Reaction to the U.S. Bureau of Land management’s solar power freeze; Big Coal gets into renewable energy; and Dyson won’t build electric cars, after all.

Citing Need for Assessments, U.S. Freezes Solar Energy Projects: There’s plenty of chatter and speculation continuing today over the U.S. Bureau of Land Management’s shock decision to suspend solar power development on public land in six Western states. The Bureau wants two years to consider the environmental impact of industrial-scale solar. Earth2Tech describes reaction to the announcement as “mixed,” citing comments by solar power developer BrightSource that the application process is hopelessly mired. Of course, BrightSource is already permitted and stands to gain from a moratorium on new competition. Meanwhile, Clean Beta uncovers a 2003 memo [PDF download] by the BLM praising solar’s potential and calling for accelerated development. (New York Times)

Oil Breaks Old Ceiling: The price of crude oil consolidated above $140 a barrel Friday after jumping out of its previous comfort zone pricing. Oil wrapped up the week at $140.21 on the New York exchange — up about 50 cents from Thursday’s close. (Forbes)

Canada plant to make ethanol from garbage: Edmonton, Alberta, is the latest municipality to attempt turning their garbage into fuel. The city plans to put an ethanol-producing facility into operation by 2010. Engineers say it will be capable of reducing up to 100,000 tons of plastic, paper, and carboard into commercially viable ethanol. The $69.3 million project should yield about 36 million liters of ethanol each year. (Reuters)

Blowing In: What’s Behind Duke’s Wind-Power Push?: Duke Energy — a major developer of U.S. coal power — has purchased another renewable energy startup. The Wall Street Journal blog Environmental Capital puzzles over Duke’s thinking: Are they buying into a post-fossil fuel future, or merely greening their sooty image? Duke is set to pay $320 million for Catamount Energy Corporation, A Vertmont-based windpower developer. (WSJ.com)

Dyson NOT building solar electric car: In Thursday’s edition of The Daily Five, we reported an Engaget story saying that vacuum maker Dyson planned to enter the electric car market. But a Dyson spokesperson now says that while their new digital motor technology could, indeed, be used in vehicle production, the company currently has no plans to expand into the automobile field. The Engaget report echoed remarks made by company founded Sir James Dyson in The Daily Mail. (Autoblog Green)

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