Get Energy Smart! NOW!

Considering that Barack Obama made the call for all of us (all of the US) to pursue energy efficiency in our lives, our homes, our businesses, time to take advantage of opportunities for learning about what we can do and to gain resources to enable that change. For those nearby (no, don’t fly in …), the Green Festivals provide a great learning opportunity. Today and tomorrow, that opportunity is at the Washington, DC, convention center. These are worth the time …

This afternoon, newly minted Senator-Elect Energy Smart Jeff Merkley (D-OR) took the time to reach out to the netroots with a blogger conference call.  “The Netroots were critical to my election … It is 40 years since an incumbent lost in Oregon and only the second time in 100 years that a Republican incumbent lost … the Netroots put the campaign over the top.”  But, more important than any plaudits for bloggers (“Netroots Nation was one of the best things that I did during the campaign.”) and promises to remain engage for the future, was Merkley’s evaluation as to the election’s mandate and visions for moving forward.

We have a very strong mandate for a progressive agenda. We have had two cycles in a row with winning six [at least] seats in the Senate.

Bush claimed a mandate when he didn’t even win the popular vote.

We absolutely have a mandate and we should not be shy in anyway in claiming it.

If not now, when?  Our people need us, our planet needs us …

As to that last, energy and global warming issues were sprinkled throughout Senator-Elect Merkley’s comments.

I view energy as perhaps the most critical issue … national security … economic security … Global Warming. We, the United States, must show leadership.  … We must turn to rebuilding a new energy economy and save the planet from its mounting fever.

As to that mounting fever, Merkley called out Oregon’s university students.

When I visited universities and colleges, I would have an informal poll about what issues mattered to them.  Every single time, Global Warming was the number one issue.  They get it. We need to help others get it.

[Read more →]

Bloomberg is reporting that Larry Summers is on a very short list for nomination as Secretary of the Treasury. One doesn’t need to look at the global financial meltdown to recognize that this is a truly critical post but the impact and import of this post cannot be underestimated. With the need to move toward a more sensible energy policy and the myriad of issues of Global Warming, hopefully, a (if not, the) top agenda item for the coming Administration, it is important to place an environmental/energy/global warming lens against every potential cabinet appointee. And, in this vein, Larry has provided very serious reasons to question his candidacy … if not torpedo it.

For example, when at the World Bank, Summers signed a memo advocating exporting polluting industry and toxic pollutants to Lesser Developed Countries (LDCs), a concept which is fundamentally at odds with any concept of environmental justice and blindly ignorant of the potential and imperative for ‘clean’ developmental prospects. If Summers still holds to any of the concepts he put forth in that memo, he simply should not be considered for a Cabinet position.

[Read more →]

Barack Obama has fostered one of the most impressive political machines, if not social movements, in American history. As much community organizers as political operatives, the Obama campaign has created neighborhood and community teams of volunteers who will merit a great deal of the credit for sweeping him into office. What happens, starting tomorrow, with this movement when it is President-Elect Obama? The machine won’t dissipate, won’t disappear, but will transform … to what?

We can hope that Barack Obama and his team, even as they move from campaigning to transitioning to the Executive Branch, will turn this massive movement toward helping shape the change that Obama has made a core part of his campaign message, of his call on Americans for moving to something better.

As Obama said, last night, at his last campaign appearance near the Manassas battlefields of the Civil War.

The change we seek will not come from government alone. It will have to come from each of us in our own lives, our own communities.

Government is not the answer, but is part of the answer combined with our actions as individuals and communities. Change can be driven from above, from below, from without, from within … our challenges and opportunities are so great that each of these paths for change must be embraced and pursued.

We have to look after ourselves and our families, but we also have to look after our fellow citizens.

We each have responsibility, a role to play.

We have to restore a sense of duty to this country, a sense of service to this nation.

No, Americans, in face of terrorist acts, pulling out your credit card is not an act of national service. No, Americans, as your fellow citizens struggle in far off battlefields or to get adequate health care for their sick family members or friends, voting for the “America’s next country music star” is not patriotism. No …

And, government is a critical part of the solution, but not the solution.

