Electric Car Company Building Vehicles in Finland After Obtaining US Gov't Loan From Obama Administration

The Obama Administration and Department of Energy are defending a $529 Million loan to Anaheim, CA-based electric car manufacturer Fisker after a report from ABC News on Thursday highlighted the fact that two years ago, the Administration approved the company shifting production overseas to Finland.

Vice President Joseph Biden heralded the Energy Department's $529 million loan to the start-up electric car company called Fisker as a bright new path to thousands of American manufacturing jobs. But two years after the loan was announced, the company's manufacturing jobs are still limited to the assembly of the flashy electric Fisker Karma sports car in Finland.

"There was no contract manufacturer in the U.S. that could actually produce our vehicle," the car company's founder and namesake told ABC News. "They don't exist here."

Henrik Fisker said the U.S. money has been spent on engineering and design work that stayed in the U.S., not on the 500 manufacturing jobs that went to a rural Finnish firm, Valmet Automotive.

The loan to Fisker is part of a $1 billion bet the Energy Department has made in two politically connected California-based electric carmakers producing sporty -- and pricey -- cutting-edge autos. Fisker Automotive, backed by a powerhouse venture capital firm whose partners include former Vice President Al Gore, predicts it will eventually be churning out tens of thousands of electric sports sedans at the shuttered GM factory it bought in Delaware. And Tesla Motors, whose prime backers include PayPal mogul Elon Musk and Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, says it will do the same in a massive facility tooling up in Silicon Valley.

Fisker is more than a year behind rolling out its $97,000 luxury vehicle bankrolled in part with DOE money. While more are promised soon, just 40 of its Karma cars (below) have been manufactured and only two delivered to customers' driveways, including one to movie star Leonardo DiCaprio.

A department of Energy spokesman defended the loan to Fisker, saying that the company also plans on producing a $50,000 hybrid called the Nina at a shuttered General Motors plant in Delaware.

"The Department's funding was only used for the U.S. operations," Energy Department spokesman Dan Leistikow wrote. "The money could not be, and was not, spent on overseas operations. The Karma also relies on an extensive network of hundreds of suppliers in more than a dozen U.S. states."

He said the first part of the loan, $169 million, supported engineering work at Fisker's U.S. facilities as the company "developed the tools, equipment and manufacturing processes for Fisker's first vehicle" -- though that work so far has not contributed to a production line in the U.S.

But Leistikow said the rest of the loan is still supporting U.S. production of another vehicle line called the Nina.

"Fisker is using this funding to bring a shuttered General Motors plant in Delaware back to life and employing more than 2,500 workers. Fisker was attracted to this site in part by the opportunity to rehire some of the trained, dedicated workers who lost their jobs when that plant closed," Leistikow said.

However, industry sources are claiming that Fisker's production of the Nina at the Delaware site has been pushed back to mid-2013. Fisker claims that the car has been designed and built, but remains under wraps to maintain a competitive edge.

Moreover, according to a recent Forbes article, once off its electric motor (reportedly good for 32 miles) the Fisker's Karma hybrid actually gets worse gas mileage than a late model Ford Explorer SUV

Does anybody else remember the various factory and workshop tours that President Obama embarked upon during 'Recovery Summer' last year? All of them seemed to pivot around so called 'Green Jobs'- factories that made electric vehicle components, solar panels or batteries for hybrids. And it seems that this wasn't really by accident, either.

Millions On West Coast, Arizona Left Without Power Overnight After Blackout Triggered in Arizona

Traffic signals, street lights and crossing signals remain dark at sunset in Cardiff, CA on the night of September 8th. Mike Blake- Reuters photo

Federal regulators are looking into the cause of a prolonged blackout that left millions of people without electricity in southern California, Western Arizona and the northern part of Baja California, Mexico on Thursday afternoon and on into the early morning hours of Friday.

Arizona Public Service Co. said that the problems began at about 3:30 p.m. Thursday when a 115-mile high-power line that runs from west of Phoenix to the Yuma area switched out of service.

APS had an employee working in the Yuma-area substation where the line connects, but officials are unsure if that worker caused the line's failure, said Daniel Froetscher, APS vice president of energy delivery.

