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EPA tells White House that greenhouse gases are threat to public welfare

The Environmental Protection Agency told the White House on Friday that climate change is a danger to public welfare — a move that takes the administration a step closer to regulating planet-warming greenhouse gases. The agency’s finding — which the White House will now review — comes in response to an April 2007 Supreme Court […]

This post brought to you via clean solar electricity

I’m staying with a friend in San Francisco who just recently (in the midst of doing a massive renovation of his 1870s row house) put up a solar PV system on his roof. Two systems, actually, one to power his unit and one to power the downstairs unit. After all the city, state, and federal […]

Bachmann advocates revolution to save country from pricing externalities

“I want people in Minnesota armed and dangerous on this issue of the energy tax because we need to fight back. Thomas Jefferson told us ‘having a revolution every now and then is a good thing,’ and the people — we the people — are going to have to fight back hard if we’re not […]

Obama picks climate, oil expert David Sandalow to oversee U.S. energy policy

President Obama has picked David Sandalow to be assistant secretary for Policy and International Affairs at the Energy Department. He also plans to nominate BP chief scientist Steven Koonin to be undersecretary for Science. And I hear that renewables expert and UC Berkeley professor Dan Kammen (PDF) is on the short list for assistant secretary […]

World trembles with anticipation as David heads to green tech conference to tweet

All day tomorrow (Tuesday) I’ll be at Green:Net, a greentech conference sponsored by the excellent blog Earth2Tech. Specifically, the conference will be about how the tools that created the net and net architecture will help to revolutionize energy. You can check out the line-up here. Looks like there’s a big appetite for this stuff — […]

Obama hypes the green aspects of his budget plan

President Obama is giving top billing to clean energy and green jobs as he promotes his $3.6 trillion budget plan. Addressing a group of clean-tech entrepreneurs and researchers on Monday, the president noted that his proposed budget includes $150 billion over 10 years for direct investments in clean energy and efficiency, as well as $75 […]

Using food as a tool of development, not extraction

When Michelle Obama plunged a shovel into the White House lawn last Friday, she wasn’t just preparing a productive vegetable-garden bed. She’s was also tilling fertile ground for debate about  new directions for the food system.  In the New York Times, Andrew Martin helpfully got the ball rolling in a recent piece called “Is a […]

When the global Ponzi scheme collapses (circa 2030), the only jobs left will be green

In The U.S. requires a strong climate bill to remain competitive, Part 1, I reprised the thesis first documented by Harvard’s Michael Porter — strong, leading edge, pro-innovation regulations promote national competitiveness. As President Obama said last week: We can let the jobs of tomorrow be created abroad, or we can create those jobs right […]

I'd Rather Go Naked Than Burn MTR Coal

It is time to abolish mountaintop removal mining, not regulate it. That is the fervent message being spread from community to community, and state to state, now that scores of ANFO explosive-packing mountaintop removal permits stand at the doors of the Army Corps of Engineers, ready to be issued after the recent 4th Circuit Court […]

First DOE loan guarantee goes to … a solar manufacturer

The Department of Energy announced on Friday that the first energy loan guarantee authorized by the 2005 (!) Energy Policy Act went to a plant that manufactures solar panels: Energy Secretary Steven Chu today offered a $535 million loan guarantee for Solyndra, Inc. to support the company’s construction of a commercial-scale manufacturing plant for its […]