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The electric membership corporations (EMCs) in Georgia observed the first anniversary of legislation to bring harsher penalties to those charged with metals theft. "Metals theft is not a victimless crime," says Bill Verner, vice president, government relations, communications and member services with Georgia EMC. "Consumers foot the bill for replacing and repairing the damage left by a wire thief." In 2007, the EMCs and Georgia EMC led an industry effort to craft legislation aimed at toughening the existing law. The new law, which took effect July 1, 2007, forces the defendant to make full restitution to the lawful owner of the stolen metal and allows the prosecutor to prosecute based on how much it will cost to return the affected property to its original condition and not just the salvage value of the stolen metal. According to Verner

Pennsylvania Gov. Edward Rendell has approved a bill that establishes a $500 million fund to support alternative energy projects. Special Session House Bill 1 authorizes the Commonwealth Financing Authority to borrow $500 million, most of which will be split into six funding sources relating to energy efficiency and renewable energy: $80 million in grants and loans for solar energy projects; $100 million in grants, loans, and rebates for up to 35 percent of the cost of solar energy projects at residences and small businesses; $165 million in grants and loans for alternative energy projects, excluding solar energy, at businesses and local government facilities; $25 million for wind and geothermal energy projects; $40 million to help start-up businesses involved in energy efficiency technologies; and $25 million in grants and loans to improve the energy efficiency of new and existing homes and small business buildings.

It looks like Volkswagen is having quite a month, first entering into a plug-in hybrid partnership with the German government and now announcing plans to produce a diesel hybrid concept good for 235 MPG!

Two Japanese companies are working together to develop carbon fiber materials for use in cars, according to a Reuters report. Toray Industries (3402.T) and Mitsubishi Rayon (3404.T) hope to mass produce the lightweight material by 2010 in an effot to make vehicles 40% lighter and up to 30% more fuel efficient. They also intend to develop technology to recycle carbon fiberin order to bring costs down. For years, proponents of carbon fiber materials have supported its widespread use in vehicles, but the cost of the highly engineered materials was prohibitive. Now with gasoline and steel prices on the rise, carbon fiber is becoming more economically feasible. The Nikkei business daily reported that Nissan Motor Co. and Honda Motor Co. were participating in the partnership, along with Toyobo Takagi Seiko Corp and researchers from the University of Tokyo. However, both Nissan and Honda denied that they were participating in the project. A spokeswomam for Japan's New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization said teh government is also researching the further use of aluminum and other light-weight metals to replace steel.

The Indonesian government and state electricity company are demanding industries spread out their electricity demand by moving away from traditional work-weeks.

The solar industry and semiconductor industry are intimately connected. Both industries rely on silicon and both use much of the same processing technology and supply chain to produce their products. Nowhere has this connection been on better display than last week at the Moscone Center in San Francisco California, where the Intersolar North America made its debut in conjunction with SEMICON West 2008. The show provided an opportunity for those in the two industries to connect and allowed those companies that work in both spaces to showcase their collective efforts. According to Chris O'Brien, Head of Market Development and Government Relations for North America for Oerlikon Solar, holding the two conferences together gave companies greater exposure and showed the promise of the U.S. solar market. In recent months a number of traditional semiconductor companies including Intel and National Semiconductor have made announcements that they are making plans to enter the solar industry in one way or another. Intel spun off it's solar research area into a new solar company called SpectraWatt. National Semiconductor announced that it will be introducing it's first solar product, SolarMagic, that could raise the efficiency of residential and industrial solar systems. Kevin Kayser, Senior Marketing Manager at National said that he product will be targeted at installers and integrators and much planning went into the company's decision to enter the solar space. "Photovoltaics currently has less than 1% of the energy market, but we think it has potentially one of the fastest growth rates of any alternative energy source. Now certainly we're looking at wind, we're looking geothermal, we're looking at other sources, but from an electronics point of view we saw that we had the most immediate potential impact in solar photovoltaics," Kayser said.

Companies operating in Indonesia have criticised the government over power cuts and Jakarta's attempts to deal with them, including an edict forcing factories to move production to weekends from next week.

This main report is intended for government policy makers and organisations considering installing small wind turbines at their sites, but will also interest other readers.

CHITA, September 10 (RIA Novosti) - A commission at Russia's mineral regulator has granted the Mikhailovsky mining company a license to develop a large copper field, Udokan, in East Siberia, a local government official said on Wednesday.

SINGAPORE, Sept 8 (Reuters) - Shanghai copper fell around 2 percent on Monday but it lagged behind a 4.5 percent slide in London prices after big jumps in inventories on Friday. But prices in London bounced on Monday, lifted by gains in other other commodity markets as the dollar lost ground against the euro after the U.S. government on Sunday seized control of mortgage finance companies Fannie Mae (nyse: FNM - news - people ) and Freddie Mac (nyse: FRE - news - people ), which own or guarantee half of all U.S. mortgages. LME copper rose $75 or 1.1 percent, to $6,975 at 0232 GMT, while Shanghai November copper dropped 1,030 yuan to 55,630 yuan ($8,130) and earlier touched a nine-month low.

MOSCOW, January 21 (RIA Novosti) - Russia's prime minister signed on Wednesday a resolution to completely eliminate plain nickel and cathode copper export duties, but kept 10% duties in place for refined copper and copper alloys, a government spokesman said.

BEIJING -- China, the world's largest metal consumer, discarded a plan to buy copper to support domestic smelters because producers are still profitable and inventories aren't high, government and company officials said.

South Korea has experienced a sharp decrease in its entire copper semis range production in November 2008 according to the Korean Nonferrous Metal Association. Copper wirerod totalled 46,007 tonnes, falling by 18% y-o-y. Copper plate and strip plunged by almost 42% y-o-y to 10,744 tonnes. Copper tube also declined by approximately 26% to 9,448 tonnes, while copper and copper alloy bar production fell to 16,191 tonnes, a decline of approximately 8%. Overall, copper semis production in November 2008 dropped by 21.4% y-o-y. For the first eleven months of 2008, copper semis output amounted to 1,097,154 tonnes compared to 1,193,092 tonnes from the same period in 2007, declining by 8%. The economy has been hit by shrinking exports and weakening domestic demand. In response to the downturn, the government announced that it will invest 50 trillion won within the next four years in infrastructure and environment projects.

The Commons' business and enterprise committee said just as the government had intervened to support the banks, it needed to step in to ensure energy companies invested in new power stations and gas storage facilities.

The mismatch between government enthusiasm and investor sentiment might seem strange. After all, more than almost any other business, renewable energy relies on taxpayer support.

Brazilian Government introduces new taxes for inefficient lamps.

The Tanzania government will soon work on recommendations by the two committees set up by the president and parliament on reforms in the mining industry.

Mexican copper output fell to 21,609 tonnes in August, down 16.7 percent from the same month a year earlier, the government said on Friday.

"In the near term, the Chinese economy is pausing for breath. China is not completely insulated from an OECD recession and we will see an impact on Chinese exports. However, the near term slowdown of growth is substantially due to tightening of monetary policy introduced by the Chinese government last year in order to tackle inflation. Furthermore, we expect third quarter economic data to show an exaggerated slowdown, reflecting the postponement of projects during the Olympics. Looking further out, Chinese GDP will remain largely driven by the domestic economy and we expect industrialisation and urbanisation to continue apace with strengthening demand across a range of Rio Tinto products.