stimulus
-
Cash for Clunkers pays for itself in oil savings while generating free CO2 reductions
Seth Borenstein, the AP science writer I admire greatly, has a long piece explaining that Cash for Clunkers is a very cost-ineffective way to save CO2. Duh*. “As a means of reducing greenhouse gas emissions, this “cash for clunkers” deal is probably among the least cost-effective uses of federal dollars one could imagine,” as I […]
-
![]()
![]()
Obama admin should bring defense and climate funding into balance, argues a new report
Image: Tom Twigg/Grist With climate change among the world’s biggest security challenges, the Obama administration should be pumping much more money into addressing the problem, argues a new report [PDF] from the Institute for Policy Studies. In fiscal year 2008, the United States invested 20 times more money in developing military technology than in developing […]
-
![]()
![]()
DOE sending out Recovery Act funding as states promise efficiency improvements
DOE has been rolling through approvals of state energy plans and releasing huge chunks of the $3.1 billion available through the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act for State Energy Programs. All told, 29 states and several territories have received approval and substantial portions of their funding. This funding will be used for weatherizing low income […]
-
![]()
![]()
Autos, smart grid and clean tech: DOE turns on the money
Last week the Department of Energy released part of the $25 billion in loans provided for through the Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing Loan Program, included in Section 136 of the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007. The delay in releasing these funds had been one of the longest running scandals in clean tech policy. […]
-
The U.S. House of Representatives approves landmark (bipartisan!) climate bill, 219 – 212.
UPDATE: My Salon piece, “One brief shining moment for clean energy” is up. We do need to savor moments like these, since, as I note in that article, given modern conservative ideology, which is 100% anti-conservation, “the country can only contemplate serious environmental legislation when we have the unique constellation of a Democratic president and […]
-
Coal is here to stay, says Obama’s chief environmental adviser
In an exclusive interview with Grist, Nancy Sutley, chair of the White House Council on Environmental Quality, says coal isn’t going away anytime soon. She also says the administration can’t promise a slowdown in mountaintop-removal mining. Here are highlights in video and text. (For more, read the full Q & A.) On coal: [C]learly coal […]
-
![]()
![]()
Why I’m not freaked out about the Waxman-Markey climate bill
Feeling ambivalent?Will the Waxman-Markey bill spark a full-scale energy revolution? No. Not on its own, not in the next 10-15 years. The short-term targets for reducing greenhouse gases are too low, the renewable electricity standard is too weak, too many offsets are allowed, and there’s too little investment in clean energy. To boot, there’s every […]
-
![]()
![]()
Van Jones on Clean Energy Jobs from “humble hard-working energy efficiency”
The Center for American Progress Action fund had a recent event on clean energy jobs keynoted by Van Jones, who is not the President’s “green-jobs czar,” but “the green-jobs handyman.” Besides being the administration’s point person on clean energy jobs, he is the best speaker on the subject — because he studies rhetoric and persuasive […]
