Energy News Digest for October 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)

- Southern Montana Electric breaks ground on coal-fired power plant near Great Falls
- New York Regulators Crack Down On Energy Marketing
- United Kingdom – Row developing over energy bills
- Dead squid washing ashore at Westport
- Abandoned fishing gear has killed more than 30,000 Puget Sound animals
- Wanted, dead or alive: Pikeminnows
- Mason County to Split Payment among Three Utilities for Settlement Over Illegal Sewage Dumping
- Report: EPA failing to stop sprawl runoff
- With Proposition 7, California argues its energy future
- Firewood and wood pellets become a hot commodity
- North Carolina – Progress Energy exploring use of swine waste
- Rural Power: The Key to Sustainability
- Utah – Energy, conservation debated
- Energy-Saving Windows A Legacy Of '70s Oil Crisis
- California's landmark greenhouse-gas plan a step closer to reality
- Former Enron broadband executive pleads guilty to wire fraud
- Virginia – City of Manassas takeover of BPL has some concerned
- The FCC fee revamp could help broadband but raise some bills
- TV airwaves for high-speed Web?
- Forget Net Neutrality, ISPs To Serve Up “Address Not Found”
- The Way We Webbed – A Decade of Google
- Federal Investigators to Examine Washington Mutual
- McKenna says cities can't ban guns
- Man on cell phone blamed for I-5 crash
- City of Olympia’s transportation impact fee proposal raises eyebrows
- View of the Sound returns, shingle by court-ordered shingle

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

WORD OF THE DAY

Castigate • \KAST-ih-gate\ • verb – To subject to severe punishment, reproof, or criticism

To the sound of ominous chords, the door to Ambrose’ office crashed open, the long shadow of his nemesis, “Artie the Thumb” casting its threatening darkness over the floor. Ambrose then endured the longest ten minutes of his life, as Artie castigated him for violating the tiddlywinks tradition by manufacturing new game pieces in wild day glow colors. “The day I have to wear sunglasses to compete in national tiddlywinks events, will be the last day I accept a $50 corporate sponsorship from you,” he thundered. “Good day!”

WEATHER

Shelton Forecast and Weather Alerts
http://www.wrh.noaa.gov/forecast/MapClick.php?textField1=47.213805&textField2=-123.113412&site=all&smap=1&searchresult=Shelton%2C%20WA%2C%20USA

ENERGY & UTILITY ISSUES

Montana – Southern Montana Electric breaks ground on coal-fired power plant near Great Falls (Great Falls Tribune, MT)
http://www.greatfallstribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081016/NEWS01/810160303

New York Regulators Crack Down On Energy Marketing (WCBS-TV, NY)
http://wcbstv.com/local/regulators.energy.marketing.2.841198.html

United Kingdom – Row developing over energy bills: A debate is developing after a consumer watchdog called for domestic energy bills to fall in tandem with plummeting oil prices (The BBC)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7673909.stm

FISH & WILDLIFE

Dead squid washing ashore at Westport (Associated Press)
http://www.mynorthwest.com/?nid=11&sid=96212

Abandoned fishing gear has killed more than 30,000 Puget Sound animals (Seattle Times)
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2008272426_fishinggear16m.html?syndication=rss

Wanted, dead or alive: Pikeminnows – Ravenous ‘trash fish’ prey on baby salmon. Traps don’t work. Poison doesn’t work (Portland Tribune, OR)
http://www.portlandtribune.com/sustainable/story.php?story_id=122402309903872900

WATER & THE ENVIRONMENT

Mason County to Split Payment among Three Utilities for Settlement Over Illegal Sewage Dumping (KMAS Radio, Shelton, WA)
http://www.masoncountydailynews.com/News/NewsArticle/tabid/1897/selectmoduleid/3468/ArticleID/5304/reftab/1896/Default.aspx

Report: EPA failing to stop sprawl runoff – The Environmental Protection Agency is failing to stem the pollution washing into waterways from cities and suburbs (Seattle Times)
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2008272441_stormwater16m.html?syndication=rss

RENEWABLE/ALTERNATIVE ENERGY

With Prop. 7, California argues its energy future – The ballot initiative would mandate more renewables. So why are many environmentalists against it? (Christian Science Monitor)
http://features.csmonitor.com/environment/2008/10/16/with-prop-7-california-argues-its-energy-future/

Firewood and wood pellets become a hot commodity – Thefts in the mix (Consumer Reports)
http://blogs.consumerreports.org/home/2008/10/firewood-prices.html?EXTKEY=I72RSHA

North Carolina – Progress Energy exploring use of swine waste (The News Observer, NC)
http://www.newsobserver.com/business/story/1256800.html

Rural Power: The Key to Sustainability (Renewable Energy World Online)
http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/reinsider/story?id=53804&src=rss

CONSERVATION

Utah – Energy, conservation debated – “…pursuing conservation and energy efficiency should be a top priority…” (Deseret News, Salt Lake City, UT)
http://deseretnews.com/article/0,5143,705255540,00.html

Energy-Saving Windows A Legacy Of '70s Oil Crisis (National Public Radio)
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=95309739&ft=1&f=1007

CLIMATE CHANGE SEQUESTRATION VAULT

California's landmark greenhouse-gas plan a step closer to reality (San Jose Mercury News, CA)
http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_10730174?source=rss

TECHNOLOGY & TELECOMMUNICATIONS

Former Enron broadband executive pleads guilty to wire fraud (Associated Press)
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5h2qjEJnOVclmwj_bdMSY0MMfbPcwD93QIMI80

Virginia – City of Manassas takeover of BPL has some concerned (Manassas Journal-Messenger)
http://www.insidenova.com/isn/online/site_information/contacts/

The FCC fee revamp could help broadband but raise some bills (San Jose Mercury News, CA)
http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_10724560?source=rss

TV airwaves for high-speed Web? FCC chief suggests use of 'white spaces' (Seattle Post-Intelligencer)
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/383463_fccbroadband16.html?source=rss

Forget Net Neutrality, ISPs To Serve Up “Address Not Found” (GigaOM)
http://gigaom.com/2008/10/15/forget-net-neutrality-isps-to-serve-up-address-not-found/

The Way We Webbed – A Decade of Google: Oh, the Joy of Cyberpast (Washington Post)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/10/AR2008101000699.html?nav=rss_technology

GENERAL NEWS

Federal Investigators to Examine Washington Mutual (NY Times)
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/16/business/16wamu.html?_r=1&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&oref=slogin

McKenna says cities can't ban guns (Associated Press)
http://www.mynorthwest.com/?nid=11&sid=96497

Man on cell phone blamed for I-5 crash (Associated Press)
http://www.king5.com/localnews/stories/NW_101508WAB_cell_crash_SW.117480181.html

City of Olympia plan for builders raises eyebrows – transportation impact fees would go up 81 percent (The Olympian, Olympia, WA)
http://www.theolympian.com/southsound/story/622599.html

View of the Sound returns, shingle by court-ordered shingle – Couple's legal saga to have neighbor's roof removed ends (Seattle Post-Intelligencer)
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/383486_roof16.html?source=rss

DIVERSIONS

A `Star Trek' is born: J.J. Abrams gives a glimpse
http://www.examiner.com/a-1640922~A__Star_Trek__is_born__J_J__Abrams_gives_a_glimpse.html?cid=rss-California_Headlines

Southern California parolee hiding in attic falls through ceiling, lands at feet of deputy
http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_10725993?source=rss

Dog Gets $150,000 Check in the Mail – BBB Uses Clancy the Dog to Draw Attention to Scam
http://www.kirotv.com/money/17727566/detail.html?rss=sea&psp=irresistible