Energy News Digest for November 13, 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)

- Cowlitz PUD receives $14.4 million settlement in Swift Power Canal case
- BPA to Expand Centralia Facilities
- Tree Trimming In Timberlakes to Begin Monday
- Electricity Rate Hike Likely For Coos-Curry Electric Cooperative
- “Dirty” coal to remain world's top power source
- Larry Summers' Enron Problem
- NERC: Current climate change initiatives may threaten reliability
- Icelandic singer Björk Wages Battle against big Aluminum
- Tentative deal will clear Klamath River for salmon
- Canada – Do Salmon Hatcheries Work?
- California official reportedly a candidate for top EPA post
- Bonney Lake's plan to buy more water falls apart
- City of Olympia utility bills may increase in 2009
- Small Dam Fails At Cosmopolis
- Burning wood waste riles neighbors
- Amid Economic Crisis, Wind Power Spins More Slowly
- Tri-Cities wind farm idles through storm
- Challenges Ahead For Obama's Energy Plan
- Smart-grid group gains Google
- Has the sun set on clean tech?
- Canada – Carbon 'farming' brings riches back to forests
- Sustaining Oregon's Place As A Sustainability Leader
- Will the Next Ice Age Be a Very Long One?
- Microsoft's new Windows Live aims to be hub for Web
- IBM to help build broadband network in power lines
- Could Broadband Investment Help The Economy?
- Three LCD screen makers plead guilty in price-fixing scheme
- Weather breaks, but rivers still raging

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

WORD OF THE DAY

Tendentious • \ten-DENT-chuss\ • adjective – Marked by a tendency in favor of a particular point of view: biased

The roundtable of political hacks spent over an hour discussing how their Democratic or Republican leanings were of no concern when discussing the facts of the last election. If readers, viewers or listeners thought that their comments and bleating support for their chosen candidates showed tendentious tendencies, then it was misinterpreted…because they were speaking the truth. (Note the little t…some pundits believe they speak the truth with a capital T)

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

Cowlitz PUD receives $14.4 million settlement in Swift Power Canal case (The Daily News, Longview, WA)
http://www.tdn.com/articles/2008/11/12/area_news/doc491b3912834dd973301671.txt

BPA to Expand Centralia Facilities – Switching Station: Regional Power Provider Hopes New Acquisition on Fords Prairie Will Cut Down on Outages (The Chronicle, Centralia, WA)
http://www.chronline.com/story.php?subaction=showfull&id=1226512949&archive=&start_from=&ucat=1

Tree Trimming In Timberlakes to Begin Monday (KMAS Radio, Shelton, WA)
http://www.masoncountydailynews.com/News/NewsArticle/tabid/1897/selectmoduleid/3468/ArticleID/5553/reftab/1632/title/TREE_TRIMMING_IN_TIMBERLAKES_TO_BEGIN_MONDAY/Default.aspx

Oregon – Electricity Rate Hike Likely For Coos-Curry Electric Cooperative In 2009 (Curry Coastal Pilot, Brookings, OR)
http://www.currypilot.com/news/story.cfm?story_no=18574

“Dirty” coal to remain world's top power source (Reuters)
http://uk.reuters.com/article/usTopNews/idUKTRE4AB2QB20081112

Larry Summers' Enron Problem (The Daily Beast)
http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2008-11-12/larry-summers-and-enron/

NERC: Current climate change initiatives may threaten reliability (Utility Automation & Engineering)
http://uaelp.pennnet.com/Articles/Article_Display.cfm?Section=ONART&PUBLICATION_ID=22&ARTICLE_ID=345140&C=ENVIR&dcmp=rss

Icelandic singer Björk Wages Battle against Icelandic Aluminum – She has a beef with aluminum and its impact on Iceland’s geothermal resource. (NY Times)
http://greeninc.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/11/13/bjork-wages-battle-against-icelandic-aluminum/?partner=rss&emc=rss

FISH & WILDLIFE

Tentative deal will clear Klamath River for salmon (The Oregonian, Portland, OR)
http://www.oregonlive.com/news/index.ssf/2008/11/tentative_deal_will_clear_klam.html

Deal paves way for removal of Klamath dams (The Associated Press)
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/387639_dams13.html?source=rss

Canada – Do Salmon Hatcheries Work? Millions of eggs plus so much human good will. Does it add up to more fish? (The Tyee Online)
http://thetyee.ca/News/2008/11/13/Hatcheries/

WATER & THE ENVIRONMENT

California official reportedly a candidate for top EPA post (Los Angeles Times, CA)
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-nichols13-2008nov13,0,2795029.story

