Inspectors found industrial chemicals and hazardous wastes improperly labeled and stored, wastes left inside laboratory work stations, unreported spills of industrial chemicals, and chemical waste abandoned around both sites, Ecology said in a statement Thursday.

Energy Northwest had leased property to industrial clients at the industrial development site. Those companies performed commercial operations such as painting, metal recycling and heavy equipment storage.

None of the violations involved radioactive waste.

The state issued a $120,000 fine and administrative order to Energy Northwest for the nuclear plant violations, and a second administrative order for the industrial site. Both orders require the utility to correct all violations by the end of 2007.

“The unacceptable training of employees, the lack of reporting of spills of dangerous substances into the environment and the improper storage of waste escalated our concerns about lack of management and safety oversight at Energy Northwest,” said Jane Hedges, Ecology’s nuclear waste program manager.

However, the department said it was encouraged by Energy Northwest’s initial response and that it would continue to work closely with the utility to ensure that all violations are addressed.

“It’s clear that there are areas for us to improve our processes, and we think that’s appropriate and we appreciate them helping us identify those areas for improvement,” Energy Northwest spokesman Brad Peck said.

However, utility officials also think the dollar amount of the fine is uncharacteristically high and are considering whether to appeal, he said.

“It’s important for the public to understand that there’s nothing here that constitutes a direct threat to public health or safety,” Peck said. “It’s serious and not to be taken lightly, yes, but perhaps not the gravity that would fit with the language and the size of the penalty.”

Energy Northwest is a consortium of 20 public utilities and municipalities. In addition to the nuclear plant, the utility operates a hydropower project, as well as wind, solar and biomass power projects.

Energy Northwest also has proposed a 680-megawatt coal gasification plant to be built in Kalama, about 45 miles north of Portland, Ore. The state Energy Facility Site Evaluation Council is still conducting a review of the plant application.

Today, Google.org has issued a request for investment proposals (RFP) to the tune of $10 million in order to advance sustainable transportation solutions. We are inviting entrepreneurs and companies to show us their best ideas on how they can contribute to this important cause. We need catalytic investments to support technologies, products and services that are critical to accelerating plug-in vehicle commercialization. That is why we have structured this RFP to offer investment dollars to for-profit companies to promote social and environmental change. The severity of global warming requires solutions from NGOs, governments, individuals and (very importantly) the private sector. We have already made $1 million in grants to a group of outstanding non-profit organizations, and want to expand our impact by spurring innovation in the private sector. While $10 million is a fraction of the total investment needed to transform our transportation sector, we hope this RFP will help catalyze a broader response. We need the automakers to bring these cars to market, but plug-in vehicles also need an entire ecosystem of companies to flourish.

We realize that this type of open call for proposals is not the usual model for investment, but we wanted to use a process that was open to new ideas and new entrants. Part of our goal is to get as many people as possible to work on solutions to our vehicle emissions challenges. We welcome and expect to receive submissions from a wide variety of companies — from cutting edge battery technologies to innovative service businesses – and from companies of all sizes. We also encourage participants from all over the world to submit proposals. This is a global challenge, and it will take all of us to solve it.

This open RFP process is a new approach to mission-focused investing, and we’re interested to see what we can learn from it, both in terms of opportunities and gaps that exist in this space today, as well as ways that we can improve on this solicitation process for future investments. Our focus on learning is the primary reason we decided to narrow this first RFP to investments in private companies, rather than a combination of grants and investments.

We will continue to make grants as part of RechargeIT and other programs, but we’re excited today to announce our first foray into investments.To learn more, read the RFP.

Posted by Kirsten Olsen

To protect our living planet, WWF continues to push for major reductions in CO2 emissions and increases in the use of energy efficient technologies and renewable energy resources like wind and solar energy. WWF’s current projects move individuals, business and industry, and leaders — local, national and international — towards responsible energy and environmental choices.

[b]PowerSwitch![/b] – WWF has challenged energy utilities to use more energy efficient technologies and sources of clean energy like wind and solar.

[b]Climate Savers[/b] – WWF is developing partnerships with innovative companies to reduce their heat-trapping CO2 emissions.

[b]Policy[/b] – WWF participates in regional, national and international policy debates to build support for solutions to climate change.

The energy choices made in one place can dramatically affect animals, people, air, land, and water around the world and for years to come. WWF is also involved in scientific research projects that examine the impact of climate change on polar bears, corals and American pikas.

