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[Top News] from [REUTERS]

[Green Business]
NEW YORK
Wed Jan 20, 2010 6:02pm EST
JinkoSolar files for $100 million IPO

NEW YORK (Reuters) - China-based solar company JinkoSolar Holding Co Ltd on Wednesday filed for an initial public offering of up to $100 million.

The company, which makes silicon wafers, solar cells and solar modules, said it would use proceeds from the IPO to expand its manufacturing, for research and development, and for working capital, but did not give details in its filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Solar companies struggled in 2009 against a global oversupply that forced them to cut prices and has pressured both revenue and margins.

But demand has improved and investors are looking for signs that the industry will recover its sharp growth.

Earlier this month China's Daqo New Energy Corp, which manufactures polysilicon for solar panel makers, filed for an IPO of up to $108 million. In December, California solar company Solyndra Inc filed for an IPO of up to $300 million -- but Chinese thin film panel maker Trony Solar Holdings in December postponed indefinitely its IPO due to poor market conditions.

JinkoSolar posted revenue of 880 million yuan ($128.9 million) in the nine months ended September 30, down 42.8 percent from the same period a year ago. It posted net income of 1.72 million yuan, compared with 179.2 million yuan a year ago.

JinkoSolar posted a 36.5 million yuan loss on the fair value of derivatives in the nine months ended September 30, compared with a 204,000 yuan gain in the year-ago period.

Major shareholders in the company include executives and funds affiliated with HSBC. The company did not disclose who would be selling shares.

Jinkosolar plans to list on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol "JKS." Underwriters are being led by Goldman Sachs in Asia and Credit Suisse.

(Reporting by Clare Baldwin; Editing Bernard Orr)


[Green Business]
SAN FRANCISCO
Wed Jan 20, 2010 5:27pm EST
Sierra Club's new chief likes pressuring companies

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - The venerable Sierra Club on Wednesday appointed a 38-year-old executive director with a history of getting big companies to sign onto environmental efforts and a focus on climate change.

California-based Sierra Club is one of the biggest U.S. environmental groups and has taken on global warming as a top issue, while its new executive director, Michael Brune, is from the edgier, more activist-oriented Rainforest Action Network.

In one Rainforest Action Network campaign to convince Home Depot to stop buying lumber from sensitive forests, Brune found codes for store public address systems and announced to shoppers that "wood ripped from the heart of the rainforest" was on offer, according to his biography.

Despite the U.S. Senate election of Massachusetts Republican Scott Brown, who takes a Democratic seat, Brune said he expected "strong federal climate and energy legislation will be passed some time this year."

In the interview, he said Massachusetts voters were strong environmentalists and would pressure Brown to be so as well.

Brune, who declined to predict what a federal law would look like, takes over at the 117-year-old Sierra Club from Carl Pope, who has been executive director since 1992 and will remain as executive chairman.

(Reporting by Peter Henderson; Editing by John O'Callaghan)


[Green Business]
PALM SPRINGS, Calif
Wed Jan 20, 2010 7:47pm EST
California's new standards to spur green design

PALM SPRINGS, Calif (Reuters) - The nation's first statewide mandatory green building code set by environmental trendsetter California will spur sustainable design, the chief executive of Autodesk Inc said on Wednesday.

"I think it's actually good that government agencies get into the policy or the habit of setting environmental policy. For years, there have been building codes related to fire and safety and everything else. That's how it gets enforced," Autodesk's chief executive Carl Bass said in a phone interview with Reuters.

Bass said that Autodesk also hopes to supply emerging clean technology companies with software to design and simulate their projects and has ramped up a program to grant free software to start-up clean tech firms. He declined to say how big that market could be for Autodesk.

California last week adopted a mandatory green building code -- dubbed "CalGreen" -- which sets out specific constraints for newly constructed buildings and is the first such state-wide green mandate in the United States.

Among its measures, it requires water consumption to be cut by 20 percent, half of construction waste diverted from landfills and installation of low-pollutant emitting materials.

The code's adoption sparked some controversy among parts of the building sector, which argued the new mandate would clash with the existing voluntary green building label called "LEED" and effectively create a confusing two-tier rating system.

The executive of Autodesk called LEED a good first step.

Autodesk makes the design software AutoCAD used by architects, engineers and other in the construction, manufacturing and engineering sectors to model two-dimensional and three-dimensional graphics.

"Building codes are mandatory and I think they can be more specific to local areas and I think it will force every building to actually do it," Bass said.

Building construction and operation account for some 47 percent of the United States' carbon footprint, nearly double that of the transportation industry.

California's new green code is estimated to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 3 million metric tons by 2020 and help it reach its environmental targest.

Autodesk's competitors include Adobe Systems Inc, and Parametric Technology Corp.

(Reporting by Laura Isensee; editing by Carol Bishopric)


[Green Business]
WASHINGTON
Wed Jan 20, 2010 2:42pm EST
Top Republican sees little cap and trade support

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The top Republican in the Senate, Mitch McConnell, said on Wednesday that there was barely any support in that chamber for passing cap and trade legislation that aims to control global warming.

"I would say there is minimal enthusiasm, and that's putting it mildly, for cap and trade," McConnell said when asked by a reporter whether the initiative was dead for this year.

Under cap and trade, which was passed by the House of Representatives last June, lower and lower limits would be put on industrial emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases over the next 40 years.

Companies would be required to hold permits for each ton of carbon they emit and those permits could be traded in a regulated market.

The House-passed legislation has hit stiff opposition in the Senate and the election of a Republican in Massachusetts on Tuesday to replace deceased Democratic Senator Edward Kennedy made prospects somewhat more difficult for cap and trade.

Senator Lisa Murkowski said she might not seek passage of an amendment on Wednesday that would stop the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency from regulating carbon emissions for the first time.

Instead, the Alaska Republican said her "inclination" was to pursue a slightly different legislative route -- passage of a "joint resolution" in the Senate and House -- that would have the same impact but would face different procedural rules.

Murkowski did not say when she would go ahead with the joint resolution, if she settles on that route.

Murkowski argues that the EPA must be stopped from regulating carbon and that legislation instead should be crafted to address environmental concerns.

But many Democrats and environmental groups have said that Murkowski is trying to push a vote on EPA regulation in order to undermine progress on a climate change bill.

The Obama administration has been using the threat of EPA regulation to try to encourage some lawmakers to get behind legislation that would be more comprehensive and give industry more opportunity to have a say in environmental policy.

(Reporting by Richard Cowan, Editing by Howard Goller)