"We don't know whether it was related, but we have been very transparent with the work we were doing there, and will investigate whether there is a relationship," he said.

Power wasn't lost immediately, with the first customer calls coming about 10 minutes after the line's failure, so APS will investigate what actually prompted Yuma-area customers to lose service, he said.

"The system has contingencies," he said. "It is designed to withstand the loss of a single line feed. For about 10 minutes or so, there were no interruptions of service. The system performed as intended."

About 56,000 APS customers lost service throughout Yuma, Somerton, San Luis and Gadsden.

Those power outages cascaded west into California, where the high-power transmission line switches from APS control to the California power grid operator.

APS will investigate what allowed the problems to spread, rather than be contained by the protections built into the power system.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, North American Electric Reliability Corp. and other entities also announced Friday they would investigate the outage, possibly leading to fines.

The cascading power failures that were supposed to be localized around Yuma instead made their way west, knocking out power at the San Onofre Nuclear Generating station.

In the San Diego area, flights at Lindbergh field were halted and classes at local schools and universities were cancelled. Some beaches were shut down as nearly 2 million gallons of untreated sewage spilled into the water.

Power was restored by the early morning hours on Friday, but not before restaurants in the region experienced losses in the hundreds of thousands of dollars in food that had to be discarded when refrigeration didn't work and labor when many eateries simply shut their doors to the public. Even though power had returned by Friday morning, hundreds of facilities had to remain closed until a health department alert regarding potentially dangerous tap water was lifted.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the designated media cheerleaders for the Obama Administration have insisted that the international power failure validates President Obama's call for additional stimulus spending to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars.

Thursday's blackout was the most widespread since the August 2003 blackout that left a large swath of the Northeast as well as parts of the Midwest and the province of Ontario without electricity [I remember the 2003 blackout well. I was in rural upstate New York, blissfully unaware that there was any significant power outage for at least two hours until I drove into this one small town where their one stoplight wasn't working and their one policeman was directing traffic- NANESB!] That blackout left metropolitan areas such as New York City, Cleveland, Buffalo and Toronto without power at the height of rush hour.

Solyndra Raided by FBI After Bankruptct Filing

Remember what I was saying about this not being a good month for Federally subsidised solar panel manufacturers? Looks like it's about to get worse for California-based Solyndra, Inc.

Federal agents executed a search warrant at the Northern California headquarters of solar panel manufacturer Solyndra Inc., which filed for bankruptcy protection this week despite receiving $535 million in federal stimulus loan guarantees.

The FBI and Department of Energy's Office of Inspector General confirmed that their agents were involved in the raid Thursday at Solyndra's offices in Fremont but declined to discuss what they were investigating. FBI spokesman Peter D. Lee said documents related to the search had been sealed.

Last week, Solyndra abruptly announced that it was ceasing operations and laying off 1,100 employees, a move the company attributed to intense foreign competition and a "global oversupply of solar panels." The company filed for bankruptcy Tuesday.

Solyndra spokesman Dave Miller said the federal raid came as a surprise but that the company was "fully cooperating" with investigators.

He said he did not know what the federal agents were looking for but speculated it could be related to the $535-million loan guarantee, of which the company drew $527 million.

A skeleton team of about 100 employees is still working at the factory during a "wind-down" process, Miller said.

The raid came about 16 months after Obama visited Solyndra and praised the federal government's investments in clean energy and other sectors.

It's also been revealed that company officials from Solyndra made no less than 20 trips to the White House between March 2009 and April 2011, underscoring the cozy relationship between the company and the Obama Administration.

In late May 2011, the White House highlighted Solyndra as a success story thanks to the 2009 stimulus- also known as the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act- in a short video on the White House website.


It was also reported on Friday that officials from the Administration and Department of Energy sat in on Solyndra's company meetings.

The Energy Department was keeping a close eye on Solyndra during those crucial months – sitting in on board meetings as an observer as part of the loan restructuring, iWatch News and ABC reported Thursday. That raises key questions: Did DOE miss obvious warning signs of the company's troubles in the final months before its collapse?