If we can build upon our successes and encourage everyone to take action to stop global warming, future generations will enjoy a living planet.

The program is very helpful to consumers who want to do the right thing environmentally while also saving on energy bills, but it is not a ?cradle-to-grave? assessment. ?Cradle-to-grave,? as the term implies, measures an appliance?s environmental impact over the course of its entire life, and it counts other factors besides energy use and costs.

German and Scandinavian manufacturers, for example, thanks to stringent ?Extended Producer Responsibility? (EPR) laws in place there, must do more than maximize the energy efficiency of their products. They must also eliminate hazardous materials from both the appliances? components and their manufacturing processes (i.e. ?cradle?), and make them in such a way that maximizes their recyclability and reusability so as to keep them out of landfills (?grave?). In fact, European EPR laws even require companies to take back some of their products at the end of their useful life, removing the burden from the consumer as well as from local community waste handling systems.

And with passage last year of ?Directive 2005/32/EC? by the European Union (EU), similar laws will apply for any manufacturer–domestic or otherwise–that wants to sell appliances to Europe?s 400-million-strong consumer market. The goal is to encourage manufacturers to assess the full lifecycle impacts of their products, which would ideally also lead to the elimination of unnecessary parts and of wasteful, extraneous packaging. The directive becomes law across the continent in 2007.

Meanwhile, strong industry lobbies have thus far prevented similar legislation from taking hold in the U.S., though some state and local governments have expressed interest in European-style take-back laws. A few forward-thinking computer makers, including IBM and Hewlett-Packard, have started take-back programs voluntarily in order to salvage some components for re-use while looking good to environmentally-conscious consumers. But for the most part the trend has not caught on for American manufacturers and there are no laws in place to force them to abandon that age-old and not-so-green-friendly principle of ?planned obsolescence.?

Fred von Mechow

"Four groups of companies presented proposals," said Manuela Fonseca, an official at the economy ministry’s geology and energy department.

The two-phase project should generate 1,500 megawatts of wind power.

EDP estimated it would invest 1.3 billion euros ($1.55 billion) in an industrial plant if it wins the government auction for the wind power project.

"We are talking about an investment of about 1.3 billion euros that would create about 1,200 new jobs," an EDP spokesman said. EDP and its partners would create an industrial site in northern Portugal which would make equipment for the windmills, such as turbines, the spokesman said.

Galp Energia promised 1.035 billion euros in investments, it said in a statement. Galp’s consortium includes Enersis, a wind power company bought by Australian investment group Babcock & Brown last year.

Bidders had until 5 p.m. (1700 GMT) on Wednesday to present their bids to Portugal’s government, which should decide the winner by the summer.

750,000 HOMES
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The project will provide enough power for about 750,000 homes and is equal to about a quarter of the wind energy capacity installed last year in the 25-nation European Union, according to figures from the European Wind Energy Association (EWEA).

The nation of 10 million people imports about 86 percent of its power, one of the highest levels in Europe, and is aiming to harness winds off the Atlantic Ocean and other renewable sources to counter rising fuel costs.

Portugal is also looking to wind to help meet its goals under the United Nations’ Kyoto Protocol, which aims to cut output of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide that are blamed for global warming.

Portugal’s emissions surged almost 37 percent from 1990 to 2003, the third-highest increase in the world, according to UN figures.

The project calls for a first phase of 1,000 megawatts of capacity and a second of 500 megawatts. The winner is expected to be announced during the summer.

It also served to deflect Western criticism of Russia’s democratic record and offset damaging publicity linked to January’s dispute with Ukraine over the price of Russian gas, which disrupted supplies to Europe.

"Instability in hydrocarbon markets poses today a real threat to global energy supply. The gap between supply and demand is widening," Putin said in a 1,700-word text issued by the Kremlin.

"We will strive to form a system of energy security which will take into account the interests of the whole world."

Striking a statesmanlike note, Putin warned that world leaders had a duty to work out a strategy to end instability over energy supplies or else generations to come would suffer.

A stable energy policy should reflect broad international interests, not just those of wealthy nations, he argued.

"Energy egotism is the road to nowhere," Putin said. "We are duty bound to leave for those who follow us a world energy ‘architecture’ which will protect them from conflicts, from unconstructive forms of struggle over energy supply."

Putin will host US President George W Bush and other G8 leaders at a summit in his home town of St. Petersburg in July to crown Russia’s first stint chairing the rich nations’ group.

