Energy News Digest for April 4, 2008 - the Scatological Haiku Edition

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)

- PSE gets record $1 million fine for falsifying safety records
- Puget Sound Energy Rate Increases: It's your money
- Avista seeks electricity and natural gas rate hikes in Idaho
- In Clark County: 2009 surge in utility rates looms
- Jefferson County PUD considers providing electrical service despite PSE threat
- Grays Harbor PUD appeals FEMA denial for storm repair
- Cosmopolis Mill deal risky for ratepayers? Critic “…admits his concern stems in part from a case of ‘sour grapes’ at being outbid by Evergreen and the PUD…”
- Pacific Gas and Electric PG&E settles “Brockovich” poisoning lawsuit
- Accounts set up for deceased Ferry County PUD worker’s sons
- Michigan – Electric utilities fight to keep turf
- Woman who helped steal wire sentenced
- Yakama Nation And Roza Irrigation District Want To Move Past Black Rock
- Fish council to review salmon seasons in Seattle meetings
- Terns Relocated to Save Columbia River Salmon
- A Wenatchee steelhead season every year? Thanks to Chelan County PUD
- Tidewater Increases Stake In Columbia River Shipping
- Ugly clams spawn even uglier fight
- Whaling trial judge dismisses hunters' religion defense
- Siemens appeals decision by OSHA in Oregon wind turbine death
- Portland General Electric to buy wind turbines
- Oregon County to study landfill-fueled energy plant
- Olympic College to Offer ‘Green Collar' Job Training for New Veterans
- Michigan Schools Embrace Wind Power, Biodiesel
- Senate Democrats Introduce Renewable Energy Tax Credit Legislation
- San Jose Mercury News Editorial: State should quit stalling on 'hydrogen highway'
- Energy Star electronics ratings get corporate boost
- Tennessee Valley Authority Prepping Energy Savings Programs
- USA Today Op/Ed – Energy conservation programs work
- Oregon – Keeping tabs on greenhouse gas
- Navajo Nation to lose Internet signal
- Verizon to use spectrum for high-speed services: report
- An Auction That Google Was Content to Lose
- Federal ban on contracts with IBM lifted
- Dell terminating production of made-to-order computers
- Northshore tech perks belong in classroom
- Gas prices hit another record as refiners cut production
- Studded Tires Costly for State – cause an estimated $18.2 million dollars worth of damage
- Dust Off the Pencils: Plans for High-Tech Census Collapse
- Congressional Research Service – Understanding Stagflation and the Risk of Its Recurrence
- Irony Alert – Boehner: I will use McDermott's money to help elect Republicans

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

WORD OF THE DAY

Gild the lily • \GILD-thuh-LILL-ee\ • phrasal verb – To add unnecessary ornamentation to something beautiful in its own right

Here it is – a word of the day first Haiku Hoo-Doo (see news story in the DIVERSIONS section below):

Fossilized Feces
Gilding the Lily of Time
History Is Changed

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

Puget Sound Energy fined more than $1 million for altered records – It is state's largest penalty against natural gas utility (Seattle Post-Intelligencer)
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/357665_pse04.html?source=rss

PSE gets record fine for falsifying safety records (KING-TV, Seattle)
http://www.king5.com/localnews/stories/NW_040308WAB_puget_sound_energy_fine_TP.2aa965e3.html

Puget Sound Energy Rate Increases: It's your money – The AG's office wants people to pay attention to their right to be heard on natural gas and electric rate increases and the planned private acquisition of Puget Sound Energy. (Seattle Post Intelligencer)
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/357658_utilityed.html?source=rss

Avista seeks electricity and natural gas rate hikes in Idaho – Nearly 16% for electricity (The Associated Press, via the Olympian)
http://www.theolympian.com/northwest/story/409165.html

In Clark County: 2009 surge in utility rates looms (The Columbian)
http://www.columbian.com/news/localNews/2008/04/04042008_2009-surge-in-utility-rates-looms.cfm/

