Energy News Digest for August 7, 2009

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.

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TODAY’S HIGHLIGHTS (Details Below)

• Eastern Washington Storms Spark Small Fires, Power Outages
• Worker Electrocuted At Benton City Farm - pipe hit power line
• Oregon - BPA Hikes Utility Rates
• Coos-Curry Electric Cooperative Board Approves 7.5% Average Rate Increase
• Utility Bill-Payment Assistance Reached a Record 25,000 PSE Customers
• Editorial - Efforts to Block Yucca Mountain Waste Dump Are Irresponsible
• Managing the Nuclear Fuel Cycle
• Safety Concerns at Huge China Dam Project
• Heat Wave Devastating For Hatcheries
• Seattle Court Rules Suquamish Indian Tribe Has Fishing Rights
• Pot Grower Ordered To Pay For Okanogan/Wenatchee Forest Environmental Damage
• Suit to Halt California Desalination Plant Dismissed
• Puget Sound Energy Buys Out Lower Snake River Wind Energy Project Partne
• Canada - Wind-Generated Electricity Finally Feeds B.C.'S Power Grid
• Couple Turn PEMCO on to Solar Energy, Even in Cloudy Seattle
• Wind Promises Blackouts as Obama Strains Grid with Renewables
• U.S. Used Less Energy in 2008 But More Renewable Energy
• Op/Ed - Michigan: Look to Rivers for Energy
• South Cascade Glacier Has Shrunk By Half since 1958
• Fifty Year Record Shows Glacier Erasure in Pacific NW
• Op/Ed - Cap-And-Trade Schemes Could Hurt Families and Send Jobs Overseas
• Climate Bill Is Threatened by Senators
• US Carbon Market: Many Projects, Many Clouds
• Is the Climate Problem in Our Heads?
• Canada - Cap and Cut Beats Cap and Trade
• New Zealand Struggling to Meet its Climate Goals… because of Climate Change?
• Coast Project Combines Clean Up, Recycling and Energy Production
• Microsoft's Cloud Computing Service Moving Out Of Washington State
• Microsoft Keeping Data Center
• Cloud Computing: Washington State vs. Washington DC
• Twitter Tries to Regroup After Web Attack
• How a Denial-Of-Service Attack Works
• Battle Rages On Between Cafes & Wi-Fi Users
• World's Biggest Particle Collider Set for Restart
• Sprint, Samsung Launch Biodegradable Phone
• Lunch Break: The Oompa Loompa Jingle For Microsoft's Bing
• West Nile Virus Found In Mason County
• Chelan PUD Workers Find Body of Missing Boater in Columbia River
• Mason County Mushroom Company Expands
• Senate Keeps 'Clunkers' Running With Additional $2B
• G.E. to Add Two New U.S. Plants as Unions Agree on Cost Controls
• Forks Hopping With Vampire Followers
• British Columbia - Butchart Gardens: Survival at Risk
• State Patrol Urges Safety Following Deadliest Weekend of Year

WORD OF THE DAY

Daymare • \DAY-mair\ • noun - A nightmarish fantasy experienced while awake

Ian McClaggan’s daymare was coming true. His small-town haggis production line had been churning out the tightly packed sheep’s stomach “meat piñatas” for over 150 years…well-known as a true Scottish delicacy…until an English author upset the apple cart by claiming his home-grown specialty was an import from the southern part of the British Isles.

Keep Your Hands off Our Haggis (NY Times)
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/07/opinion/07mcallsmith.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

WEATHER

Shelton Forecast & 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

Eastern Washington Storms Spark Small Fires, Power Outages (Spokesman-Review, Spokane, WA)
http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2009/aug/06/storms-spark-small-fires-power-outages/

Worker Electrocuted At Benton City Farm - pipe he was carrying hit an exposed power line (Tri-City Herald, WA)
http://www.tri-cityherald.com/945/story/673035.html

Oregon - BPA Hikes Utility Rates (Bandon Western World, OR)
http://www.bandonwesternworld.com/articles/2009/08/06/news/doc4a79e1cd1e46b226962823.txt

Coos-Curry Electric Cooperative Board Approves 7.5% Average Rate Increase (Coos-Curry County Reporter, Gold Beach, OR)
http://www.currycountyreporter.com/news/story.cfm?story_no=5044