Government is going to have to lead the way on energy independence but each of us has a role to play in making our lives, our homes, our businesses more energy efficient.

“Each of us has a role to play …” What important words Absolutely.

Taking action for energy efficiency is national service.

As a note, efficiency is one of the legs of a sensible energy policy, a leg basically abandoned by Bush-Cheney. And, we can go an extremely far way in ameliorating our energy and global warming challenges (at a profitable basis, even within current economic definitions) through aggressive energy efficiency efforts.

Back to the opening of this posting, will the huge network of activated, impowered, motivated Americans who have both been empowered by and powered the Obama campaign be turned to national service. Will they (will we), whether from central direction or self-motivation, turn their passions and skills from one form of national service (making our democracy work and helping elect a President) to another? Will they work to change their lives, their homes, their businesses, their communities for the better? And, as with Barack Obama’s speech last night, take their first steps as helping to make their lives, their homes, their businesses more energy efficient?

Will they? Will we?

Will “Yes we can” shift to “Yes we will” when it comes to Energizing America toward a better, more prosperous, climate-friendly America?

Are you “Fired Up” to change the nation’s reckless path over the cliff when comes to energy profligacy and global warming? Are you “Ready to Go” out and change your life, your home, your business to a more energy-efficient path?

[Read more →]

We will, hold our breath, see a significant shift this Tuesday in the political structure when it comes to taking action to blunt the impacts of Global Warming and change our path toward a more sensible energy future. From the Oval Office, a new message and new direction will go out. In the Halls of Congress, far few deniers will roam with impunity and pockets filled with cash from fossil fools. In the nation’s courtrooms, however, there will be no dramatic shift and while the judicial system has often been an ally of efforts to enforce the nation’s laws to protect the environment, the judiciary could well be the critical roadblock that dooms our ability to make enough changes to turn the tide on Global Warming’s rising seas.

Just this past week, a Federal judge made a ruling on a ‘minor issue’ indicative of the problem we might face. New York City under Mayor Bloomberg had put into place regulation that 100% of cabs must be ‘green’ by 2012, with a minimum of 30 miles per gallon fuel economy. A federal judge has overturned this on the basis that regulation of fuel emissions standards falls under federal, not city, authority. Sigh … we can expect many more such counterproductive decisions in the years to come, especially with the Bush Administration striving so hard to bury in destructive regulations in its waning days.

Who is leading this battle against more fuel efficient cabs? The Metropolitan Taxicab Board of Trade which represents the owners of about 25% of New York City’s taxicabs.

What is truly frustrating about this is that this is such a counterproductive stance by the Metropolitan Taxicab Board of Trade, which evidently doesn’t care that moving toward more fuel efficiency would enable greatly lowering the cost side of taxi service and thus likely enable higher profits — even while offering lower fares. While more detail is at CtB vs CtO: Why green taxis?, the basic point: taxis are driven so much (over 100,000 miles per year in New York City) that the fuel savings from going hybrid can literally pay for the vehicle in just a few years.

In 2004, T. Boone Pickens invested his money in trashing John Kerry and helping doom us to four more years via Swift Boat Veterans for Truthiness.

In 2008, T. Boone Pickens is investing his money in trashing our opportunity for a sensible energy future.

In 2008, T. Boone Pickens is attempting to buy a yes vote on Proposition 10 which would return $100s of millions (probably billions) into his pockets via mass (over) subsidy of natural gas trucks.

Californians … Prop 10 is not good environmentally, not good for energy security, not good fiscally … except, that is, for T Boone.

[Read more →]

The journal Nature has come out with a solid endorsement of Barack Obama for President: America’s choice.

The opening:

The values of scientific enquiry, rather than any particular policy positions on science, suggest a preference for one US presidential candidate over the other.

The conclusion:

This journal does not have a vote, and does not claim any particular standing from which to instruct those who do. But if it did, it would cast its vote for Barack Obama.

