inhabitat.com -- By Ariel Schwartz

Excerpts

E.coli may not be the smartest thing for your body to ingest, but this bacteria could be just the thing to get vehicles up and running around more efficiently. A team of researchers at LS9 — a self-described “renewable petroleum company” — have discovered that the unsavory Escherichia coli could be used to make so-called “drop-in” biofuels at existing pipelines and refineries.

According to LS9, a diesel-like fuel can be yielded by feeding glucose to E. coli bacteria — one of only two known pathways for engineered microbes to produce pure hydrocarbons,...E.coli can be grown simply on any sugar, including second-generation (read: non-food) biofuel feedstocks like grass.

"LS9 hopes that the the price point of E.coli-produced fuel could ring...$50 a barrel."  (read more)

marketwatch.com -- Credit is allowed under federal rules, company says in earnings report

BP PLC will reduce its contribution to U.S. coffers by roughly $10 billion due to a tax credit the company is claiming it incurred from the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

The oil giant said Tuesday that it is incurring a charge of $32.2 billion from the Deepwater Horizon disaster response, and as such, it is claiming a $9.9 billion taxation credit.

Asked in a conference call Tuesday about whether it has discussed the tax credit with President Barack Obama's administration, BP's outgoing chief executive, Tony Hayward said: "We have followed the IRS regulations as they're currently written."

The Internal Revenue Service said it's not allowed under federal law to discuss individual taxpayer issues.

But the issue  (read more)

Reuters.com -- By George Prentice

More than 2,000 miles from the Gulf of Mexico shoreline, a panel of U.S. judges heard arguments from lawyers on Thursday on how piles of oil spill-related lawsuits against BP Plc should be merged.

The panel, meeting in Boise, Idaho, as part of its regularly scheduled rotation among federal courts, did not immediately rule on how it would handle the mounting civil litigation brought against BP and other defendants involved in the worst offshore oil disaster in U.S. history.

A decision is expected within several weeks.

At stake is whether civil lawsuits from injured rig workers, fishermen, property owners, investors and others will be combined in Houston, where BP has its U.S. headquarters and wants the cases heard, or New Orleans, the preferred venue for many plain  (read more)

GreenCarReports.com -- By John Voelcker - If you've been to New York City lately, you may have noticed an increasing number of hybrid taxis on the roads: mostly Ford Escape Hybrid SUVs, but also Toyota Camry Hybrid and Nissan Altima Hybrid sedans, and a scattering of others too.

It's part of a long-term plan to green the fleet of 14,000 yellow cabs operating in the city, since they rack up far higher mileage than private cars--close to 100,000 miles a year when running two 12-hour shifts a day.
 (read more)

The Reporter -- Three adjacent stories landed on the same page of my local newspaper on a recent morning.

Taken together, they add up to a message that is probably greater — and grimmer — than the sum of its parts.

The first was an update on the BP oil spill. By the time you read this column, the disaster's terrain may have shifted a bit, but then officials were trying hard to convince us and themselves that the end is in sight. The well is capped!

But it's disquieting to consider that plugging the familiar billowing gusher — the symbol of this catastrophe — has the effect of increasing the pressure elsewhere in the couple of miles of well casing between the oil reservoir and the ocean floor. The well's integrity is uncertain and capping it could produce unintended consequences.

Officials are  (read more)

GasBuddy Blog -- I didn't know how people in Louisiana and Florida felt about the Gulf spill. Its something you can't feel until it happens close to you, and this time, it did.

The oil spill in Marshall, Michigan is just a couple hours from me- and more significantly- the spill could impact Lake Michigan. Although no one wants to think about it or says its possible, the breaches that have already taken place suggest that the pipeline owner, Enbridge, has very little control and isn't doing enough to stop the slick from moving down the Kalamazoo River.

