Chevron

Canada has found a predictable ally among oil industry executives in its battle to defend oil (tar) sands from a draft EU law.

Solazyme Inc. (Nasdaq:SYZM), the South San Francisco-based developer of oils and alternative fuels from genetically modified algae, sold more than 11 million shares, raising $198 million in its long-awaited IPO late last week.  According to a regulatory filing, Company shares surged 15% in their first day of trading on increasing demand for renewable fuel sources and industrial chemicals.

BrightSource Energy, Inc. a utility-scale solar developer, has filed a US$250 million initial public offering (IPO).The California-based solar thermal developer has several intriguing qualities; however, these are saddled along with a few areas of concern. 

U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar says reports that the U.S. government has approved BP's (NYSE: BP) requests to resume drilling at its existing wells in the Gulf of Mexico are inaccurate.

Here are the Top 10 Renewable Energy News Stories You May Have Missed this Week:

1.  Air Force Scientists Collect 99 Percent of Wave Energy - A growing industry, wave power technology is increasingly becoming more efficient. Scientists at the U.S. Air Force Academy base in Colorado Springs have demonstrated that submerged wave energy converters can harness up to 99 percent of the kinetic energy inherent in an ocean wave.

In the epic environmental damages lawsuit involving the Ecuadorian people versus Chevron (NYSE: CVX), an Ecuadorian court has ruled in favour of the plaintiffs and ordered Chevron to pay a US$8 billion fine for contaminating the country's rainforest.

Here are the Top 10 Renewable Energy News Stories You May Have Missed this Week:

After a Chevron oil pipe has leaked crude oil near the Red Butte Creek in Salt Lake City, Utah for the second time in six months, city and state officials are calling for the oil company to shut down the pipeline indefinitely.

To anyone familiar with how modern-day politics works, it should come as no surprise to learn that big business spent big bucks to defeat the climate bills that became stalled in the U.S. Congress this past summer.

Solazyme Inc., a South San Francisco, California company that produces non-food-based biofuel, green oils and clean chemicals, last month secured US$52 million in strategic financing.