Last month, after receiving close to $60 million in aid from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts before moving their facilities to China, Evergreen Solar filed for bankruptcy protection. Less than a week later, Intel spinoff SpectraWatt had also filed for bankruptcy.

[Hat tip- Gateway Pundit]

Not a Good Month For Subsidized Solar Companies

As it turns our, August 2011 has been less than kind to American solar manufacturers.



After taking nearly $60 million in subsidies from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and then bailing for China, Evergreen Solar filed for bankruptcy on August 15.



More recently, a San Francisco-area manufacturer of solar panels sought Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, shuttering its plant and abruptly laying off 1100 workers. President Obama toured the Fremont, CA facilities of Solyndra Inc back in May 2010 to promote government investments in renewable energy. The company had also received $535 million in loan guarantees from the Department of Energy.



Intel spinoff Spectra Watt filed for bankruptcy protection on August 19 at US Banruptcy court in Poughkeepsie, NY. The company had moved from Hillsboro, OR to Hopewell Jct, NY in 2009. The manufacturer of photovoltaic cells recieved roughly $8 million in subsidies after its startup and another $91 milion from private investors.



Meanwhile, the House Energy Committee has requested that documents and correspondence between the White House, Solyndra and the company's investors be turned over.

"How did this company, without maybe the best economic plan, all of a sudden get to the head of the line?" Representative Fred Upton (R MI-6) told ABC News in an interview this week. "We want to know who made this decision ... and we're not going to stop until we get those answers."



White House officials have said in interviews that they did not intervene in the Solyndra deal or others benefiting companies backed by supporters of the president. Yet the administration, from Obama to the Department of Energy, has very publicly praised the loan guarantee.



In 2009, the Obama administration hailed the Solyndra loan as the first in a series of federal infusions for "green energy" firms that held the potential to clean up the environment and create jobs. But earlier this week, Solyndra abruptly closed its doors, announced it would file for bankruptcy and laid off more than 1,100 workers.



While Energy Department officials steadfastly vouched for Solyndra -- even after an earlier round of layoffs raised eyebrows -- other federal agencies and industry analysts for months questioned the viability of the company.

A May 2011 Center for Public Integrity investigative report raised questions on whether or not the Obama Administration bypassed procedural steps meant to protect taxpayers while approving the $535 million loan guarantee.

Another Day, Another Heavily Subsidized 'Green Energy' Plant Shuts Down

This time it's in California by the San Francisco Bay area. Employees working the evening shift at Solyndra's Fremont, CA plant were met by the CEO who gave them the news as they were coming off of their shift Wednesday morning.

Solar-cell maker Solyndra announced Wednesday that it will close its remaining Fremont factory, lay off its 1,100 employees and file for bankruptcy.



The news marked an abrupt end for a company once considered among the most innovative in a fast-changing industry. The bankruptcy also represents a high-profile failure for a federal stimulus program that gives loan guarantees to green-tech manufacturers.



Solyndra was the first company to win one of the guarantees, receiving $535 million in 2009 to build its second factory in Fremont less than a mile from the company's original plant. Both President Obama and former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger toured the new plant, citing it as a symbol of the nation's economic recovery and commitment to a green economy.



But Solyndra, whose solar modules are thin tubes rather than flat panels, struggled to compete against a flood of low-priced solar cells pouring out of heavily subsidized factories in China

Solyndria had backed out of a proposed IPO on 2010 as well. As far back as February, Congress had been probing into how exactly Solyndria secured the $535 million in financeial aid.



Earlier this month, Evergreen Solar- which had recieved more than $58 million in financial aid from the State of Massachusetts- filed for bankruptcy.

Today's Train of Thought- It's a Gas Gas Gas, Aug 24, 2011

Today's train of thought shows us what can be best described as a pipeline on wheels out in Big Sky Country.



