John Kerry Comes Out Swinging On Climate Change
Green Energy Chronicles
John's weekly update on graft, corruption and waste in the energy sector.
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John Kerry Comes Out Swinging On Climate Change
John Kerry used his first major speech as Secretary of State to make that case that failing to confront climate change means missing big economic opportunities — and worse. “If we waste this opportunity, it may be the only thing our generation — generations — are remembered for. We need to find the courage to leave a far different legacy,” Kerry said in a wide-ranging address Wednesday at the University of Virginia.
Kerry again signaled that he hopes to use his role as top diplomat to promote green energy technologies, arguing they can provide a major boost to U.S. industries in the “next great revolution in our marketplace.”
Kerry slams critics of foreign aid in first major speech as secretary
John Kerry on Wednesday ripped his former colleagues in Congress for contributing to public opposition to foreign aid during his first major address as secretary of State. Kerry said many Americans believe that the United States spends 25 percent of its budget on foreign affairs, instead of the real figure of just over 1 percent. He said politicians looking for an applause line have contributed to that misperception.
“Where do you think this idea comes from?” Kerry asked. “Well I'll tell you, it's pretty simple. As a recovering politician, I can tell you that nothing gets a crowd clapping faster in a lot of places than saying: 'I'm going to Washington to get them to stop spending all that money over there.' ”
Italy makes 'Mafia' arrests over Sicily wind farms
Police have arrested five people in eastern Sicily suspected of involvement in Mafia corruption over contracts to build wind farms, Italian media report. The mayor and a councillor in the small town of Fondachelli Fantina, in Messina province, were among those detained. The five face charges including extortion, fraud and Mafia association.
The investigation, which began in 2009, is linked to sub-contracts awarded to build energy farms near Agrigento, Palermo and Trapani. A total of 11 people were under investigation, including two managers from a firm that won the main contract to build one of the wind farms, installing 63 turbines. The contract was worth some 120bn euros (£103bn).
In December, police arrested six people and seized 10bn euros (£8.6bn) in assets in an investigation into suspected Mafia infiltration of other renewable energy facilities in western Sicily, Ansa reports. The proceeds from contracts are believed to have been channelled to the fugitive head of the Sicilian Cosa Nostra, Matteo Messina Denaro.
More on organized crime and wind...
Iberdrola backs subsidy freeze
Spain’s biggest power utility by market value says it is a sensible move for a country that has been paying too much for electricity it does not need. “What we were doing was irrational,” says Ignacio Galán, chairman. “It makes no sense. Spain is installing the most expensive technologies in Europe instead of looking for those which are cheapest.” One analyst says they fear retrospective cuts in tariffs from government. Another says a nuclear windfall tax is what they should worry about. As for plans in Britain, Galan says: ”The area that has the most uncertainty is the area of nuclear. We still don’t know how it’s going to be properly paid – what the return will be. The decision to go ahead (in a consortium with GDF Suez) is not going to be taken until the moment the framework is clear and predictable enough, with enough remuneration for those investments.”
Iberdrola suspends wind projects in US due to subsidy cut
After four years of constant aid to the wind energy sector in the US, Obama's administration has decided to end the subsidies to the sector and thus no more new wind farms or solar plants will be constructed. One of the companies most affected is Iberdrola, whose American subsidiary decided to stop the development of all of its projects in the US until the government decides to reinstate its subsidies program. Iberdrola USA said: "If we can't construct in 2012, we will not construct in 2013 either. Not until the government brings back the Production Tax Credit (PTC) for the development of renewable energy.
EPA administrator resigns over hidden e-mail accounts
New Richard Windsor Emails Show EPA’s Transparency Problem More Widespread
(Washington, D.C.) – U.S. Sen. David Vitter (R-La.), the top Republican on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee (EPW), today released findings from the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) second tranche of Richard Windsor emails. The release shows that acting Administrator Bob Perciasepe used a private email account to conduct official business, similar to Region 8 Administrator, James Martin, who is the subject of an ongoing investigation launched by Vitter and U.S. House Oversight and Government Reform Committee (OGR) Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.).
Sen. Vitter also announced today that he has learned Martin is resigning this week, less than two weeks after hiring legal counsel.
Read more about Vitter and Issa’s investigation into Martin here.
Smuggling drugs on oil and gas roads is the Government's problem
The boom in the Eagle Ford Shale in South Texas has spawned new business and bolstered a weak economy. But with growth, there are sometimes downsides. Recently, drug smugglers have used private back roads on oil and gas field sites as their paths into the United States, avoiding the ramped up security the U.S. government has put on our borders. Since public roads are heavily monitored, the drug smugglers had to get inventive -- using the private roads oil and gas producers use to maneuver to their sites.
According to a story appearing in the Houston Chronicle, almost 19,000 pounds of marijuana was smuggled in March aboard two trucks driving through the Briscoe Ranch -- on a road that bypasses a Border Patrol checkpoint. The trucks looked like the normal supply vehicles that come and go along these private roads.
GDF Suez to build Africa's biggest wind farm in Moroccan desert
With rising electricity demand and untapped wind resources, Morocco is luring developers including Enel Green Power SpA and Xinjiang Goldwind Science & Technology Co. to build clean-energy projects. The North African nation aims to build 2,000 megawatts of wind capacity by 2020 to curb dependence on fossil fuels.
GDF Suez and Nareva have signed a 20-year agreement to sell the power generated at their project in the southern coastal desert to Morocco’s Office National de l’Electricite & de l’Eau Potable. “Optimal” wind conditions will give the site a utilization rate of 45 percent, GDF Suez said.
Illicit drugs: one of the world's largest producers of illicit hashish; shipments of hashish mostly directed to Western Europe; transit point for cocaine from South America destined for Western Europe; significant consumer of cannabis.
Refugees at the camp in Sevare, a dusty town in central Mali, told RIA Novosti late last month that God is French. Such exaltation has been rippling through much of the country, which managed to fight off an Islamist-tinged insurgency thanks to last month’s blitzkrieg intervention by the French Air Force. Red, white and blue French tricolors have been displayed all over Mali – for the first time, locals say, since the West African former colony gained independence in 1960.
As Bamako grew weaker in recent years, the Tuareg elites grew stronger. One important factor has been trans-Saharan trade, which has changed a lot since the time of the medieval Mali and Ghana empires that traded in gold and salt. The modern Sahara thrives on smuggling, with goods such as consumer electronics flowing to Africa from Europe – the city of Gao in Mali’s north is advertised as the best place in the country to buy a satellite dish – and a steady trickle of would-be illegal migrants going the other way in hopes of securing passage to the European Union.
More importantly, the Sahara serves as a vital route for South African cocaine bound for Europe. An estimated 60 tons of drugs, mostly cocaine, pass through the desert every year, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime said in 2009. In addition to drug lords, the desert region has started to attract Islamists, who seek to complete an “arc of instability” from the Sahara to Afghanistan, said Korendyasov, the ex-ambassador.
Prized Phosphate Drives Controversial Investments In Africa (Must Read)
Last year, the Norwegian government, which has the world's largest sovereign wealth fund, divested PotashCorp because of its purchase of Western Saharan phosphate. Several European banks have done the same. And the European Union last year ended a fishing agreement with Morocco, which included Western Sahara waters, because of concerns that it violated international law.
Other resources are still being exploited. Sand is exported to the nearby Canary Islands, owned by Spain, to bolster beaches there. Several international companies are exploring for oil in Western Sahara or off its shores. Activists say the Austin, Tex.-based company Crystal Mountain Sel Sahara is producing salt in Western Sahara. And several European companies as well as American company UPC Renewables are developing wind farms in Western Sahara, with plans to export the energy. Such investments go forward with little controversy, despite the legal gray area.
Italian mob moves in on environmental energy scam
For an industry all puffed up about its supposed environmental virtue, green energy sure is attracting a dirty crowd. Witness its latest entrant, Italy's Mafia. The mob knows a good fraud when it sees one. Alongside strip joints, drug smuggling, human trafficking, leg-breaking and political shakedowns, Mafia soldiers have moved in on the something-for-nothing world of green energy.
