Energy & Fuel

"Google and Apple are not the only big companies harnessing California's sunshine and wind to power their workplaces. Health care giant Kaiser Permanente will announce Wednesday that it has signed deals to buy electricity from a new wind farm to be built at the Altamont Pass, a vast solar plant in Southern California, and more than 100 smaller rooftop solar arrays to be installed at its hospitals, parking garages and medical offices, all of which will reduce its carbon emissions by 30 percent."

"Indiana utilities are pressing state lawmakers to let them charge a monthly fee to customers who sell excess power from solar panels under a bill that has become a focal point in a battle between traditional and renewable energy companies."

"Criminal charges are expected to be brought against Duke Energy in the next several days that will accuse the nation’s largest electric utility of multiple misdemeanor violations of the federal Clean Water Act."

"Four workers suffered minor injuries after a large explosion Wednesday morning at the Exxon Mobil refinery in Torrance [Calif.], according to an Exxon spokesman."

"The RCMP has labelled the 'anti-petroleum' movement as a growing and violent threat to Canada’s security, raising fears among environmentalists that they face increased surveillance, and possibly worse, under the Harper government’s new terrorism legislation."

"LONDON — Cleaning up an oil field in a forbidding environment like the North Sea may be almost as formidable a task as developing one, and in the coming years, those waters are likely to serve as a laboratory for what happens when the useful lives of oil fields expire."

"The Environmental Protection Agency said on Tuesday that it may ease an interim deadline for states to meet tougher carbon emission standards after regulators and electric utilities complained a lack of time may destabilize electricity supplies."

"An oil train was still on fire and leaking in West Virginia on Tuesday, a day after it derailed and erupted in flames, according to CSX Corp, which said the train was hauling newer model tank cars, not the older versions widely criticized as prone to puncture."

"A $1 billion Illinois project, meant to be the poster child for coal’s climate-friendly future, gets scuttled."