Chevron's Energyville online game is a sham. After reading today's writeup of Chevron's brain-rotting propaganda play, I decided to try my luck at urban planning and energy management in Chevron's world. So, how did the online game endorsed by The Economist fare on the "ulterior motives" scale? Well... I was already a little turned off by the "oil drop" loading page and the trippy music, but then... My solar panels were too expensive and inefficient, my hydroelectric dam was nullified because of community-level water rights claims, my wind turbines broke, my hydrogen plant suffered from "viability problems", and my biomass facility caused a famine. While busily working to fix my crippled renewable energy infrastructure, a new oil tar sand deposit was discovered and exploited, dropping oil prices and allowing the good citizens of Danieltown to hit the open road once more. The tar sands also spread freedom. At one point, I was served with the ominous admonition "WARNING! DANIELTOWN NEEDS PETROLEUM!"

I developed a certain fondness for Idaho as a college student: it was the last square, brown state I had to fly over before landing in Portland. SANYO Electric probably wishes they were on that flight now. For the second time in a month, the Japanese module producer has given Hoku Scientific an extension to complete financing for it's Pocatello, Idaho poly plant. The initial financing deadline came and went on Dec. 31. On Jan. 2 the two companies agreed on a Feb. 15 extension, which only yesterday got pushed back to May 31. So why did SANYO, after granting Hoku a stay of execution, also extend the underlying supply deal from a seven-year, $371 million contract to 10 years and $530 million? My guess is that SANYO got hooked on Hoku's pixie dust, agreeing to shell out a good portion of the $371 million prior to delivery to help in financing the plant. When it became apparent Hoku wasn't getting it done in Idaho, SANYO's only recourse was to up the deal value for Hoku to use as guaranty on outside financing. Now it's costing SANYO an extra $160 million to get the same products six months later at the outset of what's starting to look like a mid-term downward demand shift. I hope SANYO has a big warehouse. How do you say "oops" in Japanese?