Bonney Lake's plan to buy more water falls apart – Tacoma Water balks at selling Bonney Lake about 8 percent of its spare water supply (The News Tribune, Tacoma, WA)
http://www.thenewstribune.com/news/local/story/536140.html

City of Olympia utility bills may increase in 2009 (The Olympian, Olympia, WA)
http://www.theolympian.com/localnewsfeed/story/660131.html

Small Dam Fails At Cosmopolis (KIRO-TV, Seattle)
http://www.kirotv.com/weather/17964927/detail.html?treets=sea&tml=sea_break&ts=T&tmi=sea_break_-1_12340111122008

Here’s an aerial view of the park (Windows Live)
http://maps.live.com/default.aspx?v=2&FORM=LMLTCC&cp=46.950405~-123.7737&style=h&lvl=17&tilt=-90&dir=0&alt=-1000&phx=0&phy=0&phscl=1&ss=yp.mill%20creek%20park%20Cosmopolis~pg.1~sst.0&encType=1

RENEWABLE/ALTERNATIVE ENERGY

Burning wood waste riles neighbors – An open-air stockpile of shredded wood waste that Kimberly-Clark uses as fuel to generate steam and electricity is smoldering again (Everett Herald, WA)
http://heraldnet.com/article/20081113/NEWS01/711139894

Amid Economic Crisis, Wind Power Spins More Slowly – Many Big Players Drawn to Alternative Energy by Tax Credits Are Sidelined or Kaput (ABC News – Includes photo of Nine Canyon construction)
http://abcnews.go.com/Business/Economy/story?id=6149478&page=1

Tri-Cities wind farm idles through storm (The Associated Press)
http://www.montanasnewsstation.com/Global/story.asp?S=9338933&nav=menu227_7

Challenges Ahead For Obama's Energy Plan (National Public Radio)
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=96917781

CONSERVATION

Smart-grid group gains Google (C/Net News)
http://news.cnet.com/8301-11128_3-10096116-54.html?tag=nl.e703

CLIMATE CHANGE SEQUESTRATION VAULT

Has the sun set on clean tech? Once a booming industry, the feel-good trend, carbon reduction and subsidies, the financial crisis has pushed investors to give up on green energies, and like the dot-com bubble of 2000, some analysts say it's about to burst (The Globe and Mail)
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20081113.wrcleantech13/BNStory/energy/home

Canada – Carbon 'farming' brings riches back to forests (The Vancouver Sun, BC)
http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/business/story.html?id=8c01ddf1-3836-474d-9ed3-af946fedd8de

Sustaining Oregon's Place As A Sustainability Leader (Oregon Public Radio)
http://news.opb.org/article/3535-sustaining-oregons-place-sustainability-leader/

Will the Next Ice Age Be a Very Long One? (NY Times)
http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/11/12/will-next-ice-age-be-very-very-long/

TECHNOLOGY & TELECOMMUNICATIONS

Microsoft's new Windows Live aims to be hub for Web (Reuters)
http://www.reuters.com/article/internetNews/idUSTRE4AC10S20081113?feedType=nl&feedName=usmorningdigest

IBM to help build broadband network in power lines (The Associated Press)
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/387634_broadband13.html?source=rss

Could Broadband Investment Help The Economy? It depends which partisan think tank hack you ask (Broadband Reports)
http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/Could-Broadband-Investment-Help-The-Economy-99041

Three LCD screen makers plead guilty in price-fixing scheme (Associated Press)
http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_10965284?source=rss

GENERAL NEWS

Weather breaks, but rivers still raging (Seattle Times)
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2008386670_webweather13m.html?syndication=rss

DIVERSIONS

Sixth severed foot washes up on B.C. shore
http://www.canada.com/victoriatimescolonist/news/story.html?id=3d3ff931-97ab-4dda-8d54-278d56f55b1b

Canadian Judge hears $2-billion lawsuit against Wal-Mart, Microsoft over brain control – Suit over alleged brain-wave control, satanic rituals and witchcraft
http://www.canada.com/victoriatimescolonist/news/story.html?id=7aab0bd7-78c3-43a8-9f8d-e2c35cd2c780

Europe Relaxes Rules on Sale of Ugly Fruits and Vegetables
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/13/world/europe/13food.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss&oref=slogin

County treasurer defeated by 'teenybopper' student
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081113/ap_on_el_ge/student_elected;_ylt=AtGcL5dzIv5ZWvWEcLl7Uv3tiBIF