Thursday, July 30, 2009

Bloomberg Oil Prices 30 July 2009


Energy Prices
PETROLEUM ($/bbl)

PRICE* CHANGE % CHANGE TIME
Nymex Crude Future
66.95 3.60 5.68 15:38

Dated Brent Spot
68.79 3.46 5.29 16:08

WTI Cushing Spot
66.24 2.89 4.56 12:07

PETROLEUM (¢/gal)

PRICE* CHANGE % CHANGE TIME
Nymex Heating Oil Future
176.80 9.67 5.79 15:37

Nymex RBOB Gasoline Future
199.80 14.30 7.71 15:37

NATURAL GAS ($/MMBtu)

PRICE* CHANGE % CHANGE TIME
Nymex Henry Hub Future
3.74 .19 5.33 15:38

Henry Hub Spot
3.41 -.08 -2.29 07/29

New York City Gate Spot
3.77 -.10 -2.58 07/29

ELECTRICITY ($/megawatt hour)

PRICE* CHANGE % CHANGE TIME
Mid-Columbia, firm on-peak, spot
41.07 -6.41 -13.50 07/29

Palo Verde, firm on-peak, spot
38.91 -3.58 -8.43 07/29

BLOOMBERG, FIRM ON-PEAK, DAY AHEAD SPOT/ERCOT HOUSTON
37.86 -12.33 -24.57 13:24

*Commodity futures and energy prices are in U.S. dollars.



Link to: http://www.usaalternativeenergynow.blogspot.com/

PSE&G plan takes solar energy public

PSE&G plan takes solar energy public

Posted on Thu, Jul. 30, 2009
PSE&G plan takes solar energy public
By Andrew Maykuth
Inquirer Staff Writer
For millions of New Jersey residents, solar power is coming soon to their neighborhoods - even to the utility poles in their backyards.
In a move both bold and expensive, state regulators yesterday approved a plan for Public Service Electric & Gas Co., the state's largest utility, to install solar panels on 200,000 utility poles in its service territory.
The project will make New Jersey the nation's second-most solar-fueled state, according to the state Board of Public Utilities, trailing only California.
PSE&G will spend $515 million to install 80 megawatts of solar power through the end of 2013, doubling the state's solar capacity. Half the new production will be derived from individual solar modules mounted on about a quarter of PSE&G's 900,000 utility poles.
The other 40 megawatts of production will be generated by centralized solar arrays, including one at PSE&G's Cox's Corner Switching Station in Evesham Township, Burlington County.
The 80-megawatt PSE&G project amounts to a tenth of the nation's current total grid-connected photovoltaic capacity, according to the Interstate Renewable Energy Council.
"We think it's a good program to get solar started in the state," said Stefanie Brand, director of the N.J. Division of Rate Counsel, the state's consumer advocate. Her office supported PSE&G's proposal, which she said had a "very minor impact" on rates - adding about 10 cents per month for a residential customer in the first year, a 0.13 percent increase.
But the PSE&G project still amounts to only about 4.4 percent of the ambitious goal the state has set for power generated from renewable energy sources by 2020.
Unlike most solar projects, which supply individual customers with electricity, the PSE&G plan has attracted attention because its panels will feed directly into the electrical grid. PSE&G is calling the project "Solar 4 All" to drive home the point that all customers will benefit from solar, not just those who can afford to mount the heavily subsidized panels on their rooftops.
"This will give impetus for other projects to move forward," said Jeff Tittel, director of the New Jersey Sierra Club, which also supported the plan.
The environmental group says the project reinforces its argument that clean energy can benefit the local economy.
A New Jersey company, Petra Solar Inc., of South Plainfield, will provide the utility-pole modules under a $200 million contract, its first large commercial project. The three-year-old company plans to add 100 employees, more than tripling its current workforce, said Shihab Kuran, Petra's chief executive officer.
Ralph Izzo, chief executive of Public Service Enterprise Group Inc., the regulated utility's parent, said the solar project would also demonstrate the effectiveness of distributed-power schemes that use electricity generated from multiple sources inside the existing distribution system, reducing the dependence on distant power generators that require expensive transmission systems.
"One of the things I think will be essential for renewables in the future is that we can demonstrate that they make economic sense being built where there are people to use the electricity," he said.
"This fantasy that some people still subscribe to, that we can build all renewable sources of energy in these places where the wind and sun are abundant . . . is just not economically efficient."
PSE&G said the utility expected to receive federal tax credits and income from selling state renewable-energy credits, which will reduce the cost of the project. The total cost of the panels is about $6.44 for each watt produced, expensive by conventional power standards, but less than solar projects in the past.
In Camden and in Secaucus yesterday, PSE&G work crews installed several of the utility-pole solar systems.
Individually, the panels are unimpressive: Each one measures about 21/2 by 5 feet and produces about 200 watts. The output of 200,000 panels is 40 megawatts, enough to power 40,000 homes.
Petra's technology combines a conventional crystalline silicon photovoltaic panel with a microinverter, which converts the direct-current electricity produced by the solar panels into alternating current that is distributed on the grid.
Each unit also incorporates wireless "smart-grid" communications devices so that the utility can monitor the output remotely.
Kuran, Petra's chief executive, said that each unit was designed to be installed and wired into the grid in less than 30 minutes.
"The reduction in costs comes from the simplicity in installation and design," he said. The units will be assembled at Petra's New Jersey factory and delivered, ready for installation by PSE&G crews. The hardware is about 10 percent more expensive than conventional rooftop systems, he said, but the total installed cost is about 10 percent to 20 percent less than rooftop models.
Kuran said the company would buy its photovoltaic cells from several vendors. Petra's chief supplier is Suntech Power Holdings Co. Ltd., one of the world's largest producers of solar panels. Suntech and Petra announced an alliance last month to produce the utility-grade systems.
Suntech is a Chinese state-owned company whose shares are traded on the New York Stock Exchange. It announced in May that it was scouting U.S. locations to open manufacturing facilities to produce solar panels, and Suntech's promise to open domestic manufacturing facilities was a critical reason Petra agreed to the alliance, Kuran said.
If successful, the PSE&G contract is likely to generate more business for the closely held Petra.
Petra is in talks with other utilities about installing its proprietary technology, said David Lincoln, managing director of Element Partners L.L.C., a Radnor clean-technology private-equity firm that provided Petra with an initial investment of $14 million in 2007. He is on Petra's board of directors.
"This is really a major breakthrough, getting consumer validation of the technology," Lincoln said.

