Pierre Lapeyre and David Leuschen, Co-Founders of Riverstone, said, “We are excited to build another company with Tim and his team of experienced industry executives. This investment exemplifies Riverstone’s strategy of re-partnering with proven management teams with deep, basin-focused operating expertise. We look forward to repeating the success we had with Phoenix.”

Tim Duncan, CEO and President of Talos and his team have worked together for over a decade and have provided the most successful private equity-backed companies.  The team will focus on the oil and gas opportunities located along the Gulf Coast and New Mexico.

Tim Duncan, Chief Executive Officer of Talos commented, “We are excited to have Apollo and Riverstone, two premier private equity investors with deep expertise in natural resources, as our equity sponsors in Talos. We are fortunate to have such a long-standing, cohesive management team at Talos and we are confident in our ability to create value for our investors by executing a broad range of business development opportunities. We believe with the right professionals and technical approach, the Gulf Coast and Gulf of Mexico continues to be a rewarding basin to acquire assets and use innovative techniques to develop another round of investment opportunities. We will use the experiences of our previous successful efforts to build Talos into a significant exploration and production company.”

About Apollo Global Management

Apollo Global Management is a leading global investment manager. Apollo has assets under management of more than $75 billion as of December 31, 2011.  The company manages, private equity, credit-oriented capital markets and real estate funds invested in 9 different industries, and considered highly knowledgeable about natural resource industries.

About Riverstone Holdings LLC

Pierre Lapeyre and David Leuschen are Co-Founders of Riverstone Holdings, LLC, an energy and power-focused private equity firm a private equity firm with approximately $18 billion under management across seven investment funds, including the world’s largest renewable energy fund.

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In Colorado, Xcel Energy is one the major utility suppliers. Xcel is a supplier for most of the Midwest and parts of the South. In Colorado, Xcel Energy customers will face an additional $69 million rate hike in utility costs after the $114 million increase reached in a settlement, according to Colorado Public Utilities Commission.

Xcel agreed not to pass construction costs on to ratepayers for new gas-fired power plants. However, at the end of three-year agreement, those costs will slowly go into rates.

According to Karen Hyde, Public Service’s vice president of rates, the rate impact would be about $8 million a year.

“Everyone will know what their rates will be,” said Hyde. “Our customers can budget.”

Saving $2.8 billion and reducing energy consumption by 20-30% represent a tremendous success. Energy Education  clients celebrate success like this everyday – Totally more than $2.8 billion in utility costs over the last 26 years and significantly reducing their carbon footprint.

“We help our clients manage more than $1 billion in annual utility costs. Most of that money is from public funds and every penny is essential. Our engineers and consultants help clients identify ways to cut 20, 30, 40 percent and more from previous energy use — that saves those public funds. It saves natural resources by reducing CO2 emissions. It has a ripple effect. Because our clients can do more with the funds they have, they can better serve their communities.” said Dr. Randy Hoff, Energy Education’s Chief Executive Officer.

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Lisa Jackson, EPA administrator reports that fracking can be “ok.” Jackson told energy leaders and environmentalists Wednesday that natural gas fracking can be done without harmful impacts. Jackson, also stated that fracking presents “an historic opportunity” for the energy industry in the United States in terms of energy development and job creation.

Jackson was the keynote speaker at the “Energy 40/40″ conference, which took a look back on 40 years of energy history and took a look forward to 40 years of energy growth and changes. Jackson’s speech was a good sign for the fracking industry and the energy industry as a whole.

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“I am delighted to announce today, over the next three years, we plan to  invest nearly $900 million. With this investment, we will be able to  produce 350,000 units here in the mid-term,” said Frank Peter Arndt, BMW Group Board Member. “This is one  reaction to the rising global demand for our BMW X Models.”

The plant plans to raise production capacities up to 300,000 units, and by the end of the year,  the plant will have nearly 7,500 employees.

BMW is seeing a great economic success despite all economic odds.  The partnership between the company and the state of <a href=”http://www.scautoindustry.com/news-room/press-releases/bmw-announces-plant-expansion-spartanburg-county” target=”_blank”>South Carolina </a>is an example of how the South Carolina plans to retain and grow business and stimulate job creation.

The total investment to the state is nearly $6 billion since 1992 with the development of over 2 million vehicles.

Tioga, North Dakota, is a small fracking community with around 2,400 residence. Building  the hotel was far from a being a “piece-of-cake.” How do you get funding for a project that doesn’t exactly show the market potential? The fact is that thousands of workers flock to North Dakota throughout the year to work at the drilling operations nearby. Those workers need a place to stay.  In theory,the hotel was a great idea, but if that banks aren’t going to give you funding without secured contracts proving occupancy and the oil and gas company aren’t going to give you secured contacts, what’s that compromise?