Fortunately, or unfortunately, lessons have already been learned via the Gulf spill. Almost immediately, the State of Michigan got the EPA, Coast Guard, and other federal and state agencies...  (read more)

reuters.com -- It could be years before some Gulf of Mexico beaches recover fully from BP Plc's massive oil spill and are declared free of toxic pollutants, including heavy metals, that can make people sick, a leading environmental advocacy group said on Wednesday.

"This is an unprecedented tragedy and environmental disaster in the Gulf that is raising unprecedented questions about how to manage beaches and other parts of the environment," said David Beckman, Water Program director with the Washington-based Natural Resources Defense Council.

"We've never had to confront before the question of whether the toxicity in a wave wash is such that people should stay out of the water," Beckman told reporters on a conference call.

...group issued its 20th annual report on water quality at U.S. beaches.  (read more)

Bloomberg -- Congressional Democrats proposed tougher rules for offshore drilling in response to the worst oil spill in U.S. history, while spurning calls to place a price on carbon emissions.

House and Senate leaders presented legislation yesterday rewriting oil and natural-gas drilling rules more than three months after a rig leased by BP Plc exploded in the Gulf of Mexico. The bills would strengthen safety and environmental standards for exploration in federal waters, give Congress direct oversight of offshore energy production, and require companies that cause spills to pay all damages.  (read more)

youtube - MSNBC - video -- According to Hugh Kaufman, the public just can’t handle the truth when it comes to the poisoning of the Gulf Coast. Kaufman, who played a major role in exposing the EPA cover up of the air quality at ground zero, stated that dispersants mixed with oil in the water atomize the oil and prevent it from coming from the surface where it can be skimmed instead it is in small particles.

Dispersants do damage by causing bleeding from orifices in both sea mammals & humans. When the atomized oil and dispersant gets into the bloodstream it atomizes your cells, and that is why there is hemorrhaging.

Now we have hundreds of millions of gallons of oil mixed with 2 million gallons of dispersant spread out over thousands of miles. We have to be very careful of the seafood which we have now poisoned.  (read more)

mercurynews.com -- San Jose solar power system manufacturer SunPower has finished construction of a 1-megawatt solar installation at the Yolo County Justice Campus in Woodland.

Yolo County financed the $7.5 million solar power system with bonds subsidized with federal stimulus money and a 15-year $2.5 million loan from the California Energy Commission, according to a news release Tuesday and an e-mail from Ray Groom, director of the county's general services department.

With the state and federal support, "Yolo County has no out-of-pocket expenses to build this project, and will be net cash flow positive from the first day of the system's operation"..

The SunPower solar panels track the sun...generating more electricity than fixed panels.

..save money, create jobs and produce clean energy for ye  (read more)

GasBuddy Blog -- The Department of Energy released its weekly report on the condition of petroleum inventories in the United States today.

Here are some highlights:

Crude oil inventories increased by 7.3 million barrels to a total of 360.8 million barrels. At 360.8 million barrels, inventories are 12.9 million barrels above last year (3.7%) and remain above average. Supply at NYMEX delivery point, Cushing, Oklahoma increased some 100,000 barrels to 37.2 million barrels this week. Supplies at Cushing have increased for the third time in a month, and are approaching record territory once again.

Gasoline inventories increased 0.1 million barrels to 222.2 million barrels. At 222.2 million barrels, inventories are now 9.2 million...  (read more)

Fox News -- ODESSA, Fla. - It's hard to believe that A.J. Vizzi spent nearly $200,000 defending his right to park his own pickup truck in his own driveway.

When he first moved in back in 1997, Vizzi was told that parking his large truck in the driveway wasn't against the subdivision's rules. But years later, the Eagles Masters Association, which governs the entire community, said it did violate their rules and therefore, the truck had to go.

It didn't end there. Knowing the truck did not fit in his garage, Vizzi decided to stand his ground.

The homeowners association sued Vizzi, and for two exhausting years, the two parties battled in court.

"They just didn't care," Vizzi told FOX 13.  (read more)

nytimes.com -- The rapid growth of wind farms, whose output is hard to schedule reliably or even predict, has the nation’s electricity providers scrambling to develop energy storage to ensure stability and improve profits.

