Energy News Digest for March 6, 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)

- Clatskanie PUD Challenges BPA in U.S. 9th Circuit Court
- Clallam County PUD considers 5.5% home electricity rate increase
- Adams County seeks share of privilege taxes paid by Energy NW
- Washington Joins Idaho In Competition For Uranium Factory
- Florida Sparks Dark Visions
- North Carolina – Clean-coal tax credits going to federal court
- United Kingdom – Meter customers 'forced to pay more for energy'
- Oregon – Reserve idea flopping with fishermen
- Klamath River Dams' Removal Hinges on Owner
- Oregon – Salmon fishermen: Outlook seems grim, but let's talk
- Recovery plan identifies fishing as threat to sea lions
- Over-fishing has been Overlooked
- Disappointing Smelt Season On The Cowlitz
- La Niña May Persist Through Spring
- New Oregon Law Stores Water For Dry Days Of Summer
- Manmade Flood Unleashed in Grand Canyon
- Motives of Grand Canyon Flush Questioned
- SF Mayor Newsom backs Golden Gate tidal turbine power despite study
- Putting wind on the wires: A Texas tale
- Putting wind on the wires: resolving a California conundrum
- Turning Glare Into Watts
- New Mexico digs into solar manufacturing
- A Mighty (Renewable) Wind Blows In California
- Missouri – Upcoming Town Hall Meeting To Focus On Using Wood For Energy
- Experts Urge Boost in Tennessee Valley Authority Renewables
- Bush Urges Action on Corn Price Rises Fueled by Ethanol
- 'Thirsty' electric cars threaten water resources
- Canada – Electricity conservation will cost Islanders
- Washington State Legislature moves to cut greenhouse emissions
- Idaho senators balk at approving global warming resolution
- Poll: Most Americans Believe "Going Green" Will Create Jobs, Improve Communities
- Ocean fertilization firm Climos gains financial backing
- ISP Lobbying Group: What Rural Broadband Problem?
- An urgent call: Give us broadband, Vermont towns say
- Study: Mobile broadband use up 154 percent
- 365 Main's Oakland data center joins in energy program
- If Comcast Shares Broadband Deployment Data, The Terrorists Win
- Microsoft releases new Web browser beta
- Spring Forward – Early warning: Clocks to lose an hour Sunday
- Boeing's tanker bid damaged when Air Force changed criteria, Dicks says
- Gas thieves working overtime
- Oil soars as OPEC blames U.S. ills
- Seattle Times Columnist – Arson? Now it's uneasy being green
- Levy Would Add Staff to Tahuya Fire Station

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

WORD OF THE DAY

Pleiad • \PLEE-ad\ • noun – A group of usually seven illustrious or brilliant persons or things

“Pleiad Brides for Pleiad Brothers?” mused Albert as he battled with his colleagues Frances and Dorothy over the title of the screenplay on which they were working. “don’t you think that’s a little too highbrow?”

From Merriam-Webster Dictionary – In Greek mythology, the Pleiades were the seven daughters of Atlas and Pleione who were changed into a conspicuous cluster of seven stars in the constellation Taurus.

WEATHER

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

Clatskanie PUD Challenges BPA in U.S. 9th Circuit Court (Clatskanie Chief)
http://www.stpns.net/view_article.html?articleId=87042108709738289

Clallam County PUD considers 5.5% home electricity rate increase for most of the county effective April 1 (Peninsula Daily News, Port Angeles)
http://www.peninsuladailynews.com/article/20080306/NEWS/803060304

Adams County seeks share of privilege taxes paid by Energy NW (Tri-City Herald)
http://www.tri-cityherald.com/915/story/109984.html

Washington Joins Idaho In Competition For Uranium Factory (Oregon Public Radio)
http://news.opb.org/article/washington-joins-idaho-competition-uranium-factory/

Florida Sparks Dark Visions (Power Marketing Association Online)
http://tinyurl.com/2ulp72

North Carolina – Clean-coal tax credits going to federal court – Two N.C. environmental groups have sued federal officials over $1 billion in "clean coal" tax credits for nine power plants, including two of Duke Energy's. (McClatchy Tribune Business News, via Power Marketing Association Online)
http://tinyurl.com/2updzv