Utility Bill-Payment Assistance Reached a Record 25,000 PSE Customers (Electric Energy Online)
http://www.electricenergyonline.com/?page=show_news&rss=1&id=116127

Daily News Editorial - Obama Administration's Efforts to Block Yucca Mountain Waste Dump Are Irresponsible
http://www.tdn.com/articles/2009/08/06/editorial/doc4a79fdb7a3255866463623.txt

Managing the Nuclear Fuel Cycle (Congressional Research Reports)
http://opencrs.com/document/RL34234/

Safety Concerns at Huge China Dam Project (Yahoo! News, AFP)
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090721/wl_asia_afp/chinaenvironmentwaterelectricity

FISH & WILDLIFE

Heat Wave Devastating For Hatcheries (Daily World, Longview, WA)
http://www.tdn.com/articles/2009/08/07//area_news/doc4a7b7a1be59ef014514713.txt

Seattle Court Rules Suquamish Indian Tribe Has Fishing Rights (Seattle Times)
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2009614770_suquamish07.html?syndication=rss

WATER & THE ENVIRONMENT

Pot Grower Ordered To Pay For Okanogan/Wenatchee Forest Environmental Damage (Spokesman Review, Spokane, WA)
http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2009/aug/06/pot-grower-ordered-pay-enviromental-damage/

Suit to Halt California Desalination Plant Dismissed (Associated Press)
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2009/08/06/national/a182320D31.DTL&feed=rss.business

RENEWABLE/ALTERNATIVE ENERGY

Puget Sound Energy Buys Out Lower Snake River Wind Energy Project Partner (Puget Sound Business Journal)
http://www.bizjournals.com/seattle/stories/2009/08/03/daily44.html?ana=from_rss

Canada - Wind-Generated Electricity Finally Feeds B.C.'S Power Grid: $200-million Dawson Creek project will power 31,000 homes when it's completed this year (Vancouver Sun, BC)
http://www.vancouversun.com/technology/Wind+generated+electricity+finally+feeds+power+grid/1865157/story.html

Couple Turn PEMCO On To Potential for Solar Energy, Even in Cloudy Seattle (Seattle Times)
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2009614669_solarpie07m.html?syndication=rss

Wind Promises Blackouts as Obama Strains Grid with Renewables (Bloomberg)
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601086&sid=arbHcz0ryM_E

U.S. Used Less Energy in 2008 But More Renewable Energy (Renewable Energy World – You gotta see the graph that goes with this story…Rube Goldberg would be proud!)
http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/article/2009/08/u-s-used-less-energy-in-2008-but-more-renewable-energy?cmpid=rss

Travers City Record Eagle Op/Ed - Michigan: Look to Rivers for Energy
http://www.record-eagle.com/opinion/local_story_219071142.html

CLIMATE CHANGE SEQUESTRATION VAULT

South Cascade Glacier Has Shrunk By Half since 1958 (Seattle Times)
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2009614459_glaciers07.html?syndication=rss

Fifty Year Record Shows Glacier Erasure In Pacific NW (Oregon Public Broadcasting)
http://news.opb.org/article/5574-fifty-year-record-shows-glacier-erasure-pacific-nw/

Seattle Times Op/Ed - Cap-And-Trade Schemes Could Hurt Families and Send Jobs Overseas
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/opinion/2009613443_guest07short.html

Climate Bill Is Threatened by Senators (NY Times)
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/07/us/politics/07climate.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

US Carbon Market: Many Projects, Many Clouds (Reuters)
http://www.reuters.com/article/GCA-GreenBusiness/idUSTRE5756WI20090806

Is the Climate Problem in Our Heads? (NY Times)
http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/08/05/is-the-climate-problem-in-our-heads/?partner=rss&emc=rss

Canada - Cap and Cut Beats Cap and Trade (Calgary Herald, Alberta)
http://www.calgaryherald.com/technology/beats+trade/1868200/story.html

New Zealand Struggling to Meet its Climate Goals… because of Climate Change? (EcoWorldly)
http://ecoworldly.com/2009/07/24/new-zealand-struggling-to-meet-its-climate-goals-because-of-climate-change/

BARREL O’ GREEN POTPOURRI

Coast Project Combines Clean Up, Recycling And Energy Production (Oregon Public Radio)
http://news.opb.org/article/5575-coast-project-combines-clean-recycling-and-energy-production/