Russia took over the rotating presidency of the club, which includes the United States, Japan,?Canada, Germany, France, Britain and Italy, at the start of the year.

It was formally invited to join the grouping in 1998 to cement its transition from communism to democracy.

Some other G8 members still do not consider Russia an equal, however, pointing to what they see as flaws in its record on democracy. Despite its oil and gas riches, Russia also went to the brink of financial ruin and debt default in the late 1990s.

STRONG MESSAGE

Putin’s strong message, widely aired in Russian media and carried by several newspapers in the West, underscored Russia’s role as an energy superpower.

Russia is the second largest oil exporter and has the biggest reserves of gas in the world, supplying about 25 percent of Europe’s gas needs.

But it was criticised by other G8 countries early this year when a row with Ukraine led it to shut off gas supplies to its neighbour.

Since the bulk of Russian gas supplies to Europe are carried across Ukraine, the dispute prompted questions within the European Union over Moscow’s reliability as a supplier, although few real alternatives exist.

Kremlin officials see the G8 presidency as an affirmation of Russia’s renewed geopolitical clout after the chaos of the 1990s and the fall of the Soviet Union.

The president himself has said critics must accept that Russia, flush with oil cash and undergoing an economic boom, is a dynamic player in the world economy.

Putin, who must step down in 2008 at the end of his second four-year term in office, is keen to play the global statesman and underline that Russia is still at the top table of world politics on questions of energy.

With oil prices at more than $60 a barrel, oil traders are riding the biggest bull market since prices soared to records, in real terms, after the 1979 Iranian revolution.

That is a concern for major oil consumers, such the United States, China, the European Union and Japan, though it boosts revenues for top exporters Russia and Saudi Arabia.

Other items on the G8 2006 agenda fixed by Russia are fighting infectious diseases and education.

Putin said Russia would press for an operational plan to fight avian flu and "avert a new pandemic of human influenza."

Even with further project delays and cost increases possible, it is making steady progress on Sakhalin 2, one of only two developments underway in a region officials say holds more crude oil and natural gas than Europe’s North Sea.

A jetty stretching into the icy waters off Russia’s far east coast looks forlorn but is a footstep of progress made by Shell, as it tries to challenge nature to ship liquefied natural gas (LNG) to countries enamoured with the clean fuel.

By summer 2008, LNG will start flowing from the jetty on tankers heading around the Pacific, relieving energy markets stretched by surging gas demand for residential and industrial use from Asian and US consumers.

The Anglo-Dutch oil major and its partners, Japan’s Mitsui & Co and Mitsubishi Corp, missed an initial November 2007 target for the first LNG shipment from Sakhalin 2 by six months because of ecological obstacles and repeated postponements by Russian authorities over expenditure.

Project costs have doubled to $20 billion.

And there may still be a risk of further delays, though the world’s largest LNG project is progressing at the quickest pace out of nine energy projects in Sakhalin.

"The project is just over 60 percent complete at the moment," Sakhalin Energy’s chief executive Ian Craig said.

Shell plans to start year-round crude oil production in 2007, Craig said. Its oil production is now suspended for about six months in the year because of drift ice shutting ports.

Sakhalin 2 consists of gigantic offshore platforms, oil and gas pipelines with a total length of 800 kilometres (497 miles), as well as terminals with two LNG trains that chill natural gas to a liquid form for transport.

FROZEN BEAUTY

Sakhalin, an island about the size of Scotland, has a population of around 53,000 and holds an estimated 45 billion barrels equivalent of recoverable oil and gas reserves.

But the biggest challenge is the island’s harsh if beautiful natural environment.

In addition to frigid weather that sees temperatures plunge to minus 30 degrees Celsius on winter nights, the land has numerous seismic faults as part of the Pacific’s rim of fire.

Pipeline crossing points at active faults at the southern part were still under design, engineer Samar Slim told Reuters.

He has to use the costly technique of horizontal drilling to avoid damaging rivers where salmon come to lay eggs in summer.

"It is a lot more expensive than normal methods (to build pipelines). In my understanding, 10 times more," Slim said.

The dark waters of the Sea of Okhotsk provide a rich marine environment, harbouring feeding grounds for the endangered Western Grey Whale environmentalists fear has been disrupted by the project.

Shell says it is working to safeguard the species, with Sakhalin Energy spending about $7 million on whale research from 1997 to 2005 and agreeing last year to reroute offshore pipelines.

Humans are also an endangered species on Sakhalin.

