The News

nytimes.com — Under increasing public pressure over its decision to temporarily halt all new solar development on public land, the Bureau of Land Management said that it was lifting the freeze, barely a month after it was put into effect. The bureau had announced on May 29 that it was no longer processing new applications to build solar power plants on land it oversees in six Western states after federal officials said they needed first to study the environmental effects of solar energy, a process that would take two years. But amid concerns from the solar power industry, members of Congress and the general public that the freeze would stymie solar development during a particularly critical time for energy policy, the bureau abruptly reconsidered.

Read Full Article »

iht.com — Bush administration officials knew that a Texas oil company with close ties to President George W. Bush was planning to sign an oil deal with the regional Kurdistan government that runs counter to U.S. policy and undercuts Iraq's central government, a congressional committee has concluded. U.S. policy is to warn companies that they incur risks in signing contracts until Iraq passes an oil law and strengthens Iraq's central government. The Kurdistan deal, by ceding responsibility for writing contracts directly to a regional government, infuriated Iraqi officials. But documents show that State Department officials did nothing to discourage the deal and in some cases appeared to welcome it.

Read Full Article »

msnbc.msn.com — Authorities scared of setting off wildfires in drought conditions have imposed new bans on fireworks displays across a swath of the West and the Southwest. What goes up — like fireworks — must come down, and authorities can't take a chance that that will be in tinder-dry forests or brushlands.

Read Full Article »

newsweek.com — The frequency of downpours and heat waves, as well as the power of hurricanes, has increased so dramatically that "100-year storms" are striking some areas once every 15 years, and other once rare events keep recurring. As a result, some climatologists now say global warming is to blame. Rising temperatures boost the probability of extreme weather, says Tom Karl, director of the National Climatic Data Center and lead author of a new report from the Bush administration's Climate Change Science Program; that can "lead to the type of events we are seeing in the Midwest."

Read Full Article »

usatoday.com — Oil supplies will remain tight despite record prices because of slowing supply growth and strong demand growth from developing nations, the International Energy Agency said. Downsizing its estimate of how much oil will reach the market, the agency said supply and demand figures will be close through the next five years, despite lower overall estimated hunger for crude as the world adjusts to record prices and cuts its consumption. The IEA is the energy watchdog for the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, a grouping of the world's most industrialized countries. Its forecasts are considered to be the best gauge of where oil supplies and prices are headed.

Read Full Article »

nytimes.com — Iraq announced that it was opening six key oil production fields to more than 30 foreign companies, while delaying an announcement on a series of no-bid consulting contracts with a handful of Western oil companies. Iraq had been expected to issue its first contracts to foreign oil companies that would provide technical support and help raise Iraqi oil production ahead of awarding lucrative long-tern contracts.Those initial short-term contracts, with Exxon Mobil, Shell, Total, BP and Chevron, are still under negotiation, and will probably be completed in the next month. The reason for the delay was unclear.

Read Full Article »