INDEPENDENT TO DO EV RETROFITS, BEAT BIGS TO MARKET

Submitted by New Energy News Blog Barry Bernsten has been bitten by the EV bug. Like other EV enthusiasts before him, he is not waiting around for the major automakers to bring EVs to showrooms. Through his BG Automotive Group Ltd., he’s going to roll his own converted low speed electric vehicles off assembly lines in Philadelphia this year and begin …

GREEN ‘GOLD RUSH’

Submitted by New Energy News Blog Probably the most telling statistic in a new report on global New Energy investment trends: Despite the impact of the credit crisis on financial markets, overall investment in New Energy during the first half of 2008 has been just ABOVE levels in the first half of 2007 (a boom year).Achim Steiner, Executive Director, United Nations …

Expert: If Major Hurricane Hits Gulf, Oil Spikes 50% Or More; Many Will Park Their Cars, Bringing Price Back Down

Submitted by EnergyTechStocks.com Should a Category 3 or higher hurricane hit the Gulf of Mexico this summer, causing the sort of widespread damage to America’s energy infrastructure inflicted in 2005 by Hurricane Katrina, spot energy prices will spike 50% to 100%. But don’t expect $200-plus oil to last for long. Such a spike will break the backs of many Americans, causing …

ETS Investor Alert 7-4-08

Submitted by EnergyTechStocks.com More evidence that the energy crisis and the environmental crisis may not be solvable at the same time, no matter what climate change scientists warn about the world running out of time. As this story notes www.independent.co.uk there’s a serious reevaluation underway in Great Britain over whether the country can “afford” to go green at a time of economic malaise. …

ANOTHER COAL PLANT GOES DOWN IN COURT

Submitted by New Energy News Blog The fight over CO2 is going on in many states simultaneously as a result of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s failure to act.Kansas has stopped the construction of coal plants (KANSAS REJECTS EMISSIONS). An environmental board in Arkansas this week refused to act until the EPA rules (Panel denies air-code changes). A California court indicated decisions …

UTILITIES BUY MORE WIND

Submitted by New Energy News Blog Just another week in the wind business: Utilities can’t seem to get their fill of wind. Considering that utilities have to either keep the lights on or go out of business, their insatiable appetite says more about wind energy’s maturity than a hundred Department of Energy reports. Duke Energy is buying Catamount Energy’s 300 megawatts …

IS BIOBUTANOL THE BIOFUEL? NOT YET.

Submitted by New Energy News Blog The latest revelation of how unwise it is to depend on AGROfuels as transport fuel sources: Midwest floods are threatening corn crops, making corn even more valuable as food and feed, adding yet further upward pressure on prices.(See Weather Risks Cloud Promise of Biofuel) The problems with corn ethanol and other AGROfuels invite the obvious question: …

HUGE SOCAL SOLAR POWER PLANT NEEDS TRANSMISSION

Submitted by New Energy News Blog NewEnergyNews has already covered the Stirling Energy/San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E) solar power plant development. (See STIRLING ENERGY: CONCENTRATING SOLAR) SDG&E, as part of its California Renewable Electricity Standard (RES) obligation to obtain 20% of its power from New Energy sources, has a Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) with Stirling Energy for 900-megawatts of solar energy-generated electricity. The …

HOW OIL SPECULATORS DRIVE OIL PRICES UP, AND WHY

Submitted by New Energy News Blog At a June 17 Congressional hearing about how oil prices are affected by oil market speculators, the assembled panel of experts unanimously agreed speculation is responsible for driving oil prices 50% higher than they would otherwise be.Congressman Joe Barton (R-Tex), an oil and gas industry advocate, argued high oil prices are purely the result of …