TECHNOLOGY & TELECOMMUNICATIONS

Microsoft's Cloud Computing Service Moving Out Of Washington State – “…due to a change in local tax laws, we’ve decided to migrate Windows Azure applications out of our Northwest data center prior to our commercial launch this November…” (Seattle Times)
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/microsoftpri0/2009613642_microsoftscloudcomputingserviceazureismovingoutofwashingtonstate.html?syndication=rss

Microsoft Keeping Data Center (Spokesman-Review, Spokane, WA)
http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2009/aug/07/microsoft-keeping-data-center/

Cloud Computing: Washington State vs. Washington DC (GigaOM)
http://gigaom.com/2009/08/07/washington-vs-washington-the-cloud-computing-edition/

Twitter Tries to Regroup After Web Attack (NY Times)
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/07/technology/internet/07twitter.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

How a Denial-Of-Service Attack Works (Associated Press)
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2009612760_apustectwitterhowattackworks.html?syndication=rss

Battle Rages On Between Cafes & Wi-Fi Users - Manhattan cafes in particular seem increasingly unfriendly (Broadband Reports)
http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/Battle-Rages-On-Between-Cafes-And-WiFi-Users-103825

World's Biggest Particle Collider Set for Restart (National Public Radio)
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=111593841&ft=1&f=2

Sprint, Samsung Launch Biodegradable Phone - Casing Of Biodegradable Plastic Made Partly From Corn (Associated Press)
http://www.kirotv.com/technology/20302802/detail.html

Lunch Break: The Oompa Loompa Jingle For Microsoft's Bing (Seattle Times)
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/microsoftpri0/2009612390_theoompaloompajingleformicrosoftsbing.html?syndication=rss

GENERAL NEWS

West Nile Virus Found In Mason County (KMAS Radio, Shelton, WA)
http://www.masoncountydailynews.com/News/NewsArticle/tabid/1897/smid/3468/ArticleID/7975/reftab/1632/t/WEST-NILE-VIRUS-FOUND-IN-MASON-COUNTY-/Default.aspx

Chelan PUD Workers Find Body of Missing Boater in Columbia River (Wenatchee World, WA)
http://wenatcheeworld.com/article/20090806/NEWS04/708079998/1001/NEWS04

Mason County Mushroom Company Expands (KMAS Radio, Shelton, WA)
http://www.masoncountydailynews.com/News/NewsArticle/tabid/1897/smid/3468/ArticleID/7974/reftab/1632/t/MUSHROOM-COMPANY-EXPANDS-/Default.aspx

Senate Keeps 'Clunkers' Running With Additional $2B (Seattle Times)
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/politics/2009614457_clunker07.html?syndication=rss

G.E. to Add Two New U.S. Plants as Unions Agree on Cost Controls (NY Times)
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/07/business/07electric.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss

Forks Hopping With Vampire Followers (KONP Radio, Port Angeles, WA)
http://www.konp.com/local/4987

British Columbia - Butchart Gardens: Survival at Risk - 12% tax could be 'catastrophic' for many businesses & some might not make it, says voice of tourism (Victoria Times Colonist, BC)
http://www.timescolonist.com/travel/Butchart+Gardens+Survival+risk+with/1865027/story.html

State Patrol Urges Safety Following Deadliest Weekend of Year (Associated Press)
http://www.kndu.com/global/story.asp?s=10860188

ALLIGATORS IN THE SEWER - DIVERSIONS

Newlywed Arrested In Alleged Plot on Husband
http://www.kirotv.com/news/20294892/detail.html

Burger King Tells Barefoot Baby to Leave - Spokeswoman Says Manager Took Policy Too Far
http://www.kirotv.com/news/20304037/detail.html

"Cookie Mother" Accuses Wal-Mart of Treading on Girl Scouts' Turf
http://www.findingdulcinea.com/news/Americas/2009/August/-Cookie-Mother--Accuses-Wal-Mart-of-Treading-on-Girl-Scouts--Turf.html

'Nurse of the Year' Charged With Not Being a Nurse
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gyDpuhXlj9sW7WBnBlpzNdCZmhngD99TL56G0

SONG OF THE DAY

Cookie song
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xjnPg4gJBF0&feature=related