CITIZEN POWER ALLIANCE

Hartford-based UTC, which is increasingly focused on energy conservation technologies, said it has agreed to pay about $270 million for a 49.5 percent stake in a California-based wind turbine manufacturer called Clipper Windpower.

The deal, which has been approved by both companies' boards but still needs approvals from Clipper's shareholders and from regulators, was announced Wednesday and positions UTC to compete with General Electric on yet another front.

GE, based in Fairfield, is already an established provider of wind power technology. GE and UTC directly compete (and, on other projects, cooperate) in the jet engine business.

"The agreement allows UTC to expand its power generation portfolio and enter the high-growth wind power segment by investing in a company with strong management and innovative technology," UTC said in its announcement. "...It also builds on UTC's existing portfolio of energy efficient products and power generation systems that respond to the world's growing demand for cleaner, more efficient solutions."

Clipper Windpower designs and manufactures wind turbines and develops wind power projects. It is based in Carpinteria, Calif., and conducts research and development there. It has a manufacturing plant in Iowa and in the United Kingdom. It had 2008 revenues of $737 million, UTC said.

UTC said it would "work closely with Clipper Windpower to improve the company's core technology, manufacturing, product quality, and supply management capabilities."

UTC typically sets aside about $2 billion a year for acquisitions.

An Ithaca environmental activist and 6,000 other individuals and organizations asked the governor Tuesday to withdraw the state's newly drafted regulations on natural gas drilling, saying the state's entire regulatory framework needs to be strengthened before more drilling occurs.

Walter Hang, president of Toxics Targeting, is the activist who last month publicized 270 spill reports from the state Department of Environmental Conservation's own database, documenting well contamination and other environmental pollution related to the conventional, vertical gas drilling that has gone on in New York State for decades.

"DEC's own data document systematic, on-going failures to prevent oil and gas drilling pollution impacts or to clean them up. It is imperative that DEC resolve those regulatory shortcomings prior to issuing new drilling permits," the petition states.

Signatories include state Assemblywoman Barbara Lifton, U.S. Congressman Eric Massa, the National Resources Defense Council, Common Cause, Earthjustice, Earthworks, and the New York State Public Interest Research Group.

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Two energy companies face $31,000 in fines after a caustic chemical bound for the Marcellus Shale in Bradford County, Pa., didn't make it down the well bore.

Chesapeake Appalachia and Schlumberger Technology Corp. were both fined $15,557 for spilling 295 gallons of hydrochloric acid at a Bradford County drilling site early this year, according to records from the Pennsylvania state Department of Environmental Protection.

Failure of a tank used in hydraulic fracturing caused the spill in Asylum Township.
The process, called fracking for short, involves blasting the Marcellus with large volumes of chemical solution to fracture the non-porous rock and free natural gas. The controversial process is necessary to capitalize on the economic potential of gas development.

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The name of the holding company for Rochester Gas and Electric Corp. has been changed to Iberdrola USA from Energy East Corp., and Mark Lynch has been named president of RG&E and of New York State Electric & Gas Corp., Iberdrola officials announced Monday.

The name change will not affect the names of Iberdrola USA’s utility companies, including RG&E, NYSEG and unregulated companies such as NYSEG Solutions and Rochester-based Energetix Inc., officials said.

“Directly linking the strong Iberdrola global brand—and its association with renewable, caring for the environment and focusing on customers—with our companies makes complete sense,” Iberdrola USA CEO Robert Kump said in a statement.

“It also makes complete sense to keep our operating company names that are strong brands in their own right.”

Lynch was president and CEO of the New York Independent System Operator from 2005 to 2008. He also has utility experience with Mirant Corp. and its predecessor, Southern Energy, and Mississippi Power Co.

The name change comes three months after James Laurito resigned as president and CEO at RG&E and NYSEG. Laurito was replaced by Michael Conroy as senior vice president and chief operating officer.

The Marcellus Shale debate just got a little hotter.

Radioactive waste from the Marcellus is an issue state regulators will have to anticipate as they draft new rules for tapping the massive natural gas field under the Southern Tier.

An analysis of wastewater samples by the Department of Health found levels of radium-226, and related alpha and beta radiation that are up to 10,000 times higher than drinking water standards, according to a memo the agency sent to the Department of Environmental Conservation. That means the DEC will have to do more testing to identify drilling sites that pose radiation risks, and ensure hot drilling waste is handled and disposed of properly, according to records from the state.

How big of a problem is this?

"The issues raised are not trivial but are also not insurmountable," the health department's memo to the DEC concludes. "Many can be addressed using common engineering controls and industry best practices."

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Under some of the most beautiful parts of rural New York State in the pre-Jurassic era formation called the Marcellus Shale is an unimaginable fortune in natural gas. Getting that gas to market has become an obsession of Wall Street and the biggest gas drilling companies in the world. In this gas rush, New York is fast becoming a geological science experiment that many experts fear will have profound, dire environmental and health consequences. The drilling companies use a witch’s brew of water, pressure and chemicals to force the gas from the shale. It is the secrecy of what is in that brew that has New Yorkers worried and many suspicious. Even the New York Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) has not yet identified all of the compounds in products proposed for use in fracturing shale.