Construction workers at Sakhalin 2′s Prigorodnoye terminal in the south, where the two giant LNG trains reside, are bundled up in padded clothes like skiers to protect their bodies from heavy snow, only their frost-crusted eyes visible from outside.

The workers have to warm up machinery parts?in tents – not to mention themselves – before putting them into action, a practice hardly necessary in warmer energy producers such as Saudi Arabia, and one adding to the project’s time and cost.

"Usually, it takes about 36 months to complete construction works of this kind of facility. But here in Sakhalin, the first train takes 51 months," said Frank Fletcher, project manager at the plant.

The jetty, chilled by wind from Aniva Bay and still not connected to land like England’s fire-wrecked old Brighton pier, is still waiting for spring and the return of more workers, whose numbers rise from 6,000 in winter to 8,000 in summer.

Up to 5,000 construction workers live in a camp just next to the plant. The main office’s walls are full of cautious advice: "Drugs don’t relax you. It kills you… Alcohol doesn’t build friendship, it destroys it… Safe sex, or no sex."

STILL AHEAD

Shell has sold about 75 percent of its planned 9.6 million tonnes a year of LNG from Sakhalin 2 on long-term supply contracts to Japan, South Korea and the US West Coast.

But Sakhalin 2 is only developing about 10 percent of the area’s resources and Shell is not the only one eyeing the riches.

Russia’s gas monopoly Gazprom is negotiating with Shell to take 25 percent of Sakhalin 2.

There are eight other new energy projects, including Sakhalin 1 led by US oil giant Exxon Mobil Corp.

Sakhalin 1 started commercial crude oil production in October, but Exxon has not begun to build gas facilities since it first needs a buyer; unlike Shell it plans to transfer gas from Sakhalin 1 to a single customer, possibly China, via a pipeline.

Exxon had hoped to develop Sakhalin 3, under a previous deal scrapped by the government. The field is expected to be auctioned later this year.

"The rest of the projects just have numbers," an industry official said.

"We think it’s an extremely attractive area in which to invest, particularly because many states in the US now require that utilities buy a certain percentage of their energy from solar, biomass, geothermal or wind power sources," he told Reuters at a private equity conference in Frankfurt where he also predicted that some buyout firms would go public within the next several years.

To meet the energy demand, Carlyle, one of the world’s largest private equity firms, is raising a fund that will invest in renewable energy infrastructure, sources familiar with the matter said.

Carlyle declined to comment on the fund. Rubenstein did, however, say the firm was set to launch a hedge fund within the next several weeks after announcing the move last year.

Soaring oil prices have prompted state and federal governments to explore alternative sources.

US President George Bush in his State of the Union address outlined details of a ?ederal initiative to provide a 22 percent increase in clean-energy research. The US government’s 2007 budget includes $44 million for wind energy research, a $5 million increase from the year before.

Investing in the current cycle of renewable energy interest has not taken off, with only a handful of firms actively pursuing opportunities.

J.P. Morgan Partners, the private equity arm of investment bank J.P. Morgan and rival bank Goldman Sachs are among companies investing in the projects.

CREDIT

Rubenstein was speaking at the annual Super Return conference in Germany, where private equity firms came under attack last year from a leading local politician, who branded them "locusts" who buy up companies and cut jobs.

Rubenstein said that charge was unfounded and encouraged German pension funds to invest in private equity funds.

"German political leaders and business leaders should encourage more German private equity firms to get started – don’t wait for the Americans to show up but support and encourage Germans to start their own funds and to do the same kind of things that the Americans are doing," Rubenstein said.

"They should also take a look at the facts about what is actually happening in the German economy as opposed to criticising private equity people," Rubenstein said.

"We don’t deserve all the credit for the German economy, clearly, but I think private equity people deserve some credit for trying to help get the German economy into the 21st century."

IPOS ON THE HORIZON

The buyout pioneer also predicted some private equity firms would look to go public within the next five years.

"Private equity firms are being beseiged by investment banks all the time to go public," he said, although he stressed that Carlyle would not be seeking a listing.

Others may be bought by an investment bank, he said.

He also warned that the current ripe conditions for buyouts – huge funds, mountains of cheap debt, low interest rates and strong economic growth – might not last forever.

"Right now we’re operating as if the music’s not going to stop playing and the music is going to stop. I am more concerned about this than any other issue," Rubenstein said.