Contact staff writer Andrew Maykuth at 215-854-2947 or http://www.philly.com/philly/business/technology/mailto:amaykuth@phillynews.com.
By Andrew Maykuth
Inquirer Staff Writer
For millions of New Jersey residents, solar power is coming soon to their neighborhoods - even to the utility poles in their backyards.
In a move both bold and expensive, state regulators yesterday approved a plan for Public Service Electric & Gas Co., the state's largest utility, to install solar panels on 200,000 utility poles in its service territory.
The project will make New Jersey the nation's second-most solar-fueled state, according to the state Board of Public Utilities, trailing only California.
PSE&G will spend $515 million to install 80 megawatts of solar power through the end of 2013, doubling the state's solar capacity. Half the new production will be derived from individual solar modules mounted on about a quarter of PSE&G's 900,000 utility poles.
The other 40 megawatts of production will be generated by centralized solar arrays, including one at PSE&G's Cox's Corner Switching Station in Evesham Township, Burlington County.
The 80-megawatt PSE&G project amounts to a tenth of the nation's current total grid-connected photovoltaic capacity, according to the Interstate Renewable Energy Council.
"We think it's a good program to get solar started in the state," said Stefanie Brand, director of the N.J. Division of Rate Counsel, the state's consumer advocate. Her office supported PSE&G's proposal, which she said had a "very minor impact" on rates - adding about 10 cents per month for a residential customer in the first year, a 0.13 percent increase.
But the PSE&G project still amounts to only about 4.4 percent of the ambitious goal the state has set for power generated from renewable energy sources by 2020.
Unlike most solar projects, which supply individual customers with electricity, the PSE&G plan has attracted attention because its panels will feed directly into the electrical grid. PSE&G is calling the project "Solar 4 All" to drive home the point that all customers will benefit from solar, not just those who can afford to mount the heavily subsidized panels on their rooftops.
"This will give impetus for other projects to move forward," said Jeff Tittel, director of the New Jersey Sierra Club, which also supported the plan.
The environmental group says the project reinforces its argument that clean energy can benefit the local economy.
A New Jersey company, Petra Solar Inc., of South Plainfield, will provide the utility-pole modules under a $200 million contract, its first large commercial project. The three-year-old company plans to add 100 employees, more than tripling its current workforce, said Shihab Kuran, Petra's chief executive officer.
Ralph Izzo, chief executive of Public Service Enterprise Group Inc., the regulated utility's parent, said the solar project would also demonstrate the effectiveness of distributed-power schemes that use electricity generated from multiple sources inside the existing distribution system, reducing the dependence on distant power generators that require expensive transmission systems.
"One of the things I think will be essential for renewables in the future is that we can demonstrate that they make economic sense being built where there are people to use the electricity," he said.
"This fantasy that some people still subscribe to, that we can build all renewable sources of energy in these places where the wind and sun are abundant . . . is just not economically efficient."
PSE&G said the utility expected to receive federal tax credits and income from selling state renewable-energy credits, which will reduce the cost of the project. The total cost of the panels is about $6.44 for each watt produced, expensive by conventional power standards, but less than solar projects in the past.
In Camden and in Secaucus yesterday, PSE&G work crews installed several of the utility-pole solar systems.
Individually, the panels are unimpressive: Each one measures about 21/2 by 5 feet and produces about 200 watts. The output of 200,000 panels is 40 megawatts, enough to power 40,000 homes.
Petra's technology combines a conventional crystalline silicon photovoltaic panel with a microinverter, which converts the direct-current electricity produced by the solar panels into alternating current that is distributed on the grid.
Each unit also incorporates wireless "smart-grid" communications devices so that the utility can monitor the output remotely.
Kuran, Petra's chief executive, said that each unit was designed to be installed and wired into the grid in less than 30 minutes.
"The reduction in costs comes from the simplicity in installation and design," he said. The units will be assembled at Petra's New Jersey factory and delivered, ready for installation by PSE&G crews. The hardware is about 10 percent more expensive than conventional rooftop systems, he said, but the total installed cost is about 10 percent to 20 percent less than rooftop models.
Kuran said the company would buy its photovoltaic cells from several vendors. Petra's chief supplier is Suntech Power Holdings Co. Ltd., one of the world's largest producers of solar panels. Suntech and Petra announced an alliance last month to produce the utility-grade systems.
Suntech is a Chinese state-owned company whose shares are traded on the New York Stock Exchange. It announced in May that it was scouting U.S. locations to open manufacturing facilities to produce solar panels, and Suntech's promise to open domestic manufacturing facilities was a critical reason Petra agreed to the alliance, Kuran said.
If successful, the PSE&G contract is likely to generate more business for the closely held Petra.
Petra is in talks with other utilities about installing its proprietary technology, said David Lincoln, managing director of Element Partners L.L.C., a Radnor clean-technology private-equity firm that provided Petra with an initial investment of $14 million in 2007. He is on Petra's board of directors.
"This is really a major breakthrough, getting consumer validation of the technology," Lincoln said.