Brodsky, had to finance the first hotel himself. He needed to raise about $6 million. After the first hotel was built he would used the money from the banks to build the other hotels. The banks were will to let Brodsky have a loan amounting to 50% of whatever it cost to build the first hotel, Black Gold Suites in Tiago.

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The Energy from Shale report below will shows the upside to the entire industry. Spelling out its benefit in terms of job and economic growth.  We’ve seen job-creation and economic growth already in states that are developing shale communities, such as Pennsylvania and North Dakota.

1) Jobs – In 2010 the shale natural gas industry supported 600,000 jobs. The IHS Global Insight report projects growth to nearly 870,000 jobs in 2015 and to more than 1.6 million by 2035.

2) Economic – Shale gas’ economic contribution is expanding rapidly, from $76 billion in 2010 to an estimated $118 billion by 2015 and $231 billion in 2035. The report estimates nearly $1.9 billion in shale gas capital investments are expected between 2010 and 2015.

3) Energy – Production of shale gas, just 2 percent of total U.S. Lower 48 production in 2000, grew to 27 percent last year. As of September shale gas accounted for 34 percent of total production. The report estimates that by 2015 the share will increase to 43 percent, reaching 60 percent by 2035.

4) Tax revenue – By 2035 shale gas production contributions to federal, state and local governments will total more than $57 billion – more than triple the $18.6 billion contribution in 2010. Cumulatively, the shale industry is projected to generate more than $933 billion in tax and royalty revenues to governments over the next 25 years.

Allergan reassures patients and surgeons around the world, that Allergan is in no way a part of the recent investigation into breast implant devices manufactured by French manufacturer.  There are a number of different manufacturing companies around the world.  Allergan maintains rigorous clinical development process.  The manufacturing process requires high quality analysis and assurance testing.

The state of the art Allergan facility uses silicone and saline that is approved for use in medical devices and are designed to meet all relevant national and International Quality Control Standards and Current Good Manufacturing Practices.

According to a recent article in The Guardian, the rate of rupture in British Medical Journal is anywhere from 30-70% and up to 70% of implants would harden.   If ruptured, the silicone would be sent into different parts of women’s bodies.  The consequences are unknown.

How the site functions:

The “social” search engine,  starts off by getting to know you.  Asking you questions, such as, where you are traveling from, budget per person, areas of interested (food, luxury, family, outdoors, etc…) and specific destinations.   After submitting your answers the site will recommend destinations that match what you say.   The site will give you actual geographic destinations, offer suggested flights, hotels, activities and restaurants.

The user-experience is what will help this site succeed.  The glossy photos is what will draw people in, but the streamline activity planning and the personal booking experience is what will hook them.

Plans to grow:

The start-up plans to grow fast. Since it’s launch last October, Wanderfly has served more than a half million trips to users in nearly 200 countries.  Wanderfly is in the process of forming partnerships with hotel search engine, Hotels.com and flight finder, Kayak.com.   Other partnership might include, Business Traveler Magazine and Jetsetter (to supplement hotel offering with luxury vacations).

Source: TechCrunch

Governor Rick Perry states “That’s false!”

“Nothing would shut down drilling faster, and destroy billions of dollars of investment, than media interviews with mothers afraid to let their kids brush their teeth with polluted water. So the EPA study needs to be carefully reviewed. But the EPA’s credibility is also open to review. The agency is dominated by anticarbon true believers, and the Obama Administration has waged a campaign to raise the price and limit the production of fossil fuels.”

The debate has been going on around the country; however, hydraulic fracturing gives people jobs, it is an economic boost that this country needs, not to mention that hydraulic fracturing has been going on for more than half a century.  Why the debate now?  Contaminated water was found in a town nearby a fracking company, which explains why the assumption has been made.  In the meantime, the EPA will try to get to the bottom of the debate, while the fracking industry carries on.

Along with GM expanding its US factories, BMW has plans to hire 100 new workers at its Spartanburg County, South Carolina plant. BMW anticipates increasing production to 240,000 units by the year 2012. Back in 2008, BMW had made an announcement that it would invest over $170 million in the South Carolina plant which would also create 500 new jobs adding to its 7,000 person staff. While the company has yet to back up those promises, it also provides South Carolina with 23,000 jobs in automotive manufacturing plants which creates a $1.2 billion in income and wages.