News Roundup
News Roundup for March 31
RAIL INVESTMENT
All commodities aboard
Freight rail giant Canadian Pacific says it will spend more than $100 million on its North Dakota operations to boost commodity transportation. In a March 25 announcement, CP said it will replace 17 miles of track in 2011 and 2012 and install snow fences to keep drifts from accumulating in rail beds. “North Dakota is a source of growth for CP and the Midwest’s economy with its increased grain production, vast oil deposits in the Bakken Formation and the continued strength of ethanol,” said Jane O’Hagan, executive vice president.
COUNTING CRAZY?
Last week, the Interior Department said its planned leases sales in the Wyoming coalfields would net $13.4 billion to $21.3 billion for federal coffers. Now officials are wondering where the department got its numbers. Marion Loomis, executive director of the Wyoming Mining Association, told the Casper Star-Tribune that the estimate could be wildly off the mark. The department’s numbers suggest the government would get $17 to $28 per ton for Powder River Basin coal, which currently goes for $13.45 per ton, and the feds have to share profits with Wyoming.
GREEN GOLDEN STATE
California might soon be requiring electric utilities to derive 33 percent of their power from renewables. The state Assembly passed a measure March 29 that would set a 33 percent standard by 2020. That’s up from the current requirement of 20 percent by 2020. A similar plan passed the Senate in February, and Gov. Jerry Brown is expected to sign it into law. The bill contains some flexibility for utilities that use gas-based generation to offset intermittent renewables.
ISO-WHAT?
Isobutanol. It doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue, but researchers at the Energy Department’s BioEnergy Science Center say it’s the next great thing for biofuels. Scientists have found a way to use bacteria to convert plant matter into isobutanol, which is a higher grade of alcohol than ethanol. The new process also saves time and cuts costs. “Isobutanol can be blended at any ratio with gasoline and should eliminate the need for dedicated infrastructure in tanks or vehicles,” added researcher James Liao, a professor at UCLA.
―Based on news and wire reports
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