Contact staff writer Andrew Maykuth at 215-854-2947 or amaykuth@phillynews.com.

Here is a link to video of news:

http://www.philly.com/philly/business/technology/52049577.html

Link to: http://www.usaalternativeenergynow.blogspot.com/

Thursday, July 23, 2009

Solar Aid Organization Website

Solar Aid Organization Website

Check out this website, they need your help.

They are providing solar power to African Countries.

http://solar-aid.org/

Here is a link to their video:

http://solar-aid.org/video/

Link to: http://www.usaalternativeenergynow.blogspot.com/

Saturday, July 18, 2009

"And that's the way it was!" - Walter Cronkite dies

"And that's the way it was!" Thanks, Walter Cronkite for giving us the news, straight.

During America's proud times (i.e. landing on the moon) , not so proud times (i.e. an unpopular war, also President Richard Nixon and Watergate), and the sad times (i.e. the death of President John F. Kennedy) Walter gave it to us straight. "The most trusted man in america"

18 July 2009

The New York Times reports the death of Walter Croncite at 92.

This copy is for your personal, noncommercial use only. You can order presentation-ready copies for distribution to your colleagues, clients or customers here or use the "Reprints" tool that appears next to any article. Visit http://www.nytreprints.com/ for samples and additional information. Order a reprint of this article now.