The Washington Post, in a page-one story, reported last week that a major sting operation by Italian authorities yielded a swarm of corrupt front groups run not by green hipsters, but by the Cosa Nostra of Sicily and the Calabrian syndicate known as 'Ndrangheta.
The plot was "part 'Sopranos,' part 'An Inconvenient Truth,'" the Post noted, with the mob shaking down legitimate farmers for title to their land, and then accepting EU subsidies for windmill construction, paying off political players to ensure the subsidies came.
It's the latest chapter in an ongoing story of corruption continuously surrounding green energy. In 2009, Italy's National Association of Wind Energy boss Oreste Vigorito was busted for building wind farms on public subsidies that sopped up state cash and delivered nothing. In 2010, cops seized $2 billion in 43 solar and wind fronts from "businessman" Vito Nicastri, known as "Lord of the Winds."
Can't happen here? Along with pay-for-play subsidies that have rolled into politically tied companies like Solyndra, green Mafia scams have reached the Netherlands, Britain, Ireland and Spain. Meanwhile, in Germany, carbon trading has drawn corruption of its own.
Italian blogger Pasquale Trivisonne denounced the waste of these scams in Italy — with wasted farmland and noisy windmills, but zero jobs and no energy.
It's money in the pockets of criminals. Green millionaires such as Vigorito got their seed capital from U.S. sources, Trivisonne noted. Vigorito, for one, had ties to Bryan Caffyn, founder of the "Cape Wind Project" in Massachusetts, which has been criticized for giving taxpayers little value for their money.
Note: UPC has operated in Africa since 1998, also note the IVPC logo in link.
Note: IVPC was an issue in a certain divorce case
Note: More specifics on divorce
Note: Mr. Caffyn at Hong Kong operation
Note: Market Visual Map
More relationsip maps: here, here, here, here and here
Note: Lawrence Summers involvement.
The majority of production blocks currently under agreement in Romania are held by Romgaz, the state owned national gas company, and Petrom, the Romanian state oil company which was privatised. Petrom is now majority (51%) owned by Austrian oil company, OMV. Romania is the largest natural gas producer in Eastern Europe.
Creat Resources Holdings Limited
Creat Resources Holdings Limited (CRHL) is a resources investment company. The Company is engaged in minerals exploration and the acquisition, exploration and operation of mineral properties in both Australia and overseas. CRHL, through its two wholly owned subsidiaries holds three exploration licenses, one retention licenses and two retention licenses applications, together they cover a mineralized area of approximately 100 square kilometers near the township of Zeeman in Western Tasmania. As of June 30, 2010, it had two projects: Galaxy Project and Zeehan Project. Its exploration licenses include EL21/2004, EL30/2002, EL20/2002 and EL18/2003. On February 1, 2010, two retention licenses, RL3/2009 and RL4/2009 were granted for an initial period of 2 years. During the fiscal year ended June 30, 2010, CRHL acquired 19.99% interest in Galaxy Resources Limited (Galaxy). In December 2009, CRHL acquired an exploration license EL21/2004 in the Zeehan area near Mount Dundas, Western Tasmania.
Biden caught with hand in cookie jar (Must Read)
BrightSource Is “Sustained By An Impressive Array” Of Subsidies
Brightsource Is “Sustained By An Impressive Array Of Federal, State And Local Subsidies, Including A $1.6 Billion Loan Guarantee From The Department Of Energy.”“Fortunately for BrightSource, its efforts are sustained by an impressive array of federal, state and local subsidies, including a $1.6 billion loan guarantee from the Department of Energy, one of the largest solar guarantees on record. The company notes federal provisions providing solar projects with a 30% investment tax credit through 2016, as well as accelerated depreciations of capital costs for solar entities, among other goodies.” (Editorial, “Secretary Of Subsidy,” The Wall Street Journal, 6/2/11)
US regrets Russia scrapping 10 year old drug trafficking agreement
The United States said Wednesday that it regrets the Russian government’s decision this week to scrap a decade-old bilateral agreement under which it received financial aid from Washington to fight crime, including drug trafficking.
“We obviously regret this decision because under our agreement we’ve had very fruitful cooperation with Russia on rule of law, counter corruption efforts, preventing trafficking in persons, counternarcotics and strengthening our mutual legal assistance cooperation."
The Contras, Cocaine and Covert Operations
This electronic briefing book is compiled from declassified documents obtained by the National Security Archive, including the notebooks kept by NSC aide and Iran-contra figure Oliver North, electronic mail messages written by high-ranking Reagan administration officials, memos detailing the contra war effort, and FBI and DEA reports. The documents demonstrate official knowledge of drug operations, and collaboration with and protection of known drug traffickers. Court and hearing transcripts are also included.
The U.S. Dept. of Homeland Security (DHS) is embarking upon a project to offer training in the Kingdom of Morocco in advanced intelligence-analysis techniques, and intends to outsource that training to a private contractor. The aim of this DHS initiative, which the U.S. Customs and Border Protection's (CBP) Office of International Affairs will oversee, is to reverse Morocco’s position as “the third largest producer of cannabis” and as “the major transit country for transnational criminal organizations moving South American cocaine through Northwest Africa to Europe.”
DHS did not disclose the estimated cost of the endeavor.
Iberdrola has 4 units taken over by Bolivian government
Iberdrola was notified by Bolivia that the government has nationalized its electricity holdings in the South American country, spokesman Jose Luis Gonzalez Besada said in a telephone interview. He declined to comment further.
Spanish premier denies payoffs
The Spanish government was suddenly rocked by scandal Thursday after documents were published that allegedly showed Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy getting €277,000 ($376,000) that had been hidden from tax authorities.
Rajoy denied the allegations after the Madrid newspaper El País published extracts from what it said were secret accounts for his conservative ruling People's Party, the Guardian reported. But opponents demanded his resignation, and ordinary Spaniards asked whether those now imposing draconian austerity had practiced, or tolerated, systematic tax avoidance.
Spain's ruling party denies backhanders
Spain's governing Popular Party was battling Thursday to defend its honor by denying fresh newspaper reports of regular under-the-table payments to leading members, including Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy.
Leading newspaper El Pais published what it called the "secret accounts" of former party treasurer Luis Barcenas, with copies of alleged records from several years ago showing names and amounts received. The money was allegedly paid by businesses, many in the construction sector, via Barcenas.
EDF-Iberdrola lead in Greece wind sector
France’s Electricite de France SA and Iberdrola Renovables SA’s Greek unit, Rokas Renewables, are the top producers in Greece’s wind energy market, which grew 7 percent in 2012, according to the Hellenic Wind Energy Association.
Total installed capacity increased by 115.2 megawatts to 1,749.3 MW last year, compared with a 24 percent advance the year earlier, according to a statement on the Athens-based association’s website today. EDF produced 17 percent of that, or 298.8 megawatts, while Iberdrola accounted for 14 percent.
Soros Fund Management takes stake in Sanleone Energy
George Soros' hedge fund firm, Soros Fund Management, have just disclosed a 22% ownership stake in oil and gas exploration company, San Leon Energy (LON: SLE). Due to trading on January 6th, the hedge fund recently crossed the London Stock Exchange's threshold that requires them to disclose the position.
It is likely that Soros acquired shares via San Leon's £59.6m placement on December 31st, 2010. In total, the hedge fund now owns 176,928,520 voting rights. Soros has also been involved in another oil & gas play as we detailed last month as well. There seems to be a common theme here and it will be interesting to watch for potential further investments. In the past, Soros had been a large owner of Petrobras (PBR), Brazil's state-owned oil play.
Germany's unaffordable windpower
Two years ago we looked at the claim that wind generation can save money for power pool customers. We found that the supposed savings could be realized only if the elephant in the room – the above-market feed-in tariffs – were ignored.
In other words, the total amount spent on electricity purchases from a power pool was augmented by the additional amounts consumers pay to fund the feed-in-tariff (FIT). As long as wind generators can bid a low price but receive the higher FIT, then they have an incentive to underbid, thereby reducing pool prices, but not overall costs.
