Energy News Digest for February 1, 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)

* Storm warning for N. Oregon Cascades, S. Wash. Cascades
* News Release – FERC accepts Midwest ISO-PJM transmission pricing plan
* United Kingdom – Energy prepayment costs under fire
* WPPSS Redux – Nuclear Regulation: The Untold Story
* Ore. Judge again extends deadline for salmon plan
* Montana – Commissioner continues fight over fish poisoning
* San Francisco Chronicle Editorial – Fishing for a lawsuit
* Snowpack Gets Significant January Bump
* California Sierra snowpack good - drought fears lessen
* Now, for a “Hair Shirt” – Decline in Snowpack Is Blamed On Warming
* Snohomish County PUD Underwater tidal power one step closer
* A Green Energy Industry Takes Root in California
* L.A. feeling breezy about wind farm
* Michigan – Thousands volunteer to pay more for renewable energy
* United Kingdom – School to produce own electricity
* Texas – Austin increasing use of LED bulbs
* Climate changes threaten water crisis in West
* Oregon Governor names members of climate change panel
* Microsoft Bids $44.6 Billion for Yahoo
* Justice Dept 'interested' in proposed Microsoft-Yahoo deal
* Cables connect the digital world
* 'Cyber Storm' revealed Internet vulnerabilities
* NTIA Says Bush Has Met Broadband Goals
* Fixing US Broadband Would Cost $100 Billion
* Online Schooling Grows, Setting Off a Debate
* Gregoire declares emergency amid worries about economy – I-90 closure disrupts transportation of goods

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

WORD OF THE DAY

Amalgam • \uh-MAL-gum\ • noun – 1: an alloy of mercury with another metal that is solid or liquid at room temperature according to the proportion of mercury present and is used especially in making tooth cements 2: a mixture of different elements

Urbino squirmed in his seat. His punishment for lying to his wife about his Super Bowl television purchase was to chew on pieces of aluminum foil until he revealed the secret location of the big-screen TV in his palatial home. Each time he bit down, the amalgam in his fillings fired off an uncomfortable voltaic effect causing him to rue the days of sugar babies, saltwater taffy and big hunk candy bars.

WEATHER

Storm warning for N. Oregon Cascades, S. Wash. Cascades (Associated Press, via Examiner.com)
http://www.examiner.com/a-1194742~NWS__Storm_warning_for_N__Oregon_Cascades__S__Wash__Cascades.html?cid=rss-Oregon_Headlines

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

(NOTE: Some readers have noted that the NWS forecast has not been updated regularly. Apparently there is a refresh issue with the weather web site. If you visit and the forecast isn’t updated, press F5 or refresh the web page. That should take care of the issue)

ENERGY & UTILITY ISSUES

News Release – FERC accepts Midwest ISO-PJM transmission pricing plan; rejects AEP challenge (Federal Energy Regulatory Commission)
http://www.ferc.gov/news/news-releases/2008/2008-1/02-01-08.asp

United Kingdom – Energy prepayment costs under fire. British Gas is charging some of its poorest customers £400 ($787 US Dollars) a year more for their gas and electricity than those who tend to be better off, the National Housing Federation said. (Press Association)
http://ukpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5gSpNDB1Xtzsi9rOGp4meox5ijsqw

WPPSS Redux – Nuclear Regulation: The Untold Story. "…This article was written in 1994 and contains important history of the early problems of the U.S. nuclear industry…” (Hawaiian Reporter)
http://www.hawaiireporter.com/story.aspx?a103cbfb-4aa2-47b5-974e-669722dce965

WATER, FISH & THE ENVIRONMENT

Ore. Judge again extends deadline for salmon plan – U.S. District Judge James Redden has postponed for a second time a deadline for a plan that meets his standards for balancing operations of Columbia Basin dams with threatened or endangered fish runs. (The Oregonian)
http://www.oregonlive.com/newsflash/index.ssf?/base/news-23/120181615569940.xml&storylist=orlocal

Montana – Commissioner continues fight over fish poisoning. A state project aimed at ridding the South Fork Flathead River drainage of hybrid fish does not have the public support that Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks claims (The Daily Interlake, Kalispell)
http://www.dailyinterlake.com/articles/2008/02/01/news/news02.txt

San Francisco Chronicle Editorial – Fishing for a lawsuit. Wow, this is rich: After two of the worst salmon fishing years in California history, the farm groups who've been siphoning off the fishes' water are suing state agencies that the farmers say are killing the fish. Got that?
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/02/01/ED7SUPT4P.DTL&feed=rss.opinion

Snowpack Gets Significant January Bump – If you think it’s been snowing a lot in Oregon’s mountains this winter, you’re right. (Oregon Public Radio)
http://news.opb.org/article/snowpack-gets-significant-january-bump/

California Sierra snowpack good - drought fears lessen (San Francisco Chronicle)
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/02/01/MNE3UPTSC.DTL&feed=rss.news