July 18, 2009
Walter Cronkite, 92, Dies; Trusted Voice of TV News
By DOUGLAS MARTIN
Walter Cronkite, who pioneered and then mastered the role of television news anchorman with such plain-spoken grace that he was called the most trusted man in America, died Friday at his home in New York. He was 92.
The cause was complications of dementia, said Chip Cronkite, his son.
From 1962 to 1981, Mr. Cronkite was a nightly presence in American homes and always a reassuring one, guiding viewers through national triumphs and tragedies alike, from moonwalks to war, in an era when network news was central to many people’s lives.
He became something of a national institution, with an unflappable delivery, a distinctively avuncular voice and a daily benediction: “And that’s the way it is.” He was Uncle Walter to many: respected, liked and listened to. With his trimmed mustache and calm manner, he even bore a resemblance to another trusted American fixture, another Walter — Walt Disney.
Along with Chet Huntley and David Brinkley on NBC, Mr. Cronkite was among the first celebrity anchormen. In 1995, 14 years after he retired from the “CBS Evening News,” a TV Guide poll ranked him No. 1 in seven of eight categories for measuring television journalists. (He professed incomprehension that Maria Shriver beat him out in the eighth category, attractiveness.) He was so widely known that in Sweden anchormen were once called Cronkiters.
Yet he was a reluctant star. He was genuinely perplexed when people rushed to see him rather than the politicians he was covering, and even more astonished by the repeated suggestions that he run for office himself. He saw himself as an old-fashioned newsman — his title was managing editor of the “CBS Evening News” — and so did his audience.
“The viewers could more readily picture Walter Cronkite jumping into a car to cover a 10-alarm fire than they could visualize him doing cerebral commentary on a great summit meeting in Geneva,” David Halberstam wrote in “The Powers That Be,” his 1979 book about the news media.
As anchorman and reporter, Mr. Cronkite described wars, natural disasters, nuclear explosions, social upheavals and space flights, from Alan Shepard’s 15-minute ride to lunar landings. On July 20, 1969, when the Eagle touched down on the moon, Mr. Cronkite exclaimed, “Oh, boy!”
On the day President John F. Kennedy was assassinated, Mr. Cronkite briefly lost his composure in announcing that the president had been pronounced dead at Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas. Taking off his black-framed glasses and blinking back tears, he registered the emotions of millions.
It was an uncharacteristically personal note from a newsman who was uncomfortable expressing opinion.
“I am a news presenter, a news broadcaster, an anchorman, a managing editor — not a commentator or analyst,” he said in an interview with The Christian Science Monitor in 1973. “I feel no compulsion to be a pundit.”
But when he did pronounce judgment, the impact was large.
In 1968, he visited Vietnam and returned to do a rare special program on the war. He called the conflict a stalemate and advocated a negotiated peace. President Lyndon B. Johnson watched the broadcast, Mr. Cronkite wrote in his 1996 memoir, “A Reporter’s Life,” quoting a description of the scene by Bill Moyers, then a Johnson aide.
“The president flipped off the set,” Mr. Moyers recalled, “and said, ‘If I’ve lost Cronkite, I’ve lost middle America.’ ”
Mr. Cronkite sometimes pushed beyond the usual two-minute limit to news items. On Oct. 27, 1972, his 14-minute report on Watergate, followed by an eight-minute segment four days later, “put the Watergate story clearly and substantially before millions of Americans” for the first time, the broadcast historian Marvin Barrett wrote in “Moments of Truth?” (1975).
In 1977, his separate interviews with President Anwar el-Sadat of Egypt and Prime Minister Menachem Begin of Israel were instrumental in Sadat’s visiting Jerusalem. The countries later signed a peace treaty.
“From his earliest days,” Mr. Halberstam wrote, “he was one of the hungriest reporters around, wildly competitive, no one was going to beat Walter Cronkite on a story, and as he grew older and more successful, the marvel of it was that he never changed, the wild fires still burned.”
Walter Leland Cronkite Jr. was born on Nov. 4, 1916, in St. Joseph, Mo., the son of Walter Leland Cronkite Sr., a dentist, and the former Helen Lena Fritsche. His ancestors had settled in New Amsterdam, the Dutch colony that became New York. As a boy, Walter peddled magazines door to door and hawked newspapers. As a teenager, after the family had moved to Houston, he got a job with The Houston Post as a copy boy and cub reporter. At the same time, he had a paper route delivering The Post to his neighbors.
“As far as I know, there were no other journalists delivering the morning paper with their own compositions inside,” he wrote in his autobiography.
When he was 16, Mr. Cronkite went with friends to Chicago for the 1933 World’s Fair. He volunteered to help demonstrate an experimental version of television.
“I could honestly say to all of my colleagues, ‘I was in television long before you were,’ ” he said in an interview with CBS News in 1996.
Mr. Cronkite attended the University of Texas for two years, studying political science, economics and journalism, working on the school newspaper and picking up journalism jobs with The Houston Press and other newspapers. He also auditioned to be an announcer at an Austin radio station but was turned down. He left college in 1935 without graduating to take a job as a reporter with The Press.
While visiting Kansas City, Mo., he was hired by the radio station KCMO to read news and broadcast football games under the name Walter Wilcox. (Radio stations at the time wanted to “own” announcers’ names so that popular ones could not be taken elsewhere.)
He was not at the games but received cryptic summaries of each play by telegraph. These provided fodder for vivid descriptions of the action. He added details of what local men in the stands were wearing, which he learned by calling their wives. He found out in advance what music the band would be playing so he could describe halftime festivities.
At KCMO, Mr. Cronkite met an advertising writer named Mary Elizabeth Maxwell. The two read a commercial together. One of Mr. Cronkite’s lines was, “You look like an angel.” They were married for 64 years until her death in 2005.
In addition to his son, Walter Leland III, known as Chip, Mr. Cronkite is survived by his daughters, Nancy Elizabeth and Mary Kathleen; and four grandsons.
In his last years, Joanna Simon, a former opera singer and sister of Carly Simon, was his frequent companion.
The family said it was planning a private service at St. Bartholemew’s Church in New York.
After being fired from KCMO in a dispute over journalism practices he considered shabby, Mr. Cronkite in 1939 landed a job at the United Press news agency, now United Press International. He reported from Houston, Dallas, El Paso and Kansas City.
The stint ended when he returned to radio and then took a job with Braniff International Airways in Kansas City, selling tickets and doing public relations.
Returning to United Press after a few months, he became one of the first reporters accredited to American forces with the outbreak of World War II. He gained fame as a war correspondent, crash-landing a glider in Belgium, accompanying the first Allied troops into North Africa, reporting on the Normandy invasion and covering major battles, including the Battle of the Bulge, in 1944.
In 1943, Edward R. Murrow asked Mr. Cronkite to join his wartime broadcast team in CBS’s Moscow bureau. In “The Murrow Boys: Pioneers on the Front Lines of Broadcast Journalism” (1996), Stanley Cloud and Lynne Olson wrote that Murrow was astounded when Mr. Cronkite rejected his $125-a-week job offer and decided to stay with United Press for $92 a week.
That year Mr. Cronkite was one of eight journalists selected for an Army Air Forces program that took them on a bombing mission to Germany aboard B-17 Flying Fortresses. Mr. Cronkite manned a machine gun until he was “up to my hips in spent .50-caliber shells,” he wrote in his memoir.