The editorial lays out a cogent and clear statement as to Barack Obama’s clear respect for the importance of and value of quality scientific advice and for the support of science merits support. “A commitment to seeking good advice and taking seriously the findings of disinterested enquiry seems an attractive attribute for a chief executive.”

Nature is an important journal in the communication of science and scientific values. Reading polling that points to very strong scientific community support for Barack Obama, this endorsement seems to be a natural conclusion.

Note: according to Nature‘s editorial page editor M. Mitchell Waldrop, as to Nature‘s record of presidential campaign endorsements.

To the best of the anyone’s knowledge currently here at the magazine, this is the first time.

[Read more →]

If you haven’t seen the Obama “infomercial“, forget this post and go watch it. Eloquently, powerfully, Obama laid down his core concepts for his Presidency. A case for why … and what.

And, as for what, Senator Obama has moved into a zone that is fostering optimist in this pessimistic optimist (or optimistic pessmist, can’t remember which). Who is the last Presidential candidate who, on the eve of the election in what might be most important core presentation to the nation, focused on energy efficiency? … To be clear, that is a rhetorical question.

When people speak toward energy, the conversation is rarely holistic and far too many focus simplistically and solely on power sources. They will point to the false panacea of new oil, truthiness of drilling as some form of solution. They will falsely claim that 45 nuclear power plants will, somehow, solve global warming. Or, perhaps from a differing perspective, they will say “solar power” or “wind mills” or trash to power. This is missing the boat. We need holistic thinking about energy. And, we’re getting that from Barack Obama.

What did Barack say that merits fostering excitement in the energy arena?

All across America I’ve seen entrepreneurs and innovators who point the way to a better future, starting with energy independence. Recently, I visited the McKinstry Company, in Seattle. They’re retrofitting schools and office buildings to make them energy efficient, creating jobs, saving their customers money, reducing carbon emissions, and helping to end our dependence on Middle Eastern oil. As president, I’ll use companies like McKinstry as a model for the nation. I’ll invest $15 billion a year in energy efficiency and renewable sources of energy, like wind, solar, and biofuels, creating five million clean energy jobs over the next decade — jobs that pay well and can never be outsourced.

McKinstry Company … which is “retrofitting schools and office buildings to make them energy efficiency”. Obama didn’t focus on some leading edge biofuel company, ocean power, concentrated solar power (CSP), Google.ORG’s investments, or any of the truly Energy COOL developments going on. No, he highlighted a firm working in the fastest payback, most cost-effective first step to start us (all of US) on the path toward rapid movement toward a prosperous, climate-friendly society: energy efficiency.

Obama has made a new energy future core to his stump speech. He has made “Green Jobs” central to his vision of prosperity. And, when it came down to it, in something that he and the campaign invested themselves in, he chose to focus on energy efficiency. … This is the type of focus that suggests the promise is real.

Hat-tip to David Roberts at Grist. And, from there, this wonderful footnote: “McKinstry, a company that’s been around since 1960 but has reinvented itself for the 21st century. They just got publicity you literally can’t buy. Not that they need any help recruiting — they were rated No. 1 best place to work by Washington CEO last year”. Hmmm … green jobs go along with good places to work?

This is a guest post by Devilstower, a front-pager at Daily Kos and a leading light of Energize America. 

This year could be a breakthrough year to truly change the nature of dialogue and action in Washington, DC, and nationwide. One of the great realities of the 2008 campaign: there will be a tremendous increase in the Oval Office and Congressional IQs when it comes to energy issues. In energy illiterate America, we have real opportunities to send energy smart people to DC such as Energy Smart Mark Begich, the next Senator from Alaska, and Energy Smart Debbie Cook facing down energy-illiterate Dana Rohrabacher in California’s 46th district. Minnesota’s third district offers another real opportunity, with a real choice for the District’s voters: do they want someone who mouths words about the future while remaining cemented to a polluting energy past or someone committed to a forward-thinking, climate-friendly, prosperity enhancing energy policy? This is the very real choice when considering Republican Erick Paulsen versus DFL Ashwin Madia on energy issues.

[Read more →]