As the wind installations multiply, companies have found themselves dumping energy late at night, adjusting the blades so they do not catch the wind, because there is no demand for the power. And grid operators, accustomed to meeting demand by adjusting supplies, are now struggling to maintain stability as supplies fluctuate.

...But peak wind and peak demand times do not coincide, raising questions about how Hawaii can reach its 70 percent goal. For now, the best option seems to be storage batteries.

In New York and California, companies are exploring electrical storage that  (read more)

New York Times By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN -- It is pretty much a tossup for me: Who poses a greater long-term threat to America’s Gulf Coast ecosystem: the U.S. Senate or BP? Right now, from what I’ve seen flying over the Louisiana coast at the mouth of the Mississippi, my vote is the U.S. Senate. BP at least seems to have finally gotten its act together and is cleaning up the oil spill. The Senate, in failing to pass even the most modest bill to diminish our addiction to oil and begin to mitigate climate change, has not even begun to do its job.  (read more)

CNN -- Where is all the oil? Nearly two weeks after BP finally capped the biggest oil spill in U.S. history, the oil slicks that once spread across thousands of miles of the Gulf of Mexico have largely disappeared. Nor has much oil washed up on the sandy beaches and marshes along the Louisiana coast. And the small cleanup army in the Gulf has only managed to skim up a tiny fraction of the millions of gallons of oil spilled in the 100 days since the Deepwater Horizon rig went up in flames.

So where did the oil go? "Some of the oil evaporates," explains Edward Bouwer, professor of environmental engineering at Johns Hopkins University. That’s especially true for the more toxic components of oil, which tend to be very volatile, he says. Jeffrey W. Short, a scientist with the environmental group Oc  (read more)

Bloomberg -- July 27 (Bloomberg) -- Enbridge Energy Partners LP, the Houston-based pipeline company, has crews working to clean up an oil spill from a pipeline in southern Michigan that spread from a creek to the Kalamazoo River, affecting birds and fish.

The leak on line 6B, part of Enbridge’s Lakehead System, was detected at about 9:30 a.m. yesterday when pressure on the line dropped, the company said.

An estimated 19,500 barrels of crude oil spilled into a creek near the company’s Marshall, Michigan, pump station before valves on either side of the leak were shut down, Enbridge Chief Executive Officer Patrick Daniel said on a conference call today.

“Oil entered the Tallmadge Creek and found its way to the Kalamazoo River,” Daniel said.  (read more)

GasBuddy Blog -- I ran across a story that Bloomberg picked up this morning about reliable old Goldman Sachs. If you're a frequent reader you know that I've already decided that anything they say publicly just reiterates their position in petroleum and tries to get investors to buy in to their theories which net them millions of dollars (while duping investors out of billions).

Bloomberg has Goldman Sachs as saying "Crude oil prices are significantly below the level warranted by fundamentals, offering hedging opportunities for this year and next, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. said."

In English, Goldman Sachs is saying that fundamentals are strong (high demand, lower supply, low spare capacity, etc.) when in fact,

Lately- as in the...  (read more)

Battle Creek Enquirer -- A leaking pipeline spilled about 840,000 gallons of oil into a creek leading to the Kalamazoo River on Monday, according to estimates from Enbridge Energy Partners, the company taking responsibility for the spill.

