SEATTLE -- You could tell by the way Obama administration officials pep-talked a roomful of clean-energy businesspeople today that the White House realizes it hasn't convinced Americans that "tackling climate change = ending the recession." Again and again EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson and Energy Undersecretary Kristina Johnson pounded on the jobs issue at a pre-Copenhagen climate talks event designed to showcase how energy efficiency, the smart grid and renewable energy can boost employment rates. "We're hearing a whole host of reasons today to support American clean energy. There are national security reasons. There are environmental reasons, and there are public-health …

It's a wonder I continue to show up at Society of Environmental Journalists conferences when you consider how much of a downer some of these panels can be. And that's doubly true about the ones on climate change. This afternoon's session on global warming as a national security issue was an even darker affair than usual. Leading off was retired Navy Vice Admiral Dennis McGinn, who's involved with a group of former generals and admirals known as the CNA Military Advisory Board: "What we're saying very clearly and very directly is 'This is a national security problem. ... Make no …

MADISON, Wisc. -- President Obama's lieutenants put on their game faces as they fielded journalists' questions Friday, but there was a palpable sense that they know the game is already over going into the global talks on climate change in December. I wish I could say something different, but that's the sense I got as these key administration officials appeared here at the annual conference of the Society of Environmental Journalists. Former vice president Al Gore also tried to say a deal is possible at the COP15 negotiations in Copenhagen. But read between the lines, and it's clear that the …