Energy News Digest for July 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)

- Oregon Natural Gas Prices Expected To Skyrocket This Winter
- FERC removes Bradwood LNG project from Thursday agenda
- Avista takes precautionary measures due to dry weather
- Whatcom County PUD to investigate PSE purchase
- Wrongful death lawsuit against Tacoma reinstated over utility flagging
- Total nuke dump cost to top $90 billion
- North Carolina scuffles with Tennessee Valley Authority over coal plant pollution control
- AUSTRALIA – Electricity workers strike over pay
- Iraq: Not up to (electrical) code
- Congressional Research Service – The Enron Loophole
- Bill allows only sterile fish in North Cascades
- CALIFORNIA – Funding set for Battle Creek Salmon and Steelhead Restoration Project
- Pigeon lover pleads guilty to killing falcon
- Funding for Columbia Basin water projects in Senate bill
- Olympia Report calls for water rate jump
- The Southwest desert's solar power real estate boom
- Solar industry's challenge is to lower cost
- MONTANA – Wind 'rights' on the rise in hot spots
- New York wind farm deals under investigation
- University of Missouri experts help Mo. town become first in nation to run on wind energy
- High Corn Prices Cast Shadow Over Ethanol Plants
- AUSTRALIA – Catching the wave of renewable energy
- OHIO – City urges electricity conservation for fear of blackouts
- RHODE ISLAND – National Grid plans to invest $32 million in conservation
- KENTUCKY – Berea utilities rate hike could save money and promote conservation
- EPA unveils first rules on carbon dioxide storage
- P-I Columnist Joel Connelly – Gingrich spreads blame on global warming
- Canadian premiers agree to disagree on climate change
- Climate Change Could Mean Rise in Kidney Stones
- Congressional Research Service – Forest Carbon Markets: Potential and Drawbacks
- Mercury News Staff Columnist – FCC chair strikes chord with push for open Internet
- Don't Fear The Bandwidth Apocalypse
- UNITED KINGDOM – British Telecom Rolls Out a Massive Fiber Network
- Alert Mason County Corrections Officers And Inmates Save Life
- Utility pole repair underway – Alternating Traffic on Highway 3
- Mason County Burn Ban Goes Into Effect Thursday Morning
- Exxon decries paying interest charges on $507M punitive damages related to oil spill
- Dog's car death leads to warning
- Classic scam costs Mukilteo woman $60,000

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

WORD OF THE DAY

Belvedere • \BEL-vuh-deer\ • noun – A structure (as a cupola or a summerhouse) designed to command a view

To those familiar with the original, and the tepid made-for-TV copy, Mr. Belvedere was anything but…

Word Origin, from Merriam-Webster – It is said that beauty is in the eye of the beholder -- and someone with a belvedere will likely have a great deal of beauty to behold. Given the origins of the word, "belvedere" is the ideal term for a building (or part of a building) with a view; it derives from two Italian words, "bel," which means "beautiful," and "vedere," which means "view." The term has been used in English since at least 1593.

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

Oregon Natural Gas Prices Expected To Skyrocket This Winter (Oregon Public Broadcasting)
http://news.opb.org/article/2600-natural-gas-prices-expected-skyrocket-winter/

FERC removes Bradwood LNG project from Thursday agenda “…the commission will hold off while it reviews letters and comments citizens, government agencies and lawmakers…” (The Daily News, Longview, WA)
http://www.tdn.com/articles/2008/07/16//area_news/doc487cef2f2a96d493420866.txt

Avista takes precautionary measures due to dry weather (KHQ-TV, Spokane, via MSNBC)
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25677613/

Whatcom County PUD to investigate PSE purchase (The Lynden Tribune, WA)
http://www.lyndentribune.com/node/3158

Wrongful death lawsuit against Tacoma reinstated – Suit filed against the City of Tacoma by a woman whose husband died after crashing his motorcycle into a car stopped by a flagger working for Tacoma Power (The News Tribune, Tacoma, WA)
http://www.thenewstribune.com/news/local/story/413656.html

