TRAIN DERAILS WITH CRUDE OIL ABOARD!!

A Norfolk Southern train carrying crude oil derails in Vandergrift, Pennsylvania.

A 120-car Norfolk Southern train carrying heavy Canadian crude oil derailed and spilled in western Pennsylvania on Thursday, adding to a string of recent accidents that have prompted calls for stronger safety standards.

There were no reports of injury or fire after 21 tank cars came off the track at a bend by the Kiskiminetas River in the town of Vandergrift, according to town and company officials.

Nineteen of the derailed cars were carrying oil and two held liquefied petroleum gas, Norfolk Southern said. Three of the crude tank cars spilled after the incident, though the leaks have since been plugged. The company did not say how much oil spilled.

The train was heading from Conway to Morrisville, Pennsylvania. Some of the crude on board was destined for an asphalt plant in Paulsboro, New Jersey, owned by NuStar, a NuStar spokeswoman said.

Source: Valley News Dispatch

Derailed Norfolk Southern train in western Pennsylvania, Thursday morning, February 13, 2014

Energy at home!!

The truth about us oil!!

TESLA MOTORS CARS NOT SAFE??

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There are still too many unknown details surrounding the latest Tesla fire in Toronto to say determine the cause. The investigation into Tesla fires continues, says CNBC's Phil LeBeau.

With shares of Tesla hitting an all-time high and the company approaching several milestones, another fire involving the Model S is coming to light.

The fire, during which nobody was hurt, happened Feb. 1 in Toronto, Canada, Toronto Fire Services confirmed. TFS said the origin of the fire was in the engine area, but the actual source of the fire is unclear.

Tesla confirmed the fire while downplaying the incident. Spokeswoman Liz Jarvis-Shean said in a statement, "We don't yet know the precise cause, but have definitively determined that it did not originate in the battery, the charging system, the adapter or the electrical receptacle, as these components were untouched by the fire."

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Tesla Model S cars are displayed at a Tesla showroom in Palo Alto, Calif.

Will solar power last??!!

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The debate over solar energy continues -- CNBC's Silicon Valley Bureau Chief Mark Berniker breaks down the ongoing risks and rewards facing the industry.

The Ivanpah solar power plant stretches over more than five square miles of the Mojave Desert. Almost 350,000 mirrors the size of garage doors tilt toward the sun with an ability to energize 140,000 homes. The plant, which took almost four years and thousands of workers assembling millions of parts to complete, officially opened on Thursday, the first electric generator of its kind.

It could also be the last.

Since the project began, the price of rival technologies has plummeted, incentives have begun to disappear and the appetite among investors for mammoth solar farms has waned. Although several large, new projects have been coming online in recent months — many in the last quarter of 2013 — experts say fewer are beginning construction and not all of those under development will be completed.

(Read more: Renewable energy)

"I don't think that we're going to see large-scale solar thermal plants popping up, five at a time, every year in the U.S. in the long-term — it's just not the way it's going to work," said Matthew Feinstein, a senior analyst at Lux Research.

"Companies that are supplying these systems have questionable futures. There's other prospects for renewables and for solar that look a lot better than this particular solution," he said, including rooftop solar systems that are being installed one by one on businesses and homes.

Executives involved in Ivanpah — a venture among BrightSource Energy, NRG Energy and Google — say that once the facility proves that the technology can work, it will become easier to finance others, especially as repetition brings the cost down.

Should atomic power do a come back??

The North Anna Power Station, operated by Dominion Energy, in Mineral, Va.

Atomic power is gaining currency in the global energy market, former New Jersey Gov. Christine Todd Whitman told CNBC this week, arguing that nuclear should be considered part of the arsenal in the fight against global warming.

"It's not a silver bullet that will solve our energy problems … but if you care about clean air and heavy dependence on fossil fuels … nuclear should be part of the overall consideration," said the two-term governor, who now co-chairs the Clean and Safe Energy Coalition (CASEnergy), an advocacy group funded by the Nuclear Energy Institute. 

Nearly three years after a tsunami triggered a nuclear disaster at Japan's Fukushima Daiichi station, nuclear's proponents are trying to exorcise the demons that have haunted the sector. With the U.S. ramping up oil and gas production, though, nuclear energy has dropped off the radar.

OIL PRICES SLUGGIH!!!

Oil prices dipped Friday as disappointing U.S. manufacturing and retail sales data suggested a sluggish economic start to 2014, outweighing supply disruptions in Libya and Angola.

U.S. crude ended the session down 5 cents at $100.30. The contract ended the week almost flat after a four-week rally, fueled by signs of diminishing stockpiles in the U.S. Midwest, that drove prices above $101 a barrel for the first time since October.

On Friday the focus shifted to the U.S. economy after data showed manufacturing output fell in January by the largest margin in more than 4-1/2 years due to severely cold weather. That data overshadowed better than expected consumer sentiment.

Coupled with retail sales that unexpectedly dropped in January and a spike in jobless claims reported Thursday, the new data raised doubts over growth in the world's biggest economy and dulled expectations for higher growth in demand.