After covering the Nuremberg war-crimes trials and then reporting from Moscow from 1946 to 1948, he again left print journalism to become the Washington correspondent for a dozen Midwestern radio stations. In 1950, Murrow successfully recruited him for CBS.
Mr. Cronkite was assigned to develop the news department of a new CBS station in Washington. Within a year he was appearing on nationally broadcast public affairs programs like “Man of the Week,” “It’s News to Me” and “Pick the Winner.”
In February 1953 he narrated the first installment of his long-running series “You Are There,” which recreated historic events like the Battle of the Alamo or the Hindenburg disaster and reported them as if they were breaking news. Sidney Lumet, soon to become a well-known filmmaker, directed the series.
“What sort of day was it?” Mr. Cronkite said at the end of each episode. “A day like all days, filled with those events that alter and illuminate our times. And you were there.”
In 1954, when CBS challenged NBC’s popular morning program “Today” with the short-lived “Morning Show,” it tapped Mr. Cronkite to be the host. Early on he riled the sponsor, the R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, by grammatically correcting its well-known advertising slogan, declaring, “Winston tastes good as a cigarette should.”
When not interviewing guests, he mulled over the news with a witty and erudite puppet lion, Charlemagne. Occasionally he ventured outside the studio — using a tugboat, for example, to meet luxury liners so he could interview celebrities before they landed.
In 1952, the first presidential year in which television outshined radio, Mr. Cronkite was chosen to lead the coverage of the Democratic and Republican national conventions. By Mr. Cronkite’s account, it was then that the term “anchor” was first used — by Sig Mickelson, the first director of television news for CBS, who had likened the chief announcer’s job to an anchor that holds a boat in place. Paul Levitan, another CBS executive, and Don Hewitt, then a young producer, have also been credited with the phrase.
The 1952 conventions made Mr. Cronkite a star. Mr. Mickelson, he recalled, told him: “You’re famous now. And you’re going to want a lot more money. You’d better get an agent.”
Mr. Cronkite went on to anchor every national political convention and election night until 1980, with the exception of 1964. That year he was replaced at the Democratic convention in Atlantic City by Roger Mudd and Robert Trout in an effort to challenge NBC’s Huntley and Brinkley team, which had won the ratings battle at the Republican convention in San Francisco that summer.
In 1961, Mr. Cronkite replaced Murrow as CBS’s senior correspondent, and on April 16, 1962, he began anchoring the evening news, succeeding Douglas Edwards, whose ratings had been low. As managing editor, Mr. Cronkite also helped shape the nightly report.
The evening broadcast had been a 15-minute program, but on Sept. 2, 1963, CBS doubled the length to a half-hour, over the objections of its affiliates. Mr. Cronkite interviewed President Kennedy on the first longer broadcast, renamed the “CBS Evening News With Walter Cronkite.” He also broadcast from a real newsroom and not, as Edwards had done, from a studio set.
At the time the broadcast was lengthened, Mr. Cronkite inaugurated his famous sign-off, “And that’s the way it is.” The original idea, he later wrote, had been to end each broadcast with a quirky news item, after which he would recite the line with humor, sadness or irony.
Richard S. Salant, the president of CBS News, hated the line from the beginning — it ate up a precious four seconds a night — and the offbeat items were never done.
“I began to think Dick was right, but I was too stubborn to drop it,” Mr. Cronkite wrote.
Starting with Herbert Hoover, Mr. Cronkite knew every president, not always pleasantly. A top aide to President Richard M. Nixon, Charles Colson, harangued the network’s chairman, William S. Paley, after Mr. Cronkite’s 14-minute Watergate broadcast. The next segment was shortened.
In 1960, during the Wisconsin primary, Mr. Cronkite asked Kennedy, then a senator, about his Roman Catholic religion. As Mr. Cronkite recalled in his memoir, Kennedy called Frank Stanton, CBS’s president, to complain that questions about the subject had earlier been ruled out of bounds. He then reminded Mr. Stanton that if he were elected he would be appointing members of the Federal Communications Commission. Mr. Stanton “courageously stood up to the threat,” Mr. Cronkite wrote.
By contrast, Mr. Cronkite’s relations with President Dwight D. Eisenhower were so cordial that President Kennedy incorrectly assumed Mr. Cronkite, a political independent, was a Republican.
Mr. Cronkite also enjoyed the company of President Ronald Reagan, with whom he exchanged often off-color jokes. And he whimsically competed with his friend Johnny Carson to see who could take the most vacation time without getting fired.
Mr. Cronkite raced sports cars but switched to sailing so he could spend more time with his family. He liked old-time pubs and friendly restaurants; there was even one in Midtown Manhattan where his regular chair was marked with his initials.
In an interview with The New York Times in 2002, Mr. Cronkite scrunched his eyes and lowered his voice into a theatrical sob when asked if he regretted missing out on the huge salaries subsequent anchors had received.
“Yes,” he said, adding, “I frequently call myself the Mickey Mantle of network news.”
Mr. Cronkite retired in 1981 at 64. He had repeatedly promised to do so, but few had either believed him or chosen to hear. CBS was eager to replace him with Dan Rather, who was flirting with ABC, but both Mr. Cronkite and the network said he had not been pushed.
After his retirement he continued to be seen on CBS as the host of “Walter Cronkite’s Universe,” a science series that began in 1980 and ran until 1982. The network also named him a special correspondent; the position turned out to be largely honorary, though news reports said it paid $1 million a year. But after he spent 10 years on the board of CBS, where he chafed at the cuts that the network’s chairman, Laurence A. Tisch, had made in a once-generous news budget, more and more of his broadcast work appeared on CNN, National Public Radio and elsewhere, not CBS.
By the time Mr. Rather was leaving the “CBS Evening News” in 2005, Mr. Cronkite had abandoned mincing words. He criticized his successor as “playing the role of newsman” rather than being one. Mr. Rather should have been replaced years earlier, he said.
When Katie Couric took over the job in September 2006, Mr. Cronkite introduced her on the air and praised her in interviews.
His long “retirement” was not leisurely. When Senator John Glenn went back into space on the shuttle Discovery in 1998, 36 years after his astronaut days, Mr. Cronkite did an encore in covering the event for CNN. He made some 60 documentaries. And among many other things, he was the voice of Benjamin Franklin on the PBS cartoon series “Liberty’s Kids,” covered a British general election for a British network and for many years served as host of the annual Kennedy Center Honors.
He had already won Emmy Awards, a Peabody and the Presidential Medal of Freedom (in 1981), and he continued to pile up accolades. Arizona State University named its journalism school after him.
In July 2006, PBS broadcast a 90-minute “American Masters” special on Mr. Cronkite’s career. Mr. Lumet, the filmmaker, appeared and said, “He seemed to me incorruptible in a profession that was easily corrupted.”
On his 90th birthday, Mr. Cronkite told The Daily News, “I would like to think I’m still quite capable of covering a story.”
But he knew he had to stop sometime, he allowed in his autobiography. He promised at the time to continue to follow news developments “from a perch yet to be determined.”
“I just hope that wherever that is, folks will still stop me, as they do today, and ask, ‘Didn’t you used to be Walter Cronkite?’ ”