Total nuke dump cost to top $90 billion – Turns out, it's going to cost taxpayers $32 billion more than first thought to open and operate the nation's first nuclear waste dump (The Associated Press, via the Seattle Times)
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/politics/2008052350_apyuccamountain.html?syndication=rss

North Carolina scuffles with Tennessee Valley Authority over coal plant pollution control testimony (The Tennessean, Nashville, TN)
http://www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080715/NEWS0201/807150349/1009/news09

AUSTRALIA – Electricity workers strike over pay – Queensland electricity workers have begun a 48-hour strike and launched an advertising campaign in their bid for better pay (The Age, Australia)
http://news.theage.com.au/national/electricity-workers-strike-over-pay-20080716-3fs3.html

Iraq: Not up to (electrical) code (The Columbian, Vancouver, WA)
http://www.columbian.com/news/localNews/2008/07/07152008_Iraq-Not-up-to-code.cfm?newsletter=2

Congressional Research Service – The Enron Loophole
http://opencrs.cdt.org/document/RS22912

FISH & WILDLIFE

Bill allows only sterile fish in North Cascades (The Wenatchee World, WA)
http://wenatcheeworld.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080715/NEWS04/545992697

CALIFORNIA – Funding set for Battle Creek Salmon and Steelhead Restoration Project, among the largest cold water anadromous fish restoration efforts in North America (Red Bluff Daily News, CA)
http://www.redbluffdailynews.com/news/ci_9898307

Pigeon lover pleads guilty to killing falcon – Kelso man is 12th prosecuted in bird club investigation (Seattle Post Intelligencer, WA)
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/370963_falcon16.html

WATER & THE ENVIRONMENT

Funding for Columbia Basin water projects in Senate bill (The Columbia Basin Herald, Moses Lake, WA)
http://www.columbiabasinherald.com/articles/2008/07/15/news/news04.txt

Olympia Report calls for water rate jump (The Olympian, Olympia, WA)
http://www.theolympian.com/southsound/story/508038.html

RENEWABLE/ALTERNATIVE ENERGY

The Southwest desert's real estate boom – From California to Arizona, demand for sites for solar power projects has ignited a land grab (Fortune Magazine, via CNN Money)
http://money.cnn.com/2008/07/07/technology/woody_solar.fortune/index.htm?postversion=2008071104

Solar industry's challenge is to lower cost – The solar power industry - in California and worldwide - is growing fast. Now, it needs to focus on price. (The San Francisco Chronicle, CA)
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/07/16/BUII11PLV8.DTL&feed=rss.business

MONTANA – Wind 'rights' on the rise in hot spots (The Billings Gazette, via the Missoulian)
http://missoulian.com/articles/2008/07/16/business/biz69.txt

New York wind farm deals under investigation “…did they improperly seek or obtain land-use agreements with citizens and public officials; whether improper benefits were given to public officials to influence their actions, and whether they entered into anti-competitive agreements or practices…” (Business First of Buffalo, NY)
http://www.bizjournals.com/buffalo/stories/2008/07/14/daily16.html?ana=from_rss

University of Missouri experts help Mo. town become first in nation to run on wind energy (St. Louis Business Journal, MO)
http://www.bizjournals.com/stlouis/stories/2008/07/14/daily26.html?ana=from_rss

High Corn Prices Cast Shadow Over Ethanol Plants (National Public Radio)
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=92559699&ft=1&f=1001

AUSTRALIA – Catching the wave of renewable energy (The Canberra Times, Australia)
http://www.canberratimes.com.au/news/local/news/general/catching-the-wave-of-renewable-energy/812013.aspx

CONSERVATION

OHIO – City urges electricity conservation for fear of blackouts (Middletown Journal, OH)
http://www.middletownjournal.com/n/content/oh/story/news/local/2008/07/15/hjn071608electric.html

RHODE ISLAND – National Grid plans to invest $32 million in conservation (The Providence Journal, RI)
http://www.projo.com/news/content/energy_report_07-16-08_CKASDC4_v14.3e850c3.html