He also cautioned about the rush of private equity funds to do ever-larger club style deals, where up to five or six firms get together to buy assets, piling on billions of dollars in debt as part of the process.

"It might be easy to buy into these … when things are going good. I worry these deals don’t look so smart when economies turn down," Rubenstein said.

Grape-based alcohol would have to be distilled before being dehydrated and turned into pure alcohol ready to be added to conventional fuel.

"We are now starting to look into it, but it is mainly the economics of such a green fuel that we are studying," Eric Bontemps, head of research at the cooperative wine institute ICV, told Reuters.

The alcohol yield from grapes was seven times lower than for sugar beet, Bontemps noted.

France produces 200,000 tonnes of ethanol a year, the third largest European output after Spain and Poland, largely from sugar beet or cereals.

"With an annual output surplus of 400 million litres, we could produce 40 million litres of alcohol to be potentially used in biofuels," Bontemps said.

"But with some research I think we should be able to increase the amount of alcohol which vines can produce, through distilling techniques for example," he added. "It could be worthwhile for struggling wine makers to do that as an additional income," Bontemps said.

Roland Courteau, Senator for the southwest region of Aude and a champion of the wine industry, last week urged France’s Agriculture Minister Dominique Bussereau to help the wine industry diversify.

"Regarding the use of wine surplus in biofuels, I consider this is a good idea," Bussereau said, adding that wine marc and dregs were already used to produce ethanol. Courteau said the minister agreed to set up a working group from December to study yields and types of vines. Other countries were making similar research, he added.

STRUGGLING WINE MAKERS

"French wine growers have been in a deep crisis over the last five years when consumption in France stabilised and exports started to drop," a spokeswoman at Onivins said.

Consumption in France averages 3.5 billion litres, exports 1.5 billion litres and around 0.4 billion litres are distilled to produce brandy, she said, adding that France did not have outlets for more than 5.5 billion litres.

"And because the 2004 harvest was at 5.8 billion litres we now have a stock of 4 billion litres which is a level we had never reached in the last 10 years.

"This year we had to distill 150 million litres including Bordeaux and Cotes du Rhone wines to lighten the market," she added.

Bontemps said the sector had to react. "There is no reason why sales should increase so we have to find other solutions."

Courteau said the crisis was such that vintners were contemplating ripping out vines, but he did not ?ant to see vineyards turned into wasteland.

"Also we can’t exclude the possibility that young wine producers may commit acts out of total despair because of the money they have borrowed for their businesses," he added.

"I’m very positive (about the announcement). It is unusually unambigous and that is a great step forward," said Andrew Owens, chief executive officer of UK biofuels supplier Greenergy.

The measure, known as the Renewable Transport Fuels Obligation, should save around one million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions in 2010, the equivalent of taking a million cars off the road, Darling said in a statement.

"I think it (five percent) is realistic. We’re delighted," said Malcolm Shepherd, managing director of biofuels company Green Spirit Fuels Plc.

Biofuels use in the UK has been growing during the past few months, with supermarket giant Tesco Plc among those expanding sales at its forecourts.

"This is a big step forward in the UK’s effort to combat climate change," Clare Wenner, head of biofuels at the Renewable Power Association, said.

The RPA, however, expressed disappointment at the five percent requirement, which is a volume target and is the equivalent of 3.5 percent on energy content.

The European Union biofuels directive released in 2003 calls for a target of 5.75 percent on the basis of energy content.

DISAPPOINTMENT

"It is disappointing that the government has gone only as far as five percent. Still, we are confident the figure will increase over time so that motorists can do more to save carbon in the future," Wenner said.

Oil companies that sell more than the five percent obligation will be able to sell credits to other companies.

Greenergy’s Owens said that was an important feature of the measure as it would be impossible to ensure all areas reached the five percent level.

The UK government also proposed a scheme requiring companies to supply details on the level of carbon savings achieved.

Owens said that requirement might be challenging for some palm oil suppliers but it was not clear how much generally it would benefit domestic producers at the expense of imported supplies as producers such as Brazil could produce bioethanol often with huge carbon savings.

The UK relies heavily on Brazilian bioethanol to meet its current use of biofuels.

British crops such as wheat, sugar beet and rapeseed could be used to supply biofuels.

"We have been pushing government for a while now to introduce a meaningful target for biofuel use and we are delighted they have now done so," National Farmers Union Scotland vice-president Bob Howat said in a statement.

"Whilst a five per cent target sits just below the EU- recommended level, this is still an extremely significant move," he added.