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Bloomberg Oil Prices 17 July 2009

Bloomberg Oil Prices 17 July 2009














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Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Pure Energy Launches - First National Radio Program Dedicated to the Business of Renewable Energy

Pure Energy Launches - First National Radio Program Dedicated to the Business of Renewable Energy
Pure Energy begins broadcasting live from Miami on July 13, 2009 at 6:00 PM EDT
Press Release
Source: Pure Energy
On Tuesday July 7, 2009, 7:00 am EDT
MIAMI, July 7 /PRNewswire/ -- Pure Energy, the first national radio show dedicated to the business of renewable energy, is launching from the Miami studios of 880 The Biz (WZAB) on Monday, July 13, 2009 at 6:00 p.m. EDT. Pure Energy is hosted by noted energy expert Sean O'Hanlon, who is also the Executive Director of the American Biofuels Council (ABC). Guests for the premier show include renowned engineer and author Dr. Robert Zubrin as well as worldwide peak oil expert and author of nine books including "Peak Everything," Richard Heinberg.
"With oil prices heading back over $70/bbl, and set to go higher, it could not be more urgent for America to take immediate action to break free of the stranglehold of the oil cartel," said Zubrin, author of "Energy Victory". The U.S. congress could effectively destroy OPEC with the stroke of a pen simply by passing a law requiring that all new cars sold in the U.S. be flex fueled. Such a law would make flex fuel the international standard and would thereby create fuel choice all around the world."
Pure Energy will be a lively repartee between O'Hanlon and his guests discussing the current business challenges and opportunities in the energy arena as the world moves into the "Age of Renewable Energy".
"No single issue has as much of a far reaching impact as energy, and today we are facing several key issues that are vital to our future. Among them are energy security, crumbling infrastructure, economic development, and environmental concerns," said O'Hanlon. "This show will focus on the opportunities that lie within the challenges. The discussion of how we effectively address these issues simultaneously is long overdue. It's time to think outside the barrel."
Pure Energy is a weekly live talk show airing on Mondays on WZAB from 6:00 -7:00 p.m. EDT. Listeners can also tune in live at http://www.pureenergyshow.com/.
About Pure Energy
"Pure Energy" is a weekly talk radio program broadcast live from Miami, Florida on 880 The Biz, (WZAB) on Monday's from 6:00-7:00 p.m. EDT. Hosted by recognized energy expert Sean O'Hanlon, listeners tune in to Pure Energy to hear the latest energy news from around the world. From energy policy and petroleum concerns to wind, solar, hydro-electric, geothermal, and biofuels technologies, the program provides valuable business, technology and policy insights from the innovators, business leaders and policy makers working in oil, energy, and renewable industries in both Florida and nationwide. To learn more, visit http://www.pureenergyshow.com/.