Jefferson County PUD considers providing electrical service despite PSE threat (Peninsula Daily News)
http://www.peninsuladailynews.com/article/20080404/NEWS/804040305

Grays Harbor PUD appeals FEMA denial for storm repair (Seattle Times)
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2004325253_apwafemagraysharborcounty.html?syndication=rss

Cosmopolis Mill deal risky for ratepayers? Critic “…admits his concern stems in part from a case of ‘sour grapes’ at being outbid by Evergreen and the PUD…” (Daily World, Aberdeen)
http://www.thedailyworld.com/articles/2008/04/03/local_news/01news.txt

Pacific Gas and Electric PG&E settles poisoning lawsuit – Last of cases linked to Erin Brockovich (San Francisco Chronicle)
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/04/04/BUTEVVOD9.DTL&feed=rss.business

Accounts set up for deceased Ferry County PUD worker’s sons (Omak Chronicle)
http://www.omakchronicle.com/nws/n080403b.shtml

Michigan – Electric utilities fight to keep turf – DTE Energy and Consumers Energy are looking to protect and expand their turf by scaling back an 8-year-old law that opened Michigan's electricity market to competition (The Detroit News)
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080404/POLITICS/804040390

Woman who helped steal wire sentenced – A 38-year-old woman who helped her husband steal and strip wire from multiple sites has been sentenced to nearly 21/2 years in prison (The Daily World, Aberdeen)
http://www.thedailyworld.com/articles/2008/04/04/local_news/05news.txt

WATER, FISH & THE ENVIRONMENT

Yakama Nation And Roza Irrigation District Want To Move Past Black Rock – Two big water users in Eastern Washington are calling for reconsideration of the biggest dam on the drawing boards in the Northwest. (Oregon Public Broadcasting)
http://news.opb.org/article/yakama-nation-and-roza-irrigation-district-want-move-past-black-rock/

Fish council to review salmon seasons in Seattle meetings – Outlook is bleak for Chinook salmon on coast (Salem Statesman Journal)
http://www.statesmanjournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080404/OUTDOORS/804040337/1034

Terns Relocated to Save Columbia River Salmon (The Eugene Weekly)
http://www.eugeneweekly.com/2008/04/03/coverstory.html

A Wenatchee steelhead season every year? Chelan County PUD has big plans to re-establish endangered species (Wenatchee World)
http://wenatcheeworld.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080403/NEWS04/928545265/1001/rss1001

Tidewater Increases Stake In Columbia River Shipping (Oregon Public Broadcasting)
http://news.opb.org/article/tidewater-increases-stake-columbia-river-shipping/

Ugly clams spawn even uglier fight – The giant clams that Taylor Shellfish has planted along Case Inlet in the last seven years are looking more like guinea pigs these days (The News Tribune, Tacoma)
http://www.thenewstribune.com/opinion/story/326215.html

Whaling trial judge dismisses hunters' religion defense (Peninsula Daily News)
http://www.peninsuladailynews.com/article/20080404/NEWS/804040306

RENEWABLE/ALTERNATIVE ENERGY

Siemens appeals decision by OSHA in Oregon wind turbine death (The Associated Press)
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/O/OR_SIEMENS_APPEAL_OROL-?SITE=ORKLA&SECTION=STATE&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

Portland General Electric to buy wind turbines (Portland Business Journal)
http://www.bizjournals.com/portland/stories/2008/03/31/daily34.html?ana=from_rss

Oregon County to study energy plant – Lane County commissioners decided Wednesday to study building a plant that would turn food waste into energy at the county dump. (The Register-Guard)
http://www.registerguard.com/csp/cms/sites/dt.cms.support.viewStory.cls?cid=87379&sid=4&fid=1

Olympic College to Offer ‘Green Collar' Job Training for New Veterans (Kitsap Sun, may require free registration)
http://www.kitsapsun.com/news/2008/apr/03/oc-to-offer-145green-collar-job-training-for-new/

