March 15 (Bloomberg) — The cost of living in the U.S. rose more than projected in February due to the biggest jump in gasoline prices in more than three years. The retreat in fuel expenses this month signals inflation will hover around the Federal Reserve’s goal. Sara Eisen reports on Bloomberg Television’s "In The Loop." (Source: Bloomberg)

Commonwealth Edison (NYSE: EIX) is pushing Illinois legislators to approve $2.6 billion in rate hikes over the next 10 years in order to expedite completion of the state’s "smart grid", which holds the promise of allowing operators to manage power distribution much more effectively and could save customers $187 million annually. — Chicago Tribune

The U.S. Interior Departmentgave the go-ahead this week to three major renewable energy projects on BLM-managed land in California and Nevada:

– The McCoy Solar Energy project near Blythe, California – proposed by McCoy Solar, […] is a 750 MW photovoltaic solar facility that would be one of the largest solar projects in the world.

– The Desert Harvest Solar Farm, proposed by EDF Renewable Energy, will be a 150 MW photovoltaic facility near Desert Center, California.

– The Searchlight Wind Energy Project near Searchlight, Nevada is a 200 MW project […]

Advanced biofuels

Allies of the oil and grocery industries unsuccessfully pushed to have the renewable fuels standard waived last summer in response to widespread drought that reduced the nation’s corn harvest. The mandate, passed by Congress in 2005, called for 7.5 billion gallons of ethanol to be blended into the nation’s fuel supply by 2012. It was expanded in 2007 to require 36 billion gallons to be blended by 2020. Of that, 21 billion gallons must be advanced biofuels.

"We always knew each doubling of [solar PV] installation would reduce prices about 18%," the Clean Edge founder, Ron Pernick, told the Guardian. Pernick said that prices were falling because the sector was expanding rapidly, doubling every one to two years. New solar PV installations expanded to 31GW in 2012, while revenues decreased by $12bn – or 19% – to $80bn.

Looking to the future, the report suggests innovation can continue to improve the performance of renewable technologies, including using biomimicry ideas to imitate nature. Curved wind turbine blades inspired by humpback whale fins have increased wind energy capture over flat blades by 25%, while mimicking photosynthesis using dye-sensitised solar cells based on titanium oxide instead of silicon is proving effective in low-light situations. In addition, energy efficiency developments like Nest’s ‘learning thermostat’ and smartphone apps for thermostat control will help connect web and smart-grid technologies.

The victims were two small-cap companies (which are more susceptible to this sort of short-term manipulation) – audio chip maker Audience Inc. (Nasdaq: ADNC) and biopharmaceutical Sarepta Therapeutics (Nasdaq: SRPT).

The attack on Audience struck on Jan. 29. Someone created a fake Twitter account intended to fool people into thinking it belonged to Carson Block of Muddy Waters Research, a firm best known for following Chinese companies and exposing their accounting problems.  […]

But at 2:20 pm. ADNC shares suddenly plunged 25%, which suggested that automated trading systems programmed to scan social media for negative news reacted to the tweets. The stock recovered 16 minutes later, but it shows how easily a social media stock scam can be executed.

[…] Lisette said "tons of bots" are always on the lookout for negative news in the social media sphere, and less-sophisticated ones can be fooled by stock scams most humans would recognize.

The day after the Audience incident, someone else created a fake Twitter account for Citron Research and sent out negative tweets about Sarepta Therapeutics, causing that stock to fall 9% in seconds.

LinkedIn Most Effective Social Channel

LinkedIn was also the most effective channel for recruiting: 93% of recruiters say they used the professional networking site to successfully place a candidate 2012, up from the 86% who said so a year earlier. Some 17% of recruiters used Facebook to place a candidate in 2012 (vs. 19% in 2011), and 13% used Twitter (vs. 10% in 2011).

PSA claims that in city driving, depending on traffic, you can save 45 per cent of fuel while running with the gasoline engine off 60 to 80 per cent of the time. I have no way of knowing if this is true or not, but the main advantage of Hybrid Air over Hybrid Electric appears to be cost.

PSA says it can undercut existing hybrids significantly on price because the Hybrid Air does not require an expensive battery and electric motor. It is hoped that Hybrid Air could be viable even in emerging markets like China and India where gasoline-electric hybrids are expensive and complex to repair.