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Sales of Alternative Fuel Autos Continue to Rise

Sales of Alternative Fuel Autos Continue to Rise August 28, 2006: Facing rising gas prices, Americans are buying more alternative fuel autos, including hybrids, diesel and ethanol- capable vehicles, according to automakers.
The ethanol industry has substantial room to grow. Ethanol now represents just 3% of the total annual gasoline supply in the United States. Roughly 30% of US gasoline contains some ethanol (Source: Congressional Research Service). The potential of E85 (85% ethanol, 15% gasoline), ethanol's share of gasoline supply could rise to as much as 10% of total annual US gasoline consumption merely by replacing MTBE. The Energy Information Administration reported US motor gasoline consumption in 2005 as just under 140 billion gallons.
To Find an E85 Fueling Station Near You LOOK HERE.
Source: National Ethanol Vehicle Coalition
General Motors will produce 400,000 E85 vehicles in 2006. (Photo courtesy of General Motors Corporation) Automakers will produce about 700,000 E85 vehicles in 20 different makes and models for the 2006 model year.
The 2005 Renewable Fuels Standard Act mandates that ethanol production double by 2012 to 7.5 billion gallons, which is estimated to reduce the U.S.'s oil consumption by 80,000 barrels per day. (Source Edmunds.com)


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Gulf Alternative Energy

Welcome
Gulf Alternative Energy has developed a new cellulose processing technology. Gulf’s new machine processes common feedstocks, such as sorghum, switchgrass and agricultural waste into a very fine powder. Lab tests show that this powder processes into sugars for ethanol much faster than normal feedstocks. Time is money in the production of biofuels.
The Company plans to patent its, exclusive technology to retrofit existing ethanol plants for cellulosic ethanol, as part of the technology package for new cellulosic processing plants, and also for use in the design and construction of its own cellulosic ethanol production facility.
Gulf Alternative Energy has developed a cellulosic ethanol preprocessor that can break down multiple feedstocks into minute particles thus facilitating and making more efficient the production of fuels from non-food feedstocks. The Company believes that this technology is the keystone to solving the problem of creating commercially viable ethanol from non-food feedstocks. With the worldwide demand for energy continuing to rise, Gulf Alternative Energy is working toward creating a long-term viable solution to meet the energy needs of the United States.


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Cleanfield Alternative Energy Inc.

Cleanfield Alternative Energy Inc.TSX VENTURE: AIR
Jul 07, 2009 09:04 ET
Cleanfield Energy Receives UL Certification for Its 3.5KW Vertical Axis Wind Turbine Inverter
ANCASTER, ONTARIO--(Marketwire - July 7, 2009) - Cleanfield Energy® ("Cleanfield") (TSX VENTURE:AIR), an international leader in Vertical Axis Wind Turbines (VAWT), announced today that its proprietary Inverter for the V3.5 VAWT has been tested and certified to UL standard 1741.Cleanfield's Inverter was tested and determined to be in compliance with UL 1741-Standard for Inverters, Converters, Controllers and Interconnection System Equipment for Use with Distributed Energy Resources. The testing was done by CSA International who is accredited by the Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA) US Department of Labor as a Nationally Recognized Testing Laboratory (NRTL).While most small wind turbine manufacturers in the marketplace today use generic commercially available inverters, Cleanfield has specifically engineered the Inverter to optimize the performance of Cleanfield's VAWT. This allows the incorporation of proprietary safety and performance enhancing features such as vibration monitoring with frequency band skipping, full anemometer closed loop feedback allowing for power curve optimization and over speed protection resulting in a safe and fully integrated VAWT system. The topology and basic algorithms used in the inverter can be applied for use in larger power Inverters with only hardware upgrades. This topology will enable us to control systems that use induction generators as well as synchronous generators."This is a very significant event for Cleanfield, said Tony Verrelli, CEO of Cleanfield Energy. The UL certification of our proprietary inverter technology and solution, proves that we have designed it to the high level of the Underwriters Laboratory's safety standards."ABOUT CLEANFIELD ENERGY CORP.Cleanfield Energy Corp. (Cleanfield) is a subsidiary of Cleanfield Alternative Energy Inc. and is committed to the development of renewable energy products primarily for the urban environment. Cleanfield's industry leading VAWT, which can be mounted on a tower, on building rooftops or integrated into building designs, offers elegant and quiet point of use renewable green energy generation.FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTSCertain statements in this news release may be considered to be forward-looking. These statements relate to future events or Cleanfield's future economic performance and reflect the current assumptions and expectations of management. Certain unknown factors may affect the events, economic performance and results of operations described herein. Cleanfield undertakes no obligation, and does not intend to, update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as may be required under applicable law.
The TSX Venture Exchange does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
For more information, please contactCleanfield Energy Corp.Tony VerrelliPresident/CEO(905) 304-5223info@cleanfieldenergy.comhttp://www.cleanfieldenergy.com/

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Pickens Spikes Plan For Giant Texas Wind Farm

Tuesday, July 07, 2009
Steve Gelsi
MarketWatch Pulse


NEW YORK -- Boone Pickens no longer plans to build the world's largest wind farm, a spokesman for the Texas billionaire told the Dallas Morning News. Pickens had already delayed some of his plans. Now he said he instead plans to build five or six smaller wind farms in the Midwest and possibly Texas. Hurdles faces by Pickens included lower natural gas prices, which made power from wind less desireable, plus a lack of transmissions lines. "It was a little more complicated than we thought," Pickens told the newspaper.
Copyright © 2009 MarketWatch, Inc.

