A 30-megawatt offshore wind pilot project will use 5 floating turbines to generate electric power routed back to the mainland in Coos Bay, Oregon. “We’re not as anxious to commercialize it, but it’s still worth getting the projects into the water and testing them,” said Belinda Batten, director of the Northwest National Marine Renewable Energy Center at Oregon State University. “As we learn how to deploy and maintain them, the price will come down.” [Associated Press]

Institutional investors are increasingly using shareholder resolutions and similar filings to prod management at large companies into addressing environmental issues. A new report from Ceres, an environmentally-responsible investor group, draws attention to water use associated with hydraulic fracturing. “If you are an investor in a company that is in a water-stressed area, you have to ask questions about how it is managing their water risks,” said Monika Freyman of Ceres. [Financial Times]

After a volatile trading day, NYMEX natural gas futures for March delivery closed slightly above $5/MMBtu yesterday. Today’s EIA Weekly Natural Gas Storage Report is expected to show a draw “of almost twice the 5-year average.” [Bloomberg]