US DOE Offers Conditional Commitment for a Loan Guarantee to Support Maine Wind Project

According to the press release, “U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu today announced the offer of a conditional commitment to Record Hill Wind LLC for a $102 million loan guarantee. The loan guarantee will support the Record Hill wind project, which includes a 50.6 megawatt wind power plant and an eight mile transmission line and associated [...]

IntercontinentalExchange Reports 26% Increase in 2010 Net Income

According to the press release, “IntercontinentalExchange, Inc. (NYSE: ICE), a leading operator of regulated global exchanges, clearing houses and over-the-counter (OTC) markets, today reported consolidated revenues of $285 million in the fourth quarter of 2010, an increase of 11% from fourth quarter 2009 revenues of $257 million. Consolidated net income attributable to ICE for the fourth quarter grew [...]

Chicago Climate Exchange shuttering emissions trading

The Chicago Climate Exchange will be shutting down at the end of the year. This was due to many factors, one such is the lack of interest of passing cap and trade laws in the US. This is not good news for cap and trade proponents as it will nearly end the trading of emissions [...]

U.S. exchange’s CO2 cap-and-trade to end: report

According to Reuters, “The United States’ only national carbon trading scheme could be shut down within months because of stalled emissions trading laws in Congress, the Financial Times newspaper on Tuesday quoted a senior exchange official as saying. The Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX) operates what it calls a voluntary but legally binding greenhouse gas emissions [...]

Carbonflow Corp. Closes Second Round of Venture Financing

According to the press release, “Carbonflow® announced today that it has closed a Series B round of venture funding totaling $4.2 million. The proceeds will be used to expand the company’s global sales presence and accelerate the release of new software products and services. The round was led by OVP Venture Partners and included @Ventures [...]

Centrica reaches agreement to acquire additional Canadian gas assets

According to the press release, “Centrica plc today announced that its North American subsidiary, Direct Energy, has reached an agreement with Suncor Energy (TSX: SU, NYSE: SU), to acquire its natural gas assets in the Wildcat Hills region of Alberta, for a cash consideration of C$375 million (£229 million). This acquisition will provide Direct Energy [...]

ICE cuts staff at Chicago Climate Exchange: sources

According to Reuters, “Market operator Intercontinental Exchange Inc. is laying off staff at newly acquired U.S. environmental bourse the Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX), industry sources told Reuters, citing a lack of U.S. action on climate change. They said the first round of layoffs began on July 23 and, although the total number of jobs to [...]

Spurned Chinese developers blast U.N. CO2 rulings

According to Reuters, “Developers behind the 19 Chinese wind and hydropower projects rejected by a U.N.-backed clean energy investment panel have accused the board in charge of making arbitrary and non-transparent rule changes. Most said they had no choice but to reapply to try to earn internationally tradeable carbon offsets they said were needed to [...]

Germany arrests 4 in CO2 probe, 50 more suspects

According to Reuters, “Frankfurt prosecutors said on Friday they had arrested four people in Germany and Britain in connection with suspected tax evasion in carbon permit trading and 50 more people were being investigated. He declined to name individuals, as is customary under German law. Deutsche Bank said seven of its employees were suspects in [...]

France seeks tighter regulation of CO2 market

According to Reuters, “A French government report on Monday urged tighter regulation of the fast-growing carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions trading market, which has suffered from exploitation of legal loopholes and illegal sales practices. France’s finance ministry commissioned Michel Prada, former head of the country’s AMF stock market watchdog, to publish a report on the CO2 [...]

Forest carbon incentive rules need time, definition

According to Reuters, “Talks to define a mechanism for global forest protection should not be rushed if it is to work efficiently and fairly, a panel of experts said on Tuesday. Talks began in Paris last month to define an interim and global architecture for a financial incentive scheme to reduce emissions from deforestation and [...]

