Quanta Services, Inc. (PWR) signed an agreement to acquire privately-held Price Gregory Services, Inc., an energy infrastructure services provider in North America that specializes in the construction of large diameter transmission pipelines.

This transaction, which is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2009, is valued at $350 million. Quanta will issue approximately 11.1 million shares of its common stock, valued at $250 million, and will pay approximately $100 million in cash, subject to adjustment, to the stockholders of Price Gregory.

This acquisition further strengthens Quanta's leadership position in the North American electric power transmission industry. The company said that Price Gregory will significantly expand the scale and scope of Quanta's existing natural gas operations and will position it to take advantage of the positive long-term outlook for the natural gas industry.

Quanta expects a substantial increase in revenues and earnings, strong margins, and significant free cash flows with the

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ECOtality Inc. is a young company that has quickly become a known leader in clean electric transportation and storage technologies. Today the company announced that its subsidiary Electric Transportation Engineering Corporation (eTec) has been awarded $8 million from the California Energy Commission to support the largest-ever transportation electrification project.

With this $8 million award, eTec will be able to support the deployment of charge infrastructure and electric vehicles (EV’s) in the San Diego region. This will serve as part of eTec’s “American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 Cost Share: Alternative and Renewable Fuel and Vehicle Technology Program.”

When asked about the ramifications to eTec, Don Karner who serves as the president of the subsidiary stated, “As eTec’s proposed project to the U.S. Department of Energy is anticipated to deploy up to 2,550 charging stations in the San Diego area, this additional funding from the California Energy Commission will allow

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Shares of Rentech (AMEX:RTK) are soaring today as word spreads about the company’s latest deal. Shares have more than doubled in less than two weeks.

This is how giants are born, one small advance at a time. It was just eleven days ago I last wrote about Rentech (AMEX:RTK) and its biofuel industry advances.

Shares of the company traded for just $0.62 on the day I wrote, “If done well, Fischer-Tropsch technology could be the transitive fuel source this country needs as it seeks its energy independence.”

Today those same shares traded as high as $2.24. That is a 260% gain in less than eight trading days.

The news keeps getting better for this company. Two weeks ago I was writing about its breakthrough in the aviation industry. A standards-creating board gave the go-ahead to use the company’s fuel in aviation-grade jet fuel.

It was a major step forward for

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Today it was announced that ECOtality, Inc.’s subsidiary, Electric Transportation Engineering Corporation (eTec), a leader in clean electric transportation and storage technologies, received a grant totaling approximately $99.8 million from the U.S. Department of Energy to commence the largest deployment of electric vehicles (EVs) and charging infrastructure in U.S. history.

eTec has partnered with Nissan North America to undertake the massive project. According to the press release, the companies will install electric vehicle charging infrastructure and deploy up to 1,000 Nissan battery electric vehicles in strategic markets in five states: Arizona, California, Oregon, Tennessee, and Washington. It has not been said if success will lead to further opportunity, but the project will certainly put the spotlight on the company and may lead to other contracts.

“By studying lessons learned from electric vehicle operations and the infrastructure supporting these first 5,000 vehicles, the Project enables the streamlined deployment of the next 5,000,000 electric

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Many investors rarely think about Brazil as a place to put their investment dollars. They think Brazil is just a country that goes crazy over soccer and has a wild ‘Carnival’ every year in Rio. But Brazil is so much more. They may have the best economy in the Americas.

Brazil has made great strides under current President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, commonly known as Lula. Lula took office on January 1, 2003 and he has, since being in office, run a very orthodox fiscal policy. The country has maintained fiscal and trade surpluses for the better part of his presidency.

Brazil’s highly capable central bank has followed a very strong monetary policy. They have maintained high levels of real interest rates, which prevented the economy from overheating and creating an over-expansion of credit – unlike the policies of others like the Federal Reserve.

In late April, the Brazilian central bank

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Diversified utility Duke Energy (DUK), the 3rd largest electric utility in the U.S., announced a three-year partnership with Cisco Systems (CSCO), the world's largest network communications company, to co-develop an advanced modern electric "smart grid."

What is a Smart-Grid?

"Smart-grids" deliver electricity from suppliers to consumers using digital technology to save energy, reduce costs and increase reliability. Many global governments are promoting such a modernized electricity network as a means of increasing energy independence and reducing global warming issues.

An electricity grid is not a single entity but an aggregate of multiple networks and multiple power generation companies with multiple operators employing varying levels of communication and coordination, most of which are manually controlled.

Smart grids increase the connectivity, automation and coordination between suppliers, consumers and networks, which perform either long distance transmission or local

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Best Economy in the Americas – Brazil

Tony Daltorio, The Investment U Research Team

Wall Street tends to take a very myopic view of the world – the view that the entire financial universe revolves around them and the United States. And that what goes on in other countries is unimportant.

It’s why many Wall Streeters have missed one of the greatest rags-to-riches stories in global economic history – Brazil. Brazil’s economy has gone from a “basket case” to being as solid as a Brick.

Brazil has made huge strides from the very debt-ridden, bureaucratic country of the past. Years ago, the country restructured its finances and has resisted the temptation to use economic crises, such as in neighboring Argentina, as an excuse to default on its obligations.

Yet, many on Wall Street still think of Brazil as a backwards “third-world” country that goes crazy

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EV Innovations Inc., designer & engineer of emission-free automotive propulsion systems using the latest lithium battery technology, was proud to announce today that NASA featured their LiV™ DASH, an all electric version of the Smart Car, in MotorWeek AutoWorld. The coverage also included information on the organization’s practice of environmentally friendly fuel alternatives.

NASA currently uses the company’s LiV™ DASH, LiV™ FLASH, an electric version of the Mini Cooper, and the LiV™ SURGE, a converted PT Cruiser, to serve the needs of various areas within the high security compound. Each vehicle provides different levels of passenger capacity, drive ranges and speeds.

Bruce Chesson, Alternative-Fuel Program manager at Kennedy Space Center, stated, “I believe NASA’s a leader in just about everything at this point, and our goal is to make life better here on earth. A lot of people don’t realize what we do to support

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Warrior Girl Corp. dedicates their efforts to helping achieve effective energy independence for the United States. The Company does this through using unconventional methods and new technologies for developing non-traditional hydrocarbon deposits. Trading on the Pink Sheets, Warrior Girl Corp.’s first enterprise involves and centers on the use of an innovative, environment-friendly technology. This technology is to extract oil from tar sand/tar shale in the western United States.

Warrior Girl Corp.’s extraction technology recovers over 99 percent of the available oil present in tar sands. Their process is environment friendly. In addition, there is no exploration risk involved and no decline curve with the process. The extracted oil goes out for sale to refineries throughout the Intermountain West of the United States. With the Company’s process, the left over sand can be used as a premium construction material, for use as backfill, or for numerous other commercial purposes.

In April, Warrior Girl

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Superlattice Power, Inc. is continuing its drive to kick battery performance into high gear with its advanced lithium ion polymer battery that is designed to significantly increase the performance of electric vehicles.

With the recent roller-coaster ride in oil prices, interest in all-electric vehicles is stronger than ever, with people looking for something they can plug into versus fill up, something that is beyond today’s hybrids. Over and above the immediate pubic appeal of owning a car that can bypass the gas station, there are also long-term social benefits that are driving research in the field. By transferring power generation to centralized power stations, there are far more options for efficient pollution control, including the use of renewable power generation stations. Add to this the fact that electric vehicles support the nationwide move toward energy independence, and you have a huge and hungry

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