In addition, we looked at what an economically least cost system might look like in Germany over the next ten years. We found that it features more coal and lignite, keeps most nuclear plants operating, and builds new gas-fired plants.
The annualized differential in total costs for Germany between the no-nukes, no coal and lots of wind forecast pushed by Germany’s Greens and an economically least cost expansion plan amounts to more than $120 billion over ten years and perhaps as much as $200 billion. A lot of money, in other words.
Since these two posts were published in 2010 Master Resource contributors have made a strong case that Germany’s overinvestment in wind and solar has harmed the nation financially without any compensating improvement in electricity supply. Compounding the overreliance on wind is the planned phase-out of the country’s nuclear power plants – baseload power that will need to be replaced with something other than wind.
Read Last Week's Green Corruption Chronicles...
Green Party Founder Says Wind Farms Are A Disaster
May 5, 2013 at 1:53 PM
Reader Comments (102)
RE: PMSS of TUV SUD group consulting for Cape Wind
I was alarmed by the paucity of information in the news regarding TUV SUD to provide expertise in environmental, health and safety, quality assurance, etc., for Cape Wind as consultant, I’ve done a bit of research on them.
This is explosive—Carbon credit fraud suspended by the UN, TUV SUD! Cape Wind’s consultant on all matters impacts!?!
Answering—Who is TUV SUD? (See more attached on them)
Next from this link UK Telegraph>
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/finance/rowenamason/100004692/carbon-offsetting-needs-to-stop-looking-like-a-medieval-religious-practice/
clip-
In the past week, the United Nations has been forced to suspend the world’s second biggest carbon offsetting auditor TÜV SÜD under its “clean development mechanism” (CDM) programme over concerns about its practices that were revealed in a spot check. This follows the temporary suspension last year of the biggest and third biggest auditors – between them, the top three are in charge of verifying 70pc of the world’s $30bn offset market.
TUV SUD said that the increase in number of temporary suspensions indicates that “the provisions for (firms) are not clear enough,” to allow them to “carry out their activities in compliance with the standard.” The UN’s move appears to be serious, with it claiming that TÜV SÜD had approved projects despite knowing there were problems with their authenticity. Some previous suspensions were connected to worries about the qualifications of monitoring staff.
TÜV SÜD, recently voted the best verifier of climate change projects by carbon financiers, has checked more than 1,200 projects over the last eight years.
Dozens of big UK and other European utilities, banks, investment funds and energy companies use these firms to approve their purchase of offsets. China – which has had 4bn euros of offsetting business from Britain – lists big names like Barclays, RWE, Scottish and Southern, Shell, BP, Citigroup and many others among those registered to buy offsets on its official CDM website. It’s a widely accepted way for Western companies to stay within their carbon allowances allocated by the European Union.
Undoubtedly not all projects are improperly verified, but there has been a series of scandals about wind farms supposedly delivering carbon savings that lie idle and unconnected to the grid, a massive dam that received offset money despite being under construction two years before applying for the subsidy – and now the blow of further
auditing suspensions.
Incidentally, TÜV SÜD was the auditor that approved offsets in the controversial Xiaoxi dam (that displaced 7,500 Chinese people from their homes), maintaining it had net environmental and social benefits despite public outcry. RWE, the owner of npower, was due to buy the offsets and decided to “make its own inquiries” about the project last year.
The UN is at least facing up to cracks in the system by enforcing suspensions, but its member countries failed to make any progress on reform of the entire CDM offsetting programme at the Copenhagen climate change conference in December. If it is to persuade sceptical countries like America that carbon trading is a genuine way to reduce emissions, it’s going to have to make a lot more effort to prove the environmental promises attached to offsets are worth the paper they’re printed on.
Report on Carbon credit fraud-
http://www.dnaindia.com/mumbai/1738940/report-carbon-credit-fraud-how-big-firms-faked-green-to-mint-gold
Announcement of PSS TUV SUD consulting group to be used by Cape Wind was in:
North American Wind Power
Cape Wind Hires Firm To Assist With Project Management
in News Departments > Projects & Contracts
by NA Windpower Thursday June 13 2013
Clip-
U.S.-based offshore wind developer Cape Wind has signed a consulting services agreement with the North America division of PMSS – a European offshore wind consulting firm and a part of the TUV SUD group.
Under the agreement, PMSS will assist Cape Wind’s project management team. The PMSS staff will be a collaboration of both U.S. engineers and consultants and U.K. offshore wind experts, and will provide expertise in environmental, health and safety, quality assurance, risk management and other strategic advice.
http://www.nawindpower.com/e107_plugins/content/content.php?content.11633
cut–please see the attached information for “TUV SUD”.
Note: I have a copy of the PDF from the UN regarding the above.
http://www.floridaallianceforrenewableenergy.org/Woolsey_Visit.html
http://www.greenpeace.org.uk/media/press-releases/energy-giant-edf-found-guilty-spying-greenpeace-20111110
EDF was with Woolsley in Florida.
This got really interesting.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-03-15/china-corporate-espionage-boom-knocks-wind-out-of-u-s-companies.html
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/06/21/tanzania-electricity-idUSL5N0EX0P120130621
http://www.businesstimes.co.tz/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1128:us-government-agency-brought-symbion-power-to-tanzania-&catid=35:features&Itemid=29
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symbion_Power
http://www.tradeaidmonitor.com/2013/07/corruption-a-hurdle-for-obama-power-africa-plan-wnd.html
U.S. Picks Up Tab To Expand China's Economy (WND)
http://www.tradeaidmonitor.com/2013/07/us-picks-up-tab-expand-china-economy.html
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CRIMINAL ENERGY: MAFIA CASHES IN ON RENEWABLE SUBSIDIES ACROSS EUROPE
http://www.thegwpf.org/criminal-energy-mafia-cashes-renewable-subsidies-europe/
h/t Christine Duhaime
http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/john-kerry-little-thing-called-internet-makes-it-much-harder-govern
------I agree---- ;)
And to top it off.....
Kerry: Obama Will Act on Climate Change Without Congressional Approval
http://cnsnews.com/news/article/kerry-obama-will-act-climate-change-without-congressional-approval
http://allafrica.com/stories/201309171494.html
.....In June, U.S. policymakers announced two initiatives aimed at increasing electricity production in Africa. President Obama launched Power Africa, an initiative that makes a $7-billion U.S. commitment to the energy sector in six African countries.
And Representatives Ed Royce (R-CA) and Eliot Engel (D-NY) introduced the Electrify Africa Act in the House, which sets a goal of providing access to electricity for at least 50 million people in sub-Saharan Africa by 2020. Both initiatives place increasing investment by U.S. companies in Africa at their center....
.....While Power Africa and the Electrify Africa Act do include language about developing "an appropriate mix of power solutions, including renewable energy," proponents of these policies have been most publicly enthusiastic about new discoveries of vast reserves of oil and gas on the continent.
In fact, with only $20 million allocated toward project preparation, feasibility, and technical assistance for renewables, clean energy makes up less than 0.3 percent of the White House initiative's budget....
.....ANALYSIS
It's OPIC's job to help U.S. companies gain a foothold in emerging markets like these by providing finance. And by doing away with lending restrictions on climate polluting projects, OPIC is free to grease the wheels for mega-deals between U.S. fossil fuel companies and African interests.
One of those companies appears to be General Electric, which recently signed a tentative deal with Ghana to build a power plant likely to be fueled with natural gas from the Jubilee offshore field. (Perhaps not uncoincidentally, G.E.'s CEO traveled with Obama on his Africa trade mission.)
According to Forbes, G.E. has recently pivoted its attention to Africa and is marketing power generation products like natural gas engines to African companies. Not surprising, then, that Ex-Im chairman Fred Hochberg called Power Africa a "$7B plan to power up General Electric" on Twitter.
Helping to bring electricity into the homes, schools, hospitals, and workplaces of tens of millions of people living on the African continent is the right thing to do.