PepsiCo Launches Groundbreaking Pilot Program to Reduce Carbon Footprint of Tropicana

According to an Outlook Press Release, “”This pilot program is just one more example of how PepsiCo is working hand-in-hand with our suppliers to find innovative ways to make this aspect of our business more environmentally sustainable,” said Indra Nooyi, chairman and CEO of PepsiCo. “Our business is inextricably linked to agriculture, and we are [...]

States sue EPA to stop greenhouse gas rules

According to Reuters, “At least 15 U.S. states have sued the Environmental Protection Agency seeking to stop it from issuing rules controlling greenhouse gas emissions until it reexamines whether the pollution harms human health. Florida, Indiana, South Carolina and at least nine other states filed the petitions in the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in [...]

Carbon traders fear pink slips

Reuters reports that, “Wall Street was supposed to become the capital of a global carbon trading market worth a trillion dollars a year but now many who thought green trading desks would be the next big thing are fearing the pink slip. U.S. banks had looked forward to a huge “cap-and-trade market” a system where [...]

Hopes for $2 trillion global carbon market fade

According to Reuters, “Investors are becoming less convinced that a global carbon market, estimated to be worth about $2 trillion by the end of the decade, can be established as uncertainty over global climate policy persists. The absence of legally binding global climate deal and a federal emissions trading scheme in the United States are [...]

UK firms not ready for government green plan: consultants

According to Reuters, “UK businesses are unprepared for a complex government plan to cut corporate energy use and it will only deliver 1.4 percent of its carbon reduction target for 2020, energy consultants McKinnon & Clarke said in a report. The government hopes to reduce greenhouse gases by 34 percent by 2020 below 1990 levels [...]

Citi and BlueNext to hold the first auction of ERUs

According to the Press Release, “Citi, the global financial services company, and BlueNext, the environmental trading exchange, announced today that they are preparing to hold the first ever auction of Emission Reduction Units (ERUs). The auction will consist of 200,000 ERUs and is scheduled for the first half of January 2010. Historically, the majority of [...]

U.S. carbon market growth seen without climate bill

According to Reuters, “Voluntary carbon markets in the United States will grow especially at the regional level even if a stalled federal climate bill fails to impose “cap and trade” on American industry, the chairman of the Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX) said on Tuesday. “I think we will continue to see interest in voluntary carbon [...]

France to propose new carbon tax: minister

According to Reuters, “The French Constitutional Council annulled the tax, hailed by President Nicolas Sarkozy as a ground-breaking tool to fight climate change, on Tuesday on the grounds that it offered too many exemptions. After the Constitutional Council complained that some 93 percent of industrial emissions were exempt from the tax, Lagarde told French radio [...]

Carbon Acquisition Company Ltd to acquire Ecosecurities Group Plc

According to the Press Release, “Carbon Acquisition Company Ltd’s, a wholly-owned indirect subsidiary of J.P. Morgan (NYSE: JPM) £1.05 a share offer to acquire EcoSecurities Group Plc (EcoSecurities) (LSE: ECO), a leading company in the business of sourcing, developing and trading emission reduction credits, has become wholly unconditional. Carbon Acquisition Company expects to complete the [...]

Iceland serves up ice

Carbon emissions come from all types of different sources, some are traditional and some we know very little about. Automobiles, running on brown energy release CO2 into the air, as to home appliances, boats and other products that require electricity. In a changing world, there are always going to be new, and potentially more environmentally [...]

Carbon capture coal tech must be ready by 2019: U.S.

According to Reuters, “A technology to bury underground the greenhouse gas emissions produced from burning coal must be ready for global deployment by 2017-2019, U.S. energy secretary Steven Chu said on Monday. Coal is the world’s single biggest source of carbon emissions, at 40 percent. Other sources included burning oil and natural gas, and deforestation [...]

Sierra Pacific Industries and Equator Announce Largest U.S. Forest Carbon Transaction to Date

According to the Press Release on 9/30/2009, “California’s largest private landowner – Sierra Pacific Industries, and Equator, LLC, a natural resources asset management firm, announced today that they have entered into the nation’s single largest precompliance forest carbon transaction to date. The transaction will consist of a series of projects focused on developing compliance‐ready carbon [...]