United Kingdom – Meter customers 'forced to pay more for energy' – Customers who use prepayment meters are being charged up to £328 ($658 US) a year more than those with online tariffs who pay by direct debit (The Guardian Newspaper)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2008/mar/06/householdbills.consumeraffairs

Oregon – Central Lincoln PUD gets new power outage reporting system (Newport News Times)
http://www.newportnewstimes.com/articles/2008/03/05/news/news14.txt

News Release – PECO Aims to Reduce Outages Caused by Trees with $35 Million in Trimming, Clearing Around Power Lines (Yahoo! Finance)
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/080306/20080306005718.html?.v=1

WATER, FISH & THE ENVIRONMENT

Oregon – Reserve idea flopping with fishermen – Members of the industry are leery about a proposal to designate no-fishing zones (The Oregonian)
http://tinyurl.com/3c7r8u

Klamath River Dams' Removal Hinges on Owner (National Public Radio)
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=87928806&ft=1&f=2

Concerns well up over Klamath agreement (Eureka Times-Standard)
http://www.times-standard.com/ci_8459366

Oregon – Salmon fishermen: Outlook seems grim, but let's talk (The World, Coos Bay)
http://theworldlink.com/articles/2008/03/05/news/doc47cee64b8cbe0835272191.txt

Recovery plan identifies fishing as threat to sea lions – A 325-page plan issued Wednesday for Alaska sea lions lists dozens of actions needed for the animals to recover. (Seattle Times)
http://tinyurl.com/3ydt72

Over-fishing has been Overlooked (Columbia Spectator)
http://www.columbiaspectator.com/node/29792

DISAPPOINTING SMELT SEASON ON THE COWLITZ – Did you fill nets with smelt? Consider yourself lucky. The state Department of Fish and Wildlife believes the smelt run is likely over for the year. Some people did reach limits by the middle of last month. But the Cowlitz River run has since dwindled. It’s the latest in a series of disappointing seasons for local smelt seekers. (KELA Radio, Centralia)

La Niña May Persist Through Spring (Utility Automation & Engineering)
http://tinyurl.com/35dl76

New Oregon Law Stores Water For Dry Days Of Summer – Oregon took the first step Wednesday toward a long-term plan to share Columbia River water among farmers, salmon and cities. (Oregon Public Radio)
http://news.opb.org/article/new-oregon-law-stores-water-dry-days-summer/

Manmade Flood Unleashed in Grand Canyon – Twin torrents of water unleashed from a dam coursed through the Grand Canyon on Wednesday in a flood meant to mimic the natural ones that used to nourish the ecosystem by spreading sediment. (Associated Press, via the Seattle Times)
http://tinyurl.com/2olchb

Motives of Grand Canyon Flush Questioned – The federal government began unleashing a two and a half day flood through the Grand Canyon Wednesday (National Public Radio)
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=87933157&ft=1&f=3

RENEWABLE/ALTERNATIVE ENERGY

SF Mayor Newsom backs Golden Gate turbine power despite study – a study recently concluded the idea would cost tens of millions of dollars and is not financially feasible. (San Francisco Chronicle)
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/03/05/BAJNVDH5E.DTL

Putting wind on the wires: A Texas tale (Utility Automation & Engineering)
http://tinyurl.com/39xxya

Putting wind on the wires: resolving a California conundrum (Utility Automation & Engineering)
http://tinyurl.com/2oho5f

Turning Glare Into Watts (NY Times)
http://tinyurl.com/2lo3en

New Mexico digs into solar manufacturing – Governor leads ground-breaking for potentially $500 million plant (MSNBC)
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23464734/

A Mighty (Renewable) Wind Blows In California – California dairy cows are giving the state's power grid a blast of renewable energy, but the real money maker in bovine biogas may lie elsewhere. (InfoWeek – OK, now send your 25 cents to Christopher Guest)
http://www.informationweek.com/blog/main/archives/2008/03/a_mighty_renewa.html

Missouri – Upcoming Town Hall Meeting To Focus On Using Wood For Energy (Democrat News & Daily Journal, Fredrickstown)
http://tinyurl.com/2py34k

Experts Urge Boost in Tennessee Valley Authority Renewables (Houston Chronicle)
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/fn/5597614.html

Bush Urges Action on Corn Price Rises Fueled by Ethanol (NY Times)
http://tinyurl.com/34aepv

