Get Energy Smart! NOW!

When it comes to the necessity of facing down pollution in the nation’s electricity system and other major polluting industries, it is hard to read recent Obama Administration action as anything other than a strong statement to leading environmental organizations:
Stay out of our way, we don’t need your help … we don’t need it.
With monumental [...]

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Secretary of Energy Steven Chu took on conservative economists in comments this evening, where he spoke with strong praise for regulation and standards for driving energy efficiency in appliances and other energy-related systems.
Chu explained that writing regulation and setting standards are — without exception — the lowest cost move with the highest payoff to the [...]

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Since before the 2008 election, the core challenge for the incoming President was clear: JOBS! JOBS! JOBS!
Yes, we were amid a collapse of the economic system, it required stabilization. JOBS! JOBS! JOBS!
Yes, our energy situation was (is) a mess and the climate is boiling. JOBS! JOBS! JOBS!
Yes, our political system is [...]

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To make it quite clear: the implication has nothing to do with the cause. the implication is that we are faced with an unexpected crisis that reveals a much ignored problem, and which can, if responded to the way it should be, change the nation and the world- for the better.

The explosion of Deepwater Horizon [...]

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The day before the 40th Earth Day, VP Joe Biden kicked off a series of White House actions and announcements with an excellent initiative:
selection of 25 communities for up to $452 million in Recovery Act funding to “ramp-up” energy efficiency building retrofits. Under the Department of Energy’s Retrofit Ramp-Up initiative, communities, governments, private sector [...]

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This guest post from tboggia expresses an outrage over some of President Obama’s words shared by many fighting for a clean-energy future.

Right after the State of the Union, young climate activists submitted a question about the President’s remarks on clean energy and crossed their fingers hoping that it would get asked. The smiling faces of [...]

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The contrast between President Obama’s 2009 and 2010 State of the Union (SOTU) addresses is stark when it comes to the intersecting arenas of energy and climate.
In 2009, President Obama made a strong and uncompromising call for investments in “clean, renewable energy” and made a direct statement about the type of climate legislation [...]

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News organizations are reporting that the Obama Administration plans to appoint Dr. Al Armendariz to lead Region 6 of the Environmental Protection Agency.  Local environmentalists have greeted this with “high praise”.
“Our region has typically provided a haven for some of the worst polluters in the country, and has paid a steep price,” said Tom “Smitty” [...]

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During the Clinton Administration, Carol Browner and Larry Summers faced off on climate issues. Carol Browner worked with Vice President Gore and others to develop paths for moving forward toward a less carbon intensive economy. Summers undercut momentum forward with strenuous (misguided, poorly informed, stove-piped economic analysis) statements of concern. Summers “argued that the [...]

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President Obama's First 100 Days: A Fast Start for Energy and the Environment on Dipity.

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