets fire to a village before retreating, the Bush Administration continues to employ a "loot and run" strategy, gutting as many environmental regulations as they can before leaving office. As I reported in October, the Bush Administration has been rushing to codify new mining waste rules that would clear away a critical protection against the devastating practice of mountaintop removal coal mining that is decimating mountains, watersheds and communities across the region. Yesterday, they won approval of the new "Stream Buffer Rule" - I put that in quotes since it's not much of a buffer for streams anymore - which will make it even easier for mining companies to dump "mining waste" - aka the tops of whole mountains! - on top of running streams.

We are going to have a huge economic stimulus package soon after Obama becomes President. And a big piece of it is going to be aimed at energy efficiency and renewable energy, as the NYT reported today in"Proposal Ties Economic Stimulus to Energy Plan." I have asked a bunch of my wonk ee friends for some energy efficiency ideas, which I'll be posting in the coming days. I'd love to hear some ideas from you - please try to keep them practical. Focus on spending that creates jobs in the next two years AND that either saves energy (like weatherizing low-income homes) or helps jumpstart the transition to a clean energy economy (like 'green' transmission).

New technologies will permit rapid decarbonization of the world energy economy in the next two decades, according to a new report from the Worldwatch Institute. These new energy sources will make it possible to retire hundreds of coal-fired power plants that now provide 40 percent of the world's power by 2030, eliminating up to one-third of global carbon dioxide emissions while creating millions of new jobs.

When OPEC meet on 17th December, how will they go about deciding the size of the inevitable production cuts? All OPEC states want the oil price to rise from current $44 / bbl (WTI). Some states will also be concerned that the price target is affordable by their OECD customers. But set against a backdrop of global economic turmoil and volatility in all markets, how do they judge the size of the production cut required to deliver the target price? Saudi Arabia is reported to favor a price of $75 / bbl, just short of the cost of new marginal supply in the OECD. Achieving this price in the medium term would keep OPEC in the driving seat. This short post is intended to be a discussion thread. Below the fold, I outline one radical idea for OPEC to achieve their goal in the short term.

Earth2Tech reports that England may be left out of Scottish plans to join a European supergrid crossing the north sea - Scotland Snubbing England in Supergrid Plans?. The Scottish government believes the North Sea could become host to an underwater renewable energy grid, supplying power from wind, wave and tidal power across Europe, but England could be left out in the cold. A new study from Scotland looks at the possibility of a supergrid between Scotland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands, but doesn't mention Scotland's big neighbor to the south. Yes, Scotland is still part of the UK, and most of England's east coast is also on the North Sea, but the word "England" doesn't even show up once in the 21-page study and "UK" is only used in a couple of footnotes. It might just be an oversight, but the possible snub comes during the same week in which the UK government made a filing with the Commission on Scottish Devolution questioning the Scottish government's powers covering energy.

Reuters has a report on some of the roadblocks obstructing grid expansion (and thus construction of many large scale renewable energy projects) in the US - Alternative energy faces power line "bottleneck" in U.S. West. President Barack Obama aims to double alternative energy production over three years, but how much "green" power will come from the U.S. West is uncertain if the sunny and wind-swept region cannot overcome a shortage of power lines. Installing large solar installations and dotting landscapes with wind turbines across the western United States would be, technically speaking, straightforward, and potentially popular with the renewed interest in domestic energy sources amid rising economic, environmental and security concerns.

As a group, federal contractors are quickly getting obese at taxpayers' expense. Uncle Sam spent "an astounding $532 billion last (fiscal) year, shattering the previous year's record of $465 billion" on contracts, Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (I-Conn.), chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, said yesterday. He called federal contracting "a black hole for taxpayer dollars" as he released the Government Accountability Office's latest "high-risk" report on Capitol Hill. This biennial update covers programs and policies that the agency says "are at high risk for waste, fraud, abuse and mismanagement or those in need of significant transformation."