Once upon a time, Conoco Philip's [NYSE: COP] Yellowstone pipeline carried gasoline all the way from Billings, MT to Spokanne, WA. However, after a 3000 barrel spill in 1993 on the Flathead Indian Reservation, the tribal council there revoked the pipeline easement. This left a 56-mile gap through the reservation and there was no talk of relocating that portion



Into the breech stepped Montana Rail Link, offering to have the gas offloaded from the pipeline in Missoula into tank cars for a 129-mile trek into Thompson Falls, MT where it is placed back into the western end of the Yellowstone pipeline to complete its westward journey to Spokane. At Thompson Falls, the locomotives, empty tank cars and spacer car on each end are turned around for the return trip. The outbound train is usually referred to as 'The Gas Local' while the returning cars are sometimes referred to as 'Gas Cans'.



Railpictures.net contributor Amy Miller caught an outbound Gas Local in August 2010 with SD45-2 #332 leading SD70ACE #4308 at Arlee, MT. The two locomotives represent two dramatically different epochs in EMD's manufacturing- the #332 started out life as an SDP45 for the Erie Lackawana nearly 40 years ago before the E-L became a part of Conrail. At some point in its career, #332 got into a wreck and her rear hood was rebuilt before being pressed into service as a leaser with Motive Power International and sold to the Montana Rail Link [Occasionally even older locomotives will hitch a ride with the Gas Local, as MRL's GP9s shuttle between their Paradise, MT assignment and Missoula- NANESB!].



By contrast, the #4308 was built new for the MRL in 2005 by EMD and has been in service since then in a variety of duties ever since.

Pennsylvania Democrat Policy Committee Chairman- Marcellus Shale Workers Are STD-Ridden Drunks Who Will Probably Kill Your Kids

The debate over drilling for Natural Gas in the Marcellus Shale took a nasty and downright odd turn this week when replying to am e-mail query about the impact of exploration and drilling on local communities from Capitolwire.com, Pennsylvania House Democrat Policy Committee Chairman Mike Sturla (D-Lancaster) offered the following reply:

“Also, aside from building roads so their trucks can get to drill sites and doing a little stream work to mitigate damage from their road building, exactly what are all those things the drillers are doing for the local communities? Patronizing the bars at night? Driving up the cost of rental housing? Spreading sexually transmitted disease amongst the womenfolk? Causing school districts to ask local governments to ban truck traffic on local roads during school bus pick-up and drop-off times so kids don't get killed? Upgrading emergency preparedness equipment to handle a well blow out? Running compressor stations that have decibel levels equal to a jet engine?...Really community-oriented stuff...”

Not surprisingly, the state Representative's archaic comments about the STD riddled workers and promiscuous 'womenfolk' has drawn the ire of Rep Sturla's GOP counterparts in the Pennsylvania state house- many of them representing districts where natural gas drilling and exploration are taking place.

“Talk about wrong-headed, misinformed, archaic, and just shocking,” said Rep. Sandra Major (R-Susquehanna/Wayne/Wyoming), the House Republican Caucus Chair. “The House Democrat leadership attitude, after studying the impacts of the Marcellus Shale industry in Pennsylvania, is insulting.”



“Drunks and promiscuous ‘womenfolk’ – that is what the House Democrat leaders are calling the hard-working men and women living within the Marcellus Shale region,” Rep. Sheryl Delozier (R-Cumberland County) said. “Who can really support such notions from leaders who think so little of those working in a growing industry?”

However, Representative Sturla stood by his comments on Wednesday.



Keep in mind that Sturla is from a political party that claims to have the monopoly on concern for the American blue-collar worker, yet his comments about the drunken and diseased Marcellus Shale workers and promiscuous womenfolk exhibit a contempt towards blue collar, rural Americans more typical of Manhattan or inside the Beltway. By and large it seems to be reserved for those doing the hard work in the energy sector, but not necessarily limited to those along the Marcellus Shale.



No less than 10 oil rigs have departed the Gulf of Mexico since the Obama Administration imposed a moratorium on drilling in the Gulf of Mexico after last year's Deepwater Horizon spill.

Earlier this year, the EPA and US Fish and Wildlife Service had proposed moving the dune sagebrush lizard onto the endangered species list, which would severely impact drilling and other activity along its habitat in the Permian Basin along the Texas-New Mexico border.



Obstructionist environmental groups have undertaken a publicity blitz including billboards as far away as Chicago urging public opposition to Trans Canada's proposed Keystone KL pipeline that would send oil from Alberta's Athabasca oil fields to a refinery in Texas.



