A daily roundup of the most important energy, environment, and climate news from around the world.

ENERGY EFFICIENCY

DOE confirms LEDs most ‘environmentally friendly’ lighting (via Environmental Leader)

ENERGY INDUSTRY

Duke and Progress Energy become largest US utility (via New York Times)

JP Morgan probed over potential power-market manipulation (via Bloomberg)

EMISSIONS

GlobalData forecasts increasingly volatile carbon market (via Environmental Leader)

Report: US should follow Australia’s lead by taxing carbon (via The Hill)

Greenhouse gas rule won’t include smaller polluters, EPA says (via Bloomberg)

OIL

BP: world sees challenges for oil at ‘reasonable prices’ (via Greenbang)

RENEWABLES

UK feed-in tariff payments top £128m, 1GW new capacity over two years (via BusinessGreen)

China poised to raise solar capacity target to 21GW by 2015 (via Recharge)

The global PV manufacturing landscape in 2012 and beyond (via Greentech Media)

UK to publish final renewables support levels within two weeks (via Bloomberg)

Wind credit with bipartisan backing gets lost in election-year fray (via Greenwire)

Japan opens solar energy parks (via Agence-France Presse)

Solarworld plans China anti-dumping case with EU peers (via Bloomberg)

Get ready for solar sharing communities (via Earth2Tech)

GE halts work on biggest US solar factory to return to the lab (via Forbes)

CLIMATE/ENVIRONMENT

Global warming no longer Americans’ top environmental concern, poll finds (via Washington Post)

The June 2012 US heat wave: one of the greatest in recorded history (via Weather Underground)

Climate change is already shrinking crop yields (via Mother Jones)

Janet Napolitano connects wildfires to climate change (via Mother Jones)

IPCC scientist on how climate change is worsening wildfires (via InsideClimate News)

Aerial firefighting capacity declines as wildfires grow (via Mother Jones)

North Carolina lawmakers reject sea level rise predictions (via Reuters)

COAL

Coal and China: bad, but maybe not as bad as you think (via Grist)

TRANSPORTATION

The top EV-friendly cities: what are they doing right? (via Climate Progress)

Chevy Volt outsells Nissan Leaf for fifth straight month (via Autoblog Green)

Do environmental rules make it harder to build infrastructure? (via Washington Post)

GRID

Grid storage battery cost to fall to $500/kWh by 2022, short of expectations (via Green Car Congress)

Will 2012 be the summer of smart grid to the rescue? (via Greentech Media)

NATURAL GAS

Pennsylvania’s natural gas storage nearing capacity (via EnviroPolitics)

OPINION

What DC can teach California – and vice versa – about putting together a climate bill (via Huffington Post)

Bill McKibben on the global warming hoax (via The Daily Beast)

Gridlock in DC may give edge to renewables (via Des Moines Register/Gannett)

Renewable energy faces financing challenges with end of federal 1603 grant program (via Renewable Energy World)

Image via Solar-Magazine.com