E2-Wire

The World Bank on Thursday approved a $3.75B loan to help build a massive coal-fired power plant in South Africa.

President Obama is requiring an initial report from federal mine safety officials next week on the explosion at a West Virginia coal mine Monday that killed at least 25 workers, the White House announced Thursday.

The explosion at Massey Energy Co.’s Upper Big Branch mine – a mine that federal regulators have cited for numerous safety violations – is the nation’s worst mining accident in over two decades.

Obama has tasked the officials with producing an initial assessment on the causes of the accident and “what actions could prevent further tragedies in this industry,” the White House said.

States’ rights are taking center stage as the Senate prepares to tackle climate change.

State and local air pollution regulators sent a letter Thursday to the architects of the upcoming Senate climate bill that warns against curtailing state programs to cut greenhouse gases.

"While any federal program should be sufficiently stringent to substantially reduce GHG emissions, federal legislation should not preempt state or local governments from taking more stringent actions, especially in light of the past leadership and innovation demonstrated by state and local officials in reducing GHG emissions," states the letter from the National Association of Clean Air Agencies.

A bipartisan group of lawmakers plans to introduce legislation to set American transportation on a new course, away from the internal combustion engine and toward battery-powered cars and small trucks.

David Crane, CEO of NRG Energy, an electric utility, told reporters the bill would adopt components of a blueprint the business-backed Electrification Coalition developed to solve a “chicken and egg” problem that’s kept drivers dependent on oil, often from not so friendly places. Customers won’t buy electric vehicles if there is not infrastructure to support them, and the infrastructure won’t be built if there are few vehicles to support.

The coalition, which includes NRG, Cisco Systems, Nissan Motor Company and FedEx, wants $120 billion in government support over eight years to boost the electric car industry, which always seems to be something that is just around the corner.

The former vice president's group stayed silent on nuclear power plants, but it is making its drilling opposition clear.

The U.S. wind industry added over 10,000 megawatts of capacity in 2009, the fifth record-breaking year in a row, but industry officials say Congress could do far more to boost development.

Total U.S. wind power generating capacity is now over 35,000 megawatts, and wind provided 1.8 percent of U.S. electric power in 2009, according to the American Wind Energy Association’s annual market survey released Thursday.

Texas remains the state with the most wind power installed and consolidated its lead last year, AWEA reports, while GE remained the top turbine supplier.

Don’t look for environmental issues including global warming to be at the forefront of voters’ minds in the 2010 elections.

* Federal regulators cited mine for violations on the day of the blast that killed at least 25 workers.

The Wall Street Journal has this story on the mine explosion that killed at least 25 miners in West Virginia. Federal records indicate that the Mine Safety and Health Administration had accused the mine's operator—Performance Coal —of violating a regulation that requires companies to maintain up-to-date escapeway maps.

From the WSJ: "Underground coal mines are required to have maps detailing escape routes, the location of doors and refuge chambers. The other citation involves an alleged violation of a regulation governing the splicing of electrical cables, according to MSHA's Web site."

The New York Times and the Washington Post profile Don Blankenship, the controversial chief executive of Massey Energy, which owns Performance Coal.

Read more...

Exxon Mobil Corp. is refuting the Forbes story we cited Wednesday morning that claimed the oil giant paid no U.S. income taxes last year.

This new Forbes piece on associate editor Christopher Helman's energy blog details Exxon’s response to his earlier assertion about the company's U.S.  tax payments (or lack thereof).

Here's a blurb:

ConocoPhillips CEO Jim Mulva on Wednesday called White House plans to expand offshore oil-and-gas drilling a step forward but said even more areas should be opened up to development.

“It is a good first step and we think it is important to make more acreage available, we think it is important also to assess what ultimately could be made available off of the coasts,” the CEO of the country’s third-largest oil company told reporters.

Mulva spoke to reporters after addressing a meeting of the United States Energy Association in Washington, D.C.