Exit question- If I were an environmentalist or leftist who held Americans that worked in the coal, oil or natural gas sectors in the utmost contempt, what would I do differently to express my disdain than what any number of Democrats from President Obama all the way down to state Representative Sturla have already done in terms of policy?



[Hat tip- Unlikely Hospitalist]

Heavily Subsidised Solar Company Bails on Massachusetts, Files for Bankruptcy

A solar panel factory in Devens, MA which was held up by the Patrick Adminsitration as a model 'green business' and recieved $58 million in financial aid from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts has filed for bankruptcy on Monday.



Evergreen Solar [NASDAQ: ESLR] announced earlier this year that they were closing their Devens facility and shifting production to Wuhan China.

In January, after Evergreen announced it would close the Devens factory, Patrick told the Herald he was disappointed in the job losses but did not regret making the investment.



“I think we did what we could have and should have,” he told the Herald.



In March, during a state Senate hearing that explored the value of tax incentives for Bay State businesses, Evergreen CEO Michael El-Hillow said the company had “earned” 85 percent of the taxpayer benefits it received because of the jobs it originally created.



Evergreen warned investors back in April that it was burning through cash because of slow sales, falling solar-panel prices and weak proceeds from the sale of Devens factory assets.



“Chapter 11 will provide Evergreen Solar with the ability to maximize returns for our stakeholders through the proposed sale process,” El-Hillow said in a statement. “Importantly, we expect to continue our technology development without interruption during Chapter 11 and the sale process.”

Shares of Evergreen have been trading so low this year that they're in danger of being de-listed from the NASDAQ.



The quasi-public state run MassDevelopment is among the top creditors and is owed $1.5 million by Evergreen.

China Eyes Alberta's Oil Sands As State Department Delays Keystone XL Pipeline Decision

While interests in both the USA and Canada are awaiting a State Department decision on a proposed pipeline linking northern Alberta's oil sands with Texas, Chinese companies are proposing a pipeline of their own linking the vast reserves with the Pacific Ocean.

The oil sands of this Canadian province are so big that they will be able to serve both of the world's largest economies as production expands in the coming years. But that will mean building at least two pipelines, one south to the Texas Gulf Coast and another west toward the Pacific, and that in turn means fresh environmental battles on top of those already raging over the costly and energy-intensive method of extracting oil from sand.

Most believe that both will eventually be built. But if the U.S. doesn't approve its pipeline promptly, Canada might increasingly look to China, thinking America doesn't want a big stake share in what environmentalists call "dirty oil," which they say increases greenhouse gas emissions.

Alberta has the world's third largest oil reserves, more than 170 billion barrels. Daily production of 1.5 million barrels from the oil sands is expected to nearly triple to 3.7 million in 2025. Overall, Alberta has more oil than Russia or Iran. Only Saudi Arabia and Venezuela have more.

Alberta is one of the few places where oil companies can invest, as the majority of the world's oil reserves are controlled by national governments. Only 22 percent of the total world reserves are accessible to private sector investment, 52 percent of which is in Alberta's oil sands, according to the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers.

At issue are environmental concerns over two proposed pipeline projects. The Northern Gateway Pipeline would pump oil from Edmonton, AB over the Rockies to a new maritime terminal in Kitimat, BC for export to China. China's state oil company, Sinopec [NYSE: SHI] reportedly has a stake in excess of US$ 5 billion in the plans drawn up by Alberta-based Enbridge [NYSE: ENB/TSX: ENB].

Map detailing already existing pipelines and proposed expansion

Meanwhile, running to the south is the Keystone XL project, much of which is already in place, but Phase 1 takes a circuitous zig-zag route through Manitoba before stretching south across the border to Steele City, NE. From there, the pipelines diverge with one heading east to Patoka, IL and the other heading south to Cushing, OK (See map above). The proposed extension (Phase 4) by pipeline owner TransCanada [NYSE: TRP/TSX: TRP] would bypass Phase 1 and take a more direct route from Alberta by cutting through eastern Montana, then western South Dakota and Nebraska. Phase three of the project would involve expanding the pipeline south from Oklahoma to the Houston area.

