Energy News Digest for January 16, 2008

All the links in today’s news digest lead to current stories. Please note that some media organizations update their web sites regularly, which may result in broken links in the future.

TODAY’S HIGHLIGHTS (Details Below)

- Vera Claussen, former public utility leader, dead in house fire
- Environmental groups to sue PGE over emissions at Boardman Power Plant
- Enron by proxy – Supreme Court Rules Against Investors in Securities Fraud Case
- United Kingdom – 'No collusion' over energy prices
- Head of Canadian Nuclear Regulator Fired
- Pennsylvania – Electricity bills could go up 60% in 2011 when Penelec fully deregulates
- Energy trader found guilty of natural gas price manipulation
- U.S. Energy Department's Budget Leader Stepping Away
- Oregon PUC scolded for laxity in applying '05 tax law
- Klamath groups offer plan for removing dams to help salmon
- New Twist on Sea Lions Versus Fish
- Chelan County PUD to study reducing hatchery water use
- Seattle seafood company sorry for sliming eagles in Kodiak
- California – Biologists: Salmon numbers declining in San Joaquin River
- On emptying seas, a vanishing way of life
- Don’t equivocate John – For McCain, Northwest echoes from eight years ago reverberate in his loss in Michigan (Snake River Dam comments not helpful)
- La Nina has Idaho water experts hopeful for 2008 water year
- Grant to help create 'road map' of Walla Walla aquifer
- Seattle Times Editorial – Milestone for wind
- Oregon wind project receives financial boost
- United Kingdom will have to build fifty times more wind turbines by 2020
- Wisconsin – Wind turbine bid challenges zoning
- Colorado – Vail Mountain goes green on ski slopes
- An energy saving bulb has gone - evacuate the room now!
- Tennessee – Audit finds problems with state energy program
- Expert: ‘We’re energy pigs’
- Wisconsin – Lieutenant Governor announces "Energy Star Tax Holiday"
- Group gets busy with carbon plan
- New test for developers in Maine: climate change
- Hole In Comcast Fiber Optic Line Leaves Thousands Without Cable
- 10 Things You Need to Know About the Future of Broadband
- WA gov touts 'real progress' in State of State Address
- Washington State jobless rate up slightly in December
- $200,000 of Marijuana Seized In Shelton Drug Bust
- Auditor: Lewis County Commissioners Violated Law
- Residents of Texas Town Abuzz Over Dozens of UFO Sightings

These and links to more stories in today’s Energy News Digest

WORD OF THE DAY

In place of an example sentence, I thought folks would find it interesting to learn the origin of the term “Hoist with his own petard”.

Petard • \puh-TARD\ • noun – 1: a case containing an explosive to break down a door or gate or breach a wall 2: a firework that explodes with a loud report

Etymology: Middle French, from peter to break wind, from pet expulsion of intestinal gas, from Latin peditum, from neuter of peditus, past participle of pedere to break wind; akin to Greek bdein to break wind

What's a Petard, and Why Does It Get Hoisted?

Q. What is the origin of the expression to hoist with his own petard? Is it hoist with or hoist by? When it's used in the past tense, is it you were hoist or hoisted with/by your own petard? And what the heck is a petard, anyway?

A petard was a case containing an explosive. It was used in warfare to blow open a door, a gate, or create a hole in a wall. The word comes from the Latin pedere, to break wind. When you are hoist (or hoisted) with (or by) your own petard, you are blown up by your own bomb (or flatus). The expression first appeared in Shakespeare's Hamlet as hoist with his own petar (the form without d is an archaic spelling). It is used figuratively today to mean that your own scheming against others backfires and hurts you instead.

From: What in the Word? by Charles Harrington Elster

WEATHER

Forecast for Mason County, Washington
http://www.wrh.noaa.gov/forecast/MapClick.php?site=sew&smap=1&textField1=47.21528&textField2=-123.09944

ENERGY & UTILITY ISSUES

Environmental groups to sue PGE over emissions at Boardman Power Plant (Portland Business Journal)
http://www.bizjournals.com/portland/stories/2008/01/14/daily8.html?ana=from_rss

Enron by proxy – Supreme Court Rules Against Investors in Securities Fraud Case – The Supreme Court today curbed the ability of investors who lost money through corporate fraud to sue businesses that may have helped facilitate the crime. (Washington Post)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/15/AR2008011501329.html?wpisrc=_rssnation

Energy trader found guilty of price manipulation – Former Shell Trading Gas and Power Co. employee Anthony Dizona was found guilty Jan. 15 in a Houston federal court of attempting to manipulate natural gas prices on eight occasions. (Houston Business Journal)
http://www.bizjournals.com/houston/stories/2008/01/14/daily28.html?ana=from_rss

Vera Claussen, former public utility leader, dead in house fire (Associated Press, via Examiner.com)
http://www.examiner.com/a-1161226~Vera_Claussen__former_public_utility_leader__dead_in_house_fire.html?cid=rss-Washington_Headlines