The leak resulted from a pipeline malfunction that was still under investigation Monday, said Tom Fridel, general manager for Enbridge Liquids Pipelines in Chicago. The 30-inch pipeline carries about 8 million gallons of oil per day from Griffith, Indiana, to Sarnia, Ontario, according to Enbridge

The oil already has started to make its way west past the booms set up by workers in Marshall Township. The Emmett Township Department of Public Safety issued a warning on Monday evening telling people not to fish or swim in the river. The department said oil was leaking past barr  (read more)

-- HOUSTON July 27 (Reuters) - Valero Energy Corp (VLO.N: Quote) plans to restart its shut 235,000 barrel per day (bpd) Aruba refinery in September after completing an overhaul currently underway and if the plant can operate at a profit, Chief Executive Bill Klesse said in a statement. "When complete in September, this work will provide us the option to resume operations at the Aruba refinery if conditions are profitable and will enhance strategic alternatives for the refinery," Klesse said.  (read more)

-- The very first electric car plant in the United States is coming to Iowa. Envision Motor Company, an Ames company, signs a deal with Webster City to put together electric cars. It's a much needed development in the town, which will lose more than 800 jobs when the washer dryer company Electrolux moves out next year. The new company is starting small, hiring just 50 people, but in the next few years they hope their cutting edge technology catches on and they can hire hundreds more. "It turned into a fantastic deal. This is a great opportunity for this community with the creation of jobs. We just to bring positive news them," says Webster City Economic Developer David Toyer. The town is in need of some good news. Next year Webster City's biggest employer is shutting its doors, taking with it 800 precious jobs.  (read more)

nationalpost.com --
The most fuel-efficient vehicles in Canada for 2010 include some of the usual suspects, plus some new additions.

Based on fuel consumption ratings garnered from Natural Resources Canada, in partnership with Transport Canada, following are the Top 10 green vehicles:

Note: All figures are based on fuel costing $1 a litre for regular gasoline, and $1.10 a litre for premium gasoline and diesel. Estimated annual fuel use is based on an annual driving distance of 20,000 kilometres, with a mix of 55% city and 45% highway driving.  (read more)

Detnews.com -- David Shepardson / Detroit News Washington Bureau

Excerpts

Washington -- In the home of "Car Talk," automakers and repair shops are squaring off over the future of fixing cars.

In a battle joined by dealers, unions, auto parts companies and repair shops, automakers are battling a bill that would require them to disclose all the diagnostic and software they provide to dealerships.

If approved, it would be the first of its kind in the United States. Since 2001, similar unsuccessful efforts have been made in at least eight states and Congress.

The Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, a trade group representing Detroit's Big Three, Toyota Motor Corp. and seven other automakers, strongly opposes the measure, as does the Association of International Automobile Manufacturers, a trade group  (read more)

GasBuddy Blog -- As Tropical Storm Bonnie fizzled, Gulf coast residents could breathe a sigh of relief. Ships, boats, platforms, equipment, and people are returning to the site of the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

BP is quite close to finishing a relief well, and since TS Bonnie has completely dissipated, operations are getting back to full force. BP is working today to reconnect equipment to the drilled well, a step that company officials expect to take several days.

Most vessels evacuated the site last week after Bonnie developed, disrupting operations over concerns of large seas and winds that could make the chaotic area dangerous.

Meanwhile, pressure inside the temporary cap is approaching 7,000psi, increasing ever...  (read more)

Dave Alexander | Muskegon Chronicle -- There's more than one offshore wind developer interested in West Michigan.

Bluewater is in various stages of development of offshore wind farms off the coasts of Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey and New York, while exploring projects in the Great Lakes and Canada, company officials said. After Bluewater won a bid to produce power in Delaware, NRG purchased Bluewater, providing it with decades of energy experience and the financial strength of a Fortune 500 company.  (read more)

latimes.com -- Alarms and regulating devices were turned off, says a technician aboard the Deepwater Horizon rig, and maintenance was long overdue.

..Key safety systems were bypassed or disabled on the doomed Deepwater Horizon drilling rig — some for months or years — a top technician on the vessel testified Friday

..a rig technician described an operation in which alarm systems and safety devices were turned off, computers didn't work and maintenance was long overdue.

At one point, Williams testified, he was chewed out by a superior who noticed Williams had activated a gas safety valve that had been placed in bypass mode.

"The damn thing has been in bypass for five years. Why did you even mess with it?"

..the pressure regulator valve.. was in bypass mode.. and exploded, killing 11 men
 (read more)