Natural oil sands seepage into Alberta's Athabaca River

So right off the bat, this KeystoneXL pipeline expansion would be providing Americans with jobs and an important energy source from a politically stable ally in the region. Sounds like a win-win- doesn't it?

Well- not to the usual suspects. Interesting how last year, Cap & Trade co-author Rep Henry Waxman (D- CA30) was concerned about the possible environmental impact of the Keystone XL project but now the House Democrat is worried that the eeeeeeevil Koch Brothers- the de-facto progressive boogeyman since late 2010- might financially benefit from the pipeline's construction- because apparently we cannot have abundant oil from Canada if a single Republican donor stands to benefit from it [curious how they aren't quite as dilligent on legislative or policy decisions that would affect....say...Jeffery Immelt- NANESB!].

'Green' energy advocates often (and rightly) cite our growing dependence on an energy source that primarily originates from a decreasingly stable parts of the world. Yet whether it's hydrofracking in the Marcellus Shale, offshore oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico or ANWAR, the same 'Green' energy advocates suddenly deem those energy sources off-limits.

Since the proposed KeystoneXL pipeline expansion crosses the US/Canada border, the final say in the matter is ultimately left up to the State Department, which is expected to make its final decision after a multi-agency review later on this year [A word of caution- leaving the matter up to the State Department could be a means for the White House to avoid making an unpopular political decision ahead of 2012- NANESB!]

Here's the thing that really bothers me- should they successfully derail the KeystoneXL project, it's not as though the oil sands will continue to sit there untapped. There is still the matter of growing demand from China. From the American perspective, one of the few things we have in our favor at the moment is that there's perhaps even more local opposition to the Northern Gateway pipeline project then there is the KeystoneXL. There is also concerns about tankers navigating the 55-mile inlet known as the Douglas Channel in order to get between Kitimat and the Pacific Ocean.

ExxonMobil Announces Significant Oil Find in Gulf of Mexico After Chaotic OPEC Meeting in Vienna

Oil giant ExxonMobil [NYSE- XOM] announced on Wednesday a major discovery in the Gulf of Mexico that could yield as much as 700 million barrels of oil.

Exxon began exploratory drilling at the Hadrian prospect in 2009. The company had finished two wells at the site, located about 250 miles off the Louisiana coast in 7,000 feet of water, and had a rig on location and an approved permit to drill a new well when operations were halted due to the temporary moratorium after the BP oil spill last year.

In March, federal regulators signed off on Exxon's revised permit to drill the new well in the Keathley Canyon area of the Gulf, the company's first approved under the new regulatory regime put in place after last year's spill. The new well extends about 23,000 feet below the sea surface, and the rig is continuing to drill deeper, said company spokesman Patrick McGinn.

"We estimate a recoverable resource of more than 700 million barrels of oil equivalent combined in our Keathley Canyon blocks," Steve Greenlee, president of ExxonMobil Exploration Company, said in a statement. "This is one of the largest discoveries in the Gulf of Mexico in the last decade. More than 85 percent of the resource is oil with additional upside potential."

The announcement came on the same day as a surprise announcement from the OPEC meetings in Vienna that the member states would leave production levels unchanged, causing a jump in oil prices.

OPEC officials said that because of a policy deadlock, the group will maintain present output ceilings with the option of meeting within the next three months to consider a hike.

"We are unable to reach consensus to ... raise our production," OPEC Secretary General Abdullah Al-Badri told reporters, in comments reflecting unusual tensions in the 12-nation Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries.

Saudi oil minister Ali Naimi called it "one of the worst meetings, we've ever had," while analysts covering OPEC for more than 20 years said they could not remember any other time that the normally closed group had admitted to such divisions in its ranks.

Some even saw the abortive meeting as a harbinger of demise for the organization, which produces more than a third of the world's petroleum.

"OPEC is ... on the point of break-up," said Marc Ostwald of Monument Securities. "A broader perspective is that the post World War II world order is fracturing in a spectacular fashion, be it the EU/Eurozone, the World Bank/IMF, (or) OPEC."