U.S. Energy Department's Budget Leader Stepping Away (KNDO/KNDU, Tri-Cities)
http://www.kndu.com/global/story.asp?s=7629352

Oregon PUC scolded for laxity in applying '05 tax law – A judge in Marion County says the state's largest utilities failed to adjust customer rates quickly enough (The Oregonian)
http://www.oregonlive.com/business/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/business/1200457511148420.xml&coll=7

Pennsylvania – Electricity bills could go up 60% in 2011 when Penelec fully deregulates (Titusville Herald)
http://www.titusvilleherald.com/articles/2008/01/16/news/news01.txt

United Kingdom – 'No collusion' over energy prices. Energy regulator Ofgem has said that there was no evidence that any of the recent gas and electricity price hikes are down to collusion between suppliers. (Just coincidence, nothin’ to see here…The Press Association)
http://ukpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5hxeIeHEEl4JvJQMgcCDOamBmz3gQ

Head of Canadian Nuclear Regulator Fired (NY Times)
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/17/business/16cnd-nuke.html?_r=1&ex=1358226000&en=4f9fe81adc7a09c9&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&oref=slogin

California – Sierra Sun Opinion: Debate over coal continues to burn. What the Truckee community — and probably many others — learned during the “Great Contract Debate” of late 2006 was that much of the electricity consumers use is generated by burning coal.
http://www.sierrasun.com/article/20080115/OPINION/817742246

Illinois Farmers Fight Off Pipeline – Alberta-to-Texas Crude Oil Conveyance Hits a Wall of Resistance (Washington Post)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/15/AR2008011503299.html?wpisrc=rss_nation

California – SMUD has money to give. Time running out for those on unclaimed list to speak up (Sacramento Bee, may require free registration)
http://www.sacbee.com/294/story/588953.html

Chelan hydro project to be multinational – Manufacturers who build or design new components for the Chelan County PUD’s Lake Chelan Hydro Project will speak Portuguese, French and English. Some of them could dance a mean samba. (Wenatchee World)
http://www.wenatcheeworld.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080115/NEWS04/876277152/1025/rss1025

Maine – Canadian linemen show skills to U.S. 'cable dogs' (Augusta Chronicle)
http://chronicle.augusta.com/ystories/011608/met_180576.shtml

WATER, FISH & THE ENVIRONMENT

Klamath groups offer plan for removing dams to help salmon (Associated Press, via Examiner.com)
http://www.examiner.com/a-1159599~Klamath_groups_offer_plan_for_removing_dams_to_help_salmon.html?cid=rss-Oregon_Headlines

New Twist On Sea Lions Versus Fish – Wildlife officials try to scare away Steller sea lions feasting on Columbia River sturgeon (The News Tribune, Tacoma)
http://www.thenewstribune.com/news/local/story/256043.html

Chelan County PUD to study reducing hatchery water use – The PUD will spend about $1 million over the next three years to study ways of reducing the Eastbank Fish Hatchery's use of fresh water. (Wenatchee World)
http://www.wenatcheeworld.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080115/NEWS04/519803834/1025/rss1025

Seattle seafood company sorry for sliming eagles in Kodiak (The Columbian)
http://news.columbian.com/news/state/APStories/AP01162008news263576.cfm

California – Biologists: Salmon numbers declining in San Joaquin River (San Jose Mercury News)
http://www.mercurynews.com/breakingnews/ci_7977999?nclick_check=1

On emptying seas, a vanishing way of life (Christian Science Monitor)
http://news.yahoo.com/s/csm/20080116/ts_csm/omedfish

Don’t equivocate John – For McCain, Northwest echoes from eight years ago reverberate in his loss in Michigan (Snake River Dam comments not helpful – The Oregonian)
http://blog.oregonlive.com/mapesonpolitics/2008/01/for_mccain_northwest_echoes_fr.html

La Nina has Idaho water experts hopeful for 2008 water year (Associated Press, via the Olympian)
http://www.theolympian.com/northwest/story/328457.html

Grant to help create 'road map' of local aquifer – The shallow aquifer system of the Little Walla Walla and Walla Walla rivers will be studied. (Walla Walla Union-Bulletin)
http://www.union-bulletin.com/articles/2008/01/15/local_news/local01.txt

RENEWABLE/ALTERNATIVE ENERGY

Seattle Times Editorial – Milestone for wind. Duck out of the wind for a minute and celebrate the Northwest attaining an important renewable-energy milestone.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/editorialsopinion/2004126957_winded16.html

Oregon wind project receives financial boost (Portland Business Journal)
http://www.bizjournals.com/portland/stories/2008/01/14/daily12.html?ana=from_rss

United Kingdom will have to build fifty times more wind turbines by 2020 – Britain will have to install six times more wind turbines on land and 50 times more wind turbines at sea by the end of the next decade under rules to be announced by Brussels next week. (The Telegraph)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2008/01/15/eawind115.xml

Wisconsin – Wind turbine bid challenges zoning: But tower's power gives town reason for thought (Knight Ridder Tribune Business News, via Power Marketing Association Online)
http://powermarketers.netcontentinc.net/newsreader.asp?ppa=8knpp%5E%5Chnuopoq%5BTjg%7D38%7Dbfen%5Fv

