Jay Inslee

A smackdown in Congress

The corruption and incompetence of the Bush Interior Dept. are legend at this point, so I won’t rehash it all here (though I can’t resist linking to this). Instead, I’ll just report that today, in a House Natural Resources Committee hearing on the Endangered Species Act, Rep. Jay Inslee (D-Wash.) laid into Interior Deputy Secretary […]

Catch a climate symposium at Town Hall on May 9

Rep. Jay Inslee, Democrat from Washington’s 1st congressional district and a clean-energy champion, will be discussing climate change with other local eco-experts (and with the audience) at Seattle’s Town Hall on May 9. Additional smart folks at the Symposium on Climate Policy, presented by the Thomas C. Wales Foundation, will include Denis Hayes, national coordinator […]

Fun all around

Rep. Jay Inslee’s wife Trudi asked me to pass this along to you: America needs a clean energy revolution, and we need your stories! Are you, your company, or community building the clean energy economy today? We want to tell the world about it. We will share clean energy stories on the website apollosfire.net, and […]

Obama and Inslee propose to save the American auto industry by paying it to do the smart thing

Don't miss "Salvaging the Auto Industry," a Boston Globe op-ed from Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) and Rep. Jay Inslee (D-Wash.), two of the Dems' brightest lights on energy issues. (Inslee wrote a piece in Grist on his New Apollo Energy Act.)

Obama and Inslee propose a piece of legislation called the "Health Care for Hybrids" Act. The idea is that the feds would help American auto companies pay some of their enormous healthcare costs; in return, the companies would commit to using the money to develop fuel-efficient vehicles.

I'm a little dubious about the bill on the merits.

Obama and a bipartisan crew of colleagues unveil eco-friendly bills on energy

Caterwauling over the Iraq War last week brought Congress to a rancorous new low, drowning out calls from both sides of the aisle for a clean and sane energy future. A handful of senators and reps unveiled proposals pressing for the Bush administration and automakers to shrink America’s outsized energy demands and tackle the climate […]

Task force takes aim at NEPA, freaks out environmentalists

Rep. Richard Pombo meets the press in April. Photo: U.S. House of Representatives. You have to want to get to Nacogdoches, a Texas town that’s not on the way to anywhere. This eastern outpost, nearly 150 miles from Houston, is the oldest town in the state, with enough lore to fill volumes. It’s the site […]

New Apollo Energy Act introduced

FYI: The New Apollo Energy Act, which Rep. Jay Inslee (D-Wash.) discussed in the pages of Grist, has been introduced. From Inslee's press release:

U.S. Rep. Jay Inslee and fourteen other Members of Congress today introduced the New Apollo Energy Act as a comprehensive clean energy policy for the 21st century. Inslee's legislation will use new and innovative tax incentives and market-based assistance, along with energy performance standards to address three challenges to America: creating clean energy manufacturing jobs, decreasing dependence on foreign oil, and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. As the most comprehensive and technologically visionary energy program proposed in Congress, New Apollo seeks to solve America's energy problems and high energy costs through technological innovation much in the same way that President Kennedy channeled the resources of the American people to meet the challenges of the race to the Moon.

I hasten to add: It has a snowball's chance in hell of passing. But it's nice to see debate on these issues being stoked.

New Apollo Energy Act contrasts sharply with “Jurassic” GOP energy bill

On April 21, Congress stepped back in geologic time when the House of Representatives passed an energy policy of the dinosaurs, by the dinosaurs, and for the dinosaurs. This energy bill is truly a “Jurassic” piece of legislation that relies on a limited energy source derived from creatures and plants that died millions of years […]

Can’t See the Trees for the Forest Service

Two House Democrats have accused the U.S. Forest Service of cooking its books in order to blame environmentalists for the fires that raged across much of the West this summer. Reps. Tom Udall (D-N.M.) and Jay Inslee (D-Wash.) spoke out yesterday against a recent USFS report in which the agency claimed that environmental appeals delayed […]