Now, the world’s largest drilling fluid supplier is licensing new technologies that have never before been used on a large scale as they work to develop more effective ways to extract natural gas. These new fluids will include nanotechnology, according to the largest supplier of drilling fluids in the world. This potential application of nanotechnology, a branch of science involving the technological manipulation of particles about one-tenth the size of a human cell, has not been thoroughly vetted and tested in natural gas wells.

“What we have done in our group, for example, is to develop nanoparticles that can be used with water-based fluids so that you can put them in water and drill with them,” said Mukul Sharma, a professor in the Department of Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering at University of Texas. “And the advantage of that is that these nanoparticles have the same dimensions as the pores in the shales, so they tend to plug these pores.”

Gas shale development requires the use of oil-based drilling fluids because water-based drilling fluids interact with the shale causing it to expand or contract leading to instability of the wellbore, according to Sharma. Oil-based drilling fluids are expensive and can be harmful to the environment. New developments may reduce the need for oil-based drilling fluids. Sharma and his colleagues applied silica particles about five to 40 nanometers in diameter to different kinds of water-based drilling fluids to plug pores in shale samples reducing water invasion. He and his colleagues filed patents for the use of nanoparticles in drilling fluids earlier this year.

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The comment period on New York’s draft natural gas drilling guide will soon come to a close. But before you send your detailed comments on the draft to the State’s Department of Environmental Conservation, please tell Governor Paterson and state lawmakers to just say “no” to fracking for natural gas.

Natural gas companies are eager to drill in the Marcellus Shale Formation, which includes the Southern Tier and Catskills regions. Click here to tell the Governor and lawmakers in the State Capital to protect New York from the dangers of natural gas drilling unless there are safeguards in place to protect our air, land and water.

The Governor has already given the green light to natural gas companies, but before the fracking begins, New York State lawmakers must pass legislation that creates strict rules and regulations to guide drilling in every part of the state, not the permit-by-permit approach proposed by the Department of Environmental Conservation.

New York State also needs the boots on the ground to inspect the drilling sites and make 100% sure that fracking doesn’t poison our waterways or pollute our landscapes.

Click here to tell the Governor and state lawmakers to just say “no” to fracking for natural gas until New York is prepared to protect the health of our environment and the public.

In other parts of the country, fracking for natural gas has spilled toxic chemicals into waterways and landscapes. We need to protect New York from the dangers of industrial drilling.

Under the plans, the new wind farm or farms are expected to come online by 2015, and provide power to the regional grid via a power purchase agreement with the New York Independent System Operator. The deadline for agreeing on the PPA is the end of May 2011.

Significantly, the NYPA has taken a similar approach to the Canadian province of Ontario's recently launched renewable RFP policy and will aim to ensure much of the economic value from the project will remain in the state. It said that it will give more favourable consideration to proposals that include the use of local labour and materials, to drive economic benefits from the large-scale wind project.

The NYPA proposal is not the only offshore wind project to be taking form on the Great Lakes. Canadian energy giant Canadian Hydro has acquired a similar 4.4 gigawatt project from wind energy specialist Wasatch Wind, while a number of other companies are known to be exploring offshore wind projects in the region, including US energy firm Duke Energy.

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Energetix Inc. and NYSEG Solutions Inc. are pleased to announce their continued commitment to electricity fixed pricing. In recent announcements, RG&E and NYSEG have both announced the end of the Voice Your Choice Program and will discontinue offering Fixed Pricing beginning 2010.

The Utilities will continue to provide fixed rate delivery service along with a variable rate transition charge. The customer can choose the Utility’s variable rate supply or pick one of the many supply options available from Energy Services Companies (ESCo’s) such as Energetix and NYSEG Solutions.

Approximately 160,000 NYSEG and RG&E customers, who have enjoyed the stability and security of fixed electricity prices during the Voice Your Choice program, must now look elsewhere if they want to continue with a fixed price option. Energetix and NYSEG Solutions offer fixed rate electricity plans for 6 month, 12 month, and 16 month terms, in addition to their Market and Blended Price Plans. Both companies also provide Fixed, Market and Blended Price Plans for natural gas.

“Given the uncertainty of our current economy, we understand that a significant segment of the population seeks price stability, which is why we have expanded the term options of our Fixed Price Plans.” stated Carl A. Taylor, CEO of Energetix and NYSEG Solutions. “We look forward to becoming the local fixed price provider of choice for this customer base.”

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National Grid has once again asked the state Public Service Commission to keep the financial details of its “smart-grid” project secret.

Since much of the project’s multi-million-dollar cost will likely be passed on to ratepayers and, possibly, taxpayers, the commission should say no.

With smart grid electricity networks, each customer would receive a real-time meter to show how much electricity was being used at each moment. The meter would communicate with the utility, which could send customers hourly wholesale price information and alert them ahead of time when rates are expected to spike during peak periods. The utility could even shut off household appliances, if customers choose, when prices rise.

The technology could result in a more efficient electricity grid, improve reliability and decrease the need to build more power plants in the future. All are worthy goals. But expanding the smart grid among all electric utilities across New York is expected to cost billions of dollars, and electricity bills are expected to rise dramatically as a result.

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