Michigan Schools Embrace Wind Power, Biodiesel (National Public Radio)
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=89369909&ft=1&f=3

Senate Democrats Introduce Renewable Energy Tax Credit Legislation (Renewable Energy World Online)
http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/story?id=52071&src=rss

San Jose Mercury News Editorial: State should quit stalling on 'hydrogen highway'
http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_8807339?source=rss

CONSERVATION

Energy Star electronics ratings get corporate boost (CNET News)
http://www.news.com/8301-11128_3-9909706-54.html?tag=nl.e433

Tennessee Valley Authority Prepping Energy Savings Programs – TVA Preparing Major Energy Efficiency, Renewables Programs (Associated Press, via Yahoo! Finance)
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/080403/tva_energy.html?.v=1

USA Today Op/Ed – Energy conservation programs work
http://blogs.usatoday.com/oped/2008/04/energy-conserva.html?csp=34

CLIMATE CHANGE SEQUESTRATION VAULT

Oregon – Keeping tabs on greenhouse gas – At least 600 Oregon companies would come under the purview of a proposed mandatory reporting rule (The Oregonian)
http://www.oregonlive.com/business/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/business/1207277700313500.xml&coll=7

TELECOMMUNICATIONS & TECHNOLOGY

Navajo Nation to lose Internet signal – The thousands of Navajo Nation residents who rely on the Internet to work, study and communicate across their 27,000-square-mile reservation will be out of luck Monday, if their service provider shuts access as planned. (Associated Press, via the Tri-City Herald)
http://www.tri-cityherald.com/991/story/146563.html

Verizon to use spectrum for high-speed services: report (Reuters)
http://www.reuters.com/article/businessNews/idUSN0432923920080404?feedType=nl&feedName=usbusinessearly

An Auction That Google Was Content to Lose (NY Times)
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/04/technology/04auction.html?ex=1365048000&en=9633fecb488e3549&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

Federal ban on contracts with IBM lifted (Tri-City Herald)
http://www.tri-cityherald.com/991/story/146826.html

Dell terminating production of made-to-order computers (San Francisco Chronicle)
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/04/03/BUI6VURNO.DTL&feed=rss.business

Northshore tech perks belong in classroom – The Northshore School Board president has the right sensibility after the district's practice of handing out cash for administrators' high-definition TVs and iPods for personal use made the news (Seattle Times)
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/editorialsopinion/2004326051_personaled04.html

GENERAL NEWS

Gas prices hit another record as refiners cut production (San Jose Mercury News)
http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_8810588?source=rss

Studded Tires Costly for State – cause an estimated $18.2 million dollars worth of damage (KNDO-TV, Tri-Cities)
http://www.kndu.com/global/story.asp?s=8118107

Dust Off the Pencils: Plans for High-Tech Census Collapse (The Associated Press, via the NY Times)
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/04/washington/04census.html?_r=1&ex=1365048000&en=3d3ce4563caa8fe2&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&oref=slogin

Congressional Research Service – Understanding Stagflation and the Risk of Its Recurrence
http://opencrs.com/document/RL34428

Irony Alert – Boehner: I will use McDermott's money to help elect Republicans (Seattle Post-Intelligencer)
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/357711_mcdermott04.html?source=rss

DIVERSIONS

Fossilized human feces rewrite ancient history (the way this headline is written, it looks as if the ancient poo is actually doing the writing!)
http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_8807322?source=rss

Dog Bites Woman's Dog; Woman Bites Back – Doctors Now Determining If Rabies Shots Needed
http://www.kirotv.com/news/15782009/detail.html

No happy returns as school bans birthday cake
http://www.reuters.com/article/oddlyEnoughNews/idUSWEL14647920080404?feedType=RSS&feedName=oddlyEnoughNews

Procol Harum wins back "Whiter Shade" rights
http://www.reuters.com/article/oddlyEnoughNews/idUSL0376304220080404?feedType=RSS&feedName=oddlyEnoughNews