Colorado – Vail Mountain goes green on ski slopes – Midway through its 45th season, Colorado’s largest ski resort has become one of the nation’s leaders in using alternative energy to help reduce its carbon footprint. (The Daily Sentinel)
http://www.gjsentinel.com/hp/content/sports/stories/2008/01/16/011608_OUT_ski_Green_WWW.html

CONSERVATION

An energy saving bulb has gone - evacuate the room now! (The Daily Mail, United Kingdom)
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/technology/technology.html?in_article_id=506347&in_page_id=1965

Tennessee – Audit finds problems with state energy program. An audit has questioned state government's energy efficiency and conservation efforts. (WMC-TV, Memphis)
http://www.wmctv.com/global/story.asp?s=7629124

Expert: ‘We’re energy pigs’ – As valley guzzles fuels, community members wonder about impact. (Jackson Hole News & Guide)
http://www.jacksonholenews.com/article.php?art_id=2636

Wisconsin – Lieutenant Governor announces "Energy Star Tax Holiday" (Dane101)
http://www.dane101.com/current/2008/01/15/lieutenant_governor_announces_energy_star_tax_holiday

News Release – Mr. Handyman Shares Insight on How to Make Your Home More Energy Efficient (Mr. Handyman, via Yahoo! Finance)
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/080115/20080115006363.html?.v=1

CLIMATE CHANGE SEQUESTRATION VAULT

Group gets busy with carbon plan – Sustainable Life • Deal to ‘cap and trade’ regional emissions could get look by ’09 Legislature (Portland Tribune)
http://portlandtribune.com/news/story.php?story_id=120035137305916100

New test for developers in Maine: climate change (Christian Science Monitor)
http://news.yahoo.com/s/csm/20080116/ts_csm/adevelop

TECHNOLOGY & TELECOMMUNICATIONS

Hole In Comcast Fiber Optic Line Leaves Thousands Without Cable (KIRO-TV, Seattle)
http://www.kirotv.com/news/15057669/detail.html?rss=sea&psp=news

10 Things You Need to Know About the Future of Broadband (GigaOM)
http://gigaom.com/2008/01/16/10-things-you-need-to-know-about-the-future-of-broadband/

GENERAL NEWS

WA gov touts 'real progress' in State of State Address (Associated Press, via the Olympian)
http://www.theolympian.com/northwest/story/328429.html

Washington State jobless rate up slightly in December – But year-end figures show that the rate is at a historical low (Seattle Post-Intelligencer)
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/347405_jobs16.html?source=rss

$200,000 OF MARIJUANA SEIZED IN SHELTON DRUG BUST – Deputies from the Mason County Sheriff's Office Special Operations Group arrested two Shelton residents Monday for Manufacturing and Possessing Marijuana after a search warrant was served on their residence at 860 East Jensen Road. Arrested and booked into the Mason County Jail were 48-year-old John Gordon Reed and 44-year-old Karen Leann Mower. Both were booked on charges of Possession of Marijuana with intent to deliver and Manufacturing Marijuana. The arrests were the result of a week long investigation stemming from a complaint about the couple's drug activity. The ensuing investigation provided enough information for officers to obtain a search warrant. During the search of the residence, deputies found thirty eight budding marijuana plants that deputies estimated would yield one pound of product per plant, thirty six juvenile marijuana plants, approximately 2.2 pounds of processed bagged marijuana, hashish. Deputies also seized potting soil, several high density discharge 1000 watt lamps, ballasts, watering systems, air purifiers and other items related to manufacturing and selling marijuana, and over $3,000 in cash. When officers contacted Reed and Mower, they told officers they both had medical authorizations to possess marijuana. Officers found an authorization for Reed only. That authorization was for a “60 day supply not to exceed three ounces.” The amount of product found by deputies clearly exceeded the amount the couple was authorized to possess. Deputies placed a value of the seized marijuana at $200,000 if sold on the street. At last report, both suspects remain in custody on $5,000 bail, each. (KMAS Radio, Shelton)

Auditor: Lewis County Commissioners Violated Law – Public Meetings: Auditors Remind Commissioners They Are Bound to Discuss Public Matters in Public (The Chronicle, Centralia)
http://www.chronline.com/story.php?subaction=showfull&id=1200424201&archive=&start_from=&ucat=1&

DIVERSIONS

Residents Of Texas Town Abuzz Over Dozens Of UFO Sightings
http://www.kirotv.com/irresistible/15053876/detail.html

Don't send in the clowns – Bad news for Coco and Blinko -- children don't like clowns and even older kids are scared of them.
http://www.reuters.com/article/oddlyEnoughNews/idUSL1582409620080116?feedType=RSS&feedName=oddlyEnoughNews

Police ask suspect: aren't you dead?
http://www.reuters.com/article/oddlyEnoughNews/idUSN0959265620080116?feedType=RSS&feedName=oddlyEnoughNews