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Monday, July 6, 2009

Stimulus Funding Available to Improve Your Home

Money Available to Improve Your HomeComments 0 Recommend 1
July 6, 2009 - 11:19 AM
Randy Simons
Stimulus funding is now available for homeowners to make that energy efficient improvement to their home.
Today (Monday July 6th) Congressman Paul Tonko held a news conference in Troy with Karen Gordon, Executive Director of the Commission on Economic Opportunity for the Greater Capital Region, and Kathy Cloutier of the Albany Community Action Partnership.
The news conference was held at 8 Garden Court in Troy, which has undergone weatherization improvements.
In a press release sent out many agencies say they now have the money for projects all thanks to a boost in funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and are now seeking qualified candidates.
Congressman Tonko says, "We need to get the word out to low income homeowners that money is available to weatherize and improve the energy efficiency of their homes. The stimulus funds are there to provide for home improvements that will dramatically improve energy efficiency, save homeowners money, and provide work for contractors during slow time in the economy. We encourage homeowners to contact their local agencies to see if they qualify for the program"
Here is a list of agencies which administer the weatherization program in the 21st Congressional District:
Albany County:
· Albany Co. Cooperative Extension
http://www.ccealbany/
Phone: 765-3500
· Albany Community Action Program
http://www.acoi.com/
Phone: 463-3175
Fulton & Montgomery Counties:
· Fulmont Community Action Agency
http://www.fulmont.org/
Phone: 853-8359
Rensselaer County:
· Commission on Economic Opportunity for the Greater Capital Region, Inc.
http://www.ceo-cap.org/
Phone: 272-6012
Saratoga & Schenectady Counties:
· Saratoga Economic Opportunity Council
http://www.saratogaeoc.org/
Phone: 587-3158
Schoharie County:
· Schoharie County Community Action Program
http://www.sccapinc.org/
Phone: 234-2568

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Dow Corning CEO meets with Obama 02 July 09

Breaking news:Dow Corning CEO meets with Obama today to discuss renewable energy
Published: Thursday, July 2, 2009 4:51 PM EDT
Dow Corning Corp. Chairman, President and CEO Stephanie A. Burns met with President Barack Obama at the White House today to discuss how businesses are innovating to create a green economy and stimulate job growth in the U.S.The meeting was the latest in a series of small-scale roundtables that the President is hosting and included Department of Energy Secretary Steven Chu, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa P. Jackson, and several other CEOs of renewable energy companies at the White House.Burns was invited in recognition of the leadership role Dow Corning has staked in the solar energy field, demonstrated by the more than $5 billion in solar investments the company and its joint ventures at the Hemlock Semiconductor Group have announced over the past five years to research, develop and expand production of materials critical to solar cell manufacturing, solar module assembly and installation.“Solar energy is a clean, efficient and readily available technology that with the right support could help transform America’s energy, environmental and economic future,” Burns said, according to a news release. “To make America a 21st century solar power, we need smart and effective government policies that will help the private sector grow, thrive and create thousands of new jobs.The trip to Washington was the second in as many weeks for Burns and other Dow Corning representatives to discuss solar energy policy with government officials.
Copyright © 2009 - Midland Daily News

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Bloomberg Oil Prices 06 July 2009

Energy Prices
PETROLEUM ($/bbl)

PRICE* CHANGE % CHANGE TIME
Nymex Crude Future 64.35 .30 .47 18:52

Dated Brent Spot 63.50 -1.36 -2.10 07/06

TI Cushing Spot 64.05 -2.68 -4.02 07/06

PETROLEUM (¢/gal)

PRICE* CHANGE % CHANGE TIME
Nymex Heating Oil Future 163.28 .62 .38 18:48

Nymex RBOB Gasoline Future 174.85 .81 .47 18:44

NATURAL GAS ($/MMBtu)

PRICE* CHANGE % CHANGE TIME
Nymex Henry Hub Future 3.51 .02 .60 18:51

Henry Hub Spot 3.24 -.26 -7.43 07/06

New York City Gate Spot 3.52 -.14 -3.83 07/06

ELECTRICITY ($/megawatt hour)

PRICE* CHANGE % CHANGE TIME
Mid-Columbia, firm on-peak, spot 20.53 -2.88 -12.30 07/06

Palo Verde, firm on-peak, spot 31.42 .12 .38 07/06

BLOOMBERG, FIRM ON-PEAK, DAY AHEAD SPOT/ERCOT HOUSTON
51.63 -28.81 -35.82 07/06

*Commodity futures and energy prices are in U.S. dollars.

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