Brent crude was boosted by forecasts for tightened supply due to interruptions in Libya and Angola. The contract traded up 50 cents above $109 a barrel.

APPLE SAY NO TO ICAHN PLAN??

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Apple shareholders should vote against a proposal by activist investor Carl Icahn for the tech giant to aggressively expand its stock repurchase, proxy advisory firm ISS said in a report released on Sunday.

"(The Apple board) has returned the bulk of its U.S.-generated cash to shareholders via aggressive stock buybacks and dividends payouts," ISS said in the report.

"In light of these good-faith efforts and its past stewardship, the board's latitude should not be constricted by a shareholder resolution that would micromanage the company's capital allocation process."

(Read more: Apple drops 5%on weak iPhone sales, revenue outlook)

Icahn has been pushing the tech giant to aggressively expand its stock repurchase and has criticized the board for not doing so. He has filed a resolution proposing Apple commit to not less than $50 billion of share buybacks.

The activist investor has been gradually building up shares in Apple and late last month picked up another $500 million.

CALIFORNIA IS LOW ON GAS???!

Water isn't the only resource running short in California. The drought-stricken state is also low on natural gas.

With a move that usually comes in the height of summer when temperatures are soaring and air conditioners blasting, Californians were urged to voluntarily cut their electricity use after frigid weather across the U.S. and Canada caused a shortage of natural gas at Southern California power plants.

The so-called Flex Alert, in which residents are asked to turn off unneeded lights, avoid using large appliances or equipment, and turn off electrically powered heaters, was allowed to expire at 10 p.m. Thursday, nine hours after it began.

(Read more: Cold blast pushes record natural gas demand)

The shortage was only in Southern California, but the north was asked to do its part too.

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"Statewide electricity and gas conservation will help free up both electricity and gas supplies for Southern Californians," the California Independent System Operator, which runs the state's power grid, said in a statement.

There was no immediate call for an extension of the alert, but it wasn't clear whether more could be coming.

Stephanie McCorkle, a spokeswoman for the grid operator, said Southern California has become increasingly dependent on natural gas-fired plants since the decision last year to shutter the troubled San Onofre nuclear power plant, which is located between Los Angeles and San Diego.

HARD WINTER BAD FOR BUSINESS??

A Philadelphia resident clears snow near a downed tree

Unrelenting harsh winter weather is likely to show up as a slight drag on economic growth in the first quarter, even if there is a spring rebound.

The number and intensity of winter storms have stalled pockets of economic activity across the country, with another system dumping freezing rain on top of snow along the East Coast on Wednesday.

Ice paralyzed Atlanta late last month, bitter cold shut Chicago schools and snowstorms in the East halted travel. Add drought conditions in the West, and economists are attempting to determine how much they should deduct from first-quarter growth simply because of the weather.

"We already saw it in auto sales," said Diane Swonk, chief economist at Mesirow Financial. "It literally freezes the economic activity, and you don't get the activity to resume until we get a thaw."

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CNBC's Patti Domm discusses whether the severe weather will have an impact on jobs.

Disruption to air travel alone has been massive. According to FlightAware, 39,000 flights were canceled last month, the most since 21,000 in October 2012, when Hurricane Sandy pummeled the East Coast. Just Wednesday, there were already 3,300 flights cancelled by mid-morning, with many of them in New York, New Jersey, Chicago and Boston.

Those businesses most likely to blame weather for poor results don't get much sympathy on Wall Street, but they now won't be alone. The weather is expected to have been severe enough to affect activity across the broader economy.

Kraft Foods Wednesday temporarily closed the second biggest wheat flour mill in the U.S., when travel on the roads near its Toledo, Ohio facility was restricted due to heavy snow.

SAY NO TOO FRACK???

In his State of the Union address last week, President Obama promised to implement change with or without Congress, and called on the various states to take the initiative themselves on issues such as the minimum wage. But the president was a little behind the curve; states are already stepping in to take action where federal lawmakers have failed to act.

Across the country, many public policy issues that have traditionally been handled by federal-level regulations – minimum wage requirements, environmental regulations, even immigration – are increasingly the subject of state-level regulation. Often, this is because state officials simply got tired of waiting for Washington to address a problem, and took matters into their own hands.

"The states are picking up more, because they have to," said Dan Crippen, executive director of the National Governors Association. "The pace of change in states, and the recognition of having to pick up some of the slack from Washington is increasing."

USA oil boom will not lower prices??

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Oil tanker at the Port of Long Beach, Calif.

The United States is awash in oil, yet analysts at RBC Capital Markets don't expect that to pull benchmark crude prices much lower.

In its five-year outlook, published Thursday, RBC analysts said soaring U.S. production will be absorbed by the rest of the world "with only modest price impact" over the next year. The world's largest economy is churning out record amounts of crude, and is mulling whether to export some of it abroad—something it hasn't done in decades.

Last month, the Energy Information Administration said the U.S. would pump huge amounts of oil and natural gas through at least 2016, with annual crude production challenging the 1970 record of 9.6 million barrels per day.