'Thirsty' electric cars threaten water resources – They may not be gas-guzzlers, but electric cars have a raging thirst for water (New Scientist)
http://tinyurl.com/3yfuu8

CONSERVATION

Canada – Electricity conservation will cost Islanders. A new plan to reduce electricity use on Prince Edward Island will cost Islanders through higher rates for power. (CBC News)
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/prince-edward-island/story/2008/03/06/green-costs.html

CLIMATE CHANGE SEQUESTRATION VAULT

Legislature moves to cut greenhouse emissions – The Legislature on Wednesday committed Washington to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and investing in "green economy jobs." (Seattle Post-Intelligencer)
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/353854_climate06.html

Idaho senators balk at approving global warming resolution (Associated Press, via the Olympian)
http://www.theolympian.com/northwest/story/379832.html

Poll: Most Americans Believe "Going Green" Will Create Jobs, Improve Communities (Utility Automation & Engineering)
http://tinyurl.com/38pt6g

Ocean fertilization firm Climos gains financial backing – The start-up plans to mitigate climate change by stimulating plankton growth; says that it has raised a series A venture capital round of $3.5 million. (CNET News)
http://www.news.com/8301-11128_3-9886183-54.html?part=dht&tag=nl.e703

TECHNOLOGY & TELECOMMUNICATIONS

ISP Lobbying Group: What Rural Broadband Problem? Move along folks, there's nothing to see here... (Broadband Reports – Comment section may include PG-13 language)
http://tinyurl.com/29fc89

An urgent call: Give us broadband, Vermont towns say – Vermont voters sent a clear message to the world of high-speed Internet Tuesday: We want in. (Barre/Montpelier Times-Argus, via Baller/Herbst)
http://tinyurl.com/25x3xd

Study: Mobile broadband use up 154 percent (Nashville Business Journal)
http://www.bizjournals.com/nashville/stories/2008/03/03/daily17.html?ana=from_rss

365 Main's Oakland data center joins in energy program (East Bay Business Times)
http://www.bizjournals.com/eastbay/stories/2008/03/03/daily41.html?ana=from_rss

If Comcast Shares Broadband Deployment Data, The Terrorists Win. The secret Jihad against cable TV exposed! (Broadband Reports – Comment section may include PG-13 language)
http://tinyurl.com/3c9xyu

Microsoft releases new Web browser beta (Tri City Herald)
http://www.tri-cityherald.com/991/story/109622.html

GENERAL NEWS

Spring Forward – Early warning: Clocks to lose an hour Sunday (The Olympian)
http://www.theolympian.com/southsound/story/380221.html

Boeing's tanker bid damaged when Air Force changed criteria, Dicks says (Seattle Times – Nice file photo)
http://tinyurl.com/3akqj9

Gas thieves working overtime – Thieves struck again stealing fuel from local gas stations, and as gas prices keep soaring, that theft ring is working overtime. (KING-TV, Seattle)
http://www.king5.com/localnews/stories/NW_030508WAB_gas_thefts_KC.281ef426.html

Oil soars as OPEC blames U.S. ills – OPEC said Wednesday it will not put more oil on the global market despite record-high prices for crude, blaming the U.S. for economic "mismanagement" that it said was having a worldwide effect. (Seattle Times)
http://tinyurl.com/2t5l3r

Seattle Times Columnist – Arson? Now it's uneasy being green. I might have to stop recycling, maybe even buy a really big SUV. Who wants to be on the same side of an issue as the eco-terrorists who destroyed a group of houses near Maltby this week?
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/jerrylarge/2004263890_jdl06m.html

Levy Would Add Staff to Tahuya Fire Station (Kitsap Sun, may require free registration)
http://kitsapsun.com/news/2008/mar/05/levy-would-add-staff-to-tahuya-fire-station/

DIVERSIONS

Man Flies Son To Tennis Date To Avoid Traffic, Lands On Golf Course
http://www.kirotv.com/irresistible/15503079/detail.html

Snow Eating Now an Endangered Kid Pleasure
http://tinyurl.com/3cr9gk

Helping at home? Dad's the word – Reward is happier marriages
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/353936_dads06.html

Cemetery full, mayor tells locals not to die
http://tinyurl.com/2uwjhj

Man takes car on 2,000 mile test drive
http://tinyurl.com/2stsgg