The ground is shifting, however: oil prices which have risen fivefold since 2001, fears about energy supply security and the need to curb carbon dioxide emissions have boosted support for nuclear in Europe's biggest energy-consuming state.

The Interior Department formally listed polar bears as threatened in May, but did not create protected areas for them.

Considering this, the scientists believe that government should concentrate on tapping the conventional sources of energy like wind and solar energy to meet the country's immediate energy requirements.

Goldman Sachs Global Investment Research said it was moving to a more cautious outlook on the sector.

The Altai gas pipeline project, designed to ship 30 bln cubic meters of natural gas per year from western Siberia to China, was excluded from Russia's recently released blueprint for gas industry development through 2030, the agency said.

"A bit far-fetched, that," economic historians will no doubt snort, but the Tata Motors pullout has painfully ended one of the sorrier sagas in recent Indian political and business history, marring the remarkable story of the 140-year-old behemoth Tata Group, whose fortunes reflect the growth of modern India.

At this time next year, I could see the Dow as low as 8,300. That’s more than 40 percent off its October 2007 high of 14,164.

But beneath the waves, scientists have uncovered an alarming secret. They have found streams of gas bubbling up from the seabed around the island of Ischia. 'The waters are like a Jacuzzi - there is so much carbon dioxide fizzing up from the seabed,' said Dr Jason Hall-Spencer, of Plymouth University. 'Millions of litres of gas bubble up every day.'

Lukoil is seeking between $2 billion and $5 billion to refinance loans, spokesman Dmitry Dolgov said by phone in Moscow today. The other three companies are OAO Gazprom, the world's biggest natural-gas company; OAO Rosneft, Russia's largest oil producer; and TNK-BP, BP Plc's 50 percent Russian venture.

U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Ed Schafer and Department of Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman said the plan is in response to President George Bush's goal of cutting U.S. gasoline consumption by 20 percent in the next 10 years.

The society, based in the Bronx Zoo in the United States and which works in 60 nations, urged better monitoring of wildlife health to help give an early warning of how pathogens might spread with global warming.

Futures contracts were changing hands at $US147 a barrel in July; now analysts are talking somewhere around $US85 as a floor in the coming months. No one really knows for sure, which doesn't do anything to ease investor concern.

To get a perspective on where Dr. McCabe is is coming from, it struck me that he is a man who thinks in terms of quadrillions of BTUs and exajoules of energy. His views come from an analysis of global markets and global energy use. To him it probably seems that a grassroots coordinated global effort is beyond the reach of humanity.

The lower output is due to hurricanes Gustav and Ike, which at one point shut in almost all the 1.3 million barrels a day in oil production in the Gulf of Mexico, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

The decision, which could cost the power industry €30 billion (£23 billion) a year and could trigger a steep rise in electricity bills, represents a huge boost for Europe’s renewable energy industry. It also casts fresh doubt over the likelihood of a new £1.5 billion coal-fired power plant being built at Kingsnorth, Kent, by E.ON, the German power group.