Gov. Bill Ritter, D-Colo., challenged Gov. Deval Patrick, D-Mass., to an arm-wrestling match over which is the greenest state at a Monday gathering of business, environmental and labor leaders in Washington.
The meeting, called the Apollo Summit, was convened by nearly 200 community leaders to create a strategy to promote clean energy solutions that will also create good jobs.
Gov. Patrick, talking about Massachusetts’ goal to attract companies working to build a green economy, said, “I don’t just want wind farms. I want companies that build turbines. I want hybrid vehicle companies to consult us on conservation strategies. I want companies that design solar panels.” Gov. Ritter responded: 
“We’re going to arm-wrestle you for those jobs because we want those same manufacturing plants. “We want to be the vertical part of the industry. It’s a good thing to have two governors competing for those jobs, competing in this industry to build out the turbines, competing to have the wind farms located in their state.”

Photo: Brent and MariLynn

It’s official - Texas power company TXU Corp. has agreed to be acquired by a group led by  private equity firms Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. and Texas Pacific Group for $31.8 billion in the largest leveraged buyout in history, Reuters reported today. A significant element of this purchase is that the deal included extensive negotiation with conservationist groups. 

The acquisition got the nod from heavyweights the Environmental Defense Fund and Natural Resources Defense Council thanks to several pledges made by the buyers to improve the company’s environmental policies. 

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Photo: Skepsis

Manure from the 5,000 cows at a Fresno County dairy will soon help light the homes of some 50,000 Pacific Gas & Electric customers with clean energy, PG&E said today. No bull!

BioEnergy Solutions of Bakersfield will generate as much as 3 billion cubic feet of methane for PG&E annually starting in early 2008, courtesy of these and other hardworking California cows. The electricity will power homes in Northern and Central California.

The cows of Fresno County’s Vintage Dairy, the first project in the deal, will provide enough methane to provide 1,200 homes as part of the project’s initial stages. And, in what clearly qualifies as the real scoop and the straight poop, here’s how it’s done:

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