...Clean-energy firms in Massachusetts, for example, currently account for more than 14,500 jobs. That makes clean tech the 10th largest sector in the state, and it's growing at a rate of 20 percent a year.  Aside from Governor Patrick's support of ecofirms, Massachusetts' House Speaker Salvatore DiMasi last month proposed allocating $50 million in taxpayer dollars to stimulate the creation of green jobs in the state.

"[Green industry] is a major part of the state economy, and it's likely only to grow," says Ian Bowles, secretary of energy and environmental affairs.  In addition to government support, a strong university system and local natural resources are keys to determining which states will prevail as green-industry hubs.
Note:

Click here to read this article in the Christian Science Monitor

...Blue H, a subsidiary of a Dutch company, this week announced it wants to build 120 floating wind turbines in deep water 23 miles off Martha’s Vineyard and sought government approval to install a test turbine. Company officials then joined with the main opposition group fighting Cape Wind's proposed wind farm off Cape Cod in touting Blue H as a viable alternative that would be far from ferry lanes and invisible from shore.

...There's only one problem: No one knows whether a floating wind farm will work.

..."I don’t think they can get a large-scale operation going in two to three years, but the first step is to get a single experimental turbine up," said Walt Musial, principal engineer for ocean renewable energy at Colorado’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory.  The idea for a floating wind farm off the Vineyard -- in water 167-feet-deep -- would need to overcome numerous technical obstacles, such as determining how big the floating platforms' submerged structure should be to support a turbine, how ocean currents will affect the dynamics of the structure, and even how the transmission cable will operate, said Musial.

...Because of the uncertainties surrounding floating wind turbines, experts and wind energy advocates are viewing the proposal as a hopeful but a faraway option.  "I wouldn’t see them as a competitor [to Cape Wind] at the moment," said James F. Manwell, director of the Renewable Energy Research Laboratory at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, who is working with a group developing European standards for wind turbines mounted on the ocean floor. "Nobody’s even begun to think about floating. You’re going to have to go through testing, verification. It’s going to take years."

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Click here to read this article on the Boston Globe website

Business Secretary John Hutton says he wants to open up British seas to allow enough new turbines - up to 7,000 - to power all UK homes by the year 2020.

He acknowledged "it is going to change our coastline", but said the issue of climate change was "not going away".
Note: Click here to read this BBC article

Iran, Russia and Venezuela Feel the Benefits

High oil prices are fueling one of the biggest transfers of wealth in history. Oil consumers are paying $4 billion to $5 billion more for crude oil every day than they did just five years ago, pumping more than $2 trillion into the coffers of oil companies and oil-producing nations this year alone.

Note: Click here to read this article in the Washington Post

So many drivers are gawking at the enormous wind turbines along Lake Erie that they're creating a safety hazard, while in Alberta, TransAlta Corp. responded to visitor demand by creating an iPod audio tour for people keen to learn more about its three wind farms.

Wind farms have surprisingly become tourist attractions across Canada, luring thousands of visitors -- some from as far away as Australia, New Zealand and Europe -- curious about the electricity-generating turbines.

Municipalities are responding by constructing viewing areas, opening interpretive centres, printing maps, welcoming tour buses and selling T-shirts, ball caps, windmill models, pins, aprons, photographs and postcards.
Note: Click here to read this article in the Ottawa Citizen

Former Shell chairman says that diminishing resources could push price of crude to $150 a barrel

Lord Oxburgh, the former chairman of Shell, has issued a stark warning that the price of oil could hit $150 per barrel, with oil production peaking within the next 20 years.

He accused the industry of having its head "in the sand" about the depletion of supplies, and warned: "We may be sleepwalking into a problem which is actually going to be very serious and it may be too late to do anything about it by the time we are fully aware."

Note: Click here to read this article in The Independent (UK)

...“Originally we were interested in responding to LIPA on their project”, said Mark Rodgers, Communications Director of Cape Wind. “We invested considerable staff time closely studying it for four months but at the end of that process instead of submitting a proposal we sent them a letter explaining why their project was not economically feasible.”
Note:

Click here to read this article on Cape Cod Today

Click here to read a transcript of a radio report on WCAI (National Public Radio affiliate)

Click here to read a related article in the Falmouth Enterprise

Massachusetts' fast-growing "clean energy" industry -- companies involved in fields such as solar and wind power, conservation, and high-efficiency energy technology -- is poised to add as many as 3,000 jobs this year, according to a state survey released yesterday.

The green-energy business already accounts for at least 14,400 jobs and is growing three times as fast as other major industries -- like financial services, defense contracting, software and communications, and healthcare technology -- said the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative, which conducted the survey.

Note: Click here to read this article in the Boston Globe

New England's electricity rates, among the highest in the nation, will continue to depend almost entirely on the price of natural gas over the next two decades -- no matter what policies state leaders adopt for conserving energy and approving new kinds of power plants, according to a study being released today.

The report, by Independent System Operator New England, which runs the six-state power grid and the region's $10 billion wholesale power market, offers no hope rates will drop significantly unless the price of natural gas plummets. That's an outcome few energy investors are banking on.

...Government policies intended to curb air pollution, nuclear plant closings, and citizen opposition to wind-power projects, such as Cape Wind in Nantucket Sound, have resulted in increased reliance on natural gas to generate electricity in the region.
Note: Click here to read this Boston Globe article

The industrialized world's energy watchdog added to rising concerns in some quarters that oil and natural gas production won't keep up with the world's growing thirst for energy in coming years, highlighting worries over supplies and prices.

The Paris-based International Energy Agency, which monitors energy markets on behalf of the world's 26 most-advanced economies, yesterday released its annual medium-term forecast, projecting conditions through 2012. The agency expects oil supply to be tighter in coming years than it had forecast, with little prospect of relief unless world economic growth falters.

The IEA doesn't forecast oil prices, but its conclusions imply that consumers should expect continued upward pressure on the cost of energy.

Note: Click here to read this article in the Wall Street Journal