The United States can support energy access through public finance-raised from innovative sources like a financial transaction tax and by ending subsidies to fossil fuel companies-and by directing the $7 billion Obama promised to decentralized, renewable energy systems. That would ensure that we're spending our money to benefit African families, not U.S. energy companies....
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2013/09/30/open-letter-to-the-honorable-john-kerry-u-s-secretary-of-state/
http://gulfnews.com/business/opinion/morocco-turns-up-the-heat-on-renewable-energy-1.1242632
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These articles appear in the main DB story above...
GDF Suez to build Africa's biggest wind farm in Moroccan desert
With rising electricity demand and untapped wind resources, Morocco is luring developers including Enel Green Power SpA and Xinjiang Goldwind Science & Technology Co. to build clean-energy projects. The North African nation aims to build 2,000 megawatts of wind capacity by 2020 to curb dependence on fossil fuels.
GDF Suez and Nareva have signed a 20-year agreement to sell the power generated at their project in the southern coastal desert to Morocco’s Office National de l’Electricite & de l’Eau Potable. “Optimal” wind conditions will give the site a utilization rate of 45 percent, GDF Suez said.
More from Reuters
More regarding ENEL
ENEL Romania
Morocco Drug Trade
Illicit drugs: one of the world's largest producers of illicit hashish; shipments of hashish mostly directed to Western Europe; transit point for cocaine from South America destined for Western Europe; significant consumer of cannabis.
Map of North Africa
Roots of the Mali Crisis
Refugees at the camp in Sevare, a dusty town in central Mali, told RIA Novosti late last month that God is French. Such exaltation has been rippling through much of the country, which managed to fight off an Islamist-tinged insurgency thanks to last month’s blitzkrieg intervention by the French Air Force. Red, white and blue French tricolors have been displayed all over Mali – for the first time, locals say, since the West African former colony gained independence in 1960.
As Bamako grew weaker in recent years, the Tuareg elites grew stronger. One important factor has been trans-Saharan trade, which has changed a lot since the time of the medieval Mali and Ghana empires that traded in gold and salt. The modern Sahara thrives on smuggling, with goods such as consumer electronics flowing to Africa from Europe – the city of Gao in Mali’s north is advertised as the best place in the country to buy a satellite dish – and a steady trickle of would-be illegal migrants going the other way in hopes of securing passage to the European Union.
More importantly, the Sahara serves as a vital route for South African cocaine bound for Europe. An estimated 60 tons of drugs, mostly cocaine, pass through the desert every year, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime said in 2009. In addition to drug lords, the desert region has started to attract Islamists, who seek to complete an “arc of instability” from the Sahara to Afghanistan, said Korendyasov, the ex-ambassador.
Prized Phosphate Drives Controversial Investments In Africa (Must Read)
Last year, the Norwegian government, which has the world's largest sovereign wealth fund, divested PotashCorp because of its purchase of Western Saharan phosphate. Several European banks have done the same. And the European Union last year ended a fishing agreement with Morocco, which included Western Sahara waters, because of concerns that it violated international law.
Other resources are still being exploited. Sand is exported to the nearby Canary Islands, owned by Spain, to bolster beaches there. Several international companies are exploring for oil in Western Sahara or off its shores. Activists say the Austin, Tex.-based company Crystal Mountain Sel Sahara is producing salt in Western Sahara. And several European companies as well as American company UPC Renewables are developing wind farms in Western Sahara, with plans to export the energy. Such investments go forward with little controversy, despite the legal gray area.
http://thehill.com/blogs/e2-wire/e2-wire/190145-administration-takes-credit-for-record-oil-production
Oil/Nigeria
http://allafrica.com/stories/201311130231.html
Kenya Resource Hub
http://allafrica.com/stories/201311131355.html?aa_source=mf-hdlns
Kerry Quietly Makes Priority of Climate Pact
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/03/world/asia/kerry-shifts-state-department-focus-to-environment.html?_r=1&
Mr. Kerry is nonetheless forging ahead. “One of the reasons the president was attracted to Kerry was that we were going to make climate change a legacy issue in the second term,” said Benjamin J. Rhodes, the White House deputy national security adviser.
Former Vice President Al Gore, who won a Nobel Prize for his efforts to fight climate change, praised Mr. Kerry’s longtime focus on global warming. “He has continued to prioritize the issue even in the face of strong political resistance,” Mr. Gore wrote in an email. Mr. Kerry, he said, “has the rare opportunity to advance international negotiations at a critical time.”
In the 1980s and 1990s, Mr. Kerry worked closely with Mr. Gore, then a senator from Tennessee, on climate change policy on Capitol Hill. In 1992, Mr. Kerry attended the first United Nations climate change summit meeting, in Rio de Janeiro, where he kindled a connection with Teresa Heinz, who attended with a delegation representing the elder President George Bush.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/01/02/us-morocco-solar-idUSBREA010KC20140102
(Reuters) - A Moroccan solar project worth some $9 billion (6.6 billion euros) aimed at turning desert sun into lucrative power exports to Europe could be at risk as international lenders balk at plants planned for the disputed Western Sahara.
Morocco drew up plans in 2009 to build solar plants and wind farms to generate 4 gigawatts of power by 2020 but much of that output is to come from sites planned in Western Sahara, the focus of a decades-old territorial dispute.
Morocco has controlled most of Western Sahara since 1975 and claims the sparsely populated stretch of desert, which has offshore fishing, phosphate reserves and oilfield potential, as its own.
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Please re-read main DB articled "John Kerry Comes Out Swinging On Climate Change" for more insight.
AFRICAP: U.S. State Department’s solicitation for Corporate Mercenaries
http://www.phantomreport.com/africap-u-s-state-departments-solicitation-for-corporate-mercenaries
[snip]
Editor’s Note: Peacekeeping Support is government lingo for low intensity operations to incorporate counterinsurgency operations into sovereign countries using corporate mercenaries in-line with the military.
Source: FBO
The U.S. Department of State, Office of Acquisition Management (AQM), is issuing this Sources Sought Synopsis, as a means of conducting market research to identify parties having an interest in and the resources to support this requirement for Africa’s Multifunctional Peacekeeping Support Program, AFRICAP. This includes providing training and advisory services, equipment procurement, logistical support, maritime security, capacity building, operational deployment for peacekeeping troops, aerial surveillance, conference facilitation, and construction services to African countries (AFRICAP).
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The following items are from the original article written by me (main Daily Bail article) and the links are all there.
GDF Suez to build Africa's biggest wind farm in Moroccan desert
With rising electricity demand and untapped wind resources, Morocco is luring developers including Enel Green Power SpA and Xinjiang Goldwind Science & Technology Co. to build clean-energy projects. The North African nation aims to build 2,000 megawatts of wind capacity by 2020 to curb dependence on fossil fuels.
GDF Suez and Nareva have signed a 20-year agreement to sell the power generated at their project in the southern coastal desert to Morocco’s Office National de l’Electricite & de l’Eau Potable. “Optimal” wind conditions will give the site a utilization rate of 45 percent, GDF Suez said.
More from Reuters
More regarding ENEL
ENEL Romania
Morocco Drug Trade
Illicit drugs: one of the world's largest producers of illicit hashish; shipments of hashish mostly directed to Western Europe; transit point for cocaine from South America destined for Western Europe; significant consumer of cannabis.
Map of North Africa
Roots of the Mali Crisis
Refugees at the camp in Sevare, a dusty town in central Mali, told RIA Novosti late last month that God is French. Such exaltation has been rippling through much of the country, which managed to fight off an Islamist-tinged insurgency thanks to last month’s blitzkrieg intervention by the French Air Force. Red, white and blue French tricolors have been displayed all over Mali – for the first time, locals say, since the West African former colony gained independence in 1960.
As Bamako grew weaker in recent years, the Tuareg elites grew stronger. One important factor has been trans-Saharan trade, which has changed a lot since the time of the medieval Mali and Ghana empires that traded in gold and salt. The modern Sahara thrives on smuggling, with goods such as consumer electronics flowing to Africa from Europe – the city of Gao in Mali’s north is advertised as the best place in the country to buy a satellite dish – and a steady trickle of would-be illegal migrants going the other way in hopes of securing passage to the European Union.