KENTUCKY – Berea utilities rate hike could save money and promote conservation (Richmond Register, KY)
http://www.richmondregister.com/localnews/local_story_198082637.html

CLIMATE CHANGE SEQUESTRATION VAULT

EPA unveils first rules on carbon dioxide storage (The Associated Press, via the San Francisco Chronicle, CA)
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2008/07/15/national/w111858D66.DTL&feed=rss.news

P-I Columnist Joel Connelly – Gingrich spreads blame on global warming - He has taken a contentious plague-on-both- your-parties stand in debate over how to put the brakes on global warming (Seattle, WA)
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/connelly/370939_joel16.html?source=rss

Canadian premiers agree to disagree on climate change (Canwest News Service)
http://www.canada.com/topics/news/story.html?id=1864a212-cf12-4590-adc9-5fe0ff39b480

Climate Change Could Mean Rise in Kidney Stones (Finding Dulcinea)
http://www.findingdulcinea.com/news/health/July-August-08/Rising-Temperatures-Could-Mean-Rise-in-Kidney-Stones.html

Congressional Research Service – Forest Carbon Markets: Potential and Drawbacks
http://opencrs.cdt.org/document/RL34560

TELECOMMUNICATIONS & TECHNOLOGY

Mercury News Staff Columnist Chris O'Brien – FCC chair strikes chord with push for open Internet (San Jose, CA)
http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_9895967?source=rss

Don't Fear The Bandwidth Apocalypse – Cable industry lobbies the FCC with some epic distortions (Broadband Reports)
http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/Dont-Fear-The-Bandwidth-Apocalypse-96115

UNITED KINGDOM – British Telecom Rolls Out a Massive Fiber Network – The telecom giant announced a network investment expected to connect as many as 10 million homes to the superfast broadband service by 2012 (BusinessWeek Magazine)
http://www.businessweek.com/globalbiz/content/jul2008/gb20080715_837495.htm?campaign_id=rss_tech

GENERAL NEWS

Alert Mason County Corrections Officers And Inmates Save Life (KMAS Radio, Shelton, WA)
http://www.masoncountydailynews.com/News/NewsArticle/tabid/1897/selectmoduleid/3468/ArticleID/541/reftab/1896/Default.aspx

Utility pole repair underway – Alternating Traffic on Highway 3 at Deer Creek (KMAS Radio, Shelton, WA)
http://www.masoncountydailynews.com/News/NewsArticle/tabid/1897/selectmoduleid/3468/ArticleID/540/reftab/1896/Default.aspx

Burn Ban Goes Into Effect Thursday Morning (KMAS Radio, Shelton, WA)
http://www.masoncountydailynews.com/News/NewsArticle/tabid/1897/selectmoduleid/3468/ArticleID/543/reftab/1896/Default.aspx

Exxon decries paying interest charges on $507M punitive damages related to Valdez’ Alaska oil spill (The Associated Press, via the Seattle Times)
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2008053889_exxon16m.html?syndication=rss

Dog's car death leads to warning (Peninsula Daily News, Port Angeles, WA)
http://www.peninsuladailynews.com/article/20080715/NEWS/807150305

Classic scam costs Mukilteo woman $60,000 (The Seattle Times)
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2008053896_scam16m0.html?syndication=rss

ALLIGATORS IN THE SEWER - DIVERSIONS

Candidate speaks out on raw vegan chocolate mousse issue
http://www.tri-cityherald.com/olympiadispatch/story/240316.html

Officer's Squad Car Wrecked 29 Minutes Into Job
http://www.kirotv.com/irresistible/16900379/detail.html

Batmobile Changes Through Cool History - Check Out Dark Knight's Ride Through The Years
http://www.kirotv.com/automotive/16781638/detail.html

‘M’m! M’m! Good!’ to get it back: Pseudo soup can with jewelry returned to owner
http://www.columbian.com/news/localNews/2008/07/07162008_Mm-Mm-Good-to-get-it-back-Pseudo-soup-can-with-jewelry-returned-to-owner.cfm?newsletter=2