Now, for a “Hair Shirt” – Decline in Snowpack Is Blamed On Warming. Water Supplies In West Affected (Washington Post)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/31/AR2008013101868.html?wpisrc=rss_nation

RENEWABLE/ALTERNATIVE ENERGY

Snohomish County PUD Underwater tidal power one step closer – The PUD sees potential for turbines to generate electricity for 70,000 homes. (Everett Herald)
http://www.heraldnet.com/article/20080201/NEWS01/211629271/-1/RSS01

A Green Energy Industry Takes Root in California – The sun is starting to grow jobs. (NY Times)
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/01/technology/01solar.html?ex=1359608400&en=a41b62aa74a101ca&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

L.A. feeling breezy about wind farm – New plant would double amount of wind energy the city receives (Contra Costa Times)
http://www.contracostatimes.com/ci_8138675?source=rss

Michigan – Thousands volunteer to pay more for renewable energy (Capital News Service)
http://blog.mlive.com/cns/2008/02/thousands_volunteer_to_pay_mor.html

United Kingdom – School to produce own electricity. A primary school in Gwynedd is looking to produce its own electricity, after an idea from the pupils themselves. (British Broadcasting Corporation)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/wales/north_west/7222788.stm

CONSERVATION

Texas – Austin increasing use of LED bulbs (Austin Business Journal)
http://www.bizjournals.com/austin/stories/2008/01/28/daily32.html?ana=from_rss

CLIMATE CHANGE SEQUESTRATION VAULT

Climate changes threaten water crisis in West – Study finds people cause most warming (Seattle Post-Intelligencer)
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/349615_climate31.html?source=rss

Oregon Governor names members of climate change panel (The Oregonian)
http://www.oregonlive.com/environment/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/news/1201231517311920.xml&coll=7

TECHNOLOGY & TELECOMMUNICATIONS

Microsoft Bids $44.6 Billion for Yahoo – In a bold move to counter Google’s online pre-eminence, Microsoft said Friday that it had made an unsolicited offer to buy Yahoo for about $44.6 billion in a mix of cash and stock. (NY Times)
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/01/technology/01cnd-subyahoo.html?_r=2&ex=1359608400&en=62c2e1942485a240&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

Microsoft Targets Yahoo with $44.6 Billion Offer (National Public Radio)
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=18600290&ft=1&f=3

Justice Dept 'interested' in proposed Microsoft-Yahoo deal (Seattle Times)
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2004158292_apmicrosoftyahooantitrust01.html?syndication=rss

Microsoft’s Yahoo Bid: What’s Next (NY Times)
http://dealbook.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/02/01/microsofts-yahoo-bid-whats-next/index.html?ex=1359608400&en=e90d62ae7593693b&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

Analyst says Microsoft paying plenty to add online services (KNDO/KNDU-TV, Tri-Cities)
http://www.kndu.com/global/story.asp?s=7808397

Cables connect the digital world – Backup systems keep data flowing over fiber-optic lines despite frequent breaks (San Francisco Chronicle)
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/02/01/BUSVUPTKH.DTL&feed=rss.business

'Cyber Storm' revealed Internet vulnerabilities – In the middle of the biggest-ever "Cyber Storm" war game to test the nation's hacker defenses; someone quietly targeted the very computers used to conduct the exercise. (Post Intelligencer)
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/349625_cyberstorm01.html?source=rss

NTIA Says Bush Has Met Broadband Goals (Broadband Reports – Comment section may include PG-13 language)
http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/NTIA-Says-Bush-Has-Met-Broadband-Goals-91503

Fixing US Broadband Would Cost $100 Billion (SlashDot)
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/01/31/2024239&from=rss

Online Schooling Grows, Setting Off a Debate – The rapid growth of these schools has provoked debates in courtrooms and legislatures over money (NY Times)
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/01/education/01virtual.html?_r=1&ex=1359608400&en=c6f590d4e9c034b9&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&oref=slogin

GENERAL NEWS

Gregoire declares emergency amid worries about economy – I-90 closure disrupts transportation of goods (The Olympian)
http://www.theolympian.com/news/story/345471.html

Don’t battle auditor over meetings violations – The Tacoma School Board shouldn’t go looking to pick a fight with the state auditor about the state Open Meetings Act. (News Tribune, Tacoma)
http://www.thenewstribune.com/opinion/story/271002.html

McDermott pays damages to Boehner in 1996 phone-tape case (Seattle Post-Intelligencer)
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/349641_mcdermott01.html?source=rss

DIVERSIONS

It Feels Good, and Everybody Does It – Scientists are using state-of-the-art technology to look at what happens in the brain when a person scratches an itch.
http://www.newsweek.com/id/106588?from=rss

NFL Pulls Plug On Big-Screen Church Parties For Super Bowl
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/31/AR2008013103958.html?wpisrc=rss_nation

Man Wins Lottery, Loses It, Wins It Again – Judge Rules In Man's Favor After Lottery Company Sued
http://www.kirotv.com/money/15174856/detail.html