More importantly, the Sahara serves as a vital route for South African cocaine bound for Europe. An estimated 60 tons of drugs, mostly cocaine, pass through the desert every year, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime said in 2009. In addition to drug lords, the desert region has started to attract Islamists, who seek to complete an “arc of instability” from the Sahara to Afghanistan, said Korendyasov, the ex-ambassador.
Prized Phosphate Drives Controversial Investments In Africa (Must Read)
Last year, the Norwegian government, which has the world's largest sovereign wealth fund, divested PotashCorp because of its purchase of Western Saharan phosphate. Several European banks have done the same. And the European Union last year ended a fishing agreement with Morocco, which included Western Sahara waters, because of concerns that it violated international law.
Other resources are still being exploited. Sand is exported to the nearby Canary Islands, owned by Spain, to bolster beaches there. Several international companies are exploring for oil in Western Sahara or off its shores. Activists say the Austin, Tex.-based company Crystal Mountain Sel Sahara is producing salt in Western Sahara. And several European companies as well as American company UPC Renewables are developing wind farms in Western Sahara, with plans to export the energy. Such investments go forward with little controversy, despite the legal gray area.
http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/article/2014/01/countries-vow-to-form-africa-clean-energy-corridor?cmpid=rss
Abu Dhabi -- Nineteen countries have pledged to create an Africa Clean Energy Corridor to exploit the continent’s vast renewables potential.
Energy ministers and delegates from the countries endorsed an action agenda drawn up by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) in Abu Dhabi, ahead of this week’s World Future Energy Summit.
The corridor is designed to boost the deployment of renewable energy and help meet Africa’s rising energy demand with clean power from renewable sources such as hydro, geothermal, biomass, wind and solar.
IRENA’s director-general Adnan Z. Amin said the corridor would “provide the continent with the opportunity to leapfrog into a sustainable energy future.”
“The dynamic development that Africa will see in the next decades needs to extend to the energy sector, and Africa’s abundant renewable energy resources are a perfect match to meet rising demand in a sustainable and cost-effective way, from Cairo to Cape Town.”
===============
Note that UPC Renewable (africa) and its executive, Peter Gish are in part behind this.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/01/31/us-climate-un-bloomberg-idUSBREA0U02Q20140131
(Reuters) - Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has been tapped to be U.N. special envoy for cities and climate change, sources familiar with the situation said on Thursday.
Barring any last minute changes, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon - who is seeking to re-energize the global climate change debate and boost the United Nations' role - could make the announcement as early as Friday, the sources said on the condition of anonymity.
Bloomberg, a billionaire philanthropist who left office last month, made combating climate change a key focus during his 12 years leading the United States most populous city. He also advocated for national climate change legislation.
Bloomberg has played a leading role in the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group, an international group of mayors created in 2005 and dedicated to reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The C40 group, of which Bloomberg is president of the board, is due to meet in Johannesburg next week.
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UPC recently opened an office in Johannesburg and is pushing projects in MENA.
http://www.onlinesentinel.com/news/In_Indonesia__Kerry_blasts_climate_change_deniers_.html
JAKARTA, Indonesia — Climate change may be the world’s “most fearsome” weapon of mass destruction and urgent global action is needed to combat it, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Sunday, comparing those who deny its existence or question its causes to people who insist the Earth is flat.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, right, waves to the press after meeting with Secretary-General of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), Le Luong Minh , left, at the ASEAN headquarters in Jakarta, Indonesia on Sunday.
In a speech to Indonesian students, civic leaders and government officials in Jakarta, Kerry laid into climate change skeptics, accusing them of using shoddy science and scientists to delay measures needed to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases at the risk of imperiling the planet. He also went after those who dispute who is responsible for such emissions, arguing that everyone and every country must take responsibility and act immediately.
“We simply don’t have time to let a few loud interest groups hijack the climate conversation,” he said, referring to what he called “big companies” that “don’t want to change and spend a lot of money” to act to reduce the risks. He later singled out big oil and coal concerns as the primary offenders.
“We should not allow a tiny minority of shoddy scientists and science and extreme ideologues to compete with scientific facts,” Kerry told the audience gathered at a U.S. Embassy-run American Center in a Jakarta shopping mall. “Nor should we allow any room for those who think that the costs associated with doing the right thing outweigh the benefits.”
“The science is unequivocal, and those who refuse to believe it are simply burying their heads in the sand,” Kerry said. “We don’t have time for a meeting anywhere of the Flat Earth Society,”
http://www.zerohedge.com/contributed/2014-02-15/white-house-weather-practically-everywhere-being-caused-climate-change
...The WH has a climate agenda - this is payback for a lot of support (money). Okay, but when the chief scientist at the WH ignores the scientists who actually look at weather patterns, then one is forced to doubt everything the WH says on the topic.
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The photo at the end of this story is amazing.
http://www.zerohedge.com/contributed/2014-02-16/stand-clear-giant-moron
Retired officers poised to profit after Pentagon’s alarmist climate change report
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/may/26/sponsors-of-pentagons-alarm-raising-climate-study-/?utm_source=RSS_Feed&utm_medium=RSS
Retired military officers deeply involved in the climate change movement — and some in companies positioned to profit from it — spearheaded an alarmist global warming report this month that calls on the Defense Department to ramp up spending on what it calls a man-made problem.
The report, which the Obama administration immediately hailed as a call to action, was issued not by a private advocacy group but by a Pentagon-financed think tank that trumpets “absolute objectivity.” The research was funded by a climate change group that is also one of the think tank’s main customers.
PHOTOS: Hand cannons: The world's most powerful handguns
The May 13 report came from the military advisory board within CNA Corp., a nonprofit based in Alexandria, Virginia, that includes the Center for Naval Analyses, a Navy-financed group that also gets contracts from other Pentagon units. CNA also operates the Institute for Public Research.
CNA’s webpage states that it is not an advocacy group. It says it maintains “absolute objectivity. In our investigations, analyses and findings we test hypotheses, carefully guard against personal biases and preconceptions, challenge our own findings and are uninfluenced by what a client would like to hear.”
The Center for Naval Analyses’ motto is “high quality, impartial information.”
One of the CNA panel’s vice chairmen, retired Navy Vice Adm. Lee Gunn, is president of a private think tank, the American Security Project, whose prime issue is warning about climate change.
The other vice chairman, retired Army Brig. Gen. Gerald E. Galloway Jr., is a prominent adviser to the Center for Climate and Security, a climate change group.
In all, four CNA board members sit on the panel of advisers to the Center for Climate and Security, whose statements on climate change are similar to those found in the CNA report.
Other board members work in the climate change world of consulting and technology.
The CNA advisory panel is headed by retired four-star Army Gen. Paul Kern, who sits on the board of directors of a company that sells climate-detection products to the Pentagon and other government agencies. At least two other board members are employed in businesses that sell climate change expertise and products.
The greatest influence on CNA reports seems to come from the Center for Climate and Security, whose position is that the debate on climate change, or man-made global warming, is over.
Back in the late 90'-2002, I witnessed active duty intel officers penetrate and literally steal proprietary information, threatened and bankrupted small renewable companies while putting Enron on the map. Enron 'died' but their executives formed numerous other entities with support from intel. The following is a breaking story relating to how that has progressed since then.
Retired officers poised to profit after Pentagon’s alarmist climate change report
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/may/26/sponsors-of-pentagons-alarm-raising-climate-study-/?utm_source=RSS_Feed&utm_medium=RSS
Retired military officers deeply involved in the climate change movement — and some in companies positioned to profit from it — spearheaded an alarmist global warming report this month that calls on the Defense Department to ramp up spending on what it calls a man-made problem.
The report, which the Obama administration immediately hailed as a call to action, was issued not by a private advocacy group but by a Pentagon-financed think tank that trumpets “absolute objectivity.” The research was funded by a climate change group that is also one of the think tank’s main customers.