Other experts were less outspoken but agreed Wednesday's outcome would weaken the image of OPEC as a major regulator of oil markets.

The news caught markets by surprise, sending oil prices sharply higher. Benchmark crude for July delivery was up $1.25 to $100.34 per barrel in morning trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange after trading lower ahead of the OPEC meeting.

Saudi Arabia and other influential Gulf nations had pushed to increase production ceilings to calm markets and ease concerns that crude was overpriced for consumer nations struggling with their economies. Those opposed were led by Iran, the second-strongest producer within the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries.

Oil minister Rafael Ramirez of Venezuela- like Iran, a price hawk - said there was a "very tight" discussion in OPEC, in comments to his nation's state media. Any production increase "could cause a collapse of our price," he added.

While the Saudis and the Iranians are frequently at loggerheads over pricing, past meetings normally fell in behind Saudi Arabia, which produces the lion's share of OPEC output. But this time, the Saudi-Iranian rivalry combined with major political and economic uncertainties to lead to deadlock.

Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Algeria and Qatar were reportedly in favor of production increases while Iran, Venezuela, Angola, Ecuador and Iraq were opposed.

Confirmation of Natural Gas Deposits Have Israel Poised to Become Energy Exporter For 1st Time

Houston, TX based Noble Energy [NYSE: NBL] has confirmed the presence of a 16 trillion cubic feet reserve of natural gas off of Israel's Mediterranean coast last week. The natural gas field, known as Leviathan, could be worth as much as US$90 Billion at current market prices. The Leviathan discovery would be the biggest such discovery in a decade.

The news about Leviathan comes one year after a separate natural gas field, Tamar, was discovered off the coast of the Haifa region. The Tamar field is thought to contain another 8 trillion cubic feet of natural gas and was also discovered by surveyors from Noble.

The two discoveries are considered game-changing. Because of oil rich Islamic states hostile to the nation of Israel, the Jewish state often ends up importing oil or natural gas from as far away as Norway or the UK. The Leviathan and Tamar gas fields mean that not only could Israel become self-sufficient for her energy needs but once production begins, Israel could be an energy exporter for the first time in her history.

Of course, with the discovery comes the question of what to do with the anticipated surpluses. Noble has proposed the construction of a LNG plant, which would require billions of dollars in additional investment. An undersea pipeline has also been proposed, but that doesn't seem as likely given the hostility of some of Israel's neighbors. Already, Lebanon has claimed that part of the Leviathan field is in Lebanese waters.

There's also the matter of taxes and revenue from natural gas production. Israeli lawmakers have recently proposed nearly doubling the taxes on domestic oil and natural gas production, meaning the governments take could be more than 50%.

Production for the Tamar field isn't expected to begin until next year.

BBC: Millions of Euros for 'Green' Energy Subsidies Siphoned by Italian Mafia

Several shell companies controlled by the Sicilian and Calabrian mafia are fraudulently obtaining grants from the European Union and using 'green' energy projects to launder money, according to Italian officials and EU auditors.

Sicilian mafia turncoat Anthony Birrittella said that he and other organized crime figures viewed the EU funds as 'A gift to the mafia' and easy pickings.

"First the Mafia had an interest in many of the companies which obtained public funds, and they owned many of the companies which won the contracts to build wind farms, and finally they claimed fake transactions and issued double payment invoices."

He says the organisation used intimidation to obtain the plots of land it needed to build the wind farms, and threatened any construction firms who refused to pay its extortion fees.

"It started with arson on their premises or building sites, burning their trucks and machinery. That was followed up with threatening phone calls. At that point they usually got what they wanted."

Among the assets seized in what Italian autorities called a 'record' anti-mafia sweep in September were more than 40 wind and solar energy companies registered in Sicily and Calabria. The rapid growth of wind power in southern Italy has been fuelled in large part by generous government subsidies.

The seizure of the mob-controlled 'green' energy companies confirms to Italian officals that the Cosa Nostra and 'Ndrangheta crime syndicates breaking into the new 'green' economy as a means of laundering the profits from their other criminal enterprises.

[Hat tip: Friends of Ours]