PHOTOS: Hand cannons: The world's most powerful handguns
The May 13 report came from the military advisory board within CNA Corp., a nonprofit based in Alexandria, Virginia, that includes the Center for Naval Analyses, a Navy-financed group that also gets contracts from other Pentagon units. CNA also operates the Institute for Public Research.
CNA’s webpage states that it is not an advocacy group. It says it maintains “absolute objectivity. In our investigations, analyses and findings we test hypotheses, carefully guard against personal biases and preconceptions, challenge our own findings and are uninfluenced by what a client would like to hear.”
The Center for Naval Analyses’ motto is “high quality, impartial information.”
One of the CNA panel’s vice chairmen, retired Navy Vice Adm. Lee Gunn, is president of a private think tank, the American Security Project, whose prime issue is warning about climate change.
The other vice chairman, retired Army Brig. Gen. Gerald E. Galloway Jr., is a prominent adviser to the Center for Climate and Security, a climate change group.
In all, four CNA board members sit on the panel of advisers to the Center for Climate and Security, whose statements on climate change are similar to those found in the CNA report.
Other board members work in the climate change world of consulting and technology.
The CNA advisory panel is headed by retired four-star Army Gen. Paul Kern, who sits on the board of directors of a company that sells climate-detection products to the Pentagon and other government agencies. At least two other board members are employed in businesses that sell climate change expertise and products.
The greatest influence on CNA reports seems to come from the Center for Climate and Security, whose position is that the debate on climate change, or man-made global warming, is over.
Here was some info I had received that I was unaware,
"Some reading your comment might think that that since Angus King owned Independence Wind, he has nothing to do with First Wind. But he does. At the very least, we know that his son, Angus King III heads up mergers & acquisitions at First Wind. Just google "Angus King" First Wind.
King's son also had been Special Assistant to the White House Chief of Staff from 1995-97 in the Clinton administration, i.e., Leon Panetta, who went on to head the CIA and the Dept of Defense under Obama."
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Read my last comment and you are aware both Barb and I have written a LOT about King and UPC/IVPC?Evergreen/First Wind. Especially where we believe it has been a front for black ops, I know that to be true but never knew that King's son was with Panetta during the time when I was in the industry and when his father was Governor of Maine and led the de-regulation effort with Enron. I will be expounding much more on this as it was key to everything we wrote about.
That also includes Deval Patrick's involvement in this fiasco. Of which Patrick was in Maine last week campaigning for a democrat pushing to unseat the current governor who is aware of what is happening. Then a day later then this happened…
https://bangordailynews.com/2014/07/22/news/state/after-legal-challenge-maine-utility-regulators-again-ok-333-million-partnership-between-emera-first-wind/
We know that there has been blackmail etc.. more later.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/11/28/us-usa-africa-power-exclusive-idUSKCN0JC09U20141128
(Reuters) - Barack Obama last year told a cheering crowd in Cape Town that a $7 billion plan to "Power Africa" would double electricity output on the world's poorest continent and bring "light where currently there is darkness".
A year later, the U.S. president's flagship project for Africa has already achieved 25 percent of its goal to deliver 10,000 megawatts of electricity and bring light to 20 million households and businesses, according to its annual report.
But the five-year plan has not yet delivered the power.
Power Africa has not measured its progress by counting actual megawatts added to the grid but promises of additional power made in deals it says it helped negotiate, according to sources inside the project and documents seen by Reuters.
Some projects facilitated by Power Africa -- a program operated by the U.S. aid agency USAID -- were under way years before the scheme's inception, others are still in the planning stage.
It is unclear how much of the $7 billion Obama pledged has actually been spent or if a further $20 billion in private sector investment commitments will materialize.
"Saying you've met targets on projects that might never happen or taking the credit for projects that have been worked on for years makes me uncomfortable," a source working on Power Africa told Reuters. "It's misleading."
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-11-27/head-of-enel-s-romanian-units-d...
http://ippjournal.com/2014/04/argan-infrastructure-fund-acquires-stake-in-tanger-wind-farm/
According to a joint statement released on April 25th, the investment fund Argan Infrastructure Fund (ARIF) has acquired a 25 % stake in the company UPC North Africa Renewables, which is developing the 120 MW Khalladi wind project near Tangier (northern Morocco).
The project concerns the development, financing, construction and operation of a wind farm with a nominal capacity of 120 MW, with 40 Vestas V90- 3MW. The start of construction is expected in 2014. The project will contribute to achieve Morocco’s energy policy objectives aimed at diversifying the energy mix, significantly increasing the share of renewable energy sources.
UPC Renewables will sell electricity generated to Moroccan manufacturers within the 13-09 Moroccan law on renewable energy that allows the private sector to generate and sell electricity from renewable sources to industries. UPC Renewables recently received the provisional approval under the law 13-09 issued by the Ministry of Energy, mines, water and the environment.
ARIF is a fund dedicated to infrastructure projects in North Africa and sub-Saharan Africa managed by Infra Invest, a pioneer in private equity in North Africa.
The fund’s pool of investors consists of leading institutions that are pioneers of investment in infrastructure in emerging countries: European Investment Bank (EIB), International Finance Corporation (IFC), African Development Bank (AfDB), PROPARCO, the Belgian Investment Company for Developing Countries (BIO) and Moroccan insurer RMA Watanya.
With a current size of $100 million and a target size of $230 million, the ARIF fund invests in promising segments of infrastructure such as:
Energy, water and the environment
Ports, transport and logistics
Industry and social infrastructure
UPC Renewables North Africa is part of the UPC group, which has a long experience in the development, financing, construction and operation of wind farms in the United States, Europe and Asia.
Banking Giant HSBC Sheltered Murky Cash Linked to Dictators and Arms Dealers
http://www.icij.org/project/swiss-leaks/banking-giant-hsbc-sheltered-murky-cash-linked-dictators-and-arms-dealers
More Clinton Donors
A number of other prominent donors to the Clinton Foundation appear in the files, including the Canadian businessman Frank Giustra and German motor racing superstar Michael Schumacher, a seven-time Formula One champion. A representative of Schumacher, who is listed as a beneficial owner of an account closed in 2002, told ICIJ that he is a long-term resident of Switzerland.
The records show Giustra is the only person listed in an HSBC account holding more than $10 million in 2006/2007, although his role in the account is not specified
The New York Times reported in 2008 that Giustra donated to the Clinton Foundation shortly after Bill Clinton accompanied Giustra on a trip to Kazakhstan in 2005. When they landed, Nursultan A. Nazarbayev, who has served for decades as Kazakhstan’s president, met his two visitors over a sumptuous midnight banquet.
The Times reported that Clinton made a public declaration of support for Nazarbayev that was at odds with the stance of the U.S. government and of Clinton’s wife, then-Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, who had criticized Kazakhstan’s record on human rights. Two days later, corporate records showed, Giustra’s company won the right to buy into three state-owned uranium projects in Kazakhstan.
Both Clinton and Giustra told the Times that Giustra traveled with Clinton to Kazakhstan to see first-hand the foundation’s philanthropic work. A spokesman for Clinton told the newspaper that the former president was generally aware of Giustra’s mining interests in Kazakhstan but did nothing to help those interests.
A representative for Giustra disputed the New York Times story and said that Giustra is “in full compliance and disclosure regarding any and all bank accounts.” A spokesman for the Clinton Foundation told The Guardian it “has strong donor integrity and transparency practices that go well beyond what is required of U.S. charities, including the full disclosure of all of our donors."
http://www.necn.com/news/new-england/John-Kerry-Fined-50-for-Failing-to-Shovel-Snow-Outside-Boston-Home-290279421.html
John Kerry has many titles - secretary of state, former senator, one-time Democratic candidate for president.
The globe-spanning diplomat can add one more: snow shoveling scofflaw.
After a blizzard dumped two feet of snow on his city this week, Boston Mayor Martin Walsh vowed to crack down on anyone who left the sidewalks in front of their homes and businesses buried in snow.
He wasn't kidding.
On Thursday, officials tagged Kerry with a $50 fine at 9:45 a.m. for failing to clear the snow from the side of his Beacon Hill mansion.
Kerry was in Saudi Arabia attending the funeral of King Abdullah with President Obama.
Kerry spokesman Glen Johnson told the Boston Globe Kerry will promptly pay the fine. He said shovelers finished clearing the sidewalk late Thursday morning.
R. Hunter Biden Should Declare Who Really Owns His New Ukrainian Employer, Burisma Holdings
Here’s last week’s big announcement, adorned by a photograph of an American with a faintly alarming rictus; oh yes, oh dear me, yes: Hunter Biden joins the team of Burisma Holdings:
Burisma Holdings, Ukraine’s largest private gas producer, has expanded its Board of Directors by bringing on Mr. R Hunter Biden as a new director.
R. Hunter Biden will be in charge of the Holdings’ legal unit and will provide support for the Company among international organizations. On his new appointment, he commented: “Burisma’s track record of innovations and industry leadership in the field of natural gas means that it can be a strong driver of a strong economy in Ukraine. As a new member of the Board, I believe that my assistance in consulting the Company on matters of transparency, corporate governance and responsibility, international expansion and other priorities will contribute to the economy and benefit the people of Ukraine.”
Wholehearted approval was not universally forthcoming:
Isn’t that a bit fishy? Why do you say that?
Because he’s the vice-president’s son! That’s a coincidence. “This is totally based on merit,” said Burisma’s chairman, Alan Apter.
He doesn’t sound very Ukrainian. He’s American, as is the other new board member, Devon Archer.
Who? Devon Archer, who works with Hunter Biden at Rosemont Seneca partners, which is half owned by Rosemont Capital, a private equity firm founded by Archer and Christopher Heinz.
Who? Christopher Heinz … John Kerry’s stepson.
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read the entire article. Outstanding!
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2015/07/31/wikileaks-usa-spying-on-japanese-climate-officials/
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/08/03/us-usa-humantrafficking-disputes-special-idUSKCN0Q821Y20150803?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews&utm_source=twitter
In the weeks leading up to a critical annual U.S. report on human trafficking that publicly shames the world’s worst offenders, human rights experts at the State Department concluded that trafficking conditions hadn’t improved in Malaysia and Cuba. And in China, they found, things had grown worse.
The State Department’s senior political staff saw it differently — and they prevailed.
A Reuters examination, based on interviews with more than a dozen sources in Washington and foreign capitals, shows that the government office set up to independently grade global efforts to fight human trafficking was repeatedly overruled by senior American diplomats and pressured into inflating assessments of 14 strategically important countries in this year’s Trafficking in Persons report.
In all, analysts in the Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons - or J/TIP, as it’s known within the U.S. government — disagreed with U.S. diplomatic bureaus on ratings for 17 countries, the sources said.
SunEdison begins solar project in Limpopo
http://www.bdlive.co.za/business/energy/2013/01/31/sunedison-begins-solar-project-in-limpopo
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2015/10/30/vladimir-putin-climate-and-political-realist/
The Daily Caller headline said, Russia’s Putin Says Global Warming Is ‘A Fraud.” What Putin is doing and saying is nothing new. He always knew that the IPCC climate was wrong he simply changed his political position as the situation dictated. Soviet and latterly Russian climatologists are far better than most in the west. I know Chinese climatologists are their equals because I worked with both…
...Russian scientists know what the IPCC said. Because of them Putin knows that the climate science of the IPCC is wrong. He knows it because Soviet and now Russian climatologists practice open science
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2015/11/21/did-john-kerry-just-threaten-clima...
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-11-25/us-taxpayer-faces-230-million-loss-spains-solyndra-files-creditor-protection
Office of Public Affairs
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Wednesday, February 3, 2016
BBA Aviation to Divest Facilities at Six Airports in Landmark Aviation Acquisition
Divestitures Avoid Creating Monopolies or Duopolies for Critical Fueling and Support Services
The Department of Justice announced today that it will require BBA Aviation plc, the parent company of Signature Flight Support, to divest fixed‑base operator assets (FBOs) at six U.S. airports in order to proceed with its $2.065 billion acquisition of Landmark Aviation.
The department’s Antitrust Division filed a civil antitrust lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to block the proposed acquisition, and simultaneously filed a proposed settlement that, if approved by the court, would resolve the competitive harm alleged in the lawsuit. The department said that without the required divestitures, the transaction would have created a monopoly for FBO services at three airports and reduced the number of full-service FBO providers from three to two at three others, resulting in higher prices and lower quality of FBO services for consumers.
“The merger would have subjected general aviation customers at six airports to a monopoly or duopoly for critical fueling and support services,” said Assistant Attorney General Bill Baer of the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division. “Higher prices and lower quality services were the likely result. Today’s proposed settlement will ensure that customers at these airports will continue to receive the benefits of vigorous competition.”
FBOs provide fuel and related support services to general aviation customers, which include charter, private and corporate aircraft operators. Signature and Landmark own or operate full-service FBOs at airports throughout the United States. Signature and Landmark are the only two full-service FBOs at Washington Dulles International Airport (IAD) in Dulles, Virginia; Scottsdale Municipal Airport (SDL) in Scottsdale, Arizona; and Fresno Yosemite International Airport (FAT) in Fresno, California. Signature and Landmark are two of only three full-service FBOs at Jacqueline Cochran Regional Airport (TRM) in Thermal, California; Westchester County Airport (HPN) in White Plains, New York; and Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport (ANC) in Anchorage, Alaska. At each of these three airports, the third FBO is much smaller than Signature and Landmark.
Under the terms of the proposed settlement, BBA Aviation must divest Landmark’s FBO assets at each of the six impacted airports to a buyer approved by the Antitrust Division.
BBA Aviation plc is a United Kingdom public limited company headquartered in London. Its subsidiary, Signature Flight Support, a Delaware corporation headquartered in Orlando, Florida, has the world’s largest FBO network and operates approximately 70 FBO facilities in the United States. BBA had worldwide revenues of approximately $2.3 billion in 2014, of which over $900 million were derived from Signature’s U.S. FBO business.
Landmark U.S. Corp LLC and LM U.S. Member LLC (collectively doing business as Landmark Aviation), are Delaware limited liability companies headquartered in Houston and are owned by investment funds managed by the Carlyle Group. Landmark operates approximately 60 FBO facilities in the United States. Landmark had worldwide revenues of over $700 million in 2014, of which over $500 million were derived from its U.S. FBO business.
As required by the Tunney Act, the proposed settlement, along with the department’s competitive impact statement, will be published in the Federal Register. Any person may submit written comments concerning the proposed settlement during a 60-day comment period to James J. Tierney, Chief, Networks & Technology Enforcement Section, Antitrust Division, U.S. Department of Justice, 450 5th Street, N.W., Suite 7100, Washington, D.C. 20530. At the conclusion of the 60-day comment period, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia may enter the proposed final judgment upon finding that it serves the public interest.
BBA_Landmark CIS (86.52 KB)
BBA_Landmark PFJ (84.97 KB)
BBA_Landmark Hold Separate (105.15 KB)
BBA_Landmark Explanation (26.9 KB)
BBA_Landmark Complaint (115.75 KB)
16-131
Antitrust Division
Antitrust (including FTC antitrust)
Updated February 3, 2016
end
http://www.yuricareport.com/PoliticalAnalysis/FraudinWhiteHouse.htm
A clip--Fraud Traced to the White House "Carlye Group'
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Fraud Traced to the White House
James Baker was uniquely situated to fulfill Cheney’s commission, for among the many hats he wears, he is legal counsel to the Carlyle Group, one of the nation’s largest defense investment firms whose board consists of former high level government officials, including George Bush senior. Baker was also the “hired gun” for George W. Bush’s campaign in Florida, along with Karl Rove. But among the hats he wears, none is more valuable than his ability to become invisible and leave no fingerprints behind. James Baker courts the press and is hailed a statesman; he also serves as the honorary chairman of the James Baker III Institute for Public Policy at Rice University, a think tank that was involved in aiding the George W. Bush presidential transition teams.
Equally intriguing is the fact that Baker has ties with both the Bushes and Ken Lay. Years earlier, in 1993, after Baker stepped down from his stint as Secretary of State, he and Robert A. Mosbacher—Bush senior’s commerce secretary—signed a joint consulting and investing agreement with Enron. The two men began a lucrative career making joint global investments with Enron on natural gas projects. Baker Botts LLC, James Baker’s law firm, flourished in its specialty of international oil and gas counseling.
Since Baker walked in their circles, when he set out to select an energy team to advise the White House, he filled it with leaders of the oil, gas, and power industries. Three appointees stand out: Kenneth Lay from Enron, who was working on the Bush Energy Transition team under Dick Cheney at the time; Chuck Watson, the then Chairman and CEO of Houston’s Dynegy Inc., and Dynegy’s General Counsel and Secretary, Kenneth Randolf. Both firms were deeply involved in illegally manipulating the California energy market at the time and eventually faced criminal investigations.
Chairman of the Board of Dynergy Patrick Wood III----------------------------------------------------------------------- http://www.smartmoney.com/barrons/briefingbooks/?page=executives&origin=barrons&symbol=DYN
Patrick Wood Chairman of the Board
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Held current title since: 2012
Director since: 2012
Officer since: 2012
Age: 50
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Mr. Patrick Wood, III, is appointed as the Chairman of the Board of Dynegy Inc. He is serving as the Board's non-executive Chairman and has served as a principal of Wood3 Resources, an energy infrastructure developer, since July 2005. From 2001 until July 2005, Mr. Wood served as chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. From 1995 until 2001, he chaired the Public Utility Commission of Texas. Prior to 1995, Mr. Wood was an attorney with Baker & Botts, a global law firm, and an associate project engineer with Arco Indonesia, an oil and gas company, in Jakarta. Mr. Wood currently also serves on the Boards of Directors of Quanta Services Inc. and SunPower Corp.
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Chairman
Public Utility Commission of Texas
Utilities industry
February 1995 – June 2001 (6 years 5 months)
Chairman
FERC
Renewables & Environment industry
2001 – 2005 (4 years)
Chairman
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission
Government Agency; Government Administration industry
June 2001 – July 2005 (4 years 2 months)
Principal
Wood3 Resources
Renewables & Environment industry
July 2005 – Present (6 years 3 months)
Energy Infrastructure Development.
Director
SunPower Corporation
Public Company; SPWR; Renewables & Environment industry
August 2005 – Present (6 years 2 months)
Director
Quanta Services
Public Company; PWR; Construction industry
May 2006 – Present (5 years 5 months)
Director
Range Fuels, Inc.
Privately Held; Oil & Energy industry
May 2007 – Present (4 years 5 months)
Director
Xtreme Power
Privately Held; Renewables & Environment industry
October 2008 – Present (3 years)
Director
TPI Composites, Inc.
Privately Held; Renewables & Environment industry
January 2009 – Present (2 years 9 months)
DIrector
First Wind
Renewables & Environment industry
March 2010 – Present (1 year 7 months)
http://www.windaction.org/posts/44360-2-transmission-towers-in-ilocos-no...
PASUQUIN, Ilocos Norte—Two transmission towers operated by wind farm developer UPC Renewables collapsed on Thursday night, following a large explosion, Pasuquin town mayor Peter Felix Aguinaldo said on Friday.
Residents in the mountainous village of Tadao, about 25 kilometers from Laoag City, reported hearing an unusual sound on Thursday evening and discovered the toppled facilities that transmit electricity produced by wind farms here.
Police said they received reports that bomb fragments were scattered around the area.
As of press time, local authorities have deployed teams to the said area to verify the report.
Representatives of the UPC Renewables have not yet released an official statement.
The Pagudpud wind farm is a joint venture of Ayala Corporation’s AC Energy Holdings, Inc., UPC Renewables and Philippine Investment Alliance for Infrastructure.
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UPC also has projects in North Africa, China and US. UPC (First Wind) was recently sold to Sun Edison and the stock dropped from $33 to $1.40 as of 2/19/16. Lawsuits are flying...
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-02-19/photographs-surreal-uncanny-emptiness-chinas-ghost-cities
http://blogs.reuters.com/great-debate/2015/09/22/chinas-eco-cities-are-o...
Huangbaiyu, an eco-village in the north of China designed by Hollywood hobnobbing, green-design “guru” William McDonough, doesn’t pollute, doesn’t have any cars and doesn’t consume any resources. In fact, it doesn’t even have any people. It’s almost a moot point that this eco-village drastically compromised the innovative ecological elements of its original design, using shoddy materials: Nobody ever wanted to live there in the first place. It was a project designed by foreigners out of touch with the needs of locals. They built houses with garages for people who didn’t have cars, failed to provide space for gardens and livestock for peasants who depended on such, built a biogas energy plant running off of corn cobs and stalks needed to feed the village’s economically vital Cashmere goats and expected people who have a tradition of building their own homes to suddenly want to pay many times their yearly salary for housing. Huangbaiyu is currently empty and rotting — which is perhaps the most ecological thing it can do.
Many other eco-cities were over before they even started. Beijing’s Mentougou eco-valley was never actually built; the Finnish visionaries who designed it claimed that the money they invested mysteriously vanished in the black box of Chinese bureaucracy.
Broad Group’s Sky City One, intended to be the world’s first city-in-a-building and the tallest building on the planet, sent a shockwave through global architecture circles when it was announced. An extremely energy efficient building, Sky City One was supposed to house over 30,000 people, cutting down on the amount of land per person 100-fold and eliminating the need to drive. But after ceremoniously breaking ground in 2013, nothing was ever actually built.
At this time, the Sino-Singapore Tiangin Eco-city (SSTEC) is probably the best example of a functional eco-city in China. Built on reclaimed industrial land in the middle of a heavily industrialized swath of Tianjin, next to the site a massive chemical explosion this summer that sent fireballs shooting into the sky and killed over 100 people, parts of it were actually built and partially populated. Even so, this project has stagnated.
Even more disappointing: SSTEC may not be any more ecologically friendly than some of the world’s traditional urban centers.
http://www.uschinaecp.org/en/Index.aspx
http://www.uschinaecp.org/en/Members/UPCRenewables.aspx
High-level Drug Running
An imprisoned former US Green Beret is suing the CIA, George Bush and others, to draw attention to their complicity in government-sanctioned drug-trafficking operations and cover-ups.
http://www.whale.to/b/dowbenko.html
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EDWARD SNOWDEN: “GLOBAL WARMING IS AN INVENTION OF THE CIA”
http://observatorial.com/2016/03/08/edward-snowden-global-warming-is-an-invention-of-the-cia/#
Then of course, once the government sanctions a darling industry everybody jumps in (the smart ones probably weren't in too long) because they know they are going to be favored and here we see the end result and it's nothing but cannibalism. What's worse is that it is completely predictable.
I can't wait to see the Enron connection. Here we go again...
http://in.reuters.com/article/india-china-visa-uighur-modi-pakistan-idINKCN0XM0YN
India on Monday said it had withdrawn a visa to an exiled Uighur leader whom China has long branded a terrorist, provoking criticism from the opposition that it had buckled to pressure from Beijing.
China blames unrest that has killed hundreds of people in its far western province of Xinjiang on Islamist militants looking to establish an independent state for the mostly Muslim Uighur ethnic minority.
"A visa was given to him. That has been cancelled," the spokesman said. The foreign ministry directed queries to the interior ministry.
The announcement came after domestic media quoted the Chinese Foreign Ministry as saying Isa was wanted by China and Interpol had put out a "red-corner" notice for his arrest.
That's cold
"Last we talked about this [Hillary] said she wanted to cancel [Morocco] at the last minute."
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Eric Scott Hunsader @nanexllc 3h3 hours ago
"What about the Morocco money?"
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Eric Scott Hunsader @nanexllc 3h3 hours ago
"I just work here, I don't know"
--Bill Clinton
https://twitter.com/Scott_Foval/with_replies